Questions on the Old and New Testament 70.1–82.1

No one doubts that the devil is man’s enemy, especially the believer’s; for he sharpens his weapons more vehemently against God’s servants. So just as he is the enemy of the good, so the law is hostile to the evil. For who would not be hostile to one who despises him? So the Lord addresses the sinner, that he should agree with the commandments which condemn him in his disobedience, so as to submit himself to their will and become a friend instead of an enemy; because the despiser of the law is its enemy, for he resists its will. And therefore the Lord exhorts the sinner to reconcile the law to himself by acting well, lest on the day of judgment it accuse him before the judge and, condemned, he pay the penalty for the law he despised. For to everyone who wants to do evil the Lord’s discipline seems hostile; unless he agrees with it, he will be sent into the Gehenna prepared for the devil, who is truly the enemy of the human race.

As far as the faith of truth goes, no one has ever seen God at all, neither Father nor Son. For what he is said to have been seen refers to understanding; for he was seen as in an image. Just as we, when we do not know the emperors, see them in a figure, not in reality, so too God was seen, so that the one who appeared might be understood to be God by reason, not by substance, because God cannot be seen in his nature. And to open more truly the secrets of the question proposed, let us try to unfold the sense of the evangelist. For John wanted to bring out something hidden, which he knew pertained to saving teaching. Therefore he says: “No one has ever seen God, except the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father; he has declared him.”

Let us note the evangelist’s sense. To show that it is true that no one has ever seen God, he teaches that the Son declared it, who certainly cannot be deceived, because he is in the Father’s bosom. And what is the Father’s bosom except the affection, in the love of the true Father, toward the Son through the unity of nature? Therefore no one has seen God except the only Son. John the apostle heard the Son of God say this among other things: “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.” So, to serve the condemnation of the Jews, who would neither hear nor believe that Christ is the Son of God, the evangelist shows that this is the Christ who appeared to the fathers as God, but that he who is the Father is never seen except by the Son. For when he denies that God the Father has been seen and confesses that God appeared to the fathers, the Son of God wants to manifest himself, because he himself was always seen as God by the fathers. Hence he says among other things to the Jews about the Father: “You have never heard his voice nor seen his form.” See, it is not contradictory that God is both seen and unseen.

It must not be passed over carelessly, but one must consider what “the law was given through Moses” means. For the law given through Moses has plain precepts, but he also wrote history, which itself too is called law. And let us see what in its precepts will not be true. Perhaps what it says: “You shall not kill, you shall not commit sexual immorality, you shall not steal”; the rest are of this kind. But that his history was not truth before Christ’s coming is plain. For what the things under a veil signified was uncertain. But when it is made manifest through Christ whose person it is that says in Genesis, “Let us make,” and who it is that makes, and who was seen in the bush or by the patriarchs, and who worked in the rock that gave water in the desert (because, it says, “the rock was Christ”), so truth comes through Christ: when what was hidden or came into doubt, as to what it signified, has been shown by Christ. For the Lord says among other things: “Moses wrote of me.” This was hidden before; for there was error. For God the Father was thought to be the one who was the Son, and the one who was thought an angel was known to be the Son of God. And a promise had been made to Abraham, which, as long as it was not fulfilled, was in doubt. But when it was fulfilled at Christ’s coming, it became truth, when both what was promised was fulfilled and what had been promised began to be known. For the faithfulness of the one who promises is proved true when he pays what was promised.

It is entirely impossible that the Savior’s will should not be fulfilled, nor can he will what he knows ought not to be done; therefore he must be said to have willed what was done. For his will is never outside his nature. So just as his nature does not fall under reproach, neither does his will. For what is proposed we read was done in the region of Tyre. Then he entered a house and wanted no one to know. Now it is asked how or why he wanted no one to know. For it must be noted that this was done in the region of the gentiles, to whom it was not yet the time for preaching. Indeed, sending his disciples, he commanded, saying: “Do not go on the road of the gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Therefore he did not want it betrayed that he was in the house; but he did not refuse to be sought out, rather he accepted it gladly. For although it was not the time for preaching to the gentiles, yet not to receive those coming to faith of their own accord would have been grudging. So it came about that the Savior, though not betrayed by his disciples, was betrayed by others who had seen him entering the house, and it began to be known that he was in the house, so that those who wanted to obtain benefits might come in to him. So he did not want to be proclaimed by his own as being in the house; but he wanted to be sought out, and so it happened. For he was not hidden, being pointed out by others as being in the house. Indeed the Canaanite woman, hearing of him, came in to him praying that he would drive the demon from her daughter; and unless she had first submitted herself to the God of the Jews, she would not have obtained the benefit. So the Savior’s will was fulfilled according to what we have explained; for by examining what the evangelist, aiming at brevity, summarized, we have found what was hidden.

You always hide the sense with an abridged statement. For what you call into question happened when, being in Galilee, because of the tumult of the Jews, he was urged by his brothers, who did not yet believe in him, to go up to Judea, because the feast of the Jews was coming, so that he would suffer sedition. But he answered them, saying: “You go up to the feast, because the world does not hate you; but it hates me, because I convict its works. I do not go up to this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled.” Then his brothers went up to the feast, but he remained in Galilee. But afterward he too went up to the feast.

What seems contradictory, when he did not go up when he said no, but went up afterward, and went up not as to a feast but as to a dispute? For they all went up gladly, as if to enjoy the delights of the feast day. So it is certain that he did not go up to the feast. But that was the Savior’s feast day on which by his passion he redeemed the world. Indeed he says: “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.” This is his feast day, on which he conquered death.

The case is otherwise than proposed; for this is not the sense of this question that you put forward. For the case of free choice cannot in any way be disturbed by these words, because if you look closely at the sense of the sayings, you will know that the view of free choice is rather strengthened from them. For these things were said against the malicious Jews. For when, by a deceit of pretense born of envy, they asserted that Joseph was his own father and his sons the Savior’s brothers, lest he be believed to be the Son of God, then the Savior said: “No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” And how did the Father draw to the Son except through the works he did through him? For thus he said: “The Father abiding in me does the works himself,” so that these works might draw to faith in Christ. For the mighty works which the Savior did themselves persuaded that God is the Father of Christ, so that one who said he had another father would not be drawn by God to Christ. So God worked through Christ so that faith might be given to his words, in which he said he was the Son of God.

This is the drawing: not violence, but God’s testimony in Christ; whoever believes it is said to be drawn by him to Christ. For no one believes the Savior except one who says God is his own Father. For the apostle said these things which you have brought into question not to strike at free choice, but to forbid the revision of God’s judgment; he said these things proclaiming God just; for he knows on whom he ought to have mercy. And the inspector of the heart sees the mind of the one who asks, whether he deserves to receive. Indeed he says through the prophet: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” For it is just that he harden the mind of a dissembler. For one who calls the true false not through error but through malice, so that, understanding the good, he pretends not to know that it is good, so as to turn it into evil, should certainly be given this: that he truly not understand the good, so as not to be saved, which he does not want. For it is not just that one be saved against his will who spurns salvation not through ignorance but through malice or envy. So by these things free choice is strengthened rather than destroyed, so that each is answered according to his wish.

All the divine books are bitter, but to the faithless and the fleshly. For it is unpleasant to idolaters when they hear one God preached in Christ. And Photinus too is afraid, seized with horror; Sabellius also blushes, hearing that the Father is the Father, who cannot be called Son, because all things are from him; and that the Son is called Son because he is certainly not the Father himself but from the Father, not the one from whom but through whom all things are. Arius too is refuted when he reads that Christ is the true Son of God; for without doubt he could not be called true unless he were properly from God. Marcion too is convicted, who thinks flesh must be denied to Christ, when he learns that the Word was made flesh. The wicked Manichee too is refuted, seeing it written by the evangelist that the Savior not only graced the vows of a wedding with his presence but even honored it with drink; he who shuts the entrance to marriage and urges promiscuous intercourse.

These things are contained in the book which the apostle received to devour. This book is the gospel which is titled “According to John,” which is bitter not only to those who think wrongly but also to the undisciplined, who do not want to be corrected, so that they advance to worse. This revelation was made at the time when the apostle John was on the island of Patmos, banished by the emperor Domitian for the faith. Then he was in the Spirit, so that he could see heavenly things, and while these things were shown him which will come because of impiety and sexual immorality and the rest, a book was given him which was sweet in the mouth but made the belly bitter; so that of the people who seem to be of one body, it would be sweet to these, who, because they are of sound profession, are signified in the mouth (for that is sweet in the mouth which is true), but bitter to those who live or think in a fleshly way with heretical depravity, for which reason they are signified in the belly. For it will accuse them on the day of God’s judgment. So after the revelation he was ordered to write the gospel because of the things we said above. And to the prophet Ezekiel likewise it was said that he should take a book which was sweet in his mouth, when he was sent to rebuke the faithlessness of the people.

Simeon, a holy man commended by divine oracles, spoke through the Holy Spirit of what would happen to people on account of Christ: that he would be a fall for those who, though they seemed to themselves to stand through observance and skill in the law, would nevertheless fall through distrust of Christ’s works, cut off from the promise to the fathers; but for those who were of almost no standing in the law but believed in Christ, a resurrection in Israel, so that those formerly unworthy and useless might become worthy of God, and those who were thought something might be rejected. This is what the Lord says in another place: “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind.” Indeed, it was not the teachers of the law, not Pharisees, not scribes who followed Christ, but fishermen, unskilled and rustic men. Hence the Lord says: “Father, I thank you that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to little ones.”

And what he added, saying, “And a sword will pass through your own soul, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed,” certainly signified that even Mary, through whom the mystery of the Savior’s incarnation was accomplished, would doubt at the Lord’s death, yet in such a way that she would be strengthened by the resurrection. For all doubted at the Lord’s death with a kind of stupor. For who would not hesitate, seeing the one who called himself the Son of God so humbled as to descend even to death? And because, as I said, all doubt would depart at the Lord’s resurrection, he said “pass through,” not fall upon or touch some member in passing; so that as a sword thrown, passing beside a man, causes fear but does not strike, so too doubt caused sadness but did not kill, because it did not settle in the mind but passed through, touching the disciples’ hearts as through a shadow. Indeed Cleopas and Emmaus, going sad on the way, say among other things to the Lord himself, not knowing that he is the Lord: “We thought that he was the one who was beginning to free Israel.” They doubted, but at once, when the Lord was recognized, the doubt passed. It is likewise said of Joseph that “iron passed through his soul.” This is to escape death, because to doubt about God or Christ is death; and therefore one who ceases to doubt escapes death.

As far as the sense goes, the questions are different. But the words are partly alike, partly differing. For “made” and “did not make” are contrary; “knew not” and “did not do” are alike. So the prophet spoke in the person of Christ: “for he did no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth”; but the apostle speaks of the person of God the Father: “because him,” that is Christ, “who knew no sin, he made sin for us.” This is to be understood in two ways. First, he made him sin when he willed him to be incarnate, so that he whom the lot did not touch should take a body from sinful flesh, by which he is said to be made sin. Then, in offering him for sins, he made him sin. For the victim offered for sins in the law was called “sin.”

So Christ did not commit sin, as the prophet says, but plainly he himself was made sin, as has been shown. And what is it to offer Christ for us, except to give power to those who wanted to kill him? This was allowed because it would profit, so that it would be the occasion for descending to the underworld to strip Tartarus of souls. For it is a superabounding and unheard-of sin to have killed one who not only had sinned in no way but had given life to many. Made guilty by this sin, the devil lost the audacity to contradict. For something similar is read in the letter to the Galatians; for among other things he says: “He was made a curse for us.” By whom was he made, if not by the Father? For by God’s judgment the cross of Christ is the curse of the Jews; for the Savior’s death cries out their sin. So he allowed himself to be crucified so that his passion might profit us, so that, departing from here with his sign, we might not be held by the second death. For death fears even his servants, by whom it was conquered.

The didrachma is understood as a poll-tax, not a tax on estates. For the Savior possessed nothing in the world, though he is Lord of the world, and when dead he was buried at others’ expense; yet we, to whom the world is foreign, desire to increase our means, so that when dying we testify, not only by voice but also in writing, to the world we have seized, so that by our own profession we are condemned by him whose the world is. Hence the Lord says: “Whoever does not leave everything and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Whoever, then, holds his means in such a way that he does not put his hope in them, but is ready to throw them away for the faith, walks the road that leads to Christ our Lord.

So the didrachma was to be exacted from those who carried on some business or applied themselves to crafts. But the Savior, who cared for none of these things, nor did his disciples, was certainly not to be taxed. But because the enemy devil was always lying in wait, seeking an occasion to see whether he could bend the Savior, he took hold of the minds of the collectors of the didrachma, so that they did his will; so that, coming to Peter, who was first among the apostles, they said that the didrachma must be paid by their teacher, though they were free of these burdens (for they did nothing in the world that was of the world); so that, because he had nothing to pay with, he would either be an offense to them or at least, by the humility of seeking support, look for someone to pay for him. Then the Lord, to show that the devil is improvident and always plotting against himself, orders the apostle Peter to go to the sea and open the mouth of a fish he caught and find there the amount owed for the tax; and when it was paid, not only would he not be an offense to the collectors, nor be bent by asking help to pay, but he would even display a sign of the greatest power, by which he would draw to himself those captured by the devil, so that the devil would be tormented by his own scheme and cunning. So the collectors of the didrachma say to the apostle Peter: “Does your teacher not pay the didrachma?” By this saying they called on the teacher to pay for all the disciples.

And when the Savior orders payment for himself and Peter, he seems to have paid for all, because, just as all were in the Savior by reason of his teaching office, so too after the Savior all are contained in Peter. For he appointed him to be their head, so that he might be shepherd of the Lord’s flock. For among other things he says to the disciples: “Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation,” and to Peter he says: “Behold, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when at last you have turned, strengthen your brothers.” What is in doubt? Did he pray for Peter and not pray for James and John, not to speak of the others? It is plain that all are contained in Peter; because in another place too he says: “I pray for those whom you have given me,” and: “I want them to be with me where I am.”

Now let us see what a didrachma is, that is, what its measure of weight or quantity is, or of what substance … [the rest is lost].

The Lord, when the children of Israel often sinned after being led out of Egypt, in anger gave sentence that none of them would enter the land of promise except Caleb and Joshua son of Nun, who was formerly called Hoshea. But those who had been born in the desert, he said, would enter, because they did not know good or evil. Not to know good or evil is a certain natural simplicity, which is trained neither to good nor to evil, that is, ignorance without malice. For we are born without understanding, but our nature has this good, that it is capable of learning the truth. But a son of the devil is one who, after being born, is steeped in evil things, so as to devote himself to what is hostile to the Creator, asserting many gods and that sacrifice must be made to them as rulers of the world. If this one comes to his senses and thinks according to his nature, betaking himself to the Creator, he will be a son of God.

And therefore those who are born are neither sons of God nor of the devil. For what does the Savior say to the Jews? “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.” You see, then, that sons are created for the devil by works and profession, and that those are sons of God who, confessing that God is properly the Father of Christ, live rightly. For God established our race in such a way that, though born without understanding, we nevertheless have the possibility of learning either good or evil, so that we ourselves may acquire for ourselves either evil or good; so that we may rejoice in ourselves when, acting rightly, we are rewarded, or blame ourselves if, following wicked things, we are condemned.

Not everything that is born is the same as that from which it is born. For gold too is born of the earth, and yet it is not earth, and so are gems and many other things; and food is born from a tree, and an egg from a hen. But that pagans are born of pagans has this cause: since every pagan is in ignorance, and the one born of him is without understanding, both are ignorant. Yet there is this difference between the two: the begetter is without doubt a blasphemer and therefore a son of the devil, while the infant who is born does not know how to blaspheme, just as he does not know how to bless; yet he is a pagan, because he is without understanding. A Jew, on the other hand, is born of a Jew because he is begotten under devotion to the Creator, as Adam said of Cain: “I have procreated a man through God.” For as the pagans, who are not devoted to the Creator, give thanks to demons in all they do, so the Jews, as suppliants of God the Creator, praise him in every act of theirs; in this they are to be despised, that they do not acknowledge Christ, through whom all things are. In this way too a Jew is born of a Jew; not, as some think, because circumcision makes a Jew. For circumcision is the sign of Judaism, not Judaism, since in Abraham circumcision is not righteousness but the sign of righteousness, so that those born of Abraham might have a sign by which they would be proved to be sons of Abraham. Indeed they were called by this name after Judas Maccabeus, so that not only those from Judah but also the rest, from all the sons of Jacob, were called Jews, because Judas had been their leader. And so those born Jews receive the sign, so that it may be understood what they are. But a Christian is not born of a Christian, because the one who begets was not born but made a Christian. For this reason the one who is born must also be made one, in order to be one. For he is not born a Christian by substance but by faith, which comes to those already born. For ignorance is born with the flesh, but faith is implanted afterward by a spiritual principle. But it is objected: “If the one who begets has certainly been made one, he ought now to beget what he is himself, so that the dignity he received would be passed on by descent. For senators beget senators.” But the dignity of senators has no merit before God, nor does nature itself, that is, the substance, obtain any benefit from it; the dignity consists only in reputation and talk. And therefore the name does run along the line of fleshly descent, but it confers nothing except the reputation of dignity, just as those who are consuls or are honored with statues rejoice in something empty. But when people become Christians, dignity is added to nature itself, so that the very essence of the human being has the everlasting benefit of incorruptibility, so that it is so not in reputation only but in fact, effectively, before God. It is as if some eloquent poor man were praised and lacked bread or other necessities. For true praise is this: that the dignity sought should so profit a man that he lacks nothing, when this is granted to his nature, that it lives by itself and lives well, needing no support; this is truly to become rich and glorious.

It is clear that by adding, removing, or changing a syllable the sense is perverted. Everyone knows that the pagans worship the elements; but the Jews served God, not the elements, yet “under the elements,” because of new moons and sabbaths and circumcision and other such things. For these are carnal; whatever is visible is carnal and belongs to the elements. But because this was by God’s command, God was being served, so that from visible things they might come to invisible ones, and from this care progress might be made toward grasping greater things, so that, practised in these, they might become worthy of the spiritual promises. In this respect, then, which I mentioned above, the Jews served under the elements; in another respect they had a spiritual law, which both forbids sin and exhorts to love of the Lord God, who had been promised to them as coming to forgive sins.