Commentary on Zechariah 1 part 18/24

'When those who do evil drew near against me to eat my flesh.' Yet, even though those men were so disposed, remaining unharmed he says:

'Those who oppress me and my enemies, they themselves grew weak and fell.' And the prophet Jeremiah too, concerning those who after the manner of wild beasts attempt harm against the diligent, says:

'Israel is holy to the Lord, the first-fruits of his produce;

all who devour him shall offend; evils shall come upon them, says the Lord.' And well too is it said that each devours the flesh, and not the soul or the mind, of his neighbour.

He who has been delivered from this brutality cries out in thanksgiving concerning himself and those like him:

'Blessed be the Lord, who did not give us as prey to their teeth.'

(11:10-11): 'And I will take my fair staff, and I will cast it away, to break the covenant which I made with all the peoples;

and it shall be broken in that day, and the Canaanites, the sheep that are kept, shall know that it is the word of the Lord.'

When the people of the circumcision had been abandoned by the shepherd because they had acted impiously toward him, the aforesaid grievous things befell them, so that that which dies dies, and that which fails fails, and the remnant is turned about, so that each devours the flesh of his neighbour.

A calling comes about of the Church gathered from the nations that have believed in Christ, which he also named a praiseworthy staff, that is, a kingdom, when he said:

'And I will take the fair staff.' And this took its origin from the Father having said to the Son:

'Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance.' The royal sceptre having been cast away by him who received all the nations as his inheritance, the covenant with all the peoples was broken, concerning which it is said in Deuteronomy in the great song in this manner:

'When the Most High divided the nations, when he scattered abroad the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.' This covenant having been broken by Christ, the angels no longer presiding over the nations, all the nations became the inheritance and the portion of him who cast away the fair staff for the dissolution of the covenant with all the peoples.

And this heroic deed was accomplished in the day made ready by the Sun of righteousness, which Abraham, the father of all who believe from among the nations, rejoiced to see and was glad, all the men who make up the nations being blessed in his seed, having his faith reckoned unto righteousness.

of this day the whole choir of the saints, both of men and of angels, sings, declaring:

'This is the day which the Lord has made;

let us rejoice and be glad in it,' being sons of this day, to whom the Saviour said:

'You are the light of the world.' The day has drawn near, so let us walk becomingly as in the day. These divine acts of valour having been accomplished, the Canaanites, being sheep that are kept, shall know that it is the word of the Lord which concerns the aforesaid staff and the covenant with all the peoples, which it is fitting to understand as being indicative of great and surpassing mysteries.

By 'Canaanites' one must understand those from among the nations who have been made ready to become the inheritance of the Son of God, on account of the freedom from pride which they had before him who said:

'Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls.'

(11:12-13): 'And I will say to them:

if it is good in your sight, give, having fixed, my wages; or else refuse';

'and they fixed my wages at thirty pieces of silver.'

'And the Lord said to me:

cast them into the furnace, and consider whether it is proven metal, in the manner in which I was tested on their behalf.'

'And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and I cast them into the house of the Lord, into the furnace.'

The prophetic words, being uttered enigmatically, abruptly change the persons of those who speak and of those concerning whom they speak;

and indeed from many passages it is possible to confirm and to demonstrate this observation.

But in order not to prolong the discourse, one should take from Jeremiah what is spoken in the person of God thus:

'Run to and fro in the streets of Jerusalem, and see if there is there one who does faithfulness and mercy, or judgment, as some of the copies have it, and I said:

therefore they do not swear by falsehoods.' For when God had said to the holy men:

'Run to and fro in the broad places of Jerusalem, and see if there are in it those who do such things,' those who received the command answer:

'Therefore they do not swear by falsehoods.' Observe how many changes of persons are borne in these few clauses, distinguished not in the wording but in the sense.

As, then, it stands in the testimony adduced, so it stands also in the utterance of Zechariah that has been set forth.

For the Saviour having spoken—for it is he who announces the things set before us concerning the rejection of those of the circumcision—and having next announced concerning the calling of the nations that once worshipped idols, from another beginning he says:

'I answered and said to them,' namely to the Jews:

'If it is good and just in your sight, give, having fixed'—that is, having determined—'my wages;

but if not, refuse, declining my words.'

'But they agreed that my wages should be thirty pieces of silver.'

'Wages' and 'silver' one ought to take in an elevated sense.

