For you are now bound by the wedlock of five men, and now you take up the bonds of another's marriage-chamber.' Then the woman: 'It is certain that you are a holy prophet. But our parents once left us a precept to worship on the height of this venerable mountain, while you say it must be prayed in the regions of Jerusalem.' To her speaking such things, Jesus soon returns such things: 'Behold, the time will be at hand when, with the summit of your mountain and with all Jerusalem, reverence shall be far removed. But now sure salvation will rise from the regions of the Jews, and now the course of the urgent time already presses on, when worshippers of the true and holy Father, error removed, armed with just laws, shall pray to him. Spirit shall be in these, and full faith, and the lofty Father seeks out such breasts of worshippers in the lands.' She thereupon:
'We know that the Christ, the messenger to the world, will by his own coming unfold the ages of life.' And then Jesus, the bountiful pitier of the sinning woman, confessed that he, the light come to the earth, was the Christ. And now the returning disciples were astonished that their master should treat with a woman in secret words. But the woman, in her haste, left her urn at the spring and led the people out from the whole walled town. For she recounted in order everything she had herself done before, all that the prophet had spoken to her in his discourse. Then in haste the crowds streamed forth and sought the Christ. Meanwhile the disciples kept urging him to take food. He answered that he had enough fair nourishment in reserve. But then among the wondering disciples a whispering ran in hidden words, one to another:
'Perhaps someone here gave the master a meal before us, so that, deservedly filled, he now refuses our food.' But he, perceiving the workings of their inward mind: 'This is my food, and this breast shall be satisfied, if I accomplish throughout the world the commands of my great Father. You surely suppose that four months remain from now until the beginnings of the joyful harvest of the fruit-bearing summer. Lift up then your eyes; behold the whitening fields, and all the countryside already demanding its ripe harvest. Now whoever reaps shall rejoice in the reward of his fair labour, and shall thereafter abound, overflowing with the fruit of life; and the sower, glad, shall receive the joys of the reapers. I have now sent you to cut down the heavy harvest, which was not set in the furrows by your toil. Another's bounty of good grain shall enrich you.'
While with such words he was filling the hearts of his companions, behold, the people of the Samaritans came entreating him, and begged him to spend two suns there. And now deep faith had established many of the multitude; nor did they now entrust themselves only to a woman's words, but the manifest power, present before them, taught that Jesus the Saviour of the age had now come. And now he had returned into the region of Galilee, where once he had changed the waters of the spring into wine. Here a royal youth, whose son a fever was scorching with panting heat on the very borders of life, when he learned that the Christ had surely come back by his return, hastened to him, and pouring out prayers for the lot of his offspring, kept begging, demanding the gifts of swift healing, lest his son be dragged too soon to a bitter death. Christ said to this:
'Unless power persuades you of everything by signs, there will be no faith at all; but go, and with your son's life preserved, embrace your dear child in your house.' At these words, beautiful faith, soon to receive the fruit of healing, strengthened his soul within his rejoicing breast. And now, as he had set out upon the road, the announcing report came to meet the servants who hurried toward him, that to the boy a sudden recovery had returned at the very threshold of death, upon the shores of light. When he learned that the time fitly coincided with the words of the healing Christ, he gave himself and his household over, embracing the venerable gift of faith. It happened that a feast had united many at a single banquet—those who, having undertaken the public taxes for hired profit, seize plunder under another's name. These Jesus received together with his disciples.
Behold, the Pharisees, with hidden mockery, found fault that a teacher of the law should enter such banquets. But he, looking into what their closed hearts held within: 'There is no need,' he said, 'of physicians where strong limbs are quickened by unimpaired health, with the honour of vigour. But to the sick and wretched a remedy is rightly to be applied. Learn now at least what the words of the prophet command: I seek not sacrifices more than gentle hearts. For I have not come to direct the righteous who walk in straight ways, but to call back the wicked from the threshold of sinners.' But behold, one from the number who marvelled at Christ's gifts, a disciple of John, asked why they themselves kept the frequent fastings of the law, while no people under Christ bore any fasts. Christ in answer to this thus spoke with calm countenance:
'Those who accompany the bridegroom's vows with joyful dances do not, while he is present, bear sad fastings. But the day will come when the bridegroom shall be snatched from the midst of his companions by the storm of the age: then with sad tears and with horror of food they will pledge their souls in grief. How foolish it is to stitch old patches onto raw new garments, so that the ugly tear gapes the worse? Or to entrust hot new wine to worn-out skins, which, once they burst, lose the whole living draught? But it is right to store the foaming new wine in fresh skins:
thus do strong vessels preserve the living wine.' As he was discussing such things, behold, a chief of the priests, struck in heart with grief, fell down worshipping, and weeping implored him on behalf of his dead daughter—a pitiable funeral—and begged that sure healing might come, demanding the gifts of Christ even for the dead. Without delay, the Saviour Jesus rose and went on his way. As he advanced, a woman followed, keeping to his footsteps, whom for twice six gliding years a grievous weakness, a wasting flux of blood, had consumed without end, her strength spent and her whole body wearied. Trusting, she turned over in the silent depths of her breast a secret thought, and now with sure faith she held within herself that at once the wasting would flee from her wearied body, if she could touch the hem of Christ's garment.
When amid the crowd she touched with trembling hand the threads hanging from the top of his cloak, at once he, perceiving both the causes of her disease and her believing heart, granted swift healing with these words: 'Receive the gift which the constancy of your faith has merited.' And soon, the blood being checked, her veins grew strong. Afterward, when he had come to where the dead virgin lay, a huge uproar of the mourning people and the blaring of trumpets were celebrating the last offices of the final procession: 'Let these sad things,' he said, 'depart from your dwellings. For the girl lies sunk in peaceful slumber, whom the ignorant crowd of mourners reckons dead.' As he said such things, the crowd left him with mockery, because he said that the girl, snatched away by death, was sleeping.
But Christ, victor over death and discoverer of life, deigning to grasp with his right hand the cold right hand of the girl, soon bade her rise to the wondrous joys of her father. As he was returning thence, a cry at once met him likewise from two blind men whose steps were faltering. To them Christ said: 'What do your hearts believe? Will the light that has been taken from you be restored by my power?' They confessed that with steadfast heart they believed. Then Christ spoke: 'You who believe, behold the light, and tell my name to no one after this.' He said it; but quickly, amid such great joy of the seeing men, an unsated ardour spread his fame through all things. Thereafter a youth was brought to him, from whom the substance of his sounding voice had been carried off by the assault of a demon.
But when the demon, driven out, fled from his breast, at once the gifts of a sound tongue returned. As the wondering people thronged in tumult, he was hemmed in; but seeing so many thousands of men, he groaned, as the lord of a field whose joyful pastures countless flocks crop, lacking a herdsman. Then to his disciples he uttered such words: 'How joyful are the crops that spread across the back of the field! But the reaper is rare, and is overwhelmed by the heap of grain. Now it remains to beseech the lord of so great a harvest that he be willing to fill his own fields with a number of labourers.' Having said this, he gathered apart from the whole people a chosen, strong-hearted band, a company of twelve. When he had chosen these, he filled them with such precepts: 'Avoid the road that the faithless nations and the tracks of the Samaritans' deceit tread.
Go where the guardianship of the ancestral flock fails. As you go, take on a mind like mine, that holy faith may subdue for you the powers of the black demon and apply pious care to sicknesses. These powers shall be given to you for no payment, and do you likewise dispense the freely-given gifts without recompense. Let no possession of gold or silver tame your mind, nor let the wicked greed of coins master you. Let the minister of bare virtue not desire to keep two garments, nor two coverings for his feet. Entering the walls of a city, always inquire whose hospitality it may befit the righteous to enter; and having entered, then call peace beneath their roofs. If the house be tranquil, that peace shall remain; but if it be bristling with the unworthy ways of its dwellers, your peace shall flee and follow your departure.
