Questions on the Old and New Testament 103.1–105.5

If you look closely, there is no question to raise here; nor should you think that the Lord lied or changed, commanding and afterward denying. For concerning the sacrifices, libations, and holocausts of which he testifies that he said nothing, nothing is found that he commanded. Note that there are two kinds of sacrifices: one that was commanded to be offered according to its several kinds, and another that is called voluntary. In the first, which was prescribed to be offered in various kinds, whether for sins or for the firstborn, what was to be offered, of what quality, and how, was commanded. But the voluntary sacrifice was certainly not commanded, because it was left to choice, so that if someone wished to offer, he might offer what seemed good to him; for these sacrifices were votive. And because they offered them carelessly and thoughtlessly, not considering that one who offers gifts to a superior should offer choice ones, it is said to them: “I did not command you about these; but if you wish to offer them, you ought to offer what is worthy.”

In the same way Cain too is found to have sinned, when he did not consider that the better things ought to be offered to God. When they said they were offering these things to appease God, by that very act they provoked God to indignation, so that in the very thing they claimed to be doing well they sinned, offering God unworthy holocausts. Hence he says in the prophet Malachi: “If you bring a blind or lame or sick animal for sacrifice, it is not good. Offer it to your governor or your commander, and see whether he will receive you, says the Lord almighty.” Hence in Isaiah God complains of the same thing, saying: “What are the sheep of your holocaust to me? Nor have you honored me in your sacrifices. I did not make you for this, that you should toil over incense or buy incense for me with silver, nor did I desire the fat of your sacrifices; but in your sins and iniquities you stood before me.” It is plain, then, that the complaints arose because, when they offered voluntary sacrifices, they did not honor God in them, offering what was unworthy, though there was certainly no necessity to offer them. If they had been commanded, they might seem to offer any kind out of necessity; but when they offered them by their own choice, they ought to have offered such things as would show their devotion to God. But because their mind wandered with desire for idols, they did these things thoughtlessly. So they are reproached on two counts: that while acting wickedly they dared to offer to God, and that they offered what was unworthy; whereas wicked acts are redeemed not by sacrifices but by lamentation and mercy.

Hence David says, when he had sinned: “If you had wished, I would certainly have given sacrifices; you will not delight in holocausts. A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit, and a contrite and humbled heart God does not despise.” Then Samuel says to Saul, who had despised the Lord’s command and thought God could be appeased by sacrifice: “For God does not want sacrifice,” he says, “rather than that his voice be heard.” And Scripture says: “I want mercy rather than sacrifice,” because, though they were unjust and unmerciful, they thought God would be made favorable by offerings, just as now too some, spurning righteousness, think they are praised for their offerings. An offering is good, then, if righteousness is kept and mercy is not neglected, because what we ask for ourselves we ought also to grant to others.

The Lord, knowing that the Jewish war against him was coming, told his disciples to get swords for themselves. When this had been done and the war had begun under the leadership of Simon Iscariot, the apostle Peter, seeing the enemies rising up, drew his sword and cut off the ear of the priests’ servant. Then the Lord told Peter to put his sword back into its sheath: “For everyone,” he says, “who takes the sword will perish by the sword.” Why did he who forbade striking order swords to be prepared, and even mark as deserving death the man who struck with the sword, when the apostle does not seem to have struck unjustly? As far as he was concerned, he struck a man he saw armed against him. He ought to resist ungrateful servants armed to kill their Lord.

If you examine each part of the matter whose reason you wish to have laid open, you will find other questions to ask besides these. What need was there that he who relied on spiritual power should order carnal swords to be prepared, and that he who earlier ordered that neither bag nor money nor staff be carried on the way should now order them to have what he had earlier forbidden?

Let us begin, then, to explain why he ordered swords to be prepared and yet forbade striking. He commanded weapons to be procured for the coming war not only because of his enemies but also for the sake of his own disciples. Something new and astonishing was going to happen: that he who did new and unheard-of signs would suddenly be so humbled as to be subjected to scourging and death. So, lest he seem to suffer these things without foreknowing them, as one whom power had perhaps deserted, he foretold all these things so that they would not doubt about them, but would see that he foreknew them and prepared himself to meet them. And because he was humbled by his own will, he ordered that the enemies not be resisted too fiercely, showing that he was still the same as he had been, so that, when he had already been seized, he restored the ear that had been cut off and gave back what the action of the sword had severed. Not as a physician of the flesh, but as the maker of the body, he refashioned his own maimed work; for physicians cannot restore members cut off from the body. So that the power of God might be seen not diminished in him but present as it had been, and might confirm what he had said, “I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it up again,” for this reason he ordered swords to be prepared, yet did not order killing.

It now remains to ask why, seeing the apostle Peter’s act, he said that whoever used the sword would perish by the sword, when Peter does not seem to have struck unjustly. As is indicated in Luke, he struck with the Lord’s own permission, and when he was then forbidden he heard these words. It was permitted so that they might be seen to be able to defend themselves but unwilling to do so, and so that power might be shown to remain in the one in whom it had been, so that in both respects there would be no doubt that they could defend themselves, while the enemies would hold it for certain that the power to do these things had been given them by him. For he did not appear as one conquered, but as one handing himself over to their will. Why, then, was the sentence given that whoever takes the sword will perish by the sword, unless because it is lawful for no one except a judge to kill anyone with the sword? The apostle Peter was permitted only so far as to cause pain, not to kill. Hearing this, so that he would not strike again, he learned besides that those who have now become Christians may not kill; for those placed under mercy may not use harshly the law of justice entrusted to the world. And what he seems to have commanded earlier to the disciples as they went on their way, that they should take nothing on the way, concerned peace, the grace of mighty works, and the gentleness of the teaching. What need was there to take anything on the way for those to whom everything would be offered because of the signs? But when the time came at which he allowed himself to suffer, because a war rather than a brawl was at hand, he orders the disciples to be armed, not so that he who wished to suffer would fight back, but, as I said, so that he would show both that he foreknew this and that he had his passion in his own power, and that he humbled himself for the sake of human salvation, which will be discussed in its place.

At the Lord’s first coming it was foretold that the sun would be darkened at his passion at the very hour at which this is shown to have happened, that is, at midday; for so it is written in the prophet Amos: “And it will be on that day, says the Lord, the sun will set at midday, and the day of light will grow dark over the earth.” On that day, then, the sun was darkened from the sixth hour to the ninth, and so the prophecy of that prophet was fulfilled. An image of what will happen at the Lord’s second coming was shown in the Lord’s passion, because at the end, when the Lord begins to come to judge the world, the lights will be released from their office, as the Lord says: “In those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its brightness.” The prophet Joel too did not pass this over, so that, since Joel signifies it, it may be believed without doubt that it will be fulfilled. For he said: “The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and manifest day of the Lord comes.” This, so far as appears, fits the second coming better; for then he will be openly manifested to all, as Scripture says: “Then every eye will see him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him, and those who crucified him.”

So if both comings include the darkening of the sun in those days, what is the day on which, as Scripture sang, the sun and moon will be increased? For Isaiah says among other things: “And there will be on every high mountain and on every lofty place water running on that day, when many have perished, when towers have fallen. And the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun; and the light of the sun will be sevenfold in the day when he heals the bruise of his people,” and so on. What day can be understood on which the Lord promised to heal the bruise of his people? This, I think, is the day that Zechariah, the father of John, points to when he says: “Blessed is the God of Israel, because he has visited and made redemption for his people, and raised up a horn of our salvation in the house of David his servant, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets who are from of old, and he has delivered us from our enemies and from the hands of all who hate us, to show mercy with our fathers.” And Simeon says among other things: “This one is set for the fall and the rising of many in Israel.” This “fall” is that of the scribes and Pharisees and rulers of the Jews, whom the prophet signified by “towers.”

As these fell through unbelief, others rose by believing, who earlier seemed weak and sick through negligence. Hence the Savior says: “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind,” so that those who seemed to have sight through their practice and knowledge of the law were blinded through unbelief, while the blind, that is, the unlearned or the tax collectors, saw when they believed. The prophet foretold that the Savior would bear their infirmities. So this was done in the time of the Savior, as is read in the gospel, that he himself took our infirmities and healed our wounds.

All these things were completed and fulfilled in the Savior’s passion; for in this way the salvation of the human race was both redeemed and secured, among those above as among those below, since the prophecy of Zechariah mentioned above includes both. Here, among those above, they were freed from the oppression of enemies by the intervention of mercy; and there, among those below, when they were snatched from Tartarus. For all who had hoped in the promised Christ were awaiting his coming, so that, when death was conquered, they might be freed from the underworld. Hence he said: “to show mercy with our fathers.” But if anyone understands this salvation to be included in the second coming as well, still in both comings, and especially the second, the sun will be turned into darkness and the moon will not give its brightness. How then shall we take it that the sun and moon are increased on the day on which the Lord will visit his people, when we read that at both times, at which the liberation of the people was begun and completed, the sun and moon are not increased but darkened? Unless we plainly understand the sun and moon to be comparisons for the saints, as in another place we read that the saints are likened to lights, as the apostle Paul preaches, because among other people the saints appear in this world like lights; and in the gospel: “Then the righteous,” he says, “will shine like the sun.” For the Lord calls righteous works light; so he says: “Let your light shine before men, so that, seeing your good works, they may glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

Those, then, who leave all they have and follow the Lord for the sake of righteousness and holiness are compared to the sun and moon, honored sevenfold, as the Lord says: “There is no one who leaves house or wife or children or fields who does not receive sevenfold in this age.” Those who are honored sevenfold in the present can therefore be understood to be believed seven parts brighter than others in the future as well, so that their resurrection is compared to the sun and moon, while that of the others is like the stars. The brightness of the saints, then, which here is honored sevenfold, obtains another sevenfold in the resurrection, so that one who here has the brightness of the moon will receive in the future the brightness of the sun, and one who here is compared to the sun is believed to be going to receive sevenfold as much. The prophet Isaiah, then, foretold by the comparison of sun and moon that the merits of the saints would be increased, and not without reason. For if the Lord himself is called “the sun of righteousness,” and the saints will be like him, as the apostle John says, “For when he appears we shall be like him,” it is fitting that the saints are signified by the sun. Yet the prophet shows that the sun is seven parts greater than the moon. When he says that the moon will be like the light of the sun, but the sun sevenfold, he certainly signifies that the moon is increased sevenfold to the measure of the sun, so as to be such as the sun is. Although the subject here is the saints, under this figure of the lights he partly revealed their magnitude: after the increase of sun and moon, the sun is again greater by as much as it was, so that as much as one saint differs from another in the present, so much will he differ in the future after the reward.