[5730] Gal. vi. 14.
28. The Exchange for One's Life.
But the saying, "What shall a man give in exchange for his own life," [5731] if spoken by way of interrogation, will seem to be able to indicate that an exchange for his own life is given by the man who after his sins has given up his whole substance, that his property may feed the poor, as if he were going by that to obtain salvation; but, if spoken affirmatively, I think, to indicate that there is not anything in man by the giving of which in exchange for his own life which has been overcome by death, he will ransom it out of its hand. A man, therefore, could not give anything as an exchange for his own life, but God gave an exchange for the life of us all, "the precious blood of Christ Jesus," [5732] according as "we were bought with a price," [5733] "having been redeemed, not with corruptible things as silver or gold, but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot," even of Christ. [5734] And in Isaiah it is said to Israel, "I gave Ethiopia in exchange for thee, and Egypt and Syene for thee; from what time thou hast become honourable before Me thou wast glorified." [5735] For the exchange, for example, of the first-born of Israel was the first-born of the Egyptians, and the exchange for Israel was the Egyptians who died in the last plagues that came upon Egypt, and in the drowning which took place after the plagues. But, from these things, let him who is able inquire whether the exchange of the true Israel given by God, "who redeems Israel from all his transgressions," [5736] is the true Ethiopia, and, so to speak, spiritual Egypt, and Syene of Egypt; and to inquire with more boldness, perhaps Syene is the exchange for Jerusalem, and Egypt for Judæa, and Ethiopia for those who fear, who are different from Israel, and the house of Levi, and the house of Aaron.
[5731] Matt. xvi. 26.
[5732] 1 Pet. i. 19.
[5733] 1 Cor. vi. 20.
[5734] 1 Pet. i. 18, 19.
[5735] Isa. xliii. 3, 4.
[5736] Ps. cxxx. 8.
29. The Coming of the Son of Man in Glory.
"For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His own Father with His angels." [5737] Now, indeed, the Son of man has not come in His glory; "for we saw Him, and He had no form nor beauty; but His form was dishonoured and defective compared with the sons of men; He was a man in affliction and toil, and acquainted with the enduring of sickness, because His face was turned away, He was dishonoured and not esteemed." [5738] And it was necessary that He should come in such form that He might bear our sins [5739] and suffer pain for us; for it did not become Him in glory to bear our sins and suffer pain for us. But He also comes in glory, having prepared [5740] the disciples through that epiphany of His which has no form nor beauty; and, having become as they that they might become as He, "conformed to the image of His glory," [5741] since He formerly became conformed to "the body of our humiliation," [5742] when He "emptied Himself and took upon Him the form of a servant," [5743] He is restored to the image of God and also makes them conformed unto it.
[5737] Matt. xvi. 27.
[5738] Isa. liii. 2, 3.
[5739] Isa. liii. 4.
[5740] Reading proeutrepisos as the Vetus Inter.
[5741] Rom. viii. 29.
[5742] Phil. iii. 21.
[5743] Phil. ii. 7.
30. The Word Appears in Different Forms; The Time of His Coming in Glory.
But if you will understand the differences of the Word which by "the foolishness of preaching" [5744] is proclaimed to those who believe, and spoken in wisdom to them that are perfect, you will see in what way the Word has the form of a slave to those who are learning the rudiments, so that they say, "We saw Him and He had no form or beauty." [5745] But to the perfect He comes "in the glory of His own Father," [5746] who might say, "and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." [5747] For indeed to the perfect appears the glory of the Word, and the only-begotten of God His Father, and the fulness of grace and likewise of truth, which that man cannot perceive who requires the "foolishness of the preaching," in order to believe. But "the Son of man shall come in the glory of His own Father" not alone, but "with His own angels." And if you can conceive of all those who are fellow-helpers in the glory of the Word, and in the revelation of the Wisdom which is Christ, coming along with Him, you will see in what way the Son of man comes in the glory of His own Father with His own angels. And consider whether you can in this connection say that the prophets who formerly suffered in virtue of their word having "no form or beauty" had an analogous position to the Word who had "no form or beauty." And, as the Son of man comes in the glory of His own Father, so the angels, who are the words in the prophets, are present with Him preserving the measure of their own glory. But when the Word comes in such form with His own angels, He will give to each a part of His own glory and of the brightness of His own angels, according to the action of each. But we say these things not rejecting even the second coming of the Son of God understood in its simpler form. But when shall these things happen? Shall it be when that apostolic oracle is fulfilled which says, "For we must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether it be good or bad?" [5748] But if He will render to each according to his deed, not the good deed only, nor the evil apart from the good, it is manifest that He will render to each according to every evil, and according to every good, deed. But I suppose--in this also following the Apostle, but comparing also the sayings of Ezekiel, in which the sins of him who is a perfect convert are wiped out, and the former uprightness of him who has utterly fallen away is not held of account--that in the case of him who is perfected, and has altogether laid aside wickedness, the sins are wiped out, but that, in the case of him who has altogether revolted from piety, if anything good was formerly done by him, it is not taken into account. [5749] But to us, who occupy a middle position between the perfect man and the apostate, when we stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, [5750] there is rendered what we have done, whether good or bad; for we have not been so pure that our evil deeds are not at all imputed unto us, nor have we fallen away to such an extent that our better actions are forgotten.
[5744] 1 Cor. i. 21.
[5745] Isa. liii. 2.
[5746] Matt. xvi. 27.
[5747] John i. 14.
[5748] 2 Cor. v. 10.
[5749] Ezek. xviii. 21-24.
[5750] 2 Cor. v. 10.
31. The Simpler Interpretation of the Promise About Not Tasting of Death.
"Verily I say unto you there be some of them that stand here that shall not taste of death." [5751] Some refer these things to the going up--six days after, or, as Luke says, [5752] eight days--of the three disciples into the high mountain with Jesus apart; and those who adopt this interpretation say that Peter and the remaining two did not taste of death before they saw the Son of man coming in His own kingdom and in His own glory. For when they saw Jesus transfigured before them so that "His face shone," etc., "they saw the kingdom of God coming with power." [5753] For even as some spear-bearers stand around a king, so Moses and Elijah appeared to those who had gone up into the mountains, talking with Jesus. But it is worth while considering whether the sitting on the right hand and on the left hand of the Saviour in His kingdom refers to them, so that the words, "But for whom it is prepared," were [5754] spoken because of them. Now this interpretation about the three Apostles not tasting of death until they have seen Jesus transfigured, is adapted to those who are designated by Peter as "new-born babes longing for the reasonable milk which is without guile," [5755] to whom Paul says, "I have fed you with milk, not with meat," [5756] etc. Now, too, every interpretation of a text which is able to build up those who cannot receive greater truths might reasonably be called milk, flowing from the holy ground of the Scriptures, which flows with milk and honey. But he who has been weaned, like Isaac, [5757] worthy of the good cheer and reception which Abraham gave at the weaning of his son, would seek here and in every Scripture food which is different, I think, from that which is meat, indeed, but is not solid food, and from what are figuratively called herbs, which are food to one who has been weaned and is not yet strong but weak, according to the saying, "He that is weak eateth herbs." [5758] In like manner also he who has been weaned, like Samuel, and dedicated by his mother to God, [5759] --she was Hannah, which is, by interpretation, grace,--would be also a son of grace, seeking, like one nurtured in the temple, flesh of God, the holy food of those who are at once perfect and priests.
[5751] Matt. xvi. 28.
[5752] Luke ix. 28.
[5753] Mark ix. 1.
[5754] Matt. xx. 23.
[5755] 1 Pet. ii. 2.
[5756] 1 Cor. iii. 2.
[5757] Gen. xxi. 8.
[5758] Rom. xiv. 2.
[5759] 1 Sam. i. 23, 24.
32. Standing by the Saviour.
The reflections in regard to the passage before us that occur to us at the present time are these: Some were standing where Jesus was, having the footsteps of the soul firmly planted with Jesus, and the standing of their feet was akin to the standing of which Moses said in the passage, "And I stood on the mountain forty days and forty nights," [5760] who was deemed worthy to have it said to him by God who asked him to stand by Him, "But stand thou here with Me." [5761] Those who really stand by Jesus--that is, by the Word of God--do not all stand equally; for among those who stand by Jesus are differences from each other. Wherefore, not all who stand by the Saviour, but some of them as standing better, do not taste of death until they shall have seen the Word who dwelt with men, and on that account called Son of man, coming in His own kingdom; for Jesus does not always come in His own kingdom when He comes, since to the newly initiated He is such that they might say, beholding the Word Himself not glorious nor great, but inferior to many among them, "We saw Him, and He had no form or beauty, but His form was dishonoured, defective compared with all the sons of men." [5762] And these things will be said by those who beheld His glory in connection with their own former times, when at first the Word as understood in the synagogue had no form nor beauty to them. To the Word, therefore, who has assumed most manifestly the power above all words, there belongs a royal dignity which is visible to some of those who stand by Jesus, when they have been able to follow Him as He goes before them and ascends to the lofty mountain of His own manifestation. And of this honour some of those who stand by Jesus are deemed worthy if they be either a Peter against whom the gates of Hades do not prevail, or the sons of thunder, [5763] and are begotten of the mighty voice of God who thunders and cries aloud from heaven great things to those who have ears and are wise. Such at least do not taste death.
[5760] Deut. x. 10.
[5761] Deut. v. 31.
[5762] Isa. liii. 2, 3.
[5763] Mark iii. 17.
33. Interpretation of "Tasting of Death."
But we must seek to understand what is meant by "tasting of death." And He is life who says, "I am the life," [5764] and this life assuredly has been hidden with Christ in God; and. "when Christ our life shall be manifested, then along with Him" [5765] shall be manifested those who are worthy of being manifested with Him in glory. But the enemy of this life, who is also the last enemy of all His enemies that shall be destroyed, is death, [5766] of which the soul that sinneth dies, having the opposite disposition to that which takes place in the soul that lives uprightly, and in consequence of living uprightly lives. And when it is said in the law, "I have placed life before thy face," [5767] the Scripture says this about Him who said, "I am the Life," and about His enemy, death; the one or other of which each of us by his deeds is always choosing. And when we sin with life before our face, the curse is fulfilled against us which says, "And thy life shall be hanging up before thee," etc., down to the words, "and for the sights of thine eyes which thou shalt see." [5768] As, therefore, the Life is also the living bread which came down from heaven and gave life to the world, [5769] so His enemy death is dead bread. Now every rational soul is fed either on living bread or dead bread, by the opinions good or bad which it receives. As then in the case of more common foods it is the practice at one time only to taste them, and at another to eat of them more largely; so also, in the case of these loaves, one eats insufficiently only tasting them, but another is satiated,--he that is good or is on the way to being good with the living bread which came down from heaven, but he that is wicked with the dead bread, which is death; and some perhaps sparingly, and sinning a little, only taste of death; but those who have attained to virtue do not even taste of it, but are always fed on the living bread. It naturally followed then in the case of Peter, against whom the gates of Hades will not prevail, that he did not taste of death, since any one tastes of death and eats death at the time when the gates of Hades prevail against him; and one eats or tastes of death in proportion as the gates of Hades to a greater or less extent, more or fewer in number, prevail against him. But also for the sons of thunder who were begotten of thunder, which is a heavenly thing, it was impossible to taste of death, which is extremely far removed from thunder, their mother. But these things the Word prophesies to those who shall be perfected, and who by standing with the Word advanced so far that they did not taste of death, until they saw the manifestation and the glory and the kingdom and the excellency of the Word of God in virtue of which He excels every word, which by an appearance of truth draws away and drags about those who are not able to break through the bonds of distraction, and go up to the height of the excellency of the Word of truth.