Chapter Eleven

¹ Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) Therefore his sisters sent to him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. John alone makes mention of this history. And he makes mention of it to teach us not to be vexed if any sickness befall the earnest and God-loving men, since Lazarus also, the friend of Christ, was sick. And this also we must not be ignorant of, that this Mary was not she that anointed the Lord with ointment, the harlot in Luke, or she in Matthew; but another, not a harlot, but grave, and God-loving, and earnest. For she was earnest about the reception of Christ, and ministered, as John himself further on bears witness; but also she is witnessed to have chosen the good part, as Luke says. And so admirable and well-known were the sisters, that Lazarus also was rather made known from them. “For Lazarus was,” he says, “of Bethany, of the town of Mary and Martha.” And why do they send to call Jesus, and come not themselves, as the centurion and the nobleman? Because they greatly trusted Christ, and because they were women, and it was not seemly for them so readily to come forth from the house, and because they were held by mourning, and were busied about their brother. For that they did this not from contempt is plain from what follows; for they show much honour and reverence, and an unceasing entreaty. And the “Behold, he whom you love,” they say, wishing to draw the Lord to compassion, by reminding Him of the name of friendship. And this word of the women shows also a certain faith. For so well they knew much power to be in the Lord, as to marvel that sickness laid hold of a man beloved by Him. For it is somehow a thing of wonder, the “Behold, he whom you love is sick.”

² When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. Since He was about to abide there two days, for this cause He says that “The sickness is not to death,” though it was to death; but, as I said, wishing for the while to raise the spirits of the messengers, and giving them, as it were, a certain comfort, that they might not, pressing on, trouble Him, for this cause He says that “It is not to death.” And besides, if you consider well, neither was the sickness to death of such a kind as that whereof the many die after long time, but temporary, and lasting to four days. And since he rose on the fourth day, looking to the end of the matter, we say that the sickness was not to death, but “for the glory,” He says, “of God, that the Son of God might be glorified.” Do you see the one glory of the Father and of the Son? For having said, “for the glory of God,” He added, “That the Son of God might be glorified.” For unaltered is the glory of God—of the Father, I mean—as compared with that of the Son. The Son, therefore, is also God, as the Father, properly and truly. For of whom the glory is one, of them the essence also is one. Let the Arians, then, be ashamed from hence also. And the “That he might be glorified” understand not as causal, but of the issue and the outcome, as we have often said. For not that God might be glorified did Lazarus fall sick; but the sickness came to pass from another source, and the Lord used it to the glory of God. And He abode two days, that he might breathe out his soul; that no one might be able to say that it was a swoon, that it was a faintness, that he was in a trance, and died not. For this cause He stays so long a time, that corruption also might come to pass, and the sister might say that he stinks.

³ Then after that says he to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again. His disciples say to him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone you; and do you go there again? Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbles not, because he sees the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbles, because there is no light in him. Nowhere else did He foretell where He was about to go, but here only does He appear foretelling, since the disciples greatly feared the going into Judaea. For this cause, then, He foretells, that they might not be troubled by the suddenness, being all at once led away into a country which they feared. Since, then, they feared both for Him (for they had not yet perfect knowledge concerning Him), and the more for themselves, they say, “The Jews of late sought to stone you, and do you go there again?” But He encourages them, and says that “As he that sees the light stumbles not, but he that walks in the night stumbles; so he that does the good, and walks in luminous works, shall suffer nothing dreadful; but he that does the base shall suffer dreadful things. So that you need not fear; for we have done nothing worthy of death.” Or also otherwise: “If he that sees this light,” He says, “stumbles not, much more he that is with me, if he separate not himself from me, shall not stumble. So that you also, being with me the light, vainly fear.” And others understand by “day” the time before the passion, and by “night” the time of the passion. “You, then,” He says, “while it is day—that is, while the time of the passion is not yet come—shall not stumble; for you shall not be persecuted by the Jews, nor shall any other adversary meet you. But when the night comes—my passion, I mean—then shall you be shut up in one little chamber for fear of the Jews. And from that time you shall have afflictions, and pangs, and many stumblings and oppositions, when I the light shall no longer pass my life with you bodily, but you shall have the night of afflictions.”

