So God therefore sold to a lower price, He bought at a higher price. He sold the people of the Jews, not by the harshness of God, but by their own fault; to whom it is rightly said: Behold, you have been sold by your sins, and I have dismissed your mother because of your iniquities (Isaiah 50:1). Thus, the people of the Jews, sold in this manner, were bought by the Christian people: the former sold by sin, the latter bought by blood. Hence Peter says: You were bought with a price, not with corruptible silver or gold. . . . but with precious blood (1 Peter 1:18-19). Who is the precious blood, if not the blood of that immaculate Lamb, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ? Therefore, without price is the Jewish people, but precious is the Christian people. The former has no price, because it has sin; the latter is valued, to whom sin is forgiven. Hence it is rightly said to the sons of the Church: You were bought at a price, do not become slaves of men (1 Corinthians 7:23). If you are told, do not become a servant of men, and lose your own freedom; much more are you told, do not become a servant of sin. And again, do not become a servant of the serpent, the enemy and adversary: but serve only the Lord, who redeemed you with his own love; for he is the redemption of his own servants.
Therefore, the Lord does not sell a good servant, but only a bad one. For although Joseph was sold, the Prophet did not say: Joseph was sold by the Lord; but: Joseph was sold into slavery (Psal. 104:17), whom his own brothers sold: whom the Lord, however, redeemed from slavery in the likeness of his own passion, and restored to grace. So, his brothers sold him and took the money: but the Lord not only set him free, but also enriched him with dignity. But the scripture shows that there was a figure of the Lord Jesus in it, which says: My son, zeal has consumed me . . . . return to me (Gen. XLIX, 22). And elsewhere: The firstborn of his bull is his glory (Deut. XXXIII, 17); because God the Father has exalted the horn of his Christ.
Therefore, whoever is sold is worthless and without price; as if he were not more, than if he were. Hence, even the Eagle said: You have given up your people, so that they should not be. And Symmachus: You have given up your people without substance. For there are not those who are rejected by Christ: but there are those who are chosen by the Lord; because the Lord has called those things that are not as things that are: and the chosen nations of the Gentiles have been called; so that the perfidy of the Jews might be destroyed. Therefore, that people was handed over into nothingness; because they were sold by their sin; for they have no substance of guilt.
Therefore I think it is said: And there was not a multitude in their commutations; that is, he dispersed us freely among the nations. For you do not receive anything in exchange, so that you may deliver the soul of a man; for nothing is more pleasing to you than the conversion of the soul. But if it refuses to be converted, it betrays itself to nothingness; so that it may be enslaved to sin and crime. Therefore, you have sold the degenerate people without price and without exchange. Hence, in the later passage he says: For there is no commutation for them (Psalm 54:20). Why is there no change for them? Because, he says, they did not fear God. (Ibid.)
However, the reason why the people of error did not have a change of understanding is this: because a person cannot redeem their soul with silver, gold, or possessions. For what exchange will they give for their soul, since those things are temporary or perishable, while the soul remains either for reward or punishment? However, that exchange was not even for the impious, which will happen in the resurrection, as the Apostle says: We will all rise again, but not all of us will be changed (1 Corinthians 15:51). It can also be understood thus, that although few of the redeemed deserved to be changed, like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the change itself did not come to all. There is also this, that there is not a multitude in the changes of grave sins; according to what is written, that the sins of some men are manifest, going before unto judgment: but some also follow after (1 Timothy 5:24). Those sins that are grave and manifest go before, and are undoubtedly submerged: but those that are lighter are often relieved by good works. For blessed are those whose sins are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. But where sin abounds, no exchange of good works is revoked.
Therefore, even if someone is redeemed from the people of the Jews, they are not redeemed because they had a high value of themselves, nor because they had a great number in their exchange, but they are redeemed freely; as the Apostle teaches, saying: The remnant chosen by grace have been saved (Rom. XI, 5). Where there is grace, it is not by merit of works, nor by justification of virtues, but by the generosity of the giver, and by the choice of the redeemer; as Scripture also teaches you, with the apostle Paul saying: But if it is by grace, it is no longer by works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace (Ibid., 6). What then is it that Israel was seeking, but did not obtain? The reason why they did not obtain it is because they sought it by works, not by faith. They were looking for justification based on their own efforts and boasting in their works. But they did not bring forth faith and did not recognize God's grace. And so, the chosen ones obtained what they were seeking, because they listened to the calling and received the coming of Christ.
(Verse 14.) Therefore, deservedly in the person of that people it is said: You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a laughingstock and a mockery to those around us. Who are these neighbors, and how they seem to belong to the vicinity of the people of Israel, is not easily discerned; if a spiritual vicinity is sought, having a certain light of knowledge to investigate the mystery of Christ: especially since in the very book of Solomon, which is called Ecclesiastes, we have learned that the more wisdom is sought, the deeper it is judged. For it is written: I said, I will seek wisdom, and she has been far off from me, greater than it was; and in deepness who shall find her? (Ecclesiastes 7:24-25). Hence, doubt arises in me to search into the mysteries of the Scripture divinely breathed, and to examine its teachings, which he was able to do fittingly, who spoke wisdom among the perfect. I see the perfect ones, and I justly call them perfect, since I see you have trained faculties for the discernment of good and evil; yet even he himself who knew how to receive solid food, sought for assistances, that the word of the Lord might run swiftly in him (2 Thessalonians 3:1). Nor could he even use this without prayer, so that his praise would be pleasing to God (Ps. 146:1); for it is not the assertion of one who uses, but of one who prays.
However, let us not seem to have completely escaped, let us consider who were the neighboring tribes of the Jews. For let us recount the old, the Philistines were considered neighbors to the tribe of Judah: and on the other side, the tribe of Reuben approached. Likewise, the Ammonites were in the wilderness, and those who were in the territories of Tyre and Sidon were connected to Galilee; that is, the tribe of Zebulun and the tribe of Naphtali, which were in Galilee; as Isaiah said: Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, by way of the sea beyond the Jordan (Isaiah 9:1). Where can someone gather what special virtue belonged to each individual tribe, so that they could be joined with certain neighboring tribes; so that gradually even knowledge of celestial sacraments could be infused into the nations? This can certainly be understood from that Canaanite woman who came out from her own territory to meet the Lord Jesus passing by, and having set aside her idols, worshipped the true author of salvation: to whom our Lord Jesus Christ gave testimony that her faith was great. Indeed, the grace of the Gospel was shining brightly, as was the light of the majestic presence. However, because she went out willingly and sought mercy, and confessed the Lord with humble voice, and persevered in her own clamor of request, this woman of such kind received a significant privilege. She was the first to go out from the nations of the Gentiles and, through her persistent supplication, deserved to bear witness to the greatness of the Lord.
In fact, in this matter I have observed that some people have had doubts about what he means when he says, 'I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel' (Matt. 15:24), as if the Lord seems to have sought the nobility of the chosen race to save souls, who came to redeem everyone. But he deigned to show the purpose, which he did not want to refute those whom he had chosen first; and yet he sought to recall the straying and wandering ones with a certain paternal affection. But when they themselves had abandoned their true author, knowing themselves to be the God of mountains, not of valleys, and the kingdom of heaven not despised by those who compel, but gradually turned towards the gentiles; so that both the affection of the nations would be proven greater, and the stubbornness of those condemned by their own merit.
What then does he mean when he says: It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs (Matt. XV, 26)? Indeed, he called the Israelites, that is, the people of Judah, the children; but he called the people of the nations the little dogs. So what then? Is it the rich or nobles who are more worthy to receive the heavenly sacraments, and not those who strive more fervently to attain knowledge of the heavenly mystery with a pious mind? And if anyone among the Israelites is lax and negligent, or stubborn, and rejects the words of God: but the Canaanite who eagerly desires to concentrate his mind on acquiring the sacraments; is he more deserving to be preferred than the one who shows zeal, rather than the one who shows diligence? Not at all. And therefore it is necessary to carefully consider what he meant when he said: 'It is not right to take the bread of the children and throw it to the dogs,' to which the Canaanite woman replied: 'Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table' (Ibid., 27); he praised her earnestness and humility, which did not presume to claim deep wisdom for herself from the beginning, even though she had already come from the borders of Tyre and Sidon: but she believed that she could gather some crumbs of the saving word that fell from their master's table. For whoever diligently and subtly examines the words of Scripture, is accustomed to reach the depth of mysteries. Therefore, it is said to him: Great is your faith: let it be done to you as you wish (Ibid., 28); that is, let the door of the word be opened to you, and let the healing mystery of eternal life shine forth.
Therefore, let the one who is near, go out and desire to see Christ, and cry out in prayer; just as that Canaanite woman went out from her borders, saw Christ, and cried out with constant voice, so that she might obtain his mercy. Therefore, let the believing Canaanite be a reproach to the Jew, because he himself did not believe: and let him grieve and be mocked by those who are around, and let him groan.
And this prophecy seems to be about the nations that will believe, especially when the following things show this, because it says: You have made us like the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples; because the salvation of the nations is the result of the transgression of the Jews; and the things that happened to them in figure, we have learned have come to our understanding, as the Apostle testifies (I Cor. X, 11). And truly they have been put to shame among the nations; because the nations have preferred the shame of the Lord's cross to all worldly wealth. But whoever considered that cross as a reproach, and as if shunned a reproach, truly remained in perpetual reproach. However, because they do not seem according to the flesh to be Israelites, who could say: We have not acted unjustly in the Testament of the Lord (Below, verse 19): nor has their heart turned back from the Lord; see lest they remember themselves as having been placed in a circle of illusion and mockery, of whom the Lord says: Many calves have surrounded me (Psalm 22:13). For persecutors have surrounded him, when according to the counsel of his own will he underwent suffering. Hence elsewhere it says: They surrounded me on every side, but in the name of the Lord I have taken vengeance on them (Psalm 117:11). Therefore, it is better to tread the straight path, on which evildoers cannot walk. They quickly fall because they do not walk in the right direction. Hence, when they wanted to apprehend Jesus the Lord, when he looked at them, they fell. Therefore, for those who are accustomed to walk around, the Lord has appointed an angel to drive away enemies who lie in wait behind. Thus, the angel of the Lord surrounds and protects those who fear Him. For the wicked walk around, as it is written (Psalm 11:9). Therefore, observe the difference. The wicked walk around, but the angel surrounds those who do not walk around; and therefore, he surrounds in order to rescue the righteous from the snares of their persecutors. The spiritual Israelites therefore seem to be those who speak these things, because they have been subjected to the temptations of the world and have been a reproach to their neighbors; that is, those who did not inhabit their homeland of Jerusalem. They were also subject to spiritual illusions and powers, against which the righteous are accustomed to struggle. Finally, let history teach you that the Jews who were taken to Babylon, although they seemed to be subjected because of their sins, were nevertheless much better off than the Gentiles. For the worst were those around them who insulted them, while they themselves were burdened with serious sins.
Therefore, the first understanding to be applied is that of the captive fathers, whom the Assyrians insulted, mocking them in Babylon: over whom that most wicked king Nebuchadnezzar ruled. The second understanding should be referred to higher things, because the cruelest king is the devil himself: he is the Assyrian Nebuchadnezzar, who is accustomed to laying snares for the good, in order to lead them into sin through the allurements of the flesh. Therefore, pay attention to this king in the place where the Apostle says: I see a law in my members against the law of my mind, leading me captive to the law of sin (Rom. 7:23); that is, in that law of carnal allurements. The lion is an adversary, who attacks the vulnerable and wearies the just. Hence the eagle beautifully put it: You have placed contempt and pomp upon those who are in our midst. Thus they were considered despicable, who have become a spectacle to this world, both to angels and to humans; for even though they do not sin against God in the Testament, nor are they swayed by the allurements of the flesh from the Lord; yet they seem to be carried about and despised as if in some kind of parade: since sinners are accustomed to insulting the humility of the just; so that they may consider the cross of the Lord-Savior a reproach, and the humility of the just. Finally, as if on a theater stage, the Apostle says: 'I am pleased with insults, with hardships, with persecutions, with difficulties' (2 Corinthians 12:10). In these things, he finds pleasure, considering everything that belongs to the world as a loss, in order to gain Christ, seeking only life and death: for him, to live is Christ and to die is gain, so that he may be found in Christ.
(Verse 15.) Furthermore, these Israelites add, saying: You have made us a proverb among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples. To which nations have you made us, if not to those who do not believe? For the things that happened to the Jews have been made in the likeness of a figure, so that it became a type and figure of the destruction of the Jews, and from that likeness, through a proverb, we seek a solution to our present [situation], so that we may be able to avoid their examples. Then, because all Jewish matters are like parables; that is, like images needing interpretation. Finally, the Lord spoke to the Jews in parables, so that the ignorant would not understand, but the wise would understand; as the Apostles understood and asked the Lord about what they were moved by. However, the Jews neither understood, nor desired to learn what they did not understand.
Take this parable. Abraham therefore had two sons: one by a slave woman, and one by a free woman (Gal. IV, 22). The Jew did not understand this except according to the literal sense. He did not know which of the two sons would inherit the father's estate; because he was inclined to the flesh. The parable needed an explanation. The Doctor of the Gentiles came, and the faith of the nations, and he understood that those two women are two Testaments: one from Mount Sinai, which brought forth the people of the Jews in servitude, which is Hagar (Ibid., 24). And therefore Sinai, because it signifies the measurement through interpretation: and the measurement of the Law is, but grace is superabundant. Sinai is also called wages, and it is suitable for the Jewish people, who sought to justify themselves by the wages of works, which they preferred to the grace of faith. Therefore, what was under the Law, Jerusalem served with her children: but what is above, Jerusalem is free. And therefore Sarah, who is called the principal, has freedom; because her prince is just and blameless. Therefore, from the two Testaments there are two peoples: one of the Jews, the other of the nations that believed in Christ. The Jews, who did not believe, are in bondage; he himself was born according to the flesh, because he interpreted the divine Scripture according to the flesh and according to the letter, not according to the spirit. But he who was born of the free woman is through the promise; that is, the one whom the promise is based on faith, he is the son of the Church, holding the freedom of grace for whom the Church says: 'Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac' (Gen. XXI, 16). And the Apostle says: Therefore, brethren, we are not the handmaids of the son, but free (Galatians 4:31). This is therefore the solution; because what the Jew did not know, the faith of the gentiles has solved, infused in the minds of the nations by the teacher Paul. Therefore, their deeds are a parable for us.
But the Lord also said: I became a parable to them; those who sit at the gate were working against me (Psalm 68:12 and 13). He became a parable; for you say, he said, 'Physician, heal yourself' (Luke 4:23). He became a parable; for he rebuked those sitting at the gate; for at the end, we should not be idle, but active. Therefore it is written: see to it that your flight does not happen in winter or on the Sabbath (Matthew 24:20); that is, not in leisure, but in business. Therefore, the blind Jews were sitting; because they were unable to stand, they did not know the true courts of Jerusalem; for if they had known that Jerusalem, they would have sought it. So, these weary ones were sitting at the gate. Not only did they sit, but they also hated the Lord who rebuked them at the gates. For at the gate was the one who was about to undergo the passion of his own body, through which he would depart from the earth and return to heaven. He was at the gate when he said: Walk while you have the light (John 12:35). What then is this: 'I have become to them as a parable' (Psalm 68:12), unless because the end of the Law is Christ, and His death has revealed the mysteries of the prophets; and those things which were previously unknown to the Jews when they were prophesied, have now been manifested through the achievement of the Lord's Passion? 'I have become to them as a parable,' because He presented Himself to them as humble, offering Himself to them, not avoiding their seditions, and leading them to the time of His favor; that He might die for all men, and by His blood the human race might be purified.
