Homilies on Genesis 9

On how one ought to rebuke the sins of one's brethren, and that it is necessary to take forethought for their salvation; and why Abram was called Abraham; and on the name of Noah:

that the righteous were not given these names by mere chance, but by the dispensation of God.

If it were possible for you to know what has been said by us, and what has been left over, and where we brought the discourse to a close last time, and from what point it must be taken up today, I would at once have made my introduction to follow upon the sequence of what was said before.

But since many of those who heard us then are not present today, and many of those now present did not hear then, the difference in the audience makes it necessary to give an exposition of what has been said by us;

for in this way the memory of these things will be more firmly implanted also in those who have followed the discourse from the beginning, as they are again reminded of what they heard.

Nor will the harm to those who have stayed away be so great, since the discourse makes the teaching more familiar to them by taking it up again from the beginning.

And yet perhaps those who are always present might say that, for this very reason, one ought not to repeat what has already been said; so that those who stayed away, having despised the assemblies and suffered the harm in deed, might become better, being brought to their senses by the loss.

But I, for my part, commend you, that you are thus stung on behalf of the slothfulness of the brethren, and I admire your zeal;

yet I wish also to temper this zeal of yours with love for mankind.

For zeal that is stripped of pardon is not zeal but rather anger, and admonition that has no love for mankind seems to be a kind of ill will.

For this reason I rather exhort you not to judge the sins of your neighbors harshly.

For just as he who looks upon the wounds of the brethren without pardon, if ever he himself should sin, will find no one to grant him pardon;

so he who judges the transgressions of his neighbors with mercy, if ever he should be tripped up, will see many stretching out a hand to him.

And I say these things now, not wishing to increase the slothfulness of those who have stayed away, but

striving to intensify our care for them, that it may be exercised with reason and tender affection.

Since we too, on the previous day, directed many and lengthy words against them, and said that they were not even human, as you remember, setting over them as accusers two of the foremost prophets;

the one saying, 'I came, and there was no man;

I called, and there was none to answer.'

and the other, again crying out and inquiring:

'To whom shall I speak and testify? Their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hear.'

And by these and suchlike words we sharply pierced their understanding.

But now we again exhort them;

for thus also Paul commanded:

'Reprove,' he says, 'rebuke, exhort.'

For one must not always do this alone, nor that alone, but by mixing both to bring about a complete benefit.

For if we reprove continually, we make them more shameless;

and if we exhort continually, we make them more slothful.

For this reason physicians too do not only cut, but also bind up wounds;

nor do they always apply bitter remedies, but often gentle ones as well;

by the former, the earlier ones, cleansing away what is putrefied, and by the latter, the second ones, soothing the pain that comes from those.

For this reason too Paul says in another place:

'Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted.'

An excellent admonition, a complete counsel, having much care in it, displaying a father's tender heart;

truly the words are those of Paul's tongue, brethren.

Straightway, from the very name of kinship, he drew the hearer toward goodwill.

You were loosed from the same birth-pangs as he, you were nourished with the same nourishment, you had the same Father, you shared with him in the spiritual birth;

therefore show forth this kinship also in the correction of his falls.

He did not say, 'If he sin,' but he took refuge in a kind of sin that admits of pardon.

For 'if he be overtaken' means: if he be assaulted, if he be deceived, not speaking of one who has sinned from deliberate practice, but of one who is indeed eager to do right, yet is tripped up by a diabolical circumstance.

For such a one is deserving not so much of accusation as of pardon.

'Even if a man be overtaken.'

Again he took refuge in another kind of pardon—the weakness of nature, which he hinted at through the appellation.

Just as the great Job, wishing to draw pardon to himself from God, said:

'What is man, that You take account of him, and make a visitation of his sins?' So let us also do, when we plead for one of those who have sinned, continually saying, 'He is a man,' and reminding of nature, and by this drawing him who is indignant toward mercy.

For this reason Paul too took refuge in nature and its lowliness, saying, 'Even if a man be overtaken in any trespass.'

He does not simply speak of great sins, those greater than pardon and unworthy of clemency, but of small and moderate ones.

The one who has sinned is 'a man,' but those who set him right are 'spiritual.'

There he spoke the name of nature; here he set down the appellation of virtue.

And great is the interval between the man and the spiritual one.

If you are spiritual, show me your strength, not from your own salvation, but also from the salvation of me, and from the help given to those who have fallen.

For this is the mark of a spiritual man: not to overlook his own members lying neglected.

You make him, he says, unconquerable, indomitable, invincible against the devil.

'Considering yourself, lest you also be tempted.'

This is the greatest counsel, a compelling admonition.

Even if the hearer were a stone, this word is enough to frighten him and to rouse him toward the raising up of the fallen.

Do you wish, he says, to show mercy as to a brother? Do you not wish to grant pardon to one who is a man? Do you not wish, as a spiritual man, to stretch out a hand? Consider your own case, and you will not need one to counsel you to help him who is down, but from within and of yourself you will receive the exhortation.

How and in what way? 'Considering yourself,' he says, 'lest you also be tempted.'

He did not say, 'For you too will surely sin,' lest he make the word too burdensome;

but how? 'Lest at any time you too be tempted.'

Perhaps you will sin, and perhaps you will not sin.

Since, then, the future is uncertain, lay up beforehand for yourself a store of loving-kindness through the things you do toward your neighbor, so that if ever you should be overturned, you will find a great treasury of pardon laid up for you.

He did not say, 'Lest you too sin, lest you too fall;'

attend carefully to the force of his words;

but, 'Lest you too be tempted.'

He showed that we have as an enemy a pirate;

and the pirate does not have an agreed-upon time for his assault, but often sets upon us even while we are asleep and slothful;

for this reason that man who was overtaken is worthy of pardon, since he was captured by a pirate.

For the battle was not manifest to him, nor was the time of the war agreed upon, but the enemy set upon him while he was unaware, and for this reason prevailed.

Thus also do those who sail this great and spacious sea.

Even if their vessel is borne along with a fair wind, even if they enjoy all safety, should they see others far off suffering shipwreck, they do not, looking to their own well-being, despise the others' misfortune;

but bringing the ship to a stand, and letting down the anchors, and lowering the sails, they cast out ropes and throw down planks, so that he who is about to be plunged beneath the waves, laying hold of one of these, may escape the shipwreck.

Imitate, then, you also the sailors, O man;

for you too sail a great and spacious sea—the length of this present life—a sea that has beasts and pirates, a sea that has crags and reefs, a sea troubled by many waves and storms;

and many, many times, fall into shipwreck in this sea also.

Whenever, then, you see one of those sailing who, through some diabolical circumstance, has lost the wealth of his salvation, and is tossed about, and is about to sink beneath the waves, bring your ship to a stand—even if you are hastening elsewhere—provide for his salvation, laying aside your own affairs.

For he who is about to be baptized does not brook delay, nor does he tolerate any tardiness.

Stand by him quickly, therefore, snatch him swiftly from the surging waves, set every rope in motion so as to draw him up out of the depths of perdition.

Even if countless affairs drag you off, let nothing be more urgent than the salvation of him who is in distress.

For if you should wish to defer it even a little, you will betray him to the fierceness of the storm.

Wherefore in such calamities we have need of speed, of speed and of intense zeal.

Hear how Paul makes haste, and rouses up many others, when he saw a certain man about to be engulfed.

'Confirm your love toward him,' he says, 'lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up by too much sorrow.'

For this reason he bids us stretch out a hand quickly, that, while we are delaying and putting it off, that man may not first be swallowed up.

Let us therefore become careful and solicitous concerning our brethren.

This is the chief point of our way of life, this is its mark: not to look only to our own affairs, but also to set right and to mend the distorted members among us.

This is the greatest proof of faith.

'For by this,' He says, 'shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.'

But genuine love is shown not by fellowship at table, nor by a bare greeting, nor by flattering words, but by setting right and considering the advantage of one's neighbor, by raising up him who has fallen, by stretching out a hand to him who lies prostrate and has neglected his own salvation, and by seeking the good of one's neighbor before one's own goods.

It does not look to its own, but before its own it sees the things of its neighbor, that through those it may see its own.

Since I too now am not stretching out so many words for my own sake, but for yours.

You also, therefore, hear not only for your own sakes, but also for the sake of others who are to be instructed by you.

For it is according to the mutual order of the members that the body of the Church also is nourished.

Just as a member, if it retains all the nourishment for itself and does not impart it to its neighbor, both injures itself and corrupts the rest of the body;

as the stomach, if it alone retains the food, wastes away the rest of the body with famine and destroys itself by immoderation;

but if, having taken what suffices according to the natural order, it passes the rest on to the other members, it keeps both itself and the rest of the body in health;

so you too now, if, having heard the things from us, you retain them and do not impart them to another, you have both damaged that other and destroyed yourself, drawing upon yourself most grievous diseases, sluggishness and envy.

For either through wickedness, or through idleness and sloth, we fail to impart to others.

But whichever of these it may be, it is enough to destroy the one who has it.

But if you pass on the nourishment ungrudgingly to others as well, you have benefited both yourself and that other.

But concerning these matters what has been said suffices.

It remains now to come to the sequel of the things said before.

What then were those things? We were then inquiring concerning Saul and Paul, why at one time he was called Saul, and at another Paul;

then we departed from this sequel into a lengthy history of names.

And since we had departed from them, it did not seem to us worthy to pass by that merchandise.

For even if it was on account of Paul that we came upon this subject, nevertheless we resolved also to trade in the finding out of the other names.

Even so do those who sail the sea for trade often act, when they have put in for the business of but a few wares;

when, having come to the city to which they were bound, they see it having an abundance of other cargoes as well, they make their trade much greater than the one they had prepared for.

And if anyone should reproach them, they speak these words:

'We came a long way,' they say, 'we endured many storms, many dangers, we set out on a voyage across the sea;

what then hinders our business from becoming more abundant?' These very things let us also plead in our defense.

For we too, while inquiring concerning the names of Paul, found from the sequel yet another traffic of names, such as that Peter was called Simon before this, and that the sons of Zebedee, James and John, were named sons of thunder.

We found also in the Old Testament that Abraham was before this called Abram, but afterward Abraham, and that Jacob was renamed Israel, and Sarah was called Sarai.

We found, besides these, that certain others were not renamed, as these were, but received their names from the beginning, such as John the Baptist, as Isaac, as Adam.

It seemed to us therefore absurd and a mark of the utmost stupidity to cast away from our hands so great a treasure.

For this reason we have made our discourse longer, and having spoken formerly concerning those named from the beginning, today we purpose to speak concerning those of double name, how Abraham is one and the same.

For Adam was called by this name throughout, and had no other;

and Isaac likewise received no second appellation, but from beginning to end was called Isaac;

but the father of Isaac was called Abram before this;

'For God said to him,' it says, 'Your name shall no longer be Abram, but Abraham shall your name be called.'

For indeed he was called Abram formerly, but this name is not Greek, nor is it so spoken in our tongue, but in that of the Hebrews.

What then is this name when interpreted? 'One who crosses over.'

For 'Abram' in the tongue of the Syrians means 'the beyond,' and those who are versed in this tongue know it.

For the tongue of the Syrians has kinship with the language of the Hebrews.

And why was he called 'one who crosses over,' you ask? The land of Judea, that is, all Palestine, which stretches from Egypt to the Euphrates, lies over against Babylonia, whence Abraham came;

and the river flows midway through both, being a common boundary of each land.

Since therefore he was not from Palestine, but came from beyond, from Babylonia, for this reason he took his name from the place and from the deed, and was called 'one who crosses over,' because he came from beyond.

And why did he come from beyond? Because God commanded.

And why did God command? That He might display the obedience of the righteous man.

And how did He display the obedience of the righteous man? In that, on account of His command, he left his own land and exchanged for it the foreign land.

Do you see how great a chain is woven from the appellation of the righteous man? This name has opened up for us a whole sea of history.

Learn therefore his ancient name, so that when you see him dwelling in Palestine, being led by his appellation back to his original homeland, and learning the reason for which he forsook it, you may receive sufficient exhortation toward the same zeal.

For being a man before the Law and before the way of life under the Law, he displayed the philosophy that is according to grace, and that which Christ later said to the apostles:

'Verily I say unto you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, who shall not receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life';

this that man did by his works before grace.

And it is possible to see the philosophy of the righteous man not from this alone, but also from the very promise of God.

'For come hither,' He says, 'into the land which I will show you.'

For even if both homelands were perceptible to the senses, yet the one was his own, the other foreign;

and the one was manifest, the other unseen;

and the one was in his hands, the other in his hopes;

and nevertheless, forsaking the things manifest and clear and in his hands, he ran toward the things unseen and uncertain, and of which he was not lord, that He might persuade and instruct you, whenever God bids you forsake the things that are clear and to look toward the things unseen, not to gainsay nor to dispute.

For the things in our hands are not so clear as those in our hopes;

the present life is not so clear as that life which is to come.

For this one we see with our own eyes, but that one we see with the eyes of faith;

this one we see lying in our hands, but that one we see kept safe also in the promises of God.

But the promises of God are far mightier than our hands.

Do you wish to learn how this present life ever lies in uncertainty, while that life to come, which seems to be uncertain, is in fact more manifest than the present, more secure, and abiding? Let us examine, if you please, the splendid things of the present life: wealth, glory, dominion, the honors that come from men;

and you will see that nothing is more uncertain than these.

For what is more faithless than wealth, which oftentimes does not even remain with us until evening? For like an ungrateful runaway slave, it shifts continually from this man to that, and again from him to another.

Such too is glory.

For the man who was but lately splendid and distinguished suddenly becomes dishonored and nameless.

And just as it is impossible to see a continually turning wheel resting upon the same part of its rim;

for by the rapid whirl of its spinning, the upper parts are ever brought down, and again the reverse;

so too the course of our affairs, ever revolving, turns the upper things downward;

so it is with wealth, with dominion, and with all other things.

Never does it stand upon the same seat, but it imitates the streams of rivers, which nowhere ever stand still.

What then could be more uncertain than these things, which are so continually changing, and fly away before they even appear, and leap off before they arrive?

For this reason the prophet also, discoursing on luxury and wealth and such things, and mocking those who gape after them as though they endured, says:

They counted these things as standing firm, and not as fleeting.

He did not say, not as passing away, but what is far greater, As fleeting;

for it does not withdraw gently, but with great speed.

But the patriarch was not so; rather, forsaking all these things, he looked only to the promises that came from God, thereby preparing for us the way to faith in things to come, so that, whenever God promises you the things that are to be and are not seen, you may not say that those things are uncertain and invisible.

For those unseen things are clearer than these visible ones, if only we have the eyes of faith.

For even if we have not seen them, yet God has promised them and given His pledge.

When God promises, no change can touch His pledges;

so that those things above all abide and stand fast in the hand of God.

For no one is able to snatch out of the hand of God, He says.

No one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.

Since, then, no one is able to snatch out of the hand of God, it abides forever in a sure treasury.

But these present things are subject to all manner of changes and turns;

for this reason we often endure the toil of them, yet are deprived of their end.

But with those hopes this cannot happen; rather, he who has labored must by all means also attain the crowns.

For hope does not put to shame.

For it is God's pledge, and the gifts imitate the One who has pledged them.

Forsaking, therefore, the uncertain things, lay hold of those that are made manifest;

for the things made manifest are not the present things, but those to come.

But if some, being agitated over present things, despise the things to come, it is because they are too weak for the loftiness of that hope; for this reason they despise them, not because these things are invisible and uncertain.

Consider, at any rate, the philosophy of the righteous man.

God promised him things perceptible to the senses, yet he himself sought the things of the mind.

And where did God promise him things perceptible to the senses, while he himself desired things of the mind? Go forth, He says, out of your land, and out of your kindred, and out of your father's house, and come into a land which I will show you.

Perceptible to the senses was both the former land and that which was to be given afterward.

What then did he do? Or rather, let us not hear from him, but from Paul speaking about him, that we may learn that he did not look to this land, even though God had promised it, but forsaking present things, gaped after those to come.

What then does Paul say? These all died in faith—speaking of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the righteous.

For not Abraham alone, but all were partakers of the same philosophy.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them from afar.

What are you saying? Did Abraham not receive the promises, nor come into Palestine? Are the things spoken then a falsehood? Not at all, he says.

For he did indeed come into Palestine, yet he did not look to this promise, but longed for another, that which is in the heavens, and he reckoned himself a stranger to all present things.

This too Paul added, bearing witness to him:

And confessing that they were strangers and sojourners.

Is he a stranger, tell me, who received a fatherland and so great a country? Yes, he says;

for he looked not to this, but to heaven.

For those who say such things make it plain that they seek another fatherland, whose craftsman and maker is God—that heavenly Jerusalem, the one above.

Do you see how God promised him things perceptible to the senses, and how he sought the Jerusalem above? For those who say such things, he says, make it plain that they seek a fatherland.

And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they came out, they would have had opportunity to return;

but now they reach out for another, a better one, that is to say, a heavenly one.

Therefore the promise was perceptible to the senses, but the desire of the righteous man was of the mind—the very opposite of us.

For to him God promised Palestine, but he looked about for heaven;

He promises heaven, and we gape after the earth.

These things we have gained from the name of Abraham, having learned why he was called 'the one who crossed over,' and that forsaking his own land he passed over to a foreign one; and that, passing by things visible, he looked to things unseen; that casting away the things in his hands, he gaped after the things held in hope; and that, receiving things perceptible to the senses, he lifted himself up toward the things of the mind—and this before grace, before the Law, before the teaching that comes from the prophets.

Whence it is plain that he had no teacher, but nature sufficed for him, stirring up the reasonings of conscience, and thus he found God, the Maker of the universe;

for this reason he was called Abram, for this reason too his parents gave him this name.

But perhaps someone might say that this is false.

For were the parents of Abraham righteous? Were they well-pleasing to God? Did they know the things that were to come? Did they foresee the promise that was to be spoken by the Master? Were they not impious and idolaters, the most barbarous of barbarians? I too know this, and for this very reason I praise the righteous man, that having such fathers, he himself became such a man as he was.

And this is the marvelous and paradoxical thing, that from an alien and wild root there was borne a cultivated fruit.

For the wickedness of the fathers is no accusation against children who live in piety; rather, if one must say something marvelous, it is even an occasion for praise, that not having received piety from their forebears, nor having any to lead them by the hand, but as though journeying in a desert and trackless place, they were able to find the road that leads to heaven.

It is no accusation, then, to have an impious father, but to imitate the impiety of the father;

and it is a very great charge, not when we have wicked parents,

but when we take no care for them, and do not bring in all that is in our power to deliver them from this wickedness.

So that whenever we for our part show every diligence concerning their soul, yet they remain in their own wickedness, we are freed from all blame and cause.

But I have said these things, beloved, so that you may not be ashamed when you hear that Abraham had an impious father.

For Timothy too had an impious father;

For he was the son of a Jewish woman, it says, of a believing mother, but of a Greek father.

And that the father remained in impiety and was not changed is plain from this;

for praising the faith of Timothy, Paul speaks thus:

which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois, and in your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that it dwells in you also.

And nowhere is the name of the father mentioned.

Why so? Because he remained in his impiety, he was not worthy to be numbered together with the child.

The apostles too had wicked fathers, and Christ made this plain when He said:

'If I by Beelzebul cast out the demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.'

But let not this disturb you, nor cause you to stumble.

For from this very thing we learn that wickedness and virtue belong not to nature, but to the will.

For if it were a matter of nature, then the wicked would surely beget the wicked, and the good beget the good;

but since being base or being earnest is a matter of the will, therefore even from wicked fathers there have arisen good children, and often earnest fathers have had slothful children, so that everywhere we may reckon both these things not to nature but to the mind's choice.

But, as I was saying, if Abraham's parents were impious, how did they impose this name upon him? This too was above all a work of God's wisdom, who so arranged it that through an unbelieving tongue a name should be imposed which contained the history of things to come.

For God once even compelled Balaam to foretell things to come, displaying His own power and showing that He is able to prevail not only among His own, but also among strangers.

And that you may learn that in the case of the righteous, even when their fathers are not godly, they often, without knowing it, impose names that signify much of the dispensation of things to come, I will make this plain to you from yet another example.

The father of that Noah in whose days the Flood came was named Noah; he was not righteous, he was not well-pleasing to God, he was not approved by God;

for if he had been righteous, if he had been well-pleasing, if he had been approved by God, it would not have been said that 'Noah alone was found perfect in his generation';

Scripture would not have passed over the father of the righteous man, if he too had been righteous.

What then did that man do? He imposed upon the child a name that contained much of the history of things to come, and the very naming of the righteous man was itself a prophecy.

For this name signified the Flood that was to come.

And how did the name of Noah signify the Flood that was to be? This name 'Noah' is spoken in the Hebrew tongue and is interpreted 'he who gives rest.'

For 'Nia' in the language of the Syrians is 'rest.'

Just as there, from 'Abar,' which means 'beyond,' he was called Abraham, and from 'Aidem,' which means 'earth,' he was called Adam, which means 'earthy';

so also here, from 'Nia,' which means 'rest,' he was called Noah, which means 'he who gives rest.' And the sequel makes this plain as well.

For he called him Noah, saying:

'This one shall give us rest,' calling the Flood 'rest.'

For since the Flood was to come in his days, and the Flood was death, and 'death is rest for a man,' therefore he called the man in whose days the Flood came 'he who gives rest.'

And that I am not forcing the interpretation, let us hear this from Scripture itself.

'Lamech lived a hundred and eighty-eight years, and begot a son, and called his name Noah, saying:'

'This one shall give us rest from our labors and our sorrows, and from the works of our hands, and from the earth which God has cursed.'

What do you say? 'He shall give us rest'? And why, one asks, did he not say, 'This one shall slay us, this one shall cause the Flood to come to pass';

but instead said, 'He shall give us rest'? The whole creation was thrown back into chaos, the deeps were burst open from below, the floodgates were opened from above, everything was a strange and marvelous and dreadful sea, and in one common grave, in the mire, both the bodies of men and the bodies of horses and of beasts were hidden;

and so many evils, tell me, and so great a calamity—do you call this 'rest'? 'Yes,' he says.

For since men were living in wickedness, and the Flood cut short their wickedness, those who were delivered from wickedness were given rest.

For just as a body held fast by manifold diseases, and finding no cure, when death comes and takes it, is given rest;

so also that generation of those men, being like a body sick with incurable diseases and beset by many terrors past all comfort, the Flood, coming upon it, snatched it away and gave it rest.

For if 'death is rest for a man,' much more is death a rest for those living in wickedness without amendment, freeing them from their toils, and not permitting the spread of their wickedness to advance further, nor the burden of their sins to become heavier than it already is.

For nothing is so heavy and hard to bear as the nature of sin;

nothing so gives us weariness and toil as the form of wickedness and our transgressions.

Therefore Christ said to those living in sins:

'Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'

For this reason Lamech too called the Flood 'rest,' since it came and put a stop to their wickedness.

I could wish to extend this discourse further;

for much still remains concerning the name of Noah;

but for the present, having laid these things up in the memory of your minds, and having repeated them to our brethren who have been left behind—so that we may not again be compelled to make our introductions longer—let us take up the sequence of what has been said, and bring our discourse to a close in prayers, giving thanks to God who has granted us to speak these things; for to Him be the glory, unto the ages of ages.