馬太福音講道集 第 3 章

«The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.»

Behold, this is the third discourse, and we have not yet finished with the matters in the preface.

Not in vain, then, did I say that the nature of these thoughts has great depth.

Come then, let us today speak of what remains.

What then is the point now under inquiry? For what reason is Joseph traced in the genealogy, since he contributed nothing to the birth?

One reason indeed we have already stated;

but it is necessary to state the other also, the one more mystical and more hidden than that.

What then is this? He did not wish it to be manifest to the Jews, before the time of the birth-pangs, that Christ had been born of a Virgin.

But be not troubled at the strangeness of what is said.

For it is not my word, but that of our Fathers, wondrous and distinguished men.

For if from the beginning He concealed many things, calling Himself the Son of man, and did not everywhere plainly reveal to us His equality with the Father;

why do you wonder if He concealed this also for a time, ordering some wondrous and great thing? And of what wondrous sort? one asks.

The preserving of the Virgin, and her deliverance from wicked suspicion.

For if this had from the beginning become plain to the Jews, they would have stoned the Virgin, treating what was said as a crime, and would have condemned her for adultery.

For if in other matters, of which they often had even precedents in the Old Testament, they behaved shamelessly (for since He cast out demons, they called Him one possessed by a demon, and since He healed on the Sabbath, they thought Him an adversary of God, although the Sabbath had often before been broken), what would they not have said had this been spoken? For they had all the time before this fighting on their side, which had never produced any such thing.

For if after so many signs they still called Him the son of Joseph, how would they have believed, before the signs, that He was of a Virgin? For this reason, then, He is both traced in the genealogy and espoused to the Virgin.

For where Joseph, being both a righteous and a wondrous man, needed many things in order to receive what had come to pass—both an angel, and the vision through dreams, and the testimony from the prophets—how would the Jews, being both perverse and corrupt, and so hostilely disposed toward Him, have accepted this supposition? For the strange and novel character of it was bound greatly to trouble them, as also the fact that nothing of the kind had ever, even by report, been handed down as having befallen among their forefathers.

For he who was once persuaded that He is the Son of God, could no longer have any doubt about this either;

but he who considered Him both a deceiver and an adversary of God, how would he not from this have been all the more scandalized, and led on to that suspicion? For this reason the apostles too, at the very outset, do not say this straightway;

but concerning the resurrection they discourse much and often, since of this there had been examples in former times, even if not such as these;

but that He was born of a Virgin, they do not continually say;

nay, not even His mother herself ventured to bring this forth.

Observe, at least, what the Virgin says even to Him:

«Behold, I and thy father sought thee.»

For if this had been suspected, He would no longer have been thought to be the son of David;

and if He had not been thought so, many other evils too would have been engendered.

For this reason not even the angels tell these things, but only to Mary and to Joseph;

but to the shepherds, when they brought the good tidings of what had come to pass, they no longer added this.

But for what reason, having mentioned Abraham and said «He begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob,» does he not mention his brother, whereas when he came to Jacob

he does make mention of Judah and of his brothers?

Some, then, say it was because of the perverse character of Esau and of the others, the former ones;

but I would not say this.

For if this were so, how does he shortly afterward make mention of such women? For it is from the opposite things that his glory here shines forth;

not from having great ancestors, but from having lowly and mean ones.

For it is a great glory to one who is exalted, that he is able to abase himself utterly.

Why then did he make no mention of them? Because the Saracens, the Ishmaelites, the Arabs, and all who descended from those forefathers, had nothing in common with the race of the Israelites.

For this very reason he passed those over in silence, and hastens on to his own forefathers and to the Jewish people.

'And Jacob begat Judah and his brethren.'

For here the race of the Jews from this point onward is marked out and characterized.

'And Judah begat Perez and Zerah of Tamar.'

What are you doing, O man, in reminding us of a history that involves an unlawful union? And what of it? he replies.

For if we were recounting the lineage of a mere man, one might reasonably have kept these things silent;

but if of God made flesh, then not only ought we not to keep silent, but even to proclaim these things openly, showing forth His providential care and His power.

For on this account He came—not that He might flee from our reproaches, but that He might take them away.

Just as, then, it is not because He died, but because He was even crucified, that He is the more marvelled at (though the thing is a matter of reproach, yet by how much it is a reproach, by so much the more does it show Him to be a lover of mankind);

so also concerning His birth one may say the same:

it is right to marvel at Him not only because He took flesh and became man, but also because He deigned to have such kinsmen, in no way being ashamed of our evils.

And this He proclaimed from the very outset of His birth, in its opening prelude—that He is in no way ashamed of anything that is ours—thereby also instructing us never to be abashed at the wickedness of our forefathers, but to seek one thing only: virtue.

For such a man, even though he have a foreign forefather, even one who has committed fornication, or been anything else whatsoever, will be able to suffer no harm at all thereby.

For if the former life shames not even the fornicator himself once he is changed, much more will the wickedness of his forefathers be unable to disgrace one who, though born of a harlot and an adulteress, is himself virtuous.

And He did these things not only to instruct us, but also to abate the arrogance of the Jews.

For since they, neglecting the virtue of the soul, kept parading Abraham up and down, supposing that they had in the virtue of their forefathers a sufficient defence,

he shows from the very outset that one ought not to boast in these things, but in one's own good deeds.

After this he establishes yet another point: to show that all are liable to sins, even the forefathers themselves.

At any rate their patriarch, from whom they take their very name, appears to have sinned in no small way;

for indeed Tamar stands forth accusing him of fornication;

and David too begat Solomon of the woman who had been defiled by adultery.

But if the law was not fulfilled by the great, much less was it by the lesser;

and if it was not fulfilled, then all sinned, and the coming of Christ became necessary.

For this reason too he made mention of the twelve patriarchs, and here again pulls down the pride based on the noble birth of forefathers.

For indeed many of these were born of bondwomen;

yet nevertheless the difference of their parents made no difference to those who were born.

For all alike were both patriarchs and heads of tribes.

For this is the special privilege of the Church;

this is the precedence of the nobility that is among us, receiving its pattern from above.

So that whether you be a slave or free, thereby you gain nothing more, nor anything less; but one thing only is sought: the disposition and the manner of the soul.

But besides what has been said, there is yet another reason for which he made mention of this history.

For not without purpose is Zerah appended to Perez.

For indeed it were superfluous and needless, once he had mentioned Perez—from whom he was about to trace Christ's genealogy—

to make mention again of Zerah as well.

For what reason, then, did he mention him? When Tamar was about to bear them, at the coming on of her birth-pangs, Zerah first put forth his hand;

then the midwife, seeing this, in order that the firstborn might be recognized, bound the hand with a scarlet thread;

but when it was bound, the child drew back his hand, and when he had drawn it back, Perez came forth, and then Zerah.

Seeing these things, the midwife says:

'Why is the barrier broken through because of you?' Do you see the enigmas of mysteries? For these things have not been recorded for us without purpose;

for it were not worthy of history to learn what it was that the midwife exclaimed;

nor worthy of narration to know that the one who came out second first put forth his hand.

What then is the enigma? First, from the very name of the child we learn what is sought;

for 'Perez' means a division and a breaking through.

Then, from the very event itself;

for it was not according to the natural course that, having thrust out the hand, he should draw it back again once it was bound;

for these things belonged not to any rational movement, nor did they come to pass from natural sequence.

For that, the hand having first come forth, the other should come out first, would perhaps be natural;

but that this hand should be drawn back, and give passage to the other, was no longer according to the law of those being born;

rather, the grace of God was present with the children, ordering these things, and through them sketching for us a certain image of things to come.

What then? Some of those who have examined these things accurately say that these children are a type of the two peoples.

Then, that you may learn that the polity of the second people shone forth before the birth of the first, the child that had its hand stretched out does not show itself whole, but draws that hand back again;

and after his brother has slipped out whole, then he too appears entire;

which very thing came to pass also in the case of both peoples.

For when the ecclesiastical polity had appeared in the times of Abraham, and then in the interval had been drawn back, there came the Jewish people and the polity of the law, and then, whole and entire, the new people appeared with its own laws.

'Why is the barrier broken through because of you?' Because the law, coming in, broke through the freedom of the polity.

For indeed Scripture is wont ever to call the law a barrier;

even as the prophet also says:

'You have broken down its hedge, and all they that pass by the way pluck it;'

and, 'I set a hedge about it;'

and Paul: 'And having broken down the middle wall of partition.'

But others say that the words, 'Why is the barrier broken through because of you?' were spoken concerning the new people;

for this people, when it came, abolished the law.

Do you see that it was for no few nor small reasons that he made mention of the whole history concerning Judah? For this reason too he makes mention both of Ruth and of Rahab—the one a foreigner, the other a harlot—that you may learn that He came to do away with all our evils.

For He came as a physician, not as a judge.

Just as, then, these men took harlots to wife, so also God joined to Himself the nature that had played the harlot;

which the prophets also foretold from of old to have come to pass in the case of the synagogue.

But she indeed became ungrateful toward Him who had wedded her;

whereas the Church, once delivered from the evils of her fathers, remained embracing the Bridegroom.

Consider, then, the events concerning Ruth, how like they are to our own case.

For she was of a foreign race, and had been brought down to the uttermost poverty;

yet nevertheless, when Boaz saw her, he neither despised her poverty nor abhorred her lowly birth;

just so also Christ, having received the Church, foreign as she was and in great poverty, took her as partaker of His great blessings.

But just as she, had she not first forsaken her father, and set at nought her home and kindred and country and relatives, would never have attained to this kinship;

so also the Church, having left behind the customs of her fathers, then became beloved to the Bridegroom.

This is what the prophet also says, addressing her:

'Forget thy people and thy father's house, and the king shall desire thy beauty.'

For this reason she also became the mother of kings, even as did the Church;

for from her line comes David.

Through all these things, then, putting them to shame and persuading them not to be high-minded, he both composed the genealogy and

brought these women into the midst of it.

For indeed she too begot the great king through these intermediate ancestors;

and David is not ashamed on their account.

For it is not possible—no, it is not possible—for one to be either excellent, or base, or obscure, or illustrious by reason of the virtue or the vice of one's forefathers;

but rather, if one must say something even paradoxical, he shines the more brightly who, not being sprung from excellent forefathers, has himself become good.

Let no one, therefore, be high-minded on these grounds;

but, calling to mind the forefathers of the Master, let him empty out all his self-inflation, and be high-minded over right deeds;

or rather, not even over these.

For thus it was that the Pharisee became inferior to the publican.

For if thou wouldst show thy good deed to be great, be not high-minded, and then thou hast made it the greater;

think not that thou hast done anything, and then thou hast accomplished all.

For if, when we are sinners, we account ourselves to be that which we are, we become righteous, even as the publican did;

how much more, when we are righteous, if we account ourselves to be sinners? For if lowly-mindedness makes righteous men out of sinners—

and yet that was not even lowly-mindedness, but rather right-thinking gratitude;

if, then, right-thinking gratitude avails so much in the case of sinners, consider what lowly-mindedness will not accomplish in the case of the righteous. Do not, therefore, spoil thy labours, nor cut short thy sweatings, nor run in vain, emptying out all thy toil after the countless double-courses.

For the Master knows thy good deeds better than thou thyself.

Even if thou givest a cup of cold water, not even this does He overlook;

even if thou castest in a mite, even if thou dost but groan, He receives all with much good-will, and remembers it, and appoints for them great rewards.

But for what reason dost thou scrutinize thine own deeds, and continually bring them forward into our midst? Knowest thou not that if thou praise thyself, God will no longer praise thee? even as, if thou call thyself wretched, He will not cease proclaiming thee before all? For neither does He wish thy labours to be lessened.

Why do I say lessened? Nay, He does and contrives everything so as to crown thee even for small things, and goes about seeking pretexts by which thou mayest be able to be delivered from hell.

For this reason, even if thou labour but the eleventh hour of the day, He gives the entire wage;

and though thou hast no occasion for salvation, He says, 'For My own sake I do it, that My name be not profaned.'

And even if thou dost but groan, even if thou dost but weep, He Himself quickly seizes upon all these as an occasion for thy salvation.

Let us not, therefore, be lifted up, but let us call ourselves unprofitable, that we may become profitable.

For if thou call thyself well-approved, thou hast become useless, even though thou be well-approved;

but if thou name thyself unprofitable, thou hast become useful, even though thou be disapproved.

Wherefore it is necessary to forget one's right deeds.

'And how is it possible,' saith one, 'not to know the very things we do know?' What sayest thou? While continually offending the Master, thou livest luxuriously and laughest, and dost not even know that thou hast sinned, having given all over to oblivion; yet of thy right deeds thou canst not cast out the memory? And yet fear is the stronger thing.

But we do the very opposite;

for offending each and every day, we do not so much as take it to heart;

but if we give a little money to a poor man, we turn it over up and down, which is the mark of the utmost folly, and the greatest loss to him who gathers;

for the safe treasury of right deeds is the forgetting of right deeds.

And even as with garments and gold, when we display them in the market-place, we draw upon ourselves many plotters;

but if we lay them by at home and hide them away, we shall keep them all in safety;

even so also with our right deeds: if we continually bring them upon our memory, we provoke the Master, we arm the Enemy, we invite him to the theft;

but if no one knows them save Him alone who ought to know them, they will lie in safety.

Do not, therefore, keep turning them over continually, lest some one take them away;

which is just what the Pharisee suffered, carrying them about upon his tongue;

whence also the devil snatched them away;

and yet he made mention of them with thanksgiving, and referred the whole to God.

But not even this sufficed for him.

For it is no thanksgiving to reproach others, to make a show before many, to rise up against those who have transgressed.

For if thou givest thanks to God, be content with Him alone, and do not carry it forth to men, nor—

for this is not thanksgiving.

Wouldst thou learn the words of thanksgiving? Hear the three children saying:

'Righteous art Thou, O Lord, in all that Thou hast done to us, for in true judgment hast Thou brought all these things upon us.'

For to confess one's own sins, this is to give thanks to God by confessing—which shows that he is answerable for ten thousand faults, yet is not required to pay the deserved penalty;

this is he, most of all, who gives thanks.

Let us guard, therefore, against saying anything about ourselves;

for this makes us both hateful to men and abominable to God.

For this reason, the greater the deeds we accomplish, the less let us say about ourselves;

for thus shall we reap the greatest glory, both with men and with God;

or rather, not glory alone with God, but also a great reward and recompense.

Do not, therefore, demand a reward, that thou mayest receive a reward.

Confess that thou art saved by grace, that He Himself may acknowledge Himself a debtor to thee, not for thy right deeds only, but also for such right-mindedness.

For when we do right deeds, we have Him as debtor for the right deeds alone;

but when we do not even consider that we have done anything right, He becomes debtor for this very disposition also, and to a greater degree than for those deeds;

so that this is of equal weight with the right deeds themselves.

For if this be not present, neither will those deeds appear great.

For we too, when we have household servants, then most of all do we welcome them, when, having rendered all their service with goodwill, they consider that they have done nothing great.

So then, if you wish to make your good deeds great, do not think them great, and then they will be great.

Thus also the centurion said:

'I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof.'

For this reason he became worthy, and was admired above all the Jews.

'I am not worthy to be called an apostle.'

For this reason he also became first of all.

'I am not worthy to loose the strap of His sandal.'

For this reason he was the friend of the Bridegroom, and the very hand which he declared unworthy of the sandals, this hand Christ drew to His own head.

'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.'

For this reason he became the foundation of the Church.

For nothing is so dear to God as to reckon oneself among the least.

This is the beginning of all wisdom.

For he who is humbled and contrite will not be vainglorious, will not be angry, will not envy his neighbour, nor will he give entrance to any other passion.

For not even a broken hand, however much we may strive, shall we be able to lift on high.

If, then, we so crush the soul as well, then, however much countless passions may seek to puff it up and exalt it, it will not be able to be raised even a little.

For if a man who mourns over the affairs of this life banishes all the diseases of the soul, much more will he who does this over his sins enjoy the fruit of true wisdom.

much more will he who does this over his sins enjoy the fruit of true wisdom.

And who will be able thus to crush his own heart?

Hear David, who shone forth most of all for this very reason, and behold the contrition of his soul.

For after countless righteous deeds, when he was about to be cast out of country and home and even out of life itself, at that very moment of calamity, seeing a worthless and outcast soldier trampling upon his misfortune and reviling him, he not only did not revile in return, but even restrained one of his commanders who wished to slay the man, saying:

'Let him alone, for the Lord hath bidden him.'

And again, when the priests thought it fitting to carry the ark about with him, he did not accept it;

but what does he say? 'I will sit upon the temple, and if God deliver me from the perils at hand, I shall behold its beauty;'

'but if He say to me, I have no delight in thee, behold, here am I; let Him do to me what is well-pleasing in His sight.'

And that which happened in the case of Saul, once and twice and many times, what an excess of wisdom does it not display? For he even surpassed the old law, and drew near to the apostolic precepts.

For this reason he loved all things that came from the Master, not sitting in judgment upon what came to pass, but being zealous for one thing only: everywhere to obey and to follow the laws laid down by Him.

seeing the tyrant, the parricide, the fratricide, the insolent one, the madman, holding in his own stead the kingdom that was his by right of his righteous deeds, not even so was he offended;

but, 'If it seem good to God,' he says, 'that I be driven out and wander and flee, while he is held in honour, I am content and I accept it, and I give thanks for the countless evils I suffer from him.'

Not like many of the shameless and reckless, who, though they do not achieve even the smallest fraction of what he achieved, when they see certain men enjoying prosperity while they themselves endure some slight discouragement, destroy their own souls with countless blasphemies.

But David was not such a one; rather, he displayed all forbearance.

'I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after Mine own heart.'

Let us too acquire such a soul, and whatever we may suffer, we shall bear it easily, and even before the Kingdom we shall reap here the revenue of humility.

'For learn of Me,' He says, 'that I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.'

In order, then, that we may enjoy rest both here and there, let us with all diligence plant in our own souls the mother of all good things—I mean humility.

For thus shall we be able both to cross the sea of this life without waves, and to sail into that calm harbour, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.