Commentary on the Catholic Epistles

believe that the Enarratio has been left to us in its complete state, nor will I ever allow myself to be persuaded that Didymus was so little consistent with himself in the Greek commentary, and so little like himself, that if he were interpreting the seven Catholic Epistles in one continuous draft—a thing which you might not doubt—he would decorate some parts with overly prolix and indeed extraneous questions, rather than overburden them, while hardly or even barely touching upon others with his annotation. Additionally, comparing the fragments of the Greek commentary that have been left to us with the Latin Enarratio more accurately, we are almost forced to suspect that the Greek copy was much longer than the Latin. Clearer examples of this fact will be provided by the annotation to the Enarratio, which is hereafter to be placed before us. ^A Why say more? I will say what I feel. Epiphanius, who made our commentary Latin from the Greek, seems to me to have composed a summary catena from it, as was the custom at that time, in such a way that he omitted at will and as it were inverted those things which seemed to him to have something of an offense, or to be less necessary or more obscure. Which is wonderfully confirmed ^B by the suspicion that Cassiodorus himself admits, who was the author for Epiphanius of the interpretation or Latin version of Didymus, that he ordered the outlines of Clement of Alexandria to be translated in such a way that, as they seemed to contain many things that were not cautiously expressed, the offensive parts having been excluded, the doctrine might be more safely drawn from them. For do you think that for Didymus, who had long since incurred the charge of Origenian heresy among the common people, it happened as it did for the more fortunate Clement, that his Enarratio, under the auspices and hands of Epiphanius—with the task of cleaning it up almost commanded—was published among the Latins undiminished and intact? You might indeed, from the passage of Cassiodorus cited above, conjecture by your own right that the Greek codex of the Enarratio which was offered to Cassiodorus did not contain the whole of it, but had long before been reduced by the Greeks into a compendium of a catena. I would not object to that conjecture, provided that the form and composition of the Enarratio were such as the Greek catenae usually are—more accurate and more uniform. Wherefore, the mutilation or compendium of our work, if any such has been done, should more rightly be blamed upon Epiphanius.

DIDYMUS THE ALEXANDRIAN: LATIN ENARRATIO ON THE CATHOLIC EPISTLES

Having set forth those things which seemed necessary to be premised concerning the authority, authenticity, and method of the Didyman Enarratio, let us now proceed to prepare the justification itself of this Enarratio from the Greek scholia.

And I had initially intended to arrange only the Greek fragments collected from the scholia alongside the Latin ones, expressed side-by-side, so that from the mutual agreement of both texts the truth of my discovery might be easily apparent to everyone. But having weighed the matter more carefully, and realizing that by this path it would not be possible to sufficiently discern the mutual relationship of the Greek scholia to the Latin exemplar, nor could an informed judgment be brought by readers regarding the nature and character of the Enarratio itself, I changed my plan. And so, the better to adorn the province of defender which I have taken upon myself, I decided hereafter to publish the entire Enarratio, having been more accurately revised and augmented with the Greek fragments inserted in their proper places. In which task I considered it my primary duty to ensure that the Latin Enarratio should come forth more purified, as much as I could, from the errors with which it teemed, almost countless owing to the carelessness and negligence of those remarkable first editors. And so that I may explain a few things more accurately regarding the method of my critical task, it will be occupied partly with correcting the punctuation of the words, which the first editors handled very poorly, and partly with restoring readings for the insane ones, where possible, with better ones. In this business, Gallandius occupied no small part of the labor, and was the first to attempt to heal the passages he understood to be corrupt, either by changing the punctuation or the reading. He had, indeed, no codex as an authority in this, but used only his own ingenuity and conjectural art, sometimes with great success. In order, therefore, to save at least some portion of my labor, I have arranged for the text of the Enarratio to be rendered from Gallandius's more amended edition. But what he annotated is arranged in such a way that, if I were to omit it, I would seem to myself to be lacking in my own edition. And so, no one will wonder that the critical annotation of Gallandius has been repeated by me and interposed with my own. Nor did he indeed complete the whole thing; rather, he left much for others to restore, if it might be possible to do so better. If this...

if it has fallen to us to be more fortunate than Gallandi, it is in no small degree owed to the Greek scholia, which we have used quite often as remedies for the true Latin version, both in discovering and in correcting its readings and punctuation. But just as there is no small help and, as it were, a remedy found in the Greek scholia for amending the Latin version, so too there are not a few points in the Latin version that we were able to use to the best advantage in restoring the text of the Greek scholia, which is sometimes corrupt. These scholia, although published from sufficiently good and older manuscripts [(33)], yet at times contain individual corrupt words or a badly jumbled order of sentences, which leave one in doubt. Matthaei, the editor, indeed discerned well by the acuity of his own talent most of these corruptions and defects, and sometimes attempted with excellent conjecture to alleviate them; yet, since he was unaware that a Latin translation of the Didymian scholia survived, he left many things, which seem most certain to be repaired from it, either left entirely untouched or not healed by later care. Our critical notation will supply examples of this—what power the Latin version has in correcting the Greek scholia—repaying it, as it were, with grace for the salvation sought by it from these sources. And so much for these matters.

BRIEF ENARRATION OF DIDYMUS THE ALEXANDRIAN ON THE EPISTLE OF BLESSED JAMES THE APOSTLE

^A CAP. 1, VERS. 1. ‹James, a servant of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the dispersion, greeting.› Just as men who crave mortal glory place before others the honors they are thought to possess in their official records, so holy men in the Epistles which they write to the Churches primarily proclaim themselves to be servants ^B of our Lord Jesus Christ, judging this title to stand above the kingdoms of the whole world. For rightly does James, the apostle of the circumcision, write to those ‹who are of the circumcision,› just as Peter, since he is proven to be their apostle, writes to the Jews established in the dispersion. For these things which are written to them can also be adapted to those who are Jews secretly and spiritually; for even John, being an apostle along with James and their like, had a contemplation in the Apocalypse concerning the spiritual Israelites and their tribes.

VERS. 2, 3. ‹Count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience: but let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing.› For the most perfect courage and endurance, exhorting ^C as he follows it, he calls them brethren, and not children, nor sons, to whom he writes. For how should they not be perfect, who not only without sadness, but even with joy for Christ’s sake bear temptations? For whoever bears various temptations with delight, the most approved work follows, from which also both perfect patience and principal fortitude are corrected. And so this patience is known to be the perfect work of one who struggles well: which work now comes to pass when it is brought to fulfillment, not for any other reason, but by divine charity. For what greater endeavor is there than that someone should be perfect, and have all virtues, by which he is consistently driven, so that to those who possess them no want should arise? Thus, similar to this is that saying: ‹Tribulation produces patience, and patience probation, and probation hope, and hope does not confound.› For it is proven that in these discourses of the apostles, there is a difference of words, not of meanings.

VERS. 12. ‹Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been tested, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.› After he had sufficiently invited them, with joy, to endure temptations, as a bearable work, and to be held by perfect patience—which are done for their own sake, not on account of anything else—by another warning he strives to persuade them by the promises, so that the present things might be corrected: he says that he is blessed who endures temptation. It shall happen, he says, for whoever has bravely undertaken the contest, that he is a perfect man and exercised in all things; but he who...

^A has appeared after the trial shall merit the crown of life meant for those who love God, prepared by God.

From these things we recognize that, according to the virtues of each, a crown can be bestowed by God—to some the crown of justice, to others that of incorruptibility and right faith. But it is fitting that, besides these crowns, another crown also be conferred upon those who hope and endure for the future, the substance of which is the Lord Himself. Above these, another is set aside for those enjoying the Lord and experiencing the delights of paradise, and drinking from the torrent of God’s delights. The examples of the aforementioned crowns are these: "There is laid up," he says, "for me the crown of justice"; and again: "You shall receive the incorruptible crown of glory"; and likewise: "In that day the Lord of Hosts shall be a crown of hope"; and again: "The crown of delights shall protect you." Concerning which crown it must be considered whether it is the very one of which it was said, "The crown of graces," or another. For just as he who enjoys the crown of delights, and who has the grace of God cooperating, receives the crown of graces, so he who practices justice and correctly pursues those things which are to be understood, or he who seeks perfect glory, merits the crown of justice and glory. ^B Thus, he who does not despise the endurance of temptations, being insistent even upon death itself, shall receive the crown of eternal life, for which he has despised the joys of this temporal life. It must be asked whether the substance of the crown of life which God prepared for those who love Him is such that it cannot be subjected to the magnitude of the majesty of sight and hearing, nor has it ascended into the sheer intellect of any man.

VERS. 17. *Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.*

He calls God the Father of intelligible lights—that is, of rational illuminators—from whom, as from the giver of things, he says heavenly gifts come to men; which, because they are beneficial, he calls the best gifts; and because they are full and without defect, he calls them perfect gifts, ^C unhesitatingly. And how can some say, regarding this expression, that only those things which are better belong to God, and not also those which are judged troublesome and sad? We must set down that passage where Scripture says: "He has brought evils upon them"; and that: "Evils have descended from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem"; and similar things. From these and other examples of this kind, the opinion is recognized that both pleasant and sad things come to men from the judgment of God. Since, therefore, all things are attributed to the providence of God, it was nevertheless consequent that he who was inviting to patience and the perfection of virtue should have a better remembrance, while everyone who strives to live according to virtue deserves not sad things, but rather the best gifts and perfect endowments.

But another, more subtly observing the Scriptures, says that a better administration takes place by the preceding will of God, while adverse things, on account of a certain utility, are destined by accident.

CAP. II, VERS. 26. *For as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.*

Since just as the spirit adhering to the body vivifies it, and works, coupled to faith, procure its being alive, it must be considered that faith should be had with works worthy of virtue, so that it may exist not dead, but alive; for even he who has an animate body wishes to have it not dead, but alive, through the society of the spirit. It must be noted, of course, that since faith is dead apart from works, it is no longer even faith; for a dead man is not a man. But how do some, saying that the spirit is the cause by which the body lives, claim it to be more honorable than the body, and therefore consequently claim that works are more honorable than faith, as if they were what vivifies it? Being more studious, as it seems to me, to explain: for not, as they undoubtedly claim the spirit to be better than the body, are the works of faith to be preferred without hesitation, when man is saved by grace, not from works, but from faith; unless perhaps this also be in question, that faith, which lives with its own works, saves, as if it were another kind of works, beyond which salvation comes from faith; but there are no works which are observed under the shadow of the law. ^D

CAP. III, VERS. 2. *If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man: he is able also with a bridle to lead about the whole body.*

Since the word is twofold, one part pertaining to sense, the other to the effective reason of utterance, they are to be taken according to the discourse of the mind. For whoever does not offend in internal sense...

^A regarding such matters—that is, in teaching—when someone teaches concerning things which must be done and understood, if he has the truth of understanding regarding these things, then he has a word that is inoffensive. For it is not to be thought that these things were said concerning the sin of the uttered word, which some call solecisms and barbarisms. Unless, perhaps, someone might say that everyone possesses an inoffensive word in speech when he brings it forth irreproachable and without fault, even if he seems to say something empty, or laughable, or injurious, because he has spoken according to the rule of art. But because we do not say without consideration that the whole body has been taken for its passions and operations, note what is written, verse 5: "For the tongue, being a small member, boasteth great things." By accusing the speech, he is discerned to be accusing the tongue on its behalf, as though it were guilty and speaking other empty things. And since these things are so in that body, it follows that we must also understand such things concerning the whole body.

CAP. IV, VERS. 2, 3. "Ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." Since the exposition of the Savior is true, who says: "Ask, and it shall be given to you"—which He also makes credible when He says: "Every one that asketh receiveth"—it is agreeable to inquire how some, while praying, are not heard so as to receive the things they requested for themselves through their petition. To these it must be said that he who comes by the congruent way to ask, leaving behind nothing of those things which pertain to obtaining what he desires, receives all that he asked to be given to him. But if anyone appears to ask outside the intention of the given petition, such a one is believed neither to be asking in a due manner nor, therefore, to receive what he asks. Is that which is said not false: "Every one that asketh receiveth?" For when the teacher says: "Everyone who comes to me for the sake of doctrines shall have the disciplines thereof," to come to the teacher is to be understood as being about the things themselves, that is, that he may also have a desire for the doctrines, that he may exercise and meditate upon them, and with total intention look toward those things which are being spoken by the master. ^B And such a man will perceive the discipline which the master promised to give. If anyone else has approached the teacher, not doing what has been aforementioned, but only so that he may be seen by him, and that he may see him, wishing to make the promise of the doctor false, it must be said to him: You have not approached him as he invited, but otherwise, and only to see him. For by making the epistle more manifest, and saying that those who seem to ask and do not receive are undoubtedly asking amiss, he says they have clung to empty lusts. Because, however, some insist, saying: Why do those who ask for knowledge and the perception of virtue not receive? It must be said to them: how is it that they themselves do not ask for the sake of the good things themselves being received, but that through them they may be praised: for it is the love of lust to want to acquire praises. Whence it is not given even to them, because they wish to possess what they seek in order to consume it upon their lusts.

VERS. 4. "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God."

Since wickedness provides for the friendships of the world, while virtue acquires the charity of God, since virtue and wickedness cannot coexist. ^C "For he who, by sinning, loves the world, is shown to be an enemy of God; likewise also he who, through piety, confirms his friendships with God, is immediately found to be an adversary of the world. Therefore, as it is impossible to serve God and mammon, so it is to be a friend of God and the world at the same time."

Finally, Jesus coming, in order to make the friends of God obedient to Him, sent a sword and division upon the earth. For His word and doctrine divides and detaches from earthly and material things, through these preparing that there may be enmities toward the world and unity toward God: these are the friendships toward Him. Wherefore also He gives peace, not as the world gives to one who loves it: for that one, through the peace which it gives, invites the lovers of lust to bodily acts, and makes them passible; but Jesus, offering peace, constitutes them friends of God, loving Him with their whole heart. By the world, however, we must understand the bodily desires and the conversation of this world. ^D

DIDYMUS THE ALEXANDRIAN ON THE FIRST EPISTLE OF SAINT PETER, ENARRATION

CAP. I, VERS. 1. "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect sojourners of the dispersion," etc. Peter, set as the apostle of the circumcision and having the care of all the Jews, writes to those who dwelt in the dispersion throughout the whole world as though they were sojourners of foreign cities, since by no means did the majority of them reside in Judea. But if anything can be understood here above the text, one must note that this refers to the nature of the soul, which he wishes to be recognized as a sojourner. Whence it is also said: "I am a stranger in the earth and a sojourner, as all my fathers were," (Ps. XXXVIII, 13) and again: "Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged!" (Ps. CXIX, 5) For human souls become sojourners when they are joined to bodies while they are established in them temporarily; for if they were of that substance, they would be true bodies, inhabitants of the earth. In short, souls having compassion for the flesh are said to be in a habitation of flesh and in a veil, although they are sojourners on the earth, but rather are assimilated to the indigenous. Whence also terrors are brought upon the inhabitants of the earth, seizing surely those things which are earthly and those clothed in the image of the earthly. ^A

Even if therefore they were elect according to foreknowledge, to whom Peter writes, yet he speaks to them as they exist. Nor is it thereafter, but by knowledge, while those things which were first contemplated come to effect. ^B Even if they were elect according to foreknowledge, to whom Peter writes, yet he addresses them as they exist. He thus rejects the myth of the Manichaeans concerning natures, and the present understanding. ^C

VERS. 2. "According to the foreknowledge of God the Father." To this correspond the things which were said by Paul thus: "As He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and immaculate before Him in love, predestining us unto the adoption of sons" (Eph. 1, 4, 5). For although some say that the substance of rational beings exists always and before the world, nevertheless God, foreseeing the faith and the acts of men which are accomplished through evangelical doctrine, foreknowingly chose them in Christ before the foundation of the world, having even then predestined them to be sons, by the participation of the Spirit of adoption. For foreknowledge is to be thought of as nothing other than the contemplation of things future; which is not yet foreknowledge.

VERS. 4. "Unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven, for you." In order to show how the inheritance of the blessed will remain unto infinity, he calls it incorruptible and unfading, by this manifesting both a divine and a pure inheritance, in that its perception is uncontaminable among those who, for the sake of the reward of the excellence of present riches, despise goods, knowing that they have a better and perpetual property. While he calls it a measure, he reveals its perpetuity; and while he proves it better, he shows the divinity of the reserved inheritance. If, therefore, this inheritance is kept for the faithful in heaven, some offer certain frivolous and tepid things, thinking that they will receive it in the earthly Jerusalem. They imagine they will receive the rewards of delights by property in a thousand years. Who also ought to be asked how they can maintain bodily delights, when it is said that this inheritance can neither be corrupted nor fade, especially when they themselves say these things can end at the completion of the thousandth year. To these must be joined those words by which it is indicated that the inheritance is established in the kingdom of heaven, and that it by no means decays, in that it is intelligible, whereas sensible things are not known as are intelligible things; for the Holy Spirit makes those things manifest to the most worthy.

VERS. 6. "Wherein you shall rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you are put to heaviness in manifold temptations," etc. The faith of those is proven who, on account of Him, are troubled in diverse temptations, and persist unto the end in such proven faith. Whom it surely befits to rejoice, although some labor might seem troublesome to their wills. For this ^D

labor he designates here under the name of sadness, as if there were some sadness which could be recognized from these words to be different, since even in Paul two kinds of sadness are declared, one of which works death, but the other works repentance stable unto salvation, which he thus describes: "Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of." ^A For it is certain that he who is sad in laboring, while he struggles for the faith, is not sad according to worldly sadness, nor according to that repentance; for that is for the loss of delectable things, but this is carried out for the honor of past sins. But he who is tempted is known to be a stranger to both of these sadnesses. And how diverse is the progress of those who strive! Some bear temptations with labor, which is called sadness; others, however, bear them without sadness, and thus excellently and with delight take them up, so that they rejoice because they are made worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. And they consider that they possess an incomparable glory when they are troubled in the name of Christ.

VERS. 10-12. "Of which salvation have inquired and searched diligently the prophets, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow: unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things," etc.

Since some assert that the promise and salvation of the saints who were before the coming of the Savior were lesser, supposing that those who came later had something more because they saw Jesus sensibly, and heard the signs done by Him corporally, and heard His doctrine, it must be shown that an opinion of this kind is recognized to be false. There are two advents of Christ: one, indeed, intelligible, according to which He is received as God the Word; the other, truly sensible, according to which He is seen having come forth from Mary. But the intelligible is more divine than the sensible, which was bestowed even upon wicked men. Therefore, the Word of God, coming intelligibly to all the saints who were after the advent and before the advent, sanctifies ^B them in proportion to the deeds which each one carried out, to whom He fittingly irradiated Himself; they were not rendered lesser on account of the sensible presence, those who were before His advent; for not on account of wickedness, but on account of the diversity of time were they unable to enjoy this advent. Therefore, although the prophets searched into what or what manner of time the salvation of souls might reach its end, and the sufferings of Christ might come to pass, and afterwards the glories; they knew nevertheless by revelation that it was not for themselves, but for those who were to be in the future after His advent, that they were ministering these things. Therefore, one should not say that their holiness was less, when they possessed the more divine presence of the Son of God. For how will Abraham appear less than any of those who were after the advent, he who saw God, when all, at any rate, who finish their course according to Christ, proceed into his bosom? How will Moses and Elias be lesser, who appeared together transformed in the glory of Jesus, even though they did not sensibly see Him begotten of the Virgin? For he is not to be preferred to them, who had His intelligible advent, as one who saw Him according to the flesh, when many sinners also saw this. But that which even a sinner sees is much inferior to that which comes to the saints alone. ^C But by a more perfect proof it must be said: among those who followed the Gospel of Christ, there is no one higher in faith or conversation than the Apostles; but neither is there with John the Baptist. Do you think, therefore, that these who happened to exist near the end of the world, and saw the second and glorious presence of Christ, will be more blessed than the Baptist and the holy Apostles? Far be it! For no one is so dull-witted, especially when it has been said that there is no one in the human race greater than John the Baptist. If, therefore, those who did not see sensually, but according to the presence, are not lessened by those who are to see it, neither will those be lesser who saw the dispensation of Christ sensually according to the Gospel: for we have necessarily said these things because of those who make the ancients lesser than those who came after. For there are also many of the heretics who are seduced by this false opinion, having a maximum desire to disparage the Old Testament. But even to these it must be said that, even if they did not see or sensibly hear what Jesus said and did, they nevertheless had the desire. "For many," he says, "prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them." ^D And it is said of Moses: "How he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." It is said also of Isaiah that he saw the glory of Christ.

VERS. 12. "Which things the angels desire to look into." Note that among the Greeks, "in which," they have, "which things," by conjecture.

^A If anyone should think that the salvation sought by the prophets belongs to the end of the world, which is the object of desire (the appetible) in all things and above all things, when for its own cause all things come to pass, but the cause for which no other thing is done, it is not amiss to understand this also of the holy angels, and simply of all blessed rational beings, since they all have the appetite to look into the things that pertain to the end.

And thus it is explained: ^B

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel and you shall say to them: You shall be holy, for the Lord your God is holy.

If, however, they have seen some other blessed state (through those things which have been revealed by the Holy Spirit to those who have received the Gospel) besides that which has been spoken of, it must be said that the angels, who were found in a certain transgression, also desire to look into it. For although some of them are wicked, yet being detained in punishment, they repent; whence they fell (which is also promised to studious men), they will have a desire to look upon those things even through the windows. But the Manichaeans say that this is said of the angels (whom they consider the creator). They must be questioned: if anyone has the nature to desire those things which are beyond nature, and which do not befit it; and if, because of great folly, they should concede this, they must again be questioned if every appetite is infinite. For it is necessary that an appetite be satisfied when the thing which is desired is present. If this is not so in the aforementioned angels, there will be a removal of those things which the Holy Spirit has manifested; since they can by no means have the concupiscence of those things for which their nature is denied to be fit.

VERS. 15. "But according to Him who called you, holy, and you yourselves shall be holy in all conduct; because it is written: You shall be holy, for I am holy."

Since God, who has called us to salvation through the Gospel, is holy, it is necessary for those who are obedient to the vocation to become His, in all conduct and prudence, especially when He who calls to these things both invites and grants holiness. For He says: "As I am the fountain of holiness, existing holy by substance, do you strive to be partakers in the holiness which I love, that you may be as I am." And behold the dispensation: for He said that He is holy; but He invites those approaching Him to become or to be future-holy. It must be sought in what part of the Old Scripture these words are placed. And it is to be noted that in Leviticus it is read: ^C VERS. 17. "And if you invoke Him as Father, who judges without partiality of persons, according to each one's work," etc.

If He whom they call Father is a judge, not accepting the person of those who are judged by Him, and judging according to the action of each one, we hasten to perfect all the time of our sojourning with fear and all holy conduct. For thus shall we be able to recognize both Him as Father, who bestows promises, and to remain outside of all punishment. For it is to be asked, if the Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son: what can be understood here? ^D "The Father is the one signified, how is this one a judge, judging according to each work? For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son." If, however, the Son judges, taking all judgment, how is the Father the judge? To which it must be said: if there is one Godhead of the Father and the Son, the Son judging, the Father is He who judges, and also the Son can be Father of those who are begotten, having begotten them through participation in holiness. For He has often called His disciples His children. And to another He said: "Son, your sins are forgiven you."

To the other He says: "Daughter, your faith has saved you." ^A And those, too, who derogate from the divinity, can be sufficiently refuted by these things; for by saying that the Creator is the Judge, do not doubt but that you should consider Him the same who is the Father of those beloved by Christ. Wherefore there is one divinity even through these words, v. 23: "Having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of the living and abiding God." By the name of regeneration and restoration, He signifies the introduction of a birth that has taken place after the destruction of the ancient generation. For how could it not have had to be destroyed, since it was corruptible, so that afterwards, coming incorrupt, it might remain eternal; preserving perfectly and without any limitation of life those who are born of it? For the first birth, according to Adam, is mortal, and therefore corruptible; but the later one is from the Spirit and the ever-living word of God. By this word, therefore, which is used for the seed, He demonstrates it to be incorruptible, because it is called incorruptible by the power and spirit fitting for Him: "For everyone who is born of God does not commit sin, because His seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God." To understand this, one must also take note of that saying: "The children of the kingdom are the good seed." This birth, therefore, consists in an incorruptible seed, the word of the living and abiding God. By "the living word of God, and the one abiding forever," He means the evangelical word; and we call it the living and abiding word according to the evangelical discipline.

^B This author of the Epistle, therefore, wishing to confirm this, took the example of hay, saying, v. 24: "The hay has withered, and its flower has fallen; but the word of the Lord remains." When he had said this, he interpreted the prophetic words, saying, v. 25: "And this is the word which has been preached to you." He followed the Lord there, where He says: "My words shall not pass away." If the word is living and abiding in them, we think it signifies that which was in the beginning with God, the Word of God. The heretics are to be questioned: regarding whom do they say regeneration happens? Is it regarding earthly things? But that is impossible, for according to them, they do not have a nature capable of receiving the incorruptible seed. But if this is impossible, it will be even more impossible for these things to be understood of spiritual things: for if souls are spiritual by substance, as they themselves wish, what more useful thing will generation provide them? Therefore, one must think of this regarding voluntary regeneration, so that the things which follow may consistently correspond. For it stands thus:

CAP. II, vers. 1. "Laying aside, therefore, all malice, and all guile and hypocrisies," etc. For that saying also troubles the heretics: "Unless one has been born again of water and the Spirit"; and that: "Work..."

VERS. 4. "To Whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen and honored by God, and you yourselves as living stones are built up into a spiritual house, into a holy priesthood, offering acceptable sacrifices to God, through Jesus Christ." Those who have come to the Gospel, reborn of an incorruptible seed, have become a chosen and approved race; at the same time they are constituted as living stones, built up upon the living stone, chosen and honored, the foundation of the apostles and of the prophets, for the completion of a spiritual house for God, to which they are led, and rather are offered as spiritual sacrifices, about which it is said: "Immolate to God a sacrifice of praise"; and again: "Sacrifice a sacrifice of justice." These are indeed the prayers of the saints, contemplation, and the distinguished acts offered, not through a figurative high priest, but through the Priest who remains according to the order of Melchisedech forever. For this is Jesus, the high Priest, passing through all the heavens. Man therefore acts as His person, assumed by the Word of God, whence sacrifices are said to be offered to God not to him, but through him, since the divinity of the Father and the Son is one, and those things which are sacrificed to God the Father are offered also to the Son.

VERS. 7, 8. "To you therefore honor who believe: but to those who do not believe, the stone which the builders rejected, this has become the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of scandal, who stumble at the word, and do not believe, in which also they were placed."

As Jesus, while He is the light, came again into the world for judgment, so that He might illuminate those who were blind before His advent, and might blind those who saw poorly: so also He is set for the ruin and resurrection of many in Israel, and raising those who had fallen in sin, and causing those who possessed a very firm standing in sins to fall. So also, while the stone is chosen and honored, it provides honor to those who are super-edified in Him by faith, existing strongly as their most robust foundation. Among those who do not believe, it is not honorable, but it is a stone of stumbling and a rock of scandal, since they exist as similar to the builders who despised Him.

*That is to say, those of the circumcision of old, formerly the writers, the scribes and the Pharisees and the chief priests.*

For to this, that is, for not believing and stumbling, He says they are set in Him who dissent from His doctrine. Moreover, the position, by which they are placed, is voluntary, bearing the beginning of not believing.

Just as the world, which is placed in the evil one, had its position in the evil one not by nature, but by its own passion, so too, those of whom we are speaking were placed by themselves into unbelief, being kin to those who were delivered over to the shames of passion and a reprobate mind. For because God bore them long in much patience while they were sinning, despising His kindness and long-suffering; after much invitation and teaching, He left them to proceed according to their own will, when He indeed delivered some to serve the heavenly militia, but others to the various concupiscences of their heart for uncleanness. Let no one in himself wonder, upon hearing, that one thing is for the utility of some, but for the lesion of others. For we see the same food bring health to some, but death to others. The same scent of ointment to some harms and kills, to others is beneficial. So too must it be accepted spiritually, that the apostles are a sweet odor of Christ, to some an odor from life to life, to others from death to death. We extend this discourse because some abuse these words. ^B

VERS. 9. ‹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for acquisition, that you may announce the virtues of Him, › etc.

According to the old disposition of the law, one was the kingdom, and another the priestly race; for the priestly succeeded from the tribe of Levi, the royal from that of Judah. For one reigned among the Hebrews, and the other held the priesthood.

Therefore, after that constitution, the Gospel succeeded, establishing one and the same as priest and king. For Christ is both. For it was said to Him: ‹ You are a priest forever ›; and again: ‹ I have raised Him as king with justice. › But He also says of Himself: ‹ But I have been constituted king by Him, › that is, by God. These things having been thus dispensed, it was necessary for those dispersed by Him, who is at once king and priest, to be a chosen race and royal at once and priestly. For since He who begat them holds both primacies, it is necessary for them, as if from a king to be royal, and as if from a priest to be a priestly race. Wherefore ^C they are called a holy nation, having been called by Him who is holy, that they might be holy. For over and above their being called a holy nation, they exist even as a people of acquisition: made strangers to all perdition, an acquisition, which is made from those who are received, not those who are rejected. ^D

It must be avoided, therefore, to speak of natures, as the Manichaeans propose, saying there is a good or an evil nature, even because of the present words; for that which is chosen is possessed not by nature, but by the gift of virtue.

Since we have been called from different nations and laws, in taking upon ourselves one mind, paying attention to one faith and teaching, by which there is one soul and one heart, we are one holy nation, a people for acquisition, that is, for acceptance.

But it must be asked how, while the faithful are called from all nations, He said they are one holy nation. And it must be said, because perhaps, although they are called from diverse nations, yet they are such because they have rejected every vanity, because of which the nations appeared dispersed, and have received one will, and the same mind, looking, indeed, to one discipline and one faith. When the soul and heart of all believers is one, therefore they are known to be called one nation.

VERS. 10. ‹ Who once were not a people; but now are the people of God, of whom He once did not take pity, but now takes pity. ›

To one who understands that these things were written concerning those who believed from the nations, nothing occurs as an obstacle, because before the vocation, when they were not the people of God and did not obtain mercy, they came having been called by God; for from this, much adversity consists against those who think these things were written concerning diverse natures. For it is not possible for it to be said of spiritual beings that they were once not a people and not having mercy, nor again of earthly beings, because from not a people they are a people, and from not having obtained mercy, they have obtained mercy. For malice neither has a people nor is it to be pitied, since spiritual beings are not susceptible to malice; but they obtain mercy from virtue, and become the people of God, whereas earthly beings, conversely, are not susceptible to virtue. In vain, therefore, do they think these words signify a diversity of nature.

VERS. 11. ‹ Beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from carnal desires, which war against the soul, › etc.

Those who, because of divine piety, are worthy to be loved, are rightly called beloved, not because they were such by nature, but because they deserved to be. The writer of this Epistle says, therefore, because I am constrained by a special affection for you, I beseech and invi-

- ^A te you to abstain from fleshly desires, which war against the soul and have many enmities against it, since the substance of the soul is one thing, and the substance of the flesh is another. For the former, being incorrupt and immortal, desires things incorrupt and immortal; but the latter, being corrupt and dissipated, lusts after vile and languid things. Since this difference exists regarding the flesh and the soul of men, it is necessary that the strivings of each substance be contrary. Since the soul is of a different kind and a different substance than the body, it is plain to one who observes their sympathies and dissensions; for when the soul withdraws itself from bodily passions, it is kept pure and brilliant, healthily understanding and perfecting worthy operations, possessing a memory of the good, loving God, and desiring to possess the knowledge of Him. But when it is implicated in the passion of the flesh, all things are found in it that are the opposite of these; the things it had understood, it suddenly hands over to oblivion; the things it once knew, it loses; having a love for lust rather than love for God, so that it is believed to arrive almost at this point, that it is thought to be entirely converted into flesh. Concerning whose such effect in divine Scripture, names of this sort are reported; for he who is sold under sin is called "fleshy"; but also those who are vehemently inclined toward the flesh, and are desolate of the Holy Spirit, are for that reason called "flesh," God saying to them: "My spirit shall not remain among these men, for they are flesh." ^B Since, therefore, the soul, while living contrary to nature, is called fleshly, and when it is moved according to nature, it is called an invisible spirit, a mind, and the hidden man, it is evident that it is not of the substance of the body, since its nature is immortal and perpetual, yet it adheres to the human body and lives in it, so that it may be able to keep the commandments given to men, and, having been illuminated by the power of Christ, may be able to ascend, following the Word, which invites it to ascend by the built path that leads to heaven.

VERS. 13. "Be subject to every human institution for the Lord's sake."

As other things are frequently done for the sake of God, and for the sake of something else, similarly, also, to be subject to human princes and powers is sometimes done for the sake of God, and sometimes for the sake of something else; for he who is subject to them for the Lord's sake, who are established for ruling, is only not subject to them when they command things contrary to the will of God. Wherefore, one must even struggle unto death if they should ever wish to make us do, say, or act anything outside of Christ, contrary to the mind or the sanctions of the Church. Paul, therefore, makes manifest in what things one ought to be subject to them, that is, that tribute should be paid as a tax, so that the decency of liberty may be preserved among them by proper right. For thus is honor rendered, to whom it is fitting, and fear, to whom it is due. For the Savior taught this before all else, saying: "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s." And He called the human ordering a power which consists in the disposition of men.

VERS. 13, 14. "Whether to the king, as excelling, or to governors, as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, but for the praise of those who do well."

The heralds of the truth, taking away every occasion of malice from us, write that we should be such among those who live in positions of power, lest the Gospel or its teaching be hindered through us, by refusing to pay them the duty of due devotion and to be subject to their acts when they are nonetheless proven to do something according to right laws. Therefore, Peter writes that we must be subject to every human institution: to kings indeed, as having an outstanding height, but to governors as having been sent by him for the approbation of the good, and, of course, the punishment of the wicked. Paul, for his part, says: "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers; for there is no power except from God: and those that are ordained of God," and the rest. Therefore, since these institutions are established by Him who is the cause of good things (for He Himself established and destroyed kings, whose Wisdom said: "By me kings reign, and the powerful write justice. By me princes are magnified, and tyrants by me possess the earth"), one ought not to be troubled if such judges sometimes happen to do something evil, so that they punish the good, while they approve and praise those disobedient to the law, whether out of love of money, or by the favor of crimes in some cases where they do not judge opportunely, or by transcending the law without the will of Providence, through which they were raised to the heights. And one is not to be pitied ^C if they act otherwise than He wills by whom they have obtained power; for you will find that there are sins among almost all. God gave us a sense, that we might use it; we use it badly frequently, but by our own will! But that it happens in this way does not mean we ought to blame Him who gave the sense. He planted ^D in us vigor, that we might love and hate, so that indeed we might hate the evil and love the good. Men, therefore, turn these gifts in the opposite direction; hence it is not God, but they themselves who are more to blame. Wherefore, God is free from every complaint, namely concerning those who, created by Him for ruling, are known to perpetrate something without His purpose. For He established them so that they might be terrifying and tormentors of the evil, and praisers of the good.

Furthermore, while those who exercise power in this way are used, we not only do not take offense, but we even praise Him who desires established authority. If, however, they do anything to the contrary, we should not accuse God, but rather wonder at His patience toward them, just as [we do] toward other men who commit sin.

^A VERS. 16, 17. *But as servants of God, honor all, love the brotherhood. Fear God, honor the king.*

Since there is a difference between the sons of God and His servants, it is commanded to the servants that they fear, just as God Himself says: *If I am a Lord, where is my fear?* He does not in any way demand fear, but glory, from the sons when He says: *And if I am a Father, where is my glory?* For the Son glorifies the Father, and a servant fears his master, as the prophet says. Since, therefore, [Peter] addressing those who were not yet made sons, but whom he still knows as servants, and to whom he writes, says: *As servants of God, fear God.* It follows, then, that through these words, in an instructive way and as was fitting, all those who are in high positions should be honored and loved with the upright will of brotherhood. For of all those who act praiseworthily, God is the fear and the foundation. And: *Fear God,* yet this must be preserved in the principal order. ^B

VERS. 18. *Servants, be obedient with all fear to your masters,* etc. He does not command servants to have a passive fear towards their masters; for this is irrational and is established against irrational things. But [he commands] that fear which consists in discipline and right reason, the property of which is reverence. For he who fears God on account of Christ and His doctrine is subject to Him with reverence, whereas he who fears God through blows and other torments is seen to have a passive fear. By this significance, he turns after other things to women, saying: *Considering your chaste conversation in fear.* And frequently Scripture speaks in such a way about fear.

VERS. 23. *Who, when he was reviled, did not revile; when he suffered, he did not threaten.*

These are indeed his present praises, of Him who has a voluntary and not a substantial goodness, through which words he invites us to his praise, who did not have a nature prone to sin, as if his being were substantially good. Whence he praises the man Jesus, who *did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth,* and was *tempted in all things according to our likeness, except sin.* Wherefore these present things are also to be understood concerning Him, who elsewhere says: *You seek to kill me, who tell you the truth.* Who, *when he was reviled, did not revile; when he suffered, he did not threaten,* nor did he render evil for evil, or cursing for cursing, ^C but neither when he suffered did he threaten those who were afflicting him with evils, entrusting those who rose up against him to the justly judging God, by the Word dwelling in himself. For although the divine unity is holy and impartible to the man of the Word, nevertheless another is the intellect of the assumed man, and another that of the Word of God assuming him. Hearing Him: *I and the Father are one*; and: *I am in the Father and the Father is in me*; and that: *He that sees me sees the Father also*, we understand that He who said these things is the only-begotten Son of God. And again, knowing that: *Now my soul is troubled*; and: *Who began to be sorrowful and to be sad*, we perceive these written concerning the man whom he assumed.

CAP. III, VERS. 6. *Whose daughters you are, doing well, and not fearing any perturbation.*

He invites women to imitate the holy ones, and especially Sarah, persuading them to be thus subject to their husbands, just as she was subject to Abraham, whose daughters he also says they are made through good works. For just as he who does the work of Abraham, and has his faith, becomes his son, so faithful women doing good have Sarah as their mother. And these things indeed pertain to the text. ^D Allegorically, however, we consider how everyone is a son of Abraham and Sarah, in this way as the Apostle says: *For Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman, and the other by a freewoman.* Then he interprets spiritually that by the women are meant the two testaments; and after other things he says, *He that is born of the freewoman,* calling the heavenly Jerusalem the freewoman according to the Holy Spirit. The prophecy agrees with these words, saying: *Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah that bore you.* For it is not possible that these things should be referred to those men, that is, Abraham and Sarah, carnally. For how would she conceive at the time of this prophet, who many years before had undergone death, the debt of nature? Wherefore these things are also to be understood according to the words of the Apostle saying: her mother to be those who are generated according to the spirit, not the woman, but the new testament, and that Jerusalem is the heavenly one; and he invites women, through good works, to have Sarah as their mother, and to remain above all, and not to have that fear which is followed by dread and tumult, which perfect charity reasonably casts out, because it is of punishment rather than of God. For the divine word forbids this through all things, saying in one place: *What is it that you should fear mortal man?* But in another: *Do not fear them that kill the body,* and other things nearby.

VERS. 15. *But sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts.*

Just as God is not magnified, not augmen[ted]

in his greatness by being denoted, nor is the apex of sublimitatis brought to him from without when he is glorified, so too when the Lord is sanctified, the title of holiness is not increased for him. Whence we are bidden to do this within our hearts also. For if we hold the complete perfection of his holiness, we do not sanctify him only with our mouths, but in our hearts. ^A For we do this to God by our understanding, and God's holiness is increased all the more. Similarly, he who magnifies him receives a participation in his greatness into himself. Whence it is said: *My soul doth magnify the Lord*; and again: *Magnify the Lord with me.* The same must be said concerning his glory. Let these things not appear wondrous to one who observes subtly, for what is said by us does not add to his goodness, but is a ministry. For in like manner we must understand the saying: *Hallowed be thy name.* ^B For the name of God is hallowed when, being clothed in him, we fulfill those things which belong to holiness. We must also accept the part which says: *Sanctify the Lord, and he shall be your fear*; and again: *If thou trust in him, he shall be unto thee for sanctification.* See, indeed, how the Lord himself becomes a sanctification to him who sanctifies him. For just as Christ is sanctified by him who imitates him, so one must note how he who transgresses this present commandment stains Christ, he who confesses him with his mouth but denies him in his works. For thus he says to some: *Ye have profaned my name among the nations.* For through you my name is blasphemed, since you live in sin.

VERS. 15. *Being ready always to satisfy every one that asketh you a reason of that hope which is in you.* ^C Just as divine doctrine wills that we should be always engaged in what is good, so it also exhorts the faithful to be well-instructed, so that they may be ready for the verification of wise matters. For since many, applying themselves to the Gospel with a desire for discipline, demand from us an account of our blessed hope, we ought not to be slothful and delay in offering satisfaction to those who seek it, but rather to be prepared as disciples of Christ, inasmuch as it is not denied to one wishing to mutually grasp rational currency. For this apostolic precept is not about sensible currency, since they had no gold or silver. To this also Paul invites us, writing: *Walk in wisdom towards them that are without, ^D knowing how you ought to answer every man*; calling those "without" who are not yet faithful. For these men inquire, wishing to know something concerning the hope that is in us. Therefore, he who is deemed fit to preside over ecclesiastical teaching, beyond the fact that he must possess doctrine, must also obstruct those who resist. Since, therefore, divine doctrine thus invites the faithful man to be prepared, I know not by what motive some live like beasts, ^A and presume to busy themselves with activities alone, when they themselves cannot be culpably comprehended by one who desires to live without the rationale of doctrine. How, then, are they themselves to be included, while they are celebrated with reason? Therefore, let those who petulantly presume to say something without examination hear the holy Scripture; for to seem to know the scriptures without intellect and examination is a greater cause for blame. For it says: *The knowledge of the unwise is as words without examination, and instruction without proof was not.*

VERS. 22. *Who is on the right hand of God, swallowing up death, that we might be made heirs of eternal life, having gone into heaven, the angels and powers and virtues being made subject to him.*

As all rational essences had their existence through the Son of God, who is the Word or Reason, ^B so the salvation of all of them was worked through him. For since they do not have holiness substantially, but acquisitively, being creatures, a purgation was rightly made regarding all things, thus having goodness in this way. Whence they also receive correction with a sublime mouth. For Jesus made peace through the blood of his cross with the things that are in heaven and the things that are on earth, destroying all war and tumult. For soon at his descent and nativity, produced from the Virgin, it was said: *Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace.* Concordantly it is said also in the present place, that when he had risen from the dead and sat at the right hand in the highest, having gone into heaven, the angels, powers, and virtues were made subject to him. For just as men, abstaining from sins, are made subject, so also the higher rational beings, corrected from their voluntary faults which they perhaps had, were made subject to him, a complete dispensation having been provided for the salvation of all. It is possible, however, for some to say of such beings, who abstain from voluntary passions, that no absolute change is signified in the souls of these heavenly subjects. When the written words are accepted with such an understanding, the Word of God being the Son of God, every creature is subject to him as omnipotent King. ^C And because this God the Word assumed a man, and raising him after death, constituted him above all principalities, powers, virtues, and dominions: all the angels of God, commanded to adore him, were made subject, knowing him to be united with God the Word, when he is at the right hand of the divinity, and at his name not only terrestrial and infernal beings, but also celestial ones bend the knee, and every tongue confesses Jesus the Lord to be the glory of God the Father. But when you hear "every tongue," you must not count only human speeches, but also those of them who are in heaven. For the tongues of those, too, were spoken of, when he says: *If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels.*

CAP. IV, VERS. 17. *For the time is come that judgment must begin...*

what is the end of those who do not believe in the Gospel of God? ^A And if the righteous is scarcely saved, where shall the sinner and the ungodly appear?”

^B The time being now at hand for the judgment of God to begin, He begins to make his passage from the greater to the less. Therefore he says: “The time for the beginning of judgment is from the house of God,” that is, from the faithful who fully constitute the Church of the living God. Whence he also infers: if the examination of our deeds and thoughts is made first upon us, who are the house of God, what end do you believe will come to those who do not believe in the Gospel of God? By this he brings upon the faithful a great conflict and much fear, that they may learn to be cautious of the Judge, to whom they will without doubt have to render an account. Therefore, stimulating them, he invites them to his fear, saying that those who do not believe the divine doctrine will inevitably receive the vengeance which he called their end, noting their incredulity.

Teaching them with these words and rather exciting them, he says: Since the righteous can scarcely, and with a stronger contest, obtain salvation, what ought one to think of the ungodly, since, being judged by themselves, they do not rise to the judgment, and of the sinners, who do not rise in the congregation of the righteous? For these, who have done good things, are raised to the resurrection of life, while those who have done evil are raised to the resurrection of judgment. ^C Wherefore by no means will the sinner and the ungodly appear among the good, since the righteous is scarcely saved, agonizing and struggling—how then shall their judgment be transacted? For although one is conscious of nothing evil in himself, nevertheless, knowing that he is not justified by this, until the judge grants him justification, he agonizes and struggles.

The question: is a sinner something different from an ungodly man? Because here it says, as also in other places of Scripture, where it says: “Therefore the ungodly shall not rise in judgment, nor sinners in the counsel of the just.” From this, a difference between the two orders is indeed shown. But in other places he calls the same person both a sinner and ungodly, when he says: “But God sets forth his love in us, because, while we were sinners, Christ died for us,” and soon afterward says: “for the ungodly.”

There is, indeed, a righteous man, who is found in the action of God; but an ungodly man can be one who is entirely outside the Lord, while a sinner is one whom God indeed contains, but who disdains Him, while he transgresses His laws. If, however, sometimes in the text the same person is found to be both a sinner and ungodly, he will nevertheless have a difference in understanding. It is possible, however, for him who sins soon to be also ungodly, when through contempt he acts impiously against God.

DIDYMUS THE ALEXANDRIAN ON THE SECOND EPISTLE OF SAINT PETER, AN EXPOSITION.

CAP. II, VERS. 11. “Whereas angels, though they are greater in strength and power, do not bring a railing judgment against them.”

Angels remaining in the holiness which they have from God are more powerful than men, although men are excellently blessed; for truly, angels guard the holy

^A men, and assist them, while men are in no way able to offer comforts to angels. So also that which is said in the Gospel of John: “Because no one born of women is greater than he,” when he is found to be more powerful who is less in the kingdom; wise men have interpreted this, saying that since he is perfect among men, he is inferior to no mortal, when he who is lower than all rational heavenly beings is greater than he: because they are superior to him not only in the difference of virtue and knowledge, but also because they are not involved in heavy and passible bodies. But another says that angels are by no means greater than men in strength and virtue, because they are deprived of mortal life. Finally, one angel struck the army of the king of the Assyrians, in one moment of time, one hundred eighty-five thousand. ^B And another devastated almost the entire people of the Israelites; were it not for the fact that David their king quickly implored God that He might put an end to the anger and a limit to the vengeance—which had been brought about on account of the sin—that was contracted from the numbered people.

CHAP. III, VERS. 5. “For this escapes their notice, when they wish it, that the heavens existed of old, and the earth out of water and through water, constituted by the word, and through which the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth which are now, are kept in store by the same word, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”

It is a wonder to many, and from these words, mundane revolutions and changes are signified. For thus they have: for the heaven was of old and the earth out of water, and through water constituted by the word of God, by which the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished; but the heavens and earth which now are, are kept in store by the word, reserved ^C unto fire. And after other things: “Nevertheless we look for new heavens and a new earth according to his promise.” For those who are held by this opinion say: there was an age of old, and the earth without heavens, and the earth which now is, and outside these, which now are, there will be new heavens and a new earth. It is manifest to all that three worlds exist by succession, since it is written: “The heavens and the earth which are now are kept in store by the same word;” and the change will be again similar to those who perished under the flood. But the writer of the Epistle recognized these things from the words of Jesus concerning the consummation of the age, proved thus: “For as in the days of Noah, men were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, selling, buying, planting, building, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and took them all away, so shall it be in the presence of the Son of man.” He preaches further on these words, when he says that this creature which is now seen is to be dissolved by fire. He says ^D that the day of judgment will come secretly, like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a great rush and without delay, the elements being, of course, melted by the applied fire; after which, the heavens having been cut off from the root, there will be new heavens and a new earth, in which the just may possess the justice and promises of God in their habitation. It is not, therefore, to be ignored that the present Epistle is falsified, which, although it is published, is not nevertheless in the canon.

What we have done thus far, does not indeed seem to be that which could lead and satisfy the minds for the sacred Pentecostal days, for which these things were written: yet they are not so alien that no occasion at all could be taken from them for instituting those meditations which the Holy Spirit, given in the very origin of the Church with abundant showers, happily and most holily demands as if it were His own. And even if I should grant that the Enarratio of Didymus, besides the fact that it now lies overcome and buried in a state of nearly eternal barbarity and squalor, is so fashioned by its own genius that it almost totally displeases you by your right, nor can you sufficiently extol the happiness of our age, which uniquely rejoices and congratulates itself on the truth, simplicity, and finally the elegance of interpreting; yet in this very thing, that you hold the Didymian manner of interpreting—namely that unpleasant and fruitless one—as alien to you and full of tedium, there is prepared for you not an unworthy occasion and matter for truly Pentecostal meditations. For indeed, to whom are those things owed in which our age boasts itself more happily than others by its own right? Is not everything that is considered good and glorious among Christian men? Is not every pursuit of virtue and honest praise, and finally every progress more eager toward truth, owed to the one Holy Spirit, that divine and magnificent author, guide, and promoter of the Church, by whose gifts, from the first effusion of graces, these very holy days are held never interrupted, nor to be interrupted? But indeed, while you meditate on these things, attend, I pray, that this divine Spirit has never happened to anyone reluctant and resisting, but is communicated only to those men, and finds delight only in those, who with pure hearts, honest studies, tireless labors, and finally ardent prayers, act so that they are held worthy that He should dwell with them, and communicate His gifts entire. Therefore, let us meditate on this, let us drink this in more deeply, which the apostle Paul gravely admonished: Μὴ λυπεῖτε τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐν ᾧ ἐσφραγίσθητε εἰς ἡμέραν ἀπολυτρώσεως, that is: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption.”

EXPOSITION OF DIDYMUS OF ALEXANDRIA ON THE FIRST EPISTLE OF DIVINE JOHN

CAP. I, VERS. 1. «Quod erat ab initio, quod audivimus, quod vidimus oculis nostris, quod inspeximus, et manus nostræ contrectaverunt, de Verbo vitæ.» ^A

Many, through these words, think that the presence of the Savior, after the resurrection had taken place, is being demonstrated to the disciples, asserting that John said these things about himself and the other disciples, because they first heard that the Lord had risen, and later actually saw Him with their eyes, so that they touched His feet, hands, and side, and through sense-perception grasped the marks of His nails, etc. For although only Thomas touched Him, yet this was represented to all, when the Savior Himself said to all: «Touch me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me to have.» Others, however, receive these words more profoundly, in that he did not say simply, «our hands have touched,» but added, «of the Word of life;» and above all, that which says, «which was from the beginning.» Indeed, these words signify the same thing as that where He says: «I am who I am.» For how, as he prepares existing things to continue being, can it not reasonably be said that He «was,» since this can be true of none other than God the Word? ^B

Every one of created things is said to be something, such as to be an angel, to be the sun, to be the heaven; but the Savior alone is entirely what He is, to whom all participating things come into existence. Now, anyone who first receives the hearing of this through the introduction of instruction, comes to this, that he is able to gaze upon Him in a disciplined manner, after much exercise, which is called the touching, concerning the Word of life. He who truly said: «I am the life.» And it is explained also in this way: concerning Him who was in the beginning, we have heard through the Law and the prophets that He was to come; this one coming, we saw openly with our eyes, not foolishly agreeing with Him who was seen in the flesh, but with much touching, searching the Scriptures which bear witness concerning Him, we believed in the Word concerning life. ^C

But anyone, observing these things mystically, will be able to say that «we saw» and «we gazed upon» were not placed there incongruously, but that a definition of proper significance underlies each word. For when the Savior, concerning whom these things are written, God the Word, became flesh, looking at the Word having undertaken the dispensation, he who sees Him in the humanity of Christ sees Him sensibly, having a perception of the visible person; but observing the divinity, he gazes upon Him having glory, as of the Only-Begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. These two perceptions, that is, the sensible and the intellectual, are also demonstrated by him who says: «Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, but now we no longer know him so.» But because the discourse of gazing signifies intellectual perception, these words also manifest this: «Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.» ^D May this difference, therefore, between seeing and gazing upon, so remain, as both are.

^A It is possible that it is not said only for these that «there is no darkness in Him.» For it is said regarding all kinds of ignorance and wickedness. For since wickedness is not in God, it is evident from what is said: «God is faithful,» and «There is no injustice with God,» and again: «What shall we say then? Is there injustice with God? God forbid.» To grasp this, one must also understand the text: «The Lord God is upright, and there is no injustice in Him.» But that there is also no ignorance in Him, Daniel manifests, saying of Him: «He who knows what is in the darkness, and the light is with Him,» and that: «God, the knower of hidden things, knowing all things before they come to pass.» For if He has knowledge of hidden and dark things and of all that is to be done, of what else could He be ignorant? This light, therefore, has no communion with ignorance of intelligible things. Whence it is written: «What communion has light with darkness?»

^B If heretics wish to say, in order to disparage the Godhead, that the present passage contradicts that which is said: «He made darkness His hiding place,» that is, God; and that other: «Moses entered into the cloud where the Lord was,» let them know that darkness in these instances signifies the obscurity of His incomprehensibility. For it is possible that, on account of our ignorance of the reasons, this obscurity occurs for us, and not in God, who is light. ^C One should also observe from the words themselves that it means the same thing—that God is in darkness and in a cloud or mist, and that He has placed His hiding place in darkness—as is intended by these words: «And there is no darkness in Him.» In Him, therefore, there is no darkness, because it is not of His nature to have such things; yet He Himself is seen by us to be in darkness and mist, since we do not have a comprehension of Him, of whose substance He is known to be.

VERS. 8. *If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth, etc.*

Since God is light, He is without the participation of all darkness, and he who is illuminated by His light has no communion with them, but walks in the light according to the words of the Savior Himself, who says: «While you have the light, walk in the light, that the darkness may not overtake you,» and again: «I am the light of the world; he that follows me walks not in darkness, but will have the light of life.»

Whoever, then, in walking in darkness by sinning, says that he has communion through participation with God and that his mind is not darkened, lies and does not do the truth. For if the truth is manifested by the very deeds themselves through those by whom it is practiced—that is, by the deeds themselves—he who does not perform them is deceived, even if by the mere utterance of words he says that he confesses the truth.

CAP. II, VERS. 3, 4. «In this we know that we have known him, if we keep his commandments. He who says he knows him and does not keep his commandments is a liar, etc.»

^A The term "to know" or "to perceive" in Divine Scripture does not always signify knowledge, but rather the having experienced some thing and being united to it, as in the case of Him who did not know sin, as it is written: «I never knew you, you workers of iniquity.» For He did not "not know" sin in the sense of lacking the knowledge of what sin was, but because He did not commit it; for He committed no sin, although He was tempted in all things according to our likeness, apart from sin. According to this likeness, he who keeps the commandment does not acknowledge the evil word. And Jesus Himself says to the workers of iniquity: «I never knew you,» showing that they never participated with Him, those to whom this was said. For in this way we must also understand that which is said: «But then knowing God, or rather being known by God,» and that: «The Lord knows those who are his.» But that the word for "knowing" is also used in place of "to know" is clearly seen from what is said: «For I have known your sins.» For God knows sins, because He has knowledge of them with Himself. In this way, too, we must also take that which is said: «You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.» Of similar truth also is that: «And Jesus knowing their malice,» and: «Knowing their thoughts.»

With these things thus distinguished, ^B he who says that he knows God is, by being united to Him and having participation in Him, necessarily led to keep His commandments; wherefore he also reciprocates both of the things signified from that which is proposed. For he says: «In this we know,» that is, we perceive, «that we have known him,» having been united to him and keeping his commandments. For he who does not keep them is clearly seen to be outside of that knowledge. 1780 For he who does not keep His commandments confirms that he does not have Him. For both of these meanings are indicated by the present passage. For he says: «In this we know,» that is, we have knowledge, ^C and it follows, «that we have known him,» that is, united and adhering to him, and he keeps his commandments—for it is clear that he who does not keep them is seen to be a stranger to the knowledge of God.

For thus the sons of Eli, the priests, did not know the Lord, in no way keeping His commandments, even though they had, as they were priests, a simple comprehension of Him. These things being thus made manifest, he who wishes to have the knowledge of God should be free from all things by which the commandments of God are in the least not kept. For these things are iniquities and material passions. Just as Jesus, not knowing sin nor the operation of iniquity, is not defrauded of abundance, since He is the wisdom and truth of God; so, "not knowing" the day of judgment, He is not diminished; because God, when He is said in the Holy Scriptures to forget, to repent, and to be angry, is not diminished in His divinity. For in the same manner as those things are set forth, so also is that which is said about the ignorance of judgment, that He forgets things: for just as, since God alone is wise and has the knowledge of all things, forgetfulness, which is a passion, and repentance, or anything of that sort, in no way exist in Him, although they are spoken of Him by way of economy of life. Thus, therefore, the wisdom and truth of God not receiving ignorance, on account of a certain utility of these things, He is said to be ignorant of the day of judgment, the details of which will be openly shown when the intention of speaking about them is present.

VERS. 5. «But whoever keeps his word, in him truly is the charity of God perfected.» And the rest.

He who truly, from his whole soul and from his whole heart, loves God, keeps the words of His command, and by the deed itself is known to have the love of God, by which this cause is proved. Wherein God is loved when His words are kept, and he is proved to have Him, who is known to keep His commandments. That, however, love is the cause of His keeping the commandments is made manifest from that which is said: «If any one loves me, he will keep my commandments,» and from that: «If any one loves me, he keeps my word, and my Father will love him.» In this way, therefore, it must consistently be said that the law and the prophets hang upon the commandments of love. ^D But since, on the other hand, the meaning is directed toward us, he who says that he knows God and is joined to Him, and has participation in Him, must necessarily have, so that he also keeps His commandments; since this is also reciprocal, for he who is not such altogether lies.

^A He shows the cause by a reprovable test, and it is manifestly shown from what is said: “He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me,” and at the same time from the present discourse, which is said: “Whoever keeps His word, in him the charity of God is perfect.” Truly speaking of perfect love, through which no one can be separated from this love by evil and deceitful things.

VERS. 7. “Beloved, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment, which you had from the beginning,” etc.

For because some were perhaps derogating from the evangelist’s doctrine at that time, as if it were started yesterday and recently, he teaches that, since he writes a commandment, it was not then given to men for the first time, but is old and what they possessed from antiquity. For the ancient commandment is: “You shall love the Lord your God, and your neighbor as yourself”; since this commandment had been heard of old and for a long time, it is wisely proclaimed as ancient and that it had already come to the knowledge of men.

Perhaps someone will say: How is it possible to understand the commandment written concerning love as being “from the beginning” and heard by those to whom the Epistle is written? For if he were writing these things to Jews, he would rightly say that the commandment concerning love is not new, for he had long ago promised it through the prophets. But if they were not Jews, as the end of the Epistle suggests, perhaps the old commandment existing from the beginning and heard by all men is the friendly disposition according to natural notions? For all men, being by nature mild and social animals, love their neighbors.

Whence the Savior, moving toward this natural affection ^B (12) says: “All things, whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them.” When he says that the commandment is old, he does not show it to be that which is succeeded by another, as is the testament of the Law according to the letter. What then are these old things? They are not called old on account of time, and because they are succeeded by others, but because they are ancient and not only just begun. To this meaning the “Ancient of days,” who was shown to the prophet, must also be referred. But even to these, he now has the purpose of recommending the present things, speaking of love for one’s neighbor, which had been inaugurated from the times of Moses; since the commandment was called old on account of its antiquity, not on account of its succession. For not all commandments that are referred to in the ancient Scripture passed away, with others succeeding them. For they always remain, just as the present one does, both concerning the honor of parents and similar commandments of this kind, while only the figurative things, and those which are shadows of future things, have passed away.

VERS. 15, 16. “Do not love the world, nor what is in the world. If anyone loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh,” etc.

Since friendships are toward God, so that he who wishes to be of the world is established as an enemy of God, it follows therefore that he who wishes to be a friend of God, so that he may have His charity in himself, must recede from the charity of the world and the things that are in it. ^C But one might say otherwise: How can this commandment, which is written concerning love for one's neighbor, be understood as being from the beginning, and heard by those to whom he now writes? Since they were not Jews, but Gentiles, as the end of the Epistle shows. For the Epistle terminates with this saying: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” Whence it must be considered, lest perhaps he calls the commandment old and existing from the beginning, because it is also admitted by all men—that is, made lovable through a natural approaching sense. For all men, since they are naturally mild and social animals, love their neighbors.

^D Lest anyone, however, should think that from what he said, “the world,” the entirety of heaven and earth and what is in them is indicated, he interpreted those things which are in the world, so that consequently we might also be able to understand the same. It is therefore in it a passible and intellectual affection and appetite, which is designated as warring against the soul through the concupiscence of the flesh—and the desire of the eyes. Against which an admonition is offered, saying: “Let not the concupiscence of beauty overcome you.” And

another sentence, which says: “Everyone who has looked at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” [MATTH. V, 28] To these things, moreover, the concupiscence of the eyes is everything which, through looking, leads one as far as irrational desire. From this desire, therefore, it is fitting for us to abstain, knowing that such a world passes away with its concupiscence, since it is indeed temporal and receives charity from us. The will of God with the saints is a virtue that always remains. Of which it is written: “His justice is immortal” [SAP. I, 15]; and again: (this is for the blessed man through reverence) “it remains for the age of the age.” [PSAL. CXVII, 9] Since, however, the will of God consists in action, it is indicated by this, which says: “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father.” [MATTH. VII, 21] By this, through general and actual virtue, the species of these things is recognized—both from this and from what was said: “I found David, a man after my own heart, who does all my wills.” [ACT. XIII, 22]

It is possible to understand from the present words the visible world, that is, it is not to be loved by those who greatly excel, while they consider not the present, but the eternal. And since those who have the purpose of living in its love struggle to dwell habitually among insensitive things, rightly is the pride of life and the concupiscence of the flesh and of the eyes said to be in them. Whoever despises everything will be above the world, loving God and doing his will, which abides forever.

VERS. 18, 19. “Little children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard, because the Antichrist comes. And now many Antichrists have arisen. Whence we discern that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us. But if they had been of us, they would have remained with us,” etc.

These things are not written concerning all who hold fallacious doctrine, but concerning those only who turn aside to a false sect after evangelical instruction, who are known as Antichrists, as it were, made from Christians: for as far as this is concerned, that they once received the doctrine of Christ from the disciples of Christ, they have become outside of them, choosing to be in fallacious doctrines. Wherefore, although they announce the Scriptures, they are not— of those who regard [them], since they have indeed departed from their will and approached impious opinions: for they have clearly manifested that they were receding from the anointing which they had from the holy Spirit, indeed showing that they are Antichrists. Whoever are participants of Christianity, the anointing of Christ remains in them, that is, the chrism received from the holy [Spirit], so that they might be able to have knowledge of all spiritual things; while they are Antichrists who have departed from the Church of the Savior, so that they even seem to preside over heresies. Rightly, indeed, is it said that this was indicated concerning only those regarding whom it is said, “They went out from us”: because, thinking wrongly, they did not wish to be with us, alienated from us on account of the very will of false knowledge. Since, however, this was not written concerning all who teach falsely, it is clear to everyone. For it is not the custom for others to be called Antichrists than those who teach falsely concerning Christ; the wise men of the world certainly not being subject to this signification. Also to be sought from this word are those who strive to introduce a diversity of natures. But what is it in this, where it is said, “They went out from us”? For how have the earthly gone out from the spiritual, since they always stand at a distance from them on account of the diversity of substance? How, moreover, could they even have remained with us, being as they are earthly? Since they are not even in the slightest degree able to be simultaneously incapable of virtue and those who are known to possess it. Therefore, although these things may have been said figuratively, they nevertheless show a voluntary necessity, from whose cohabitation—which can exist between evil men and good—they have departed, while they have become such by their own vice. Therefore, it is not necessary to understand a contrariety of natures to be signified by this word; for if they were of us or were not of us according to the same thing, the opposition is rightly shown. But since they are of us according to one thing, approaching the divinely inspired Scripture, but are not of us according to another, having a meaning other than ours, it is clear from this that they have the anointing from the holy one—those from whom the evil have receded—so that they might know how to embrace all the dogmata of the Church rightly. For it is a consequence that those who have separated themselves from the college of the faithful are Antichrists. For how are those not Antichrists who think contrary to what the Church of Christ confesses?

VERS. 29. “If you know that he is just, know that everyone who does justice is born of him.”

He who discerns in a disciplined way concerning God, who is substantially just, immediately knows that he is generated from him, who does his justice: he who discerns, he says, scientifically concerning God, as being just in essence, will immediately have knowledge, as he is generated from him, he who does his justice; just as he who knows him to be holy, more—

^A than he is sanctified, surely knows that which is said: “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” But it is well said, “who does”; for he did not say “who has done” or “who is about to do” justice. For virtue commends the one doing justice, since it is, of course, actual. No one, therefore, before he does what pertains to virtue, is just, nor is he while he has ceased from doing it. That God is indeed just can be recognized from many things. For Moses says, “God is holy and just.” As it is also said through the Psalmist: “The Lord is just, and has loved justice.” This is likewise the Father of the Savior. For he says ^B to God, “Just Father, the world has not known you.” Since, therefore, he is the Son of him, as God from God, and holy from holy, so too is he just from the Just One. Nor is it contrary to these words that it is said that he is justice. For because he is said to be by substance—that is, he is said to be justice and just at the same time—whereas he who is just by participation is never properly called justice, unless perhaps anyone understands the habit itself in place of him who possesses it. The Apostle also used this word, saying that the faithful become justice in Christ: “Him who knew no sin,” he says, “he made sin for us, so that we might be the justice of God in him.”

CAP. III, VERS. 2. “Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when he appears, we shall be like him,” etc.

Through the things that he writes, he excites the hearers, that they may recognize what kind of people they have been made by God, saying: O our co-faithful, worthy of being loved, we are the children of God, already in the present age: a phrase that signifies the age in which we now exist, while the adoption of sons subsists in us—insofar as it is possible in the present life. For just as we know in part, and possess the pledges of the Spirit now, so too do we possess a particle (if I may say so) of the adoption of sons, while we shall receive it in fullness in the future. But it has not yet been made manifest ^C what the power and operation of it is: nevertheless, although the matter stands thus, we know that when he appears, what we shall be, we shall be shown to be like our Father, seeing him as he is—that is, seeing him perfectly and indifferently. Since, therefore, there is this expectation, and everyone hopes that he will be like God, so that he may see him excellently, let him cleanse himself, just as he whom he hopes to behold is pure, consisting pure of heart. But everyone cleanses himself who has a blameless life and wisdom. For Scripture says: “Purifying your souls for obedience to the truth.” For he obeys the truth who has the knowledge of God as the principal thing in himself. Whence it is very rarely found of this kind. “For who,” it says, “will boast that he has a pure heart? And who will have confidence that he is clean from sin?” While he is clean from sin, who is rendered pure in *actions*? For thus the words of the Lord are called pure, sanctifying those who have both intellect and work according to them. But that there are advancements among those who become children of God, it is evident to one attending to the holy Scriptures. For this doctor says in his Gospel that those who receive Jesus (that is, while they believe in his name) are given the power to become children of God. He who has this power to such an extent, in virtue, and not yet in operation, is a son. But when he uses this power well, he becomes a son also in operation, of whom previously he seemed only to hold the virtue—not at all expecting to believe in the name of Christ alone, but also in him: “Everyone,” he says, “who believes that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God.” Assuming, therefore, with this affection also the keeping of the commandments, he is rather adopted as a son. For “whoever does justice, is born of God.” And he who loves his enemies, and prays for those who persecute him, becomes a child ^D of the heavenly Father. Therefore, if in this age, in which we know in part and do what is good, the advancement of the children of God is so great, what ought to be believed after these things in the future? For my part, I do not have what to say, but I follow him who said: “It has not yet appeared what we shall be: for when he appears, we shall be like him who begot us.” This perfection, therefore, must be thought of as to be had in the future after all things, while as the Father and the Son are one, they will be one in the Father and the Son, who expect this perfection, to be like the Father and the Son through participation in the Trinity. But those who, ignoring these things—the magnitude of the intellect concerning God, and the measure of the Spirit excelling in knowledge, just as the substance of God is—think impiously are to be rebuked. For that which we say does not indicate what they think: that we see him as the Holy Spirit, and that those who have been assimilated to him would be able to have knowledge of him, after which no other way of life can be found. In such future contemplation, and with all having arrived at the knowledge of the fullness of Christ, all things having been made in all things, while this exists, it does not differ from God in so far as one is in an angel, and another in a man. For then such a difference will cease, with all being drawn to one likeness, which will be perfect toward God. When, however, the contemplation of God...

^A is of the nature of creatures, the unlearned say—since their mind is that they should have knowledge of the substance of God—that they all falsely believe, saying that they possess an understanding of God. This they do not say wisely, but very fallaciously and deceitfully. For it is not impossible for there to be diverse truthful contemplations of the same thing, of which one is placed in "that it is," another in "what it is," and another in "why it is." The third, indeed, does not occur in relation to God, who surely has no cause for which He exists. There are therefore the other two, of which the one placed in "that it is" shows that we contemplate Him as it is possible, by drawing from the divine Scriptures and natural understandings concerning Him, and from the magnitude and beauty of His creatures. Harmonizing with this, the Apostle also writes that it is necessary for him who approaches God to believe first [Hebr. XI, 6]. The other, however, in which it is asked "what it is," since it is unattainable to creatures, consists in the Trinity alone, the Father knowing what the Son is, and the Son what the Father is, since the Evangelist says that the Savior said: [Joann. XI, 27] "No one knows who the Son is, except the Father, and who the Father is, except the Son," adding: "and to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him." Consider, lest you fall headlong! For He reveals the knowledge of Himself and of the Father to those to whom He manifests Himself, showing and making Himself plain to the heart of the mind, so that seeing Him, they may have a contemplation of the Father. If, however, they remain contending and saying that the Son reveals this knowledge of God according to substance to the worthy—which He Himself, and the Father, and the holy Spirit have, who also searches out the deep things of God [I Cor. II, 10]—let them hear the difference of nature. Therefore, the knowledge of the Trinity is substantial, whereas that of creatures is a certain reception of an affect, more and less. And it is impossible for the same thing to happen in those things which are substantial and in those which are by affect. For since the good God is such by substance, being indeed the cause of all, those who have been made good and holy are such by participation in God, so that there is great difference between the good God and a good creature: for the former is not from anything, but is such by substance, nor is He a creation. Creatures, however, are from God, and are not good from themselves. And the creature is indeed good, but He, since He is good, makes us good. These same things must be said also concerning "holy" and concerning all things in which God is by substance. Creatures, however, are such by participation in God. ^D These things having been thus declared, a discourse must also be made concerning knowledge. Since God is Mind, He knows what He knows by natural and substantial intellect. Creatures, however, though they may have the faculty to be mind, nevertheless [also have] knowledge that is a product. This is more in the manner of a discipline, yet it is not a discipline. If, therefore, the Son, knowing who the Father is, reveals Him to whom He wishes, yet He does this openly nonetheless, just as He knows it to be possible for them. Wherefore, things concerning the Father revealing the Son must also be said, even if they are wonderful, and the Father appears to be of the kind that has been stated, if after brief indication one notes what has been discovered by us. We say that there is knowledge, that there is discipline, and that there is an undisciplinable habit. To the former indeed we ascribe "more" and "less," but this we do not grant to discipline as well. For there is nothing else existing beyond knowledge that has the power of understanding. For knowledge itself is the power, when a disciplinable mind—that is, that of one who is capable of discipline—has another disciplinable habit apart from its own substance. Having been instructed by these indications, the scholar knows in a certain way the difference between the knowledge of God that one has of oneself and that which creatures can in some way perceive.

Vers. 6. "Everyone who abides in Him does not sin. Everyone who sins has not seen Him nor known Him," etc.

Just as he who abides in virtue and discipline does not sin nor is ignorant; so he who consists in Christ, who is righteousness and sanctification, does not sin. For how can one who is with righteousness perform injustice, or one with holiness have pollution? Which being so, everyone who sins, having become a stranger to Christ, has no participation nor fellowship with Him; for when He says "he does not see Him," it signifies that he has no participation in Him. To which it is a consequence that he does not appear to have internal knowledge of Him: since he who has a perception of God on the surface is able to sin, such as were the sons of Eli, the priests. But also other priests similarly, who, when they were thought to have the knowledge of God, were sinning, and as they sinned they were deprived of efficacious knowledge, having only an imaginary knowledge of Him. For just as he who has a perception on the surface of good, acts badly, since no one acting badly has a disciplinable intellect of the good. For if he knew the utility of the good, he would choose participation in it, so that through its effect he might acquire its utility, by understanding and doing what is good. Therefore, he who has the knowledge of God, wisely participates in Him who is good, just, and holy, and does nothing which is contrary to these things. He, however, who has the knowledge of sensible things, perceives only the figure of the species of sensible things. And yet he does not act according to it. For he who senses something—having the perception of fire and water—does not burn, does not heat, does not moisten: since indeed [they are] disciplinable.

^A His congruous [reflections], which are known from Ananias, are also to be added. For when the devil had first filled his heart, he afterwards sinned, he himself touching the price of the property which he had sold, under the occasion of doing good. Let someone respond in this place, saying, what could the devil effect in sinners, when they themselves have first sinned, giving place to him? It must be said, that to do sin is the same as to sin, when place is given to the devil. For concupiscence, which he who is subject to fragile reflection [engenders] after he has received it ^B, gives place to him, and he actually performs the sin. For this is what is signified by that which was said: “He that doeth sin.”

Well, therefore, is it said, “he that doeth,” not “he that hath done,” since he who repents after sins is no longer of the devil, but he is of Him who works against sin.

VERS. 9, 10. “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for His seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.”

Heretics, who are deceived in all things throughout all things, even by this discourse wish to detract from the divine ^D instruction, as it were, and [to detract] from Him who has in no way separated himself from Him—how is it possible for sin to touch him? But he who sins, he says, has neither seen Him nor known Him; for this is scientific knowledge and habitual understanding of God: not to sin.

^A They say that the birth which is from the creator of the world is sinful, while that birth which is from God in the New Testament cannot do this; and, as they themselves think, they conclude with the words of the Old Testament, where it is written: “I have begotten and exalted sons, but they have rejected me” (Isa. 1, 2); and that other: “You have forsaken God who begot you” (Deut. xxxii, 18). To these words they add, saying: If those who are born of the creator of the world sin, but here it is said, “Everyone who is from God does not commit sin,” since the sons are different, when some indeed sin and others by no means do, it is necessary that their fathers also be different. Yet they understand the words of Scripture ignorantly, because they do not grasp them. For it is not written: “Everyone who is born of God will not sin,” but “does not commit sin,” since he of course does not commit sin who works according to justice. For this is the one who is born of God, holding his birth, in so far as he works justice, and therefore he does not commit sin, because he who is seen to have virtue cannot sin. And as for those whom they introduce as sinful sons, since they were doing justice, they could not have sinned, then indeed they were committing sin when they abandoned their begetter and rejected Him who exalted them. For this came to pass for them because they ceased to practice justice. Therefore the words they posited about the diversity of sons are not contradictory; for they do not demonstrate [different] fathers.

Furthermore, because he who is born of God cannot sin, the same author also stated the cause, because His seed abides in him, which comes divinely. This seed is either virtue or the spirit of the adoption of sons. And if for this reason he cannot sin, this possibility is not natural. But for some cause the capacity to sin is prohibited, that is, on account of the seed of God.

And saying that because contrary things cannot exist together, he who has justice cannot commit injustice—we signify natural inability, just as we say that an irrational animal cannot possess discipline or anything of the sort. ^B Therefore I also added: “who does not sin like this,” lest anyone circumvent us by saying that we claim all who do not sin are sons of God. For infants, not committing sin, should not be called sons of God. For they are restrained by age, not by virtue, from sinning, so that we may not say anything else, asserting that it is not healthily explained concerning infants that they commit sin. For it is not the same thing to sin and not to commit sin; for the former is prevented by age, but the latter is driven out by virtue.

^C After these things, it follows that the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. For if everyone who commits sin is of the devil, and he who acts in this way is manifested to be a child of the devil—just as Elymas the magician, when he was full of all deceit and all iniquity, was recognized to be a child of the devil (Act. xiii, 8-11). And since everyone who is born of God does not commit sin, because he has in himself the seed of God, he who does not sin in such a way is found to be openly a child of God.

VERS. 10. “Everyone who does not do justice is not of God, and he who does not love his brother.”

Since he who does justice is born of God, it is a consequence that whoever is born in this way should love his brothers. He who does not have justice, by not doing it and by having hatred for his brother, is not born of God; not in any way, except that he is not born of Him. For those who say that these are not of God because of their earthly nature are not to be regarded.

VERS. 11, 12. “For this is the commandment that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain, who was of the wicked one and killed his brother, because his works were wicked, but his brother’s were just.”

Because we have the commandment from the beginning that we should love one another, it is not right to hate a brother, lest we be found to be in the wicked one according to Cain, who killed his brother. For he destroyed Abel, his brother.

^A And the cause for which he killed his brother he signified: "Because his works," he says, "were evil, but his brother's were righteous." For when God had looked upon Abel and his offerings, but did not look upon Cain and his oblation, Cain, smitten by envy for this reason, worked death against his own brother. Wherefore, although he is said to be of the wicked one because his works were then evil, he is not naturally so. Through this expression he shows that Cain is a murderer, saying that he destroyed his own brother. For in the book which is called *Leptogenesis*, it is so read, that Cain struck Abel with a stone or a piece of wood, whence it is not to be understood that a wound is merely caused by a blow, but absolutely every injury which brings about laceration in the body.

VERS. 13, 14. "Do not marvel, brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brothers."

It is not to be marveled at if wicked men, who are called the world, hold in hatred those who live piously according to Christ. For it would be more of a marvel if they loved them. Wherefore, even if the world hates us, John says, nevertheless we know ^B by instruction that, having left death behind, we are in life, having fraternal charity in our breast. We must perceive death and life in these men, not as they are commonly spoken of, in which even irrational animals participate, but as the eternal life which is generated from the faith of the Savior and His virtue, and the death contrary to it, which immediately follows the sinner, since he who is in this death does not have the memory of God, because he has not looked upon the intelligible light. "For there is not," he says, "in death, one who is mindful of Thee"; and again: "Illumine my eyes, lest I ever sleep in death." We must depart from it now, by not sinning, and by not having an oblivion of God, that we may pass unto the life which is seen to be contrary to death. For that which leads us to the charity of the brothers is to be followed.

VERS. 14. "He who does not love, abides in death."

For he who loves the brothers according to God passes from death to life; he who does not have this charity abides in death. Just as there was the dead widow who lived in delicacies, although she had the common life. For he who lives thus will necessarily lose the memory of God. With these things thus manifested, if anyone does not have the pattern by which he designates the charity of the brother, he is in death, just as, conversely, he is far removed who has the virtue according to which he does not deem anything [to be] evil, nor does he do evil to his neighbor.

CAP. IV, VERS. 1, 2. "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God."

Just as before the coming of Christ, when the prophets of God were in Judea, many existed who feigned that they had prophecy, and there was need of an examinable discipline, since some of those saying, "Thus says the Lord," had the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, and some were moved by an evil spirit—prophets of falsehood; so also after the coming of Christ, with the apostles speaking in Christ and having the Holy Spirit ^C which the Lord gave when He had risen from the dead and bestowed most bountifully, having been taken up into the heavens, many false apostles were produced by the devil, feigning that they had evangelical doctrine. Wherefore it is necessary to have that gift of the Holy Spirit which is called the discernment of spirits, so that we may have the discipline by which we may test the spirits, that we may believe some and resist others.

When, therefore, he had given the cause—namely, that it behooves us to test the spirits and not to believe all—he added, saying that many false prophets had gone out into the world. And let us not marvel that he spoke of the pseudoprophets in the plural. But he also designated the Spirit of God [in the plural] with a universal addition, saying: "Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ," and also that: "The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets"; it is consequent to say that one and the same Spirit of God is unique to the Father and to the Son: who is named in the plural, [and] described in diverse ways, ^D by those who participate in Him, such as the spirit of Elijah and the spirit of each of the saints, so that there appear to be as many spirits as there are those who participate in Him. For it is possible that the discipline of each single holy teacher is called his spirit. For thus is understood what was said, that we should not believe every spirit, in so far as we should oppose those things which are of the pseudoprophets.

^A We ought to feel toward them as we do toward those whom we have recognized through testing to be from God. Therefore, it is not to be wondered at if false apostles, who are transformed into ministers of Christ, are called false prophets, since even the apostles themselves are frequently named prophets in the New Testament: as is found in the Epistle to the Corinthians, in which we read: "And the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets," when he spoke of the apostles; and in the Apocalypse, John is frequently named a prophet.

VERS. 2, 3. "Hereby is the Spirit of God known: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that denieth Jesus is not of God; and this is that Antichrist, of whom ye have heard that he should come; and even now already is he in the world." ^B Having said that one should not believe every spirit before it is known by someone to have been tested by God, he also gave a sign, which if it be lacking in any spirit, that spirit is certainly of error and not of God. Therefore, they say that the mark of this matter is this: "Every," he says, "spirit that confesseth the Word of the Lord. Who, when he was in the form of God, taking the form of a servant, came in the flesh, so that he might appear and suffer in it on our behalf," according to what was said: "He was manifested in the flesh," and that saying: "Christ having suffered for us in the flesh." Therefore, whoever confesses Him in this way is of God, provided that he confesses doctrinally that the dispensation was truly accomplished. But if anyone dissolves Jesus, and thinks that the pure Word of God is outside the flesh, and does not say that he is truly man, and confirms that all the facts of his dispensation are a mere phantasm, such a spirit of error is not of God. But someone may say that many of the heretics confess his incarnate presence, such as the new prophets proceeding from Phrygia. To these it must be replied that just as "no man saith that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Spirit," ^C it is not to be called (53). And therefore, let us not say that demons, feigned men, or heretics possess the Holy Spirit, which is sufficiently incongruous and impious: for if anyone says "Lord Jesus" not by voice alone, but also by works and true affection, not by deceit, this person truly confesses the same Lord in the Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus said to them: "Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye do well, for I am your Master, who receive my doctrine and lordship; for you serve with a genuine will, doing what I say, fulfilling the will of my Father who is in heaven, just as I do." Those who say "Lord Jesus" but do not do what he commands do not have the Holy Spirit, since they are far from him in their hearts, honoring him only with their lips. When (54) they possess the Holy Spirit, who call Jesus Lord by works and affection: so he who confesses the Lord Jesus in a complete and true consensus, saying that he came in the flesh, and is, moreover, made an imitator of him, by the present imitation of his heavenly conversation, ^D this man has the spirit from God, especially if he follows his footsteps, coming even to the point that he suffers with him, is crucified with him, and dies with him; whereas the spirit of error consists in the opposite, even if it confesses with the lips that Jesus came in the flesh; for denying the virtue, by which it pretends to be godly, it rejects Jesus by its works, even if it confesses that he came in the flesh. For since he came to seek and save that which was lost, and to take away the sin of the world, while it itself remains in perdition and sin, by its very deeds it denies the fact of his advent in the flesh. There are, however, certain heretics who do not even agree to the statement that Jesus came in the flesh, but either think that he brought a celestial body, or certainly confirm that he appeared as a man only as a phantasm. Therefore, these things can also be interpreted spiritually (55). For since it is true what is said: "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me," so that he may always seem to carry about the mortification of Jesus in his own body, his life being manifested in his mortal flesh, he shows the flesh in which Jesus came, whereas he who dissolves and separates Jesus from himself is situated in a different way of life. Such is he who denies him. For he who confesses Jesus has him within himself, and exists in him according to what is written: "Whosoever shall confess me, him will I also confess before my Father." But he who denies him is segregated from all things. For concerning that which is said: "Whosoever shall deny me, I will also deny him," here the proposition is not assumed as he says there: "I will also confess him before my Father." Figuratively, therefore, he speaks of Antichrist, whom we have heard is to come, because he is already in the world, that is, *for his heresies have gone before,* (56) *a characteristic of the pseudoprophets and of spirits, to dissolve Jesus, by not confessing that he has come in the flesh.* What he says now is to be understood by what is done by them.

VERS. 6. "He that knoweth God, heareth us; he that is not of God, heareth not us." If we take the word "hearing" according to the letter, it does not seem to be true, since everyone, small and learned alike, hears the voice of him who explains. Whence some perceive these things according to the understanding, that is, that we should consent, and that we should do what we hear said: he who is ignorant of what he should do, does not

know, because God is love. ^B Just as it brings blame and reproach to one who does not choose what is to be chosen and does not love what is to be loved, so do those who love the worthy, and those who are fit to be loved, win praise. When, however, could these things more come to pass than when the Savior took away the sin of the world, and there was shown (58)〉 the kind of creature man was made by God, being demonstrated through a likeness and image to Him who made him? For when man has appeared such, immediately existing as beloved and becoming divinely (59)〉 worthy of being loved, because the Savior sent into the world, through the love of the Father, came to His creatures so that He might grant the remission of sins and show the beauty of those whom He made according to the image and likeness of God. Those who obtain this gift are beloved, whence they love one another. For each one has both the capacity to be lovable, having the commandment to love his neighbor, and the ability to love him, having received the commandment of loving one's neighbor.

Since, therefore, this teacher had said these things, further inciting and inviting them to those things to which he writes, he added, saying: «Because love is from God.» We ought rather to hasten to love one another, so that ^A all ascending goodness may follow. What is it to be generated from God? For generally, this will come about for everyone loving one another, that they are called children of God, to whom also, in order that they might be able to sin, it will not be present, because they have the seed of the generating Father in themselves. It follows also for him who is born of God that he knows the generator, God, to be love. «For this reason,» he says, «love is from God, and he who has this is born of God and knows Him: because He who begot and is known, is love itself.» (60)〉 For such is the cause, that we might be wise and just and holy, Christ having been made for us wisdom, justice, and sanctification of God; so also He is the cause of loving one another, because God is love. For indeed, by participating in that in which He is love, we have love from Him, and we love one another. In the following passages, however, the Savior is also fittingly shown to be love. For he says, in the Son who was sent for our salvation, His love exists, thus writing: «In this is love.» As if anyone, showing Jesus, were to say, "In this is the Word of God; in this is the truth and wisdom of God."

^B Therefore, he who said, "God is love," he again knows love from God, which we should not think to be anything other than the Only-Begotten, as God is from God, so also love is from Love.

For a little while ago they define (61)〉 that it does not differ in God whether one is called just or justice. To which it must be joined, that it does not differ whether one is called loving or love, that it is the same. For just as, when He is named from justice, He is called just; for He is not a participant in justice, but He Himself is this; so when He is called loving, it is not because He is love that He is so called. Wherefore, things which are thus placed concerning God in the Scriptures are said in one voice, not transnominatively, and that univocal term must be taken in such an appellation, of which there is one definition, but many names.

VERS. 12. «No one has ever seen God.»

Since God is invisible, no one has ever seen Him sensibly, since the incorporeal cannot see the bodily aspect. But because certain heretics separate the divinity, saying that the ancient Scriptures show God to be visible, in that some are reported to have seen Him, but the new invisible, we must ask whom they say to be His substance, by which they think God to be visible. And if their mind is not perverted from itself, they will say that it is a body, since no other substance is seen sensibly except that of a body. And when they have conceded this, let them consider what incongruities and things most full of impiety follow. For it will be altogether both incorruptible and

divisible, and either inanimate or animate. If it is suddenly and consequently inanimate, one cannot understand it, because it neither feels. But if it is animate, it will be composite and not without origin. For that which is composed of simple things is not without origin. But things are composite, and in its origin are soul and body. For from these an animate being consists. And when some have no solution—since so many incongruities follow, of course—let us ask them again: whence do they affirm that the Creator was seen by some? Although they may bring forward Moses, they should know that, besides having asked for a long time, God appeared to him intelligibly, not sensibly. For it must be said that he did not see the face, but the back parts of God. ^A Now these are creatures, the generations of which he recorded. For these are the back parts, and they are after God. If, therefore, he saw these, in order that he might contemplate the Creator from their magnitude and beauty, and from their proximity, he did not behold Him by sight, but with the mind. ^B If, however, they happen to bring forward Isaiah, saying that he saw God, even he saw God veiled, with the sacred animals covering not only the face, but also the feet of the One sitting on the throne. But since the words of Isaiah require much exposition, let us defer this to another time. But, they say, it is written that God appeared to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. But not even this, as they think, insinuates a mode of bodily appearance. For it is not said, as the patriarchs saw Him, but the Saviour Himself appeared to them, as He said concerning God: "He who keeps my commandments, I will reveal myself to him." ^C For if, because He appeared to Abraham and the rest, He is a visible God, then the Saviour, showing Himself to a worthy man, would be visible according to His divinity; for He is not speaking of bodily perception when He says He reveals Himself to a faithful man, since even unbelievers have His vision according to this. By these clear proofs, therefore, which destroy the fallacies of those who are known to detract from the Godhead, the God of the New and Old Testament will be the same, ^D existing as an invisible essence, since He is incorporeal, and to be contemplated by a splendid intellect by those who are pure in heart, regarding that beatitude of which we say: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," and the apostolic invitation by which we are commanded: "Follow peace and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." This distinction, therefore, the text of this Epistle also contains, in one place saying: ^A "Everyone who sins has not seen Him, nor known Him," as if one having known and seeing Him is the one who does not sin; but in another place saying, in the present discourse: "No man has seen God at any time." Lest we be deceived by such a seduction, like the heretics, by that which is univocal, the term of seeing and inspecting, and certain other things which are found as similar words, must be divided into that which is discerned by the mind and that which is seen by sight. For thus we have the discipline, knowing how God is seen, and how He is invisible, which is not opposed in vain, ^B neither here, nor in the Gospel, where it is said at any time. For it is written there also: "No man has seen God at any time." For it must be said that this saying, that is, "at any time," signifies some certain time: because to see God in a way that can be taught will come to those who transcend time and the world. For intelligible operations transcend all time. These things, therefore, must be adhered to, so that we are not said to see God sensibly; insofar as we have in common that which is the principal of incorporeal substances.

VERS. 15. "Whoever shall have confessed that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in Him."

In the Gospels it is read: ^C "Whoever shall have confessed Me, I also will confess him." By which understanding these things also must be said. For God does not abide in him who confesses with the voice only, because Jesus is the Son of God, and denies Him with his works. Wherefore this confession must be joined with right dogmas and good works. For thus anyone, by confessing Jesus as the Son of God, will abide in God through the mode of His participation, so that God also, by whom he participates, may abide in him. But because some are confounded by the names of Jesus Christ, not examining the Scriptures, so that they fall into the greatest detriment. For they have thought, not distinguishing the sense of the Scriptures, that what proceeded from Mary according to the flesh, and received the name Jesus by the voice of the angel, is the same as He who, ^D when He was in the form of God, being the only-begotten Son of God, did not think it robbery, etc.; therefore it must be said that although a principal union has been made of the Word of God to the man whom God assumed, nevertheless the essence of the Word is not converted into man. Nor again is the man made that which is the Word of God, although He is God, made by Him, so that he may have, as far as is possible, a perfect, intranscendible Godhead. Wherefore, although the union is thus made, yet the aforesaid names, sometimes indeed Him who was made from the seed of David according to the flesh: sometimes...

on the other hand, Christ the wisdom of God and the power of God, he clearly teaches. For this name, that is, Christ, is used of the man who died and was buried; and again in another place of the Word of God, who is the power and wisdom of God. Writing concerning these things: "But to us there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him [1 Cor. VIII, 6]," he places these words into the Creator Word. For not through him, who according to the flesh was made from the seed of David, is all creation, in whom all things consist, and who is before all things. ^A Again, in another place, where he says: "For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God: when Christ shall appear, who is your life [Col. III, 3]," and the rest: he calls Christ the Unigenite of God the life, but he also manifests Christ as that life hidden of the man, because he was assumed by Him. Many things of this kind are reported in the holy Gospels, which manifest that the name Jesus is appropriate to him who was wearied from his journey [John IV, 6] and placed in the sepulcher [Matth. XXVII, 60], so that Mary said concerning God: "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him [John XX, 13]." ^B Concerning him the angels to the women approaching the sepulcher said: "Whom seek you? He is not here, he has risen from the dead [Matth. XXVIII, 5, 6]." Since, therefore, this distinction is thus preserved, it is not to be doubted among the faithful that Jesus is the Son of God. But just as the names of man, that is, Jesus and similar ones, sometimes signify God, so also the man is called Lord and Son of God. For it says: "That which shall be born of thee, holy, shall be called the Son of the living God [Luc. I, 35]."

CHAP. V, VERS. 1.

Every one that believeth that Jesus Christ is born of God, and every one that loveth him who begat, loveth him also who is born of him.

Those who are born of God, by fulfilling what is of virtue, become of this kind, believing that Jesus is the Christ. ^C If, therefore, anyone is born of God, while fulfilling the things spoken, being worthy of acceptance, he himself must also be loved, and before all he himself ought to love the Begetter.

By these admonitions, therefore, the Apostle invites to the love of brotherhood. Wherefore he also competently indicates the magnitude of charity and the beauty of those who are to be loved, saying that it is proper that he who loves God should also love him who is born of him. This place can also be explained in this way, that these things were said because of those who were at that time when this Epistle was being written. For the dispensation being completed according to the evangelical words, and the Savior being assumed into the heavens, it was then questioned whether Jesus himself were the Christ who was expected, ^D with the Jews indeed resisting, and the faithful confessing Jesus to be the Christ who was expected. Indicating, therefore, the belief of a man of this kind, because of the faith he had, he asserted that he was born of God.

VERS. 4-5. For this is the charity of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not heavy, because whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory, which overcometh the world, our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

This means the subsistence, and (if I may so speak) the matter of charity, which we ought to have toward God, he asserted to be the keeping of the divine commandments, which commandments doing, they again bear them to God, because of which they do not drag down to inferior things, because they are not heavy.

^A If, however, anyone approaching them should not, as is fitting, call them heavy, he should rather accuse his own weakness. For to those who have no strength at all, they seem heavy, and to those [who possess it], very light. Wherefore he does not say, "His commandments are light," but, "are not heavy," assuming only this, that [the yoke] does not drag one down, but carries one upward, so that we may justly pursue what is just, knowing by experience ^B that the yoke of Christ is light, possessing abundant sweetness. Therefore, whoever instructs himself thus in the commandments, so that he may bring them to action, is born of God. ^C And when he has obtained this, he despises material life and the pleasures of the world; and by this he overcomes the world, passing from the conversation of the present world. His advancement and perfection will exist, and [remain] constant by active faith, and it is accounted as justice, because, showing faith as constant and permanent, he says, "This is the victory which overcomes the world," that is, the faith which we have, believing Jesus to be the one who was prophesied as the Christ. ^D He who is thus disposed is born of God, and having obtained this, he despises the material life and the pleasures of the world; and by this he overcomes the world, having passed from it to the life above the world. Faith acts to produce such advancement, into which [faith] it is reckoned as justice; and showing this as standing firm and abiding, he said, "This is the victory that has overcome the world," the faith which we have, having accepted Jesus to be the Son of God. He therefore infers that it is a necessary consequence that he who has believed Jesus to be the Son of God has victory against the world. But he who is not overcome by evil, but overcomes evil in good, overcomes the world. And that which is evil is overcome when one possesses virtue and goodness itself, which fashions itself toward these things. With this work of goodness, he who believes has a living faith, according to which and from which he will be the Son of God, believing in the only-begotten Son of God, so that he may also be made a participant with him.

VERS. 14, 15. "And this is the confidence that we have toward God, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And we know that he hears us, whatever we ask. We know that we have the petitions that we asked of him."

Those who know by the experience of art how the necessary things of any work are rectified, have the best hope that, when need of the work arises, they can fulfill them. Since, therefore, the holy men also, John and the apostles with him, knew by the very works that, frequently asking God for what was pleasing and acceptable to him, they received, they presume that as often as they ask in this way, they will, with God concurring, merit what they desire. For God is most munificent and generous to those who have knowledge, and he will confer petitions held according to his will: they have conceived much confidence in him, as children with a father. Wherefore they trust that they will receive those things for which they pray, certainly knowing that he hears them, when they ask for what is known to be pleasing to him. And thus it will be demonstrated by these things, which to some came as a question, in what way it may be true what was said: "Everyone who asks receives" (Matt. VII, 8), while this general proposition, "everyone," absolutely contains even those who do not pray for useful things. But it contains only those who ask for something according to God's will. And so this confidence will possess an irreproachable action and contemplation of life, which can rarely happen. Whence it is written: "Who will boast that he has a clean heart?" (Prov. XX, 9); and: "Who will have confidence that he is clean from sin?" For there are few who live in this virtue. One says: "If I regarded iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not hear me" (Ps. LXV, 18), that is, because I did not recognize iniquity in my heart: which, however, he did not presume to say, lest he be thought arrogant, according to him who said: "I am conscious of nothing in myself; but I am not justified in this" (1 Cor. IV, 4). To these also it must be similarly perceived: "If our heart does not reproach us, we have confidence toward God" (1 John III, 21).

VERS. 18. "We know that everyone who is born of God does not sin; but he who is born of God keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him."

For he who is born of God, having his seed in himself, cannot sin: since having written this first, he does not err now by saying: "It must be known that he who is born of God does not sin." For if in doing justice...

he possesses the state of being from God, and at the same time it is impossible to sin and practice justice, it is therefore evident that he who is so disposed does not sin. Then, securing the point, as man is not by nature ^A a son of God, he fittingly added: "But he keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him." For if the evil one does not touch him for this reason, he keeps himself pure from sin not by his structural constitution, but by his attentiveness.

If any man, however, keeps himself, he prays to be kept by the divine power, so that he may remain unharmed by the evil one. For the commandment of protection, which is performed by our own efforts, is what he says: "Keep thy heart," and after a few words (verse 21): "Keep yourselves from idols." But the example of divine protection is that which says: "O Lord, Thou shalt keep us, and Thou shalt preserve us," and that: "Protect me under the shadow of Thy wings," and that: "Holy Father, keep them." Now, the evil one touches someone when he wounds and afflicts him, which is made manifest by that which says: "No evil shall touch thee," and from that which is said by God to the benefactors: "He who touched you (or, as others have it, he who shall have touched), touches the apple of My eye." To these also accords the saying: "Touch not My anointed ones."

^B VERSE 19. "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness."

The world—that is, the lovers of the world—are subject to an evil origin. By "whole," he says that we are all born under sin, whose very birth is in vice.

When he says that "the whole world lieth in the evil one," he does not mean that the creation of God, being the world, is established in the evil one, as some of the heretics have imagined, but that Scripture knows how to call wicked men "the world," just as it is written here and in the Gospels. The Evangelist John said this in the Epistle and in the Gospels, from which we have thought it worthwhile to bring forward a few points out of many. Writing in this Epistle, John says: "Do not wonder, if the world hates you." For it is plain to every wise man that the world hates the saints, by which are designated evil men. And that saying: "They are from the world, and speak of the world, and the world hears them." Now, what he says about the world hearing them, he manifests not as [it being] a creature, but as [it being] people prone to passion. Thus in the Gospels the Savior says: "The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I bear witness to it that its works are evil," and: "Woe to the world because of scandals," and: "If you were of the world, the world would love what was its own; but since you are not of the world, but I have chosen you, therefore the world hates you." For it is not to be thought through these [words]—while he indeed reproves evil works and manifests scandals and says that his disciples are hated by the world—that he speaks these things concerning the constitution of the heaven and the earth and what is in them. For the evil, and the sorcerers, and those who conceive hatred are men, who are signified by the words of the Lord. He reproves them, therefore, for their evil works, whom also marking, he says they are of the scandals and have the holy men in hatred. These things therefore having been manifested, he shows the world lying in the evil one to be that which is reproved, and marked, and designated as having the apostles in hatred. For each of these, because of the malice in which they are said to be in the evil one, are said to be delivered when we pray: "Deliver us from evil." For all are redeemed and delivered from him who are in no way wounded by his fiery darts, because they have taken up in all things the shield of saving faith. Wanting therefore the Savior to have this granted by the Father, he said concerning his disciples: "Father, keep them from evil." Therefore, they are to be held as straying who think the world is positioned in the evil one, as if in its own creator. This word therefore signifies also wills and manners, that is, it is not a nature and cause, so that anyone might be thought to be from God or established in the evil one, when he says, we the disciples of Christ know by way of instruction, because we are of God, having a participation from him, from whom we were chosen out of the world, and we were born of God on account of holiness, knowing this, that the whole world, on account of the impiety which it has, is lying in malice, incumbent upon him who has preceded in evil: so that it might appear to be the same thing—the world being positioned in the evil one, which is that which is said: "He who commits sin is of the devil, because the devil sins from the beginning." For the evil one is also the devil, and he is not otherwise.

the world than the one who commits sin. With ^A these things thus clarified, the opinion of the heretics, who think that "creature" is signified by the statement, "The whole world is in the evil one," will have no place for fallacy. For although "world" may sometimes signify a creature, it is not, however, placed in the evil one, but in the Word, through whom all things were made, and it obtains the strength of its stability. In Christ are created things invisible and visible, celestial and terrestrial; and before all things is (and in him all things consist, possessing a foundation), the Word, the Creator. For thus it will be true that all things were created by God, when Wisdom itself says: "Before the ages he founded me, in the beginning, before he made the earth and created the abysses," etc.

VERS. 20, 21. "We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know the true God and be in his true Son. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols."

The divine Paul, having taken this understanding according to which the true Son of God is known, said, "But we have the mind of Christ." He who possesses this understanding and this mind recognizes the one who is true according to essence, and is united to him in himself, having a practical knowledge of him.

^B It is worth asking how, throughout the whole Epistle, after testifying to them the perfection and sanctity of the faith regarding short and most useful matters, he warns them, saying: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." In response to this, someone says that since he is writing the Epistle to the whole Church, and since it is probable that in such a council there were some recently converted from idolatry, and because it often happens that those who descend from the worship of many gods, not yet firmly believing, retain in their minds remnants of superstition, he placed this saying for their sake.

The understanding that he gave, according to which it is known that the true Son of God has come, is the same as the mind of Christ, of which it is said: "But we have the mind of Christ." Because he therefore recognizes this understanding and this mind as substantially true, and the power of God is in it, he who knows him possesses the understanding of him in his works.

The true Son of God is Jesus Christ, who is the true God. And consider how he is consubstantial with the Father, and not one and the same in number according to Sabellius, is the Son with the Father. For since the Father is known as the only true God, the Son is contemplated as the true God by those to whom he himself, coming, gave understanding. If, therefore, the Father and Son were of a different substance, since the Father alone is true God, the Son would in no way be true God. But if the Son is the true God, if both were of a different substance, the Father would have a different nature according to species, so that he might be the true God. Again, if he is the true God, the Father is forbidden from being this. Therefore, we shall acknowledge that we have perceived the Epistle with reason.

For this is the custom of divine doctrine; for even the apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, when he had praised them in all intelligible riches, writes in that same Epistle that they ought to abstain from things sacrificed to idols, lest they become partners of demons and have no difference from those who feast at the idols. But someone else says that, by writing this, he indicated that many antichrists had already come, and that there are false prophets who, falling from the truth, would taste and teach nothing stable, nothing firm, but would sow whatever idol was fabricated and formed in the minds of those believing in them. These things, therefore, which are so depicted or planted in minds as a doctrine of false knowledge, anyone would not vainly call "idols," against which he warns all who reverently approach the true God to guard themselves. For so, with the present words thus understood, we will acknowledge the end of the Epistle with reason.

DIDYMUS THE ALEXANDRIAN'S COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE OF DIVINE JOHN

VERS. 6. ^A *Et hæc est charitas, ut ambulemus secundum mandata ejus.*

The present saying is in agreement with those things which were related in the first Epistle, where he says: “And we know that he who loves God keeps his commandments,” and in the Gospels he says: “If anyone loves me, let him keep my commandments.” To walk according to the commandments is the same as to keep them. For since the virtues that are active, which are performed according to the commandments, are practical, he who does not become outside of them walks according to them. In this, therefore, walking according to them is the same as keeping them. Whence also he who ceases to work according to virtue neither keeps the commandments nor walks according to them. For he who progresses in virtue walks according to the commandments, progress in walking denoting the matured person who, after having walked according to the commandments, acts by keeping them. It is also understood in this way: he who makes progress according to virtue walks certainly according to the commandments, since to walk denotes the progress of a perfect man who, after he has walked according to the commandments, also keeps them. This saying is also in agreement with what is read in the enigma, that Adam was placed in paradise so that he might work it and keep it. Where by “working” he designates the effect of progress, and by “keeping,” the state and constancy of his perfection itself.

VERS. 9-11. *Everyone who withdraws and does not remain in the doctrine of Christ does not have God; he who remains in the doctrine, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house, nor say to him, Greetings. For he who says greeting to him communicates in his evil works.*

^B He truly remains in the evangelical doctrine who thinks and acts according to it, while separating himself from the one who does something to the contrary and thinks likewise. Therefore, since there is a God for someone by means of the active life, who is the creator of all, just as Abraham, to whom he said: “I am your God;” whoever is outside the right faith and the manner of life of the commandments of Jesus is without God, separating himself, nor does he have God, while that person has separated himself from the divine doctrine in the aforementioned manner. *He who remains in him has both the Father and the Son.* For to him who keeps his commandments, the Son says that the Father will come with him, that he might abide with him, when he has been made a holy temple, built by the observance of the commandments of God.

Since there is, therefore, a twofold manner of possessing God: one indeed is common to all creatures, by which it is signified that all have a creator; the other, however, indicates the manner of those who through good will appease him, according to what is read: “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, and of all the Hebrews.” Observe, indeed, that it is said here: *He who has, he says, the Son, has also the Father;* and conversely, by which it is clearly understood that they are of the same substance of divinity. For because the Father is in the Son, he who has the Son has also the Father, which is also reciprocal: for he who has the Father has the Son, who is in the Father.

If anyone, however, wishing to apply this further, should say: “He who has the disciples has also the Son; and he who has the Son has also the Father, according to what is written: ‘He who receives you, receives me, and receives my Father who sent me;’” let him know that he does not insinuate this as he ought. For these things are said concerning doctrine, that he who receives the apostles, consenting to their doctrine, receives through them at the same time the Son and the Father, whom they preach. It is also to be understood in another way, since he who remains in the doctrine has the Father and the Son. The apostles remained in his doctrine, so that they might preach it: whoever therefore receives them, since they are the temple of God, by this fact that he receives them, he has the Son and the Father dwelling within them.

DIDYMUS OF ALEXANDRIA'S ENARRATION ON THE THIRD EPISTLE OF SAINT JOHN

^A Ver. 11. “Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God; but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.”

Since there is no communion of light with darkness, nor concord of Christ with Belial, he who does good both practically and contemplatively, having Christ the God, who is the true light, is far from darkness and Belial. But also, since evil is contrary to doing good, the evildoer, by the very act of so operating, being of Belial and of darkness, has not seen God, nor has he any knowledge of Him according to any quality. For everyone who sins has not seen God, nor known Him. ^B And since seeing is a bodily function, and not seeing consists in using or not using the sense of sight, when some sensible object is seen even by the one who does evil, if he has sight; and if he who is deprived of sight does not see, even if he be a good man: it is indubitably shown that God is not a body. For when the doer of good, because he has a pure heart, sees God, although he be deprived of carnal sight, while he who does evil does not see Him, even though his physical sight be exceedingly sharp; it is proven from this (that is, from the discourse on doing good and doing evil) that things which do not coexist are contrary. Likewise, it is demonstrated from the saying: “Depart from evil and do good,” and from other similar expressions in the divine Scripture.

ENARRATION OF DIDYMUS THE ALEXANDRIAN ON THE EPISTLE OF BLESSED JUDE THE APOSTLE

Ver. 4. “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, etc.”

^C Truly, because Jesus once delivered the people from the land of Egypt and subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. Certain ungodly men, using the divine Scripture with a certain deceit and malice, ^D pretend to be vindicated. This, however, if one should compare the enarrations of Didymus with the scholia more accurately, will escape no one: that the composers of the scholia have followed Didymus in many places. ...so that he took upon himself to explain not only the fourth, but the fifth verse of the Epistle at the same time.

^A have crept in, pretending to preach it, being—so it is said—pre-written, that is, ordained for this judgment, whereby, being judged by themselves, they were delivered to a reprobate mind. For these men, on account of their immense impiety, being unchaste, have turned the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ into licentiousness, by their very filthiness denying the one Master, the Lord Jesus Christ of those who have been called by the Gospel. Hence, in order to recall those who believed in the wicked and impious, he shows how great is the majesty of the Lord whom they have denied, making it plain that it is He who led the people out of Egypt and provided salvation. Secondly, because some of them were unstable and changeable, bearing in their mind the desire they had held in Egypt, He destroyed those who wavered in the wilderness, even though they had been delivered from Egypt through faith. Having touched upon these things in advance, it is necessary to seek out who those are whom he says have turned the grace of God into licentiousness—that is, the impious and hypocrites of divine doctrine—unless perhaps these are the leaders of the heresy of the Nicolaitans, who leave behind no species of impudence. Whether the heresy itself is polluted in its will, of which memory is made in the Apocalypse by Jezebel, who is described as being over fornication, or whether it is another, must be considered. I think, however, that this is spoken of many heresies that began in the times of the Apostles, and of their authors, who certainly followed impudence and much luxury, so that they mingled their own filthiness and luxury with the sacrifices of idols. For Paul also says of such men: ^B "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them: for the things which are done of them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of." For they do shameful and vehemently shameful things, as if in a mystical way, those who follow the sect of Simon Magus. Moreover, after this, both the Marcionites and the Valentinians and the Sethians commit unspeakable deeds. Hence, in another Epistle, he writes concerning them, saying: "These are they who creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts," and under the guise of religion they do shameful things. Wherefore he says of them that they turned the grace of the Lord into licentiousness, through which licentiousness and its effect they deny the only Master and our Lord Jesus Christ.

It must be observed that Christ is the only Master, because He alone is the true God. For so, since He alone is the Master and Lord Jesus, He does not exclude the Father by authority, saying to Him, "Lord of heaven and earth." So neither ^C does the Father, since He alone is the true God, make the Son a stranger to the true deity. For it was said before these things concerning Him, that this only Master and Lord Jesus Christ is true God, who led the people out of Egypt through Moses, to whom these things being said, it follows that there is no other God of Moses. For there is no other God besides the Trinity. Moses himself is also recognized as serving the One, according to what was said: "He wrote of Me." And that which Moses wrote, we find Jesus to have fulfilled. Wherefore he also, having foreseen by the virtue of prophecy the cross, thought the reproach of Christ to have great riches; and not otherwise than he who said: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ." Since, therefore, it is Jesus who led the Hebrews out of Egypt, it is certain that this does not refer to the humanity proceeding from Mary: according to what is said of God the Word as Jesus, just as he said just before: "But to us one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things."

As to what he says, "that they are pre-written who turned the grace of God into licentiousness," to whom they are subject, that is, ordained for this judgment, etc. (as was recently proclaimed), it is to be considered lest perhaps this can be explained also of those who are similar to the ones pre-written by Jude, namely in the prophecies. For of that one it is said: "And his bishopric let another take"; and that: "He lifted up his heel against me," eating his bread, as if even of such impious ones it were pre-written, as of the impious of the Old Testament.

^D Ver. 9. "Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses; he dared not bring against him a judgment of blasphemy, but said: The Lord rebuke thee." If the devil is substantially evil, just as those who introduce earthly natures think, who say that something is against him, it is a matter of crime, not of the substance of blasphemy. If neither does the Lord reasonably rebuke him, since he has no nature, that he might receive rebuke for a work not good. But while he is even rebuked by the Creator and Lord of all, as if some utility could come from this, and the great archangel thought it [not?] to offer any blasphemy against him, although he was contending for the body of Moses. And the devil is not an earthly substance.

^A For he once possessed divine glory and the holy knowledge of God, although by turning away from such great magnitude, he fell. It is shown, therefore, from the common sense which we have concerning all rational beings, that since they have free will, and the turning away of the devil has taken place, his nature is not evil, just as he himself, who surpasses all in malice, is not of this kind, even though the adversaries of this contemplation argue against the present Epistle and the Assumption of Moses ^B by citing that place where the archangel’s word concerning the body of Moses is directed against the devil. For it is not from these [events] alone, but in every divine Scripture that his fall is demonstrated; and there is now one discourse, for which reason he is also named the devil. For the name of the devil signifies his will, not his essence, as has been frequently stated. For just as in Jude, when we signify his substance, we call him a man, but when we call him the devil, we recognize his ways, from the Savior who said to the disciples: “One of you is a devil”; so in this case, the name of the devil signifies his evil will, while perhaps another name might insinuate his substance. And therefore I said “perhaps,” since we do not have in divine Scripture clearly stated proper names for rational beings. Even if this is not the case, his substance is nonetheless declared by the common name of angel—that is, possessing some existence apart from his evil operation—which, when he performed [evil], he was called the devil.

VERS. 11. < Woe to them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and have rushed into the error of Balaam for reward, and have perished in the contradiction of Core! >

Since it has been declared in every way that the heretics have fallen from the word of truth, he shows them to be subject to various evils. For he says that they walk in the way of Cain, who on account of envy and impiety slew his brother. He, when he ought to have been saddened by the fact that his sacrifice was not accepted—which he had impiously, without a doubt, offered—and [ought to have] imitated his brother, so that he too might piously offer his gift to God, being seized rather by envy against him, appeared as the first murderer. And he did not rest in this alone, but extending his impiety, having become a sinner ^C before God by his own will, and being expelled from His presence, thinking that nothing came to pass in him by the providence of God, he believed himself with regard to all that he possessed to be his own authority and his own will. Therefore, he says, the present heretics walk in his way, and, by placing themselves before the Creator—claiming that He is of an animal nature, but that they themselves are spiritual—they do not rightly divide those things which they wish to offer in sacrifice; for they offer the firstfruits to themselves, but the remaining parts to God. For from such wickedness and deceit are the murderers of their brothers made, offering to them things that are not to be known, but rather calling them to their own imitation, when they say: “Let us cross over into the field.” He says, therefore, that these same men are like Balaam, preferring to piety the reward offered to him by the Midianite king, that he might curse those who were enjoying God’s blessing. They also have rushed into the reward of injustice, for they are found to be prophesying, and having a spirit of error instead of the Holy Spirit, whence they too give counsel of fornication and idol worship, just as he did by the betrayal of the people of God. Whoever speaks these things concerning the heretics may advance to higher matters, and not only in the word, but in the letter in which they stand, in which they are also touched upon in the Apocalypse of John, because these false teachers possess them intellectually, since they are lovers of leadership and pride, and are resistant to the prelates of the Church—nay rather, to the apostles, who have it from God that they should be priests. For these indeed erred in the contradiction of Core. He, to be sure, resisted the priesthood, which had been conferred upon Aaron by the will of God, and on account of the contradiction he himself, and those who seemed to be with him, were punished with a new death.

Vers. 12, 13. < These are they, who in your feasts are apostate, feasting together without fear, pasturing themselves: clouds without water, which are carried about by winds, trees of the autumn, unfruitful, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own confusions, wandering stars, to whom, etc. >

When he had shown those who walk in the way of Cain, and those who have been poured out by the unjust reward of Balaam, and those who have perished in the contradiction of Core; he follows up by saying: These are those celebrating banquets, when they have love-feasts, feasting together in their own spots, while they defile their own flesh, and transfer the grace of God to luxury. Accordingly, since they do all such things with much contempt, they pasture themselves without fear. For when they are, as it were, set under the true shepherd, they are constituted without fear and without reverence.

^A And they compare themselves to the holy clouds, which rain down justice. These clouds are, of course, the clouds of truth, according to what is written: "Let the clouds rain down justice," and: "Your truth reaches unto the clouds." To those who are full of spiritual rain, it is commanded that they should not rain upon the unworthy. Yet, even though the aforementioned men strive to compare themselves to the holy clouds, they are, however, clouds without water, not having in themselves the knowledge of God. He who has perceived this has within himself a "fountain of water springing up into eternal life," so that from his intelligible belly there flow rivers of living water. They imitate, therefore, the clouds. ^B They also contend to compare themselves to autumnal trees which bring forth good fruits, since they are, indeed, good trees; and even though they do this, they are nevertheless autumnal trees without fruit. For although the liars promise that they have good fruit, they are refuted, since they cannot bear grapes or figs, being as they are thorns and thistles and trees without fruit. Moreover, all these things, both thorns and thistles, are fitting to be burned with fire. Furthermore, it results for them, because they are without fruit, that even being rooted up, they die a second death; for those who sin consequently have death; and these men sin a second time, that is, in act and in thought; they are said to die a second time. Therefore, concerning those who die a second time—or even in this way, since they had died before the faith, and having approached the Gospel they lived, but again giving themselves over to impiety and pleasure, they have died—he rightly says of them that they died a second time. ^C One thing is necessarily consequent, that, when they die a second time, they appear to be rooted up, so that they have no hope of budding again. For those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit have no remission of sins, neither now, nor in the world to come. This Scripture therefore represents the troubled morals and the troubled intellect of the heretics when it calls them "raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame," through which they base-mindedly linger, celebrating all kinds of fornication around them, with whom they hasten to be coupled, increasing their own malice, and pretending to be light among those who are established in darkness; ^D and imitating their own leader, Satan, who transforms himself into an angel of light. Yet, although they are able to celebrate this phantasy, they are nevertheless "wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever." For they shall be delivered unto outer darkness, when their light has been extinguished. "For the light of the wicked shall be extinguished." It is said of such stars: "Which fall as leaves from a fig tree and a vine," while true stars are not leaves, but the fruits of the true vine and fig tree. For it is written concerning such righteous ones: "They shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and they that are wise shall be as the stars"; for therefore the saints, rising from the dead, with an incorruptible and spiritual body, are compared to the glory of the sun and moon and stars. We said before concerning those who were called because they were predestined, and concerning what was predicted of them, this also must be said, just as concerning Judas the traitor: which is truly confirmed from these things which the apostle afterwards subjoins, saying (vers. 14-16): "And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying: Behold, the Lord comes in his holy thousands, to execute judgment upon all, and to reprove all the ungodly for all the works of their ungodliness, whereby they have done ungodly, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against God. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own desires, and their mouth speaks proud things, admiring persons for the sake of gain."

ANNO DOMINI 398.

NECTARIUS ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE

NOTITIA

(Galland., *Veterum Patrum Biblioth.*, t. XIV, Append., p. vi.)

Nectarius, a Cilician by race, a native of Tarsus, a layman by profession, and a senator and praetor by rank, was a Constantinopolitan. When in the year 381 the Constantinopolitan see became vacant through the abdication of [Gregory] Nazianzen, Nectarius, about to return to his homeland, approached Diodorus of Tarsus, who was then in Constantinople among the 150 Fathers for the appointment of a bishop, to see if he had any letters he wished to send to his own people, that he might transmit them. Diodorus, either observing with divine inspiration the man’s venerable white hair and excellent character, or, as Socrates says, because the place was stirred up, seized him from the people, and he accepted their demand for a candidate for the high priesthood in such a way that he successfully worked for his appointment to the Constantinopolitan see. At that time, Nectarius was not yet baptized. Therefore, having been immediately washed in the divine font and duly initiated into the sacred mysteries, he was appointed bishop: a dignity which this excellent man held until the year 398. Bibliographers commonly attribute to him a certain homily, *On the Praise of St. the Martyr Theodore and on Almsgiving and Fasting*, in which he teaches why the feast of the holy martyr Theodore is celebrated on the first Saturday of Lent. Whether or not that homily which we are discussing pertains to Nectarius, Cave seems to doubt. But from the testimony of so many manuscripts in which that homily is found, it is clear that this doubt is without serious foundation.

And indeed, not far from the beginning of his narrative, he says: 1st, that the miracle of St. Theodore, *nyn teloumenon* (now being celebrated), had happened recently; 2nd, that he was stirred to recount that miracle by faithful and pious men who were keeping the records consigned to writing, having certainty at that very time, and who provided assured faith that they had been eyewitnesses of the prodigy. From which words it sufficiently appears that that event was not extremely recent, especially since the cause for celebrating that feast on the first Saturday of Lent was unknown to the common people—so much so that the *nyn teloumenon* must be understood either as signifying that it was the most recent miracle that had been seen at Constantinople, or rather, the reading of the codex is faulty, and for *par' hemon nyn*, one ought to read *par' hemin*, "among us."

Indeed, the miracle itself occurred during the raging of Julian the Apostate’s persecution, namely, in the year of Christ 362, about twenty years before Nectarius had obtained the episcopal see. If, therefore, Nectarius himself appears to have been ignorant of the matter, which he learned from longer-lived men, this may perhaps have been the case either because the affairs of Christians were still penetrating with difficulty among the Gentiles, or because he was living then in Tarsus or elsewhere when the miracle happened. That illustrious patriarch could have delivered his oration somewhat later, say in the year 396 or 397, and thus more or less 35 years had passed since the event. Therefore, it is no wonder if the common people were ignorant of the origin of the feast.

Besides the erudition of the fact itself, this homily contains excellent testimony regarding the invocation and intercession of the saints, and arguments for the recommendation of the true fast that are by no means common. It appears in Latin, translated by Perionius, among the Works of Chrysostom, and likewise in Surius and Lipomannus: it is also read in various manuscript libraries in Greek; it nowhere appears in print, as far as I know. I have therefore thought it should be added to our *analecta*.

NECTARIUS ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE: NARRATIVE on the reason why on the first Saturday of the holy fasts we celebrate the memory of the holy great martyr Theodore, AND ON FASTING AND ALMSGIVING.

ENARRATION OF NECTARIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE, on why we celebrate the memory of the holy Great Martyr Theodore on the first Saturday of the holy fasts, AND ON FASTING AND ALMSGIVING.

^A I. "How great is the abundance of thy goodness, O Lord!" It is right for us today to say this melodiously with David. And how should it not be great and worthy of all admiration? He brought us into being when we were not; yet He brought us forth not in the same manner as He had previously created things—I mean the heaven and those things which are in it, the earth and sea, and whatever is in these. For the work and the artifice, the matter and the constitution of these, was a word. For He spoke, or rather He thought, and that thought became nature and generation for all things, motion and order, and all those things which follow upon visible objects, and it was, and remains, and will be until His second coming to us. Moreover, He established even the highest powers by word alone, or rather by a nod. O the miracle! Being God, pre-existent to the ages and without beginning, He—and this is all the more staggering—molded us according to His own image and likeness, while He was Lord. ^B Then His goodness did not stop there, but He honored us with a divine breath, bestowing upon us in addition an intellectual and rational soul, and made man a citizen of paradise. And [He made him a citizen of] paradise, I say, the beauty of which can neither be described nor comprehended by the mind, subjecting and granting to him all things whatsoever He had created, just as a father who loves children and is affectionate, heaped upon him every gift, [making him] heir and lord of all.