Commentary on Zechariah 1 part 15/24

taking the phrase 'they shall drink as wine' .....

the savagery and toward slaughters .....

applying to the saying, according to .....

with battle and with warlike strife .....

in seven books concerning the .....

: 'For if there is anything good, it is His;'

'and if there is anything fair, it is from Him, grain for the young men and wine giving fragrance for the virgins.'

That which is properly to be chosen, being good .....

in the epistle bearing his name:

'Every good gift and every perfect present is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.' Therefore this One alone .....

gives good things to those who ask Him ..... happens to be, and ..... as the longing .....

rousing the soul .....

the Lord who satisfies your desire with good things

faith and the knowledge .....

of the good bestowed by Him ..... of the right-doing

the conception good and ..... and profitable it is good ..... is called fair

..... to say with the hymn-singer:

'Do good' ..... the loud-voiced Isaiah: 'Learn to do good' ..... the Apostle, 'to hold fast the good' .....

'Prove all things, hold fast the good, abstain from every form of evil. For if there is anything good, it is His;'

'and if there is anything fair, it is from Him,' harmoniously .....

'grain for the young men and wine giving fragrance for the virgins' ..... but of perceptible wheat and ready ..... these things .....

For it is not spiritual, and . of the natural man, in addition to his not receiving the things of the Spirit, but accounting them foolishness, because the senses of the inner man have been injured.

For how have the smell and the taste not been injured of the one who does not taste of the Lord, according to what is said:

'Taste and see that the Lord is good,' and the faculty for apprehending the sacred fragrance of His name, according to:

'Your name is ointment poured forth, therefore have the maidens loved you.'

: 'Ask rain from the Lord in due season, the early and the latter rain;'

'the Lord has made bright appearances, and He shall give them the winter rain, to each one grass in the field.'

'Because those who utter oracles have spoken troubles, and the diviners false visions, and they spoke false dreams, they gave vain comfort;'

'therefore they were dried up like sheep and were afflicted, because there was no healing.'

'Against the shepherds My anger was kindled, and upon the lambs I will visit.'

When wickedness abounds, drought often comes to pass by God's decision; therefore one must in such circumstances propitiate Him who is indignant against those who have thus fallen into godlessness, so as to propitiate demons in place of God ..... to appease, so as to receive divinations and dreams from them.

Such a visitation befell the Hebrews in the times of Elijah the great prophet, when no rain came upon the earth for three years and six months, so that they were destitute of all produce, so that men stood near to death and the other living creatures were reduced through the scarcity of the necessities of life.

When this affliction abounded, it was fitting for Israel, having often been benefited by God in such circumstances, to cling to God and to ask rain from Him, that there might be plenty.

This they did not do, deceit having prevailed, as though the idols were able to grant assent to those who sought from them the things which they are unable to provide.

Now this madness arose from Jezebel, the wife of the one who reigned over the Hebrews, a woman so utterly given to idolatry that she drew her husband along with her into it.

In her days, therefore, the prophets of Baal multiplied—Baal being an idol of the Sidonians—men who were soothsayers and gave out oracles, and who were moreover dreamers of dreams and clung to these very things, ever boldly charming men by ways supposedly of foreknowledge, and lying in various ways when a season of plenty came, so that men no longer asked Him to supply rain—Him who makes His sun to rise upon the good and the evil, and sends rain upon the just and the unjust.

God, taking hold of those who had been so misled, prompted the prophet to say:

Ask ye rain in due season, at the fitting hour, from Him who brings up clouds from the ends of the earth and makes lightnings into rain, according to what is prophetically declared in Jeremiah.

The word, instilling courage in those whom it exhorts to . . .

to ask for rain in its season, it added:

The Lord has made a bright display and winter rain;

often from above, unless perhaps impiety, prevailing among the Hebrews, brought them to such a state as to render them unworthy of God-sent gifts.

Since, then, God ever waters the earth for the sake of men, it is fitting to propitiate Him when drought occurs, and not to give heed to false prophets, of the foreknowledge . . .

wretched and toilsome in . . .

to speak of toils, those from . . .

as has already been said concerning Elijah . . .

for then—indeed then—rain came . . .

. . . so that James wrote . . .

he addressed them in a letter, saying:

Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not for three years and six months, drought having set in—to which things he added:

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. From such doings as these one must ever . . . flee for refuge to God when heaven-sent . . .

when they come crashing down, and not to give heed to demons . . . who lyingly claim . . . whose refutation has become . . .

when he has propitiated God—things which he will clearly know who together with . . . in the royal histories.

Sufficiently, as I think, having spoken to the literal sense of the text of Zechariah, one must attend also to the anagogical meaning.

The God-given teaching is called spiritual rain in what is written thus:

Let the clouds rain down righteousness—clouds to which the command is given not to give rain when . . .

there being, by way of allegory, a vineyard . . . to bear fruit under the . . . of the clouds being . . . because thorns and thistles . . . after the manner of . . . the blessed men . . . one must understand the . . . of the . . .

Let my utterance be looked for as the rain, and let my words come down as the dew, and as the shower upon the grass . . .

and each of God's . . . the spiritual shower . . . they who were set in the Church as apostles and prophets, teachers and evangelists.

according to the Old Testament . . .

the evangelical and apostolic teachings.

The latter rain is . . . concerning which one must bring a petition to God, that it may be . . . to Him who has also given the former rain, so that each . . . may bear fruit, God having given the herb . . . of those being led up.

The Apostle who is in Christ, being himself also by way of anagogy a cloud, writes to the Hebrews:

the rain often coming upon it . . . the herb . . . as the apostolic voice:

For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and brings forth herbs meet for those by whom also it is tilled, receives blessing from God;

but that which bears thorns and thistles is rejected and nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. So that no one may suppose that he wrote these things with reference to the literal sense, he harmoniously added:

But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation—that is, of you who have borne fruit from having drunk both the former and the latter rain, since those who have received only the one do not bear perfect fruit.

Those of the circumcision, having received only the former rain, did not receive the Gospel, since they did not believe on the Saviour;

their teaching was shown to be . . . only the apostolic Church bearing perfect fruits, sweet and fit to eat, because it has its perfect watering from both rains.

This contemplation is suggested also by the prophecy of Hosea, which runs thus:

Let us follow on to know the Lord; we shall find Him prepared as the dawn, and He shall come to us as the former and the latter rain to the earth. One must take, according to another sense, the former rain to be the word concerning the incarnation of the Saviour, and the latter to be the word concerning His divinity.

Those who have enjoyed both waterings say:

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. This same understanding is found also in what was written to the Corinthians by Paul:

Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no more. For the former interpretation, that concerning the two covenants, one may make use also of this:

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which He had promised beforehand by His prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning His Son, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness. And a third understanding may be stated:

Let the things in this age, known and prophesied in part, be taken as the former rain, the latter being that of the seeing face to face which shall come in the age to come.

And let these things too be said with earnest zeal:

let the discipline that corrects morals, and the corresponding virtue which is practical, be the former watering, the latter being the word concerning the knowledge of the mysteries of God.

And this twofold rain will begin—God supplying it—whenever we go forth to know the Lord through prayers and searching of the God-inspired scriptures, and through the exercise that pertains to unsurpassable contemplation;

for when these things have been accomplished beforehand, the Lord who is sought will be found as the dawn made ready, becoming the former and the latter rain to the earth that has received the seed of Jesus.

For thus will bear fruit the things declared next—resurrection, life, perfect knowledge—as the very saying makes plain, being set forth thus:

For He shall come to us, it says, as the former and the latter rain to the earth.

And we shall rise, and we shall live, and we shall stand before Him, and we shall know. Filled with these God-inspired good things, he who has sought the Lord will keep away, as from wretched things, from the oracle-uttering false prophets who dream rather than behold anything in waking vision.

Such are those who have set up heresies within Christianity, understanding neither what they say nor concerning what they make their assertions, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, in the hypocrisy of liars, seared in their own conscience.

They are entangled in false dreams who have cast off watchfulness and sobriety, borne down by a stupor as men sleeping by night and drunken;

for concerning those who dream and ever long to slumber it is written:

They that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that are drunken are drunken in the night, being deprived of the true light.

Wherefore, even if at some time they promise consolation, they comfort in vain;

for from their supposed divinatory foretelling there will be no nourishing pasture or herb.

Wherefore they are dried up like sheep having no pasture—the pasture concerning which the holy one said:

The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall lack nothing;

in a place of green grass, there He has made me to dwell. And this well-grassed pasture is found by him who goes in and out through the door, which is none other than the Saviour who says:

because of the negligence concerning the flock, so that the lambs experienced the wrath of God together with the shepherds, the visitation reaching even unto them, the fatted lambs being rebuked and afflicted, so that they too were dried up together with the sheep herded with them.

Harm has indeed befallen the flock through the fault of the flock-leaders who have fallen into godlessness, concerning whom God Himself says:

The shepherds acted impiously against Me, and went after that which profits not, giving heed to those who utter oracles and to soothsayers and to those who proclaim false dreams, so that the sheep also were harmed, suffering destruction.

It was said, therefore, by Him who cares for all, most reprovingly:

My people were become lost sheep; their shepherds thrust them out, so that even the lambs themselves were afflicted, no longer having the benefit that comes from a fat pasture.

Nevertheless, even though they were thus disposed of their own accord, yet by the goodness of the good Shepherd the Lamb of God was slain to take away the sin of the world, concerning whom is the prophecy:

As a sheep He was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is dumb, whom the Baptist, pointing out with his finger, having more than a prophet, said:

Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. And the sin of the world having been taken away, the benefited sheep no longer have drought or kindred affliction, nor do the lambs whom He visited who says:

And My wrath was kindled against the shepherds. And we too must be zealous to come under the good flock-leader, who makes those shepherded under Him to dwell in a place of green grass, so that, going in and out, applying ourselves inwardly and outwardly to the divine words, we may experience the blessed and eternal life.

And the Lord God Almighty shall visit His flock, the house of Judah, and shall set them as His goodly horse in battle.

And out of him He looked, and out of him He set in order, and out of him the bow in wrath;

out of him shall come forth everyone that drives on in the same.

And they shall be like warriors trampling mud in the streets in battle, and they shall set themselves in array, because the Lord is with them.

He who, after being provoked to anger, profitably heals those who have fallen under His indignation—being the Lord God Almighty—will visit His flock, which is the house of Judah, that is, of him who makes confession; for 'Judah' is interpreted as 'one who confesses.'

For 'Judah' is interpreted 'one who confesses.'

And the Lord God Almighty visits His own flock;

concerning which it is also said in Micah:

And He shall stand and see and shepherd His flock in strength, the Lord, being Savior.

That the Lord God Almighty is the Only-begotten Son of God has been demonstrated in the foregoing passages.

For since the Trinity is consubstantial, the One begotten being consubstantial with the One who begets, from the Lord God Almighty the Savior is Lord God Almighty.

For how is He not Lord God, who was in the beginning with God? And just as through Him all things came to be, so also they are held together and ruled by Him, so that in this respect He is Almighty.

This One, therefore, who is spoken of as God, having sojourned here to find and to save the race of men—which was as a sheep gone astray from the hundred of rational beings—like the best of shepherds laid down His own life for the sheep to save which He had come, so that thereafter He visits His own flock, which is the house of Judah, concerning which it is said:

Judah, your brothers shall praise you. And since a swift change comes through advancement to those who are benefited, He will set in order those who complete His flock, like one comely horse, all being fitted together in one mind and one purpose, so that from a shepherd He becomes the best of charioteers, riding to salvation.

This good thing has come about when those who had a longing for His sojourn sent up their entreaty, saying:

Out of the house of Judah, from the flock that has become a comely horse, He looked and appointed from it a bow, from which He sends arrows, words concerning chastisement and threatening;

concerning which He who appointed the bow said:

I will make My arrows drunk with blood; and again:

My arrows shall make an end of them. It has also been said in the foregoing that chastisements, for a certain profound reason, are called arrows.

In the seventh Psalm, at any rate, concerning the Judge of all, both of the living and of the dead, it is said:

He has bent His bow and made it ready, and in it He has prepared instruments of death;

His arrows He has wrought for those who are burned. But what shall it be when the Lord God Almighty looks out from Judah and appoints from it a warlike bow, other than that those from Judah who have been well treated by Him become warriors skilled in battle?

There shall go forth in the same one he who drives out prepared for war, so as to trample the mud of the roads, since many fall, so that from the blood mud comes to be.

But this happens to the victors, not to the vanquished.

For those turned to flight are pursued and hard-pressed, while those who run upon them and press them hard trample, like mud, the blood of the slain who through fear have shown their backs, urging on their affairs after the manner of horsemen driving forward.

And when these good deeds have come to pass, the Lord their God will be fighting on their behalf and around them, so that they say in thanksgiving:

The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our helper; and further:

In God we shall do valiantly, and He Himself will bring to nothing those who afflict us. Having God with them, they will confidently set themselves in array against those with whom they have their contest and war, so that each says in thanksgiving:

The Lord is my light and my Savior;

whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defender of my life;

of whom shall I be afraid? When those who did me evil drew near against me to devour my flesh, my afflicters and my enemies, they themselves grew weak and fell;

though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear;

though war rise up against me, in this I hope. Having the same courage, he too who sings the third Psalm took heart to say:

I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who set themselves against me round about. To those thus set in array the Word, cheering them, says:

One of you shall pursue a thousand, and two shall put to flight ten thousand—not of men who are warriors only, but also of the invisible ones.

Against these have their wrestling those who serve as soldiers of Christ and have put on His whole armor, and they say:

Our wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities and powers, the world-rulers of this darkness, and the spiritual forces of wickedness. For when all these warriors stand around, he who takes courage in the appellation of God as in an unconquerable shield says:

They compassed me about, yea, they compassed me about, but in the name of the Lord I warded them off. The same as this the prophet also cries out in triumph:

And the riders of horses shall be put to shame.

And I will strengthen the house of Judah and save the house of Joseph, and I will settle them, because I have loved them, and they shall be as though I had not turned them away, for I am the Lord their God and I will hear them.

And they shall be like the warriors of Ephraim, and their heart shall rejoice as with wine;

and their children shall see and be glad, and their heart shall rejoice in the Lord.

Those who trust greatly in an array of cavalry, when the affairs of war turn out contrary to their purpose, incur shame, having learned by experience that a horse is false for salvation.

Concerning those who war in this way the chorus of the saints says:

These trust in chariots and these in horses, but we will rejoice in the name of the Lord;

they were put to shame when they were drowned in the Red Sea, so that a refrain is sung against them, beginning from:

Let us sing to the Lord, for gloriously has He been glorified;

the horse and its rider He has cast into the sea. Concerning these riders it is also brought forth in one of the Psalms:

At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, those who mounted the horses fell into a stupor. But who these are must be considered.

The horses being understood as human bodies, on account of their skittish and unruly nature, the riders are the souls that do not in an ordered nor a knowledgeable way tame the horses upon which they mount;

wherefore also they undergo shame, being driven as by a gadfly, as the prophetic saying declares:

The riders of horses shall be put to shame. According to another understanding, let the horses be understood as the boastful and sophistical men, upon whom mount the evil powers, borne along in disorder, not knowing how to bridle but to be carried by a disordered rush, which powers, because they urge on without skill the four-legged passions, shall be put to shame;

they go down into pits because of their drowsing and slumbering, while those who ride to salvation do not endure the fate of those who are put to shame;

for the soul that buffets and enslaves the body which encompasses it is not a rider-passenger, nor a mere mounter, but a horseman knowledgeably breaking in the colt.

Likewise, certain divine powers mounting with equestrian art are borne like horsemen upon the best of men, carried along by the impulse of divine teaching, having as their leader and captain the One whose horsemanship is salvation, to whom it is said:

Mount upon Your horses, and Your riding is salvation. One of the ancient sages distinguished the horseman from the mere rider, and called the one blameworthy, the other praiseworthy;

for he who is carried along without skill, not bridling the horse, is a mere rider, as the aforesaid sage set forth, while he who is borne according to the art of colt-breaking is rightly called a horseman.

For instance, when the great prophet Elijah was being taken up, Elisha the seer cried out, saying:

Father, father, the chariot of Israel and its horseman. For he who was borne in the best manner, having bridled his own vehicle, had to be a horseman and not a mere rider.

This being the difference between horseman and mere rider, it is not the horsemen but the rider-passengers who shall be put to shame, drowsing while they have mounted the horses, whereas those who ride with skill drive soberly and watchfully;

wherefore also, being shown to be victors, they carry off the victory, while the riders of the blameworthy horses are put to shame.

Those of Judah prevail, and the house of Joseph lives and shall be saved by God the King of all;

for in parallel, Joseph and Judah is the incarnate Savior, inasmuch as He arose from Judah and gave grain to those worn down by famine and want of food, so that thereafter He was shown to be full of loaves, a very great season of abundance succeeding;

at any rate, it was said at the birth of Mary's child that those who were formerly famished, because they disregarded spiritual nourishment, were filled with good things, of which their spiritual Joseph gave them grain.

Indeed, He advanced to such abundance that even in the wilderness He fed to satiety, from very few loaves, multitudes of many people who were deprived of food.

Having strengthened the house of Judah and saved that of Joseph, God promises to settle them, for no other reason than that He has loved them.

But when shall this be, except when they receive those which...

...He persuaded them of the promises, concerning which it is written thus:

Eye of man has not seen, nor has ear of mortals heard, nor has it come up into the heart, all that God has prepared for those who love Him. And the things promised shall be to them as though I had not turned them away, but I look upon and watch over them, being the Lord their God.

...of the true vine, concerning which clarity has already often been given.

But what shall come from the drinking of the divine wine, except to be gladdened by beholding the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, and whatever else has a lofty contemplation, after which one shall see God, drawing near with a pure heart to the impress of His substance, so that He who is Himself the image and impress of the invisible God says:

He who has seen Me has seen the Father. And not only these very ones to whom the promises belong shall enjoy the sacred sights, but also their very children whom they have begotten by divine instruction and by imitation of the best life.

The Apostle in Christ, at any rate, writes to the Corinthians and to the Galatians—to the former:

'Through the gospel I begot you'; and to others he says:

'My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.' And Peter too, the foremost of the apostles, writes as to his own children in the letter he penned:

'As children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former manner of life.' And Barnabas likewise, having been appointed an apostle together with Paul over the uncircumcision, sent a letter to those who were faithful according to the gospel, and addresses it as to sons and daughters.

And the psalmist too addresses those who are born of him according to virtue:

'Come, children, hearken unto me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.'

'What man is he that desireth life, and loveth to see good days?' When the aforesaid children behold these things, they shall rejoice in the mind—which is called the heart—in nothing else but the Lord their God, who says to each of those who conduct themselves according to the divine Gospel:

'Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.'

: 'I will signal to them and gather them in, for I will redeem them, and they shall be multiplied as they were many.'

'And I will sow them among the peoples, and they that are far off shall remember me.'

'They shall nourish their children, and shall return.'

'And I will bring them back out of the land of Egypt, and gather them in from among the Assyrians, and I will lead them into Gilead and into Lebanon, and not one of them shall be left behind.'

The Lord, having purposed to gather in those who had been alienated by way of captivity, does not do this all at once, but by first signalling the benefaction to those who are to receive it.

This vision is above all borne out in the Gospels;

for Jesus, wishing to give rest to souls, says: 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and ye shall find rest unto your souls;'

'and take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart;'

'for my yoke is kindly and my burden is light.' ...having judged to receive them to himself so that they might take up his yoke, which is kindly, and his light burden, he signals to them, saying:

'Come unto me, and I will give you rest.' This divine exhortation is borne out also in Isaiah, when the Holy Spirit cries aloud:

'Be enlightened, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for thy light is come upon thee, and the glory of thy God is risen upon thee.'

'Behold, darkness and gloom shall cover the earth, upon the nations;'

'but upon thee shall the Lord appear.' For having signalled that it is fitting to be enlightened by the Saviour who is the true light, he goes on:

'But upon thee shall the Lord appear, and the glory of thy God shall be seen upon thee,' so that the royal souls over whom the King of all holds sway may walk in the light of him who gathers them in, and the nations too, called into the gospel, may walk in the radiance of the glorious Church—which, by anagogy, is Jerusalem, since it beholds the peace of God that surpasses all understanding by reason of its perfect height and royal pre-eminence.

And for what reason does he signal to them and gather them in? He fittingly adds, saying:

'Because I will redeem them and multiply them as they were many.' He redeems them from cruel and unyielding tyrants who by the law of captivity had led them away from their own commonwealth.

the restoration to freedom.

Accordingly one of the saints cried out to his benefactor:

'My exultation, deliver me from them that persecute me;'

'Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth.' Peter, the chief of Christ's disciples, makes plain the turning-away of those who were delivered from their former evildoing, writing to the faithful: