'I heard the sound of Your voice, O Lord, and I knew that I was naked, and I hid myself.' God was not angered, He did not straightway turn away, but He deigns to give him a second reply and says:
'Who told you that you are naked, unless it be that you have eaten from the tree of which alone I commanded you not to eat?' Consider with me the depth of the words of God's wisdom.
While he was pondering these things—as even now many do, and I myself first of all, hiding our own evils—God, not wishing to multiply his condemnation, says:
'Yes, it is true, O Master, I transgressed Your commandment; I sinned in listening to the counsel of the woman; I erred greatly in acting upon her word and disobeying Yours; have mercy on me!' But he does not say this; he is not humbled, he does not bend; the neck of his heart is a sinew of iron—such indeed as mine also is, wretch that I am.
For had he said this, he would have remained in Paradise, and that whole cycle of the countless evils which he underwent when banished, and lying so many ages in Hades, he could have gained—that is, been spared—by that one utterance made then.
'In the hour that you eat from the tree of which alone I commanded you not to eat, you shall die the death'—that is, the death of the soul, which came to pass in that very hour, on account of which he was stripped bare of the immortal robe.
1:649
οὐδένδέπλέονπροεῖπενὁΘεόςκαίοὐδένπλέονἐγένετο
神並沒有預言更多的事,也沒有更多的事發生。
But God foretold nothing more, and nothing more came to pass.
For God, foreknowing that Adam would sin, and wishing to forgive him upon his repentance, pronounced nothing more against him beforehand, as has been said.
'The woman whom You gave me, she deceived me'—just as now I too suffer, humble and wretched as I am, and I never wish to be humbled and to say from my soul that I am the cause of my own perdition, but rather I say, 'So-and-so incited me to do and to say such and such; so-and-so counselled me to work this or that'—O wretched soul, that pours forth words full of sin!
'But since you are so hard, depart henceforth from Me, and your exile shall suffice you for chastisement, for earth you are and unto earth shall you return.'
Now, then, have you understood that after the transgression it was because he did not repent and say 'I have sinned' that he is both banished and commanded to live in toil and sweat, and is condemned to the earth from which he was taken?
Therefore, having left him, He comes to Eve, wishing to show that she too would justly be cast out along with him, since she was unwilling to repent; and He says:
1:662
Τίτοῦτοἐποίησας; ἵνακἄναὕτηεἴπῃτόἭμαρτον
「你所作的是什麼事呢?」——好叫她至少能說一句「我犯了罪」。
'What is this that you have done?'—in order that at least she might say 'I have sinned.'
But consider with me the depth of the mysteries of the God who loves mankind, and learn and be taught from this: that had they repented, they would not have been cast out, they would not have been condemned, they would not have been condemned to return to the earth from which they were taken.
But when they had been cast out, and at once from that moment had fallen into sweat and bodily toils, and had begun to hunger and thirst, to shiver and tremble together and to suffer such things as we ourselves suffer today—having, that is, gained a fuller sense of this misfortune and of their fall, and not only so, but also of their own foolishness and of God's ineffable compassion—then, walking and sitting outside Paradise, they repented, they wept, they lamented, they smote their faces, they tore and dragged out their own hair, bewailing their own hardness of heart; and this not for one day, nor two, nor ten, but, believe me, throughout their whole life.
For how could they but weep always and unceasingly, calling to mind that gentle Master, that ineffable delight, the unspeakable beauty of those flowers, the carefree and toilless life, the ascents and descents of the angels to them?
Just as those who behave arrogantly toward their own master and exalt themselves above their fellow-servants fall away from their freedom of access to him, and from his love and goodwill, and are banished by him to a far country and, by his command, are subjected to countless trials, so that in laboring and being worn down more and more they perceive the ease which they once enjoyed and the loss of the good things from which they fell—in the same manner did the first-formed also suffer, having been in Paradise and enjoying those good things, then having fallen from them and been banished.
For since He saw them humbled, He does not yet loose the sentence that had been pronounced—doing this for our correction, and that no one might exalt himself against the Maker of all—but, foreknowing as God both this man's fall and his repentance, He foreordained entirely, before He made all things, both the season and the time, and how and when He would recall him from exile by judgments unutterable and untraceable to every living breath.
For even if these things were revealed to some and they should wish to write them down, neither time nor paper nor ink would suffice, nor could the whole world contain the very books.
And those whom He cast out of Paradise on account of their shamelessness and their impenitent heart and mind, when they had fittingly repented and been worthily humbled and had wept and lamented, He Himself—the only Only-begotten Son and Word of His own pre-eternal Father—having come down, as you all know, not only became man like unto them, but also consented to die as they did, choosing a violent and shameful death, and having descended into Hades, from thence He raised them up.
He, then, who suffered on their behalf so many things as you hear of daily, in order to recall them from that long exile—had they repented in Paradise, would He not have shown them compassion?
And how would He not—He who by nature loves mankind, and who for this very reason made him, that he might enjoy His good things in Paradise and glorify his Benefactor?
1:678
Ναίὄντως, ἀδελφοί, τοῦτοἄν, ὡςοἶμαι, ἐγένετο
弟兄們,是的,我實在想,這事必會這樣成就。
Yes, truly, brethren, this, I think, would have come to pass.
But since they were cast out because of their impenitence, and afterward, having repented, they wept and were afflicted with those things which, as I said, they would not have suffered had they repented in Paradise—the Master God, wishing to honor and glorify them for these pains and sweats and toils and for their good repentance, and not only so, but also to make them forget all those grievous things, what does He do?
Having descended into Hades and raised them up, He did not restore them again to Paradise, whence they had fallen, but led them up to that very heaven of heavens;
and the Master, having sat down at the right hand of God, His own pre-eternal Father, what do you say He did with him—him who by nature was His servant, but who by grace was called his father?
'Amen,' said the true God, 'I will never forsake them, but I will declare them to be My brothers and friends, fathers and mothers and kinsmen and fellow-heirs with Me; and I have glorified and will glorify them both in heaven above and on earth below, and of their life and gladness and glory there shall never be an end.'
What, then, tell me, did the toilless and carefree life in Paradise profit the first-formed, my brother, when they grew slothful and, by their unbelief toward God, despised Him and transgressed His commandment?
For had they believed Him, Eve would not have deemed the serpent more trustworthy, nor would Adam have deemed Eve more trustworthy than Him, but they would have kept from eating of the plant;
yet on the other hand they were in no way harmed by the exile, but rather received the greatest benefit, and this came to pass for the salvation of us all.
For our Master, having come down from on high, by His own death loosed the death that was against us, utterly abolishing the condemnation that came from our forefather's transgression, and through holy baptism regenerating and refashioning us and perfectly delivering us from this; and He sets us in this world entirely free and not tyrannically driven by the enemy, but honoring us with the self-determination we had from the beginning, He rather gives us strength against him, so that those who will may easily overcome him beyond all the saints who lived before Christ's coming; and when we die, we are not, like those of old, brought down into Hades, but into heaven and into the delight and enjoyment there—now indeed in measure, but after the resurrection from the dead we are counted worthy to enjoy the eternal joy wholly and entirely.
For those who think and say this consider the coming of our Master and God to have been in vain and to no purpose—which is a saying of heretics and not of believers.
For why did He come down, or on account of what did He taste death, if not entirely in order to loose the condemnation that came from sin and to free our race from the bondage and activity of the adversary enemy?
For we were sinners from him who sinned, transgressors from him who transgressed, ourselves also becoming slaves of sin from him who was a slave of sin, accursed and dead from him who was accursed and dead; and from him who was wrought upon by the counsel of the evil one and enslaved to him and lost his self-determination, being wrought upon as his children and oppressed, we were tyrannically ruled over.
But God, having come down, was made flesh and was born as we also are, a man without sin, and He loosed sin, sanctifying both conception and birth, and being reared little by little He blessed every age;
and having become a perfect man, He then began His preaching, teaching us not to leap forward in anything and forestall our elders in understanding and virtue—especially the young, who are not men in prudence.
He took upon Himself the things done on your behalf, and having kept all the commandments of His own God and Father, He loosed the transgression and freed the transgressors from condemnation.
He became a servant, taking upon Himself the form of a servant, and He led us servants back to the dignity of masters, appointing us as masters over the former tyrant — and the saints bear witness to this, they who even after death drive him and his ministers away as feeble things.
For having infused into the death-bearing venom and poison of sin the ineffable, life-giving energy of His Godhead and His flesh, He wholly redeemed our whole race from the working of the enemy; and through holy baptism and the communion of His immaculate mysteries — His precious Body and Blood — cleansing us and giving us life, He restores us holy and sinless. Yet at once He leaves us to be honoured with free will, that we may be seen serving the Master not by constraint but by our own choice.
And just as in the beginning Adam was in Paradise free, apart from sin and from constraint, yet by his free will obeyed the enemy and, being deceived, transgressed the commandment of God, so also we, being regenerated from holy baptism, are released from bondage and become possessed of free will; and unless we obey the enemy by our own will, he cannot in any other way work anything against us.
For if before the Law and before the coming of Christ, apart from all these helps, many and countless souls were well-pleasing to God and shown to be blameless — among whom He translated righteous Enoch and honoured him with that translation, and took up Elijah into heaven in a chariot of fire — what defence shall we make, we who after grace and so great and so exalted a benefaction, after the abolition of death and sin, after the regeneration of baptism, after the guardianship of the holy angels, and after the very overshadowing and coming of the Holy Spirit, are found to be not even equal to those before grace, but slothful, despising the commandments of God and transgressing them?
'For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?' Let each of us, then, who falls into any sin whatever, blame and reproach not Adam but himself, and let each of us show worthy repentance as that man did, if indeed he wishes to attain eternal life in the Lord.
But if you will not, and will not by every means take pains either to keep yourselves sinless by keeping all the commandments, or, when transgressing in anything, to repent unto death, each bitterly bewailing his own sin — but instead abide in your hardness and impenitent disposition — thus says the Lord:
The earth shall quake against those who, after so many and so great wonders, after My manifestation in the world, after so great a teaching as I spread abroad in the world, still delay and disbelieve and are disobedient to My words;
and it shall be rent asunder into many pieces, unable to bear carrying upon its back the thankless and stiff-necked and disobedient towards Me; and they shall see their downfall drawn near before their feet, and shall tremble.
For when the earth trembles, when heaven is shaken and rolled up with a rushing sound like a scroll, their unbending and pitiless hearts shall be startled by those fearful terrors, like a hare in the hour of its slaughter.
And the light shall be darkened, the stars shall fall, the sun and the moon shall be quenched upon them, and out of the clefts of the earth fire shall rise up, overflowing like the deeps of the seas.
The earth shall be shaken to its foundations, and the fire shall be sent forth not little by little but all at once, and shall cover the whole earth, and the whole earth shall become a river of fire.
1:716
Τίοὖνποιήσουσιτότεοἱλέγοντεςὅτι·
那時,那些說這話的人要怎樣行呢?他們說:
What, then, shall they do at that time, those who say:
'Why, then, do you bid us weep every day?' And those who work out contradictions or murmurings or things even worse than these — what shall they answer at that time?
'For how many things, O wretched ones, might I fittingly say to you — the things I foretold and enjoined upon you through prophets, through apostles, through all My servants together, and through Myself?'
1:721
Οὐκἠκούετετῶνεὐαγγελίωνμουλεγόντων·
「你們豈沒有聽見我的福音書上說:」
'Did you not hear My gospels saying:'
1:722
Μακάριοιοἱκλαίοντεςνῦν, ὅτιγελάσονται;
「如今哀哭的人有福了,因為他們將要喜笑」?
'Blessed are they that weep now, for they shall laugh'?
'But you laughed, roaring with laughter, chatting with one another and prolonging your idle talk, inviting one another to feasts and pampering your bellies.'
'That the gate is narrow and the way is strait which leads to life, and that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force — while you reclined upon soft beddings and in all things pursued ease?'
'Whoever would be first, let him be last of all and servant of all and minister of all' — yet you preferred the first places and chief seats, offices and governorships and stewardships and great dignities, and you were not willing to be subject or to serve in humility of soul one lowly and poor and cast aside?
'Whatever you would that men should do to you, do you also likewise to them' — yet you fulfilled only your own comforts and wishes and desires, being covetous, seizing, wronging others, and pampering yourselves alone?
'If anyone strike you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also' — some of you laughed, while others could not even bear to hear it, but reproached Me as having enjoined this wrongly and unjustly?
'If anyone compel you to go one mile, go with him two' — not only has none of you done this, but the greater part of you have even compelled your brethren?
'Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of evil against you, lying, for My sake' — yet you could not bear to hear even a harsh word, not only from your equals, but not even from those set above you?
'Rejoice and be exceeding glad in persecutions and afflictions' — yet you rather welcomed praises and honour and glory, and at such things you renounced even your own life?
Is it not that, when I said the meek should inherit the kingdom of heaven, you were disposed like savage beasts towards those who did not swiftly do your bidding?
'Pray for those who despitefully use you, love your enemies and do good to those who hate you' — 'That belongs to the apostles, that belongs to the great saints!'
of Xene, the truly strange and wondrous one? Did you not hear how they forsook parents and wealth and suitors, and in lowliness and humility served Me and became holy?
Why, then, did you also not imitate these and such as these — the harlots the harlots, the profligate the profligate, the married women who had sinned the married women, the virgins the virgins and those like yourselves?
1:744
Πρόςδέτούςἄνδραςβασιλεῖςτεκαίἄρχονταςὁμοίωςἐρεῖ·
祂又要照樣對眾人,就是諸王與掌權者說:
And to the men, both kings and rulers, He will likewise say:
Did you not hear how David, having sinned — and when the prophet Nathan came to him and reproved him concerning his sin — did not contradict, was not angered, did not hide his transgression, but rising up from his throne fell down to the ground before all the people and said:
'For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping; because of the voice of my groaning my bone cleaved to my flesh; I am become like a pelican of the wilderness'? And again:
'O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there be iniquity in my hands, if I have rewarded evil to them that rewarded me evil, then let me fall away empty from before my enemies; let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and trample my life down to the ground, and lay my glory in the dust'?
Wretched and miserable ones! Being corruptible and mortal, you wished to be sole rulers and rulers of the world; and if anywhere in another land there was one unwilling to be subject to you, you rose up against him as against your worthless servant, and could not bear to endure his insubordination — though he too was your fellow-servant, and you had nothing more than he;
Or that you forgot Me, and supposed that there is none set over you, and never once hoped that you would be made to stand before Me naked and laid bare?
'Whoever would be first of all, let him be last of all and servant of all and minister of all'? How did you not shudder and lament and be broken within yourselves, fearing lest, having come into arrogance through that vain and empty ambition, and having become transgressors of this My commandment, you should be delivered over to this fire?
Did you not hear how David, when he was insulted by his commander Shimei and called a man of blood, holding himself from his soul as more worthless than that man, was not angered, but even restrained those who wished to slay him?
For the sins they had committed against Me throughout all their life, they repented and wept from their soul in fear and longing, hearing of and believing in this day of My advent and coming and judgement; but you despised My commandments, as though I were one of the cast-off and feeble.
Henceforth, then, with those whom you chose to be together, whose words and deeds you did and whom you imitated — with these very ones enjoy also the things prepared for them!
Thus also against the patriarchs He will set the holy patriarchs — John Chrysostom (the golden-mouthed), John the Almsgiver, Gregory the Theologian, Ignatius, Tarasius, Methodius, and the rest, who not by word alone but also by deed became an image of the true God;
and, to put it simply, God will judge each patriarch and each metropolitan and each bishop together with the apostles and holy fathers who shone before him in each metropolis and see, setting them all opposite one another — even as you hear Him saying:
1:766
Τάμένπρόβαταἐκδεξιῶν, τάδέἐρίφιαἐξεὐωνύμων, ἐρεῖ·
綿羊在右邊,山羊在左邊,祂要說:
The sheep on the right hand, and the goats on the left, He will say:
In this way, then, fathers by fathers, friends and kinsmen by friends and kinsmen, brothers by brothers, slaves and freemen by slaves and freemen, rich and poor by the rich and the poor, those in marriage by those who lived nobly in marriage, those in freedom by those who lived in freedom, and in a word every sinful man, on that fearful day of judgment, over against himself, unto eternal life and unto that unutterable light, shall behold one like himself and shall be judged by him.
Each of the sinners, gazing at one like himself—king at king, ruler at ruler, the fornicator who did not repent at the fornicator who repented, poor at poor, slave at slave—and remembering that this other was also a man, having the same soul, the same hands, the same eyes, and in a word all else equally, and that he shared life with him and had a like rank, craft, and calling, yet he was unwilling to imitate him: straightway his mouth is stopped and he remains without defense, having absolutely nothing to say. When, therefore, the worldly see the worldly, and the sinful kings see holy kings at the right hand, and the rich and those under the yoke of life see holy men who were under the yoke, and all who are in torments see men like themselves in the kingdom of heaven—then they shall be put to shame and found without defense, just as that rich man, being fried in the fire, saw Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham.
1:777
βασιλείᾳτῶνοὐρανῶνὁμοθυμαδόνσυγχορεύοντας;
……在天國裏同心合意地一同歡舞跳躍呢?
...dancing together with one accord in the kingdom of heaven?