Catechetical Lectures 11 part 2/12

The heavenly Bread came down upon the earth, that He might nourish the hungry.

But the sons of the Jews, rejecting Him who came and looking for one who comes wickedly, refused the true Christ, while the deceived await the deceiver—the Savior being found true even in this, who said:

“I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; but if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.”

And it is well also to put a question to the Jews:

Is the prophet Isaiah true who says that Emmanuel shall be born of a virgin, or false? For if they accuse him as false, it is no wonder;

for it is their custom not only to accuse the prophets as liars, but even to stone them.

But if the prophet is true, show us Emmanuel.

And is the one who is to come, whom you await, to be born of a virgin or not? For if he is not born of a virgin, you accuse the prophet of falsehood.

But if you await this in the one to come, why do you refuse what has already happened? Let the Jews then go astray, since they wish it; but let the Church of God be glorified.

For we accept God the Word who became man truly—not by the will of man and woman, as the heretics say, but of a virgin and the Holy Spirit, according to the Gospel—become man not in appearance, but in truth.

And that He truly became man of a virgin, await for now the time of the teaching, and you shall receive the proofs.

For the error of the heretics is manifold, and some have said that He was not at all born of a virgin, while others have said that He was born, but not of a virgin, but of a woman living with a man.

And others say that Christ was not God become man, but a certain man made into a god.

For they have dared to say that it was not the pre-existing Word who became man, but a certain man who, having advanced, was thus crowned.

But do you remember the things said yesterday concerning His Godhead;

believe that this same Only-begotten Son of God was also born again of a virgin.

Be persuaded by John the evangelist who says:

“And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”

For the Word, eternal, begotten of the Father before all the ages, took the flesh upon Himself recently for our sake.

But many contradict and say:

What then is so great a cause that God should descend into manhood? And is it at all in God's nature to dwell among men, and is it possible

for a virgin to bear without a man? Since there is much contradiction and the dispute is of many kinds, come, by the grace of Christ and the prayers of those present, let us resolve each point.

And first let it be inquired by us for what reason Jesus came down.

And do not attend to my own arguments, for it is possible that you may be over-cleverly led astray;

but unless you receive testimony from the prophets concerning each matter, do not believe the things said.

Unless you learn from the divine Scriptures concerning the virgin, the place, the time, and the manner, do not accept testimony from man.

For one who is present and teaching, it is possible even to suspect; but who that has sense will suspect one who prophesied a thousand and more years before? If, then, you seek the cause of Christ's coming, run back to the first book of the Scriptures.

In six days God made the world;

but the world was for the sake of man.

For the sun, though it shines with most brilliant rays,

yet it came into being for the sake of shining for man.

And all the living creatures were appointed to serve us.

Herbs and trees were created for our enjoyment.

All the works of creation are good, but none of these is the image of God—only man.

The sun was made by command alone, but man was fashioned by divine hands.

“Let Us make man according to Our image and according to Our likeness.”

A wooden image of an earthly king is honored;

how much more then the rational image of God? But this greatest of creatures, dancing for joy in paradise, the devil's envy cast out.

The enemy rejoiced over the one who had fallen, the object of his envy.

Would you then have wished the enemy to remain rejoicing? He, not daring to approach the man because of his strength, approached the woman, weaker, while she was still a virgin.

For it was after the fall from paradise that Adam then knew Eve his wife.

Cain and Abel became the second successors of the human race, and Cain was the first murderer.

Afterward a flood was poured out because of the great wickedness of men.

Fire came down from heaven upon the Sodomites because of their lawlessness.

After a time God chose Israel.

But this people also was perverted, and the chosen race was wounded.

For while [Moses] stood before God on the mountain, a calf was being worshiped by the people in the place of God.

In the time of Moses the lawgiver, who said “You shall not commit adultery,” a man entering into a furnace dared to act licentiously.

Prophets were sent after Moses to heal Israel.

But while healing they wept, unable to prevail over the malady, so that one of them said:

“Woe is me, for the godly man has perished from the earth, and there is no upright man among men.”

“All have turned aside, together they have become unprofitable; there is none that does good, there is not even one.”

“Cursing and stealing and adultery and murder are poured out upon the earth.”

“They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.”

They practiced augury and sorcery and divination.

Binding their garments with cords, they made hangings beside the altar.

Great, therefore, was the wound of humanity.

“From the soles of the feet even to the head there was no soundness in it.”

There was no salve to apply, neither oil nor bandages.

Then the prophets, weeping and growing weary, said:

“Who will give salvation out of Zion?” And again:

“Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, and upon the son of man whom You strengthened for Yourself.”

“And we will not depart from You.”

And another of the prophets entreated, saying:

“O Lord, bow the heavens and come down.”

The wounds of humanity surpass our healing.

“They have slain Your prophets and torn down Your altars.”

The evil is past our remedy; it needs You as its Healer.

The Lord hearkened to the entreaty of the prophets.

The Father did not overlook our race perishing.

He sent forth His Son, the Lord, from heaven as a Physician.

And one of the prophets says: “The Lord whom you seek is coming, and He will come suddenly. Where? To His own temple,” the Lord, where you stoned Him.

Then, hearing this, another of the prophets says to him:

Do you speak of God's salvation in silence? God's coming—

do you announce the good news of salvation in secret? “Get up onto a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion;”

what shall I say? “Behold our God! Behold, the Lord comes with might.”

Again the Lord Himself has said:

“Behold, I come and will dwell in your midst, says the Lord, and many nations shall flee for refuge to the Lord.”

The Israelites refused the salvation that comes through Me.

“I come to gather all the nations and the tongues.”

“For He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.”

You come; and what do You grant to the nations? “I come to gather all the nations, and I will leave upon them a sign.”

For out of My own contest upon the cross I give to each of My soldiers a royal seal to bear upon the forehead.

And another of the prophets said:

“And He bowed the heavens and came down, and thick darkness was under His feet.”

For the descent from the heavens was unknown to men.

Then Solomon, hearing his father David say these things, and having built a wondrous house, and foreseeing Him who would come into it, marvels and says:

“Will God indeed dwell with men upon the earth?” “Yes,” David says, anticipating, in the psalm inscribed for Solomon, in which it stands:

“He shall come down like rain upon a fleece.”

Rain, on account of His heavenly nature; upon a fleece, on account of the manhood.

For rain coming down upon a fleece comes down without sound, so that, the mystery of the birth being unknown, the magi said:

“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?” And Herod, being troubled, inquired concerning Him who was born, and said:

“Where is the Christ to be born?” And who is this who comes down? He says next:

“And He shall endure with the sun and before the moon, throughout generations of generations.”

And again another of the prophets says:

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; proclaim, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, your King comes to you, righteous and saving.”

Interpret for us concerning whom you speak, O prophet.

Give us a sign which other kings do not have.

If you say a king clothed in purple, the dignity of that array has already been anticipated.

If you say one attended by soldiers as bodyguard, and seated upon gold-inlaid chariots, this too has already been anticipated by others.

Give us a sign peculiar to the King whose coming you proclaim.

And the prophet answers and says:

“Behold, your King comes to you, righteous and saving.”

“He is meek and mounted upon a beast of burden and a young colt,” not upon chariots.

You have the unique sign of the King who has come.

Jesus alone of kings sat upon an unbroken colt, entering into Jerusalem with acclamations as a king.

And what does this King do when He has come? “And You, by the blood of the covenant, have sent forth Your prisoners out of the pit that has no water.”

But it was possible also to be seated upon a colt.

Rather give us a sign—where shall the King who enters take His stand?

And do not give the sign far from the city, lest we be ignorant of it.

But give us the sign near at hand, plain to the eye, so that even while being in the city we may behold the place.

And the prophet answers again, saying:

“And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is opposite Jerusalem on the east.”

Does not one standing within upon the city behold the place? We have two signs, and we desire to learn a third.

Tell what the Lord does when He has come.

“He Himself shall come and shall save us.”

“Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be clear.”

Let yet another testimony be told us.

You say a Lord is coming, O prophet, doing signs such as never before have happened.

What other clear thing do you say? “The Lord Himself comes into judgment with the elders of the people and with His rulers.”

An extraordinary sign—the Master being judged by His servants, the elders, and enduring it.

Reading these things, the Jews do not hear;

for they have stopped the ears of their heart, that they might not hear.

But let us believe in Jesus Christ, who came in the flesh and

became man, since otherwise we could not contain Him.

For since we, according to what He was, were not able to behold or to enjoy Him, He became what we are, that so we might be counted worthy to enjoy Him.

