Works (CSEL) 14 part 21/28

What then does He mean by saying: 'It is not lawful to take the children's bread and to cast it to the dogs' (Matt. 15:26)? By 'children' He surely meant the Israelites, that is, the Jewish people; by 'dogs,' the people of the nations. What then? Is it the part of the rich or the more noble to receive the heavenly sacraments, and not of those who with a devout fervour of mind press more eagerly toward the knowledge of the heavenly mystery? And if some Israelite be remiss and negligent or stubborn, who casts the words of God behind him, while a Canaanite woman eagerly desires to bend her mind to acquiring the sacraments — is the one who neglects to be preferred to the one who shows zeal? By no means. And therefore one ought diligently to attend to what He expressed when, having said:

'It is not lawful to take the children's bread and to cast it to the dogs,' the Canaanite woman answering: 'Yet the dogs also eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters' (Matt. 15:27) — He praised her zeal and humility, in that she did not from the outset claim for herself the depth of wisdom, although she had already come forth from the borders of Tyre and Sidon, but believed that certain crumbs of the saving word, which fell from the table of their masters, were to be gathered up. For whoever diligently and subtly searches the words of Scripture is wont to attain to the height of the mysteries. Whence to her also it is said: 'Great is thy faith; be it done unto thee as thou wilt' (Matt. 15:28) — that is: that the door of the word may be opened to thee, and the saving mystery of eternal life may shine forth.

Therefore let him who is near go out and desire to see Christ, and in prayer cry aloud, just as that Canaanite woman went forth from her own borders and saw Christ and cried with continual voice, that she might carry back His mercy. And so, the Canaanites believing, let the Jew be put to shame, because he himself did not believe; let him grieve that he is mocked, and groan that he is derided by those who are round about him. And this prophecy seems to be concerning the nations who would believe, especially since what follows shows it, for it says: 'Thou hast made us a byword among the Gentiles, a shaking of the head among the peoples' (Ps. 43:15 LXX) — because by the transgression of the Jews came salvation to the Gentiles, and the things that were done among them in figure have, as the Apostle attests, profited unto our knowledge.

And truly they were made a reproach to the Gentiles, because the Gentiles preferred the reproach of the Lord's cross to all the riches of the world. But whoever counted that cross a reproach and fled from it as a reproach, he truly remained in lasting reproach. Yet since those are seen to be Israelites not according to the flesh who were able to say: 'We have not dealt unjustly in the covenant of the Lord, neither hath their heart turned back from the Lord' (cf. Ps. 43:18), see whether they are not recording that they were exposed to mockery and derision by those set round about them — concerning whom the Lord says: 'Many bullocks have compassed me' (Ps. 21:13); for persecutors compassed Him, when according to the counsel of His own will He underwent the Passion. Whence also elsewhere He says:

'They compassed me about, yea, they compassed me about; but in the name of the Lord I will be avenged on them' (Ps. 117:11). Therefore it is better to keep the straight way, in which the wicked cannot walk; they quickly fall, because they walk not in straightness. Whence also those men, when they wished to seize the Lord Jesus, when He looked upon them, fell back (cf. John 18:6). For the sake therefore of these, who are wont to walk round about, the Lord set an angel to drive back from behind the enemies that lie in wait. The angel of the Lord, then, encamps round about them that fear Him, and guards and keeps them (Ps. 33:8); for the impious walk round about, as it is written (Ps. 11:9). See therefore the difference.

The impious walk round about, but the angel encamps round about those who do not walk round about, and he so encamps in order to deliver the just from the snares of their pursuers. The just, then, are seen to be spiritual Israelites who speak these things, in that they lay subject to the temptations of the world and were the reproach of their neighbours — that is, of those who did not dwell in the homeland of Jerusalem — and were also a mockery to spiritual wickednesses and powers, against whom the just are wont to wage their struggle. In short, let history teach you that the Jews, when carried off into Babylon, although they seemed to be subjected on account of their sins, were nonetheless held to be much better than the Gentiles.

For those round about them who insulted them were worse, although they themselves were bowed down under the weight of grievous sins. Therefore the first interpretation is to be applied to the captive fathers, whom the Assyrians insulted, mocking them in Babylon, over whom also that most wicked king Nebuchadnezzar held dominion. The second interpretation is to be referred to higher things, namely that the most savage king is the devil. He himself is the Assyrian Nebuchadnezzar, who is wont to lie in wait for the good, that he may draw them into sin through the enticement of the flesh. Mark therefore this king in that passage where the Apostle says: 'I see the law of my flesh warring against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin' (Rom. 7:23) — that is, in that law of carnal enticement.

The adversary is a lion who presses upon those liable to him and wearies the just (cf. 1 Pet. 5:8). Whence Aquila beautifully rendered: 'Thou hast made us a scorn and a spectacle to those who are round about us.' For so were they esteemed contemptible, who were made a theatre to this world, and to angels and to men (1 Cor. 4:9) — because, even though they sin not in the covenant of God, nor are turned aside from the Lord by the enticements of the flesh, yet they seem to be paraded about, as it were, in a kind of pomp, and to be despised, since sinners are wont to insult the lowliness of the just, so as to count the cross of the Lord and Saviour and the humility of the just a reproach. In short, the Apostle, set as it were in a kind of theatrical pageant, says: 'I take pleasure in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses' (2 Cor. 12:10).

In which he takes pleasure who counts all the things of the world as loss, that he may gain Christ, seeking through life and death Him alone, to whom to live is Christ and to die is gain, that he may be found in Christ (cf. Phil. 1:21; 3:8-9). These same Israelites add further, saying: 'Thou hast made us a parable among the Gentiles, a shaking of the head among the peoples' (Ps. 43:15). Among what Gentiles set, save those who would believe? For the things that befell the Jews were done as a likeness [figure], that the destruction of the Jews might become for us a type and a figure, and that from that likeness, through a parable, we might seek a solution for present matters, whereby we might be able to beware of their examples; and then, because all Jewish matters are as it were parables, that is, as it were figures needing solution.

In short, the Lord spoke to the Jews in parables, that the unlearned might not understand, but the wise might understand — as the Apostles understood and, in whatever they were perplexed about, questioned the Lord; whereas the Jews neither understood nor again desired to learn what they did not understand. Receive then what a parable is: Abraham, then, had two sons, one of the bondwoman and one of the freewoman (Gal. 4:22). The Jew did not understand this except according to the letter; he knew not which of the two sons received the father's inheritance, because he was inclined toward carnal things. The parable needed a solution. There came the teacher of the Gentiles and the faith of the nations, and understood that those two women are two covenants — one from Mount Sinai, which begot the Jewish people unto bondage, which is Hagar (Gal. 4:24);

and therefore Sinai, which by interpretation signifies 'his measure'; but the measure is of the law, whereas grace is superabounding. Sinai is also called 'wages,' and it befits the Jewish people, who chose to be justified by the wages of works rather than by the grace of faith. Therefore the Jerusalem that was under the law, with her children, was in bondage; but the Jerusalem that is above is free (Gal. 4:25-26). And therefore Sarah, who is called 'princess,' has liberty, because he is prince of himself who is just and whole. From the two covenants, then, come two peoples: one of the Jews, the other of the nations who believed in Christ. That Jewish one, which did not believe, is in bondage;

he himself is born according to the flesh, because he interpreted the divine Scripture according to the flesh and according to the letter, not according to the spirit. But he who is of the freewoman is born through the promise (Gal. 4:23), that is, one to whom the promise is by faith. He himself is the son of the Church, holding the liberty of grace, on whose account the Church says: 'Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac' (Gal. 4:30); and the Apostle says: 'So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free' (Gal. 4:31). This, then, is the solution: that what the Jew did not know, the faith of the Gentiles, poured into the minds of the nations by Paul the teacher, has resolved. Therefore their deeds are to us in a parable. But the Lord also said: 'I am become a parable unto them' (Ps. 68:12).

'They that sat in the gate were exercised against me' (Ps. 68:13); and He became a parable, because, as He says, 'Ye say: Physician, heal thyself' (Luke 4:23). He became a parable, because He rebuked those sitting in the gate; for at our going out we ought to be not idle, but exercised. And therefore it is written: 'See that your flight be not in winter or on the sabbath' (Matt. 24:20) — that is, not in idleness, but in business. The Jews, then, sat lazy, because they could not stand who knew not the courts of the true Jerusalem; for had they known, they would have sought that Jerusalem. These, therefore, wearied, sat in the gate. Nor did He only say 'they sat,' but also that they hated the Lord who reproved them in the gates.

For in the gate was He who was about to undergo the Passion of His own body, through which He would pass from the earth and return to heaven. He was in the gate, when He said: 'Walk while ye have the light' (John 12:35). What then means: 'I am become a parable unto them,' save that 'Christ is the end of the law' (Rom. 10:4), and His death loosed the riddles of the prophets, and those things which before were unknown to the Jews when they were prophesied, were afterwards made manifest by the effect of the Lord's Passion? He became a parable unto them, because He offered Himself as it were of no account, thrusting Himself upon them and not fleeing their seditions, and leading them on to the time of His own good pleasure, that He might die for all men, whereby by His blood the race of men might be cleansed. Likewise it is written in a parable:

'Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn' (Deut. 25:4). The Apostle solves this parable, saying: 'Is it for oxen that God careth? Or saith He it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes it was written' (1 Cor. 9:9-10). Who is it that plows, save he who plows in hope, that he may reap in the judgment of the Lord? And therefore, like good husbandmen, when our earth has been plowed in hope by bodily continence, let us sow not carnal things but spiritual, since from carnal things corruption is gathered, but from spiritual things eternal life is acquired. Let the deeds of our forefathers, then, be to us a type and a figure — the type, the law written in our hearts — so that in it there may be for us a certain figure of things to come, not the truth. The law, then, is as it were a figure to us; the Gospel, as it were the light and seal of truth.

In a parable, then, the Lord showed Himself to the Jews, but they did not understand the parable, because they did not receive the Physician who would heal the souls of those who labour and would release them from every sickness and inequality of distress. He became also a parable, because He took on the flesh which the Jews crucified, not understanding the spiritual parable. For to such a degree did they not understand, that, when they crucified the Author of life and beheld the Lord's saving flesh hung upon the cross, they wagged the head; for had they understood, they surely would not have insulted, but would have groaned. And yet that very wagging of the head turned out for them into a likeness, so that it signified not what they felt, but what the mysteries declared.

For they, after the custom of the crowd, insulting the Lord, wagged their heads, just as those who desire to insult the just, if perchance they see them wearied in this world, wag the head. This wagging of the head has a twofold meaning. For according to the authority of Scripture those who wag the head appear reprehensible, since Matthew says: 'They that passed by blasphemed the Lord Jesus, wagging their heads' (Matt. 27:39), and Mark: 'They that passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads' (Mark 15:29). But that those who pass by are esteemed reprehensible, the prophet himself teaches here, who says concerning the vineyard of Sabaoth: 'And all that pass by the way pluck her grapes' (Ps. 79:13). In short, the following verse too signifies this:

'The boar out of the wood hath laid it waste, and a solitary wild beast hath devoured it' (Ps. 79:14); and in what follows he says: 'And they that passed by said not: the blessing of the Lord be upon you' (cf. Ps. 128:8), because he who passes by and stands not in the courts of the Lord gives no blessing. Thus, then, the Jews wagged the head over the Lord Jesus, so as to pass by, who could not have a firm and solid footing of faith. But they wagged their own head, whose head Christ ought to have been, whom the perfidy of the Jews ought not to have dislodged and overthrown. But because they did not suffer themselves to be members of Christ, therefore Christ was not their head. Nor was the law their head either, because they were stripped even of the law by the people of the nations.

The Word of God was not their head, because they had lost the prophets and did not have the apostles. Let this be said concerning the reprehensible wagging of the head. Yet there is also a praiseworthy wagging of the head — reprehensible to the Jews, praiseworthy to the people of the nations. For what is the head, save that in which the senses are? 'The eyes of the wise man are in his head' (Eccles. 2:14), which eyes ought to be moved — that is, the senses of your mind — lest they grow sluggish through any torpor. Move therefore your prudence, move your wisdom, move your thoughts by the comparison of heavenly discourses and by the disputation of prophetic words, in such a way that you sin not in the covenant of God, but that your faith may be firm. For there are heretics who move their senses, yet so as to stir up perfidy, not faith.

But now we must speak more expressly concerning that very wagging of the head, which is set as a likeness of the peoples. Who is the head of the peoples, save Christ? For 'the head of the woman is the man, the head of the man is Christ' (1 Cor. 11:3); but the law also is the head of the intelligible woman. In short, under the law, as under a husband, is the Jewish people, because the law is called nomos in Greek, and therefore the synagogue is joined as to a male, but to a corporeal, not a spiritual law — that is, to the Jewish rite of the law, by whose bonds she is bound up, knowing not the sacraments of a lawful marriage. But if the law be dead — that is, the corporeal interpretation of the law — then the people, as it were with the former husband dead, lawfully marries a second husband who rose from the dead.

The Gospel also is the head of this woman. Whence certain men, interpreting mystically, would have it that, the Jewish rite having been put to death as a deceased brother, this woman should by the law marry the Gospel, because the law announced the Gospel. Therefore the prior law is the husband; afterward there are the nuptials of the second husband, that is, the sacraments of the Gospel; for as it were two marriages, so are the two covenants. The one marriage, the Old Testament, was loosed by the death of the former husband. And therefore that woman, to whom the law is dead, rightly enters a second marriage, that is, the New Testament. Thus to two brothers one woman is joined, for whom the former sins die and the better sacraments are afterward renewed. This the Apostle has plainly set forth for us, saying:

'For the woman that is under a husband is bound by the law to her husband while he liveth' (Rom. 7:2) — that is, to the law of her own husband, so that she owes him chastity. 'But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of the husband' (Rom. 7:2) — that is, so that she may marry whom she will, provided she marry with her husband dead; because, while the husband lives, she shall be called, he says, an adulteress, if she be joined to another man; but if her husband be dead, she is freed from the law of the husband, so that she is not an adulteress if she be with another man (Rom. 7:3). That this sacrament pertains also to Christ and the Church he has demonstrated elsewhere too, because 'this is a great sacrament' (Eph. 5:32). Here also he did not pass it over, saying: 'And so, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that ye should be another's, who rose from the dead' (Rom. 7:4).

How art thou become dead to the law, save that the shadow of the law dies to thee when thou drawest near to the heavenly sacraments? For neither oughtest thou to approach the Gospel otherwise than loosed from the impediments of the corporeal interpretation. Otherwise it is adultery to mingle false things with true; but it is spiritual chastity, if thy soul, stripped of all the impediments of erring knowledge, draws near to the Word of God without wrinkle. Therefore, as Christ is the head of the Church, so also the law is the head of the synagogue — that is, of those who are under the law — for whose sake the Apostle made himself to be under the law, though he was not under the law, that he might gain those who are under the law (1 Cor. 9:20). And again, the teacher of the Gentiles became as though he himself were without law, that he might win for Christ those who were without law (1 Cor. 9:21).

Yet he beautifully says that he was not without the law of God, but abode in the law of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 9:21). But the law was not the head of the synagogue from the beginning, because Christ was the head of the old synagogue which Moses founded and established. In short, hear him who says that it was founded by the word of the Lord: 'By faith,' he says, 'Moses, when he was grown, refused to be called the grandson of Pharaoh the king; for he chose rather to suffer affliction with the afflicted than to delight in things temporal, and esteemed greater riches and preferred the reproach of Christ to the treasures of Egypt; for he looked unto the reward of the promises of God' (Heb. 11:24-26), which is the grace of the resurrection.

But when, on account of the perfidy of the Jews, the Word of God died to the unbelieving and fell away from the breasts of the Jews, the spiritual understanding of the law died down, and the synagogue married the corporeal rite and the observance of perfidy. But that was not the sobriety of spiritual nuptials, but the adultery of chastity. Therefore the synagogue could not be free, who had married ill, who had not believed that the resurrection of Christ would be. Whence the Church well married him, for whom, according to the sacred dispensation, Christ died according to the flesh, that that Jewish soul, which before had been bound by sin, might through the death of Christ be released from the bond of its transgressions.

A woman, then, does not marry another man unless her husband be dead — that is, unless she be released from the bond of lawful love; but if her husband be dead, she is freed. To be sure, it was held by the law that a man should be joined to the wife of his own brother, if the husband had left him no seed (cf. Deut. 25:5). And this bond the interpretation of the letter knit more tightly than spiritual grace. In short, the brother of the deceased had it in his power that, if he were unwilling, he should not take his brother's wife to raise up seed to the deceased. Whence he was commanded to loose his shoe, that he might be stripped of the bond of that union which he had shown to be alien from his own favour. For thus it is written, that he loosed his shoe and gave it to his neighbour, saying:

'This shall be for a testimony in Israel.' And the kinsman said: 'Take and acquire it for thyself' (cf. Ruth 4:7-8); and he loosed his shoe. The bystanders also said: 'The Lord give the wife that cometh into thy house to be like Rachel and like Leah, who both built up the house of Israel, and wrought might in Ephratah' (cf. Ruth 4:11). But this, by the interpretation of the letter, bound the Jew; yet for the rest it was a figure, that Christ would come into the lands, who would raise up the seed of the deceased people by the merit of the brother, because it is said: 'I will declare thy name unto my brethren' (Ps. 21:23), and:

'Whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ according to the flesh' (Rom. 9:5) — or because the Gospel would work the restoration of the deceased law in posterity, where the tenor of the Gospel would raise up the seed which the law had not left. No wonder, then, if by a depraved interpretation they wagged their own head, so that they themselves cast away from themselves wisdom, the author of their own salvation; or at any rate, by wagging their own head, they became the cause of the wagging of the head not to a few, but to whole peoples. This wagging of the head came to pass, since 'their sound went out into all the earth' (Ps. 18:5), that all the earth might be the Lord's, and the kingdom of the Lord might be among the nations. Whence also in what follows he says: 'The Lord hath reigned, let the peoples be angry; who sittest upon the Cherubim, let the earth be moved' (Ps. 98:1).

Which Aquila beautifully interpreted, so that he said metastasis, that is, a transference which is from place to place, from Judea to the peoples of the nations. This can be plainly made manifest from that reading which is in the Gospel, how the law has been moved, the Scripture saying: 'The scribes and Pharisees sat upon the seat of Moses. All things therefore whatsoever they tell you, observe and do; but do not according to their works, for they say and do not. They bind heavy burdens and lay them upon men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with their finger. But all their works they do to be seen of men' (Matt. 23:2-5). What is 'the scribes sat,' save that the letter is written?

Whence also scribes are called grammateis in Greek, as following the interpretation of the letter, not the understanding of the spirit; but 'the letter killeth' (2 Cor. 3:6). Following, therefore, the killing letter, and resounding by that very name, they are scribes and Pharisees — that is, those who are divided from the unity of the truth; for 'Phares' is interpreted 'division.' But the Pharisees so divide the words of the law that they may resound and meditate upon them, yet do not see the spiritual mysteries and sacraments of the law. For if the law is spiritual, surely the precepts of the law are spiritual and its works are spiritual.

Saying, therefore, the things that Moses wrote, they bind heavy burdens with the corporeal things of the law — for those things are heavy which are contrary to the yoke of Christ — and through their erring teaching they lay heavy burdens upon the ears of their hearers, which they themselves will not so much as move, so as to stir them from the corporeal things of the law to the spiritual words of Scripture. For so is it to be understood, that they will not move them with their finger, that is, not even by the slightest point and moment do they transfer themselves to the spiritual understanding. There is also that which is written: 'But if I by the finger of God cast out demons' (Luke 11:20). What the finger is, Scripture itself interprets, which says in another book of the Gospel: 'that I by the Spirit of God cast out demons' (Matt. 12:28). The finger of God, then, is the Spirit of God;

for God is Spirit (John 4:24), and has nothing corporeal in His substance, but is wholly Spirit. By the Spirit of God, then, he casts out the demon who casts out by the finger of God. Whence also holy David says: 'For I shall behold thy heavens, the works of thy fingers' (Ps. 8:4) — that is: the heavens are the works of thy Spirit, as it is also written: 'By the word of the Lord were the heavens established, and all the host of them by the Spirit of His mouth' (Ps. 32:6). That we may, then, conclude our disputation: the scribes and Pharisees refer nothing to the inner man, who, as he himself is made to the image and likeness of God, so in those things which he thinks and meditates ought to think rather the things which are spiritual than those which are carnal.

They strive, therefore, to refer everything to that outer man, to that earthly man, and therefore all their works are such that they may be seen of men, not that they may please the Father who sees in secret (cf. Matt. 6:1, 4); for they fear to reveal their own works. This, then, is the wagging of the head which came to pass among the peoples, or, as Aquila and Symmachus said, 'among the nations'; for all the nations wagged their head, that they might interpret the law spiritually. Let no one think that he is to be saved according to the letter of the law, because the letter of the law has a curse, but the spirit brings a blessing. No one can be justified by the works of the law, because all who are under the letter are under a curse (cf. Gal. 3:10).

Let all, therefore, flee the curse of the law and take refuge in the grace of blessing, that they may have blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (cf. Eph. 1:3), who died for us, that faith might pass over to the Gentiles — who, though He was formerly the husband of the synagogue, neither forsook her nor redeemed us alone. For He did not forsake her, that the remnant might be saved; He redeemed us by choosing the peoples of the nations. This election of the Gentiles, then, is salvation to the Jews; for the remnant were saved not by their own works, but by the election of grace (cf. Rom. 11:5). It is therefore the grace of Christ which both redeemed us and gave life to the remnant. The wagging of the head came to pass for the Gentiles, but from this wagging the Jews bore the grace of no slight change, whose remnant were saved.

There follows: 'All the day long my shame is before me, and the confusion of my face hath covered me' (Ps. 43:16). What is it that this psalm is spoken now in the person of one, now in the person of many? For from the beginning it began from many, as it is: 'O God, we have heard with our ears' (Ps. 43:2), and the rest that follow; then it says: 'Thou thyself art my King and my God' (Ps. 43:5); again: 'In thee we will scatter our enemies' (Ps. 43:6); and afterward: 'I will not hope in my bow' (Ps. 43:7), and: 'In God we will be praised all the day long' (Ps. 43:9), and: 'All the day long my shame is before me' (Ps. 43:16). What does this change mean, which is frequently repeated in the psalms, as in the hundred and eighth psalm too he says: 'O God, hold not thy peace at my praise, for the mouth of the sinner and the mouth of the deceitful is opened upon me' (Ps. 108:1-2)? This is of one;

there follows of many: 'They have spoken against me with a deceitful tongue, and hatred for my love' (Ps. 108:2-3). Then of one: 'Set thou a sinner over him' (Ps. 108:6). This seems, in the hundred and eighth psalm, to refer one part to the Jewish people, another to Judas the betrayer; when said in the plural, to the people; when in the singular, to Judas. Here too we can say that, when said in the plural, it refers to the saints; when in the singular, to our Lord Jesus Christ — because it may be reckoned both that the prophet spoke on behalf of many, and that He spoke for Himself, and therefore he said: 'My shame is before me,' which is called entrope. Now entrope is when someone wishes to instil shame in another, that he may bend his purpose, as it is:

'Let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now' (Matt. 27:42-43). Beautifully, moreover, he says 'all the day long,' because the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ brought light to the world. The day, therefore, is the day of the incarnation, of which the same Lord says: 'Walk while ye have the light' (John 12:35), and: 'Abraham saw my day' (John 8:56). Therefore this shame has in it a confusion, whence Symmachus too says: 'All the day long my confusion is before me.' But what confusion is there of Christ, save the cross — that He hung naked for my sake? And well 'all the day long,' because from the time He was fixed to the cross until the ninth hour darkness came to pass, and after the ninth hour the light shone again until evening. This day is the first of three.