Further fragments and homilies

The question is asked whether Samuel came up through the medium or not. If we grant that he came up, we establish what is false. For how could a demon call up a soul, I do not say of a righteous man only, but of anyone at all, once it had departed, when it did not know where the soul dwells? “But,” he says, “how then was the woman terrified, and saw, contrary to custom, men coming up? For if she had not seen something contrary to custom, she would not have said, I see gods coming up out of the earth. She called one; how did many come up?” What then? Do we say that the souls of all who appeared came up, and these not called by the woman, or that what was seen was an apparition of them? But this too is idle. “How,” he says, “did Saul recognize him and do obeisance?” But Saul did not see; rather, hearing from the woman what she saw, the figure of one of those coming up, and recognizing it as Samuel, he treated it as such and did obeisance. And it is nothing for the demon to shape the figure of Samuel, which he knew. “How then,” he says, “did he foretell the evils that were to befall Saul and Jonathan at the same time?” He foretold the end of the war, that Saul would be defeated, conjecturing it from God's anger against him. Just as a physician who lacks exact knowledge of his science, seeing a patient given up for lost, may foretell his death while mistaken about the hour, so the demon too, knowing God's anger from Saul's deeds and from his very attempt to consult the medium, foretells the defeat together with the death, while mistaken about the day of the death.

The book of Psalms contains new teaching after the legislation of Moses, and it is the second book of teaching after the writing of Moses. For after the death of Moses and Joshua, and after the judges, David arose, who was deemed worthy to be called, as it were, the father of the Savior himself; and he first delivered to the Hebrews a new manner of psalmody, by which he abolishes the ordinances of Moses concerning sacrifices and introduces a new manner of worshiping God by hymn and jubilant shout; and throughout his whole work he teaches very many other things that go beyond the law of Moses.

This one, coming forth into the world, was manifested as God and man. And it is easy to perceive his manhood when he hungers and toils, and being weary thirsts, and in fear flees, and in prayer is grieved, and sleeps on a pillow, and begs to be spared the cup of suffering, and in agony sweats, and is strengthened by an angel, and is betrayed by Judas, and is dishonored by Caiaphas, and set at nought by Herod, and scourged by Pilate, and mocked by soldiers, and fixed to the wood by the Jews, and crying to the Father commits his spirit, and bowing his head breathes his last, and has his side pierced with a lance, and wrapped in linen is laid in a tomb, and on the third day is raised by the Father. And his divinity in turn can plainly be seen when he is worshiped by angels, and beheld by shepherds, and awaited by Simeon, and attested by Anna, and sought by magi, and signified by a star, and at a wedding turns water into wine, and rebukes the sea stirred by the violence of the winds, and walks on the sea, and makes one blind from birth see, and raises Lazarus dead four days, and performs various mighty works, and forgives sins, and gives authority to disciples. [b] … producing corruption. For the one who has sinned and confesses says: “My wounds stank and festered because of my foolishness.” But the Lord was without sin, of incorruptible wood as regards his manhood, that is, of the Virgin and the Holy Spirit, covered within and without by the Word of God as with purest gold. [c] … to receive such sufferings. For to one who has lived without sin there is no darkness, no worm, no Gehenna, no fire, nor any other of the fearful names and things; just as the Egyptian plagues did not touch the Hebrews: those fine gnats that pain with unseen bites, the dog-fly that fastens painfully on the body by its bite, the fiery blasts from above falling with the stones of hail, the husbandry destroyed by the locusts, the darkened air, and the rest. God's purpose is to tend the true vine and to kill the Egyptian one, sparing those who are to eat the grape of gall and drink the incurable venom of asps. The Egyptian sycamore too is destroyed, not, however, that on which Zacchaeus climbs so that he may see my Lord. And the Egyptian fruits are destroyed, the works of the flesh, but not the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace. Yet what were once foreign possessions can become his, as Laban's became Jacob's, and the reverse: of the sheep, those that Jacob rejected he gave to Esau. See, then, that, though found in the flock of Jesus, you are not chosen out when gifts are sent to Esau and sent off to Esau as rejected and unworthy of the spiritual Jacob. Christ's cattle are the simpler ones, whom God saves according to “Men and cattle you will save, O Lord”; the cattle of the Egyptians are those who by irrationality assent to godless teaching, which are also struck with hail; and the Egyptians' possessions are given over to the fire, but Abraham gave his possessions to Isaac.

Anonymous. One of the ancients used to say that those go down alive into Hades who have instruction in the divine teachings but are dead to the words of life …

Anonymous. Since there is a time in which the righteous will rejoice, while sinners will have the end spoken of them, it is altogether fitting to confess and declare that there is a God who oversees and watches over what is done among men, judging all who have lived on the earth. One should consider whether the present prophecy, being wholly consistent and connected with what precedes it, describes the end. … of those who studied the prophecies about Christ and spoke righteousness with their mouth, but did not receive him when he came, nor listened to his voice crying to them and saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”; who made themselves like the serpent and made their ears like those of a deaf asp, and the rest said of them. Truly, then, there is a God who cares for the righteous, judging for them when they are wronged on earth, and punishing those who dare to wrong them.

