Commentary on Matthew — Commentariorum Series, Matthew 24:1–51 (§§29–62)
Latin source: the anonymous late-antique Commentariorum Series in Matthaeum (Origen's now-lost Greek commentary in an old-Latin translation), from the public-domain critical text of E. Klostermann & E. Benz, GCS 38 = Origenes Werke XI (Leipzig, 1933). Sections follow Klostermann; Scripture is given in Origen's Old-Latin/Septuagint wording. This English translation is released into the public domain.[§29] And Jesus went out from the temple and was departing; and his disciples came to him, to show him the buildings of the temple. But Jesus answering said to them: do you see all these things? amen I say to you, there shall not be left here a stone upon a stone that shall not be destroyed (24, 1-2).
After Christ had foretold all the things that were to come upon Jerusalem, he went out from the temple — he who had preserved the temple, lest it fall, so long as he was in it. For as long as the Word was among the Jews, not taking the kingdom of God away from them, so long it stood, and the affairs of the Jews were unharmed. But after, according to his own word which he had spoken: "the kingdom of God shall be taken away from you and shall be given to a nation producing its own fruit", he took away the kingdom of God and gave it to the Gentiles, then both Jesus and the kingdom of God came to be among the Gentiles. Hence now neither Jesus nor the kingdom of God is held among the Jews, because they have been left "like a tabernacle in a vineyard, and like a hut in a cucumber-field, and like a city that is besieged", on account of the crime which they committed against Christ.
And each one who receives the word of God is a temple of God, so that it may rightly be said to him: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" Each one therefore, since he is a holy temple of God because of the Spirit of God dwelling within him, if he himself sins, becomes the cause of his own desertion, so that Christ goes out from him, so that he who had before been a temple of the Son of God is thereafter a deserted house, so that there is not left in him a stone upon a stone — out of all the doctrines and edifications of a good life — that is not destroyed. On account of which, calling to mind the history of the desertion of Jerusalem, we ought to look out for ourselves, that Christ not go out from the temple (which is made up of us), that the buildings of our temple may be unharmed, adorned with stones and gifts, so that those who see the buildings that are in us may say in wonder: "see what kind of stones and what kind of buildings". But this is worthy to be examined thoroughly, how, as far as the text goes, the disciples speak thus to Jesus, and show him the buildings of stones, as though someone who had never seen the temple itself but had come from elsewhere as a stranger arriving for the first time. To this it must be answered thus: that when above, prophesying its coming ruin, Christ had thus threatened its desertion: "behold, now your house shall be left to you deserted", the disciples, hearing it, marveled that such and so great a building of the temple was to be reduced to nothing. Therefore they say to Jesus (as another evangelist says more plainly): "master, do you see what kind of stones and what kind of buildings", namely so that they might bend him to mercy for that place, that he not do what he had threatened to do.
[§30] And let these things be understood in a bodily sense; but morally in this way: since the marvelous construction of human nature has been made — namely, the temple of God and of his Word — the disciples and the other saints (not only then, but even now confessing the wondrous works of God toward the human creature) intercede before the sight of Christ and appeal to Christ, that he may not abandon the human race on account of their sins, but rather that his wondrous works may move him to indulgence more than their iniquities move him to wrath. Otherwise: just as that temple was not demolished all at once but little by little as time went on, so also every man who takes into himself the Word of God is a temple; and if indeed after sin he has not fallen away wholly from the Word of God, but still preserves in part the traces of faith and of the religious keeping of God's commandments within himself, he is a temple in part destroyed and in part still standing. But whoever, after he has sinned, takes no care of himself, but is ever running away from faith and from the life which is according to the Gospel, is diminished little by little, until he wholly withdraws "from the living God" — this man is a temple in which there shall not be left a stone of doctrine upon a stone of God's commandments that shall not be thrown down. We, therefore, ought to look out for ourselves, that the whole building of piety may remain intact within us, so that, both adorned with the stones of saving doctrines and decorated with the gifts of good works, we may take into ourselves the power and glory of God, and Christ, who is the Word and Wisdom of God.
[§31] And someone introduces a third exposition of this kind: that the temple of God was built by a composition of words that carry meaning, namely the whole Scripture of the Old Testament constructed according to its history. Those who constructed it — Moses or the prophets — by the setting-together of letters and the ordering of sayings, built it to be admired by all for the beauty of its stones, that is, of the choice sayings and of the sense-meanings to be praised as gifts. This the disciples point out to Jesus, taking up all the Scriptures; and to them Christ replies, saying that this bodily and first building is to be destroyed by the Word, so that a more divine and more mysterious temple of another Scripture may be built. That the Scripture is a temple was expounded by someone before us. And since the Antichrist — "he who opposes and exalts himself above everything that is called God", who sits in the temple of God — is the false word that is held in the Scriptures — which counterfeits the truth by bringing forward, out of the Scriptures, testimonies of impious teachings, when men are unwilling to be won over from any other source; and this very thing is "that which opposes", and it sits both upon the seat of the Scriptures and upon their building, "displaying itself as though it were God". And one may always see the words of the heresies, as Antichrists, sitting in the temple of the Scriptures and wishing, out of those very Scriptures, to win over those who hear them, as though each one of these were itself God the Word in the Scriptures.
[§32] But as he was sitting upon the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him privately, saying: tell us, when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of your coming and of the consummation of the age (24, 3).
"When Jesus had gone out of the temple", after he had spoken concerning it, he came to the Mount of Olives and there sat with his disciples. But I think that the Mount of Olives is a mystery of the Church which is from the Gentiles, in which olive trees have been planted, each one of which can say: "but I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God". And perhaps too on this Mount of Olives the roots of the good olive tree are present, but the branches of the wild olive have been grafted in in the place of the branches which "were cut off through unbelief". And the husbandman residing on the Mount of Olives is the Word of God confirmed in the Church, Christ, who is ever grafting the branches of the wild olive into the good olive tree of the fathers, of Moses and of the rest of the prophets, so that, receiving richness from the holy prophets (through this, that they carefully understand their meaning, and receive also the Christ who is prophesied by them), they may offer abundant and richer fruit—than, that is to say, the former olives, which because of the curse that was in the law have been shaken down, so that they can no longer be of use.
After this it must be considered that, of the disciples approaching Jesus, some indeed approach him privately, having in this very thing greater confidence with him as those of his household (as when they questioned him about the solving of the parables), but others questioned him not privately but in common. Observe further the difference between these, that at times indeed the Pharisees approach, whether tempting him or questioning him in whatever manner, but at other times others desiring to learn—yet these never approach privately out of the multitude. And perhaps even now those who have taken up a distinguished life and on account of this have confidence before Christ, having something more than those who from the common faith approach Jesus, say to him: tell us, when shall these things be? these things—which? that which he said: "there shall not stand here one stone upon a stone which shall not be destroyed". And they wish to learn not only this, but also the sign of the coming of Christ and of the consummation of the age; and two things they ask of him, the sign of his coming and of the consummation of the age. Therefore the coming of the Son of God and the consummation of the age is indeed believed among many, but especially among those who pursue a more refined life.
It is possible also in another way to see a twofold coming of Christ, that is, the coming of the Word into the soul. First indeed the untrained and those then beginning to know Christ, because they cannot see the brightness of his beauty, say: "we saw him, and he had no form nor comeliness, but his appearance was without honor". Now the unhonored appearance of the Word is the foolish preaching about Christ, when we preach Christ born and crucified. But the second coming is the coming of Christ among perfect men, concerning whom the steward of his word says: "but we speak wisdom among the perfect". And these perfect ones have become lovers of his beauty and beseech the Word, that he gird upon himself his rational sword and set it about the mystery of the fleshly nativity, which is called mystically the thigh. For disciples of this kind praise the beauty and comeliness of the Word, and to this second coming is joined the consummation of the age in the man coming to perfection and saying: "but far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world". For if the world has been crucified to the just, to whom "the world has been crucified", then the consummation of the world has also been made for them. Necessarily, therefore, those who have the confidence of approaching privately to Christ wish to learn the sign of the coming of Christ and of the consummation of the age, so that, being benefited by this—that they have learned the coming of Christ and the consummation—they may show themselves worthy to see his second coming and the consummation of the age according to what we have handed down.
[§33] And Jesus answering said to them: See that no one seduces you. For many will come in my name saying that I am the Christ, and they will seduce many (24, 4. 5).
Those who understand simply suppose that these words signify only this: that many were going to come asserting themselves to be Christs, having in themselves also certain wonder-working powers and words by which they might provoke to belief many who had shown themselves worthy of seduction. But John in his epistle says: "and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, now many Antichrists have arisen; whence we know that it is the last hour". By these words he teaches that every word which is foreign to the truth and asserts itself to be the word of God is Antichrist; for it is thus possible to understand what he says: "and now many Antichrists have arisen", since there is one thing that is true. But as the record of the readings makes plain, there were not many men in the time of the apostles who said that they were Christs, unless perhaps Dositheus the Samaritan — whence they are also called Dositheans — and Simon, of whom the Acts report, who proclaimed himself to be the great power of God. Besides these, there were none either before or afterward, so far as my knowledge goes.
But every discourse which professes an exposition of the Scriptures and faith in them, yet does not have the truth, is rightly to be understood to be Antichrist, coming in the name of Christ and saying that I am the Christ, lying and by no means able to display in itself the form of truth. And since to those who examine the words of Scripture, in order to find its meaning, there frequently occur certain interpretations as if true when they are not true, and sometimes they are drawn also by other plausible, specious discourses, so that it is not easy to find which is the true meaning before against the lying estimations the truer and firmer meaning has been found — for this reason I think that Christ, to the question of his disciples saying: "when shall these things be? and what is the sign of your coming and of the consummation of the age?" answered thus: See that no one seduces you. For many will come in my name saying: I am the Christ, and they will seduce many. For truly he who fulfills that commandment which says: "be prudent money-changers", and that which says: "prove all things, hold fast what is good; abstain yourselves from every evil appearance", will see many being seduced by false interpretations and words professing themselves to be Christ the word of God. And would that only those who are outside the Church were seduced: it would be easy to guard against the seduction. But now those very people who profess themselves to be churchmen are deceived and seduced about various necessary chapters, as their very dissension is a testimony, since even those who are within are seduced.
But consequently, just as it is wont to be among those wandering these bodily roads that there is a difference of error, and some indeed even go against the very public road that is sought, wandering, while others turn aside a little something from the straight path so that they may be recalled, and there are many differences among those who wander — in this manner we see also those who stray from the truth. And the Marcionites indeed and Basilides, and the Valentinians and the Apellians and the Ophites wander much from the proposed way, since they hold opinions wholly contrary to the truth. But some do not indeed dissent about the public and manifest chapters — for instance, about the one God who gave the Law and the Gospel, or about Christ Jesus the firstborn of every creature, who at the end of the age according to the preachings of the prophets came into the world and took upon himself the true nature of human flesh, so that he even underwent birth from a virgin, and took upon himself the death of the cross and rose from the dead and deified the human nature which he had taken up. Furthermore also about the Holy Spirit, that he himself was the one in the patriarchs and prophets who afterward was given in the apostles, and about the resurrection of the dead as the Gospel teaches they most certainly believe, and all things whatsoever are handed down in the churches. But about other things not few, yet slight, they propose new dogmas, and they too indeed are among those who are seduced by false interpretations and words coming in the name of Christ, who is the word and the truth. And it is an evil indeed to find someone erring according to the conduct of life, but I think it is much worse to go astray in dogmas and not to hold opinions according to the truest rule of the Scriptures. For if for moral sins we are to be punished, still more those sinning through false dogmas. For if a good conduct of morals sufficed for men unto salvation, how is it that among the Gentiles many philosophers, or among the heretics many living continently, are by no means saved, as though the falsity of their dogma obscured and defiled their conduct?
But I think that the discourse, wishing to show a general cleanness which is not only in acts but also in knowledge, says in the twenty-third Psalm: who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place? he that is innocent in hands and pure in heart, and in the Proverbs: who shall boast that he has a chaste heart? or who shall be confident that he is clean from sins? I therefore think that the one clean in heart and chaste in heart is no other than he who possesses a heart clean and chaste from every false dogma; so also I reckon him to be innocent in hands and clean from sins who is irreproachable in the acts of his life. And it must be known that (as regards the truth) it is impossible for anyone to be innocent in hands and clean from sins without being pure in heart and chaste from false dogmas; just as, on the contrary, it is impossible to be clean indeed and chaste in heart from false dogmas without being innocent in "hands" and clean from sins. For these follow one another mutually and are not separated from each other: a discourse clean in the soul and a life irreproachable. But we have treated this chapter more abundantly, teaching ourselves according to what has seemed good to us in the passage, that we may keep ourselves from every error of false dogmas, whether about the manifest and principal chapters or about those which seem lesser, that we may hear him who said: "you shall not turn aside to the right or to the left", from him who said: "I am the way", and that we may not be seduced, but may keep watch lest any of those deceive us who come in the name of Christ saying: I am the Christ, I am the truth and wisdom and the true light.
But I think that not only is discourse Christ and feigned discourse Antichrist, truth Christ and feigned truth Antichrist, wisdom Christ and feigned wisdom Antichrist (deceiving the lovers of the wisdom of God and of truth, all of which pertain to the account of faith), but also in these virtues by which we live according to God, we find that all the virtues are Christ and all the feigned virtues Antichrist, since all the kinds of good, whatsoever Christ has in himself in truth for the edification of men, all of these the devil has in himself in appearance for the seduction of the saints. For thus Christ is righteousness, yet "there are" frequently "ways of a man which seem to be righteous, but the last of them look down into the depth of hell". When therefore something seems to be righteousness, while it is not true righteousness, such righteousness is Antichrist against Christ who is righteousness. I think also that there is a chastity that is Antichrist, which is among the heretics sending men into error, that they may not understand the ecclesiastical chastity which is Christ. So also there is a mercy that is Antichrist against the mercy which is Christ, in those who give alms, but not for the sake of the righteousness of God. There is also a patience that is Antichrist in those who indeed seem to suffer for Christianity and "striving even to the shedding of blood", that is, lest they seem to deny Christianity; yet in that very shedding of their blood they "speak iniquity on high", and set "their mouth in heaven". There is also a power that is Antichrist seducing the ignorant, since many are going to say to Christ in that day: "Lord, in your name we cast out demons, and did many powerful works", to whom he will answer: "depart from me, all you who work iniquity, I never knew you". For if Christ never knew them, yet they boast that they did powerful works in the name of Christ, those powers were not from Christ who had not known them, but from him who "transfigures himself" not only "into an angel of light" but even into Christ himself. There is need therefore for us of God as helper and of Christ himself living in us, that with our eyes opened we may see, lest anyone seduce us — either a discourse or a power, whether from within or from without — promising itself to be Christ, when it is his enemy and the enemy of his other virtues.
Consider also this, that many come in nothing else but in my name; for Antichrist takes up only the name of Christ, and neither does the works nor teaches the words of his truth nor displays his wisdom in himself. And just as (according to some) Barabbas too was called Jesus, but was a robber having nothing of Jesus except the name, so I reckon there are many Christs, but in name only. Note, however, that nowhere in the Scriptures is the Lord found using this very expression and saying: I am the Christ, so that he might say nothing similar to the many who were going to come in his name and to say: I am the Christ. For there sufficed for him, unto the faith of believers (that he himself is the Christ), the works of God, which Christ alone could do, and the discourse which he taught and the power, above a thousand voices crying out: I am the Christ. And thus he never openly said: I am, but he said it through works and through the teaching of piety, so that he himself says to Peter, as to one who had never heard it from him but had learned from the Father, that he himself was "the Christ, the Son of the living God": "blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because not flesh and blood revealed it to you, but my Father who is in the heavens". For if he himself, while set in the body, had openly said to him: I am the Christ, flesh would have seemed to have revealed it to him, and not the Father only. Therefore it suffices for the seduction of the Antichrists this alone which they say: I am the Christ, which Christ is never read to have said, and there are many who are seduced; "for wide is the gate and spacious the way that leads to perdition, and many enter through it"; but few are those who find that way "which leads to life".
[§34] But you shall hear battles and rumors of battles; see that you are not terrified, for these things must happen, but the end is not yet (24, 6).
Luke, however, puts it this way: "when you hear of battles and seditions, do not be terrified; for these things must first happen, but the end is not at once". In these words he sets forth two things, one thus: you shall hear battles, the other: rumors of battles. And first let us see, according to the simple tradition, in the way that many understand it, how rumors of battles differ from battles. Suppose for me that battles exist where cities rise up against cities or nations against nations, so that the one may carry off the other's property or the stronger may kill the strong. What, then, do rumors of battles signify after battles? Especially since it is not said: you shall see battles and hear about battles, but on both sides he set you shall hear; that is, both you shall hear battles and you shall hear rumors of battles. And let us suppose that to hear battles is when the sons of peace keep their eyes clean from battles, so that they may not see wicked things; and (since they cannot look upon labors and pains) they hear about battles, what sort of city fights against what sort of city or what sort of nation is stormed by what sort of nation. But what else, besides this, will it be to hear battles and to hear rumors of battles? See, then, whether you can (I speak with regard to the simplicity of the word) give such a distinction: it is not one and the same thing to hear from far off, placed away from a battle, that a battle is happening, and to be beside the battle and to hear the very voices of those fighting. Each, therefore, has its own signification. And perhaps he indeed who hears the very voices which are made in battles, hears battles; but he who hears about battles waged far off, hears rumors of battles. For he does not hear the battles themselves. But since the words are ambiguous, someone may say the reverse, that he who is indeed far from the battles hears about them; while he who is beside the battles hears the rumors of the battles themselves. In both ways, therefore, there seems to be some understanding of the difference.
[§35] Rise now to the moral and spiritual understanding, if in any way you can find some interpretation worthy of the eminence of Christ's knowledge and of the subtlety of the evangelists, so that you may not lay aside the dignity of evangelical wisdom. See therefore whether, recalling those things which were set forth above concerning what he says: many will come in my name saying: I am Christ, and they will lead many astray, we can, according to their sequence, interpret these things also. Everyone therefore who is perfect and sees in his own soul the glorious coming of the Word — which corrupts and consummates the world and crucifies it to the just man, that all worldly things may die to him — and who has senses trained for grasping, must, as he seeks and examines, run into many battles of doctrines. He will hear also many professing the truth and diverse traditions concerning it, so that, like a good soldier of the Word, he may remain invulnerable in soul against all those professing the truth but not seeing it nor manifesting it, but rather pronouncing things contrary to the truth as though they were the truth; and he may be made worthy to receive into his soul the glorious coming of Christ, according to that whereby he is God the Word, which was in the beginning with God, which is wont to come to those who, after they have known Christ according to the flesh and have received the Word which was made flesh, ascend so far beyond the many that they can grasp not just any sort of glory, but glory as of the only-begotten from the Father.
And perhaps the Word of God appears in diverse glories, according to the power of each soul that sees, according to the capacity that each single soul has offered. To the one, therefore, who is perfect and has arrived at the consummation of the age, insofar as it depends on him, the Word appears such that whoever has seen him may say: "we have seen his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth". Therefore, if anyone is to be held worthy to receive such a Word and to see it, he must, before a vision of the word of this kind, hear in his soul battles; but through others, who assert as though it were truth whatever has seemed so to them, rumors of battles. And rightly, as his disciples were advancing toward perfection, after the Savior had spoken these things about battles, he added further: see, and did not say: hear, urging them to be watchful, so that they might be able to see with the eyes of the soul (after they have heard battles and rumors of battles) the nature of each of the things that are heard, and, seeing it, not be terrified: because such intelligible battles are wont to arise for righteous men amid diverse persuasions, and to disturb and shake their souls into doubting, lest perhaps those things be true which seem to be probable while they are false, or at any rate into believing them completely as though they were true.
As many, therefore, as set out toward the perfection which is in Christ and toward the manner of life of the heavenly church, when they have heard the battles of the heresies, which do battle against the true faith and against one another in turn, and when they have heard the rumors of battles of "philosophy and vain seduction according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of this world, and not according to Christ", exercising themselves in the things that are said, seek and ponder the commandment of Christ who says: see, and they do indeed see the things that are said, but seeing lies dressed up with the appearance of truth, they are not led astray, but they hope, without any wound from such battles, to see the glorious coming of Christ, who is the word; especially if, hearing according to Christ's commandment of battles and rumors of battles, they suffer no disturbance of soul, but, protected under the peace of God which guards the "hearts and minds" of the worthy, they are not terrified. But if anyone, hearing of battles and rumors of battles, according to what we have expounded, is not attentive to see the things that are said in their various appearances of truth, and because he was not attentive to see is terrified, he will not only be deceived by the many who come in the name of Christ and say: I am Christ, but he will even be slain by swords of this kind, receiving incurable wounds — of which swords it is said: "swords do wound", whose wounds "the tongues of the wise" are wont to heal. But these who are disturbed and, because they do not look out for themselves, fall into a battle of this kind, are those who are wounded in the valley of Zion. and they die, of whom Scripture says: "your wounded are not wounded by the sword, nor are your dead dead in battle", concerning whom it is fitting for us now only to give this indication.
But it is not for just any man to prepare himself to hear of wars and rumors of wars, so that hearing he may see and not be terrified, but for the man perfected in Christ, living indeed in the flesh yet not warring according to the flesh, whose weapons of warfare are not carnal but mighty toward God and able to destroy strongholds and the reasonings of those who exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. For, according to Solomon, the many "fortified cities" of the heresies, fortified by the persuasion of words, "a wise man ascended," and ascending he "destroyed the fortification in which the impious trusted." Paul destroyed it, who had been prepared "for the destruction of fortified cities" set against the truth. Such a man, after he has heard of wars and rumors of wars, seeing and, as one wise, ascending upon the "fortified cities" and destroying the "fortifications in which the impious trusted," praising God and giving thanks to God (from whom he learned to fight such wars, and to keep the commandment which says: "sanctify war"), cries out and says: "Blessed be the Lord God, who teaches my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; my mercy and my refuge." And because of wars of this kind it is said of David by the wife of Nabal: "My lord will fight the wars of the Lord." And I think that these wars, which are read of in the Scriptures, are also mysteries of such battles; and that the destruction of those who fight against the congregation of the truth is likewise a mystery — especially those things which are read in the book of Joshua the son of Nun concerning the destructions of cities, and they are mysteries of all the congregations of the adversary powers.
Hearing, therefore, of wars and rumors of such wars, let us attend to what he says: see that you be not terrified. And we ought to know that it is necessary for these things to happen to one awaiting the coming of the Word, that he may hear wars and rumors of wars, but not immediately, as soon as he has heard, will the end be. For this reason every man who wishes to be saved must await the end, since "whoever shall persevere unto the end, this one shall be saved". According to Luke, however, if we hear of "wars and insurrections", let us not be troubled — the wars being those that arise from "knowledge falsely so named" and from the wisdom of "the princes of this world", and the insurrections being those of people who do not agree among themselves in the assembly of the church. For we plainly hear differing opinions about various matters (especially we who wish to advance toward that perfection which is in Christ) — not only wars outside the church, but also insurrections within the church itself. From all these things the disciples of the apostles were strangers, of all of whom, as is written in the Acts of the Apostles, "there was one heart and one soul"; for they had been confirmed "in the same mind and in the same knowledge". Yet let us, even if we hear of wars of this kind and insurrections of this sort, not be terrified. For "these things must first come to pass", before we behold the perfection of the wisdom which is in Christ; "but the end" which we seek "shall not be at once". For we must be made stable and confirmed in peace, so that we may be without terror and not be troubled by insurrections, so that after these things we may be able to attain that end which lies not in the hearing of wars nor in the insurrections themselves; for the peaceful end is far removed from all these things.
[§36] For nation shall rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in various places; for all these are the beginnings of sorrows (24, 7. 8).
Mark has the same things, but adds "and tumults"; Luke likewise has these same things, but adds "and there shall be terrors from heaven and great signs and storms". Let us first expound the simple and bodily meaning of the passage. For just as bodies fall sick before their death — the bodies, that is, of those who suffer no violence from outside — and just as in all cases it is through weakness that the way is made for separating the soul from its body, so also such and so great a creature as the world, when it has begun to be corrupted, as having, as it were, a beginning and an end (since "the things that are seen are temporal", and since "heaven and earth shall pass away"), must necessarily grow feeble before its corruption; so that the earth indeed is more frequently shaken and shattered by earthquakes, while the air, conceiving a certain disease-bearing force, becomes pestilential; and further still, the vital power of the earth, suddenly failing, chokes off the crops, and the generative power that produces every kind of tree, failing, chokes them off as well. Therefore, when these things happen, it follows that the movable nature also — being constituted, as it were, as some part of the whole world — must necessarily suffer along with the change of all things: for instance, not taking again its accustomed nourishment of foods, it comes to failure and is corrupted. For the heavens "shall perish", since "they shall grow old like a garment", and "whatever grows old and ages is near to destruction". It follows, then, that on account of the scarcity of foods men are stirred up to greed and to wars against those who do not suffer so great a scarcity; and that, by comparison with others who abound in the necessities of life, uprisings of some against others arise, and nation fights against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And it is possible that, together with the lack of other things, there should also come to be a lack of men possessing good sense, so that through this a tranquil and peaceful life is not found among many, but uprisings and quarrels and disturbances arise — sometimes indeed on account of greed, sometimes on account of the lust for rule, sometimes also on account of an insane craving for vainglory, and sometimes too through the desire for the vainglory of rulers, who are not content with their own kingdom, but wish to extend their own dominion and to subject many nations to themselves.
[§37] But someone will offer a still deeper explanation of the things that are to happen before the consummation of the world, and above all concerning the wars. For just as the coming of Christ made peace by divine power among very many nations — according to what the prophet says of him: "justice shall arise in his days, and abundance of peace until the moon be exalted" — and so the peace of the world was multiplied on account of the increases of the churches that were to come, in order that this peace might become an occasion of salvation for many, since they are not compelled to go out to wars and to fight for their homelands as formerly used to happen: so it follows also that, when on account of the abundance of iniquity "the love of many" has grown cold, and God and his Christ have for that reason forsaken them, wars come to pass once more — namely because the operations that sow wars are not prohibited by holiness, but are rather still further nourished on account of the ever-increasing malice of men — so that the cause of all the evils that befall is said to be those who did indeed come to the word, but afterward "all turned aside and together were made unprofitable" amid worldly evils. For as long as the salt of the earth stands firm — those to whom the Lord said: "you are the salt of the earth" — all things hold together, seasoned by the salt; but after the salt itself has become tasteless, then (to speak according to the Scripture) the very things that were salted by it, being as it were unsalted, become insipid, are corrupted and stink and are dissolved. And further, as long as the "light of the world" stands firm, all things are set aright, ordered by its clear illumination; but when this very light has been diminished in the souls of men — since it is not nourished by its proper and natural food — then, with darkness taking possession of all things, when all things have been brought into sorrow and calamities, there will come to be as it were an assembly of the adversary powers over all things, since they are not forbidden by the saints and by Christ in them, who used to forbid them, but as though in the darkness, without any prohibition, they will work in the hearts of men, so that they stir up nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And if (as some are also pleased to hold) famines and pestilences too come about from operations of this kind and from the angels of Satan, then likewise famines and pestilences will at that time grow strong from the adversary powers, when the disciples of Christ are no longer the salt of the earth and the light of the world — they who are the princes of God's power, destroying in men the wars that the adversary powers make, and all the things that are sown from their malice.
And at one time indeed in Israel famines and pestilences used to come about on account of sins and droughts, which the prayers of the saints dissolved — those of Samuel, of Jeremiah, and of others like them. And it is well put: there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places. For God does not will to destroy the human race all at once, but judging it by parts, little by little, while famines and pestilences and earthquakes come about in divers places, he grants a place for repentance to those who are amended by slight chastisements and are converted to God. And just as it is possible to bring medicinal aids to those who are beginning to fall ill, so, when famine and pestilences and earthquakes are beginning in divers places, it is possible to give to certain men purgative remedies toward the conduct and faith and wisdom of the saints. But if, when evils of this kind are beginning, no pious correction has been made, famines and pestilences and earthquakes will advance to worse, when the "abomination of desolation" has taken its place, not content with one part of the world: for it will come so that it may take its stand even "in the holy place".
Nevertheless the risings up of nations against nations and of kingdoms against kingdoms, and famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places continually arising, are said to be the beginnings of worse calamities, which the Lord called travail-pangs. If then such shall be the first-fruits of the pangs, what do you suppose the increases of the pangs will be? And what will the end also be of the general pangs in the whole world, so that they may exterminate not now by parts but the whole world? Yet I judge that the things which are to follow will be only against the impious, that they may be tortured with the sharpest and most prolonged pangs, until they lay down the seeds of sins which they have conceived and formed from the contrary operations. And Pharaoh indeed, desiring not to do well, commanded that every male whatsoever that should be born to the Hebrews be cast into the river; but God, being good, as one truly good, kills the seeds of evils which they have received, that through many labors and pains they may lay them down, since they conceived pain and brought forth iniquity. And what else befits God, save that he should kill every iniquity which sinners beget? For such men the day of a death of this kind is better than the day of their own nativity, according to what is written: "better is the day of death than the day of nativity?" So too one will rightly say that a miscarriage is better than that which is born: "and I said the miscarriage is better than it; for" a miscarriage of this kind "comes in vanity and walks in darkness, and in darkness shall its name be covered". And these things we have treated more abundantly, looking to what follows, according to what he says: all these things are the beginnings of pangs.
[§38] Since I also consider there to be a moral sense in this passage too, according to what I have said, the following things must consequently be said here as well: that if anyone is to see the glorious and royal form of the Word and His glorious coming, it is necessary for him to be roused not only to hear "battles and reports" of intelligible "battles," so that, seeing, he may learn to be in no way terrified, but also to see the nation of some falsehood and the movement of words drawing men toward some sect rising up against some other nation of falsehood, since for nations of this kind there is never a peaceful end. This we frequently see happening among the heresies and among the churches of the malignant, when the nation of one heresy rises up against the nation of another heresy; so too the kingdom of some word will rise up against the kingdom of another erring word: since Satan and every falsehood is always divided against itself, and therefore cannot stand. Therefore he who sets out to see the glory of Christ and the kingdom—that is, the perfection of the Word and the kingdom that reigns and holds dominion, placing all adversary discourses under His feet and for the trampling of His feet—it is necessary for him, while seeking the truth, frequently to suffer a want of understandings, by which the soul is properly nourished for the searching out of the things that are to be sought. And just as at one time those who were journeying toward the land of promise were afflicted and suffered so great a hunger for carnal foods, that they might receive the heavenly manna, so must he who is to be nourished by the perfection of the Word be frequently tried by a want of understandings and yet suffer nothing from it. And we see this very thing daily in ourselves, when we seek some sense of truth in the Scriptures: before we find what we seek, we suffer a certain want of understandings, until such a want of understandings is dissolved in us by God, who gives to the worthy "food in due season" to eat and clothing to put on.
It is also necessary that he who sees the glorious coming—that is, the coming of wisdom into his soul—must see the pestilences of diseased discourses and suffer nothing from them. Now pestilent discourses are all those that are brought forth by pestilent men, who speak "iniquity on high" and set "their mouth in heaven" in pride and great presumption: for instance, the discourses of Marcion against the creator of the world and certain impious blasphemies are pestilences of souls, corrupting the minds of men and making souls sicken in the suspicions of errors; the fables of Valentinus too, about masculine and feminine ages, and about the birth of the creator of the world, which they have fabricated out of a false wisdom, and whatever other things they prattle—what else are these but pestilences; the discourses of Basilides also, which disparage those who strive even unto death for the truth so as to confess Jesus "before men," but teach that one may act indifferently in denying Him and in sacrificing to strange gods, pestilate no less and corrupt those who hear them, since in these same discourses they teach that there are no other punishments for sins except transmigrations of souls after death. For, to pass over the fact that what is said is manifestly false, they further take away from men the salutary fear, and those who, even because of fear of future punishments, would have kept themselves from a multitude of sins, they nourish the boldness of their impiety. Many, therefore, will be the famines and pestilences for all who wish to see the glorious coming of Christ into their soul. But these will do them no harm; for they will only see them, and will suffer nothing from them. They will also suffer the movements of those things which are sought in very many places of the Scriptures that have an appearance of contradiction or of falsehoods; but afterward they will suffer nothing. Nor will the movement of false reports tear them away from the expectation of the glorious and divine and perfect coming of Jesus Christ the Word. And he who is to say: "from fear of You, O Lord, we conceived in the womb and were in travail, and we brought forth the spirit of salvation which You made upon the earth," or according to what has been said: "my children, of whom I am again in travail, until Christ be formed in you," must first of all come to be, amid all these pains, in famine and pestilences and movements, which, enduring, he will bring forth what he has conceived and formed within himself—Christ the Word—so that he may say at His birth: "behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy," and "glory to God in the highest and peace upon the earth."
[§39] Then they will hand you over to tribulations and will kill you, and you will be hated by all the nations for my name's sake. And then many will be scandalized and will hand one another over and will hate one another; and many false prophets will rise up and will lead many astray; and because iniquity will abound, the charity of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end, this one will be saved. And this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come (24, 9—14).
Even without exposition the text is clear of itself, since Christ's disciples have frequently been handed over to tribulations and have been killed for the sake of the word and have been hated by the nations on account of Christ. But if anyone wishes to examine what he says, by all the nations, he will not find it sufficiently certain. For is the people of Christ hated by all the nations, even by those dwelling in the farthest parts of the earth? — unless perhaps here too someone should say that all is set down for many by way of exaggeration of the great number. But if you set before yourself what he says, then they will hand you over, you will find a difficulty. For it was not after "nation had risen against nation and kingdom against kingdom", and after "famines and pestilences in various places", that they were then handed over to tribulations and killed and hated by all the nations for Christ's name's sake: for even before these things came to pass, Christians were handed over to tribulations and, giving testimony to the truth, were killed and were hated by the nations among whom they dwelt. But against this difficulty, one who wishes to understand according to the words will answer that then most of all will Christians be handed over to tribulations as never before, then are they to be hated most of all by all the nations dwelling together with them as never before, and they will suffer all things for Christ's name's sake, when "nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in various places". For those who are in calamities love, as they examine the causes of these things, to find something to say. When therefore these things befall the world, it follows — men, as it were, forsaking the worship of the gods — that they say that on account of the multitude of Christians wars and famines and pestilences come to pass. For frequently the Gentiles, and whoever were wise in the things of the nations, blamed the Christians as the cause of famine, but they also referred the causes of pestilences to the Church of Christ. And we know too that among us an earthquake occurred in certain places, and that certain collapses of buildings took place, so that those who were impious, outside the faith, said the Christians were the cause of the earthquake — on account of which the churches also suffered persecutions and were burned — and not only so, but even those who seemed prudent would say such things in public, that on account of the Christians the gravest earthquakes come to pass.
But as for what is said, and you will be hated by all the nations for my name's sake, one will be able to save it thus. For never indeed have all the nations agreed together as one against the Christians; but when the things Christ foretold come to pass, then all, as it were, are to be set aflame by certain nations beginning to blame the Christians, so that then persecutions may arise no longer in part, as before, but generally everywhere against the people of God. Then it will come about that many are scandalized who seem to stand firm in the faith; and the one will hand over the other. And there will be hatred even among those very ones who seem faithful. Then many false prophets will rise up, deceiving the multitude of the senseless; then also, charity growing cold not only among the unbelievers but even among the faithful themselves, the fervor of charity will grow cold from the many iniquities, so that few remain contending for the truth unto the end, who alone are also to be saved. And with matters established in this state, the Gospel, which before had not been preached in the whole world (for many not only of the barbarian nations but even of our own nations have not until now heard the word of Christianity) — then it will be preached, so that every nation may hear the Gospel proclamation and no one be left who has not heard. And then will be the end of the age.
But if these things are so, we shall no longer be in ignorance about what he says, then they will hand you over, nor shall we suspect that what he says is false — and you will be hated by all the nations for my name's sake — saying that the truth of this word is not yet fulfilled, so long as what he says has not come to pass, then many will be scandalized and will hand one another over. For not yet have many betrayers been made out of the Church, and not yet have many false prophets arisen deceiving many. So too, they have not yet been hated by all the nations, even by those dwelling in the farthest parts of the earth, for Christ's name's sake; so too, the Gospel of the kingdom has not yet been preached in the whole world. For the Gospel is not reported to have been preached among all the Ethiopians, especially among those who are beyond the river, nor among the Seres nor among the Ariacin nor … have heard the word of Christianity. And what shall we say of the Britons or the Germans, who are around the Ocean, or among the barbarian Dacians and Sarmatians and Scythians, of whom very many have not yet heard the word of the Gospel, but are to hear it at the very consummation of the age? For consider what he says: and this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then will be the end. But if anyone wishes rashly to say that the Gospel of the kingdom has already been preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, one will consequently be able to say to him that, as regards what he says, then will be the end, the end has already come — which to say is a mark of great rashness and of a man not understanding what Paul says to the Thessalonians in his second epistle, saying: "Let no one deceive you in any way (as though the day of the Lord were at hand); for unless the falling-away come first and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition (and the rest), the day of the Lord will not be".
These things we have expounded according to the simple tradition. But if we ought, in accordance with what we have handed down morally above, to understand here too a moral treatment, we shall expound such things as these: that he who is to see, according to the glorious coming of the word of God, that coming into his own soul, must, according to the measure of his progress toward the perfection of the word, suffer ambushes from the contrary operations, like a great athlete, and, handed over into tribulations, be forsaken. For "many are the tribulations of the righteous", and the more righteous anyone wishes to become, so much the more, walking as it were with resolve the narrow and tribulated way, does he run into tribulations and, tribulated, is killed to the world; and the more he advances toward a clearer vision of the word, so much the more (since Christ is found more perfect in him) will he be hated by all who hate Christ, not so much by all the nations according to the flesh as by the nations of spiritual wickednesses. For the very implanted manifestation of the properties of Christ in him, on account of which he is also called a Christian, makes him hated by all who have the spirit of the world, while he still strives more and more toward the perfection of Christ.
But also, in discussions and questions, few will be untouched, attaining the truth more fully. But more will be scandalized and will fall away from it, becoming betrayers and accusers of one another on account of dissension over the doctrines of the truth, which not all are able to grasp: which will become the cause of their hating one another. And when questions of this kind come upon the greater number, many indeed there will be who do not soundly hand down the discourse concerning things to come and who interpret the prophets in a way that is not fitting, whom one will not sin in calling false prophets, deceiving many; but very few there will be who search out the truth. But the false doctrines will not indeed loosen the strong man from his purpose of truth. Those, however, who are itching in the ear they will multiply, speaking for their delight iniquity contrary to the law. And the contrary words of the many teachers will do so much harm that they will even make the fervent love (which before had been in the simplicity of faith) grow cold, through a supposed comprehension of the divine mysteries and of the truth. But he who is able, seeing all these things, to abide in the first purpose of the apostolic tradition and of the ecclesiastical leading, this one will be saved, and thus the Gospel, having been preached into the souls of all, will be as a testimony to all the nations, that is, to all the unbelieving thoughts of all souls. [§40] When you see the abomination of desolation, which was written of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let him who reads understand (24, 15).
The words of the prophet which he spoke concerning the abomination of desolation that was to come are these: "and he shall confirm the covenant to many for one week, and in the middle of the week the sacrifice and the offering shall be taken away, and upon the temple there shall be an abomination of desolation, and even unto the consummation of the time the consummation shall be given upon the desolation". Truly indeed to grasp the sayings of Daniel belongs to no other than the Holy Spirit who was in Daniel, so as to make plain the whole discourse concerning the weeks and concerning the abomination of desolation spoken by him. But if it behooves us also to set forth a few things, according to what seems good to us, about this passage, it must be said that the discourse seems to indicate the seventy years which were after the coming of our Savior. For this week, which because of the seven decades of years is called a week, confirmed the covenant to many, when the apostles of Christ also, after his ascension, being intent upon prayer and the word, were illumined by God into all knowledge of the will of the divine Scriptures by the Holy Spirit. But in the middle of the week, that is, in three and a half decades of years, the sacrifice of the altar was taken away, that is, in thirty-five years was fulfilled what had been written: "in the middle of the week the sacrifice and the offering shall be taken away". And then also upon the temple which was in Jerusalem was made the abomination of the desolation of the temple and of the city, namely at that time "when they saw Jerusalem surrounded by an army", so that (according to what the Savior had prophesied concerning it) they might recognize "that its desolation had drawn near". And this abomination of desolation made upon the temple by the army surrounding Jerusalem, the prophet says remains "until the time of consummation", so that the consummation of the world may come upon the desolation of Jerusalem and of the temple which is in it. And where are they "who say they are Jews and are not"? who say: The Jerusalem which is below shall be built, before the consummation of the age comes to pass? "The consummation", he says, "shall be given upon its desolation". But if the temple shall also be built, it shall be built for him "who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits in a temple" of this kind, "showing himself as though he were God": "whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the illumination of his coming". Whether therefore it pleases some that this Jerusalem be built upon the earth, nevertheless it will not be false which is said, that the consummation is to be given "upon its own desolation".
But if it behooves us also to say something about the times, we say that in the Chronicles of a certain Phlegon it is said (if however we ought to accept even this man as speaking truly about the temple) that around the fortieth year from the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple which was in it took place. Deduct therefore about three years of the Lord's preaching and the time of his resurrection, when "appearing to them for forty days" he taught "them concerning the kingdom of God", and you will find perhaps more or less that around the middle of the "week" (reckoning by decades of years) was fulfilled what was said: "my sacrifice and offering shall be taken away", when also "upon the temple the abomination of desolation" was made, which desolation will remain until the time of consummation; for the "consummation", according to what we have said, "shall be given upon the desolation". But if such a tradition of the "week" is established for us, we saying (as far as concerns the saying) that there has been fulfilled what was said, not only: "my sacrifice and offering shall be taken away", but also that which is written, that the abomination of desolations should befall upon the temple, then without doubt the coming of Christ is manifestly shown even from the words of Daniel the prophet saying: "seventy weeks are cut short upon your people and upon the holy city, that sin may be consummated and sin be sealed and iniquities be blotted out, and that eternal justice may be brought in, and that vision and prophet may be sealed, and the holy of holies be anointed. And you shall know and understand: from the going forth of the word to answer and to build Jerusalem unto Christ the leader there are seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; and it shall be turned back and the street and wall shall be rebuilt, and the times shall be emptied out. And after sixty-two weeks the anointing shall perish and judgment is not in it; but the city and the sanctuary he shall corrupt with the leader who comes, and they shall be cut off in a flood; and even unto the end of the war there is a cutting-off of destruction. And he shall confirm the covenant to many for one week; and in the middle of the week my sacrifice and offering shall be taken away, and the pinnacles, from the destruction unto the consummation of the haste". After these things follows the discourse which we have expounded, running thus: "and he shall confirm the covenant to many for one week" and the rest.
But I think that the seventy weeks cut short "upon the people and upon the holy city, that sin may be consummated" are four thousand nine hundred years from Adam unto the seventy years which were after the dispensation of Christ. For the sin of the people was consummated, on account of which it was also forsaken by God. And their sin indeed was sealed. But the injustice of believers was blotted out, and after its blotting out eternal life was brought in in Christ. But "since the law and the prophets were until John" who pointed out Christ, therefore I think it is said that vision and prophet are sealed. For since there are by no means visions among the prophets after John, therefore vision and prophet have been sealed. And vision and prophet being sealed, the only-begotten holy of holies Christ was anointed. Which Christ the anointed one the prophets and Daniel came to know, and understood in some manner "from the going forth of the word", when "by the word of the Lord the heavens were established". And "from the going forth of the word to answer" in the saints who were from the beginning and the prophets of the Lord, but also "to build Jerusalem unto Christ the leader" there passed "sixty-two weeks": that is, first indeed four hundred and ninety years, which are made by the decades of the seven weeks reckoned, but after this four thousand three hundred and forty years, which are likewise made by the decades of the sixty-two weeks reckoned. After which Christ returned, and built the street in which wisdom "acts with confidence", and the wall on whose summit "he is proclaimed". But the times of the people were emptied out, on account of which, upon the sixty-two weeks added to the seven weeks, the chrism which was in the temple was taken away from the people, so that there might now no longer be judgment among them. But both the city and the sanctuary were corrupted with the leader coming afterward upon that people, whether Herod or Agrippa (for the history of the Jews says it is this man).
But see that you do not suppose that what he says, that it is corrupted "with the leader who comes", is referred to Christ; for where he wished him to be understood as Christ, Daniel used both names, saying "unto Christ the leader", but when he keeps silent the name of Christ, he brings in a leader who is to corrupt, since the leader failed after Christ, and "the leader from his thighs", for he came "for whom the things were laid up". After whom the people was cut off "in a flood" "unto the end of the war" cut short upon them. But these things happening to them, God confirmed "the covenant to many" in one week: in the middle of which week he caused the incense and the sacrifices and the temple to cease (which I think he named from the pinnacle) that was to perish "unto the consummation" in haste, when also their house was forsaken to them who sinned. But the things which follow in the text of Daniel we have expounded as best we could. And all these things it has seemed good to us to set forth from Daniel alongside the interpretation of the Gospel text, so that we may make plain the saying which he speaks: when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let him who reads it understand.
[§41] But now let us set forth the very text of the Gospel. We have said that the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place is the general who surrounded Jerusalem with his army. And so, since the worst of things befell those who were then in Judea, therefore, prophesying that these things would come to pass, the Lord says to the people: then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. And such were the things that befell in that time — so to speak — that whoever was upon the roof of the house had no time to come down and take anything out of his house, and he who was in the field could not return to the city and take his garment. And there was then no time for mercy, neither upon those with child nor upon those giving suck nor upon their infants; therefore he says (I speak with respect to the words): "woe to those who are with child and to those who are nursing in those days". And as though speaking to the Jews, who supposed that on the Sabbath one ought neither to do work nor to walk a road farther than is a Sabbath's journey, therefore he says: "but pray that your flight be not in winter or on the Sabbath"; for not only on the "Sabbath", but also in "winter" it was a most grievous thing to seek safety through flight.
Moreover, it is reported by those who wrote down the Jewish history concerning the things that then befell, that "great tribulation" came upon the people "such as never was from the beginning of the world unto" the time of Christ. But neither afterward can it come to pass that such things befall them, because they dared to lay hands upon the true Christ of God, whose mystery and name David venerated when he said concerning Saul, who was persecuting him and wishing to kill him: "I will not lay my hands upon the Lord's anointed". And by the cutting short of those days that was to come "for the sake of the elect" of God who believe in Christ, we understand a shortening of those days. But then, when the people were set in great calamity and the elect who are in Judea were suffering perils, many seducers were saying: "behold, here is Christ, behold, there". Teaching his disciples to be on guard against them, he said: "then if anyone shall say to you: behold, here is Christ, behold, there, do not believe; for false christs and false prophets shall arise, and shall give great signs and wonders". And one may name either Simon Magus, who said that he was the great power of God, or anyone who was like him, wishing "to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect". These things we have set forth by way of anticipation, adding in this place no other exposition than the one that is according to the text, for the sake of those who take delight in a simple tradition, so that we might say the things that seem useful to them, since the Lord, prophesying that these things would come to pass, foreknowing the truth, expounded them. [§42] But if it is necessary, for the sake of those who wish and are able to ascend by the word to loftier things, let us take up again from the beginning the words of the Gospel set forth, and, so far as we can, let us expound the same once more spiritually.
And first let us take up the word about the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place. For he who reads must be diligent and understanding, so that he not be led astray by the abomination of desolation. The holy place, then, understood spiritually, is every utterance of divine Scripture which the holy prophets who were from the beginning spoke — Moses and, after him, the rest; and not only they, but also the utterance of the evangelists and apostles of Jesus Christ. In this holy place, then, of all the Scriptures, both of the Old Testament and of the New, the Antichrist, which is the false word, has frequently stood, showing himself — through this very fact that he seems to stand in the divine Scriptures — as though he were God and as though he himself were Christ the Word of God; and he himself is the abomination of desolation. For one may frequently see, in the impious argumentations of doctrines among the heresies, this abomination of desolation, that is, the Antichrist, the false word,
the abomination that desolates of God every man who has received into himself that abomination opposing the truth, exalting itself above every word that is outside it which is announced to be the word of God, exalting itself also above everything that any one of men wishes to worship, whether truly or falsely (for each doctrine of the heresies is not only opposed to the truth, but also to the other doctrines that are likewise false); and since it is so exalted that it even sits in the temple of the Scriptures, through that very temple, that is, through the Scriptures themselves, it wishes to show itself to be truly God the Word.
Always, therefore, let him who reads the divine Scriptures understand them, most of all when he shall have seen the abomination of desolation
(according to the things we have said) standing in that holy place which we have expounded, of the holy Scriptures. But he who has understood it will destroy it by the true tradition, that is, by the "illumination of the coming" of Christ who is the truth — that word which seems to stand in another's holy place; and, understanding such an abomination of desolation, he will render it void, and will cast it out from the holy place in which it seems to stand. But most of all will Christ destroy it, who speaks in him, the true light. And this Christ, if he speaks in someone who is willing to hear and to be profited, is not weakened, but every false word, which is the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place and sitting in the temple of God (which is the Antichrist), he "will slay with the spirit of his mouth" through those who have offered themselves as capable of him. And that false word frequently does not merely stand, but even sits in the temple, when it seems to be constructed as if reasonably and well. But those who see this abomination of desolation, so that they can say concerning it: "for we are not ignorant of its cunning", understanding therein while they read the things that are true, let them flee the false, and let them withdraw where falsehood will not be able to seize them.
But falsehood cannot seize those who flee from the Judea of the letter to the spiritual and intelligible things and the sublime mountains of truth. And that we may understand let them flee into the mountains, take as an example what is said manifestly of a praiseworthy flight, such as what the Apostle says: "flee fornication", and what Wisdom says: "as from the face of a serpent, flee sin", or such as what Rebecca says to Jacob in a mystery: "behold, Esau thy brother threatens to kill thee. Now therefore, my son, hear my voice, and rising up flee to Laban my brother in Haran; and dwell with him some days, until the wrath of thy brother be turned away". And everyone (I think) who is a son of Jacob, completing the works of Jacob, understanding every disposition hateful to God, which is Esau, flees as one who understands. But if he does not flee it, he is a fornicator and defiled like Esau, and, as one not fleeing Esau but dwelling together with him, he does not become a son of Jacob, who had fled it. But Jacob himself, dwelling with Laban usefully for himself and for the dispensation which was according to God, "hid the heart of the Syrian, so that he did not announce to him that he was fleeing", and he himself was fleeing "and all that was his". It is good, therefore, to flee even from Laban, from the counselor of carnal qualities, in which one who dwells ought not to remain, but to flee with his whole household. For even if he should wish to pursue after him, God will turn him away from those fleeing him, so that, even if he should afterward at some time seize him, he can do him no evil while he confidently declares and says: "with whomsoever thou shalt find thy gods, let him not live in the sight of our brethren: recognize what of thine is with me, and take it"; for nothing can be recognized among Jacob of the things of Laban.
In these Gospel sayings, then, which we are treating in the present, it is commanded that those who recognize the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place should understand therein while they read, so that they may flee into the mountains. He, therefore, who is held established in such a Judea as we have spoken of, that is, "in the oldness of the letter", let him flee into the mountains of spiritual newnesses. And if anyone be found to have ascended upon the housetop of the word and to stand upon the summit of its edifice, let him not come down thence on the occasion of taking anything out of his house; for he will have no need, remaining on the housetop and restraining himself lest ever he come down thence. And if anyone be in the field — whether in that in which a treasure is hidden, as the Lord says in a certain parable, or such as was that full field of Jacob, to which his father, blessing him, had likened him, saying: "behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a full field which the Lord hath blessed", in which field, according to the spiritual blessings of the law, everyone is blessed who has lived according to the law, as the Scripture says: "blessed art thou in the city, and blessed art thou in the field" — he, therefore, who is in such a field of the whole planting "which the heavenly Father planted", let him not return back. For not only is that man "who puts his hand to the plough and has turned back, not fit for the kingdom of God", but also he who is in the field which we have handed down, and has turned back for the sake of the things which he ought to have forgotten, will without doubt fall into the abomination of desolation, that is, into the seduction of the lying word:
and most of all if he has stripped himself of his old garment, that is, of "the old man
with his deeds", and has again turned back to take his garment. Diligently, therefore, ought we to attend, lest perchance we should wish, descending, to take any of those things which are below and are in the house, or, leaving the field and turned back, to seek again the garment left behind — when we ought "to reach for the things that are before, and to forget the things that are behind", and neither to stand in any of that region, but to be saved on the mountain, so that we be not seized together with those who were burned up because they were caught in Sodom.
[§43] But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing in those days (24, 19). That there are also some souls that conceive offspring, the prophet made clear when he said: "from fear of you, Lord, we conceived in the womb and travailed and gave birth to a spirit of salvation which you made upon the earth". For just as in those who are pregnant the seed is formed and shaped, so also in the soul that receives the word, the conception of the word is gradually formed and shaped within it. And this I think is what Paul says to the Galatians: "my children, whom I again bring forth in travail until Christ be formed in you", which is as though he were to say: until the word be formed and made manifest in you. In the epistle to Timothy he says likewise that a woman shall be saved "through the bearing of children, if she abide in faith and love and holiness with chastity". But who is this woman, if not the soul that conceives the word of God and of truth, and gives birth to good works like to Christ? But it is irrational to suppose that what he says was said of a bodily bearing: "the woman, being seduced, fell into transgression; but she shall be saved through the bearing of children, if she abide in faith and love and holiness with chastity". Therefore the souls that have newly received the word and, being still established as pregnant, have not yet borne fruit in it, having it intelligibly in the womb, cannot endure the discourse that stands "in the holy place" opposing the truth, nor stand firm so as not to be seduced by its persuasions. Therefore if at any time the soul that has it in the womb, and has not yet borne fruit from the word, sees the "abomination of desolation" (according to what we have handed down) "standing in the holy place", it falls under the woe which the Lord speaks: woe to those who are pregnant; for it will cast forth the conception and will be emptied of the hope that is in the acts of truth.
But even if the word seem to be formed and to have borne fruit, yet has not been nourished sufficiently with the nourishments that increase it and make it great, but has remained immature, after the likeness of a nursling that suckles, then upon offspring of this kind also there will come what comes upon those who suckle. But if (as in many copies) it is written woe to those who suckle, it must be said that there are souls that are still being suckled with milk, to whom the apostle says: "I gave you milk to drink, not food; for you were not yet able, nor even yet are you able, for you are still carnal". And he says also elsewhere: "you have become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food. For everyone who is fed on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness: for he is an infant". These, then, are the souls which, on account of their weakness, and because they are easily seduced, cannot remain unseducible from the sight of the abomination of desolation standing "in the holy place": for, being seduced, they consent to it as though to God. And one may see the churches of the heretics full of those to be lamented — the pregnant or nursing or suckling. For very often souls that were in the Church pregnant or nursing or suckling and were seduced by the abomination of desolation, and seduced by that false word which stands "in the holy place" through the false tradition of perverse doctrines, have received the woe of that abomination which was spoken by the Lord: woe to those who have in the womb and to those who are nursing, yet not at any time whatever, but in the days of that abomination of desolations. For everyone who hears the words of those who speak "iniquity on high", and receives them in its days, that man becomes subject to the abomination of desolation.
[§44] But pray that your flight be not in winter or on the sabbath (24, 20). There is, as we have said, a certain flight of men according to the precept of the word, so that he who flees the things that ought to be fled is better than he who does not flee and therefore commits such and greater offenses by this, that he does not flee, but makes himself subject to the evils that destroy the soul. But that there is an appointed and praiseworthy flight, the Apostle plainly teaches, saying: "Flee fornication". Now he flees fornication who avoids every occasion that irritates and provokes to fornicating, and neither mingles with the young in youthful tales (as far as he is able), lest perhaps he be consumed through them, nor descends to the customs of such men, but turns himself away entirely from the incitements of men of this kind. Let him who wishes to flee fornication hear also that which is said: "Be not continually with a woman that is a singer, lest perhaps you be consumed by her desires." But he flees fornication more abundantly who avoids, as far as he is able, the foods that kindle and stir up the seed, and, if it can be done, does not use wine until the more fervent age has passed; but if he does use it, let him use a little according to the apostolic precept which says: "Timothy, no longer drink water, but use a little wine for your stomach's sake and your frequent infirmities". And what more? He it is who flees fornication, and always works that praiseworthy flight which does not permit one to flee from God. Now he works this flight who is prompt to flee fornication. And not only is fornication to be fled by us, but also every sin. Therefore the scripture said well: "Flee sin as from the face of a serpent". But frequently it is fitting to flee from the Antichrist word and from "knowledge falsely so named", especially when a man is not yet so fit as to have the Lord working in him, who slays "by the breath of his mouth" the persuasions of lies, nor has he ascended to such a height as to have in himself him who destroys "by the illumination of his coming" every persuasion that has the likeness of truth and likens itself to the truth.
But he who flees ought to know also the place to which he ought to flee, and to pray also on account of the time, that he flee not at that time which is adverse to flight. The places, then, for those who flee will be the mountains, which Christ points out, saying: "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains". And let him who flees to those mountains say the Psalm of degrees which runs thus: "I have lifted up my eyes unto the mountains, whence help shall come to me". And for this reason he lifts up his eyes to the mountains: because he knows the abundance that is in those mountains; therefore he says: "its foundations are in the holy mountains". And if he flees to the mountains which the Lord commanded, he will come to the holy place, in which, being made and seeing that great vision, he will say what was said: "Passing over, I will see this great vision". And whoever is of this kind will hear: "Loose the sandal of your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground". Therefore let those "flee to the mountains" who flee according to God's command. Since, then, those who are established in tranquility of soul are able to obtain the flight of salvation, but with winter overtaking them they run into those whom they flee, therefore let them pray that their flight be not in winter or on the sabbath, if indeed Christ has kept watch in them. But if he has fallen asleep, then, "a storm of wind" descending "upon the lake", it will descend also upon him who flees, because Jesus does not flee together with him, showing him the flight of the best way. Yet if at some time a storm has descended and has wrought winter, let one pray and rouse Christ by his prayers, that he may rebuke "the wind and the sea", so that, "calm being made", he may flee again, that he be not overtaken by fornication or by avarice or by vainglory or by any evil pursuing him, or by the very abomination of desolation, that is, by false doctrine.
[§45] Pray that your flight may not happen in winter or on the Sabbath. God made the works of the world in six days and rested on the Sabbath (but he "rested from the works" of the world which he had begun to make); yet the works of righteousness he always works, without beginning, and will work without end. So too, before the coming of Christ, the whole race of men wrought all the works of the world, and no one rested from them, keeping a perpetual Sabbath from good works. But when our Lord came—our Sabbath and our rest—he brought to us the rest of his Sabbath, so that, just as he rested on the Sabbath from the works of the world, yet did not rest from the works of righteousness, so too we, through him, might keep Sabbath from the worldly and carnal and harmful works, but might always practice the works of righteousness. And that he himself was going to bring us a Sabbath of this kind, in which we do no servile work, he himself bears witness through the prophet, speaking thus of the unworthy Jews: "until I swore in my wrath: they shall not enter into my rest". And again Lamech, in imposing on his son the name Noah in a mystery of Christ, spoke thus of him: "and he called his name Noah, saying: this one shall give us rest from our sorrows and from the works of our hands and from the earth, which the Lord has cursed".
Everyone, therefore, who lives in Christ always lives in the Sabbath and rests in rest, resting from evil works, but he works the works of righteousness without ceasing. But many, having the name of Christ, not the grace, on the contrary keep Sabbath from good works, but work evil works. And the middling sort sometimes give up the Sabbath-keeping of evil works and keep Sabbath from good works, not working good things but evil. But certain ones both keep Sabbath from evil works, yet do not practice good works, whereas one ought not only to flee evil things but also to practice good ones. On such a Sabbath, then, of good works—when the Christian man does not do good works—Christ commands us to pray that our flight may not happen on it. For when you cease from good works, if indeed you stand before the face of the abomination and of your own accord submit yourself to it, you have willingly died by the sword of the lying word. But if you should wish to flee and the abomination of desolation should pursue you: either it will break you by its persecutions, because your good works do not work in you the virtue of patience; or it will capture you by its seductions, because your good works do not work in you the light of understanding. For no one in such a peril of false doctrine is easily overcome and deceived, except one who is stripped of good works. Therefore the Apostle too says concerning this very peril: "because they did not receive the love of the truth, he will give them the working of error, that they may believe the lie, that all may be judged who did not believe the truth but consented to iniquity".
But when we shall have seen "the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place", we shall also see a great tribulation at hand, such as was not made from the beginning of the world until that very one, nor shall be afterward. For what greater tribulation is there than to see our brothers seduced, on account of the holy place, by the abomination of desolation standing in it? And if indeed the bodily death of some friend or neighbor works great tribulation for one who has not been prepared to endure it, what tribulation do you suppose comes to be for him who suffers-together, when one member has suffered, and for him who is even set on fire, when some brother has been made to stumble? But if anyone should see himself moved and disturbed by the abomination "of desolation" as though it were not the abomination of desolation, and should see himself imperiled on account of the love which he has for the holy place, so that he almost consents to that abomination as though it were God and hands himself over to the abomination as though to God, how great a tribulation do you suppose he is troubled with—such as was not for him from the beginning, from when he came into the world, until that time? But neither will any other such tribulation ever be able to seize him, and most of all if one is drawn to reckon "the abomination standing in the holy place" to be not "the abomination of desolation", but God the Word.
Furthermore, even if someone should indeed see plainly "the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place", and should follow it, taking to himself an excuse from the divine Scriptures, as though it were a matter of indifference and permitted to deny Christianity—saying that denial is not denial, and reckoning the foods of things sacrificed to be as though harming nothing the one who eats them (bringing forward examples from the Scriptures), and that it is indifferently permitted at one and the same time to be joined to diverse women, as though the fathers too did these things of old—greater than all these sins is the abomination of desolation, that is, the word which takes its stand in the place of the holy Scriptures, speaking "iniquity on high" and persuading men to depart from the Creator, who alone is also the true God, and to believe in some other god I know not whom above this one, to whom none is like, though our Savior, being such as he is, says: "the Father, who sent me, is greater than me". A great tribulation, therefore, is generated by the abomination of desolation standing "in the holy place", so that such things as these are said of it: and unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been made safe; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened. And so great and so great a tribulation comes to be in that abomination of desolation, that God works a shortening of the days of that tribulation, cutting off the superfluity of them which is added by the abomination of desolation. For otherwise it is not possible that all the flesh which is to be healed should be healed, unless it should receive a shortening from God.
Those days are understood as the precepts and doctrines of the truth set in the Scriptures for the illumination of the souls that understand. But all the understandings coming from the "knowledge of the false name", which are added to and joined to the words of the Scriptures—understand these, I pray you, to be additions upon the natural magnitude of the days of Scripture; and this addition the good God shortens through whom he wills. And as often as you see, at the coming of the word of truth into your understanding, the heights that exalt themselves "against the knowledge of God" being cut off, so often understand that the days of tribulation are shortened and that the superfluous magnitude is circumcised, which, contrary to nature, the abomination of desolation always adds to the days of the Lord that are in the Scriptures. And for the sake of the elect those days are shortened, so that, seeing in their understanding the cutting-off of the superfluity of the days and that light alone remaining which is according to the word of truth, they may suffer nothing from the abomination of desolation, or from that which had been added upon the true and natural days of the Scriptures.
[§46] Then if anyone says to you: Behold, here is Christ. Behold, there. Do not believe. For false Christs and false prophets shall arise. And they shall give great signs and wonders, so that even the elect, if it be possible, may be led into error. Behold, I have foretold it to you. But if they say to you: Behold, he is in the wilderness, do not go out; behold, he is in the houses, do not believe. For as lightning goes forth from the east and appears even to the west, so shall be the coming of the Son of man; for wherever the corpse shall be, there shall the eagles be gathered together. (24, 23—28).
Since we have said that the "abomination of desolation standing in the holy place" is the word of falsehood which appears to stand in the holy place of the scriptures, someone will say: and how, as though it were not standing there, will someone thus say to the disciples of Christ behold, here is Christ. behold, there? and another will say: behold, he is in the wilderness, and another: behold, he is in the houses? See therefore whether to this we can say, as to what he says: behold here, behold there, that when he says behold here, behold there it is not to be looked for outside the scripture. For he who wishes to seduce us and to defend things contrary to the truth will say: behold, here is Christ, pointing, for example's sake, to this passage of the Gospel. And the author of another error will say: behold, here is Christ, offering as an example another text, which seems to defend that word of falsehood which he set out to vindicate. And so from the law, from the prophets, from the apostles, each one brings forth what seem to defend that falsehood as though it were the truth. Or thus is fulfilled what he says: behold, here is Christ, behold, there, pointing not to Christ, but to some fabricated figure bearing the same name, as for instance according to the doctrine of Marcion and according to the traditions of Valentinus or the long fabrication of Basilides, or according to the false testimony of Apelles against Paul. But there will also be many others who will say to the disciples out of the divine scriptures, joining to them their own private meaning: behold, here is Christ, behold, there.
But if they say to you: behold, in the wilderness, do not go out; behold, in the houses, do not believe. For some, bringing forth certain secret things, say: behold, in the wilderness. When therefore they bring forth secret and not commonly known scriptures for the confirmation of their falsehood, they seem to say: behold, in the wilderness is the word of truth. For secret scriptures are rightly called wildernesses, in which either few are believers or none. But whenever they bring forth the canonical scriptures, in which every Christian consents and believes, they seem to say: behold, in the houses is the word of truth.
But we ought not to believe them, nor to go out from the first and ecclesiastical tradition, nor to believe otherwise than as they have handed down to us through the succession of the Church of God.
Or thus: some professors of those false words do not indeed from the beginning counterfeit the scriptures, and thus attempt to deceive. Therefore (I reckon), wishing to point out those discourses which are altogether outside the scripture, he said: if they say to you: behold, he is in the wilderness, do not go out, from the rule of faith.
And wishing to point out those who counterfeit the divine scriptures unto schism, he said: if they say to you: behold, in the houses, do not believe.
Whatever they may profess concerning the scriptures and concerning the mysteries which are in them for demonstration, "do not believe" the things that are said.
For the truth is like lightning going forth from the east and appearing even to the west: such is the truth of the Church of God; for from it alone "the sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world", and it alone, the true truth of God, runs swiftly.
[§47] For as the lightning goes forth from the east and appears as far as the west, so shall the coming of the Son of man be. But we ought to know this also, that the lightning of truth does not appear in some one place of the Scriptures, while from another place of the Scriptures it is not upheld; rather it is upheld from every place of the Scriptures, that is, whether from the Law or from the prophets or from the Gospels or from the writing of the apostles. And this lightning of truth, going forth from the east — that is, from the beginnings of Christ — appears as far as the dispensation of his passion, in which is its setting. And to such a lightning as this is like the coming of the Son of man, that is, of the word of truth. And in this way too we can understand what he says: it goes forth from the east and appears as far as the west. That Christ is the Word and the truth and the wisdom of God is shown from the first beginning of the creation of the world down to the last writing of the apostles (that is, from Genesis down to the apostolic books), after which no writings are to be believed as those are. Or thus: because "the Law and the prophets were until John", in which is the lightning of truth, and the east indeed is the Law, but the west, the "end of the Law", is John. But the Church alone neither subtracts the word and meaning of this lightning, nor adds anything else as though a prophecy. But if we must inquire more subtly why it is said not "east" in the singular nor "west" in the singular, but thus: from the easts as far as the wests, we shall say that one east and one west is "the Law and the prophets until John"; another east as far as the west is Christ Jesus as far as Paul, to whom, the last of the apostles, "as to one born out of due time, Christ appeared".
But consider this also, that above we spoke of one "abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place", but he adds, as concerning many, for there shall arise false Christs. For generally the Antichrist is one, but his kinds are many, as if we should say: falsehood generally is one, but according to the differences of false doctrines there are found to be many falsehoods.
For if falsehood differs in nothing from falsehood — for instance that of Basilides or of Marcion or of Valentinus or of Apelles or of any similar men — the falsehood seems to be one. But if according to diverse doctrines they lie, then many are those who arise. For these are Antichrists; and whoever shall arise after them.
But just as of the true word of Christ, and made one, were the holy prophets who from the beginning of the age proclaimed the passions of Christ and afterward the glories that were to be his, so understand for me, according to each single false Christ, his many false prophets.
Therefore they are not teachers of some one falsehood, but false prophets of all of them — of that Antichrist, whose false words they preach as though true, and teach. According to these things, therefore, which we have said, those who teach the word in the manner of the Church are prophets of Christ; but those who preach the false word of Marcion or of any of them are prophets of that Antichrist which is according to Marcion, that is, of that falsehood which Marcion introduced; and others are false prophets of that falsehood which is according to Basilides, and others of that which is according to Apelles. Likewise you will say also concerning the preachers of the several heresies. For all the persuasive things that are brought forward for the defense of the word of Antichrist are the signs of that Antichrist and wonders: whatever things are suggested by the serpent, wisest "of all the beasts of the earth", and by the prince of the Assyrians of great cunning, are great signs and wonders, so that even the elect, if it be possible, may be led into error. But it is a word of exaggeration when he says if it be possible; for he did not declare nor say, so that even the elect may be sent into error, but he wishes to show that very frequently the words of heretics are persuasive and able to move even those who hear wisely. But since the Savior has foretold us all things, let us neither go out into the wilderness nor believe those who profess Christ in the houses.
But to these things which we have said let us still add that every word professing itself to be the truth, when it is not the truth, whether among the Gentiles or among the barbarians, is in some way Antichrist, wishing to seduce as though it were the truth and to separate us from him who said: "I am the truth". Therefore we ought not to give heed to those who say: behold, here is Christ, but do not show him in the Church, which is full of lightning from the east as far as the west, which is full of the true light, which is "the pillar and ground of the truth", in which wholly and entirely is the coming of the Son of man, saying to all who are everywhere: "behold, I am with you all the days of your life until the consummation of the age".
And wherever there shall be, according to the dispensation of his passion, the corpse of Jesus, who fell for this reason, that he might raise up those who had fallen, thither shall be gathered together not any kind of birds, but eagles, the disciples; concerning whom the prophet also said: "they shall take wing like eagles, and they shall run and not grow weary, and they shall go and not hunger", and Solomon in the Proverbs likens to it him who "is rich in God", saying: "wings are prepared for him like an eagle's, and he shall return into the house of his overseer". And see that he did not say: wherever the corpse shall be, there shall be gathered together vultures or ravens; but wishing to show that all who have believed in the passion of the Lord are magnificent and royal.
He aptly said: where the corpse shall be, there shall be gathered together also the eagles.
[§48] Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be moved. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn (24, 29—30ᵃ). Since we consider that greater themes here come under discussion than lie within the grasp of human understanding — even of those who have advanced in wisdom far beyond others — let us come and examine the passage: first inquiring into those things which can readily be admitted for an exposition of the Gospel text, as though the Lord Himself were prophesying in it; and afterward we shall look for what the truth of these words may be according to those who judge that there is something deeper and more subtle in the words, keeping to the sequence of the moral traditions in these matters as well, in the same manner as above.
Someone, then, will say: just as when great fires begin to be kindled a darkness seems to be raised up out of the abundant smoke, so at the consummation of the world, by the fire which is to be set alight, even the "great lights" shall be darkened, so that, the sun being darkened, and in consequence of the darkening of the sun, the moon too, hindered by the sun from receiving light, is not permitted even to give its own light. And thus of necessity a great darkness must first take hold of the nature of the world. And so, when the light of the stars has thus withered away, the remaining body of them, having become grosser, since it cannot be borne aloft as at first when it was lifted up carried by the light itself, will fall from heaven. And when these things happen, it follows that the rational powers of the heavens, suffering amazement, undergo a certain commotion and are troubled, being, that is, removed from their former functions. So he who understands these things to be thus will add that the sign of the Son of man, in whom "the things that were in the heavens and the things that were on earth" were made heavenly, shall then appear: namely, the power which the Son of man wrought when He was hung upon the tree; and in heaven above all shall His sign shine forth. And men out of all the tribes, who formerly did not believe in the Christianity that was proclaimed but even spoke evil of it, then, recognizing it through that sign made manifest, shall mourn and lament because of their ignorance and their sins, in that they did not receive the word of the Lord.
But another will judge otherwise concerning these words, holding that (as these words themselves show) the destruction of the world will not come about by fire, but by its own failing. And he will make use of such an illustration: that just as, when the light of a lamp fails, the light is little by little diminished, so, when the nourishment of the heavenly lights fails, the sun shall be darkened, no longer having the breaths that come to it from them coming upon it. And when the greater light suffers this, all the more will the moon too be unable to display that fiery splendor which appears according to its own phases. When, therefore, these things befall the sun, the light of the stars too will fail, so that what has remained in them, being as it were earthy, falls from heaven, and, these things happening, all the powers of the heavens shall be moved. For just as, in the dispensation of the cross, "when the sun failed, darkness came over all the earth", so also, when the sign of the Son of man appears in heaven, the light of the sun and of the moon shall fail, and yet more that of the stars, as though consumed by the great power of that sign; and when it appears, the tribes that shall then have remained on the earth shall mourn.
For these things he will use the illustration of the prophet Isaiah, who speaks in this manner: "For behold, the incurable day of the Lord comes, of wrath and fury, to make the circle of the earth a desert and to destroy sinners out of it. For the stars of heaven and Orion and all the ornaments of heaven shall not give their light, and the sun shall be darkened in the east, and the moon shall not give her brightness. And I will command evils upon the circle of the earth, and their sins upon the ungodly." Likewise also such things from Joel: "Before His face the earth shall be confounded and the heaven shall be moved, the sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall not give their light. And the Lord shall utter His voice before the face of His power, for exceeding strong is His camp, since mighty are the works of His words." Likewise: "And I will give portents in the heaven above, and on the earth blood and fire and vapor; the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and illustrious day of the Lord comes."
And many things like these you will find in the Scriptures, if you are willing to look at nothing else in the Gospel passages beyond the plain words. For according to this too, that it says, then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, as though needing no interpretation, you will receive from the prophet Zechariah such words as these: "And it shall be in that day that I will seek to take away all the nations that shall come against Jerusalem, and I will pour out upon the house of David and upon all the inhabitants in Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of compassion; and they shall look upon me because they danced, and they shall mourn over themselves with a mourning as over a beloved one, and they shall grieve with grief as over a firstborn. In that day the mourning shall be magnified over Jerusalem like the mourning of a pomegranate cut down in the plain, and the land shall mourn by tribes: the tribe of the house of David apart and their women apart, the tribe of the house of Nathan apart and their women apart, the tribe of the house of Levi apart and their women apart, the tribe of the house of Shimei apart and their women apart, all the tribes that are left remaining apart and their women apart." It will seem, then, to some that one ought to carry the interpretation this far and to examine nothing beyond the text.
[§49] But since one who speaks about the divine Scriptures ought to take care not only for the simple — lest, on their account, he neglect those who are able more abundantly to sustain the nature of subtle words — that perhaps such traditions be not false, and nothing of the sort as ought to be that which must be said by God concerning matters of this kind: therefore, for the sake of such men also, we shall expound a few things morally, as far as we can. Now men of this kind will say: how can it be said of the sun that its light shall be darkened, when the prophet Isaiah declares that there will be some increase of the sun at the consummation, but this present passage [declares] a taking-away? Similarly too concerning the moon, Isaiah indeed reports that it will be like the sun, but the present passage [says] that it shall not give its light. And concerning the stars they will say such things as these. Since from the earth to heaven there is a great space, especially up to the middle zone in which there are no wandering stars, one must therefore reckon, in view of the consideration of its height, that unless the stars were great beyond measure, their light would not be seen from so great a space by all who are in every part of the lands. And as some try to say — that either all or most of them are greater than the earth itself (using this as an argument to commend the reasoning of their words, namely that the whole heaven, gathered into the shape of a sphere, encompasses the entire earth) — they will also say something of this sort: that those who gather the truth of these sayings simply from the text itself declare as possible a thing that is by nature itself impossible, namely that stars of such great magnitude should fall from heaven. For whither will they even fall, when the earth does not suffice for their magnitude, nor can it hold, so to speak, the magnitude of two stars? But suppose it could hold two or three: can it possibly hold so great a multitude as well? Ought one not, therefore, perhaps to understand something else, in a moral sense, in the divine Scriptures? And this is indeed a matter of boldness, yet it is necessary; nevertheless much discussion is needed in these passages by one who wishes to show at once both the possibility of the Scriptures and their truth.
He will say, therefore, that the sun to be darkened is the devil, who "transforms himself into an angel of light" and, as though he were the sun, leads many astray. Since, therefore, he is to be exposed at the consummation — being darkness, though he pretends himself to be the sun —
for this reason what he says, the sun shall be darkened, can be understood of him. And he will say that this explanation is more fitting than to suppose that such a sun will suffer darkening. All, he says, may fittingly assent, without any danger, to this approved account concerning such a sun being thus darkened. And in accordance with the analogy of such a sun, the moon also is to be understood, which appears to be illuminated by such a sun. For every "church of evildoers", which frequently promises that it has and gives light, but which then, being exposed and made manifest along with its reprobate teachings, shall not give its brightness.
But also whoever, whether in false doctrines or in false virtues, were promising truth to men yet by their lies were leading astray those who gave heed to them — these may fittingly be called stars falling from heaven, but (so to speak) from their own heaven, where there were established heights exalting themselves "against the knowledge of God". And to commend an account of this kind he will use the example of Proverbs, which says: "the light of the righteous is always unquenchable, but the light of the impious shall be quenched"; and he will add that the true knowledge (which those have kindled for themselves who heard him saying: "kindle for yourselves the light of knowledge") is the light of the righteous, but that false knowledge is the light of the impious, and that the light of the saints is always unquenchable, while the light of those who fall away from the truth is quenched. The light shall be darkened, therefore, of that sun of which we spoke and of that moon which we expounded; but also … all who exalt themselves "against the knowledge of God" shall fall from their height, which they supposed to be heaven; and perhaps in this way too that will fit which is said: "I was beholding Satan falling from heaven like lightning". And when these things befall such a sun and moon and stars, the divine powers of the heavens will not be wholly unmoved, but shall be moved, when that sun has been exposed and darkened, and that moon shall not display its brightness, and such stars have fallen — as Jude also says in his epistle. Then what is bright shall appear in heaven, and to everyone who has borne "the image of the heavenly one". And when these things have thus been done, the tribes of heaven indeed shall rejoice; but the tribes of the earth, which have borne the image of the earth, shall mourn. And further, to commend a tradition of this kind of his own, he who made this interpretation will add, saying that, with the perceptible sun darkened (granting that it be so) and the moon not giving its brightness and the stars falling, it is not even possible for there to be tribes of men upon the earth. But if it is not possible, then certainly neither (according to what the text says) shall the tribes of the earth mourn. Then therefore (as the Lord says in the Gospel) "those who now laugh" shall then mourn, and they will mourn as those who are earthly tribes. In accordance with these things, he who wishes to raise what has been said to a moral exposition will try to interpret also the words of Isaiah and of Joel.
Furthermore, with regard to what has been said concerning the falling stars, it is not without reason to take up something from the Revelation of John, concerning the third part of the stars dragged by the tail of the dragon to the earth. For it says thus: "and another sign was seen in heaven, and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns and upon its heads seven crowns, and its tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth". To expound all these things one by one concerning the seven heads of the dragon — which perhaps can be referred either to certain rulers of the affairs of wickedness, or to the great sins of those who lead "to death" — is not for this present time; but they will be expounded in their own time in the Revelation of John. But it is the time neither to speak of the ten horns (since they are kingdoms of serpentine malice, having the serpent's nature — to move upon breast and belly through sins), nor now to expound what the present narrative is concerning the seven diadems which the dragon appears to have upon its seven heads (namely, that some head of the dragon takes on a diadem for each of those who are conquered).
But the principal expositions and proofs of these things must be made when that book itself has been set before us for exposition; but now this alone must be expounded from that Revelation, namely that the tail of the dragon "drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth". For I reckon that he who ought to hear: "you shall go after the Lord your God" and "come after me", and yet stops his ears to these things but follows sin, is dragged by the tail of the dragon, going after it. But if it should befall one who has so lived as to hear: "you are the light of the world", and whose good works have at some time shone forth — this man, having at some time been established as a star and having his manner of life in heaven, if he be torn away by the dragon to the earth, this man will be a star drawn by the tail of the dragon and cast to the earth. Thus are stars drawn by the tail of the dragon and cast to the earth. But there are others (some part of which is darkened, while — what is indeed the greater part — is luminous), which the passage of the Revelation seems to point out, running thus: "and the fourth angel sounded the trumpet; and the third part of the sun was struck and the third part of the moon and the third part of the stars, so that the third part of them should be darkened". But there are some who have neither wholly kept what was said: "so let your light shine before men", nor been wholly extinguished and darkened, but in part. For some, on account of knowledge, have shone like the splendor of heaven, while others, on account of their manner of life, have become like the stars of heaven. But we may seem to some to have brought these things forward inconsistently with the preceding expositions, and to have expounded them only in part, since there we said that the stars which would fall were those who seemed to have been stars but were not, whereas here [we speak] of those who truly were stars and either fell fully or in part. To these we reply that, in bringing forward these examples which we have adduced, we have demonstrated this: that in every case the stars are to be understood as men, not what kind of stars they are. Otherwise, that passage has its own interpretation and this one its own.
Nevertheless, when these things have thus been done, there shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then the tribes of the earth shall mourn. For these things it is not absurd to use the examples of the prophet Zechariah, which run thus: "and it shall be in that day that I will seek to take away all the nations that come against Jerusalem, and I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants in Jerusalem a spirit of grace and of compassion; and they shall look upon me because they danced, and they shall mourn over themselves a mourning as over a beloved one, and they shall grieve with grief as over a firstborn. And in that day the mourning shall be magnified in Jerusalem like the mourning of a pomegranate cut down in the field, and the earth shall mourn by tribes: the tribe of the house of David apart by itself and their women apart by themselves; the tribe of the house of Nathan apart by itself and their women apart by themselves; the tribe of the house of Levi apart by itself and their women apart by themselves; the tribe of the house of Shimei apart by itself and their women apart by themselves; and all the remaining tribes apart by themselves and their women apart by themselves". Therefore every earthly company, since it is a tribe of the earth — which rank they attributed to themselves — will mourn together with those like itself, especially if in some category of sinners it must mourn more abundantly.
But I think that through these things there are shown the differences of those who seem to have been in the faith and in their own company, yet did not please God. There is, therefore, a house of David that mourns — those who, set up from among the people, did deeds worthy of mourning, or [those drawn] from among kings and magnates. But those from among the teachers who lived badly are the tribe of Nathan that mourns, since Nathan was a prophet; and to teach is to prophesy. So those who are sinners from among those who were set over the Church and had the priesthood enjoined upon them and did not administer their office well, are the tribe of the house of Levi that mourns. And to speak the truth, whether concerning those tribes which we have mentioned or concerning the tribe of Shimei, belongs to God alone. But we, for the present, think that all who were catechized and instructed in the divine mystery, and were not ordained in any of the tribes which we mentioned above, and committed grave sins (such as are very many of the laity), are the tribe of Shimei; while the remaining men are those he called the 'remaining' tribes, which he did not name specifically. But it is no trifling task to speak also concerning the women of the individual tribes, who mourn apart by themselves. And see whether you can, in each and every class, call those who were more bodily and more worldly the 'women', but say that those who by comparison with them were better were the 'men'.
[§50] And they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and much glory (24, 30ᵇ).
Since the catholic Church appears to have received, along with other traditions, this too concerning Christ's second coming—that it will be in glory—that much is manifest. But whether, according to what is written in this place, we ought to reckon corporeal and perceptible clouds to be his vehicle, and to expect that great power and glory in accord with clouds of this kind; or whether, following the observation of the more simple word, it is also to be considered morally; or whether we ought not to observe the simplicity of the word at all, but only to pursue the moral understanding—this belongs not to just anyone: to deliberate and diligently to scrutinize the individual passages, and, after one has treated the word according to them, then to pronounce which of them is especially the more true and contains the Gospel sense and the will of Christ, who spoke these things. But come, let us set forth in these places a few things out of our modest power, if indeed we have even that. And first, according to the text, they will see with corporeal eyes the Son of Man in human form coming upon the upper clouds,
which clouds are for this reason called clouds of heaven, with power and much glory. And there agree with this exposition the things that are said above in the Gospel in this manner: "when Jesus had taken Peter and John and James, he led them up onto a very high mountain apart. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became like light. And there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him". "And behold (he says) a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold a voice out of the cloud saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him." Just as, therefore, when "he was transformed, and his face shone like the sun and his garments became like light" and "a voice" came "out of the cloud saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased", so, when he comes again, perhaps he will be transformed into a glorious appearance; or
just as then he was transformed before his three disciples, afterward he will come not upon one cloud, but upon many, which will be his vehicle. And that it follows that he will be re-formed into a better glory than that into which he was transformed on the mountain, is manifest from this: that then indeed he was transformed on account of three only, but in the consummation of the whole world he will appear in much glory, so that all may see him in glory.
And then indeed, descending, "a bright cloud overshadowed them", but afterward many clouds will carry "the Son of Man coming" with a vehicle worthy of his glory. But someone will say that, just as in the fashioning of man God took "mud from the earth" and "fashioned man", so, in order that the glory of Christ might appear, God took from heaven and from the heavenly body and gave it bodily form, first indeed into a bright cloud, but in the consummation into bright clouds; on account of which the clouds too are called clouds of heaven, according as the mud too was called mud of earth. And it befits the Father to bestow such marvels upon his Son, who "humbled himself", and out of love "did not deem it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant", and became "the Lamb of God" that he might take away "the sins of the world". For "on this account also God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name". And he exalted him not only according to the spirit, but also according to the body (that he might be exalted through all things), even the body which he took up from the power of the Most High and from the Virgin, she ministering a ministry of this kind. For it was fitting that it too be honored, so that he should come even upon such clouds; perhaps upon animate and rational clouds, so that the vehicle of the glorified Son of Man should not be without soul and irrational, just as without soul was the chariot, and irrational were the horses, in which Elijah was seen to be taken up, according to the Scripture which says: "and behold a chariot of fire and horses of fire".
But that they will be animate and rational clouds, which will be the vehicle of the Son of God, we bring forward for example that which is said: "and your truth reaches even to the clouds", and again: "I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it", but especially from that which is said: "and behold a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold a voice out of the cloud saying"—not because the Father was the cloud of the Son, but (so to speak) the word of God came to it, just as it came to the prophets. And just as one who hears Isaiah saying: "I have begotten sons and exalted them, but they have spurned me", hears not Isaiah but God the Father in Isaiah, so those who heard the voice out of the cloud saying "this is my Son", heard not the cloud, but the Father testifying in it to the glory of the Son. If therefore, before the dispensation of the passion, such was the prophesying cloud, what ought we to say of the clouds of heaven upon which those who then see him will see the Son of Man coming with power and much glory? And if indeed, so that the Son of God might not tread the ground in Jerusalem, those who loved him "strewed their garments in the way", not willing that even the little donkey which carried him should tread the ground, what wonder if the Father and God of all should strew the heavenly clouds beneath the body of the Son descending to the work of consummation? And first indeed Jesus came with the power and glory with which the Father had glorified him, out of which power "he did signs and wonders among the people" and healed "every infirmity and weakness"; on account of which he also said: "someone touched me; for I know that power went out from me". But all that power, in comparison with that much power with which he is to come at the end, was modest; for it was the power of one emptying himself. But that much power, of which it is written: they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds with power and much glory, will be that of the Word of God, who has been restored to the state which he had "in the beginning with God", before he emptied himself. So too understand his much glory, beginning from the glory of the face of Moses and passing over to Elijah, who were seen in glory when "the appearance of the face" of the Son of God "was made other" and the garment was changed. Understanding also that which is said: "for if that which is done away is through glory, much more that which remains is in glory". You will see that much glory of the Son, of which it is written: with power and much glory.
But you will understand still more of what the text speaks. Taking from the Acts, which reads thus: "and when he had said these things, while they beheld, he was lifted up, and a cloud received him from their eyes. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold two men stood by in white garments, who also said: Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who has been received up from you into heaven, will so come in the manner in which you saw him going into heaven".
For if we believe these men, by whom a cloud is said to have received him and borne him up into heaven, how will he not, according to the text, come from heaven, just as his disciples saw him "going into heaven"? And in the Revelation John likewise says: "behold he will come with the clouds, and every eye will see him and whoever pierced him". But let him understand who can, whether it is the very same thing—for him to come upon the clouds of heaven and to come "with the clouds"—or whether the clouds upon which he will come are one thing, and those "with which" he will come another. Consider also, in the vision of Egypt, Isaiah saying: "behold the Lord sits upon a light cloud, and he will come into Egypt", whether he means this Egypt which is commonly understood, or the whole world. For according to John himself, the place "in which their Lord was crucified" "is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt", whether the whole world or Judea is called Sodom and Egypt. But he who upon a light cloud will come into Egypt, will first make his ascent into Judea (for it is according to reason that, when he comes again, it should first happen there). But it is called "Sodom" "where their Lord was crucified", just as also once it was said to that people and their princes: "hear the word of the Lord, princes of Sodom; attend to the law of God, people of Gomorrah".
In these traditions one will use also that which is said: "we shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord", and he will say: if blessed men shall be caught up in the clouds into the air, what wonder is it that the Son of God comes in the clouds with power and much glory? Likewise a cloud overshadowed the people coming out of Egypt. If these things are believed, how does it not follow that the heavenly clouds become a vehicle for the Lord of the people, so that he may sit upon them? But if the book is received which says that it is Wisdom which "became" for the people then "a pillar of cloud by day and a flame of fire by night", someone will say that the clouds upon which they will see the Son of Man coming, are "the power of the Most High" and "the Holy Spirit", which will become for him the clouds of heaven, so that he may come conveyed by them. Since therefore this reasoning is stronger and not contemptible, one who wishes indeed to receive what is said according to both modes, will not reject it, even if someone says that the clouds in which the Son of Man will come are intelligible—whether holy and divine powers or the most blessed prophets. And he will say so who confesses morally the second and glorious coming of the Word that is to be for men in the consummation of the age, as we said above is handed down, yet he will not destroy the text either. But he who, disregarding the glorious and admirable text of the passage, and like a "friend of God" thinks that the true consists in the spiritual alone, will say that pardon is to be granted, as to children and "little ones in Christ", to those who receive these things corporeally.
But with much power the second coming of the Word of God comes daily to the soul of every believer, in the prophetic and apostolic clouds, that is, in the Scriptures of the prophets and apostles, which make him manifest
and in all their words show the light of the truth and declare him rising upon their divine understandings that are above human nature. And thus to those who understand the doctrines made manifest in the prophets and apostles, we say that there appears also much glory, which is seen in the second coming of the Word.
[§51] And he will send his angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from the highest heavens even unto their ends (24, 31).
Similarly in Mark he says it in this way: "and then he will send his angels, and they will gather the elect from the four winds, from the utmost part of the earth even unto the utmost part of heaven". As for his saying that the Savior sends his angels with a great trumpet (whatever that trumpet is) to gather his elect, it follows consistently upon those things which are related in another parable concerning the seeds and the tares; and interpreting the parable he speaks thus, that "the harvest is the consummation, the reapers are the angels. Just as therefore the tares are gathered and burned with fire, so shall it be in the consummation of the age. The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all offenses and those who work iniquity, and they will cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the just shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father". He says something of the same kind also in the parable "of the net cast into the sea".
Therefore "the reapers, the angels" are sent by the Savior to gather all the tares, so that after these things the saints may shine "as the sun in the kingdom of their Father", so that thereafter the elect may be gathered from the four winds, from the highest heavens even unto their ends. Consider whether (as the simpler sort suppose) he says that only those elect are to be gathered who shall at that time be found in the body, or rather all who are "beloved in God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ".
And see whether it is not better to say that all who have been called and elect from the coming of Christ even unto the consummation are to be gathered by the angels of Christ.
But you will inquire whether also those who lived from the foundation of the world even unto his coming are to be gathered — if indeed the elect of Christ are not only those who are holy from his coming (as certain teachers of the heresies say), but all who existed from the foundation of the world, who, like Abraham, saw the day of Christ and with divine exultation exulted over him.
But if the angels are to gather not only (as the simple think) those who shall be found in the body, but all the elect of Christ, it is worthy of consideration what they are doing in the meantime, or in what place they are staying, while they gather the elect. And that he says that not only those who have been comprehended in the body are the elect of Christ to be gathered, but also those who have departed out of their bodies, the passage makes plain when it says that the elect are to be gathered not only from the four winds, but also from the highest heavens even unto their ends. For I think that what he says — that they may be gathered from the highest heavens — fits no one who is upon earth, unless perhaps those who, while dwelling for a time among men, dwell among the angels teaching heavenly things; these the holy angels will gather, so that, being previously instructed in the highest heavens even unto their ends and equipped, they may hand them over to the perfect Master, the Word, the Son of God, to reign together with him
and to receive those things which the Son will hand over to these who have previously received the heavenly teaching. And since this life of ours upon earth is a shadow, it follows that now they are instructed by the Law and the prophets — those who in that fullness of time are to know the remaining things, and to know fuller things from the Son of God according to the heavenly realities themselves — so that those who are in the highest heavens may be, as it were, in a kind of course of instruction, that they may afterward be able to receive the wisdom of God, or rather to receive as wisdom the very Son of God himself, "when that which" is truly "perfect shall have come". And let us understand, by inquiry, the four winds from which the elect of Christ are to be gathered, of what future good things those things had a shadow which are written in Numbers concerning each tribe of the sons of Israel. Whence the first order of the camp was that of Judah, setting up with their own force toward the east, and with these on either side Issachar and Zebulun. And toward the south the tribe of Reuben, and on either side Simeon and Gad. And the tribe of Ephraim toward the sea, and on either side Benjamin and Manasseh last. And the tribe of Dan toward the north, and on either side Asher and Naphtali. Perhaps therefore even at that time the tribes that had gone forth were shadows of the camps according to the mysteries of the true Israel. And just as at that time they were gathered from the four winds into Judea and were established in the inheritance through Joshua, after Moses their tutor and steward, so from the four winds the angels will gather the elect (from winds, however, not earthly but from the highest heavens even unto their ends), so that, gathered by our Joshua, they may obtain the divine and true inheritance.
In Matthew, therefore, those who are gathered, the elect of Christ, are gathered from the four winds, from the highest heavens even unto their ends; but in Mark "from the four winds, from the utmost part of the earth even unto the utmost part of heaven"; and afterward from the highest heavens even unto their ends. And you will understand those who are gathered "from the utmost part of the earth" by considering the manner of life of those who have been on earth, and, so far as is possible, the perfection of those who have lived their life on earth. All, therefore, who have lived well upon the earth are gathered not simply from the earth, but "from the utmost part of the earth", that is, as it were from the summit of those who live upon the earth. But if, after the summit of the manner of life which was on earth, there follows a subsequent manner of life to receive those who had their manner of life in the heavens, it does not simply receive them from the utmost part of heaven as "from the utmost part of the earth", but from the highest heavens, since each heaven has both the beginnings of its own instruction and its perfections, that is, its ends. For example, after the highest manner of life which was upon earth, the manner of life of one heaven receives a man again, and the perfection which is in it. Again the second manner of life of the second heaven receives him, and the perfection which is in it. Again the third manner of life of the third heaven receives him, and the perfection which is in it. And so understand for me that there are many beginnings of the manners of life of many heavens, and ends, that is, perfections, and that from these beginnings and ends of the diverse heavens God gathers his elect. Or thus from the highest heavens even unto their ends: the heavens are either the divine Scriptures or their authors, in whom God dwells; and the highest parts of the Scriptures are their beginnings, but the ends are their consummations. The saints, therefore, are gathered from the highest heavens, that is, from those things begun by them, who live in the beginnings of the Scriptures, even unto those who live in the consummations of them: to say it more amply, from the untrained among them even unto the perfect among them. But the angels who are sent by the Savior to gather his elect will gather them not with a voice of just any kind, but with a trumpet which is called great, not one that gives an uncertain sound, but a certain and manifest one, so that those who have heard and learned may prepare themselves for the way of perfection which leads to the Son of God.
[§52] But since we wish to understand what the great trumpet is, we ought to compare spiritual things with spiritual. Come now, let us also briefly expound about the trumpets, insofar as we are able to grasp it, to see whether we can, from the gathering together and the reminder of these examples, understand also the great trumpet of the angels. For it is written in Numbers: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Make yourself two silver trumpets; of beaten work you shall make them; and they shall serve you for gathering together the congregation and they shall serve you for setting the camps in motion. And you shall sound with them, and all the congregation shall be gathered together to you at the door of the tabernacle of testimony; but if they sound with one only, all the chiefs of the hosts of Israel shall come to you. And you shall sound the first signal, and the camps that lie toward the east shall set out; and you shall sound the second signal, and the camps that lie toward the south shall set out; and you shall sound the third signal, and the camps that lie toward the sea shall set out; and you shall sound the fourth signal, and the camps that lie toward the north shall take up their march; therefore they shall sound the trumpet at their setting out. And when you gather together the assembly, you shall sound, but not a signal. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall sound with the trumpets. And it shall be to you a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations. But if you go out to war in your land against your adversaries, you shall sound with the trumpets. And you shall be remembered in the sight of your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies. And in the days of your gladness and in your feasts and in your new moons you shall sound with the trumpets, both over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, and there shall be a remembrance of you in the sight of your God. I am the Lord your God."
See also in these words that at the first signal of the trumpet the camps set out that are toward the east, but at the second the camps set out that are toward the south, and — to put it briefly — from the four winds the priests sounding the trumpets gather together those who are of the camps of Israel; and, in correspondence with the priests sounding the trumpets, the angels of Christ with a great trumpet will gather together his elect from the four winds. But in Numbers these things are written as done on the earth, whereas in the Gospels they are done "from the height of the earth even to the height of heaven", and after these things from the heights of the heavens even to their heights. And perhaps, if "the law has a shadow of the good things to come", then in Numbers too what has been set down concerning the trumpets and the ranks of Israel is a shadow of things to come. Lest, then, perhaps the silver trumpets (since silver is in many places taken for the word) … the great voice of the word is understood as a silver trumpet gathering together each one "in his own order", according to the shadow indeed as Moses named it, but according to the mystery as Paul says in the first epistle to the Corinthians. And first, with the rational trumpets, they set the camps in motion. Thus the legislation is made concerning those matters which pertain to the war of Israel, since through that signal of the trumpets it calls to remembrance matters of war; which trumpets bring those who are called to remembrance through those signals of the trumpets in matters of war, to the saving of them from their enemies. But the sounds of the silver and beaten trumpets in the days of the gladness of Israel, which are taken up at their new moons, were shadows of the new moons to come, of which the Apostle says: "Let no one judge you in food or in drink or in respect of a feast day or of a new moon or of sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come". And they are taken up also over the burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of the peace offerings of Israel. And these signals of the trumpets, the examples and shadows of the heavenly worship, it is fitting to expound as belonging, as it were, to some Israel that is heavenly and has its manner of life in heaven.
But we have received these examples so that we may be able, at least in part, to understand what is written: he will send his angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather together his elect. And the Apostle shows the evangelical trumpets also in the first epistle to the Thessalonians, saying: "But this we say to you in the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who shall remain at the coming of the Lord, shall not go before those who have fallen asleep; for the Lord himself, at the command and at the voice of the archangel and at the trumpet of God, shall descend from heaven". Likewise in the first epistle to the Corinthians: "We shall indeed all fall asleep, but we shall not all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for it shall sound, and the dead shall rise incorrupt, and we shall be changed." And there is also, according to the law, a certain festival even of trumpets, the new moon of the seventh month, perhaps the mystery of some true festival and of some spiritual and grandly-speaking trumpet.
[§53] But from the fig tree learn a parable: for when its branch has now become tender and puts forth leaves, know that summer is near; so also you, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, at the door. Amen I say to you, that this generation shall not pass away, until all things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away (24, 32—35).
How the comparison of the things that have been said can be understood from the fig tree, we shall expound according to our ability: lest perhaps this whole world and its consummation be likened to a fig tree, and each one of those setting out toward the blessed life, so as to see in himself the glorious and perfect coming of Christ's word, be held to be like a fig tree. For just as the fig tree
in the time of winter indeed has in itself the life-giving power, but has it hidden and not sufficiently manifest, and afterward, when that very life-giving power begins to come forth into manifestation as the winter passes, out of its own vigor the branch is made tender, and it puts forth also leaves;
and just as the tree in that very power has leaves and fruits, and first indeed there is the bud, then little by little it advances, and last of all also by the actual effect: so also the world and each one of those who are saved, at the end before the coming of Christ (as it were in winter) has in himself the life-giving power hidden, but with Christ breathing upon them, those branches which are tender and not hard-hearted, and the things that were hidden in them, advance into leaves as the summer draws on and show forth manifest fruits, which he who beholds them in Christ already sees.
So too it is related in a certain parable of the Shepherd, if it please anyone to read that book also, that "the present age is winter for the just", who appear like their neighbors by nature, namely like the other dry trees, but in the opportune time appear in their fruits. But if in the first Psalm also there be some such thing, which is said concerning that blessed man, that "he shall be as the tree which is planted beside the running waters, which shall give its fruit in its time, and its leaf shall not fall off, and all things whatsoever he shall do shall prosper", do you also consider what is written. "The winter has passed, it has gone its way, the flowers have appeared in the land", as is written in the Song of Songs, from the time that Christ came, who introduced the mild season and made the wintry blasts to cease. And the fig tree, that is, the world, has now indeed made the tender branch, that is, the Church, to put forth leaves, while summer is at hand yet has not yet come; but when summer has come, it will more fully render fruits perfect and ripe for Christ, when according to Jeremiah the good figs are very good, gathered into baskets of good figs, from which Christ wishes to take and, as it were, to eat their sweetness. But far be it from us that, when Jesus comes to us and wishes to eat of the fig tree, no fruit should be found in it. For if no fruit be found in it, he will say to it at his coming, to the tree that has not shown fruits: "Never from you shall anyone eat fruit". And that fig tree can be understood as the people of the circumcision, to whom the Lord came hungering, and when he had not found "fruit in it" but only the appearance of life, he said: "Never from you shall anyone eat fruit". Wherefore at his coming "that fig tree was straightway withered", that is, that people; but that other fig tree, which (as regards the earlier times) was barren, which was already to be cut down because it had had no diligence applied to it by its own digger, when dung has begun to be put around it, will put forth fruits; the tree which had once drained the ground, but now will bring forth more abundant fruits even in return for the time gone by in which it was barren.
And each one of us, after the winters of temptations and after the sorrow of dangers past, hastens to summer, putting forth the tender branch — not that hard but the soft heart for believing God; and our advances put forth leaves meanwhile and the flowers of works, that afterward we may also exhibit the most perfect fruits
"when that which is perfect has come", in Christ. Moreover, those very ones who are saved have in themselves the true vine (him who said: "I am the true vine") and, according to the reckoning of the vine, also the true fig tree the Holy Spirit offering salutary fruits,
where "each one rests" according to the spiritual promise of God "under" his "vine" and "under his fig tree". And that vine indeed in those who make progress flowers and gives its fragrance, but the fig tree also puts forth its fruits, that after worthy progress their fruits may be made worthy of the heavenly winepresses, and of the baskets of very good figs of that fig tree, which brought forth tender and good fruits before the heat; whose fruits, even when languishing, provided they are not slothful to pray, are healed, as is written concerning King Hezekiah in Isaiah, who was saved through figs, that he might not die;
but also the sun upon him in the degrees showed his day made greater and brighter. Great therefore is the hope in the fig tree, which out of God's words first indeed made its tender branch, and afterward the leaves being born. For such as these summer is near, and near, at the door, is the glorious coming of Christ in the clouds, and the coming of the glory of the word of God, and "near" for men of this kind is "the kingdom of God".
[§54] Amen I say to you, that this generation shall not pass away, until all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Let us see what this generation is, of which Christ speaks.
And the simple, indeed, refer these words to the destruction of Jerusalem; and they suppose it was said of that generation which existed in the time of Christ and looked upon his suffering, a generation that would not pass away before the destruction of that city came to pass.
But I do not know whether they can expound word for word what he says: "do you not see all these things? amen I say to you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be destroyed" down to that which he says: it is near, at the door. For perhaps in some points they will be able, but in others they will not be able at all, and, sufficiently hemmed in, I do not know whether they will have been able to say anything.
But we, observing in many passages the word "generation," take it in two ways. For we hold that there are two generations, one indeed of the Jews, the other of the Gentiles.
Thus we understand also Ecclesiastes saying: one generation passes away and another generation comes, and the earth stands forever. For, prophesying of the people of the Jews, who were to pass away, he says one generation passes away; but of the people of the Gentiles, who were to believe, he said another generation comes. Something of this kind I think is said also in the eighty-ninth Psalm by Moses in his prayer: Lord, thou hast become a refuge for us from generation to generation. For God is the refuge of the two generations, since there is one God who justifies the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith. And since God is the God not only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles,
therefore the generation shall not pass away of the new testament, which is in the face of the Savior, nor shall it depart to those blessed promises of that age, until all things be done which Christ has spoken. For to each one of us it is fitting that all things be done which have been foretold,
as we have handed down through the several expositions. There is, therefore, one generation of the Church, which began from the teaching of the Lord the Savior and lasts until the consummation. And this same generation will indeed at some time pass through this whole age (and it will pass through it, so as to inherit that age which is to come), yet until all these things be done, it shall not pass away;
but when it shall have been sufficient in all these things and shall have remained impassible until the glorious coming of Christ, then it shall pass through.
Yet until all these things be done (not some of the things that have been said, while others are not), those things are not to be; nevertheless this generation shall pass away, when all these things shall have been done, when there shall have passed away not only the earth, but also the heaven, that is, not only those men whose life is earthly, and who for that reason are called earth, but also those whose "citizenship is in the heavens", and who therefore are called heaven. And they shall pass to the things to come, along with all their states, so that they may come to more eminent
and better things. For the revelation of these (since they are sons of God) the expectation of the creature awaits, and "every creature groans together with them and is in pain", until, conceiving in the womb from the fear of the Lord, they bring forth "the spirit of salvation", making their own offspring; and then shall pass away the generation of which Christ speaks, and the heaven according to what we have expounded, and the earth according to what we have handed down.
But the words which were spoken by the Savior shall not pass away, since the things which are proper to them they work both now and shall always work. But the perfect, and those who do not receive so that they may now be made better, passing beyond what they are, arrive at that which they are not.
Now in that which he said: but my words shall not pass away, this too I think must be inquired into, lest perhaps the words of Moses indeed and of the prophets have passed away, while the words of Jesus Christ have not passed away: because the things that were prophesied by those men have indeed been fulfilled, but the words of Christ are always full and are ever in the act of fulfillment and are daily being fulfilled and are never fully completed; for they are the very things which in the saints both have been fulfilled and are being fulfilled and are yet to be fulfilled. Or perhaps we ought not to say that the words of Moses or of the prophets are altogether fulfilled: for properly those words too are the words of the Son of God and are always being fulfilled. It is therefore good to unfold the depths of the divine words in simple words; yet for the sake of the few let us examine this, understanding only this much: that the word which in the Word of God is human has not passed away from the creation of the world until the consummation. For it presses on and works, since neither did it receive the beginning of its working before the times of the days, but it began with the creature and with the creature will pass away. But the word which was before the creature will not pass away with the creature.
[§55] But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father alone (24, 36).
These words seem to refute those who promise that they can comprehend the consummation and destruction of the world and who declare "as though the day of the Lord were at hand" — such as certain people are said to have been at Thessalonica in the time of the Apostle, of whom he writes: "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto him, that you be not soon moved from your mind, nor be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as though from us, as though the day of the Lord were at hand." Perhaps because among the Jews there were certain persons professing, whether through the scriptures, that they knew of the times of the consummation or of hidden things, therefore he writes these things, teaching his disciples that they should believe no one who professes such things. And the Savior, according to this passage, joins himself to those who are ignorant of that day and hour. And it must reasonably be asked how he who is confident that he knows the Father, saying: "No one knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son shall will to reveal him", knows the Father indeed, yet does not know the day and hour of the consummation, and why the Father hid this from the Son. For there must certainly be some reason why the time of the consummation is hidden even from the Savior and why he is ignorant concerning it.
But someone will dare to say that the man who exists according to the Savior is understood to be advancing "in wisdom and stature and grace before God and men", who in advancing did indeed advance above all in knowledge and wisdom, yet not so that there had already come to him that which was perfect, before he fulfilled his own dispensation. It is therefore no wonder if this alone he did not know out of all things, that is, the day and hour of the consummation.
But perhaps also, when he said that he did not know the day and hour of the consummation, he said this before his dispensation, because no one knows, neither the angels nor the Son, but the Father alone; but after his dispensation was fulfilled he by no means said this, after "God highly exalted him and gave him a name which is above every name".
For afterward the Son too came to know it, receiving knowledge from the Father even concerning the day of the consummation and the hour, so that now not only the Father might know concerning it but also the Son. And indeed in the Acts of the Apostles the apostles "coming together questioned him, saying: Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? But he said to them: It is not for you to know the times or the moments which the Father hath set in his own power". And since he "set in his own power the times and moments" of the consummation of the world and of the restitution of the kingdom of Israel, therefore what had not yet been predefined by God no one could know. But each of the things which he predefines, he does not predefine from anything inexperienced (for this is impossible); but what he predefines, he predefines by making a beginning of predefining. And if this is so, he predefined indeed to bring about the consummation of the world, but he did not also predefine the "times and moments which he set in his own power", so that, if he wished to increase them, judging thus he might increase them, but if to shorten them, he might shorten them, no one knowing it. And therefore he set the times and moments of the consummation of the world in his own power, so that accordingly he might determine the due judgment for the human race (established in its own free will) acting in this way or that. Many things too are to be found in the prophets, written for the benefit of the hearers, in precepts and denunciations, as though God were not predefining anything about them, but punishing indeed if they should sin, and saving if they should keep the precepts. And just as in those cases the scripture did not introduce God as predefining, but as speaking forth according to the benefit of the hearers, so is it to be understood also concerning the day of the consummation and the hour.
Another explanation (which is more famous than those which have already been set forth) says something else about that which is written neither the Son, but the Father alone.
The Apostle, it says, speaks somewhere concerning the Savior and concerning the matters to be ordered at the end of the age in this manner: "But when all things shall be subjected to him, then shall the Son himself also be subject to him who subjected all things to himself, that God may be all in all."
By these words he seems to show that, before he subjected all things to him, he was not subject "to him who subjected all things to himself": which is demonstrated from this, that unless the Son had been subject to the Father, who subjected all things to himself, the Father would never have subjected all things to him.
And through these words he seems to say that the subjection of the Son becomes the subjection of all who were to be subjected to him, and their coming through the Son to God and to perfection.
If, then, this is rightly said concerning the future subjection of the Son to the Father — that then those who are to be Christ's and shall have cleaved to him may, together with Christ himself, be subjected to the Father — why shall we not likewise expound also that no one knows of that day and hour, neither the Son?
For as long as the Church, which is the body of Christ, does not know that day and hour, so long is the Son himself also said not to know that day and hour, so that he is understood to know then, when all his members shall have come to know it. And it is rightly said "to know" according to its proper signification, as is the custom of the scriptures. What is it to know? That he shall come to know that day and hour who shall arrive at the end and shortening of that day and hour.
But that "to know" and "to recognize" have some such signification in the scriptures is manifest from that which is said in Ecclesiastes in this manner: "He who keeps the commandment shall not know an evil word", that is, shall not experience an evil word. And in the Apostle it is said concerning the Savior himself: "Him who knew not sin, he made sin for us".
And he called the Savior one not knowing sin, as though he were to say one who did not sin nor was in the nature of sin.
It signifies something of this kind, that also which it says: "Adam knew Eve his wife".
For as long as she had not been joined to him, he did not know her.
And therefore no one knows, neither the angels of heaven nor the Son of God, the day of such a consummation and destruction of the age, since God provides better for the saints, that they may come to be together in the blessedness which is to be after the day and hour of that consummation. And just as it is written among the Hebrews concerning those who have testimony in faith, that "all these, having been attested through faith, did not receive the promise of God, God providing some better thing concerning us, that they should not be perfected without us", so is it to be known also in this matter, that, since God foresaw some better thing concerning those who were to be saved, they have not yet received the promise, who did not come to know concerning that day and hour, neither the angels of heaven nor the Son. For the Son prepares the knowledge of that day and hour for the coheirs of that promise, from the time that "he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant", working out the way that leads to the restitution of all things, for whose sake he took "the form of a servant"; that all may together know (that is, may in the very reality experience) that hour and day, for "what eye hath not seen nor ear heard, and hath not ascended upon the heart of man, God hath prepared for those who love him"
training and preparing in the knowledge of prior things every one whom he wills to know that day and hour together with the holy angels and with our Lord Jesus Christ himself. And the consummation of each single one, which is to be in these certain things aforesaid, and concerning individuals, the Father alone knows: since the Son, accompanying and going before those who follow after, and calling (so to speak), is to come, and delays. So that those who strive to follow him may be able to follow him, and, following him, may be found with him in that day and hour.
[§56] For as it was in the days of Noah, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as they were in the days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until Noah entered into the ark, and they knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be (24, 37—39).
For those who understand the plain text of the present words, whether they wish to understand it spiritually or simply, it is consistent to say concerning the consummation of this world that "it shall come suddenly," like one who has already fallen sick beforehand with a sickness fit to make manifest his coming corruption. For this is shown especially from what he says, that the coming of the Son of man will be like the days of Noah; for then all things that were upon the earth suddenly perished. But whoever wishes to say that the consummation of the world will happen gradually will say that likewise it happened in the days of Noah. For with the rain descending for forty days and forty nights, it followed that those first perished who dwelt in the lower parts of the earth, and after them those who dwelt somewhat in the higher parts, and thus last of all those who dwelt in the highest mountains. So too (he says) in the consummation of the world, when the fire has descended, it will indeed begin from the more elevated places and gradually descend to the lower. But Luke, subjoining also the similitude of the fire of Sodom, gives us occasion to understand that the consummation is to come suddenly. But someone will say that by this it is declared that that rain, or that fire, did not happen according to the order of nature, but on account of the abundance of the sins of men.
In two ways, then, is the coming corruption of the world reckoned: in one way according to a natural descent of fire, in another according to the judgment of God. But the Gentiles do not say that those sins were the burning, or the cause of that burning, but that it was the power of fire. The divine discourses, however, teach that all things are held and governed by God, and they do not blame the violence of fire, but proclaim it the will of God — of God who saves upon the earth those who are worthy of salvation in it, but destroys those in whom, on account of the abundance of iniquity, "charity grows cold." For the comparison with the fire of Sodom teaches most manifestly that the corruption of the world will be sudden. This is clear from what the angel said to Lot: "behold, I have admired your face in this word, that I will not destroy the city of which you have spoken; hasten therefore to be saved there; for I cannot do anything until you go thither." You see that that fire which was sent upon Sodom was held back by the divine will, until Lot entered into Zoar. So I think it will be also in the consummation (according as Lot too was saved), that then that fire of the consummation will lay hold of the world according to the judgment of God, when the saved righteous shall shine "as the sun in the kingdom of their Father": then "they will gather the wicked out of the kingdom of Christ and cast them into the furnace of fire."
For how is it not manifest that the corruption of the world will be sudden, from what he says: they will be eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, which are signs of peace and security? For famines and pestilences will perhaps be some time before the consummation; but around the consummation itself there will be neither famine nor war. And how are eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, planting and building, buying and selling to be understood, unless it is so ordered? But this too makes it manifest, what the Apostle says: "that the day of the Lord shall so come as a thief in the night. When they shall say: peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them, as the pain of childbirth upon her that is with child, and they shall not escape"; for he teaches us that the day of consummation will come upon men suddenly and unexpectedly, when the state of things shall seem to have been turned as it were for the better — from the former famine to abundance, from pestilence and battles to peace and security.
But those who hear the Gospel more deeply and do all things so that the Gospel may be in no part at all veiled to them, do not much care about the general consummation of the age, whether it is to be sudden and general or by parts; but they consider only this, that the consummation of each single person happens without his knowing either the day or the hour of his own departure, and that upon each one of us "the day of the Lord will so come as a thief." On which account it is needful to watch, whether in the evening (that is, in youth) or at midnight (that is, in the midst of dark human life) or at cockcrow (when one is now older) or in the morning (when one is now in advanced old age), so that when God the Word comes bringing the consummation of the setting-out of this life, he may be found who did not give "sleep to his eyes" nor "slumber to his eyelids," and who kept the commandment of him who says: "watch at all times." Yet all are vain, whether those who profess to know the consummation of the world, when it will be, or those who boast that they know the end of their own life, seduced either by the signs of birds or by ventriloquists or by magicians, and thinking to know the day and hour of their own departure. For as it is, no one can know, unless perhaps he be some prophet illumined by the Holy Spirit — like him who prophesied to the king's wife who wished to know whether her son would rise from his infirmity, and like Elijah who prophesied to Ahaziah, saying what had been determined for him by the Lord: "thus says the Lord: because there was no God in Israel, do you go to seek unto Baal the fly, the god of Ekron? not so; the bed upon which you have gone up, you shall not come down from it, for you shall surely die."
These things, even though we have said them in a digression, we have nevertheless introduced as useful, since concerning the consummation of each single person also (that is, concerning the day of his departure) no one can know — although many profess to know such things — except perhaps those who have heard from the prophets. I know also another consummation of the righteous man, who with apostolic advancement can say: "but far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world." For to him to whom the world is crucified, for him in a certain way the consummation of the world has already come; and he who is dead to worldly things, to him (having passed over days not of the Lord) there comes the day of the Lord, on which the coming of the Son of man takes place upon his soul, because he now no longer lives to sin and to the world.
[§57] Then two will be in the field, one is taken and the other left: two women grinding at the mill, one is taken and the other left; two in one bed, one is taken and the other left (24, 40. 41).
Just as in that which he says: "either make the tree bad and its fruit bad, or the tree good and its fruit good," there are two trees in general in the hearts of men, either the good tree of virtue or the bad tree of malice: so, for him to whom "the world is a field" according to a certain parable, there are two in general in it, the one indeed like Noah "a worker of the earth," the other however like Cain "working the earth." When such men have been set in the field of this world, one is taken, that is, he who is like Noah "a worker of the earth"; and the other is left, that is, he who is like Cain "working the earth." And such is "everyone who hates his brother," and on account of hatred of his brother he is called "a murderer" by the apostle John.
So too, concerning souls grinding at the heavy mill of the world or of the body, the good one indeed is taken, but the bad one is left, until it is made worthy to be taken. Or thus: two in the field, the mind of the good man and the mind of the bad man; the good mind is taken, the bad one is left.
For neither can we say that the spirit of the bad man is not taken, since I have learned from Ecclesiastes concerning every spirit that "it returns to God who gave it," just as also concerning all flesh that it returns to the earth from which it was taken; and just as the Lord himself taught us, that we should fear "him who is able to destroy body and soul in hell," and (by the fact that he said nothing about the spirit) he clearly showed that the spirit is not punished together with the sinful body or soul. For he who has sinned is divided, and one part indeed "of him is placed with the unbelievers," but that which is not his own "returns to God who gave it."
[§58] Two in one bed, one is taken and the other is left. Besides those who are two in the field and besides those who are two at the mill, there are two bodies in one matter, of which bodies the one is the body of a just man, which is taken, but the other is the body of an unjust man, of the same matter, which is left. And the body, being as it were weak, is in the bed of carnal passions, even though it is taken; but the soul, because of the many things which it endures in this world, grinds at the mill of the world: but the sense in the field, according to the things we have said, works the things that it works.
[§59] Watch therefore, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come (24, 42). Not giving "sleep to the eyes" of our soul nor "slumber to the eyelids," so that we may await either our own end or the end of the age, whether that we should depart from this life or that this world should be brought to its consummation for us.
But someone will ask how the Lord, established as present among the disciples, speaks thus, as though not present but about to come, saying to them: watch, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. And the one who is more simple will say that he spoke this discourse concerning the second coming, in which he was to come. But another will say that he was speaking of the intelligible coming of the Word, still to come into the understanding of the disciples, because it was not yet in their understanding in the way it was going to be: since (as he shows through this passage) in those who watch he works the day of his coming in the soul of those who are illumined by the true light of him who comes to their souls.
But know this, that if the householder knew at what watch the thief comes, he would surely watch and would not allow his house to be broken into. How would he not allow it? Without doubt, through his watchfulness. Therefore be you also ready, because at what watch you do not expect it, the Son of Man is to come. But Matthew indeed speaks indefinitely, while Mark even defines the times of the day, as of a thief coming, saying: "watch therefore, for you do not know when the lord of the house will come, at evening or at midnight or at cockcrow or in the morning".
Now the householder is the understanding of the man, and his house is his soul; but the thief, who comes suddenly while the householder sleeps and breaks into the house, is, I think, the devil or every contrary word,
according to what the evangelist John teaches us, saying in this manner: "amen amen I say to you, he who does not enter through the door into the sheepfold but climbs up another way, that man is a thief and a robber". As, therefore, he who "enters through the door into the sheepfold" is "the shepherd of the sheep", for whom "the doorkeeper opens", but "he who does not enter through the door but climbs up another way is a thief and a robber", so the lord of the house enters into it confidently "through the door" when he wills, rewarding the one who watches; but the thief, being a thief, does not enter into the house to the soul of the negligent by the natural entrance, but (as one who has already broken into it)
first destroying certain natural buildings of his soul and natural understandings, in him who has not watched — the things which God the Word had built. And having entered through that very breach, the thief plunders it, disarming the understanding, when, despoiling the householder who does not watch, "he will distribute his spoils".
But sometimes someone catches the thief in the very act of breaking in, and seizing him as one having his own weapons, he strikes the thief, and, confuting the word that breaks in, he kills it, when, though killing, he is not reckoned a murderer, killing it without any delay. But if not in his own presence, yet in the presence of him who makes all hidden things manifest, someone catches him who has stolen his goods, and understands him and refutes him (that is, kills him), he has no pardon, the thief being dead and made manifest: for he too will die.
And see whether perhaps the law of Moses signifies some such thing, saying: "but if the thief is found in the very breaking in and, being struck, dies, there is no bloodguilt for him; but if the sun has risen over him, he is guilty: he shall die for it". For he who, before he does the evil, recognizes the evil and crushes it in himself, is the one who catches and kills it in himself, while it is being broken in upon by it. But he who, after he has done the evil, although he refutes it, is seen to have caught the evil outside himself and to have killed it outside his house — it profits him nothing, for he has been made guilty of death. For after any man has sinned and turned back into himself, the divine understanding which is in us illumines him like a light, so that we may understand that the evil we have committed was to our own condemnation, not to our salvation. Yet in the text of this Gospel of which we are speaking, the thief comes not by day, when the soul of the earnest man has been illumined by the sun of righteousness, but by night and in the time while malice still remains.
And when someone is in this state, it is possible that, even if he does not have the strength of the sun, yet he may be illumined by some slight brightness of the word which is a "lamp",
while still indeed remaining amid evils, yet already having a purpose of better things and a watchfulness, so that his purpose, looking toward better things, may not be broken in upon. For, as we read in the Shepherd, no one quickly tastes full vessels, for they are not easily changed; but the half-full ones, because they are readily believed to be changed, are frequently tasted.
And see whether you can draw to such an understanding that which is written elsewhere: "but let your loins be girded and your lamps burning; and be you like men awaiting their lord, when he shall return"; since he who is not yet in the light and in the day of the virtues, but already offers himself to the teaching that illumines his soul, so far as is possible, is in the first place girded. And turning himself away from the outpouring of malice, he uses not yet, as it were, the clear daylight of virtue, but the lamp by which it is possible for even one who is in malice to be illumined. This one, therefore, whose lamp is thus lit, is one awaiting his lord, God the Word,
that returning he may come to him who meanwhile has had within himself the lamp and has illumined his whole mind, evidently as it were a sun. And each one according to his own progress kindles his lamp either less or more from the light of knowledge, and pours oil into it through meditation, and watching in it against sinful works, hoping through abstinence of this kind and meditation to receive even the lord into himself. Yet to him who progresses more abundantly and forgets the things that are behind, that is, malice, but still having a little of it in himself already draws near to virtue, it is fittingly said: "the night has advanced, but the day has drawn near". And it is to be noted that he did not say: "but the day" is at hand. For it is at hand for the perfect who have in themselves no trace of night; but it draws near for the one progressing toward the better and meditating on the things that are of the day and receiving honorableness as in the day, and it is already near to that man who is such that he may say: "we are not of the night nor of the darkness".
[§60] But since we have once come to this passage, we ought also to give an account of the various watches. One person indeed is found keeping watch straightway in the evening itself and continues his watches until midnight, and further still until cockcrow, and still further until morning. For whoever, as soon as he has begun malice — that is, as soon as the infant has begun to bring forth full speech (for from this point he begins to be in malice, which is being in the night) — if he straightway hands himself over so that he becomes both a hearer of the law and a doer of it, "provided he shall have endured unto the end" in that same purpose, he has kept watch from the evening and has continued until midnight and has given neither "sleep to his eyes" nor until cockcrow nor until morning: a man of this kind is reckoned among the blessed servants. But whoever shall have been found, after the time when speech is completed, to pass some part of the night "in revelings and drunkenness and beds and shameless deeds," yet afterward has begun to keep watch — this one too will have good hope if he endures until morning, beginning to keep watch from midnight, that is, from manhood. But if, advanced in the time of his body's age, upon hearing the divine teaching he receives from it a lamp, as though willing to live according to the commandment of God, this one too, having a lamp from cockcrow and keeping watch and enduring until morning, does not lose the reward of good servitude in a short time. And if it is possible, even straightway around the very completion of the night (that is, after malice has consumed almost the whole time of his life), that as a believer he may kindle a lamp for himself and keep watch even in the remaining time — then, if the master of the house comes with his grace, with some indeed he will abide from evening until morning, but with others, enlightening them from midnight for what remains, and with others from cockcrow, dwelling less with them; but neither will he abandon those who in the morning kindle a lamp and keep watch on account of the expectation of the master, but even these, finding them by no means asleep nor attending to "beds and shameless deeds," he will honor them with the honor by which he shall have recognized them to be worthy.
And so the thief too comes at a certain watch and hour of the night and digs through the house of him whom he shall have found not keeping watch nor having a lamp lit. And upon some indeed he comes in the evening, but upon others at midnight, and upon some even at cockcrow, and there are also those upon whom he comes in the morning. And the master too comes at a certain watch and hour of the night, and perhaps the master comes to that man to whom the thief, in coming, could do nothing — namely, not being permitted to dig through the house of the one keeping watch and having a lamp lit. But to him who has his house dug through the master does not come, especially if anyone has learned what was said: "let your loins be girded and your lamps burning; and be yourselves like men awaiting their master", and, despising the things that were said, has given "sleep to his eyes and drowsiness to his eyelids". But to make clear the sense of this passage which has come upon us, let us use such an example: in the time of temptations or of calamities of whatever kind the thief is especially wont to come, wishing to dig through the house of the soul; but when the thief comes, the one who bears the mishaps and endures all things for the love of God, having suffered nothing from him, will straightway see the master coming to him. But whoever shall have had his house dug through by the thief in the time of his calamity will, as unworthy of the coming of his master to him, not be worthy to look upon him.
[§61] Who then is the faithful and prudent servant, whom his lord has set over his household, to give them food in due season (24, 45)?
That this parable pertains to the apostles and the other bishops and teachers is clear,
especially from the fact that in Luke Peter asks, saying: "Do you speak this parable to us, or also to all?" Yet, although there are many stewards, it is difficult to find one who is both faithful and prudent. For this reason the Apostle says: "Let a man so account of us as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Here now it is required among stewards that a man be found faithful." But he sins against God, whatever bishop ministers not as a servant to fellow-servants but as a lord, and often even as a bitter lord domineering by force — set up like the Egyptians who afflicted the life of the sons of Israel with violence. Therefore they ought to be mindful of the words of Christ, who says: "You call me master and lord, and you say well; for so I am. If then I have washed your feet, you too ought to wash one another's feet; for I have given you an example, that as I have done, so you also should do." And that other saying: "The princes of the Gentiles domineer over them, and their greater ones exercise power over them. But among you it shall not be so; but whoever wishes to be first among you, shall be last; even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give his life a redemption for many." One ought also to hear Paul saying: "Whereas we might be a burden as apostles of Christ, we became little ones in your midst, just as if a nurse were to cherish her own children; so, in our longing, we desire to share with you not only the Gospel, but also our own souls"; and one ought not to strike fellow-servants, but to "rebuke the unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, and be patient toward all," since "the servant of God ought not to quarrel but to be gentle toward all, teaching with modesty those who resist." And as one himself withdrawing from the evil enticement of fellow-servants, Paul blames those who were not such, who were indeed subject to the proud but despised the gentle, speaking in this manner: "You endure it if any man reduces you to servitude, if any devours, if any takes, if any exalts himself, if any strikes you in the face, as though we had been weak."
But consider in these words how he reproves those who reduce to servitude and strike in the face — because of which they domineer the more bitterly — saying that he himself abstains from these things; not because he was too weak to do them, but that he might do the very things he teaches. And he teaches to teach "with modesty" "those who resist." For this reason too, defining what sort bishops ought to be, he speaks thus: "not quarrelsome, not strikers, but gentle, well-ordered," and whatever qualities are found among faithful and wise servants and stewards, whom "the lord has set over his household," as Luke says. And from these things it may be recognized that not only those who are faithful and wise does the lord set over his household, but also the wicked servants who say ever in their hearts: "My lord delays his coming"; and therefore they strike their fellow-servants, eat and drink with the drunken or with drunkards, and become inebriated. If, then, at any time those who preside over the churches of Christ suppose themselves to be at a great height, because "the lord has set them over his household," let them recognize that it is not this that saves them, that they were set by the lord over his household, but rather that they should give food in due season, and that they should abstain from strikings and from carousings and drinkings with drunkards. But if they do not abstain from such things, and are haughty because the lord has set them over his household, let them know that their lord will come in a day on which they do not look and at an hour which they do not know, and will divide them, and will set their portion with the hypocrites and the unfaithful; and when they have been set among the hypocrites and the unfaithful, it will profit them nothing that they were set by the lord over his household.
But that we may fear that which he says, he will divide him, it is fitting to recall the things said by Daniel against the wicked elders, namely that "the angel of God, having a sword, will cut you in two"; and in cutting, he divides.
We have ventured to use in this place the example from Daniel, not being ignorant that it is not found in the Hebrew, but because it is held in the churches; to inquire about such a matter belongs to another time.
But attend also to this, that he says faithful servant and prudent, hearing the word kindly and acquiescing in the will of Christ, who speaks these things, and of Matthew, who writes them down. Diligently, therefore, must we hear about the faithful and prudent servant: he who advances in faith, or (if he is not yet perfect in it) he who commonly is himself also called faithful, and he who has a natural quickness of mind and is called prudent. For the steward of iniquity too "acted prudently," not indeed acting according to prudence as one of the virtues, but because he was quick in wit. And "the sons of this age are more prudent than the sons of light in their generation," not because they are prudent according to prudence as one of the virtues, or because the sons of light are inferior to them in any other respect in wisdom, except that in worldly wisdom or in natural sharpness of mind they are inferior; for the divine word knows also that prudence is one of the virtues, as it teaches in Proverbs, saying: Say that wisdom is your sister, and make prudence known to you, that it may guard you from the strange woman.
But now we ought to hear in a general sense what he says: who is the faithful and prudent servant, as though some indeed are faithful according to faith as commonly understood, but are not prudent nor quick in wit; and again others are indeed quick and, in the sense here signified, prudent, but not altogether faithful as well. But if one considers the multitude of those wishing to be Christians, he will find indeed many faithful and exercising zeal for the faith, but not also prudent, so that the sons of this age are more prudent than they in their generation, knowing that God has chosen the foolish things of the world, that he may confound the wise. And again he will see others, who are thought to have believed, who are indeed quick and wise, but of small faith and, if not unfaithful, yet less faithful than the foolish things of the world which God has chosen. But that faithful and prudent should meet together in one man, so that according to both he gives his fellow-servants food in due season, is very rare indeed. For to give food in due season to the needy, one has need of prudence; but that one should not withhold food in due season from the needy, there is need of faith.
Nor is it inopportune to give warning on account of the sins which, in men who seem to believe in Christ and in the stewards of the churches, are for the most part wont to occur, since even according to the simple sense many of us have need to be faithful and likewise prudent for dispensing the revenues of the church: faithful indeed, that we may not devour what belongs to widows and that we may be mindful of the poor, and, taking occasion from that which is written: the Lord has ordained for those who preach the Gospel to live by the Gospel, that we may not seek more than simple food and necessary clothing, that we may not keep back for ourselves more than we give to the hungry and thirsty and naked brethren and to those who suffer need amid worldly cares; prudent, moreover, that we may minister to each one according to each one's worthiness, remembering what has been said: "Blessed is he who has understanding concerning the needy and poor." For we ought not to give from the church's goods simply, so that we observe this one thing only, that we not devour what belongs to the poor or commit theft from it, but that we prudently understand the circumstances of the needy on account of which they are needy, and the standing of each — how he was brought up, how much he has need of, or for what cause he is in want. Therefore one must not act in the same way toward those who from infancy have been brought up hardly and strictly, and toward those who have been nourished lavishly and delicately and afterward have fallen. Nor are the same things to be ministered to men and to women, or to the very old and to the young, or indeed to the young but feeble (because of which they cannot procure food for themselves) and to those who can in part relieve themselves. It must also be inquired whether they have many children, not being negligent but doing all things and yet not sufficiently providing for themselves. And, that we may not say more, there is need of much wisdom for one who wishes to dispense well the revenues of the church, so that in these matters too, being found a faithful and prudent steward, he may be made blessed.
But perhaps also, on account of the multitude of Christians who are not held in sufficient regard concerning the searching of the word and yet are such as have been raised to leadership, we have all the more need to hear: who is the faithful and prudent servant whom the lord has set over his household, to give them food in due season? — that they may not pour out the rational and spiritual food upon fellow-servants of whatever sort indiscriminately and upon those to whom they ought not, wishing to show themselves prudent, when rather those have more need of the word that builds up their morals and orders their life, than of that which leads forward to wisdom and illuminates with the light of knowledge those whose mind can bear the splendor of such a light; or that they may not be reluctant to expound the higher things to those who are able to hear more keenly, lest by expounding cheap things they be despised by the more clever, who are naturally clever or perhaps are held to be sharp through the exercise of worldly wisdom. It is difficult, therefore, for both to be in one man, that he be both prudent and faithful, yet not impossible; for he does not pronounce blessed one who cannot exist, when he says: Blessed is that servant, whom his lord, when he comes, shall find so doing. Amen I say to you, that he will set him over all his goods.
[§62] Blessed is that servant, whom his lord, when he comes, shall find so doing. A great promise is proclaimed to faithful and prudent stewards, and it accords with those to whom he says: "be thou having authority over five cities", or: "be thou having authority over ten cities". For to be set over all the goods of the head of the household — what else does this make plain but that they are "heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ" and reign together with Christ, to whom the Father has handed over all his own things, as he himself says: "all power has been given to me in heaven and on earth"? And (in the manner of the son of a good father) being set over all the substance of the father, he shares this same dignity and glory with his faithful and prudent stewards, so that they too may be over every creature and power, so that they may be with Christ. And observe his interpretation of what he says: amen I say to you, that he will set him over all his goods. Understand for me (taking it as if by way of example) some king who has an entire kingdom under himself, with whom are many nations and cities and diverse places. Let him, then, divide among his satraps and the other princes, who have done something notably well, the fullness of his kingdom; and let him indeed set all of them over his whole kingdom, yet not each one over all things — but each one of them over some part of his kingdom: for instance, one indeed over ten cities, another over five. And thus they will all be over all the goods, while he alone holds all things, being, as it were, the sole king of all. And such is what he says: he will set him over all his goods.
But just as we have heard concerning the blessedness to be given to the faithful and prudent servants, so let us also hear concerning the torments of the wicked servants. For the wicked servant speaks in his heart, preferring present pleasure to the goods to come, and, despising his lord, he says: my lord delays to come; but he says this lying, wishing to eat and drink with the drunkards. And he is always dreaming that after a long time his lord will come; and, as though his lord were delaying, he strikes the fellow servants who endure it, and reduces them to servitude, and beats them in the face; and, striking them, he eats and drinks with the drunkards, under the pretext of ecclesiastical service, and he does not receive the hungry but feasts with the drunkards. And there are many of this kind to whom the ecclesiastical charge has been committed, upon whom the lord will come, bringing about their consummation on the day on which they do not know and at the hour at which they do not expect, and he will divide them — those who have not feared him who "is able to destroy soul and body in hell".
And he will divide him, when "his spirit indeed returns to God who gave it", but his soul together with its body goes "into hell".
The just man, however, is not divided, but his soul goes with his spirit to the heavenly kingdoms; on account of which it is written: "bless the Lord, ye spirits and souls of the just". But of those who are divided and lay down the spirit that returns to him who had given it, and thereafter do not have in themselves any part which was from God, there is left to them their part which was their own, that is, the soul, which together with its body will be punished by the lord when he comes, with the hypocrites and the "unfaithful" in torments.
See, therefore, the difference among the servants whom the lord has set over his household, since certain ones indeed, as faithful and prudent stewards who gave food to their fellow servants in due time, are set over all the goods of the head of the household; but those who have done things contrary to these, apart from the fact that they have fallen from so great a glory, will moreover be divided, and their part will be placed with the hypocrites and the "unfaithful". There will be weeping for those who wickedly laughed in this world,
as the Scripture says: "woe to you who now laugh, for you shall weep and mourn". And consequently, on account of the rest and the relaxation in which they took their rest and were relaxed, there will reasonably be for them a gnashing of teeth: which perhaps signifies this, that those who are punished, thinking that there will be an end of their pain and on this account wishing to endure it manfully, being driven by unendurable torments, gnash with their teeth
— with those teeth, namely, with which they ate the bitterness of malice, and therefore they suffer a fitting gnashing of teeth.