Commentary on Zechariah 1 part 16/24

'Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.' The Saviour, who made this promise, having redeemed them, of necessity adds:

'I will multiply them as they were many'—not so much in throng and number as in pre-eminence of honour, in a manner resembling the blessing spoken by God to Abraham:

'I will increase him, and multiply him, and bless him, and he shall be blessed,' being shown forth by the gift of God as a father of many nations. And he becomes a father of many nations not according to the flesh alone, but according to the spiritual sense—that is, of his children and sons who come to be such by doing his works and holding his faith.

Indeed the Saviour himself, most forcefully rebuking those who boasted of having Abraham as their father according to the flesh, said:

'If ye are children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham.' With this understanding the vessel of election, the apostle Paul, writes to the Church, making clear how the holy patriarch is a father of the nations, saying:

'As many as are of faith are sons of Abraham, being blessed together with him.' The same vision is suggested by that prophetic word borne in Isaiah:

'The least shall become thousands, and the smallest a great nation.' Taken with respect to sensible things, these words provoke laughter, since many of the holiest men had no children at all;

for Elijah and Elisha and John the Baptist—than whom none was greater in commendable deed and holy knowledge—had no children whatsoever, so that it is fitting to understand spiritually the being multiplied of those who possess such promises, 'as they were many.'

For it was not here that the righteous began to be multiplied and to become many according to the sense that has been given;

for they were many even before the present life.

These, being many, he sowed as seeds among the peoples, that they might share in their virtue.

For just as seeds cast into the earth transform the soil that lies about them, so that it becomes produce and fruit, so those who are sown among the peoples and the nations bring those among whom they are sown into their own quality, making them imitators of their virtue.

And one would not err in saying that those who heard him were sown by Jesus:

'Go ye therefore and make disciples of all the nations;'

and further, to the same, in the Gospel according to John:

'For this cause I appointed you'—that is, I ordained and set you forth—'that ye should go and bring forth more fruit, and that your fruit should be glorified.'

I consider that in this manner the saints are led into captivity together with the peoples, even into Babylon itself and Assyria, in order that, by imparting their own virtue after the fashion of saving seeds, they may render them ears of grain and produce.

In harmony with this, it follows that those who were removed far from the Lord because of sins and impieties should remember him.

These promises fit most especially those who have come to faith from among the nations.

Indeed it is said concerning them in the twenty-first Psalm:

'All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him, for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is ruler over the nations.' For how should he not rule and hold sway over those who, remembering him, have turned to him, so as to worship and glorify their ruling benefactor? And what follows for those who remember the King of all, but to come to be in recollection of the city of the living God, which is heavenly, according to what is said:

'and let Jerusalem come up upon your heart.' Those benefited by their own Saviour, being by anagogy rich in children and abounding in offspring, shall nourish their own children by imparting spiritual nourishment, as concerning each it is proclaimed according to the writing of the divine Proverbs:

'A righteous father nourishes well.' Besides the anagogical sense, this can also hold true according to the literal narrative;

for Zechariah, being a righteous father, nourished well John the Baptist, who was his own child, just as Abraham nourished Isaac, and Isaac Jacob;

and the inspired Paul himself, being a father, profitably and commendably nourished those whom he had begotten through the gospel.

One may hear him, at any rate, writing to the Corinthians:

'I gave you milk to drink.' In agreement, Peter too writes to the faithful in the dispersion:

'Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of the living and abiding God: as newborn babes, long after the reasonable milk, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation.' In this same manner the evangelist John too, having begotten by way of instruction those who were made his disciples, writes to the whole Church:

'Little children, keep yourselves from idols.' In addition to nourishing their own children, the fathers who have been assigned will also turn them back by exhortations and divine admonitions, that they may no longer be with evil men in the lands of the impious—this being granted by God, as he himself said:

'I will bring them back out of Egypt, and gather them in from among the Assyrians,' that they may no longer be worn down by the spiritual tyrant of Egypt, nor be held fast by the ruler of the Assyrians—who is called a great mind because of the craftiness and perversity of his devices, which ordinary men do not expose, but only those who speak with divine wisdom, saying:

'For we are not ignorant of his devices.' It is possible to say that the same tyrant, by one activity and another, is the ruler of the Egyptians and of the Assyrians;

but if different evil powers should be signified by the various names, there is no harm in it;

for such a thing is not impossible, since there are many principalities and authorities of this darkness, and also world-rulers and spiritual forces of wickedness.

Having set free from Egypt and Assyria those who well nourish their own children, and the fathers who begot them, the bestower of great gifts promises to lead them into Gilead and Lebanon, with no evil king any longer troubling them.

And observe whether he leads into Gilead those who are eager to have the migration of witness, that from vice into virtue;

for he who repents is removed from sin to righteousness, from impiety to piety; while the righteous are removed in another manner, from the introduction of instruction to the progress that follows, and from that to the one which succeeds it, until the very end, after which there is no other good, it being the last thing desired.

In this manner the psalmist speaks concerning those who are removed:

'They shall go from strength to strength.' And those who have risen above the letter that kills, and have come to be in the life-giving Spirit, are removed also from the shadow of the law to its truth.

One must consider whether a migration also succeeds our knowing and prophesying in part;

and there will be a witness of the migration or sojourning, which is unquestionably effected, having the proof from itself.

Those who have been led by God into Gilead are led also into Lebanon, having been deified;

for Lebanon signifies divinity, in what was said by the divine Bridegroom to the divine bride who dwells with him—she being a divine soul and a glorious Church, exceedingly sanctified so as no longer to have spot or wrinkle or any such thing:

'The fragrance of thy garments is as the fragrance of Lebanon.' And this may be said to each of those who have been deified by participation in the Word of God, concerning whom it was said by the Saviour:

He called those 'gods' to whom the word of God came. 'The scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon.' The garments spoken of in the plural are the several kinds of virtues, with which the queen who stands at the right hand of the all-royal Bridegroom is adorned.

It has been said by wise men that the frankincense which the Magi offered, together with the gold and myrrh, to the child born of Mary signifies His divinity, in some such sense as this:

since He who was born of the Virgin is at once God and man, and moreover a king, it is fitting, according to one who confesses His divinity, to bring frankincense as a gift; and to offer gold along with this frankincense on account of confessing Him to be king.

Indeed it has been said in the seventy-first Psalm both that He who has come to dwell among us is a king, and that gold is offered to Him, thus:

'O God, give Your judgment to the king,' and after some other words:

'And He shall live, and there shall be given to Him of the gold of Arabia.' Having in truth and not in mere appearance become man, He who is glorified is so because He is mortal and, by the grace of God, was to taste death on behalf of all; and myrrh too was offered among the gifts.

This gift signifies that He who died on behalf of all was buried.

Indeed, at once those around Joseph and Nicodemus anointed with myrrh the body of Jesus that was taken down from the cross.

When the bountiful God has brought those redeemed from Pharaoh and from the Assyrian into the land of Gilead and into Lebanon, none of the enemies any longer remains—not in the sense of ceasing to exist (for it is impossible for a rational being to be reduced to non-existence, even if it should sin greatly in all things and act impiously), but in the sense of no longer being an enemy and adversary to those redeemed by God.

This will come to pass especially when God becomes all in all; for when all have attained to the perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, being fitted together in the same mind and the same judgment, when that has come about of which the Son said to the Father:

'Grant to them that they may be one in Us, even as I and You are one.' When all clearly have received the fullness of the Godhead, no one any longer remains divided off from the union, so as to be outside and by himself.

For when you have then fled from all grief, pain, and sighing, the multitude reckoned by number will also flee away, when all have attained to one man.

: 'They shall pass through a narrow sea and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the depths of the rivers shall be dried up, and all the pride of the Assyrians shall be taken away, and the sceptre of Egypt shall be removed.'

'And I will strengthen them in the Lord their God, and in His name they shall glory,' says the Lord.

Constantly in the divine words the earthly manner of life and the worldly way of conduct is called 'sea.'

The Gospel parable concerning the dragnet, then, hints at nothing perceptible to the senses, but declares everything with a view to a higher spiritual meaning:

for the dragnet cast into human life for the catching of the fish in it—so named allegorically—is the God-inspired Scripture, woven in manifold ways by the richly varied wisdom of God.

And the sea is our own state of life, spread out and widened for those who love pleasure and passion, who are disposed near to what is unmoving;

for the fish neither utters a voice nor has clear imagination, since it does not even possess precise sense-perception.

Even if the fish that swim in it have nothing distinct, owing to the deficiency of their soul and perception, nevertheless the holy men who are fishermen and hunters of the fish perform their labour even in the great abundance of the water of the sea.

Concerning them, then, it is written in the divine hymns:

'they do labour in many waters, fishing and steering;'

for each of those endowed with understanding has a piloting, which is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

For it has been said that the assistance and the piloting of the Holy Spirit is a gift.

Besides being a pilot, the man of understanding is also a fisherman, possessing that skill concerning which Jesus said to His disciples:

'Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men.' Those who do their labour in many waters behold the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep, giving attention as far as possible to the judgments of God, which are a great abyss.

For even if they are unsearchable, yet having the Spirit of God which searches His depths, they behold in the deep the wonders and works of God.

Consider also another work of those who have gone down into the sea, announced in the prophet Isaiah:

'They shall fly,' he says, 'in the ships of foreigners, they shall together plunder the sea,' calling the bodies 'foreign ships' because they are of another nature than the souls that sail in them, which are intellectual substances and created for this very purpose according to the image and likeness of God.

These plunder the sea, despoiling the dragon that is in it, taking away from him the souls which he has deceived by contentious and deceitful teaching.

That the dragon dwells in the sea, the hymn-writer proclaims in the hundred and third Psalm, saying:

'This is the sea, great and wide, there ships pass through, living things small with great, this dragon which You formed to sport in it.' We must note that here the sea is great and wide to those who dwell with the dragon, but narrow to those who strive to be outside of it.

For just as to the righteous the gate is narrow and the way straitened for those who seek eternal life by living uprightly—while it is a wide gate and a broad way for the base and pleasure-loving, so that many fall into destruction—so the allegorical sea is found narrow to those who are in every way afflicted for the sake of piety yet are not straitened, so that with confidence they may say:

'Because through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom.' The waves of the interpreted sea are smitten by Him who is master and ruler over it, to whom the saints cry aloud, saying:

'You rule the power of the sea, and You calm the surge of its waves.' This Jesus accomplished both perceptibly and spiritually, when He rebuked the foaming sea against the apostolic vessel and the wind that stirred up its waves, so that at once fair weather and a clear sky came about, the water and the air being at rest.

Besides the waves of the sea being rebuked allegorically, the depths of the rivers were also laid waste—concerning which, boasting, the king of Egypt, called a dragon because of his venom and poison, said in his vaunting:

'The rivers are mine, and I made them.' Those who have gained experience of the sea made narrow, its waves being smitten, and of the depths of the rivers dried up, coming to Him who accomplished these things, send up a hymn of thanksgiving, saying thus:

'He who turns the sea into dry land; they shall pass through the river on foot,' that is, when their depths have been laid waste and the waves of the sea have been smitten.

When the waves of the sea have been smitten and all the depths of the rivers laid waste, the pride of the Assyrians shall perish, and the sceptre of Egypt shall be taken away, since it no longer reigns, and the pride of the Assyrians [shall not] prevail.

For they were insolent in both ways: on the one hand being revilers, and on the other being boastful and behaving insolently out of arrogance.

When the adversaries have been overthrown, those who journey in the narrow sea are strengthened by the Lord their God, so that each says in thanksgiving:

'The Lord is my song, and He has become my salvation.' And again:

'I will love You, O Lord, my strength.' Likewise Jeremiah too says to God:

'My strength and my help and my refuge, O Lord my God.' To the same effect as the hymn-writer and prophet Jeremiah, Paul also, speaking in Christ, writes most vigorously:

'I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.' When the pride of the Assyrians has been taken away and the kingdom of the Egyptians overthrown, being armed with the title of the Benefactor, they glory over those who have been laid low, each all but saying:

'But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.' For when the world has been crucified so as no longer to act, being hindered from proceeding and doing whatever it pleases where it wishes, the servant of Christ is crucified to it, so that, his feet and hands being hindered from acting further, he may glory without blame, saying:

'I have been crucified with Christ.' He who nobly holds this confidence glories in Christ, according to what has been said:

'Let him who glories glory in the Lord,' not glorying in any of the things he can call his own—not in what pertains to the soul, nor to the body, nor in any of external things.

For all these things are forbidden:

'For let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,' it says, 'nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, to understand and to know the Lord, and to do mercy and judgment in the midst of the earth.' This same utterance the mother of the prophet Samuel also sent up in thanksgiving at the birth of the child born beyond expectation, only changing 'prudence' in place of 'wisdom.'

There will be for us too, from God, deeds of valour, that we may give thanks to Him who has bestowed them, being bountiful.

Now that the third book on the prophet Zechariah has been sufficiently brought to its bounds, let us bring it to rest at this very point, entreating God who multiplies visions to grant utterance in the opening of the mouth, so that we may make clear what follows also, as far as possible, if it should seem good to Him.

Book Four. He who is wise according to God, having an articulate and highly precise understanding, comprehends a parable and a dark saying, the utterances of men of understanding and their riddles.

Now sayings that are announced with concealment

prove to be riddles.

Indeed, then, the present saying of the prophet, being brought forth in riddling fashion, presents a hidden teaching.

'Open, O Lebanon, your doors.' For the command is not given with reference to the perceptible mountain, which is lifeless, and the trees in it which are [devoid] of sense and imagination, that the doors of Lebanon should be opened and the pines should howl for the cedars that have fallen; but rather...

...it is addressed to men who are boastful and arrogant, falling into lawless idolatry directed toward the rulers of this age.

...to understand... the mortal rational living beings and the other rational living beings led by reason.

But when [they became like] trees and wild timber... the man who was made according to the image and likeness of God [lost] the honour which he had from his Creator; he was compared to the senseless beasts...

God... [those who are] and pleasure-loving... passionate...

Concerning such people the prophetic word says:

'They became like lustful horses; each one neighs after his neighbour's wife,' being [bereft] of all divine [understanding], and of the divine oracle that gives the command:

understanding—the horse being, in the higher sense, a figure of the one who corrupts other men's marriages and madly mounts upon other men's wives.

He who has been rendered barren toward good things, shown to be unfruitful, shall be called a mule—and especially the soul that professes virginity apart from divine understanding.

For the... foolish person, being some sort of fool, even if he seem to be pure in body, is a mule and not a bride of the Word.

There are many names of animals blamefully applied to men, asses and camels being justly the names of those who carry the burdens of wickedness, wicked demons and opposing powers laying these upon them.

Concerning such people the great prophet Isaiah, being seized by God, spoke of... and offspring of asps carrying their wealth upon asses and camels.

For things thus announced are not historical, having their meaning according to the higher spiritual sense.

And the Saviour too, commanding His own disciples not to give what is holy to dogs, nor to cast the pearls before swine, gives the command allegorically.

For flatterers and pleasure-lovers are dogs and swine, taking delight in the filth of licentious deeds.

For the dog is a creature prone to lust, madly and shamelessly raging with frenzy in its couplings, and it is both fawning and given to barking.

Or does not he who reviles his neighbour bark, in a manner buzzing forth accusations? Concerning such men Isaiah, who cried aloud, has proclaimed:

'They are all dumb dogs, knowing no understanding, and they are wicked.' Since, then, such men are dogs, having, along with their other evils, the trait of eating again the vomit which they have cast out, they would be swine who, having been washed from the passionate mire, again wallow in it.

Concerning those who are so disposed in mind, the great disciple of Christ, Peter, writes thus:

'It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.'

There has befallen them the word of the true proverb:

'A dog returning to its own vomit'; and:

'A sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.' To such men the Saviour forbade the giving of what is holy, because they turn back to the wickedness they had vomited up, becoming, under the pretence of repentance, apostates who return to the sin they had cast off.

Just as, then, one must not commune with these by imparting to them the holy knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, so neither is it fitting to cast the divine pearls before swine—which pearls are the words of the wise, adorning the inner man and his ears.

Or is he not adorned with these, who obeys him that says:

'Incline your ear to the words of the wise'; and to God the Word who declares:

'Incline your ear to the words of my mouth'? Such most precious and beautiful pearls, which the merchant of the kingdom seeks and hunts after, their possessor must not cast before the swine that have been interpreted, lest they trample them, being ignorant of their use and their beauty.

Since sufficient testimonies have been adduced to show that men are blamably likened to senseless beasts, we must next set forth the Scriptures which show that men are also praiseworthily made like to the characters and movements of certain animals.

Or are not these the very ones concerning whom the Saviour says:

'My sheep hear my voice'; and again:

'I am the good shepherd, and I lay down my life for the sheep'? The sheep of Christ are those who achieve steadfastness and meekness, of whom the flock is composed, concerning which the Holy Spirit speaks through the prophet:

'And he shall stand and see and shepherd his flock in strength, the Lord.' In accordance with such an anagogical sense, the vessel of election, Paul who speaks in Christ, understood the law 'You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain,' when, after setting it forth, he added:

Since other such passages are found by one who attends to the reading of the God-inspired Scripture, in order that the discourse may not be extended beyond what is needful, we must come to the subject at hand concerning Lebanon and its trees, which runs thus:

10, —: 'Open your doors, O Lebanon, and let fire devour your cedars;

let the pine wail, because the cedar has fallen, because the mighty ones have suffered great misery;

wail, O oaks of Bashan, because the thick-grown forest has been pulled down.'

The name 'Lebanon,' allegorically, signifies now idolatry, now haughtiness and pride.

For in the Song of Songs, Christ, calling to himself the Church from among the nations, her Bridegroom, says:

'Come from Lebanon, O bride, you shall come and pass over from the beginning of faith.' For having received the word of the beginning of Christ, she comes to him who calls her from practical wickedness to moral virtue, and from ignorance and unbelief to divine knowledge and a faith surpassing through perfection.

But just as the said passage calls Lebanon the most impious worship of idols and demons, so it presents pride in the words:

'Lebanon shall be changed like Mount Chelmel'—that is, the arrogant and self-willed man shall be brought to the knowledge of the circumcision that is brought about in the heart by the spirit;

for 'Chelmel' is interpreted 'knowledge of circumcision.'

He who has this knowledge attains humility, having learned from Jesus to be lowly in heart and in spirit.

To this twofold Lebanon the Spirit-bearing prophet—or rather the Lord through him—gives the command to open its doors, so that the cedars within its doors may be devoured by fire;

and these are wicked demons and haughty men, crushed by the voice of the Lord, according to what is sung in the twenty-eighth Psalm in this manner:

'The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;

the Lord shall break the cedars of Lebanon.' Concerning these plants, being wild and bearing no edible fruit, it is written in Isaiah, among other things, thus:

'The day of the Lord of Sabaoth is upon everyone who is insolent and proud and lofty and lifted up,' and a little after:

'and upon every cedar of Lebanon, the lofty ones, and upon every tree of the oak of Bashan.' These trees, being thus wild, are planted upon idolatry and haughtiness, being broken and consumed by fire together with those who sophistically plead on their behalf, according to what is said in the same Isaiah:

'And Lebanon shall fall with the lofty ones.' For idolatry falls together with the demons and sophist men who plead on its behalf;

likewise also the haughty men shall fall together with their boastfulness, when God sets himself against the proud, according to what is contained in the Scripture of the divine Proverbs thus:

'God sets himself against the proud.' Concerning those who thus carry their necks high, those who attain humility before God send up a prayer, uttering it thus:

'Lift up your hands against their pride to the end'; and after other things in the same Psalm:

'The pride of those who hate you has continually ascended to you.' To the Lebanon rendered in the twofold sense, the divine word gives the command to open its doors.

For when pride and idolatry are opened up and spread out, the fire of punishment shall consume the cedars—both the high-necked men and the haughty demons, who are none other than the rulers of this age, human and, as the Scripture says, fleshly wisdoms, which train up heights that are exalted against the knowledge of God.

When the cedars have been devoured by fire, the pines wail, since the stronger ones, called cedars, have fallen.

They are called cedars, while those men who are energized by them—the heterodox and the wise of this world and of this age—are named pines.

What was said enigmatically is resolved by the following phrase, which runs thus:

'Greatly have the mighty ones suffered misery.' These are those who are puffed up with pride over rule—not men only, but also the fleshless rulers of this age.

Concerning these who boastfully lead, in Nahum the prophet also—and he is the seventh of the Twelve Prophets—it is said to Nineveh:

'And upon your glorious things they shall cast lots, and all your mighty ones shall be bound with fetters,' so that they may not, with hands loosed and unhindered, do the forbidden things;

for it is for one's good that the hands which weave injustices should be hindered.

When the oaks of Bashan have suffered great misery, the thick-grown forest is pulled down;

and a forest is a place of wild trees that bear no nourishing fruit.

And this is pulled down, when its dense growth is consumed by fire.