馬太福音註釋 第 1 章 第 3/6 段

'Departing,' he says, 'from your sin-loving disposition and your love of the flesh, and turning to deeds worthy of praise, draw near to me, that you may become partakers of the divine nature and sharers in the Holy Spirit.'

And he calls all, and not only those of Israel, as Maker and Lord of all; and by those who labour he means the Jews, who are unable to bear the yoke of the Law, and by those who are heavy laden the idolaters, who have been weighed down through the devil and are burdened by the multitude of their sins.

'You, then,' he says, 'O Jews, incline toward the truth and recognize me, your guardian and Master, and, drawing the gain of my provision from close at hand,

for I release you from the servitude under the Law, in which you endure much toil, being neither able easily to fulfil it and preparing for yourselves the greatest burden of sins, the more things it was fitting for you to keep while performing what accords with the Law.'

Light is the yoke of Christ, since it does not punish us as the Law does, demanding sinlessness and freedom from passion, but in simple words it holds the promise and the pattern of virtue.

For where nothing great and noble is done, they keep quiet; but where they see some being saved, they are the most burdensome of all;

so hostile are they to the salvation of men and so ignorant of the sacred writings.

The new covenant, foretold through Jeremiah, is beside the first covenant; there is every need, then, to make use of laws that are not the ancient ones but the new.

But the Pharisees, unwilling to perceive this, lie in wait for the holy apostles and say concerning them to Christ:

'See, we behold those trained under you opposing the precepts of the Law;

for while the Law commands that one rest on the Sabbath and touch no toil whatsoever, your disciples rub ears of grain with their hands.'

But you yourself tell me, O Pharisee: when you set your Sabbath table before yourself, do you not break the bread? Why then do you accuse others? And how does the Saviour make his defence concerning them?—The Pharisees, being impious, feigned piety, that they might destroy the pious.

Wherefore they attempted also to slander Christ and his disciples, seeing them made resplendent by the miracles.

'Since,' he says, 'it is not by the ruler of the demons that I cast out the demons, as he showed by saying that every kingdom divided against itself is dissolved and destroyed, it is therefore by the power of the Spirit that I cast them out; and on this account the kingdom of God has drawn near.'

He calls the devil 'strong' not as being such by nature, but he indicates his tyranny, which he has acquired from our own slothfulness;

and I plunder him, not allowing him to have men as worshippers, but persuading them to come to the knowledge of God.

How, then, will he become my ally against himself?—When someone sinned against a man, it was possible to entreat God on his behalf; but when men blasphemed against God, it was not permitted to entreat on their behalf.

Nevertheless, since the Son of God, seen as man, even though he was by nature God, was not altogether recognized by the foolish, he sometimes grants pardon to those who sin against him out of ignorance, but says that upon those who sin against the Spirit perpetual chastisement is brought.

By 'Spirit' he means the whole Godhead of the Trinity;

nevertheless pardon is given to those who repent, through the grace of the Spirit.

But Christ, wishing to show the magnitude of the sin, spoke thus, since there is no sin unforgivable with God for those who repent genuinely and worthily.

By 'Spirit' he means the whole Godhead of the Trinity;

nevertheless pardon is given to those who repent, being baptized through the grace of the Spirit.

But Christ, wishing to show the magnitude of the sin, said this;

for even if it is the custom with God often, or here only, to demand a reckoning from those who have sinned—yet not there too, according to 'The Lord will not take vengeance twice for the same thing,' that is, to be long-suffering in the present age, yet not from there also to grant pardon—but in the case of such persons he speaks of a chastisement that is indelible and unpardonable, both here and there.

When he says 'treasure,' he indicates the multitude of the things lying in the soul.

And lest some should say that men are by nature evil, he made this clear in the case of the Pharisees, that it is possible for one and the same man to become at one time good and at another evil, saying:

The good man speaks out of the abundance of his heart, and likewise also the evil man.

Even if the Lord said that, being evil, they cannot but speak evil things, he did not say this as though they were evil by nature, but as being mastered by wickedness through much folly.

And if the Lord also said that, being evil, they cannot speak good things, he did not say this as though they were evil by nature, but out of their own deliberate impulse.

'Since the signs that have been done,' they say, 'were of demons, which produce their illusions only upon the earth, do you yourself also produce from your own power a sign from heaven';

and this they said as though he were unable to do anything befitting God, being blind in their understanding;

for to open the eyes of the blind and to raise the dead and to rebuke the sea and the winds belongs to a God-befitting authority alone.

And they are evil, as expending the choicest part of their understanding not upon the love of God, but upon doing and saying something against God.

He called them 'adulterous,' declaring both their former and their present unbelief;

for they neither believed in the Father and they departed from Christ himself, who had wedded humanity and betrothed it according to the humanity, on account of what was said:

'And I will betroth you to myself for ever'; and they cleaved to Satan, in the manner of what is called spiritual fornication.

He shows himself again to the Father—the sign of Jonah the prophet.

So that, if Jonah is taken as a type of Christ, he is not taken in every respect—for instance, he was sent to preach to the Ninevites, but he sought to flee from the face of God and is seen shrinking back from the apostolic mission.

The Son too has been sent from God the Father, preaching to the nations, but he was not unwilling toward the ministry.

The prophet entreated his fellow-voyagers to cast him into the sea, and he was swallowed up by a sea-monster, then was cast forth after three days, and after this went to Nineveh and fulfilled his ministry, but was grieved not a little when God took pity on the Ninevites.

Christ too willingly submitted to death, remained in the heart of the earth, rose again, and after this went to Galilee and commanded that the beginning of the preaching to the nations be made; only he was not grieved to see those who had been called coming to knowledge and being saved.

Therefore, just as the bees, flying about the meadows and flowers, ever gather what is useful for the making of their honeycombs, so we too ought, searching out the God-inspired Scripture, ever to collect and lay up together what serves for the elucidation of the mysteries of Christ, and to render our discourse blameless.

For whenever someone, once set free from evils, does not become chastened, he will suffer far more grievous things than the former.

it finds no rest, that he might show that the plotting of the demons will assuredly and by necessity lay hold of such a man.

For by these two things such a man ought to have been brought to his senses: both by having suffered beforehand, and by having been delivered.

Indeed, a third thing is present as well: the threat of suffering worse things; and yet by none of these did they become better.

The evil spirit dwelt in them even when they were in bondage in Egypt, and while living according to the customs and laws of the Egyptians they were full of all uncleanness.

But when they had been redeemed through Moses and had received the Law as a tutor calling them toward the light of the true knowledge of God, the profane and unclean spirit was driven out.

But since they did not believe in Christ, the demon again took up its abode among them.

For it found their heart bare and empty of all piety, and as it were swept clean, and it settled in them.

For just as the Holy Spirit, whenever it sees a man's heart empty of all uncleanness, both lodges and dwells and rests upon it, so too the unclean spirit loves to make its dwelling in the souls of the lawless.

'I will open my mouth in parables'; and again:

'and the man who hides his words shall also be hidden, as by water borne away.'

For those who possessed a spark of intelligible light, but turned to senseless knowledge, even that small radiance which they have shall be extinguished—which is what the Jews suffered when they did not believe in Christ.

For they had a little illumination from the Law, guiding them toward the knowledge of God.

But since they acted impiously toward Christ, they were deprived even of that.

The Lord, however, showing more clearly what he meant when he said that 'to him who has it shall be given, but from him who has not, even what he has shall be taken away from him,' adds:

'For this reason I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.'

In men who are quick to learn and well disposed to receive the divine words, the Holy Spirit will make its dwelling, increasing in them the gifts of grace; but in those who possess a spark of light and have neglected it, it shall assuredly be extinguished, and even the very least that they formerly had shall be taken from them.

This is what the Jews suffered: having received light from the Law and not multiplying it, but rather, when the truth came, being dim-sighted toward it, they were deprived of what they had possessed.

The saying 'lest they should turn and I heal them' reveals an intense perversity; yet it is also the utterance of one who is drawing them and provoking them.

For he shows that if they should turn, he heals them.

For it is on account of their being saved that he speaks thus, since otherwise he ought to have spoken nothing at all, but to be silent; yet he does all things not for his own glory, but for their salvation.

He therefore blesses them as having heard the voice of the Son and having been deemed worthy of the sight of him, through whom and in whom they beheld intelligibly the nature of the Father and God—that of which the saints of old were deemed worthy, and had the fullest gladness in good things.

Let us consider, as in tangible matters, what it means to be 'along the way.'

Every path is somehow hard and unfruitful, because it lies beneath the feet of all, and none of the seeds is buried in it; rather they lie on the surface and are ready to be snatched up by whatever birds wish.

Accordingly, those who have within themselves a mind that is hard and, as it were, trodden down, do not receive the divine seed, but have become a road trampled by the unclean spirits.

For these are the birds of heaven.

By 'heaven' here we understand the air, in which the spirits of wickedness turn about, by whom the good seed is snatched away and destroyed.

