Moralia in Job 1325

Job, by the contemplation of God's sanctity, provoked to humility, so that even holier men should be. Because blessed Job surpassed the human race in merits, the holy Creator and Instructor provokes him to consider the likeness of his own greatness, so that, having recognized so great a dissimilitude, he might press himself down in humility. God, though free of body, is compared with corporeal things. The heresy of the Anthropomorphites. Why eyes and shoulders are attributed to God. In what sense he is said to remember. What God's wings are. But when in God a voice and an arm are spoken of, the greatest care must be taken lest the mind suspect anything corporeal in him.

For it is to fall into the heresy of the Anthropomorphites to enclose him who uncircumscribedly fills and encompasses all things within corporeal outlines. But almighty God, drawing us to his own, humbles himself even to our level, and, that he may instill lofty things, condescends to the lowly; so that the mind of little ones, nourished by things known, may rise up to inquiring into things unknown, and, hearing from him who is far above it certain things as it were near to itself, may be moved as it were by certain steps toward him. Whence it comes about that through his Scripture he draws to himself likenesses far unlike—sometimes from the bodies of men, sometimes from minds, sometimes indeed from birds, sometimes even from insensate things.

For very often he draws to himself a likeness from the bodies of men, as the prophet says of him to the Israelites: 'He that toucheth you, toucheth the pupil of his eye' (Zech. 2:8). Just as again it is said of him through the prophet to the man that hopes: 'In his shoulders he will overshadow thee' (Ps. 90:4). It is certainly agreed that in his own nature God has neither eye nor shoulders; but because we discern by the eye, and by the shoulders bear burdens, God, because he sees all things, is declared to have an eye; but because he bears us up, and by that very fact by which he bears us preserves us, he is said to overshadow us in his shoulders. For he says: 'In his shoulders he will overshadow thee.' As if he said to sinful man, and to one begging pardon after his sin:

With that same mercy the Lord protects thee, with which mercy he bore with thee. For he overshadows in his shoulders, because while he carries, he defends. But sometimes he draws to himself a likeness from minds, as he says through the prophet to Israel: 'I have remembered thee, pitying thy youth' (Jer. 2:2). And again, speaking by the comparison of a spouse, he says: 'And if she shall forget, yet will I not forget thee' (Isa. 49:15). For who does not know that God's memory is neither broken by forgetfulness nor mended by recollection? But while he passes over and leaves aside certain things, he is said, after the manner of minds, to forget; and when after a long time he visits whom he has willed, he is said, according to the custom of our mutability, to have remembered.

For by what manner does forgetfulness scatter the power of his divinity, with which not even that laudable memory essentially accords? For nothing is recollected save either past or absent things. How then does God remember things past, when those very things which in themselves pass away always stand present to his will? Or how does he remember absent things, when everything that exists is present to him by this, that it is in himself? And if it were not present to him, it would in no way exist; for by seeing he creates things not existing, by seeing he sustains things existing. Whatever therefore the Creator does not see, lacks the essence of subsisting. But sometimes a likeness is drawn to him from birds, as it is said through Moses: 'He spread his wings and took them up' (Deut.

32:11). And the prophet says: 'Under the shadow of thy wings protect me' (Ps. 16:9). For because he nourishes us little ones while he protects us, and refreshes us not with a heavy and burdensome, but with a light and gentle protection, while he puts forth his mercies upon us, he as it were, after the manner of birds, stretches his wings over us. Sometimes also he compares himself to insensate things, on account of our infirmity, by a lofty condescension, as he says through the prophet: 'Behold, I will screech over you, as a wagon screeches that is laden with hay' (Amos 2:13). For because hay is the life of the carnal, as it is written, 'All flesh is grass' (Isa. 40:6), in that the Lord endures the life of the carnal, he testifies, after the manner of a wagon, that he bears hay.

For him to screech under the burden of hay is to endure with complaint the weights and iniquities of sinners. Since therefore he draws to himself likenesses far unlike, it must be shrewdly observed that certain such things are sometimes said of God on account of the effect of a work, but sometimes to indicate the substance of his majesty. For when in God eye, shoulders, foot, and wings are named, the effect indeed of operation is shown. But when hand, arm, right hand, or voice is said of God, through these words the Son consubstantial with him is demonstrated. For he himself is both hand and right hand, of whose ascension the Father speaks through Moses, saying: 'I will lift up my hand to heaven, and will swear by my right hand' (Deut. 32:40).

He is the arm, of whom the prophet says: 'And the arm of the Lord, to whom is it revealed?' (Isa. 53:1). He is the voice, because to him the Father said in begetting: 'Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee' (Ps. 2:7). And of whom it is written: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God' (John 1:1). That the Father made all things through this Word, David asserts, saying: 'He spoke, and they were made' (Ps. 32:9). For God to have an arm, therefore, is to beget the operating Son; to thunder with a voice is to demonstrate terribly to the world the Son consubstantial with himself. To blessed Job, therefore, when the Lord says:

'If thou hast an arm like God, and if thou thunderest with a like voice,' by a wondrous dispensation of loving-kindness he exalts him even while he rebukes him, because him whom he surpasses by his own comparison, he shows to be superior to all. To whom in this proposition he subjoins: