Homilies on Acts 14.1–14.6

[Lemma] “But a Pharisee [named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, held in honor by all] the people, stood up in the council and ordered the men to be put outside for a little while.”

This Gamaliel was Paul’s teacher. And one may well wonder how, though he had sound judgment and was learned in the law, he had not yet believed. But it is not possible that he remained an unbeliever to the end; and this is clear from the words with which he gives his counsel. “For he ordered,” it says, “the men to be put outside for a little while.” See the good sense of the speech, and how he at once threw them into fear. And so as not to be suspected of sharing the apostles’ views, he speaks to them as to men of like mind, and uses no great vehemence, but speaks as to men drunk with anger: “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men.” Not lightly, he says, nor at random … “For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing.” He brings them to their senses by examples, and puts last, to comfort them, the one who drew away the greater number. Before giving the examples he says, “Take care”; but when he has shown it, he declares his view, saying, “And now I tell you, keep away from these men.” “After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away a good number of people after him; he too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. And now I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow it.” As if he said: Be patient; if these men too have arisen of themselves, nothing will prevent them too from being overthrown. “Lest you even be found fighting against God.” He turns them away both by the impossibility and by the inexpedience. He did not say by whom those men were killed, but simply that they were dispersed, perhaps as being beside the point. By what he suggests he teaches: if the work is human, you will need no trouble; but if it is divine, not even with trouble will you be able to prevail. So the speech seemed wise, since they were even persuaded not to kill them, but only to flog them. “For they were persuaded by him,” it says, “and they charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.” See after how many miracles they are flogged! And yet again the teaching spread further; for they taught both at home and in the temple. “Then they went away from the presence of the council rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to be dishonored for the name of Christ; and every day, in the temple and at home, they did not cease teaching and proclaiming Jesus Christ. Now in these days, when the disciples were increasing, a murmuring arose of the Hellenists against the Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily ministry.” He does not mean those very days, of course; but since it is the custom of Scripture to speak of things that were to happen later as though they followed on in sequence, that is why he spoke so. By “Hellenists” I think he means those who spoke Greek; for these, though they were Hebrews, spoke Greek. See, here is another trial; or rather you too, if you will look closely, will see wars both within and without from the very beginning. “And the twelve,” it says, “called together the multitude of the disciples and said, It is not right that we should leave the word of God to serve tables.” Rightly; for among necessary things, the more necessary are to be preferred. But see how at once they make provision for these matters too, and yet do not neglect the preaching. (The Hebrews were the more respected; that is why they were given preference.) “Therefore, brothers, look out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint over this task; but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And what they said pleased the whole multitude; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.” So those whom they chose were also full of faith, so that the same things might not happen as with Judas, as with Ananias and Sapphira … “and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus [a proselyte of Antioch; these they set before] the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. And the word of the Lord increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great crowd of the priests became obedient to the faith.” But let us look at what was said from the beginning. “Men, take care for yourselves.” See, I pray you, how Gamaliel here speaks with gentleness and goes through matters with them briefly, and does not tell old stories, though he had them, but recent ones, which were the strongest for belief. That is why he hints with some concealment, saying, “For before these days,” all but showing that it was not many days before …

[If he had] said at once, “Let the men go,” he himself would have seemed suspect, and the speech would not have been so strong; but with the examples it took on its proper strength. That is why he mentions not one only, but a second as well, though he could also have mentioned a third: showing abundantly that he was speaking well, and drawing them away from their murderous intent. “Keep away from these men.” See how gentle his manner is. He does not make his speech long, but concise; nor does he mention those men with anger. “And all who followed him were scattered.” In saying this he utters no blasphemy against Christ, yet achieves what he most wants. “If it is of men,” he says, “it will be overthrown.” Here he seems to me also to be reasoning with them and saying: Since, then, it has not been overthrown, it is not human. “Lest you even be found fighting against God.” He said this to restrain them by the impossibility and by the inexpedience. “But if it is of God, you will not be able.” He did not say, “If Christ is God”; for the work showed this; nor did he declare either that it is not human or that it is divine, but left the proof to time to come, so as to persuade them. “And if he persuaded them, why …?” someone says. … they could not; yet they sated their own anger; and besides, they thought they would frighten them again in this way. And by saying these things when the apostles were not present, he drew them over the more; and the sweetness of his words and the justice of what he said persuaded them. For this man too all but preached the gospel; or rather he all but reasons with them in this way: You were persuaded that you had not the strength to overthrow it; why did you not believe? So great is the preaching that the testimony comes even from enemies. There four hundred rose up, and after that a good number of people; here the first were twelve. So do not let the multitude that has been added frighten you. “For if this work is of men, it will be overthrown.” He could also have mentioned another, the Egyptian; but his speech was already more than enough. Did you see how he closed his speech with something fearful? That is why he does not declare himself outright, so as not to seem to be speaking on their behalf, but reasons from the outcome of the matter. He did not dare to declare either that it is not human or that it is of God; since if he had said that it was of God, they would have contradicted him; and if of men, they would again have been ready to rise against them. That is why he tells them to wait for the end, saying, “Keep away.” But they threaten again, knowing that they accomplish nothing, but doing what is their way. For such is wickedness: it often attempts the impossible. “And after him Judas rose up.” You will learn these things more exactly by looking into the books of Josephus; for he, composing the history of these events, tells them exactly. Did you see how great a thing he dared to say, “of God,” now that it had received its proof from the events? Truly great was his boldness, great his freedom from partiality. “And they were persuaded by him,” it says. “And when they had called the apostles …” … the man’s reputation; that is why they give up killing the apostles, but only flog them and let them go. “Then they went away from the presence of the council rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to be dishonored for the name of Christ.” How much more wonderful is this than many signs! It never happened among the men of old; for Jeremiah was beaten for the word of God, and they threatened Elijah and the others; but here, by this too, not by the signs only, they showed forth the power of God. He did not say that they felt no pain, but that even in pain they rejoiced. How is this clear? From their boldness afterwards: so firmly did they hold on, preaching even after the blows. That is why, to show this, he says, “In the temple and at home they did not cease teaching and proclaiming Jesus Christ.” “Now in these days.” What days? When these things were happening, when there were scourgings, when there were threats, when the disciples were multiplying, then there is murmuring. And perhaps this came from the multitude; for there cannot be exactness in a multitude. “And a great crowd of the priests became obedient to the faith.” This is the language of one who hints and shows that from those through whom death was contrived against Christ, many believe. … “in the daily ministry their widows.” So there was a daily ministry to the widows. And see how he too calls it a ministry, and not at once almsgiving, exalting by this both the givers and the receivers. This did not come from malice, but perhaps from the carelessness of the multitude. That is why he set it out publicly (for it was no small evil), so that it might be quickly set right. Do you see how even at the beginning the evils came not only from without but also from within? And do not look only at this, that it was set right, but at the fact that it was a great evil. “Look out seven men from among you.” They do not act on their own judgment … so it ought to be done now too. “It is not right,” he says, “that we should leave the word of God to serve tables.” First he sets out the unreasonableness of it, showing that it is not possible to do both with care; just as, when they were about to elect Matthias, they first show the need for the thing, that one was missing and there had to be twelve. Here too they made the need clear; and they neither did it before, but waited until the murmuring arose, nor did they let it go on long. And see, they leave the judgment to them, and put forward those who pleased all and were attested by all. When Matthias was to be put forward, they said, “It must be one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time”; but not so here, for the matter was not of that kind. That is why they did not leave it to the lot either; nor again, though they could have chosen them themselves, moved by the Spirit, do they do so; rather they settle the choice on the testimony of the many. Besides, fixing the number, and ordaining them, and for such a task, was theirs; but the choosing of the men they leave to the people, so that they might not seem to show favor; just as God too leaves it to Moses to choose as elders those whom he knows. For much wisdom is needed in such stewardships. For do not think that because a man has not been entrusted with the word, he has no need of wisdom: he needs it, and much of it. “But we,” he says, “will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” At the beginning and at the end they make their defense. “We will devote ourselves,” they say. For so it had to be: not simply, nor at random, but to persevere in them. “And what they said pleased,” it says, “the whole multitude.” This too is worthy of their wisdom. All praised what was said, so wise was it. “And they chose,” it says (again it is the people who choose), “Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip and Prochorus …” “before the apostles. And they prayed and laid their hands on them.” From this it is clear that the people separated them from the multitude, and themselves bring them forward; the apostles do not lead them. See how the writer says nothing superfluous: he does not say how, but simply that they were ordained through prayer; for this is what ordination is. The man’s hand is laid on, but God does the whole, and it is his hand that touches the head of the one ordained, if he is ordained as he ought to be. “And the word of God,” it says, “increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied.” He did not say this idly, but to show how great the power of almsgiving is, and of good order. And now he is about to tell the story of Stephen; that is why he sets out its causes first. “And,” he says, “a great crowd of the priests became obedient to the faith.” For since they had seen their ruler and teacher declare these things, they now took the proof from the deeds. And it is worth wondering how the multitude was not divided over the choice of the men, how the apostles were not rejected by them. What rank, then, did these men have, and what ordination did they receive? This we must learn. Was it that of deacons? And yet this is not how it is in the churches. Is the administration, then, that of the presbyters? And yet there was not yet any bishop, only the apostles. Hence I think it is clear and plain that the name was neither that of deacons nor that of presbyters, but that for the time being they were ordained for this task. And they were not simply put in charge of it, but they prayed that power might be given them. And see, I pray you, if seven men were needed for this, how much money must have been flowing in, how great a multitude of widows there was. So prayers were not made idly, but with great attention; and this was accomplished just as the preaching was; for most things they accomplished by prayers. So the apostles were free for spiritual things; so they could set off on journeys; so they were entrusted with the word. And he does not speak of them or exalt them, but says that to leave the work that had been given was not right. So they had been taught by Moses not to handle everything themselves. That is why Paul too says, “Only that we should remember the poor.” And how they put these men forward, learn: they fasted, they persevered in prayer. This ought to happen now too. He said not simply spiritual men, but men full of the Spirit and of wisdom, showing that it needed great philosophy to bear the complaints of widows. For what use is it if a man does not steal, but wastes everything? Or if he is rash or easily provoked? In this too Philip was admirable. For it says of him, “And entering the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, we stayed with him.” Do you see nothing managed in a merely human way? “And the number of the disciples in Jerusalem multiplied.” In Jerusalem the multitude grew. The wonderful thing is that where Christ was slain, there the preaching grew. And not only were none of the disciples scandalized, seeing the apostles scourged, some threatening, others putting the Spirit to the test, others murmuring; but the number of believers was added to all the more: so sobered were they by what befell Ananias, and so much greater was their fear. See, I pray you, how the multitude grew: after the trials, then it grew, not before. And consider how great is God’s love for humankind. For from those very high priests who stirred up the crowds to murder, who shouted such things and said, “He saved others; himself he cannot save,” from these, it says, many “became obedient to the faith.”

Let us, then, become his imitators too. He received them and did not cast them out. So let us repay our enemies who have done us countless terrible things. Whatever good we have, let us offer it to them; let us not pass them by in doing good. For if their anger has to be sated by our suffering evil, much more should it be by our doing them good; for this is less than that. For it is not the same thing to do good to an enemy as to be willing to suffer more than he wishes; but from this we shall come to that as well. This is the dignity of Christ’s disciples. They crucified him who came for their benefit; they scourged his disciples; and after this he brings them to the same honor as the disciples, giving them a share of what is his just as he did to them. Let us become imitators of Christ, I beg you: in this it is possible to imitate him; this makes one equal to God; this is more than human. Let us hold fast to almsgiving: it is the tutor and teacher of that philosophy. One who has learned to pity a man in misfortune will learn also not to bear grudges; one who has learned this will be able to do good to enemies too. Let us learn to be broken by the evils of our neighbors, and we shall learn to bear their evils too. Let us ask the very man who ill-treats us whether he does not condemn himself, whether he would not like to be a philosopher, whether he does not say that the whole thing comes from anger, from pettiness, from misery; whether he would not wish to be among those who are insulted and keep silent, rather than among those who insult and rage; whether he does not go away admiring the one who suffered. Do not think that bearing insult makes a man contemptible, as insulting does: nothing makes men so respected as bearing insults. For the one is an insulter, the other a philosopher; the one is worse than a man, the other equal to the angels. For even if he were weaker than the man insulting him, even so he could have retaliated, if he wished. Besides, this man is pitied by all, but that one is hated. What then? Will this man not be far better on this account? For all will treat that one as a madman, and this one as a man of sense. So when someone presses you to speak ill of anyone, say to him: I cannot speak ill of him; for I am afraid that he may not be such a man. Above all, do not say it even in your mind; nor to another. Do not plead with God against him. If you see him spoken ill of, defend him: say, “The words belong to the passion, not to the man”; say, “to the anger, not to the friend; to the madness, not to the soul.” Let us reason so about each of the sins. Do not wait for the fire to be kindled, but hold it back before that; do not provoke the beast, nor even allow it to be provoked; for you are no longer master to hold it back once the flame is kindled. For what did he say? “Fool” and “idiot”? Who, then, is answerable for the word, the hearer or the speaker? The one, even if he is very wise, has got the reputation of a fool; the other, even if he is foolish, that of a wise man and a philosopher. Who is the fool, tell me: the one who casts at another what is not so, or the one who is not moved even by this? For if not to be moved even when someone moves you is philosophy, then to be struck when no one is moving you, how great a folly! I do not yet speak of what place of punishment is laid up for those who cast such reproaches and revile their neighbor. But what? He called you dishonored and of dishonored parents, base and of base parents? Again he has turned the reproach back on himself. For the one will appear honored and respected, and the other truly base; for to bring up such things as a reproach, lowness of birth I mean, belongs to a truly small soul; while the other will be great and admirable, as one who counts such a thing nothing, but is no more affected than if he had been told of some trait of his that differs from other people’s. But he will call you an adulterer and the rest? Here one should even laugh; for when the conscience is not struck, anger has no occasion either. And when we consider what wicked and foul words he brings out, we should not even so be pained. For what each was going to learn afterwards, he has already revealed: he has made himself untrustworthy to all, as one who does not know how to cover his neighbor’s evils; he has shamed himself more than the other; he has silted up every harbor; he has made the accounting at the coming judgment fearful for himself. For all will not turn away from this man as from the one who has stripped bare what ought not to have been uncovered. But you, say nothing of what you know, but keep silent, if you wish to win splendid glory. For you will not only overturn what was said, nor only conceal it, but you will also do another good thing: you will no longer cause the sentence to be brought against yourself. So-and-so speaks ill of you? Say: If he knew everything, he would not have said only so much. Did you wonder and were you astonished at what was said? But you must imitate it. For this is why we tell you all these sayings of those outside: not because the Scriptures do not have countless such things, but because these are better able to shame you; since Scripture too knows how to speak so as to shame, as when it says, “Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” And the prophet Jeremiah brought forward the sons of Rechab, who would not consent to transgress their father’s command. Miriam and those with her spoke ill of Moses, and he at once begged them off from their punishment, and did not even allow some to learn that she had met with vengeance. But we are not so; rather, we especially want everyone to learn that they did not go unpunished. How long shall we breathe of the earth? A fight cannot arise from one side only. If you pull madmen from both sides, you provoke them more; but if only from the right or from the left, you have quenched the anger. The one who strikes, if he meets one who does not give way, is roused the more; but if one who yields, he goes slack, and the blow turns back on himself. For nothing knows how to conquer like a man who is insulted and does not insult in return. For the other goes away ashamed and condemned, first by his own conscience, and second by all who see it. And there is a proverb that the one who honors honors himself. So no one will be able to wrong us, I will say again, unless we wrong ourselves; nor will anyone make me poor unless I make myself so. Come, let us consider it this way. Let my soul be poor, and let everyone empty out his money on me: what does that matter? Until that soul is changed, all is in vain. Let my soul be great, and let everyone take my money: what does that matter? Until you make that soul poor, there is no harm. Let my life be impure, and let everyone say the opposite about me: what does that matter? Even if they say it, they do not vote so in their minds. Again, let my life be pure, and let everyone say the opposite: and what does that matter? In their own conscience they will condemn themselves; for they do not speak from conviction. Just as one must not accept praises, so neither accusations. And why do I say this? No one will ever be able to plot against us, or surround us with any accusation, if we do not wish it. Let us look at it this way too. Let someone drag you into court, bring false charges, if you like, and take your life: and what is that, to suffer these things for a little while undeservedly? “That very thing is the evil,” he says. On the contrary, that very thing is the good: not to suffer deservedly. What? Ought it to have been deserved? Let me tell you something again. A philosopher among those outside, when he heard that a certain man had died, and one of his disciples said to him, “Alas, that it was unjustly,” turned and said, “What, would you have wished it to be justly?” And did not John die unjustly? Whom, then, do you pity more, the one who died justly, or the one who did not? Do you not call the one wretched, and even admire the other? What wrong, then, has a man suffered who gained great things from death itself and was not harmed at all? If someone made an immortal man mortal, perhaps there would be harm; but if, when the man was mortal and was going to receive death from nature a little later, this one hastened to bring it on him with glory, what harm is there? Let our soul be well ordered, and there will be no harm from outside. “But you are not in glory?” And what of that? What holds for money holds for glory too. If I am great of soul, I shall need nothing; but if I am vainglorious, the more I obtain, the more I shall need. And I shall be most splendid and enjoy the greater glory, if I despise glory. Knowing these things, then, let us both give thanks to Christ our God, who has granted us such a life, and pursue it for his glory; for to him belongs glory, with the Father who is without beginning and his Holy Spirit, to the ages of ages. Amen.