Commentary on Zechariah 1 part 23/24

'There are some of those standing here who shall not taste death.' Those who are thus benefited cast away the carnal mind and the eyes that see wickedly, so that they may no longer be in the flesh but in the spirit, and no longer live wickedly and adulterously but virtuously and soberly, putting to death by the spirit the deeds of the body, and turning their eyes away from vanity, raising them toward God so as to declare:

'To You have I lifted up my eyes, to You who dwell in heaven'; and again:

'My eyes are ever toward the Lord.' In accordance with the interpretation already given, we must endeavor to understand what was spoken in the Gospel by our Savior, uttered thus:

'For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.' For when the eyes that see sinfully are deprived of their evil seeing, there shall be an opening of the eyes unto seeing rightly and holily.

It is possible to apply yet another interpretation to the Gospel passage.

Since the Jews, disbelieving the Lord, impiously blasphemed, it was fitting that they be blinded, according to what was spoken in the prophet:

'The servants of God were blinded'—those who falsely professed to serve Him;

and when this came to pass, those from the nations who were called to faith recovered their sight, when He had come who said:

'The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because of which He anointed Me; He has sent Me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind'—enlightening them with His own wisdom, according to what is written:

'A man's wisdom enlightens his countenance.' To this same point must also be taken what is declared in the Psalms:

'The Lord makes the blind wise,' so that they may no longer be blind but be shown to see keenly, the wickedly-seeing eyes being hindered and fallen out of their sockets, so that in their place the eyes that see God may be introduced into the very same sockets—and these sockets are the natural notions.

These are the eyes that a person lifts up toward Him, in the same manner as the one who says:

'To You have I lifted up my eyes, to You who dwell in heaven.' When the fleshly parts have melted away—whose mind is enmity toward God—and the eyes that see impiously have flowed out of the aforementioned sockets, so that those who see keenly may be shown forth, concerning whom the Apostle writes, in words that read thus:

'Being enlightened in the eyes of the heart,' it is fittingly said also that the tongue melts in the mouth of those who have deceitful speech concerning material things, so that what is said by the wise man to the Master of all may come to pass:

'My tongue shall meditate on Your righteousness alone.'

'And it shall come to pass in that day that there shall be a great amazement of the Lord upon them, and each shall lay hold of the hand of his neighbor;

and his hand shall be joined with the hand of his neighbor;

and Judah shall set himself in array in Jerusalem, and shall gather the strength of all the peoples round about—gold and silver and clothing in exceeding great abundance.'

In the day in which what the prophet taught was accomplished, there is a great amazement of the Lord upon them, the Lord having granted it—the amazement here signifying the wonder because of the transgression and derangement.

For in the prophet Hosea there is what is written:

'The children of Israel shall return and shall seek the Lord their God and David their king;

and they shall be amazed at the Lord and at His good things'—this signifies wonder, or, as some have said, marvellousness.

There is also what is written by Habakkuk:

'I considered Your works and was amazed.' The prophet says that the amazement so interpreted came to be from the Lord upon those who were benefited, being magnified.

When this came to pass, Judah sets himself in array in Jerusalem, concerning whom it was said:

'Judah, may your brothers praise you'—that Judah who confesses on behalf of all.

Now the interpreted Judah, who confesses, sets himself in array in the true Jerusalem, in which the one who dwells is not shaken forever, so that he may gather round about the strength of all the peoples—gold and silver and an abundance of garments, being exceeding great.

It has often been made clear, both in other divinely-inspired Scriptures and in the very prophet now set forth for examination, that the mind enlightened is signified by the meaning of gold, and the intelligent and precise word by the designation of silver.

Hence it is fitting to fit the garments also correspondingly to the gold and silver, of which a great abundance holy Judah gathered round about from all the peoples—that is, from all who have believed from among the nations.

Now clothing and garments, according to the divine anagogical sense, are the virtues in their several kinds and the actions performed in accordance with them, and the doctrines of piety and the mysteries of truth.

With these vestments is enveloped ...

the bride of Christ, being the Church, and queen, as is sung in the forty-fourth Psalm:

'The queen stood at Your right hand, clothed in a vesture of gold, adorned and variegated'; and furthermore:

'Arrayed in golden fringes, variegated.' For let not the understanding be so blinded as to suppose that the Holy Spirit teaches concerning bodily raiment, but rather concerning garments that pertain to and adorn the inner man, concerning which it is written imperatively in Ecclesiastes:

'At all times let your garments be white,' which God Himself puts on and clothes the soul that gratefully says:

'for He clothed me with a garment of salvation and a robe of gladness.' To her who thus exults in the adornment of her raiment, the Bridegroom who gave them to her says:

'I clothed you with embroidered work and with fine linen'—calling 'embroidered work' those things woven from the most delicate and subtle thoughts and works ...

and 'fine linen' are those things woven together from the actions and words of the senses, since flax grows from the earth, so that in this respect they may be compared to sensible things.

Judah, having gathered round about the strength of the peoples in the spiritual Jerusalem that beholds peace, in order to set himself in array, gathered the spiritual treasures of the peoples that are gold, silver, an exceeding abundance of garments—clearly meaning mind and word, according to what has been interpreted anagogically, and the clothing already expounded, gathered together into exceeding great abundance.

Sufficient clarification having been given for the present passage, let us set forth what follows it.

'And this shall be the fall of the horses and the mules and the camels and the asses and all the beasts that are in those camps, according to this fall.'

Just as the nations that stood wickedly, having fallen, rose again blessedly and praiseworthily, as was just now interpreted, so those who allegorically are horses, mules, camels, and asses, having fallen from the standing in which they are such, shall rise up in a saving manner unto their own good.

For those who became lustful horses by neighing after their neighbors' wives have fallen from the pleasure-loving passion and the adulterous condition, so that they may rise up unto a praiseworthy resurrection, concerning which Jesus said to those being instructed:

'Arise, let us go hence,' and to the Church that came to be from the nations and became His bride He cries:

'Arise, come, my neighbor.' Of this same understanding is the apostolic saying that runs thus:

Similarly to the fall of the horses, the mules also shall fall, being so called because of the barrenness of soul.

Concerning both these animals, the divine word says to men:

'Do not become like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding.' And just as those mad after women and promiscuous are called horses, so allegorically the virgin who keeps her body incorrupt, though not being holy in spirit, might be called a mule.

Because of such barrenness, even the one who has been made a eunuch—not for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, but for the sake of pleasing men—is called a mule.

After the fall, the horses and mules already spoken of, having risen, shall have as their rider the One to whom the saints said:

'Mount upon Your horses, and Your riding is salvation.' Likewise the mule too, having undergone the interpreted transformation, shall have David—I mean the Savior—seated and riding royally.

In the manner already expounded, the camels and the asses and all the other beasts that are in those camps—the corresponding ones, clearly—shall fall away and rise again.

In accordance with the fall of the horses and those spoken of next, the camels are, by tropological interpretation, the men who ostensibly meditate on the divine law, without distinguishing what is to be done and what is not to be done.

For on the one hand they bring up the cud, refining and grinding fine as dust the food previously laid in, taking up meditative words of the law; but on the other hand they do not divide the hoof nor split the claw with a cloven nail, and so are unclean, not distinguishing what is to be done from what is not.

Such are the Jews according to the flesh, not separating the spirit from the letter, the truth from the shadow, nor indeed the things accomplished virtuously from those wrought according to vice; whence it is said:

'They are reckoned as a sinful nation and a people full of sins,' since to meditate emptily—that is, in vain—does not suffice for purity, according to what is said concerning them:

'The peoples meditated on vain things.' For having become outside the instruction of the One who begot them and lifted them up, they all heard as one:

'A son who forsakes keeping the instruction of his father shall meditate on evil sayings.' Whereas the Israelites according to the flesh are camels, because in one respect they have the token of clean animals and in another the token of unclean ones, the idolaters, being unclean, are asses—unbridled and bowed downward, braying because of their senselessness and irrationality.

And since these came into this condition by their own doing, they are able to fall from it, so that, having risen, bearing an image, they may again enter into the spiritual Jerusalem often expounded.

For while the ass was tied together with the colt that was with her at the village opposite—clearly opposite Paradise, where the man who transgressed God's commandment was cast out—she was a burden-bearer and had much foolishness and irrationality; but when Jesus mounted upon her that, bearing an image, He might enter into Jerusalem, she passes over from the ass into the rational form of the Word, so that it is said concerning the Savior that He binds the ass to the vine.

And this came to pass when He created the Greek and the Jew into one new man.