Whoever, savage, shuts you out from the threshold of his house, or with deaf ears spurns the words of life, depart and shake off from your feet the dust of those houses, lest a portion of unrighteous life cleave to you. A penalty worse than that of Sodom awaits them in torments, when an end shall come to all the world. Go now like sheep, the prey of cruel wolves; but be vigorous with the cunning heart of serpents, yet in simplicity surpass the gentle doves. For often headlong injury shall fall upon you, and your bodies shall be set before the councils of men. Against you, gnashing on my account, the violence of the age shall press with scourges and savage chains and harsh tyrants. When they have betrayed you, leave aside care for words; the grace of speech, flowing of its own accord, shall be given you; the Spirit within you shall speak worthy things on your behalf.
For a brother's wicked madness shall betray his brother, and children shall give over the bodies of their parents to death. Hatreds shall ever press upon you for our name's sake, but the glory of life accompanies the end of faith. Flee from the houses of any city that pursues you; then seek another dwelling, and soon yet another. For it is needful that cities should always remain for you, which under the name of the Israelites supply a people. Let the disciple never overstep the lofty heights of his master, nor let the servant attempt to surpass his lord. It is enough for the disciple to equal the strength of his master, or for the servant to attain a virtue like his lord's. Let all fear ever depart from your hearts; for everything is brought forth, stripped from its hiding-places.
Whatever is commanded you silently in darkness, speak under the bright light of the shining sun. And whatever I shall say into your ears in a whisper, let it be scattered abroad to the peoples from the lofty rooftop. Despise the rage of those who will lay low your bodies with the sword: they have no power to send the living mind to death along with it. But let the secrets of the heart rather fear him who has all power over both body and soul at once. For sparrows scarcely a small fraction of a coin's worth is fetched: yet not one is permitted to fall into our snares without the bidding of the Lord. What wise man could doubt that, in the Lord's heart, one man surpasses many thousands of feathered creatures?
Whoever confesses me before the judge of the earth, him will I likewise confess before my Father; and so likewise before the Father will I deny the one who denies. I have not now come to send peace upon the earth, but a sword, which shall sever the son from the father's heart and shall sever the sweet daughter from the mother's heart. If anyone holds his father dearer than my love, or sets my love after his mother or his offspring, he shall feel a dreadful repulse from our seat. Whoever despises his own life for our name's sake shall find it flourishing with the joyful fruit of salvation. Whoever receives you with kindly compliance shall rejoice that he has received me, and likewise that he has received me on behalf of the supreme Father, into his own everlasting life.' When he had given such commands to the twelve,
the just John, from the shadows of his blind prison, bade chosen ones from the number of his followers carry such words to Christ and report the truth: 'Are you the rest for pious souls, which the kingdom of heaven promised to the earth, shining forth in our time? Or does it remain to hope for another salvation after this?' To such words Christ sent back this charge: 'The darkness of the blind is changed into the light of brightness, and the limbs of the feeble grow strong with restored vigour; the lurid leprosy is shaken off the scaly body, the sound of an airy voice penetrates deaf ears. To the lost, after death's funeral, the now-free power of the soul is given back, returning to the body, and the glory of our shining advent, not disdained, opens to its poor.
Blessed shall that man be whom error has not deceived.' Such commands the disciples reported back to their master. Upon this, to the people Christ uttered such things: 'Why did you wish, lately in the desert, to see a reed of straw shaken by the quivering wind? Why too did you wish to see one clothed in soft raiment?' In the houses of kings men are kept in soft clothing. He alone is promised, by the judgement of the ancient scripture long ago, to surpass the powers of the prophets. For the reading of the venerable voice records him thus: Behold, I send my minister to make ready the paved ways before your face; nor has any woman borne one greater in strength than our John. Yet he that is least shall be made more sublime in the court of heaven. From his rising the royal court of heaven feels its force, and a fierce violence plunders the kingdom of heaven.
The whole Law took its summit up to the time of the Baptist, and the end of the prophets is concluded in the same. If you wish to know the inner mysteries of the fleeting age, blessed Elias took John's body as his dwelling-place—Elias, whom once a likeness of fire-footed steeds, sent down in a gleaming whirlwind, snatched away. Let him hear these things who opens his ears to the words of life. Now I confess to you, Father, whom the glory of the shining heaven and of the fruit-bearing lands serves: you have now hidden these things from the proud wise, and have granted the small force of infants to comprehend these matters in their hearts. Now all things of my reigning Father have been handed over to me; nor will anyone be able to know the Son of the Lord, except the Father alone; the Son shall see the Father with his mind, or he to whom the Son shall reveal such things.
Let all come hither whom the burden of a vast load oppresses; for them my power, by the Father's gift, will be able to restore their ancient strength with glad repose. Take up bravely the yoke; my burden is light for the righteous, for it bestows sweet salvation upon the humble heart.' When he had given these words, he passed through the cultivated fields heavy with harvest, and the people of his following disciples plucked the grain-laden ears of corn in their rows. That day demanded rest by the old law, for the ancients claimed the sabbath leisure by ancient commands. Behold, the Pharisees openly began to rebuke Christ, because his disciples trampled the commands of the holy law as they reaped. But then Jesus, the fulfiller of laws, began thus, unrolling the records of the ancient scripture:
'You have surely read how David the singer, once in the temple, took the consecrated loaves with his people, and stilled his own and his companions' hunger; yet it was unlawful for anyone to touch those loaves, which by the law the priest alone could take. By the just rule of the same law it is written: in the temple the priests profane the sabbaths without crime. Nor is the gathering of your crowd here any less than the power of the temple. If your hearts could grasp that God prefers not sacrifices but gentle hearts, the faction would not so often have condemned holy men, free of fault. But now I, holding dominion, shall by my own will keep all sabbaths under the authority of the law.' Then, after such words, he entered their assemblies;
soon he saw there before the threshold a young man, from whose shoulder hung the useless weight of a withered hand. But then, testing him with crafty words, they asked whether it was lawful to bring healing to the sick on the sabbath, that the vengeance of the trampled law might stand. Christ answered this: 'If by chance one of your little flocks should fall into a pit, you would surely cross over the leisure of the law and lift the cheap beast out of the steep depth. By how much, then, ought the care of men to kindle and rouse our minds to good deeds! Come then, young man, stretch out your right hand restored to life.' At the word he stretched out both healthy palms. Then for these signs, which the reverence of the wondering people could scarcely raise up with fitting honour, in their savage councils they cried aloud that he must be entrapped.
Perceiving such schemings of the chiefs, Christ withdrew; to the various sicknesses of men he applied the healing granted to the peoples by his Father's power. Soon there was brought to him one whom the dreadful power of a demon willed to live maimed both in tongue and in sight as a punishment, and to be food for his own torments. When the blind faction of the Pharisaic people saw this man cured and vigorous in both sight and voice, they say he had done these things by the aid of the demon who, as prince of demons, alone held the powers of wickedness under his sway. But Christ, convincing their hearts, opened such things with truth-speaking words: 'If a kingdom, torn into two parts, gapes apart, and split fights against itself in division, with its inmost parts shattered all things will swiftly fall.
And if a dreadful demon is driven out by a black demon, then split against itself it fights with hostile power. Who could carry off the booty from the houses of strong men, unless the assailant first bind the arms of the guards with knots, so that the easy plunder of the spoil may come? Whoever stands apart, separated as a soldier from my arms, will set himself as an enemy on the opposing front of battle. Whoever, free, wanders from gathering my flocks, will scatter the pasturing of my herd along the byways. But whatever error of men there shall be, over all things, it can be forgiven; only let not the Spirit ever be lacerated by voices poured out from a maddened mind. Or if anyone, raging, shall heap insults upon the Son of man, these sins also will be able to be remitted.
But the Holy Spirit—whoever shall violate it with the profane raving of words—shall now and forever be scorched with irrevocable torments of fire. When shall the savage offspring of the venom-bearing serpent be able to soften with the sweet fruit of speech? For good and sweet things are brought forth from the treasures of the righteous, and evil poisons proceed from a death-dealing mouth. By the merits of words shall punishment come under the judge; by the merits of words shall life be given under the judge. Whatever the Father shall do, the Son shall follow in all things, for the same Father reveals to the Son all things to be seen, and shall thereafter bestow yet greater miracles of deeds.
