Homilies on Genesis 7

Why is the tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and what does it mean, 'Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise.'

I earnestly exhorted your charity yesterday to remember the things that had been said, and in the evening to set out a twofold table—that of foods, and, adding thereto, the banquet that comes from words.

What then? Did you do this, and set out the twofold table? I know that you did, and that you partook not of that one only, but of this one also.

For surely you were not going to be zealous about the lesser and neglect the better.

For this one is better than that one.

For the one the hands of cooks compounded, but this one the tongues of prophets prepared;

and the one has the produce that springs from the earth, but the other the fruit that is from the Spirit;

and the foods of this table hasten toward corruption, but those of that one toward incorruption;

and this one sustains our present life, but that one guides us toward the life to come.

That you have received this teaching along with the former one I know full well, having questioned neither a follower nor a household servant, but a witness clearer than these.

And who is this witness? The applause of the things spoken, the praise bestowed upon the teaching.

For when I said yesterday that each of you should make his own house a church, you cried out loudly, showing the delight you took in what had been said.

The man who listens with delight to what is spoken is thereby also prepared for the demonstration of it in works.

For this reason I too have today stripped myself more eagerly for the work of teaching.

For not only must the speaker be wide awake, but the hearers too must be all attention; indeed the hearers even more than the speaker.

For we have but one concern, to lay down the Master's treasures;

but yours is the greater labor, both to receive them and to guard them with much security.

Therefore, after the hearing, set the bolts upon the doors,

and, like so many guards, station godly, reverent thoughts on every side around the soul.

For the thief is shameless, he keeps watch continually, he assaults without ceasing; and though he often fails, he often makes the attempt.

Let the guards, then, be fearsome;

and if they see the devil coming and wishing to snatch away anything of what has been laid down, let them drive him off with much shouting;

and if worldly cares press upon you, let them keep them back;

and if forgetfulness, arising from nature, troubles you, let them rouse the memory by diligent practice.

For it is no small danger to lose the Master's treasures.

For if those who receive such moneys, when they squander what was entrusted, are often punished with death,

what punishment will they not undergo who, having received these oracles far more precious than those, then lose them? In the case of these moneys, only those who receive them are held accountable for their safekeeping, and for nothing else.

For however much they have received, exactly so much must they of necessity pay back, and nothing more is demanded of them;

but in the case of the words of God we are held accountable not only for safekeeping, but also for much labor upon them.

For we are commanded not merely to render back the very things we received, but even to bring these to the Master doubled.

And yet, even if it were merely a matter of guarding, the task would call for much striving and diligence;

but when the Master commands us also to increase them, consider how much toil and care we, to whom they have been entrusted, require.

This is why the man entrusted with five talents brought, not merely as much as had been entrusted, but as much again.

For that first sum was of the master's kindness;

but the servant too had to display his own diligence.

Likewise the man entrusted with the two talents worked and gained another two, and for this reason was deemed worthy of the same honor from his own master.

But yet another, entrusted with one talent and bringing back the very thing he had received, neither diminishing nor lessening the deposit, nor rendering back but the half of it, yet because he did not put it to work nor bring back the entrusted sum doubled, paid the uttermost penalty.

'For if,' he says, 'I had wished them merely to be kept safe, and no further trading to be done with them, I would not have put them into the hands of servants.'

But consider for me the loving-kindness of the master.

The man entrusted with the five talents brought another five, and the man with the two brought as many again;

and each of them enjoyed the same recompense.

'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will set you over many.'

So also to the man who brought back the two he says, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will set you over many.'

The proceeds were not the same, yet the reward was the same;

for so did he deem this man too worthy of the same honor.

Why so? Because God attended not to the quantity of what was brought, but to the capacity of those who labored.

For each of them displayed what lay within his power;

and the greater abundance of what was brought by the one and the lesser amount by the other was caused, not by the sloth of that man nor by the diligence of this, but by the difference of the deposit.

The one received five and brought another five;

the other received two and brought two, and in no respect was he inferior as regards the measure of diligence.

For this one too worked the entrusted sum into double, as did that one likewise.

You have heard, then, how great a punishment lies in store for those who do not trade with the Master's treasures. Let us therefore both guard them and trade with them, and display much commerce concerning them.

'I am a layman, I am a disciple, I have no gift of teaching, being unlearned and worthy of nothing.'

For even if you are a layman, even if unlearned, even if entrusted with but one talent, work at what has been put into your hands, and you shall receive the same reward as the teacher.

