Commentary on Zechariah 1 part 19/24

and both of these—the one, as an arm, is withered; the other, as an eye, is blinded by the aforementioned sword.

It is possible to bring forward clear testimonies of these things from the book of the Acts of the Apostles.

A certain sorcerer named Elymas, performing works of magic and putting forward a teaching, perverting, as he thought, those who had received the faith, was reckoned to be a worker of marvels and keen of mind, thinking highly of himself for the things he supposed he possessed;

coming up to him with powerful refutations and with divine energy, the God-inspired Paul said:

'O you who are full of all deceit and all villainy, son of the devil, enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to pervert the straight ways of the Lord? Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a season.' The same image of impiety as Elymas, Simon the sorcerer also possessed, whom likewise Peter exposed by the power of God—though his right arm was not withered nor his right eye blinded.

Now that the things concerning the inexperienced and wicked shepherd have been, as I think, sufficiently clarified according to our ability, we must set forth what follows in the prophet, beginning from another section.

'The burden of the word of the Lord upon Israel:'

'thus says the Lord, who stretches out heaven and lays the foundation of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him:'

'Behold, I will make Jerusalem as trembling doorposts to all the peoples round about, and it shall be in Judaea, and there shall be a siege against Jerusalem.'

'And it shall come to pass in that day that I will make Jerusalem a stone trampled upon by all the nations:'

'everyone who tramples upon it, mocking, shall be mocked, and all the nations of the earth shall be gathered together against it.'

The prophet Zechariah foretells the things that befell Judaea and Jerusalem and those dwelling in them after the cross of Jesus, having received the word from the Maker of all things, who stretched out the heaven and laid the foundation of the earth and formed the spirit of man within him.

It has been said before that the prophets become possessed, being seized by God with a word given to them, according to which they foretell the things that are to be.

But that the same things may not be repeated many times, we must be content with what has already been said.

God stretches out the heaven and lays the foundation of the earth, bringing from non-being into being these most comprehensive creatures, in which the others also exist, as the hierophant says:

'And the heaven and the earth and all their array were completed.' Straightway, then, at the beginning of the account of the world's creation, he plainly said:

'In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth'—that is, He stretched out the heaven and laid the foundation of the earth.

It has often already been considered in what manner heaven is stretched out and the earth is founded, as these expressions so understood are clarified—by God, on the one hand, who says:

'I alone stretched out the heaven'; and on the other hand, by the psalmist concerning the Author of creation:

'He founded the earth upon its firm base; it shall not be moved for ever and ever.' He who spread out the heaven by stretching it out and set the earth firm upon foundations also created man, forming within him his spirit—that is, weaving together and uniting, so far as is possible, the soul with the body, so that one composite living being might be brought to completion out of soul and body.

The spirit of man is not formed once for all separately, but 'within him';

for it is not of bodily but of rational nature.

The body of man is formed first, according to what was said by Moses:

'God formed man of dust from the earth.' Having known this manner of the creation, the magnanimous and most valiant Job cried out to the Author of creation:

'Remember that you formed me of clay, and to earth again you turn me.' But he speaks also concerning the coming-into-being of the composite made of soul and body:

'Your hands made me and formed me'—the body having been formed, the soul having been made, which He formed within man, being called spirit, having partaken from the composition of a sensory power, so that the whole man might be shown to be ensouled, endowed with sensation, having become a living being.

In addition to what has thus been contemplated, it may also be said in another way:

the spirit of man that is formed within him is that concerning which the Apostle writes:

'Who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is within him?'—being something other than the rational soul, called the hidden man of the heart.

Its forming is not such as that of the body, but that which the holy psalmist prays may be brought into being in his own heart, saying:

'Create in me a clean heart, O God.' A clean heart is fashioned when it is molded according to virtue and every other holiness, so that it may act and understand clearly and harmoniously.

Since this was the disposition of the most valiant Judith, who slew the savage tyrant Holophernes, the wisest elders said to her in praise:

'Good is the fashioning of your heart.' The word 'fashioning' and 'molding' is used equivocally, in common with the things of the body;

for the bodily terms signify a resistance against that which is molded, there being an underlying material substance, whereas the molding of the spirit presents itself through the impressing of thoughts and rational imaginings.

He who stretched out the heaven and laid the foundation of the earth and formed the spirit of man within him threatens to lay waste and demolish the city and country of the Jews, on account of what was dared against the Saviour who had come to dwell among them, by those who acted impiously — for they surrounded with cross and scourges Him who gave His soul as a ransom, Him who took away the sin of the world — and this though He had come for the salvation of all.