⁴ These things said he: and after that he says to them, Our friend Lazarus sleeps; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. However Jesus spoke of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus to them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent you may believe; nevertheless let us go to him. Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, to his fellowdisciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him. Since they feared Judaea, the Lord says to them: “Though the Jews sought to stone me, yet it was as discoursing with them and reproving them; but now I depart not as about to discourse, but as about to visit my friend. So that you need not fear. For I depart not on the same terms as before, that I should fear the danger from the Jews, but for the awaking of a friend.” But they, wishing to cut off the journey there, “It is enough,” they say; “If he sleep, he shall do well. Therefore we need not depart; for it is not necessary.” And yet He had for this cause added the “our friend,” that He might show His presence there necessary; but they say it is not necessary, since he is already saved by sleeping. Or rather, they say that His presence is not only not necessary, but also hurtful to the friend. “For if sleep is to him to recovery, as we think, and you are about to go, that you may awake him, you will cut off his recovery. We need not, then, go to awake him; for this is hurtful.” Since, then, He saw them still hesitating, then He says plainly that “He is dead.” And wherefore did He not before so plainly say it, but hiddenly, naming death sleep? For many reasons: one, because of His freedom from boasting; for He would not appear a boaster, but hiddenly named the resurrection an awaking (for how would He have used this expression, had He not called death sleep?). And that this is true, the saying it hiddenly out of moderation, is plain from what follows. For having said, “He is dead,” He added not, “I go, that I may raise him.” Do you see how He would not boast of what He was about to confirm by deeds? and at the same time also teaching us not so easily to promise. For though in the case of the centurion He did this (for He said, “I will come and heal him”), yet there He said it that He might show that man’s faith. This, then, is one cause, for which He named death sleep. And another, that He might show us that every death is sleep and rest; and a third, that though to others the end of Lazarus was death, yet to Jesus Himself, who was so soon about to raise him, it was reckoned sleep. And as to us it is easy to awake one sleeping, so to Him, or rather ten thousand times more easily, to raise the dead. “And I am glad,” He says, “for your sakes, that you may now the more believe me as God, that I was not there, but being far off, foretell to you the death in Bethany, not having heard it, but, as God, foreseeing what came to pass afar off.” And some understood this thus: “I am glad for your sakes; for my not being there shall conduce to a greater faith in you. For if I had been present, I should have healed him being sick, but this had been a small wonder for the demonstration of power. But since I was absent, and death supervened, and I am about to go and raise him, you shall be the more confirmed in faith toward me, when you see me able to do this also which I have not before shown—to fit together and raise up one already dissolved, a dead man and stinking.” When the Lord had said these things, and shown His presence there necessary, Thomas, the more cowardly of the rest, “Let us go,” he says, “that we may die with him.” For the word is not of courage, but of cowardice and despondency. For, that he might cut off the other fellow-disciples, he reminds them of death, and of set purpose throws in the “that we may die,” as it were saying such things: “Let us also go, we the foolish and reckless, and taking no thought of our own salvation and life, that we may die with him.” “Grant,” he says, “that He sets no great store by His own life; do we then so play the fool?” These are the words of the coward. But behold him afterward, how for the truth, as an apostle, he was slain; so did the divine grace temper him, that the saying of Paul might be said of him also, that “Our sufficiency is of God,” and “Not I, but the grace.” And Origen says also a certain dream-interpreting thing concerning Thomas. For Thomas, he says, having heard the prophecies concerning Christ, and learned that He was about to descend with His soul into Hades, to free the souls, since he heard that “I go that I may awake Lazarus,” thought that He could not otherwise awake him—that is, free his soul—except He Himself also, laying aside the body, descended into Hades. Wherefore, as a genuine disciple of Christ, not wishing even in this to be left behind his teacher, he counsels also the other fellow-disciples, and exhorts to lay aside the body also himself, that he might descend together with Jesus, as he supposed about to lay down His soul, that He might bring up from Hades the soul of His friend. This ridiculous exposition I have set down to the shaming of those that follow Origen. For is not the exposition of the wise man simply a dream? But do you understand simply that, dispelling the darkness of their fear, he said, “Let us go to him,” as to God.

⁵ Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already. Now Bethany was near to Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off: and many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house. Of set purpose the Lord waited for Lazarus to become of four days; then He came, that He might work the wonder unimpeachable on every side. And wherefore does the evangelist add that Bethany was fifteen furlongs distant from Jerusalem? That he might show that fitly many of the men of Jerusalem were present; for Bethany was not far off. And they comforted the women, not as loved by Christ (for they had agreed that if any confessed Him Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue), but because of the necessity of the calamity; or as reverencing them as nobler; even those wicked men were present, whence also many of them believed. And Martha alone goes out to meet Him, and takes not her sister, since she wished to meet Him in private, and to tell the thing that had happened. Whence, since He led her to good hopes, then she goes and calls her sister. And she tells not at first her sister Mary, wishing to escape the notice of those present. For if Mary had heard that Jesus was coming, she would have risen up to meet Him, and the Jews present would have followed her, whom Martha wished not to know that Jesus was come.

⁶ Then said Martha to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatever you will ask of God, God will give it you. Jesus says to her, Your brother shall rise again. Martha says to him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? She says to him, Yea, Lord: I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calls for you. Martha had faith toward Christ, but not so much as she ought. Wherefore also she says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother had not died.” For this she altogether said, as not believing that, even absent, He could, had He wished, have turned away her brother’s death; and still through what follows she shows the greater weakness of her faith. For “Whatever,” she says, “you shall ask of God, He will give you.” Do you see that she thought Him as a virtuous man and approved with God? For she said not, “Whatever you will, you shall do,” but, “Whatever you shall ask, He will give you.” But He, overturning such a suspicion of hers, “Your brother shall rise,” He says. For He said not to her, “Yea, I will ask God, and He will give me,” nor did He run together with her word, but used a middle expression; yet through what follows He makes more manifest His own authority and power, saying, “I am the resurrection and the life.” For since the woman still disbelieves, and recognised not even the “Your brother shall rise,” but conceives him to rise in the last resurrection; and she knew the last resurrection should be, both from the divine Scriptures, and especially from the continual discourses of Christ concerning the resurrection; since, then, the woman was still a woman, the Lord rouses her, and as it were awakens her deadened faith, saying more manifestly: “You say to me that whatever I ask of God He will give me; but I say to you thus openly, that I am the resurrection and the life. So that my power is not shut up by place, but, both absent and present, I am able to heal. For I am the supplier of good things, and not as another giving, but being myself the resurrection and the life, I am mighty both to raise and to quicken. And he that believes in me, though he die this natural death, shall live; and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die the death of the soul. So that be not troubled; for though your brother be dead, he shall live. And why do I speak concerning your brother? Neither shall you, if you believe in me, die, but shall be superior to the more dreadful death, the death of the soul. And He that redeems from the more dreadful, much more shall redeem from the lesser, the bodily, your dead brother.” And He asks the woman if she believes; but she, though having heard so much, yet understood not what the Lord said to her, being sick, I think, with senselessness also from her grief. For He asked one thing, and she answers another. For He asked if she believes that He is the resurrection and the life, and that he that believes in Him shall never die for ever, whether you will understand the death of the soul or the bodily; for indeed the faithful, through the hope of the resurrection, are not even said to die. But she, what answers she? “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world”; well indeed bearing witness, and truly, yet not making the answer suited to the question. Yet meanwhile she gains the staying of the vehemence of her grief, and the hindering of much mourning; and secretly she calls her sister, very prudently doing this, because of the Jews that there chanced to be present. For if they had known that she was going to meet Christ, they would have withdrawn, and so the wonder would have remained without witness. But now, thinking that Mary went to the tomb to weep there, and for this cause going away with her, they necessarily became eye-witnesses and witnesses of the wonder. And how does Martha say to Mary, “The Master calls you,” though the evangelist did not note that the Lord called her? Either, then, the Lord secretly, in the unspoken, commanded Martha to call her sister, or, accounting the very presence of Christ as a call, she says, “The Master calls you.” For how was it not due, Christ being present, that she also should come to Him? The presence of the Lord, then, demanding that of necessity she should meet Him, the evangelist calls a “calling.” “For the Master,” she says, “is come, and calls you”; and since He is present, this very presence is a calling.

⁷ As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came to him. Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him. The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goes to the grave to weep there. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother had not died. As soon as she heard that Jesus was present, Mary delays not, but rises and comes to Him. Whence it is plain that Martha would not have anticipated her, nor have gone first, had she known that Jesus was coming. And Jesus was not yet come into the town. For He walked the more slowly, that He might not seem to cast Himself upon the wonder, but to have done it as being asked by them. And since the wonder about to be was great, and such as He had wrought but seldom, and many were to gain by it, for this cause He dispenses that many should become witnesses of the wonder. For the evangelist says that “The Jews that were with her in the house followed her.” And more warmly than her sister Martha did Mary come to Christ. For seeing Him, he says, she fell at His feet; not ashamed of the multitude, not at all suspecting that it was likely some there were ill-disposed toward Christ; but casting out every human consideration, the Master being present, and being constant in her honour toward Him, she says: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother had not died.” But Martha does nothing such; for neither does she fall down, but rather appears disbelieving Christ, who promised her the better things concerning her brother. And though Mary also appears to have this imperfectly, in saying, “If you had been here, my brother had not died,” yet Christ says nothing to her, such as to her sister, because much multitude was present, and it was not the time for such words. But condescending to nature, He shows also the things proper to it.

⁸ When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and said, Where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him! And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died? His nature was moved to tears, and was troubled, because of Mary weeping herself also, and those that came with her. But the Lord rebukes the passion in the spirit—that is, He chides through the spirit the confusion, and restrains it, and so asks, that the question might not be made with wailing. For since He grieved (for He was truly man, and, to confirm the human nature, He gave way to it to work its own), He both chides the flesh, and rebukes it by the power of the Holy Spirit. The flesh, then, not bearing the rebuke, is troubled, and trembles, and masters the grief. And all these things the Lord permits His nature to suffer, at once also confirming that He was truly man, and not in fantasy, and at once also teaching us, and setting bounds and measures of grief and of freedom from grief. For both the unsympathetic and tearless is brutish, and the much-weeping and lamentation-loving and over-grieved is womanish. Since, then, He shared with us flesh and blood, He partakes of the human and natural things, and shows us measures of these. And He asks, “Where have you laid him?” not as being ignorant (for how, He who, even from afar off, knew that he was dead?), but that He might not seem to cast Himself upon the wonder, wishing to learn all things from them, and to be entreated to do it, that He might free the sign from all suspicion. And since no token of the raising of Lazarus was yet shown, neither was He thus thought to come as about to raise him, but as about to mourn, they say to Him, “Lord, come and see.” But the wicked Jews again are not at all freed from their wickedness, though so great a calamity lay before their eyes; but what say they? “Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that this man also should not have died?” And slandering the wonder upon the blind man, they say these things. For when they ought to marvel at that sign, they from this death slander that also as not having happened, and forestall with accusations, not waiting for the outcome; so wholly captive were their minds to envy.

⁹ Jesus therefore again groaning in himself comes to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take you away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, says to him, Lord, by this time he stinks: for he has been dead four days. Jesus says to her, Said I not to you, that, if you would believe, you should see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. And I knew that you hear me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that you have sent me. Why does the evangelist up and down turn the “Jesus wept,” and that “He groaned at the passion”? That we may learn that He truly clothed Himself with our nature. For since, beyond all the evangelists, he utters loftier things concerning the Lord, and theologizes certain great things, for this cause also in the bodily things he utters much lowlier things. Whence also in the mourning he says He has much of the human, from this showing the truth of the flesh, that you may learn that, though He was God, yet He was also man. For as Luke from the agony, and the clot, and the sweat, so this evangelist from the mourning gives assurance that He truly bore flesh. And wherefore did He not, the stone lying upon it, make Lazarus to rise, but says, “Take you away the stone”? For He that moved the dead body by His voice, and ensouled one already dissolved, much more could have moved the stone by His voice. “Take away,” He says, “the stone,” that He might make them witnesses of the wonder, that they might not again say, as in the case of the blind man, “This is he; this is not he.” For to come to the place, and to take away the stone with their own hands, was sufficient to stop the mouths of the thankless, who became witnesses of the sign. And the “By this time he stinks, for he has been dead four days,” Martha said as disbelieving, supposing it impossible that her brother should rise because of the length of the days; so much is she turned downward. But Christ, reminding her of what He discoursed to her, and well-near rebuking her as forgetful, says, “Said I not to you, that, if you would believe, you should see the glory of God?” To the disciples, then, He said, “That the Son of God might be glorified, for this cause Lazarus died”; but to Martha, “The glory,” He says, “you shall see of God,” speaking concerning the Father. For the weakness of the hearers is the cause of the things spoken being spoken diversely. For since Jews stood there, it was not fitting that the Lord should say, “You shall see the glory of the Son of God”; for He would have seemed to boast concerning Himself. But now, speaking concerning the Father, He made the word more acceptable and more moderate. And why does He pray—or rather, why did He assume the form of a prayer? Hear Himself saying. For He says, “Because of the multitude which stand by I said it, that they may believe that you have sent me.” And what He says is of this kind: “That they may not think me an adversary of God, that they may not say, He is not of God; that I may show the work done according to your will.” And that this is so, and that He seems to pray not for any other need, but because of those standing by, behold the prayer: “I thank you that you have heard me.” And who ever so prayed? For before saying anything, He says, “You have heard me.” So that it is not a prayer, but a form of prayer, and a token only. And that He needs not prayer is plain from the many other things which He did without prayer. “I say to you, devil, come out of him”; and, “I will; be you clean”; and, “Your sins are forgiven you,” which is the greatest of all; and to the sea, “Be silent, be still.” That the bystanders, then, might believe that He is from above, and not an adversary of God, for this cause He prays. For if, doing these things, and on every side showing the right-mindedness toward the Father, they yet said that “He is not of God,” what would they not have said, had He done nothing such?

¹⁰ And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus says to them, Loose him, and let him go. Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him. But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done. Having given thanks to the Father rather than prayed (for, as has been said, He needed not prayer and the help from it, as being of equal power with the Father), He cries with a loud voice, authoritative and lordly. For He said not, “In the name of my Father, Lazarus, come forth,” nor, “Raise him, O Father,” but, as has been said, authoritatively, stopping all the mouths of those that call Him less than the Father. For what equal to this authority could there be, that, discoursing to the dead man as to one living, He says, “Lazarus, come forth”? And now also came to pass in deed the “The hour comes, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.” For lest any should suppose that He received the energy from another, He foretells this, which He was about to show by the deeds. The great voice, then, of the Saviour, that raised Lazarus, is a symbol of the great trumpet that shall sound in the common resurrection. And the Lord cried loud for this cause, that He might stop the mouths of the Greeks, who fable that the soul is in the tomb. For as though it were far off, He calls it by the cry. And as this resurrection was partial, so also the universal shall be in a moment and the twinkling of an eye. “And he that was dead came forth,” he says, “bound hand and foot.” For it seemed no less marvellous than the rising, the coming forth bound; and it was a wonder altogether for the bound to move, a wonder joined to the wonder of the rising. And He commands them to loose him, that, coming near and touching him, they might see that it is he himself. And He says, “Let him go,” because of His freedom from boasting; for He takes him not with Him, nor commands him to walk with Him, so as to make a display. The wonder being wrought, some of them that beheld believed, but others reported to the Pharisees, slandering Him altogether, as having dared a thing unholy, in commanding the buried to be dug up.

¹¹ Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man does many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. When they ought to be astonished and to marvel at Him that did so great wonders, the Pharisees rather take counsel to slay Him; which was the height of senselessness, that Him who overcame death in the bodies of others they thought to deliver to death, so as to overshadow His glory, and after so many wonders deem Him a mere man, saying, “What do we, for this man does many miracles?” And what charge is this, if He does signs? One ought to believe, and worship, and no longer count Him a mere man. But behold the perversity of the Pharisees: being earnest to stir up the people, they throw in a word, as though the multitude of the Jews were about to be in danger, and to be destroyed by the Romans on suspicion of tyranny. “For if we let this man alone,” they say, “he will have much multitude drawn after him by the showing of the signs, and henceforth the Romans will suspect us all of tyranny, and will take away our cities, and destroy them.” And these things, as I said, they said out of wickedness. For lest they should seem to plot against Christ out of envy, they bring forward the common danger into the midst, stirring up the people against Christ, as one that should be the cause to them of destruction. And take me this wonder also to the inner man. For our mind is a friend to Christ; but oftentimes, overcome by the weakness of the human nature, it falls into sin, and dies a death of the soul and most pitiable, yet worthy to be pitied by Christ; for the dead one is a friend. Let, then, the sisters and kinswomen of the dead mind—flesh as Martha (for Martha is more bodily and more material), and soul as Mary (for she is graver and more devout)—come to Christ, and fall down, having also the reasonings of confession following with them, as those women had the Jews; for “Judas” is interpreted “confession.” And altogether the Lord, standing by the tomb, and commanding the hardness lying upon the memory, as a kind of stone, to be taken away, shall bring us to remembrance of the good things and remissions to come; and with a great voice, the voice of the gospel trumpet, He shall cry: “Lazarus, come forth from the world; be not buried in the distractions and passions of life”; as also to the disciples He said, “You are not of the world”; and again Paul, “Let us go forth to him without the camp”—that is, the world; and so He shall raise up from sin the dead one, on whom the bruises of wickedness stank. Who for this cause was stinking, because he was a four-days’ dead man, deadened to the four daylight and luminous virtues, and being idle and unmoved toward them. Yet though he was unmoved, and bound hand and foot, and tightened by the cords of his own sins, and shown wholly inactive, yea, and his face also covered with a napkin, so as to be able to see nothing divine, the fleshly covering standing before him; and, to speak summarily, being most wretchedly disposed both as to the practical, which is shown by the hands and feet, and as to the contemplative, which is hinted at by the covered face; even if he be thus wretchedly disposed, yet shall he hear, “Loose him,” you good angels and fellow-workers of salvation, or you priests, and give him remission of sins, so that he may go, and be moved toward the working of the good. And some understood by Martha the synagogue of the Jews, and by Mary that of the Gentiles. For that of the Jews is troubled about many things (for many are the commandments of the law and hard to work); but that of the Gentiles needs not the many commandments, but the few, on which the whole law and the prophets hang, those concerning love.

¹² And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said to them, You know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this spoke he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death. Together with the other things, the dignity of the high priesthood also was corrupted among the Jews. For from the time that the offices became purchasable, they no longer officiated the whole time of their life, but year by year. Yet, though the dignity was thus corrupted, nevertheless the Holy Spirit was still present, working in those anointed. But when they laid their hands also upon Christ, then altogether the grace forsook them, and passed over to the apostles. The rest, then, in the order of counsel considered the death of Christ; but the high priest was so murderous, as with bare head and with effrontery to pronounce against Christ; nay rather, he even blames the others, as not understanding the needful thing, and being idle about the consideration of the expedient. “For you,” he says, “know nothing. You are idle,” he says, “to perceive, and reckon not that it is expedient that one die, and all the people be saved.” And this he himself indeed said out of a perverse reckoning; yet the grace of the Spirit used that mouth to the prophecy of the future, though it touched not his foul heart. Consider, then, how great is the power of the Spirit; for from a wicked mind it prepared words to come forth having a wonderful prophecy. For Christ having died, all that believed of the nation were freed from the great and eternal punishment; and He died not for the Jewish people only, but that He might gather into one the other children of God also—that is, the Gentiles. And He names the Gentiles “children of God,” either from what was to be (for since they were to become children of God, He so names them; as also elsewhere He says, “And other sheep I have,” calling these also from what was to be), or inasmuch as He is Father of all, having begotten us in a creative manner, and inasmuch as He honoured us, having created us after His own image and likeness; as also in the Acts Paul, haranguing to the Athenians, says, “For we are also his offspring.” Since, then, man is a sovereign creature, and in this likened to God, every man is called a child of God. Us, then, being thus scattered (for in many ways Satan parted men from one another and from God, preparing each to be mad against his neighbour through love of money and love of glory), Christ led into one, gathering us into one Church and one yoke, and making both them that were near and them that were far off one body; that he that sits in Rome may reckon him that is in India a proper member, and may confess all to have one head, Christ. And the “From that day they took counsel to put Jesus to death” shows that from that day they properly and perfectly ratified the resolve. For before this also they were digging about the murder, but more softly, and the matter was rather an inquiry than a decision; but now it is a perfect judgment and a ratified vote. For “Of late,” he says, “they sought to kill him”; and He Himself, reproving them, says, “You seek to kill me.” Consider, then, the power of the high-priestly dignity, how it is full of the grace of the Spirit, even though they that bear it be unworthy. And honour me the high priests according to the worthiness of the grace in them, not according to their own choice. And not only Caiaphas prophesies, but also many others unworthy saw the things to come: Pharaoh the things concerning the plenty and the dearth; Nebuchadnezzar the things concerning the kingdoms and concerning Christ; and Balaam concerning Christ. Yet not if one prophesies should he be called a prophet; but if one is a prophet, he also prophesies; as neither is everyone that does something medical already also a physician, but that one only would be called a physician; as also a just man is not he that has merely once done what is just, but he that pursues justice justly, according to the saying, “That which is just shall you justly pursue.”

¹³ Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews; but went thence to a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with his disciples. And the Jews’ passover was near at hand: and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the passover, to purify themselves. Then sought they for Jesus, and spoke among themselves, as they stood in the temple, What think you, that he will not come to the feast? Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment, that, if any man knew where he were, he should show it, that they might take him. To the condemnation of the Jews the Lord withdraws, not out of cowardice, but at the same time also teaching us not to cast ourselves into dangers, even though they be for godliness, but, when overtaken, to stand nobly, but, not being overtaken, not to expose ourselves to voluntary danger, because of the uncertainty of the issue. And behold the senseless mind of the Jews, how not even in the time of the feast did they refrain from murderousness, but both took counsel to do murder, and went up to be purified. For they that had sinned, whether willingly or unwillingly, kept not the passover, except they were first purified according to custom, washing and fasting, and shaving themselves, and offering certain prescribed sacrifices. These, then, the excellent men that performed the purification, lay in wait for the Lord, and say, “What think you, that he will not come to the feast?”—that is, “Of necessity he is about to fall into the snare; for the time, if nothing else, will force him to be ensnared.” O the wickedness! When the more they ought to release even the confessedly condemned because of the feast, then they lay in wait for the guiltless. But if private men only did these things, the matter would seem to be of ignorance; but now the Pharisees command that he be informed against, and seized. Well, then, does the Lord withdraw from these. For the Word of God before indeed walked openly among the Jews, being proclaimed through the prophets; but now no longer, but withdrew into the wilderness, the gathering of the Gentiles, concerning which it is said, “Many are the children of the desolate, more than of her which has an husband.” And near is Ephraim, this wilderness. And Ephraim is interpreted “fruit-bearing.” And this was the younger brother, Manasseh being the elder; and Manasseh is interpreted from “forgetfulness.” The people of the Jews, then, was the elder son of God (“For Israel is my firstborn son,” He says); but God had forgetfulness of him; and Ephraim—that is, the fruit-bearing from the Gentiles—He makes the second son, the Church that bore fruit through the Gospel.