Homilies 3.26–3.62

“But he who among the sons of men has innate prophecy of the soul as his own, plainly, as male, announcing the hopes of the coming age, named his son Abel, which without any ambiguity is interpreted ‘mourning’. For he gives his sons their deceived brothers to mourn for. He does not lie to them when he promises them comfort in the coming age. Saying that one God alone is to be prayed to, he neither speaks of gods himself nor believes another who does. The good he has he keeps and increases still more. He hates sacrifices, blood, libations; he loves the chaste, the pure, the holy. He quenches the fire of altars, abolishes wars, teaches peace, commands self-control, cleanses sins, sanctions marriage, permits continence, leads all to purity, makes them merciful, prescribes righteousness, seals the perfect among them, and reveals the word of rest. He prophesies plainly, speaks clearly, often reminds of the eternal fire of punishment, constantly proclaims the kingdom of God, points to heavenly riches, promises glory that cannot be taken away, and shows the forgiveness of sin by deed.”

“What need is there to say more? The male is wholly truth, the female wholly error; and the one born of male and female speaks falsely in some things and truly in others. For the female, surrounding the white seed of the male with her own blood as with red fire, props up her weakness with the alien supports of bones; and delighting with the passing bloom of the flesh and robbing reason of its strength by brief pleasures, she leads most people into adultery, and so deprives them of the good bridegroom to come. For every human being is a bride whenever, sown by the true Prophet with the white word of truth, he is enlightened in mind.”

“Therefore one must listen to the one Prophet of truth alone, knowing that the word sown by another incurs the charge of adultery and is cast out of his kingdom, as by the bridegroom. And for those who know the mystery, death also comes through adultery of the soul. Whenever the soul is sown by others, then, as having committed sexual immorality or adultery, it is abandoned by the Spirit; and so the living body, the life-giving Spirit having departed, is dissolved into earth, and the punishment deserved for the sin is rendered to the soul at the time of judgment, after the body’s dissolution; just as among men a woman caught in adultery is first cast out of the house and afterwards brought to trial for condemnation.”

As Peter was about to reveal this mystical word to us fully, Zacchaeus came and said: “Now at last, Peter, it is time for you to go out and hold the discussion. For a great crowd has gathered in the courtyard and is waiting for you, and in the middle of it stands Simon, escorted by it like a war-leader by his spearmen.” When Peter heard this, he told me to withdraw for the prayer, since I had not yet received the baptism that brings salvation, and said to those who were already perfected: “Let us rise and pray that God, in his unfailing compassion, may work with me as I set out for the salvation of the human beings he created.” Having said this and prayed, he went out into the open part of the courtyard, which was large, where many had gathered to watch, his eminence having made them more eager to hear.

So he stood, and seeing the whole people gazing at him in deep silence, and Simon the magus standing in the middle, he began to speak thus: “Peace be to all of you who are ready to give your right hands to the truth of God. This is his great and incomparable gift in the present world, which the one who sent us, the unerring prophet of what is supremely advantageous, commanded us to pronounce upon you as a greeting before the words of teaching, so that if there is among you any child of peace, peace may take hold of him through our teaching; but if any of you does not wish to receive it, then we, shaking off from our feet as a testimony the dust of the roads, which we have carried in our toils and brought to you so that you might be saved, may go away to the houses and cities of others.”

“And truly we tell you: it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than to remain in the place of disobedience: first, because you did not of yourselves perceive what is reasonable; second, because having heard of us you did not come to us; third, because even when we came you disobeyed. Therefore, sparing you, we pray that our peace may come upon you as a free gift. If then you wish to have it, you must readily undertake not to do wrong and nobly bear being wronged, which human nature could not endure unless it first received the knowledge of what is supremely advantageous, that is, to know the just nature of the one who is above all, that he avenges and punishes on behalf of those who are wronged and benefits the godly forever.”

“You then, as right-minded servants of God, perceiving of yourselves what is reasonable, take up the way of life that pleases him, so that, loving him and being loved by him, you may have what is advantageous forever. For he alone is fully able to provide it, who brought into being things that were not, fashioned heaven, compacted the earth, bounded the sea, stored up what is in Hades, and filled all things with air.”

“He alone turned the one first and uniform substance into four contraries; then, mixing them, he made countless blends from them, so that, turned into contrary natures and mixed, they might produce the pleasure of life from the pairing of opposites. Likewise he alone, having fashioned hosts of angels and spirits by a nod of his will, filled the heavens, as he also adorned the visible firmament with stars, for which he fixed paths and appointed courses. He compacted the earth for the growth of fruits; he bounded the sea, marking off a dwelling on the dry land; he stores up what is in Hades, naming it the place of souls; and he filled all things with air, so that all living creatures might breathe without fear in order to live.”

“O the great, wise hand of God, which makes all things in all! For a countless multitude of birds has been made by him, and a varied one, each differing from another in every respect, I mean in colours, beaks, claws, looks, dispositions, voices, and all the rest. And how many different forms of plants, distinguished by countless colours, qualities, and scents! And how many creatures of the dry land and of the waters, whose shapes, forms, postures, colour, ways of life, dispositions, natures, and number it is impossible to tell! And besides these, the multitude and heights of mountains, the varieties of stones, fearful recesses, springs, rivers, lakes, seas, harbours, islands, forests, the whole inhabited world, and uninhabited places.”

“And how many other things there are that are unknown, having escaped human conjecture! And of the things within our grasp, who among men knows a single limit? I mean: how the heaven revolves, how the stars are borne along, what forms they have and what constitutes their life, what their airy paths are; whence the blasts of the winds are driven round and have their different effects; whence the springs gush unfailingly, and rivers, ever flowing, reach the sea, and neither is the place they come from emptied nor the place they go to filled; how far the boundless depth of limitless Tartarus extends; on what the all-encompassing heaven is suspended; how clouds gush from the air and are drunk back into the air; what the nature is of thunders and lightnings, snows, hail, mist, ice, storms, rains, hovering clouds; and how he forms plants and animals, and these continually brought to completion in countless varieties with all precision.”

“Yet if anyone considers the whole carefully by reason, he will find that God made it for the sake of man. For rains come for the sake of fruits, so that man may partake of them and animals be fed, to be useful to man. And the sun shines to turn the air into four seasons, so that each season may supply man with its own goods. And springs gush so that drink may be given to men. Moreover, who is lord over creation, as far as is possible? Is it not man, who has received wisdom to till the earth, sail the sea, hunt swimming creatures, birds, and beasts, calculate the course of the stars, mine the earth, sift the sea, found cities, appoint kings, make laws, judge, perceive the invisible God, know the names of angels, drive out demons, try to stop diseases with medicines, find charms against venomous reptiles, and devise antidotes?”

“If you are right-minded, O man, and have come to know the God who has done you good in all things, you could even be immortal, since the things created for your sake owe their continuance to your gratitude. And even now you can become incorruptible, if you recognize him whom you failed to know, if you love him whom you forsook, if you pray to him alone, who is able to punish and to save your body and soul. Therefore consider above all that no one rules with him, no one shares his name, that which is called ‘God’. For he alone is both called God and is God; it is not permitted either to think or to say that there is another. If anyone should dare to, his soul is destined to be punished eternally.”

When Peter had said this, Simon, from the edge of the crowd, said with a loud voice: “Why do you wish by lying to deceive the unlearned crowd standing around you, persuading them that it is not permitted either to think or to say that there are gods, when the public books of the Jews say that there are many gods? And now, before everyone, I wish to debate with you from those very books about the need to believe in gods: first about the God you spoke of, showing that he is not the supreme and all-powerful being, in that he is without foreknowledge, imperfect, needy, not good, and subject to many, indeed countless, grievous passions. When this has been shown from the Scriptures, as I say, it follows that there is another, not written of, who has foreknowledge, is perfect, lacks nothing, is good, and is free from all grievous passions. But the one you call creator is marked by the opposite qualities.”

“For instance, Adam, made in his likeness, is created blind and is handed over without knowledge of good or evil, and is found a transgressor, cast out of paradise, and punished with death. Likewise the one who formed him, since he does not see everywhere, says at the overthrow of Sodom: ‘Come, let us go down and see whether they are doing according to their outcry that comes to me; and if not, that I may know’; and so he shows himself ignorant. And in what he says about Adam, ‘Let us cast him out, lest perhaps he stretch out his hand and touch the tree of life and eat and live forever’, in saying ‘lest perhaps’ he is ignorant, and in adding ‘lest perhaps he eat and live forever’ he is also envious. And that it is written, ‘God considered that he had made man’, shows him both repenting and ignorant; for ‘considered’ is a reflection by which someone, not knowing the outcome of what he wants, wishes to make it certain, or it belongs to one who regrets what did not turn out as he intended. And that it is written, ‘And the Lord smelled a sweet odour’, belongs to one in need; and to take pleasure in the savour of flesh is not the mark of a good being. And to tempt, as it is written, ‘And the Lord tempted Abraham’, is the mark of one who is evil and does not know how the endurance will end.”

In this way Simon seemed to show from many passages of the Scriptures that God is subject to every passion. And Peter said: “Answer me: does the wicked and utterly depraved man love to convict himself in the things in which he sins?” Simon said: “He does not.” Peter said: “How then can God be wicked and depraved, if the evils publicly written against him were added by his own will?” Simon said: “It is possible that the reproof against him was written by another power, not by his choice.” Peter said: “Then let us inquire into this first. If he convicted himself by his own will, as you agreed a moment ago, he is not depraved; but if it was by another power, we must inquire and examine with all our strength whether someone has subjected him, who alone is good, to all these evils.”

Simon said: “You are plainly running away from hearing the charge against your God from the Scriptures.” Peter said: “You seem to me to be doing that yourself. For whoever runs away from the order of inquiry does not want a true examination to take place. So I, keeping to order and wishing first to know who the writer was, am plainly wishing to walk the straight road.” Simon said: “First admit that if what is written against the creator is true, he is not higher than all, since according to the Scriptures he is subject to every depravity; and afterwards we will inquire about the writer.” Peter said: “So that I may not seem unwilling to inquire because I object to your lack of order, I answer: I say that even if what is written against God were true, it does not yet show God to be depraved.” Simon said: “How can you establish that?”

Peter said: “Because the opposite has been written to the sayings that speak ill of him; for which reason neither can be confirmed.” Simon said: “How then, when some Scriptures say he is evil and others good, can one recognize the truth?” Peter said: “Whatever sayings of the Scriptures agree with the creation he made are true, and whatever are contrary to it are false.” Simon said: “How can you show that the Scriptures contradict themselves?” Peter said: “You say that Adam was made blind, which he was not. For he would not have pointed anything out to a blind man when he gave him a command, saying, ‘But from the tree of knowing good and evil you shall not eat.’” Simon said: “It meant that his mind was blind.” Peter said: “How could he be blind in mind, who before tasting the plant gave all the living creatures fitting names in agreement with the one who created him?” Simon said: “If Adam had foreknowledge, why did he not foresee the serpent that would deceive his wife?” Peter said: “If Adam did not have foreknowledge, how did he give his sons, as soon as they were born, names suited to their future deeds, calling the first Cain, which is interpreted ‘jealousy’, who out of jealousy killed his brother Abel, which is interpreted ‘mourning’? For over him, the first to be murdered, his parents mourned.”

“But if Adam, being God’s work, had foreknowledge, much more did the God who made him. And false is what is written, ‘God considered’, as though he used reasoning because of ignorance; and ‘the Lord tempted Abraham’, to know whether he would endure; and what is written, ‘Let us go down and see whether they are doing according to their outcry that comes to me; and if not, that I may know.’ And not to lengthen my discourse too much: whatever sayings ascribe ignorance to him, or anything else grievous, are overturned by other sayings that say the contrary, and are shown to be false. And that he truly foreknows, he says to Abraham: ‘Knowing, you shall know that your seed shall be a sojourner in a land not its own, and they shall enslave it and afflict and humble them four hundred years; but the nation they serve I will judge. After this they shall come out here with much baggage; but you shall go to your fathers in peace, nourished in a good old age. And in the fourth generation they shall return here; for the sins of the Amorites are not yet filled up until now.’”

“What then? Does not Moses too foretell the sins of the people and announce beforehand their dispersion among the nations? And if he gave Moses the power to foreknow, how could he himself not have it? But he has it. And if he has it, as we have shown, then what is written, ‘he considered’, ‘he repented’, ‘I will go down and see’, and all such things, is superfluous. For these things, foreknown before they happened, as they were going to turn out, reach their outcome through a wise dispensation without any change of mind.”

“That he did not desire sacrifices is shown by the fact that those who craved meat were killed as soon as they tasted it, and, buried in a mound, it was called ‘the graves of craving’. He who was displeased from the beginning at the slaughter of animals, not wishing them to be killed, did not command sacrifices as one who desired them, and from the beginning did not require them. For without the slaughter of animals sacrifices cannot be performed, nor can the firstfruits be offered. And how can one who established a pure heaven, who created the sun to shine with light for all, and who fixed for the countless stars an unchanging order of courses, dwell with darkness and gloom and tempest (for this too is written)? So, Simon, God’s handwriting, I mean the heaven, shows the pure and steadfast mind of its maker.”

“Thus the slanderous sayings about the God who created heaven are both cancelled by the contrary sayings set beside them and refuted by creation. For they were not written by a prophetic hand; and so they also appear contrary to the hand of God, who created all things.” And Simon said: “How can you prove that?”

Peter said: “The Law of God was given through Moses, unwritten, to seventy wise men, to be handed down, so that the commonwealth might be governed by succession. But after Moses was taken up, it was written by someone, though not by Moses. For in the Law itself it is written: ‘And Moses died, and they buried him near the house of Phogor, and no one knows his burial place to this day.’ Could the dead Moses write, ‘Moses died’? And in the time after Moses, some five hundred years or more, it is found lying in the temple that had been built, and after about another five hundred years it is carried off, and in the time of Nebuchadnezzar it is burned and destroyed. And so, being written after Moses and many times lost, even this confirmed Moses’ foreknowledge: foreseeing its disappearance, he did not write it; but those who wrote it, being convicted of ignorance because they did not foresee its disappearance, were not prophets.”

Simon said: “Since, as you said, what concerns God can be understood by comparison with creation, how is it possible to recognize the other things in the Law, which come from the tradition of Moses and are true but are mixed with the false?” Peter said: “A certain passage was recorded without error in the written Law, by the providence of God, so as to show clearly which of the things written are true and which false.” Simon said: “Tell us which it is.”

Peter said: “I will tell you at once. It is written in the first book of the Law, near the end: ‘A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until he comes for whom it is reserved; and he is the expectation of the nations.’ If then anyone can recognize the one who came after ruler and leader failed from Judah, and who was to be expected by the nations, he will be able from what has been fulfilled to recognize that the passage is true and that the one who has come is true; and by obeying his teaching he will know which things in the Scriptures are true and which are false.” Simon said: “I understand that you mean your Jesus, as the one prophesied by the Scripture. Let it be granted, then, that it is so. Tell me, then, how he taught you to distinguish the Scriptures.”

Peter said: “That the true things are mixed with the false, I remember he said somewhere when he was blaming the Sadducees: ‘For this reason you err, not knowing the true things of the Scriptures; for which reason you are ignorant of the power of God.’ And if he charged them with not knowing the true things of the Scriptures, it is clear that there are false ones. And also by saying, ‘Be approved money-changers’, since there are approved and counterfeit words. And by saying, ‘Why do you not perceive what is reasonable in the Scriptures?’ he makes firmer the mind of one who is right-minded by his own choice.”

“And it is clear that, although the Scriptures were available, he sent people to the scribes and teachers as those who knew the true things of the existing law. And his saying, ‘I did not come to destroy the law’, while he appeared to be destroying it, was the mark of one indicating that what he destroyed was not part of the law. And his saying, ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but one iota or one stroke shall not pass from the law’, indicated that what passes away before heaven and earth was not part of the true law.”

“Since, then, while heaven and earth still stand, sacrifices, kingdoms, prophecies among those born of women, and such things have passed away, as not being commands of God, he therefore says: ‘Every plant which the heavenly Father did not plant shall be rooted up.’ For this reason, being himself the true prophet, he said: ‘I am the gate of life; whoever enters through me enters into life’, since there is no other teaching able to save. Therefore he also cried out, saying, ‘Come to me, all who labour’, that is, those who seek the truth and do not find it. And again: ‘My sheep hear my voice.’ And elsewhere: ‘Seek and find’, since the truth does not lie in plain view.”

“Moreover, a voice was heard from heaven bearing witness and saying: ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him.’ And besides this, wishing to show more fully that they had gone astray, he declared that the prophets, from whom they affirmed they had learned, died desiring the truth without having learned it, saying: ‘Many prophets and kings desired to see what you see and to hear what you hear; and truly I tell you, they neither saw nor heard.’ Moreover he said: ‘I am the one of whom Moses prophesied, saying: “The Lord our God will raise up for you a prophet from your brothers, as he did me; hear him in all things. And whoever does not hear that prophet shall die.”’”

“Therefore it is impossible to attain the truth without his teaching, even if one should seek for ever where what is sought is not to be found. But it was, and is, in the word of our Jesus. Indeed, knowing the true things of the Law, when the Sadducees asked on what ground Moses allowed a woman to marry seven, he said: ‘Moses permitted it to you because of your hardness of heart. For from the beginning it was not so. For he who created man from the beginning made him male and female.’”

“To those who think, as the Scriptures teach, that God swears, he said: ‘Let your yes be yes and your no, no; for what is more than these comes from the evil one.’ To those who say that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob died, he said: ‘He is not the God of the dead but of the living.’ To those who suppose that God tempts, as the Scriptures say, he said: ‘The evil one is the tempter’, the one who also tempted him. To those who suppose that God does not foreknow, he said: ‘For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things before you ask him.’ And to those who believe, as the Scriptures say, that he does not see all things, he said: ‘Pray in secret, and your Father who sees what is hidden will reward you.’”

“To those who think that he is not good, as the Scriptures say, he said: ‘From whom will a son ask bread, and he give him a stone? Or ask a fish, and he give him a serpent? If then you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him and to those who do his will!’ To those who affirm that he is in the Temple, he said: ‘Do not swear by heaven, for it is God’s throne, nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet.’ To those who had presumed that God desires sacrifices, he said: ‘God desires mercy and not sacrifices’, the knowledge of himself and not whole burnt offerings.”

“To those who are persuaded that he is evil, as the Scriptures say, he said: ‘Do not call me good; for the good one is one.’ And again: ‘Be good and merciful, as the Father who is in the heavens, who makes the sun rise on the good and the evil, and brings the rain on the just and the unjust.’ And to those who have been deceived into supposing many gods, as the Scriptures say, he said: ‘Hear, Israel: the Lord your God is one Lord.’”

Yet Simon, seeing that Peter was drawing him to use the Scriptures as Jesus had taught, was unwilling that the examination should turn to the doctrine of God, even though Peter changed the examination into question and answer, as Simon himself had requested. The inquiry, however, went on for three days. And as the fourth was dawning, he set off by night toward Tyre in Phoenicia. Not many days later some of the forerunners came and said to Peter: “Simon, working great wonders in Tyre, has astounded many there and has made you hated by many slanders.”

When Peter heard this, he had the crowd of hearers assemble the following night. When they had come together, he said: “As I set out for the nations that speak of many gods, to preach and teach that God is one, who created heaven and earth and all that is in them, so that by loving him they may be saved, wickedness has forestalled me by the law of the pair and sent Simon ahead, so that people, if they cease to speak of many gods, rejecting those so called on earth, may think that there are many gods in heaven; so that, never having honoured the good of the monarchy, they may perish utterly after punishment. And most terrible of all: since the true word has incomparable strength, he forestalls me with slanders and persuades them not to receive me at all, lest the slanderer be exposed as in truth a devil, and the true word, once shown forth, be believed. I must therefore overtake him quickly, so that the slander may not, by gaining time, prevail completely over everyone.”

“Since, then, someone must be appointed in my place to fill my position, let us all with one mind ask God to make plain which of us is the best, so that, sitting on the seat of Christ, he may govern his church piously. Who then will be appointed? For by God’s counsel that man is declared blessed ‘whom his master will set over the service of his fellow servants, to give them their food in its season; not thinking and saying in his heart, “My master is delaying his coming,” and beginning to beat his fellow servants, eating and drinking with the sexually immoral and the drunken. And the master of that servant will come at an hour he does not expect and on a day he does not know, and will cut him in two, and will put his unfaithful part with the hypocrites.’”

“But if anyone of those present who is able to instruct human ignorance shrinks back, caring only for his own rest, let him too expect to hear: ‘Wicked and slothful servant, you ought to have put my money with the bankers, and on my coming I would have collected what is mine. Throw the useless servant into the outer darkness.’ And rightly; for, he says, ‘It is yours, O man, to test my words as silver and money are tested with the bankers.’ The multitude of the faithful, then, must obey some one person, so that they may continue in concord. For what ends in the rule of one authority, in the image of monarchy, allows those who submit to enjoy peace because of good order; but when all, loving to rule, are unwilling to submit to one alone, they are bound to fall altogether because of division.”

“But let what happens before your eyes also persuade you: how, now that there are many kings throughout the earth, wars are constantly breaking out. For each has the rule of another as a pretext for war. But if there is one leader of the whole, he has nothing to make war about and keeps perpetual peace. In the end, then, God appoints for those counted worthy of eternal life one king of the whole in the age to come, so that through monarchy an unfailing peace may come about. So all must follow some one person as guide, honouring him as an image of God; and the guide must know the way that leads into the holy city.”