Homilies on Luke preface–5

A few days ago you told me that you had read certain commentaries on Matthew and on Luke, of which one was dull both in thought and in words, while the other played with words and dozed in its ideas. So you ask me to set aside trifles of that kind and at least translate the thirty-nine homilies of our Adamantius on Luke, as they stand in the Greek: a tiresome task, like torture, to write, as Tully says, with another’s stomach and not one’s own. Yet I will do it now, precisely because you are not asking for loftier things. For what the holy Blesilla once demanded at Rome, that I render into our language his twenty-five volumes on Matthew, five others on Luke, and thirty-two on John, is beyond my strength, my leisure, and my labour. You see how much your authority and your wish count with me. I have set aside for a little while the books of Hebrew Questions, so that at your bidding I might dictate in spare hours these pieces, such as they are, not my own but another’s; especially as I hear on my left a raven, a bird of ill omen, croaking, and in wonderful fashion laughing at the colours of all the other birds, though he himself is wholly dark. So I confess, before he can raise the objection, that in these discourses Origen plays like a boy at dice: the works of his manhood and the serious works of his old age are another matter. If it please you, if I am able, and if the Lord grants me the opportunity to turn them into the Latin tongue, once I have first completed the work I set aside, then you will be able to see, or rather through you the Roman tongue will learn, how much good it did not know before and has now begun to know. Besides this, in a few days I intend to send you the commentaries on Matthew of the most eloquent Hilary and of the blessed martyr Victorinus, which they published in different styles but with one grace of the Spirit, so that you may know how great a zeal for the holy Scriptures our own people too once had.

On the prologue of Luke, up to the place where he says, “to write to you, most excellent Theophilus.” Just as long ago among the people of the Jews many laid claim to prophecy, and some were false prophets, one of whom was Hananiah son of Azzur, while others were true prophets, and there was among the people the grace of discerning spirits, by which some were received among the prophets and some were rejected, as if by the most experienced money-changers: so now in the New Testament many have tried to write Gospels, but not all have been received. And so that you may know that not only four Gospels but very many were written, from which these that we have were chosen and handed down to the churches, let us learn it from Luke’s prologue itself, which runs thus: “Since many have tried to set in order a narrative” (Luke 1:1). This expression, “have tried,” carries a hidden accusation against those who rushed into writing Gospels without the grace of the Holy Spirit. For Matthew and Mark and John and Luke did not “try” to write; they wrote the Gospels filled with the Holy Spirit. “Many,” then, “have tried to set in order a narrative of the things that have been most clearly made known among us.” The church has four Gospels, the heresies a great many; of these one is entitled “according to the Egyptians,” another “according to the Twelve Apostles.” Basilides too dared to write a Gospel and to give it his own name. “Many have tried” to write, and “many have tried to set in order”; only four Gospels are approved, from which the doctrines are to be drawn in the person of our Lord and Saviour. I know a certain Gospel which is called “according to Thomas,” and one “according to Matthias,” and we have read many others, so as not to seem ignorant of anything, because of those who think they know something if they have come to know these. But in all of them we approve nothing other than what the church approves, that is, that only four Gospels are to be received. I have said this because at the beginning it was read: “Many have tried to set in order a narrative of the things that have been confirmed among us.” They attempted and tried to write about the things that have been most clearly ascertained among us. Luke shows his own state of mind by the expression in which he says, “most clearly shown among us,” that is, πεπληροφορημένων (which the Latin language cannot express in one word). For he had come to know it with sure faith and reason, and did not waver on any point as to whether it was so or otherwise. This happens to those who have believed most faithfully and have obtained what the prophet prays for when he says, “Strengthen me in your words” (Ps 119:28); hence the apostle too says of those who were firm and strong, “that you may be rooted and grounded in faith” (Eph 3:17). For if anyone is rooted and grounded in faith, though a storm arise, though winds blow, though rain pour down, he will not be shaken nor fall, because the building is founded with a solid mass upon the rock (Matt 7:24–25). And let us not think that firmness of faith is given by these bodily eyes; it is the mind and reason that grant it. Let unbelievers believe signs and wonders, which human sight beholds; but let the believer, more prudent and strong, follow reason and the word, and so judge what is true and what is false. “Just as they handed them down to us who from the beginning were themselves eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.” In Exodus it is written, “The people saw the voice of God” (Exod 20:18). Surely a voice is heard rather than seen; but it was written so that it might be shown to us that the voice of God is seen with other eyes, with which those who deserve it behold it. Moreover, in the Gospel it is not a voice that is seen but the word, which is greater than a voice. Hence it is now said, “Just as they handed them down to us who from the beginning were themselves eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.” The apostles, then, themselves saw the Word: not because they had looked upon the body of the Lord Saviour, but because they saw the Word. For if, by seeing Jesus in the body, they had seen the Word of God, then Pilate too, who condemned him, saw the Word of God, and Judas the traitor, and all who cried out, “Crucify, crucify him, take him away from the earth”: they would have seen the Word of God. But far be it that any unbeliever should see the Word of God. To see the Word of God is what the Saviour means when he says: “He who sees me sees also the Father who sent me” (John 14:9). “Just as they handed them down to us who from the beginning were themselves eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.” From Luke’s words we are clearly taught that the end of one kind of learning is the learning itself, while the end of another kind of learning is reckoned in action. For example, the science of geometry has as its end only the science and learning itself. But there is another science whose end demands action: in medicine, for instance, I must know the theory and doctrines of medicine, not only so that I may know what I ought to do, but so that I may do it, that is, lance wounds, prescribe a moderate and restricted diet, feel the heat of fevers in the pulse of the veins, and by courses of treatment dry up, temper, and check an excess of humours. If anyone only knows these things and has not followed them up in action, his knowledge will be empty. Something like the relation between the science of medicine and its practice is found also in the knowledge and ministry of the word: “Just as they handed them down to us who from the beginning were themselves eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.” So we understand that by his saying “were themselves eyewitnesses” teaching and knowledge are signified, and by his saying “were ministers of the word” works are shown. “Having followed from the beginning”: “It seemed good to me also, having followed from the beginning.” He presses and repeats the point that he did not learn what he is going to write by hearsay but had followed it himself from the beginning. Hence he is rightly praised by the apostle, who says, “whose praise is in the gospel through all the churches” (2 Cor 8:18). This is said of no one else, and it is handed down as said only of Luke. “It seemed good to me also, having followed all things from the beginning, to write to you carefully in order, most excellent Theophilus.” Someone thinks that he wrote the Gospel to a certain Theophilus; but all of you who hear us speaking, if you are such as to be loved by God, you too are Theophiluses, and the Gospel is written to you. If anyone is a Theophilus, he is most excellent and most strong; for that is what is expressed more pointedly in Greek by κράτιστος. No Theophilus is weak. And as it is written of the people of Israel when they went out of Egypt that there was no one weak among their tribes, so, to speak boldly, I will say that everyone who is a Theophilus is strong, having strong might from God and from his word, so that he can know the truth of the words in which he was instructed, understanding the word of the Gospel in Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” Chapter 1. Those who want to hold up some excuse for their sins think that no one is without sin, and they use the testimony written in Job: “No one is clean from filth, not even if his life on earth be but one day; and his months are numbered” (Job 14:4–5). They bring forward only its sound and are wholly ignorant of its interpretation. To them we shall reply briefly that being without sin is understood in the Scriptures in two ways: one, never to have sinned at all; the other, to have ceased to sin. If, then, they say that he is called without sin who has never sinned, we too agree that no one is without sin, because all of us human beings have sinned at some time, even if afterwards we followed virtue. But if they understand that no one is without sin in the sense of denying that anyone, after his vices, so turns to the virtues that he no longer sins at all, their opinion is false. For it can happen that one who sinned before and has ceased to sin is said to be without sin. So too our Lord Jesus Christ presented to himself a glorious church, “not having spot” (Eph 5:27): not because the churchman never had a spot, but because he is no longer spotted; “not having wrinkle,” not because the wrinkle of the old man was never in him, but because he has ceased to have it. In this way also what follows is to be understood, “that it may be holy and without blemish”: not that it was without blemish from the beginning (for this cannot even be supposed of a human being, that his soul was never stained), but that it is reckoned pure and sincere because it has ceased to be stained any longer. We have said this to show that a person, because he has ceased to sin, can be called without sin and without blemish. Hence it is written most plainly of Zechariah and Elizabeth: “They were both righteous before God, walking”; indeed, “they were both righteous before the Lord in all things, proceeding in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” Let us consider more carefully the praises of Zechariah and Elizabeth which holy Luke writes in his history: not only that we may know that they were praiseworthy, but that, taking up a holy zeal, we too may become worthy of praise. He could have written simply, “they were both righteous, walking in all the commandments”; but as it is, “both righteous before God” is added of necessity. For it can happen that someone is righteous in the sight of men but not in the sight of God. For example, when no one has anything evil to say of me, and considering everything in me finds nothing to disparage, I am righteous in the sight of men. Suppose everyone holds the same opinion of me, and they look for something to disparage in me and yet cannot find it, but praise me with one voice: I am righteous in the sight of a great many men; but the judgment of men is not certain. For they do not know whether in the hidden places of my heart I have at some time sinned, whether I have looked at a woman to lust after her (Matt 5:28) and adultery has been born in my heart. When people see me giving alms according to my means, they do not know whether I did it because of God’s commandment or sought the praise and favour of men. It is a hard thing to be righteous in the sight of God, so that you do some good for no other reason than for the good itself, and seek God alone as the rewarder of a good work. The apostle says something like this: “whose praise is not from men but from God” (Rom 2:29). Blessed is he who is righteous and praiseworthy in the sight of God. For men, even if they seem to have sure judgment, still cannot pronounce with certainty. It sometimes happens that they praise one who is not praiseworthy and disparage one who least deserves disparagement. God alone is a just judge both in praise and in blame. So it is fittingly added here in praise of the righteous: “They were both righteous before God.” Solomon too urges something like this in Proverbs, saying, “Son, provide good things in the sight of God and of men” (Prov 3:4). There follows another praise of Zechariah and Elizabeth: “walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.” When we judge well and rightly concerning anyone, we walk in the ordinances of the Lord; when we do this or that, we walk in his commandments. Therefore I think holy Luke, wishing to proclaim them with perfect praise, said, “They were both righteous, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.” Someone may say to me: If this praise is perfect, what is meant by “blameless”? It would have been enough to say, “walking in all the ways and ordinances of the Lord,” unless it could happen that someone walks in all the commandments of God and yet does not walk blameless. And how can it happen that one who walks in all the commandments and ordinances of God is open to blame? I shall answer briefly: if this were not so, we would never find it written in another place, “Justly pursue what is just” (Deut 16:20). For unless there were something just that we might pursue unjustly, we would not be commanded to pursue justly what is just. For when we do God’s commandment and spatter our conscience with the filth of vainglory, so as to please men, or when some other motive that does not please God goes before the good work, even though we do God’s precept, we still do not do it blamelessly, and we pursue unjustly what is just. It is hard, then, to walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless, according to the testimony and praise of God in Christ Jesus. This praise is to be rendered on the day of judgment by him before whose judgment seat we must all be made manifest, so that each may receive what he has done through the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor 5:10). For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God, to receive what we deserve in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “There appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right of the altar of incense.” Chapter 1. Things that are bodily and without sense do nothing themselves in order to be seen by another; only another’s eye, directed at them, sees them, whether they will or not, when it turns its gaze upon them. For what can a human being, or anything else enclosed in a gross body, do when it is present so as not to be seen? On the contrary, things that are heavenly and divine, even when they are present, are not seen unless they themselves will it; it lies in their will to be seen or not to be seen. It was the grace of God that he appeared to Abraham or to the other prophets: not that the eye of Abraham’s heart alone was the cause of his seeing God, but that the grace of God freely offered itself to be seen by a righteous man. Understand this not only of God the Father, but also of the Lord Saviour and of the Holy Spirit, and, to come down to lesser beings, of the cherubim and seraphim. For it may be that even now, while we are speaking, an angel stands beside us, and yet, because we do not deserve it, we cannot see him. For although the eye, whether of our body or of our soul, strains to behold, unless the angel appears of his own accord and offers himself to be seen, even one who truly desires it will not see. So wherever it is written, “God appeared” to this one or that, as also here, “There appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right of the altar of incense,” understand it as I have said. Whether it is God or an angel, with Abraham or with Zechariah, he will be seen or not seen as he wills or does not will. And we say this not only of the present age but also of the age to come, when we have departed from the world: God and the angels will not appear to all, so that not everyone who goes out of the body at once deserves to see the angels and the Holy Spirit and the Lord Saviour and God the Father himself; only he will see who has a pure heart (Matt 5:8) and shows himself such as to be worthy of the sight of God. And although one who is pure of heart and one who is still spattered with some filth are in the same place, the one place can neither harm nor help anyone: he who has a pure heart will see God, but he who is not such will not see what the others behold. Something like this I must understand also of Christ, who was once seen in the body: not all who saw him were able to see him. For they saw only his body; but according to what he was as Christ they could not see him. But the disciples saw him and contemplated the greatness of his divinity. This is why, I think, when Philip asked and said, “Show us the Father, and it is enough for us,” the Saviour answered: “Have I been with you so long, and you have not known me? Philip, he who sees me sees the Father also” (John 14:8–9). For neither Pilate, who saw Jesus, beheld the Father, nor Judas the traitor, because neither Pilate nor Judas saw Christ according to what he was as Christ, nor did the crowd that pressed upon him. Only those saw Jesus whom he knew to be worthy of his sight. Let us too, then, labour that God may appear to us even now. For the holy word of the Scriptures has promised that he is found by those who do not tempt him and appears to those who are not unbelieving towards him; and in the age to come may he not be hidden from us, but may we see him face to face, and have the confidence of a good life, and enjoy the sight of almighty God in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On the text: “Do not fear, Zechariah,” up to the place where he says of John, “He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah.” Chapter 1. When Zechariah saw the angel, he was terrified. For an unfamiliar form presenting itself to human sight troubles the mind and dismays the spirit. So the angel, knowing that this is human nature, first heals his alarm, saying, “Do not fear, Zechariah,” and revives him as he trembles and gladdens him with new tidings, adding: “Your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear a son, and you will call his name John, and you will have joy and gladness.” When a righteous person comes into the world and enters the racecourse of this life, the ministers of his birth rejoice and are lifted up on high. But when one is born who is destined for an evil life, and as it were sent off to a prison-house for punishment, the minister is dismayed and downcast. Do you want an example of a holy man all of whose fruit is praiseworthy? See how Jacob begot twelve sons, all of whom became patriarchs and princes of the people of God and of his portion: in all of them Jacob rejoiced as their father, just as now joy is announced to all at the birth of John. And let anyone who has once come down to the work of begetting children for the benefit of others, and has been willing to give himself to this service, pray God that such a son may enter the world for him, so that he may rejoice the more at his birth. So it is written of John: “He will be great in the sight of the Lord” (Luke 1:15). He shows the greatness of John’s soul, in that it lies open to the eyes of God; and also that smallness is something properly seen in the soul’s virtue. This is how I understand also what is said in the Gospel: “Do not despise one of these least ones” who are in the church. “Least” is understood there in distinction from “greater.” I am not told not to despise one who is great, because one who is great cannot be despised; but I am told not to despise one of the least. And so that you may know that “least” and “little” are not said at random but for the reason we have given, it is written: “Whoever causes one of these least ones to stumble” (Matt 18:6). The least is caused to stumble; the great cannot be made to stumble. It follows of John: “And he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.” The birth of John too is full of wonder. For as an archangel announced the coming of our Lord and Saviour, so an archangel announces the birth of John: “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.” The people of the Jews did not see our Lord at all when he worked signs and wonders and healed their infirmities; but John, while still in his mother’s womb, leaps for joy and, though he cannot yet do so, strains to burst forth from the womb at the coming of the Mother of Jesus. “For behold,” says Elizabeth, “as soon as your greeting came to my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” John was still in his mother’s womb and had already received the Holy Spirit. For that was not the beginning of his being and nature. Scripture says of him that “he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.” John turns many; but the Lord turns not many but all. This is his work, to turn all to God the Father. “And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah.” He does not say “in the soul of Elijah,” but “in the spirit and power of Elijah.” There was power and spirit in Elijah, as in all the prophets, and, according to the dispensation of the body, in the Lord Saviour himself as well, of whom a little later it is said to Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” The spirit, then, that had been in Elijah, and the power that was in him, appeared also in John. Elijah was taken up; but John was the Forerunner of the Lord and died before him, so that, going down to the underworld, he might proclaim his coming there. I think that the mystery of John is being fulfilled in the world even to this day. Whoever is going to believe in Christ Jesus, the spirit and power of John run ahead to his soul, and prepare for the Lord a perfect people, and in the rough places of the heart make the ways level and straighten the paths, “to make ready for the Lord a perfect people.” Not only at that time were the ways prepared and the paths made straight; even to this day the spirit and power of John go before the coming of the Lord Saviour. O great mysteries of the Lord and of his dispensation! Angels run before Jesus; angels daily ascend and descend for the salvation of human beings (John 1:51), in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

On Zechariah’s falling mute. Chapter 1. Zechariah the priest, while offering incense in the temple, is condemned to silence and held fast, or rather speaks only by nods, and remains mute until the birth of his son John. Where does this narrative point? The silence of Zechariah is the silence of the prophets among the people of Israel. God no longer speaks to them; the Word who was from the beginning with the Father, God, has passed over to us, and Christ is not silent to us; among them he is silent to this day. That is why Zechariah the prophet too fell silent. That he was both a prophet and a priest is most clearly proved by his own words. But what is meant by what follows: “He kept nodding to them,” making up for the loss of his voice by nods? I think that works done without word are such that they differ in no way from nods. But where reason and word have gone before and the work has followed, they ought not to be reckoned mere nods, since they are adorned with word or reason. If, then, you see the way of life of the Jews to be without reason and word, so that they cannot give a reason for what they do, understand that what went before in Zechariah is being fulfilled up to now in what he prefigured. Their circumcision is like nods. For unless a reason for circumcision is given, circumcision is a nod and a mute work. The Passover and the other festivals are nods rather than truth. To this day the people of Israel is deaf and mute; nor could one who had cast the Word away from himself be anything but deaf and mute. Long ago Moses said, “But I am alogos”: although the Latin translator rendered it otherwise, it can properly be translated “without word” or “without reason”; and after he said this, he received the reason and word which he had confessed he did not have before. The people of Israel, before it received the law, was in a sense mute, without reason and word; then it received the word, of which Moses was the image. This people, then, does not now confess what Moses confessed then, that it is mute and alogos, but by nods and silence it shows that it has no word and no reason. Does it not seem to you a confession of folly when none of them can give the reason for the precepts of the law and the oracles of prophecy? Christ has ceased to be among them; the Word has left them; what is written in Isaiah has been fulfilled: “The daughter of Zion will be left like a booth in a vineyard, and like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a city under siege” (Isa 1:8). When they were left, salvation passed over to the nations, so that they might be provoked to jealousy. Looking, then, at the dispensation and secret counsel of God, how Israel was cast off for our salvation, we must take care lest, since they were cast out for our sake, we should be worthy of greater punishment, we for whose sake the others were abandoned, if we have done nothing worthy of the adoption of God and of his mercy, by which he adopted us and counted us among his sons, in Christ Jesus (Rom 11:11), to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.