Chapter Twenty-Four

¹ Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: and as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said to them, Why seek you the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spoke to you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words, and returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things to the eleven, and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things to the apostles. And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. Then arose Peter, and ran to the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. He names the first of the sabbaths the first of the days of the sabbath — that is, of the week — which is that called by us, from the resurrection of the Lord, the Lord’s day. On it, then, the women came to the sepulchre, bringing spices. And they came very early in the morning, which Matthew calls, In the end of the sabbath; for the deep dawn comes to the same thing as the very late hour. And they found the stone rolled away; for an angel rolled it away, as Matthew says. And as they entered, two men appear. For the one in Matthew sat upon the stone, but these two men stand within the sepulchre; for the visions are diverse. And they appear in white, because of the brightness of the resurrection. And they remind them of the things spoken by him, that it behoves — that is, it is necessary — that he be delivered into the hands of sinful men, the Romans, namely, as being Gentiles and abominable, and the third day rise again. We have spoken sufficiently concerning the resurrection, how it is of three days, in the commentary on Matthew. And returning from the sepulchre, and telling these things to the apostles, they seemed to talk idly; so naturally incredible to men seems the wonder of the resurrection. Peter, however, is not idle, even as neither is fire that has caught hold of matter; but he comes to the sepulchre, and sees the linen clothes only. And for the present he is profited first by this from his coming to the sepulchre — that he wonders, instead of mocking. For he departed, he says, to himself — that is, by himself — wondering at that which had come to pass. For how were the linen clothes only left, and that when the body had been anointed with myrrh? And how much leisure would the thief have had, so as, leaving these wrapped up apart, to carry off the body, and that when soldiers sat by? And by Mary the mother of James understand the Theotokos; for so they named her, as seeming to be the mother of James the son of Joseph, whom they also called the little — the brother of God, I mean; for there was also a great one, one of the twelve, the son of Zebedee.

² And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said to them, What manner of communications are these that you have one to another, as you walk, and are sad? And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said to him, Are you only a stranger in Jerusalem, and have not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said to them, What things? And they said to him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; and when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. Some say that the one of these two was Luke himself; wherefore also the evangelist concealed his own name. And these communed with one another concerning all the things that had come to pass, not believing, but as perplexed, and as astonished at extraordinary matters, and not easily able to assent to the marvel. And Jesus drew near and went with them. For, having now a spiritual and more divine body, he was no longer hindered by distance of places from being present to whom he wished. Nor were they permitted to know him from the features of the body in which the Saviour then appeared. For, as Mark says, he appeared in another form, and in other features. For no longer did he order his body by natural laws, but above nature and spiritually; whence their eyes were holden, that they should not know him. And why did he appear in another form, and were their eyes holden? That they might uncover their whole doubting mind, that they might lay bare the sore, and then thus receive the remedy; that he might appear sweet to them after much wearing; that he might teach from Moses and the prophets, and then be recognized, and they might the more believe, that his body is no longer such as to be simply visible to all, but, although that very body which suffered rose, yet it appears to whom it wills; and that they might gain from this something great, namely, to be no longer perplexed why he no longer goes about in the midst of the peoples, reckoning that after his resurrection his manner of life is more changed, and not common, nor man-befitting, but more divine; which is also a type of the resurrection to come, in which we shall live as angels and sons of God. For these reasons, then, were their eyes holden, that they should not know him; for to whom he wished, he was seen. And Cleopas even reproaches the seeming fellow-traveller. Are you only a stranger, he says? — instead of, Are you only of the inhabitants of Jerusalem that know not the things that came to pass? And others understood the word sojourn thus: Are you, he says, so alone a sojourner, and settled outside the bounds of Jerusalem, and a partaker of the things done in the midst, as not to know these things? And see how altogether small an opinion they had concerning the Lord; for they named him a man, a prophet, such as Elijah, Joshua the son of Nun, or even Moses to name; mighty in deed and word — first the deed, then the word. For no teaching word is sure, unless first the teacher show himself a doer. Be you, then, mighty in deed first, and then be diligent to have also the word. So also God will work with you. For first comes the action, then contemplation and illumination. If you cleanse not the mirror in toil and sweat, you shall not mirror the longed-for beauty. For blessed are the pure in heart — this through the works; for they shall see God — this is the end of contemplation. And one must be mighty in deed and word before God, and then before all the people. For first one must please God, then be diligent also to be blameless toward men, as far as is possible; and neither must man-pleasing be preferred, but the fear of God; nor must one live to the stumbling of the many, but provide for this too after those things; and the wise man says, Provide things honest in the sight of God, then also of men; and Paul this same thing. But we trusted, they say, that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. As though disappointed of their hopes, they so speak: We trusted that he should both save others, and behold he saved not even himself; so ignoble and unbelieving were they. For they all but said the things that they too said who were at the cross, He saved others, himself he cannot save. Wherefore also he calls them senseless, and slow to believe; and what is this, To redeem Israel? We have said variously that those of the people, and the less exact, expected the Christ to be a saviour and redeemer of the evils that lay upon them, and of the yoke of the bondage under the Romans; and they hoped that he would reign an earthly kingdom; wherefore also they say, We trusted that he would redeem Israel also from the Gentile Romans, and this man escaped not even the unjust sentence against him. And moreover to day is the third day, and women astonished us, and so forth. These things they say as if perplexed; and the men seem to me to be in much doubt of mind, and neither greatly to disbelieve, nor greatly to believe. For to say, We trusted that it is he which should redeem Israel, shows unbelief; but to say, This is the third day, is of men who are near to remembering that he said to them, The third day I will rise. And the saying, They astonished us, shows some such thing — I mean, that their unbelief is shaken. And altogether, the words, when considered, are truly human, and have much hesitation, and as of men perplexed and at a loss because of the extraordinariness of the resurrection. And certain of them which were with us, they say, went away. He means either Peter alone, or Peter and John. And hence it is plain that the things which others relate at length — namely the coming of Peter and John to the sepulchre — he, having mentioned briefly, passed over without naming them.