For in many places of the divine instruction the oracles and the word are signified by this name;

for 'the oracles of the Lord are pure oracles, silver tried by fire, proven metal to the earth, purified sevenfold.' And again it is said proverbially:

'The tongue of the righteous is silver tried by fire.' For the word is signified by the name of the tongue.

And since not all that is silver allegorically is praiseworthy, but some is also blameworthy, God, saying then to the false teachers of Israel:

'Your silver is reprobate,' does not blame sensible coinage, but deceitful speech.

And concerning those who use it, God is said to speak to the discerning:

'Call them reprobate silver, because the Lord has rejected the generation that does these things'—it being clear that these are the deceitful and forbidden things.

Of this same understanding is the proverbial oracle uttered thus:

should one presume to announce, concerning great matters—the so-called high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God—one must regard it as a potsherd;

such as is that which those who mind earthly things utter, whom Isaiah spoke of as crying out from the earth.

There being, therefore, a difference among the rational silvers, when those of the circumcision had fixed as wages for him who laboured on their behalf thirty pieces of silver, the Father says to him who received the thirty pieces of silver as wages:

'Cast them into the furnace, and consider whether the silver that has been given is proven, in the manner in which I was tested on their behalf.'

For thus it will be made manifest whether they rendered a worthy wage for the labour which I undertook on their behalf, having laid down my soul and given it as a ransom in exchange for many.

The Father having said these things—I mean the words:

'Cast the thirty pieces of silver into the furnace'—he who became obedient unto death, without delay accomplishing what was commanded:

'I took,' he says, 'the pieces of silver, and I cast them into the house of the Lord, into the furnace.'

This having been fulfilled, the wage of the Pharisees and of the others of the circumcision was known to be deceitful, so that those who searched the Scriptures which testify concerning the Saviour who spoke them, regarded it as a potsherd.

For in many places of the Gospels the wicked word of the accused is reproved, as in the passage:

'This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far removed from me.'

'In vain do they worship me, teaching commandments and doctrines of men,' setting aside the commandment of God for the sake of their injurious tradition.

In the same way they are refuted for putting forward a counterfeit argument concerning whether one ought to give tribute to Caesar or not; for by that very thing, and out of what they said, they were exposed as deceitful and as speaking with much cunning.

For the Savior, questioning them, said:

'Show me the coin'—bidding them make clear whose image and inscription it bears.

When they heard 'Caesar's,' they were strongly refuted.

'Therefore render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.' Now it is not only the Jews who approached the Savior to test him that hold a counterfeit argument, but also the heretics who hold false opinions within Christianity, who walk in cunning and adulterate the word of the Lord, misconstruing and falsifying the intent of the God-inspired oracles;

These too must be shunned, reckoning their deceitful argument, since it is counterfeit money, to be as worthless as a potsherd.

Is not the argument counterfeit of those who posit two unoriginate first principles, of good and of evil—these are the Manichaeans—? And of those who call the Son a creature and separate the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son? And that of those who blaspheme against the incarnation of the Savior, supposing that the Savior appeared in semblance and not in truth? Now not only is the counterfeit money made manifest from the crucible of the house of God, but so also is the genuine coin that bears the image and character of the all-royal Savior, purified sevenfold, which one ought to hold fast and to be rich in its possession.

There are those who understand that the thirty pieces of silver which Judas received from the Jews in order to betray the Lord are signified also by the passage before us; and this is the greatest refutation of the Jews who gave, and of Judas who received, the thirty pieces of silver for the betrayal.

For they ought rather to have given a reward to him who labored for the salvation both of themselves and of the whole world, and not to have paid so that he who gives life to all might be put to death.

The blasphemies which the Jews utter against the Savior who was crucified for the whole creation must be cast and let down into the house of the God-inspired Scriptures and into the crucible within it, so that they may be shown to be out of tune, or rather contrary, to the prophecies concerning Christ and his cross.

Our Savior and Lord, having taken two staffs, one of which he called Beauty and the other Cord, first cast away the one called Beauty, and thereby made manifest the mysteries already explained.

Now, having cast away the one named Cord, he dissolved the covenant that was between Israel and Judah.

Who then is the staff called Cord may again be learned from the great Song.

The words of the Song, which have also been set out before, run thus:

'When the Most High divided the nations, when he scattered abroad the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God, and the Lord's portion became his people Jacob, the cord of his inheritance Israel.' Now these things are said concerning the whole nation of the Hebrews, being one staff and one portion.

And indeed for a long time the whole nation continued undivided, being reckoned as one staff, according to what is proclaimed in the Psalms to the King and Provider of all:

'Remember thy congregation, which thou hast possessed from the beginning;

thou hast redeemed the staff of thine inheritance.' This one kingdom was divided into two principalities, so that the one was called Judah and the other Ephraim, in that those who remained in Jerusalem were ruled by the house of David, who held the succession from the tribe of Judah, while those who went down to Samaria had as their leader Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin, being of the tribe of Ephraim.

And for a long time the evil of the schism continued, the king of Judah and the tyrant of Samaria being at strife and in dispute with one another, until God should have compassion and again reveal the twelve tribes as one kingdom, with Judah alone holding sway, as also before the schism.

Concerning this restoration it is set forth in the prophet Hosea, the all-royal one saying:

'The sons of Israel and the sons of Judah shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land, for great is the day of Jezreel.' We must attend to the prophecy, which makes clear that those restored into one kingdom come up out of the land—being, that is, down below in the land, because they were at strife with one another, scattered outside the single sovereignty.

The covenant of the schism between Judah and Israel having been in force for a time, its scattering and dissolution comes about by the grace of the Savior, so that, the difference of the schisms being done away, the staff called Cord might come under one king as before—namely, him who holds the succession from Judah—so that there might be one flock and one shepherd, the whole nation being held under the lawful king.

Concerning such a restoration of the two kingdoms into one lawful principality, it is set forth also in the prophet Ezekiel;

the prophetic utterance runs thus:

'And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

Son of man, take for thyself a staff and write upon it: Judah, and the sons of Israel who are joined to him;

and thou shalt take for thyself a second staff, and thou shalt write upon it:

For Joseph, the staff of Ephraim, and all the sons of Israel who are joined to him.

And thou shalt join them to one another for thyself into one staff, to bind them, and they shall be in thy hand.

And it shall be, when the sons of thy people speak to thee, saying:

Wilt thou not tell us what these things mean to thee? Then thou shalt say to them:

Thus says the Lord God:

Behold, I will take the tribe of Joseph, which is by the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel that are joined to him, and I will set them upon the tribe of Judah;

and the staffs on which thou didst write shall be in thy hand before their eyes, and thou shalt say to them:

Thus says the Lord God:

Behold, I take the whole house of Israel from the midst of the nations, into which they had gone, and I will gather them from all that are round about them, and I will bring them into the land of Israel;

and one ruler shall be over them all as king, and they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they any more be divided into two kingdoms.' And after other things:

'And I will cleanse them, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

And my servant David shall be ruler in their midst, and there shall be one shepherd of all, for they shall walk in my ordinances and shall keep my judgments and do them.

And they shall dwell upon their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob.' And after a little:

'And David my servant shall be their ruler for ever.

And I will make with them a covenant of peace; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them;

and I will set my holy things in their midst for ever.

And my dwelling shall be among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And the nations shall know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them, in that my holy things are in their midst for ever.' Now that the harmony of the prophetic riddle with the division of the one principality into two kingdoms, and their restoration into one principality according to the prophecy of Hosea, has been shown, it is fitting, after the historical sense, to understand in an elevated way the things concerning the two staffs which the Son of man took for himself.

For it must be held that through them are signified the callings of the two peoples—both that from the nations and that from the circumcision—bound together into one scepter of kingship, according to the sense of the apostolic writing, which runs thus:

'He is our peace, who has made both one and broken down the middle wall of the partition, that he might create the two in himself into one new man'—the Greek and the Jew.

For when the one Judaized and the other Hellenized, there were two staffs and two men, divided by their differing religion, so as not to be under one king.

But when the true leader shone forth, to whom the saints say:

'Thy kingdom is a kingdom of all ages,' then all men were shown to be one people, called under one God and King who preached peace to those far off and peace to those near, so that both might in the Spirit be built up into one kingdom, being under the one God and King.

And the people called from the nations is the staff on which was written 'Judah, the one who confesses,' while that from the circumcision is the scepter dedicated to Joseph.

Each of the details in the riddle of the two staffs might be explained minutely and in themselves in the commentary on Ezekiel, if God should call, in his own goodness, to speak upon them also; but as to the present need, we speak by way of allegory.

Of the two principalities that became one staff, one was raised up by the Father—he who according to the flesh was raised up by God from David—who, having become the eternal shepherd and king according to the incarnation, and having been revealed as the president of a peaceful and everlasting covenant, will reign steadfastly and peaceably and unendingly unto the ages, his kingdom never coming to an end.

It befits such a peaceful state, in the midst of those who are ruled, that the holy things of God—which are the mysteries of the kingdom—be given by the great Giver himself, who dwells in the midst of those who are being saved and sanctified; this so great and so mighty good being fulfilled at the time of the incarnation, when the Word, having become flesh, tabernacled among his own acquaintances, that they, advancing yet further, might behold his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Not unseasonably, so far as was possible, have the things concerning the two scepters which the Son of man took for himself been explained by way of digression, so that, having bound and drawn them tightly together, he might show them forth as one staff.

But this good shall come to pass perfectly when, the fullness of the nations having entered into the highest blessedness, all Israel shall be saved.

Ch. —: 'And the Lord said to me:

Take yet again for thyself the implements of an inexperienced shepherd.

For behold, I will raise up a shepherd over the land;

that which is failing he will not visit, and that which is scattered he will not seek, and that which is broken he will not heal, and that which is whole he will not set straight, and the flesh of the choice ones he will devour, and their hooves he will wrench off.'

When the rational sheep, by their own choice, have come into much wandering and harm, the excellent herdsman declared:

'I will not shepherd you.' To flocks that have thus become without protection through their own choosing, given over to the desires of their own hearts unto uncleanness, and to passions of dishonor and a reprobate mind, God—who has handed over the aforesaid—raises up a shepherd who feeds those he has received neither skillfully nor sparingly, but rather shows himself the cause of harm to those very ones whom they themselves chose; not caring for the failing one who has slipped away and wandered from the gathering and the restoration to the divine flock, outside of which it came through its fault—nay, not even warding off any other harm.

For he does not seek that which is scattered, he does not heal that which is broken, he does not set straight that which is whole, having as his aim and zeal to be the cause of evils and not of goods;

at any rate he does everything for the sake of shameful gain and for what is dear to himself;

at all events he devours the flesh and wrenches off the hooves of those set under him.

But the skillful shepherds are not such—those given to the flocks by the gift of God, so that the God of all benefit says:

'I will give you shepherds according to my heart, shepherding with knowledge.' For how could they not be good herdsmen, over whom rules he who gives his own life for the sheep, being the good shepherd? Concerning this the foremost of the apostles writes to those who lead the assembly of the faithful:

'The elders among you I exhort to shepherd the flock among you, not by constraint but willingly, so that when the chief Shepherd appears you may receive the unfading crown of glory.' Of those who thus tend the sheep they have received, no one lords it over the portions he has received; whereas those who do this devour the flesh of the sheep, seeking the sweet things from them, thinking to have glory in the shame and in the works that bear it, making a god of their own belly through gluttony, so as to serve it and not the Lord Jesus—as by the same Apostle it is likewise written concerning such men, that they serve not the Lord Jesus but their own belly.

While the false teachers and false shepherds are of such a mind, the excellent herdsmen have as the reward of their instruction only plain and unextravagant nourishment, obeying him who brought them forward to this, who says:

'The labourer is worthy of his food,' so that one may speak and write with all the more boldness:

'We are content with what we have to hand,' that is, with food and clothing.

Straightway, then, urging on those who imitate them to this same end, they say:

'We brought nothing into the world, and neither are we able to carry anything out of it.'

'Having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.' Those who possess virtue in this manner declare it with boldness:

'Silver and gold have we none.' Beneficial are such teachers, who do not crave the flesh of those they shepherd, but have a longing for their spirit, being eager to keep with them the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Therefore they do not turn aside their ankles, but they set them right and rouse them, that they may run in the straight ways of the Lord and do what is required, keeping sound also the ankle-bones of their hands.

I have said this—that there are ankle-bones of the hands—having learned it from the all-wise Daniel.

What is said by the great prophet Elijah to those who waver, treading upon two paths, may perhaps be equivalent to the turning-aside of the ankles, or of equal force with it:

'How long will you halt upon both your knees? If the Lord is God, go after him;'

'but if Baal, then go after him.' Plainly and clearly He who, in the manner of a threat, said that He would raise up upon the earth a shepherd who does not visit the sheep that is perishing, nor again seeks the one that is scattered, who does not bind up nor heal that which is broken, who is not zealous to guide aright that which is whole, so that it may grow yet more healthy—He commands the prophet to take up the shepherd's gear of an inexperienced man, who has neither the skill nor the practice of a good herdsman, that He may make clear to those to whom he prophesies what is the meaning of the things enjoined upon him.

For those who do not grasp the words fasten their attention upon the actions performed by the teacher.

Since, therefore, the hearers had to understand something concerning an inexperienced shepherd who did not possess the pastoral art, the holy man, seized by God, took in a perceptible way the aforesaid gear, so that he might speak concerning it and, when asked by those who saw the pastoral gear he had taken—not of an experienced but of an inexperienced man—might tell what these things signify.

Many things arranged in this way are recorded among the prophets, especially in Ezekiel.

It is not unlikely that the things concerning so destructive a shepherd were proclaimed beforehand concerning the Antichrist, as is found in several Scriptures.

'Choice sheep,' he said, whose flesh he devours—not those absolutely and truly choice, but those which he who devours their flesh chooses out as dear and his own.

'O you who shepherd vain things and who have forsaken the sheep:'

'a sword upon his arm and upon his right eye:'

'his arm shall be utterly withered, and his right eye shall be utterly blinded.'

The divine word accuses, or rather threatens, the false herdsmen who have turned away and forsaken the sheep, hunting after vain things—that is, base gain and the devouring of the flesh of the flocks entrusted to them—speaking as though to each of them, or as to all of them as one, because they were made after the same wickedness: 'A sword upon the arm'—that is, upon his work.

It has often been shown that 'arm,' by way of allegory, signifies work.

What, then, is the sword upon the arm and eye of the culpable shepherd, but the punitive word concerning which God says in Isaiah to those to whom the law is given:

'If you are willing and hearken to me, you shall eat the good things of the land;'

'but if you are not willing, nor hearken to me, a sword shall devour you.' Concerning this avenging sword God again says in Jeremiah:

'I will stretch out my hand upon all the inhabitants of the land,' to the end that they should suffer these grievous things.

According to another interpretation, the divine sword can be the word that separates from worse things those who are entangled in them.

Straightway, then, in the Gospels the Saviour says:

'Do not suppose,' He says, 'that I came to cast peace upon the earth, but a sword.' For the evangelical teaching does not prepare men to be at peace with earthly things and with the earth, but separates from it those who are minded toward earthly things and who bear the image of the man of dust.

This sword was given to Abraham after the manner of an oracle, that it might separate him from the land and from his kindred and from his father's house—the 'land' being understood as the body which encompassed him, the 'kindred' as those who practise the same things and were reared with him, and the 'father's house' being the uttered word of the mind, as one of the wise men interpreted concerning the Mosaic instruction.

Equivalent to what was given as an oracle to Abraham are the words spoken by the divine bridegroom, or rather by his father:

'Hearken, O daughter, and behold, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house, for the king has desired your beauty, and he is your Lord.' For it is the same thing for someone to forget his own people and his father's house as for the one who is exhorted to this to go forth from his kindred and his father's house.

Coming upon the arm and eye—that is, upon the active power and the contemplative power—of the shepherd who is to be punished, it withers the arm, removing all its moisture and blameworthy fatness, so that it may be put to death.

And it blinds also the eye—it shall blind the eye that seems to its possessor to be a right eye, but is not in truth such, but rather sinister and left and whatever is more worthless.

These sayings might also be taken as referring to the Antichrist, who professes to have a strong and living arm because of the signs and wonders which he works, though they are of falsehood, and a right eye, sharing in the vision of the intelligible king of the Assyrians, concerning whom the Lord Himself said:

'I will bring punishment upon the great mind, upon the king of the Assyrians,' who boasted arrogantly:

'I will plunder the strength of the nations, and by the wisdom of my understanding I will remove the borders of nations, and with my hand I will seize the whole inhabited world.' This scorner boasted:

'There is no one who shall escape me or contradict me.' The Antichrist, being a son according to impiety, boasted arrogantly of having a strong arm and a right eye—which arm the aforementioned sword withered, and which eye it blinded, cutting away his most wicked vision.

Concerning this Paul writes word for word to the Thessalonians:

'Until the lawless one comes, whom the Lord Jesus will consume with the breath of his mouth and will bring to nothing by the manifestation of his coming.' A right eye of this one is reckoned to be each of the heretics who champions falsely-named knowledge;

and his arm is every sorcerer who pretends to work portentous powers;