Now if thou still questionest that Christ is God, stand away from the Church: be not here, even as a hearer of the Divine Word, and as one of the catechumens: [27] but if thou art sure of this, and knowest clearly this truth, why delay? Why shrink back and hesitate? For fear, say you, lest I should sin. But dost thou not fear what is worse, to depart for the next world with such a heavy burden? For it is not equally excusable, not to have gotten a grace set before you, and to have failed in attempting to live uprightly. If thou be called to account, Why didst thou not come for it? what wilt thou answer? In the other case thou mayest allege the burden of thy passions, and the difficulty of a virtuous life: but nothing of the kind here. For here is grace, freely conveying liberty. But thou fearest lest thou shouldest sin? Let this be thy language after Baptism: and then entertain this fear, in order to hold fast the liberty thou hast received; not now, to prevent thy receiving such a gift. Whereas now thou art wary before baptism, and negligent after it. But thou art waiting for Lent: and why? Has that season any advantage? Nay, it was not at the Passover that the Apostles received [28] the grace, but at another season; and then three thousand (Luke says,) and five thousand were baptized: (ch. ii. 41; iv. 4, and ch. x.) and again Cornelius. Let us then not wait for a set time, lest by hesitating and putting off we depart empty, and destitute of so great gifts. What do you suppose is my anguish when I hear that any person has been taken away unbaptized, while I reflect upon the intolerable punishments of that life, the inexorable doom! Again, how I am grieved to behold others drawing near to their last gasp, and not brought to their right mind even then. Hence too it is that scenes take place quite unworthy of this gift. For whereas there ought to be joy, and dancing, and exultation, and wearing of garlands, when another is christened; the wife of the sick man has no sooner heard that the physician has ordered this, than she is overcome with grief, as if it were some dire calamity; she sets up the greatest lamentation, and nothing is heard all over the house but crying and wailing, just as it is when condemned criminals are led away to their doom. The sick man again is then more sorely grieved; and if he recovers from his illness, is as vexed as if some great harm had been done to him. For since he had not been prepared for a virtuous life, he has no heart for the conflicts which are to follow, and shrinks at the thought of them. Do you see what devices the devil contrives, what shame, what ridicule? Let us rid ourselves of this disgrace; let us live as Christ has enjoined. He gave us Baptism, not that we should receive and depart, but that we should show the fruits of it in our after life. How can one say to him who is departing and broken down, Bear fruit? Hast thou not heard that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace?" (Gal. v. 22.) How comes it then that the very contrary takes place here? For the wife stands there mourning, when she ought to rejoice; the children weeping, when they ought to be glad together; the sick man himself lies there in darkness, and surrounded by noise and tumult, when he ought to be keeping high festival; full of exceeding despondency at the thought of leaving his children orphans, his wife a widow, his house desolate. Is this a state in which to draw near unto mysteries? answer me; is this a state in which to approach the sacred table? [29] Are such scenes to be tolerated? Should the Emperor send letters and release the prisoners in the jails, there is joy and gladness: God sends down the Holy Ghost from Heaven to remit not arrears of money, but a whole mass of sins, and do ye all bewail and lament? Why, how grossly unsuitable is this! Not to mention that sometimes it is upon the dead that the water has been poured, and holy mysteries flung upon the ground. However, not we are to blame for this, but men who are so perverse. I exhort you then to leave all, and turn and draw near to Baptism with all alacrity, that having given proof of great earnestness at this present time, we may obtain confidence for that which is to come; whereunto that we may attain, may it be granted unto us all by the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
[3] St. Chrys. had made the same complaint at Antioch in the Homilies (a.d. 387) in Principium Actorum, etc. t. iii. p. 54. "We are about to set before you a strange and new dish....strange, I say, and not strange. Not strange; for it belongs to the order of Holy Scripture: and yet strange; because peradventure your ears are not accustomed to such a subject. Certainly, there are many to whom this Book is not even known (pollois goun to biblion touto oude gnorimon esti) and many again think it so plain, that they slight it: thus to some men their knowledge, to some their ignorance, is the cause of their neglect......We are to enquire then who wrote it, and when, and on what subject: and why it is ordered (nenomothetetai) to be read at this festival. For peradventure you do not hear this Book read [at other times] from year's end to year's end."
[4] The two reasons which Chrysostom urges for the study of the Acts are also the two chief grounds upon which modern criticism depends for establishing not only the general trust-worthiness of the book, but also its authorship by Luke. They are in substance, (1) The continuity of the history as connected with the gospels and, particularly, coincidences of style, matter and diction with the third gospel, and (2) The remarkable undesigned coincidences of statement between the Acts and Pauline Epistles which exclude the possibility of inter-dependence. From Col. i. 11, 14; Philem. 24; 2 Tim. iv. 11, we learn that Luke was a close companion of Paul. In the part of the Book of Acts which treats especially of the work of Paul, the writer frequently refers to himself in the use of the first person plural as an associate of the apostle (vid. xvi. 10; xx. 6 sq.; xxi. 1 sq.; xxvii. 1). These considerations demonstrate the fitness of Luke to prepare such a treatise as the Acts and render the supposition of his authorship plausible. When they are combined with those mentioned under (1) and when the dedication of both books to a certain Theophilus is considered, the argument becomes very cogent and complete.--G.B.S.
[5] The reference in the Text of the expression: "the Gospel which ye received," (1 Cor. xv. 1) to Luke's "gospel" is, of course, groundless. Paul speaks of it as the gospel which he preached unto them. It is "his gospel" as in Rom. ii. 16; xvi. 25; Gal. i. 11, etc. The use of euangelion to denote a book is post-apostolic.--G.B.S.
[6] Hom. in Princip. Act. p. 54. "First we must see who wrote the Book....whether a man, or God: and if man, let us reject it; for, Call no man master upon earth:' but if God, let us receive it."
[7] Hom. cur in Pentec. Acta legantur, t. iii. p. 89. E. "The demonstration of the Resurrection is, the Apostolic miracles: and of the Apostolic miracles this Book is the school."
[8] The statement that the Acts is a "Demonstration of the Resurrection" has a certain profound truth, but is incorrect if intending to assert that such was the conscious purpose of the author. The resurrection of Jesus is a prominent theme in the Apostolic discourses but the book is no more designed primarily to prove the resurrection than are the Epistles to the Romans and Corinthians. The immediate purpose of the book is to record the labors and triumphs of the Apostolic Church as supplementary to the narrative of the teaching and work of Jesus (i. 1, 2). The events narrated presuppose the resurrection and would have been impossible without it.--G.B.S.
[9] Chrys. states too confidently that "the brother" whose praise is referred to in 2 Cor. viii. 18, is Luke. It cannot be determined who this "brother" was. See Meyer in loco. Other conjectures are: Barnabas, Mark, Erastus, and an actual brother of Titus.--G.B.S.
[10] Ms. C. has oiktirmonas, merciful; the rest, aktemonas, without possessions, which is certainly the true reading. Thus in the Sermon de futuræ Vitæ deliciis, where Chrys. discourses largely on the harmony of Christ's teaching and actions, he says, Palin aktemosunen paideuon, hora pos dia ton ergon auten epideiknutai, legon, Hai alopekes, k. t. l.
[11] "He taught them to be poor." Here we have a tinge of asceticism. Even if we suppose that the beatitude of the poor refers to literal poverty (Luke vi. 20) as well as to poverty in spirit (Matt. v. 3), it is still incorrect to say that Jesus taught his disciples that poverty was in itself a virtue. The ascetic principle is of heathen, not of Christian origin. It is noticeable that Chrys. quotes no passage to sustain his statement.--G.B.S.
[12] The latter is doubtless the correct interpretation. (So Meyer, Hackett). Cf. Matt. xii. 28; John iii. 34; Luke iv. 1.--G.B.S.
[13] i.e. as OEcumenius explains in l. ina me tis nomise eterou ounamei touto genesthai, lest any should suppose this to have been done by the power of another, he adds, to show that it was His own act, To whom also, etc.
[14] It is more than doubtful whether the mention of the resurrection is introduced (i. 3 sq.) for the purpose of meeting sceptical objections. The writer will rather make it the point of departure for his subsequent narrative. He has mentioned the ascension; the resurrection is the other great event and he will introduce a resumé of the more important circumstances which happened during the period between these two events and which have an important bearing upon the history about to be related.--G.B.S.
[15] Chrys. seems to overlook the appearance "to above five hundred brethren at once," 1 Cor. xv. 6.--G.B.S.
[16] Peripeirousi, ms. C. and Cat. (see 1 Tim. vi. 9, pierced themselves through with many sorrows), and in this sense Hom. in Matt. 455 B. 463 A. The word is used as here, ibid. 831 C. where several mss. have pantachou he plane heauten peripeirei, for heaute peripiptei.
[17] Sunalizomenos. In the margin of E.V. "Eating together with them." The Catena here and below, had pr. man. the other reading, sunaulizomenos, but corrected in both places. St. Chrys. so takes the word, Hom. in Princip. Act. §11.767 E. in Joann. 522 D. OEcumen. in 1. explains it, toutesti koinonon halon, koinonon trapezes, "Partaking of the salt, partaking of the table."
[18] Chrys. here follows the interpretation which derives sunalizomenos (i. 4) from sun and hals (salt) hence, eating together. So several ancient authorities as Vulgate (convesceus) and even modern, as Meyer. But the preferable derivation is from sun and hales (crowded), hence to be assembled, to meet with (sc. autois). So Olshausen, Hackett, Lechler, Thayer's Lex. and most modern authorities.--G.B.S.
[19] So mss. C. F. D. and the Catena. The others have monou autou, "of him (John) alone," not of his testimony.
[20] 'Ean gar me oikeiothomen pros to didomenon. Erasm. Nisi rei datæ addicti fuerimus.
[21] Hoi ten halourgida baptontes....hina me exitelon genetai to anthos. Comp. Plat. Republ. iv. vol. i. p. 289. Stallb. Oukoun oistha, en d' ego, hoti hoi bapheis, epeidan boulethosi bapsai eria host' einai halourga, proton men eklegontai ek tosouton chromaton mian phusin ten ton leukon, epeita proparaskeuazousi ouk olige para skeu& 219; therapeusantes hopos dexetai hoti malista to anthos, kai houto de baptousi.
[22] The question, fully expressed, is, Why do we baptize, not at Pentecost, but on Easter Eve?' And the answer is, Because the lenten fast forms a meet preparation for the reception of baptism. And moreover, there is a reason which weighed with our fathers, in respect of this season of the fifty days, the time of the Church's great festivity. The baptism newly received would restrain the neophytes from giving loose to carnal lusts; having prepared them to keep the feast with a holy and awful gladness.' It should be borne in mind, that these Homilies were commenced during the Pentekoste, i.e. the period of fifty days between Easter and Pentecost; at which season the Book of Acts was usually read in the Churches.
[23] This view, that baptism cleansed from all sin, and that, therefore, sin after baptism was far more heinous and hard to be forgiven, held wide sway in the early church and operated as a powerful motive for the delay of baptism. The reception of the grace of baptism involves this increased liability to deadlier sin. For this reason Tertullian had urged its postponement. "And so according to the circumstances and disposition, and even age, of each individual, the delay of baptism is preferable; principally, however, in the case of little children." "If any understand the weighty import of baptism, they will fear its reception more than its delay," etc. De Baptismo, xviii. Chrys. did not carry the idea to this length.--G.B.S.