Commentary on the Psalms 9

'For the end, concerning the winepresses.'

Another version: 'A song of victory, concerning the winepresses.'

Another version: 'To the giver of victory, concerning the Gittite instrument.'

But the Hebrew has: 'Lamanasse, al haggittith.'

'O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is Thy name in all the earth!'

Another version: 'How great is Thy name!'

In the psalm before this one he had said:

'I will give thanks to the Lord according to His righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High';

here he fulfils that promise, offering up a hymn to Him.

And in that psalm the things said are as from a single person;

for it says, 'O Lord my God, in Thee have I hoped; save me.'

But here it says, 'O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is Thy name.'

But keep silence, and listen with exactness.

For if in a theatre, when satanic choirs are singing, there is deep stillness so that men may take in those pernicious strains;

and this too when the choir is made up of mimes and dancers, when the one leading the chorus among them is some profane person and harper, when the song is satanic and pernicious, and the one being sung of is a foul and wicked demon;

then here, where the choir is of holy men, and the leader of the chorus is the Prophet, and the song is not from satanic working but from the grace of the Spirit,

and the one being sung of is not a demon but God—

ought we not to keep stillness, and to listen with awe? For indeed we have become fellow-choristers with the powers on high.

For indeed the choirs on high, and the Cherubim and the Seraphim, have this as their work: to hymn God without ceasing.

It was from among these choirs that they appeared also upon the earth, singing together with the shepherds who were keeping watch in the fields.

Let us then give ear to this song as well.

Now those who hymn an earthly king discourse to him about his rule, about his trophies, about his victory; and they name the nations that have been vanquished, calling the kings sackers of cities and conquerors of barbarians, and all such things.

Some such song this blessed one also sings.

For he too recounts a victory and a trophy and the ending of wars—not wars of that kind, but of a far more grievous sort.

For to the others, who do not believe in Him, He is Lord in one way only; but to us in a twofold way:

both in that He made us out of things that were not, and in that He has been known by us.

And observe how, at the very outset, he sets forth the crowning point of the benefit.

For if you learn how He became your Lord—that He took to Himself and gave life to those who were estranged and dead and had become as corpses—you will see well that this is the crowning point of the benefit.

Marvelling then at this, the Prophet says:

How wonderful is Your name!

that is, exceedingly wonderful.

But how wonderful it is, he did not say;

for neither was he able to measure it, but he presented its intensity and its surpassing greatness.

Where now are those who pry curiously into the essence of God? For if, merely on naming His name, he so marvelled as to be struck with amazement,

what pardon could those have who say that they know His very essence, when the Prophet was not able even to learn how wonderful His name is? How wonderful is Your name!

For in this name death was undone, demons were bound, heaven was opened, the gates of paradise were flung wide, the Spirit was sent down, slaves became free, enemies became sons, strangers became heirs, men became angels.

Why do I say angels? God became man, and man God;

heaven received the nature that is from the earth;

the earth received Him who sits upon the Cherubim together with the angelic host.

The middle wall was taken away, the fence was broken down, the things that stood apart were united, the darkness was quenched, the light shone forth, death was swallowed up.

Pondering all these things, and more than these, the Prophet cried aloud, saying:

How wonderful is Your name in all the earth!

Where now are the children of the Jews, who are shameless in the face of the truth? For gladly would I ask them, concerning whom these things are spoken.

Concerning the Almighty, they will say.

But His name was not wonderful in all the earth.

And Isaiah bears witness, saying:

Because of you My name is blasphemed among the nations.

And if those who worshipped Him became a cause of His being blasphemed, where was there anything wonderful? That in its nature it was wonderful is plain;

but among men at that time it was not wonderful to the greater number, but even despised.

But when the only-begotten Son came, everywhere His name became wonderful together with the Christ.

From the rising of the sun, He says, even to its setting, My name has been glorified among the nations.

In every place incense is offered to My name, and a pure sacrifice.

The whole earth was filled with the knowledge of the Lord.

False idols did our fathers acquire.

Do you see that all the things that have been said are concerning the Son? For it was His name that became wonderful in all the earth.

Because Your magnificence was exalted above the heavens.

Another version has: You who set Your praise above the heavens.

For since he had made mention of the earth, he transfers his discourse also to heaven:

This is what he is always accustomed to do, showing the whole inhabited world praising its own Master.

Pointing this out, he says: Wonderful below, wonderful above.

For not only men, but angels also hymn the things that have come to pass, and give thanks for the benefits bestowed upon men;

which indeed they did from the very beginning, setting up a choir upon the earth.

Either, then, he means this, that the angels also sing, or he wishes to set forth his greatness.

For whenever Scripture wishes to say something great, it brings into the midst the distances of these elements;

According to the height of heaven from the earth.

As far as the east is distant from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Here, then, he is astonished at the things that have come to pass, at how great they are.

For he set the substance that was lower than all things above all things.

Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have perfected praise.

Another version: Out of the mouth of babes you have established strength.

And what he means is this: that from this above all you have displayed your might, setting in motion your invincible power, and making distinct unto that doxology the tongue that could but stammer.

For the hymn-singing of the children which took place in the temple, this he now foretells in advance.

And why in the world, passing over the other miracles—the raising of the dead, the cleansing of lepers, the driving out of demons—does he make mention of the miracle of the children? Because those others had happened even before this, and though not in the same manner, yet they had happened, and they had a certain kinship with the past, even if not in the same fashion.

For indeed a dead man was raised in the time of Elisha, and a leper was cleansed, and a demon was driven out in the time of David, when Saul was possessed by a demon;

but a choir of nursing infants uttered voice then for the first time.

So that the Jew might not act shamelessly, saying that these things had been spoken concerning the events of the Old Testament, he singled out a sign then happening for the first and only time.

In another way too, the things that happened were a type of the apostles;

for these men also, being utterly like infants, and more voiceless than the very fish, ensnared the whole inhabited world as with a net.

And that this is especially the power of God, observe the prophet saying this in the Old Testament also concerning his Father.

For conversing with Moses, he says:

Who made the hard of hearing, and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? And again:

Giving clear tongues to those who stammer.

The Lord gives me a tongue of instruction, that I may know when it is fitting to speak a word.

Come, let us go down and confound their tongues.

Great, therefore, and mighty is the demonstration.

For in the case of the other miracles, even though unreasonably, they nevertheless in their shamelessness suspected that someone was at work;

but here they had nothing to say, since nature itself, bare and by itself, was contending.

For this very reason he did not say simply, 'Of infants,' lest anyone should suppose that he meant the guileless and the more simple-minded;

but he added, 'And of nursing babes,' by the added mention of the breast marking out the age.

For he does not say simply, 'Of infants,' but 'of those at the breast,' of those who have never yet partaken of solid food.

This, then, is not the only wonder, that they sent forth a voice, and a distinct voice, but that it was also laden with countless good things.

For the very things which the apostles did not yet know, these children were hymning.

From this he also hints at something further: that those who come to the doctrines must become children in their understanding.

For unless anyone receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child, he says, he cannot enter into it.

He states also the reason for which this miracle came to pass;

for the other miracles took place not for the sake of the enemies, but so that those who drew near might enjoy the benefit, and that others might be instructed.

But this took place not for that reason only, but also so that the enemies might be put to silence;

whom another prophet also, declaring them more precisely, mentions, saying:

For it was they who had bound Him and were leading Him away to the cross.

That Thou mightest destroy the enemy and the avenger.

So as to bring the enemy to an end, and him who takes vengeance on his own behalf—here meaning the Jewish people.

For they drove out Christ as an enemy, yet pretended to be avenging the Father.

For this reason, stripping them of this excuse, He said:

He that hateth Me hateth My Father also.

He that believeth in Me believeth in Him that sent Me.

everywhere and at every turn joining the Father to the honour and the insult shown to Himself.

And mark the precision of the Prophet.

He did not say, 'That Thou mightest punish,' but, 'That Thou mightest destroy.'

which the other translator sets forth more plainly, saying, 'That Thou mightest bring to an end,'—that is, to do away with their shamelessness, not to instruct them.

Beholding such a wonder, then, and having nothing to say in reply, they turned upon Him, saying:

Hearest Thou not what these say? Whereas they ought thereupon to have worshipped and marvelled, they were instead in great perplexity; and though each ought to have said to his neighbour, 'Hearest thou not what these say?', they instead, giving themselves over to their hostility against Christ, said:

And for what reason was it not an angel's voice that was brought forth? Because that would have seemed to them to be a mere phantasm;

but against this they had nothing to say in reply.

And what did the children say? Nothing burdensome, nor grievous, nor apt to wound them, but rather something that declared His concord with the Father.

Blessed, they said, is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.

At that time, then, He put an end to their shamelessness; but afterwards again, and there is no part of the world that is untouched by the calamities of the Jews;

but like a maimed body, it is dispersed everywhere, displaying its wounds;

and just as the judges, when they have executed many of the murderers, impale one of them, so that even after their death, as though the calamity had just newly occurred, it may sober the living;

so indeed also here He made them, not dead but living, an example to all, by scattering them abroad;

and they who once inhabited a single land are now scattered everywhere over the earth.