Therefore even to this day, seeing the borders and going round about, they stand far off …

Anonymous. No longer, then, is there king or high priest or prophet among them, nor even scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees. Yet he does not …

… say that they are to be killed; and so their race has survived and the succession of their children multiplies. For they were not killed, nor wiped out from among men, but they exist and remain; yet they are so cast down and brought low from the honor they once enjoyed with God. But also “Scatter them,” he says, “in your power”; which has indeed happened. [For they are scattered over the whole earth, serving everywhere and pursuing the lowest and slavish trades and every unseemly means because of hunger.] For if they had been wiped out from among men, not existing at all among the living, they would not have seen, he says, my people, nor known my church flourishing. Scatter them, then, everywhere on earth, where my church too is to be established, so that seeing the church founded by me they may come to zeal for godliness. So the Savior prayed this too on their behalf.

Anonymous. “Migrants” are properly those who have been plundered by some enemies or foes and then become sojourners elsewhere; which we too suffered formerly at the hands of the demons. But since Christ took hold of us through faith in him, we no longer become migrants from our true homeland, the Jerusalem above, nor do we submit to be removed from the truth into error.

Anonymous. He draws even the disobedient, sometimes through illnesses and misfortunes; and many came through visions to dwell with Jesus.

Anonymous. Round about us are the wise men of the Greeks, sneering and scoffing at us as people who believe without examination and foolishly.

… By these words the passage signifies that the gospel preaching will pass through the seas and the islands in the sea and the men who dwell in them, who are called “its fullness”; and this too has come to pass. For churches of Christ fill all the islands, and the saving teaching multiplies and advances daily …

Anonymous. The lover of truth, who never utters a false word with his mouth, might say: “I have chosen the way of truth.” And he who always sets God's judgments before his eyes and remembers them in every action will say: “I have not forgotten your judgments.”

Anonymous. And how is our heart enlarged through temptations and afflictions? These cut out the thorns of the thoughts within us and make the heart wider for receiving the divine laws. “For in affliction,” he says, “you enlarged me.” Then we pass along the way of God's commandments, made unencumbered through the endurance of temptations.

Anonymous. Did you see the very great power on both sides? You will be able both to save me when I am in the midst of dangers and to restrain them, raging and frenzied and breathing fire.

It is said also by those who have studied the nature and generation of living things that the change of blood into bone is invisible and incomprehensible,

… although the generation of the other parts, I mean flesh and sinews, is in some way observed. And the scripture of Ecclesiastes presents this, saying: “As bones in the womb of her who is with child, so you shall not know the works of God.” “My bone was not hidden from you, nor my substance in the lowest parts of the earth” reaching …

He has taken these words to refer to the people of the Jews and their bloodguilt against Christ; for they thought that he had his citizenship on earth only.

They will not simply receive, but inherit. And the ungodly, even if they are exalted, are exalted so that their dishonor may become greater. For as one who exalted an ugly and misshapen man would not glorify him but rather dishonor him, making his shame plain to more people, so God too exalts the ungodly in order to make their disgrace manifest. Pharaoh too was exalted, but so that the world might have him as an accuser.

Note that he calls the law a “good gift” because of the man who takes gifts in his bosom unjustly. And he forsakes the law who transgresses it. The law: either the one he speaks of, or the one he himself kept?

And how is one to “fortify” her? Set holy thoughts around her in a circle. For you need much security, since many things plot against such a possession. And if it is in our power to fortify her, and the virtues are in our power, then the ramparts would be the virtues that exalt the knowledge of God, such as discipline, study, and the rest of the chain of virtues, by which he who keeps wisdom honors her; and the reward is to be raised up to her and embraced by her in the bridal chamber above the world.

Hippolytus. He has also stated the cause, how this will be. For the ways of wisdom, that is, of the resourceful and abundant wisdom: wherever you wish to walk, all things give way, there is nothing opposing, all things yield as to a queen. And he said divinely “I set you on,” so that, he says, your continuance may be secure. For there are not so many byways off the highways as off virtue, and it is a hard task to find a man always upright. “If, then, you hear me, the years of your life will be multiplied,” so that you may have incorruptible life, clearly. The many “ways of life” are good actions leading to the knowledge of God; and the “straight paths” are those that lead from good actions to good courses.

The ungodly are the heterodox, and the lawless are the transgressors of the law, whose ways, that is, deeds, he tells us not to enter. “Do not enter the ways,” he says, “of the heterodox, or of those who transgress the law.” “Do not enter,” then, means “do not desire.” Turn aside from their thoughts, then, reining in irrational impulses. Or he calls “ungodly” the evil thoughts that kill souls; their army looks to the murder of the soul.

He looks straight who has thoughts free of passion and true doctrines, and is not excited by outward appearances. When he says, “Let your eyes look straight,” he means the sight of the soul; and when he exhorts, “Eat honey, son, that your throat may be sweetened,” by honey he figuratively means the divine teaching, which perfects the spiritual knowledge of the soul. But wisdom also clasps the soul; “Love her,” he says, “that she may embrace you.” And the soul, united to wisdom by the embrace, is filled with holiness and purity. Indeed, the soul's sense of smell perceives the ointments of Christ.

Virtue is a mean; and so he says that courage is between rashness and cowardice. And now he calls “right” not what is right by nature, which are the virtues, but what seems right to you because of pleasures; and pleasures are not only sexual things, but also wealth and luxury. And the “left” are envy, murder, robberies and the like. “For Boreas,” he says, “is a harsh wind, but is called by name the right-hand one.” For by Boreas he symbolically means the evil one, that is, the devil, from whom all evils were kindled on the earth. And he is “by name the right-hand one,” because he is called an angel, a name of the right hand.

Hippolytus. “Do you,” he says, “turn aside from evil, and God will take care of the end.” For he goes before you, cutting down your enemies, so that you may walk in peace. “For the price of a loaf” …

See how he brings them into the bond of the yoke-mate. For by the creature (the hind) he shows the purity of the pleasure, and by the foal he represents the spirited and lovable nature of the wife; and since he knows the many things that provoke, he places on them a secure and unbreakable bond of love, contriving its indissolubility for them. [But another says: wisdom, then, as a hind, is of a nature to drive off and destroy the snake-like words of the heterodox. Let her, then, he says, be with you as a foal, because she keeps every virtue young. And since a wife and wisdom are not alike, let her rather lead you; for so you will bring forth good thoughts.]

So that you may not say, “What harm is there to the eyes, since there is no necessity at all that the one who looks be turned aside?”, he shows you that desire is fire, and the flesh a garment: the one easily caught, the other tyrannical. And when the fire is not merely placed in the bosom but also bound up there, it will not go out until it has made itself a way out. For he who has looked at a woman, even if he escaped, did not withdraw pure of desire. Why should there be need of trouble, when one may be chaste without trouble? See what Job says: “I made a covenant with my eyes, not to consider another man's wife.” So well does he know the strength of the assault. And Paul too for this reason buffeted his body and brought it into subjection. [And according to contemplation: he binds fire in his bosom who allows an impure thought to linger in his heart; and he walks on coals who by sin in act destroys his own soul.]

The kepphos is a kind of gull which is so incontinent toward pleasure that its eyes seem to fill with blood in mating, and it is caught unawares, often falling into snares or into men's hands. To this, then, he likened the man who gives himself to the harlot through licentiousness, or else because of the creature's silliness; for this man too followed like a fool. And they say that it delights so much in foam that if someone sailing holds foam in his hand, it settles on the hand. And it gives birth in pain.

You have seen her harm; do not wait to receive the desire; for its end is death. [Otherwise: she wounds by words, that is, by reasonings, and kills by sins those who obey her; for many forms of wickedness lead the foolish down to Hades. “The chambers of death” are either its depth or its wealth.] How, then, is one to escape?

The new Jerusalem and the holy flesh. By the seven pillars he signified the sevenfold (gift) of the Holy Spirit resting upon it, as Isaiah testifies, saying: “And the Spirit of God shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and godliness; the spirit of the fear of God shall fill him.”

Note that the wise man must be useful to many, since one who is useful only to himself would not be wise; for it is a great accusation against wisdom if it keeps its power within its possessor. And just as poison would not harm another body but only the one that takes it, so too the man who has turned out wicked will harm himself, not another; for no virtuous man is harmed by a wicked one.

The fruit of righteousness and the tree of life is Christ, who alone, in human fashion, fulfilled all righteousness, and as life itself sprouted the fruits of knowledge and virtue like a tree, from which those who eat will receive everlasting life and will enjoy the tree of life in paradise with Adam and all the righteous. But the souls of the lawless are taken away untimely from the face of God, because he overlooks them in the flame of torment. Not from men, but with God he will find power.

He asks for wisdom who seeks to know what the will of God is; and having made himself silent about what he came to learn, he will seem to be prudent. If one man asks about wisdom, wishing to learn something about wisdom, while another keeps silent from wisdom, not only not wishing to know about wisdom himself but also stopping his neighbors, then the first is said to be more prudent than the second.

… by these deeds sin kills man, never changing but always growing. For the fourth, he says, “was not content to say, Enough.” By saying “the fourth” he signified the desire for all things. For just as the body is one but has many members, so sin too, being one, has in itself many and varied desires, by which it plots against man. And he speaks from examples: “Hades, and the love of a woman, and Tartarus, and earth not filled with water, and water and fire will not say, Enough.” For as Hades does not cease receiving the souls of lawless men, so the love of sin, as of a woman, will not cease committing fornication, becoming like a betrayer of its own soul. And Tartarus, being always in a gloomy and dark place, is not reached by a ray of light; so is everyone who serves sin in every passion of the flesh; like earth not filled with water, never able to come to confession and to the washing of regeneration; like water and fire, not saying “Enough.”

For just as a serpent cannot make a track on a rock, so neither could the devil find sin in Christ's body. For the Lord says: “Behold, the ruler of this world comes, and he will find nothing in me.”

For as a ship sailing through the sea leaves no tracks or ways behind, so neither does the church, living in the world as in a sea, leave its hope behind on the earth, having its life laid up in the heavens; and since it passes by for a short time, its passage cannot be traced.

Of the church, which does not leave its hope in the world, the hope that bears all things. [Of Christ's incarnation; for he did not leave behind a track of death in Hades.] [b] Of the same (that is, Hippolytus). Whose but his who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin, who, having renewed the perfect man in the world, performs mighty works, beginning from the baptism of John, as the evangelist too testifies: “And Jesus was beginning to be about thirty years old.” This, then, is the youthful and blooming time of the age of him who, passing through cities and countries, healed the diseases and infirmities of men.

The earthquake signifies the change of things on earth. Sin, then, being by nature a slave, has reigned in the mortal body of men. … Once at the flood; a second time with the Sodomites, who did not bear the fertility of the land but even violated strangers; a third time with hateful Egypt, which obtained Joseph as a man who measured out grain to all so that they might not perish by famine, yet did not bear its good fortune, but behaved insolently toward the sons of Israel. And a maidservant who casts out her own mistress: the church from the Gentiles, which, being a slave and a stranger to the promises, cast out the noble lady, the synagogue, and has become lady and bride of Christ.

Through Father and Son and Holy Spirit the whole earth is shaken, and the fourth it cannot bear. For he came first teaching through the law; second, through the prophets, proclaiming beforehand the things to come; third, through the gospel, showing himself openly; fourth, coming as judge of the living and the dead, whose glory the whole creation will not bear. So that the blessed Solomon might teach us the matter before us, he added, saying: “If a servant reigns, and a fool is filled with food, and if a maidservant casts out her own mistress, and if a hated woman obtains a good husband.”

Hippolytus. Who are the rock-badgers but we, who were once like swine, living in all the filth of the world; but now, having believed in Christ, we build our houses on the holy flesh of Christ as on a rock.

The one hardened in wickedness. And the apostle says: “Rebuke those who sin before all.” [The one turned aside for a little while.]

Altogether impossible to understand. Not altogether, he says, impossible to understand.

Hippolytus. He who hides the glory of God or that of the king with himself honors his command. The word “parable” has many meanings: a parable is a saying, a proof, and a reproach. And a parable is speech that compares intelligible things with sensible ones, and presents the things above the world and invisible from the things in the world and visible.

For he who knows the wisdom of God receives from him also instruction, learning thoroughly through it the mysteries of the Word; and those who have come to know the true and heavenly wisdom will easily understand the wise words spoken by it; and so he says, “to receive the turns of words.”

Being a wise instructor and considering the disposition of the young, the writer of proverbs, in forbidding murder, does not first set out the gains that seem to come from it, lest he should unwittingly encourage murder rather than turn them from it; but having first added many things that deter the hearer by the mere name, only late does he bring in the gains that accrue to such men from these deeds. Do not, then, lend your ear to the teachings of the ungodly; first consider into what fellowship they urge you, and of what works they invite you to become a worker. For they do not lead you on a profitable journey, nor to work befitting free men, but to the shedding of blood, and that of a righteous man, who gave no occasion, nor caused any grief, as they themselves admit.

“To love” (ἀγαπᾶν) is greater than “to be fond” (φιλεῖν). There is nothing crooked in them, nothing tangled or twisted and bent; all are straight, plain, having nothing sophistical or contrived. For the outside teaching has words, but it has no practice.

Hippolytus. … For since the divine things were unmixed, he mixed them with human voices, that is, with human wisdom, so that we might be able to receive them. [b] Hippolytus. … heart. For he who has not yet the mind of Christ, when he takes the beginning of virtue, turns aside from evil and does good. [c] A lie is by nature unstable. Whoever, then, uses it, leaving aside the natural word, the wisdom of God, which is truth, “shepherds the winds”; of whom Paul says: “tossed and carried about by every wind of teaching.” And this man “will also pursue flying birds,” which are akin to the birds that snatch the seeds sown along the road, which the Savior explained to be the evil one.

That nothing of equal weight is given by us to God for what has been given to us by him. “For no living man shall be justified before you,” says David, even if he be purer than the sun itself; so that we are saved through God's love for mankind.

Hippolytus. He who does not err in discernment, or who does not use an envious and covetous eye.

When the church has been multiplied, Christ has been glorified.

Honey is allegory, the honeycomb is history, which has hidden … And the throat is the nourishing power of the soul, through which food is passed into its belly.

Whose? Of him who has lived in the regeneration; or thus, of a man ever young in courage; or because, as we said, the young man does not have set ways; or otherwise, of the one reborn through baptism and having received forgiveness of sins.

And the fourth is unknowable because of the instability of his ways. This is the character of a youth, with which must be ranked also the ways of the adulteress. It is hard to detect, since no harm is seen openly on the body before the lawless act.

It dispels the heat, which greatly harms the grain, so that it often falls before its time, destroyed by the burning.

Approach nothing insatiably, especially the things of human life, but so enjoy them without harm.

That which is from the springs of salvation. For “to the soul” is not added in vain, but so that we may take this spiritually.

So, he says, good news, that about the resurrection and the promises, profits him who receives it.

… so that most say that the sender is treated as the one sent; he suffers insults from himself.

What is “Wisdom has built herself a house”? Christ, the wisdom of God … steered by hope through the cross. “And the ways of a man in youth”: of him who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin; for behold, it says, “a man whose name is the Dawn.” “Such is the way of an adulteress, who, when she has acted and washed, says she has done nothing wrong”: such is the conduct of the church that believes in Christ, which, after committing fornication with idols, renounced them and the devil, and having washed off its sins and received forgiveness, says it has done nothing wrong. “Through three the earth is shaken”: through Father and Son and Holy Spirit. “And the fourth it cannot bear”: the last appearing of the Savior. “If a servant reigns”: Israel, who became a slave in Egypt and reigned in the land of promise. “And a fool, filled with food”: having received the land ready-made, and having eaten and been filled, he kicked. “And if a maidservant casts out her own mistress”: the Lord-killing synagogue, having crucified the flesh of Christ outside the gate. “And if a hated woman obtains a good husband” … are built on Christ, who has become the head of the corner. “The lizard, leaning on its hands and easily caught, dwells in the strongholds of kings”: the thief, leaning with outstretched hands on the cross of Christ, dwells in paradise, the stronghold of the three Kings, Father and Son and Holy Spirit. “The locust has no king, and marches out at one command in good order”: the nations were without a king, for they were ruled by sin; but now, having believed in God, they serve in the heavenly warfare. “There are three things that go well, and a fourth that passes nobly”: angels in the heavens, saints on earth, souls of the righteous under the earth; and the fourth, God the Word incarnate, passed nobly through the Virgin's womb, making a refashioning of Adam; he passed through the world, becoming the herald of truth; he passed into Hades, wishing to release the souls of the bound from their chains; he passed through the gates of heaven, becoming for all the firstfruits of resurrection and ascension. “The lion's whelp, stronger than the beasts”: Christ, foretold by Jacob in Judah. “The cock walking boldly among the hens”: Paul, eagerly preaching the word of God in the churches. “The he-goat leading the flock”: he who was slain for the sins of the world. “And a king haranguing a nation”: Christ, reigning over the nations, proclaims the word of truth through prophets and apostles.

Interpretation. Hippolytus. When his desire was brought to its end, he rejoiced in the toils that had come about for its sake, and he found this as his portion and lot: enjoyment. And by “toil” he means not only his industry but also the labor for virtue. Thus those who toil rejoice in heart, being initiated not only through visions and revelations but also through angels of God into the things that are to happen to themselves and to those in the world.

From the discourse on the beginning of Isaiah. He likened the world to Egypt, idolatry to the things made with hands, its removal and dissolution to the earthquake, the Word to the Lord, and the purest tabernacle to the light cloud; enthroned in which our Lord Jesus, best of all, entered into this life to shake error.

Of the holy Hippolytus, bishop and martyr, from the discourse on the distribution of the talents. One might say that the heterodox too are neighbors to these, erring in a similar way. For they too either confess that Christ appeared in life as a mere man, denying the talent of his divinity; or, confessing him God, they reject the man in turn, teaching that he deceived the eyes of those who beheld him, as one who did not wear a man but rather became a kind of phantom appearance: such as Marcion and Valentinus and the Gnostics, who, tearing the Word away from the flesh, throw away the one talent, the incarnation.

From the discourse on the two thieves. The Lord's body provided both to the world, the sacred blood and the holy water.

From the same discourse. And though the body was dead in the human manner, it has great power of life in it. For what does not flow from dead bodies flowed from it, blood and water; so that we might know how great a power for life the power that dwelt in the body has, so that the body did not appear dead like the others, and could pour out for us the causes of life.

From the same discourse. And no bone of the holy lamb is broken, the type showing that the suffering did not reach the power; for the bones are the power of the body.

On Lazarus, four days dead. Beloved, just as a mother who loves her children, giving the breast to her infant, delights as the child draws the soft nourishment of the milk; but when the curd of the milk, thickened, blocks the channels of the breast, then the child cries and the mother is pained, having her will to nourish ready but seeing the food not given: so we too yesterday, offering you the breast of our mind, were delighted as you drew the milk of the word; but when the cloud of forgetfulness ran over our mind and cut off the word, then you were vexed, as being deprived of the meaning of the gospel teachings, and we were distressed, having our eagerness to speak stretched out but seeing our mind hindered by forgetfulness. But perhaps this happened to us so that we might know that it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, nor of him who pursues, but of God who shows mercy. Come, then, since God gives grace to those who speak, not for the worth of the speakers but for the need of the hearers, let us call upon him, and from the gospel readings just read to you let us draw, as far as we can, the drinkable stream of teaching. “A certain man was ill,” it says, “Lazarus of Bethany, of the village of Mary and Martha her sister. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, whose brother Lazarus was ill.” And Jesus said: “This illness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, so that God may be glorified through it.” I say by way of answer: if this illness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, it is not illness but good news; it is not illness but safety. O illness, physician of the sick, guide of faith, adversary of death, opponent of the devil, author of salvation! O illness, unbreakable foundation of virtue, teacher of faith, steward of godliness! O illness, driving off the fevers of souls, refreshing with the dews of baptism, and weaving bright robes for the soul! O illness, provider of heavenly bread, excellent torchbearer of faith, snare of the devil and seal of man! “When Jesus heard,” it says, “he stayed then two days in the place where he was.” But what need was there for the Lord, having heard, to stay on and not to go at once to the sick man? Surely he was waiting for the death of Lazarus, so that in the death he might show to the onlookers a faith greater than the miracles. After this, then, Jesus says to the disciples: “Lazarus our friend has fallen asleep, but I am going to wake him.” For truly the death of men is reckoned as sleep by the Lord. “I am going to wake him.” Why? Even being here, are you unable to bring the dead man to life? “But the Jews do not so receive the grace when I am absent; for perhaps, if he rose, they would think that Lazarus came back to life by some chance. So I myself am coming, so that, becoming eyewitnesses of the miracles done by me in my presence, and receiving the grace from me, they may be brought to firm faith.” … “Lazarus our friend has fallen asleep, but I am going to wake him.” And the disciples, hearing, said: “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” They answered not so much piously as medically: for sleep harms the lethargic, but rather (helps) by sweats. Since, then, the disciples thought that the Lord was speaking about the rest of sleep, he said plainly: “Lazarus our friend has died; and I rejoice for your sake, so that you may believe, that I was not there; but let us go to him.” He who does not will the death of the sinner, does he now rejoice at the death of a friend? “I rejoice, for I have used the death for the foundation of your faith.” O death, gladness of Christ! O death, full of life! O death, ransom from death, author of salvation, raising of the fallen, rest of the weary, strength of the sick, refreshment of the righteous! O death, dissolution of the devil, overthrow of demons, renewal of the first-formed Adam! O death, fellow worker of joy, herald of incorruption, leader of the dance of gladness! But to speak briefly: Jesus comes to Bethany, where the sisters of Lazarus met him; they fall at the Lord's knees weeping and saying: “Lord, if you had been here, our brother would not have died.” Was he not there, then? In the body he was not there, but in his divinity he was not only there but also in the heavens. For how did he know when Lazarus died, if he was not present by the invisible power of his divinity? And they said: “Lord, if you had been here, our brother would not have died.” And the Lord said to them: “Believe, and you will see the glory of God,” teaching that faith is the author of good works. And seeing them weeping, and the Jews who were present, he groaned in the spirit and troubled himself, and said: “Where have you laid him?” What is “he groaned in the spirit”? Wait, beloved, and in a little while you will find the solution of the question. He troubled himself, not as we are troubled by fear or grief, but he himself stirred himself, and says: “Where have you laid him?” Did he not know where he was buried, he who knew when he died? But he mingles human words with divine miracles, to show that he was also man, as the prophet too says: “He is a man, and who shall know him?” And he set this first to signify that he is also something else, that is, God.

“Where have you laid him?” And Mary says: “Come and see, Lord.” And Jesus wept. What need was there to weep for one whom he was about to raise shortly? But Jesus wept, to show us his sympathy and love for those of his own race; Jesus wept, to teach by deed rather than by word to weep with those who weep; Jesus wept; he wept but did not mourn, rejecting complete tearlessness as harsh and inhuman, and repelling the love of mourning as ignoble and unmanly; setting an order to sympathy, he wept. He comes to the cave and sees a stone lying on the tomb. He orders the Jews standing by to roll the stone away from the mouth of the cave. You who said, “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Be lifted up and cast into the sea, and it will be done for you,” how are you now unable to roll away the stone yourself? “Not as one unable do I do this,” he says, “but so that they may not think that what happens is an illusion, I command the Jews themselves to roll away the stone with their own hands, keeping the greatest sign for myself, so that they themselves may become witnesses of the signs done by me.” Then, after the stone was rolled away, Jesus looked up to heaven and said: “I thank you, Father, that you have heard me.” When did he pray? Now receive, beloved, the solution of the saying that you were seeking a little before: when he groaned in the spirit, then he prayed. And having said these things he cried with a loud voice, saying: “Lazarus, come out.” And at once the dead man came out, bound hand and foot with bandages. O power of a voice that burst Hades, shattered gates of bronze, crushed bars of iron, laid low the devil, abolished death, raised the dead! O power of a voice that gathered the scattered limbs into one and set them upright, and brought into being what was not! O power of a voice that raised the four days dead as from sleep, and led him out of the tomb, bound in bandages, as one easily loosed and swift of foot! Fix your mind, beloved, on the voice, and you will find that it is the same Word who said at the making of the world, “Let there be light,” and there was light; “Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven,” and there were; the same who now says, “Lazarus, come out.” And the fluids that had flowed from the flesh filled the sockets again, and the hairs that had fallen recognized their own order and were planted again in the limbs. “Lazarus, come out”: and the dead man rose, and on the fourth day was like one who had never died at all. … “Lazarus, come out”: and the soul was drawn up from the regions below, without the devil gainsaying or death wrestling against it, and rejoicing it recognized its own dwelling. Having beheld, beloved, the divine work of these miracles, do not doubt the resurrection. Let Lazarus be a mirror to you, and seeing yourself in him, believe in the raising. For the same voice will raise us all, as the apostle somewhere says: “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible,” by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Of Hippolytus, bishop of Rome, from the discourse On the Resurrection and Incorruption. “In the resurrection,” he says, “men will be like the angels of God”: in incorruption, clearly, and immortality and freedom from flux. For an incorruptible essence does not beget, is not begotten, does not grow, does not sleep, does not hunger, does not thirst, does not tire, does not suffer, does not die, is not pierced by nails and lance, does not sweat, does not bleed. Such are the essences of the angels and of the souls released from bodies, since both are of another kind and foreign to this visible and corruptible creation of the world.

All the works of our God and Savior are good, and very good: whatever the eye sees and the soul conceives, whatever speech interprets and the hand handles, whatever the mind comprehends and humanity grasps. For what beauty is more varied than the heavenly vault? What form more flowery than the earthly region? What swifter in its course than the chariot of the sun? What pair more graceful than the moon's element? What work more admirable than the many-starred choir of the heavens? What richer in yield than the seasonable winds? What mirror more spotless than the light of day? What creature more honorable than man? All the works of our God and Savior, then, are very good. And what gift is more necessary than the nature of water? For by waters all things are washed and nourished and cleansed and watered. Water bears the earth, water produces the dew, water gladdens the vine, water brings the ear of grain to maturity, water ripens the cluster, water softens the olive, water sweetens the date, water reddens the rose and makes the violet bloom, water nourishes the lily with its bright cups. And why speak at length? Without the nature of waters none of the things now present subsists. So necessary is the nature of waters that, while the other elements took their dwelling under the vaulted heavens, the nature of waters received an abode even above the heavens. And of this the prophet himself is witness, crying: “Praise the Lord, you heavens of heavens, and let the waters above the heavens praise the name of the Lord.” [2] And not only does this show the dignity of water, but also what is more venerable than all: that Christ, the maker of all, came down as rain, was known as a spring, was poured out as a river, and was baptized in the Jordan. For you heard just now how Jesus came to John in the Jordan and was baptized by him. O marvelous things! How the boundless river that gladdens the city of God was washed in a little water; the incomprehensible spring that sprouts life for all men and has no end was covered by poor and passing waters! He who is present everywhere and absent nowhere, who is incomprehensible to angels and invisible to men, comes to baptism as he himself was pleased to. When you hear these things, beloved, do not take what is said as of nature, but receive what is set before you as of the economy. And so the Lord, in the love for mankind of his condescension, did not escape the notice of the nature of the waters in what he did in secret. For the waters saw him and were afraid; they almost stood out of themselves and fled from their bounds. Hence the prophet, beholding this many ages before, asks, saying: “What ails you, O sea, that you fled? And you, Jordan, that you turned back?” And they answered and said: “We saw the Creator of all in the form of a servant, and not knowing the mystery of the economy we were driven by fear. [3] But now, having come to know the economy, we worship his compassion, because he has come to save the world and not to judge it.” Hence John, the forerunner of the Lord, who had not known this mystery, on learning that he is truly the Lord, cried out to those coming to be baptized by him: “Brood of vipers, why do you gaze at me so intently? I am not the Christ. I am a servant and not a master; I am a private man, not a king; I am a sheep, not a shepherd; I am a man, not God. By being born I loosed my mother's barrenness; I did not make virginity barren. I was brought up from below; I did not come down from above. I bound my father's tongue; I did not unfold divine grace. I was made known by my mother; I was not announced by a star. I am mean and least; but after me comes one who is before me: after, by time; before, by the unapproachable and ineffable light of the divinity. There comes one mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. I am under authority, but he has authority of himself; I am liable for sins, but he takes away sins; I bring in the law, but he brings the light of grace; I instruct as a slave, but he judges as master; I have the ground for my bed, he has heaven; I baptize with the baptism of repentance, he bestows the gift of adoption. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Why do you give heed to me? I am not the Christ.”

While John was saying these things to the crowd, and the people were expecting to behold some strange sight with their bodily eyes, and the devil was struck with amazement at so great a testimony of John, behold, the Lord arrives: plain, alone, unarrayed, unattended, having as his garment the human body and hiding the dignity of the divinity, so that he might escape the notice of the dragon's cunning. And not only did he come to John as Lord without the royal bodyguard, but also, as a plain man and liable for sins, he bowed his head to be baptized by John. Hence John, seeing such great humility, astonished at the thing, began to prevent him, saying, as you heard just now: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” What are you doing, Master? You teach things contrary to the rule. I proclaimed one thing, and you pursue another; the devil heard one thing, and perceives another. Baptize me with the fire of the divinity; why do you wait for water? Enlighten me with the Spirit; why do you attend to the creature? Baptize me, the baptizer, so that your pre-eminence may be known. I, Master, baptize with the baptism of repentance, and I cannot baptize those who come to me unless they confess their sins. Suppose I baptize you: what have you to confess? You are the remover of sins, and do you wish to be baptized with the baptism of repentance? Even if I dare to baptize, the Jordan does not dare to come near. “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” [5] What, then, does the Lord say to him? “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Let it be so now, John; you are not wiser than I. You see as a man; I, as God, foreknow. I must first do, and so teach. I undertake nothing unseemly, for I am clothed with seemliness. Do you wonder, John, that I did not come with my dignity? Royal purple does not befit a private man, but a soldier's garb befits a king. Have I come to a tyrant? Have I not come to a friend? Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. I am the fulfiller of the law; I wish to leave nothing lacking in its whole fulfillment, so that after me Paul may cry: “Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Baptize me, John, so that no one may despise baptism. I am baptized by you, the servant, so that none of the kings or of the eminent may disdain to be baptized by a poor priest. Let me go down into the Jordan, so that they may hear the Father's testimony and recognize the power of the Son. Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then at last John allows him. And Jesus, being baptized, went up at once from the water; and the heavens were opened to him, and behold, the Spirit of God descends in the form of a dove and remained upon him; and a voice from the heavens, saying: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Do you see, beloved, how many and how great blessings we would have lost if the Lord had yielded to John's entreaty and declined baptism? For before this the heavens were shut; the region above was inaccessible. We would go down to the things below, but we would not go up to the things above. But no sooner was the Master baptized than he renewed the old man and entrusted to him again the scepter of adoption. For at once “the heavens were opened to him.” A reconciliation took place of the visible with the invisible; the heavenly orders were made glad, the earthly diseases were healed, the secret things were made known, the hostile things were made friends. For you heard the evangelist saying, “The heavens were opened to him,” for the sake of three marvels. For when Christ the bridegroom was baptized, the heavenly bridal chamber had to open its shining gates; likewise, when the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove and the Father's voice spread everywhere, the heavenly gates had to be lifted up. … “And behold, the heavens were opened to him, and a voice came saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” [7] The beloved begets love, and the immaterial light the unapproachable light. “This is my beloved Son,” who appeared below and was not separated from the Father's bosom. He appeared; he did not merely seem. … For this reason the Father sent down the Holy Spirit from heaven upon the one being baptized. For as in Noah's ark God's love for mankind was signified by a dove, so now too the Spirit, descending in the form of a dove, bearing as it were the fruit of the olive, rested on the one to whom witness was borne. Why? So that the certainty of the Father's voice might be made known, and the prophetic prediction of many ages might be confirmed. Which is this? “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thundered; the Lord is upon many waters.” What voice? “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This is he who is called the son of Joseph, and is my only-begotten according to the divine essence. “This is my beloved Son”: who hungers, and feeds myriads; who toils, and gives rest to those who toil; who has nowhere to lay his head, and holds all things in his hand; who suffers, and heals sufferings; who is struck, and bestows freedom on the world; who is pierced in the side, and sets right the side of Adam. [8] But give me your attention, I beg you, with care; for I wish to run back to the fountain of life and behold the fountain gushing with healings. The Father of immortality sent the immortal Son and Word into the world, who came to man to wash him with water and Spirit; and having regenerated him to incorruption of soul and body, he breathed into us the breath of life, clothing us in incorruptible armor. If, then, man has become immortal, he will also be god. And if he becomes god through water and the Holy Spirit after the regeneration of the font, he is found also to be a co-heir with Christ after the resurrection from the dead. Therefore I proclaim, saying: Come, all you families of the nations, to the immortality of baptism. I bring good news of life to you who dwell in the darkness of ignorance. Come into freedom from slavery, into a kingdom from tyranny, into incorruption from corruption. “And how,” he says, “shall we come?” How? Through water and the Holy Spirit. This is the water that has fellowship with the Spirit, by which paradise is watered, by which the earth is enriched, by which plants grow, by which living things bear young, and, to sum up all, by which man, being regenerated, is endowed with life; in which also Christ was baptized, in which also the Spirit came down in the form of a dove.

This is the Spirit who from the beginning was borne upon the waters; through whom the world is moved, through whom creation stands and all things are given life; who worked in the prophets, who flew down upon Christ. This is the Spirit given to the apostles in the form of fiery tongues. This Spirit David sought, saying: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Of this Spirit Gabriel too spoke to the Virgin: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Through this Spirit Peter uttered that blessed word: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Through this Spirit the rock of the church was established. This is the Spirit, the Paraclete, who is sent for your sake, to show you to be a child of God.

Come, then, be born again, O man, into adoption as God's son. “And how?” he says. If you no longer commit adultery, nor murder, nor idolatry; if you are not mastered by pleasure; if the passion of pride does not rule you; if you scrape off the filth of uncleanness and cast off the burden of sin; if you strip off the armor of the devil and put on the breastplate of faith; as Isaiah says: “Wash, and become clean; remove the wickedness from your hearts; learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the wronged; judge for the orphan and vindicate the widow. And come, let us reason together, says the Lord. And if your sins are as scarlet, I will make them white as snow; and if they are as crimson, I will make them white as wool. And if you are willing and listen to my voice, you shall eat the good things of the land.” Do you see, beloved, how the prophet foretold the cleansing of baptism? For he who goes down in faith into the washing of regeneration renounces the evil one and joins himself to Christ; he denies the enemy and confesses that Christ is God; he puts off slavery and puts on adoption; he comes up from baptism bright as the sun, flashing out the rays of righteousness; and, greatest of all, he comes up a son of God and a co-heir with Christ. To him be the glory and the power, with his all-holy and good and life-giving Spirit, now and always and to all the ages of ages. Amen.

Or, if you wish: it was the firstborn Word of God, coming down from heaven upon the blessed Mary, and a firstborn man being formed in the womb, so that the firstborn Word of God might be shown joined to a firstborn man.

… they brought him up to the temple to present him to the Lord, performing the offerings of purification. For if the purificatory gifts were offered for him according to the law, in this way too he came under the law. Yet neither was the Word subject to the law, as the slanderers suppose, being himself the law; nor did God need sacrifices of purification, cleansing and sanctifying all things in a single instant. But though he took up and wore the human instrument from the Virgin and came under the law, being purified according to the dignities of the firstborn, he did not undergo these rites because he himself needed their provision, but so that he might redeem from the slavery of the law those sold to the justice of the curse. [b] Of Hippolytus, bishop of Rome, martyr. Therefore “the gatekeepers of Hades, seeing you, cowered, and the gates of bronze were shattered and the bars of iron broken”; and behold, the only-begotten entered as a soul among souls, God the Word with a soul. For the body lay in the tomb, not emptied of the divinity; but as, being in Hades, he was in essence with the Father, so he was both in the body and in Hades. For the Son, like the Father, cannot be contained, and contains all things; but willingly he was contained in a body with a soul, so that with his own soul he might go to Hades, and not with naked divinity. [c] And again the same (that is, Hippolytus) in the first book of his treatise On the Holy Pascha has said thus: It is plain that neither at the first nor at the last did he lie; for he who long ago foretold, “I will no longer eat the Passover,” fittingly ate the supper before the Passover, but did not eat the Passover, but suffered it; for it was not the time for eating it. … [d] … to drink the cup, so as to show that he was truly also man; but remembering also why he was sent, he fulfills the economy for which he was sent, and cries: “Father, not my will”; “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”