Homily 61, on Psalm 15 (Alternate Series)
Latin source: Germanus Morin (ed.), Sancti Hieronymi Tractatus sive Homiliae in Psalmos quattuordecim (alternate series), Anecdota Maredsolana III, Pars III (Maredsoli, 1903) — public domain. Psalm numbering follows the Septuagint/Vulgate (Morin).
An inscription of a title, to David himself. In place of this the fifth edition put the Hebrew word itself, "MACTHAM David," which Aquila translated as "of the humble and simple David," and Symmachus as "of the humble and unstained David." And Aquila himself again, in the fifty-fifth psalm and in the rest as far as the fifty-ninth, rendered this very thing so as to say "of the humble and perfect David." From this we understand that one word signifies both "simple" and "unstained" and "perfect," yet in such a way that humility is always set before each of them; for among the Hebrews it is compounded of two whole words, so that, just as we say "almighty" (omnipotens), enclosing two words in one utterance, so also the word MACTHAM in the syllable which is called MAC shows humility without ambiguity, while in the following one which is called THAM it signifies the three things we mentioned above. Now there are six psalms, unless we are mistaken, which are headed by this title: the fifteenth psalm, and the fifty-fifth, and the fifty-sixth, and the fifty-seventh, and the fifty-eighth, and the fifty-ninth. All of these refer to the dispensation and passion of our Lord and Savior; and although in their headings they have among themselves certain things added, or removed, or varied, yet in this one phrase they agree, namely, in "the inscription of a title," which here stands alone by itself only in the fifteenth psalm. For in the remaining five certain historical notices too are prefixed, so that the prophecy concerning the Lord Savior might be shown not only in word but also in deed. And I think there are six psalms containing this mystery and headed with such a title for this reason, that the Savior, crucified for all on the sixth day of the world, dying and rising again, left us this as it were the title of his victory; so that we may inscribe upon our hearts these psalms which are marked with these headings, and press into them the words of God, and that our minds may be mindful of the Lord's death; so that, just as Jacob made a monument for Rachel and it remains to this day, so we may mark in our heart the memorial and remembrance of his passion. Nor indeed let that be thought contrary to our exposition which the Lord commanded in the Law: "You shall not make for yourself a monument, things which the Lord your God hates"; but to the singular number "a monument" he joined a plural of the neuter gender, saying, "things which the Lord your God hates," that is, you shall not do such works as remain for your condemnation forever. For these things the Lord your God hates. If perchance, through our negligence, he who oversows tares should erect such monuments in the land of promise, the clear-sighted ones (dioratikoi), namely the teachers, command the children of Israel to overthrow them and undermine them and banish them from the land that flows with milk and honey. Such a monument Absalom too built for himself, an empty tomb, which remains to this day for the disgrace and testimony of the parricide. Into such a monument Lot's wife too was turned, because she wished to look not at what lay ahead but behind her back. After this it is asked why the Seventy translators wished to translate otherwise than it stands in the Hebrew and in the other editions. This can be understood from many other passages too, but especially from the heading of the ninth psalm. For whereas among the Hebrews it is headed LAMANASSE ALMUTH LABEN, which Symmachus translates "the triumph of the youth of the son," but the fifth edition "the triumph of the flowering youth of the son," the Seventy translators, unwilling to disclose so openly to King Ptolemy and to the Gentiles the passion and resurrection of the Savior, translated "Unto the end, for the hidden things of the son"; and by the very title showing that certain hidden things lay concealed which they were unwilling to translate. So now too, because humility, simplicity, spotlessness, and perfection pointed not to a man (for there is no one who would dare to head himself with such a title) but to the Son of God, therefore they chose to translate "stelographia" (stēlographian), that is, a thing worthy to be marked with an inscription; so that we might understand one thing shut up in the title, and another uttered aloud in the word. Now a title is also placed for brave men upon their tombs in memory of their former courage, and for those who fell for their fatherland, and wherever there are trophies and victories, and where public laws are inscribed. The interpretation of all of which is easier when applied to the person of the Lord Savior. Preserve me, O Lord, for I have hoped in you; I said to the Lord: You are my God, for you have no need of my goods. If one apostle were to interpret this psalm, if two, the authority even of one and of two would be great. But now (a thing written of no other of the psalms) we have found concerning this in the