Likewise, it is written in the parable: You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain (Deut. XXV, 4). The Apostle explains this parable, saying: Does God take care for oxen? Or does he say it for our sake? For our sake, it was written. Who plows, except in hope of sharing in the crop? (I Cor. IX, 9 et 10). So, as good farmers, where our earthly land has been plowed because of hope, let us sow not carnal but spiritual things: because corruption comes from carnal things, and eternal life is acquired from spiritual things. Therefore, the type and figure of the deeds of our ancestors are known to us. The written law is like a figure written in our hearts, so that for us it is a certain image of things to come, not the truth itself. Therefore, the law is like a figure to us: the Gospel is like the light and seal of truth.
Therefore, in the parable, the Lord showed Himself to the Jews: but they did not understand the parable; because they did not receive the physician who would heal the souls of the laboring and absolve them from every sickness and inequality of infirmity. He also became a parable, because He took on flesh, which the Jews crucified, not understanding the spiritual parable. For they did not understand to the extent that when they crucified the author of life, and saw the Savior's flesh hanging on the cross, they nodded their heads. For if they had understood, certainly they would not have insulted, but groaned. And yet the motion of the head itself yielded to them in likeness; so that it did not signify what they were feeling, but what they were declaring as mysteries. For they, insulting the Lord according to the common practice, moved their head; just as those who desire to insult the just, if perhaps they see them wearied in this world, move their head.
This agitation of the head has a twofold interpretation. For those who move their head seem to be reproachful according to the authority of Scripture, as Matthew says: 'Those who passed by blasphemed the Lord Jesus, moving their heads' (Matt. 27:39). And Mark: 'Those who passed by' (Mark 15:29). But the reason why those who pass by are considered reproachful is taught by the Prophet himself, who says about the vineyard of Sabaoth: 'All who pass by plunder it' (Psalm 79:13). Finally, the following verse signifies this: 'The wild boar out of the wood hath rooted it up, and the wild beasts of the field have devoured it' (Ps. 79:14). And in the later part it says: 'Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the LORD be upon you' (Ps. 129:8); for whoever passes by and does not stand in the house of the LORD does not give his blessing. Therefore, the Jews shook their head at the Lord Jesus, so that they might pass by him, who could not have the firm and sure foundation of faith. But they moved their heads, whose head should have been Christ, whom they should not have moved and cast down by the perfidy of the Jews. But because the members did not suffer themselves to be Christ's, therefore their head was not Christ. The Law was not their head either, for they were stripped of it and by the Law of the nations. The word of God was not their head for they had lost the prophets and did not have the apostles. Let this be said about this reprehensible shaking of the head. However, even a mild concussion is to be condemned: it is reprehensible for the Jews, but commendable for the people of the nations. For what is the head, if not the place where the senses reside? Indeed, the eyes of the wise are in their head; they must be moved, that is, the senses of your mind, so that they do not become sluggish due to any dullness. Therefore, move your prudence, move your wisdom, move your thoughts through the comparison of heavenly words, and through the discussion of prophetic words, so that you do not sin against the Testament of God, but rather may your faith be strong. For there are heretics who move their senses, in order to arouse disbelief, not faith.