For if we cannot fully look upon the sun, which came into being on the fourth day, could we then look upon God, the Maker of the sun? In fire the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, and the people could not bear it, but said to Moses:

“You speak to us and we will hear, but let not God speak to us, lest we die.”

For what flesh is there that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire and shall live? If to hear the voice of God speaking is a cause of death, how is it not a cause of death to behold Him? And why do you marvel? Even Moses himself says:

“I am terrified and trembling.”

What then? Would you have wished that He who came for salvation should become a cause of destruction, because men could not bear it, rather than that He should measure out His grace? Daniel could not endure the vision of an angel, and would you have had room for the sight of the Master of the angels? Gabriel appeared, and Daniel fell.

And of what sort was he who appeared, or in what form? His face was as lightning, not as the sun; and his eyes were as lamps of fire, not as a furnace of fire; and the voice of his words was as the voice of a multitude, not as of twelve legions of angels.

And yet the prophet fell.

And the angel approaches, saying:

“Your words have been heard.”

And not even so did he answer, until something like the form of a man's hand touched him.

And when he who appeared was changed into the appearance of a man, then Daniel speaks.

And what does he say? “O Lord, at Your vision my inward parts were turned within me, and no strength remains in me, and no breath was left in me.”

If an angel appearing took away the voice and strength of the prophet, would the appearing of God have allowed his breath to remain? And until, the Scripture says, there touched me one like the appearance of a man, Daniel took no courage.

Therefore, the trial of our weakness having been shown, the Lord took upon Himself that very thing which man sought.

For since man sought to hear from one of like countenance, the Savior took upon Him that which suffers like us, that men might more easily be instructed.

But receive yet another reason.

Christ came that He might be baptized and sanctify baptism.

He came that He might work wonders, walking upon the waters of the sea.

Since, then, before His coming in the flesh the sea saw and fled, and the Jordan turned back, the Lord took a body, so that the sea, seeing it, might endure, and the Jordan might receive Him without fear.

This indeed is one reason; but there is also a second.

Through Eve, while yet a virgin, came death.

It was fitting that through a virgin, or rather of a virgin, Life should appear, so that as the serpent deceived the one, so also Gabriel might bring good tidings to the other.

Men, forsaking God, fashioned man-shaped idols.

Since therefore that which had the shape of a man was being falsely worshiped as God, God truly became man, that the falsehood might be undone.

The devil had used the flesh as an instrument against us.

And knowing this, Paul says:

“But I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and taking me captive,” and what follows.

By the very weapons, then, with which the devil fought against us, by these same we were saved.

The Lord took upon Him what is like us, from us, that through the manhood we might be saved.

He took what is like us, that He might give to the deficient the greater grace, that sinful humanity might become a partaker of God.

“For where sin abounded, grace superabounded.”

It behooved the Lord to suffer on our behalf.

But the devil would not have dared to approach Him, had he known Him.

“For had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

The body, then, became a bait for death, so that the dragon, hoping to swallow it, might vomit forth also those already swallowed.

“For death, prevailing, swallowed up.”

“God has wiped away every tear from every face.”

Did Christ become man in vain? Are the teachings cunning inventions and

human sophistries? Are not the divine Scriptures our salvation? Are they not the predictions of the prophets? Keep then for me this deposit unshaken, and let no one move you from it.

Believe that God became man.

But that it was possible for Him to become man has been demonstrated.

And if the Jews still disbelieve, let us put before them:

What strange thing do we proclaim in saying that God became man, when you yourselves say that Abraham received the Lord? What strange thing do we proclaim, when Jacob says:

“For I have seen God face to face, and my soul was saved”? The Lord who ate with Abraham ate also with us.

What strange thing then do we proclaim? But we also bring forward two witnesses, those who stood beside the Lord on Mount Sinai.

Moses was in a cleft of the rock, and Elijah was then in a cleft of the rock.

They, being present with Him as He was transfigured on Mount Tabor, spoke to the disciples of the exodus which He was about to fulfill in Jerusalem.

But that it was possible for Him to become man has been demonstrated, as I said before.

And let the rest of the proofs be left for the diligent to gather.

Now the discourse promised us that it would tell also the time of the Savior's coming and the place.

And we must not withdraw convicted of falsehood, but rather send away the newcomers of the Church made secure.

Let us therefore seek the time, when the Lord came;

since His coming is recent and is gainsaid, and since Christ Jesus is the same, yesterday and today and unto the ages.

Moses then, the prophet, says:

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brethren, like me.”

But let the phrase “like me” be reserved for now, to be examined in its proper places.

But when does this expected prophet come? Run back, he says, to the things written by me; search out the prophecy spoken by Jacob to Judah:

“Judah, your brethren shall praise you,” and what follows, that we may not say it all.

“The ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until He comes for whom it is reserved; and He is the expectation, not of the Jews, but of the nations.”

He gave, then, a sign of Christ's coming—the ceasing of the rule of the Jews.

If they are not now under the Romans, Christ has not yet come.

If they have one of the line of Judah and of David, then the Expected One has not yet come.

For I am ashamed to speak of their recent doings concerning those now called among them patriarchs—what their lineage is, and who the mother was.

I leave this to those who know.

But this One who comes, the expectation of the nations—what sign, again, does He have? The prophet says next:

binding his foal to the vine.

You see that foal, clearly announced beforehand by Zechariah.

But do you seek yet another testimony of the time? The Lord said to me:

You shall shepherd them with a rod of iron.

It has been said by me before that the rod of iron clearly denotes the kingdom of the Romans.

But concerning this, let us still call to mind what remains from Daniel.

For in narrating and comparing to Nebuchadnezzar the image of the statue, he tells the whole vision concerning it—and of a stone cut from a mountain without hands, not formed by human craft, which would gain mastery over the whole inhabited world.

And he says most plainly thus:

And in the days of those kingdoms the God of heaven shall raise up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and His kingdom shall not be left to another people.

But we seek a still plainer proof of the times of the coming.

For man, being hard to convince, unless he takes the very years into reckoning, will not believe what is said.

What then is the season, and what kind of time is it? It was when, the kings of Judah's line having failed, thereafter the foreigner Herod reigned.

The angel who speaks with Daniel therefore says:

Now mark for me what is said:

From the going forth of the word that Jerusalem should be answered and rebuilt, until Christ the ruler, are seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.

Sixty-nine weeks of years, therefore,

make up four hundred and eighty-three years.

He said, then, that after Jerusalem was rebuilt, when four hundred and eighty-three years had passed and the rulers had failed, then there comes a certain foreign king, in whose time Christ is born.

Now Darius the Mede rebuilt it in the sixth year of his own reign, and in the first year of the sixty-sixth Olympiad according to the Greeks.

An Olympiad is called by the Greeks the contest completed every four years, on account of the day that is made up every four years from the three hours each year in the sun's courses.

Herod reigned in the one hundred and eighty-sixth Olympiad, in the fourth year of it.

From the sixty-sixth to the one hundred and eighty-sixth there are between them a hundred and twenty Olympiads and a little more.

There are therefore gathered together, of the hundred and twenty Olympiads, four hundred and eighty years.

For the other three years are likely taken up in the interval between the first and the fourth year.

And you have the proof according to the Scripture which says:

From the going forth of the word that Jerusalem should be answered and rebuilt, until Christ the ruler, are seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.

Of the times, then, you have for the present this proof, though there are also various other interpretations concerning the aforesaid weeks of years in Daniel.

Now hear, furthermore, the place of the promise, as Micah says:

And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephrathah, are you too little to be among the thousands of Judah?

For out of you shall come forth for me a ruler, to be a leader in Israel; and his goings forth are from of old, from the days of eternity.

Moreover, concerning the places, being a man of Jerusalem you already know beforehand also what is written in the hundred and thirty-first Psalm:

Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah; we found it in the fields of the wood.

For a few years ago the place was thickly wooded.

You heard again Habakkuk saying to the Lord:

When the years draw near you shall be made known; when the season is present you shall be manifested.

And what is the sign, O prophet, of the coming Lord? And he says next:

In the midst of two living creatures you shall be made known.

Saying this plainly to the Lord: that, having come in the flesh, You live and die, and rising from the dead You live again.

And from what quarter around Jerusalem does He come? From the east, or west, or north, or south? Tell us exactly.

And he answers most clearly and says:

God shall come from Teman (and Teman is interpreted 'south'), and the Holy One from Mount Paran, a shady, thickly-wooded place.

Which the psalmist said in agreement:

We found it in the fields of the wood.

It remains for us to inquire: from whom does He come, and how does He come?

And this Isaiah tells us:

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.

And the Jews contradict these things (for it is their custom from of old to set themselves wickedly against the truth), and they say that it is not written 'the virgin' but 'the young woman.'

But I, even going along with what they say, thus too find the truth.

When does a virgin being forced cry out? After the violation, or before the violation, calling for helpers? If then the Scripture elsewhere says:

the young woman cried out, and there was none to help her—

does it not then speak of a virgin? And that you may learn more plainly that in the divine Scripture the virgin too is called 'young woman,' hear the Book of Kingdoms speaking of Abishag the Shunammite:

And the young woman was exceedingly fair.

For it is confessed that she, chosen as a virgin, was brought to David.

But the Jews say again:

It was spoken to Ahaz—this was about Hezekiah. Let us therefore read the Scripture.

Ask for yourself a sign from the Lord your God, in the depth or in the height.

And above all, the sign ought to be marvelous.

For a sign is the water from the rock, the parting of the sea, the turning back of the sun, and such things.

But the things to be spoken contain a still more evident refutation against the Jews.

I know I am saying much, and that the hearers are wearied.

But bear with the abundance of words, since these things are stirred up for Christ's sake, and the discourse is not about trivial matters.

Now while Ahaz reigned, Isaiah having spoken this—Ahaz having reigned only sixteen years, and the prophecy to him having been spoken within these—Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, the king who succeeded, refutes the objection of the Jews, being twenty-five years old when he began to reign.

For the prophecy being comprised within sixteen years, he had been begotten [by Ahaz] nine years before the prophecy.

What need then was there for the prophecy to speak about one already born [and that before the very reign of his father Ahaz]? For it did not say that the virgin 'has conceived,' but that she 'shall conceive,' speaking with foreknowledge.

But that the Lord is born of a virgin we have clearly learned.

But of what lineage the virgin was must be shown.

The Lord swore truth to David, and He will not annul it.

Of the fruit of your body I will set upon your throne.

I will establish his seed forever and ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.

Once I have sworn by my holiness:

his seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me, and as the moon established forever.

You see that the saying is about Christ, and not about Solomon.

For his throne did not endure as the sun.

But if anyone objects, because Christ did not sit upon the wooden throne of David, let us bring forward that saying:

The scribes and the Pharisees sat on the seat of Moses.

For it signifies not the wooden seat, but the authority of teaching.

Thus then seek for me also the throne of David—not the wooden throne, but the kingdom itself.

And take for me as witnesses the children who cried out:

Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is the King of Israel.

And the blind men too say it:

And Gabriel testifies clearly, saying to Mary:

And the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father.

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, of the seed of David, according to my gospel.

And at the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans he says:

who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.

Receive, then, the One begotten of David, being persuaded by the prophecy which says:

And it shall be in that day that the root of Jesse, even he that rises up to rule the nations—

But the Jews are distressed because of these things.

Isaiah foreknew this too, saying:

And they shall wish that they had been burned with fire, that a child was born to us.

And note that first He was the Son of God, then He was given to us.

And of his peace there is no boundary.

There is a boundary of the Romans; of the kingdom of the Son of God there is no boundary.

There is a boundary of the Persians and the Medes; but of the Son there is no boundary.

upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to establish it.

Out of David, therefore, was the holy Virgin.

For it was fitting that the most pure One, the Teacher of purity, should have come forth from a pure bridal chamber.

For if he who duly serves as priest to Jesus abstains from a wife, how was Jesus Himself to come from a man and a woman? 'For You are He,' He says in the Psalms, 'who drew me out of the womb.'

Attend carefully to the words 'who drew me out of the womb,' which signify that He was drawn out and born without a man, from a virgin's womb and flesh.

For of those begotten through the sequence of marriage the manner is different.

And He who is the Fashioner of those very members is not ashamed to take flesh from such members.

And who, then, tells us this? The Lord says to Jeremiah:

Before I formed you in the belly I knew you, and before you came forth from the womb I sanctified you.

He, then, who in forming men touches them and is not ashamed—was He, in forming the holy flesh, the veil of His Godhead, for His own sake, ashamed? It is God who even now fashions the babes in the womb, as it is written in Job:

Did You not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese? You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.

Nothing is foul in human formation, unless one defile it

with adulteries and licentiousness.

He who fashioned Adam also fashioned Eve, and by divine hands both the male and the female were formed.

None of the members in the body is foul as fashioned from the beginning.

Let them be silenced, then, all the heretics who accuse the bodies—or rather, accuse Him who fashioned them.

But let us remember Paul who says: