Speak, ye women, that are present,--for this generally is a failing of women, [305] --relate to them that are absent this similitude which I have made; startle them. If any think to grieve me and thus to have their revenge, let them be well aware that they do these things in vain. For if thou wishest to revenge thyself on me, I will give thee a method by which thou mayest take vengeance without injury to thyself; or rather without injury it is not possible to revenge thyself, but at all events with less injury. Buffet me, woman, spit upon me, when thou meetest me in the public way, and aim blows at me. Dost thou shudder at hearing this? When I bid thee buffet me, dost thou shudder, and dost thou tear thy Lord and Master and not shudder? Dost thou pluck asunder the limbs of thy Lord and Master, and not tremble? The Church is our Father's house. "There is one body, and one Spirit." But dost thou wish to revenge thyself on me? Yet stop at me. Why dost thou revenge thyself on Christ in my stead? nay, rather, why kick against the nails? In no case indeed is revenge good and right, but to assault one when another has done the wrong is far worse. Is it I that wronged you? Why then inflict pain on Him who hath not wronged you? This is the very extreme of madness. I speak not in irony what I am about to say, nor without purpose, but as I really think and as I feel. I would that every one of those who with you are exasperated against me, and who by this exasperation are injuring themselves, and departing elsewhere, would direct his blows at me in my very face, would strip me and scourge me, be his charge against me just or unjust, and let loose his wrath upon me, rather than that they should dare to commit what they now dare. If this were done, it were nothing; nothing, that a man who is a mere nothing and of no account whatever, should be so treated. And besides, I, the wronged and injured person, might call upon God, and He might forgive you your sins. Not because I have so great confidence; but because when he who has been wronged, entreats for him who has done the wrong, he gains great confidence. "If one man sin against another," it is said, "then shall they pray for him" [306] (1 Sam. ii. 25.); and if I were unable, I might seek for other holy men, and entreat them, and they might do it. But now whom shall we even entreat, when God is outraged by us?
Mark the consistency; for of those who belong to this Church, some never approach to communicate at all, or but once in the year, and then without purpose, and just as it may happen; others more regularly indeed, yet they too carelessly and without purpose, and while engaged in conversation, and trifling about nothing: whilst those who, forsooth, seem to be in earnest, these are the very persons who work this mischief. Yet surely, if it is for these things ye are in earnest, it were better that ye also were in the ranks of the indifferent; or rather it were better still, that neither they should be indifferent, nor you such as ye are. I speak not of you that are present, but of those who are deserting from us. The act is adultery. And if ye bear not to hear these things of them, neither should ye of us. There must be breach of the law either on the one side or the other. If then thou hast these suspicions concerning me, I am ready to retire from my office, and resign it to whomsoever ye may choose. Only let the Church be one. But if I have been lawfully made and consecrated, entreat those who have contrary to the law mounted the episcopal throne to resign it.
These things I have said, not as dictating to you, but only to secure and protect you. Since every one of you is come to age, and will have to give account of the things which he has done, I entreat you not to cast the whole matter on us, and consider yourselves to be irresponsible, that ye may not go on fruitlessly deceiving yourselves, and at last bewail it. An account indeed we shall have to give of your souls; but it will be when we have been wanting on our part, when we fail to exhort, when we fail to admonish, when we fail to protest. But after these words, allow even me to say that "I am pure from the blood of all men" (Acts xx. 26.); and that "God will deliver my soul." (Ezek. iii. 19, 21.) Say what ye will, give a just cause why ye depart, and I will answer you. But no, ye will not state it. Wherefore I entreat you, endeavor henceforward both to resist nobly and to bring back those who have seceded, that we may with one accord lift up thanksgiving to God; for to Him belongs the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
[283] ["The hen soma means the totality of Christians as the corpus (Christi) mysticum; comp. Eph. ii. 16; Rom. xii. 5; 1 Cor. x. 17. The hen pneuma is the Holy Spirit, the spirit of the corpus mysticum; comp. Eph. ii. 18; 1 Cor. xii. 13. The explanation, one body and one soul,' is excluded, as at variance with the context by the specifically Christian character of the other elements, and rendered impossible by the correct supplying of esti (and not ye ought to be')."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[284] [Note the triad of trinities:-- - one body. 1. The Church: - one spirit. - one hope. - one Lord. 2. Christ: - one faith. - one baptism. - over all. 3. God: - through all. - in all. --Meyer, substantially.--G.A.]
[285] ["But (de) forms the transition from the summary all,' all,' all' to each individual' among the Christians."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[286] ["He quotes Ps. lxviii. 18, with the freedom of a Messianic interpretation of the words, and his exposition of the Hebrew words yielded essentially the sense expressed by him. So he took tchql in the sense: Thou didst take away gifts to distribute them among men,' and then translated this in an explanatory way, edoke, &c."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[287] [This view of Chrysostom is quite at variance with the context. Ellicott says: To evince still more clearly the correctness of the Messianic application of the words just cited, St. Paul urges the antithesis implied by anebe, namely, katebe, a predication applicable to Christ only, the tacit assumption being that He who is the subject of the citation is one whose seat was heaven. Compare John iii. 13.--G.A.]
[288] Paul was Bishop of Antioch A.D. 260-269, when he was deposed for heresy. Very different accounts are given of his particular doctrines: St. Athanasius may be securely followed, however, who says that he denied the doctrine of our Lord's preëxistence, asserted that He was a mere man, and that the Word of God was in Him. vid. Orat. i. 25, 38; ii. 13; iii. 51. De decret. 24, &c., &c. [See Schaff's History of Christian Ch., Vol. II., pp. 575, 576.--G.A.]
[289] [Both here and in Hom. xliv. on Acts (xx. 28) Chrysostom reads kuriou instead of theou. The latter is, however, the reading of ' B., and is adopted by W. & H. and the Rev. Ver. (as well as the textus receptus).--G.A.]
[290] ["The Apostles had an immediate call from Christ, a destination for all lands and a special power of miracles. Prophets: not only in the special sense, but also those who spoke under the immediate impulse of the Holy Spirit; Evangelists were subordinates of the Apostles who traveled about. Pastors and teachers, constituting one and the same class, were stationary, and probably included presbyters.--Ellicott.--G.A.]
[291] [The proper relation of these prepositional phrases is brought out in Meyer's translation: He has, with a view to the full furnishing of the saints, given those teachers for the work of ministering, for the edification of the body of Christ. So Ellicott.--G.A.]
[292] ["It is not the figure of a building which Paul employs here, but of a ship abandoned to the breakers, on which figurative expression of restless passive subjection to influences, compare Jas. i. 6."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[293] kubeia kubeutai.
[294] ["aletheuontes: The common meaning, To speak truth,' is clearly unsatisfactory here. It means holding the truth.'"--Ellicott. "Professing the truth," Thayer, Lexicon. Rev. Ver. has in margin "dealing truly." Meyer says it means here, as always, "speaking the truth," and correctly.--G.A.]
[295] haphes, "joint," Eng. Tr. Theodoret, too, in loc. interprets touch, and considers that it stands for all the senses. S. Austin translates tactus in Psalm x. 7, de Civ. D. xxii. 18, but in the received meaning. [See Meyer.--G.A.]
[296] ["Meyer still retains the interpretation of Chrysostom and Theodoret that haphe=aisthesis, "feeling," "perception," and connects the clause with auxesin poieitai: but the parallel passage, Col. ii. 19, leaves it scarcely doubtful that the meaning usually assigned is correct, and that the clause is to be connected with the participles."--Ellicott. So Thayer, Lex., Rev. Ver.--G.A.]
[297] haptomenon.
[298] haptomenon.
[299] [The text fluctuates here. We have given that of Field, though neither it nor any of the other readings yields a satisfactory sense. Field's text is, suntitheis ta mele, autos autois zoen choregei. Another text, attested by three mss., has suntitheis ta mesa, autos autois zoen choregei. Savile's text, supported by three mss., has kai ekeinos men suntithei ta osta, autos de zoen choregei. It will be noticed that this same expression occurs a little above, followed by a clause like that which follows here.--G.A.]
[300] "What sacrifice do they believe they celebrate who are rivals of the Priests?" "If such men were even killed for confession of the Christian name, not even by their blood is this stain washed out....He cannot be a Martyr, who is not in the Church."--St. Cyprian, Treat. v. 12, p. 141.
[301] [See Bingham, Ant. Bk. iv. ch. vi. sec. 11.--G.A.]
[302] cheirotonias. At this time there were two orthodox successions in Antioch, that of Paulinus and Evagrius, who were successively representatives of the old line which the Arians had dispossessed, and which Western Christendom supported; and that of Meletius and Flavian, to which St. Chrysostom adhered, and the Eastern Church generally, being the Arian succession conformed to orthodoxy. The schism was terminated A.D. 392, on the death of Evagrius, though his party continued for twenty years longer.
[303] [ton allon, wanting in the text of Field, is attested by four good authorities, and yields the only sense that suits the context.--G.A.]
[304] Exodus xxix. 9. Our translation has, "Thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons"; the margin gives the literal rendering, "Thou shalt fill the hands of Aaron."
[305] St. Chrysostom was eventually banished and brought to his end by the Empress Eudoxia. Women had taken a strong part with the Arians from the first, to which perhaps he alludes. When Arius began his heresy, he was joined by seven hundred single women. Epiphan. Hær. 69, 3; vid. also Socr. ii. 2, of the Court, Greg. Naz. Or. 48, of Constantinople, &c., &c.
[306] [This is the reading of the Septuagint, as follows: an eis anthropon tis hamarte, proseuxontai peri autou. The Hebrew, however, is different, and reads, "If one man sin against another, God shall judge him; but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?" So the Rev. Ver.--G.A.]