But now it must be said more explicitly about the shaking of the head itself, which is placed in the likeness of the people. Who is the head of the people other than Christ? For the head of a woman is the man, and the head of a man is Christ. But even the Law is the head of a woman in an intelligible sense. Finally, under the Law, the people of the Jews are like a woman under a man; because Law is called νόμος in Greek; and therefore the Synagogue is joined to the Law as to a male, but to the physical Law, not the spiritual one; that is, to the rite of the Jewish Law, to which it is bound by the chains of marriage, unknowing the legitimate sacraments. But if the law, that is, the embodiment of the law, is dead; then the people, like a widow, may lawfully marry a second husband, who has risen from the dead. This woman is also the head of the Gospel. Hence, some mystically interpreted that, after the Jewish rite has been put to death, they wanted her to marry the Gospel as a brother of the deceased, because the law had announced the Gospel. Therefore, the first husband is the law, and the second husband is the sacraments of the Gospel. For there are, as it were, two marriages, there are two Testaments. One marriage is the old Testament, which is dissolved by the death of the previous husband. And therefore that woman to whom the Law is dead rightly enters into a second marriage, that is, the new Testament. Thus, through two brothers, one is joined, to whom the former sins die, and the better sacraments are renewed afterwards. This the Apostle clearly explained to us, saying: For the woman who is under a man, while the man is alive, is bound by the law; that is, by the law of her husband, so that she owes him chastity: But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the husband; that is, so that she may marry whomever she wishes, as long as her husband is dead; because while the husband is alive, he says, she will be called an adulteress if she is joined to another man: But if her husband dies, she is freed from the law of the husband, so that she is not an adulteress, if she is with another man (Rom. VII, 2 and 3). This sacrament also pertains to Christ and the Church, as he demonstrated elsewhere because it is a great sacrament (Ephesians 5:32). He also did not overlook this, saying: Therefore, my brothers, you also have been made dead to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, who has been raised from the dead (Romans 7:4). How have you been made dead to the Law unless that the shadow of the Law may die for you when you approach the heavenly sacraments? For you should not approach the Gospel in any other way, unless freed from the impediments of bodily interpretation. Moreover, it is adultery to mix truth with falsehood: but spiritual chastity, if your soul, stripped of all hindrances of erroneous knowledge, approaches the word of God without blemish. Therefore, just as Christ is the head of the Church, so the Law is the head of the Synagogue; that is to say, for those who are under the Law, for whom the Apostle made himself under the Law, although he was not under the Law; in order to benefit those who are under the Law. And again, he became a teacher of the Gentiles, as if he himself were without the Law; in order to win over those who were without the Law to Christ. But he said beautifully that without the Law of God, he would not exist, and he would remain in the Law of Christ (1 Corinthians, IX, 21).
But the head of the Synagogue was not from the beginning; for Christ was the head of the old Synagogue, which Moses founded and established. Finally, listen to him saying that it was founded by the word of the Lord. By faith, he said, Moses, when he had become great, denied that he was the king's grandson. For he preferred to sympathize with the afflicted rather than to enjoy temporary pleasures; and he valued greater riches and preferred them to the treasures of Egypt, which were a reproach to Christ. For he looked at the reward of God's promises (Heb. XI, 24 et seq.), which is the grace of resurrection. But when the Word of God died for the unbelievers because of the treachery of the Jews, and was expelled from the hearts of the Jews, the spiritual understanding of the law died, and the Synagogue entered into a carnal ritual and a perfidious observance. But that was not the sobriety of spiritual marriage, but the adultery of chastity. Therefore, the Synagogue could not be free, for she had married wrongly and did not believe in the future resurrection of Christ. Hence, the Church married her well, to whom Christ, according to the sacramental dispensation, died according to the flesh, so that the Jewish soul that was previously bound by sin would be absolved from the bond of transgressions through the death of Christ. A woman is not permitted to marry another man, unless her husband is dead; that is, unless she has been freed from the bond of lawful love. But if her husband is dead, she is free.
Indeed, he was bound by the Law to marry his deceased brother's wife; if the husband left no offspring (Deuteronomy 25:5). This bond was more a result of the letter of the law than of spiritual grace. Ultimately, it was at the will of the deceased brother whether or not he wanted his wife to be taken by his brother to raise up offspring for him. Therefore, he was commanded to loosen his sandal, to indicate that he was stripped of the bond of their union, which he had demonstrated to be foreign to his own preference. For it is written, that a man was loosing his shoe and giving it to his neighbor, saying: This shall be a testimony in Israel. And his neighbor said: Take, and acquire it for yourself. And he was loosing his shoe. The bystanders also said: May the Lord give you a wife, who may enter into your house, as Rachel and Leah, who both built the house of Israel, and may they do power in Ephrata (Ruth 4:7, 8, 11). But this was binding upon the Jew by the interpretation of the letter. But it was a figure, because Christ was to come into the world, who would raise up the seed of the dead people. Justly a brother: because it was said: I will declare your name to my brethren (Psalm 21:23); and: Whose are the fathers, and from whom Christ according to the flesh (Romans 9:5). Or because the Gospel would work the restoration of the dead Law in future generations; so that the seed which the Law had not left, the content of the Gospel might raise up.
No wonder, therefore, if they have moved their head by a wrong interpretation; so that they themselves would disturb the wisdom, the author of their salvation: or certainly by moving their head, the cause of the head's disturbance would not be insignificant; but for the people. This disturbance of the head happened: since their sound went forth into all the earth; so that the whole earth would become the Lord's, and the kingdom of the Lord would be among the nations. Hence, it also says in the following: The Lord reigns, let the people be angry: who sits upon the Cherubim, let the earth be moved (Psalm 98:1). What the eagle beautifully interpreted, so as to say 'ἀλάλαγμα', is the transmutation, which is from place to place, from Judea to the nations of the world. This can clearly be shown from the reading that is in the Gospel, as to how the Law has been moved, as the Scripture says: 'the scribes and Pharisees sit on the chair of Moses.' Therefore, all that they tell you, observe and do, but do not do according to their works, for they say and do not do. But they tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. (Matthew 23:2 et seq.)
What is it, the scribes sit; unless because it is written? Hence, even in Greek, they are called γραμματεῖς, scribes, who follow the interpretation of letters, not the understanding of the spirit; for the letter kills. Therefore, following the killing letter, and resonating with the same appellation, they are scribes: but the Pharisees, that is, those who are divided from the unity of truth, are also scribes; for "phar" means division. But the Pharisees divide the words of the Law in this way, so that they resonate and meditate on them; but they do not see the spiritual mysteries of the Law and the sacraments. For if the Law is spiritual, surely the precepts of the Law are spiritual, and its works are spiritual. Therefore, those who teach what Moses wrote bind heavy burdens to the physical aspects of the Law (for the things that are contrary to the yoke of Christ are heavy), and through their misguided doctrine, they impose heavy burdens on the ears of those who listen, which they themselves do not even want to move, so that they may be moved from the physical aspects of the Law to the spiritual words of Scripture. For it must be understood that they do not want to move those things by their own finger; that is, they do not transfer themselves to spiritual understanding with a small point and moment. Hence also is that which is written: But if I by the finger of God cast out devils (Luke 11:20). What the finger is, the Scripture itself interprets, which says in another Gospel book: But if I by the Spirit of God cast out devils (Matthew 12:28). Therefore the finger of God is the Spirit of God; for God is a Spirit, and has nothing corporal in His substance, but is entirely Spirit. Therefore, by the Spirit of God, he casts out the demon, he who casts out by the finger of God. Hence, even the holy David says: 'For I will see your heavens, the works of your fingers' (Psalm 8:4). That is to say, the works of your Spirit are the heavens, as it is also written: 'By the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm, and by the breath of his mouth all their host' (Psalm 33:6).
To conclude the argument, the scribes and Pharisees have no relevance to the inner person, who is made in the image and likeness of God; so in what he thinks and meditates, he should think more about spiritual things than about carnal things. Therefore, they try to refer everything to that external, earthly person: and that is why all their works are such that they seem good to people; not to please the Father, who sees in secret. They are indeed afraid to reveal their works.