Acts of the Apostles that Peter, together with the apostles of Christ—when Matthias had already been taken in as one of the twelve in place of Judas—expounding it lifted up his voice, and after many words said: "Men and brethren, let it be permitted to speak boldly to you concerning the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is among us to this very day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn to him with an oath that from the fruit of his loins one would sit upon his throne, foreseeing this he spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that he was neither left in hell, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we all are witnesses." Since then all the apostles alike have referred this psalm to the Lord Savior, we, who wish to be Christians, must surely follow their opinion. And no wonder that he who was equal to God and humbled himself, taking the form of a servant, now speaks with the words of a servant. Hence in the very title he is inscribed as humble and simple and unstained and perfect; because he who needed no one's help humbled himself so far as to entreat the Lord on our behalf, on behalf of the Church, that is, on behalf of his own body. And in very truth it is great humility—for God to pray for men, for the Lord to pray for servants, for the Holy One to pray for sinners: so that he not only says that he himself is clothed and given drink and visited in his servants, but even, when they have prayed and have been heard, confesses that he himself has prayed and been heard. Therefore, taking on a human body, he saw the hostile powers, he saw too the army of the devil, drawn up in a wedge-formation against him, doing battle; and therefore he now says: Preserve me, O Lord; for unless you preserve my body, the Church which hopes in you, they who guard her keep watch in vain. But what follows—"I said to the Lord, You are my God"—he directs his speech to the apostles and to the disciples and to us, if indeed we deserve to be disciples, teaching what he has said to the Lord of the universe. What, then, does he say he has spoken to the Lord? "You are my Lord": that is, you who are the Lord of all have become peculiarly mine, that is, the Lord of my own. He was the Lord of all even in the Old Testament, since he had created all things; but he became peculiarly the Lord of the saints, saying: "I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." As, then, you are theirs, so you are now especially my Lord, because you deign to be the Lord of my own. And the reason why he is his Lord is added: For you have no need of my goods. For God almighty has no need of a man's goods, nor do our virtues contribute to God's advancement, since God receives no increase: but whatever we labor at and strive for, he receives and requires it of us for this reason, that he may restore to us what he has received. For that man too in the Gospel who from one mina had made ten minas not only received back what he had given, but was even granted the other mina, which another could not multiply. It is said also to Job: "What does it profit the Lord, if you make your way blameless?" Other masters, however powerful they may be, cannot yet say to their servants, "We have no need of your works": for indeed they make full use of their service. But God alone is a Lord who needs the service of his servants only for this, that he may have occasion to give more. And at the same time we are taught that if the Savior prays for us (for he did indeed pray also for the apostles in the Gospel, and therefore permitted those whom he had earlier urged to keep watch to sleep), we surely ought all the more to pray for ourselves: because, although we run, yet without him we cannot arrive at our goal, according to the interpretation of Symmachus and of the fifth edition, who said "My good is not apart from you"; so that this translation may be referred to that saying: "Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guard the city, he keeps watch in vain who guards it." To the saints who are in his land, he made all his wishes wonderful in them. In place of which it is written in the Hebrew: "To the saints who are in the land, and to my exalted ones, is all my will in them." These goods of which you have no need, O Father, my saints do need—the saints in whom I have made all my wishes to be wonderful. But I made my wishes wonderful not outside them, but in them: so that, while each one is corrected, and understands both who he was before and who he has now begun to be, my wonderful wishes may be brought about in them; yet only if, going out from Egypt and crossing the desert, they are able to enter the land of promise, which land is the beginning of the land of the living. Nor is this at once contrary to it—that wonders are said to be done only in the land of God—namely that in the field of Tanis, that is, in Egypt, wonders were done. For there is a great distance between the wonders done by Moses and those done by Jesus. There one flees from Egypt, here one enters into Judea; there lord Pharaoh is avoided, here those who are to serve are taken captive; there frogs and gnats and soot and hail and darkness are employed among the wonders, here