And who are those upon the rock? There are some who hold the faith within themselves without careful inquiry, but do not send their mind down into the searching examination of the mystery.

These have a light and rootless piety toward God.

And if the affairs of Christians are carried along by a fair wind, with no trial storming against them, then those men barely preserve the faith within themselves; but when persecution stirs up trouble, they have a soul unwilling for the fight.

Matthew wrote 'the evil one,' Mark 'Satan,' and Luke 'the devil.'

It is not the same thing to be 'beside the way' and 'in the way'; and we have need of the distinction, because of the words 'I am the way.'

Yet the three wrote 'beside the way.'

And most gracefully Matthew and Mark say that the word was sown 'on rocky places,' not 'on rock.'

Concerning the whole of 'beside the way,' it is said 'of one who does not understand.'

But concerning the good ground: 'This is he who hears the word and understands it.'

Perhaps, then, those on the rocky places and those among the thorns are midway between the uncomprehending and the understanding.

And this is an exhortation to take care for understanding.

For if the seed is not snatched away from the one who understands, one must take up understanding and cover the seed in the ground—that is, in the memory—so that it may take root and not, being found bare, be snatched away by the spirits of wickedness.

That the calling through Christ has become universal, he himself will confirm, saying plainly that the net of the gospel proclamations gathers from every kind.

Those whose occupation is fishing let down the net without discrimination, but whatever is caught in the meshes, this they draw wholly and altogether to land; so too the power of the proclamation and the marvelous and intricate teaching of the sacred lessons, which the good fishermen, the apostles, wove together, draws from every kind and gathers to God.

And it gathers up until the appointed time, which shall be fulfilled at the season of the consummation, when those who have been caught in the net, being drawn out of this life, the angels of God appointed over this task shall make the separation of all, setting apart the wicked from the midst of the righteous.

A scribe is one who, through diligent reading of the Scriptures, both of the Old and the New, has laid up for himself a treasure of knowledge.

Therefore he blesses those who have brought together in themselves both legal and evangelical instruction, so as to bring out of the treasure things new and old.

These he likens also to a scribe, just as he says elsewhere:

'I send you wise men and scribes.'

You see how he does not cast out the old—by which the soul is adorned.

But now he also filled the baskets, and rather to each one of the disciples was given, as a reward for the ministry, that by which it is signified that those who minister shall have a great reward.

Since the other evangelist too calls the loaves barley loaves, the aim of the contemplation looks to this:

Barley is fodder for beasts, which is the contemplation given through Moses, offered to the more irrational.

And for this reason we say the loaves are five, on account of the fivefold nature of the writing of Moses; and the fishes two, by which is indicated the twofold writing of the fishermen, both apostolic and evangelical.

Let us examine carefully what 'send them away' means.

Some of those following Christ, being held by evil spirits, entreated to be delivered; others sought the removal of other infirmities.

So then the disciples, knowing that with a mere nod he accomplishes for the suffering what they desire, say 'send them away'—not that they themselves were rather weary, as though the time had passed, but holding fast to their love for the crowds, and as it were already practicing the pastoral art and beginning to care for the peoples.

Fulfilling the mystery of the divine economy, the Savior looks up to heaven.

For being God by nature he took the form of a servant, and through the hands of the disciples he gives the food to the crowds, hinting at the nearness of the saints to God.

Therefore those who are not such stand outside of him.

That he might in every way be recognized as God by nature, he multiplies the small amount, and looks up to heaven as though asking the blessing from above.

And he did this too dispensationally, for our sake.

For he himself is the one who fills all things, the blessing from above and from the Father.

But that we might learn that, when beginning a meal and about to break bread, we ought to offer it to God, placing it as it were upon upturned hands, and to bring down the blessing from above upon it—this became for us dispensationally a beginning and a pattern and a way of the practice.

That the fragments of the loaves abounded, when no small multitude of men had been fully satisfied, would be a clear assurance—if the matter of hospitality has a rich recompense from God.

And it is possible to see the new things coinciding with the more ancient miracles, and being the operations of one and the same power.

He rained down the manna in the wilderness for those of Israel; but behold, again in the wilderness he has abundantly supplied those in want of food, as it were sending it down from heaven.

For to multiply the small amount and, as it were out of nothing, to nourish so great a multitude would not be unlike the first sign.

spiritual, able both to sow seed and to teach the rest, and to measure out to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

He prays not as one in need, but as a high priest making supplications on our behalf.

'until evening,' that he might show that one ought not to be easily wearied concerning this, but to have patience and eagerness.

And he teaches this also: that, when there is need, we ought to speak things of common benefit to those we meet, and after such discourse and teaching to proceed to prayer.

God prays not as being in need of anything, but as a high priest making supplications on our behalf—and yet, according to what he is understood to be and is, God by nature, he himself supplies to the saints their requests.

And he prays until evening, that he might show that one ought not to be easily wearied concerning it, but to display patience and long-suffering.

He, then, went up there and prayed.

By saying 'Take courage,' He demands faith, through which each one who sincerely believes in Christ is saved;

and by adding 'It is I,' He dispels all fear;

'for I,' He says, 'am the One able to do all things.'

Certain of the Jews came forward and were eager to consecrate their own souls to God, in a manner that was still in figure and shadow, yet according to the Law, confessing the honors they owed to those who had been allotted the priesthood and who ministered at the divine altar; but there were some who indeed longed for such glory — I mean, to be counted holy and sacred and a divine offering — yet, being cut short of the desire by scarcity of money, were held back.

And when the Pharisees and scribes urged them that they ought to do this — for these men were exceedingly greedy for money — they put forward as a plea their reverence toward their parents, and said truthfully that they could scarcely provide the necessities of life for themselves and for them.

But those men dared to persuade them to reckon money as nothing for God's sake, and taught that, even if the parents who had begotten them should come seeking the customary help from them, they ought to say to their father or mother that 'it is a gift' — namely, 'whatever you might have profited from me,' that is, 'whatever you might receive from me' — 'know that you are harming a divine offering and laying hands upon sacred money;'

'for I have dedicated myself, and have promised myself to God as a gift.'

But the parents, fearing the harm that comes from sacrilege and dreading the laws laid down concerning such matters, persevered in lamentation, and protested that piety toward God had become for them an occasion of famine, crying out that even the divine commandment was, in some way, wronging them in matters most vital.

'Why then,' He says, 'have you made void the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?' For it was necessary — necessary — to honor those who begot us, and not, for the sake of piety toward God, to abolish the law concerning them.

Therefore neither must the things befitting God be neglected on account of human concerns, nor again must human beings be wholly neglected for God's sake; but rather, while assigning the pre-eminence of love to the Ruler of all — that is, to God — we should straightway convey also to the ministers of our birth, as in a second and neighboring rank, the honors most fitting to them.

While God commands to honor one's parents and has attached danger to those who transgress, you command children not to honor their parents — unless perhaps the children should wish to do so out of generosity — but if they ask you for anything, to say to them, 'Whatever you might receive from me, know that you are robbing it from God;

for I have promised to give it as a sacrifice.'

And God must indeed be honored above parents; yet — I say — the honor toward parents must also be maintained and rendered;

for they ought not to sin against their own parents under the pretext of seeming to offer gifts to God.

A planting not from God is everything that is outside of God, which shall also be rooted up;

he who has been shaped by this is blind.

The Lord calls them without understanding, since they occupy themselves about the body, like the Pharisees, and do not yet cross over to the inner man.

'Foods, then,' He says, 'bring fullness to the body, but do not touch the heart;'

and that which does not touch the heart cannot defile the true man, nor render him unclean.

And by saying 'Let it be to you as you will,' He spoke as a king, accomplishing the matter not by prayer, but by the authority that befits God, proper to Him.

The word being spoken, the deed does not delay;

for it is God who speaks, and the utterance is effectual, and the power is everywhere.

They had not yet learned the dignity of the Lord, that He is God, but supposed Him to be a mere man;

wherefore they also sent up the glory to the God of Israel.

And from many things Christ shows that He is God;

and no less does He establish this also from feeding the crowd in the wilderness, working the sign of the loaves as it were even unwillingly, on account of necessity and the scarcity of provision — a sign He would not have worked in a city, where there is abundance of things for sale;

yet, though able to strengthen them by a word, He does not do this because it is invisible;

but He performed the sign of the loaves as one plainly displaying His glory that befits God.

Peter did not say, 'You are a Christ' or 'a son of God,' but 'the Christ, the Son of God';

not 'You are a Christ or a son of God,' but 'the Christ, the Son of God';

for many are christs by grace and possess the dignity of adoption, but there is one alone who is by nature the Son of God.

Therefore, with the definite article, he said 'the Christ, the Son of God.'

And by calling Him Son of the living God, he shows that He Himself was life, and that death does not have dominion over Him.

For even though the flesh for a little while grew weak in dying, yet it rose again, since the Word that was in it could not be held under the bonds of death.

Just as those who, by the addition of burning material, raise the flame to something greater, so also those who were eager to demolish the Church of Christ, through persecution advanced it to greater glory and power.

'But if,' He says, 'they do not prevail against the Church' — then He also speaks of another honor.

Observe how He declares Himself Lord, all at once, of heaven and earth;

for He promises things beyond our nature — nay, even beyond the angelic order, and such as it befits to bestow only upon the nature and glory that is highest of all;

for first He says that the Church is His own — although the Sacred Scriptures consecrate it rather to God and to no other — a Church having no spot or wrinkle, which indeed He promises also to establish, granting to it that it cannot be shaken, inasmuch as He Himself is Lord of the powers; and He sets Peter over it as its shepherd.

'And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens.'

This utterance neither an angel nor any other rational power is able to speak; rather it befits God, who rules over all things and has authority over both earth and heaven.

The time of the gift looks to that of the resurrection, in which He said:

'If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven;

if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.'

But the gift of faith, given to all, is fitting for all;

wherefore we understand the faith to be common to all the apostles, and not of Peter alone.

That He is Jesus Christ is shown through this;

for He says that the things of the divine economy, which had to be perfectly preached, would come to pass after this — namely that Christ crucified should be attested by those able to bear witness; and since it was not fitting that a prophet should perish outside Jerusalem, a perishing bearing an analogy to 'he who loses his own soul shall find it,' therefore He goes up to Jerusalem.

having considered that they would fall into infirmities and something of the sort, and would say:

How will anyone deny himself? Or how, having lost his own soul, will he find it? And what is the reward, equal in honor, for those who suffer this? For this reason, in order to remove them from such reasonings and, as it were, to forge them anew unto manly courage by begetting in them a longing for the glory that shall be theirs, He says:

'There are some of those standing here,' and what follows, hinting at Peter and the sons of Zebedee;

for these were taken along at the Transfiguration, which He calls a kingdom, as manifesting the ineffable character of His authority and the unvarying character of His genuine kinship with the Father;

and in it He also intimated the dignity and the awe-inspiring prelude of the Second Coming, presenting this Transfiguration as, so to speak, a confirmation of that.

For He will come in the glory of God the Father, not in the lowliness that is according to us.

But of those whose glory is one, much more is their essence one.

He goes up onto the mountain, showing that the lowly mind cannot become fit for contemplation, but rather one that has withdrawn apart and is free from the cares of life, in stillness.

And we say that the Transfiguration took place, not indeed by the body changing its human form, but by a certain light-like glory enveloping it;

for while the body remained in its form, its features were colored over unto something more glorious by a light-like hue.

And by reason of extreme fear the disciples fall down, and the Savior raises them up, showing that unless He had become incarnate and mediated between God and men and strengthened their nature, one could not have borne to hear the voice of God.

For before the Passion and resurrection of the Savior, and the abolition of death and of the corruption of our bodies, it was impossible for Peter to be together with Christ and to long for the tabernacles that are in heaven;

for these things must come to pass after the Savior's resurrection and ascension into heaven.

He has commanded that Him we should hear, since it is no longer God the Father's will that we be persuaded by the letters of the Law, nor even by the shadowy sketches in figure, but rather that we follow what has been enjoined upon us through the Savior — Moses and the prophets not being thrust out;

for they stood beside Him and were conversing with Him, so that their standing beside Him might signify to us the servant's ministry, but their conversing together the intimacy with Christ and, as it were, the agreement of testimony.

The voice of God the Father is indeed noble and worthy of all admiration, yet the disciples, already gripped by unmixed dread, fall down, so that again through this too we may learn how most necessary for those on earth has been shown to be the mediation of our Savior, understood, that is, according to the mode of the Incarnation;

for unless He had become as we are, who among us could have endured God assailing us from above and displaying His ineffable glory, which is perhaps bearable to none of created beings?

for the blessed Paul also said that He dwells in unapproachable light;

and before this there was borne such a voice at the Jordan, and a crowd was present.

And it was necessary that the father of the demoniac should go away grieved, not having obtained the object of his ambition, inasmuch as he had not made his approach blameless, but had cried out against the choir of the apostles and said that they were unable to rebuke the demon — nay rather, that he was slandering the Lord of the powers Himself;

for he who says that those who received authority from Christ to cast them out were too weak for the operation against unclean spirits, accuses rather the grace, not those who received it.

For these reasons, then, that unbelieving father, and on this account perverse, ought to have been sent away empty.