Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles 29

And Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand, said:

Men of Israel, and you that fear God among you, hearken.

The God of this people chose our fathers, and exalted the people during their sojourning in the land of Egypt, and with a high arm brought them out of it.

Observe Barnabas yielding place to Paul, just as John everywhere yields to Peter.

He himself had brought him from Damascus;

and yet he was more venerable than Paul;

but they had regard to the common advantage.

'And standing up,' it says, 'and beckoning with his hand.'

wherefore he too discourses with them accordingly.

Observe how he prepares the way for his discourse;

having first commended them, and shown much solicitude for them by saying, 'You that fear God,' thus he begins his discourse.

And he did not say, 'the proselytes,' which was a name of reproach.

The God of this people chose our fathers and the people.

Observe how he too calls the God who is common to all men peculiarly their own, and shows from ancient times that His benefits were great, just as Stephen also did.

And they do this in order to teach them that even now, according to the same custom, He has sent His Son.

Just as Christ also said in the parable of the vineyard, so he too says.

He exalted them during their sojourning in the land of Egypt, and with a high arm brought them out of it.

And indeed the very opposite had come to pass;

but they increased into a multitude;

yet the wonders were wrought for their sakes.

Of these things the prophets also make continual mention—the things concerning Egypt.

And observe how he passes lightly over the seasons of their calamities, and nowhere brings their reproaches into the midst, but rather the lovingkindness of God, leaving those other things for them themselves to reckon up.

And for a time of about forty years he bore with their ways in the wilderness.

Then he speaks of their dwelling place, saying:

And having destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land for an inheritance.

for it was four hundred and fifty years.

And after these things, for about four hundred and fifty years, he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.

Here he made plain that God ordered their affairs in varied ways.

And from that point they asked for a king.

And he does not speak of their ingratitude, but everywhere sets forth the lovingkindness of God.

And he gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.

And having removed him, he raised up David to be their king.

I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all my will.

It is no small thing that the Christ should be from David.

Then he also brings in John bearing witness, saying:

From this man's seed God, according to promise, raised up for Israel a Savior, Jesus, John having proclaimed beforehand, before the face of his coming, a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

And as John was fulfilling his course, he said:

Whom do you suppose me to be? I am not he.

But behold, there comes after me one, the sandal of whose feet I am not worthy to loose.

And John bears witness not simply, but by thrusting the glory away from himself, even though all were ascribing it to him.

And it is not the same thing to refuse this honor when no one offers it, and to thrust it away when many are proffering it; and that not merely, but with such great self-restraint.

Men and brethren, sons of the race of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent forth.

For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, being ignorant of this man, and of the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them in condemning him;

and though finding no cause of death, they asked Pilate that he should be put to death.

Everywhere they are eager to show that the good was their own, so that men might not shun it as belonging to strangers, since they crucified him.

'This man,' he says, 'being ignorant of'—

so that the sin was one of ignorance.

See how gently he even makes a defense on their behalf.

but he adds that it also had to happen thus.

Whence is it plain that he rose? He says: 'And they are his witnesses.'

Then again he draws his strength from the Scriptures:

And when they had accomplished all that was written concerning him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.

But God raised him from the dead, who was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people.

And we bring you the good news that the promise which was made to the fathers, God has fulfilled it to us their children, in that he raised up Jesus; as it is also written in the second Psalm:

You are my Son, this day have I begotten you.

And that he raised him from the dead, no longer to return to corruption, he spoke thus: 'I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.'

You will not give your Holy One to see corruption.

For David, having served the counsel of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was added to his fathers, and saw corruption;

but he whom God raised up did not see corruption.

See how this man discourses more vehemently.

This Peter nowhere said.

Let it therefore be known to you, men and brethren, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you; and from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses, in this man everyone who believes is justified.

Beware therefore lest that come upon you which is spoken in the prophets:

Behold, you despisers, and look, and wonder, and perish; for I work a work in your days, which you will in no way believe, though someone declare it to you.

See how he weaves his discourse together—from present things, from the prophets, from the seed that was according to promise.

But let us look at what was said from the beginning.

Men and brethren, sons of the race of Abraham.

And he calls them by their father as well.

To you the word of this salvation has been sent forth.

Here he says 'To you' not as setting it apart for the Jews only, but he grants them liberty to separate themselves from those who dared the murder.

For those who dwell in Jerusalem, he says, being ignorant of this man, and of the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them in condemning him.

Great is the accusation, if hearing continually they gave no heed.

for those things spoken concerning Egypt and the wilderness are enough to show their ingratitude.

And how, one asks, were they ignorant, when John was speaking? What wonder, when even the prophets were crying out continually? Then comes another accusation also: 'And finding no cause of death.'

For let us grant that they did not hold him to be the Christ;

for what reason did they even put him to death? 'And they asked Pilate,' he says, 'that he should be put to death.'

And when they had accomplished all that was written concerning him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.

See how earnestly bent upon this they were.

He told the manner of his death, and brings Pilate into the midst, both that the Passion might be made plain from the tribunal, and that they might be the more greatly accused, having delivered him up to a man of another race.

but 'They asked, finding no cause of death, that he should be put to death,' so as to make plain that they obtained this favor against the man's own will;

which Peter says more clearly: 'when he had determined to release him.'

Paul loved them exceedingly.

And observe, he does not dwell upon the ingratitude of the fathers, but sets the fear before them.

For Stephen indeed does this with good reason, seeing that he was about to be put to death, and was not teaching, and was showing that the Law was now being abolished;

but this man does so no longer, but only threatens and instills fear.

But God raised him from the dead.

Who was seen, he says, for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem.

For see this man, as one moved by the Spirit himself, proclaiming up and down the Passion and the tomb.

And we bring you the good news, he says, that the promise which was made to the fathers has come to pass;

that is to say, the fathers received the promise, but you have received the fulfillment.

Then, having brought in John as a witness, when he said that 'From this seed, according to promise, he brought to Israel a Savior, John having proclaimed beforehand, before the face of his coming, a baptism of repentance to Israel,' he next brings him in again, saying:

Whom do you suppose me to be? I am not he.

Then he brings forward the apostles also as witnesses of the resurrection, saying:

'These are His witnesses before the people';

then David, testifying to this very thing, in that he says, 'You shall not give Your Holy One to see corruption.'

For neither did the ancient testimonies seem to be strong of themselves in this way, nor these new ones apart from those;

so that through both together he confirms the word.

For since they were held fast by fear, as those who had slain Him, and their conscience estranged them, he does not address them as those who had killed the Christ, nor as though he were putting into their hands a good that belonged to another, but one that was their own.

The name of David was very much longed for by them;

therefore he sets it forth, so that even in this way they might receive Him, as if he said that they were to be ruled over by His Son;

so then, do not kick against Him.

What is the meaning of, 'I will give you the sure mercies of David'? The steadfast things, he says, the things that are never lost.

And he does not dwell long upon these things, seeing that the word had by now gained credence;

but he intensifies the threat of punishment, and passes on to that which is dear to them, showing that the Law is being cast out, and he dwells upon what is profitable, namely that great good things await those who obey, and great evils those who disobey.

Then he speaks again concerning David, and this with a word of praise.

'For David,' he says, 'after he had served the will of God in his own generation, was gathered to his fathers';

even as Peter also, making mention of him, said:

'It is permitted to speak with boldness concerning the patriarch David.'

And he does not say that he died, but, 'He was gathered to his fathers,' which was more honorable in its expression.

And observe how nowhere does he set down their good deeds, but only those things that carry accusation against them.

For the words, 'They asked and received,' are the greatest accusation against them.

Then he enumerates the benefits of God, saying, 'He chose,' 'He exalted,' 'He bore with them as a nurse bears a child.'

But these are not praises of them, but of God.

David alone does he praise, since he was of...

John calls it a coming in, when he says, 'Before the face of His coming in,' meaning the incarnation of Christ, His manifestation in the flesh.

Thus also John, when writing his Gospel, continually takes refuge in him;

for his name was great throughout all the inhabited world.

He does not speak it of himself, but brings forward the testimony of that one.

Do you see how carefully he showed the matter to be one of the divine dispensation? But let us hear what the apostles also said, whereby they persuaded men that He was crucified.

What could be less credible than this—that He was buried by those very people to whom salvation was promised; that He who was buried forgives sins, and does so more than the Law does? Wherefore he did not say, 'Those things which you were not willing';

but, 'From those things from which you could not be justified by the Law of Moses, in this One everyone who believes is justified,' showing the weakness of the Law.

And rightly did he add the word 'everyone,' so as to show that whoever it may be that believes.

For there is no profit in those things, unless some benefit accrues.

For this reason he sets down the remission of sins afterward, gathering from this the greater point, and showing that what the Law was unable to accomplish, this the Sufferer is seen to have wrought through His death.

'These are His witnesses before the people'—that is, before the people who slew Him, he says—which they could not have been, had they not been confirmed by divine power;

for they would never have testified such things before men thirsting for blood, would never have done so before those very ones who had slain Him.

And the words, 'I have this day begotten You,' he spoke as knowing that with this the other things also follow.

And why did he not adduce a testimony by which they were to be persuaded that remission of sins comes through Him? Because what was being aimed at was this: to show for the present that He rose;

and this being confessed, that other point was, through this, beyond dispute—namely, that through Him also remission of sins comes.

And in another way, he wished to lead them into a longing for this great gift.

His death, then, was not an abandonment, but the fulfillment of prophecy.

He reminds them of histories, in ignorance of which they suffered countless terrible things.

And this he hints at through the ending, saying:

'Behold, you despisers, and look attentively.'

And observe how, harsh though it is, he softens it.

'Let there not come upon you,' he says, 'that which was spoken to the others, that I work a work which you will in no way believe, though someone declare it to you.'

'Do not marvel that it seems to be incredible;

this too was foretold from of old.'

This might fittingly be said to us also, 'Behold, you despisers,' concerning those who disbelieve the resurrection.

For indeed the affairs of the Church are in a very evil state, and yet you think that things are at peace.

For this is the terrible thing, that being in the midst of many evils, we do not even know that we are in evils.

What are you saying? We hold the churches, the possessions, all the rest; the assemblies take place; every day the people come in;

and do we despise? But it is not by this that anyone would judge a Church to be a Church.

But by what, then, someone says? If there is godliness; if we withdraw home each day having gained something; if we reap some fruit, great or small; if we are not simply fulfilling a law and discharging a mere formality.

Who has become better for gathering together a whole month?

This is what is sought; since this very thing which seems to be a mark of prosperity, this is actually adversity, when, though these things take place, nothing more comes of them.

Would that it were nothing more!

What fruit do you reap from the assemblies? And yet, if indeed any profit were coming to you, long ago you all ought to be living the life of true wisdom, seeing that so many prophets discourse with you twice in the week, and so many apostles and evangelists, all setting before you the saving doctrines, and presenting to you with great exactness the things that are able to order your character.

The soldier who goes to the training-ground becomes more skilled in tactics;

the athlete who walks to the wrestling-school becomes more experienced in wrestling;

the physician who comes to his teacher becomes more exact, and knows more, and learns more;

you—what have you gained? I do not speak of those who have but a year, but of those who have been gathering together since their earliest age.

Or do you think this is godliness, to be continually frequenting the assembly? This is nothing, unless we reap some fruit;

unless we gather something, it is better to remain at home.

Our forefathers built the churches for us, not that we, having gathered ourselves out of our own houses, might show ourselves to one another;

for that might happen in the marketplace too, and in the baths, and in a procession;

but that, having gathered together disciples and teachers alike, they might make the former better through the latter.

Our affairs have become a mere law and a formal discharge of duty;

the matter is henceforth mere habit.

Easter came—great was the tumult, great the commotion;

for I would not say that the people were many;

The feast passed away—the tumult is cut short, but the quiet again is fruitless.

How many all-night vigils there are, and how many sacred hymn-singings! And what is the greater gain? Nay rather, it is the worse;

for many perform even this out of vainglory.

How grievously, do you think, are my inmost bowels torn, when I behold everything running away as into a jar that is pierced through? But you will surely answer me: we do know the Scriptures.

And what of that? If you display them through your works, this is the gain, this is the profit.

The Church is a dyer's workshop;

but if you keep departing without receiving any tinge of the dye, what is the good of coming here continually? Indeed the harm is greater.

Who has ever added to the laws which he received from the fathers? What I mean is this:

a certain man has the custom of keeping the memorial of his mother, or of his wife, or of his child;

he does this whether he hears it from us or not, drawn on by habit and by his conscience.

Do you then, someone says, take offence at this? God forbid; nay, I even rejoice greatly;

but I would have wished him to reap something also from our discourse, and that what habit has wrought might come to be wrought from us as well, and that yet another habit might be brought in;

for otherwise, why do I beat my breast in vain and prattle on, if you are going to remain in the same state, if the assemblies work no good in you? [4]

And what is this worth, if it be apart from works? Hear Christ saying:

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Often have I resolved to keep silence, seeing no increase coming to you from our words;

or perhaps it does come, but I, through insatiability and great longing, suffer the same thing as those who are mad after riches.

For just as they, however much they gather round themselves, consider that they possess nothing;

so I too, since I so vehemently long for your salvation, until I see you having advanced, consider that I have accomplished nothing, because I so greatly desire that you should come to the very summit.

I would wish this to be so, and that it should be a mark of my own passion, and not of your slothfulness;

but I am afraid lest I conjecture only too rightly.

For you ought to be persuaded that, if any benefit had come to pass in so long a time, we ought by now to have ceased speaking.

Thus there would have been no need of words for you, since what has already been spoken has been so sufficiently uttered as to be able to school others also, if indeed any benefit had accrued to you even in their absence.

But our having need of continual discourse is a proof of nothing else than that your affairs are not very accurately ordered.

What then is to be done? For one must not merely find fault.

I exhort and beseech you not to regard this only, how you may fling yourselves into the church, but how also, having taken something, you may withdraw home with a remedy for your own passions; and if not from us, yet from the Scriptures you may have the fitting medicines.

For instance, is someone prone to wrath? Let him give heed to the readings of the Scriptures, and he will assuredly find help, whether in narrative or in exhortation;

in exhortation, as when it is said, The bent of his wrath is his downfall;

and, A wrathful man is not comely, and such things;

and again, A man full of tongue shall not be set aright;

and Christ again, He who is angry with his brother without cause;

and again the prophet, Be angry, and sin not;

and, Cursed be their anger, for it was self-willed.

And in the narratives, as when you hear of Pharaoh filled with great wrath, and of the Assyrian, and how for this reason they were destroyed.

Again, is someone overcome by money? Let him hear that Nothing is more lawless than a lover of money;

for this man puts up even his own soul for sale;

and Christ saying, You cannot serve God and mammon;

the love of money is the root of all evils;

and the prophet, If riches flow in, set not your heart upon them; and many other such things.

And from the narratives, Gehazi, Judas, the rulers of the Scribes, and that Gifts blind the eyes of the wise.

Is another puffed up with pride? Let him hear that God resists the proud;

and, The beginning of pride is sin;

and, Everyone haughty of heart is unclean before the Lord.

And in the narratives, the devil, and all the rest.

And in short (for it is not possible to recount them all), let each one choose out from the divine Scriptures the medicines for his own wounds;

and if not the whole, yet at least a part today, and a part tomorrow, and so wash the whole clean.

And concerning repentance too, and concerning confession, and concerning almsgiving, and concerning forbearance, and concerning temperance, and concerning all things, he will find many examples.

For all these things, he says, were written for our admonition.

If therefore he discourses about all things for our admonition, let us give heed as we ought to give heed.

Why do we vainly deceive ourselves? I fear lest someone say of us too, that Their days were consumed in vanity, and their years in haste.

Who, after hearing us, has forsaken the theatres? Who has forsaken covetousness? Who has become more zealous concerning almsgiving? I would fain learn this, not for vainglory's sake, but that I might become more eager, seeing the fruit of my labours to be bright.

But as it is, how shall I set my hand to the work, when I see so many showers of teaching pouring down, yet our crops remaining at the same measure, and the produce grown no higher? Henceforth the season of the threshing-floor is at hand, which holds the winnowing-fan.

I fear lest the whole prove to be but stubble;

I fear lest we all be carried off to the furnace.

Summer has passed, winter has come;

we sit, both young and old, held captive by our own passions.

Do not say to me, I do not commit fornication.

For what profit, if you do not commit fornication, but are a lover of money? The sparrow, even if it be held not from every part, but only by the foot, is thus destroyed all the same, and stands fast in the snare; and there is no profit of its wings while its foot is held.

So you too were caught not through fornication, but you were caught through love of money;

and what is in question is not how you were caught, but that you were caught.

Let not the young man say, I am no lover of money;

And what, again, is the profit? For it is not even possible for all the passions to beset us at one and the same age, but they have been apportioned out, and this too through God's love toward mankind, so that, not being imposed upon us all at once, they might not become unconquerable, and make our struggle against them more grievous.

How great a sluggishness would it be, not to be able to master the passions even when they are apportioned out, but to be defeated at each season, and to pride ourselves upon those that are lulled to sleep not by our own diligence but by age itself? Do you not see the charioteers, with how great precision and training and toils they conduct themselves, with their diets and everything else, so that they may not be thrown down and dragged from the chariots? See how great a thing is skill.

For a strong man could often not get the better of even a single horse;

but a mere stripling, by his skill, often taking two in hand, drives and leads them with ease.

And among the Indians the great and fearsome beast, the elephant, is said to yield with much readiness even to a boy of fifteen years.

Now why have I said these things? Because if by our zeal we throttle elephants and wild horses, much more shall we master the passions that are within us.

Whence is it that we are slack throughout the whole of life? We have never practised this skill;

never in a time of leisure, when the contest was not upon us, did we discourse with ourselves upon any of the profitable things.

One might see us mounted upon the chariot only then, when the contest has come.

And that, indeed, is why we are a laughing-stock.

Have I not said many times, let us train ourselves upon those of our own household before the moment of trial? At home we are often provoked to anger against our children;

let us there restrain our anger, so that when we come to deal with our friends we may readily appear masters of it.

And if we trained ourselves in all other matters likewise, we would not be laughingstocks in the contests.

But as it is, other men have their weapons and their exercises and

their drills, both of crafts and of wrestling-bouts;

The husbandman would not dare to lay hold of the vine unless he had first been well trained in the arts of farming;

nor would the pilot take his seat at the helm unless he had first been well exercised;

but we, though wholly untrained, wish to hold the first prizes.

We ought to have kept silence, ought to have shared with no one in deeds or in words, until we were able to tame the wild beast that is within us.

Or do not both anger and desire war against us more grievously than any wild beast? Do not go out into the marketplace with these beasts until you have well placed the bridle upon them, until you have tamed them and rendered them tractable.

Do you not see those men who lead tame lions about the marketplace, how they both gain profit and are admired, because they have wrought such gentleness in an irrational beast? But if that beast should suddenly grow savage, it scatters all who are in the marketplace, and thereupon the man who leads it is himself endangered, and becomes the cause of others' destruction.

So then, do you too first tame the lion, and then lead it about—not so as to receive silver, but so as to gain a gain to which nothing is equal.

For nothing is equal to gentleness, which is exceedingly profitable both to those who possess it and to those who deal with them.

Let us therefore pursue this, that having accomplished the way of virtue with exactness, we may attain the eternal good things, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.