command is given to the sun and to the moon; there God goes before the people in a pillar of cloud and of fire, here the Savior himself comes to meet them holding a sword and declaring that he will fight for his army. Do you see how the wonders that were in the land of promise are greater than those done in Egypt or in the desert? But we may understand the land of God as the Church, since to the saints who are in the Church all the wishes of God seem to be wonderful; for to those who are outside the Church nothing seems wonderful which by its own nature is wondrous. Let us therefore be in the land of God, and let us be transformed into the image of the Savior, and he will make all his wishes wonderful in us. Their infirmities have been multiplied; afterward they made haste. Whose infirmities have been multiplied? Surely those of the saints who above are recorded as being in the land of the Lord. When they were foolish, unbelieving, straying, and serving various desires and pleasures, passing their lives in greed and envy, their infirmities were being multiplied. But when they were washed and were sanctified and, turned to repentance, abandoned their past sins, then they made haste. I have read in the Epistle of Barnabas (if anyone is pleased to accept testimony from it) that God chose apostles who were more wicked than every sin. And surely, if they were more worthless than all sinners, their infirmities were nonetheless being multiplied in them; but see how quickly they afterward withdrew from them. To Peter and to his brother Andrew it is said: "Come and follow me." Likewise to James and John, who leave both their father and the boat and the net. Matthew rises up from the tax-booth, and at once is an apostle. Zacchaeus comes down from the tree, and is holy. Paul, persecuting the Church, suddenly believes, is washed, teaches, is subjected to persecutions, is beheaded. What is swifter than this conversion? The people of the Gentiles too, before they were converted to the Lord and heard through Isaiah, "Drink this first, do it quickly," was in all infirmities—or, as Symmachus translated, "hardships," or, as more fittingly Theodotion and the fifth edition, "idols." But when the cults of idols had been multiplied, believing at the first word of the apostles, it was quickly converted to the Lord. Which indeed Aquila too, translating "diaponēmata" (laborious things), according to his custom signifies as idols. For in the Hebrew it says ASABOTH, the very same word that is placed also there: "The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold." Further, in that he says "proikisamenōn," which the Seventy had rendered "they made haste," he seems to me to show a lofty meaning: namely that the apostles, or the people of the Gentiles, after they were converted to the faith of Christ, and the Lord had forgiven them their sins (for this is what "proikisamenōn" means, that as by a "proikia"—that is, as a free gift—their vices were reversed), their "diaponēmata," that is, their pains, were increased in them, since they knew in how great a sea's waters they had been and from what an abyss they had been freed; according to that which is written in Ecclesiastes: "He who adds knowledge, adds sorrow." And Paul: "I who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God." But it can also be discussed otherwise, since "strength is made perfect in weakness"; and when an apostle is weaker, then he is stronger. We too, if we wish to come quickly to the Lord, ought to multiply our infirmities, so that, made weak in the flesh, we may be stronger in the spirit. I will not gather their assemblies out of bloods. Clearly he who speaks is the Savior. For who else could say, "I will not gather their assemblies out of bloods"? But "their"—understand it either of the nations or of the apostles. If of the nations, this will be the meaning: Although they are guilty of blood, and have perpetrated many crimes, yet because after their infirmities they hastened to me, their assemblies will be pure and utterly foreign to blood. If of the apostles, this will be the meaning: They will by no means offer me victims as in the old Law, but there will be the spiritual religion of the New Testament. But according to a higher understanding, this must be said: That the Lord will abhor the man of bloods and the deceitful one; and the blood of the wicked is required from the hand of the watchman who has refused to preach the coming wrath of God; and whoever shall scandalize the least, he will slay him; and those whose hands are full of blood—it is certain that they cannot be gathered into the synagogues of the Lord, who must first be purged by the spirit of burning. As for "the synagogues of the Lord," let us understand either the churches in the present, or, as I think better, the various dwellings with the Father in the heavens, which he will not be able to enter who has been sprinkled with the gore of sins. Nor will I be mindful of their names through my lips. The saints, whose infirmities have been multiplied, and whose assemblies I will not gather out of bloods, because they hastened to me—I will by no means call them by their former names, but by new ones: that is, after I have washed them in my fountain, I will not call them, as before, sons of men, but sons of God. Or otherwise: I will change, he says, their names, and out of Simon I will make Peter, because upon his rock my Church is founded; out of the sons of Zebedee, sons of thunder, for I am about to entrust to them the sublime mysteries of my Gospel. And not only to these, but to Abraham too of old and to Sarah were their names changed; nor is it fitting that those whose life is different from their former manner of living should keep the same names. But another will interpret this—"Nor will I be mindful of their names through my lips"—thus: I will not name them lightly and as it were in passing, but I will hold them in the depth of my heart, I will keep them in my soul. So that, just as it is said to the unbelieving people, "This people honors me with its lips, but its heart is far from me," so, on the contrary, the Lord names his saints not with the lips only, but holds them with the inmost affection of his mind. The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup: it is you who will restore my inheritance to me. Our Savior in the Scriptures is called both high priest and king. High priest, in this: "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." King, as in that place: "But I have been established as king by him over Zion, his holy mountain." According, then, to the fact that he is a priest, the Lord is his portion. For it is written in the Law: "To the sons of Levi you shall not give an inheritance in the midst of the children of Israel, for I am their portion, says the Lord." Hence from Jesus they received no portion in the land of Judah, but were dispersed throughout the tribes, that prophecy being fulfilled: "I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel." But if the Levites had no portion except the Lord, how much more does this one who is high priest, and who dares to say "The Father abiding in me does his works," have the Father as his special and proper portion. But according to the fact that he is king, it is said to him: "Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession." And note how elegantly the wording is measured in both cases. Of the Father it is said, "You are the portion of my inheritance." "You are," he says, not "you were": for the Son always remained in the Father, and the Father in the Son. But of the nations, "You," he says, "will restore to me my inheritance": for they ceased to be the Lord's inheritance when their infirmities were multiplied, and their assemblies were being gathered out of bloods. Although some think that the lower verse too should be referred to God the Father, so that the meaning is: Because I emptied myself, taking the form of a servant, and came down from my majesty to the earth, restore to me my inheritance; that is, yourself, in whom I always was, and glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world was made. For you will not give me any new possession, but you will restore my inheritance, namely the divinity and nature of God, which I seemed not to have for the reason that I had taken the form of a man. Further, in that he says "and of my cup," it is doubtful to no one that in the Scriptures the cup is sometimes taken for a longed-for drink and joy, as in that place, "How excellent is your inebriating cup," and elsewhere, "I will take the cup of salvation, and I will call upon the name of the Lord." So that, just as our Savior is our food and drink (for indeed we feed on his flesh and drink of his blood), so of that man who was assumed by the Savior the food and cup is the Father, that is, the one common divinity with God the Father. The cords have fallen to me in excellent places: for indeed my inheritance is excellent to me. In place of that one people, I have possessed the whole world as my inheritance; and from the world, not just anyone, but the strong. For this is what "in excellent places" means, which in Greek is said "among the strong": according to that, "The Lord is my strength and my refuge and my deliverer," and in another place, "The Lord is my strength and my praise." If, then, anyone is excellent and strong, he is of the Lord's inheritance. Hence that Theophilus, "friend" or "lover of God," because he was such as to request that a Gospel be written to him, is called "kratistos," that is, excellent, strong: which was more simply translated by the Latins as "most excellent Theophilus." Further, the measuring-cord is used in the division of fields, and wherever possessions are distributed, or a census of earthly revenues is conducted, land is divided, as also in Joshua the son of Nun. An angel holding a measuring-cord is shown to the prophet who is about to build Jerusalem, so that first of all he may measure the extent of the city by reason and order, and thereafter build up what has been measured. And in the canticle of Deuteronomy we read: "The Lord's portion became his people Jacob, the cord of his inheritance Israel." In the second book of Kingdoms too, when David overcame the Moabites, the Scripture records two cords set apart for putting to death, and two for keeping alive. But what it means that of the Moabites some are set apart for death, others for life, Orpah shows, and Ruth: of whom the one, turned back to the idols and to her ancient homeland, is destined for death; the other, following her mother-in-law—whose name means "sweet"—says, "Your people is my people, and your God is my God." And so we too, if we wish to be of the Lord's inheritance and of his cord, let us be strong and robust, and let us say: "I can do all things in Christ who has strengthened me." Let there be nothing weak in us, nothing feeble, nothing that the heir would not deign to receive. Since indeed Christ glories in his saints, and says: For indeed my inheritance is excellent to me. Do you wish to know that the Savior's inheritance was excellent? Consider Peter, look at Paul, all the apostles and saints, since indeed they believed throughout the whole world, and you will see the inheritance of Christ, and an excellent one. In place of which Aquila translated: "For indeed my inheritance is most beautiful to me." So that it may be that which is said in the Song of Songs: "You are wholly beautiful, my love, and there is no spot in you." And again: "Behold, you are fair, my near one, behold, you are fair, your eyes are doves." You who are fair and strong, when you have become like him of whom it is sung, "In your beauty and your comeliness," you will hear from the Bridegroom: "Forget your people and your father's house, and the King will desire your beauty." I will bless the Lord who has given me understanding: moreover even until night my reins have rebuked me. He who speaks below, "My flesh shall rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in hell, nor will you give your holy one to see corruption," consistently now too says: I will bless the Lord who has given me understanding, moreover even until night my reins have rebuked me. For he who is Wisdom, how does he receive understanding? But because "Jesus advanced in age and wisdom and grace before God and men," the Son was instructed not so much by the Father as the man was instructed by his own divinity. Hence too, concerning him who flowered from the root of Jesse, there is the prophet's oracle: "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding." Which indeed, for beating back the madness of the Arian heresy, Aquila and Theodotion translated better, saying: "I will bless the Lord my counselor"; so that the Father did not so much give the Son wisdom and understanding which he did not have before, as join his own counsel to the Son's judgment. So that, just as in Proverbs Wisdom says that she was a counselor to God when he rejoiced in the completed world, and she rejoiced in herself daily; so also that same Wisdom, in the fact that he assumed a human body, that he died and rose again, shows that he was not without the Father's counsel, but according to that saying, "That I might do your will, my God, I willed it." But this too which follows, "Moreover even until night my reins have instructed me," must be taken thus, that we understand "reins" for hidden thoughts and deep affection, which is properly an idiom (idiōma) of the Scriptures. For as far as is in my memory, neither in any of the philosophers nor among the rhetoricians, nor among the poets, nor even among the physicians themselves, who promise a knowledge of the nature of bodies, do I recall ever having read that "reins" are put for the understanding and for deep thought. But Scripture uses this custom, so that when it wishes to indicate something secret and hidden or mystical, it says, "God who searches hearts and reins"; so that, since the heart is secret, the reins are the more secret parts of the heart. In Wisdom too, which is inscribed with the title of Solomon, I have found written: "God is the witness of his reins, and the true beholder of his heart, and the hearer of his tongue." In the book of the Patriarchs too, although it is counted among the apocrypha, I found it thus, that as the gall was created for anger, so the reins for cleverness and for shrewdness. But "panourgia," that is, cleverness, may be taken either in a good or in a bad sense: in a good sense, according to Proverbs, "That he may give," it says, "shrewdness to the innocent, and to the younger boy sense and understanding"; in a bad sense, as in the apostle, "But I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his shrewdness, your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." What he says, then, is this: my instruction and deep thought and the inner affection of the heart was not only with me in the heavenly places, but even while I dwelt in the night of this world and in darkness, it was engaged with me in the man, and instructed me, and was never absent from me, so that whatever the weakness of the flesh could not do, divine thought and power might accomplish. Or at least thus: my reins instructed me, who possess the inner wisdom of divinity, by which I was taught, when the passion was imminent, not to yield to human frailty through the terror of the cross. Moreover, what else does this declare (since the Savior's life is our example) but that he, not only waking but even sleeping, was free from every sin, and remained pure from every phantasm of the flesh: so that the saints