For just as the Father gives back the dead bodies to the bright light of life, so the Son shall lead to the light all the bodies that he wills, rising up; nor shall the Father seek anything with you, himself as judge, but he has given to the Son these rights of judging throughout the world, that a glory like the Son's and the Father's may abide. For if the Son be repulsed in your honour, with equal wickedness you will despise the Father. But to whomever the grace of our speech fixes faith, soon the gifts of the Father who sent me shall be opened, and present constancy shall give eternal life. And for him there is no judgement, but he passes far from black death, and, vigorous, presses toward the thresholds of light. The time shall come when the dead bodies shall receive our voice and, with the voice, shall hold life.
For just as the Father possesses life in himself, so he has granted life to the Son, and has bidden him to pronounce judgement, since he came into the lands of mankind with a body. Nor let it seem strange to you that all bodies, at the hearing of the voice, rise up from their own tombs, and that the souls of the righteous are bound to a revived body, while at the grievous judgement the wretched and depraved rise up. Nor does my power alone grant me judgement, since by the Father's will all things are commanded, who bade me search out justice in the lands. For if I should rise as a witness for my own name, I would speak falsely; and since another likewise is held as a witness on my behalf, it is ever right for me to scorn such things. For by the true signs of works the testimony, present in our deeds, shines forth more manifest than all light.
Granting such things, the Father, who is my witness, cleaves to me, who sent me to the lands to lay down his commands. For you have never been able to grasp his voice, nor has he granted you to behold his proper form. Nor will his word be able to dwell within your hearts, since there is in you no substance of believing. Let the reading of the ancient scriptures be sought by you, by which you suppose that everlasting life is brought to all. This reading also testifies to our gift. Yet you dare not stand nearer to us, lest the grace of true life befall you. The glory of earthly praise is not sought by me. For because I came in the name of the supreme Father, I am rejected by you; but another shall come, a tarnished one, whom your people, propped up in his own human name, shall follow.
Among you the glory of mutual repute is sought, and you flee from seeking the praise of the One alone. Nor would I accuse you before the Father, but there shall be an accuser there, whom your hope now celebrates—Moses, whom you kept with no honour of faith. For if your erring kept believing in his writings, it would believe in us also, whom the writings of Moses constantly recall.' Then against such things the words of the scribes follow: 'Unshaken faith shall accompany these utterances, if power confirms the miracles with sure signs.' He then: 'A generation polluted with evils seeks signs for itself; but the signs shall stand for things to come. For as long as the prophet spent time within the hollow breast of the whale, so long shall the offspring of man remain sunk in the deep recesses of the earth.
The time shall come when the race of men, restored to life, shall rise, given over to weeping for their own deeds. This shall condemn that nation with a deserved charge, because, admonished by the voice of the prophet rising from the bottom of the sea, it was turned in tears, prostrate, back to the Lord. Here too greater things than the warnings of Jonah are commanded, and the impious nation with savage hearts despises the light. And the queen of the South shall rise into the regions of life. By her example the wild people shall be condemned, because she came from the farthest bounds of Libya, devoted and given to commands, that she might hear pious Solomon; now there is a greater power than Solomon, and yet the hearts of the dull people are blinded.
When at any time a demon is expelled and flees from the breast, which the holy breath troubles, the body being cleansed, that demon roams with venomous steps the shores where no wave of a spring's flood runs out, nor does it, burning, find for itself the repose of a peaceful seat. Then, thirsting, it seeks again the dwelling-places of its accustomed mind. But if perchance it sees the heart liable to its own poisons and the gates laughing with light adornment, the power hostile to man, gathering, joins to itself seven like furies, and, serpentine, penetrates into the inward parts. So when this kind degenerates from the true state of mind, it shall weep over its chains, subjected to perpetual punishments.' And while he frequented such words of life among the peoples, before the doors his mother stood with his brothers, and begged to share speech with him close at hand outside.
Then to his mother's bidding he sent back such words: 'Here with me sit my mother, with me my sister in body. For whoever fulfils the will of the Father, he joins his own body to my blood, and is held under the name of my mother and my kindred.' Jesus, the light of the lands, went forth from the temple and settled on the very edge of sea and land, and there countless throngs of the people streamed. But he, mounting the high stern that was nearest, uttered such things to the people filling the shore: 'Behold, a sower entrusts his seeds to his own field; they fall on diverse ground and bear the lot of their places according to their nature. For wherever the soil of the trodden roads is packed solid beneath the feet into a hard track, the seeds give a bare prey to the birds of the air.
But where the rocks are veiled with the thinnest dust, the grain indeed brings forth the green sprouting of a shoot; but because there is no substance of sap beneath in the clods, the threads of the roots wither from the inserted heat, and soon all the points of the tips slip away to death. And other seeds meet with rough fields; here, more swiftly than the growth of strength, the harvest goes out among brambles and wild thorns, and, choking, kills off the grain. But the seeds that are given to rich clods bear a beautiful crop, for which a joyful abundance frequents its increases with a hundredfold offspring. Let him hear these things who bears the ears of his mind open.' Marvelling at such words, the disciples inquired why he closed all things in words involved for the people; but he, the believing crowd removed, spoke:
'To you, who have established a mind made robust with firm breast for grasping the inner mysteries of God, it is granted to stand deep within the recesses of the kingdom; but to those, according to their desert, the lights of the mind are closed. If the worthy man has, he, overflowing, shall receive greater things; but those who, void of the heavenly gift, go astray, shall lose even whatever of their own they retain. Therefore the grace of our speech grazes that people, covered with dark riddles, that the saying of Isaiah may recur concerning the deserving folk: Behold, the minds of the people are veiled to all things with thick barriers, lest with their senses they touch the gifts of life. They stand by with ears shut and eyes weighed down, lest the harmful people, turned to good, be healed. How blessed are your ears and eyes now!
For many ancient righteous and holy prophets prayed to behold the gifts which now shine clear to you. Receive, then, in your minds, what the meaning of the seed may be: Whoever lets my word slip into the topmost ears, nor receives the precepts in his senses with steadfast vigour, the demon snatches the whole of it from his breast. This man is like the hard field, which exposes the sprouts of grain to the swift birds, a plunder without fruit. There are others who, with glad breast, receive our words, but brief is the grace of the fruit they have received. For if a harsh constraint should press and bind the mind, at once, trembling, they betray to death the things entrusted to them. With like inconstancy the stony field grows green. But the thorny field answers those weighed down by the burden of cares, whom the loads of riches oppress.
So the seeds of our speech are pressed down and weighed, nor does fruit follow, killed off by the horror of thorns. Thus likewise the fertile fields stand with equal strength for those who receive the precepts of bright salvation, which penetrate the soul with a tenacious, grasping sense and bear a hundredfold fruit by the strength of virtue.' Then to the disciples, and to the people besides, he adds this: 'The lofty kingdom of the Thunderer is like a farmer. He casts good seeds, entrusting them to his own field; but afterward, secretly creeping in and lying in wait for the sleep of men, a fierce enemy comes and sprinkles in bitter tares. But behold, when, with the stalks growing, the bristling ears advanced to fruit, the harvest, stained with tares, overflows. Then to their lord the servants, marvelling, say: Did you not give good seed of the earth across your field?
Whence, then, are your fields burdened with foul tares? But now, if you bid us, we will purge the whole harvest, and the wheaten brightness, with the chosen filth removed, shall stand fast. Then the lord answered with gentle speech: This is your deceit, O enemy, but let us suffer the wheat to grow together with the tares. For in the full season of harvest I shall bid the tares, gathered apart in a bound sheaf, to be burned in the fires; but then the reaper from our seed shall fill our barns, purged with grain. Not otherwise—if you open the ears of your heart—is the kingdom of heaven like a very tiny grain of mustard, which the cultivator, putting it in, sets in his own little field. And that is believed to be the least of all the green seeds;