But that you are guarding what has been said and holding it fast with much exactness, I am fully persuaded;

yet, that we may not spend the whole discourse on this, come, let us add for your love what follows upon the things spoken to us yesterday, rendering you this as the reward of your safekeeping.

For he who was entrusted with the former things and kept them would be worthy to receive yet others again.

What, then, was the narrative set before us yesterday? The discourse was concerning the tree, and we showed that the man knew good and evil before ever he ate of the tree, and that he was filled with much wisdom, as is evident from the fact that he gave names to the beasts, that he recognized his own wife, and that he said,

'This is now bone of my bones;'

and from the fact that he discoursed concerning marriage and child-bearing, and wedlock, and father and mother; and from the fact that he received a commandment.

For no one gives a commandment and a law of what is to be done and not to be done to one who is ignorant of good and evil.

Today it is necessary to say why, if the man did not receive the knowledge from the tree, the tree is called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil;

for it is no small thing to learn why it bears this appellation, 'tree.'

For the devil too said,

'In the day that you eat of the tree, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.'

'How, then,' someone says, 'do you say that He did not implant a knowledge of good and evil? For who, tell me, implanted it? Was it perchance the devil?' Yes, he says, in saying,

'You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.'

Then do you bring me the testimony of my enemy and the plotter against me? And yet this one said, 'You shall be as gods too;'

did they, then, actually become gods? Just as, therefore, they did not become gods, so neither did they then receive a knowledge of good and evil.

For that one is a liar, and utters nothing true.

'For he stands not in the truth,' it says.

Let us not, then, adduce the testimony of the enemy, but let us see from the very facts why the tree is called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And first, if it seems good, let us inquire what exactly good and evil are.

What, then, is good? Obedience.

And meanwhile, that we may not go astray concerning the nature of good and evil, let these things be accurately determined for us from the Scriptures.

For that this is what good and evil are, hear what the prophet says:

'What is good, and what does the Lord God seek from you?' Tell me, what is good?

'To love the Lord your God.'

Do you see that obedience is good? For obedience springs from love.

'Two evil things,' He says, 'has this My people done:'

'they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and have hewn out for themselves broken cisterns, which will not be able to hold water.'

Do you see that disobedience and forsaking are an evil thing? For the present, then, let us hold fast to this: that obedience is good and disobedience is evil; and in this way we shall come to understand that other matter as well.

For it is on this account that the tree is called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: because the commandment, which trained obedience and disobedience, was established concerning that tree.

For even before this Adam knew that obedience is good and disobedience evil;

but afterward he learned it more clearly through the very experience of the facts.

For just as Cain also knew, even before he slew his brother, that fratricide is an evil;

that he did indeed know the deed to be wicked, hear what he says:

'Come, let us go out into the field.'

And yet, for what reason do you drag your brother into the field, tearing him away from his father's embrace?

Why do you set him in a solitary place? Why do you strip him of protection? Why do you lead him far from his father's sight? Why do you hide your daring deed, if you do not fear the sin? And why, even after committing the murder, when questioned again, are you vexed and do you lie? For when God said,

'Where is Abel your brother?' you said,

'Am I my brother's keeper?' From which it is plain that he came to this deed knowing full well what he did.

So then, just as this man knew even before the experience that murder is evil, but learned it more clearly afterward as well, when he received his punishment and heard:

'Groaning and trembling shall you be upon the earth';

in the same way the father of this man also had the knowledge of good and evil even before he ate, though not so clearly as after the eating of the tree.

What do I say? For we all know evils even before we do them, but we learn them more clearly after we have done them;

and far more clearly still when we are punished.

Thus Cain too knew, even before this, that fratricide is evil;

but afterward he learned it more clearly through his chastisement;

since we too know, even before experience, that health is good and sickness burdensome;

but far more so when we fall into sickness, then we recognize the difference between the two.

In the very same way Adam too knew that obedience is good and disobedience evil;

but afterward he learned it more clearly, when, having tasted of the tree, he was cast out of paradise and fell from that blessedness.

Since, then, he fell into punishment because, though God forbade it, he tasted of the tree, the punishment instructed him more clearly through experience how great an evil it is to disobey God, and how great a good it is to obey;

for this reason the tree is called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And for what reason, if the nature of the tree itself did not possess the knowledge of good and evil, but rather man learned this more clearly from the punishment that came through the disobedience concerning the tree, is the tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Because it is the custom of Scripture, when a thing has come to pass, whether in places or in seasons, to name both the places and the seasons from those things.

And that what is said may become clearer, I will make this plain to you by an example.

Isaac once dug wells;

these wells the neighbors attempted to destroy;

from this there arose a certain enmity, and he called the well 'Enmity';

not because the well itself bore enmity, but because the enmity arose concerning it.

So too the tree is called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, not because it itself possessed knowledge, but because concerning it took place the testing of the knowledge of good and evil.

Again, Abraham dug a well, and Abimelech plotted against him;

they came together, put an end to the enmity, and, having given oaths to one another, they called that well 'the Well of the Oath';

not because the well swore, but because the oath took place concerning the well.

Do you see how it is not the places that are the causes of the events, even though they receive their names from the events? For there is great need to bring forward examples, so that what is said may become clearer.

Again, Jacob saw angels meeting him and a camp of God, and he called the place 'Camp' (Mahanaim).

And yet the place was not the camp; nevertheless the place was called 'Camp,' because there he saw the camp.

Do you see how he named the place from the thing that happened in the place? So too the tree is called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, not because it itself possessed the knowledge of good and evil, but because concerning it took place the demonstration of the knowledge of good and evil, and the training of disobedience and obedience.

Again, Jacob saw God, as far as it was possible for a man to see, and he called the name of that place 'the Vision of God' (Peniel).

And indeed the place was not the vision of God, but the appellation came from the thing that happened in the place.

Do you see by how many instances it has been demonstrated that it is the custom of Scripture

to name the places themselves from the things that happen in the places? And this same thing it is accustomed to do also in the case of seasons.

But lest we weary you, come, let us transfer our discourse from the more sombre matters to the more cheerful.

For your minds have grown weary, dwelling upon these subtler thoughts;

wherefore it is good to give it rest, letting it feed upon simpler and more cheerful thoughts.

Let us return, then, to the saving wood of the cross.

For this, this it is that has undone all the terrible things which that other tree brought in;

or rather, it was not that tree which brought in the terrible things, but man who brought them all in; all of which Christ afterward undid with great abundance, bringing in good things far greater than they.

For this very reason Paul says:

'Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound';

that is to say, the gift is greater than the trespass.

'Not as the trespass, so also is the free gift';

not in proportion to how much man sinned did God bestow His grace;

not as great as the loss, so great was the transaction;

not as great as the shipwreck, so great was the merchandise;

but the good things were more than the evils;

for the evils a servant brought in, and they were lesser;

but the good things the Master bestowed, wherefore they were also greater.

'Not as the trespass, so also is the free gift.'

Then he adds also the difference:

'For the judgment came of one unto condemnation, but the free gift is of many trespasses unto justification.'

What is said is rather obscure;

therefore it is necessary to add the explanation.

'The judgment,' that is, the chastisement, the punishment, death;

'of one,' that is, of one sin;

for one sin, he says, brought in so great an evil;

but the free gift did not loose that one sin only, but many others as well.

'But the free gift is of many trespasses unto justification.'

For this reason John the Baptist also cried out:

'Behold the Lamb of God' — not, 'who takes away the sin of Adam,' but, 'who takes away the sin of the world.'

Do you see how the free gift is not as the trespass, but this tree brought in far greater blessings than the evils introduced at the beginning? IV

But I have said these things so that you may not think you are being wronged on account of the first man.

The devil cast out Adam; Christ brought in the thief.

The one cast out the man who had no sin, but only a single stain of disobedience;

but Christ thus brought into paradise a thief who bore ten thousand loads of sins.

Is this, then, the only marvel — that He brought a thief into paradise — and nothing more? There is yet another and greater thing to say.

For He did not merely bring in a thief, but brought him in before the whole inhabited world, and before the apostles;

so that no one who comes after may despair of entering, nor lose hope of his own salvation when he sees one laden with countless evils moving about in the royal courts.

But let us see whether perhaps the thief displayed labors and good deeds and fruits.

Not even this can be said; rather, by a bare word, by faith alone, he leaped into paradise before the apostles, that you may learn that it was not so much his own gratitude that availed, as it was the Master's love for mankind that accomplished the whole.

For what did the thief say? What did he do? Did he fast? Did he weep? Did he rend his garments? Did he show repentance over a long time? By no means;

but upon the very cross, after the sentence, he obtained salvation:

from the cross to heaven, from condemnation to salvation.

What, then, were those words? How great is their power, that they brought him such blessings? 'Remember me,' he says, 'in Your kingdom.'

And what of this? He asked to receive blessings; he did not display any zeal shown through works;

but He who knew his heart attended not to the words, but to the disposition of his mind.

For those who had enjoyed the teachings of the prophets, who had seen the signs, who had beheld the miracles, said concerning Christ, 'He has a demon,' and the like;

but the thief, who had heard no prophets, who had seen no miracles, seeing Him nailed upon the cross, gave no heed to the dishonor, saw not the ignominy, but looking to His very Godhead, said, 'Remember me in Your kingdom.'

This is a new and marvelous thing.

You see a cross, and you are mindful of a kingdom? What did you see worthy of a kingdom? A crucified man, buffeted, mocked, accused, spat upon, scourged;

are these things, then, worthy of a kingdom, tell me? Do you see that he beheld with the eyes of faith, and did not scrutinize the outward appearances? For this reason neither did God examine the bare words, but just as this man looked to the Godhead, so God looked into the heart of the thief, and says:

'Today you shall be with Me in paradise.'

For no ordinary question arises here.

For the Manichaeans too, those dogs, dumb and raving, display an outward show of gentleness, but within they hold the fierce madness of dogs, and hide the wolf beneath the sheep's skin.

But do not look at the outward appearance; rather, examine the beast hidden within.

These men, then, laying hold of this passage, say:

'Verily, verily I say to you, today you shall be with Me in paradise';

therefore the recompense of blessings has already taken place, and the resurrection is superfluous.

For if on that day the thief received the blessings, but his body has not risen even to this day, then there will be no future resurrection of bodies.

Have you grasped what was said, or is it necessary to say it a second time? 'Verily, verily I say to you, today you shall be with Me in paradise.'

The thief, then, they say, entered into paradise not with his body;

for how could he, seeing that his body was not buried, nor dissolved and turned to dust? And nowhere is it said that Christ raised him up.

But if He brought in the thief, and he enjoyed the blessings apart from his body, it is plainly evident that there is no resurrection of the body.

For if there were a resurrection of the body, He would not have said:

'Today you shall be with Me in paradise,' but, 'at the time of the consummation, when there shall be a resurrection of bodies.'

But if He has already brought in the thief, while his body remained outside in corruption, it is plainly evident that there is no resurrection of bodies.

But now receive also what comes from us — or rather, not what comes from us, but what comes from the divine Scripture;

for we do not speak our own things, but the things of the Holy Spirit.

What do you say? Does the flesh not share in the crowns? But did it share in the labors, yet is defrauded of the rewards? And when it was necessary to contend, it received the greater share of the sweat;

but when the time of crowns comes, is the soul alone crowned? Do you not hear Paul saying that 'we must stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or evil'? Do you not hear him saying again:

'This mortal must put on immortality, and this corruptible must put on incorruption'? The mortal — what is it? The soul, or the body? It is plainly evident that it is the body;

for the soul is by nature immortal, but the body is by nature mortal.

But they cut away many of these passages;

yet even from the very passages left remaining we shall prove the kinship of those that were cut away.

'The thief entered into paradise,' he says.

And what of this? Are these, then, the blessings which God promises us? V

Do you not hear what Paul says concerning those blessings? 'Things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man';

but paradise both Adam's eye saw, and his ear heard, and the heart of man received;

for it is about this that we have been discoursing so many days;

how, then, did the thief receive the blessings? For God does not promise to bring us into paradise, but into heaven itself;

nor did He proclaim a kingdom of paradise, but a kingdom of the heavens.

'For He began,' it says, 'to proclaim and to say:

for it is at hand' — not the kingdom of paradise, but the [kingdom of the heavens].

For you lost paradise, but God gave you heaven, that He might both display His own love for mankind, and might bite the devil, showing that even if he should plot ten thousand things against the race of men, he shall gain nothing thereby, God ever leading us up to a greater honor.

You lost paradise, then, and God opened heaven to you;

you were condemned to a temporary toil, and were honored with eternal life.

He commanded the earth to bring forth thorns and thistles, and your soul brought forth for you the fruit of the Spirit.

Do you see how the gain is greater than the loss? How the wealth is more abundant? I mean something like this:

God formed man from earth and water, and set him in paradise.

He who was formed did not prove useful, but was perverted.

No longer, then, does He form him again from earth and water, but from water and the Spirit;

and no longer does He promise him paradise, but a kingdom of the heavens.

For when Nicodemus the ruler of the Jews had fallen away, and was seeking the birth that is here below, saying that it is impossible for an old man to be born from above, see how Christ more clearly reveals to him the manner of the birth.

'Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of the heavens.' If, then, He promised a kingdom of the heavens, but brought the thief into paradise, He has not yet rendered to him the blessings.

But they say yet something else against this.

'Paradise here,' they say, 'He did not mean paradise, but by the name of paradise He named the kingdom of the heavens.'

For since He was conversing with a thief, a man who had heard nothing of the lofty doctrines, nor knew anything about prophecy, but had spent all his time in the wilderness, and had committed murders, and had never so much as peeped into a church, nor partaken of divine instruction, nor knew what the kingdom of the heavens ever was — for this reason He said:

'Today you shall be with Me in paradise.'

By the more familiar and customary name of 'paradise' He signifies the kingdom of heaven, and it is concerning that kingdom that Christ speaks to him.

Therefore, he says, the thief entered into the kingdom of heaven.

Whence is this clear? From what Christ said: 'Today you shall be with Me in paradise.'

But if this solution seems too forced, we shall bring forward a clearer one.

What then is it? Christ said: 'He who does not believe in the Son is already condemned.'

What then? Is he already condemned? And yet the resurrection has not yet come, nor punishment and retribution;

how then is he already condemned? By reason of his sin.

And again: 'He who believes in the Son,' He says, 'has passed from death into life.'

And He did not say 'shall pass,' but 'has already passed';

and this man again by reason of his good deed, and that other again by reason of his sin.

As therefore that man is condemned though not yet being judged, and this man has passed into life though not yet having passed over — and Christ speaks to the one on the ground of his good deed and to the other on the ground of his sin, discoursing of things as already accomplished which are not yet accomplished —

so also He spoke to the thief.

For physicians too, when they see someone given up as hopeless, say that he has already died and is a corpse, even though they see him still breathing.

But just as that man, since he has no hope of recovery, is 'dead' in the eyes of the physicians,

so also the thief, since he no longer had any expectation of turning back to perdition, has entered into heaven.

So too Adam heard: 'In the day that you eat of the tree, you shall surely die.'

What then, did he die on that very day? By no means;

rather he lived nine hundred years and more after that day.

How then did God say, 'In that same day you shall die'? By the sentence pronounced, not by the actual experience.

In this same way the thief also entered into heaven.

Hear then what Paul says, making clear that no one has yet received the recompense of good things;

for discoursing concerning the prophets and the righteous, he added:

'These all died in faith, not having received the promises,'

'but having seen them from afar and greeted them, God having provided some better thing concerning us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.'

Hold fast to these things, and remember them, and teach those who have not heard;

let each one meditate upon these things both in church, and in the marketplace, and in the home.

For nothing is sweeter than the hearing of divine words.

Hear then what the Prophet says concerning this:

'How sweet are Your words to my throat, more than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth!'

Set out this honeycomb, then, upon your evening table, so as to fill it wholly with spiritual delight.

Do you not see how the wealthy among men, after their meals, bring in harpists and flute-players? They make their own house a theater; but you, make your house a heaven —

and you will do this, not by changing the walls, nor by remodeling the foundations, but by inviting the very Master of the heavens to your table.

God is not ashamed of such banquets.

For where there is spiritual teaching, there also are self-control, and dignity, and gentleness;

where husband and wife and children are, and concord and friendship, and those bound together by the bonds of virtue, there is Christ in the midst.

For He seeks not a golden roof, nor the gleam of columns, nor the beauty of marbles, but the loveliness of the soul, and the comeliness of the mind, and a table laden with righteousness and bearing the fruits of mercy.

And if He sees such a table, He quickly shares in the gathering and comes to it.

For He it is who said:

'You saw Me hungry, and you fed Me.'

When, therefore, you hear a poor man crying out loudly from below, and then from the food set before you give something to the one in need, you have invited the Master through His servant to your table, you have filled it wholly with blessings, and through this firstfruit you have prepared a mighty occasion for your storehouses to be multiplied with many good things.

And may the God of peace, who gives bread for food and seed to the sower, multiply your sowing and increase the fruits of your righteousness in you all, granting the grace that is from Him, and may He count you worthy of the kingdom of heaven;

which may it be that we all attain, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.