too, who desire to be like their Lord and Master, may guard their heart with all watchfulness, and be overcome not only when waking, but not even in sleep—that is, not only by day, but not even by night. This too must be noted, that he said, "Moreover even until night my reins have rebuked me": to show that before night came, or before the Savior himself began to be in the night, he was always instructed by his own wisdom. There is another interpretation: because divine Scripture always speaks of God's powers after the likeness of human limbs—for example, when it says he has feet, eyes, ears, hands, and other things of this kind—that here "reins" should be taken for the places of the seed; so that, just as the beginning of men and the element of human flesh is founded in the seed, so our judgments too, and the beginnings of our thoughts, have their reins: so that, before we handle anything either in deed or in word, silent thought may hold this in its own movement and consider it within itself. So that the meaning is: our Lord and Savior could not sin—not only in deed and word, but not even in thought or in the beginnings of thoughts, which they call "propatheiai" (pre-passions)—he whom the Word of God was daily instructing. Not that God is one and the man another; but so that one and the same Son of Man and Son of God may now, as man, pray, now, as Lord, hear. I foresaw the Lord in my sight always: for he is at my right hand, that I may not be moved. In place of what we read in Latin, "I foresaw," and what in Greek is written "proōrōmēn," it stands better in the Hebrew SEBETHI, which we may render "I set before myself." So that it means: I set the Lord before me always at my right hand, and I could be overthrown by no fraud of my enemies. And at the same time consider that it is in our power to set the Lord before our eyes. He who is just and is like the Savior places God at his right hand, and says, "Because he is at my right hand, that I may not be moved." But he places him at the right hand for this reason, that he has before his eyes the one whom he follows as he goes before. But he who is a sinner casts the word of the Lord behind his back, and the Lord becomes for him at the left hand. And when the devil has looked at him on the left of the sinner, he at once moves to the sinner's right, so as to possess the place of God: and that is fulfilled which is written of Judas: "Let the devil stand at his right hand." Why this is put not as in narration but as in prayer belongs to another place to discuss. For the Lord Savior, then, or through the Lord for his saints, God always stands at the right hand. But the just man has no left hand, and wherever he turns, "the angel of the Lord encamps round about those who fear him, and will deliver them." Do you wish to know that the just man has no left hand? When Moses, in the type of the cross, lifted both his hands to heaven, it is not written, "Aaron was at his right and Hur at his left," but that on this side stood Aaron and on that side Hur. In the book of Judges too, that leader Ehud, whose mystery is manifold and great, who had a sword upon his thigh, and had cut off desires, and had also run through with his blade his very fat and gross adversary, is for that reason written "amphoterodexios," that is, having both hands as a right hand, whom in Latin we may call "ambidextrous." Someone may object: If the just man has no left hand, how is Wisdom written to have both a right hand and a left? A diligent reader will very easily judge how great is the difference between the right hand of Wisdom and the left, when he has noticed what things are said to be in her right and what in her left. For it is said: "Length of eternity and years of life are in her right hand, but in her left hand riches and glory." You see eternal time and perpetual life placed in Wisdom's right hand; but the carnal things which pass away, which flee off while they are thought to be held—that is, riches and glory—placed in her left hand, according to that, that on the day of judgment some will stand at the right, and others at the left: the lambs, that is, and the saints at his right, but the goats and the sinners at his left. But perhaps an inquisitive reader will object this too: how we can assert that God stands at the right of the just man, and the devil at the left of the sinner, when concerning our Lord it is read in Zechariah, "And the devil was standing at his right hand to oppose him." Let him, then, who objects this read also what follows: that when the devil was standing at his right hand, Jesus had filthy garments. Rightly did he who had taken up our sins and was bearing our offenses have the devil at his right hand, not so much for himself as for the filthy garments. And at the same time let him consider that it is not said, "The devil was standing as victor and triumphing," but as still set in the contest and in the battle-line and in doubt—indeed, when he had not yet begun to fight. For it follows, "That he might oppose him." But the devil was opposing him, as we said, because he had filthy garments from our sins. But after he heard, "May the Lord who chose Jerusalem rebuke you," he did not stand at the right, but went behind his back and under his feet, and at once Jesus the great priest receives the ankle-length robe (poderis), and is clothed in white vesture, and, royal dignity being joined to him—that is, Zerubbabel being coupled with him—builds the Church, and constructs the spiritual Jerusalem.
Because of this my heart has been glad and my tongue has rejoiced. This that he says, "Because of this," must be joined to what precedes, so that he says the cause of his gladness, or exultation, was this, that he always had God before his eyes, and, with him standing at his right hand, was never moved; and so let the order be: My heart has been glad and my tongue has rejoiced, rendering a hymn to the Father for the salvation of men, because, while I stood and endured the death of the cross, the Lord was set at my right hand. This passage also tells against those who reckon that the members which are set forth in the Scriptures must always be understood bodily. For let them answer how a tongue by itself can rejoice, or how a tongue, as if perceiving and understanding, can have its own gladness. Since indeed he does not say, "the tongue rejoiced," but "my tongue rejoiced." Understand, then, of the tongue as of the other members too, namely that it has all its effects, according to that saying of Solomon: "In the hand of the tongue are death and life." But in place of what is read in the Acts of the Apostles and in the common edition, "My tongue rejoiced," it must be known that in the other editions, and among the Seventy themselves too, it is not "tongue" that is put, but "glory," which in Hebrew is called CHABOD. For "tongue" is called LASON. And I think that, because the glory of the orator is in the praise of his speech, just as the glory of the physician is in the industry of the medical art, and the athlete's glory is his strength, and the glory of the other arts is to fulfill what they know: therefore the tongue, through which what is felt is uttered, has been put for "glory." Or at least the glory of that man who was assumed by Christ must be understood, the one concerning whom it is said elsewhere, "My glory, and the lifter-up of my head." Or his glory must be understood as the apostles, because they glorified him in the whole world: just as we call an ample flock the glory of the shepherd, and learned disciples the glory of the master, and strong armies the glory of the general. Further, as to what John says, "We saw his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth," and what is written in another place, "Arise, my glory, arise": let us understand that to be the Savior's glory which the apostles saw in the humility of his flesh, so that they gazed with keener eyes not on what appeared, but on what lay hidden in the body.
Moreover my flesh too shall rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in hell, nor will you give your holy one to see corruption. It is superfluous to wish to treat of those things which have been explained by the apostles. We therefore say these things, which were passed over by them as being, as it were, of lesser importance: that he said, "My flesh shall dwell in hope," for this reason, that the Savior descended to the dead with the hope of rising again at once. And he did not say "shall dwell," or "shall rest," as is read in the Latin manuscripts, but "kataskēnōsei," that is, "shall sojourn," so that the meaning is: It will tarry there a little while, and will see the underworld in passing, and his soul too will not be left in hell. "For I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again." Nor will it be granted by the Father to see corruption. But he said "to see" for "to suffer," according to that idiom (idiōma) of the Scriptures: "Who is the man that lives, and shall not see death?" And elsewhere: "He who, though he had not known sin, was made sin for us." And at the same time note that the Lord had both flesh and soul: the flesh which was laid in the tomb, and the soul which descended to the underworld. And as the flesh without the soul was perfect flesh, so also the soul without the flesh was a perfect soul, and lacked no function of its own nature which the human soul is wont to have apart from sin. This is against the new heresy. And at the same time, because some argue variously, from the fact that the Lord entered with the doors shut, that the same flesh did not rise which had died, let them hear what the Lord himself here recalls. Moreover my flesh too shall rest in hope. Surely, when the Savior had died and suffered, that flesh was laid in the tomb which had also been alive; that flesh, then, also rose again, which had lain lifeless and dead in the tomb. But if the same flesh rose, how do some argue that a certain spiritual and great flesh, and not our own, rose in the Lord? Nor do we say this in such a way as to deny that the body of Christ took on that glory which we believe that we saints too shall receive. For then this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. But as, before he suffered, when transformed and glorified on the mountain he had assuredly the same flesh which he had also had down below, though of another glory; so also after the resurrection there was in him flesh of the same nature which had been before the passion, but of a more glorified and more august appearance, that being fulfilled which Paul says: "And so from now on we know no one according to the flesh; and even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know him so." I am compelled in this place to say that word of the apostle: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God: how unsearchable are his judgments and untraceable his ways!" God the Son, God the Word, so long as he was in the heavens, and men had not so sinned that he himself should descend to them, dwelt simple and uncompounded with the angels, thrones, dominions, and the other powers. But when he descended to men, namely those who were framed of soul and body, he too came compounded, lest the compounded ones should be unable to bear the simple. Again, because souls without bodies were being held in the underworld, souls which in their nature are simple, so, the flesh itself being left behind, it was not God the Word, not the compounded man, but the soul that descended to the underworld: so that, just as each place had need of him, he might so be perceived by the inhabitants of that region. I know that many, since the body of Christ is the Church, and we are its members, according to anagogy (anagōgēn) understand as the flesh of Christ those who are lower, and as the soul those who are more perfect; or at least as the flesh those who follow the literal history, as the soul those who ascend to spiritual understanding.
You have made known to me the ways of life; you will fill me with gladness with your countenance: delights are at your right hand unto the end. Because his flesh did not see corruption, and his soul was not left in hell, now after the resurrection, ascending to the heavens as victor, in the person of that man who had risen, he says, "You have made known to me the ways of life": that is, I have learned how men are freed from the underworld, by what means they may attain eternal life. And at the same time consider that he who is the Way and the Life said that he had learned the ways of life, that is, how men may attain to him who said that he is the Way and the Life. And I think that, just as he himself is the Truth, and, speaking to the Jews, "If you abide in my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free," he speaks as it were of another truth; so, since he himself is the Life, he speaks as it were of another life, and since he himself is the Way, he says that other ways were shown to him—or, as it is read in the Hebrew, "the way": namely, that the flesh which he had taken, and in his flesh the whole race of men, might rejoice that those things which belonged to the divinity of the Son were made known to it. For which reason he says that he rejoices, and has exultation with the Father (for this is what "with your countenance" means, according to that, "You will make him glad with joy with your countenance"), and full and perfect gladness and ineffable delight, when he shall sit at the Father's right hand, and shall have fulfilled, "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." The Son sits at the Father's right hand in the majesty of one reigning; and because he had seen his first martyr Stephen battling against the Jews, he rose from his throne and stood at the Father's right hand, as if he too were fighting for the martyr. This is the delight, this the pleasure at the end of the dispensation, or of the victory: for in place of "end" Aquila and Theodotion and all the editions, except Symmachus and the Seventy, translated "victory"; because he suffered, and rose again, and as victor pierced through to the heavens, for this reason: that he might set man at the right hand of the Lord. It must also be noted that in this place where we read, "You will fill me with gladness," Theodotion said "Seven gladnesses," and "With your countenance is delight at your right hand. To the victor"; and Aquila and Symmachus translated "A fullness of gladnesses with your face," or "in your presence," and the rest. It is asked, then, why Theodotion said "seven" for "fullness." This indeed he will easily know who has at least a small acquaintance with the Hebrew tongue. For the word SABA, as we have also said in the book of Hebrew Questions, signifies four things: fullness and satiety, an oath, and seven. Since, therefore, it is ambiguous, Theodotion, knowing that there are diverse graces of the Spirit with God, thought that, for the fitness of the passage, "seven" ought rather to be translated than "fullness," "satiety," and "oath"; so as to show that with God there are the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the Spirit of knowledge and of piety, the Spirit of the fear of the Lord: which are truly the seven full gladnesses—not for others, but for him who has deserved to be delighted forever at the right hand of the Lord. For this reason some suppose that seven heavens were named by the philosophers, and seven wandering stars called. Further, Symmachus, where we read, "Delight is at your right hand unto the end," says, "Strength is at your right hand forever": showing that he who is full of virtues will remain continually with God.