And should you inquire the cause, you will find no other, save only their crucifying of Christ.

For why, tell me, did this not happen in such a way before? Or even if it did happen at some time, they were set apart into a single nation, and for but a few years;

but now it is not so, rather they are punished without end.

And should you ask them, 'Why did you crucify Christ?' they say, 'As being a deceiver and a sorcerer.'

Then surely for this you ought to have been honoured, and to have gained yet more territory, as having pleased God.

For he who slays a deceiver and a sorcerer and an adversary of God has slain an enemy of God;

and he who has slain an enemy would justly be held in good repute.

But now Phinehas, in order to slay a single harlot, was so highly approved by God that he was even counted worthy of the priesthood, and of so great an honour;

yet you, who ought to have been held in far greater repute than he—if indeed you slew a deceiver—wander about everywhere as vagabonds and men without a city.

So that you have suffered these things for no other reason than that you crucified your protector and benefactor and teacher of the truth.

For if He were a deceiver and an adversary of God, and, not being God, wished to be God, and drew to Himself the reverence due to the Father, then you ought to have been held in greater repute than Phinehas and Samuel and all those others, seeing that you were so zealous on behalf of the Law.

But now, the things which you never suffered when you worshipped idols, when you acted impiously, when you slaughtered your children—these very things you suffer now, and there is no release from your troubles; and as vagabonds and fugitives and wanderers, enslaved to the laws of the Romans, you traverse land and sea, exiles and men without a city, homeless and reduced to bondage, cast out from freedom and fatherland and priesthood and all your former possessions, scattered among barbarians and countless nations, hated by all men, abominable, and set before everyone to be evilly entreated.

for you did not receive the rewards, seeing that you slaughtered the enemy of God;

For what you now suffer belongs not to those who slay the enemies of God, but to those who make away with His friends.

'But, good sir, we do not say these things,' they reply.

Do you now confess, you disobedient ones? And confess what sins? Tell me.

For is it now for the first time that you have sinned? Nay, now indeed you have become even more reasonable.

but this I would ask of you:

For what reason, when you were always sinning, did you formerly meet with loving-kindness from God, but now no longer? And—what is yet more astonishing—now, though you sin less? For at that time you were initiated even to Baal-peor, and you worshipped the calf, and you slaughtered your sons, and you slew your daughters, and this while enjoying miraculous signs;

but now, though you see no sea being parted, no rock being cleft, no prophets arriving, and though you enjoy none of your accustomed providence, you nevertheless display a greater uprightness—

why then, when both your sins are fewer and your self-restraint is greater, is the chastisement and the punishment greater? Is it not plain even to the utterly senseless that it is because your present sin is greater? For so long as you were sinning against fellow-servants, you obtained pardon, even while slaying and stoning the prophets;

but when you stretched out your hands against the Master, the wound thereafter became incurable for you.

Therefore four hundred years have now passed, since the very ground of the city was made to vanish, the priesthood was abolished, the kingship was dissolved, the affairs of the tribes were thrown into confusion, all those august and splendid things were made to vanish, and not even a trace of them remains among you;

But in the beginning, even when the temple was cast down, the prophets remained with you, and the supplies of the Spirit, and wonders;

but now, that you may clearly learn that God has turned Himself away from you perpetually, these things too have been taken away;

and slavery, and captivity, and a falling from all things has overtaken you, and—harshest of all—the forsaking by God.

And God has done the very same as if a man should take a thankless slave who had often been scourged and yet not amended, strip him of his garments, and let him wander naked, destitute, a vagabond, begging and driven away everywhere.

But formerly your circumstances were not of this kind; rather, you had prophets among you—both in Egypt, and in Babylon, and in the wilderness;

Moses in Egypt, in Babylon Daniel and Ezekiel, and again in Egypt Jeremiah;

and wonders upon wonders, and the nation grew more resplendent, since your captive kings became more exalted than their captors.

But now all those things are gone, and the punishment is harsher than the former ones, not only in the length of time, but also in the great abandonment.

For what reason, then, tell me, when you were sinning more grievously, did you enjoy so great a providence,

yet when, as you say, you were even zealous for the law, you suffered worse things? For on this ground you convict God of injustice, that He honoured you while you were sinning, but dishonoured you while you were doing right.

For if you did away with a deceiver, as you say, and acted rightly—

then, if God is just—as indeed He is just—He ought to have honoured you, not chastised you;

but if He chastises, it is plain that your present sins are more grievous.

And if you are now neither impious nor sacrificing your children, as before this time, what other sin is there on account of which you have suffered worse things? Or is it not plain that the audacity of the cross is the crowning-point of your evils? This has destroyed you more than idolatry, and the making of the calf, and the slaying of children.

For it is not the same thing to slaughter one's own son and to crucify one's own Master.

For this reason, when you were slaughtering your sons, you enjoyed loving-kindness;

but when you slew the Son of God, who is also your Master, thereafter you are chastised without hope of pardon.

How many years are there from the exodus out of Egypt until the coming of Christ? I think there are fifteen hundred and more.

How is it, then, that throughout all these years He bore with you as you sinned, but now has cast you off, at the very time when He ought rather to have crowned you, even had you sinned much? For your right deed, if indeed you slew a deceiver, was very great indeed.

And along with this you also think you now keep the sabbaths, and do not

worship idols, and you contend earnestly to keep the other observances.

When, therefore, both your manner of life is better and your right conduct, as you say, is so great, then it is that you suffer the uttermost.

What could be worse than this madness? What worse than this folly, that, wishing to defend yourselves on your own behalf, you blaspheme against God? For if the sin against Christ is not greater than all those, but is rather, as you say, a righteous act and a good deed, why on earth does He chastise you when you do right, yet spared you when you were sinning? For not God, but not even any man whatsoever who has a mind would bear to do such a thing.

But what do they say to this? We were cast off, they say, that we might become teachers of the whole world.

This is nonsense and idle chatter.

For those who are to be teachers must themselves first have set their own lives right, and then be sent out to this task—

such as the prophets were, and the apostles.

But when they themselves are perverted and full of every wickedness, how could they ever be sent forth to teach? Let us see, then, what sort their life was even before this.

For we shall find that they were more savage than wild beasts.

For they became patricides, and child-slayers, and idolaters, and covetous men;

and of these things the prophecies are full.

And declaring your lasciviousness, Jeremiah said:

They became like frenzied stallions;

each one neighed after his neighbour's wife.

What could be worse than this uncleanness? For they consorted with one another's wives not as men do;

For this reason he also called their madness a neighing.

And it is not fornication alone that he charges them with, but adultery as well, and this committed without restraint, just as among the brute beasts.

And another prophet says:

They went in to the woman, setting up hangings; son and father went in to the same maidservant.

For this reason, then, tell me, did he send you as teachers, that we might learn acts of fornication and adultery, and that father and son must share the same bed? And what of Ezekiel? 'You have not done even according to the customs of the nations,' he says.

Did he then send as teachers these men who were worse than the nations? Tell me.

And who could endure their bloody deeds? For they slaughtered their sons and daughters to demons, and burned them.

David also shows this, saying:

And they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.

Was it for these things, then, that he sent them, that human nature might learn this—that one must slaughter sons and daughters? Are you not ashamed, do you not hide your faces, in composing such nonsense? For yet another says:

They mingle blood upon blood;

and cursing, and lying, and theft, and murder, and adultery are poured out upon the land.

And another, that 'You had the countenance of a harlot; you were shameless toward all.' And yet another again:

Your rulers are like the wolves of Arabia.

There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God.

They have all turned aside, together they have become worthless.

Was it these things, then, that you went out teaching—shamelessness, folly, fornication, adulteries, murders, every path of wickedness? Do you not cease to force us to parade your evils? You who are lifted up from the womb, and instructed even to old age;

you who are blind, and who cast one another into the pit;

'For if the blind lead the blind,' he says, 'both shall fall into a pit.'

You who enjoyed the prophets every day, yet never became any better, were you about to be teachers of others? Do you not cease from such nonsense, and will you not come to know your own wickedness? For this is what has always destroyed you: your unwillingness to know even the ground of your own sins.

For this very reason—just as the judges do, when they order those who are being scourged to be followed by heralds who cry out and declare the causes of the lashes: 'no thieves, no robbers'—

even so did God also, when he everywhere paraded you in disgrace, command the prophets to follow you, declaring the cause of the punishment.

For everywhere throughout the inhabited world they are bound together with you, even to this very day.

And if you enter into the synagogues, you will hear them continually reciting these very words.

And David, on the one hand, describing that robber-tribunal of Caiaphas, says:

For having said, 'Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yoke from us,' he added:

Then shall he speak to them in his wrath, and in his fury shall he trouble them.

And Isaiah, having said, 'As a sheep he was led to the slaughter,' added:

And I will give the wicked in exchange for his burial, and the rich in exchange for his death;

and again, in another place, discoursing concerning the vineyard:

I waited that it should do righteousness, but it wrought iniquity, and not righteousness, but a cry.

And what kind of cry? 'Crucify him, crucify him.'

Therefore I will pull down its hedge, and it shall be for trampling;

and I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

It was not for this cause, therefore, that you were scattered, but because of the things that were dared at the cross;

and this is plain from the prophets.

And that you may learn the power of Christ, and that you may be taught through your own selves the very things you were not instructed in through the prophets, look then at the very facts bearing witness.

For what the law instructed you in, that the power of Christ accomplished in overflowing abundance.

For as long as you had the law, you both committed murder, and slew your children, and committed adultery;

but when the Sun of righteousness shone forth, many of your evils were diminished, and you came to lead a more moderate life, being set right through your zeal toward us.

For this reason He scattered you abroad, that you might know how great a commonwealth He had planted upon the earth;

and He dissolved the temple, leading you away, even against your will, from wickedness.

And in the very place where the temple was destroyed, there also Christ was buried, so that as they pass by His tomb they might behold the trophy of His power, and the word standing firm which says:

'There shall not be left here one stone upon another.'

For everywhere are His trophies, and the memorials of His power.

But if, as you say, He was impious and an adversary of God, then even had you sinned ten thousand times, not even so ought you to have been punished;

so that no one might suppose that you were paying the penalty on His account.

Or have you not heard God saying, when you were in captivity, 'Not for your sakes do I act, but for My own sake, that My name be not profaned'? And yet at that time your wickedness was at its height.

'But nevertheless,' He says, 'that the barbarians may not think Me weak, I pass over your sins, and I save you.'

Then, at that time, He saved them though they transgressed the law, that His name might not be profaned;

but now would He not have done the same? For even if you had sinned ten thousand times, you ought to have suffered no such thing, if indeed Christ was a deceiver, so that no one might think you had suffered these things on His account; rather you ought even to have been saved;

but if indeed you had to suffer, then, as I said before, not at that moment.

Yet now these things have happened together at once.

For when the cross went forward, a little afterward the apostles went out, and immediately a grievous war was kindled against that city;

and that saying in the Gospels, 'Woe to those who are nursing infants and to those who are with child,' and all those things came to pass in actual deed;

and the saying, 'Then shall be tribulation such as has never been,' was being fulfilled.

For indeed women ate their own children, and the enemy ripped open the wombs of the dead, and barbarian fire was distributed everywhere, and all things were full of blood, and there were strange tragedies, and the whole inhabited world was filled with the calamities of the Jews.

Considering these things, then, come to know your Master.

Did you not slay the prophets? Did you suffer anything of this kind? Did you not raze the altars? Did any such calamity befall you? Did you not worship the calf, and were you not initiated into Baal-Peor, and did you not deny your very nature? Did you undergo any experience of such enemies? Were you not saved, thankless as you were, in the very midst of the benefits shown you? Whence, then, come these unending evils upon you? Is it not perfectly plain that, because the sin was ventured against the Master, not against the servants? Wherefore there is for you no release from the evils that hold you fast, nor shall there be.

But now he spoke of the captivity, yet nowhere of the return, and that though he continually mingled good things with the punishments, and set definite terms of time.

For indeed Jeremiah appointed seventy years, and Daniel likewise three weeks and a half;

and in Egypt it was said that they would be in bondage four hundred and thirty years.

But concerning this present captivity nowhere is any time set down, nor any end, but 'your house is left unto you desolate,' and day by day your affairs go on toward the worse.

Reckoning up all these things carefully among yourselves, and enlarging your discourse from them—for 'give occasion to a wise man, and he shall be yet wiser'—you shall be able to expose their shamelessness and their thanklessness.

'For I will behold the heavens, the works of Your fingers.'

Another version: 'For I see the heavens.'

'The moon and the stars, which You have founded.'

Having said, 'You have destroyed the enemies,' he furnishes also the proof of this brilliant victory.

'For You,' he says, 'who were crucified, who were put to death, were revealed to be the Maker of the whole world.'

showing that formerly not many knew this, but afterward all shall know it.

And why did He not go over all the parts of the inhabited world? Because, having gone over the more essential of the things that are seen, there was no need of teaching concerning the rest.

To such a degree, then, were the enemies overthrown, that He who was driven out and put to death by them was revealed to be the Maker of all things visible.

And why did he not say, 'Of Your hands,' but, 'Of Your fingers'? To show that the things that are seen are the work of His slightest activity, and to show the marvel of the creation, that the stars, though hung aloft, do not fall;

and yet it is not the nature of foundations to hang above, but rather to lie below;

but the supremely skilled Creator, who does wondrous things, in the visible world wrought most things beyond the sequence of nature.

And why does he discourse nothing about the incorporeal powers, and from them demonstrate His creative work? Because for the present this was the object of concern, that they should learn about the things that appear.

For this reason His Father also, discoursing again and again with the Jews, does not say:

'I made the angels, and the cherubim';

but, 'I stretched out the heaven;'

'My hand laid the foundation of the earth, My right hand made it firm.'

And he ever expends his whole discourse upon the things that are seen, ordering everything with a view to the salvation of his hearers.

For being of a grosser sort, they were more readily led on by the things that are seen than by things invisible.

For this reason Paul too, whenever he came forward and addressed the people, would open his discourse from the visible creation, saying:

'The God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all things that are in them.'

And from the yearly rains, and from the race of mankind, he ever frames his discourse.

For if I should say that He made the Cherubim, I have need of a twofold demonstration: both that the Cherubim exist, and that He made them.

But in the case of the things that are seen, I am compelled to prove only that He made them.

Wherefore the argument is also easier;

for sight itself bears witness to the things that are said.

For the hearer beholds the greatness, and the beauty, the use, the position, and the good order.

So that one thing alone is my earnest concern: to show that God wrought it.

And for what reason did he make mention not of the sun, but of the moon and the stars? Especially indeed by saying this, he also hinted at that other matter.

For since some sever the night from God's creative work, by means of the moon he brought it into view, showing that He is the Maker of the night as well.

And no small thing is the variety of the stars, and the demonstration of the courses of the moon.

'What is man, that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that Thou visitest him?' Another version: 'What is the individual man, that Thou rememberest him?' Another.

Instead of 'Thou visitest him,' it says, 'Thou wilt visit him.'

Having spoken concerning the creation, and having in part hinted at the whole, he next launches into the discourse concerning the providence exercised toward men.

For those things which have been said were for the sake of our race, but so also are the things belonging to the care by which He holds it;

for the whole creation is for the sake of man.

Yet he also stirs up another kind of providence, and does not simply plunge into this discourse, but with much thankfulness, giving thanks on behalf of the whole inhabited world, and telling of the universal beneficence, and setting forth the greatness of the dispensation that has been accomplished toward him.

For if before this there was nothing, much more so when Christ came, after such great and so many sins.

And he shows that the coming of Christ was not apart from sparing mercy, but out of great loving-kindness toward mankind.

For just as some most excellent physician, He left the healthy and came to us who were sick.

This indeed setting forth, He said:

'What is man?' — that is to say, 'He is nothing; he is something of little worth.'

For looking to such great providence, and to such great care of God, and to the works which He wrought for the salvation of the race of men, he is exceedingly astonished and marvels, why in the world He counted him worthy of so great a providence.

For consider that for his sake are all the things that are seen.

For his sake were the things dispensed from Adam until His coming;

for his sake were paradise, and commandments, and chastisements, and wonders, and punishments, and benefits, after the Law;

for his sake the Son of God became man.

What could one say of the things to come, which he is destined to enjoy? Reckoning up all these things, then, he says:

What so great a thing is man, that he was counted worthy of such great things? (Section 7.)

For if anyone should consider how many things have been done and are being done for his sake, and of how many things he shall have enjoyment hereafter, he will be filled with much awe, and then will see clearly how earnestly cherished by God is this living creature.

'Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels.'

Another version: 'A little lower than God.'

But the Hebrew has: 'Vatthechasserehu me'at me'elohim.'

Here he called to mind the condemnation, and the ancient sin, bringing death into the midst.

But this too the Only-begotten, when He came, undid.

'Thou hast crowned him with glory and honour.'

Another version: 'With glory and dignity Thou shalt crown him.'

It is possible to take these things both according to the literal history and according to a higher, spiritual interpretation.

For he speaks of the dominion which was entrusted to him at his coming into being;

and he also speaks of the good things that came afterward, which he enjoyed after the coming of Christ.

For at the beginning he heard this:

'The dread of you and the fear of you shall be upon all the beasts of the earth.'

And, 'Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea.'

'You shall tread upon serpents and scorpions.'

But leaving these things aside, he weaves his discourse from the humbler matters, leaving those higher things to be discerned by those who are able to see more keenly.

For the greater glory and the honor are the things brought about under the New Covenant: when a man has Christ as his head, when he is perfected into His body, when he becomes a brother and a fellow-heir and conformed to His body, when he receives a glory greater than that of Moses—as Paul made clear, showing that not as Moses put a veil over his face, but 'we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of God.'

For that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that surpasses it.

This, then, is the glory of which the Prophet speaks according to the higher, spiritual interpretation.

For what is equal to this—when we join in the dance with angels, when we are led into adoption as sons, when He does not spare even His Only-begotten for our sake? What purple robe, what diadem is not outshone by these things—when we laugh at death, when we, who before this were dishonored and inglorious

and abominable are transported to the impassibility of the incorporeal powers? Adam, having wrought neither any evil nor any good, was honored the moment he came into being.

For how could one who did not yet exist have wrought anything? But we, who have committed countless dreadful deeds, have enjoyed a far greater honor.

'No longer,' He says, 'do I call you servants;'

The angels are no longer ashamed of us, but they even minister for the sake of our salvation.

For indeed an angel came to Philip, and to many others;

and they brought good tidings to men.

And we are heirs not of things on earth, but partakers of the heavenly good things, and sharers with Christ, and we are called into fellowship with the Only-begotten.

All these things he hints at through the words 'glory and honor.'

Wherefore also he said, 'You crown him with glory and honor,' foretelling what was to come.

'And You have set him over the works of Your hands.'

Another version has: 'You made him to have authority over the works of Your hands.'

'You have put all things under his feet.'

'All sheep and oxen, and moreover the beasts of the field.'

'The birds of the heaven, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas.'

'O Lord our Lord, how wonderful is Your name in all the earth!'

Just as when discoursing about the work of creation he does not touch upon the higher powers alone, but also brings his discourse down to the things perceived by the senses;

so also, when teaching about the honor bestowed upon men, having hinted at those ineffable and incorporeal things which he enumerated, he now dwells more upon the things perceived by the senses, which were plainer than the former to the grosser sort of men.

And what were these? The earthly dominion given to him.

And what is indeed marvelous, and which he hinted at most of all, is that though man was honored before his transgression, God did not cast him out of that honor even after his sin.

'For You have made him,' he says, 'a little lower than the angels'—that is, You condemned him to death when he sinned;

yet not because You condemned him to death did You strip him of the gift.

For this very reason, having said the former, he then sets down the latter, showing the unspeakable loving-kindness of God: that even when man was made lower on account of his own transgression, He left him crowned with the honor of glory, and did not dissolve his dominion.

And if He did withdraw some little portion, this too was a part of His providential care.

For before his disobedience, he even had mastery over the wild beasts;

but after the disobedience a little of this authority was cut away from him.

For he does indeed rule over them even now by certain arts, yet with fear and trembling.

For He neither took away the whole dominion, nor left the whole; but whatever was suitable to him for food and for labor, He left subject to him;

but the more savage beasts no longer, so that through the struggle against these he might be reminded of the ancient sin of his forefather Adam.

And so, even from the fact that the beasts are not thoroughly subject to us, a great gain came to us.

For what benefit is there in having a lion under one's hand and made tame? And what further advantage in having a leopard domesticated? None at all, but only boastfulness and folly.

For this very reason He allowed these creatures to remain outside our dominion, but made tame for us the useful ones: the ox that plows, the sheep that clothes the nakedness of the body, the beasts of burden fit for the transport of loads, birds and fishes, so that our table might be the more abundantly furnished.

For just as a man who partly disinherits his son does not cast him out of everything, but only of a certain portion, in order to bring him to his senses, so also does God act;

or rather, not so, but on the contrary.

For a man, when he disinherits, cuts off the greater portion and leaves the lesser;

but God, leaving the greater part, took away only a little, and even this for our benefit, that man might not too easily gain the mastery over all the rest.

But this too is a mark of God's tender care;

for whetting his wisdom, and pulling down his pride, and cutting off his untimely idleness, since man, having all things with ease,

would have plunged headlong, He mingled a certain difficulty also into the use of life, and allowed him neither to reap all things with toil, nor all things without toil;

but the things needful He allowed him to have without labor and sweat, while the things for luxury He gave with labor and sweat, wishing to curtail for us this excessive license.

But what benefit is there in wild animals? we shall say.

First, it works humility of soul, and makes man watchful and anxious, and reminds the exceedingly boastful of his own nature, when the irrational creature becomes an object of fear to him.

And from these creatures many remedies also arise for bodies that are diseased.

But he who asks these questions—why then did the wild beasts come to be—

will also ask why there is phlegm and bile within us. For these too, if they are provoked, break forth more grievous than a wild beast, and ravage the whole body.

And anger too is lodged within us, and desire again;

and these, if we do not restrain and bridle them, ravage us more grievously than wild beasts.

And why do I speak of anger and wrath, when even our very eye has clothed us with passions worse than wild beasts, transfixing us with a bitter lust? Yet we shall not for this reason say,

Why did these things come to be? Rather, we shall render thanks to the Master for all things.

For what the strap is to the child, that the wild beast is to men.

For if, hemmed in by so many terrors, most men are lifted up into such great folly, consider—should you take away this bridle also—to what lengths wickedness would proceed.

For this reason our body too has been so constituted—prone to sickness, subject to suffering, besieged by countless ills;

and the earth gives its produce only with toil;

and the whole of life is full of sweat.

Since the present life is a school of training, and ease and idleness destroy the greater part of men, for this reason He mingled with it both occupation and toil, so that, as by certain bridles, the risings of the mind might be chastened.

But consider also how the Master, through skill, has subjected to you both the creatures that swim through the depths of the waters and those that soar into the heights.

And why did he not go through all things visible—plants and seeds and trees? From a part he hinted at the whole, and left the discourse concerning these to the lovers of learning.

And again he brings his conclusion to the same end from which he also began;

both before the demonstration and after the demonstration setting down the same words.

Let us therefore also continually abide, saying the same things, marveling at His tender care, astonished at His wisdom, His love for mankind, His providence on our behalf.

And these things have been said by us by way of interpretation.

But if you wish, let us also handle the discourse in a more combative manner, and let us ask the Jews: where did little children sing forth a voice? And where did such a voice bring an enemy to ruin? And when did His name become wondrous? But they would have no other occasion to name than this, which shows the power of the truth more clearly than the sun.

'I shall behold the heavens, the works of Thy fingers;'

and yet Moses had already said, that 'In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.'

But against the Jews these things too suffice, together with what was said before;

and since those who without circumcision imitate and emulate the Jews—the followers of Paul of Samosata—say that Christ exists only from that time when He came forth from Mary, let us ask these also: how, if Christ existed only from then, did He create the heavens? For he says that the same One is here—the One who perfected praise out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, and the One who fashioned the heavens.

But if He is the Creator of the heavens, then He would consequently be prior to the heavens;

and He did not take His beginning from Mary, but existed even before Mary.

And consider the wisdom of the Prophet.

For he does not simply present Him as Creator, but as one who creates with the greatest ease.

'I shall behold the heavens, the works of Thy fingers.'

not that God has fingers, but he is showing that the things we see are the product of His least exertion; teaching things that surpass us

by means of names familiar to us.

Since indeed when He says, 'He who measures the heaven with a span, and the earth with the hollow of His hand,'

He does not say these things to indicate a hand's-breadth or a span, but wishing to set forth the boundlessness of God's power.

How then do some dare to call the Son a mere assistant? For He who did not set in motion even the whole of His power when the heaven was to be made,

Why do I say the whole? Nay, not even the least part, but the very smallest;

how could this one be an assistant? How an assistant, if 'Whatever the Father does, these the Son also does likewise'? For where is the word 'likewise,' if the one is an assistant and the other the Creator? And how does He say that the works are His, when at one time He says, 'In the beginning Thou, O Lord, didst lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thy hands';

and here, 'I shall behold the heavens, the works of Thy fingers'? For these are not the works of assistants, but of creators;

and even if someone be an assistant, the work is not reckoned to him, but to the one who creates it.

Therefore the things spoken before to Moses were spoken concerning the Son: the words, 'In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth';

and the words, 'Let them have dominion over the fishes of the sea.'

For this same One, who out of the mouth of infants and sucklings perfected praise, He it was who visited man.

Therefore the things which Moses says concerning the Father, Paul applies to the Son, thereby showing the great equality between them.

Since therefore it is a matter of indifference to the saints to reckon to the Son the things said concerning the Father, and to the Father the things said concerning the Son—for 'All things were made through Him'—where at all does the name of 'assistant' find any place? Nowhere would anyone see this.

'Yes,' he says, 'but it is said, Through Him.'

What then, seeing that the same thing is said also concerning the Father? Listen, too, how it is said.

'God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son.'

'Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God.'

'For through Him, and from Him, and unto Him are all things.'

'But for what reason,' he says, 'do you call Him an assistant?' 'That we may honour the Father.'

'That all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.'

'And he who honours not the Son, it is plain that neither does he honour the Father.'