³ Then he said to them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And they drew near to the village, where they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread. Since they were humanly disposed in their minds, and were sick with much hesitation, he calls them senseless, and slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken; for it is possible to believe both partially and wholly. For example, if one hopes that the Christ shall be for the salvation of the people, yet not for the salvation of souls, but for the restoration of the Jewish nation and its redemption, such a one believes not as much as he ought. And again, if one believes David saying, They pierced my hands and my feet, and the rest, as many things as he prophesies concerning the cross and the things on the cross, as from the person of the Lord, and receives the things concerning the passion, but reckons not the things concerning the resurrection, such as the saying, You shall not suffer your Holy One to see corruption, and, You will not leave my soul in Hades, and, Free among the dead, and, Bringing out them that are bound, and them that dwell in tombs, and such like — he has not perfect faith, but in part. But one must believe the prophets in all things, both those of dishonour, and those of glory. For Christ had to suffer this dishonour, but also to enter into his glory, this the glorious thing. But you are so senseless that, hearing Isaiah saying both — both that he was led to the slaughter, and that the Lord wills to show him light — you receive that, but reckon not this; and you believe that he is bruised, but consider not that the Lord wills to cleanse him from the stroke. But since, he says, you are senseless, or rather slow — for if they had been senseless, neither would he himself have spoken to them; but since you are slow, I will support your mind, and make it understand quickly. Wherefore also from Moses and from all the prophets he expounded to them. For the mystery of Abraham’s sacrifice — that, Isaac being let go, a ram was sacrificed — these things prefigured the things concerning the Lord, as the Lord himself says, that Abraham saw his day and was glad; and the saying, You shall see your life hanging before your eyes, shows at once both the crucifixion, by saying hanging, and the resurrection, by naming it the life. And in the rest of the prophecies the things concerning the cross and the resurrection lie scattered, and especially in the more conspicuous ones, and it is possible thence to gather these. And consider with me how, out of suffering hardship, comes the entering into glory. And he made as though he would go further, according to the human altogether. But when he permits it, then their eyes are opened, and they knew him. And he hints also something else, that to them that partake of the blessed bread the eyes are opened to know him. For the flesh of the Lord has great and unspeakable power. And he becomes invisible from them; for he no longer had such a body as to consort with them bodily for long, and that he might increase from this the more their longing. So then they rejoiced, so as to rise up the very hour, and return to Jerusalem — yet not at the very hour. For they rose up indeed at that hour, but returned after more, as many as it was likely for them to take, walking the distance of the sixty furlongs; in which the Master was surely also seen by Simon, in the midst, as they journeyed in their return. And their heart was burning, either by the fire of the words of the Lord — for as he expounded to them, they were inflamed, receiving his words as true; or because, as he expounded to them the Scriptures, they said, This that expounds to us is the Lord.

⁴ And as they thus spoke, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and says to them, Peace be to you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said to them, Why are you troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said to them, Have you here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them. And he said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. The Lord, who orders all things for our salvation, stands in the midst of the disciples, willing to give assurance of the resurrection. And first, by the customary greeting of peace, he stills their trouble, and at the same time shows that he is that same teacher of theirs, who rejoiced in this address, and armed them too with it, when he sent them to the preaching. And since by this word the trouble of their soul was not stilled, he shows them from another quarter that he is the Son of God, who knows the hearts. For why, he says, do thoughts arise in your hearts? and to know hearts is confessedly of God. He adds also another thing, the handling of the hands and the feet. For you, he says, think me to be a spirit, that is, a phantom, such as many of the dead are wont to appear, especially about the tombs; but know that the spirit has neither flesh nor bones; but I have both flesh and bones, though more divine and spiritual. For the body of the Lord was not spirit, but spiritual — that is, free from all grossness, ordered by the spirit. For the body we now have is animal — that is, ordered by the soul, and quickened by the natural and animal qualities and powers. But that after the resurrection Paul named spiritual — that is, quickened and ordered by the divine Spirit, and not by the soul, transelemented in an ineffable and spiritual manner to incorruption, and kept in this. Such, then, must one understand the body of the Lord to be after the resurrection: spiritual, and subtle, and free from all grossness, and needing neither food nor anything else, even if he ate for assurance. For when he ate, he ate not according to nature, but according to dispensation, that he might show that the very body which suffered rose. According to nature, however, this was proper to the body — to enter when the doors were shut, to pass without toil from place to place. Since, then, the disciples still disbelieved, and were not persuaded even from the handling, he adds another thing also, that of eating, the things eaten being consumed by a certain divine power. For everything that is naturally eaten passes through the mouth into the draught; but these were eaten not naturally, as we said, but by dispensation. And the things then eaten seem also to have some hidden meaning. For eating a piece of a broiled fish, he hints that, having melted our nature, which swims in this briny life, by the fire of his own Godhead, and dried up all the moisture it had from the depths of the waters, or rather of the waves, he made it a divine food, working the formerly abominable into a sweet food to God. For this, he says, the honeycomb hints — the present sweetness, I mean, of our formerly rejected nature. Or also this, I think, it hints: by the broiled fish, the practical virtue, which takes away from us much moisture and grossness through the help of the coals of the solitaries and quiet ones; and the knowledge, or contemplation, through the honeycomb, since the oracles of God are sweet. And there is a honeycomb, but drone-like — that of Greek wisdom; and there is a honeycomb of the bee — that of the divine wisdom; since Christ is the bee, small indeed in greatness (for the word is concise, and weak in might; for Paul preaches not in power of word, lest he make void the cross), yet sweet to them that bring their labours to soundness of soul.

⁵ Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry you in the city of Jerusalem, until you are endued with power from on high. And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen. When he had made peace, and settled their hearts by the things he said, by the things by which he was handled, by the things he ate, giving assurance of the true resurrection of his body, then he opened their understanding to understand the Scriptures. For unless their soul had been at leisure, how would it have known, being troubled, and not settled? For Be still, he says, and know. Wherefore also he teaches them that it was necessary that Christ so suffer — so, that is, by the cross of the tree; since through a tree came the destruction, it was necessary that through a tree also the corruption be undone, and that the Lord, passing unconquered through the pains on the tree, should abolish the pleasure that was on the tree, and then rise, he says, the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins be preached in his name to all the nations. He speaks here concerning baptism. For in it repentance comes to pass through the confession and putting off of the former wickednesses and impieties, and there follows the remission of sins. But how shall we understand baptism to be done in the name of Christ only, when we are elsewhere taught to perform it in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost? First, then, we say this, that when we say baptism is done in the name of Christ, we say not that it must be performed in the name of Christ only, but that the baptism of Christ — that with which Christ baptized — that is, the spiritual, not the Jewish, nor such as that of John, to repentance only, but that which gives the communion of the Holy Ghost and the remission of sins, such as he himself showed, being baptized for us in the Jordan, and showing the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove. Then understand the baptism in the name of Christ instead of, into the death of Christ. For as he, having died, rose the third day, so also we, being buried typically in the water, then come up incorruptible in our souls, and receiving the earnests of the incorruption of the body. And besides, the name Christ shows in itself both the Father who anointed, and the anointing, the Spirit, and the anointed Son. In the name of the Lord, remission of sins. Where henceforth are the filthy tongues of them that baptize into Montanus, and Priscilla, and Maximilla? Truly there is no such remission to them that are baptized by them, but rather an addition of sins comes upon them. These, then, perished miserably. And to all the nations the word went forth, beginning at Jerusalem. For our whole nature, being united and taken up in Christ, must no longer be divided into two parts, Hebrews and Gentiles, but the word must begin from Jerusalem and rest among the nations, making the nature one. And you, he says, are witnesses of these things — of the sufferings, of the resurrection. Then, lest they be troubled within themselves, and reckon, How shall we, unlearned men, bear witness, being sent to nations, and standing against the Jerusalemites that killed even you, Be of good cheer, he says, for this cause. For I will send presently the promise of my Father, which I spoke by Joel, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and so forth. Tarry you, then, you that are now cowardly and unmanly, until you are endued with power, not human, but heavenly. And he said not, Receive you, but, Be endued, hinting at the all-round guarding of the spiritual armour. And he led them out as far as to Bethany. This we shall understand to have come to pass on the fortieth day itself. For the things which these relate in epitome, understand you to come to pass in many days; as this same Luke says in the Acts, that he was seen of them forty days. For he often stood by, and stood away. And he blessed the disciples, perhaps both setting in them a guarding power until the coming of the Spirit, and perhaps also teaching us, when we go abroad, to commit those under us with blessings. And he was carried up into heaven. For of Elijah it is said, As into heaven; for he seemed as it were to be carried up into heaven; but the Saviour into heaven itself, the forerunner of all, has ascended, to appear with his holy flesh before the face of God, and to declare it enthroned together with the Father. And now is our nature in Christ worshipped by all the angelic power. And they returned with great joy, and were continually in the temple. Do you see virtue? Not yet the Spirit, and they live spiritually. For they that were before shut up, now pass their time in the midst of the chief priests, and nothing in them is worldly; but, despising all things, may we too, becoming imitators of them, passing our time in a holy life, continually bless God. For glory and blessing of God is glory to the ages. Amen.