Глава II.

John 2:1. And the Lord prepared a great fish so that it would swallow Jonah. LXX: And the Lord commanded the great whale, and it swallowed Jonah. The Lord commanded death and the underworld to receive the prophet. As much as death rejoiced at devouring him, considering him prey for a greedy mouth, she was just as sad at his eruption. Then what was written in Hosea was fulfilled: “I will be your death, death, I will be your sting, hell” (Hosea 13:14). In the Hebrew text we read “big fish”, instead of which LXX interpreters and the Lord in the Gospel (Matthew 12:40), more briefly expressing the essence of the matter, say “whale”. The Hebrew text says "dag gadol", that is, "big fish" but this, no doubt, means whale (cetum) 5. It should also be noted that where destruction was expected, there was salvation. Further, the word “prepared” either means that God created him at the beginning, about which the psalm writes: “this serpent, whom you created to curse him” (Psalm 103:26), or, perhaps, commanded him to come closer to the ship, accept the thrown Jonah into his bowels and, instead of death, provide him with refuge, so that the one who experienced the wrath of God on the ship would experience His goodness at death. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. LXX: And Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights. The Lord explained the mysterious meaning of this place in the Gospel (Matthew 12), and it would be superfluous to say either the same thing or something different than what was stated by the victim himself. We only ask: how did He stay in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights? Some divide παρασχευὴv (Friday) into two days and two nights, when, after the disappearance of the sun from the sixth hour to the ninth hour (Matthew 27:45), night followed day and, adding Saturday, they believe that this should count as three days and three nights; but we synecdochically (σινεχδοκιχῶς) understand the whole by the part, so that from the moment He 6 died, on Friday (έν παρασχευῆ) we count one day and night, another on Saturday 7, and the third night, numbered in the Lord's day 8, we refer to the beginning of the next day; because in the book of Genesis (chapter 1) the night refers not to the previous, but to the following day and constitutes the beginning of the future day, and not the end of the past. For greater clarity, I will express this more simply. Imagine that someone left one place at nine o'clock and the next day at three o'clock arrived at another place. If I say that he completed the journey in two days, then they cannot directly accuse me of lying due to the fact that this traveler did not spend all the hours on the journey, but only a certain part of each of the two days. At least it seems to me that there must be this kind of explanation. If anyone does not accept this and can better interpret this mysterious passage, then his explanation should be preferred. John 2:2–3. And Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, and said: LXX was translated in the same way, changing only the word order. If Jonah prefigures the Lord and, through his stay for three days and nights in the belly of the whale, indicates the suffering of the Savior, then his prayer must be a prototype (typus) of the Lord’s prayer. I am not unaware that some will find it incredible that a man could remain unharmed for three days and nights in the belly of a whale, as a result of which the storm subsided. These, of course, will be either true or false. If they are faithful, then all the more should they believe this, just as they should believe that the three youths, thrown into a fiery furnace, remained so unharmed that even their clothes were not touched by the smell of fire (Dan. 3), that the sea retreated and, like walls on both sides, remained motionless to make way for the people to pass (Exod. 14), that the lions, whose hunger increased their rage, looked with fear at their prey, as if possessing humanity mind, and did not touch her, etc. If they are infidels, then let them read the fifteen books of the Metamorphoses of Naso and the entire Greek and Latin history, and there they will see how Daphva turned into a laurel or the sisters of Phaetos into poplars, how Jupiter, their highest god, turned into a swan, poured out in the form of gold, took the form of a bull, and other fabulous tales, the vileness of which contradicts divine holiness. They believe this and say that with God all things are possible; but believing the dishonest and defending, in relation to this, the omnipotence of God, they deny this power in relation to the honest. As for the words: “And Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly” of the fish and said, we understand them in the sense that when Jonah realized that he remained unharmed in the belly of the whale, he did not despair of the Lord’s mercy, but turned entirely to prayer. For God, who said regarding the righteous: “I am with him in tribulation” (Psalm 90:15), and: “When he calls to Me, I will say: Here I am” (Is. 58:9), was with him, and the one to whom He listened can say: “You have spread me out in tribulation” (Psalm 4:2). John 2:3. I cried out to the Lord in my sorrow, and He heard me; from the belly of hell I called, and You heard my voice. LXX was translated in the same way, changing only the following: from the belly of hell You heard the voice of my cry. He did not say “I call,” but “I called,” and he does not pray for the future, but gives thanks for the past, showing us that from the time when he, being thrown into the sea, saw a whale, such a massive body and a huge mouth that swallowed him, he remembered the Lord and cried out, either because the waters receded and gave him the opportunity to cry, or because of the whole disposition of his heart, in accordance with the words of the Apostle: crying out in your hearts: “Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6). He cried out to the One who knows the hearts of men and who says to Moses: “Why do you cry to Me” (Ex. 14:15)? although Scripture does not mention that he cried out before this. Also in the first psalm of degrees we read: “When I was in sorrow, I cried to the Lord and heard me” (Psalm 119:1). By the belly of the underworld we can understand the belly of the whale, which is so large that it resembles the underworld. But this can be better attributed to the face of Christ, who, under the name of David, sings in the psalm: “Do not leave my soul in hell, let Your venerable one see corruption” (Psalm 15:10). Those who were alive in the underworld remained free among the dead. John 2:4. And he cast me into the depths, into the heart of the sea, and the stream surrounded me. LXX: You cast me into the depths of the heart of the sea, and the streams surrounded me. In relation to the face of Jonah, the explanation is not difficult: he was imprisoned in the belly of a whale, in the depths and among the sea and was surrounded by its waters. As for the Lord Savior, we will take an example from the sixty-eighth psalm, which says: “The coal-burner is deep in the dark and there is no stability; I came into the depths of the sea, and the storm drowned me” (Psalm 68:3), which is also stated in another psalm: “But you have rejected and humiliated, you have removed Your Anointed (Christum), you have ruined the covenant of Your servant, you have desecrated his shrine on the earth, you have destroyed all his strongholds” (Psalm. 88, 39–41) and so on. For in comparison with heavenly bliss and the place about which it is written: “His place is in the holy world” (Ps. 75:3), every earthly abode is full of waves, full of storms. Further, the heart of the sea means the underworld, instead of which in the Gospel we read: “into the hearts of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). Just as the heart is in the middle of an animal, so the underworld is in the middle of the earth. Or perhaps he is saying in a mysterious sense that he was in the heart of the sea, that is, in the midst of temptation. And although he was among bitter waters and was tempted in everything except sin (Heb. 4:15), he did not experience the bitterness of the waters, but was surrounded by a stream, about which in another place we read: “river streams make glad the city of God” (Psalm 45:5), and while others drink salty water, among temptations, he says, I drank completely sweet water. And don’t let it seem wicked to you that now the Lord says: “You have cast Me into the depths” - He who says in the psalm: “You have struck him down, you have driven them away” (Psalm 68:27), in accordance with what Zechariah says on behalf of the Father: “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered” (Zech. 13:7; Matt. 26, 31). All Your depths and Your waves passed over me. LXX: All Your waves and waters passed over me. That rising sea waves passed over Jonah and a fierce storm broke out, no one doubts this. But we ask: how did all the rising abysses and waves of God pass over the Savior? “Temptation... the life of man on earth” (Job 7:1) or, as it stands in Hebrew, “warfare,” because we are fighting here in order to be crowned somewhere else. For there is no man who could endure all temptations, except Him who, like us, was tempted in all things, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). Therefore, it is said to the Corinthians: “temptation has not reached you, but only men; But God is faithful, who will not leave you to be tempted more than you can, but will also create an abundance with temptation, so that you are able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13). And since all persecutions and everything that happens do not happen without the will of God, the deeps and waves that did not swallow Jesus, but passed over him, are called God’s, only threatening ruin, and not causing it. Thus, all the persecutions and storms that depressed the human race and from which ships were wrecked, He says, broke out over my head. But I braved the storms and crushed the fierce winds so that others could sail more safely. John 2:5. And I said: I am rejected from the contemplation of Thy eyes. LXX: I said: I am rejected from Your eyes. Before I cried out in my sorrow and You heard me, because I took on the form of a servant, becoming like him in his weakness, I said: “I am rejected from the contemplation of Your eyes.” When I was with You and used Your light and was light in Your (or in You) light, then I did not say: “I am rejected.” But when I descended into the depths of the sea and took on human flesh, then, imitating the state of people, I say: “I am rejected from the contemplation of Thy eyes.” I said this as a man; but as God and as being in Your image and not considering it robbery to be equal with You (Phil. 2). I, wanting to bring the human race to You, so that where I and You are, there will be all those who have believed in Me and You, I say to them this: h5 However, I will see Your holy church again. LXX: Shall I not see again (putasne addam, ut uideam) Your holy church? The Greek word ἆπα, instead of which in the generally accepted edition (vulgata) stands putas 9), can be translated through “therefore” 10, so that it serves, as it were, to designate the last conclusion or conclusion from the second premise and from the evidence of the syllogism - a conclusion deduced without doubt and hesitation, but with confidence and conviction. Instead, we translated: “however, I will see your holy church again,” in accordance with the fact that on behalf of Him 11 in another psalm it says: “Lord! I loved the beauty of Your house and the dwelling place of Your glory" (Psalm 25:8), and in accordance with the Gospel reading, in which it is written: "Glorify Me, O Father, with the glory from You, which I had before the world was not" (John 17:5), to which the Father answered from heaven: "And I have glorified, and again I will glorify" (John 12, 28). Or, perhaps, since it reads: “The Father is in Me and I am in the Father” (John 14:11), then just as the Son is the church of the Father, so the Father is the church of the Son. For He himself says: “I... departed from the Father and came back” (John 16:27–28), and: “The Word was to God, and God was the Word” (John 1:1). Or the same Savior, as man asks, and as God, promises and expresses confidence regarding what He has always possessed. In relation to the face of Job, as someone who desires or firmly believes, this can be understood in this way: he, being in the depths of the sea, wanted to see the church of the Lord and with the prophetic spirit stayed in another place and contemplated another (or in another place). John 2:6. The waters enveloped me to my soul, the abyss surrounded me. LXX: Water spilled around me until I reached my soul, the final abyss surrounded me. These waters, close to the abyss, flowing in the earth, heading down and carrying a lot of dirt with them, tend to kill not the body, but the soul, because they are favorable to the body and favor its passions. Therefore, as we said above, the Lord says in the psalm: “Save me, O Lord, as water came down into my soul” (Psalm 68:2), and in another place: “The stream has passed over our soul” (Psalm 123:4) and: “Let not... let a peer speak of me with his mouth” and let not the underworld block me (Psalm 68:16); let her not deny Me a way out, because I descended of my own free will, I will ascend of my own free will, I came voluntarily as a captive, I must free the captives in fulfillment of the words: “I ascended... on high, I captivated... captivity” (Psalm 67:19; Eph. 4:8); powers or authorities that are devoted to committing torment and punishment and to which the demons themselves ask in the Gospel (Luke 8) not to remove them. Sometimes the abyss is understood in the sense of secrets, the deepest understanding and judgments of God: “the destinies of the Lord are many in the abyss” (Psalm 35:7) and: “the abyss calls forth the abyss in the voice of Your abyss” (Psalm 41:8). John 2:6–7. The sea covered my head. I descended to the foundations of the mountains; The faiths of the earth blocked me forever. LXX: My head reached the clefts of the mountains. I descended into the land whose ropes are eternal locks No one doubts that the sea covered the head of Jonah, that he descended to the foundations of the mountains and reached to the depths of the earth, as if to the faiths and pillars on which, by the will of God, the globe of the earth rests, which is said in another place: “I established its pillars” (Psalm 74:4). In relation to the Lord the Savior, according to both editions, this can, it seems to me, be understood as follows. The most important part (progincipale) or His head, that is, the soul, which together with the body He deigned to receive for the sake of our salvation, descended into the clefts of the mountains, which were covered with waves, which moved away from heavenly freedom, which were surrounded by the abyss and which were separated from the greatness of God, and then also descended into the underworld - into those places where, as if into the depths and filth of sins, souls were carried away, as one might say psalmist: “They will go down into the depths of the earth,... parts of the fox will be” (Psalm 63:10–11). They serve as ropes of the earth and, as it were, as a kind of constipation, in the most remote places of imprisonment and punishment, preventing captive souls from leaving the underworld. Therefore, LXX was translated with special expressiveness: χάτοχοι αἰώνιαι (or χατόχους αἰωνίους), that is: they forever want to retain those whom they have once mastered. But our Lord, about whom under the name Cyrus we read in Isaiah: “I will break the gates of copper and break the iron ropes” (Is. 45:2), descended to the foundations of the mountains and was barred by eternal ropes in order to free all prisoners. But You, Lord my God, will raise my life from corruption. LXX: But may my life arise from corruption, O Lord my God. It is said in the proper sense: “you will raise up” or “let my life arise from corruption,” because He descended to corruption and to the underworld. This has the same meaning as the words of the fifteenth psalm, which the apostles explain as a prophecy about the Lord: “For thou hast not left my soul in hell, let Thy venerable one see corruption” (Psalm 15:10; Acts 13:35–37), because David died and was buried, but the body of the Savior did not see corruption. Others explain this in such a way that, in comparison with heavenly bliss and the word of God, the human body, which is sown in corruption (1 Cor. 15:42), is corruption, and that in the hundred and second psalm, in relation to the righteous, this is indicated: “he who heals all your ailments, who delivers your life from corruption (or from destruction)” (Psalm 103:3-4). Therefore, the apostle says: “I am a damned man: who can deliver me from this body of death” (Rom. 7:24)? It is precisely called the body of death or the body of humiliation. They apply this explanation to their heresy, wanting to falsely present the Antichrist under the image of Christ and dominate the churches in order to fatten the belly and, leading a carnal life, reason against the flesh. But we know that the body received from the immaculate Virgin was not corruption, but the church of Christ. If we turn to the judgment of the apostle in the letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15:44), where the body is called spiritual, then, so as not to seem inclined to debate words, we will say that the same body and the same flesh is resurrected that was buried and committed to the earth; it changes only glory, but does not change its nature: for it must be that this corruptible should put on incorruption, and that this mortal should put on immortality (1 Cor. 15:53). When “this” is said, it is as if the fingers are pointing to the body; this in which we are born, this in which we die, this which those subject to punishment are afraid to accept, this which virginity awaits as retribution for itself and which adultery fears as punishment. In relation to Jonah, this can be understood as follows: being in the belly of a whale, he, in accordance with the nature of bodies, should have undergone decay, turned into food for this animal and scattered through its members, but he remained safe and sound. The words: “Lord my God” express a feeling of deep devotion, so that, as a result of great good deeds, he looks upon the God common to all as his own God. John 2:8. When my soul was overcome with sorrow, I remembered the Lord. LXX: When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord. When, he says, I did not hope for any other help, then the remembrance of the Lord was my salvation according to the following words: “I remembered the Lord and were glad” (Psalm 76:4). And in another place: “I remembered the days of old... and thought about eternal years” (Psalm 142:5, 77:6). When I, being in the belly of a whale, despaired of salvation and when the weakness of the body did not allow any hopes for life, then everything that seemed impossible was overcome through the memory of the Lord. I saw myself imprisoned in the belly of a whale and placed all my hope in the Lord. From here we learn that when our soul, as in the translation of LXX, becomes weak and is torn away from the bodily components, then our thought must turn only to the One who remains our Lord when we are both in the body and outside the body. It is not difficult. explain this in relation to the face of the Savior, who said: “My soul is sorrowful unto death” (Matthew 26:38); “Father..., if it be possible, let this cup pass by from Me” (Matthew 26:39); “In Your hands I commend My spirit” (Luke 23:46) and so on. So that my prayer reaches You, Your holy church. LXX was translated in a similar way. In sorrow I remember the Lord so that my prayer from the bottom of the sea and from the clefts of the mountains reaches the sky and reaches Your holy church, in which You enjoy eternal bliss. Also worthy of attention is the fact that prayer is performed for prayer: he prays that his prayer will reach the church of God. He asks, as a high priest, that the people may be saved in his body. John 2:9. Those who keep vain things in vain will leave (or abandon) their mercy. LXX: Those who preserve vain and false things have abandoned their mercy. God is by nature merciful and ready in goodness to save those whom he cannot save in justice; but through our own fault we lose and abandon the always ready and self-offering mercy of God. He said not: “those who do vain things,” for “vanity of vanities, all kinds of vanity,” (Eccl. 1:2), so that it would not seem that everyone is condemned and that mercy is denied to the entire human race, but: “those who keep vain things” or “false things,” who devote themselves to this with heartfelt passion, - who not only do, but also keep vain things, loving them and considering them as if they had been found. treasure. At the same time, pay attention to the greatness of the prophet’s soul: being in the depths of the sea, being surrounded by constant darkness in the belly of such a monster, he does not think about his own danger, but indulges in general discussions about nature. “They will leave,” he says, “their mercy.” Although mercy was insulted, by which we can understand God himself, for “the Lord is generous and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in mercy” (Ps. 142:8), however, it does not abandon those who keep vain things, does not turn away from them, but awaits their conversion; but they of their own free will abandon mercy, which waits and offers itself to them. This can also be attributed to the face of the Lord, as a prophecy about the treachery of the Jews, who, considering themselves to be keeping the commandments of men and the rules of the Pharisees, which constitute vanity and lies, abandoned God, who always had mercy on them. John 2:10. And with a voice of praise I will offer You a sacrifice; what I promised... I will repay the Lord for salvation. LXX: And I will offer You a sacrifice with a voice of praise and confession; what I promised, I will repay You, the Lord, for salvation. Those who keep vain things have abandoned their mercy, and I, who was consumed for the salvation of many, with a voice of praise and confession, will make a sacrifice to You, offering myself, “for our Passover was devoured by Christ” (I Cor. 5:7). And, like a true high priest and lamb, He offered Himself for us. And I confess, he says, You, as I confessed before, saying: “Confess the Father, Lord of heaven and earth” (Matthew 11:25), and I will fulfill the vows that. I gave to the Lord for the salvation of everyone, so that everything that You gave Me would not perish forever (John 6:39). We see what the Savior promised during His suffering for the sake of our salvation; Let us try so that Jesus is not deceived in us; So, let us be clean and far from all sinful filth, so that He may offer us as the promised sacrifice to God the Father. John 2:11. And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah onto dry land. LXX: And the Lord commanded the whale, and it cast Jonah onto dry land. This is what, as we read above, under the image of Jonah the Lord prayed in the belly of the whale, about which Job mysteriously says: “Let him curse that day that shall overcome the great whale” (Job 3:8). Thus, this great whale, the abysses and the underworld are commanded to return the Savior to the earth, so that He who was dead would free those who were bound by the bonds of death, and bring out very many with Him to life. As for the word “monster” (evomuit), we must understand it as used emphatically (ἐμφατιχώτεπον) in the sense that life emerged victoriously from the depths of death. However, the word setus χῆτος means not only a whale, but also any large sea animal. It is the night from Friday to Saturday. Rutasne actually means: don't you think? The word ἆρα also serves as an interrogative particle and means: whether or not. You might be interested in: