Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles 4

'And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.'

'And suddenly there came a sound from heaven.'

What is this Pentecost? It was when the sickle had to be put to the harvest.

When it was needful to gather in the fruits.

You have seen the type; now behold the truth.

When the sickle of the word had to be put in, when the harvest had to be gathered, then, like a whetted sickle, the Spirit swooped down.

For hear Christ saying:

'Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white unto harvest already.'

And again: 'The harvest indeed is plentiful, but the labourers are few.'

He put in the sickle first.

For He Himself led up into the heavens the firstfruits, having taken to Himself what is ours.

For this reason He also calls such a thing a harvest.

'When the day of Pentecost was fully come,' it says—that is, not before Pentecost, but about it, so to speak, at Pentecost itself.

For it was fitting that, a feast being at hand, these things should again come to pass, so that those who were present at the cross of Christ might also behold these things.

'And suddenly there came a sound from heaven.'

Why did this not happen apart from perceptible tokens? Because, even when this had happened, they said, 'They are full of new wine'; had this not happened, what would they not have said? And the sound came not simply, but 'from heaven.'

And the suddenness of it roused them up.

'And it filled all the house.'

He speaks of the great rushing force of the Spirit.

He gathered them all there, so that both those present might believe, and these might be shown to be worthy.

And not this only, but He goes on to add what is far more awe-inspiring than this.

'And there appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire,' it says.

Rightly is the word 'as' everywhere added, that you may think nothing perceptible concerning the Spirit.

'As of fire,' it says, and 'as of a rushing wind.'

It was not then a wind simply poured out into the air.

For when the Spirit had to be made known to John, it came in the form of a dove upon the head of Christ.

But now, when a whole multitude had to be converted, it came 'as of fire.'

'And it sat upon each one of them.'

That is, it remained, it rested upon them.

For the sitting is indicative of settledness and of abiding.

What then? Did it come upon the twelve only, and not also upon the rest? By no means; but upon the hundred and twenty also.

For Peter would not have adduced the testimony of the prophet without ground, saying:

'And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith the Lord God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh.'

'And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.'

For that it might not only astound them, but also fill them with grace, therefore it was both in the Holy Spirit and in fire.

For it goes on: 'And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.'

They receive no other sign, but this first.

For it was strange, and there was no need of another sign.

'It sat,' it says, 'upon each one of them.'

Therefore also upon him who had been left to fill the vacant place.

For this reason he no longer grieves at not having been chosen, as Matthias was.

'And they were all filled,' he says.

It was not in a bare or ordinary way that they received the grace of the Spirit, but they were filled to overflowing.

'And they began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.'

He would not have said 'all,' when apostles too were present there, unless the others also had a share in it.

Besides, had he not above spoken of them separately and by name, he would not now have joined them together in the same event.

For if, where he could have said that they were present, he yet makes mention of the apostles apart, much more does he do so here.

But consider with me how, when they persevere in prayer, when they have love, then it is that the Spirit comes upon them.

And he reminded them also of another vision, by saying 'as of fire.'

For as fire also He appeared in the bush.

'As the Spirit gave them utterance.'

For the things spoken by them were utterances of grave weight.

'Now there were,' he says, 'dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men.'

Their dwelling there was a sign of devoutness.

How so? For being from so many nations, and having left fatherlands, and houses, and kindred, they dwelt there.

'For there were,' he says, 'dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven.'

'And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and was confounded.'

Since what happened took place in a house, they naturally ran together from outside.

What is the meaning of 'the multitude was confounded'? It was troubled, it marvelled.

Then, to show that they marvelled, he adds, 'Because each one heard them speaking in his own language.'

'And the multitude came together, and they said among themselves:'

'Behold, are not all these that speak Galileans?' They looked at once toward the apostles.

'How is it,' they say, 'that we hear, each one in his own language wherein we were born, Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and those dwelling in Mesopotamia, both Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and the Romans sojourning here, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the mighty works of God?' And they were all amazed, and were perplexed one with another, saying:

'What does this mean?' Do you see them running from the east to the west? 'But others,' he says, 'mocking, said:'

'They are filled with new wine.'

And yet this was not even the season for new wine.

And what is the more monstrous, that though all confessed it—Romans as they were, proselytes as they were, perhaps even those who had crucified Him—yet those others, after so great things, say that 'they are filled with new wine.'

But let us look at what has been said from the beginning.

'It filled,' he says, 'the house.'

The rushing wind became like a pool of water.

And a proof of the abundance and of the vehemence was the fire.

Nowhere did such a thing take place in the case of the prophets;

but at that time it was thus with these men, while with the prophets it was otherwise.

For a roll of a book is given to Ezekiel, and he eats what he was about to speak;

'For it became,' he says, 'in his mouth as honey for sweetness.'

And again, the hand of God touches the tongue of another prophet.

But here it is the Holy Spirit Himself;

so equal in honour is He with the Father and the Son.

'A lamentation, and a song, and woe.'

To those men, then, it was fittingly given in a book;

for they still had need of visible signs;

those had to do with one nation only, and with their own people;

but these had to do with the whole inhabited world, and with those who had never been known to them.

Elisha receives the grace by means of a mantle, another by means of oil, as David, while Moses is called by means of the fire of the bush.

But here it is not so, but the fire itself sat upon them.

And why did not the fire appear filling the house? Because they would have been beside themselves.

But it shows that this is that same thing.

For do not, because he says 'There appeared to them cloven tongues,' fix your mind on that alone;

so great a fire is able to kindle boundless fuel.

And well did he say 'cloven.'

That you may learn that it is an energy sent forth from the Paraclete.

But observe how these too were first shown to be worthy, and then were counted worthy of the Spirit;

for the very things which he wrought among the flocks, these he did also after the victory and the trophy, that his faith might be shown bare and unadorned.

See again Moses himself despising the palace, and after forty years taking up the leadership of the people;

Samuel being reared in the temple;

Elisha leaving all things.

And that it came to pass thus is plain also from what followed after;

for these too left all that was theirs.

For this reason they then receive the Spirit, when they had displayed their own virtue.

They learned also human weakness, by the things which they suffered;

they learned that it was not in vain or by chance that they had accomplished these things.

Thus Saul too, having first been testified to be good, then received the Spirit.

But in this way none, not even Moses, greater than the prophets.

For he, when others had to become spiritual, was himself diminished.

But just as in the case of fire, however many lamps one may wish to kindle, the fire is in no way diminished;

so also in the case of the apostles it came to pass at that time.

For through the fire not only was the abundance of the grace shown, but each one also received a fountain of the Spirit;

just as He Himself also said that those who believe on Him would have a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.

For it was not to reason with Pharaoh that they went forth, but to wrestle with the devil.

And what is indeed the more wonderful, that when sent they made no objection, nor said that they were of a feeble voice and slow of tongue;

for Moses had trained them into this.

He did not say that they were the younger ones.

For Jeremiah had brought them to their senses.

And yet they had heard many terrible things, and far greater than those.

From this it is plain that they were angels of light as well, and ministers of the things above.

And to those men no one appears from heaven while they are still pursuing the things upon the earth.

But when man went up on high, and the Spirit is borne down from above—'As of a rushing mighty wind,' it says.

By this He makes it clear that nothing will be able to withstand them, but that they will scatter their adversaries like chaff.

'And it filled the whole house.'

The house was a symbol of the world.

'And it sat upon each one of them.'

'And the multitude came together, and was confounded.'

Do you see their reverent caution, and how they do not at once pronounce judgment, but are in perplexity? Whereas those senseless men pronounce their verdict, saying that 'they are full of new wine.'

Since it was permitted them by the Law to appear in the temple three times a year, for this reason devout men from all the nations were dwelling there.

Observe here the writer, how he does not flatter them.

For he did not say that they gave their verdict;

but what? 'Now when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and was confounded.'

For they supposed that the matter had come to an end for them, because of the audacity that had been committed against Christ.

And besides, their conscience also shook their souls, the slaughter being still, as it were, in their hands, and everything filled them with dread.

'Behold,' it says, 'are not all these who are speaking Galileans?' He spoke thus with good reason;

for this too was acknowledged concerning them.

So thoroughly did the sound strike them with dread, that even the greater part of the inhabited world had gathered here.

And this braced up the apostles, that they did not know how to speak in the Parthian tongue at all, but were learning it then from those very men.

He mentions nations that were hostile to them—Cretans, Arabians, Egyptians, Persians—showing that they would prevail over all these.

And since the Jews were in captivity, it was likely that at that time many of the nations were present with them;

or else because the seeds of the doctrines had already been sown among the nations too.

And for this reason many even of these were present there, in remembrance of the things they had heard.

On every side, then, the testimony is beyond dispute: from the citizens, from the strangers, from the proselytes.

'We hear them speaking in our own tongues the mighty works of God.'

For they were not merely speaking, but were declaring certain wonderful things.

for never had anything of the kind happened before.

Observe the fair-mindedness of the men.

'They were amazed and perplexed, saying:'

'What does this mean?' But others, mocking, said that 'they are full of new wine.'

And what wonder? Seeing that even of the Master Himself, when He was casting out demons, they said that He had a demon.

For wherever there is effrontery, it seeks only one thing—to say something, no matter what—not that it may say something with any bearing upon reason, but only that it may say something, whatever it be.

'They are full of new wine.'

that men, amid so many dangers, trembling for their very lives, in so great despondency, should dare to utter such things.

Since this was hard to believe, misleading their hearers and trying to show that they were drunken, they ascribe the whole matter to the quality of the wine, and say:

'They are full of new wine.'

'But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and declared to them.'

You see there his tender care, and here his manly courage.

For even if they marveled, even if they were astounded, was it not also a wonderful thing that an unlettered and ordinary man should be able to break forth into speech in the midst of so great a throng? For if a man is thrown into confusion when speaking among his own, much more so before enemies and men thirsting for blood.

That they were not drunken, he made plain at once from his very speech;

that they were not beside themselves, as the soothsayers are; that they were not held in the grip of any constraint.

But what is the meaning of, 'With the eleven'? They put forth a common voice, it says, and he was the mouth of them all.

And the eleven stood by, bearing witness to the things that were spoken.

'He lifted up his voice,' it says;

that is, he spoke with much boldness.

And this he does, that they may learn the grace of the Spirit.

For he who could not bear the question of a lowly servant girl, this same man, in the midst of the people, with all thirsting for blood, discourses with such boldness that this became an incontrovertible proof of the resurrection;

for in the midst of men who were laughing, and

mocking at such things, he speaks with boldness.

Of how great effrontery do you think this was, of how great impiety, of how great shamelessness—to reckon the marvel of the tongues to be a work of drunkenness? Yet this in no way grieved the apostles, nor did the hearing of the mockery then make them more timid.

For by the presence of the Spirit they had already been transformed, and were exalted above all bodily things.

For wherever the Holy Spirit comes, He makes men of gold instead of clay.

Now consider Peter for me, and examine that coward, that man without understanding, even as Christ says:

'Are you also even yet without understanding?'

the man who, after that wonderful confession, was called Satan.

And consider also the concord of the apostles.

They yield to him the public address;

for it was not fitting that all should speak.

'And he lifted up,' it says, 'his voice, and declared to them with much boldness.'

This is what it means to be a spiritual man.

Only let us too render ourselves worthy of the grace from above, and all things will be easy.

For just as a man of fire, falling into the midst of stubble, would suffer no harm, but rather would do the work of destruction;

for he himself suffers nothing, but the boxers destroy their own selves;

Or rather, as if a man holding fire should box with one who bears dry grass against him;

even so did these men approach those others with much manly courage.

For what harm did so great a multitude do them? Tell me, were they not contending with poverty and hunger? Were they not contending with dishonor and evil repute? (for they were reckoned to be deceivers;) Were they not exposed to the laughter and mockery of those present? For both of these fell upon them together;

for some laughed at them, while others also mocked them.

Were they not exposed to the rage, to the madness of whole cities, to seditions and conspiracies? Were they not set before fire and sword, and wild beasts? Did not a countless warfare beset them on every side? Were they disposed as men who behold these terrors as in a dream or in a picture? What then? Did they not exhaust the fury of their foes? Did they not turn the perplexity back upon themselves? Were not those men above all others gripped by wrath and dread? Were they not filled with anguish, and afraid, and trembling? For hear them speaking:

'You intend to bring upon us the blood of this man.'

And the marvel is this: that with naked bodies they took their stand against men in armor, against rulers who held authority over them; being untaught, without eloquence, and of a rather unlearned condition, yet against sorcerers, against deceivers, against a multitude of sophists, of rhetoricians, of philosophers grown rotten in the Academy and the Peripatetic schools, they stood their ground and fought them off.

And he who had busied himself about lakes so prevailed over them, as though his contest were with tongueless fishes;

for like one who was in truth a fisher of fishes more voiceless than fish, so did he get the better of these men.

And Plato, who prated much, has fallen silent;

but this man utters his voice, not among his own countrymen only, but also among Parthians, among Medes, among Elamites, and in India, and everywhere on earth, and unto the ends of the inhabited world.

Where now is the pride of Greece? Where the name of Athens? Where the babbling of the philosophers? The man from Galilee, the man from Bethsaida, the rustic, has prevailed over all those men.

Are you not ashamed, tell me, at the name of the homeland of him who has conquered you? And if you hear his name also, and that he was called Cephas, much more will you hide your faces.

For this, this is what has ruined you: that you deem this to be a reproach, and count eloquence as a subject for praise, and inexperience of eloquence as a reproach.

You did not come by the way you ought to have come, but forsaking the royal road, the easy and smooth one, you walked the rough and steep and difficult path.

For this reason neither did you arrive at the kingdom of heaven.

'Why then,' one asks, 'did not Christ work in Plato, nor in Pythagoras?' Because the soul of Peter was far more philosophical than those souls.

For those men were in truth but children, whirled about everywhere by empty glory;

but this man was a philosopher, and receptive of grace.

But if you laugh on hearing these things, it is no marvel;

since those men too laughed at that time, and said that they were full of new wine;

yet they suffered those bitter things, and things more grievous than all, when they saw the city thrown down, and the fire kindled, and the walls cast to the ground, and those manifold frenzies which none can set forth in words; then they laughed no longer. So too you will not laugh at that time, when the season of judgment shall stand upon you, when the fire of hell shall be kindled.

But why do I speak of things to come? Would you have me show who Peter is, and who Plato? Let us for the present, if you please, examine their characters, and see what things each of them undertook.

Now this man spent all his time turning about among doctrines that were unprofitable and superfluous.

For what profit is there in learning that the soul of the philosopher becomes a fly? Indeed a fly—it did not pass into a fly, but mounted upon the soul dwelling in Plato.

Of what empty talk are these things not full? And whence did he set himself to prate such nonsense? The man was full of dissimulation, and was disposed jealously toward all.

As though contending in rivalry not to introduce anything useful, whether from himself or from another;

so from another he received the doctrine of transmigration, but from himself he introduced his commonwealth, wherein he laid down as law things laden with much shamefulness.

'Let the women,' he says, 'be common, and let virgins strip naked and wrestle before the eyes of their suitors, and let the fathers be common, and the children that are born.'

What folly do these things not surpass? But such are his teachings.

But here it is not nature that makes fathers common, but the philosophy of Peter;

since that other doctrine actually did away with it.

For it did nothing else but all but cause the true father to be unknown, and the one who was not the father to be introduced in his place.

It cast the soul into a kind of drunkenness and confusion.

'Let all,' he says, 'use the women without fear.'

For this reason I do not examine the doctrines of the poets, lest anyone should say that I am examining fables;

but I speak of other fables far more ridiculous than theirs.

Where did the poets ever tell such a monstrous tale? But the chief of the philosophers, as it was thought, both fastens weapons upon the women, and helmets, and greaves, and says that the human race differs in nothing from dogs.

'For since the female dog,' he says, 'and the male share in the same tasks, let the women too share in them, and let all things be overturned.'

For always through these men the devil made it his aim to show our race no more honorable than the brutes;

seeing that some came to such a pitch of vainglory as to say that even the irrational creatures are rational.

And behold how variously he played the frenzied reveler in their souls.

For the chief among them affirmed that our soul passes into flies, and dogs, and irrational creatures;

but those who came after them, being ashamed of this, fell into another shame, imparting all rational knowledge to the brutes, and everywhere showing the creatures that were made for our sake to be more honorable than ourselves.

And not this only, but they say that there are also foreknowledge and piety among them.

'The raven,' he says, 'knows God, and so does the crow, and they have gifts of prophecy, and foretell things to come, and there is righteousness among them, and a commonwealth, and laws, and among them, according to Plato, the dog is zealous for virtue.'

Perhaps you disbelieve what is said? With reason, seeing that you have been reared on sound doctrines;

since even if one were reared on such fare, he would disbelieve that there is a man who feeds with pleasure on dung.

So when we say to them that these things are fables and full of folly, they reply, 'You have not understood.'

May we never comprehend such absurdity of yours as this!

For there is no need of deep understanding to learn what such impiety and confusion intends.

Do not croak like ravens, O senseless ones, as little children do! For you are in truth children, just like them.

But Peter said no such thing;

rather he sent forth a voice which, like a great light flashing forth in some darkness, scattered the mist of the inhabited world.

But how gentle was his character, how forbearing;

how he stood above all empty glory;

how he looked toward heaven, being free from pride, and that too while raising the dead.

But if it had fallen to the lot of one of those senseless men to work some such thing even by mere illusion, would he not straightway have sought an altar and a temple, and desired to be reckoned equal to a god?

seeing that, when none of these things is present, they are forever imagining such things.

For what do Athena, and Apollo, and Hera signify to them? Among them these are classes of demons.

And among them there is even a king who for this reason deems it worthwhile to die, that he may be accounted equal to a god.

But these men were not so; rather, quite the contrary.

For hear them speaking at the healing of the lame man:

'Men of Israel, why do you fasten your attention on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him to walk?' And elsewhere:

'We also are men of like passions with you.'

But there great is the pride, great the boastfulness;

all is for the sake of the honors that come from men, nothing for the sake of true wisdom.

For whenever anything is done for the sake of glory, all things remain worthless.

For even if a man possess all things, but has not the mastery over this, he has fallen away from all true wisdom, being held fast by a passion more tyrannical and more shameful than any other.

The despising of this passion is sufficient to teach every good thing, and to banish from the soul every destructive passion.

Wherefore I exhort you also to make great haste, so as to root out this passion utterly;

for it is not possible otherwise to be well-pleasing to God, and to draw to oneself the good-will of that sleepless Eye.

Therefore let us make all haste, so as to enjoy the influence from thence, that we may both escape the trial of the present sorrows, and be counted worthy of the good things to come, 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.