But what are the grievous things He foretells against those who slew Christ? 'Behold,' He says, 'I set Jerusalem as shaking doorposts, and Judaea for all the peoples round about,' so that it should have no more seat or security, being forsaken by Him who founded and guarded it — that which was foretold by way of threat being fulfilled: in Isaiah,

'The daughter of Zion shall be forsaken'; and in Jeremiah, spoken by that very One who turned away from her because of the impiety that had become rampant:

'... my soul into the hands of her enemies.' For before the forsaking and the giving over, she of whom these things are said was a house and inheritance and a beloved soul to Him who afterward, because of the impiety against Him, said:

'Behold, your house is left to you desolate.' It is well that not the doors but the outer gateways are set to be shaken;

for not the whole security in its entirety has been shaken, but only that which pertains to the shadow and the letter, being the entrance of the external matters of the Law, those things which are called ordinances of the flesh imposed until the time of setting right.

But since the threatened calamities touched also the sensible Judaea and its mother-city — for it was demolished so that no longer stone lay upon stone — the surrounding peoples of foreign nations, who had not been permitted to enter so as to tread upon the holy ground, now trample it, treading upon it with unwashed feet as upon a bare and common stone that is trodden underfoot.

This sorrowful sight, foreseeing it long beforehand with prophetic gaze, Jeremiah, lamenting and bewailing the city that had fallen into so great a misfortune, mournfully cried out:

'How does the city that was full of peoples sit solitary; she that was multiplied among the nations has become as a widow!' That these things would befall Jerusalem the Saviour said, as He drew near to her:

'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if you also had known the things that make for peace!

But now they are hidden from your eyes;

for your enemies shall come upon you and hem you in, casting up a rampart around you, so that, being forsaken, you shall be levelled to the ground, all the warring nations coming round about you, so that you shall be seen as a desolation.'

'For when,' He says, 'you see Jerusalem encompassed by armies, know that her desolation has drawn near.' And these things have already befallen her in fact upon those who slew the Lord, when the Romans prevailed over them and demolished their cities and reduced them to slavery, being turned away by the law of captivity — or rather torn away from the land that nourished them, so that they no longer have a land or country of their own, but wander over the whole earth.

Concerning the wrath that thus came in full upon Judaea and those dwelling in it, a historian native to those very sufferers wrote a many-volumed composition about themselves and their places, so that one may see, beyond all doubt, fulfilled the things which the Saviour spoke and Zechariah prophetically uttered, beginning from the words:

'I set Jerusalem as shaking doorposts.' When her doorposts were set to be shaken, and a siege had gripped her, all the foreign nations, treading upon her as upon an unclean stone, trample her contemptuously, no longer coming as to a sanctuary and holy ground, but unguardedly and without the fitting purifications and preliminary cleansings.

Wherefore, mocking, they mock her as a ruin, all thereafter treading upon her so as to plough her as a field.

In addition to the literal sense, let the things pertaining to the deeper meaning also be said:

all the heretics, through what they think wickedly and do, build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquities.

For how do they not build up Zion with blood, when they cause to stumble and shed the blood of those whom they deceive? Wherefore also with iniquities they build up Jerusalem.

And that those who are deceived are wronged by the impostors, the Scripture of the divine Proverbs declares most plainly concerning such persons, speaking thus:

'They shall be filled with their own impiety;

for in return for wronging the innocent, they shall be slain, and scrutiny shall destroy the impious.' Of this most wicked city that was built, the Word of God sets the doorposts shaking, that they may be overthrown by mighty refutations, so as to be trodden underfoot by the surrounding peoples who trample the falsely-named Jerusalem as a stone shown to be defiled, so that, mocking, they mock its falsely-named knowledge — namely, those who have come to know its uncleanness and pollution, who cherish the truth and the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

It was fittingly said that all the nations should be gathered together against her when she had fallen.

Jerusalem is trampled as a stone when the Sun of righteousness, having risen, prepares a celebrated spiritual day, which has already been mentioned many times.

'In that day, says the Lord Almighty, I will smite every horse with amazement and its rider with madness;

but upon the house of Judah I will open my eyes;

and all the horses of the peoples I will smite with blindness.'

In the things foreknown by the prophet, concerning horses and their riders, clarity has been given in manifold ways;

wherefore most of these things must now be passed over in silence, calling to remembrance only, for the present need, that which has been thus contemplated.

The deceitful men, banded together with contentious arguments, are false horses for salvation, having as riders and mounters the deceiving spirits and the demons who in hypocrisy speak falsehood, whose teaching they cherish, putting forward the wisdom of this age and of its rulers.

Such horses God smites in the day which He Himself makes, according to what was said by way of blessing to him who is illumined:

'The Lord shall be to you an everlasting light.' But God smites the blameworthy horses not so that they should nowhere in any way exist, but that they may not understand the things about which they speak and make assertions, their wisdom perishing and their understanding being set aside;

and when this has come to pass, the rider of each such horse shall go mad.

When this dispensation has been accomplished, God will open His eyes upon the house of Judah, which is the Church of the living God, the risen Saviour reigning over it, He who arose from the tribe of Judah, to whom the men taught of God say:

'Judah, your brothers shall praise you;

your hands shall be on the neck of your enemies, and your father's sons shall bow down before you.' Upon the house of this Judah the Benefactor opens His eyes — His overseeing and watchful powers — so that each of those who lay hold of the enlightenment and the grace says by way of prayer:

'Look upon me and have mercy on me.' And all the righteous enjoy the gift, the King of all having His eyes upon them and His ears toward their supplication.

In addition to the horse spoken of being smitten with amazement and its rider with madness, all the horses of the peoples also are smitten with blindness by the Provider of all things.

These are they who are goaded on in adultery and fornication, concerning whom the prophecy says:

'They became lust-maddened horses; each neighs after his neighbor's wife.' For their good the neighing beasts are smitten with blindness, that they may no longer be keen-eyed toward lechery.

For this deprivation of the eyes of the soul shall be succeeded by a recovery of sight through self-control, so that thereafter one may rightly see what one ought to do and what it is fitting to accomplish.

Thus, for instance, the magician Elymas, who saw wickedly, was blinded for a time, casting away the sight belonging to sorcery, that afterward, recovering sight, he might behold the Sun of righteousness.

For it is not idly added that the sun, to be seen at that time, was not to be seen for a while — namely, when sight that beholds the light succeeds the blindness.

'And the captains of thousands of Judah shall say in their hearts:

We shall find for ourselves those dwelling in Jerusalem in the Lord Almighty, their God.'

Of the praiseworthy Judah, to whom it was said:

'Judah, your brothers shall praise you' — of Him who is King of all and to whom the might of all things is attached, the captains of thousands are those who serve as soldiers under Him, those who from the beginning were shown to be eyewitnesses and ministers of the word: namely, the apostles of Christ.

They find none other than those dwelling in the Jerusalem which beholds the peace that surpasses all understanding, and in the heavenly city of God, concerning which the chosen vessel, Paul who speaks in Christ, writes:

'You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.' He who fills up this fair city as an excellent and lawful citizen, being firm in holiness and the rest of divine virtue, stands unshaken, according to what is said in one of the Songs of Ascents:

'He who dwells in Jerusalem shall not be shaken for ever.' And he dwells in it, abiding for ever under Him who reigns over it.

And the aforesaid captains of thousands find for themselves, as sons and disciples, those dwelling in the divine city, whose craftsman and maker is God;

as Paul found Silvanus and Timothy and the evangelist Luke and the other acquaintances of whom mention is made in his epistles and in the Acts of the Apostles.

And in like manner Peter also, the genuine disciple of the Saviour, found Mark the evangelist and many others.

Likewise also John, the disciple loved by the Lord.

And those whom he found dwelling in Jerusalem are recorded in the book of his Acts.

And all those who preside over the apostolic Church through right teaching find those of like belief, who are citizens of the true and spiritual Jerusalem, so that for this reason they dwell in it.

Of the aforesaid captains of thousands, the Lord Almighty is He who holds power over them and reigns.

'In that day I will set the captains of thousands of Judah as a firebrand among wood and as a torch of fire among stubble, and they shall devour on the right hand and on the left all the peoples round about, and Jerusalem shall dwell yet again by herself.'

'And the Lord shall save the tabernacles of Judah as at the beginning, that the boasting of the house of David and the exaltation of those dwelling in Jerusalem may not be magnified over Judah.'

In the time which He called a day because of its light, the captains of thousands of Judah find for themselves those dwelling in Jerusalem, being set by God as a firebrand among wood and as a torch of fire among stubble, that on the right hand and on the left all the peoples round about may be devoured.

The captains of thousands of the spiritual Judah are set as a firebrand among wood and a torch among stubble, so that by the fiery and luminous word they may devour the unfruitful and material inclinations. For the trees that do not bear good fruit, being cut down and cast into fire, are wood delivered over to punishment, so that their most base quality may be consumed; as again the chaff-like ones, being stubble and not wheat, are consumed by fire.

For it is said in the Gospel that, when Jesus has thoroughly cleansed the threshing-floor with the winnowing-fan which He holds in His hand, the wheat is brought into the storehouse of the promises — and these are the righteous men — but the chaff shall be burned with unquenchable fire, the most base inclination of those found unfruitful by their own choice being consumed.

Concerning such persons it is said by the Saviour in Micah the prophet:

'Woe is me, for I have become as one gathering stubble in the harvest, and as gleanings in the vintage, there being no cluster to eat of the first-ripe fruits.' Having spoken enigmatically of the barrenness that had come to be, He makes it plain in what follows, saying:

'Woe is me, O my soul, for the godly man has perished from the earth, and there is none upright among men;

all contend for bloodshed, each oppresses his neighbor with oppression.'

They make ready their hands for evil. For how should they not be deserving of punishment, consumed by the chastisement of fire, who are held fast in the vices already mentioned? To one of the commanders that have been interpreted the Lord says:

I have set my words in your mouth as fire, and this people as wood, and they shall be devoured because of the barrenness they have chosen to keep.

There is also that which is prophesied in Isaiah:

And the light of Israel shall be as a fire, and it shall devour the thicket like grass, and it shall devour from soul unto flesh — that is, from the basest disposition unto wicked deeds;

for by 'soul' he hinted at the disposition, and by 'flesh' at the deeds.

The commanders who have been set as a firebrand accomplish the same thing as the coal taken with tongs from the spiritual and heavenly altar by one of the Seraphim;

which, having brought it to the mouth of the prophet, he took away his iniquities and cleansed his lips.

But whom the firebrand and the torch of fire on the right and on the left consume, it is time to say.

Those impieties and sins which are manifest of themselves prove to be the left and the sinister;

but those which falsely creep in under the guise of virtue are reckoned to be on the right.

Forbidding both, therefore, the divine word says:

Make straight paths for your feet, and direct your ways.

Turn not aside to the right hand or to the left, neither to excess nor to deficiency;

for both are vices.

Liberality being a virtue — this is the disposition to share — the deficiency turning to the left is stinginess, while prodigality, reckoned to be on the right, is a squandering of wealth not on what one ought and as one ought, but upon the pursuit of shameful pleasures.

Since, then, both the stingy man and the prodigal prove to be blameworthy, the firebrand of fire and the torch lay hold of both.

It has been demonstrated by us at greater length — in the discourse we entitled 'On the Virtues' — that, since the virtues are means, their deficiencies and excesses prove to be vices.

The right and left things that have been spoken of, being found in almost all human beings, are said to be round about all the peoples.

When the peoples round about the holy city receive their punishment, then at that time it shall be inhabited by itself, guarded by him who built and chose it, according to what has been said concerning its safety:

Mountains are round about it, and the Lord is round about his people. Concerning such a protection it is likewise set forth in the prophet before us, that the Lord Almighty shall be as a wall of fire round about it — which was made clear at the beginning of Zechariah — when Jerusalem is settled by itself, and those who had encircled it in war are put to flight, according to what is said by him who dwells in it:

All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the Lord I drove them off — and what follows.

And what fittingly follows upon the holy city being inhabited by itself, other than that the Lord saves the tents of Judah as at the first, they being none other than the particular virtues?

Concerning these the proverbial oracle declares:

The tents of the upright shall stand. Concerning the loveliness that belongs to them, the hymnodist sings, saying:

How lovely are your tents, O Lord of hosts! For how should they not be desirable, being full of those who keep festival? For the voice of exultation and of the sound of thanksgiving of those who keep festival is sung nowhere else but in the tents of the righteous.

And the Lord saves the tents of Judah as at the first, before the wickedness and impiety of men prevailed.

It is possible to call the bodies with which we are clothed the tents that are saved as from the beginning.

And the salvation shall come to pass when our corruptible body, the dishonorable and weak, shall put on incorruption, glory, and power, becoming from a natural body a spiritual body.

In many places, since progressions have been rendered as tents — for these are the dwellings of those who journey — these are saved by God as from the beginning, when the perfect state and virtue supervene.

The good things spoken of shall come from God, so that, each of those being saved glorying in the Lord, no one any longer casting his hope upon himself but upon the Author of perfect good things, the boasting of the house of David may no longer be magnified, nor the exaltation of those who dwell in Jerusalem, all singing:

It is better to trust in the Lord than to trust in man;

to hope in the Lord than to hope in a prince. Preparing this virtue that lies in freedom from pride, God commands in Jeremiah:

Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor let the strong man glory in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands the Lord, and does judgment and mercy in the midst of the earth. The very same words the mother of Samuel, who bore marvelously, uttered in thanksgiving, changing only 'the wise man in his wisdom,' and putting in its place:

Let not the prudent man glory in his prudence. Every kind of glorying that is forbidden proves to be blameworthy and harmful, so that James wrote universally concerning all such in his own epistle:

All such glorying is evil, bringing shame and reproach, so that Jeremiah most reprovingly says to those who give themselves airs:

Be ashamed of your glorying and of your reproach the whole day long.

To one held fast in such vanity and love of glory the word says:

Why do you boast in wickedness, O mighty man, in lawlessness all the day long? But the boasting of the house of David and the exaltation of those who dwell in Jerusalem is magnified over the Savior who has risen out of Judah.

But this comes about when those who seem to be members of the Church suppose that they accomplish good by their own power and not by the grace of him who said:

Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.

And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall shield those who dwell in Jerusalem; and the weak among them in that day shall be as the house of David, and the house of David as the house of God, as an angel of the Lord before them.

In the day in which the valiant deeds of the commanders of Judah came to pass, the Lord shall magnificently shield those who dwell in Jerusalem, there being fulfilled upon each of them what is said concerning him who dwells in the help of the Most High:

His truth shall encircle you with a shield. And in another psalm, the Lord shall shield those who fear him, so that each may say:

Because you are my defender, into your hands I will commit my spirit. There shall come to those who dwell in the spiritual Jerusalem the taking up and putting on of the whole armor of God, having girded their loins with truth and their feet made secure with sandals in the preparation of a God-befitting peace, and further having put on the breastplate of righteousness, above all taking up the shield of faith, wherein the fiery darts of the evil one shall be quenched.

The King of all creation contending with his own shield on behalf of those who dwell in the great city of Jerusalem, there shall be strength and power, so that the one formerly weak among them may take up the might of the house of David — the Church of the living God being a temple of God — so that each of those possessing ecclesiastical knowledge and virtue may cry out in the manner of a hymn:

The Lord is my strength and my praise, and he has become my salvation. And since those who say these things, though walking on earth, have their citizenship in heaven, being all but equal to the angels, raised from the dead, fittingly the house of David — which is interpreted 'sufficient in hand' — shall be an angel of God, having received the gift and the pre-eminence from him who was born of the undefiled Virgin Mary, called the Angel of great counsel, as Isaiah, who many times foreannounced his coming down hither, said in the person of the choir of the saints:

For unto us a child is born, and a son is given, and his name is called Angel of great counsel. One must attend to the exactness of the prophecy, which makes clear to us that the babe born of Mary was begotten, but that the Son who is the Only-begotten from the bosom of the Father was given.

The Only-begotten Son, contrary to Paul of Samosata and Photinus the Galatian and those who like them impiously held the same, Artemas and Theodotus.

Those men, then, were cast out of the Church, having been shown to be utterly impious;

but we, holding fast the ancient mind of the assembly of the faithful, confess that God the Word came to dwell among us, having taken up a perfect man consisting of soul and body and spirit.

And that the Father gave the Son in order that the child might be born, John the Evangelist most clearly shows, having recorded that he who became man said concerning himself:

God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should have eternal life. This same understanding has that which was written to the Romans by the Christ-bearing Paul, which runs thus:

God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, that he might condemn sin in the flesh. These things have been said by me of necessity on account of the aforementioned Photinus and his teacher Marcellus, who say that the flesh is the Son who was sent, the Word of God never being called Son.

At greater length in other works there has been a refutation by us of their falsely-named knowledge, when it was set before us to speak concerning the Son of God — I mean the Word of God — and his becoming man.

It is possible, according to another contemplation, to say that he who was born of Mary is the house of the Maker of all things who is 'sufficient in hand,' being an angel before those benefited who dwell in the holy Jerusalem;

and he became an angel before them, revealing the great counsel of God.

And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

And I will pour out upon the house of David and upon those who dwell in Jerusalem a spirit of grace and of compassion.

In the day that has drawn near, after the night of ignorance and wickedness has passed on — concerning which the Apostle writes, saying:

The night is far spent, and the day is at hand;