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Ezekiel 18:4King James VersionBehold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.Ezekiel 18:4American Standard VersionBehold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.Ezekiel 18:4Webster BibleBehold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.Ezekiel 18:4Bible in Basic EnglishSee, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so the soul of the son is mine: death will be the fate of the sinner's soul.Ezekiel 18:4New Heart English BibleBehold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins, he shall die.Ezekiel 18:4Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner)Behold all souls are mine: as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, the same shall die.Ezekiel 18:4Catholic Public Domain VersionBehold, all souls are mine. Just as the soul of the father is mine, so also is the soul of the son. The soul that sins, the same shall die.Ezekiel 18:4JPS TanakhBehold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine; the soul that sinneth, it shall die.Orthodoxy 8:21OrthodoxyAgain, the same is true of that difficult matter of the danger of the soul, which has unsettled so many just minds. To hope for all souls is imperative; and it is quite tenable that their salvation is inevitable. It is tenable, but it is not specially favourable to activity or progress. Our fighting and creative society ought rather to insist on the danger of everybody, on the fact that every man is hanging by a thread or clinging to a precipice. To say that all will be well anyhow is a comprehensible remark: but it cannot be called the blast of a trumpet. Europe ought rather to emphasize possible perdition; and Europe always has emphasized it. Here its highest religion is at one with all its cheapest romances. To the Buddhist or the eastern fatalist existence is a science or a plan, which must end up in a certain way. But to a Christian existence is a STORY, which may end up in any way. In a thrilling novel (that purely Christian product) the hero is not eaten by cannibals; but it is essential to the existence of the thrill that he MIGHT be eaten by cannibals. The hero must (so to speak) be an eatable hero. So Christian morals have always said to the man, not that he would lose his soul, but that he must take care that he didn't. In Christian morals, in short, it is wicked to call a man "damned": but it is strictly religious and philosophic to call him damnable.Orthodoxy 8:26OrthodoxyThese can be called the essentials of the old orthodoxy, of which the chief merit is that it is the natural fountain of revolution and reform; and of which the chief defect is that it is obviously only an abstract assertion. Its main advantage is that it is the most adventurous and manly of all theologies. Its chief disadvantage is simply that it is a theology. It can always be urged against it that it is in its nature arbitrary and in the air. But it is not so high in the air but that great archers spend their whole lives in shooting arrows at it--yes, and their last arrows; there are men who will ruin themselves and ruin their civilization if they may ruin also this old fantastic tale. This is the last and most astounding fact about this faith; that its enemies will use any weapon against it, the swords that cut their own fingers, and the firebrands that burn their own homes. Men who begin to fight the Church for the sake of freedom and humanity end by flinging away freedom and humanity if only they may fight the Church. This is no exaggeration; I could fill a book with the instances of it. Mr. Blatchford set out, as an ordinary Bible-smasher, to prove that Adam was guiltless of sin against God; in manoeuvring so as to maintain this he admitted, as a mere side issue, that all the tyrants, from Nero to King Leopold, were guiltless of any sin against humanity. I know a man who has such a passion for proving that he will have no personal existence after death that he falls back on the position that he has no personal existence now. He invokes Buddhism and says that all souls fade into each other; in order to prove that he cannot go to heaven he proves that he cannot go to Hartlepool. I have known people who protested against religious education with arguments against any education, saying that the child's mind must grow freely or that the old must not teach the young. I have known people who showed that there could be no divine judgment by showing that there can be no human judgment, even for practical purposes. They burned their own corn to set fire to the church; they smashed their own tools to smash it; any stick was good enough to beat it with, though it were the last stick of their own dismembered furniture. We do not admire, we hardly excuse, the fanatic who wrecks this world for love of the other. But what are we to say of the fanatic who wrecks this world out of hatred of the other? He sacrifices the very existence of humanity to the non-existence of God. He offers his victims not to the altar, but merely to assert the idleness of the altar and the emptiness of the throne. He is ready to ruin even that primary ethic by which all things live, for his strange and eternal vengeance upon some one who never lived at all.Book II 8:14The Wars of the JewsBut then as to the two other orders at first mentioned, the Pharisees are those who are esteemed most skillful in the exact explication of their laws, and introduce the first sect. These ascribe all to fate [or providence], and to God, and yet allow, that to act what is right, or the contrary, is principally in the power of men, although fate does co-operate in every action. They say that all souls are incorruptible, but that the souls of good men only are removed into other bodies,--but that the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment. But the Sadducees are those that compose the second order, and take away fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned in our doing or not doing what is evil; and they say, that to act what is good, or what is evil, is at men's own choice, and that the one or the other belongs so to every one, that they may act as they please. They also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, and the punishments and rewards in Hades. Moreover, the Pharisees are friendly to one another, and are for the exercise of concord, and regard for the public; but the behavior of the Sadducees one towards another is in some degree wild, and their conversation with those that are of their own party is as barbarous as if they were strangers to them. And this is what I had to say concerning the philosophic sects among the Jews.II Enoch 23:2II EnochAnd Pravuil told me: All the things that I have told you, we have written. Sit and write all the souls of mankind, however many of them are born, and the places prepared for them to eternity; for all souls are prepared to eternity, before the formation of the world.II Enoch 58:7II EnochAnd as every soul of man is according to number, similarly beasts will not perish, nor all souls of beasts which the Lord created, till the great judgment, and they will accuse man, if he feed them ill.Clementine Recognitions · Book 2 58:2Clement of RomeThen Simon: "Do you so far err, Peter, as not to know that our souls were made by that good God, the most excellent of all, but they have been brought down as captives into this world? "To this Peter answered: "Then he is not unknown by all, as you said a little while ago; and yet how did the good God permit his souls to be taken captive, if he be a power over all? "Then Simon said: "He sent God the creator to make the world; and he, when he had made it, gave out that himself was God." Then Peter said: "Then he is not, as you said, unknown to Him who made the world; nor are souls ignorant of him, if indeed they were stolen away from him. To whom, then, can he be unknown, if both the Creator of the world know him, as having been sent by him; and all souls I know him, as baring been violently withdrawn from him? Then, further, I wish you would tell us whether he who sent the creator of the world did not know that he would not keep faith? For if he did not know it, then he was not prescient; while if he foreknew it, and suffered it, he is himself guilty of this deed, since he did not prevent it; but if he could not, then he is not omnipotent. But if, knowing it as good, he did not prohibit it, he is found to be better, who presumed to do that which he who sent him did not know to be good."Dialogue with Trypho 5:12Justin Martyr"`But I do not say, indeed, that all souls die; for that were truly a piece of good fortune to the evil. What then? The souls of the pious remain in a better place, while those of the unjust and wicked are in a worse, waiting for the time of judgment. Thus some which have appeared worthy of God never die; but others are punished so long as God wills them to exist and to be punished.'Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 1 23:5Irenaeus4. So unbridled is their madness, that they declare they have in their power all things which are irreligious and impious, and are at liberty to practise them; for they maintain that things are evil or good, simply in virtue of human opinion. They deem it necessary, therefore, that by means of transmigration from body to body, souls should have experience of every kind of life as well as every kind of action (unless, indeed, by a single incarnation, one may be able to prevent any need for others, by once for all, and with equal completeness, doing all those things which we dare not either speak or hear of, nay, which we must not even conceive in our thoughts, nor think credible, if any such thing is mooted among those persons who are our fellow-citizens), in order that, as their writings express it, their souls, having made trial of every kind of life, may, at their departure, not be wanting in any particular. It is necessary to insist upon this, lest, on account of some one thing being still wanting to their deliverance, they should be compelled once more to become incarnate. They affirm that for this reason Jesus spoke the following parable:-"Whilst thou art with thine adversary in the way, give all diligence, that thou mayest be delivered from him, lest he give thee up to the judge, and the judge surrender thee to the officer, and he cast thee into prison. Verily, I say unto thee, thou shalt not go out thence until thou pay the very last farthing." They also declare the "adversary" is one of those angels who are in the world, whom they call the Devil, maintaining that he was formed for this purpose, that he might lead those souls which have perished from the world to the Supreme Ruler. They describe him also as being chief among the makers of the world, and maintain that he delivers such souls [as have been mentioned] to another angel, who ministers to him, that he may shut them up in other bodies; for they declare that the body is "the prison." Again, they interpret these expressions, "Thou shalt not go out thence until thou pay the very last farthing," as meaning that no one can escape from the power of those angels who made the world, but that he must pass from body to body, until he has experience of every kind of action which can be practised in this world, and when nothing is longer wanting to him, then his liberated soul should soar upwards to that God who is above the angels, the makers of the world. In this way also all souls are saved, whether their own which, guarding against all delay, participate in all sorts of actions during one incarnation, or those, again, who, by passing from body to body, are set free, on fulfilling and accomplishing what is requisite in every form of life into which they are sent, so that at length they shall no longer be [shut in the body.Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 2 27:2Irenaeus1. Let us return, however, to the remaining points of their system. For when they declare that, at the consummation of all things, their mother shall re-enter the Pleroma, and receive the Saviour as her consort; that they themselves, as being spiritual, when they have got rid of their animal souls, and become intellectual spirits, will be the consorts of the spiritual angels; but that the Demiurge, since they call him animal, will pass into the place of the Mother; that the souls of the righteous shall psychically repose in the intermediate place;-when they declare that like will be gathered to like, spiritual things to spiritual, while material things continue among those that are material, they do in fact contradict themselves, inasmuch as they no longer maintain that souls pass, on account of their nature, into the intermediate place to those substances which are similar to themselves, but [that they do so] on account of the deeds done [in the body], since they affirm that those of the righteous do pass [into that abode], but those of the impious continue in the fire. For if it is on account of their nature that all souls attain to the place of enjoyment, and all belong to the intermediate place simply because they are souls, as being thus of the same nature with it, then it follows that faith is altogether superfluous, as was also the descent of the Saviour [to this world]. If, on the other hand, it is on account of their righteousness [that they attain to such a place of rest], then it is no longer because they are souls but because they are righteous . But if souls would have perished unless they had been righteous, then righteousness must have power to save the bodies also [which these souls inhabited]; for why should it not save them, since they, too, participated in righteousness? For if nature and substance are the means of salvation, then all souls shall be saved; but if righteousness and faith, why should these not save those bodies which, equally with the souls, will enter into immortality? For righteousness will appear, in matters of this kind, either impotent or unjust, if indeed it saves some substances through participating in it, but not others.Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 2 27:3Irenaeus2. For it is manifest that those acts which are deemed righteous are performed in bodies. Either, therefore, all souls will of necessity pass into the intermediate place, and there will never be a judgment; or bodies, too, which have participated in righteousness, will attain to the place of enjoyment, along with the souls which have in like manner participated, if indeed righteousness is powerful enough to bring thither those substances which have participated in it. And then the doctrine concerning the resurrection of bodies which we believe, will emerge true and certain [from their system]; since, [as we hold, ] God, when He resuscitates our mortal bodies which preserved righteousness, will render them incorruptible and immortal. For God is superior to nature, and has in Himself the disposition [to show kindness], because He is good; and the ability to do so, because He is mighty; and the faculty of fully carrying out His purpose, because He is rich and perfect.Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 2 27:4Irenaeus3. But these men are in all points inconsistent with themselves, when they decide that all souls do not enter into the intermediate place, but those of the righteous only. For they maintain that, according to nature and substance, three sorts [of being] were produced by the Mother: the first, which proceeded from perplexity, and weariness, and fear-that is material substance; the second from impetuosity -that is animal substance; but that which she brought forth after the vision of those angels who wait upon Christ, is spiritual substance. If, then, that substance which she brought forth will by all means enter into the Pleroma because it is spiritual, while that which is material will remain below because it is material, and shall be totally consumed by the fire which bums within it, why should not the whole animal substance go into the intermediate place, into which also they send the Demiurge? But what is it which shall enter within their Pleroma? For they maintain that souls shall continue in the intermediate place, while bodies, because they possess material substance, when they have been resolved into matter, shall be consumed by that fire which exists in it; but their body being thus destroyed, and their soul remaining in the intermediate place, no part of man will any longer be left to enter in within the Pleroma. For the intellect of man-his mind, thought, mental intention, and such like-is nothing else than his soul; but the emotions and operations of the soul itself have no substance apart from the soul. What part of them, then, will still remain to enter into the Pleroma? For they themselves, in as far as they are souls, remain in the intermediate place; while, in as far as they are body, they will be consumed with the rest of matter.Fragments · 6.-From the Book on the Soul 1:5Clement of AlexandriaAll souls are immortal, even those of the wicked, for whom it were better that they were not deathless. For, punished with the endless vengeance of quenchless fire, and not dying, it is impossible for them to have a, period put to their misery.A Treatise on the Soul 25:2TertullianI shall now return to the cause of this digression, in order that I may explain how all souls are derived from one, when and where and in what manner they are produced. Now, touching this subject, it matters not whether the question be started by the philosopher, by the heretic, or by the crowd. Those who profess the truth care nothing about their opponents, especially such of them as begin by maintaining that the soul is not conceived in the womb, nor is formed and produced at the time that the flesh is moulded, but is impressed from without upon the infant before his complete vitality, but after the process of parturition. They say, moreover, that the human seed having been duly deposited ex concubiter in the womb, and having been by natural impulse quickened, it becomes condensed into the mere substance of the flesh, which is in due time born, warm from the furnace of the womb, and then released from its heat. (This flesh) resembles the case of hot iron, which is in that state plunged into cold water; for, being smitten by the cold air (into which it is born), it at once receives the power of animation, and utters vocal sound. This view is entertained by the Stoics, along with ¦nesidemus, and occasionally by Plato himself, when he tells us that the soul, being quite a separate formation, originating elsewhere and externally to the womb, is inhaled when the new-born infant first draws breath, and by and by exhaled with the man's latest breath. We shall see whether this view of his is merely fictitious. Even the medical profession has not lacked its Hicesius, to prove a traitor both to nature and his own calling. These gentlemen, I suppose, were too modest to come to terms with women on the mysteries of childbirth, so well known to the latter. But how much more is there for them to blush at, when in the end they have the women to refute them, instead of commending them. Now, in such a question as this, no one can be so useful a teacher, judge, or witness, as the sex itself which is so intimately concerned. Give us your testimony, then, ye mothers, whether yet pregnant, or after delivery (let barren women and men keep silence),-the truth of your own nature is in question, the reality of your own suffering is the point to be decided. (Tell us, then, ) whether you feel in the embryo within you any vital force other than your own, with which your bowels tremble, your sides shake, your entire womb throbs, and the burden which oppresses you constantly changes its position? Are these movements a joy to you, and a positive removal of anxiety, as making you confident that your infant both possesses vitality and enjoys it? Or, should his restlessness cease, your first fear would be for him; and he would be aware of it within you, since he is disturbed at the novel sound; and you would crave for injurious diet, or would even loathe your food-all on his account; and then you and he, (in the closeness of your sympathy, ) would share together your common ailments-so far that with your contusions and bruises would he actually become marked,-whilst within you, and even on the selfsame parts of the body, taking to himself thus peremptorily the injuries of his mother! Now, whenever a livid hue and redness are incidents of the blood, the blood will not be without the vital principle, or soul; or when disease attacks the soul or vitality, (it becomes a proof of its real existence, since) there is no disease where there is no soul or principle of life. Again, inasmuch as sustenance by food, and the want thereof, growth and decay, fear and motion, are conditions of the soul or life, he who experiences them must be alive. And, so, he at last ceases to live, who ceases to experience them. And thus by and by infants are still-born; but how so, unless they had life? For how could any die, who had not previously lived? But sometimes by a cruel necessity, whilst yet in the womb, an infant is put to death, when lying awry in the orifice of the womb he impedes parturition, and kills his mother, if he is not to die himself. Accordingly, among surgeons' tools there is a certain instrument, which is formed with a nicely-adjusted flexible frame for opening the uterus first of all, and keeping it open; it is further furnished with an annular blade, by means of which the limbs within the womb are dissected with anxious but unfaltering care; its last appendage being a blunted or covered hook, wherewith the entire f£tus is extracted by a violent delivery. There is also (another instrument in the shape of) a copper needle or spike, by which the actual death is managed in this furtive robbery of life: they give it, from its infanticide function, the name of e0mbruosfa/kthj , the slayer of the infant, which was of course alive. Such apparatus was possessed both by Hippocrates, and Asclepiades, and Erasistratus, and Herophilus, that dissector of even adults, and the milder Soranus himself, who all knew well enough that a living being had been conceived, and pitied this most luckless infant state, which had first to be put to death, to escape being tortured alive. Of the necessity of such harsh treatment I have no doubt even Hicesius was convinced, although he imported their soul into infants after birth from the stroke of the frigid air, because the very term for soul, forsooth, in Greek answered to such a refrigeration! Well, then, have the barbarian and Roman nations received souls by some other process, (I wonder; ) for they have called the soul by another name than yuxh/ ? How many nations are there who commence life under the broiling sun of the torrid zone, scorching their skin into its swarthy hue? Whence do they get their souls, with no frosty air to help them? I say not a word of those well-warmed bed-rooms, and all that apparatus of heat which ladies in childbirth so greatly need, when a breath of cold air might endanger their life. But in the very bath almost a babe will slip into life, and at once his cry is heard! if, however, a good frosty air is to the soul so indispensable a treasure, then beyond the German and the Scythian tribes, and the Alpine and the Argµan heights, nobody ought ever to be born! But the fact really is, that population is greater within the temperate regions of the East and the West, and men's minds are sharper; whilst there is not a Sarmatian whose wits are not dull and humdrum. The minds of men, too, would grow keener by reason of the cold, if their souls came into being amidst nipping frosts; for as the substance is, so must be its active power. Now, after these preliminary statements, we may also refer to the case of those who, having been cut out of their mother's womb, have breathed and retained life-your Bacchuses and Scipios. If, however, there be any one who, like Plato, supposes that two souls cannot, more than two bodies could, co-exist in the same individual, I, on the contrary, could show him not merely the co-existence of two souls in one person, as also of two bodies in the same womb, but likewise the combination of many other things in natural connection with the soul-for instance, of demoniacal possession; and that not of one only, as in the case of Socrates' own demon; but of seven spirits as in the case of the Magdalene; and of a legion in number, as in the Gadarene. Now one soul is naturally more susceptible of conjunction with another soul, by reason of the identity of their substance, than an evil spirit is, owing to their diverse natures. But when the same philosopher, in the sixth book of The Laws , warns us to beware lest a vitiation of seed should infuse a soil into both body and soul from an illicit or debased concubinage, I hardly know whether he is more inconsistent with himself in respect of one of his previous statements, or of that which he had just made. For he here shows us that the soul proceeds from human seed (and warns us to be on our guard about it), not, (as he had said before, ) from the first breath of the new-born child. Pray, whence comes it that from similarity of soul we resemble our parents in disposition, according to the testimony of Cleanthes, if we are not produced from this seed of the soul? Why, too, used the old astrologers to cast a man's nativity from his first conception, if his soul also draws not its origin from that moment? To this (nativity) likewise belongs the inbreathing of the soul, whatever that is.A Treatise on the Soul 56:2TertullianIt is either a very fine thing to be detained in these infernal regions with the Aori , or souls which were prematurely hurried away; or else a very bad thing indeed to be there associated with the Biaeothanati , who suffered violent deaths. I may be permitted to use the actual words and terms with which magic rings again, that inventor of all these odd opinions-with its Ostanes, and Typhon, and Dardanus, and Damigeron, and Nectabis, and Berenice. There is a well-known popular bit of writing, which undertakes to summon up from the abode of Hades the souls which have actually slept out their full age, and had passed away by an honourable death, and had even been buried with full rites and proper ceremony. What after this shall we say about magic? Say, to be sure, what almost everybody says of it-that it is an imposture. But it is not we Christians only whose notice this system of imposture does not escape. We, it is true, have discovered these spirits of evil, not, to be sure, by a complicity with them, but by a certain knowledge which is hostile to them; nor is it by any procedure which is attractive to them, but by a power which subjugates them that we handle (their wretched system)-that manifold pest of the mind of man, that artificer of all error, that destroyer of our salvation and our soul at one swoop. In this way, even by magic, which is indeed only a second idolatry, wherein they pretend that after death they become demons, just as they were supposed in the first and literal idolatry to become gods (and why not? since the gods are but dead things), the before-mentioned Aori Biaeothanati are actually invoked,-and not unfairly, if one grounds his faith on this principle, that it is clearly credible for those souls to be beyond all others addicted to violence and wrong, which with violence and wrong have been hurried away by a cruel and premature death and which would have a keen appetite for reprisals. Under cover, however, of these souls, demons operate, especially such as used to dwell in them when they were in life, and who had driven them, in fact, to the fate which had at last carried them off. For, as we have already suggested, there is hardly a human being who is unattended by a demon; and it is well known to many, that premature and violent deaths, which men ascribe to accidents, are in fact brought about by demons. This imposture of the evil spirit lying concealed in the persons of the dead, we are able, if I mistake not, to prove by actual facts, when in cases of exorcism (the evil spirit) affirms himself sometimes to be one of the relatives of the person possessed by him, sometimes a gladiator or a bestiarius , and sometimes even a god; always making it one of his chief cares to extinguish the very truth which we are proclaiming, that men may not readily believe that all souls remove to Hades, and that they may overthrow faith in the resurrection and the judgment. And yet for all that, the demon, after trying to circumvent the bystanders, is vanquished by the pressure of divine grace, and sorely against his will confesses all the truth. So also in that other kind of magic, which is supposed to bring up from Hades the souls now resting there, and to exhibit them to public view, there is no other expedient of imposture ever resorted to which operates more powerfully. Of course, why a phantom becomes visible, is because a body is also attached to it; and it is no difficult matter to delude the external vision of a man whose mental eye it is so easy to blind. The serpents which emerged from the magicians' rods, certainly appeared to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians as bodily substances. It is true that the verity of Moses swallowed up their lying deceit. Many attempts were also wrought against the apostles by the sorcerers Simon and Elymas, but the blindness which struck (them) was no enchanter's trick. What novelty is there in the effort of an unclean spirit to counterfeit the truth? At this very time, even, the heretical dupes of this same Simon (Magus) are so much elated by the extravagant pretensions of their art, that they undertake to bring up from Hades the souls of the prophets themselves. And I suppose that they can do so under cover of a lying wonder. For, indeed, it was no less than this that was anciently permitted to the Pythonic (or ventriloquistic) spirit -even to represent the soul of Samuel, when Saul consulted the dead, after (losing the living) God. God forbid, however, that we should suppose that the soul of any saint, much less of a prophet, can be dragged out of (its resting-place in Hades) by a demon. We know that "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light" -much more into a man of light-and that at last he will "show himself to be even God," and will exhibit "great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, he shall deceive the very elect." He hardly hesitated on the before-mentioned occasion to affirm himself to be a prophet of God, and especially to Saul, in whom he was then actually dwelling. You must not imagine that he who produced the phantom was one, and he who consulted it was another; but that it was one and the same spirit, both in the sorceress and in the apostate (king), which easily pretended an apparition of that which it had already prepared them to believe as real-(even the spirit) through whose evil influence Saul's heart was fixed where his treasure was, and where certainly God was not. Therefore it came about, that he saw him through whose aid he believed that he was going to see, because he believed him through whose help he saw. But we are met with the objection, that in visions of the night dead persons are not unfrequently seen, and that for a set purpose. For instance, the Nasamones consult private oracles by frequent and lengthened visits to the sepulchres of their relatives, as one may find in Heraclides, or Nymphodorus, or Herodotus; and the Celts, for the game purpose, stay away all night at the tombs of their brave chieftains, as Nicander affirms. Well, we admit apparitions of dead persons in dreams to be not more really true than those of living persons; but we apply the same estimate to all alike-to the dead and to the living, and indeed to all the phenomena which are seen. Now things are not true because they appear to be so, but because they are fully proved to be so. The truth of dreams is declared from the realization, not the aspect. Moreover, the fact that Hades is not in any case opened for (the escape of) any soul, has been firmly established by the Lord in the person of Abraham, in His representation of the poor man at rest and the rich man in torment. No one, (he said, ) could possibly be despatched from those abodes to report to us how matters went in the nether regions,-a purpose which, (if any could be, ) might have been allowable on such an occasion, to persuade a belief in Moses and the prophets. The power of God has, no doubt, sometimes recalled men's souls to their bodies, as a proof of His own transcendent rights; but there must never be, because of this fact, any agreement supposed to be possible between the divine faith and the arrogant pretensions of sorcerers, and the imposture of dreams, and the licence of poets. But yet in all cases of a true resurrection, when the power of God recalls souls to their bodies, either by the agency of prophets, or of Christ, or of apostles, a complete presumption is afforded us, by the solid, palpable, and ascertained reality (of the revived body), that its true form must be such as to compel one's belief of the fraudulence of every incorporeal apparition of dead persons.A Treatise on the Soul 57:1TertullianChapter LVIII.-Conclusion. Points Postponed. All Souls are Kept in Hades Until the Resurrection, Anticipating Their Ultimate Misery or Bliss.A Treatise on the Soul 57:2TertullianAll souls, therefore; are shut up within Hades: do you admit this? (It is true, whether) you say yes or no: moreover, there are already experienced there punishments and consolations; and there you have a poor man and a rich. And now, having postponed some stray questions for this part of my work, I will notice them in this suitable place, and then come to a close. Why, then, cannot you suppose that the soul undergoes punishment and consolation in Hades in the interval, while it awaits its alternative of judgment, in a certain anticipation either of gloom or of glory? You reply: Because in the judgment of God its matter ought to be sure and safe, nor should there be any inkling beforehand of the award of His sentence; and also because (the soul) ought to be covered first by its vestment of the restored flesh, which, as the partner of its actions, should be also a sharer in its recompense. What, then, is to take place in that interval? Shall we sleep? But souls do not sleep even when men are alive: it is indeed the business of bodies to sleep, to which also belongs death itself, no less than its mirror and counterfeit sleep. Or will you have it, that nothing is there done whither the whole human race is attracted, and whither all man's expectation is postponed for safe keeping? Do you think this state is a foretaste of judgment, or its actual commencement? a premature encroachment on it, or the first course in its full ministration? Now really, would it not be the highest possible injustice, even in Hades, if all were to be still well with the guilty even there, and not well with the righteous even yet? What, would you have hope be still more confused after death? would you have it mock us still more with uncertain expectation? or shall it now become a review of past life, and an arranging of judgment, with the inevitable feeling of a trembling fear? But, again, must the soul always tarry for the body, in order to experience sorrow or joy? Is it not sufficient, even of itself, to suffer both one and the other of these sensations? How often, without any pain to the body, is the soul alone tortured by ill-temper, and anger, and fatigue, and very often unconsciously, even to itself? How often, too, on the other hand, amidst bodily suffering, does the soul seek out for itself some furtive joy, and withdraw for the moment from the body's importunate society? I am mistaken if the soul is not in the habit, indeed, solitary and alone, of rejoicing and glorifying over the very tortures of the body. Look for instance, at the soul of Mutius Scµvola as he melts his right hand over the fire; look also at Zeno's, as the torments of Dionysius pass over it. The bites of wild beasts are a glory to young heroes, as on Cyrus were the scars of the bear. Full well, then, does the soul even in Hades know how to joy and to sorrow even without the body; since when in the flesh it feels pain when it likes, though the body is unhurt; and when it likes it feels joy though the body is in pain. Now if such sensations occur at its will during life, how much rather may they not happen after death by the judicial appointment of God! Moreover, the soul executes not all its operations with the ministration of the flesh; for the judgment of God pursues even simple cogitations and the merest volitions. "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." Therefore, even for this cause it is most fitting that the soul, without at all waiting for the flesh, should be punished for what it has done without the partnership of the flesh. So, on the same principle, in return for the pious and kindly thoughts in which it shared not the help of the flesh, shall it without the flesh receive its consolation. Nay more, even in matters done through the flesh the soul is the first to conceive them, the first to arrange them, the first to authorize them, the first to precipitate them into acts. And even if it is sometimes unwilling to act, it is still the first to treat the object which it means to effect by help of the body. In no case, indeed, can an accomplished fact be prior to the mental conception thereof. It is therefore quite in keeping with this order of things, that that part of our nature should be the first to have the recompense and reward to which they are due on account of its priority. In short, inasmuch as we understand "the prison" pointed out in the Gospel to be Hades, and as we also interpret "the uttermost farthing" to mean the very smallest offence which has to be recompensed there before the resurrection, no one will hesitate to believe that the soul undergoes in Hades some compensatory discipline, without prejudice to the full process of the resurrection, when the recompense will be administered through the flesh besides. This point the Paraclete has also pressed home on our attention in most frequent admonitions, whenever any of us has admitted the force of His words from a knowledge of His promised spiritual disclosures. And now at last having, as I believe, encountered every human opinion concerning the soul, and tried its character by the teaching of (our holy faith, ) we have satisfied the curiosity which is simply a reasonable and necessary one. As for that which is extravagant and idle, there will evermore be as great a defect in its information, as there has been exaggeration and self-will in its researches.The Refutation of All Heresies · Book 1 3:5Hippolytus of RomeThis (philosopher) maintained the transmutation of all souls into any description of animal. For Pythagoras, the instructor of these (sages), asserted that himself had been Euphorbus, who sewed in the expedition against Ilium, alleging that he recognised his shield.The foregoing are the tenets of Empedocles.The Refutation of All Heresies · Book 10 11:3Hippolytus of RomeFrom the conglomeration of all germs of the cosmical seed burnt forth and was begotten the Great Archon, the head of the world, an Aeon of inexpressible beauty and size. This (Archon) having raised Himself as far as the firmament, supposed that there was not another above Himself. And accordingly He became more brilliant and powerful than all the underlying Aeons , with the exception of the Sonship that had been left beneath, but which He was not aware was more wise than Himself. This one having His attention turned to the creation of the world, first begat a son unto Himself, superior to Himself; and this son He caused to sit on His own right hand, and this these Basilidians allege is the Ogdoad. The Great Archon Himself, then, produces the entire celestial creation. And other Archon ascended from (the conglomeration of) all the germs, who was greater than all the underlying Aeon , except the Sonship that had been left behind, yet far inferior to the former one. And they style this second Archon a Hebdomad. He is Maker, and Creator, and Controller of all things that are beneath Him, and this Archon produced for Himself a Son more prudent and wiser than Himself . Now they assert that all these things exist according to the predetermination of that non-existent God , and that there exist also worlds and intervals that are infinite. And the Basilidians affirm that upon Jesus, who was born of Mary, came the power of the Gospel, which descended and illuminated the Son both of the Ogdoad and of the Hebdomad. And this took place for the purpose of enlightening and distinguishing from the different orders of beings, and purifying the Sonship that had been left behind for conferring benefits on souls, and the receiving benefits in turn. And they say that themselves are sons, who are in the world for this cause, that by teaching they may purify souls, and along with the Sonship may ascend to the Father above, from whom proceeded the first Sonship. And they allege that the world endures until the period when all souls may have repaired thither along with the Sonship. These, however, are the opinions which Basilides, who detailed them as prodigies, is not ashamed to advance.The Refutation of All Heresies · Book 7 21:3Hippolytus of Rome(Now these heretics) have themselves been sent forth by Satan, for the purpose of slandering before the Gentiles the divine name of the Church. (And the devil's object is,) that men hearing, now after one fashion and now after another, the doctrines of those (heretics), and thinking that all of us are people of the same stamp, may turn away their ears from the preaching of the truth, or that they also, looking, (without abjuring,) upon all the tenets of those (heretics), may speak hurtfully of us. (The followers of Carpocrates) allege that the souls are transferred from body to body, so far as that they may fill up (the measure of) all their sins. When, however, not one (of these sins) is left, (the Carpocratians affirm that the soul) is then emancipated, and departs unto that God above of the world-making angels, and that in this way all souls will be saved. If, however, some (souls), during the presence of the soul in the body for one life, may by anticipation become involved in the full measure of transgressions, they, (according to these heretics,) no longer undergo metempsychosis. (Souls of this sort,) however, on paying off at once all trespasses, will, (the Carpocratians say,) be emancipated from dwelling any more in a body. Certain, likewise, of these (heretics) brand their own disciples in the back parts of the lobe of the right ear. And they make counterfeit images of Christ, alleging that these were in existence at the time (during which our Lord was on earth, and that they were fashioned) by Pilate.Against Celsus · Book 4 83:2Origen of AlexandriaAfter Celsus has finished speaking of the bees, in order to depreciate (as far as he can) the cities, and constitutions, and governments, and sovereignties not only of us Christians, but of all mankind, as well as the wars which men undertake on behalf of their native countries, he proceeds, by way of digression, to pass a eulogy upon the ants, in order that, while praising them, he may compare the measures which men take to secure their subsistence with those adopted by these insects, and so evince his contempt for the forethought which makes provision for winter, as being nothing higher than the irrational providence of the ants, as he regards it. it. Now might not some of the more simple-minded, and such as know not how to look into the nature of all things, be turned away (so far, at least, as Celsus could accomplish it) from helping those who are weighed down with the burdens (of life), and from sharing their toils, when he says of the ants, that "they help one another with their loads, when they see one of their number toiling under them? "For he who needs to be disciplined by the word, but who does not at all understand its voice, will say: "Since, then, there is no difference between us and the ants, even when we help those who are weary with bearing their heavy burdens, why should we continue to do so to no purpose? "And would not the ants, as being irrational creature, be greatly puffed up, and think highly of themselves, because their works were compared to those of men? while men, on the other hand, who by means of their reason are enabled to hear how their philanthropy towards others is contemned, would be injured, so far as could be effected by Celsus and his arguments: for he does not perceive that, while he wishes to turn away from Christianity those who read his treatise, he turns away also the sympathy of those who are not Christians from those who bear the heaviest burdens (of life). Whereas, had he been a philosopher, who was capable of perceiving the good which men may do each other, he ought, in addition to not removing along with Christianity the blessings which are found amongst men, to have lent his aid to co-operate (if he had it in his power) with those principles of excellence which are common to Christianity and the rest of mankind. Moreover, even if the ants set apart in a place by themselves those grains which sprout forth, that they may not swell into bud, but may continue throughout the year as their food, this is not to be deemed as evidence of the existence of reason among ants, but as the work of the universal mother, Nature, which adorned even irrational animals, so that even the most insignificant is not omitted, but bears traces of the reason implanted in it by nature. Unless, indeed, by these assertions Celsus means obscurely to intimate (for in many instances he would like to adopt Platonic ideas) that all souls are of the same species, and that there is no difference between that of a man and those of ants and bees, which is the act of one who would bring down the soul from the vault of heaven, and cause it to enter not only a human body, but that of an animal. Christians, however, will not yield their assent to such opinions: for they have been instructed before now that the human soul was created in the image of God; and they see that it is impossible for a nature fashioned in the divine image to have its (original) features altogether obliterated, and to assume others, formed after I know not what likeness of irrational animals.Commentary on John · Book 13 2:20Origen of AlexandriaThe needless does not require food, but that which requires food is not needless. And it is clear that the one who eats does not eat out of not needing food, but out of needing and wanting it. Bodies, being fluid by nature, are nourished by food that replenishes the places of what has flowed out. But those things better than the body are nourished by incorporeal thoughts and words and healthy actions, not dissolving into non-existence if they are not nourished; for even bodies do not dissolve into non-existence if they are not nourished. It loses its being in such a way when it is not nourished by things suited to its differing nature from bodies. Just as bodies that need food are not nourished by qualities, nor is the same quantity of food sufficient for all. Similarly, one must understand with matters better than bodies. For these too need more or less nourishment, not being equally receptive. Nor does the quality of nourishing words and thoughts, and fitting actions in contemplation, suit all souls the same. Furthermore, both vegetable and solid food do not nourish those needing improvement from these at the same time. For newborn infants, as Peter says, should long for pure spiritual milk. And if anyone is in the infant state like the Corinthians, to whom Paul says, "I fed you with milk, not solid food." And the weak, due to a lack of faith, should eat vegetables; and Paul too says this, teaching "The one who believes may eat all things, but the weak eats vegetables." And there is sometimes a "better dinner of vegetables with friendship and grace, as opposed to fatted calves with enmity." "Solid food is for the mature, who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil." Yet, there is also poisonous food, which we learn from the Fourth Book of Kings, where some said to Elisha, "Death in the pot, man of God." And there is also spiritual yet rudimentary food for the less rational souls, which another herb or grass or straw symbolizes, as indicated in "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters." And Isaiah also says, "The lion shall eat straw like the ox." But grass is also placed before the cattle in Rebecca's household for the child of Abram. If there is a more rational and therefore also intellectual person, he eats the intellectual bread, as it is written in the Psalms: "Bread strengthens the heart of man," and he rejoices in the intellectual wine, none other than a man: "For wine gladdens the heart of man." But the word must ascend from the irrational and men to the angels, who also are nourished; for they are not completely without need. "Man ate the bread of angels," and blessed Abraham was able to present to the three appearing to him unleavened cakes. But now it is necessary to proceed to the discourse concerning the eating of Christ, which the disciples did not then know; for Jesus speaks truly, saying: "I have food to eat that you do not know about." For what Jesus did, accomplishing the will of the one who sent him and completing his work, this the disciples did not know. To understand more clearly the saying, "I have food to eat that you do not know about," let Paul speak to those who need milk, and not solid food, to the Corinthians, who are fed with milk and not food, who are not yet able to partake of food: "I have food to eat that you do not know about." And always the one who excels and sees what the inferior cannot will say: "I have food to eat that you do not know about." It is not unreasonable to say that not only humans and angels are in need of intellectual nourishment, but also Christ of God; for even he, so to speak, is ever being sustained by the Father, the only one who is without need and self-sufficient. The general populace of the disciples receives food from the disciples of Jesus, being commanded to give to the crowds; the disciples of Jesus receive from Jesus himself, though sometimes also from holy angels; but the Son of God receives food from the Father alone, not through someone. It is not unreasonable to say that the Holy Spirit is also nourished; but we must seek a scriptural phrase that suggests this. The parables about the feasts should be gathered from the Gospels. The entire mystery of the calling and election is present in the foods of the great feast: "For a man," it says, "made a great feast, and at the hour of the feast sent to call the invited." Also, through Isaiah, the promises of eating and drinking are given: "Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty." Yet, in Genesis, God places man in the paradise of delight, giving laws about eating this and not eating that. And man would have remained immortal, had he eaten from every tree in the paradise, but not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. See also what is said in the twenty-first Psalm about those who worship because they have eaten: "All the fat ones of the earth have eaten and worshipped," for this reason: "The Lord will not let the soul of the righteous go hungry," but when we become unjust, He will send "a famine upon the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord." Therefore, as we progress, we shall eat greater and better food, until perhaps we reach the point of eating the same food as the Son of God, which the disciples at present do not know. Heracleon did not speak anything significant to this word.De Principiis · Book 1 8:2Origen of Alexandria1. The subjects considered in the previous chapter have been spoken of in general language, the nature of rational beings being discussed more by way of intelligent inference than strict dogmatic definition, with the exception of the place where we treated, to the best of our ability, of the persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We have now to ascertain what those matters are which it is proper to treat in the following pages according to our dogmatic belief, i.e., in agreement with the creed of the Church. All souls and all rational natures, whether holy or wicked, were formed or created, and all these, according to their proper nature, are incorporeal; but although incorporeal, they were nevertheless created, because all things were made by God through Christ, as John teaches in a general way in his Gospel, saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made." The Apostle Paul, moreover, describing created things by species and numbers and orders, speaks as follows, when showing that all things were made through Christ: "And in Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and in Him: and He is before all, and He is the head." He therefore manifestly declares that in Christ and through Christ were all things made and created, whether things visible, which are corporeal, or things invisible, which I regard as none other than incorporeal and spiritual powers. But of those things which he had termed generally corporeal or incorporeal, he seems to me, in the words that follow, to enumerate the various kinds, viz., thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, influences.De Principiis · Book 2 9:4Origen of Alexandria3. But perhaps this question is asked, If it be the understanding which prays and sings with the spirit, and if it be the same which receives both perfection and salvation, how is it that Peter says, "Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls? " If the soul neither prays nor sings with the spirit, how shall it hope for salvation? or when it attains to blessedness, shall it be no longer called a soul? Let us see if perhaps an answer may be given in this way, that as the Saviour came to save what was lost, that which formerly was said to be lost is not lost when it is saved; so also, perhaps, this which is saved is called a soul, and when it has been placed in a state of salvation will receive a name from the Word that denotes its more perfect condition. But it appears to some that this also may be added, that as the thing which was lost undoubtedly existed before it was lost, at which time it was something else than destroyed, so also will be the case when it is no longer in a ruined condition. In like manner also, the soul which is said to have perished will appear to have been something at one time, when as yet it had not perished, and on that account would be termed soul, and being again freed from destruction, it may become a second time what it was before it perished, and be called a soul. But from the very signification of the name soul which the Greek word conveys, it has appeared to a few curious inquirers that a meaning of no small importance may be suggested. For in sacred language God is called a fire, as when Scripture says," Our God is a consuming fire." Respecting the substance of the angels also it speaks as follows: "Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a burning fire; " and in another place, "The angel of the Lord appeared in a flame of fire in the bush." We have, moreover, received a commandment to be "fervent in spirit; " by which expression undoubtedly the Word of God is shown to be hot and fiery. The prophet Jeremiah also hears from Him, who gave him his answers, "Behold, I have given My words into thy mouth a fire." As God, then, is a fire, and the angels a flame of fire, and all the saints are fervent in spirit, so, on the contrary, those who have fallen away from the love of God are undoubtedly said to have cooled in their affection for Him, and to have become cold. For the Lord also says, that, "because iniquity has abounded, the love of many will grow cold." Nay, all things, whatever they are, which in holy Scripture are compared with the hostile power, the devil is said to be perpetually finding cold; and what is found to be colder than he? In the sea also the dragon is said to reign. For the prophet intimates that the serpent and dragon, which certainly is referred to one of the wicked spirits, is also in the sea. And elsewhere the prophet says, "I will draw out my holy sword upon the dragon the flying serpent, upon the dragon the crooked serpent, and will slay him." And again he says: "Even though they hide from my eyes, and descend into the depths of the sea, there will I command the serpent, and it shall bite them." In the book of Job also, he is said to be the king of all things in the waters. The prophet threatens that evils will be kindled by the north wind upon all who inhabit the earth. Now the north wind is described in holy Scripture as cold, according to the statement in the book of Wisdom, "That cold north wind; " which same thing also must undoubtedly be understood of the devil. If, then, those things which are holy are named fire, and light, and fervent, while those which are of an opposite nature are said to be cold; and if the love of many is said to wax cold; we have to inquire whether perhaps the name soul, which in Greek is termed yukh/ , be so termed from growing cold out of a betterand more divine condition, and be thence derived, because it seems to have cooled from thatnatural and divine warmth, and therefore has been placed in its present position, and called by its present name. Finally, see if you caneasily find a place in holy Scripture where thesoul is properly mentioned in terms of praise: it frequently occurs, on the contrary, accompanied with expressions of censure, as in the passage, "An evil soul ruins him who possesses it; " and, "The soul which sinneth, it shall die." For after it has been said, "All souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine," it seemed to follow that He would say, "The soul that doeth righteousness, it shall be saved," and "The soul which sinneth, it shall die." But now we see that He has associated with the soul what is censurable, and has been silent as to that which was deserving of praise. We have therefore to see if, perchance, as we have said is declared by the name itself, it was called yukh/ , i.e., anima, because it has waxed cold from the fervour of just things, and from participation in the divine fire, and yet has not lost the power of restoring itself to that condition of fervour in which it was at the beginning. Whence the prophet also appears to point out some such state of things by the words, "Return, O my soul, unto thy rest." From all which this appears to be made out, that the understanding, falling away from its status and dignity, was made or named soul; and that, if repaired and corrected, it returns to the condition of the understanding.De Principiis · Book 4 2:313Origen of Alexandria31. Let no one, however, suppose that by this we affirm that some portion of the divinity of the Son of God was in Christ, and that the remaining portion was elsewhere or everywhere, which may be the opinion of those who are ignorant of the nature of an incorporeal and invisible essence. For it is impossible to speak of the parts of an incorporeal being, or to make any division of them; but He is in all things, and through all things, and above all things, in the manner in which we have spoken above, i.e., in the manner in which He is understood to be either “wisdom,” or the “word,” or the “life,” or the “truth,” by which method of understanding all confinement of a local kind is undoubtedly excluded. The Son of God, then, desiring for the salvation of the human race to appear unto men, and to sojourn among them, assumed not only a human body, as some suppose, but also a soul resembling our souls indeed in nature, but in will and power resembling Himself, and such as might unfailingly accomplish all the desires and arrangements of the “word” and “wisdom.” Now, that He had a soul, is most clearly shown by the Saviour in the Gospels, when He said, “No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again.” And again, “My soul is sorrowful even unto death.” And again, “Now is my soul troubled.” For the “Word” of God is not to be understood to be a “sorrowful and troubled” soul, because with the authority of divinity He says, “I have power to lay down my life.” Nor yet do we assert that the Son of God was in that soul as he was in the soul of Paul or Peter and the other saints, in whom Christ is believed to speak as He does in Paul. But regarding all these we are to hold, as Scripture declares, “No one is clean from filthiness, not even if his life lasted but a single day.” But this soul which was in Jesus, before it knew the evil, selected the good; and because He loved righteousness, and hated iniquity, therefore God “anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows.” He is anointed, then, with the oil of gladness when He is united to the “word” of God in a stainless union, and by this means alone of all souls was incapable of sin, because it was capable of (receiving) well and fully the Son of God; and therefore also it is one with Him, and is named by His titles, and is called Jesus Christ, by whom all things are said to be made. Of which soul, seeing it had received into itself the whole wisdom of God, and the truth, and the life, I think that the apostle also said this: “Our life is hidden with Christ in God; but when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory.” For what other Christ can be here understood, who is said to be hidden in God, and who is afterwards to appear, except Him who is related to have been anointed with the oil of gladness, i.e., to have been filled with God essentially, in whom he is now said to be hidden? For on this account is Christ proposed as an example to all believers, because as He always, even before he knew evil at all, selected the good, and loved righteousness, and hated iniquity, and therefore God anointed Him with the oil of gladness; so also ought each one, after a lapse or sin, to cleanse himself from his stains, making Him his example, and, taking Him as the guide of his journey, enter upon the steep way of virtue, that so perchance by this means, as far as possible we may, by imitating Him, be made partakers of the divine nature, according to the words of Scripture: “He that saith that he believeth in Christ, ought so to walk, as He also walked.”Homilies on the Song of Songs · Homily 1 1:17Origen of Alexandria[§11] If you do not know yourself, O beautiful among women, go forth in the tracks of the flocks, and feed your goats in the tents of the shepherds. In the tracks, he says, of the shepherds you will become the last; not among the sheep, but among your goats, dwelling with whom you cannot be with me, that is, with the good shepherd. I have likened you to my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh. If you wish to understand, O bride, how you ought to know yourself, learn to whom I have compared you, and now you will see that you are such a one as ought not to be disfigured, when you have known your own beauty. What, then, is it? I have likened you to my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh. I know the bridegroom to be a horseman, the prophet saying: And his riding is salvation. You are likened, therefore, to my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh. As much as my cavalry — I who am the Lord, and drown in the waves Pharaoh, and his crested ones, and his riders, and his horses, and his chariots — as much, I say, as my cavalry differs from the horses of Pharaoh, so much are you, O bride, O soul of the Church, better than all the daughters, better than all souls that are not of the Church. If, then, you are a soul of the Church, you are better than all souls; if you are not better, you are not of the Church. I have likened you to my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh, my love. Then he describes the beauty of the bride with spiritual love.Philocalia · The Philocalia of Origen 8:60Origen of Alexandria10. After speaking of bees, so that as far as possible he may disparage the towns, forms of government, magistracies, authorities, and patriotic warfare, not only of us Christians but of mankind generally, Celsus proceeds to |121 introduce an elaborate eulogy of ants, in order that by thus eulogising the ants he may upset the superiority of man in the management of his food supplies, and show his contempt for the provision which man makes for his winter quarters, as being nothing more than the irrational foresight of the ants where Celsus thinks they show it. Would not Celsus, so far as it depends upon him, turn any one of the simpler sort, and such as are not qualified to look into things all round, from helping a heavily-laden fellow-man, and from sharing his toil, by telling us that the ants when they see a fellow-ant labouring with a load help him to carry it? He who needs the instruction of the Word, and does not by any means give ear to it, will say, "It seems we are no better than the ants even when we help those who are weary with their heavy burdens; why go on doing so to no purpose?" Ants, indeed, since they are irrational creatures, would not be puffed up with pride because their works were compared to those of men; but men being able to learn through reason how their social life is belittled, might, if it depended on Celsus and his arguments, suffer injury; for Celsus does not see that in wishing to turn his readers from Christianity, he is also diverting the sympathy of those who are not Christians from the most heavily laden of his fellow-men. If he were a public-spirited philosopher, he ought not only to refrain from destroying at the same time both Christianity and the beneficent practices of human life, but he should, if possible, support the excellence which Christianity has in common with the rest of mankind. Supposing, however, that the ants do tear off the shoots of the corn they have in store, to prevent its swelling, so that it may last through the year for food, we must not imagine that this is the result of reasoning in ants, but must rather believe that Nature, mother of all things, has so constituted even irrational creatures as not to leave even the least without some trace of Nature's reason. It cannot be that Celsus----in a moment of forgetfulness, for in many things he likes to follow Plato----wishes to indicate that all souls are of |122 the same kind, and that the soul of man no way differs from that of ants and bees; that would be not only to bring down the soul from the vaults of heaven to the human body, but also to everything else. Christians will not assent to these views, for they have already grasped the truth that man's soul was made in the image of God; and they see that it is impossible for a nature created in the image of God to altogether obliterate its characteristics, and take others, copies of I know not what, in irrational creatures.Philocalia · The Philocalia of Origen 11:627Origen of Alexandria607. According to Origen, God created a finite number of souls to begin with; they were all equal, not in fixed classes; gifted with free will, and capable of growing better or worse. The soul of Christ, like all souls, pre-existed from the beginning of the world. By its decision for the good, and by its virtue, it was fitted for unflinchingly carrying out all the will and all the saving revelations of the Word and Wisdom. The Logos dwelt in an unique manner in this soul. At the commencement of creation, it is true, He was united with all souls; but this one alone clung to Him so closely, faithfully, and unchangeably, that it became one spirit with Him.----See Dorner, Doctrine of the Person of Christ, div. I. vol. ii., p. 138. ↩Discourse to Hypatius 5 4:18Ephrem the SyrianIf all Souls are from one source how do they manifest such diverse tendencies? Is their Source divided against itself?Letters · Letter 226 1:3Basil of CaesareaIT may be that the holy God will grant me the joy of a meeting with you, for I am ever longing to see yon and bear about you, because in no other thing do I find rest for my soul than in your progress and perfection in the commandments of Christ. But so long as this hope remains unrealized I feel bound to visit you through the instrumentality of our dear and God-fearing brethren, and to address you, my beloved friends, by letter. Wherefore I have sent my reverend and dear brother and fellow-worker in the Gospel, Meletius the presbyter. He will tell you my yearning affection for you. and the anxiety of my soul, in that. night and day, I beseech the Lord in your behalf, that I may have boldness in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ through your salvation, and that when your work is tried by the just judgment of God you may shine forth in the brightness of the saints. At the same thee the difficulties of the day cause me deep anxiety, for all Churches have been tossed to and fro, and all souls are being sifted. Some have even opened their mouths without any reserve against their fellow servants. Lies are boldly uttered, and the truth has been hidden. The accused are being condemned without a trial, and the accusers are believed without evidence. I had heard that many letters are being carried about against myself, stinging, gibbeting, and attacking me for matters about which I have my defence ready for the tribunal of truth; and I had intended to keep Silence, as indeed I have done; for now for three years I have been bearing the blows of calumny and the whips of accusation, content to think that I have the Lord, Who knows all secrets, as witness of its falsehood. But I see now that many men have silence as a corroboration of these slanders, and have formed the idea that my silence was due, not to my longsuffering, but to my inability to open my lips in opposition to the truth. For these reasons I have attempted to write to you, beseeching your love in Christ not to accept these partial calumnies as true. because, as it is written, the law judges no man unless it have heard and known his actions.Constitutions of the Holy Apostles Book 2 2:9Apostolic ConstitutionsFor it is not equitable that thou, O bishop, who art the head, shouldst submit to the tail, that is, to some seditious person among the laity, to the destruction of another, but to God alone. For it is thy privilege to govern those under thee, but not to be governed by them. For neither does a son, who is subject by the course of generation, govern his father; nor a slave, who is subject by law, govern his master; nor does a scholar govern his teacher, nor a soldier his king, nor any of the laity his bishop. For that there is no reason to suppose that such as converse with the wicked, in order to their instruction in the word, are defiled by or partake of their sins, Ezekiel, as it were on purpose preventing the suspicions of ill-disposed persons, says thus: "Why do you speak this proverb concerning the land of Israel? The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge. As I live, saith the Lord Coot, ye shall not henceforth have occasion to use this proverb in Israel. For all souls are mine, in like manner as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. But the man who is righteous, and does judgment and justice" (and so the prophet reckons up the rest of the virtues, and then adds for a conclusion, "Such a one is just"), "he shall surely live, saith the Lord God. And if he beget a son who is a robber, a shedder of blood, and walks not in the way of his righteous father" (and when the prophet had added what follows, he adds in the conclusion), "he shall certainly not live: he has done all this wickedness; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him. Yet they will ask thee, Why? Does not the son bear the iniquity of the father; or his righteousness, having exercised righteousness and mercy himself? And thou shalt say unto them, The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and the father shall not bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." And a little after he says: "When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, all his righteousness, by reason of all his wickedness which he has committed, shall not be mentioned to him: in his iniquity which he hath committed, and in his sin which he hath sinned, in them shall he die." And a little after he adds: "When the wicked turneth away from his wickedness which he hath committed, and doth judgment and justice, he hath preserved his soul, he hath turned away from all his ungodliness which he hath done; he shall surely live, he shall not die." And afterwards: "I will judge every one of you according to his ways, O house of Israel, saith the Lord God."CATECHETICAL LECTURES · Lecture 4 2:10Cyril of Jerusalem20. The soul is immortal, and all souls are alike both of men and women; for only the members of the body are distinguished . There is not a class of souls sinning by nature, and a class of souls practising righteousness by nature : but both act from choice, the substance of their souls being of one kind only, and alike in all. I know, however, that I am talking much, and that the time is already long: but what is more precious than salvation? Art thou not willing to take trouble in getting provisions for the way against the heretics? And wilt thou not learn the bye-paths of the road, lest from ignorance thou fall down a precipice? If thy teachers think it no small gain for thee to learn these things, shouldest not thou the learner gladly receive the multitude of things told thee?Orations · Oration 43 4:10Gregory of Nazianzus80. The saint was being carried out, lifted high by the hands of holy men, and everyone was eager, some to seize the hem of his garment, others only just to touch the shadow, or the bier which bore his holy remains (for what could be more holy or pure than that body), others to draw near to those who were carrying it, others only to enjoy the sight, as if even this were beneficial. Market places, porticos, houses of two or three stories were filled with people escorting, preceding, following, accompanying him, and trampling upon each other; tens of thousands of every race and age, beyond all previous experience. The psalmody was overborne by the lamentations, philosophic resignation sank beneath the misfortune. Our own people vied with strangers, Jews, Greeks, and foreigners, and they with us, for a greater share in the benefit, by means of a more abundant lamentation. To close my story, the calamity ended in danger; many souls departed along with him, from the violence of the pushing and confusion, who have been thought happy in their end, departing together with him, "funeral victims," perhaps some fervid orator might call them. The body having at last escaped from those who would seize it, and made its way through those who went before it, was consigned to the tomb of his fathers, the high priest being added to the priests, the mighty voice which rings in my ears to the heralds, the martyr to the martyrs. And now he is in heaven, where, if I mistake not, he is offering sacrifices for us, and praying for the people, for though, he has left us, he has not entirely left us. While I, Gregory, who am half dead, and, cleft in twain, torn away from our great union, and dragging along a life of pain which runs not easily, as may be supposed, after separation from him, know not what is to be my end now that I have lost my guidance. And even now I am admonished and instructed in nightly visions, if ever I fall short of my duty. And my present object is not so much to mingle lamentations with my praises, or to portray the public life of the man, or publish a picture of virtue common to all time, and an example salutary to all churches, and to all souls, which we may keep in view, as a living law, and so rightly direct our lives as to counsel you, who have been completely initiated into his doctrine, to fix your eyes upon him, as one who sees you and is seen by you, and thus to be perfected by the Spirit.Against the Donatists · Book 7 1:25Optatus of Milevisa saying the reason of which we have explained more clearly in our Fourth Book. But grant that there are some who have been made perfect with complete sanctity, it is not lawful for them to be without brethren, whom they are taught not to repel by the precepts of the Gospel, wherein we find described a field----that is the whole world, in which is the Church and Christ the Sower, who gives wholesome precepts. On the other hand there is an evil man----that is the Devil, who sows cruel sins not in the light, but in the |281 darkness. Different kinds of seeds come to birth in one field. Similarly, in the Church there is not a mass of souls all alike. The field receives good seeds or bad----the seeds are different. But there is One Creator of all souls----one Lord of the field. There are Two who sow seeds where the tares are born, but the field has one Lord, the Lord God Himself. His is the earth; His are the good seeds; His is also the rain. Accordingly, we have consented to receive in unity you, who have been drawn [to the Catholic Church], for we are not free either to separate or to reject even sinners who have been born with us in one field [and] have received nourishment from one water ----that is from the one Baptism; even as the Apostles were not free to separate the tares from the wheat (since separation is impossible without destruction ), lest, whilst pulling up what ought to be pulled up, that which ought |282 not to be, should be, trodden down. In like manner Christ has commanded that both His own seeds, and those which belong to the other, should grow in His field throughout the entire world, in which there is the One Church.On Matthew · Homily 14 2:6John Chrysostom6. Let us now, I pray you, take courage at His love to man, and let us show forth an anxious repentance, before the day come on, which permits us not to profit thereby. For as yet all depends on us, but then He that judges hath alone control over the sentence. "Let us therefore come before His face with confession;" let us bewail, let us mourn. For if we should be able to prevail upon the Judge before the appointed day to forgive us our sins, then we need not so much as enter into the court; as on the other hand, if this be not done, He will hear us publicly in the presence of the world, and we shall no longer have any hope of pardon. For no one of those who have not done away with their sins here, when he hath departed thither shall be able to escape his account for them; but as they who are taken out of these earthly prisons are brought in their chains to the place of judgment, even so all souls, when they have gone away hence bound with the manifold chains of their sins, are led to the awful judgment-seat. For in truth our present life is nothing better than a prison. But as when we have entered into that apartment, we see all bound with chains; so now if we withdraw ourselves from outward show, and enter into each man's life, into each man's soul, we shall see it bound with chains more grievous than iron: and this most especially if thou enter into the souls of them that are rich. For the more men have about them, so much the more are they bound. As therefore with regard to the prisoner, when thou seest him with irons on his back, on his hands, and often on his feet too, thou dost therefore most of all account him miserable; so also as to the rich man, when thou seest him encompassed with innumerable affairs, let him not be therefore rich, but rather for these very things wretched, in thine account. For together with these bonds, he hath a cruel jailor too, the wicked love of riches; which suffers him not to pass out of this prison, but provides for him thousands of fetters, and guards, and doors, and bolts; and when he hath east him into the inner prison, persuades him even to feel pleasure in these bonds; that he may not find so much as any hope of deliverance from the evils which press on him.Commentary on Amos 2:5Jerome(Chapter 2, Verse 1 and following) Thus says the Lord: Concerning the three sins of Moab, and concerning four, I will not revoke my punishment, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to ashes. And I will send fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth, and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. And I will cut off the judge from the midst of her, and will slay all her princes with him, says the Lord. LXX: Thus says the Lord: Concerning the three impious acts of Moab, and concerning four, I will not turn away from them, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to ashes. And I will send fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the foundations of its cities, and Moab shall die with affliction, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. And I will cut off the judge from her, and will slay all her princes with him, says the Lord. Not only the sons of Ammon, but also Moab, was descended from Lot, who was the son of Abraham's brother. And in order to demonstrate that He is the Lord of all and that all souls belong to Him, who is their creator, He avenges the injustice of the king of Edom, indeed the crime that was perpetrated against him by the Moabites, that they burned his bones to ashes, and their cruelty and rage did not end even in death. The Hebrews tell that the bones of the king of Edom, who had gone up with the king of Israel, Joram, and the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, against Moab in revenge for a grievance, were later torn apart and burned by the Moabites (2 Kings 3). Therefore, they say, God declares that he will send fire upon Moab, or the capital city of the Moabites, from which the whole province is named, or the entire province, to devour the city of Carioth, which is the name of the city. Although the Seventy translated it as 'the cities of Moab', that is, Moab: and it will perish in the sound and wailing of the conquering army, of which one is called Saon in Hebrew, the other Therua; and in the blast of the trumpet or horn, for this is what Sophar means. And when Moab shall perish, the counsel of the princes and judges shall be in vain, with the cities and leaders being overthrown. However, it is necessary to transfer the perfect captivity, or Solomon's, and conclude it in Edom, so that it may make them humble and earthly from the high and heavenly, as Gaza and Tyre are said to have done. Thus, we should not burn the bones of the king of Edom and dissolve them into ash and dust. The Jews transfer spiritual understanding into Edomite flesh, and weaken and diminish the royal sense, which is found in scripture and is most solid and firm, with certain genealogies and unnecessary traditions, reducing it to dust. And it is not only they who do this, but all heretics who want to sit God on a high and elevated throne in a human likeness, and to place feet on the ground so that they do not hang; to have a nose to smell the fragrance of good scent, eyes to see, hands to work, feet to walk, ears to hear, a mouth to speak, teeth to chew food. He who reads that Judah went in to Thamar the harlot and from her begot two sons (Gen. XXXVIII): if he follows the disgraceful letter and does not ascend to the beauty of spiritual understanding, he will burn the bones of the king of Edom. He who thinks that Hosea took a harlot as a wife (Hosea I), and understands nothing more in the statement than what is contained in simple words, he will burn the bones of the king of Edom. And therefore the Lord will send fire into Moab, which is interpreted 'from the father,' because although he was indeed born from God, yet he has forsaken him. And it shall devour cities, or towns, because it is interpreted as Carioth. Hence Cariathiarim is translated into our language as the village of the woods. And Moab shall not die in any other way except in a clamor, and a noise, and a wailing, and the blast of the trumpet, so that they may be overwhelmed in their high senses, which are compared in holy books to the blasts of the trumpet. Then the judges and princes, and all those who are in charge of earthly works, are destroyed by the divine word, and the Church commands to the teachers: \"Climb up to a high mountain, you who preach Zion, lift up your voice, you who proclaim Jerusalem\" (Isaiah XL, 9).Commentary on Ezekiel 18:9Jerome(Verse 3-4) As I live, says the Lord, there will not be for you any longer this parable as a proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine: the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine. The soul that sins, it shall die. (LXX: As I live, says the Lord Adonai, if it will continue to be said, this parable in Israel, because all souls are mine. Just as the soul of the father, so the soul of the son is mine. The soul that sins, it shall die.) What this means, 'I live,' says the Lord, and [it is] a parable or proverb, we have explained more fully above: which will never be said in Israel, but among those who do not have knowledge of God, nor can perceive the truth. 'All,' he says, 'are souls of mine;' according to [their] nature, not according to merit: as Moses was called a man of God, about whom it is written: 'The prayer of Moses, man of God' (Deut. XXXIII, 1). And Elijah, who spoke to the prince of fifty men: 'And if I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven upon you, and upon fifty men' (IV Kings I, 12). But a man who is guilty of sin and a son of iniquity is not called a man of God, just as servants and slaves of God are called, of whom it cannot be said, 'Everyone who commits sin is a servant of sin' (John 8:34). And again, 'For by whom a person is overcome, of him also he is the servant' (2 Peter 2:19). Just as the sins of children do not harm their fathers, so the sins of fathers do not pass on to their children; but the soul that sins, it shall die: not by the abolition of its substance, but by its separation from Him who says, 'I am the life' (John 14:6). And elsewhere he says: Everyone who lives and believes in me will not die forever (John 11:26). And: Amen, amen I say to you: whoever keeps my word will not see death forever (John 8:51). For our life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3); and that will be fulfilled which is written: Amen, amen I say to you: whoever hears my word and believes in him who sent me, has eternal life; and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life (John 5:24). But, that which is said by Balaam, 'Let my soul die among the souls of the just' (Numbers 23:10), has this meaning: that he desires to die to the world and to sin, and to live with the souls of the just, whose life is Christ, and they can sing: 'I will please the Lord in the land of the living' (Psalm 114:9). For God is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Matthew 22:32). And if Balaam, as is likely, translated into our language, sounds empty to the people: it is clear that the empty people of the nations prior desire to have fellowship with the souls of the just, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are called upright and just. And so the Book of Genesis took its name from their word.Commentary on Isaiah 16:23Jerome(Verse 18, 19.) All the kings of the nations, all slept in glory, each man in his own house. But you have been cast out of your tomb like a useless branch, defiled and wrapped with those who were slain by the sword, and have gone down to the foundations of the abyss; you will not have the company of a decaying corpse, nor be buried with them. The Hebrews tell the following story: Evilmerodach, who during his father Nebuchadnezzar's lifetime spent seven years among the beasts, had reigned before he was restored to the kingdom. After his father's death, he was imprisoned with Joachim, the king of Judah, until he succeeded to the throne again. But when he returned to the kingdom, the princes did not accept him, fearing that the one who was believed to be extinct was still alive. To demonstrate the death of his father, he opened the tomb and dragged out the corpse with hooks and ropes. And the meaning is: With all those who were killed having been buried, you alone will lie unburied. Others, however, interpret this place in the following way: All souls in the underworld will receive some rest, but you alone will be bound in complete darkness. For you will be covered in the blood of all, and the blood of all will press upon you like a shroud of the filth of the dead. Symmachus translated this passage as follows: Even with those who are killed in war, you do not deserve to have a share in burial. But concerning what we have said, as though a useless shoot, it is read in Hebrew: Chaneser Nethab, which Aquila interprets as a polluted sore. Neser, on the other hand, properly means a twig, which grows at the roots of trees and is cut off by farmers as though useless; we can understand this as the same thing as a sore and decay. At the same time, we learn that hell is beneath the earth, as Scripture says: To the foundations of the lake.Commentary on Jeremiah 36:18Jerome(Verse 27 and following) Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of men and the seed of animals. And as I have watched over them to uproot, demolish, scatter, and afflict, so I will watch over them to build and plant, says the Lord. In those days, they shall no longer say, 'The fathers ate sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge,' but each one shall die for his own iniquity. Every person who eats a sour grape, their teeth will be stunned. The phrase 'domum et domum' or 'house and house', that is, the house of Israel and the house of Judah, is not found in the Septuagint, but only Israel and Judah, so it says: and I will sow Israel and Judah. And what he brought: we must understand that it refers to the seed of humans and animals, to rational and simple beings. And as it is said in the beginning of Jeremiah: Behold, I have set you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant; and I watched over them to do what I threatened, so, he says, I will now watch over them to build and to plant. For the cultivation of God, for the building up of God (1 Corinthians 3:9). All such promises are thought by the Jews and our Judaizers to be fulfilled in the thousand-year kingdom. But we, as the Apostle says, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase (Ibid., 6), and as the prophet Isaiah mentions that the Savior is the builder of walls and houses (Isaiah 58), we defend that these were spiritually fulfilled in the first coming of Christ, but only partially fulfilled: for now we see in a mirror, dimly, and we do not know as we ought to know (1 Corinthians 13). But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away with. Or certainly, we believe that in the second coming, when the Lord appears in His majesty and the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, all Israel will be saved, and not partially by individuals, but God will be all in all (Romans 11 and 1 Corinthians 15). And what is implied by: In those days they shall no longer say, the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge, and so on, we have explained more fully in the explanations of Ezekiel, when we interpreted that passage: Son of man, what do you mean by these proverbs of the children of Israel, saying, the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge. Thus says the Lord: 'As I live, if there is beyond this parable in Israel, for all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sins, it shall die' (Ezekiel 18:1-4). From this, we learn that it is not death that the Lord does, but sin. For the soul that sins, it shall die. And in this present place, it is said that Israel will by no means be condemned eternally for the sins of their fathers; but through their own merits and faith in Christ, they will be saved after many ages. And it should be noted that vices and sins are called sour grapes, so that the teeth of those who eat them are stunned, and they cannot taste its sweetness, of which it is said: Taste and see, for the Lord is sweet (Psalm 33:9). Whoever does not understand the Scriptures as the truth of the matter has eaten sour grapes. Hence all heretics who believe perverse things cannot eat the bread that comes down from heaven, but their teeth are stunned, not by the harshness of food, but by the vice of their teeth.Commentary on Joel 1:20Jerome(Verse 6,7.) For a strong and innumerable nation will ascend over my land: its teeth, like lion's teeth, and its molars, like lion cubs. It has turned my vineyard into a desert, and has stripped my fig tree bare: it has made it naked and thrown it away; its branches have turned white. LXX: For a strong and innumerable nation will ascend over the land: its teeth, like a lion's teeth, and its molars, like lion cubs. He has made my vineyard into a desolation, and my fig tree into a splinter: he has thoroughly searched and thrown it away: he has whitened its branches. The Jews believe in the days of Joel that such an innumerable multitude of locusts came upon Judea to the extent that they filled everything: and I will not say just the crops, but indeed the bark of trees and the branches of vines they would leave behind, so that with all moisture consumed, the withered branches of the trees and the dry scourges of the vines would remain. We cannot affirm with certainty whether this happened or not, for it is not a historical account of the Kings and Chronicles (3 Kings 17). If it had been, then we would never read of the three and a half years of famine under Elijah in the Scriptures. We only say that under the metaphor of locusts, the coming of enemies is described, either the Assyrians and Babylonians who were approaching at that time, or the Medes and Persians who would come later, or the Macedonians whom we only learned about much later, or finally, the Romans about whom we have already spoken. Now it seems appropriate to speak more about the Babylonians and the Chaldeans, whose cruelty and savagery towards the people of God are described. And, if I am not mistaken, I think I have found something in this Prophet. The wickedness of the enemies is narrated under the figure of locusts, and then it is said about these locusts, as if they were compared to enemies, so that when you read about locusts, you think of enemies; when you think of enemies, you return to locusts. Therefore, a swarm of locusts rises from the wilderness, or an army of Chaldeans over the land of God, powerful and innumerable. For what is more numerous and stronger than locusts, against which human industry cannot resist? Its teeth, namely the teeth of locusts (but understand everything τυπικῶς), are like the teeth of a lion; and its molars, like the cubs of a lion, are compared to locusts in strength and number, and to lions in fierceness and cruelty. This is the nation, it is said, that has turned my vineyard into a desert, which I brought from Egypt and planted, and it has stripped my fig tree, the people of Judah (or my Jewish people), to whom the Savior came to eat of its fruits, and did not find any; and he cursed it, and it withered forever (Matthew 11). But let us know all the things said under the metaphor of locusts: which devour everything so much that they strip tree barks, cast them aside, and leave behind white and dry branches after consuming all the sap. We have mentioned the history; let us now move on to spiritual understanding, so that we may hear with the elders: The nation of God ascends upon the earth, namely the human soul. For all souls are of God: just as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son. And there arose a nation of the princes of this world, and of darkness, and of spiritual wickedness in heavenly places, against whom we have a struggle and a contest, of whom it is said: If the spirit of the ruler ascend upon thee, do not leave thy place (Ecclesiastes X, 4): whose teeth are like the teeth of a lion, of whom the apostle Peter speaks: Our adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter V, 8). And its molars are like lion cubs. Understand the lion cub as someone who rises up against everything called God and religion, or certainly every perverse dogma. Concerning its broken molars, which are hidden inside and not visible, so that they are not easily avoided, even the Psalmist rejoices, saying: The Lord will break the molars of the lions (Ps. 57:7). Therefore, if we allow this race to take hold in us, it will immediately turn our vineyard into a desert, from which we used to make wine that gladdens the heart of man (Ps. 103); and it will strip or break our figs, so that we do not have the sweetest gifts of the Holy Spirit within us, and our vineyard and fig tree will not provide rest for the holy man. While under them, he will not fear the attacks of adversaries. And it is not enough for this people to destroy the vineyard and break the fig tree, unless they search them thoroughly and destroy whatever vitality is in them, so that, with all moisture consumed, only white and lifeless branches remain, and it is fulfilled in us: If they do these things in the green wood, what will they do in the dry? (Luke 23).Commentary on Zechariah 6:20Jerome(Chapter 12, Verse 1) The burden of the word of the Lord over Israel: says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him: Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, and Judah shall be in siege against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. LXX: The Assumption of the word of the Lord upon Israel, says the Lord, stretching out the heavens and founding the earth, and forming the spirit of man within it: Behold, I will bring Jerusalem to be a threshold that is moved in a circuit by all peoples, in Judah and around Jerusalem. And there will be a siege around Jerusalem, and it will be in that day, I will make Jerusalem a stone to be trampled upon by all nations: whoever tramples upon it will mock it, and I will gather all the nations of the earth against it. There are three interpretations of this passage, from the place where we read: Behold, I will place Jerusalem as a cup of intoxication to all the peoples around, until the place where it is written (Ch. XIII, v. 7): Stir up the sword against my shepherd, and against the man who stands beside me, says the Lord of hosts: Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. Others among the Jews believe that this has already been partially fulfilled by Zerubbabel, up to C. Pompey, who was the first of the Romans to capture Judea and the temple, as Josephus writes. But others maintain that when Jerusalem has been rebuilt, it will be at the end of the world: which promise is made to the wretched Jewish people, along with their blinded shepherd, whom we read about above. But others, that is, we who are called by the name of Christ, in the Church until the end of the world, remember daily to be fulfilled and to fulfill. And lest we extend the length of the volume with details, we present it in the following way: These say this, others suspect this, we feel this way, and we have presented three opinions so that the diligent reader can understand what should be fittingly attributed to whom, based on the diversity of interpretation. Therefore, the Lord who stretched out the heavens like a skin, and solidified the earth with a high mass, and formed the spirit of man within it, is the same Creator of all souls, so that he might form one living being from two substances, the soul and the body. For the spirit is often understood as the soul, as it is said: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit (Luke 23:46). And: You will take away their spirit, and they will die and return to their dust (Psalm 104:29). Therefore, this Creator of the universe and Lord testifies that He will set Jerusalem as a threshold of stumbling for all the surrounding peoples, so that whoever touches its threshold will be intoxicated and fall, or if the threshold itself falls upon him from whom it is touched. But even Judas, besieged Jerusalem, is captured by the Gentiles, and in passing into their fellowship, he will be compelled to besiege his own metropolis. Moreover, not only will the Lord make Jerusalem a threshold of stumbling for all peoples, but He will also make it a stone of burden for all peoples, and whoever wants to lift it will be torn apart by laceration. For all the kingdoms of the earth will gather against Jerusalem. It is a custom in the cities of Palestine, and even to this day throughout all Judaea, that in villages, towns, and fortresses, large stones of great weight are placed, for young men to exercise themselves and lift them according to their strength. Some lift them up to their knees, some up to their waist, some up to their shoulders and head, and some even above their heads, demonstrating the magnitude of their strength with straight and joined hands. In the citadel of the Athenians, near the statue of Minerva, I saw a bronze sphere of immense weight, which I could hardly move due to my own weakness. When I asked what it was for, I was told by the city's inhabitants that it was used to test the strength of athletes, and no one was allowed to participate in the games until their ability to lift the weight was determined. Therefore, the meaning is this: I will set Jerusalem as a heavy stone for all nations to lift. Indeed, they will lift it up, and, according to the variety of their strength, they will devastate it; but it is necessary that, while it is being lifted up, in the very exertion and elevation of the weight, the heaviest stone leaves some crack or scrape on the bodies that are lifting it. The Church can be interpreted in this way, that all persecutors who have fought against the house of the Lord will be intoxicated by the same cup with which Jeremiah offers to drink to all nations, so that they may drink, and be intoxicated, and fall, and vomit, and go mad (Jer. XXV). I know that in a time of persecution many of our people are being forced to fight against the Church; but whoever desires to lift this burden, will indeed lift it, and with his own hands will support it, for he will not go unpunished, with the sword of the Lord fighting against him. The stone of burden, which we have interpreted as best we could, the Seventy have translated as a stone trampled on by all nations. Whoever tramples on it (that is, Jerusalem) will be mocked. The meaning is clear, that Jerusalem is to be trampled upon and mocked by both enemy nations and persecutors as they please. But the higher meaning is better and truer. We will briefly explain each point, so that we may finally come to the conclusion, lest if we have written at length, the mind of the Reader be confused by the obscurity of events and the length of the discourse.Letters · letter_098 1:19Jerome15. He is not abashed, being forgetful of himself from much speaking, and he calls the soul of man not so much from the beginning of its condition, but because it has taken on the coldness of neglect and unfaithfulness from what it was before, mind and senses. This etymology is more suitable to the Greek rather than the Latin language. But if the Savior asserts that the soul is equal to God and is in His form, then it has received the name by adoption of love and it has lost the dignity of its previous name. For it is a general discussion that the souls of men are called such because they have lost the heat of their former fervor. Therefore, if all souls, having regained their coolness, are called forth, and if one confesses that one has had a Savior of the soul, it follows that one must say of one's mind and intellect that they have migrated to this type of term. Although it is not spoken of in everyday conversation and the wicked can repress their insanity, the statement itself is compelled by necessity, which ties the following to what has already been said in order. For either he must deny that the Savior had a soul, to come most plainly against the authority of the Gospels, or if he cannot speak contrary to himself, he will also confess that this thing, called a soul, is from the coldness of charity taken in mind and understanding; for all souls who have departed from God and have lost the warmth of divine love are reckoned cold. Who would not believe that he is satisfied with this end of sacrilege?Letters · letter_124 1:14Jerome12. In the fourth and last book of his work the following passages deserve the church's condemnation. "It may be that as, when men die in this world by the separation of soul and body, they are allotted different positions in hell according to the difference in their works; so when angels die, out of the system of the heavenly Jerusalem, they come down to this world as a hell and are placed on earth according to their deserts." And again: "as we have compared the souls which pass from this world to hell with those which as they come from heaven to us are in a manner dead; so we must carefully inquire whether this is true of all souls without exception. For in that case souls born on earth when they desire better things rise out of hell and assume human bodies or when they desire worse things come down to us from better worlds; and in the firmament above us likewise there are souls on their way from our world to higher ones, and others who, while they have fallen from heaven, have not sinned so grievously as to be thrust down to earth."He thus tries to prove that the firmament, that is the sky, is hell compared with heaven; and that this earth is hell compared with the firmament; and again that our world is heaven to hell. Or in other words what is hell to some is heaven to others. And not content with saying this he goes on: "at the end of all things when we shall return to the heavenly Jerusalem the hostile powers shall declare war against the people of God to breathe and exercise their valour and strengthen their resolve. For this they cannot have until they have faced and foiled their foes; of whom we read in the book of Numbers that they are overcome by reason, discipline, and tactical skill."Letters · letter_131 2:9Jerome26. Let it not be said to me that we ought to receive as supporting this opinion the words of Scripture in Zechariah, "He forms the spirit of man within him," [Zechariah 12:1] and in the book of Psalms, "He forms their hearts severally." We must seek for the strongest and most indisputable proof, that we may not be compelled to believe that God is a judge who condemns any soul which has no fault. For to create signifies either as much or, probably, more than to form [fingere]; nevertheless it is written, "Create in me a clean heart, O God," and yet it cannot be supposed that a soul here expresses a desire to be made before it has begun to exist. Therefore, as it is a soul already existing which is created by being renewed in righteousness, so it is a soul already existing which is formed by the moulding power of doctrine. Nor is your opinion, which I would willingly make my own, supported by that sentence in Ecclesiastes, "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God who gave it." [Ecclesiastes 12:7] Nay, it rather favours those who think that all souls are derived from one; for they say that, as the dust returns to the earth as it was, and yet the body of which this is said returns not to the man from whom it was derived, but to the earth from which the first man was made, the spirit in like manner, though derived from the spirit of the first man, does not return to him but to the Lord, by whom it was given to our first parent. Since, however, the testimony of this passage in their favour is not so decisive as to make it appear altogether opposed to the opinion which I shall gladly see vindicated, I thought proper to submit these remarks on it to your judgment, to prevent you from endeavouring to deliver me from my perplexities by quoting passages such as these. For although no man's wishes can make that true which is not true, nevertheless, were this possible, I would wish that this opinion should be true, as I do wish that, if it is true, it should be most clearly and unanswerably vindicated by you.Letters · letter_131 2:10Jerome27. The same difficulty attends those also who hold that souls already existing elsewhere, and prepared from the beginning of the works of God, are sent by Him into bodies. For to these persons also the same question may be put: If these souls, being without any fault, go obediently to the bodies to which they are sent, why are they subjected to punishment in the case of infants, if they come without being baptized to the end of this life? The same difficulty unquestionably attaches to both opinions. Those who affirm that each soul is, according to the deserts of its actions in an earlier state of being, united to the body alloted to it in this life, imagine that they escape more easily from this difficulty. For they think that to "die in Adam" means to suffer punishment in that flesh which is derived from Adam, from which condition of guilt the grace of Christ, they say, delivers the young as well as the old. So far, indeed, they teach what is right, and true, and excellent, when they say that the grace of Christ delivers the young as well as the old from the guilt of sins. But that souls sin in another earlier life, and that for their sins in that state of being they are cast down into bodies as prisons, I do not believe: I reject and protest against such an opinion. I do this, in the first place, because they affirm that this is accomplished by means of some incomprehensible revolutions, so that after I know not how many cycles the soul must return again to the same burden of corruptible flesh and to the endurance of punishment — than which opinion I do not know that anything more horrible could be conceived. In the next place, who is the righteous man gone from the earth about whom we should not (if what they say is true) feel afraid lest, sinning in Abraham's bosom, he should be cast down into the flames which tormented the rich man in the parable? [Luke 16:22-23] For why may the soul not sin after leaving the body, if it can sin before entering it? Finally, to have sinned in Adam (in regard to which the apostle says that in him all have sinned) is one thing, but it is a wholly different thing to have sinned, I know not where, outside of Adam, and then because of this to be thrust into Adam — that is, into the body, which is derived from Adam, as into a prison-house. As to the other opinion mentioned above, that all souls are derived from one, I will not begin to discuss it unless I am under necessity to do so; and my desire is, that if the opinion which we are now discussing is true, it may be so vindicated by you that there shall be no longer any necessity for examining the other.Letters · letter_144 1:13Jeromeposition, for in your first letter you write that "they have secretly whispered scandalous doctrines and have forsaken your communion and the obedience of the church on account of this foolish, nay impious opinion." Against such men defend and uphold by every possible expedient the doctrine you have laid down in the same letter, that God has been, is, and will be the maker of souls; and that everything in heaven and on earth owes its existence wholly to Him. For this is true of every creature; and as such is to be believed, asserted, defended, and proved. God has been, is, and will be the author and maker of all things and all men as you have told your fellow-bishops of the province of Caesarea, exhorting them to adopt the doctrine by the example of your brothers and fellow-priests. But there are two quite distinct dilemmas: (1) Is God the author and maker of all souls and bodies (the true view), or is there something in nature which He has not made (a view which is wholly erroneous)? If souls are undoubtedly God's handiwork, does He make them directly, or indirectly by propagation? It is in dealing with this second dilemma that I would have you to be sober and vigilant. Else in refuting the propagation-theory you may fall incautiously into the heresy of Pelagius. Everybody knows that human bodies are propagated by generation; yet if we are right in saying that all human souls-and not only those of Adam and Eve-are created by God, it is clear that to assert their transmission by generation is not to deny their divine origin. For in this view God makes the soul as He makes the body, indirectly by a process of generation. If the truth condemns this as an error, some fresh argument must be sought to confute it. No persons could better advise you on the point (if only they were within reach) than those dead worthies whom you feared to discredit by drawing men away from them into a better path. They were, you said, great and famous bishops while you were a new-fledged and inexperienced teacher; thus you were loth to tamper with their doctrines. Would that I could know on what passages these great men rested their opinion that souls are transmitted! For in your letter to the brothers at Caesarea, you speak of their view with a total disregard of their authority, as a new invention, an unheard-of doctrine; though we all know that, error as it may be, it is no novelty but old and of ancient date.Letters · letter_144 1:16Jerome10. You, my brother, ask me to decide for you whether men's souls as made by the Creator come like their bodies by generation from Adam, or whether like his soul they are made without generation and separately for each individual. For in one way or the other we both admit that they are God's handiwork. Suffer me then in turn to ask you a question. Can a soul derive original sin from a source from which it is not itself derived? For unless we are to fall into the detestable heresy of Pelagius, we must both of us allow that all souls do derive original sin from Adam. And if you cannot answer my question, pray give me leave to confess my ignorance alike of your question and of my own. But if you already know what I ask, teach me and then I will teach you what you wish to know. Pray do not be displeased with me for taking this line, for though I have given you no positive answer to your question, I have shewn you how you ought to put it. When once you are clear about that, you may be quite positive where you have been doubtful.Letters 105:286Augustine of Hippo25. "Furthermore," says Cicero, "if he will affirm that the mind itself is, so to speak, some kind of animal, there must be some principle from within from which it receives the name' animal,' "-- so that mind, according to Anaxagoras, is a kind of body, and has within it an animating, principle, because of which it is called "animal." Observe how he speaks in language which we are accustomed to apply to things corporeal,animals being in the ordinary sense of the word visible substances,- adapting himself, as I suppose, to the blunted perceptions of those against whom he argues; and yet he has uttered a thing which, if they could awake to perceive it, might suffice to teach them that everything which presents itself to our minds as a living body must be thought of not as itself a soul, but as an animal having a soul. For having said, "There must be something within from which it receives the name animal," he adds, "But what is deeper within than mind ?" The mind, therefore, cannot have any inner soul, by possessing which it is an animal; for it is itself that which is inner! most. If, then, it is an animal, let it have some i external body in relation to which it may be within; for this is what he means by saying, "It is therefore girt round by an exterior body," as if Anaxagoras had said that mind cannot be otherwise than as belonging to some animal. And yet Anaxagoras held the opinion that essential supreme Wisdom is mind, although it is not the peculiar property of any living being, so to speak, since Truth is near to all souls alike that are able to enjoy it. Observe, therefore, how wittily he concludes the argument: "Since this is not the opinion of Anaxagoras" (i.e. seeing that he does not hold that that mind which he calls God is girt about with an external body, through its relation to which it could be an animal), "we must say that mind pure and simple, without the addition of anything" (i.e. of any body) "through which it may exercise sensation, seems to be beyond the range and conceptions of our intelligence."2Letters 105:287Augustine of Hippo26. Nothing is more certain than that this lies beyond the range and conception of the intelligence of Stoics and Epicureans, who cannot think of and, thing which is not material. But by the word "our" intelligence he means "human" intelligence; and he very properly does not say, "it lies beyond our intelligence," but "it seems to lie beyond." For their opinion is, that this lies beyond the understanding of all men, and therefore they think that nothing of the kind can be. But there are some whose intelligence apprehends, in so far as this is given to man, the fact that there is pure and simple Wisdom and Truth, which is the peculiar property of no living being, but which imparts wisdom and truth to all souls alike which are susceptible of its influence. If Anaxagoras perceived the existence of this supreme Wisdom, and apprehended it to be God, and called it Mind, it is not by the mere name of this philosopher-with whom, on account of his place in the remote antiquity of erudition, all raw recruits in literature s (to adopt a military phrase) delight to boast an acquaintance- that we are made learned and wise; nor is it even by our having the knowledge through which he knew this truth. For truth ought to be dear to me notLetters 108:153Augustine of Hippo6. For whether all souls are derived by propagation from the first, or are in the case of each individual specially created, or being created apart from the body are sent into it, or introduce themselves into it of their own accord, without doubtLetters 108:160Augustine of Hippo9. If, however, the true account of the soul's origin be, that God gives to each individual man a soul, not propagated from that first soul, but created in some other way, the statement that the "spirit returns to God who gave it," is equally consistent with this view. The two other opinions regarding the soul's origin are, then, the only ones which seem to be excluded by this text. For in the first place, as to the opinion that every man's soul is made separately within him at the time of his creation, it is supposed that, if this were the case, the soul should have been spoken of as returning, not to God who gave it, but to God who made it; for the word "gave" seems to imply that that which could be given had already a separate existence. The words "returneth to God" are further insisted upon by some, who say, How could it return to a place where it had never been before ? Accordingly they maintain that, if the soul is to be believed to have never been with God before, the words should have been "it goes," or "goes on," or "goes away," rather than it" returns" to God. In like manner, as to the opinion that each soul glides of its own accord into its body, it is not easy to explain how this theory is reconcilable with the statement that God gave it. The words of this scriptural passage are consequently somewhat adverse to these two opinions, namely, the one which supposes each soul to be created in its own body, and the one which supposes each soul to introduce itself into its own body spontaneously. But there is no difficulty in showing that the words are consistent with either of the other two opinions, namely, that all souls are derived by propagation from the one first created, or that, having been created and kept in readiness with God, they are given to each body as required.Letters 109:139Augustine of Hippo20. Therefore, whatever be the true theory concerning the origin of souls, -- and on this I feel it would be rash for me to pronounce, meanwhile, any opinion beyond utterly rejecting the theory which affirms that each soul is thrust into the body which it inhabits as into a prison, where it expiates some former actions of its own of which I know nothing, it is certain, regarding the soul of Christ, not only that it is, according to the nature of all souls, immortal, but also that it was neither put to death by sin nor punished by condemnation, the only two ways in which death can be understood as experienced by the soul; and therefore it could not be said of Christ that with reference to the soul He was "quickened in the spirit." For He was quickened in that in which He had been put to death; this, therefore, is spoken with reference to His flesh, for His flesh received life again when the soul returned to it, as it also had died when the soul departed. He was therefore said to be "put to death in the flesh," because He experienced death only in the flesh, but "quickened in the spirit," because by the operation of that Spirit in which He was wont to come and preach to whom He would, that same flesh in which He came to men was quickened and rose from the grave.Letters 109:201Augustine of Hippo26. Let it not be said to me that we ought to receive as supporting this opinion the words of Scripture in Zechariah, "He formeth the spirit of man within him,"3 and in the book of Psalms, "He formeth their hearts severally."4 We must seek for the strongest and most indisputable proof, that we may not be compelled to believe that God is a judge who condemns any soul which has no fault. For to create signifies either as much or, probably, more than to form [fingere]; nevertheless it is written, "Create in me a clean heart, O God,"5 and yet it cannot be supposed that a soul here expresses a desire to be made before it has begun to exist. Therefore, as it is a soul already existing which is created by being renewed in righteousness, so it is a soul already existing which is formed by the moulding power of doctrine. Nor is ),our opinion, which I would willingly make my own, supported by that sentence in Ecclesiastes, "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God who gave it."6 Nay, it rather favours those who think that all souls are derived from one; for they say that, as the dust returns to the earth as it was, and yet the body of which this is said returns not to the man from whom it was derived, but to the earth from which the first man was made, the spirit in like manner, though derived from the spirit of the first man, does not return to him but to the Lord, by whom it was given to our first parent. Since, however, the testimony of this passage in their favour is not so decisive as to make it appear altogether opposed to the opinion which shall gladly see vindicated, I thought proper to submit these remarks on it to your judgment, to prevent you from endeavouring to deliver me from my perplexities by quoting passages such as these. For although no man's wishes can make that true which is not true, nevertheless, were this possible, I would wish that this opinion should be true, as I do wish that, if it is true, it should be most clearly and unanswerably vindicated by you.Letters 109:204Augustine of Hippobe put: If these souls, being without any fault, go obediently to the bodies to which they are sent, why are they subjected to punishment in the case of infants, if they come without being baptized to the end of this life ? The same difficulty unquestionably attaches to both opinions. Those who affirm that each soul is, according to the deserts of its actions in an earlier state of being, united to the body alloted to it in this life, imagine that they escape more easily from this difficulty. For they think that to "die in Adam" means to suffer punishment in that flesh which is derived from Adam, from which condition of guilt the grace of Christ, they say, delivers the young as well as the old. So far, indeed, they teach what is right, and true, and excellent, when they say that the grace of Christ delivers the young as well as the old from the guilt of sins. But that souls sin in another earlier life, and that for their sins in that state of being they are cast down into bodies as prisons, I do not believe: I reject and protest against such an opinion. I do this, in the first place, because they affirm that this is accomplished by means of some incomprehensible revolutions, so that after I know not how many cycles the soul must return again to the same burden of corruptible flesh and to the endurance of punishment, -- than which opinion I do not know that anything more horrible could be conceived. In the next place, who is the righteous man gone from the earth about whom we should not (if what they say is true) feel afraid lest, sinning in Abraham's bosom, he should be cast down into the flames which tormented the rich man in the parable?1 For why may the soul not sin after leaving the body, if it can sin before entering it ? Finally, to have sinned in Adam (in regard to which the apostle says that in him all have sinned) is one thing, but it is a wholly different thing to have sinned, I know not where, outside of Adam, and then because of this to be thrust into Adam -- that is, into the body, which is derived from Adam, as into a prison-house. As to the other opinion mentioned above, that all souls are derived from one, I will not begin to discuss it unless I am under necessity to do so; and my desire is, that if the opinion which we are now discussing is true, it may be so vindicated by you that there shall be no longer any necessity for examining the other.On The Trinity · Book 15 13:2Augustine of HippoBut is it so, that God the Father, from whom is born the Word that is God of God,-is it so, then, that God the Father, in respect to that wisdom which He is to Himself, has learned some things by His bodily senses, and others by Himself? Who could say this, who thinks of God, not as a rational animal, but as One above the rational soul? So far at least as He can be thought of, by those who place Him above all animals and all souls, although they see Him by conjecture through a glass and in an enigma, not yet face to face as He is. Is it that God the Father has learned those very things which He knows, not by the body, for He has none, but by Himself, from elsewhere from some one? or has stood in need of messengers or witnesses that He might know them? Certainly not; since His own perfection enables Him to know all things that He knows. No doubt He has messengers, viz . the angels; but not to announce to Him things that He knows not, for there is nothing He does not know. But their good lies in consulting the truth about their own works. And This it is which is meant by saying that they bring Him word of some things, not that He may learn of them, but they of Him by His word without bodily sound. They bring Him word, too, of that which He wills, being sent by Him to whomever He wills, and hearing all from Him by that word of His, i.e. finding in His truth what themselves are to do: what, to whom, and when, they are to bring word. For we too pray to Him, yet do not informHim what our necessities are. "For your Father knoweth," says His Word, "what things ye have need of, before you ask Him." Nor did He become acquainted with them, so as to know them, at any definite time; but He knew beforehand, without any beginning, all things to come in time, and among them also both what we should ask of Him, and when; and to whom He would either listen or not listen, and on what subjects. And with respect to all His creatures, both spiritual and corporeal, He does not know them because they are, but they are because He knows them. For He was not ignorant of what He was about to create; therefore He created because He knew; He did not know because He created. Nor did He know them when created in any other way than He knew them when still to be created, for nothing accrued to His wisdom from them; but that wisdom remained as it was, while they came into existence as it was fitting and when it was fitting. So, too, it is written in the book of Ecclesiasticus: "All things are known to Him ere ever they were created: so also after they were perfected." "So," he says, not otherwise; so were they known to Him, both ere ever they were created, and after they were perfected. This knowledge, therefore, is far unlike our knowledge. And the knowledge of God is itself also His wisdom, and His wisdom is itself His essence or substance. Because in the marvellous simplicity of that nature, it is not one thing to be wise and another to be, but to be wise is to be; as wehave often said already also in the earlier books. But our knowledge is in most things capable both of being lost and of being recovered, because to us to be is not the same as to know or to be wise; since it is possible for us to be, even although we know not, neither are wise in that which we have learned from elsewhere. Therefore, as our knowledge is unlike that knowledge of God, so is our word also, which is born from our knowledge, unlike that Word of God which is born from the essence of the Father. And this is as if I should say, born from the Father's knowledge, from the Father's wisdom; or still more exactly, from the Father who is knowledge, from the Father who is wisdom.Sermons · Sermon 198 augm 3:16Augustine of HippoMay your holiness pay attention and see from human beings what we say. Apply your mind and understand. Every creature is either corporeal or spiritual. Only the Creator is spiritual; but the creature, as we have said, is either corporeal or spiritual. Pay attention, so that according to our abilities you may have as much as the Lord will assist against the pagans, not just any, but those who consider themselves more learned and interpreters of idols and who are puffed up and inflate and mock the true name of truth. Every creature, as I said, is either corporeal or spiritual. Corporeal like the earth and all that is produced in it, like the sea and all that swims or crawls in it, like the air and all that flies in it, like the sky and all that shines in it. All these creatures are corporeal. But spiritual is better than corporeal. What is the spiritual creature? That which is not perceived by the senses of the body, but by the intellect of the mind, like all souls, whether irrational as in beasts, or rational as in humans, whether deficient as in the impious, or progressing as in the converted, or perfect as in angels and archangels, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers of the higher habitation. Therefore, since a creature is either corporeal or spiritual, and a third cannot be found, the highest bodies, which are not better, are celestial. Now what is beyond - not by spaces of places, but by the nature of force - is not a body, but a spirit: a certain life, but a mutable life, because it is a creature; true immutable life, the Creator. Therefore, mutable life, that is, a spiritual creature, is also formable and illuminable, that is, it can be formed and illuminated; but immutable life, that is, the substance of the Creator itself, is creating and illuminating. The creature is indeed formed and illuminated, but the Creator forms and illuminates.The City of God · Book 10 31:2Augustine of HippoThis is the religion which possesses the universal way for delivering the soul; for except by this way, none can be delivered. This is a kind of royal way, which alone leads to a kingdom which does not totter like all temporal dignities, but stands firm on eternal foundations. And when Porphyry says, towards the end of the first book De Regressu Animoe , that no system of doctrine which furnishes the universal way for delivering the soul has as yet been received, either from the truest philosophy, or from the ideas and practices of the Indians, or from the reasoning of the Chaldaeans, or from any source whatever, and that no historical reading had made him acquainted with that way, he manifestly acknowledges that there is such a way, but that as yet he was not acquainted with it. Nothing of all that he had so laboriously learned concerning the deliverance of the soul, nothing of all that he seemed to others, if not to himself, to know and believe, satisfied him. For he perceived that there was still wanting a commanding authority which it might be right to follow in a matter of such importance. And when he says that he had not learned from any truest philosophy a system which possessed the universal way of the soul's deliverance, he shows plainly enough, as it seems to me, either that the philosophy of which he was a disciple was not the truest, or that it did not comprehend such a way. And how can that be the truest philosophy which does not possess this way? For what else is the universal way of the soul's deliverance than that by which all souls universally are delivered, and without which, therefore, no soul is delivered? And when he says, in addition, "or from the ideas and practices of the Indians, or from the reasoning of the Chaldaeans, or from any source whatever," he declares in the most unequivocal language that this universal way of the soul's deliverance was not embraced in what he had learned either from the Indians or the Chaldaeans; and yet he could not forbear stating that it was from the Chaldaeans he had derived these divine oracles of which he makes such frequent mention. What, therefore, does he mean by this universal way of the soul's deliverance, which had not yet been made known by any truest philosophy, or by the doctrinal systems of those nations which were considered to have great insight in things divine, because they indulged more freely in a curious and fanciful science and worship of angels? What is this universal way of which he acknowledges his ignorance, if not a way which does not belong to one nation as its special property, but is common to all, and divinely bestowed? Porphyry, a man of nomediocre abilities, does not question that such a way exists; for he believes that Divine Providence could not have left men destitute of this universal way of delivering the soul. For he does not say that this way does not exist, but that this great boon and assistance has not yet been discovered, and has not come to his knowledge. And no wonder; for Porphyry lived in an age when this universal way of the soul's deliverance,-in other words, the Christian religion,-was exposed to the persecutions of idolaters and demon-worshippers, and earthly rulers, that the number of martyrs or witnesses for the truth might be completed and consecrated, and that by them proof might be given that we must endure all bodily sufferings in the cause of the holy faith, and for the commendation of the truth. Porphyry, being a witness of these persecutions, concluded that this way was destined to a speedy extinction, and that it, therefore, was not the universal way of the soul's deliverance, and did not see that the very thing that thus moved him, and deterred him from becoming a Christian, contributed to the confirmation and more effectual commendation of our religion.The City of God · Book 8 11:2Augustine of HippoFor although a Christian man instructed only in ecclesiastical literature may perhaps be ignorant of the very name of Platonists, and may not even know that there have existed two schools of philosophers speaking the Greek tongue, to wit, the Ionic and Italic, he is nevertheless not so deaf with respect to human affairs, as not to know that philosophers profess the study, and even the possession, of wisdom. He is on his guard, however, with respect to those who philosophize according to the elements of this world, not according to God, by whom the world itself was made; for he is warned by the precept of the apostle, and faithfully hears what has been said, "Beware that no one deceive you through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the elements of the world." Then, that he may not suppose that all philosophers are such as do this, he hears the same apostle say concerning certain of them, "Because that which is known of God is manifest among them, for God has manifested it to them. For His invisible things from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made, also His eternal power and Godhead." And, when speaking to the Athenians, after having spoken a mighty thing concerning God, which few are able to understand, "In Him we live, and move, and have our being," he goes on to say, "As certain also of your own have said." He knows well, too, to be on his guard against even these philosophers in their errors. For where it has been said by him, "that God has manifested to them by those things which are made His invisible things, that they might be seen by the understanding," there it has also been said that they did not rightly worship God Himself, because they paid divine honors, which are due to Him alone, to other things also to which they ought not to have paid them,-"because, knowing God, they glorified Him not as God: neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things;" -where the apostle would have us understand him as meaning the Romans, and Greeks, and Egyptians, who gloried in the name of wisdom; but concerning this we will dispute with them afterwards. With respect, however, to that wherein they agree with us we prefer them to all others namely, concerning the one God, the author of this universe, who is not only above every body, being incorporeal, but also above all souls, being incorruptible-our principle, our light, our good. And though the Christian man, being ignorant of their writings, does not use in disputation words which he has not learned,-not calling that part of philosophy natural (which is the Latin term), or physical which is the Greek one), which treats of the investigation of nature; or that part rational, or logical, which deals with the question how truth may be discovered; or that part moral, or ethical, which concerns morals, and shows how good is to be sought, and evil to be shunned,-he is not, therefore, ignorant that it is from the one true and supremely good God that we have that nature in which we are made in the image of God, and that doctrine by which we know Him and ourselves, and that grace through which, by cleaving to Him, we are blessed. This, therefore, is the cause why we prefer these to all the others, because, whilst other philosophers have worn out their minds and powers in seeking the causes of things, and endeavoring to discover the right mode of learning and of living, these, by knowing God, have found where resides the cause by which the universe has been constituted, and the light by which truth is to be discovered, and the fountain at which felicity is to be drunk. All philosophers, then, who have had these thoughts concerning God, whether Platonists or others, agree with us. But we have thought it better to plead our cause with the Platonists, because their writings are better known. For the Greeks, whose tongue holds the highest place among the languages of the Gentiles, are loud in their praises of these writings; and the Latins, taken with their excellence, or their renown, have studied them more heartily than other writings, and, by translating them into our tongue, have given them greater celebrity and notoriety.TRACTATES ON JOHN · Tractate 49 1:12Augustine of Hippo10. Therefore, to make this the occasion of instructing your Charity, all souls have, when they quit this world, their different receptions. The good have joy; the evil, torments. But when the resurrection takes. place, both the joy of the good will be fuller and the torments of the wicked heavier, when they shall be tormented in the body. The holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and good believers, have been received into peace; but all of them have still in the end to receive the fulfillment of the divine promises; for they have been promised also the resurrection of the flesh, the destruction of death, and eternal life with the angels. This we have all to receive together; for the rest, which is given immediately after death, every one, if worthy of it, receives when he dies. The patriarchs first received it-think only from what they rest; the prophets afterwards; more recently the apostles; still more lately the holy martyrs, and day by day the good and faithful. Thus some have now been in that rest for long, some not so long; others for fewer years, and others whose entrance therein is still less than recent. But when they shall wake from this sleep, they shall all together receive the fulfillment of the promise.Fragments · English translation 5:13Philip of Side(22) Therefore, since concerning the all-powerful order of God, so entirely holy and salvific, the measureless madness of the enemies, thrown into confusion as though by some cloud, does not hesitate to offer an interpretation, perverse and destructive, I shall attempt to set forth [my views] briefly, as far as the faith and devotion of my soul have abundant resources for speaking. (23) For indeed, the malice of these men, <just like that> of the pagans, puts on display such a kind of shamelessness that they are not afraid to say, with an impious mouth, that the all-powerful God did not do, did not wish to do, all that is revealed in the divine Law. (24) O, such impious speech, that calls down on itself and deserves every extreme punishment: It desires, truly insanely and rashly, to make the glory of this divine benefaction—a glory that cannot be comprehended by any human being—disappear. (25) For what is more worthy of God than purity? This has come forth from most holy association with the source of righteousness, passed like a flood through the whole circumference of the world, and put the powers of the most holy virtues on display for the human race. But they, considering these virtues at first to be hostile to themselves, suffered <the fate> of the Assyrians—and with these leading the way as a bad example, the other nations were persuaded to go along with them. (26) In these things, just as we perceive it in our own experience, we see that the divine compassion of God our Savior has been at work, when the same [Savior] day by day and year by year commanded many of them, who were being plagued by the sting of fiery madness, to rise to the patient endurance of the Savior's healing. And yet not even so is the greatness of such generosity able to come with favor in the eyes of the others, <because of> human ignorance of the fact that the divine lordship is able to raise up every people, and to make it secure once it has been raised to a height, <and> likewise, to demolish and destroy. (27) But things would have turned out more adversely for human affairs, if God, who is all-powerful, had <not> given himself the task of doing everything, by the quiet nod of his own divinity. For human madness would have become even more long-lived, and human stubbornness, which knows no bounds, would have destroyed all souls, nor would the other most numerous things, which in the disorder of the world still perform their orderly duties, have been able to appear—(28) rather, all things would have quickly perished, together with [human] ignorance of God; and the unrighteousness of malice and jealousy would have remained, not as in a few people, but rather, no one would have been found opposed to jealousy, with the [various] religions diffused largely and broadly into the souls of men to such an extent that through the baseness of these men, the light of this brightness of ours would have been obscured for them, and they would always have been deprived of it. (29) Therefore, no word that has been spoken will be able to drag my faith out of my soul; for, when nothing base stands in the way, it is accompanied by a perfect power, the living Word of truth, which is alone all-powerful, the guardian of all things and protector of our salvation. Thus he [i.e., God] seems, in a certain manner, lavishly to bestow intimacy with his most holy Word, to preserve <....> of the one who frees [us], and to provide for us the brightness of the light. (30) So then, for what reason do the people of all the nations even now fail to discern the heavenly light, despise the most glorious Holy One, and go after earthly things, which have no substantial truth, no brilliance of pure brightness, no authority of celestial divinity? (31) What unworthy behavior! Even to this day, not at all falling short in impiety, and not looking toward their duty, they fail to see that they are falling down because of their wretched error; they do not cease to defile the brightness with these filthy works of the world—that is to say, by setting up wood and stone and bronze and silver and gold and these sorts of earthly <materials> for worship, and promising themselves a hope of life from these, building temples for them with striking ornaments, and in this way increasing and adding to their worship because of the fact that the greatness of the buildings (constructed by them!) produces a sense of wonder worthy of their own gaze. (32) So then, when they are seen to do this, it is clearly discerned—even if for the most part they themselves in their arrogance do not perceive or see it—that they are caught openly boasting over their own works. Thus, we do not see how great and how vast is God, the ruler of all, who is also master and judge of all, whom some [of us] unwittingly <outrage> with their very confidence in their own virtue (as they see it). (33) For it was by virtue of his arrangements that the form of our bodies received its due shape. The same [God] bound together the connections of all our limbs with the strongest sinews, so that in every action we pursue we might keep the vigor of our united parts without tiring. Then, when this had been brought to completion by his saving arrangement, he also breathed spirit into us, so that all these [physical parts] would be able to move and flourish, and granted vision to our eyes, set them in our head for our understanding, and within this place [i.e., the head] he enclosed the reasoning process of all our thinking. (34) For this reason, if any right-minded person were to examine the logic of these arrangements, and leave off the rest—which cannot be comprehended either with words or numbers—he would be able, with a little reflection, to see and to understand the eternal and salvific authority of the immortal God. And a man will not be able to trap that one [i.e., God] with the snares of any kind of error, when it is possible for him to see that everything that has come to be is [as it is] by the power of God, as he himself has wished all these things to be. (35) But so that we may be able to see that a certain unlawful way of life in the world brought about people's ignorance of God, the reasoning process of sin having first been produced in the wretched souls of those stupid people because of the Enemy's deception, we can receive clear proof concerning this from the divine law. (36) For ever since that time, when the divine and holy command was not kept with the appropriate diligence by those two people who had been formed in the beginning, after that, the flower of this name was born. And it became continual and increased still further, from the time when the aforementioned two were cast out by God's will. (37) And the physical world itself was brought along with human stupidity to such a point that he pronounced sentence against the Orient and the lands of the Occident. And the very excess of the Opposite Power took possession of human thoughts and made them dim. (38) Yet even in this situation, the untiring compassion of the all-powerful God is both holy and immortal. For in all the days and years that have passed, God has been setting free from this burden—through me, his servant—numberless multitudes of people who had been enslaved; and he will bring them out into the perfect brilliance of the eternal light. From these [facts], most beloved brethren, by virtue of a certain special providence and the glorious favors of our immortal God, I am confident that in future I shall be even more highly regarded for my very pure faith in him.Conferences of John Cassian - Part I · 9. The First Conference of Abbot Isaac 8:3John CassianIsaac: I imagine that all kinds of prayers cannot be grasped without great purity of heart and soul and the illumination of the Holy Spirit. For there are as many of them as there can be conditions and characters produced in one soul or rather in all souls. And so although we know that owing to our dulness of heart we cannot see all kinds of prayers, yet we will try to relate them in some order, as far as our slender experience enables us to succeed. For according to the degree of the purity to which each soul attains, and the character of the state in which it is sunk owing to what happens to it, or is by its own efforts renewing itself, its very prayers will each moment be altered: and therefore it is quite clear that no one can always offer up uniform prayers. For every one prays in one way when he is brisk, in another when he is oppressed with a weight of sadness or despair, in another when he is invigorated by spiritual achievements, in another when cast down by the burden of attacks, in another when he is asking pardon for his sins, in another when he asks to obtain grace or some virtue or else prays for the destruction of some sin, in another when he is pricked to the heart by the thought of hell and the fear of future judgment, in another when he is aglow with the hope and desire of good things to come, in another when he is taken up with affairs and dangers, in another when he is in peace and security, in another when he is enlightened by the revelation of heavenly mysteries, and in another when he is depressed by a sense of barrenness in virtues and dryness in feeling.Commentary on the Gospel of John · Book 6 3:11Cyril of AlexandriaIn the next place then I think it is fitting to set forth |8 in what way we may rightly understand the words which were spoken by God. The Lord, He says, is long suffering and of great mercy, taking away transgressions and sins. Then we will read that which immediately follows as if with a note of interrogation:. And will He not surely clear the guilty? So that thou mayest understand something of this sort: Will not, says He, the longsuffering and greatly merciful God, Who takes away transgressions and sins, will He not surely clear the guilty? Of course it is not to be doubted: certainly He will thoroughly purge him. For how is He longsuffering and of great mercy and how does He at all take away sins, unless He purges the guilty? At these words He goes off to a demonstration of His inherent longsuffering and forbearance, even that He will visit the sins of the fathers upon children unto the third and fourth generation: not chastising the son for the father; do not think this: nay, not even does He lay upon a descendant the faults of his ancestors like a burden: but meaning something of this sort. There was (we will suppose) a certain man, a transgressor of laws, having his mind full of all wickedness, and who, being taken in this manner of lining, deserved to be punished without any respite; but yet God in forbearance dealt with him patiently, not bringing upon him the wrath he had merited. Then to him was born a son, a rival of his father in impious deeds and outdoing his parent in villainy: God also shewed longsuffering towards this man. But from him is born a third, and from the third a fourth, in no way inferior to their progenitors in wickedness, but practising equal impiety with them. Then God pours out wrath upon them, already even from the beginning deserved by the whole race, after He has tolerated as much as and even more than it behoved Him. A postponement of vengeance even unto the fourth generation, how is it not truly a commendation of Divine gentleness? For that He is wont to chastise neither son for father nor father for son, it is not hard to learn from those words which by the voice of the prophet Ezekiel He clearly spake to the Jews |9 themselves, when over this same thing they murmured and said: The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. And, says he, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, what mean ye by this proverb in Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord, this proverb shall be said no more in Israel. For all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son; they are mine. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of his son: each in his own iniquity in which he hath sinned, in that shall he die. But I suppose no one is so foolish as to think that God did not at the beginning legislate in the most excellent way, but somehow changed His plans and altered His ideas for the better, and like one of ourselves was with difficulty and after subsequent deliberation able to improve His legislation to what was most fitting. In such a case, if we praise the earlier laws we shall clearly be blaming the later, and if we express an opinion that the later laws are superior we shall condemn the earlier by our lower estimation of them. God too will legislate in opposition to Himself, and will have fallen short, as we may have done, of a perfect standard, by ordaining one thing at one time and a different thing at another time. But I suppose every one will say that the Divine Nature cannot be in any way subject to such inconsistencies as this, and could not even have ever fallen short of absolute perfection.Commentary on the Twelve Minor Prophets · amos 1:2Cyril of AlexandriaAMOS was a goatherd, and in pastoral customs and laws brought up; and he made his abode in the desert to the south of the land of the Jews, which extends as far as the borders of the Indian sea, and stretches into the land of the Persians, and countless barbarian tribes graze upon it, and it is very well-suited to be able to feed flocks of sheep; for it is good for pasture and wide and crowned with various kinds of grass. And Amos was from the village of Tekoa, situated at the very feet of the desert. And since he was a good man, and a worker of all gentleness, he was immediately enriched with the spirit of prophecy, and he prophesied not in Jerusa- lem, but while still among the flocks themselves, at the beginning of his customary and practiced concerns, then also having arrived in Bethel itself. For Tekoa was not so much under the kingdom of Judah, but under that of Ephraim. That the accounts we have given concerning these things are true, you will observe effortlessly, and you will be fully informed by his own words; for he prophesied in Bethel, as I said, saying that the altars of laughter would be destroyed, and the rites of Israel would be made desolate; and adding to these, "And I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with a sword." But the priest of Bethel; this was Amaziah; gnashed his teeth at the Prophet. Then he sends to Jeroboam king of Israel saying "Amos makes conspiracies against you "in the midst of the house of Israel, the land is not able to bear "all his words; because thus says Amos: By "a sword Jeroboam shall die, and Israel a captive "shall be led away from his land. and Amaziah said to "Amos: O seer, go, depart into the land of Judah, and there "live, and there you shall prophesy. But at Bethel no longer "continue to prophesy, for it is the king's sanctuary, "and it is the king's house; and Amos answered and said "to Amaziah: I was not a prophet, nor a son of a pro- "phet, but I was a herdsman, a gatherer of sycamore fruit, and "the Lord took me from the sheep, and the Lord said to "me: Go, prophesy to my people Israel." He was taken, then, from the flocks, and he prophesied in Bethel, where the first Jeroboam, son of Nebat, also set up a golden calf. And I think it is somehow useful to note that the Amos who was the father of Isaiah was a different person. But what and on what subjects at all were the words from him, by taking up the matters before us we will clarify as much as possible. The words of Amos, which were in Accarim of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Jerusalem. These, he says, are the words of the prophecy of Amos from Tekoa, which were in Accarim. But it must be known that the Hebrew version does not know this word at all, that is, 'in Accarim'; for they have only said, 'The words of Amos from Tekoa.' But the other interpreters, instead of 'in Accarim,' have put, 'among the herdsmen.' These, therefore, he says, are the words of Amos from Tekoa, which came at the time of still shepherding, and in the very sheepfolds. And concerning Jerusalem itself he says he did not so much hear, but rather saw the words. For God made the things themselves manifest and virtually present to the holy prophets along with the revelations, so that the words seemed to have become somehow visible, with the vision of things that would come to pass perhaps running concurrently with what God might say. However, this is worthy of investigation: for how could anyone think that the words came concerning Jerusalem alone, when through the voice of the same prophet God accuses both Judah and Israel? For he said again, "Thus says the Lord: For the three "impieties of the sons of Judah, and for the four, I will not turn "them away, because they rejected the "law of the Lord, and did not keep his commandments. "And their vanities which they made led them astray, "after which their fathers followed; "and I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the foundations "of Jerusalem." Then, following these things, "Thus says the Lord: "For the three impieties of Israel, and for the four, "I will not turn him away." And having brought forward the manners of their sin, he threatened terrible things, and his discourse has a very great rebuke against both. How then could the words be understood as having been for Jerusalem, when God says, "I will send "a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the foundations of Jerusalem." What, then, will be the manner of our defense? Come, let us consider. We say, then, that it is the custom of the holy prophets, sometimes to distinctly call the two tribes in Jerusalem, Judah and Benjamin, Israel, and at other times again to name the ten other tribes in Samaria Israel, that is, Ephraim, but most often they do not distinguish. And since all are of the blood of Israel, so also they name the twelve tribes. But if they should wish perhaps to signify to us the entire Synagogue of the Jews, we will find them no longer using the name of Jerusalem in a restricted sense. The words of the prophecy of Amos, then, were concerning the whole multitude of the Jews, both that in Jerusalem and that in Samaria; but how they might be concerning them, it is necessary to say. Therefore, the manner of our defense is twofold. For first, he has introduced the God of all recounting the sins of the Synagogue of the Jews; then having announced beforehand the things that would be against them, And he added to these things the good things that come from gentleness, and that in due time there would be a great sparing of them and a renewal to their original state. For Amos himself said again, as from the person of God, "Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says "the Lord. For, behold, I command, and I will sift among all "the nations the house of Israel, as one sifts in "a sieve, and not a fragment shall fall upon the earth." He necessarily also foretells the coming redemption through Christ, and that they will pass over to a renewal, and will be in a state of well-being, as God has mercy on them. And he spoke thus again, "In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is "fallen, and I will rebuild its fallen parts, and "I will raise up its ruins, and I will rebuild "it as in the days of old." Therefore, the words are concerning Jerusalem. And in another way, they might reasonably be understood to be concerning her. For Syria and the kings of Damascus, and not a few of the neighboring nations, ravaged the land of the Jews, at different times different ones rising up and devastating it, carrying off plunder, and doing things out of unrestrained anger, so that they came into extreme misery. Therefore, to all these who had sacked her, the Prophet introduced God threatening desolation, and said they would be punished for their unholy deeds. Therefore, on behalf of Jeru- salem, or rather, on behalf of the whole congregation of the Jews, were the words of Amos spoken. And we shall know this clearly by examining the times of the prophecy; for it is written next: In the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. But I suppose someone will say, 'And what is the benefit for those who read this, to have to examine curiously, and very minutely, the times of the reigns of those just named, I mean Uzziah and also Jeroboam?' And to this we say that the matter is necessary, as it contains within itself the whole circumstance, as it were, of the prophecy, as if in birth pangs. For he threatens destruction and uprisings and conflagrations to Syria and Damascus and to the barbarians dwelling near Judea, and from this came the beginning of his divine oracles. Therefore it is necessary to learn the reasons why the times of the reigns were added, what and how many things were accomplished by each, how he lived, and what is worthy of hearing in both. Having turned aside, then, into apostasy, both Israel and Judah were disciplined in many ways. For when the rulers of Damascus and the Syrians would run down and besiege them, they plundered the lands among them; and when, in turn, the Moabites and Idumeans, the Gergesenes and Elamites, the Azotians and the inhabitants of Accaron were maltreating Samaria, and indeed also the kingdom of Judah, using unbridled impulses and an insatiable will, and being driven to extremes of rage; and indeed we shall find that they have done this in various ways; for instance, when Ahab was king of Samaria and over Israel. And it is written thus in the third book of Kings, "And the son of Ader gathered "all his force, and went up and besieged "Samaria, and thirty-two kings with him and "every horse and chariot; and they went up and besieged "Samaria and made war against it." See then that the king of Damascus, that is, Ader, made allies against Israel, thirty-two other rulers of the neighboring nations, and thus made war on the land. But also in the times of Joash king of Judah, Hazael the Syrian made war on Jerusalem. And it is written again in the fourth book of Kings, "Then Hazael "king of Syria went up and fought against Gath, and "captured it. And Hazael set his "face to go up to Jerusalem. And Joash king "of Judah took all the holy things that Jehoshaphat and "Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers and kings "of Judah, had dedicated, and his own holy things and all the the gold that was found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the house of the king and sent it to Hazael king of Syria, and he went up from Jerusalem." For they did such things according to divine wrath, since Israel had offended, by turning away exceedingly and being terribly excited about the worship of idols. But the foreigners, when they conquered, were insulting the glory of God. For the wretched ones thought to themselves that the hand that helped them had grown weak, and they have dared to behave insolently against the glory of God. And so the Syrians, having grown weak, when Ader was briefly besieging Samaria, made a false pretext for their cowardice, saying, "The God of Israel is a God of mountains and not a God of valleys." For they thought that those of Israel had conquered because God was able to save only in the mountains or on the hills. 'We have been defeated, then,' they say, 'because the God of Israel is a God of mountains; but if we could join battle on the bare plains, we would certainly overcome them, since the God of Israel is weak in the valleys.' But these are charges of Hellenic delusion, and the terrible unguarded speech of those who do not know the true God by nature. Therefore, God who is all-powerful was indignant with the foreigners, and very rightly so, because even when conquering Israel, as I said, they offered thank-offerings to their own gods, and talking nonsense they thought they had prevailed even over God Himself. As time went on after the reign of Ahab, and of certain others in between and in succession, a king was proclaimed over Israel in Samaria, Jeroboam, another besides the first, who was the son of Nebat, but his namesake and of like mind and impious. But in the times of his reign the compassionate God at last pitied Israel, who was weighed down by unbearable hardship, and He freed them from their troubles through the hand of Jeroboam, although he was exceedingly wicked and an apostate. For he so prevailed over the foreigners, as even to recover again cities that had been taken away from them in the times of past kings, and to subject them to his own scepters, and to inflict very many evils on those who had formerly conquered. For it is written about him in the fourth book of Kings: "In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Joash began to reign over Israel in Samaria for forty-one years; and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel sin. For he restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by the hand of his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher. For the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, and that they were reduced to a few, confined and destitute and abandoned, and there was no one to help Israel. And the Lord did not say that he would blot out the seed of Israel from under heaven; and he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Joash. Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam and all that he did, and his mighty deeds, how he waged war, and how he recovered Damascus and Hamath for Judah in Israel, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?" Behold, he says clearly that those of Israel were afflicted, with no one to save them, so that they were few and scattered; yet that they were saved from the hand of Jeroboam. And he has put 'from the hand' instead of 'by the hand'. For he himself was not the one crushing Israel, but rather fighting for and defending it; and he recovered Damascus, and won back the border of Israel and performed many mighty deeds. While Jeroboam was reigning, Azariah, also called Uzziah, is anointed king over Judah in Jerusalem. who was no less burdensome to the nations, and vigorously pressing upon those who had ravaged Judea. For he was a pious and God-loving man. But when he had prevailed over the enemies, with God permitting him to conquer, he became sick with arrogance, and went by his own commands to that it was necessary then also to act as a priest to God, and indeed he dared to go up to the divine altar itself, and to offer incense. But immediately God rebuked him. For he was marked with leprosy, a terrible and incurable affliction, so that as one unclean according to the law he might be sent out of Jerusalem, and might cease then both from acting as a priest to God, and from the sacred rite he had unlawfully practiced, and from defiling the divine temple. And the sacred Scripture spoke thus concerning him in the fourth of Kingdoms: "In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah the son of Amaziah king of Judah began to reign. He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Amaziah his father had done. Except the high places he did not remove, because the people were sacrificing and burning incense on the high places. And the Lord touched the king, and he was a leper until the day of his death." And these things are in Kingdoms, but in the second of Chronicles a leaner narrative is given concerning these things. It is as follows: "And all the people of the land took Uzziah, and he was sixteen years old and they made him king in the place of his father Amaziah. He built Elath, he restored it to Judah after the king slept with his fathers. Uzziah was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Amaziah his father had done. And he was seeking the Lord in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the fear of the Lord, in his days he sought the Lord, and the Lord made him prosper. And he went out and fought against the Philistines, and broke down the walls of Gath and the walls of Jabneh and the walls of Ashdod, and he built cities in Ashdod, and among the Philistines the Lord made him strong, against the Philistines and against the Arabs who dwelt upon the rock, and against the Meunites. And the Meunites gave gifts to Uzziah, and his name was known as far as the entrance of Egypt, because he was exceedingly strong." Then it says next concerning him: "And he did wrong against the Lord his God, and he entered into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him eighty priests of the Lord, valiant men. And they stood up against Uzziah the king and said to him, It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense; go out from the sanctuary, because you have rebelled against the Lord; and this will not be for your glory from the Lord God. And Uzziah was enraged, and in his hand was the censer to burn incense in the temple; and while he was enraged with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord, above the altar of incense. And the chief priest and the priests turned to him, and behold, he was leprous on his forehead, and they hurried him out from there, and indeed he himself hurried to go out, because the Lord had rebuked him." Concerning Uzziah's being made a leper, these things suffice; but that he became a mighty man, and campaigned against the lands of the Philistines, and became so great in strength as to build cities among them, and to impose tribute, and to bring under his own scepters those who were once very proud, the sacred Scripture has taught sufficiently. Therefore, since the prophetic word has introduced to us at the beginning the future desolation of the Philistines, the memory of the reigns of Uzziah and Jeroboam has become necessary, for they were conquered through them, as we have at least said before. We know, therefore, that Damascus was also burned by the hand of the Assyrians, and the tribes of the Philistines were no less ravaged. But since it is of these those things being later, we will of necessity attach to the times of both Jeroboam and Uzziah the things that happened to the foreigners, and no less to the leaders of the Assyrians themselves. And since the Prophet has added "Two years before the earthquake," we have necessarily also made mention of Uzziah being struck with leprosy. For since he dared to act as a priest unlawfully, he was struck with leprosy when God reproved him, and Jerusalem was shaken by an earthquake, and through this it was clear to those at that time that God was indicating his own wrath. And he said, The Lord has spoken from Zion, and from Jerusalem he has given his voice, and the pastures of the shepherds have mourned, and the top of Carmel has withered. In these words the whole purpose of the prophecy is revealed to us, and the force of what is set forth might reasonably be understood as a kind of definition and preface of the entire oracle, overshadowed by great obscurity. For the word is composed as from a likeness and a metaphor, and as from what is wont to happen to the well-rooted summits of mountains, or sometimes also to the bare plains. For mountains, though luxuriant with thickets and woods, and plains again, crowned with much and abundant grass, when some destructive thing or perhaps a plague, or another of the maladies from the air, unexpectedly wither. In this way human affairs also fail, and sometimes bitter and unbearable calamities strike cities and countries, destroying and corrupting both small and great. For what would an enemy's sword spare, or, let us say, a plague, utterly cutting down both the one distinguished in wealth and glories and powers, and the obscure and downtrodden? Therefore, the word has now become for the Prophet especially fitting to his accustomed ways. For he was, as I said, a goatherd, and the trope is made as from the fact that the pastures of the flocks are often destroyed. What then is the truer meaning of what has been said? He says the Lord spoke from Zion, as from his own place, and from Jerusalem, as from that which was allotted to him; for the incorporeal is not in a place. But since that famous temple was in Jerusalem, the place somehow seemed to be his own, at least according to the supposition of the ancients who still had small thoughts about God. But instead of "spoke," the Hebrew version has put "roared," that is, he bellowed, in the manner of lions. When this happened, he says, the pastures of the flocks mourned; and by "pastures of the flocks" he means the nations of the foreigners, as being subject to certain shepherds, their own rulers, who lead and carry the people under their hand to whatever they please. Therefore they mourned, that is, they have been in dejection and in every evil; for mourning happens for the dead. And the cause of their calamity was that God roared down, and as it were threatened destruction. "For a lion," he says, "will roar, and who will not be afraid?" But not only did the pastures of the flocks mourn, but in addition to this the top of Carmel also withered; and by "the top of Carmel" he means Jerusalem. For Carmel is a mountain situated in the country of the Jews, on which also Elijah the Tishbite dwelt. And often the whole land of the Jews is signified by the name of Carmel. Such is what was said by God through the voice of another prophet to the sons of Israel: "And I brought you into Carmel to eat "its good things and its fruits, and you entered "and defiled my land, and you made my inheritance "an abomination." Since, therefore, Jerusalem was named the most notable and distinguished of the other cities in Judaea, he calls it the top of Carmel, as being lifted up in glory, as excelling in pre-eminence, as conspicuous beyond the others, on account of having the divine temple, and the kings from the tribe of Judah who reigned at various times. But it is the custom of the holy prophets to hide their words providentially in obscurities, because of the unbridled impulses of the hearers. For they would not have they tolerated those speaking openly, very much stirred up to audacity, and rebuking the holy prophets and saying, “But speak to us and announce to us another delusion.” And the Lord said, “For the three impieties of Damascus and for the four I will not turn away from it, because they sawed with iron saws the pregnant women of Gilead. And I will send fire upon the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the foundations of the son of Hadad. And I will break the bars of Damascus, and I will destroy the inhabitants from the plain of On, and cut off a tribe from the men of Harran, and the renowned people of Syria shall be taken captive, says the Lord.” The divine Moses marvels at God as both good and long-suffering, and very rightly. For since Israel had made a calf in the wilderness, and said foolishly, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt,” he had necessarily offended. But since God threatened to destroy them completely, then Moses fell down and besought, and indeed persuaded the Creator to remit the punishment for those who had sinned, he offered up songs of thanksgiving, saying, “The Lord God is compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and very merciful and true, and keeping justice and mercy for thousands, taking away iniquities and injustices and sins, and will not clear the guilty, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children and upon the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.” The peoples of the Jews did not understand this correctly. For they thought God to be so harsh and implacable and long in wrath, as to bring the faults of the fathers upon the children’s children. And so mocking this very thing, they would say, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth were set on edge.” For this reason God says to the prophet Ezekiel, “Son of man, what is this parable to you in Israel, saying, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth were set on edge’? As I live, says the Lord, this parable shall no longer be spoken in Israel. For all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son, they are mine. The soul that sins, it shall die. And the son shall not bear the sin of his father, nor shall the father bear the sin of his son.” For how is the Lord of all still long-suffering and very merciful and true, if He does not remit sins, and cleanse the guilty, but rather extends His indignation to the third and fourth generation? What then is the meaning? He is, as I said, both long-suffering and incomparably good, and does not immediately bring punishment upon those who have sinned. But He postpones it, even to a second generation, so that perhaps some intervening repentance might check His wrath. But if this should not happen, and the third and fourth from the first should be caught in the same, or even worse evils, and be found to be imitators of their ancestors' impiety, then indeed, then at last He brings the punishments, bestowing upon the generation a sufficient long-suffering for those who have already passed; this is the visiting of the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation. Does He not then say, having been long-suffering with Damascus many times, shall I not at last be indignant, and very rightly, for three and four sins? For what have they done? Many other things indeed. Yet they will pay the penalty for their excessive cruelty. For I will turn away from them, because they sawed with iron saws the pregnant women of Gilead. Now Gilead is a small city of Judea, situated on the border of the land of the Palestinians. The Syrians captured this beforehand, and destroyed it with complete ruin, cutting with iron saws the pregnant women, and together with the infants melting away the raw embryos of women. But the iron saws he calls the wheels of the wagons, with which it is the custom for the Syrians to thresh the grain on the threshing-floor. And so somewhere God also says through the voice of Isaiah to the Synagogue of the Jews, “Behold, I have made you as the wheels of a threshing-wagon, new, saw-toothed.” Therefore, it is similar As if he were to say, for instance, to Damascus: I will determine your judgment, for what you have threshed and crushed those in Gilead, so as not even to spare those still in the womb, to whom mercy from all follows and is owed. That some from Damascus treated the people of Israel cruelly and savagely, you may learn effortlessly by paying attention to the words of the prophet Elisha. For he arrived in Damascus. And when he met Hazael, while Hadad was still sick, "The man of God," it says, "wept, and Hazael said, 'Why does my lord weep?' And he said, 'Because I know what evil things you will do to the sons of Israel: their strongholds you will send up in fire, and their chosen men you will kill with the sword, and their infants you will dash to pieces, and their pregnant women you will rip open.'" Since Damascus has done these things against Gilead, and rather against the whole land of the Jews, he threatens to burn down the house of Hazael and Hadad, and to break the bars of Damascus. These things were done partly and at times by Uzziah and Jeroboam; for they themselves also took Syria and conquered it by force; and as time went on, also by the king of the Assyrians. Then he says, and I will destroy inhabitants from the plain of On. On the prophets call Bethel, in which the accursed Jeroboam set up the golden calf. But from that time on it was their custom to call every idolatrous land so. Therefore, the inhabitants in the land and plain of On, that is, of vanities, which is idols; for so the others have interpreted; I will destroy and cut off, he says, and I will cut down no less also a tribe from the men of Harran, which is a town somewhere surely bordering Damascus, having most warlike inhabitants. And he says that the renowned people of Syria will be taken captive. By renowned, he means either the one greatly famous, or the mercenary and one gathered to them for assistance; for, as I said, they would hire their foreign neighbors when campaigning against the land of the Jews; or renowned means the one called from outside and a sojourner. For it must be known that the Hebrew version, instead of "people of Syria," says "of Cyrene"; for the Syrians are colonists of the Cyrenians. And we remember that, as is written again in the fourth book of Kingdoms, Ahaz was reigning over Jerusalem, and Pekah and Rezin, the kings of Syria and Damascus, went up against Jerusalem, laying waste the cities of Judah under it. And since Ahaz, reigning over Judah, was in unbearable fear, he hired Tiglath-pileser the Assyrian with money for assistance. "And the king of the Assyrians," it says, "heard him, and the king of the Assyrians went up to Damascus and captured it, and carried it away captive, and put Rezin to death." Thus says the Lord: For the three transgressions of Gaza, and for the four, I will not turn them away, because they took captive a captivity of Solomon, to shut them up in Edom. And I will send a fire upon the walls of Gaza, and it shall devour its foundations. And I will destroy the inhabitants from Ashdod, and a tribe shall be taken from Ashkelon, and I will bring my hand upon Ekron, and the remnant of the foreigners shall perish, says the Lord. I think it necessary before all else to say this, that neither the Hebrew version, nor indeed that of the others, mentions Solomon, but the Hebrews have said, "Because they took them captive," while the others have added, instead of "of Solomon," "a complete" or "perfect" one. But we will necessarily follow the writing of the seventy. Gaza is therefore accused; this is a city of the Philistines, which is now Palestine; as having taken captive a captivity of Solomon, to shut them up in Edom. And if we understand it thus, as at least the other interpreters have published, they have not made an ordinary devastation against Judea, but having taken a sufficient number of captives, they have given them into the hand of the Edomites. The Idumaeans, though descended from the blood of Esau, have always held hostile thoughts toward those of Israel, with whom the Gazites and the Azotians and the Ascalonites, and those of the so-called Accaron and some others of the foreigners, cooperating and becoming allies, prepared to take the cities of Judea by force. But if indeed, according to the writing of the seventy, we should say that they took captive the captivity of Solomon, it is necessary to understand that somehow. For Solomon was a most powerful and all-mighty king, and he so ruled over the neighboring nations that he even built many cities among them, and in them established Israel, with Hiram giving them to him. And it is so written in the second of Chronicles: "And it came to pass after twenty years in which Solomon had built "the house of the Lord and his own house, and the "cities which Hiram gave to Solomon, Solomon built them "and settled there the sons of Israel. And Solomon came "to Emath Soba, and prevailed against it, and "built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the "fortified cities he built in Hamath." And again, after other things: "And whatever Solomon desired according to his desire "to build in Jerusalem and in Lebanon, and in "all his kingdom. All the people that were left of "the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and "the Hivite and the Jebusite, who are not of Is-"rael, were from their sons left after "them in the land, whom the sons of Israel did not destroy, "and Solomon brought them up for tribute unto this day." Therefore, having allied themselves with those from Idumaea, the Gazites and Azotians and the rest have destroyed these cities, namely those named after Solomon, so that they no longer lie under the kingdom of Judah, but are assigned, as it were, to the unholy leaders of the Moabites. For this reason, he says Gaza will be consumed by fire along with the others, and the Azotians and the tribe of Ascalon will be utterly destroyed, and Accaron will fall under the hand of the smiter; and with them the remnant of the foreigners will certainly be destroyed together. For it is likely that they have served as mercenaries, and some of the neighboring barbarians have been called for aid. It is seen, therefore, to be a grievous thing and full of all danger, to conspire with the wicked and to love to be armed against those beloved by God, and to persecute saints. For even if they sometimes suffer on account of their stumblings, being disciplined by God, yet he will not utterly neglect those who are his own; and having disciplined them usefully, he will cast into destruction the vessels of wrath, that is, those who rushed against them with unbridled anger, surely according to that which was well said to Babylon concerning the sons of Israel: "I gave them "into your hands, but you showed them no mercy." For the excess of torment from those who were commanded to do this is exceedingly displeasing even to an indignant God. Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not turn away from it, because they delivered up the captivity of Solomon to Idumaea, and did not remember the covenant of brothers. And I will send a fire upon the walls of Tyre, and it shall devour its foundations. But the Tyrians again, in addition to those from Damascus, and indeed also the Azotians, the Gazites and Ascalonites, and those from Accaron, having surpassed the forbearance befitting God, and having been conquered, in a way, by the excess of their impieties, will be subjected to wrath, at least according to the meaning of the oracle, and will endure the ultimate punishment of all. And the charge against them is that they delivered up the captivity of Solomon to Idumaea, and being unmindful of the very covenant of brothers. What, then, the captivity of Solomon is, the argument has sufficiently shown us; but how it was delivered up to Idumaea, and by the Tyrians, it is necessary to say. For having enslaved a number not easy to count of those from Judah and Israel, they have sold to the Idumeans. But they, having made their blood brothers and free men from of old into the portion of captives, both oppressed them with the bitter yoke of slavery and forced them to live by the laws of the Greeks, the wretches all but mocking the glory of God, as though He had neither preserved for them the freedom from their fathers, nor indeed had the strength to grant them a state of well-being. And so the God of all says through the voice of another prophet, accusing not moderately those who shut up the captivity of Solomon into Idumea. "And "what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon and all Galilee "of the foreigners? Are you rendering a recompense to me, or "are you bearing a grudge against me? Swiftly and speedily I will "return your recompense upon your heads, for "what you took, my silver and my gold, and my "choice and beautiful things you brought into your temples, "and the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel you "sold to the sons of the Greeks, that you might drive them out from "their borders." Now a border, as it were, of those of Israel, is Judea in a bodily sense, but the law in a spiritual sense, outside of which they have come to be, being unnaturally sold to the sons of the Greeks. The Tyrians have done this, along with the others, having forgotten the covenant of the brothers itself. And this might be understood by us in three ways. For who are the brothers, and what is the covenant, come let us say, being guided by the sacred writings to the thoughts on this matter. Hiram, who was king of the Tyrians at the time, was one of the most beloved friends of the divine David; then after him he became beloved to Solomon, so as to make covenants of unanimity with him, to cooperate with him in all things, and to contribute the necessary care while he was completing the divine temple. And he brought very many gifts, and he himself also gained even greater and richer ones. Therefore, he either says that, that the Tyrians made war on Israel, forgetting the covenant of the brothers out of love, who had come to such a disposition and affection, that they seemed to be even of the same blood; or that the Idumeans, having descended from Esau, were brothers to those of Israel, but made war, having had no regard for the covenant of the brothers. For Esau had hostile and enemy thoughts against Jacob, being grieved in the beginning on account of the birthright; but when he was departing from the hearth of Laban at the proper time, and wishing to return home again with both his wives and children, he met him as a brother. For they embraced and kissed one another, and spoke what was fitting for friends, and treading upon their old difference, they made covenants of harmony and peace. But they were in this state. But the Tyrians, forgetting the covenant of the brothers, pitted the clans against each other, and persuaded them to hold their blood brothers as slaves, rendering the Idumeans far too strong over the vanquished by their own conspiracies. And if indeed someone should say this also of the Moabites themselves, who were of the blood of Lot, that the Tyrians violated the covenant of brothers, it is clear that it means the one from Abraham to Lot. For since the herdsmen of both fought, "Abram said to Lot," he says, "Let there be no strife between me and you, and between my "herdsmen and between your herdsmen, for we are "brother men." Therefore, for this reason he says it will be justly burned, and shaken from its very foundations. For "You shall not be with the majority for evil" is useful everywhere. Thus says the Lord: For the three transgressions of Idumea, and for the four, I will not turn them away, because they pursued their brother with the sword. The word now passes to the Idumean himself, that is, those of Esau, and it says very well that they too will be subjected to the consequences of wrath. For they made war on Israel, who was their brother, and did not shrink from raising the insolent and savage sword against those who were near and of their blood, not of the law having been mindful of nature, not having been mindful of anything human, but accustomed to conquering those outside and most hostile with enmities against brothers, and perhaps being very proud of this. Therefore let them hear from us too, "Why do you boast in wickedness, O mighty one?" And it might be said of them, and very appropriately, "Whose glory is in their "shame." For what it was better to love to put as far away as possible, these things indeed honoring with an utterly wicked judgment, they will hear again, "Woe "to those who call evil good and good evil, who "put darkness for light and light for darkness, who say "the bitter is sweet and the sweet is bitter." And he ravaged a womb upon the earth. The crimes of the Idumeans are usefully enumerated, and he goes back to Esau himself, showing them to be of low birth and sprung from an unholy father, so that we might perhaps understand that which is obliquely indicated through the voice of Isaiah, "For from the seed of serpents shall come forth the offspring of asps." He narrates, therefore, that their forefather Esau also almost ravaged the good things that had come to him from the womb and birth, and cast down to the earth the dignity of the birthright, deeming the thing worthy of almost no account for the sake of bodily food; for he sought a pottage of lentils, and having received it, he gave up the gift of nature. "For this reason," it says, "his name was called Edom;" which is, earthy, whence, I think, those descended from him are henceforth called Idumeans. Therefore the dignity from birth and womb he ravaged, it says, to the earth; he exchanged it for an earthy thing. They would be held liable for the same crimes who put the enjoyment of carnal things before spiritual things, and choose temporary things instead of eternal things, and things that are shaken instead of things that are not shaken, and despising the glory that is from God, but having most unwisely preferred the splendid things among men, which also, like shadows, pass by those who possess them. And very usefully the divine Paul cries out, "Lest there be any "fornicator," he says, "or profane person like Esau, who for one "meal sold his birthright." And he has seized his terror for a testimony. He again mentions another matter, able to slander the Idumean, as having always been awkward and wicked, and most hostile and warlike to those of his own blood. It is written, then, in Numbers, "And Moses sent "messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying, Thus "says your brother Israel: You know all the "hardship that has found us; and our fathers went down "into Egypt, and we sojourned in Egypt many "days, and the Egyptians afflicted us and our "fathers. And we cried out to the Lord, and the Lord heard "our voice and sending an angel "brought us out of Egypt; and now we are in Kadesh, a city "on part of your border; we will pass through your "land; we will not pass through fields or through vineyards, "nor will we drink water from your cistern; by the king's highway we will "go; we will not turn aside to the right or to the left, until "we have passed through your borders. And Edom said to him, You "shall not pass through me; but if not, I will come out against you in "war. And the sons of Israel say to him, "We will go along the mountain; and if I and my cattle drink of your water, "I will give you a price, but "it is no matter; we will go along the mountain. "But he said, You shall not pass through me. And Edom came out to "meet them with a heavy host and with a strong hand. And "Edom was not willing to allow Israel to pass through "his borders, and Israel turned away from him." Observe then again in these things, how terrible and beyond all reason are the crimes of lack of affection. For Israel did not ask for water from Edom without payment, but he was in arms, and drew up for battle, and having begrudged them passage alone, and having proceeded to this point of awkwardness was convicted, that if Israel had not turned away, he would not even have spared their blood. He has seized, therefore, his terror for a testimony. For they indeed they refused and drew back, fearing to make war, so that they might not seem to neglect love towards their brothers; but he made their drawing back, or rather their cowardice in this matter, which he also signifies by the name of dread, a pretext for a harsh protest against them. For he threatened plainly, that if he would not depart from the borders belonging to him, he would go out against him and make war henceforth. Therefore Edom was without love for his kinsman, and not moderately guilty of the charge of brother-hating; for this reason he was justly also hated by God; "For God is love," according to the voice of John, "and he who abides in love, abides in God." Therefore he who has chosen to live without love is not in God; how could he be? But he will rather lie outside of intimacy with God. And his anger he kept for a victory; and I will send a fire upon Teman, and it shall devour the foundations of her walls. This is indeed the third transgression of Esau. For his anger, clearly fierce towards enmity and impiety, he kept for a victory, that is, for complete victory, and to the very end. For he in no way ceased from his impious undertakings, although, as I have already said, Esau had departed from that ancient impiety, and no longer sought to kill Jacob, but rather changed to gentleness and brotherly love. For when he returned from the hearth of Laban, he embraced him with weeping; and somehow tears are always wont to be shed even in times of extreme joy; but those descended from him were exceedingly harsh, in the awkwardness of their ways surpassing even the wickedness of their forefather. But it is true, that in every way and altogether "The ways of the resentful lead to death." For this reason he also says I will send a fire upon Teman; this is a metropolis of Idumea; and it shall devour the foundations of her walls; for it has been burned by conquering enemies, and Teman has perished along with the others. Hating brothers will therefore end in fire and flames, and rising up against those of one's own blood, or even those gathered into unity and one-mindedness from spiritual kinship; but the boasts of love are free from such evils. Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of the sons of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away from them, because they ripped open the pregnant women of the Gileadites, that they might enlarge their borders. And I will kindle a fire upon the walls of Rabbah, and it shall devour her foundations with shouting in the day of war, and it shall be shaken in the day of her consummation, and their kings shall go into captivity, their priests and their princes together, says the Lord. The savagery of the Damascenes is also recorded in the case of the Ammonites. For they too killed the pregnant women of the Gileadites, not in defense of some others, nor indeed lending their wrath to foreigners, but for themselves, so that they might have a wider domain, and the borders of their kingdom extending very far, with all the land of the Jews laid waste, and those of Israel completely overthrown, as though God had suffered powerlessness, and He who promised to save, and to show Himself invincible to those who wish to make war, had truly grown weak. So then, having also captured the cities, they dared to mock the protecting God, and to the falsely-named gods they lit thank-offerings and sang victory odes. For this reason He says that Rabbah will be burned; this too is a metropolis of the land of the Ammonites; and He says that it will perish with a shout, that is, with the Babylonians shouting their war-cry against it. For they have taken it with a whole army, with Nebuchadnezzar overrunning the land of the Ammonites. And they shall go as captives, he says, the subjects together with their rulers, and those appointed to serve their own gods, having no help from them. For what could a deaf idol do, or how could it help anyone? And the proponents of the heresies are like those who cut open pregnant women, so that they might enlarge the borders of them. For in order that they may appear to be leaders of many, they do violence to wretched souls, and by deceptions from their words they cause them to miscarry a faith that is, as it were, raw and unfulfilled, speaking to them perverted things, and belching out things "from their own heart, and not from the mouth of the Lord." For no one says, "Jesus is Lord," except "in the Holy Spirit," nor "Jesus is anathema" except in Beelzebul. Thus says the Lord: For the three transgressions of Moab, and for the four, I will not turn away from it, because they burned the bones of the king of Idumea to lime. And I will send a fire upon Moab, and it will devour the foundations of their cities, and Moab will die in weakness, with a shout and with the sound of a trumpet. And I will destroy the judge from her midst, and I will kill all her rulers with her, says the Lord. The Moabites again have acted impiously, not moderately, so as to drive even them beyond the inherent gentleness and forbearance of the God of all. But their accusation is the sin against the dead; I mean the burning of the bones of the king of Idumea; and burning them in such a way as to finally reduce them to dust and lime. What then is the crime? Hatred and inhumanity and unbridled savagery against those of Israel. For one might say that the bones of the aforementioned king were burned for no other reason than solely on account of those of Israel. And since the story is clear, I will relate it briefly. It is written in the fourth of the kingdoms "And it came to pass after the death of Ahab that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. And King Joram went out on that day from Samaria and mustered Israel, and he went and sent to Jehoshaphat king of Judah, saying, The king of Moab has rebelled against me; will you go with me against Moab to war? And he said, I will go up; I am as you are, as your people are my people, as your horses are my horses. And he said, By what way shall I go up? And he said, By the way of the wilderness of Edom. And the king of Israel and the king of Judah and the king of Edom went, and they made a circuit of a seven days' journey; and there was no water for the camp nor for the cattle that were at their feet." Observe, therefore, how the king of Edom, that is, of Idumea, also took up arms with the kings; and since they were in want of water, they sent for the blessed prophet Elisha, and they begged that what they sought might be given from God. When this happened, the Moabites were captured; for it is written again after other things, "And Israel rose up and struck Moab, and they fled from before them. And they went in, advancing and striking Moab, and they overthrew the cities, and on every good portion of land each man threw his stone and filled it, and they stopped up every spring of water, and cut down every good tree, until only the stones of the wall were left torn down." Therefore, those from Moab, being enraged that those of Israel had at times conquered, while the king of Edom aided them and marched with them, since they could not otherwise harm a dead man, they sinned against his remains, consuming them with fire, not even sparing his bones any longer, adding, as it were, to the destroyed of Israel the one who had from time to time been their helper. Therefore, their cities will be burned, and He says they themselves will perish in weakness, not wasting away by disease, nor consumed by common ailments, but with a shout and with the sound of a trumpet, that is, as in war and battle; and He threatens that also judges and rulers and all her leaders will perish together with those under them. For they were in charge of counsel and enterprises, and of the whole impiety they were surely the instigators to the others. Thus says the Lord: For the three transgressions of the sons of Judah, and for the four, I will not turn away from them, because they have rejected the law of the Lord, and His commandments they have not kept, and their vanities which they made have led them astray, which their fathers followed after them; and I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the foundations of Jerusalem.To the lawless nations has also been added the one instructed by the law, that is, Judah; for the Judge is no respecter of persons. That He endured him while he was always sinning, and persevered for a long time, is shown by the fact that He was moved only at the third and indeed also the fourth sin. And yet it was surely necessary, as is reasonable, to allot to the other nations, since they do not have the divine law, a more abundant gentleness, and to lavish upon them the length of His forgiveness, but to demand punishment for indifference immediately from Israel, since he was nourished in the divine commandments and was not ignorant of the profitable path, but He endured even those who knew the law as if they did not know it. But when He at last beheld them carried away to the limit of wickedness and of awkward reasonings, then He says He will send the fire upon Jerusalem itself, and consume even to its very foundations the city that is so brilliant and renowned. And the crimes of those of Israel are very many; but most of all God blames them for following the errors of their fathers. For the ones still yoked to the greed of the Egyptians, and nourished in their customs and laws, kindled their worship for a calf; but the others, having escaped that most wretched slavery, and being instructed in many ways by the divine commandments so as to know clearly what is pleasing to God, were caught going backwards, and being dragged down into the error of their fathers, and perhaps even fearing as unseemly not to be seen in equal evils. For they too have worshipped the golden heifers. And the cause of such impiety for them has been that they rejected the law of the Lord, and were unwilling to keep His commandments. Therefore, as long as we are keepers of the law and lovers of God, and are diligent to keep the commandments, we shall be found wise and sagacious, and knowledgeable of every virtue, and indeed enriched in all such things. But having inclined toward indifference, and having disregarded the divine laws, we shall hereafter be carried about by every wind, deprived of the best mind and understanding. And we shall be "portions for foxes," with the unclean spirits dragging us this way and that. Rightly and wisely, therefore, does the divine David sing concerning every righteous man, "The law of his God is in his heart, and "his steps shall not be tripped." Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away from him, because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals, those who trample on the dust of the earth. He does not leave him unpunished, but rather subjects to punishments Israel, that is, the tribes in Samaria. And that they themselves, sinning unguardedly, have all but consumed the tranquility owed by God to the weak, the turning away for three and four sins would show, which having suffered they must necessarily be subjected to terrible things, and be in every evil. Therefore, the divine David, fearing this thing, and knowing it to be a cause of destruction, implored, saying, "Do not turn Your face from me, and "do not turn away in wrath from Your servant." For wrath always follows, and, as it were, accompanies the turnings away. And what are the crimes of those of Israel, he clearly states. For they have sold, he says, the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals, that is, they did not endure to speak rightly and justly, and to render for each of those being judged the justice that accords with the law. But if it happened that a man was righteous, sober and gentle, modest and unboastful; for such a one would be understood as both righteous and poor, or poor in spirit; being brought to judgment by one of the more powerful, this man is sold to his enemies, although the law clearly proclaimed, "You shall not take "person in judgment;" and again, "You shall not slay the innocent and the just." For the one entrusted with judging is certainly established in the order of God, to whom alone judging is proper. "For there is one lawgiver and judge," according to the voice of the saint. Therefore, the one who falsifies the account of justice and shows partiality will certainly insult the divine dignity, and offends God who says, "Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassion every one to his "brother." He accuses them, therefore, of selling the just and the poor to their enemies, and of being accustomed to doing this for the sake of a few and most worthless gains, which would scarcely suffice for those who received them for the purchase of sandals. But it was far better, having chosen to honor righteousness and what is pleasing to God, to be intoxicated rather with the honors from Him, and indeed to have the wealth that comes from a good reputation. "For a good name," he says, "is to be chosen rather than great riches." It should be known that through the voice of Isaiah He says something like this to the mother of the Jews, that is, Jerusalem: "Your silver is dross; your wine merchants mix wine with water; your princes are rebellious, companions of thieves, loving gifts, seeking rewards, not judging the fatherless, and not attending to the case of the widow;" and again through the voice of Jeremiah, "Her leaders judged for a reward." It is therefore everywhere accursed not to render judgment that is right and blameless, but in a burdensome manner and discredited by its inequality. And they struck the heads of the poor with their fists. He clearly reproaches and accuses them of oppression and greed, as being unholy and merciless, and those whom it was better to deem worthy of care and to choose to honor, and to love to restore with assistance out of love, they were accustomed, on the contrary, to do wrong, wasting away with unbearable and bitter sorrows those who are burdened with poverty. But our Lord Jesus Christ records what is done to them as done to His own person. For He says, "Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these, you have done it to Me." Therefore, we shall offend God in no small measure, by taking advantage of the weak and "striking the humble with fists," as it is written, and embittering with sorrows those who are weighed down by poverty, although we ought rather to extend to them the hand of mutual love. "For poverty," he says, "humbles a man, but the hands of the diligent make rich;" and the disciple of Christ also writes somewhere that "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." And they have turned aside the way of the humble. You will understand this in two ways: for either it means that they have thought arrogant things, and have come to such a measure of God-hated arrogance, as to reject even brothers, unless they are swimming in wealth and have splendid possessions, and to go with hatred, as it were, and in the same way as those who have not excessively practiced the passion of love of money, who are also humble, thrusting away the vain turmoil of life; or else, that having become teachers and leaders of the people, they pervert the way of the weaker, that is, of the humble, it being clear that these do not of themselves have an accurate knowledge of what is expedient, but rather adhere to the voices of their instructors. And the multitude of this kind is very great. For some live rather un-curiously and in simplicity, and depend on the voice or instruction of their teachers, and whatever way they learn is good, they love exceedingly. Therefore, the wise and God-loving among those allotted to lead show the straight path, by which, rushing along, they achieve a life pleasing to God. But those who have thought little of the divine law pervert the way of the humble, causing them to be outside of what is reasonable and truly fitting; such as Jeroboam did, having persuaded them to worship the man-made heifers; and having turned them away from the path that is straight and of the good, I mean of being devoted to the God and Lord who is so by nature and in truth. They turn aside from the way of the humble, those who do not hesitate to say to the one who is simple in mind, "Come with us, share in "unjust blood." They also turn aside from the way of the humble, those who twist the correctness of ecclesiastical dogmas to what seems right to them, persuading the mind of the more simple to go down a crooked and perverse path; and for indeed there is nothing right among them, but rather distorted and unseemly little sayings, and compositions of words, full of impiety and ignorance alike. And a son and his father went in to the same girl, so that they might profane the name of their God. He again accuses them for passionate and unrestrained pleasures, and has shown them to be neglectful of all decency in this one trespass. For it was better to be master of the passions and to overcome improper and loathsome pleasure and to cut off desires, and having resolved to rebuke the wills of the flesh and persuading to be still the law that rages in our members. But they were far behind such brilliant virtue, and were perhaps defeated by the passions of the flesh. Then how is it not wise, even in shameful things, to choose the better, and to consider that it is of the most exceedingly improper things for a son to leap upon his father's bed, and for a father to delight in raging unholily upon his son's very bed, and to choose to commit a terrible deed, which even without the law through Moses nature knows to be shameful, and deems worthy to condemn with movements of wrath? And indeed Reuben, having wronged his father's bed, offended not moderately; and the divine Paul was exceedingly indignant about such a thing being done by some; and these were Corinthians, to whom he also writes, saying, "It is actually reported that there is "fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, "that a man has his father's wife." But he did not stop his indignation at this; but he delivered the one who had done it "to Satan for the destruction of the flesh." Therefore, those who are guilty of such offenses profane the name of their God. And we do not say, by any means, that they imputed profanation and impurity to the divine nature. For how could they, or from where? But rather they cause the God of all to be blasphemed, as being a ruler of profane peoples. And indeed He said somewhere to the Jews, "Because of you my name is blasphemed continually "among the Gentiles." For just as those who live rightly are said to sanctify God, so also would those who practice an unclean and inglorious way of life be understood to profane Him. And binding their garments with ropes they made curtains next to the altar, and they drank wine from false accusations in the house of their God. Our Lord Jesus Christ, teaching that the divine temples ought to be maintained for no other reason than to glorify in them the God of all, and to make the worship that is fitting for him, once rebuked the Jewish merchants; for they were bringing into the temple sheep and oxen and doves; and indeed, "making a whip "of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, saying, 'It is written, "My house shall be called a house of prayer."'" And the sacred writing noted, "His "disciples remembered that it was written, 'The zeal for your house will consume "me.'" And the divine Paul also rebuked some who were accustomed to daring such things; for he writes thus: "Do you not have "houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church "of God and humiliate those who have nothing?" Therefore, it is seen to be unprofitable everywhere to dare to misuse the divine houses, as if they were common and belonged privately to each person. For where would the reverence due to God still be kept, if we serve the pleasures of the flesh in his sight? and in those places where we ought to be seen as radiant through solemnity, to be laughed at there, slipping into what is unseemly, and willing to do what is not right? which indeed he does not permit some to do without blame, and very rightly so. For they did not, he says, keep the altar free from hangings, but having fallen under them, they dared to get drunk and to fulfill the works of pleasure, so that they might also hear God saying clearly, “And I am a witness, says the Lord.” From what sort of absurdities would a drunken man abstain, whose mind is deranged and is prone to every kind of evil whatsoever? For the God of all sees even "the things in darkness," according to what is written, and nothing at all is unseen by him; but it seems somehow that the things in churches especially are done by us as if he were almost present and watching. And if it is truly most shameful, and has the ultimate condemnation from the law, to get drunk at all, how is it not beyond all description tending towards depravity, for such people to be seen even in the churches themselves? And what is still more burdensome, if the things for luxury are collected from unjust and wicked gains? Those who do this will hear God saying clearly, “Is my house a den of robbers?” Therefore, the crimes of others will be of great benefit to us, and through the things by which others have stumbled, we will become better, if we avoid their ways. For the temperate would reasonably be safer, if indeed they wished to live according to the law, if they chose not to emulate the wicked. But if it were said to Judah, that is, the two tribes in Jerusalem, Binding their garments with cords they made hangings next to the altar, the argument would rightly hold to the interpretation just now stated by us. But if indeed the offense were also brought against Israel, I would say that not in the house of him who is God by nature and in truth, nor next to the altar were the tents woven by means of the hangings, that is, the things of drunkenness were done, but in the house of their god, that he might mean Baal, or some other of those made into the form of an idol by human invention. How then could it still be counted as a crime for Israel, to be in a house of idols, perhaps, and beside the profane altar itself to get drunk with wine and weave tents? Because they have honored these things, and made the temples of their supposed gods workshops of drunkenness as well as of every shameful pleasure, although it was necessary rather to desire to worship God purely and with all sanctity, and to enter the house that is truly holy, and to consider the altar venerable. But they, eager to consider things so venerable and admirable as nothing, having honored things far more shameful, even dared to act insolently towards their own gods, trampling everywhere on the divine dignity, and fearlessly insulting the glory fitting for the one and only God by nature, when having also placed it upon those falsely named, they endured to esteem it of no account. But I destroyed the Amorite from before them, whose height was like the height of a cedar, and he was strong as an oak; and I dried up his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath. Do you see how he then shows them to be impiously insulting and choosing to despise, and him whom they ought rather to delight with songs of thanksgiving and with obedience in every single thing, they have chosen most foolishly and senselessly to grieve, because of their exceedingly great awkwardness of manners, and to drive to forgetfulness the good things they have suffered? For I, he says, destroyed the Amorite from before them; that is, I brought down the barbarian races, signified perhaps by the one Amorite, as being hard and rather coarse; I prepared to conquer the one who was so overgrown and unbreakable, so as to seem now somehow to be raised to the height of a cedar, and to imitate the strength of the exceedingly sturdy oak. For there was no other but I alone, he says, who withered him, and struck him down to the roots, and almost dried up his fruit. For since he has spoken as if about a tree, the discourse plausibly persists in the figure, and says that the harm came to its root, and that in this way the fruit also was destroyed. For the wood in the forests would not die in any other way, except in this manner. For that they were destroyed, when those from Israel, the Amorites and Hivites, Girgashites and Perizzites and Jebusites, with God clearly fighting alongside, no one would doubt. Bitter therefore it is to despise Christ, who gave us [the power] "to tread on serpents and scorpions and on all the power of the enemy," who destroys those who resist, and subdues the stronger; "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness of this age, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." And we have conquered all of these in Christ. And if we are to grieve our own Savior and Redeemer by turning aside to laziness, we will be at a loss, I know, for a reason and a pretext able to deliver us from punishment and fire. And I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you about in the desert for forty years, that you might inherit the land of the Amorites. He clearly explains what He said, and as if the discourse were going backwards, He reveals in brief the things from the beginning to the end. For I delivered them from slavery, He says, and freed them from the greed of the Egyptians; and I nourished them in the desert, sending down the manna to them from above, and in a manner befitting God sending forth springs of water, and from the steep rock bestowing outflows of unexpected streams. And the toil of their journey was not for small things, but so that they might inherit the land of the Amorites, which was promised to their fathers. But they have slipped into such stupidity, as perhaps not even to know my love and philanthropy towards them. It is necessary, therefore, for us who are in Christ through faith to remember, that we too have been freed from slavery, and just as from Egypt we have moved into the desert, that is, into a wide and truly most pure way of life, unmixed with what is worse, I mean, the Evangelical way; we have been enriched with the bread from heaven, the one giving life to the world. For we are strengthened in Christ, and we have had springs of pure waters in the writings of the holy Apostles; for thus also the prophet Isaiah named them, saying, "And draw water with joy from the springs of salvation." And what could the springs of salvation be, rather than surely those who send forth for us the saving and life-giving word, and evangelize the mystery of Christ, and initiate into the mysteries all under heaven. And I took of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for sanctification. Are not these things so, O sons of Israel? says the Lord. And you gave the sanctified ones wine to drink, and you commanded the prophets, saying, You shall not prophesy. It is a great matter for reproach and for condemnation for every evil to be, as it were, charged with ingratitude by God, who distributes to us all things, both those for glory and those sufficient for life. For although there were many nations throughout the world, He made Israel alone the chosen one, and to this glory God then called and raised him, so that some, those who loved a holy and most lawful life, were even adorned with the dignity of prophecy, and the young men among them were taken for sanctification, that is, those more mature in mind and having intellectual strength. For some were sanctified according to the law, those called Nazirites, letting the hair of their head grow for the Lord, abstaining from wine and the things from it—I mean vinegar and grapes and raisins and grapestones—and keeping very far away from dead bodies. And the discourse concerning these things is deep. Nevertheless, God honored them, both as prophets, as I said, and by raising up some of them to be sanctified typologically. But they, rejecting in an unseemly way this so brilliant and admirable glory, gave wine to drink to the sanctified ones, that is, those who had upon themselves a vow of sanctification. For they persuaded them to despise sanctification itself, surely saying that the law of God is absolutely nothing, and that for men to wish to be sanctified and to fulfill the customary rites for this purpose is useless. For even if the law was in shadows, yet it was not entirely deprived of the doctrines of truth; for the form of piety flashes forth in its types. But to rebuke the holy prophets themselves belongs to those who completely shake off the word of God, and who do not endure to be instructed, and who are ignorant that they have been honored, since, being from among them, they were taken up for communion with God. And he further asks in their midst and says, Are not these things so, O sons of Israel, says the Lord? Is it so, he says, that you will determine what is false even of such manifest matters? Will God need witnesses to convict you, who have chosen to slander such evident things? Therefore one must be sanctified, and with a steadfast mind attend to God, not admitting the opinions of the wicked. "For evil communications corrupt good manners," and the words of pleasure-lovers carry one away from sanctification and all reasonableness. Therefore we shall rather adhere to the voices of those who speak for God, to whom the Savior himself also bears witness, saying, "It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you." Therefore, behold, I roll beneath you, in the way that a cart full of stubble rolls. It was the custom for the ancients to transport by carts the things from the fields and whatever fills the threshing floor, and this practice is preserved to this day among those who inhabit the land of the east and of the west. And the wheels roll together with the axles, the wood creaking heavily and gratingly, and the loads placed upon them all but crying out. Therefore I myself, he says, the Master of all, will be as the thing that rolls under the cart, that is, the axle; for it, as I said, rolls the wheels with itself, having them fixed and fitted to it. And I will cry out as if against the impious, no longer being able to bear the grievous burden of their transgressions. "For they have rejected the law of the Lord, and his commandments they have not kept, but their vanities, which their fathers made, have led them astray," and they have forgotten me, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, who destroyed the Amorite from before their face, who took from their sons for prophets and from their young men for consecration. But I have honored them, but they themselves have descended to such an evil counsel, as to "bind their garments with cords, to make curtains next to the altar, and to drink wine from false accusations in the house of their God," and to give "the consecrated ones wine to drink, and to command the prophets, saying, 'You shall not prophesy.'" Therefore, being all but laden with such impieties of yours, like an axle under a cart that is full of stubble and sheaves, I will make the loudest outcry. And what harm will come from this, or what sufferings will again befall them, he makes clear immediately in what follows. However, it is necessary to say this, that it is truly a terrible thing to provoke God, and to finally slip into such wickedness that our sin becomes unbearable to him, even though by nature he is exceedingly gracious, good, and gentle. Therefore, one must by all means refrain from loving to offend him; but if anything should happen and one should suffer a human failing, one must not be seen to delay in repentance, nor indeed allow one's faults to grow, but rather, using a sobriety befitting a saint, to draw them back, and to hasten to transport the ailing mind to what is better. For in this way God will be forbearing, and since he is good, he will bestow his mercy. And flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong man shall not retain his strength, and the warrior shall not save his life, and the archer shall not stand, and he that is swift of foot shall not be delivered, nor shall the horseman save his life, and he will find his heart in mighty deeds; the naked shall be pursued in that day, says the Lord. Nothing will save, he says, in the days of wrath those who have offended; not swiftness of foot will deliver the swiftest runner from evils; not strength of body the one who is strong; nor military experience the one who knows tactics and has practiced archery excellently and is admired for it; useless to those who use them is both the swiftness of horses, and in addition to this, knowing the cavalry battle. but each of these, he says, will find his own heart in dominions, that is, overpowered by fears and yielding without a fight to those who wish to lay waste the victory. For then there will be cowardice among those of Israel, and such dominion of the Babylonians, that even the unarmed man will be able to pursue, that is, to prevail over those in arms, even if one of the Babylonians is without a breastplate; and the unarmed and unequipped man will be able to pursue those in full armor. Therefore, when God shakes down into weakness those whom he chooses to harm, nothing could help. And this I think is what is said to us in another way through the voice of the psalmist: "He will not delight in the strength of the horse; nor is he pleased with the "legs of a man," and again, "A horse is a vain thing for "safety, neither shall he be saved by his great strength." For such things are completely useless, if God does not contend with them. For he is the Lord of hosts, who gives sinews to the weakened, and enervates those who have grieved him, and with him "one shall chase a thousand, and two in turn shall move "ten thousand," and a great and countless multitude will be consumed by perhaps two or three resisting them, unless God defends.Dialogues · Dialogue 3 23:6Theodoret of Cyrus"For when the Word was conscious that in no other way could tile ruin of men be undone save by death to the uttermost, and it was impossible that the Word who is immortal and Son of the Father should die, to effect His end He assumes a body capable of death, that this body, being united to the Word, who is over all, might, in the stead of all, become subject to death, and because of the indwelling Word might remain incorruptible, and so by the grace of the resurrection corruption for the future might lose its power over men. Thus offering to death, as a sacrifice and victim free from every spot, the body which He had assumed, by His corresponding offering He straightway destroyed death's power over all His kind; for being the Word of God above and beyond all men, He rightly offered and paid His own temple and bodily instrument, as a ransom for all souls due to death. And thus by means of the like (body) being associated with all men, the incorruptible Son of God rightly clothed all men with incorruption by the promise of the resurrection, for the corruption inherent in death no longer has any place with men, for the sake of the Word who dwelt in them by the means of the one body."Berakhot 60:34Talmud BavliWhen one awakens, he recites: My God, the soul You have placed within me is pure. You formed it within me, You breathed it into me, and You guard it while it is within me. One day You will take it from me and restore it within me in the time to come. As long as the soul is within me, I thank You, O Lord my God and God of my ancestors, Master of all worlds, Lord of all souls. Blessed are You, O Lord, who restores souls to lifeless bodies.Yevamot 62:17Talmud BavliThe Gemara clarifies the reasons for their opinions: Rav Huna said he has fulfilled the mitzva due to a statement of Rav Asi, as Rav Asi said that the reason for this mitzva is that the Messiah, son of David, will not come until all the souls of the body have been finished, i.e., until all souls that are destined to inhabit physical bodies will do so, as it is stated: “For the spirit that enwraps itself is from Me, and the souls that I have made” (Isaiah 57:16). Consequently, once a child has been born and his soul has entered a body the mitzva has been fulfilled, even if the child subsequently dies. And Rabbi Yoḥanan said he has not fulfilled the mitzva, as we require “He formed it to be inhabited” (Isaiah 45:18), and this is not fulfilled when the children have passed away and no longer inhabit the earth.Yevamot 63:30Talmud BavliRabbi Asi said: The Messiah, son of David, will not come until all the souls of the body have been finished, i.e., until all souls that are destined to inhabit physical bodies will do so. As it is stated: “For the spirit that enwraps itself is from Me, and the souls that I have made” (Isaiah 57:16). It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Eliezer says: Anyone who does not engage in the mitzva to be fruitful and multiply is considered as though he sheds blood, as it is stated: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed” (Genesis 9:6), and it is written immediately afterward: “And you, be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 9:7).Avodah Zarah 5:10Talmud BavliAnd similarly, Rabbi Yosei says: The Messiah, son of David, will not come until all the souls of the body have been finished, i.e., until all souls that are destined to inhabit physical bodies will do so. As it is stated: “For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth; for the spirit that enwraps itself is from Me, and the souls that I have made” (Isaiah 57:16). According to Rabbi Yosei, in order for the Messiah to come in the end of days, it is necessary for the future generations to be born.Niddah 13:32Talmud BavliRather, the baraita means that they marry minor girls who are not yet capable of bearing children, consequently emitting semen for naught. As Rabbi Yosei said: The Messiah, son of David, will not come until all the souls of the body have been finished, i.e., until all souls that are destined to inhabit physical bodies do so. As it is stated: “For the spirit that enwraps itself is from Me, and the souls that I have made” (Isaiah 57:16). The verse is interpreted as follows: The spirit, i.e., the souls about which it has been decreed by Me that they are to be born, if they are not born, they enwrap the Messiah and prevent him from coming.Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 34:12Pirkei DeRabbi EliezerThe soul is like its Creator. [ Luria adds: if one may so without irreverence.” On this expression, see Bacher, Terminologie, i. pp. 72 f.] Just as the Holy One, blessed be He, sees and is not visible, so the soul sees and is not visible. [ See T.B. Berakhoth, 10a, and Deut. Rab. ii. 37, where six points of similarity are enumerated; cf. Lev. Rab. 4:8. On God’s seeing, cf. Jer. 23:24; on God’s invisibility, see Ex. 33:20 and Isa. 45:15. See similar theories in Tertullian, de Anima, xlv.; and Methodius, Banquet, vi. 1.] Just as the Holy One, blessed be He, has no sleep in His presence, [ See Ps. 121:4; and Gen. Rab. 14:9.] so the soul does not sleep. [ See supra, p. 86.] Just as the Holy One, blessed be He, bears His world, [ See Isa. 46:4.] so the soul bears all the body. [ Cf. Luria’s reading.] All souls are His, as it is said, "Behold, all souls are mine" (Ezek. 18:4).Beshalach 11:2Midrash TanchumaA mortal king is praised as mighty, though he may be weak, and as rich, merciful, and handsome, because they wish to flatter him. But concerning the Holy One, blessed be He, they say: The great God, the mighty God, and the awful (Deut. 10:17); The Lord will go forth as a mighty man (Isa. 42:13); There is none like unto thee, O Lord (Jer. 10:6). They say He is rich, and indeed there are no limits to his wealth, For behold, unto the Lord thy God belongeth the heaven, and the heaven of heavens (Deut. 10:14). And it is written also: The sea is His, and He made it, and His hands formed the dry land (Ps. 95:5); The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof (ibid. 24:1); Mine is the silver, and Mine is the gold (Hag. 2:8); Behold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son (Ezek. 18:4).Yevamot 4:16Ein YaakovR. Assi said: "Ben David shall not come before all souls in the Guff are spent (i.e., sent to live on earth), as it is said (Is. 57, 16) When the spirit from before Me is overwhelmed, and the souls which I have made." We are taught in a Baratha. R. Elazar says: "Every religious Jew who does not marry is considered as if he sheds blood, for it is said (Gen. 9, 6) Whose sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; and immediately it follows: And you, be ye fruitful, and mutliply."Tractate Pischa 9:7Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael"only what is to be eaten by all souls": All (labors) of ochel nefesh (food processing) override the festival, but not all offerings (aside from those which are festival-linked) override the festival. For it would follow (otherwise) viz.: If partial ochel nefesh does not override the Sabbath, partial offering (i.e., temidim and mussafim) does override the Sabbath, then, (on a festival), where all ochel nefesh overrides the festival, how much more so should all offering (even those unlinked to the festival) override the festival! It is, therefore, written "Only what is to be eaten by all souls" — All ochel nefesh overrides the festival, but not all offerings override the festival. But let partial ochel nefesh override the Sabbath, and this would follow a fortiori, viz.: If on a festival, where not all offerings override a festival, all ochel nefesh does override the festival, then, where partial offering does override the Sabbath, how much more so should partial ochel nefesh override the Sabbath! It is, therefore, written "Only what is to be eaten by all souls" — Partial offering overrides the Sabbath, but partial ochel nefesh does not override the Sabbath.Tractate Pischa 9:8Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael"Only what is to be eaten by all souls": I would take this to include (in the license of ochel nefesh) even the souls of beasts and the souls of gentiles; it is, therefore, written "for you" — for you and not for beasts; for you and not for gentiles. These are the words of R. Yishmael.Tractate Pischa 9:9Mekhilta DeRabbi YishmaelR. Yossi Haglili says: "Only what is to be eaten by all souls": This includes even the souls of beasts. But it (seemingly) includes both? It is, therefore, written "Only," to differentiate (i.e., to permit only beasts).Tractate Pischa 9:10Mekhilta DeRabbi YishmaelR. Akiva says: "Only what is to be eaten by all souls": This includes even the souls of beasts. But it (seemingly) includes both? It is, therefore, written "for you" — "for you," but not for gentiles. Why do you see fit to differentiate (between the two)? For you are exhorted over the beast (to feed it), but not over the gentile.Acharei Mot 17:6Sifra6) (Vayikra 17:12) "Therefore, I have said to the children of Israel: All souls of you shall not eat blood": to exhort the elders over the children. I might think that they would be cut off because of them (if they did not exhort them); it is, therefore, written (Vayikra 17:10) ("that soul which eats blood"): the eater (alone) will be cut off.Sifrei Bamidbar 26:1Sifrei Bamidbar(Bamidbar 6:6) "All the days of his Naziritism to the L-rd, upon the soul of a dead one he shall not come." Scripture now leaves the subject of shaving and comes to speak of tumah. "upon the soul … he shall not come": I might think that even beasts are herein subsumed, as in (Vayikra 24:18) "One who strikes the soul of a beast, etc."; it is, therefore, written: "upon the soul of a dead one he shall not come," Scripture referring to a human being. R. Yishmael says: This (proof) is not needed, for it is written "he shall not come." Scripture is speaking of a (dead) soul that confers tumah by entry (into his tent, [i.e., the soul of a man, and not that of a beast]). (6:7) "For his father and his mother … he shall not become tamei" — but he does become tamei for a meth-mitzvah (one who has no one to bury him). Why need this be stated? It is understood a fortiori, viz.: If the high-priest, whose holiness is permanent, becomes tamei for a meth-mitzvah, how much more so, a Nazirite, whose holiness is temporary! — No, this may be true of a high-priest, who does not bring an offering for his uncleanliness — wherefore he becomes tamei for a meth-mitzvah, as opposed to a Nazirite, who does bring an offering for his uncleanliness — wherefore he should not become tamei for a meth-mitzvah! It must, therefore, be written "For his father and his mother he shall not become tamei" — but he does become tamei for a meth-mitzvah. — But perhaps the intent of the verse is: "For his father and his mother … he shall not become tamei," but he does become for other dead! — Would you say such a thing? If an ordinary Cohein, who does become tamei for his kin, may not become tamei for other dead, how much more so a Nazirite, who may not become tamei for his kin! What, then, is the intent of "For his father and his mother … he shall not become tamei? He does not become tamei for his father and his mother, but he does become tamei for a meth-mitzvah. — But even without this verse, I can derive it by reasoning, viz.: There is a general rule for a high-priest (Vayikra 21:11: "And upon all souls of the dead he shall not come"), and there is a general rule for a Nazirite ("Upon the soul of a dead one he shall not come.") Just as with the general rule for the high-priest, he may not become tamei for kin, so with the general rule for the Nazirite, he may not become tamei for kin. You derive it from the high-priest, but I can derive it from an ordinary priest, viz.: There is a general rule for an ordinary priest and there is a general rule for a Nazirite. Just as with the general rule for the ordinary priest he does become tamei for kin, so, with the general rule for the Nazirite, he should become tamei for kin. It must, therefore, be written "For his father and his mother; for his brother and for his sister, he shall not become tamei, etc." R. Akiva says (on Vayikra 21:11): "souls" — these are the distant (i.e., non-kin); "the dead" — these are kin; "for his (the high-priest's) father and his mother" — For his father and his mother he does not become tamei, but he does become tamei for a meth-mitzvah. (Bamidbar 6:7) "for his brother": If he were a high-priest or a Nazirite, he may not become tamei, but he does become tamei for a meth-mitzvah. "and for his sister": What is the intent of this? If one (an ordinary Cohein) were going to slaughter his Paschal lamb or to circumcise his son, and he hears that one of his kin had died, I might think that he should become tamei for them; it is, therefore, written (Ibid.) "he shall not become tamei." I might think that he should (also) not become tamei for a meth-mitzvah; it is, therefore, written "and for his sister" — He does not become tamei for his sister, but he does become tamei for a meth-mitzvah. But (a verse) is not needed for his (young) son and daughter; for minors cannot become Nazirites. "he shall not become tamei for them in their death": In their death he does not become tamei for them, but he does become tamei for them in their leprous or zivah (genital discharge) state. This tells me only of a Nazirite. Whence do I derive (the same for) a high-priest? It is written in respect to a high-priest (Vayikra 21:11) "for his mother (he shall not) become tamei." This is superfluous, for I can derive it a fortiori, viz.: If in an instance where an ordinary Cohein may become tamei for his father's brother, a high-priest may not become tamei for his father, then in an instance where an ordinary Cohein may not become tamei for his father's brother, how much more so may a high-priest not become tamei for his father! If I can derive it, then, a fortiori, why is the verse "for his mother, etc." needed in respect to a high-priest? It is "extra," to the end of formulating an identity (gezeirah shavah ), viz.: It is written "his mother" here (in respect to a high-priest), and it is written "his mother" elsewhere (in respect to a Nazirite). Just as there he does become tamei (for them) in their leprous or zivah state, so, here. Variantly: "He shall not become tamei for them in their death": In their death he may not become tamei for them, but he may stand at their eulogy and in the mourner's row. (Bamidbar, Ibid.) "for the crown of his G-d is on his head": whether or not he has hair. These are the words of R. Yonathan.Works · The Divine Names 27:2Pseudo-Dionysius the AreopagiteBut we have spoken of these things in our Symbolical Theology. Let us now then celebrate the spiritual Name of Light, under Which we contemplate the Good, and declare that He, the Good, is called spiritual Light, on the ground that He fills every supercelestial mind with spiritual light, and expels all ignorance a.nd error from all souls in which they may be, and imparts to them all sacred light, and cleanses their mental vision from the mist which envelops them, from ignorance, and stirs up and unfolds those enclosed by the great weight of darkness, and imparts, at first, a measured radiance; then, whilst they taste, as it were, the light, and |39 desire it more, more fully gives Itself, and more abundantly enlightens them, because "they have loved much," and ever elevates them to things in advance, as befits the analogy of each for aspiration.Works · The Liturgy 1:4Pseudo-Dionysius the AreopagitePr. "O Lord God, Who art simplex, not compound, and hidden in essence sublime! God the Father, from Whom all paternity which is in heaven and earth is named , Source of Divinity, of those who participate in the Divine Nature, and Perfector of those who attain perfection; Good above all good, and Beautiful above all beautiful; Peaceful repose, Peace, Concord and Union of all souls; compose the dissensions which divide us from one another, and lead them back to an union with charity, which has a kind of similitude to Thy sublime essence: and as Thou art One above all, and we, one, through the unanimity of a good mind; that we may be found before Thee simplex and not divided, whilst celebrating this mystery; and that through the embraces of Charity and bonds of Love, we may be spiritually one, both with ourselves and with one another, through that Thy Peace pacifying all; through the Grace and Compassion and Love towards man of Thine Only-begotten Son; through |188 Whom, and with Whom is due to Thee, glory, honour and dominion, with Thy most holy Spirit." P. "Amen." Pr. "Pax" (to all). P. "And with thy spirit." D. "Let each one give the Peace." P. "All." D. "Post." P. "Before Thee, O Lord." Pr. "Giver of Holiness, and distributor of every good, O Lord, Who sanctifiest every rational creature with sanctification, which is from Thee; sanctify, through Thy Holy Spirit, us Thy servants, who bow before Thee; free us from all servile passions of sin, from envy, treachery, deceit, hatred, enmities, and from him, who works the same, that we may be worthy, holily to complete the ministry of these life-giving Sacraments, through the heavenly Pontiff, Jesus Christ, Thine Only-begotten Son, through Whom, and with Whom, is due to Thee, glory and honour." P. "Amen." Pr. "Essentially existing, and from all ages; Whose nature is incomprehensible, Who art near and present to all, without any change of Thy sublimity; Whose goodness every existing thing longs for and desires; the intelligible indeed, and creatures endowed with intelligence, through intelligence; those endowed with sense, through their senses; Who, although Thou art One essentially, nevertheless art present with us, and amongst us, in this hour, in which Thou hast called and led us to these Thy holy mysteries; and hast made us worthy to stand before the sublime throne of Thy majesty, and to handle the sacred vessels of Thy ministry with our impure hands: take away from us, O Lord, the cloke of iniquity in which |189 we are enfolded, as from Jesus, the son of Josedec the High Priest, Thou didst take away the filthy garments, and adorn us with piety and justice, as Thou didst adorn him with a vestment of glory; that clothed with Thee alone, as it were with a garment, and being like temples crowned with glory, we may see Thee unveiled with a mind divinely illuminated, and may feast, whilst we, by communicating therein, enjoy this sacrifice set before us; and render to Thee glory and praise." P. "Amen." D. "Let us stand becomingly." P. "The Mercies of God." Pr. "Charity." P. "And with thy spirit." Pr. "Lift up your hearts." P. "We lift them to the Lord." Pr. "Let us give thanks to the Lord." P. "It is meet and right." Priest (bending low), " For truly the celebration of Thy benefits, O Lord, surpasses, the powers of mind, of speech, and of thought; neither is sufficient every mouth, mind and tongue, to glorify Thee worthily. For, by Thy word the heavens were made, and by the breath of Thy mouth all the celestial powers; all the lights in the firmament, sun and moon, sea and dry land, and whatever is in them. The voiceless, by their silence, the vocal, by their voices, words and hymns, perpetually bless Thee; because Thou art essentially good and beyond all praise, existing in Thy essence incomprehensibly. This visible and sensible creature praises Thee, and also that intellectual, placed above sensible perception. Heaven and earth glorify Thee. Sea and air proclaim Thee. The sun, in his course, praises Thee; |190 the Moon, in her changes, venerates Thee. Troops of Archangels, and hosts of Angels; those virtues, more sublime than the world and mental faculty, send benedictions to Thine abode. Rays of light, eminent and hidden, send their sanctus to Thy glory. Principalities and Orders praise Thee, with their Jubilate. Powers and dominions venerate Thee. Virtues, Thrones and Seats inaccessible exalt Thee. Splendours of light eternal----mirrors without flaw----holy essences----recipients of wisdom sublime----beyond all, investigators of the will hidden from all, in clearest modulations of inimitable tones, and by voices becoming a rational creature; many eyed Cherubim of most subtle movement, bless Thee. Séraphin, furnished with six wings intertwined, cry Sanctus unto Thee. Those very ones, who veil their faces with their wings, and cover their feet with wings, and flying on every side, and clapping with their wings, (that they may not be devoured by Thy devouring fire) sing one to another with equal harmony of all, sweet chants, pure from every thing material, rendering to Thee, eternal glory; crying with one hymn, worthy of God, and saying," P. "Holy, holy, holy." Priest (bending)---- "Holy art Thou, O God the Father, Omnipotent, Maker and Creator of every creature----Invisible and visible, and sensible; Holy art Thou, O God, the Only-begotten Son, Power and Wisdom of the Father, Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Holy art Thou, O God, the Holy Spirit, Perfector and Sanctifier of Saints. Triad, Holy and undivided:----co-essential and of |191 equal glory, Whose compassion towards our race is most effusive. Thou art holy, and making all things holy. Who didst not leave that, our very race, in exile from Paradise, although in the meantime involved in every kind of sin, but wast manifested to it by the Word, Who, in the presence of the" world, suffered extreme poverty; it in very truth, He, the Word, took, being made like to it in all things, sin excepted, that it might make Him prepared beforehand unto holiness, and disposed for this life-giving feast. (Raising his voice) Who being conceived, formed and configured by the Holy Spirit, and from virgin blood of the Virgin Mary, holy genitrix of God, was born indeed Man, and from the pure and most holy body of the same, and receiving Deity in Flesh, whilst the law and properties of nature were preserved, but in a manner beyond nature, and was acknowledged God in the Spirit, and Man in the flesh; and inasmuch as the Word existed before the ages, from Thee, as was worthy of God, was born, and by power and miracles, such as became the Maker of all, was testified that He was such, from the very fact that He has freely imparted a complete healing and a perfect salvation to the whole human race. Likewise, in the end and consummation of His dispensation on our behalf, and before His saving Cross, He took bread into His pure and holy hands, and looked to Thee, O God the Father; giving thanks, He blessed, sanctified, brake and gave to His disciples, the holy Apostles, saying, "Take and eat from it and |192 believe that it is my body, that same, which for you and for many is broken and given, for the expiation of faults, the remission of sins, and eternal life." P. "Amen." Pr. "Likewise, in the same manner, over the cup also, which He mingled with wine and water, He gave thanks, blessed, sanctified, and gave to the same disciples and holy apostles, saying, ' Take, drink from it, all of you, and believe that this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed and given for you and for many, for the expiation of faults, remission of sins, and eternal life.' "P. "Amen."Commentary on Revelation · Translation-Litteral 9:44Oecumenius2. Oecumenius has in mind the many prominent Early Church Fathers, particularly those in the East, believed in or hoped for some form of universalism (the ultimate salvation of all souls, also known as apokatastasis [ἀποκατάστασις], restoration of all things [ τῶν πάντων], referring to the belief that all creation would eventually be restored to its original perfect state.). This was a widely held view for the first few centuries of Christianity, although it was not universally accepted and was later condemned as heresy by the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 AD. In Alexandria, this school, which included the highly influential theologians Clement of Alexandria and Origen, was a major center for universalist thought. Origen, in particular, was the most famous and influential advocate of the view, although his teachings were later rejected by some. The Cappadocian Fathers, several figures associated with this group, including St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Basil of Caesarea, and St. Gregory of Nazianzus, are often cited as universalists or at least hopeful for universal salvation.Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews · Translation-Litteral 21:35Oecumenius" for they shall all know me ." For the Jewish knowledge and faith were confined to one corner of the world, Palestine. And few knew it; but the voice of the apostles went out to all the earth. Moreover, since God dwelt on earth in the flesh, and by taking on our nature made it divine, the light of true knowledge of God shone in all souls, and a certain ability was granted to human nature by grace to truly know God. 7Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews · Translation-Litteral 21:48Oecumenius7. The Pharmakides version adds, “and few knew it; but the voice of the apostles went out to all the earth. Moreover, since God dwelt on earth in the flesh, and by taking on our nature made it divine, the light of true knowledge of God shone in all souls, and a certain aptitude was granted to human nature by grace to truly know God.”Commentary on the Song of Songs 2:8Gregory the Dialogist18. We know that in the beginnings of the Church, when the grace of our Redeemer had been preached, some believed and others did not believe; but those who believed were despised by the unbelievers, and having suffered a kind of persecution, were judged to have departed, as it were, into the way of the Gentiles. Whence the Church in those same persons cries out against those who were not converted: "I am black, but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem." I am black indeed by your judgment, but beautiful through the illumination of grace. How black? "Like the tents of Kedar." Kedar is interpreted as "darkness"; for Kedar was the second of the lineage of Ishmael, and the tents of Kedar were the tents of Esau. How then black like the tents of Kedar? Because in your sight I have been judged after the likeness of the Gentiles, that is, after the likeness of sinners. How beautiful like the curtain of Solomon? It is reported that when Solomon built the temple, he covered all those vessels of the temple with curtains of skin. But surely the skins of Solomon could be beautiful in the service of the king. But since Solomon is interpreted as "peaceful," let us understand him as the true Solomon; for all souls clinging to God are skins of Solomon, mortifying themselves and returning to the service of the King of peace. I am indeed in judgment like the tents of Kedar, since I am judged to have departed, as it were, into the way of the Gentiles; but according to the truth I am like the curtain of Solomon, because I cling to the service of the King. (Verse 5.) "Do not consider me because I am dark, for the sun has discolored me."GregoryMoralia · Book15 8:6Gregory the Dialogist57. We know that it is written; Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children unto the third and fourth generation. [Ex. 34, 7] And again it is written, What mean ye that ye make this a proverb among you concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord, ye shall not have this for a proverb any more in Israel. Behold all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die . [Ezek. 18, 2-4] Thus in these two sentences whereas there is found a dissimilar meaning, the mind of the hearer is instructed, that it should search out with minute care the way of discernment. Since original sin we derive from our parents, and, except by the grace of Baptism we be loosed from it, we bear with us the sins of our very parents, seeing that surely we are still one with them. And so 'He visiteth the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,' when on account of the guilt of the parent, the soul of the offspring is polluted by original sin. And again He does not 'visit the sins of the fathers upon the children,' in that when we are freed from original guilt by Baptism, we no longer own the sins of our fathers, but those which we have ourselves been guilty of. Which however may be understood in another way as well, in that whosoever imitates the wicked ways of a bad father, is bound in his sins also. But whosoever does not follow the wickedness of his parent, is never burthened by his offence. And hence it comes to pass that the bad son of a bad father not only pays for his own sins, which he has added; but the sins of his father as well; seeing that to the evil practices of his father, which he is not ignorant that the Lord is angry with, he is not afraid to add yet further his own wickedness too. And it is meet that he who being liable to a strict Judge does not fear to follow the ways of a wicked parent, should be compelled in this present life to pay for even his parent's misdeeds. And hence it is there said, The soul of the father is Mine, and the soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die , because in the flesh by the sin of the father the sons too are sometimes ruined. But now that original sin has been done away, they are not bound in the soul by the parent's wickedness. For how is it that little children are very often seized by devils, saving that the flesh of the son is mulcted in punishment of the father? For the bad father is stricken in his own person, and is too stubborn to feel the force of the blow. Very often he is stricken in his children, so as to be more sharply stung, and the sorrow of the father is rendered to the flesh of the children, to the end that the evil heart of the parent may be chastened by inflictions on the children. But when not little children, but such as are now more advanced in years, are stricken by the parent's sin, what else are we given clearly to understand, but that they likewise pay the penalties of those whose deeds they have imitated? And hence it is rightly said, Even unto the third and fourth generation . For whereas it is possible that 'even to the third and fourth generation,' children may witness the life of their father, which they copy, vengeance extends even to them, who witnessed what they might mischievously imitate.Commentary on Acts 7:10Bede[Acts 7:37] -- This is Moses who said to the sons of Israel: God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers, like me. Like me, visible in the flesh, but more wonderful in majesty and more terrible in majesty than I. He says, lest the doctrine of Christ be thought new and foreign, it is Moses himself, whom your fathers did not wish to obey, who preaches and says that he will come in the form of a man and will give the precepts of life to all souls.Commentary on Genesis 9:4Bede[Genesis 9:5] -- For I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it and from man, from his fellow man I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. For in a typological sense, lifeblood refers to that vital essence by which humans are animated, sustained, and live in the flesh through the soul, just as the hand of beasts typologically refers to the act of devouring by which they kill a man. For who in sound mind would truly believe that the blood of man pertains to the substance of the soul? Although the same legislator seems to say more clearly elsewhere: For the life of every creature is its blood (Leviticus 17:14). Thus it is said in the same way as it is said And the rock was Christ, not that it was, but that it signified. The law was not without purpose in wanting to signify the soul through the blood, that is, an invisible thing through a visible thing, except that blood, diffused through all veins from the heart itself, predominates in our body more than other fluids, so that wherever a wound may be inflicted, no other fluid but itself emerges. Thus the soul, which invisibly prevails over all that we consist of, is better signified by that which visibly prevails over all that we consist of. It is clear to understand how God seeks the soul of man from the hand of man, demanding retribution from him who has sinned; but it can indeed be reasonably asked how it is also required from beasts, which lack reason, unless perhaps we can understand here the mystery of the future resurrection intimated to us, when all the bodies of the human race, which have either been consumed by wild beasts or destroyed in any other way, or corrupted, are restored incorrupt, and all souls of humans, separated from their bodies by any manner of death, are restored to their bodies, so that they may obtain either eternal life for their good deeds, or eternal death for their bad deeds, in judgment with those same bodies. It is aptly added:Commentary on Samuel 36:12Bede[1 Samuel 22:20] -- One son of Ahimelech escaped, Abiathar, etc. Just as Doeg the Edomite, one who struck down the priests, symbolized the sword of all executioners, so Abiathar, the one who escaped the sword of the striker, represents all the confessors of Christ who could survive that most severe persecution. Therefore, Abiathar is rightly interpreted as "superfluous father," signifying those who, glorious in the paternal title in the Church, survived such a turmoil. He fled to David and announced to him the priests of the Lord who were killed by Saul: just as the pious devotion of those remaining, after the killing was completed, turned to the Lord, ardently commemorating the memory of their slain brethren under his testament through prayer or by offering sacred sacrifices. To this, he himself replies through his own gospel that he had foreseen and predestined long ago that all who wish to live piously in him would suffer persecution for his name's sake; therefore, as a sure debtor of a certain reward, he would bring all souls released by such a death to the joys of eternal life. "I knew," he says, "that while there would never be lacking false brothers in the Church, without a doubt, they would aid external enemies through internal scandals. I knew that while in this whole world there would never be lacking evil ones, by whom the wisdom of the disputing good or the patience of those contending would be exercised and tested, without a doubt, tribulations and temptations would always await the pilgrim Church here. But I am the one who will eternally crown each soul of the elect with a heavenly crown after their struggles on earth."Commentary on Revelation · English 5:25Berengaudus(Verse 13) And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and those that are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: 'To Him that sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing, honor, glory, and power, for ever and ever.' By the creature which is in heaven, the angels are meant; by that which is on the earth, men; by that which is under the earth, those who have already paid the debt of death are designated. But by those in the sea, we are to understand the waters of the sea; and by the sea, the place in which the waters are contained. But indeed he adds: And those things that are in it; we can understand the fish that dwell in the waters. But if through every creature that is on earth we can understand all human beings; how do all human beings praise God, when pagans and Jews are more fit to be called blasphemers of God than praisers? We also find certain wicked individuals, who are called Christians, who, although they seem to praise God, do not actually praise God; because as Scripture says: There is no beautiful praise in the mouth of a sinner (Ecclesiasticus 15:9). And if we must understand through every creature that is on the earth, all souls whose bodies rest on the earth, how are those who are tormented in hell to be believed to praise God? But through every creature, that which is on the earth and that which is beneath the earth, we must understand only the chosen ones: who do not cease to praise God with works and words on earth, and placed in the heavens with the Lord, they never cease from His praises. By the sea, indeed, we can understand the Church; by the waters of the sea, the multitude of the faithful; by the fishes dwelling in the waters, the doctors of the Church. Following this, comes the blessing, by which the faithful are said to continually bless God: Blessing, honor, glory, and power to our God forever and ever; for the chosen ones continually bless God, joining words with deeds.Commentary on Luke · Chapter 11 8:17Bonaventure81. (Vers. 40.). Whence it is added: Fools, did not He who made that which is without, namely the body, also make that which is within? namely the spirit. In which is simultaneously condemned the heresy of the Manicheans, who attribute the spirit to God as author and the body to the devil; although it is said in Genesis 2 that "the Lord God formed man from the slime of the earth and breathed into his face the breath of life." There is also refuted the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who strove to please God by the purification of the body alone, although the Lord made both and is especially the creator of the soul, according to that word of Ecclesiastes last chapter: "The spirit shall return to God, who gave it"; and the Lord especially calls Himself the God of souls: Ezekiel 18: "All souls are mine, says the Lord; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son." And on this account He especially wills the cleanness of souls; and to such a one He promises His presence, according to that word of Matthew 5: "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God"; and therefore the Pharisees, who did not care for this, were as fools. Whence Chrysostom: "God neither praises the cleanness of bodies nor condemns their filth. Suppose, however, that He hates the filth of vessels — how much more does He hate the filth of conscience?" Whence this must be especially attended to, because without cleanness of conscience nothing is clean; Titus 1: "All things are clean to the clean, but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is clean, but their mind and conscience are defiled."Commentary on Luke · Chapter 7 1:5BonaventureAs to the first, it should be understood that the first part has two sections according to two miracles, of which the first is the healing of the boy about to die; the second is the raising of the young man already dead, which is described there: And it came to pass afterwards, etc. For in the healing of the one about to die, the Lord of life is shown, who can save a perishing life; in the raising of the dead, the Lord of death, who can overcome death. Likewise, in the healing of the body about to die, the Lord of bodies is shown, who can restore the body; in the raising of the dead, the Lord of souls, who can recall souls to bodies.Commentary on Wisdom · Chapter 11 3:11Bonaventure(Vers. 27.). But you spare all, namely human beings, who are called every creature, according to that passage in Mark, last chapter: "Preach the Gospel to every creature"; you spare, I say, because it is proper to you according to that passage: "O God, whose property it is always to have mercy and to spare." Because they are yours, O Lord: Ezekiel 18: "All souls are mine"; who love souls: which is evident, because you laid down your soul for them; John 15: "Greater love than this no one has," etc.; whence Bernard: "You had a greater love, laying it down for your enemies."Commentary on 1 Corinthians 12:836Thomas Aquinas913. – But this argument seems invalid, since it argues from the greater by affirming. For although Christ rose in particular in virtue of His divinity, it does not follow that other men will rise. To this some answer that it is not from the greater but from a similar. For to die and to rise belong to Christ according to His human nature, and they say, that the argument is similar, as though I should say: The soul of Socrates is immortal; therefore all souls of men are immortal. But it seems better to say that it is arguing from a cause, because the resurrection of Christ is the cause of our resurrection. Therefore, according to a Gloss is should be said: If Christ, Who is the efficient cause of our resurrection, has risen, how do you say that there is no resurrection? Yet one should not say that He is the efficient cause only after the manner of merit, because by rising He did not merit it, since He was already a comprehensor, and lived the life of glory, unless perhaps the merit of the resurrection of the dead be referred to the death of Christ. Neither is He merely the exemplary cause, as some say, but He is the efficient and exemplary cause. Hence Augustine says, On John, that “the Word made flesh vivifies souls and raises the dead. Therefore, it is clear that if Christ rose, the dead also will rise.