Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 3/23

The priests of the seed of Aaron are cast out, then, so that he who is after the order of Melchizedek may enter in instead.

No longer the sacrifices of the continual offering;

no longer those offered on the Day of Atonement;

no longer the ashes of the heifer purifying those who have been defiled.

For one sacrifice is Christ, and the mortification of the saints that is patterned after Him;

one sprinkling, the washing of regeneration;

one ransom for sin, the blood poured out for the salvation of the world.

"Nor, though you come to appear before me..."

"I do not desire it" is understood in common with the preceding clause.

He sets aside not only the law concerning sacrifices, but also the law that every male must appear before the Lord three times a year.

Since, then, they had not changed from being unjust and having crooked designs, He cast them out from before His eyes.

For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his countenance beholds uprightness.

The withdrawal of their boldness of access shows the master's wrath against his servants.

That the contemplation concerning God is extended threefold shows the knowledge of theology in the Trinity.

This too he refuses, when it is understood bodily and practiced by the carnal Israel.

"For who required these things at your hands?" He showed what these things are: the bodily observances of the law—

the ram offered as a whole burnt offering, and the fat of lambs, and the blood of bulls and goats, and coming in the body to the temple, as though the divine eyes needed nearness in order to see, and otherwise could not reach those who are far off.

"These things," he says, "so lowly and earthly—who required them at your hands?" You see how much force and necessity he brings to bear, that we should somehow take the intent of the law spiritually.

For if it is acknowledged that the words of the law were given by God, yet he says that God does not require these things now being done, he plainly and irrefutably compels our mind to be raised up to the spiritual contemplation of the law—

as if all but crying out and solemnly testifying:

"I desire mercy, and not sacrifice;"

"and the knowledge of God rather than whole burnt offerings."

And, "It has been told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you—"

"but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to be ready to walk with the Lord your God."

And, "Offer to God a sacrifice of praise."

And it seems that the whole discourse concerning sacrifices and whole burnt offerings is contained within the discourse concerning mercy and love, since the whole law is summed up in, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

And the passage concerning the feasts will likewise be brought under the same kind of interpretation, so that we too should celebrate the Passover not "with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

the true sheep, Christ, being sacrificed toward evening, that is, at the consummation of the age—whose flesh is truly food—and dwelling in tents, not for a fixed number of days, but for the whole time of our sojourning, while we await the true homeland, of which God is the architect and maker; and keeping Pentecost when seven weeks are completed, that is, as though standing on the last day, having renounced this present life.

"You shall no longer trample my court."

A fearsome threat to those who perceive it.

But some of those in the Church are insensible to this loss, and those who are able to attend, are negligent—

while those who have been condemned on account of their sins are indifferent.

The text points out the insolent entry of the accused, as though they were trampling the holy things underfoot.

Now the perfect man attains to the very Holy of Holies within the veil, that is, having passed beyond bodily things, he will converse with the naked contemplation of divine thoughts—

while the one who is inferior will touch, in the house of God, the ministering service according to the bodily worship.

But the one who is only now being introduced to piety is permitted to reach only the court—

while the one who has been driven back even from this is outside the places of piety.

How great, then, is the danger, that even what one seems to possess should be taken away!

The saint, however, loving God exceedingly, greatly embraces all the tokens of God, saying:

"My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord."

For he knows that it is otherwise impossible to blossom and to take a beginning toward bearing fruit, unless one comes to be in the courts of the Lord.

But God, doing them good, removes them from the Jewish court, so that they may take refuge in the fold of Christ's sheep, and there may be one flock, one shepherd.

"If you bring me fine flour, it is vain—"

"incense is an abomination to me."

"Your new moons and your sabbaths and the great day I cannot endure."

"Fasting and idleness and your feasts my soul hates."

Clearly he thrusts aside the bodily understanding, having proclaimed the law of God and having roused both the rulers and the people to attention with great reproaches.

For he announces nothing of his own, but writes off the old things, saying that this is the law of God and the ordinance of God: that none of the things now being performed should take place.

"If you bring me fine flour, it is vain."

In many places he makes use of fine flour in connection with the sacrifices—

sometimes unprepared, with only oil poured over it, sometimes without oil, as in the case of the offering of jealousy, at other times as wafers, at other times unleavened, at other times only as dough, the fine flour having been kneaded with oil.

Now, having nullified the use of this, he has struck out the greater part of the sacrifices.

What, then, is he saying? That while the word hints at other things, you, having abandoned the intent of the lawgiver, display all your diligence toward the vanity of bodily things.

For it was necessary to transpose the wheat into the word (which lies in your souls as a seed), and, having stripped it of every worldly notion, to use it by itself in the immaterial and pure worship of God.

And this is spiritual fine flour: the word concerning God, separated from bodily conception.

The fine flour, then, that is understood bodily and offered in the Jewish manner, is vain.

But the incense is already even an abomination to the Lord.

For it is truly abominable to suppose that God, chasing after the pleasures of smell, prescribed the composition of incense, and to fail to understand that incense to the Lord is the sanctification effected in the body by the temperance of the soul, when the parts of the soul stand in equal balance and without dissension toward one another.

"Take for yourself," he says, "sweet spices—"

"stacte, onycha, sweet galbanum, and pure frankincense."

These four bear a resemblance to the four elements of which bodies are composed—

stacte corresponds to water;

onycha, on account of its dryness, corresponds to earth;

galbanum, on account of its heat, corresponds to fire;

and frankincense, on account of its translucence, corresponds to air.

"It shall be equal to equal," that is, by chastening you shall bring back into equilibrium the impulses toward improper desires that arise from an imbalance of temperament.

"And you shall pound of these a fine powder," that is, you shall labor diligently to make it spiritual, effacing from the soul the grossness and materiality of the flesh.

"And thus you shall place it before the testimony in the tent, from where I will be known to you."

For when it comes to belong to exact fellowship, and has been made fine, then it is worthy to be brought into the holy things and to draw near to the knowledge concerning God.

"...of the testimony, from where I will be known to you."

But it is forbidden for anyone to make such a thing for himself, for his own enjoyment—

that is, one must not ascribe his achievements to himself, but must refer the cause of good things to God.

Such incense was Paul, who said:

"Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph, and makes manifest through us the fragrance of the knowledge of him."

But the bodily incense, which falls upon the passages of the nostrils and stirs the sense of smell, is reasonably reckoned an abomination to him who is incorporeal.

The word intends that new moons fitting for eternal years should be understood by the discerning, not the moon's monthly restoration through thirty days, as it overtakes the sun and again withdraws from it.

But since "the fool changes like the moon," the word intends that the brotherly and sympathetic man should regard as a feast the return to the light which the fool had lost, and the restoration (through repentance) to one's original state—

as it were keeping a new moon, the beginning of a life lived in the light—

since the light had failed through the turning toward the worse, but has come back again toward it through conversion.

Next it would be fitting to speak of the sabbaths that are hated: not to carry a burden, and not to go out from one's place, and not to kindle a fire in all their dwellings.

These commands, showing forth from themselves the impossibility of exact observance and precise keeping, render liable to the curse the one who hears them in a bodily sense.

For it is impossible not to move a thing from its place;

And everything that is lifted up, even if it is very light, is called a "burden" — such as a garment, or bread, or something necessary.

But he also commands not to kindle fire, that is, not to be inflamed by the passions of the flesh;

and not to lift up a burden — that is, not to be weighed down by the burden of sin, and not to be removed from abiding in God, but to remain steadfast and immovable in the faith.

Those who thus fulfill the sabbaths — not by ceasing from evil deeds, but by abstaining from their proper duties — he rightly turns away from and does not tolerate, as being false [sabbaths].

For such are the sabbaths that are decried as wretched by the Prophet:

"Woe to those who draw near and those who touch false sabbaths."

But the true sabbaths are the rest that is reserved for the people of God;

which, because they are true, God accepts.

And indeed he — the one for whom the world has been crucified — attains to those sabbaths of rest, having plainly withdrawn from worldly things and arrived at his own place of spiritual rest, in which, once he has come to be there, he will no longer be moved from his own place, since stillness and freedom from disturbance prevail in that state.

And fire will not burn in the eternal dwelling, because no fuel that kindles fire — wood, hay, stubble — is brought in there.

And he who does not have the heavy load of iniquity lying upon him will not lift a burden, but will truly rest in delightful sabbaths.

But instead of "the great day," the other [translators] have rendered it "Called."

"A called convocation I cannot endure;"

"I will not endure a called convocation."

Hence we consider that no single, exceptional "great" day is meant;

but rather every "called" day that has been previously proclaimed.

For concerning the unleavened bread it says:

"The first day shall be a called [holy convocation], for it shall be holy to you."

"The seventh day shall be a called holy [convocation] to you."

"On the seventh day of the new [grain], when you offer the sacrifice of weeks, it shall be a holy convocation to you."

"And on the tenth day of this seventh month, it shall be a holy convocation to you."

It seems, then, that by a single expression he rejects many days that share the same designation, and almost all the notable feasts prescribed in the Law.

Rejecting these, then, which [day] does he accept? Concerning it, it is said:

"The great day of the Lord" — which not this perceptible sun will bring about, but the rising of the Sun of Righteousness will illumine — a day that will be one and continuous, having no succeeding night, but coextensive with the whole age.

That day, then, is truly and properly "great,"

concerning which [ordinary days] the blessed Jacob declared that they are "few and evil."

There are four distinctions among the things that have been mentioned:

some are vain, being among those things done in the Jewish manner;

the fourth is the "hateful" things, among which is also the fasting of the Jews.

Just as, then, it was shown that in the case of other things too there is something rejected and something acceptable to God, so also in the case of fasting:

the abstinence from foods that is done for show — whose end is [merely the precept] "Do not touch, nor taste, nor handle" — the soul of the Lord hates;

but he loves the [fasting] that is undertaken to enslave the disposition of the flesh, [the fasting] that, through the subjugation of the flesh, brings about sanctification.

But abstinence from foods by itself is not sufficient to make fasting praiseworthy;

rather, the rest of one's conduct must also be present — in words and manner of life, and in association with those who are able to be of benefit;

so that what pertains to food may be [merely] a byproduct of one's ascetic discipline.

The earnest man, then, for the most part working according to the mind, and being occupied with the pursuit of truth, descends but seldom to the care of the flesh;

then, after ministering to the necessities of the body, subsisting without elaborate preparation on whatever is at hand, he at once springs away from occupation with unprofitable things and returns to his former, proper way of life.

For such a manner of life removes every occasion by which the disposition of the flesh is nourished, so that it no longer dominates the spirit, nor does the flesh perform its own works — fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire.

Having therefore put to death our members that are upon the earth, and restraining the passions both through reproving words and through abstinence from foods, let us fast a fast that is acceptable and well-pleasing to the Lord.

Abstinence from foods, then, is indeed restrictive of the appetites of the belly, and of those below the belly,

but the vigor that lies in abstinence from food is not yet sufficient for perfection, unless the soul too is in complete abstinence from the things that nourish evil.

For just as man is twofold, composed of soul and body, so also foods are twofold, being appropriate each to its respective constitution, and they render the thing nourished more vigorous for its proper activities.

For just as, in athletics, athletic foods, administered to the bodies together with suitable exercises, to the extent that they are mastered by the strength of those being nourished, raise the body to that much greater fitness, becoming an addition to it as they are taken up into the body's constitution — so also, in the discipline of piety, the doctrines of the faith and the corrective teachings concerning morals, being continually brought to the soul and increasing it by small additions, render it more powerful and more diligent in reaching out for the greater and more perfect teachings among the doctrines.

We must, then, guard against the fasting done in secret, which by righteous judgment is said to be hated by the Lord — concerning which the Prophet also prays that it not come to pass, saying:

"The Lord will not kill the souls of the righteous with famine."

For he is not speaking of bodily famine (for otherwise he would have said "the bodies of the righteous"), but of that which concerns the soul;

"For he will not kill the souls of the righteous with famine;"

for otherwise it would also be a contradiction to the life of those called Blessed;

if indeed Paul numbers among his boastings "in fastings often," and "in hunger and thirst."

Yet [the Prophet] prays that famine not befall the righteous.

But it is better to hear each of these according to the more elevated understanding concerning want and deprivation.

Such also is [the verse]: "I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread."

And yet the seed of Jacob, the righteous one, sought bread in Egypt.

But if we avoid the lowly [literal] sense, the absurdity contained in these apparent contradictions will also be dissolved along with it.

These, then, were the fasts that the Jews fasted, starving to death their inner man, because there had come upon them the threatening word that says: "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will bring a famine upon this land — not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord."

These, then, are the fasts that the Lord says he hates — [the fasts] of those who waste away their mind through malnourishment in the saving and life-giving teachings, while over-fattening and fleshing out the outer man.

For just as, in the tilting of a scale, when one side is weighed down, the opposite side is somehow raised up, so too one might observe this happening in the case of man:

for when the flesh is increased, it happens that the mind somehow becomes weaker;

while, conversely, when the mind is thriving, the flesh is often made lean.

And this is what the Apostle says: that to the degree the outer man is being destroyed, to that same degree the inner man is being renewed.

And also: "When I am weak, then I am strong."

For certain sooty exhalations, sent up from abundant and rich food, cut off — like a dense cloud — the illuminations that come into the mind from the Holy Spirit.

Elijah likewise, when he was about to seek God, disregarded food for an equal span of time, so that no darkening of the mind might come from food.

The Lord, however, did the opposite: having risen from the dead and being about to ascend to the heavens, he partook of food, thereby confirming the true nature of the body that had risen;

but in condescending to men, he fasted, showing that discipline is necessary for one who is about to strip for the contests of temptation.

For the buffeting of the body trains one for victory, as it were, like an athletic coach.

One must not, however, treat the flesh in such a way as to dissolve its natural vigor through deprivation, nor, through excessive debilitation, to force the mind into utter inactivity or even incoherence.

But since we have been commanded, while the bridegroom is present, not to fast the fast that pertains to the Word — that is, not to be unnourished by the bread that came down from heaven, and to turn away from eating the flesh of the Lord, which is the cause of life — the Lord says that he hates such a fast.

One of the things hated by the Lord is also idleness, being a kind of inactivity concerning one's proper duties.

And rest indeed seems to be a consequence attendant upon every feast, because to the appointed [holy days] is attached the command: 'You shall do no servile work.'

And because, having leisure in the feasts from the affairs of life, they were committing every kind of impropriety, they were justly said to be observing a hateful idleness.

How is idleness not hateful, when it makes man worse than the ant and the bee — man who indeed, having been formed from the beginning, was placed in paradise to work it and to keep it? So that the first and most proper thing for man is diligence concerning works, and idleness is, as it were, contrary to his nature — idleness which the Lord said He hates.

But how does He want us to be idle? Not laboring for the food that perishes, not lifting up our eyes to vain things, not admitting vain hearing into our ears, shaking off our hands from bribes, not having feet swift to shed blood, and, in a word, not exerting all our zeal on behalf of the body.

I will no longer forgive your sins.

This is the voice of one who has given up, in the face of the continual relapses into wickedness on the part of the one who was being benefited.

Many times I called you to repentance;

you seemed to obey, then you turned back again.

Having despaired of your unrepentant heart, I will no longer release you from the condemnation owed to you.

For it is not the one who has said, 'I have sinned,' and then persists in the sin who truly confesses;

but rather the one who, according to the Psalm, has found his sin and hated it.

For what benefit is the physician's care to the sick person, when the ailing one pursues the very things destructive of life? So likewise there is no benefit in wrongs being forgiven to one who still does wrong, and in acts of licentiousness being remitted to one who is still living licentiously.

But how are the sins of the soul forgiven? When virtue, having taken hold of the soul and seized the whole of it with its own principles, produces in it an aversion toward the opposite disposition;

so that at a time of temptation to greed one voluntarily rushes toward the honoring of what is fair, and avoids doing wrong as the greatest evil, even if it were easy, even if there were no witness;

one so disposed by the habit within himself — it is possible for such a one to be forgiven his former wrongs.

According to this same principle, self-control too, having taken on habit and fixity in the soul, releases one from acts of licentiousness.

But we call self-controlled not the one in whom the appetites for licentiousness have withered away through old age, or sickness, or some other affliction (for in this person the vice is still present, but its activity is hindered by the weakness of the organs); rather, true self-control is a genuine, scientific power, impressed deeply upon the soul, which obliterates the traces already existing of shameful movements.

For the one who has thus healed himself, by taking on the disposition opposite to the sinful one, even the grace of forgiveness is beneficial.

But the word here threatens to abandon completely those who, after having many times risen up from many falls through the guiding hand of God's loving-kindness, are then afterward overcome by their weaknesses.

Here the word 'no longer' furnishes us with the implication that He had already many times before forgiven them for similar things.

For apart from the forgiveness that comes from God, it is impossible for anyone to give himself over to a life according to virtue.

But one who continually promises these things and continually falls away from them, God excludes from His loving-kindness as one utterly given up.

When you stretch out your hands, I will turn my eyes away from you.

Those who pray only as far as outward form stretch out their hands, but they do not have the divine eyes looking upon their prayer.

And, 'The lifting up of my hands is like an evening sacrifice;'

And while Moses, as Israel was warring until the setting of the sun, kept his hands stretched out.

And in agreement with these there is also the apostolic word, that men should pray in every place, lifting up holy hands.

But perhaps the word also intimates something deeper still;

namely, that the one who accomplishes great and heavenly and lofty things, having, as it were, his practical power raised on high, is said to lift up his hands;

but the one who works lowly and earthly things that are subject to corruption has hands that incline downward and are cast down.

This too the narrative concerning Moses intimates: that because those who are making progress do not keep their deeds on an even course, but at one time live better, and at another time, through lack of vigor, grow slack and act more feebly — the things that happened then were symbols of the human condition;

For if he raised up his hands, Israel prevailed;

but when he let down his hands, Amalek prevailed.

That is, when our active power falls, the things that wrestle against us prevail;

but when it is raised up and lifted on high, the discerning faculty within us — which is called Israel — becomes more powerful.

But note that here it is not said, 'When you lift up your hands,' but 'When you stretch out.'

For the one who seeks the things above lifts up his hands, while the one who needs help for bodily things stretches them out.

And since stretching out often occurs by disposition on the part of infants toward their nurses or mothers, showing the lack of proper disposition in those who pray, He did not say, 'When you stretch out your hands to me,' but simply [said it without qualification]:

Because your hands are full of blood.

And though you multiply your petition, I will not hear.

Let those who accomplish nothing right in their life, but suppose they are justified by the prolongation of prayer, hear these words.

For it is not simply the words of prayer that benefit, but their being offered up with an earnest disposition.

Since even the Pharisee seemed to multiply his petition;

but what does the text say? 'And the Pharisee, standing, prayed these things to himself' (not to God);

for he kept returning to himself, since he was caught up in the sin of pride.

'But when you pray,' He says, 'do not babble on with vain repetitions, as the Gentiles also do;'

for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.

And, 'From much speaking you will not escape sin.'

One must therefore ask for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, but not for bodily and earthly things.

One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord.

For your hands are full of blood.

This is the cause of God's eyes being turned away, whenever the hands are stretched out — because the symbols of supplication become occasions for provocation.

It is as if someone, having murdered another man's beloved son, and still having his hands bloodied from the murder, should stretch them out to the enraged father, asking for the right hand of friendship and requesting to be granted forgiveness — would not the child's blood, appearing on the hand of the child-killer, rather stir up the wronged father to anger all the more? Such now are the prayers of the Jews, whenever they stretch out their hands, reminding God the Father of their sin against the Only-begotten Son, and at every stretching out displaying their hands full of the blood of Christ.

For those who persist in their hardness of heart are heirs of their fathers' bloodguilt.

For 'His blood,' they said, 'be upon us and upon our children.'

Wash yourselves, become clean.

For He said, 'I will no longer forgive your sins.'

And, 'If you multiply your petition, I will not hear you.'

Now, as though those sins were curable, He says: 'Wash yourselves, become clean.'

Because in the passages above, the powerlessness of the Law to bring salvation to those who wish to live according to it is exposed;

but in these passages another way to salvation is shown.

And the former sets aside the sensible manner of life according to the Law of Moses;

but the latter points to the beginnings of the evangelical life;

'If you bring fine flour, it is in vain;'

'the fat of lambs, the blood of bulls, I do not want.'

What then shall we do? What shall we offer? Should we perhaps, since He has turned away from material forms of service, turn instead to the feasts, and worship Him through these? 'Your new moons and sabbaths and the great day I cannot endure.'

Shall we then fast? But 'my soul hates your fasts.'

Is it left, then, to entreat in the Jewish manner and pray according to the Law? But 'if you multiply your petition, I will not hear you;'

and, 'if you stretch out your hands, I am not moved by your supplication, but I am provoked at the blood.'

What then shall we do? How shall we propitiate You? How shall we wash away the blood? 'Wash yourselves, become clean.'

For we remember what Moses said concerning washing.

"For whoever (it says) touches any unclean thing, and is defiled, shall wash his garments and bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean."

But he did not say, "Wash yourselves at each defilement," but only, "Wash yourselves."

One baptism, one cleansing.

There: "he shall wash his garments and bathe his body in water";

here: "remove your wickednesses" — not filth — from your souls, not from your garments.

No longer trouble yourself over frankincense and galbanum and onycha and stacte;

no longer search out a heifer precisely red, having no other colour whatsoever — of which the whole age of the legal worship scarcely produced three.

You have need of one thing, simple and brief, of which you yourselves are masters.

What then is this? "Learn to do good."

Of which you are now altogether disobedient and untaught.

Since, then, the good is teachable, and yet the law has not taught you (for its teachings have been cast out, as not good), it is now every way necessary to take refuge in the school of the Gospel;

Understand for me the method of the economy of this word by a clear example.

Suppose there is a certain man of the extravagant and wealthy, for whom various dishes have been prepared for his fare;

and let this man be ill-disposed toward all the rest, but well-disposed toward one alone; then, as each of the unwanted dishes is in turn sent away by him, let him bring those who serve him under the necessity of arriving at that very thing which, by nature, was all along being secretly sought.

So also now, as all the precepts of the law are cast out one after another, the acceptance of the Gospel is of necessity thereby brought about.

And what is the gain? That you may become clean.

And for what is there need of purity? That you may see God.