Beware then lest we be condemned by this, after saying, I renounce Satan, and array myself with Thee, O Christ. Rather however this should not be called "a bond," but a covenant. For that is "a bond," whereby one is held accountable for debts: but this is a covenant. It hath no penalty, nor saith it, If this be done or if this be not done: what Moses said when he sprinkled the blood of the covenant, by this God also promised everlasting life. All this is a covenant. There, it was slave with master, here it is friend with friend: there, it is said, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die" (Gen. ii. 17.); an immediate threatening; but here is nothing of the kind. God arrives, and here is nakedness, and there was nakedness; there, however, one that had sinned was made naked, because he sinned, but here, one is made naked, that he may be set free. Then, man put off the glory which he had; now, he puts off the old man; and before going up (to the contest), puts him off as easily, as it were his garments. [803] He is anointed, [804] as wrestlers about to enter the lists. For he is born at once; and as that first man was, not by little and little, but immediately. (He is anointed,) not as the priests of old time, on the head alone, but rather in more abundant measure. For he indeed was anointed on the head, the right ear, the hand (Lev. viii. 23, 24.); to excite him to obedience, and to good works; but this one, all over. For he cometh not to be instructed merely; but to wrestle, and to be exercised; he is advanced to another creation. For when one confesses (his belief) in the life everlasting, [805] he has confessed a second creation. He took dust from the earth, and formed man (Gen. ii. 7.): but now, dust no longer, but the Holy Spirit; with This he is formed, with this harmonized, even as Himself was in the womb of the Virgin. He said not in Paradise, but "in Heaven." For deem not that, because the subject is earth, it is done on earth; he is [806] removed thither, to Heaven, there these things are transacted, in the midst of Angels: God taketh up thy soul above, above He harmonizeth it anew, He placeth thee near to the Kingly Throne. He is formed in the water, he receiveth spirit instead of a soul. [807] And after he is formed, He bringeth to him, not beasts, but demons, and their prince, and saith, "Tread upon serpents and scorpions." (Luke x. 19.) He saith not, "Let Us make man in our image, and after our likeness" (Gen. i. 26.), but what? "He giveth them to become the sons of God; but of God," he saith, "they were born." (John i. 12, 13.) Then that thou give no ear to the serpent, straightway he teaches thee to say, "I renounce thee," that is, "whatsoever thou sayest, I will not hear thee." Then, that he destroy thee not by means of others, it is said, [808] "and thy pomp, and thy service, and thy angels." He hath set him no more to keep Paradise, but to have his citizenship in heaven. For straightway when he cometh up he pronounceth these words, "Our Father, Which art in Heaven,...Thy will be done, as in Heaven, so on earth." The plain falleth not on thy sight, [809] thou seest not tree, nor fountain, but straightway thou takest into thee the Lord Himself, thou art mingled with His Body, thou art intermixed with that Body that lieth above, whither the devil cannot approach. No woman is there, for him to approach, and deceive as the weaker; for it is said, "There is neither female, nor male." (Gal. iii. 28.) If thou go not down to him, he will not have power to come up where thou art; for thou art in Heaven, and Heaven is unapproachable by the devil. It hath no tree with knowledge of good and evil, but the Tree of Life only. No more shall woman be formed from thy side, but we all are one from the side of Christ. For if they who have been anointed of men take no harm by serpents, neither wilt thou take any harm at all, so long as thou art anointed; that thou mayst be able to grasp the Serpent and choke him, "to tread upon serpents and scorpions." (Luke x. 19.) But as the gifts are great, so is the punishment great also. It is not possible for him that hath fallen from Paradise, to dwell "in front of Paradise" [810] (Gen. iii. 24.), nor to reascend thither from whence we have fallen. But what after this? Hell, and the worm undying. But far be it that any of us should become amenable to this punishment! but living virtuously, let us earnestly strive to do throughout His will. Let us become well-pleasing to God, that we may be able both to escape the punishment, and to obtain the good things eternal, of which may we all be counted worthy, through the grace and love toward man, &c.
[789] Present participle.
[790] [This comparison, wanting in all previous editions of the Greek, given by the Oxford tr. in a footnote, is found in all the mss. collated for Field. It is somewhat obscure (and probably on that account omitted from some copies), but the general meaning is not hard to find.--J.A.B.]
[791] [Some documents (followed by Field) here insert, "But I am not persuaded," probably an addition to rescue Chrys. from the position of defending deceit. But he has done this elaborately in his beautiful treatise on the Priesthood, employing the same arguments and expressions as here. It is an error not surprising in an Asiatic Greek.--J.A.B.]
[792] stoicheia, elements.
[793] ton hemeron. Montfaucon refers to his Suppl. de l'Ant. Expl. l. iii. vol. 1, p. 112, where he shows that the observance of heathen customs about lucky and unlucky days, and the like, was common in France in the thirteenth century. Such were the Dies Ægyptiaci, &c.
[794] [This misinterpretation is found in many Fathers. See Lightfoot here, and on Gal. iv. 9.--J.A.B.]
[795] ["But wrongly" seems a necessary addition, though omitted by Field, doubtless because supported chiefly by the group of mss. found to make so many unwarrantable additions and other alterations.--J.A.B.]
[796] apekdusei, putting off for good, once for all.
[797] en, "in."
[798] [The repetition of pisteos, "of faith," which Field had previously conjectured as required by the sense, is found in the Catena; and the simplifying group of documents changed it into "He hath well said so, for," &c.--J.A.B.]
[799] edeigmatisen en parresi& 139;, so commented on below as seemingly to require to be thus translated, "He inflicted disgrace on them through His confidence in dying."
[800] tois dogmasin. Theodoret also takes it so, but the use of dogmatizesthe, in ver. 20, agrees better with E.V. "The handwriting [bond] in ordinances," and the Vulgate, Chirographum decreti.
[801] All copies of St. Chrys. read "had them as a hold," which makes no sense. The Catena omits "them," which has been adopted, though the authority is slight. Compare John xiv. 30.
[802] meta parresias, referring to edeigmatisen en parresia. "Confidence" sometimes has the meaning of "standing without fear before God." Here he refers also to publicity.
[803] See St. Cyril, Catech. XX.
[804] See St. Cyril, Catech. XXI.
[805] In the Apostles' Creed, recited at Baptism.
[806] Old Lat. "thou art." The former clause may be, "think not, because the earth is under thee, that thou art in earth."
[807] antipsuchon tneuma, i.e. as Adam received a soul. The Spirit becoming, as it were, the life of the new man. See on Rom. viii. 11.
[808] phesi, the person who directs the catechumen.
[809] No meaning appears in this, ouk ep' opsin piptei to paidion, though old Lat. also has, "The child falleth not on his face"; but we have only to read pedion, as in a doubtful passage of Hom. xvi. on Rom. Tr. p. 467, note. This has been done in the text, not to spoil so beautiful a passage. [There may be a fanciful notion of the person newly baptized and thereby regenerated ("formed in the water") as a child. Upon coming up and pronouncing the Lord's Prayer, "the child does not fall on his face." The meaning will still be obscure, but the whole passage is highly fanciful, and there is thus at least a possible sense.--J.A.B.]
[810] LXX. has katokisen auton apenanti tou paradeisou, "He placed him opposite Paradise." And it is generally thought that Adam approached the gate of Paradise to worship.