If thou wilt consider also the guests themselves, thou wilt see that the one are within just what the others are without; blind, maimed, lame; and as are the bodies of these, such are the souls of those, laboring under dropsy and inflammation. For of such sort is pride; for after the luxurious gratification a maiming takes place; of such sort is surfeiting and drunkenness, making men lame and maimed. And thou wilt see too that these have souls like the bodies of the others, brilliant, ornamented. For they who live in giving of thanks, who seek nothing beyond a sufficiency, they whose philosophy is of this sort are in all brightness.
But let us see the end both here and there. There, indeed, is unchaste pleasure, loose laughter, drunkenness, buffoonery, filthy language; (for since they in their own persons are ashamed to talk filthily, this is brought about by means of the harlots;) but here is love of mankind, gentleness. Near to him who invites those stands vainglory arming him, but near the other, love of man, and gentleness. For the one table, love of man prepareth, but the other, vainglory, and cruelty, out of injustice and grasping. And that one ends in what I have said, in loss of wits, in delirium, in madness; (for such are the offshoots of vainglory;) but this one in thanksgiving and the glory of God. And the praise too, which cometh of men, attendeth more abundantly upon this; for that man is even regarded with an envious eye, but this all men regard as their common father, even they who have received no benefit at his hands. And as with the injured even they who have not been injured sympathize, and all become in common enemies (to the injurer): so too, when some receive kindness, they also who have not received any, not less than they who have, praise and admire him that conferred it. And there indeed is much envy, but here much tender solicitude, many prayers from all.
And so much indeed here; but There, when Christ is come, this one indeed shall stand with much boldness, and shall hear before the whole world, "Thou sawest Me an hungered, and didst feed Me; naked, and didst clothe Me; a stranger, and didst take Me in" (Matt. xxv. 35.); and all the like words: but the other shall hear the contrary; "Wicked and slothful servant" (Matt. xxv. 26.); and again, "Woe unto them that luxuriate upon their couches, and sleep upon beds of ivory, and drink the refined wine, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments; they counted upon these things as staying, and not as fleeting." (Amos vi. 4, 5, 6, Sept.)
I have not said this without purpose, but with the view of changing your minds; and that you should do nothing that is fruitless. What then, saith one, of the fact that I do both the one and the other? This argument is much resorted to by all. And what need, tell me, when everything might be done usefully, to make a division, and to expend part on what is not wanted, but even without any purpose at all, and part usefully? Tell me, hadst thou, when sowing, cast some upon a rock, and some upon very good ground; is it likely that thou wouldest have been contented so, and have said, Where is the harm, if we cast some to no purpose, and some upon very good ground? For why not all into the very good ground? Why lessen the gain? And if thou have occasion to be getting money together, thou wilt not talk in that way, but wilt get it together from every quarter; but in the other case thou dost not so. And if to lend on usury; thou wilt not say, "Wherefore shall we give some to the poor, and some to the rich," but all is given to the former: [708] yet in the case before us, where the gain is so great, thou dost not thus calculate, and will not at length desist from expending without purpose, and laying out without return?
"But," saith one, "this also hath a gain." Of what kind, tell me? "It increaseth friendships." Nothing is colder than men who are made friends by these things, by the table, and surfeiting. The friendships of parasites are born only from that source.
Insult not a thing so marvelous as love, [709] nor say that this is its root. As if one were to say, that a tree which bore gold and precious stones had not its root of the same, but that it was gendered of rottenness; so doest even thou: for even though friendship should be born from that source, nothing could possibly be colder. But those other tables produce friendship, not with man, but with God; and that an intense [710] one, so thou be intent on preparing them. For he that expendeth part in this way and part in that, even should he have bestowed much, hath done no great thing: but he that expendeth all in this way, even though he should have given little, hath done the whole. For what is required is that we give, not much or little, but not less than is in our power. Think we on him with the five talents, and on him with the two. (Matt. xxv. 15.) Think we on her who cast in those two mites. (Mark xii. 41.) Think we on the widow in Elijah's days. She who threw in those two mites said not, What harm if I keep the one mite for myself, and give the other? but gave her whole living. (1 Kings xvii.) But thou, in the midst of so great plenty, art more penurious than she. Let us then not be careless of our own salvation, but apply ourselves to almsgiving. For nothing is better than this, as the time to come shall show; meanwhile the present shows it also. Live we then to the glory of God, and do those things that please Him, that we may be counted worthy of the good things of promise; which may all we obtain, through the grace and love toward man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the power and honor, now and ever, and world without end. Amen.
[690] Ed. Par. suspects that a sentence is lost here, but without reason, as he had just mentioned the Epistle to Philemon as written in imprisonment, and consequently later than that to the Romans.
[691] presbutera. Lit. "older." The argument allows no other sense. It may mean "written at a greater age," or "of higher honor" (because written after longer imprisonment).
[692] Lit. "while raising trophies."
[693] Prosegonto, v. Hom. ii. § i.
[694] to dia, here used with the genitive. He mentions it as applied to the will of the Father, and consequently not, as some supposed, proving an inferiority in the Son.
[695] [Even in the New Test. the term "apostle" is sometimes applied to others than the twelve and Paul: as in Acts xiv. 14, probably in Gal. i. 19, and as implied in the phrase "false apostle." Compare Lightfoot on Gal., ed. 2, pp. 95 ff.--J.A.B.]
[696] Rec. text inserts "and" (kai for to), but with the same sense.
[697] [The reading prosstenai (Field, after one mss.) accounts for the others, prostenai and protithenai, the latter followed here by the Oxford ed.; but see its Addenda.--J.A.B.]
[698] Savile includes this paragraph in brackets, and so Ed. Par., as it is not in some mss. and Versions, and is thought not to fit in well; but they have missed the sense.
[699] Called Epaphras in the text, c. i. 7, and c. iv. 12. [A familiar contraction of such names.--J.A.B.]
[700] The passage just above in brackets may have been for the sake of this.
[701] Rec. text omits "and increasing" (kai auxanomenon), but it is in some of the oldest mss.
[702] ["On our behalf" is the correct N.T. text. Chrys. here, as commonly, has what Westcott and Hort call the "Syrian" type of N.T. text.--J.A.B.]
[703] [So Field, after several mss. But "the semicircular" (no substantive, see a few lines below) was an obscure word in such a connection, and the idea of one man lifting a table seemed strange. So, as the preceding and following portions treat of vessels, several other mss. substitute for this whole statement (down to "move") the following: "and let there be a gilded bowl of half a talent weight, so that two young men can with difficulty move it," the last clause being the same as in the other text. Montfaucon admitted both into his edition, thus making a conflate reading.--J.A.B.] Montfaucon in a note mentions William the Conqueror being represented sitting at such a table, sometimes called a sigma, from the form C. He refers to his Antiquité Expliquée, T. iii. p. 111. [That the three tables arranged as a hollow squire (triclinium) should be sometimes converted into a semicircle would be a natural piece of luxury, but not likely to become common, because really less convenient.--J.A.B.]
[704] Here, the couch which belongs to the table. Such is the stibadium described in the accounts of Pompeii.
[705] stromaton, carpets, cushions, coverings for the tables, &c., &c.
[706] [This labored exuberance of descriptive detail is a grave fault of Chrysostom's style, but was highly acceptable to his contemporaries.--J.A.B.]
[707] [The text is confused, but the reading adopted by Field, and here given, accounts for the others.--J.A.B.]
[708] Because their distress would make them willing to give a higher interest. This place may bear the sense here given, but it seems corrupt. The sense requires, "shall we not give?" or else, "wilt thou not say?" interrogatively, or the expulsion of dia ti.
[709] Compare St. Clem. Al. Pædag. l. ii. c. 1.
[710] epitetamenen.