The Instructor 1.9.75–1.10.95

With all his strength, then, the Instructor of humanity, our divine Word, using every device of wisdom, has set himself to save the infants: admonishing, censuring, reprimanding, reproving, threatening, healing, promising, giving freely, “binding,” as it were, “with many bridles” the irrational impulses of humanity. In short, the Lord is toward us as we are toward our children. “Have you children? Discipline them,” Wisdom advises, “and bend them from their youth. Have you daughters? Watch over their bodies, and do not show them a cheerful face.” Yet we love our children, sons and daughters, very much, above everything. But since those who converse to please love little, since they do not cause pain, while those who are severe for another's benefit, though painful for the moment, do good for the time to come, the Lord has looked not to present pleasure but to future delight. Let us now go through the manner of his loving instruction, with the testimony of the prophets. Admonition (nouthetēsis), then, is caring blame, putting sense into the mind (nous).

Such is the Instructor when he admonishes, as when he says in the Gospel: “How often I wanted to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not.” Again Scripture admonishes, saying, “They committed adultery with wood and stone, and burned incense to Baal.” For this is the greatest proof of his love for humankind: that although he knew clearly the shamelessness of the people who had kicked and bolted, he still calls them to repentance and says through Ezekiel: “Son of man, you live among scorpions; yet speak to them, if perhaps they will hear.” And to Moses he says: “Go and tell Pharaoh to send the people away; but I know that he will not send them away.” He shows both: his divinity, foreknowing what will be, and his love for humankind, giving the soul's free will occasions for repentance. He admonishes also through Isaiah, caring for the people, when he says: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (this is blame that convicts); “in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” Here his care, having revealed the sin, shows salvation alongside it. Censure (epitimēsis) is blame for shameful things, winning one over to what is good.

He shows this through Jeremiah: “They became horses mad for females; each neighed after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit for these things? says the Lord. Shall not my soul take vengeance on such a people?” He weaves fear in everywhere, since “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding.” And again through Hosea: “I will not visit them, because they themselves mingled with harlots and sacrificed with the initiates, and the people that understands embraced a harlot.” He shows their sin more plainly by admitting that they understand, since they sin willingly. And understanding is the sight of the soul. So Israel is the one who sees God, that is, who understands God. Complaint (mempsis) is blame of those who are negligent or careless. He uses this manner of instruction through Isaiah, saying: “Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: I have begotten sons and raised them up, but they have rejected me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger; but Israel has not known me.” How is it not dreadful, if the one who knows God will not recognize the Lord, while the ox and the donkey, slow and foolish animals, know who feeds them, and Israel will be found more irrational than they? And through Jeremiah, after many complaints against the people, he adds: “And they have forsaken me, says the Lord.”

Reprimand (epiplēxis) is striking censure or smiting blame. The Instructor uses this treatment too, through Isaiah, saying: “Woe, rebellious children, says the Lord: you have made a plan, but not through me, and covenants, but not through my Spirit.” At every point he uses fear as a very sharp astringent, at once opening up the people and turning them back through it to salvation, just as wool that is to be dyed is usually treated with an astringent first, to prepare it to take the dye firmly. Reproof (elenchos) is the bringing of sin to light, setting it out in the open. He uses this manner of instruction most of all, as necessary, because of the weakness of the faith of the many. For he says through Isaiah: “You have forsaken the Lord and provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger.” And he says through Jeremiah: “Heaven was astonished at this, and the earth shuddered greatly; for this people has done two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and dug for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water.” And again through the same prophet: “Jerusalem sinned a sin; therefore she has become unsettled; all who glorified her have dishonored her, for they saw her shame.” He softens the severity and sharpness of reproof through Solomon, hinting by implication at the fatherly love in his instruction: “My son, do not make light of the discipline of the Lord, nor lose heart when you are reproved by him; for the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and scourges every son whom he receives,” since “a sinful man shuns reproof.” Consistently, then, Scripture says, “Let the righteous one reprove me and discipline me; but let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head.”

Bringing to one's senses (phrenōsis) is blame that puts sense into the mind (phrenes). He has not refrained from this manner of instruction either, but says through Jeremiah: “How long shall I cry out, and they will not listen? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised.” O blessed forbearance! And again through the same prophet: “All the nations are uncircumcised, but this people is uncircumcised in heart.” “For it is a disobedient people, sons,” he says, “in whom there is no faith.” Visitation (episkopē) is severe reprimand. He uses this kind in the Gospel: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you.” The repetition of the name makes the reprimand strong. For how can one who knows God persecute the ministers of God? That is why he says: “Your house is left to you desolate; for I tell you, from now on you will not see me until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” For if you do not accept his love for humankind, you will know his power.

Reviling (loidoria) is intensified blame. He uses reviling as a medicine through Isaiah, saying: “Woe, sinful nation, lawless sons, a people full of sins, an evil seed”; and in the Gospel through John he says, “Serpents, brood of vipers.” Accusation (enklēsis) is blame of wrongdoers. He uses this means of instruction through David, saying: “A people whom I did not know served me, and at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me; foreign sons lied to me and limped from their paths”; and through Jeremiah: “And I gave her a certificate of divorce, and faithless Judah did not fear”; and again: “And the house of Israel dealt faithlessly with me, and the house of Judah lied to the Lord.” Lamentation (mempsimoiria) is hidden blame, and it too, by skillful help, works salvation under a veil. He uses it through Jeremiah: “How the city that was full of peoples sits alone! She has become like a widow; the ruler of lands has become subject to tribute; she weeps bitterly in the night.”

Ridicule (diasyrsis) is mocking blame. The divine Instructor uses this aid too through Jeremiah, saying: “You had the face of a harlot; you were shameless toward all. And did you not call me as your house and father and guardian of your virginity?” and “a harlot, fair and charming, skilled in sorceries.” Very skillfully insulting the virgin with the name of harlotry, he calls her back again to modesty, putting her to shame. Indignation (katanemesēsis) is lawful censure, or censure of those who are exalted beyond what is fitting †. By this he instructed through Moses, saying: “Blemished children, a crooked and perverse generation, is this how you repay the Lord? This is a foolish people and not wise. Is not he your father who acquired you?” And through Isaiah he says: “Your rulers are disobedient, partners of thieves, loving bribes, pursuing rewards, not judging for orphans.” In general, his art of using fear is a spring of salvation, and to save belongs to the good one. “The mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh, reproving and disciplining and teaching, as a shepherd his flock. He has mercy on those who accept discipline and are eager to cling to him.” And by this guidance “he guarded six hundred thousand foot soldiers, gathered together in their hardness of heart, scourging, having mercy, striking, healing, in compassion and discipline.” “For as great as his mercy, so great also is his reproof.” It is good not to sin, but it is also good for one who has sinned to repent; just as it is best always to be healthy, but good also to recover from illness.

So it is also commanded through Solomon: “Strike your son with the rod, and you will deliver his soul from death.” And again: “Do not refrain from disciplining a child; correct him with the rod, for he will not die.” Reproof and reprimand (epiplēxis), as the name itself suggests, are blows (plēgai) to the soul, chastening sins and warding off death, and leading to self-control those who are carried away into licentiousness. So Plato too, knowing that reproof is the greatest power of correction and the most sovereign purification, holds, consistently, that the one who is most impure has become uneducated and shameful because he has not been reproved, whereas the one who is truly to be happy ought to be most pure and most beautiful. For if “rulers are not a terror to good conduct,” how will God, good by nature, be a terror to one who does not sin?

“But if you do evil, be afraid,” as the apostle says. That is why the apostle himself, in the image of the Lord, is severe with the churches at every point; and, conscious of his own boldness and of the weakness of his hearers, he says to the Galatians, “Have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?” As the healthy do not need a physician, so far as they are well, while the sick require his art, so we too, who in this life are sick with shameful desires, blameworthy incontinence, and the other inflammations of the passions, need the Savior. He applies not only soothing medicines but astringent ones too. The bitter roots of fear check the spreading of sins; so fear is saving, even if bitter. Rightly, then, we who are sick need a Savior, those who have gone astray a guide, the blind someone to give them light, the thirsty the spring of life, from which those who partake will thirst no more; the dead need life, the sheep the shepherd, and the children the Instructor; indeed all humanity needs Jesus, so that we may not, untrained and sinful, fall at last into condemnation, but may be separated from the chaff and gathered into the Father's granary. For the winnowing fan is in the Lord's hand, by which the chaff is separated from the wheat,

the chaff due to the fire. If you will, we may learn the supreme wisdom of the all-holy Shepherd and Instructor, the almighty Word of the Father, where he speaks figuratively, calling himself shepherd of sheep; he is the Instructor of infants. He says through Ezekiel, addressing the elders and setting before them a saving model of wise care: “And I will bind up the lame, and heal the afflicted, and turn back the one that wanders, and I myself will feed them on my holy mountain.” These are the promises of a good shepherd. Feed us infants like sheep. Yes, Master, fill us with your pasture, righteousness; yes, Instructor, shepherd us to your holy mountain, the church, which is exalted above the clouds and touches the heavens. “And I will be their shepherd,” he says, “and I will be near them,” as the tunic to their skin. He wishes to save my flesh, clothing it with the tunic of incorruption, and he has anointed my skin. “They will call me,” he says, “and I will say, Here I am.” You heard more quickly than I expected, Master! “And if they pass through, they will not slip, says the Lord.” For we who pass over to incorruption will not fall into corruption, because he himself will hold us up; for he himself said it, and he himself willed it.

Such is our Instructor, rightly good. “I came,” he says, “not to be served, but to serve.” That is why he is presented in the Gospel as weary, he who labors for us and promises “to give his life as a ransom for many.” For he confesses that only such a one is a good shepherd. Generous, then, is he who gives the greatest thing for us, his life; very beneficial and loving to humankind, since, though he could be Lord of human beings, he has willed to be their brother; and so good that he even died for us. His justice too has cried out: “If you come to me upright, I too will be upright toward you; if you walk crookedly, I too will be crooked, says the Lord of hosts,” hinting at the reprimands of sinners as crooked ways. For the straight and natural way, which the iota of Jesus hints at, is his goodness, unmoved and unswerving toward those who have believed through obedience. “Since I called and you did not listen, says the Lord, but made my counsels void, and paid no attention to my reproofs.” So the Lord's reproof is most beneficial.

Of these he says also through David: “A crooked and embittering generation, a generation that did not set its heart right, and whose spirit was not faithful to God. They did not keep God's covenant, and would not walk in his law.” These are the causes of the provocation, for which the Judge comes to bring punishment on those who did not choose to live well. That is why he has dealt more harshly with them from then on, to check, if possible, their rush toward death. Through David he gives the clearest reason for the threat: “They did not believe in his wonders. When he slew them, they sought him and turned back and rose early to seek God, and remembered that God is their helper, and God Most High their redeemer.” So he knows that they turn back through fear, having despised his love for humankind. For goodness that is always kind is generally slighted, but it is honored when it reminds us by the loving fear of justice.

Fear is of two kinds. One comes with reverence: citizens have it toward good rulers, and we toward God, as sensible children toward their fathers. “For an untamed horse turns out stubborn,” it says, “and a son left to himself turns out headstrong.” The other kind of fear comes with hatred: slaves have it toward harsh masters, and the Hebrews had it, who made God a master, not a father. The voluntary, freely chosen fear differs greatly, I think, indeed entirely, from compelled fear in relation to piety. “For he is merciful,” it says; “he will heal their sins and not destroy them; and he will abound in turning away his anger, and will not kindle all his wrath.” See how the justice of the Instructor is shown in his rebukes, and the goodness of God in his compassion. That is why David, that is, the Spirit through him, including both, sings of the same God: “Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of your throne; mercy and truth will go before your face.”

He confesses that judging and doing good belong to the same power; for the authority over both together is the judgment of the just one, separating opposites. The same God is just and good, the one who truly is God, who himself is all things, and all things are himself, because he himself is God, the only God. As a mirror is not bad to an ugly man because it shows him as he is, and as a physician is not bad to a sick man when he tells him of his fever (for the physician is not the cause of the fever, but its detector), so neither is the one who reproves ill-disposed toward one sick in soul; for he does not put the offenses there, but points out the sins that are present, to turn us from similar practices. So God is good in himself, and just for our sake, and this because he is good. He shows us his justice through his own Word from there above, from where he became Father. For before he became Creator he was God, he was good; and for this reason he willed to be both Maker and Father. The relation of that love became the beginning of justice, as he makes his sun shine and sends down his Son. And the Son first proclaimed the good justice from heaven, saying, “No one knew the Son except the Father, nor the Father except the Son.” This mutually balanced knowledge is a symbol of primal, equal justice. Then justice came down to human beings, both in letter and in body, in the law and in the Word, constraining humanity to saving repentance; for it was good. But you do not obey God: blame yourself for bringing the judge upon you.

If, then, we have shown that the plan of treating humanity severely, which is good and saving, is necessarily adopted by the Word, and is well suited both to repentance and to the prevention of sins, it would be next to consider the gentleness of the Word. For he has been shown to be just, and he sets before us his own sayings, which encourage us to salvation, and by which he wishes to make known to us, by the Father's will, both the noble and the advantageous. Consider this: the noble belongs to the speech of praise, the advantageous to deliberative speech; for exhorting and dissuading are aspects of deliberative speech, and praising and blaming of the speech of praise. In one disposition the deliberative mind exhorts, in another it dissuades; likewise the speech of praise in one disposition blames, in another praises. With these the just Instructor, who aims at our advantage, is most concerned. The kind that blames and dissuades has already been shown to us; now we must deal with the kind that exhorts and praises, and, as on a balance, set the equal scales of justice against each other.

The Instructor uses exhortation to what is advantageous through Solomon, in this way: “I call on you, O men, and I send forth my voice to the sons of men; listen to me, for I will speak noble things,” and so on. He counsels what saves, since counsel serves for choosing and avoiding, as he does through David, saying: “Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the pestilent; but his will is in the law of the Lord.” Counsel has three parts. One takes its examples from times past: for instance, what the Hebrews suffered when they worshiped the golden calf, and what they suffered when they committed sexual immorality, and the like. Another is understood from the present, as perceived by the senses, as was said to those who asked the Lord, “Are you the Christ, or are we to wait for another?”: “Go and tell John: the blind see again, the deaf hear, lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised; and blessed is whoever is not offended in me.”

This, then, is what David said in prophecy: “As we have heard, so we have seen.” The third part of counsel is drawn from the future, by which he bids us guard against what will come; as it is said: “Those who have fallen into sins will be cast into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” and the like. From this it is plain that the Lord, going through every kind of treatment, calls humanity to salvation. By consolation he soothes sins, lessening desire and at the same time giving hope of salvation. For he says through Ezekiel: “If you turn back with your whole heart and say, Father, I will hear you as a holy people.” And again he says: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” and what follows, which the Lord speaks in his own person. Most clearly he calls to goodness through Solomon, saying: “Blessed is the man who has found wisdom, and the mortal who has found understanding.” For the good is found by the one who seeks, and is wont to be seen by the one who finds. And through Jeremiah he explains understanding, saying, “Blessed are we, Israel, for what pleases God is known to us”: known through the Word, through whom we are blessed and understanding. For understanding is said to be knowledge through the same prophet, who says, “Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life; give ear to learn understanding.” And through Moses he also promises a gift, out of his love for humankind, to those who hasten to salvation: “And I will bring you into the good land, which the Lord swore to your fathers”; and besides, he says through Isaiah, “And I will bring you to the holy mountain and make you glad.”

There is another kind of his instruction too: the beatitude. “Blessed is he,” he says through David, “who has not sinned; and he will be like the tree planted by the streams of water, which will give its fruit in its season, and its leaf will not fall” (this he hinted with a view to the resurrection too), “and whatever he does will prosper.” He wants us to become such, so that we may be blessed. On the other hand, showing the counterweight on the scale of justice, he says: “Not so the ungodly, not so, but like the dust which the wind drives from the face of the earth.” By showing the penalty of sinners, and how easily they are scattered and blown away, the Instructor turned us from the fault by means of the penalty; and holding up the deserved punishment, he showed the kindness of his benefaction, calling us most skillfully, by this means, to the use and possession of good things. He also calls us to knowledge through Jeremiah, saying: “If you had walked in the way of God, you would have dwelt in peace forever.” Here, showing the reward of knowledge, he calls the intelligent to love it; and granting pardon to the one who has gone astray, he says, “Turn back, turn back, as the grape-gatherer to his basket.”

Do you see the goodness of justice, advising repentance? Further, through Jeremiah he lights up the truth for those who are astray: “Thus says the Lord: Stand by the roads and look, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord, which is the good path, and walk in it, and you will find purification for your souls.” He leads us to repentance for the sake of our salvation. That is why he says: “If you repent, the Lord will cleanse your heart and the heart of your seed.” We could have brought in as advocates in this inquiry the philosophers who say that only the perfect man is praiseworthy and that the bad man is blameworthy. But since some slander the Blessed One as having no concerns himself and causing none to anyone else, not understanding his love for humankind, and because of these and of those who still do not attach justice to the good, this argument has been passed over by us. For it would follow that we should say that the reproving and blaming kind of instruction suits human beings, since they say that all human beings are bad; and God alone is wise, from whom wisdom comes, and alone perfect, and for that reason

alone is praiseworthy. But I do not use this argument; rather I say that praise and blame, or something like praise and blame, are the most necessary medicines of all for human beings. Those who are hard to cure are beaten out like iron by fire and hammer and anvil, that is, by threat, reproof, and censure; while those who give heed to faith itself, being as it were self-taught and of good will, grow by praise: “For virtue, when praised, grows like a tree.” And it seems to me that Pythagoras of Samos understood this when he commanded: “When you have done base things, rebuke yourself; but when good, rejoice.” Reprimanding is also called admonishing (nouthetein); and admonition (nouthetēsis) is, by etymology, putting sense (nous) into the mind, so that the reprimanding kind is a gaining of sense. Countless precepts have been devised for the acquisition of good things and the avoidance of evil. “For there is no peace for the ungodly, says the Lord.” That is why he commands the infants through Solomon to be on guard: “Son, do not let sinners lead you astray, nor walk in their ways; do not go if they call you, saying: Come with us, share in innocent blood; let us unjustly hide a righteous man in the earth; let us swallow him alive like Hades.”

This is prophesied of the Lord's passion as well. And through Ezekiel Life itself sets out the commandments: “The soul that sins shall die. But the man who is righteous, who does righteousness, will not eat on the mountains, and has not lifted his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel; he will not defile his neighbor's wife, nor come near a woman in her impurity; he will not oppress anyone, but will restore the debtor's pledge, and will not seize plunder; he will give his bread to the hungry and clothe the naked; he will not lend his money at interest nor take increase; he will turn his hand from injustice and execute true justice between a man and his neighbor; he has walked in my statutes and kept my ordinances to do them: this man is righteous, he shall surely live, says the Lord.” These words contain an outline of the Christian way of life, and a notable exhortation to the blessed life, the reward of a good life, eternal life.