復活節講道集 第 1 章 第 4/28 段

for you cannot rightly deny it, nor banish from equal kinship with you Paul, seeing that he was a Hebrew;

for I hear him himself saying:

"For I too am an Israelite, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee according to the law." But since it somehow seems difficult to you for us to recall apostolic sayings and to attempt to refute your ill will, I shall let this pass for now;

though I am able to set before you countless sayings spoken through Moses and the prophets, I will ask but one brief question and then depart.

Come then, my good friend, tell me more plainly, passing over the deeper considerations of these questions:

If you do not expect the law to be truly transformed, but suppose it will remain forever just as it is, with no change ever to follow, what then prevents you from still keeping to the same observances? And for what reason do you so slight the worship due to God, as to have departed from your ancestral customs, while holding in no esteem at all what was most honored among your fathers? Where, tell me, is the temple kept among you? Where are the altars within it, and the bringing of sacrificial offerings? Where should one seek the inspectors of unblemished victims -- I mean the ranks of priestly registers, and the Levitical orders? And the vestments of the high priest, and his robe of many colors -- where in turn have these gone from among you? And the bells hanging from the fringes -- why have they fallen silent, with no one able to say why? And that stone, whose very name was made from the thing it did, which by the changing of its colors conveys foreknowledge of things to come, according to the will of God --

And tell me, for what reason do you yourself no longer offer the sacrifices required by the law? If you say that this neglect is deliberate on your part, you stand convicted as a transgressor of the law, and so I shall use you yourself as witness against you in this indictment, needing no others for this purpose;

But if you hold this cessation to be against your will, and confess yourself that you are restrained by some bond of necessity, then take care henceforth lest you fall under the charge of unwillingness itself, by carrying your disobedience so far.

For who is so powerful as to subject to a law of necessity one who is helped by God? For I know well that you pride yourself greatly on this too -- yet there is no such one.

It is, then, divine wrath -- for this alone remains as the explanation -- which, having visited those of Israel, has left the nation destitute of all good cheer, no longer permitting them to boast in the law, but exacting from those who committed outrage against Christ the penalty for their impiety toward him.

And God, together with grace, changed the manner of worship for the better.

And now I will also show you this very time of your cessation, proclaimed aloud through the prophets.

For indeed I suppose that you are ashamed of your misfortunes, and try to conceal what you naturally know well enough, and out of shame at not wishing to appear utterly cast off by God, you feign ignorance.

Concerning such things, then, the blessed prophet Hosea says:

"For many days the children of Israel shall sit without a king or a ruler, without a sacrifice or an altar, without a priesthood or sacred oracles." Who will deny, from your own books, that this is not so, and will drive himself to such shamelessness as to dare contradict what is plain for all to see? That could never be.

For the fulfillment of what has been spoken is evident even to the casual observer.

But you yourself, perhaps, will again shake your head in refusal, and honoring your ingrained disobedience, will show that you are no different in perception from lifeless stones.

For the prophet speaks truly when he says, "All the house of Israel are contentious and hard-hearted." And God, too, speaks altogether truly, describing your shamelessness through one of the saints:

"Your forehead is bronze." And the Savior himself also indicts the magnitude of your disobedience, saying:

"All day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people." And tell me, what is the reason for so prolonged a disobedience? Did you not know, having been taught by the divine Scripture, the one owed to you by promise? Were you ignorant that the Word of God was about to come and dwell among you? Did you not even hear the prophet Zechariah saying:

"Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come, and I will dwell in your midst, says the Lord"? How, then, ought you not to have rejoiced, and to have been filled with every gladness, at the announcement through the saints of so glorious a coming of Christ our Savior? For since the devil, assailing all of human nature, so to speak, like a thunderbolt, had enslaved it, and there was no longer anyone untouched by his greed, but all were in sins, taking no account of their shame, and priding themselves on all their wicked deeds as though on great glories (for each one's aim was to outdo, in wickedness, both the one who had already gone before and the one expected to come after, and our glory was in our shame, as Paul says), it was necessary that the Maker of all things, searching out many means of healing, should seek by every way to save the race of mankind.

And prophets were raised up from time to time, introducing to all the things that lead to salvation.

But since there was no one obeying them, they called upon him from heaven, the King of all, the Word of God, saying at one time:

"Lord, incline your ear and come down"; and at another time crying out:

"Send forth your light and your truth." The only-begotten Word of God, then, came to dwell among us -- the most exact character of the Father's essence -- taking on our likeness, and having become man, was seen upon the earth, and lived among men, just as one of the wise men said.

And seeing that human nature had run headlong into utter ruin, and was capable of working none of the things that are good, he did not grant the grace of righteousness on the basis of works, but bestowing it upon the one who believes, he called all to salvation;

then, though it was fitting, on account of such great loving-kindness and all his other benefits, to recognize him and to worship the Word of God who became man for our sake, the utterly audacious Jewish peoples did the very opposite: they nailed him to the cross, and heaping upon him every kind of malice together with dishonor, delivered him over to death.

But since, as the divine Scripture says, it was not possible for him to be held fast by death, he rose again on the third day, having also said to the spirits in Hades:

"Come out"; and having despoiled the devil of all his wealth,

he also destroyed the dominion of death, placing within us the Holy Spirit as a pledge of the hope to come and a guarantee of the good things awaited, while he himself, appearing in the form of man, offered himself for us to the Father as, so to speak, a firstfruit of paradise's fruits.

For he came to dwell among us, that he might make man a citizen of heaven, and join him to the choirs there.

In view of all this, beloved, even though the Jews are unwilling, how is it not necessary for us to render great thanksgivings, and to offer to the God who has so honored us and loved us, as a kind of just recompense, uprightness in our deeds, mutual love, hospitality, charity, brotherly love, and -- the greatest remedy for sins among these -- mercy toward those in bonds? For we must remember those who are bound, as though bound together with them;

and those who are ill-treated, as being ourselves also in the body.

Then indeed, then shall we truly keep the feast, and shall observe fasting, the mother of all good things, in the manner that is proper -- beginning the holy Forty Days from the twenty-sixth of the month of Mechir;

and the week of the saving Passover from the new moon of the month of Pharmouthi;

and celebrating the feast on the following dawning Lord's Day, the seventh of the same month of Pharmouthi;

then joining to it in turn the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost, and believing that together with the saints we shall receive the promises in the heavens, in Christ Jesus our Lord, unto the ages.

"A time for every matter," says the divine Scripture;

and it seems to me that this saying has most excellently considered the nature of things.

For nothing is known to grieve nature so much as missing the time proper to what is needed.

Since, then, no one will dispute that this is a bad thing, and anyone who has sense will altogether agree, it is necessary to hold in esteem the opposite, which is of better repute -- I mean, the time that is fitting for all things, and that which is proper to each particular matter.

The present time, then, is a time of feast, and it is once more necessary to obey the divine Scripture:

"Blow the trumpet at the new moon,"

"on the appointed day of your feast." What time, then, could shine forth for us more notable than the present? What is so illustrious as our all-glorious feast, which reveals a truly new moon indeed, showing forth the new age brought to us by the coming of our Savior;

in which all things have become new, and the old things have passed away, as Paul says. Let the trumpet of the Church, then, sound aloud, and let it breathe forth again for us, rejoicing, its yearly proclamation.

Will it, then, imitate those trumpets sounded in the camps? Does it signal to us that the enemy's ranks are already at hand, that the threat of battle and the fear of death is being proclaimed all around, and that we must as quickly as possible raise the weapons of war against those advancing upon us? By no means.

I know that my trumpet has a different sound.

It will proclaim none of these things;

but rather a song of victory, most delightful to those who hear it.

Death, who refused to be conquered, has been conquered;

death, that unconquerable affliction, has been dissolved.

But Hades, diseased with utter insatiability, and having admitted no satiety at all in regard to the dead, was taught, even unwillingly, what it had not consented to learn in mind

before -- that which it had not previously endured to accept.

For it no longer strives to remain master over those who continue to fall into it; rather, it has already vomited forth even those it had once seized, submitting to a fair desolation by the power of our Savior;

For he came and said to those in bonds, "Come out."

and to those in darkness, 'Be uncovered'; and having preached to the spirits in Hades, who once were disobedient, he has ascended victorious,

having raised his own temple as a kind of firstfruits of our hope, and having opened up for nature the way of revival from the dead, and having in addition to these things wrought other good things for us.

In these things, beloved, are for us the bright watchwords of the feast;

upon these things, I think, we ought to leap for joy and say:

Therefore also whole populaces, whenever cities keep festivals, one might see those in them adorned with bright flowers, eagerly going to a more splendid table, and taking delight in the losses incurred for the belly's sake rather than being pained by them.

But for us, the things of the festal assembly do not come about by these means, nor is it something dear and greatly desired for us to have made use of the customs performed for the populace.

But our garment is the purest of all things, Christ;

and our table is not one weighed down with the costliness of dainties and laboring in travail with prodigal extravagance, but rather that beloved table to which Wisdom calls us, crying aloud:

'Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mixed for you.' For to fill the belly with earthly foods — provided one does not merely yield to the necessities of nature, nor is overcome by the body's unavoidable needs, only so much as is good — but rather to be poured out toward pleasure and to look to it, this is nothing else than to emulate the nature of irrational beasts, which make their boast in the mere abundance of food alone, and rejoice all the more precisely when, with insatiable desires, they far exceed what suffices, until satiety itself becomes a grief.

But to love divine teachings, and to consider the words of wisdom a splendid banquet — this every right-minded person will call a most worthy and admirable thing, and truly fitting for a rational human being made according to the image of his Creator.

But I perceive that I have consigned to silence that which is most especially dear to those who keep festival:

having crowned the whole chamber with lamps, they drive away by the resulting radiance the gloom that comes from darkness.

But for us again, it is not a hand-made light, so to speak, nor lamps smiling with a modest flame, that drives away the darkness, but Christ himself, who says:

'I am the light of the world.' This very thing the blessed Isaiah also foretold would come to us, crying aloud:

'Be enlightened, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for your light has come.' For the grace of the Savior has come upon us, flashing round about the whole universe after the manner of light,

and dissolving the gloomy cloud of ignorance,

which the devil, having stretched over us like a roof, had thereby subdued, so to speak, all that lies beneath the sun,

permitting no one to lift up the eye of a pure heart, nor from the beauty present in created things to measure out proportionately the power of him who made them;

for from this the erring ones might have found no small benefit.

But so that they might not, having gained anything of what appears to contribute toward salvation, recover their senses into the freedom owed to their nature, he blinded their minds, just as Paul says, 'so that the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ should not shine forth.'

But the wretch was disappointed of his hope.

For he who was calling toward salvation was greater.

So then the great multitude of the nations was saved, and though late, yet nevertheless it came to know its Creator.

'How can you say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? In vain has the lying pen of the scribes been made; the poor were put to shame, they were dismayed and taken captive.'

'What wisdom is in them, since they have rejected the word of the Lord?' For indeed they truly rejected the only-begotten Word of God; but he has become the head of the corner, even though they should not wish it.

'The sons are senseless, and without understanding.' Then how will what has been said concerning them not appear true to everyone? And how are they not without understanding and out of their minds, who, though it was possible for them to be instructed in the mystery of piety from the prophetic readings, and though it was equally possible for them to be made wise about it continually through the Mosaic writings, are found to have grown so negligent of their own salvation that they do not even match the zeal of the nations in this regard? And indeed God says somewhere something of this sort to them:

'I have set watchmen over you, and I said:'

'Hear, O earth: behold, I am bringing evils upon this people, the fruit of their own fare, because they did not heed my law, and they rejected my word.' For indeed they truly rejected the word of God, neither recognizing that it was fitting to follow the preachings of the holy apostles, nor thinking it necessary to give heed to the more ancient books either.

For surely it was necessary, if being profited was truly a matter of earnest concern to them, not to allow their mind to be deceived, being puffed up toward arrogance by the mere name of learning in the law;

nor, out of shame at seeming to fall short of exactness, to reap the loss that comes from it, but rather to examine the things spoken concerning the Savior through the holy ones, or the things fashioned by others as in figure and types.

For one might see many images of things in the oracles of the Spirit that bear a most vivid depiction of the coming of our Savior.

But already there arise in my mind various modes of contemplation, and as I stir up the memory of holy Scripture, a myriad swarm of thoughts takes up residence within me.

Nevertheless, I think it necessary to make the beginning of my discourse from the more ancient matters,

and to proceed already by means of those things through which our hearers will be made more ready to believe.

Let us then examine, if it seems good, the manner of life itself, how and amid what circumstances the blessed Abraham lived;

and let there also be searched out by me, in addition to these things, the thrice-longed-for birth and conception of Isaac.

For you will see in these things, O Jew, the mystery concerning our Savior fashioned, as it were, in bronze — beautifully and skillfully — even, so to speak, at the very root of the race.

But so that I may not seem to be plausibly deceiving you, having nothing of the truth to say, I will set before you the very exposition given through Moses, and I will unfold the narrative clearly;

for thus you will more readily understand from us.

Sarah, then, was joined in marriage according to the law to the forefather of the race.

He also had a maidservant — I mean the Egyptian woman, Hagar by name.

But the free woman, of free parents, was without experience of childbirth and birth-pangs;

and seeing no fruit of her own womb, and then being drawn by nature's most piercing longing toward love of children, she was weighed down exceedingly heavily with despondency.

And that which most of all persuaded one to share in her suffering was this:

For Abraham had already advanced to the number of eighty years;

at which age it was reasonable that the warm impulse of nature toward begetting children had by now grown cold in him.

And she, bewailing her lack of children, and wailing exceedingly greatly over the barrenness of her womb, had come to the very extremity of her age.

Devising, then, a way to blunt the longings for children and the sting rooted in nature itself, she urged her husband — since she had not been deemed worthy of legitimate children — to have relations with her maidservant in the manner of marriage, so that he might at least be seen as father of an illegitimate child.

And thus the words of the divine Scripture read:

'Now Sarah, Abraham's wife, bore him no children; but he had an Egyptian maidservant, whose name was Hagar.'

'And Sarah said to Abraham:'

'Behold, the Lord has shut me up so that I cannot bear children; go in to your maidservant, that you may have children by her.' And let no one suppose that the patriarch was being unreasonably incited toward the love of pleasure, or otherwise being spurred on to incontinence, by Sarah's words.

This was not her intention — far from it.

But blaming herself, as I said, as unfit for the ability to bear children, she considered it a grievous and heavy thing if that so great and righteous head should not obtain offspring, even if only from another woman.

Such, then, was Sarah's disposition toward her husband;

and indeed the plan was carried through to completion for the patriarch;

and a son was born to him by the Egyptian woman, an illegitimate son, Ishmael.

At this the free woman's longings went astray.

For she thought she would rejoice greatly over a legitimate birth-pang, but nevertheless, drinking deep of the more bitter grief over her own inability to bear children, she was, as though drunk with this passion, thereafter downcast.

...her, who was exceedingly gloomy at what had happened;

but her who had long been barren and without experience of childbirth, and who through length of time had had her capacity to bear children taken away, he immediately made fit for easy childbirth and suited for the bringing forth of a child.

'Sarai your wife — her name shall no longer be called Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.'

'And I will bless her, and I will give you a child by her, and I will bless him.'

'And he shall become nations, and kings of nations shall come forth from him.'

'And Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his mind, saying:'

'Shall a son be born to a man who is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?' And God said to Abraham:

'Yes, behold, Sarah your wife shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Isaac.'

'And I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.' This, then, was the promise made to Abraham, a true one.

But when what had been announced was brought to fulfillment, and the barren woman learned how to bear children, and the little child was now before their eyes and appeared to be the heir of his father's house, then the maidservant, being now superfluous, was driven away from the household of her master — she who had Ishmael as her illegitimate son by Abraham.

But as she was fleeing, and had already gotten as far as possible from her home, an angel from heaven called out to her, saying:

Hagar, maidservant of Sarah, where are you going? And she said in response:

I am fleeing from the presence of Sarah my mistress.

Then again the angel said to her:

Return to your mistress, and humble yourself under her hands. Now the narrative required lengthier accounts, yet nevertheless it has been summed up for us in these words.

It remains for us henceforth to show forth the image of our Savior in this.

For it is precisely for this reason that this lengthy discourse has been carried through to us.

The divinely-inspired Paul, then, condensing the details of the narrative into a few words, and gathering the sum of the lengthy accounts into a single contemplation, transformed the unadorned aspect of the matter into a most graceful image of the realities.

For thus he writes to certain people:

Do you not heed the law?

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the maidservant, and one by the free woman.

But the one by the maidservant was born according to the flesh;

while the one by the free woman was born through promise.

These things are spoken as an allegory;

for one is from Mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, and this is Hagar;

and Sinai is a mountain in Arabia, and corresponds to the Jerusalem that now is;

for she is in bondage with her children.

But the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother. Now I, beloved, although I have every reason—and quite rightly—to marvel exceedingly at the power of this allegory, nevertheless suppose that, since the divine Scripture is vast, it is necessary also to discover further meanings alongside what has been rightly said;

not as though I had something finer to say (for may I never fall into such madness as to suppose I could conceive of something greater or better than what the herald of the truth has indicated), but since there is nothing to prevent our being exercised in this, come then, let us also bring in more natural meanings for these contemplations, and, as it were adorning the image with manifold colors, let us proceed by the same features, in a varied way, toward that same form of the allegory.

by the female indicating fruitfulness, and by old age, antiquity.

For human nature is most ancient and most fruitful, having lived together with a long age;

yet as though shut up as in a single bridal chamber beneath this firmament.

For this free nature of humanity—for so it was made by God, having received by lot the rule over all things—running along, as it were, hand in hand with time as it drove onward, and having no legitimate, God-given child, gloried instead, as it were, in alien and illegitimate children, I mean those of the Egyptian woman, that is, of her who is darkened;

for Egypt is interpreted 'darkness.'

let us say, the sages of old, begotten, as it were, from the loins of the error that travailed with them, and they were sons of this age;

for so the Savior also called them:

yet illegitimate nonetheless, and reared unto servitude;

for they were enslaved to gods that are not gods by nature.

But when, to time now grown old and already running down to its end, the Son of promise was given, then the free nature of humanity—which in many respects was idle and useless, reckoned as equal to nothing, and for this reason called barren and childless—brought forth the noble infant, the one, I say, chosen out from among myriads;

and thenceforth appeared the heir, our Lord Jesus Christ;

and the maidservant, together with her children, is cast out.

For where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? For God has made foolish the wisdom of the world, as Paul says.

Yet the one from the free woman inherits.

The Father in heaven says somewhere to the Son:

'Ask of me,' he says, 'and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession.' But a certain divine goodness did not permit the maidservant, once cast out, to perish along with her own children.

Rather, he turns her back, and commands her to be humbled under the hands of the free woman.

'Return,' he says, 'to your mistress, and humble yourself under her hands.' For the falsely-named wisdom of the world, which formerly mocked the marriages of the free, now serves the nobility of the children of God, ministering to divine contemplations through the most fitting arrangement of words.

The birth of Isaac according to promise, then, signifies nothing other than Christ, who was born at the consummation of the ages.

But let no one be vexed if not every part of the narrative has been fitted to the truth.

For the modes of allegory apply only to what is admissible.

Since indeed the righteous man is often likened to a sheep, on account of the gentleness inherent in that animal;

but to say that he bears horns, or otherwise stands upon cloven hooves, would be altogether implausible.

We must, then, proceed to the demonstration of the matters before us.

For I think it necessary that Christ appear as being formed, as it were through a type, in the birth of Isaac.

But lest I should seem to have made use of certain superfluous and over-elaborate words, and to be attempting to embellish the truth from every side with sophistry, merely stringing verses together and fashioning faded images out of idle notions, come then, let us again establish from the divine Scripture itself that what I say is true.

For God made the promise to Abraham—the one concerning Isaac, I mean—for no other reason than for the sake alone of the coming of our Savior, upon whom also the fulfillment of the blessing runs its course.

I will set before you the divine oracle itself, which declares as follows:

'I will bless her,' God says concerning Sarah, 'and I will give you from her a son, and I will bless him, and he shall become nations, and kings of nations shall come forth from him.' And again:

'I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.' But it is surely evident to everyone that he became the father of one son [I mean

of one nation] Isaac's father, and from him alone sprang the blessed Jacob;

to whom, indeed, twelve sons were born in number;

yet from them arose one single nation, namely that of the Jews.

How, then, shall the saying 'he shall become nations' be fulfilled? For even though the race from Israel is divided into twelve tribes, it is nevertheless one nation, composed of many members, as it were, but forming through them all one completed body.

And that, again, the covenant defined through Moses was not to be, on God's part, an everlasting covenant for those of the seed of Isaac, we shall know from the prophet Joel, who says:

'Behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord;

'and I will make with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant.' Understanding this most excellently, Paul says:

'In that he says "new," he has made the first one old;'

it having been clearly demonstrated that the one who came from Abraham became the father of one nation;

while another line of reasoning, in turn, compels us to show that what was written concerning him is true (for it is impossible for God to lie), it is therefore necessary now to refer the fulfillment of the promise to Christ himself.

For it was he, as I have already said, who was being depicted in that one.

He himself became the father of many nations, drawing all through faith unto himself, and greatly rejoicing at the multitude of the nations, and saying:

'Behold, I and the children whom God has given me.' So much, then, have we said concerning these matters.

But let the witness of the truth himself also come forward; let the most wise Paul contend alongside for what has been said; let him cry out together with me:

'He, then, who supplies the Spirit to you, and works miracles among you—is it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness. Know, therefore, that those who are of faith, these are the sons of Abraham.'

The power of the promise will therefore proceed, not at all to those who were born according to the flesh, but evidently to those who, through faith in Christ, claim Abraham as their father.