For the vine was the people from the circumcision, concerning which it was said to God:

'You removed a vine out of Egypt, and cast out nations and planted it'; to which the vine-dresser said:

'But I planted you a fruitful vine, wholly true.' To such a vine He bound the people from the nations, which was senseless before the calling and a colt because of having been but recently called.

Consider whether, according to yet another contemplation, He gathered to Himself and bound the race of men, being a true vine, so that ...

... having drawn near to the vine in such a manner ...

... is. Similarly to the horses, mules, and the rest that have been spoken of, as many as are from those camps, having undergone the same transformation ...

... being tamed and led unto rationality.

It is with reference to this fall, he says, namely the one already expounded.

'And it shall come to pass that all who are left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up year by year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to keep the feast of Tabernacles.'

Those left of all the nations, having risen up and drawn near to her, go up year by year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, at the time of the feast called Tabernacles (Skenopegia), which the Jews indeed perform according to the literal history and the letter, since even righteous men keep this feast, as they do the others, in solemn assembly.

And first let us look at the literal sense, so that it may be surveyed as a whole and lead on to the allegory.

When the people of the Hebrews had come out of Egypt, once the Red Sea had been divided and Pharaoh with all his army had been drowned, the transfer of those who had been helped by God to the holy land did not take place immediately; rather they spent a full forty years in the wilderness, where there was neither city nor village nor houses.

And since it was not possible for those who were to cross over into the holy land to be entirely without dwelling, those who had come out of Egypt raised tents for shelter and habitation, so that in this way too they might keep, by tents raised year by year, a remembrance of the benefit that had been granted them.

A trustworthy witness to this earnest care is the law that was given.

'If your son should ask you tomorrow, saying:

What are these tents? you shall say to him:'

'When we had sojourned a long time in Egypt, God led us out of it into this wilderness, and for this reason we raise up holy tents, so that, by their being seen year by year, there may in no way come about a forgetting of the good gift.' But how the feast of Tabernacles was carried out, and when, must now be told.

'In the seventh month,' he says, 'on the fifteenth day, take the fair fruit of a tree and branches of palm trees and leafy boughs and boughs of willow and of the chaste-tree from the torrent-bed, to rejoice.' And what each of these might signify, in keeping with the higher (anagogical) sense, must be told.

Progress according to virtue and wisdom is called a tent, being a shelter for those who are on the way.

This contemplation is made clear in the forty-first Psalm, where the one who hastens toward the house of God says:

'I will pass through in the place of the wondrous tent, even to the house of God.' For one who is passing through toward the house of God has need of a place of a tent and of wondrous progress, since he who after much progress has arrived at the goal dwells and no longer merely tabernacles, so that he says with a joyful disposition:

'That I may dwell in the house of the Lord for length of days'; and again:

'One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after:'

'that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may behold the delight of the Lord and visit his temple.' In accord with the sense stated also are the words in the eighty-third Psalm, which begin from this point ...

'How lovely are your dwellings, O Lord of hosts!'

'My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord'; and a little further on:

'Blessed are all who dwell in your house; unto ages of ages they shall praise you.' For unto ages of ages is the singing of hymns accomplished by those who, after all progress, have come to the house which God has founded.

Concerning such intelligible (spiritual) tents the wise man sings, saying:

'The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous.' And the writer of the proverbs says:

'The houses of the righteous endure;'

'but the tents of the upright shall stand fast.' For progress must at some point stand fast, when the goal has succeeded it—the goal being called a house.

The genuine worshippers of God, fulfilling their spiritual services unto ages of ages, praise and glorify God with thanksgiving for the perfect and most complete ordinances that have been given.

Each of the tents that have been rendered it is fitting to crown in orderly fashion with each of the things severally prescribed—the fair fruit of a tree and branches of palm trees and leafy boughs of a tree, of the chaste-tree and of the willow.

And consider whether the fair fruit is that of wisdom, which is called a tree of life, of which the proverbial saying declares that she is a tree of life to all who draw near to her and to those who lean upon her as upon a sure Lord. She is shown also under another name to be the true vine bearing fair fruit, the cluster and bunch of grapes from which is pressed out the wine that gladdens the heart.

Besides this fruit, one must take, for the crowning of the portable house ...

—which is a tent—the branches of palm trees, belonging to him who always keeps his heart above, being ever in bloom.

The palm-branches taken from the palm tree also serve toward cleanliness, being taken up in the manner of a broom, with which the woman who had lost one of her ten drachmas, using it, cast out the refuse from the house and found the hidden coin, which bore the image of the King of all—being none other than that which was made according to the image and likeness of God.

Concerning the palm tree, whose branches it is fitting to take for the adorning of the tent, the bride in the Song of Songs sings:

'I will go up to the palm tree; I will take hold of its heights.' Besides the palm-branches, one must also take leafy boughs bearing much fruit, which are leafy on account of the continuity and density of their shoots and fruits.

Now the leafy boughs are, in their several kinds, the practical and contemplative virtues and the fruit-bearing doctrines of piety.

For the adornment of the plaited tents, one must also take boughs of the chaste-tree and of the willow.

The chaste-tree and the willow seemed to some to be one and the same thing, both names indicating a single plant, which is a symbol of chastity and incorruption, since its flower, ground up and mixed with water, renders those who drink it as though eunuchs, as has been observed elsewhere also.

He who keeps the intelligible feast of Tabernacles does this by going up, as the prophet before us makes clear, since those who keep it according to the letter and the shadow of the law hold it below and in a lowly place.

And since the refuse and the chaff of the shadow conceal the spirit and the truth, it is fitting to take palm-branches, so that, having swept away what the Apostle named dung, we may possess the spiritual meaning of the legislation concerning this feast as well, having gone up to its height;

for in this way it is possible to worship in spirit and in truth the King, the Lord Almighty.

In addition to the sense that has appeared, the feast concerning the tents must also be understood in another way.

Our bodies, the bodies of us human beings, are thus designated (as tents).

Immediately, at any rate, the most holy Peter, of the disciples of Christ, writes:

'The Lord Jesus Christ has shown me that the putting off of my tent is imminent.' In agreement, the divinely inspired Paul also says:

'We who are in the tent groan, being burdened, in that we do not wish to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.' Now the feast of Tabernacles is fulfilled preeminently and especially by those who profess to exult—not of men only together with women who have not been defiled, but also of women who hasten to possess holiness in spirit and in body.

Besides these, those who enter upon honourable marriage also adorn their own tents, keeping themselves chaste and preserving their bed undefiled.

Still more, on high, the solemn festival of the tents is celebrated when they are crowned and made resplendent at the awaited time of the resurrection, when the corruptible body is raised incorruptible and the natural body is raised a spiritual body.

The body is sown in weakness and dishonour, that it may rise in power and glory. It is worth considering how this spiritual feast is to be kept on the fifteenth of the seventh month.

For it is necessary that he who keeps the feast on account of the tents already expounded should transcend the world that came into being in six days, having rested from every servile work, keeping the Sabbath according to the Sabbath-rest rendered to the people of God, which Jesus alone confirms, saying:

'All you who come, I will give you rest'; and again:

'You shall find rest for your souls.' On the fifteenth day of this seventh month those keep the feast who have given a portion to the seven and also to the eight, having accepted the Old and the New Covenant;

for by the seven the Old is signified, on account of the keeping of the Sabbath, and by the eight the resurrection of Christ after the cross, which came about on the eighth day, the Lord's Day.

'And it shall come to pass that all who do not go up out of all the tribes of the earth to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty—these too shall be added to those others.'

Since the spiritual Jerusalem lies on high, according to the teaching of the Apostle who writes—in one place:

'But the Jerusalem above'; and in another:

'You have drawn near to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem'—only those go up to her who are able to say:

'But our commonwealth is in the heavens'; and again:

'He raised us up together—God, that is—and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus'; whereas those who still bear the image of the earthy and mind earthly things are the tribes of the earth, who do not go up to the fair city set on high which beholds peace.

Those who do not go up shall be added to those from all the nations who did not go up, suffering the same things as they.

Since those who mind earthly things do not go up, because they are borne downward by the weight of earthly works, those who have hastened to go up to the city which has unbreakable foundations—on account of the Lord who founded it as its craftsman and maker, the King, the Lord Almighty—shall worship together with the angels.

'All the angels of God shall worship him.' A King who is worshipped, being Lord and Almighty, denotes neither the Father apart from the Son, nor the Son without the Father.

For there is one kingship and lordship, the same and the almighty power of the Trinity is the same.

Therefore, if a longing comes upon us to worship the Trinity as King, Lord Almighty, let us not remain tribes of the earth, but, having stored up treasure in heaven, let us there keep our heart, so that ...

... being in Jerusalem we may worship together with all the rational creation, when every knee has bowed to the King of things heavenly and earthly and under the earth, to the glory of God the Father, every tongue confessing that Jesus is Lord.

'And if the tribe of Egypt does not go up nor come there, then upon these too shall be the fall with which the Lord will strike all the nations, as many as do not go up to keep the feast of Tabernacles;'

'this shall be the sin of Egypt and the sin of all the nations, as many as do not go up to keep the feast of Tabernacles.'

Of what power and pre-eminence it is to keep the feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem in the higher sense has been stated before; from which it is made plain together of what magnitude it is to go up to the festival set forth, and what a fall those undergo who have deprived themselves of this exceedingly great thing.

Not the Egyptians alone, but also all the other nations, shall be struck and shall fall by God's dispensation, so that, perceiving that they are evil, they may take up a longing to establish a feast among the leafy things—the feast of Tabernacles, that is—

and of salvation, so that through these, having gone up into the house which the Saviour of all has founded, we may praise unto ages of ages him who, after many advances, has led us up into it, so that each may say faithfully and with understanding:

'O Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house and the place of the dwelling of your glory.' For thus is it possible to say, in the manner of a hymn:

'I went about in his tent and offered a sacrifice of shouting.' He who has attained this blessed and holy way of life, even though he be an Egyptian or from another nation, will cease to be as he was before, prior to the fall, being perfected as a citizen of Jerusalem according to the inner man, out of a most complete and perfect virtue.

And the sacred word declares that it is a great sin not to go up to the festival of the tents which has been appointed.

Since in the foregoing sayings the spiritual Feast of Tabernacles has been variously expounded, one must ascend to it in every manner, together with every Egyptian and every nation, as was said before.

For he will truly become an Israelite in whom there is no guile, being in secret, according to the inward man, a Jew.

'In that day there shall be upon the bridle of the horse, Holy to the Lord Almighty; and the cauldrons in the house of the Lord shall be as bowls before the face of the altar; and every cauldron in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holy to the Lord Almighty.'

On the day already interpreted, that of the holy Feast of Tabernacles—on which it is fitting to go up and to keep festival in order to worship the King, the Lord Almighty—that which is upon the bridle of the horse shall be called Holy to the Lord Almighty.

And what is this but the word that restrains those souls which are unruly and bereft of understanding and of the rest of virtue—whose frenzy and unruliness the wise man forbids, laying his charge upon those goaded by the gadfly?

'Be not as the horse and mule, which have no understanding; with bit and bridle you shall constrain the jaws of those who do not draw near to you.' For how is the lust-maddened horse not brought upon the spiritual rider—neighing after his neighbour's wife, goaded by shameful passions—so that, when its licentious impulse has been checked by the colt-tamer, it may become gentle, that it may be shown useful for war, so that it may be said of it proverbially:

'The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but help is from the Lord.' Together with this horse, in the [interpretative] manner, the barren one also—being allegorically a mule—is tamed, its jaws constrained with bit and bridle before the best of horsemen, so that, yielding to the guidance of the bridle, they may bear the rider in orderly fashion.

This agrees with the saying from the Psalm, as the blessed James wrote in the epistle bearing his name—namely, the restraining of the unstable tongue, which is unruly through much speaking and utters what it ought not.

His wording runs thus:

'We put the bit into the mouths of horses, and we turn about their whole body, that there may be a straight course and a steady gait.'

How much more is it fitting to bridle the tongue—that is, the word—so that it may not...

...pressing on, fall into the pit, but rather remain unharmed, so that the bit belonging to it may be consecrated to the Lord Almighty.

When the bit of the horse has been sanctified, the cauldrons in the house of the Lord—in which the flesh of the sacrifices is boiled before the face of the altar—shall be like bowls in which drink-offerings are performed in priestly fashion, so that the same operation may be, according to one and another conception, both cauldron and bowl, and likewise both drink-offering and sacrifice.

For it is not, as in the case of sensible things, that the drink-offering is one thing and the sacrifice another...

...the cauldron and the bowl; so also in the case of intelligible things it holds...

...being the underlying subject, they differ in operation and in conception.

...it is designated, since in the case of sensible things the lamb that is offered cannot be the same as the high priest who offers it to God and the shepherd who tends it.

For the high priest is other than the sacrificial victim, and the shepherd other than the sheep.

But if this be so, then the cauldron too, allegorically, is one and the same with the bowl.

Concerning the spiritual bowls, in the Song of Songs the divine bride says of her beloved: