Commentary on Zechariah 1 part 9/24

Just as in the passage of Isaiah those who had grown gross in heart made their ears heavy so as not to hear, and put into effect the things bound together to their own hurt, so also in the present utterance of Zechariah, those who set their heart disobedient so as not to hear the law and the words sent by the Spirit of the Lord Almighty, made heavy the ears of the understanding, so that they might not receive the saving and blessing-bearing teachings and the words sent by the Spirit of the Lord Almighty—which is the Holy Spirit.

Let the heretics be refuted, who ignorantly and most uninstructedly introduce different natures among human beings;

for they dogmatize that some are incapable of receiving virtue, while others are not by nature disposed to the taking on of vice;

from which it follows that neither does the law accomplish anything, nor admonition, nor reproof, nor exhortation, nor prayer sent up to God.

The most impious ones received this dogma, having given the least attention to the New and the Old Covenant.

For in the Gospels, God speaks as to human beings possessing a free and self-determining choice, saying:

If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. And again:

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

And 'take up the yoke, and learn from me, for I am meek.' For the 'come,' the 'take up,' and the 'learn' are addressed to beings possessed of free will.

At the very outset, then, He makes the beginning of His own teaching in this way, saying to His disciples:

'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' For change of mind concerning things previously done not fittingly comes to those who have a free power of choice, and not to a nature that has no share in virtue or in vice.

For the base man will not become earnest, nor the good man become evil, according to the impious doctrine of those who introduce fixed natures.

Having set forth from the New Testament the testimonies concerning man's being possessed of free will, it is now time to bring forward those from the Old as well.

And first the Mosaic passages must be cited, then those of the prophets.

First of the ten oracles spoken by God through Moses is this:

'You shall have no other gods besides me.'

'You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor any likeness of whatever is in heaven above, or whatever is in the waters beneath the earth.' And a little after:

'Honour your father and your mother, that it may be well with you.' And next:

being learned in the Law if anyone ever was, he writes:

'Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labour, working what is good.' And as to beings possessed of free will he writes this too:

'Putting away falsehood, speak truth each one to his neighbour.' It is fitting also to speak of the things proclaimed by the prophets to beings possessed of free will.

Isaiah says to those who are entangled in sins and therefore ignorant of the working of praiseworthy deeds:

'Cease from your wicked deeds, learn to do good.' For to cease from the evils they have done and to learn to do the good belongs to those having a free and unmastered power of choice.

To such the Lord speaks through Isaiah:

'Take away the wickednesses from your souls before my eyes—for I see what is hidden in you.'

Wherefore let the removal of wickednesses from the hidden part of the souls be pursued not in word or in appearance but in truth.

In agreement with this, Jeremiah also enjoins, saying to the soul that is hastening to run to wickedness and craving the vilest drinks:

'Turn back your foot from the rough way, and your throat from thirst.'

'I will play the man,' he says, 'because she loved strangers and went after them.' The rough way is the forbidden one, or the one filled with thorns.

The thorns are shameful desires and unrestrained pleasures and the cares of this life, which grow up especially in the paths of those who do not work at virtue, according to the proverbial oracle which runs thus:

'The ways of the idle are strewn with thorns, but the ways of the courageous are worn smooth.' For those who possess endurance and courage, walking continually and without interruption, wear down the places through which they pass, so that through the constant treading neither thorns nor thistles grow up.

Although there are countless passages in all the prophets which overthrow the mythical impiety of those who invent fixed natures, and which confirm the free will of rational beings, we must be content with those already set forth, lest this treatise, being a mere commentary, be prolonged beyond what is needful.

These things having been accomplished beforehand, we must now attend to the passage before us, which speaks of those who 'gave a stubborn back and made their ears heavy so as not to listen.'

'For having set their heart,' it says, 'disobedient so as not to hearken to the law, they fell under the sins that were rolled up against them.'

For forbidden things do not stand together suddenly and by chance for those who are unwilling, but there is beforehand a most wicked disposition in them, according to which they set their own heart in disobedience;

for by their own choice they did this, no fate nor any other necessity having brought it upon them, as the prophetic word itself somewhere makes plain, saying:

'They set their heart disobedient so as not to hearken to my law.' In like manner the invisible tyrant of the spiritual Egypt also made heavy and hardened his own heart, as is often said of him in Exodus.

And perhaps the heart of the scorner is hardened and made heavy when it has received lawlessness, which is compared to a talent of lead.

The Apostle writes to him who despises God who is the fountain of goodness:

'Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and impenitent heart you treasure up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath.' In this manner Pharaoh and his heart were hardened.

For while wondrous mighty acts came one after another from Him who is rich in kindness, urging—rather forcing—him to come to a change of mind, yet, persisting in his boldness and cruelty, the accursed one was hardened, his heart being weighed down by the talent of lead, which is nothing other than lawlessness; whence, being named in like manner with the lead of lawlessness, he sank like lead in mighty water, as it is borne in the triumphal ode against him.

Since, then, such a heart has been given to no one by God—those who have it having gotten it of themselves, on account of its being hard and resistant and called stony—so, since it is from ourselves that we have gotten such a ruling faculty, let us in this way approach by our free choice Him who removes the stony hearts, that in their place He may put hearts of flesh, pliable and easily guided, so that we may be able to keep His commandments and ordinances, obeying the spiritual law, our heart being changed from disobeying and not hearkening to the divine law into doing with a willing mind all that must be accomplished according to the law and according to the words sent forth in the Spirit of the Lord Almighty—and this is holy, as was said a moment ago.

In harmony with this is also what is said elsewhere, running thus:

'The things which I command in my Spirit to my servants the prophets.' Interpreting who are the words that are sent forth, and how and where they are given, he says they are given into the hands of the prophets.

And what the understanding of this expression is has been made clear in what was said a little before.

Wherefore, that we may not repeat ourselves concerning the same things, often contemplating the same matters, being content with what has been said, let us set forth the prophet's next expression.

'And there came great wrath from the Lord Almighty.'

'And it shall be, as he spoke and they did not listen to him, so they shall cry out and I will not listen to them, says the Lord Almighty.'

'And I will cast them out among all the nations which they did not know, and the land shall be made desolate behind them, with none passing through nor returning;'

'and they made a choice land into a desolation.'

The Lord who gives to each of men according to his deed is greatly angry with those who sin many and great sins, doing this gently to those who err in small and few things.

It has been said, at any rate, by Him concerning the vessels of wrath which serve as instruments of punishment:

'I was angry but a little, but they joined together in doing evil.' And those who accuse themselves for the transgressions they committed cry out to the merciful and compassionate Master:

'Be not exceedingly angry with us.' For just as, being a righteous judge, strong and long-suffering, He does not bring wrath each day, so He is gently angry with those who are judged, not watching closely all their transgressions.

These things being so understood, if it be said that great wrath came from the Lord Almighty, we do not call it great absolutely;

for 'He will not forget to have compassion any longer, nor will He shut up His mercies in wrath.' For He is the father and fountain of these, but He brings wrath, in the form of threat, only so far as to admonish;

but if the sinners despise the threat, they experience punishment by the very trial of it.

Those who have this godly understanding cry out to their Benefactor:

'Will you be angry with us to the end, or will you prolong your wrath from generation to generation?' And again:

'O God, you who turn to us will make us alive, and turn away your wrath from us.' Since the Scriptures say these things concerning God, let us not fall into such impiety and folly as to attach human passions to Him who says:

'I do not change'—concerning whom the theologians say, the one:

'But you are the same;' and the other, concerning Him:

'With whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.' For if He is the same, not changing, not being altered, having no variation of turning nor shadow, how could He crave vengeance? For wrath is nothing other than a craving for vengeance.

But God is not angry in this way, being without passion, but He brings the afflicting things for the betterment of those who need them, after the manner of a remedy, for the ceasing of sin and of the diseases and wounds that come from it.

One may hear, at any rate, Him who wills all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth:

'When there is wrath of my anger, I will again heal,' so that he who has experienced healing through the painful discipline says in thanksgiving:

'I will bless you, O Lord, because you were angry with me;'

'you turned away your anger and had mercy on me.' The soul thus benefited praises Him who wrapped it in affliction, saying:

'Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy, because I have fallen; for I shall rise again;'

'I will bear the wrath of the Lord because I have sinned against Him, until He pleads my cause and executes my judgment; He will bring me forth into the light.'

'I shall see His righteousness, and my enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her who says to me:'

'Where is the Lord your God? My eyes shall look upon her;'

'now she shall be for trampling underfoot.' The wrath of the Lord which has brought so great a harvest of good things is not harmful but beneficial, being brought on skilfully by the physician of souls who cures every disease and infirmity.

For how is it not salutary that he with whom the merciful God was angry should be brought forth into the light, so as henceforth to behold the hostile wicked power fallen under shame, wrapped about with it because it has become a thing to be trampled underfoot? And that the cause of all good things brings on, after the manner of a skilled physician, the unpleasant and painful things, the prophet in theologizing says:

'And He, being wise, brought evils upon them, and His word shall not be set aside.' If it is for the sake of His word not being set aside that the only wise God brings on the afflicting things, then the wrath of God which brings these on is not a passion or a change.

It is established that the wrath of the only merciful One is not a craving for vengeance, also from what is said by the hierophant Moses to Him who is glorified in the triumphal ode against Pharaoh and his host:

'You sent forth your wrath and it consumed them like stubble.' But wrath that is sent forth so as to consume those who through unfruitfulness have been shown to be stubble is not a passionate craving that has its being in one who is indignant, vanishing when it comes to be outside the angry one;

wherefore that which is sent forth is not a passion, but a painful discipline.

When the great wrath had come from the Lord Almighty, the cause of it is next set forth:

For it shall be, he says, that just as they did not hearken to him, transgressing his law and casting his words behind them, so shall they cry out when they fall under affliction, and I will not hear them, says the Lord Almighty. Something similar to this is said in the writing of Moses by the righteous Judge:

They walked crookedly toward me, and I too will walk toward them in crooked wrath. And what shall those suffer who fall under the great wrath? I will cast them out, he says, among the nations which they did not know, having had no experience of their savagery and cruelty.

Now the Assyrians and Babylonians and whatever other barbarians to whom Israel, when sinning and acting impiously, was handed over, having fallen into their hands by the law of captivity

Besides such cruel and brutish men, there are also the fleshless opposing powers, inhumanly enraged against the captives who have been taken, which are, by way of anagogical interpretation, the Assyrians and Babylonians and Egyptians.

For the Assyrians are not mortals, those over whom the one called the great mind rules, concerning whom it is written in Isaiah:

The Lord will bring upon the great mind, the ruler of the Assyrians. Concerning this one it is also spoken in Nahum the prophet — and this one is the seventh of the Twelve —:

that your shepherds have slumbered, the king of Assyria has laid your mighty ones to sleep. The king of the Assyrians is called the great mind because of his malice and the cleverness of his devices, so that few can detect his wiles, or only those who are able to say:

For we are not ignorant of his devices, but we are able to comprehend and refute them

For thus also, having detected the sophistical manner of his minister Elymas the magician, he who was not ignorant of the devices of the devil, applying the refutation forcefully, said:

an allegory of the Assyrians; by another scheme of wickedness he holds sway over the Babylonians, and by yet another over the Egyptians — those who by anagogical interpretation are spiritually Egyptians and Babylonians

Into such nations that have thus come to be, the Provider casts out those who are handed over to them;

for while they remained within the divine laws, understanding and keeping them inwardly, they were not cast out; they suffered this when they chose and committed the things that were the causes of their being cast out and handed over;

which the Apostle interpreted in manifold ways, at one time writing:

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of fourfooted beasts, and of creeping things;

wherefore God gave them up to the lusts of their own hearts unto uncleanness. And at another time:

who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator;

for this cause God gave them up unto passions of dishonour, that their body should be dishonoured among themselves, so that their males raged shamefully and licentiously against one another, males with males working that which is unseemly;

likewise also their females exchanged the natural use of the female for that which is against nature. But a third handing-over those received who were given up to a reprobate mind, because they did not see fit to have God in their knowledge, so that there followed their being filled with all wickedness and its forms, which the Apostle who wrote the epistle enumerated in what follows.

To these same handings-over fell those who had been cast out among the nations, because of the great wrath that had come upon them from the Lord Almighty.

And they were handed over to foreign nations which they had never known through experience.

When those against whom the great wrath had come had been cast out into all the nations they did not know, behind them the land was made desolate, they having been removed from it, so that there was no man passing through or returning.

And since man was no longer upon it, it was also made desolate of all vegetation, no longer bearing green herbage, no tree-planting being upon it, upon which there followed also that there were no more herds of animals upon it.

And the calamity is intensified in that it was reduced to a barren waste — that land which was once choice because milk and honey flowed in it.

Besides the literal sense, by way of allegory the good heart and fair land was made desolate, having fallen away from bearing good fruits to bearing thorns and thistles and tares, so that there was no longer upon it any right reasoning passing through, nor returning upon it, since it had been consigned to desolation, though formerly it was choice, having inhabitants and husbandmen and shepherds.

The following might also be said by way of tropological interpretation:

our body is a choice land, having temperance and purity, so that temperate and orderly ways pass through and return upon it, because the trees of virtue bear the produce of purity and edible fruits.

It sometimes happens, through intensified wickedness, that the land which was choice on account of purity is consigned to desolation and devastation;

which be far from everyone who has taken up perfect celibacy in order to please God, having kept his own land choice — which is the flesh, put to death in a praiseworthy manner, bearing about the dying of Jesus.

According to the twofold anagogy, the tropical and the allegorical, the land worthy of election flows with milk and honey, from which nourishment and spiritual feasting are constituted, the honey coming from the bee that has preferred the wisdom of God, according to the proverbial saying which thus commands the diligent one:

Go to the bee, and learn how she is a worker;

having honoured wisdom, she is brought forward, whose labours both kings and common men take for health;

and she is desirable and held in honour. Together with this sweetness the holy land also flows with milk, with which the Apostle gives drink to the babes in Christ

it bears a word, so that it is said to her by way of praise:

Milk and honey are under your tongue. Paul, then, being as it were a wedded bride in respect to the soul of the divine bridegroom, having under his tongue — that is, the word — gave milk to drink to those concerning whom it was said:

You have become such as have need of milk, not of solid food. But to those who were perfect he supplied the honey, delivering to them wisdom, saying:

But we speak wisdom among them that are perfect. He who has fallen away from being a choice land has that honey concerning which it is written proverbially:

Honey drips from the lips of a harlot woman, who for a little while sweetens your throat, but afterwards you will find it more bitter than gall. To this honey from the lips of the harlot there corresponds the milk that flows from the breasts of the dragons;

and these are wicked powers, as the prophet Jeremiah speaks concerning them thus:

Even the dragons drew out their breasts, they suckled their young.

The daughter of my people is like a sparrow in the wilderness. Those who have taken care to attend to the nature of reptiles say, concerning those called horned serpents, that in the sandy desert, having hidden their whole body, they leave their horns above the surface, which they move so as to lure the sparrows.

For the sparrows swoop down, having taken it for the appearance of worms, and are struck by the venom injected into their mouth by the horned serpents.

Therefore the word says that those who receive the venom from the dragons at whose breasts they suckle,

even if they be of the people of God, are dried up like the sparrow in the wilderness, which was lured by the aforesaid reptiles.

℞: And the word of the Lord Almighty came, saying:

Thus says the Lord Almighty:

I was jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great jealousy, and with great wrath I was jealous for her.

And I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the true city, and the mountain of the Lord Almighty a holy mountain.

As regards the literal sense, the passage before us may be clarified thus:

The word of the Lord Almighty came, saying the things next set forth:

Thus, he says, says the Lord Almighty:

I was jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion, calling her back to myself after she had been cast out and thrust away, so that she was outraged by strangers.

And I was jealous for her not casually, but with great wrath.

And the illustration was taken from women who live together with their husbands.

The woman who has set at nought her marital rights, and has departed from the bridal chamber out of love for strangers, being no longer under the care of the one who formerly lived with her, is henceforth disregarded, so that it is said to her by the husband who was set at nought:

I will no longer spare you, nor will I be jealous.

For how could anyone be jealous or take thought once the marriage has been dissolved? If, then, even after she who despised the bridal chamber has been cast out, having a place of repentance, she turns back to him whom she has forsaken, she becomes an object of jealousy again, the one who formerly dwelt with her taking her to himself with much goodness.

But from the matter concerning the women one must pass over to the contemplation concerning Zion and Jerusalem.

By Jerusalem and Zion I do not mean the places, but those who dwell in them.

God took her to conjugal fellowship, having led her up out of Egypt, providing laws and ordinances in the manner of a dowry, so that henceforth he might care for and spare the one he had led, and cherish her as befits a lawfully wedded cohabitant.

After the concord thus lawfully established, having set at nought the marital laws, she set at nought the husband who was her protector and helper, so that he says:

As a woman sets at nought him who is with her, so the house of Israel set me at nought, so as to depart henceforth to noxious demons and unclean spirits, and to be outraged in harlot fashion.

And those who consort with her are, by way of allegory, the Babylonians and Assyrians.

Jerusalem and Zion, coming to their senses, called to mind him who long ago had taken her as his wife, so that she wished to return to him from whom she had been separated.

She uttered, then, these words:

I will return to my former husband, for it was better for me then than now. Accepting such repentance of hers, he to whom she began to turn and return says:

In that day, when, that is, her return is confirmed, she shall call me:

My husband, so that henceforth, as her protector and guardian, he is jealous for her with great wrath, taking vengeance on those who had outraged her.

Being jealous for her with great wrath, so as to long to be with her as before, when she had not yet departed from the bridal chamber, wherefore, turning to her, he says:

I will dwell in the midst of her. And he speaks of Zion and Jerusalem as of one:

For Zion is a part of the mother-city.

And what shall come to pass when I return and dwell in her midst, but that she shall again be designated a true city, no longer being desolate, but full of citizens and of buildings, once the temple has been raised up together with the houses one by one, so that she may henceforth possess, as before, her lanes, her streets, her sacred precincts, her broad avenues and her narrow alleys?

Thus, when Jerusalem has been so designated according to the literal sense, the mountain of the Lord Almighty shall be holy as it was before the captivity, the customary sacred rites being celebrated there, and songs and hymns of praise being struck up according to the words of the psalmist, who in one place says:

To Thee, O God, praise is due in Zion.

Sing psalms to the Lord who dwells in Zion. Now that these things have been made clear according to the historical sense, it would be a fitting time to contemplate the matters pertaining to the anagogical interpretation.

When the so-called Jerusalem — the discerning soul, for Jerusalem is interpreted as 'vision of peace' — had slipped and on this account had come to be outside the divine bridal-chamber, an expulsion took place from Him who formerly dwelt together with her, so that thereafter she was dragged about in harlot-fashion by the adverse powers, who are called, according to the anagogical sense, Assyrians and Babylonians, so that He who like a spouse had spared her no longer cared for her.

But since the affairs of the free will do not remain fixed in the same state — for just as there occurs a turning from virtue to vice and from piety to impiety, so conversely there comes about a change from the worst and most harmful things to the better and profitable — so that the divine bridal-chamber again acknowledges her who had departed, in order that, caring for her as before, He may Himself be jealous over her, driving away those who had defiled her in adulterous fashion.

And this He accomplishes with great wrath, being exceedingly indignant against those who had dragged her about, so that thereafter He says openly:

I have been jealous for Zion and for Jerusalem. According to the anagogical sense, Zion and Jerusalem is a soul contemplating the things that are not seen and are eternal, and a soul beholding peace, possessing the connected sequence of the virtues and of divine thoughts in their mutual coherence — the very soul over which He who was jealous with great wrath turns back toward Himself, and at the same time turns Himself toward her, assenting to her supplications by granting the things for which she prays unceasingly.

And having been thus made better, she may be named the true Jerusalem, no longer cherishing the shadowy and figurative things of the Law, but the good things signified through them, concerning which the divinely-inspired Apostle writes:

The Law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the realities. And again, to those from among the nations who had come to believe:

Let no one judge you in eating or in drinking, or in respect of a feast or a new moon or a sabbath, which are a shadow of the things to come. The good things to come, in the words that have been taken up, are the evangelical teachings, which the Saviour called the mysteries of the kingdom, saying to His intimates:

In harmony with the sacred city being called true, the mountain of the Lord Almighty shall also be holy and shall be so designated.

Consider whether the mountain of the Lord Almighty is the doctrine of the sojourning of the Son of God, concerning which it is said in a certain Song of the Steps thus:

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion. For may our mind not be so impoverished as to suppose that those who trust in the Lord — possessing all-surpassing virtue, so as to be shown forth as blessed according to spiritual blessings — are being compared or likened to a perceptible mountain.

For it is written in Jeremiah the prophet:

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

and the Lord shall be his hope. And in the Psalms:

It is good to trust in the Lord rather than to trust in man. Since, then, those who trust in the Lord do not imitate a perceptible mountain, which is an upheaval of the earth, what ought one to understand it to be, except that mountain concerning which Isaiah spoke:

In the last of the days the mountain of the Lord shall be made manifest — having shone forth and been revealed at the consummation of the ages, in order that it might abolish sin, having loosed and made it vanish, being sacrificed after the manner of a lamb.

Illuminating this mystery, John the great, pointing to Jesus, said:

Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Concerning the mountain that has been shown forth, one must also take in this way what is proclaimed in the forty-seventh Psalm thus:

Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in His holy mountain. Now that these things have been made clear according to the first anagogical interpretation, one must also take, according to allegory and by a lofty understanding, Zion turning back and being called the true Jerusalem, in terms of the things philosophized in the Epistle to the Hebrews by Him who speaks in Christ, when he writes:

You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the church of the firstborn who keep festival together with myriads of angels — for which reason they are enrolled in the heavens, having been registered as citizens of the holy and heavenly city.

Such indeed the apostles were, when they heard from the King of all: