Yet none of the three, in what they first recorded as the wonders that occurred in Capernaum, has made mention of the disciple John's note concerning the first work, where he says, "This beginning of signs Jesus made in Cana of Galilee."
For that which happened in Capernaum was not the beginning of signs, since the joy of the Son of God is the foremost of signs; but on account of the circumstances that had befallen men, the Word did not so much display, in the healings, its own proper beauty in curing those who had suffered, as in gladdening, with the sober drink, those who, on account of health, are able to devote themselves to festivity. I. And the Passover of the Jews was near.
Examining the precision of the most wise John, I sought within myself what the addition "of the Jews" is meant to convey for him. For of what other nation is the Passover a festival? Wherefore it would have been sufficient if he had said, "And the Passover was near."
But is it not, perhaps, because there is a certain human Passover, belonging to those who do not celebrate it according to the will of scripture, and a certain divine and true Passover, in spirit and in truth, wrought by those who worship God in spirit and in truth — that the one called "of the Jews" is set in contradistinction to the divine one?
Let us hear, then, what the Lord says when legislating the Passover, at the very time when it was first named in scripture: "And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 'This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it is the first for you among the months of the year.'"
"Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, 'On the tenth of this month let each one take a lamb according to their fathers' houses'"; and, after a little, in which the word "Passover" had not yet been named, he adds: "Thus shall you eat it: your loins girded, and your sandals on your feet, and your staffs in your hands; and you shall eat it in haste."
"It is the Lord's Passover." For he does not say, "It is your Passover." And a little afterward, he names the feast a second time thus: "And it shall be, when your sons say to you, 'What is this service?' you shall say to them, 'It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, in that he covered the houses of the sons of Israel.'" And again, a little afterward: "And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, saying, 'This is the ordinance of the Passover: no foreigner shall eat of it.'"
And again, a little afterward: "But if a proselyte should come to you and wish to keep the Passover of the Lord, let every male of his be circumcised."
For it must be noted that in the legislation nowhere is it said 'your Passover,' but once—among what we have set forth above—without any addition whatsoever, and three times 'the Passover of the Lord.' In order to accept that this is so regarding the difference between the Passover of the Lord and the Passover of the Jews, let us also see what is said in Isaiah to this effect: 'Your new moons and the Sabbaths and the great day I cannot endure; the fast and the idleness and your new moons and your feasts my soul hates.'
For the Lord does not say that the things performed by sinners—hated by his soul, if indeed such a thing exists—are his own: neither the new moons, nor the Sabbaths, nor the great day, nor the fast, nor the feasts.
Yet in the legislation of Exodus concerning the Sabbath this is said: 'And Moses said to them: This is the word which the Lord spoke: The Sabbath is a holy rest to the Lord.' And a little later: 'And Moses said: Eat, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord.'
And in Numbers, before these passages, concerning the sacrifices at each feast—since there was, according to the law of the continual offering, a feast on each day as well—this is written: 'And the Lord spoke to Moses: Announce to the sons of Israel and say to them, saying: My gifts, my presents, my offerings for a savor of sweetness you shall take care to offer to me at my feasts. And you shall say to them: These are the offerings which you shall offer to the Lord.' For he called them his own feasts, and not the feasts of those for whom the law was legislated, as set out in Scripture—and 'his gifts' and 'his presents.'
Something similar to these is also recorded concerning the people in Exodus, who is said by God to be his own when it does not sin; but when he disowns it at the making of the calf, he named it 'the people of Moses.' For to Pharaoh he says: 'You shall say, Thus says the Lord: Send away my people, that they may serve me in the...'
'...wilderness. But if you are not willing to send away my people, behold, I send upon you and upon your servants and upon your people and upon your houses the dog-fly, and the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with the dog-fly, and also the land on which they are...'
'...I will also make the land of Goshen wonderful on that day, on which my people stand, on which there shall be no dog-fly, that you may know that I am the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. And I will put a division between my people [and yours].' And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 'Go, go down quickly, for your people, whom you led out of the land of Egypt, have broken the law.'
Just as, then, the people, when it does not sin, belongs to God, but when it sins is no longer said to be his; so also the feasts—when they are hated by the soul of the Lord, they are the feasts of sinners, but when they are legislated by the Lord, they are called the Lord's.
Of the feasts, the Passover is one, which in the present passage of the Gospel is said to be not the Lord's but the Jews'; and elsewhere too: 'These,' he says, 'are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall call holy convocations.'
From the Lord's own voice, then, it is not possible to contradict what we have set forth. But someone might plausibly raise a question from the Apostle, who writes in the letter to the Corinthians: 'For indeed our Passover has been sacrificed—Christ.' For he does not say, 'The Passover of the Lord has been sacrificed—Christ.'
To this too it must be said either that he has spoken rather simply, calling 'our Passover, sacrificed' that which was sacrificed for our sake; or that every feast which is truly the Lord's—of which the Passover is one—will be accomplished not in this age nor on earth, but in the age to come and in the heavens, once the kingdom of the heavens has come to stand.
And concerning those very feasts, one of the twelve prophets says: 'What will you do on the days of the festal assembly and on the day of the feast of the Lord?' And Paul in the letter to the Hebrews: 'But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.' And in the letter to the Colossians: 'Let no one therefore judge you in food or in drink, or with regard to a feast or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of the things to come.'
In what manner, then, shall we keep festival amid the heavenly realities, of which [the festivals] among the bodily Jews were a shadow—having first been disciplined under the true law by tutors and stewards, until the fullness of time arrives there and we attain to the maturity of the Son of God—this is the work of the wisdom hidden in mystery to make manifest; and likewise to contemplate the things legislated concerning foods as symbols of the things there destined to nourish and strengthen our soul.
But it is likely that someone, forming an image of the sea of so many thoughts, and wishing to [grasp] how the worship performed according to place is an example and a shadow of the heavenly realities, wishing also to understand the sacrificial victims and the sheep, would stumble—and would also stumble at the Apostle, who wished to raise our understanding above earthly opinions concerning the law, yet did not fully set forth how these things are to come about.
But if the feasts, of which the Passover is one, are also referred to the age to come, we must all the more consider how even now our Passover, Christ, has been sacrificed, and will also be sacrificed after these things.
A few things, however, must be set forth by us concerning the difficulty raised by these doctrines, which require a special and extensive treatise of their own—both concerning the whole mystical account according to the law, and in particular concerning the matters of the feasts, and still more particularly concerning the Passover.
Now the Passover of the Jews is a sheep that is sacrificed, taken by each according to the households of the ancestral families, and accomplished by the slaughter of myriads of lambs and kids, more or less in proportion to the number of the households of the people; but our Passover has been sacrificed—Christ.
And again, theirs is the unleavened bread, all leaven being removed from their houses; but we keep festival not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
But whether there is some third thing besides the two already mentioned—the Passover of the Lord and the feast of unleavened bread—must be examined more precisely, because those [Jews] worship according to an example and a shadow of the heavenly realities, and not only foods and drinks and new moons and Sabbaths, but the feasts themselves too are a shadow of the things to come.
First, then, since the Apostle says, 'Our Passover has been sacrificed—Christ,' someone will raise this difficulty against him: if the sheep among the Jews is a type of the sacrifice of Christ, then either it was necessary that one sheep, and not many, be sacrificed among them, just as Christ is one; or, since many sheep are sacrificed, it must be inquired accordingly, in keeping with the type, whether many Christs are, as it were, being sacrificed.
But in order that we may pass over this—how the sheep that is sacrificed contains an image of Christ, the sheep being sacrificed by those who keep the law, while Christ is put to death by those who transgress it—we must further ask how, with reference to Christ, 'They shall eat the flesh on this night roasted with fire, and they shall eat unleavened bread with bitter herbs.' We must also interpret: 'You shall not eat of them raw, nor boiled in water, but only roasted with fire—the head with the feet and the entrails; you shall leave none of them until morning; and you shall not break a bone of them; and what is left of them until morning you shall burn with fire.'
It seems that John in the Gospel has used the expression 'A bone of him shall not be broken' as referring to the dispensation concerning the Savior, just as, in the law, those eating the sheep are commanded not to break its bone.
He speaks thus: 'The soldiers therefore came, and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who was crucified with him; but when they came to Jesus, since they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water. And he who has seen has borne witness, and his witness is true; and he knows that he speaks the truth, that you also may believe. For these things happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled: A bone of him shall not be broken.'
And there are countless other things besides these that will need to be investigated concerning the Apostle's expression, and examined concerning the Passover and the unleavened bread, requiring, as we said before, a preliminary treatise of its own.
But now, setting these things forth as it were in summary for the sake of the passage before us, we shall attempt to resolve the apparent difficulties briefly, having also called to mind 'This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,' since also in the Passover [law] it is said, 'From the lambs,' it says, 'and from the kids you shall take.'
But it must be said that if the Word became flesh, and the Lord says: 'Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day; for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him'—perhaps this is the flesh of the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, and this is the blood from which it is necessary to put upon the two doorposts and upon the lintel, in the houses in which we eat the Passover; and of the flesh of this Lamb it is necessary to eat during the time of the world, which is night; and the flesh, roasted with fire, must be eaten together with the bread made of unleavened [flour]. For the Word of God is not flesh only; at any rate he says: 'I am the bread of life,' and 'This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread he shall live forever.'
It must not be overlooked, however, that all food is called 'bread' in a rather loose sense, as it is written of Moses in Deuteronomy: 'For forty days he did not eat bread and did not drink water'—instead of saying that he partook of neither dry nor liquid food.
Either, then, on account of the repentances for our sins, grieving with a godly grief which works in us a repentance unto salvation not to be regretted, we eat the flesh of the lamb with bitter herbs together with the unleavened bread; or on account of seeking amid trials, and being nourished by the contemplations of truth that are found there.
The flesh of the lamb, then, must not be eaten raw, as those do who are slaves of the letter, after the manner of irrational and brutalized creatures—partaking of it like savage beasts—in contrast to those who are truly rational through their wish to understand the spiritual sense of the word.
But one who takes the raw [meaning] of Scripture over to boiling must also take care not to render what is written more flabby, watery, and dissolute—which is what those do whose ears itch, who turn it away from the truth and instead adopt, in a relaxed and rather watery manner of life, their own private allegorical interpretations.
But we, with a fervent spirit and with the fiery words given by God—such as Jeremiah had received from him who said to him: 'Behold, I have put my words in your mouth as fire'—let us roast the flesh of the lamb with fire, so that those who partake of it may say, as Christ speaks in us: 'Our heart was burning within us on the road, as he opened the Scriptures to us.' And that we should seek to have the flesh of the lamb roasted with such fire, let us set beside it the confession of Jeremiah, who suffered such affliction on account of the words of God, saying: 'And it became like a burning fire, flaming in my bones, and I am utterly undone on every side and cannot bear it.'
We must begin eating from the head—that is, from the most exalted and principal doctrines concerning the heavenly realities—and end at the feet, the last of the teachings, which inquire concerning the final nature among existing things: whether of the more material beings, or of those beneath the earth, or of the wicked spirits and unclean demons.
For the account concerning them, being distinct from them and laid up in the mysteries of Scripture, may more figuratively be called the 'feet' of the lamb. Nor must we abstain from the entrails and the inward and hidden parts; rather, we must approach the whole of Scripture as a single body, and must not break or sever the strongest and firmest ligatures found in the harmony of its entire composition—which is what those have done who, so far as lies in them, have shattered the unity of the Spirit that pervades all the Scriptures.
This prophecy previously spoken concerning the lamb, then, let it nourish us only during the night of the darkness that belongs to this life; for until the dawning of the day of what comes after this life, nothing of the food now useful to us for the present alone need be left over for us.
For when the night has passed and the day thereafter has come upon us, having the unleavened bread in no way leavened by the older, lower [leavens], we shall eat it, and it will be useful to us, until the manna is given that comes after the unleavened bread—the angelic, not human, food. Let, then, each one of us sacrifice the sheep in every house of our ancestral family; and let it be possible that this one transgresses the law by not sacrificing the sheep, while that one keeps the whole commandment, sacrificing it, caring for it, and not breaking its bone.
And thus, briefly, in agreement with the apostolic interpretation and with the lamb in the Gospel, let the Passover that was sacrificed be rendered as Christ. For historical things must not be supposed to be types of historical things, nor bodily things of bodily things, but rather bodily things of spiritual things, and historical things of intelligible things.
To ascend in our discourse also to the third Passover, which is to be accomplished in a festal gathering of myriads of angels, in the most perfect and most blessed exodus, is not necessary now, since even what we have already said exceeds and goes beyond what the passage required of us.
Nor should it be left unasked, or treated as requiring no investigation, how it was that the Passover of the Jews was near when the Lord was together with his mother and brothers and disciples in Capernaum.
In the Gospel according to Matthew, then: having been left by the devil, the angels having come and ministered to him, and having heard that John had been delivered up, he withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum. Then, having begun to preach and having chosen the four fishermen as apostles, and having taught in the synagogues throughout the whole of Galilee and healed those brought to him, he goes up onto the mountain and speaks the beatitudes and what follows them; and having completed that teaching, he comes down from the mountain and enters Capernaum a second time, and from there, embarking on a boat, crosses over into the region of the Gergesenes; and being asked to depart from their borders, he embarked on a boat and crossed over, and came to his own city. There, having performed certain healings, he went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues.
And many other things happen after this, before Matthew notes the time of the Passover. And in the other evangelists too, after the sojourn in Capernaum, it is nowhere found stated that the Passover was near.
It is possible to grasp the intention of these men [the evangelists] by considering what we have said above concerning Capernaum: the sojourn there turns out to be near the Passover of the Jews, being only slightly better than it and superior to it, especially since at the Passover of the Jews there are found in the temple those selling oxen and sheep and doves; on account of whom it is set forth all the more that the Passover is not the Lord's but the Jews'. For just as the Father's house has become a house of merchandise among those who do not sanctify it, so too the Lord's Passover [becomes] a human and Jewish Passover among those who receive it in a lower and more bodily manner.
It will be more opportune to consider elsewhere the matters concerning the time of the Passover, which occurs around the vernal equinox, and whatever else the problem may require to be further worked out.
Heracleon, however, says: 'This,' he says, 'is the great feast; for it was a type of the Savior's passion, when not only was the sheep slain, but also, being eaten, it afforded rest; and being sacrificed it signified the passion of him who is in the world, while being eaten it signified the rest that is in the marriage [feast].'
We have quoted his statement so that, observing how the man deals with matters of such magnitude in a slapdash and watery manner, with nothing offered by way of demonstration, we may all the more hold him in contempt.— 'And Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money-changers sitting; and having made a whip of cords, he drove out of the temple both the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables, and said to those selling the doves: Take these things hence; do not make my Father's house a house of merchandise. Then his disciples remembered that it is written: The zeal of your house will consume me.'
It must be noted that John records this—concerning those found by him in the temple selling oxen and sheep and doves—as the second work of Jesus, whereas the rest [of the evangelists] do something similar nearly at the end, in connection with the dispensation of the passion. Matthew, thus:
'And when he had entered Jerusalem, all the city was shaken, saying: Who is this? And the crowds said: This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus entered the temple and cast out all those selling and buying in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those selling the doves. And he says to them: It is written: My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you make it a den of robbers.' And Mark: 'And they come to Jerusalem...'
'And having entered the temple, he began to cast out those selling and buying in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those selling the doves, and he would not permit anyone to carry a vessel through the temple; and he taught, and said to them: Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?'
'But you have made it a den of robbers.' And Luke: 'And as he drew near, seeing the city, he wept over it, saying: If you had known, even you, in this day, the things that make for peace!—but now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank around you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and will level you and your children within you to the ground, and will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation. And having entered the temple, he began to cast out those who were selling, saying to them: It is written: And my house shall be a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers.'
This too must be observed—that the things said by the three [Synoptics] concerning the Lord's going up to Jerusalem, on which occasion he did these things in the temple, John records similar things as having happened after many other events, on a different visit of his to Jerusalem than this one.
Thus, then, must the things said be understood, and first the words spoken by Matthew: 'And when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them: Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; loose them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say: The Lord has need of them; and immediately he will send them. This happened that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying: Say to the daughter of Zion: Behold, your king comes to you, gentle, and mounted on a donkey and a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. And the disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them, and brought the donkey and the colt, and put their garments on them, and he sat on them. And most of the crowd spread their own garments on the road. …(the text is defective here)… And the crowds that went before him, and that followed, cried out: Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!'
Second are the words of Mark: 'And when they draw near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, he sends two of his disciples and says to them: Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has yet sat; loose it and bring it. And if anyone says to you, Why are you doing this? say: The Lord has need of it, and he will immediately send it back here. And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside, at the corner of the street, and they loosed it. And some of those standing there said to them: What are you doing, loosing the colt? And they told them just as Jesus had said, and they let them go. And they bring the colt to Jesus, and throw their garments on it; and others cut leafy branches from the fields and spread them on the road. And those who went before and those who followed cried out: Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest! And he entered Jerusalem, into the temple; and having looked around at everything, since the hour was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. And on the next day, when they had gone out from Bethany, he was hungry.' Then, after the dispensation of the withering fig tree: 'They come to Jerusalem. And having entered the temple, he began to cast out those who sold,' and so forth. …(gap in the text)… And Luke [narrates it] in this manner:
'And it came to pass, as he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called Olivet, he sent two of his disciples, saying: Go into the village opposite, in which, as you enter, you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat; loose it and bring it. And if anyone asks you, Why are you loosing it? thus you shall say: The Lord has need of it. And the disciples went and found it as he had told them. And as they were loosing the colt, its owners said to them: Why are you loosing the colt? And they said: The Lord has need of it. And they brought it to Jesus, and having thrown their garments on the colt, they set Jesus upon it. And as he went, they spread their garments on the road. And as he was now drawing near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying: Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest! And some of the Pharisees from the crowd said to him: Teacher, rebuke your disciples. And he answered and said: I tell you, if these are silent, the stones will cry out. And as he drew near, seeing…'—and the rest, which we have already set forth.
John, however, after very many things—the passage 'And Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those selling oxen and sheep'—narrating a different ascent of the Lord to Jerusalem, says these things after the supper in Bethany six days before the Passover, at which Martha served and Lazarus was reclining at table: 'On the next day the great crowd that had come to the feast, having heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, and cried out: Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel! And Jesus, having found a young donkey, sat on it, as it is written: Do not fear, daughter of Zion; behold, your king comes, sitting on a donkey's colt.'