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An exact study of why the blessed Baptist is called from Christ not only a lamp, but a burning and shining one Having just finished writing the second book and having sailed across the wide and deep sea of Divine contemplations, thus having already calculated to reach the end as a kind of pier and, as it were, mooring a boat to the land, we perceive the beginning of another sea, that is, a movement towards further sayings (of the Gospel), which (movement) must be carried out by us with all diligence, which is required by the very purpose of the subject and to which the saying of a certain (the sage) that “the fruit of good labor is blessed” (Wis.3:15). And so, rising again into a bold mood of spirit, let us give control of us to a good and humane God. Having unfurled, like a sail, the breadth of mind and having the grace of the Spirit like a fair breeze from the stern, let us go out into deep search, for Christ is “who gives a way in the sea and a path in the water” (Is. 43:16). The second book ended with the saying: “I do not receive testimony from man, but I say this so that you may be saved” (John 5:34). Let us begin the third with the words of Christ that follow in order about the holy Baptist. John 5:35. He is not a lamp that burns and shines: but you will want to rejoice at the hour of his illumination 428 He likens the holy Baptist to a lamp, since he, according to the inherent strength of human nature, shone before His coming, however, using not his own light, for the lamp does not have its own light, but is communicated and brought in from outside. The same illumination from Christ in the spirit can be seen in the saints, which is why, thinking and acting very prudently, they themselves confess with their own voice, “that of His fullness we have all received” (John 1:16). This is because light by nature is the Only Begotten as shining from the light, that is, from the essence of the Father. Creation participates in Him, like everything that has the ability to reason and think, it is, as it were, a vessel for filling with Divine light, excellently constructed by the Most Perfect Artist of everything, God. So, according to the reasoning already given, the lamp is the blessed Baptist. Saying this, the Savior prudently calls on the foolish Pharisees to remember the words of God and the Father, who speaks about Him in one place: “I have prepared a lamp for Christ (anointed - “glory”) for Mine” (Ps. 131:17). And it is very useful and necessary that Christ now adds this to what has already been said. Since He, excluding any reason for the disobedience of the Jews and in every possible way attracting them to faith in Himself, seemed to agree to not accept the testimony of him (the Baptist) in the words: “But I do not receive testimony from man,” so that they would not think that the Lord really and truly talks about the Forerunner in exactly the same way as the outward appearance of the speech, he usefully cites in the present case not Himself as saying anything about him, but (Psalmist), exclaiming the words of the Father. He thought that, at least out of reverence for God and the Father, the enemy should be ashamed, or even more clearly turn out to be a fighter against God, as soon as he shamelessly rebels against even the very words of God and the Father. So, “there was,” he says, “he is a lamp, but you wished to rejoice for an hour in his light.” It was necessary not only to show that the Pharisees easily shirk their duty and, due to the great wickedness of their morals, push away the desire to believe, but also to expose them that they are fickle and completely unaccustomed to diligently striving for good, and having barely tasted and praised those who seemed venerable in mere words, they did not hesitate to quickly switch to the opposite mood. This, I believe, means “to wish for an hour to rejoice in its light.” After all, at first they were amazed at the holy Baptist as an ascetic, as a lover of God, as an example of all piety, but honoring him with their surprise, they insult him and cannot bear his words: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of your God.” Apparently they find themselves doing this out of disobedience. Having, as I assume, preserved the generally accepted and usual way of interpreting the proposed saying, we have thus already outlined, to the best of our ability, its meaning. But since the Savior’s word turns out to captivate us to deep reflection and force us, as it were, to touch upon more acute thoughts, denoting that John was not just a “lamp”, but also “burning and shining,” we consider it necessary, more accurately delving into the meaning of what was said, to explore the beauty of the truth. Let us again bring to our attention the saying: “he was a lamp,” he says. It was enough through this alone to point to the Holy Baptist for the listeners to come to an understanding of the prophecy about him, which reads like this: “I have prepared a lamp for My Christ” (Ps. 132:17). And since “burning and shining” is added to the word “lamp”, it obviously elevates the listener not only to the saying of the prophet, but also to some kind of subordinate prototype, as in the image and shadow of the illumination of John, which he perfectly accomplished, testifying about the Lord Christ. Likewise, the Pharisees, who were constantly occupied with the sayings of Moses and considered themselves wise men, are again exposed in ignorance and in the fact that they are more apparently wise men than actually lawyers. This is the whole purpose of the saying. But, I believe, we should, turning to Divine revelation itself, clarify that the blessed Baptist was not just a “lamp,” but also a “burning and shining one.” So, when God gave commands regarding the holy tabernacle, after the construction of the ten veils, he said to the high priest Moses: “And you command the children of Israel, and let them take for you oil from olives, without sediment, pure, pressed, to kindle the light, so that the lamp may always burn in the tabernacle of the testimony outside the veil that is over the Covenant: Aaron and his sons will light it from evening to morning before the Lord - (this is) an everlasting law throughout your generations from the children of Israel; and you shall bring to you Aaron your brother and his sons, from the children of Israel to serve as priests to Me” (Ex. 27:20–28, 1). Let the Divine Revelation stop here, and let us move on to a feasible explanation of it. Pure and unstrained oil seems to denote the purest and most perfect nature of the Holy Spirit, which, entering us in a way incomprehensible to us, like oil, nourishes, supports and multiplies the illumination in our soul, as if found in a lamp. So the divine Baptist, we believe, shone with the light of testimony about our Savior, not henceforth receiving the power of light-guiding, as through mental oil, capable and suitable for kindling the Divine light in us, to which the Savior Himself secretly pointed out in the words: “I have come to bring fire to the earth and how I would like it to be kindled already!” (Luke 12:49). So, the blessed Baptist was a “lamp,” always in the tabernacle of testimony, as again in the type, “burning and shining.” That he shines in the tabernacle of testimony, this perfectly indicates that illumination from him is accepted in churches and it should not be outside the sacred and Divine courtyard of the Savior. However, the lamp turns out to be outside the veil, which indicates that he (the Baptist) must bring only the simplest and preliminary illumination, saying: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17), but he does not reveal anything hidden inside the veil, obviously from the secrets of our Savior, for he did not baptize into the communion of the Holy Spirit and did not bring illumination from Him inside the veil, but was in the outer (the first) tabernacle, “which still had standing” (Heb. 9:8), according to the word of Paul 429. If he says that “Aaron and his sons will burn it from evening until morning before the Lord - (this is) an everlasting law throughout your generations,” then these words, I think, should be interpreted in a similar way. Aaron and his sons mean those who officiated in their time in the churches, that is, teachers in them and ministers of the Divine altars. They are commanded to always keep the mental lamp, that is, John, shining, as indicated by the words: “they will light it from evening until morning.” After all, all the time during which the light of the lamp should have shone is the duration of the night through which the measure of the present age is marked - and by light we mean the future age. However, the lamp burns or remains shining, giving His illumination always pleasant to those who believe in Christ, and through the voice of the serving priests, each in his own time, we testify that he who says this is true. And in order to teach you that through this he prefigured the Savior’s forerunner, God immediately adds the election of priests. Consider the entire content of the chapter, and you will again come to what seems to me to be an unfruitful contemplation. At the completion of the tabernacle, the ordinance of the lampstand is given, after which immediately follows the election and appointment of priests. This is because at the end of the law and the prophets, the Forerunner “the voice of one crying in the wilderness,” as it is written: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God” (Is. 40:3; Matt. 3:3), after which immediately followed the election and announcement through Christ of the holy Apostles, for the Lord chose “twelve, whom He also called Apostles” ( Luke 6:13). Having finished our discussion about the lamp, let us turn again to the saying of the Savior: “he was a lamp,” he says, “burning and shining, but you wanted to rejoice for an hour in his light.” He again accuses and denounces the ignorant and stubborn attitude towards obedience on the part of the Pharisees, as suffering from incomparable rudeness - who were not able to understand even what was proclaimed by experts, and turned out to be very far from accurate jurisprudence, completely unaware of what the Lawgiver, as in images, ordained through Moses. With the words: “He was a lamp, burning and shining,” in our opinion, he shames those who have not yet understood what has long been written in secret in the prototypes of the law. And in the words: “You wished to rejoice for an hour in its light” - again he represents them as always preferring their will to a higher decision and accustomed to following only their own desires. While the Legislator, he says, decreed that the lamp should always shine and burn, “you wished” it to burn not forever, but “for one hour,” that is, for the slightest time. Having been surprised by him at first, you, as far as it concerned you, extinguished the light of the lamp, madly rebelling against the one sent from God and not only refusing to be baptized yourself, but also preventing others from being baptized. So, they sent to him, saying: “Why are you baptizing?” (John 1:25), - that is: why do you enlighten to repentance and the knowledge of Christ? So, struggling again for John, the Savior accuses the foolish scribes and Pharisees of stupidity and lawlessness. This, I think, having understood and perfectly analyzed, blessed Luke accuses them of madness, saying: “And all the people, having heard, obviously the words of the Savior, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John: but the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God from themselves, not being baptized by him” (Luke 7:29-30). John 5:36–37. And I am a witness greater than John: for the works which the Father hath given me, that I may do, the works which I do testify of me, that the Father hath sent me. And the Father who sent Me bears witness to Me 430 Although he was, he says, a lamp, typified in the decrees of the law and foreshadowed by the voice of the holy prophets, as having once appeared to pre-rise the True Light and proclaim among us that it is fitting to make the way of the Lord and God well-ordered, but if even one who is so great in virtue may seem unreliable to you, due to the unbridled and most absurd recklessness inherent in you, then I’m moving on to something more, to which you, naturally, should no longer raise any objection, being ashamed, even against your will, before the very beauty of the truth. I am no longer glorified by words and human decisions, and I will not consider it necessary to collect evidence about Myself from words alone, but I will present Myself to the most wonderful and much greater than what has been said, and from the very greatness of my deeds I clearly reveal that I am God by nature and came from God the Father; I do not cause any harm to My laws if I transform them according to My will and transform what was secretly said by the ancients from a crude letter into spiritual contemplation. Let the inquisitive one again turn his attention to the fact that the Savior, in his words about the testimony of works in favor of His Divine nature, clearly teaches that it would be unacceptable for anyone to have the power and effectiveness entirely appropriate to God if He Himself were not God by nature, for He is testified through works in no other way, I think, but in this very same way. After all, if He is the Performer of the works of the Parent and that which turns out to be completely befitting of Him alone, He also fulfills this with His own power, then shouldn’t it be clear to everyone that He has inherited a nature identical with Him and, shining with the properties of the Parent, as being from Him, has equal strength and effectiveness with Him? However, from Him, he says, he received deeds: either in the image of humanity and the image of a servant, saying this as if more humiliatingly than it should be, and economically, or by the name of giving, denoting the favor and consent of God and the Father in all wonderful deeds. Thus, He also affirms that He was sent as “having humbled Himself” 431, according to what is written (Phil. 2:7), for the sake of love for us, in relation to the dignity truly due to God. He humbled Himself, and we can find this humiliation of humiliation in no other way than in those in which He sometimes spoke as a man. In agreement with this, through the Psalmist, what was said from Him again for our sake in human form: “But I have been appointed king by Him over Zion, His holy mountain, to proclaim the commandment of the Lord” (Ps. 2:6-7). Being a king always with the Father, co-throne and co-seated with Him, like God with God the Parent, He, he says, was ordained as King and Lord, calling him the recipient of what God had when He appeared as a man, who by nature is not inclined to reign, but both the name and the work of dominion are, of course, only given to him from thereafter. About the fact that the Son is the image of God and the Father, and (is given) a reproof against the Jews as not understanding what Moses said more covertly John 5:37–38. You have neither heard His voice anywhere, nor seen His vision: and His word is not abiding in you, because He was His messenger, For this you do not have faith 432 It is not just the simple construction of thoughts embedded in the speech proposed again that can be seen here, but a great many hidden contemplations that very easily escape the attention of incurious listeners, and are accessible only to deeper researchers. For example, someone may ask: what prompted Jesus, after speaking about the testimony of His Divine efficacy (vv. 36-37), to come to a speech similar to that proposed and very distant from the previous one, namely, that the Pharisees had never heard the “voice” of God and the Father, nor had they beheld “His form,” but did not even have “the word” of Him living in them? And I agree, as I believe everyone else does, that such bewilderment on the part of anyone would not be unnecessary. What meaning, therefore, we will connect with the proposed saying and what speculation we will apply to it, this, adhering to the truth throughout, I will try to express, with the assistance of the power and grace of the Spirit. It is the custom of the Savior Christ, when conducting useful conversations, especially with foolish Pharisees, to often direct His gaze into the depths of their hearts - to divinely discern thoughts that are still turning and moving in the soul without words, and primarily to give answers to them, sometimes speak about them and denounce them, and does not at all observe the inextricable connection of his sayings, but (with His answer) immediately meets what they desire and what they think about in themselves, and through this also revealing that He is God by nature, as knowing the unseen in the depths and searching the hearts and wombs. The most obvious proof of what has been said can, if anyone wants, be obtained from other Evangelists - I mean from Luke and others. The Gospels say that Jewish Pharisees and teachers of the law once gathered from all over the area. “And behold, it is said, the men were carrying a man who was paralyzed on a bed, and they tried to carry him in and lay him down before Him. And not finding where to bring him in, because of the crowd, they came up to the house and through the tiles (roofs) they lowered him with his bed 433 into the middle before Jesus. And seeing their faith, he said to the paralytic: Man, your sins are forgiven you. And the scribes and Pharisees began to ponder, saying: Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins except God alone? Jesus, it is said, understood their thoughts and answered and said to them: Why are you pondering in your hearts? Which is more convenient to say: your sins are forgiven you, or to say: get up and walk” (Luke 5:17–23; cf. Matthew 9:2ff.; Mark 2:3ff.). “It happened on another Saturday that He entered the synagogue and taught. And there was a man there, and his right hand was withered. The scribes and Pharisees watched Him to see if He would heal on the Sabbath, in order to find an accusation against Him. He knew, it is said, their thoughts and said to the man who had a withered hand: rise up and stand in the middle. And he rebelled. Jesus said to them, “I ask you: Should you do good on the Sabbath or do evil?” (Luke 6:6–9; cf. Matt. 12:9ff.; Mark 3:1ff.). You see, here again he openly conducted a conversation as one who looked into the very heart of those who were madly trying to accuse Him. We assume that the Savior saw the same something in the souls of the Pharisees when pronouncing the interpreted words. If you are not too lazy to review everything that has already been said, you will see that these words do not deviate from the straight path or state of affairs. At first there was a large and long speech against them about being healed on the Sabbath, in which Christ, through various proofs and reasoning, especially through violating, from their point of view, the honor of the Sabbath, or even through breaking the law itself, tried to convince those who were greatly indignant at Him for such a violation of the Sabbath, that on the Sabbath one can have mercy and do good to everyone - and besides (he tried to convince that) the law established the Sabbath rest as a shadow of the most wonderful subject - and also very decisively asserted that He was sent from God and the Father, and at the same time clearly said that He testifies of Him and will be pleased with all His deeds. It was against this that the Pharisees, as adherents of the letter of the law, who always paraded the commandments of Moses and boasted of their knowledge, in all likelihood, again thought within themselves: what kind of speech is this (we hear) from Him? How will God and the Father favor a lawbreaker? And when did He testify to this or what decision did He make about Him? After all, from the Law of Moses we know that God descended on Mount Sinai, His appearance was visible to the fathers, His voice was heard, it is said (Ex. 19:9 et al.). He spoke to the entire assembly (of the people), commanded them to observe the Sabbath day, clearly commanding the following: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: six days you shall do it, and you will complete all your work, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath (rest) holy to the Lord your God: on it you shall not do any work” (Ex. 20:8-10). It is said that we did not hear these words from anyone else, but all the many fathers personally heard the Divine voice, and after them we have the word of God. And who is this? Since He again saw such their thoughts, He denounces those who are bitterly mistaken, saying: “You have never heard His voice, nor beheld His form, and you do not have His words abiding in you: because Whom He sent, Him you do not believe.” After all, what was then in the prototype and through which the descent of God on Mount Sinai seemed to them, again completely unaware of this, they did not take for images of spiritual objects, but thought that the Divine nature could actually be visible with bodily eyes, and believed that She uses a bodily voice. That the Savior’s word about them was true, namely: “they never heard a voice” from God and the Father, nor with bodily vision did anyone contemplate “His form,” that is, the Word similar to Him in everything - this, in my opinion, can again be clearly proven by the words of the book of Exodus, with their spiritual explanation and study. It reads like this: “And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain (Sinai). Mount Sinai was all smoking, because God descended on it in fire, and the smoke rose up like the smoke of a furnace: and all the people were greatly terrified. And the sounds of a trumpet were heard, very loud. Moses spoke, but God answered him with a voice” (Ex. 19:17–19). This is what the words of the wise Moses tell us. Now, I believe, it is necessary to show that the Jews fell into a ridiculous opinion about God and thought that they contemplated His very “appearance” and heard the voice truly inherent in the Divine nature. So, relying on the generous grace of the Savior, let us try to refine the roughness of the letter of the law into spiritual contemplation, for then with particular clarity what was said to the Pharisees about God will turn out to be true, that “you have never heard His voice, nor have you beheld His form.” Moses' bringing the people to meet God, as it is written, could be a clear sign and, as it were, a speech in the form of a riddle that no one can approach God without instruction and knowledge, but that only those guided by the law learn to know what they are seeking, for Moses can be understood instead of the law, according to what was said in one place: “they have Moses and the prophets” (Luke 16:29). The standing (of the people) under the mountain, when God had already descended and was on it, indicates the readiness of the soul and the willingness to serve as slaves of those who are called, who do not in any way shy away from striving for what is beyond their strength and above nature, with the assistance of God. These, without a doubt, are the accomplices of the Savior. Therefore, caring for superhuman courage, they say: “Who would separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” ( Rom. 8:35 .) The godly can endure all horrors for the love of Christ. And if sorrow rises like a mountain, they will overcome every danger and will not turn the soul away from the love of God. It is then said that God did not descend into some low-lying area, but appears again on heights and mountains, so that you would think something similar in relation to yourself, that is: if the Divine nature, descending on our souls, brings Himself to us to some kind of understanding, but at the same time remains infinitely above our words and contemplations. This height and sublimity of the dogmas about Her is signified by the mountain, which, we are told, was blackened with smoke. And indeed, our speeches about the Divine are dark and not very clear, clouding the mental eye like smoke. Therefore, the wise Paul testified that we see in the mirror and in the riddle (1 Cor. 13:12). Obviously, God laid the darkness as His cover (Ps. 17:12), the Psalmist also says in one place, by the name of darkness meaning His unknowability, for the image of which one can easily take the smoke near the fire on the mountain. The Divinity itself descends in the form of fire, which was especially necessary at that time and was necessarily required by the nature of the matter. Yes, it was truly fitting that the One who, through the upcoming definition of the law, called Israel to slavery and understanding, turned out to be the Enlightener and the Punisher. And both are accomplished through fire. But “the sounds, it is said, of trumpets were heard, resounding very loudly,” so that here the same kind of thoughts would arise. After all, the law was proclaimed by God, but at first not strongly, due to the weakness of those brought up, but, so to speak, quietly and not with the full force of the trumpet. That is why Moses called himself tongue-tied. With the passage of time, which raised believers in Christ from the highest letter to spiritual service, the incomparably powerful voices of the Divine trumpet were heard, that is, the saving and evangelical sermon, which in some way announced the entire universe. Not as the law, weakly spoken and little known, was heard in the land of Judea alone, or even proclaimed from Dan to Beersheba, but their message went out throughout the whole earth, as it is written (Ps. 18:5). What else is there? “Moses,” it is said, “said, but God answered him with a voice.” Let the inquisitive minds again be perceptive, let them accurately observe the fidelity inherent in Divine Revelations. After all, Moses speaks, and God answers him with a voice, not His voice, of course - this is not said - but (said) simply and without any definitions “with a voice - φωνῇ”, published miraculously in a human way through the utterance of words. And truly, how can God be powerless in any matter? What will not God do, and, moreover, completely unhindered, if He wishes? So, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. This is the prototype. Now let's look at the truth. Thus, in the Holy Gospels you find the Lord saying: “Father, glorify Your Son!”, and the Father answering through his voice: “And I have glorified, and I will glorify again” (John 12:28). That in reality the voice of God and the Father was not, the Savior showed, saying to those present then: “This voice was not made for my sake, but for your sake” (John 12:30). As you see, he clearly expressed how the γεγονεν 434 voice “came about,” since it is not natural to think that Divine Nature (Herself) uses a voice through sound, although it conforms to our needs (taking on an outwardly human form) and speaks like us for providential purposes. We considered it necessary to bring these contemplations back into our present discussion. Thus, we think, Jesus, without a doubt, should appear to readers expressing the truth when he turns out to be speaking to the Jews about His Parent: “You have never heard His voice, nor have you beheld His form, and you do not have His words abiding in you, because Whom He sent, Him you do not believe.” And that the Pharisees, inflated with absurd pride, imagined that the Divine word was with them and with them, and therefore insanely considered themselves to have achieved wonderful wisdom - the Spirit Himself will testify to this when Christ speaks to them 435 through the prophet Jeremiah: “How can you say that we are wise, and the Word (glory: “law”) of the Lord is with us? The lying reed of the scribes became in vain, the wise men were put to shame, they were confused and caught - what wisdom is there in them? Because they rejected the word of the Lord” (Jer.8:8-9). In fact, will they not find themselves rejecting the living and hypostatic Word of God, not accepting faith in Him, but having dishonored the Image of God and the Father and refusing to contemplate the truest, as it were, “His Form” through divine power and strength? After all, the Divine and ineffable Nature cannot be accessible to our perception except through the works that She performs and produces. This is why blessed Paul commands us to move from the greatness and beauty of creatures accordingly (to this) to the contemplation of the Creator (Rom. 1:20; cf. Wis. 13:5). Likewise, the Savior guides us to knowledge about Himself in the words: “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; But if I do, then when you do not believe Me, believe My works” (John 10:37-38). And once he accused, and of course rightly, his disciple - Philip - who unreasonably imagined that otherwise (except through vision) it was impossible to come to the contemplation of God and the Father, although he had the power to consider the true Image, accurately showing the Parent in Himself. That is why he said: “I have been with you for so long, and you have not known Me, Philip! He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). John 5:39–40. Test the Scriptures, for in them you remember to have eternal life: and this is the essence that testifies of Me: and you do not want to come to Me, but have life 436 The usual, generally accepted and well-known meaning of this saying makes us think that in the form of a command our Savior said to the Pharisees that, by studying the Divine Scriptures, they should collect testimonies about Him to life. But since, having placed a conjunction in the middle, I mean “and,” it adds the words “you do not want to come to Me,” then, obviously, it must already indicate something else, although related to what was said, but also having some slight difference. After all, if it was to be understood in the sense of a command, then shouldn’t we argue that then the whole saying must have, for example, the following form: “Search the Scriptures, because in them you think that you have eternal life and they testify about Me; having searched, come to Me.” But (instead) He accuses them as not wanting to come (to Him), although through research and guided to this, saying: “and you do not want to come to Me.” So, taking a meaning more fruitful and corresponding to the previous words, let us read it not in the form of a command, but rather in the form of a recognition and instruction. Therefore, the meaning of the saying will be like this... Since He saw that they constantly turn to the writings of Moses and from there ignorantly collect reasons for contradictions, but do not look for or accept anything else that could give them faith, therefore, again, of necessity, he reveals to them the futility and uselessness of the work of such research and clearly exposes them that they are not properly trying to use such a great and most useful subject. Indeed, what is the benefit, tell me, in the fact that the Divine, he says, “search the Scriptures,” thinking through them to enter into “eternal life.” But when you find them “testifying about Me” and calling Me eternal life, then “you do not want to come to Me that you may have life.” Thus, from where you were supposed to receive salvation, he says, from there you, without realizing it, are causing the greatest harm to your souls, evolving from the sayings of Moses into only one contradiction, but not at all introducing into your mind that by which you could acquire eternal life. And that both the law and the holy prophets say a lot about Life by nature, that is, about the Only Begotten, this, I think, is known to all the inquisitive. John 5:41–42. I do not accept glory from man: but you understand that you do not have the love of God in yourself 437 He feels again, or rather, how God sees, that the disobedient and unbridled crowd of Pharisees is becoming furious not so much for accusing them of improperly studying the Scriptures, but more for the words: “You do not want to come to Me.” What they themselves are constantly ill with, they think the Savior may also have. They probably thought - and this was out of great madness - that the Savior was obsessed with the ambition to rule over them and the desire to receive honors from everyone by calling them to be His disciples. Having received such a suspicion in their minds, they already began to expect to soon lose power over the people and gnashed a lot when they saw that the Heir wanted to demand the fruit of the vineyard. Therefore, in anger and anger for what was said (by Christ), they almost say what is found in the Gospel parables: “Come, let us kill Him and keep His inheritance” (Matthew 21:38). Therefore, destroying this suspicion, born in them out of vanity, and tearing out the sprouts of envy and anger from them, He says openly: “I do not accept glory from man.” I do not call, he says, listeners to become My disciples in order, like you, to receive honors for Myself, either from you or from others, and I could not receive this reward for My teaching, since in Myself I have all the fullness of glory, not inferior to the glory from you, but I said that you do not want to come to Me, because I clearly learned that “you do not have the love of God in yourself.” Being deprived of love for God, he says, how could you come to Me, who appeared from God to the Only Begotten God? John 5:43. I came in the name of My Father, and you do not accept Me: if another comes in his name, accept him 438 So that the Pharisees would not think that the Lord was in vain reproaching them in the words: “you do not have the love of God in you,” He, showing that what was said is true reality, immediately adds this saying to the above words. That I, he says, am not lying, calling you devoid of love for the Divine, (to prove this) I present to you one circumstance. Behold, “I” came “in the name of My Father,” for I urge you to try to do everything for the glory of God and the Father, but by your unbelief you rejected the One who comes from above and the One who proceeds from God. But you will, of course, “receive” - like God, I know the future - a falsely named (aliens), not appropriating glory to God and the Father and demanding faith from you, but working “in his name.” Hence, I think, blessed Paul, having realized something true, speaks about the Jews and about the son of lawlessness: “Because they did not receive the love of the truth to save themselves, for this reason God sent them strong delusion, so that they might believe a lie, so that all who did not believe the truth, but were pleased with unrighteousness, might be condemned” (2 Thess. 2:10-12). Therefore, what was said (by Christ), containing a prophecy about an event that is about to take place in due time, serves as proof that it was not in vain that the Pharisees were amazed by our Savior Christ. John 5:44. How can you believe that you accept glory from man, but do not seek glory from the One God? 439 He denounces the Pharisees as those who love to rule and gain honors from people, covertly pointing out that they are doing very bad things if they recklessly assimilate the illnesses of their souls to a God who in no way knows illnesses. Then, as they are greatly obsessed with ambition, they, he says, for the sake of it harm the most beautiful thing, that is, faith in Him. This, too, turns out to be Paul clearly telling us: if today, he says, I pleased people, I would not be Christ’s servant (Gal. 1:10). After all, as if out of necessity, it usually happens that from those who receive honors from people, the highest glory is removed and “from God alone,” as the Savior says. He calls God “One” in contrast to the pagan gods, but without placing Himself outside the honor of the “One,” for, as we have often said, the fullness of the 440 Holy and Consubstantial Trinity ascends into the one nature and glory of the Divine. John 5:45. Do not remember that I am a river against you to the Father: there is one who speaks against you, Moses, in the same way you trust 441 Having said that the Pharisees are trying to lead a life more ambitious than pious, and having taught that for this they strayed into excessive unbelief, they, he says, will be accused by Moses himself, whom it was their custom to proudly boast. Thus, when a man blind from birth spoke to them about Christ: “Do you really want to become His disciples?” - they immediately exclaim loudly: “You are His disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples” (John 9:27-28). So, “Moses” himself, on whom you have placed all your hope, will “accuse”, he says, “you”, and, despised by you along with the others, will cry out before God against your inherent madness. Without a doubt, we will not think that those who disobey Him are not accused by Christ, because he said to the Jews: “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father.” Otherwise, what shall we say when we hear from Him the words: “Whoever confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father (who is) in heaven; But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven” (Matthew 10:32–33)? Should we not, in all fairness, assume that someday those to whom this would happen through Christ will be accused by God and the Father through renunciation? 442 But I think it's clear to everyone. So, of course, the Jews who renounced Christ through prolonged disobedience (to Him) are not free from accusation, but this accusation is applied to them in an indirect and subtle way. Since they rejected His instructions and did not attach any importance to His Divine and heavenly teaching, but were always concerned about observing the Mosaic decrees, so that they even found themselves directly exclaiming: “We know what God said to Moses, but this we do not know where it is from” (John 9:29), then it exposes a completely inevitable accusation that they are sinning against Moses himself, by whom they are magnified, and it is not necessary, he says, no other accuser, but the law of Moses alone is sufficient against them, as those who disobey it and thereby are already subject to fair accusation, even if the voice of the Judge, that is, Christ, did not speak. John 5:46. If they believed quickly in Moses, they believed in Me, because they wrote about Me 443 Having said that the Jews will be rebuked by the all-wise Moses and will be accused of disobedience to him, he usefully adds this, teaching that he did not reproach them in vain, or in other words (speaking) - rejecting from Himself the suspicion of love for slander, for it turns out that what He is saying is not a false thing. So, let him say, you reject My words, I will tolerate distrust of Myself, take your Moses, give faith to the one you respect, and, without a doubt, you will know Whom you, ignorantly, dishonor, tear apart the images that contain the truth, for I write in his books. Therefore, Moses himself, he says, will accuse you when he sees you disobeying his writings about Me. Perhaps, having explained the meaning in the proposed saying, we should again turn to the next one (the Gospel saying), leaving it to the truly curious to explore the types of Christ in the Law of Moses. After all, his writings are full of these prototypes, and he says a lot about this, however, it presents great difficulties for understanding and is replete with very subtle and hidden speculations. But so that we do not seem to be giving in to the power of laziness and without sufficient reason to shy away from such an honorable work, simply referring to the difficulty of the Mosaic writings, let us also turn to this (study), knowing what is written: “The Lord will give the word to those who bring good news with much power” (Ps. 67:12). And since, as we said, the all-wise Moses says a lot about this and the mystery of Christ is foreshadowed by him through many prototypes, we do not deem it necessary to pile up for the readers any immeasurable multitude (of prototypes), but, choosing one from all, we will try to give clear proof that the word of our Savior was true, which He spoke to the Jews: “If you had believed Moses, you would have believed Me, for he wrote about Me." About the fact that Moses pointed to the coming of the Savior “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers; listen to Him. According to all that you asked of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the meeting, saying: We cannot continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God, and we cannot yet see this great fire, lest we die. And the Lord said to me, “Everything they have said is right.” I will raise up for them a prophet like you from their brothers, and I will put My word in His mouth, and He will speak to them as I command Him. And the man who does not listen to what the Prophet says in My name, I will exact it from him” (Deut. 18:15-19). Deuteronomy represents some repetition and exposition (of the main content) of the books of Moses. Therefore, the place taken from here cannot be called a type or prototype from the subordinate worship. However, since we are accustomed to not leaving anything without explanation, understanding everything correctly for the sake of Christ, we will reveal to the readers the meaning of the above saying. Here again the mystery of Christ is revealed to us in an undisguised way, skillfully transformed through secret speculation from the likeness of Moses. A prophet, he says, the Lord your God will raise up for you from among your brethren, like me. He himself and now explains what kind of speculation these words bring from the likeness to him (Moses), he adds clearly: “According to all that you asked of the Lord your God on Mount Sinai on the day of the meeting, saying: Let us not continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God, and let us not look at this great fire any more, (and) let us not die.” He claims about himself that at that time he was called a mediator, since the assembly of Jews was no longer able to perceive supernatural revelation and therefore wisely refused what exceeded their strength. And this, obviously, was a vision of God, striking the eye with unusual phenomena, and excessive and unbearable trumpet sounds for the listeners. So, the mediation of Moses, who conveyed Divine institutions to the assembly, served to help the weaknesses of those of that time (the Jews). But change the type again to the truth, and through this you will understand the Mediator between God and people, Christ, conveying to the obedient through the human voice - when for our sake He was born of a Woman - the ineffable will of God and the Father, known to Him, and only to One, since He is thought of as the Son from Him and Wisdom, knowing all “even the depths of God” (1 Cor. 2:10). And since with bodily eyes it was impossible to behold the pure and most perfect, Divine and ineffable glory of the all-exceeding Essence, “for no one will see My face, says God, and live” (Ex. 33:20), then the Only Begotten Word of God necessarily conforms (to us), by the ineffable ways of Providence, having clothed itself in this human body, and makes manifest to us the above, that is, God and the Father, will, saying: “Everything that I have heard from My Father, these I declare to you” (John 15:15), and again: “Because I did not speak on My own behalf, but the Father who sent Me Himself gave Me a commandment, what to say and what to say” (John 12:49). So, according to the image of mediation, ancient Moses, who faithfully conveyed Divine definitions to the children of Israel, can be thought of as a type of Christ. But Moses’ mediation is auxiliary, while Christ’s is free and most mysterious, naturally touching the mediated parties and reaching both, I say – mediated humanity and the Father God. And indeed, the Only Begotten of God is God by nature as inseparable from the essence of the Parent and co-born with It, since it is also conceived from It. But He was also a man, since He became flesh, likening Himself to us, so that through Him those things that were far from Him by nature could be united with God. When, therefore, Moses says: “The Lord will raise up for you a Prophet like me,” then understand it in no other way than that of which we have just spoken (i.e., according to humanity), since God Himself confirms the speech about this, saying: “It is right that everything that they said, I will raise up a Prophet for them, like you, and I will put My words on Him (Him), and He will speak to them according to everything that I command Him,” “for he bears everything.” word of power" (Heb. 1:3) The Son, as Paul says, and proclaims to us the words of the Father as a Mediator ordained by Him, according to what is sung as from Christ Himself in the Psalms: "But I have been appointed king by Him over Zion, His holy mountain, proclaiming the commandment of the Lord" (Ps. 2:6-7). If anyone wants, through other reasoning, to study the similarities (between Moses and Christ), he can see in the words “like me” (a reference to Christ as) the legislator and, for proof, cite the saying (of Christ): “It was said to the ancients: “You shall not commit adultery,” but I say to you, “Do not lust” (Matthew 5:27-28). In the same way, again, this expression “like me” can point (to Christ as) to some kind of leader and mentor to the understanding of the will of the Father and that through which the path to the Kingdom of Heaven can become easily accessible - just as, without a doubt, blessed Moses appeared to the ancients as a teacher of education according to the law, everywhere adding to his own words: “May you live a long time, and the Lord your God will bring you into the land about which he swore to your fathers.” (cf. Deut. 4:1, 5:16, 6:10, 30, etc.). Since he added to what was said: “And the man who would not listen to everything that that prophet says in My name, I will exact it from him,” then let the foolish Jews and those who have hardened their souls to the point of extreme disobedience see that they themselves are voluntarily bringing death upon their own heads. After all, they will be subject to Divine wrath, in payment for their fury against Christ, receiving the full loss of all benefits, “for if they had believed Moses, they would have believed Christ, for he wrote about Him” (v. 46). John 5:47. If you do not believe the scriptures, how can you believe in My words? 444 This speech may, and quite rightly, seem to someone to have a lot of unknowns. After all, it is possible, perhaps, not without apparent reason, to come to the assumption, certainly not true, that the Mosaic writings are higher than the words of the Savior, for this saying has an appearance somewhat favorable to such an understanding - and if we judge it not from the point of view of exact speculation, it apparently gives the Mosaic writings a higher dignity over the Savior's words. Indeed, in the words: “If you do not believe the scriptures” (of Moses), how will you believe My words? - apparently makes it clear that the writings of that (Moses) occupy a higher position than what His words should have. But the very nature of the matter reveals such an incredible idea of ​​utter utter stupidity. And indeed, how can the writings of Moses be thought to be superior to the words of the Savior, when his writings were types and shadows, and the words of Christ are the truth? It may not be difficult to compose a long discussion on this subject. But I consider it unnecessary to talk - be that as it may, good or bad - about something that is very clear and not from the outside, but from itself receives proof (of its truth). Why, in fact, dwell on such subjects with exquisite speeches and exchange what does not present any difficulty for untimely verbosity? So, the Savior’s saying has this meaning. If, he says, having the law written through Moses and caring in every possible way about his writings, you make nothing of the crime against them, often plunging what is read into inappropriate oblivion; then how could you be more thoughtful regarding My words, or how could you be more ready and obedient to My speeches, not often and not constantly engaged in them, but listening to them as if in passing and only once perceiving them with your ears? In this way you can interpret the saying or look at it from another side, for doing this and researching it is fruitful for learning. So, the writings of Moses contain some kind of guidance and prototype of the mysteries of Christ, as if some beginnings of knowledge about Him, written in that (law) that we have already proven in more detail in the previous discussions. The end of legal education was Christ, according to what is written (Rom. 10:4) - the fulfillment of the law and the prophets by Christ (cf. Matt. 5:17). But they, he says, “not accepting the first principles of the words of God” (Heb. 5:12), and with their stupidity pushing away the law that guided through the clearest writing, how could they achieve even more perfect knowledge? Or could they have favorably accepted even greater things when no place was given for the small and inferior? That Christ’s passages from Jerusalem often signify the transference of grace to the pagans; – here is also a discussion about five barley loaves and two (baked) fish John 6:1. And to this day Jesus departed to the floor of the sea of ​​Tiberias 445 First of all, I think it is necessary for the listeners to say that the Lord does not make (His) transitions from Jerusalem without some necessity, but at almost every (transition) He builds something and in the nature of (His) affairs, as on a board, He describes the mysteries. However, we will talk about what the purpose of the transition was and what it meant in due time, after the end of the chapters before us. Having divided each saying little by little and explained the useful from the literal meaning and thus presented it to the readers for understanding, we will then add a final speculation to the whole, in which we will generalize the particulars. So, what is the public meaning of the saying, we consider it necessary to say about this first of all. “After this,” he says, “Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of ​​Tiberias.” After what is this “this”, this must be examined without negligence. In Jerusalem, Christ revealed Himself as a wonderful Doctor - he healed a man who “was in his illness for thirty-eight years” (John 5:5), without giving medicine or inventing any remedy for the disease, but with only one word, like God, with omnipotent power and God’s divine will: having risen, he says, take up your bed and go to your house (John 5:8; cf. Matthew 9:6). And as it was the Sabbath, the Jews, who suffered from the rudeness of the letters, are indignant due to their ignorance, more than the (weak) one, dejected by the foolishness they have internalized, suffering from the weak inaction of all good things in general, weakened in mind, weak in morality, to whom one could rightly say: “Strengthen, hands down and weak knees!” (Isa.35:3). They are indignant, pointing out that the respect due to the Sabbath must be observed by the Lawgiver Himself; they condemn Christ as a criminal, not taking into account (the sayings): “He who says to the king is wicked: you are breaking the law” (Job 34:18). For this there were strong denunciations from the Savior - He conducted a long and great argument that the Sabbath inaction was legitimized by the ancients in a representative manner and that “the Lord is the Sabbath, the Son of Man” (Matthew 12:8). But incapable of anything good, and ready for any resistance, they rebel against the Teacher of what should have been learned, and plot the murder of the One who wanted to make them wise, repaying Him, as it is written, “evil for good” (Ps. 34:12). Now, “after these” acts and speeches, the Lord, as if by necessity, departed from Jerusalem, and precisely because the Passover of the Jews was approaching, as we will talk about this a little later, he even swam across the “Sea of ​​Tiberias,” or the lake, so called in the land of Judea. And since it was the approach of the Passover of the Jews that especially prompted and forced Him to make this transition and go to other places, and, moreover, so distant from Jerusalem, I consider it appropriate to show that quite rightly Jesus refused to be in Jerusalem at that time. So, the Law of Moses commanded the Jews to go to Jerusalem from all the surrounding areas to celebrate there the representative feast of the Tabernacle 446. Spiritual (man) will understand from here the gathering of all the saints to Christ, when with the whole universe, after the revival of the dead, they will gather in the highest city, heavenly Jerusalem, to offer thanksgiving there for the true (feast of) the presentation of the tabernacle, that is, the installation (resurrection) and (immortal) continuation of bodies, evident from the destruction of corruption and the fall of death into death. Regarding what usually happened historically and in reality, it must be said that the crowd who came to Jerusalem did not know the number - and especially at that time the Pharisees, naturally, could have great power, pretending to be defenders of the law and accusing so many of the lawbreaker or who seemed to them to be a lawbreaker. After all, it is not at all difficult to inflame an immense gathering of a gregarious crowd when someone begins to say that it is offended, and tries to incite it even against those who do not offend it in any way. Like water or fire, without reasoning or testing, it quickly rushes everywhere and attacks everything doomed to suffer from it. Knowing this, the Lord removes Himself from Jerusalem along with the disciples and leaves “on the other side of the Sea of ​​Tiberias.” That the Lord turns away from the murderous Jews, doing very well, we can also learn from this (event), for the blessed Evangelist himself says: “And after this Jesus walked in Galilee, for he did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews were looking for Him to kill” (John 7:1). That He refuses to walk around Judea, so as not to suffer premature death, perhaps someone will say, I agree, but I still don’t understand why he avoids the holiday? So those who were considered the brothers of Christ approached Him in Galilee with the words: “Get out of here and go to Judea, so that Your disciples may see the signs that You do” (John 7:3). But the Lord said to them: “You go to the festival, I will not go to this festival, because My time is not yet fulfilled” (John 7:8). Thus, it is clear and obvious that the Savior departed from Jerusalem and undertook this departure not voluntarily, but avoiding the vileness of the unbelievers, avoiding the malice of the pursuers and skillfully deflecting the arrow of hatred. He evades (from the persecutors), although He had the strength not to suffer anything even if He remained, also in order to outline for us a good example, not of cowardice, but of prudence and love for one’s neighbor. Guided by this, as an example, to the knowledge of a useful subject, we must know that, when we are pursued by enemies, even if no harm has been seen (from them) at the present time, but by evading in some way and thereby reflecting the greatest swiftness of their attacks and avoiding instant ardor (anger), we will already meet with the weakened anger of the offenders and stop the audacity of their violence, showing kindness to those who could would be unkind to us, and not receiving goodness, as is obvious, and seeking not one’s own benefit, but the benefit of others. So, the work of love is complete (on our part) non-resistance to our ill-wishers, without abusing the opportunity not to suffer anything, even if we were present (among enemies), and thereby arouse in them the strongest rage, which does not have the power to prevail over the hated. Such love, which in its purest form was in Christ, as Paul says, “does not seek its own” (1 Cor. 13:5). Having again directed the sharp vision of your mind to what is written, you will be surprised to find the highest providence in the removal of our Savior, I mean from Jerusalem. He is often driven out by the madness of the Jews, staying with foreigners, and, it seems, perhaps even escapes with them and enjoys due honor. Through this he gives advantage to the church of the pagans, through the reverence of others he exposes the hatred of God of the Israelites and by the meekness of them shows the ferocity of these, so that in the end in every possible way they would be deservedly and rightly deprived of the promise (given to their) fathers. Having departed from Jerusalem, the Lord does not stop in one of the neighboring cities and settles not in one of the border villages, but goes “on the other side of the Sea of ​​Tiberias,” thereby clearly threatening those who decide to pursue Him, that He will retreat from them and withdraw from all the people so much that He will in some way make even the path of turning to Him inaccessible to them. After all, the sea is completely impassable for human feet. He will find himself saying something similar to them in some subsequent places of the Gospel: “You will seek Me and will not find” (John 7:34) and “where I go, you cannot come” (John 8:21). In fact, the path of righteousness is very smooth, easy to walk and does not present any difficulties for those who come to Him through faith, but it is very difficult and steep, or rather, even completely impassable for those who anger Him, as one of the holy prophets said: “For the ways of the Lord are straight, and the righteous will walk in them, and the wicked will faint in them” (Hos. 14:10). So, the intermediate space of the sea means difficulty, or rather, inaccessibility for the Jews, as it were, of the spiritual path to Him, since God also promises in the prophets to block the paths of the ungodly soul, saying: “Therefore, behold, I block its path with thorns, and it will not find its path” (Hosea 2:6). What thorns meant there, here it means the sea, separating those who foolishly decided to offend from the Offended and located between the Righteous and the wicked. But it seems that this prototype contains for us, as in an embryo, some other hidden secret. When Israel was leaving the land of Egypt, a very irritated Pharaoh, furious at the unexpected well-being of the people, began to pursue them and dared to satisfy his envy and sorrow with war. He pursued them, thinking to force those who had just left their service to him to return again to slavery. But God transfers the people into the middle of the sea, and the pursuer, very fierce and unable to restrain his anger at all, who, out of indomitable rage, madly decided to fight God, is drowned with his entire army in the middle of it (the sea), but only Israel is saved. But let Moses, who once mourned the folly of the Jews, come before us now and say to them, indignant at their wickedness against Christ: “An evil and adulterous generation, do you repay the Lord?” ( Deut. 32:5–6 ). Do you drive someone who is in the middle of the sea and strong waves “on the other side of the sea” and are not ashamed to pursue him? Therefore, this is your fate, Jew, - the sea will finally drown you; for as it was then with those, so now with Christ and the godless Jews—the death of those who persecute, and not of those who are persecuted. And blessed David sings to us in one place like this: “Let no storm of water drown me, nor let the depths swallow me up” (Ps. 68:16), pointing to the most terrible collapse of the Jewish synagogue and refusing to be drowned along with it by the depths of ignorance. But then a misfortune happened to the Egyptians and their ruler in relation to the earthly body, and the Jews endure a much greater punishment in relation to a higher object, for they are exposed to harm to the soul, receiving retribution according to their atrocities. The pharaoh who tried to forcibly convert a free man into slavery is justly punished. Lawfully, in turn, Israel is also subject to retribution, not coming under slavery to the Lord of all, but what that (Pharaoh) was for him (Israel) in relation to violence, this, due to his great pride, turns out to be himself (Israel) in relation to God. It should be noted that the Evangelist calls Lake Tiberias a “sea,” following the words of Divine Scripture, for the Creator called “the collection of waters seas” (Gen. 1:10). Often even among external (pagan writers) this word is used indifferently, so that they sometimes do not refuse to call the sea a lake. John 6:2–4. And many people followed Him, because they saw the signs that He did on the sick. Jesus went up to the mountain and sat down with His disciples. Passover is near, a Jewish holiday 447 When the Lord departed from Jerusalem, according to what was said by the prophets: “I have left My house, I have abandoned My inheritance” (Jer. 12:7), - when He, having pushed away the disobedient and unbridled people of Judah, betrays Himself to foreigners, then “a great multitude follows (Him).” He also ascends the mountain, in full accordance with what he said in warning: “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to Me” (John 12:32). And He was lifted up from the earth even when He ascended to the cross for us. He was ascended again and differently, when, as if on a mountain, he ascended into Divine honor and glory, for we do not dishonor Him, like the Jews, but worship Him as God and Savior. After all, among them He was considered someone low and completely insignificant - they did not even shudder to call Him a Samaritan (John 8:48), but somewhat more decently dishonored Him, calling Him a carpenter’s son (Matthew 13:55). And among those who believe in Him, He evokes reverence as a miracle worker and God, as a performer of wondrous deeds. Indeed, listen to how a pious goal guides those who followed Him: “Because,” it is said, “they beheld the signs on the weak,” precisely because they considered it necessary to follow Him ardently, because from the deeds that were done they came to a corresponding knowledge of the Performer and, by the Divine omnipotence, they understood the Son, naturally endowed with them (omnipotence). In the same way, the Savior commanded us to come to faith in Him, in the words: “For the works that I do, the works themselves testify of Me” (John 5:36), and again: “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe me; but if I do and if you do not believe Me, believe My works” (John 10:37-38). Just as “from the greatness of the beauty of creatures their Creator is contemplated” (Wis. 13:5), so from Divine signs, according to exactly the same way of reasoning, the Performer of signs is contemplated, and the faith of His followers should rightly have reverence for Him. But I think these words also contain a more subtle and difficult thought. Let us pay attention to the fact that, according to the Evangelist, those who followed Christ were not only spectators of “signs” (in general), but (he also points out) what kind of “signs” they rightly revered, since he adds: “which (signs) he performed on the weak,” in order through this to show the contrast in thoughts between the Jews and those who followed (Him). Some are wickedly indignant because He healed the paralytic, while others are not only surprised for this when He was in their presence, but also come to regard the retreating man as a miracle worker and God. Therefore, let us avoid the foolishness characteristic of the Jews - confessing Christ as our Master, let us cling to Him unceasingly, which the wisest disciples patiently did, in no way allowing us to lag behind Him and be separated, finally, by our very deeds, exclaiming courageously what Paul said: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ!” (Rom.8:35). Let us follow Him and those who are persecuted and flee the stubbornness of His enemies, so that we may ascend and “upon the mountain and there” sit with Him, that is, let us rise to glorious and most luminous grace through reigning with Him, as He Himself said: “You who followed Me in My temptations, in the rebirth, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, You also will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19 and Luke 22:28). Such contemplations, I think, are contained in the saying that the disciples were with the Savior and, having ascended, sat down on the mountain with Him. John 6:5–7. Jesus lifted up his eyes and saw that many people were coming to Him, and said to Philip: With what shall we buy the loaves that they may eat? This is what he said, tempting him: You yourself know what you want to do. Philip answered Him... 448 The teaching is again truly the most beautiful and the most sacred men, His disciples, the most decent one, was taught by Christ, convincing them of the hopeless need to overcome timidity in relation to hospitality and further to cast aside (from themselves any) indecision towards it (hospitality), but, on the contrary, to ardently strive to achieve this virtue, more than which what can those who are able and willing to acquire for themselves the highest favor by appropriate means? So, since many people came to Him and a countless crowd, like water, flowed to the places where He was, He immediately commanded that food be obtained for them. And it would not, of course, be incredible if the zeal of even a very rich man, at the sight of such a multitude, fell into great fear of the impossibility of delivering food to everyone. But Christ does not at all show that it is something great when our brotherly love extends to a few, but wants us to boldly take on what is higher than (our natural) hope, strengthened by bold trust in Him in relation to all good things. What has been said is sufficient for the purpose of explaining the historical meaning. But turning this again into spiritual contemplation and removing the rough appearance inherent in it from the image, let us say more clearly that, as from a mountain, that is, divine foreknowledge, God sees those who seek Him through good zeal and faith, according to Paul: “For whom He foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, these He also called” (Rom. 8:29-30). So, Christ “lifts up his eyes,” as if thereby showing those who love Him worthy of Divine care, as, without a doubt, in the form of a blessing he spoke to Israel: “May the Lord lift up His face upon you and give you peace” (Num. 6:26). However, grace to those who love Him is not limited to charity alone, but, adding something else, the blessed Evangelist shows the Lord not remaining without provision for the people, but taking care of preparing food and treats, so that again through this you understand what is contained in the Proverbs: “The Lord will not kill a righteous soul with hunger” (Proverbs 10:3). After all, He offers Himself like bread from heaven, and He feeds the souls of those who fear Him. He prepares everything for them sufficient for life, as the Psalms say: “Thou hast prepared their food, for this is (such is) Thy preparation” (Ps. 64:10). And Christ Himself says in one place: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who comes to Me will never hunger” (John 6:35). He will supply, as we have already said, food from heaven and impart the manifold grace of the Spirit. And He prepares food for giving to those who come (to Him), without waiting for a request: “For what we will pray for as we ought, we do not know” (Rom. 8:26), but He Himself, warning us, grants that which preserves us to eternal life. So, “he says to Philip: where (how) shall we buy the grain?” Why to Philip (addresses the question), although other disciples were here and were with Him, this needs to be known. After all, Philip was inquisitive and inquisitive, but not very keen on quickly understanding what is characteristic of the Divine. You can find out this by realizing on your own that he, having followed the Savior for a long time, collecting His various instructions about the Divinity and from deeds and words being able to form a completely complete concept of Him, however, in the last times of the economy, as if he had not yet learned anything at all, he says to Jesus: “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us” (John 14:8). But, as he who spoke not out of malice, he is being re-educated beautifully, for “how long have I been with you, and you have not known Me, Philip!” (John 14:9), says Christ. Therefore, as someone less capable of understanding and somewhat slower than appropriate in moving towards the perception of the Divine, the Lord offers him a question, exercising His disciple in faith. This is indicated here by the expression “tempting,” although, as the blessed Evangelist confirmed, “He himself knew what he intended to do.” And saying: “Where (how) will we buy from?” - indicates the lack of love of money of His followers and voluntary poverty for the sake of God, who do not have anything to buy even the necessary food. But at the same time, he tries and skillfully provides for something else, for this “from where” or “how” is not used in vain, but indicates to them that (those who followed Christ) did not bother to bring anything at all and were accustomed to extreme love of money. So, excluding and nobly cutting off hope for money, He almost forces one to reach the conviction that the Lord will have to create food with unspeakable power and divine power if He wants to feed those who come to Him when they have nothing. After all, only this one thing (the miraculous creation of food) still remained and He was already calling them to look at this only one hope, according to the Hellenic poets: σιδήϱεον ἕλϰος ἀνάγϰης (the harsh fate of necessity). John 6:7. Two hundred pennies of bread is not enough for them, and each one will receive little 449 Philip again turns out to be unable to rise to the idea that Jesus can (do) everything, and, moreover, very easily, but having heard: “Where will we buy from?”, he is immediately carried away by this tempting question and sees only one means - money, thinking that this matter, by its nature, cannot be accomplished otherwise than according to the general law common to all. These were generous expenses for a good deed. So, if we judge by the lack of love of money of the disciples and their complete lack of covetousness, and by the very mind of Philip, who still did not perceive the extraordinary dignity of our Savior, then this benefit (delivery of food) to the people is already turning, perhaps, into impossibility. But this (non-fulfillment of a good deed) did not happen, but the Savior’s desire achieves fulfillment. The impossible, therefore, with people is possible with God (Luke 18:27) and Divine omnipotence in all respects turns out to be above the inherent nature (natural) order of our phenomena, having the power to accomplish everything miraculously, and even that which exceeds our mind. John 6:8–10. There is only one verb to Him from His disciple Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter: There are children here who have five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they worth? Jesus spoke... 450 Brotherly Philip thinks and reasons (Andrey), and he himself (Andrey) turns out to be kindred (with him) in having an idea of ​​the Savior in himself. Without thinking about the power (of Christ), not having learned from the previous miracles that Jesus can do everything, and very easily, he points to what was in the “boy’s possession” - and he also turns out to be weak in faith, for he says: “What does this (mean) for so many (people)?” And meanwhile - after all, it must already be said - he should not have been slow, but quickly come to the memory of the miracles already performed (by Christ), to think that for Him who transformed the nature of water into wine, Healed the paralytic and with one word drove away a disease that was so far away, it was not at all a strange or alien thing to create food from nothing (non-existent) and by Divine power to multiply the food supplies that turned out to be completely insignificant. After all, wouldn’t the power (revealed) in those (miracles) be effective in this case as well? So, this pair of students (Philip and Andrei) answered somewhat more hesitantly than appropriate. However, in this case you should also pay attention to the following. What happens to saints, apparently as something insignificant, is often not without benefit, but contains something that is useful for the (supernatural) nature of the matter, regarding which they might be guilty of apparent weakness. After all, the mentioned holy disciples, having thought and clearly expressed one, that “two hundred denarii of loaves of bread is not enough for them, so that each one receives little,” and the other about five loaves and two fishes: “What does this mean for so many?” - this partly elevates the miracle and exposes the power of the Savior in a brilliant light, pointing in their own words to the multitude of people who should have already been fed. In this way, the power of unbelief is converted into good testimony about Christ. Having recognized that such an amount of money would not be enough for the people to eat a small meal, they thereby crown the ineffable power of the Satiator, when truly - in the absence of anything, for the boy’s reserve meant so much for so many, according to Andrei - he showed His love for the people in an abundant measure. We will find a similar lack of faith in the wise Moses in the desert. The Israelites cried out (Num. 11:4-5) and, carried away by the vile desire for Egyptian dishes, dreamed of unclean cauldrons of meat, onions and garlic, inclined towards the vile pleasure of such evil objects and neglecting the Divine blessings, they even rebelled against the mediator and mentor Moses. But God knew why the people were screaming, and He also promised to give them meat. And since the promise of such generosity was given in the desert and its fulfillment, from the point of view of the human mind, seemed impossible, then Moses approaches (to God), exclaiming: “Six hundred thousand foot people, among whom I am among them, and You said: I will give meat to them, and they eat a month of days. Will sheep and oxen be slain to them, and will (this) be enough for them?” What does God have to do with this? “Will not the hand of the Lord be sufficient (for this).” In what ways could God fail? (Num. 11:21–23). So one can rightly say about the words of Philip and Andrew: “Will the hand of the Lord not be sufficient?” And we, taking the essence of this event as an example for ourselves, will begin to consider lack of faith as the last of the ailments and the greatest of evils - and if God does or promises to do, then let it be accepted with completely undoubted faith and let the Divinity not be blamed if, due to our weakness, we cannot imagine how a phenomenon exceeding us will take place. A good, prudent person with a fully mature mind should also take into account the fact that the physical eye does not contemplate as much as anyone wants, but as much as it is capable of perceiving and as much as the measure of our nature allows - and those objects that are at a great height, no matter how much the imagination strains, cannot distinguish, barely catching even a very weak idea of ​​them. So think with me about the human mind. It reaches and extends only to the limits given to it by the Creator, even if it has been completely purified. He cannot see anything that is higher than us, but he even involuntarily retreats before supernatural objects, not being able to perceive them. Therefore, what exceeds us is perceived by faith, and not by research, and such a believer deserves praise, while he who has fallen into the opposite state by no means remains unpunished. The Savior Himself will again testify to this to us in the words: “He who believes in the Son is not condemned, but he who does not believe is already condemned” (John 3:18). But since we have already talked about what is proper to believe in God, let us try to put it back into perspective, taking something from the Holy Scriptures, and let us clarify for the benefit of the readers the punishment for unbelief. I turn again to the priestly mentor Moses himself. One day, when the people in the desert were oppressed by unbearable thirst, Moses received a command to take Aaron as an accomplice and strike the rock with a rod so that streams of water would flow out. But he, not completely convinced of the words of the Commander and falling into a kind of cowardice according to humanity, says: “Listen to me, rebellious ones: will we really bring water out of this rock for you? And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with the rod, once and twice, and much water came out. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: Because you did not believe to sanctify Me before the children of Israel, therefore you will not bring this assembly into the land that I gave them” (Num. 20:10-12). Shouldn’t it be clear to everyone from here how heavy the retribution for unbelief is? Even if someone like Moses was punished, then who else will God spare? On whom for unbelief the One so impartial will not lay wrath that He did not want to free even Moses from it, to whom it was said from Him: “I know you more than all others, and you have found grace from Me” (Ex. 33:12). John 6:10. Create people reclining. There is a lot of grass in the place. Near the slaughter there were men numbering like five thousand 451 The Savior shows His usual meekness and refrains from harsh reproofs. He does not strictly censure the disciples, although they turned out to be very negligent, as far as their cowardice and lack of faith in relation to Him was concerned. On the contrary, through the actions themselves, it educates them to accept what they do not yet believe. Indeed, the expression “make people lie down” has considerable expressiveness and represents Jesus as saying something like the following... O you who are slow to understand My power and to know Him Who speaks: set up (seat) the men, so that you may be amazed at the sight of them being fed, although you had nothing! Lay down your husbands! After all, this is the only thing left for them, for two hundred denarii would not be enough to buy food for the people. But what cannot be obtained with human money will be acquired by My power, calling everything into existence and creating from non-existence. Isn’t it Elijah the prophet who makes the widow’s vessel an inexhaustible carrier of oil and turns the waterpot into an inexhaustible source of food? And the One who gives strength to him, wouldn’t he be able to multiply nothing and, in general, make everything that was a source of unspeakable generosity, the beginning and root of unexpected grace? It is not incredible, it seems, to understand Christ as saying something like this with expressiveness. But the Evangelist considers it necessary to point out that “there was a lot of grass in (that) place,” indicating that area was convenient for husbands to lie down. Note that although the crowd of those eating was mixed and women and children were obviously present in it, he counted only husbands, following, as I think, the customs of the law. According to the command of God, who spoke to the priestly leader Moses: “take the number (total, total number) of the entire host of the sons of Israel by kinship, by house of patronymic, by number from the name (names, nicknames), by head of them (total), every man from twenty years old and above” (Num. 1: 2-3), - the prophet fulfills the order and compiles a long list of names, but it turns out that he did not enter at all the list includes women and young people, but only includes people (male and) of mature age. This is because in the book of God, only everything that is courageous and youthful is given honor, and not childish, according to the understanding of good things. So, through this he honored the establishment of the law, and again represents a kind of spiritual speculation. Indeed, bearing in mind the whole meaning of the sentence, can we not with full justification say that Christ rightly turns away and leaves the proud and arrogant people of the Jews, but with great joy receives those who come to Him and satisfies with heavenly food, delivering spiritual bread that nourishes the human heart? And He feeds them not with difficulty, but joyfully and easily, with great delight and providence. This is what the reclining of people on the grass indicates to us, so that it is already fitting for each of those honored with such grace to say what was said in the Psalms: “The Lord feeds me and nothing will be lacking from me - in a green place, there he has settled me” (Ps. 22:1-2). Indeed, in much joy and delight the mind of the saints is nourished by the gifts of the Spirit, according to what is said in the Song of Songs: “Eat and drink, and be drunk, ye neighbors” (Song. 5:1). So, although there were many and, as we said before, a mixture of people reclining, he mentioned only husbands, recognizing it as useful for speculation to keep silent about women and children. As if by means of a riddle, he teaches us that it is most appropriate and proper for the courageous, obviously in relation to good, to receive food from the Savior, and not for the usual feminine ones to lead a bad life, and also not with infantile thoughts, so that therefore they cannot understand anything necessary for knowledge. John 6:11. Therefore Jesus accepted the loaves and, having given praise, gave them to those reclining: likewise from the fishes, as much as he wanted 452 Giving thanks is a model for us and an example of the reverence that should be in us. And during a miracle (revealed) he again assimilates, like a man, to the Divine nature. Such an appeal is quite common for Him, who wanted both by the example of reverence, as we said, to benefit those for whom He was the Teacher of Good, and, moreover, to economically conceal His Divine dignity before the time of suffering came. Indeed, He was careful to hide from the prince of this age (John 14:30). Therefore, in other cases, as a person, he applies to himself words appropriate for people, but at the same time he heals the minds of the listeners, sometimes giving a wise explanation, as in the saying: “Father, I thank you that you heard me” (John 11:41). Do you see how human-like this saying is and how it can confuse the minds of the simple? But when he says this as a person, then again now he explains the image of the economy and the purpose (of this proclamation, which was) in the desire to hide Himself, excellently guiding and strengthening the unsteady mind of the simple, for (following this) he says: “I knew that you will always hear Me” (John 11:42). For whose sake does he say such words? “For the sake of the people standing around, I said, that they might believe, saying that You sent Me” (John 11:42). Shouldn’t it become quite obvious from here that while He benefits us in many ways and accomplishes, as He befitted, the hidden purpose of building His economy with the flesh, He sometimes speaks as if more humiliatingly than He really is? Therefore, just as there the expression “I thank You” is taken from the economic point of view, so here we mean “having blessed” (“giving thanks”) before the loaves. It should be noted that instead of “giving thanks” - ευχαϱηστησας Matthew said “blessing” - ευλογησας (Matthew 14:19) - but the exposition of the saints will by no means disagree, for Paul will prove that both expressions are one and the same, in the words: “For all food 453 God’s good, and nothing is reprehensible, for it is sanctified through the Word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4:4-5); and what is blessed, of course, is what is sanctified through the prayer offering, which we usually always do on the tables. But since nothing useful should be left without research, we will try to say something a little about the five loaves that the boy had and the two fish. Both the appearance and the number of supplies found carry a mysterious meaning. In fact, why, some of the most inquisitive may ask, not four loaves and three fishes? Why not five or four fish? And what was the need to tell the number of what was found; and wouldn’t it be better to say more simply and without additions that the immense multitude of those who followed (Christ) was saturated with the very little supply that was found? But if the blessed Evangelist talks about this so carefully, then, of course, he makes it clear that it is necessary to study it. So, he says, there were five loaves, and barley loaves, and with them Christ satisfies those who love Him. I think - the inquisitive can interpret better - that the five barley loaves signify the five-part book of the wise Moses, that is, the entire Law, which provides, as it were, the coarser food of letters and history, for this is indicated by the fact that they were made of barley. And fish are the food of fishermen, that is, the sweetest writings of the Savior’s disciples. And saying that there were two of them indicates that the apostolic and evangelical preaching shines among us, and both are the essence of the findings of the fishermen and spiritual writings. So, having mixed the new with the old, the Savior, through the Law and the teachings of the New Testament, feeds the souls of those who believe in Him to life, obviously eternal. And that the disciples are from fishermen, this is, without a doubt, obvious and known. Although, perhaps, not all, but as soon as there are some among them, then our reasoning will not lose truth even under the above conditions. John 6:12–13. As soon as he was satisfied, he said to His disciple: gather up the excess of the ukrukh, so that nothing will perish. Having gathered and fulfilled the twelve koshas, I gathered up five barley loaves, which those who had eaten had had enough of 454 Perhaps it will seem to someone that Christ, sparing the leftovers (of food), ordered His disciples to collect them. But, I think, everyone can properly understand that He would not allow Himself to descend to such pettiness - and what do I say - Christ? But not even one of us. Indeed, what kind of residue could be expected from five barley loaves? But this speech has great economic significance and makes the miracle obvious to the listeners. So great was the manifestation of Divine omnipotence in this event that with five barley loaves and two baked fish not only was such a multitude of people fed, but twelve baskets of leftovers were also collected. However, this miracle probably rejected some other suspicion, and by finding the remains, it received confirmation of the certainty that there was undoubtedly and really an excess of food, and there was no ghost of the imagination that deceived the vision of both those who were treated and those who served them. But what is especially important and interesting and very useful for us is this. Consider how, through this miracle, it forces us to be fully prepared for voluntary and willing hospitality, through the event itself, as if loudly telling us that God’s help will not leave the one who enjoys sociable and loving treatment, wanting to fulfill what is written: “break your bread to the hungry” (Is. 58:7). After all, we find the disciples at first overcome with some inertia regarding this, but since they were so inclined, the Savior gave them an abundant collection of the remnants. This teaches us that, spending a little, which is for the glory of God, we will receive in return the most abundant grace, according to what was said from Christ: “good measure, pressed, shaken together, and running over, they will give into your bosom” (Luke 6:38). Therefore, one should not be indecisive in showing love for one’s brothers, but on the contrary, one must have good boldness. As far as possible, let us drive away from ourselves slowness and timidity, which deviate us from hospitality, but, strengthened in hope through faith in the fact that God can multiply even small things, let us open our hearts to those in need, according to the establishment of the law: by opening, it is said, you will open your heart to your brother who needs you (Deut. 15:11). Otherwise, when will you appear merciful, having been cruel during this life? When will you fulfill the commandment, wasting time in inaction when you can do it? Remember the words of the Psalmist: “For in death there is no one who remembers You, 455 and in hell who will confess to You?” (Ps.6:6). In fact, what fruit (can there be from) the dead, or how can any of those who have descended into hell still remember God through fulfilling the commandment? “God has shut him down,” according to what is written (Job 3:23). That is why the wisest Paul instructs us in one Epistle: “While we have time, let us do good” (Gal.6:10). Let this be said by us for the benefit of history. But taking what was said in a spiritual sense, for it was so and not otherwise, we said that the five barley loaves indicate the Pentateuch of Moses, and the two baked fish indicate the wise writings of the holy Apostles. Therefore, I think that regarding the collection of remnants we should also come up with some kind of mysterious and spiritual speculation that is in accordance with what has been said. So, the Savior commands the people to lie down, and He Himself, having blessed the loaves and fishes, offers them, obviously through the assistance of the disciples. When those who had eaten were miraculously satisfied, he commanded that the leftovers be collected, and “twelve baskets” were filled, one, probably, for each of the disciples, for there were the same number of them. What should we conclude from here if not - and this is not false - that the owner of the triumph of all who believe in Him is Christ and He feeds those who come to Him with Divine and heavenly teachings, legal and prophetic, evangelical and apostolic? But it is not He Himself who turns out to be doing this through Himself, but the disciples who distribute the highest grace to us, for they themselves are not the ones who “speak,” according to what has been said, “but the Spirit of the Father (is) speaking in them” (Matthew 10:20). However, their work in this will not be without reward for the holy Apostles. By offering us spiritual food and distributing blessings from the Savior, they will receive the most abundant reward and receive quite generous grace from God. This, I believe, and nothing else, means the gathering by everyone, at the command of Christ, of a full basket (leftovers) after the labors and service spent on those who ate. And that everything given in them as a model should after them pass on to the primates of the holy churches, this is beyond doubt. John 6:14. And when men saw the hedgehog, Jesus did a sign, saying that this is the Prophet who is coming into the world 456 Those who could understand Divine objects show surprise at the miracle - guided by human reason, and not suffering from bestial unreason, like some wicked Jews, who, instead of gaining benefit for themselves at the sight of the signs that were performed, found themselves damaged even in their ability to judge sensibly. After all, they had already decided that they should stone Jesus because He often performed miracles. Therefore, above, and to a large extent, their madness are those who were amazed at the miracle and, based on this and the great sign, prudently came to the conviction that, probably, it was Himself who was foretold to come into the world as a Prophet. Notice, again, what a difference this makes between the people of Israel and those outside Judea. Some, although they were spectators of many amazing signs, turn out to be not only cruel and inhuman, but even lawlessly plotting to kill the One who cared about the salvation that was due to them, driving Him out of their city and country with their indomitable madness. Those who lived outside Jerusalem and therefore were foreigners glorify Him at one and only sign and decide that they should accept the noble idea of ​​Him with undoubted faith. As a result of all this, Israel rightly found itself self-condemned and finally voluntarily subjected itself to rejection, while the pagans, on the contrary, should receive the highest mercy and love of Christ. John 6:15. Jesus now understood that they wanted to come and snatch Him away so that they could create a king, leaving again to the mountain Himself alone 457 Everyone with all justice recognizes as worthy of full praise those who were so quickly convinced by a great miracle that Christ should have superiority over all and be given the highest degree of honor. Indeed, what else besides this can the desire (of those who followed Christ) point to us to make Him king? Along with other things, we should rightly be surprised that Christ turns out to be an example of lack of love for us. Fleeing 458 from those who wanted to honor Him as they should, and refusing the highest of our honors - the kingdom, although it indisputably belongs to Him in reality, thanks to His reign over all with the Father - He at the same time makes it clear to those who direct their gaze to future hope that the great things in the world are insignificant for them and that it is good not to be carried away by honors in this life or world, even if they appear in themselves (without seeking them), to ascend to honor from God. In fact, the love to shine with them is not at all befitting of those who strive for Divine grace and thirst for eternal glory. So, we must avoid the love of glory, which is related and adjacent to arrogance and is not far removed from it. Let us avoid, as harmful, the distinction of honors in this life, but let us, on the contrary, begin to seek glory in humiliation, yielding to each other, as blessed Paul admonished us in the words: “Let everyone understand this in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it an abduction to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking on the form of a servant, being in human likeness. having acquired the appearance of a man; He humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, death on the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name that is above every name” (Phil. 2:5-9). Do you see how voluntary humiliation has a brilliant end and humility is the root of many blessings for us? The Only Begotten, being in the form of God and the Father, humiliated Himself, becoming a man for our sake, but although He appeared in this life with flesh, it did not remain humiliated, for it ascends to its original dignity and to God-splendid glory, although it became a man. One should think about us in exactly the same way. When we free ourselves from the emptiness of high positions in this life and strive for humility, then, of course, we will receive the highest glory and be exalted to be gods by grace, receiving, in likeness with the true and natural Son, the title of children of God (John 1:12-13). And in order to say something related to the subject, let us, if necessary, renounce the highest source of honor on earth, if we think about the heavenly and serve what is higher than what is earthly. But the (interpreted) saying is not devoid of spiritual speculations, which we will therefore express again, giving, as it were, a general overview of the entire meaning of the event and repeating from the beginning the content of the interpreted section. In this case, it will be clear to us what needs to be said, especially in view of the fact that the blessed Evangelist, as if pointing to something necessary and inevitable, added the remark: “He went off into the mountain alone.” So, evading the inhumanity of the Jews, Christ leaves Jerusalem, to which he clearly indicates: “I have left My house, I have forsaken My inheritance” (Jer. 12:7). Having crossed the Sea of ​​Tiberias and being far separated from the madness of those, he ascends the mountain with his disciples. This, as we said, indicates the inaccessibility and impassability of the path to Him for the Jews and the removal of Christ, which occurred as a result of anger for suffering, before the obviously appropriate time - and that Christ will be glorified along with His disciples when he leaves Judea and comes to the pagans, transferring grace to them. From the mountain He watched over those who followed Him and at the same time also took care of food (for them). And this again, we said, as in an image, indicates the heavenly care that the saints are awarded, according to the saying: “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous” (Ps. 33:16) - and that Christ has providential care for those who honor Him. Then many people are miraculously fed through five loaves of bread and two baked fish. By this, we believed, we must understand the writings of the saints, old and new, communicated by the apostles to those who love Christ. And besides, the fact that all the disciples will receive from God rich fruit from serving us, and after them - the primates of God’s holy churches, for in those (the Apostles) in the beginning there was a model for everyone. Then the spectators are surprised by the sign and want to take (and put) “Jesus” in the “king”, which, having understood, “retreats alone into the mountain,” as it is written. After all, when, as a miracle worker and God, Christ aroused amazement at Him among the pagans, when everyone recognized Him as King and Lord, then He ascended “alone” to heaven, where no one followed Him at all. As the firstfruits of the dead, He ascended completely “alone into the mountain,” great and true, as the Psalmist wrote: “Who will ascend to the mountain of the Lord, or who will stand in His holy place? Innocent in hands and pure in heart” (Ps. 23:3-4). Such a one will follow Christ and ascend “to the spiritual mountain” during the (opening) of the Kingdom of Heaven. He “withdrew” “to the mountain,” that is, he ascended into heaven, not refusing to reign over those who believe in Him, but postponing the time of the glorious opening of the Kingdom until he returns to us from heaven, when he descends in the glory of the Father, no longer through signs, as before, recognized as Lord by nature, but because of the divine glory, unquestioningly confessed as a king. So, I will say again, briefly summarizing everything that has been said, when through signs they believed and recognized Him as God, while He was removed from the Jewish people, then everyone strives to take Him as king, and He ascends alone into heaven, preserving the opening of the glorious Kingdom until the proper time. John 6:16–17. As it was too late, His disciples descended onto the sea and, getting into the ship, he walked halfway across the sea to Capernaum 459 After the miraculous performance of the first sign, the subsequent removal of Christ, providentially, turns out to be the root and cause of another miracle - and the Wonderworker, according to what is written, goes “from strength to strength” (Ps. 84:8). Since those struck by that great miracle wanted to have Him as king, and He, for the reasons already given above, refused worldly honors, then He, of course, had to leave that place, even from their entire country. Therefore, in order to be considered as having sailed and to weaken the impetuosity of those who were looking for Him, He commands the disciples to sail away, while He Himself remains, intending to perform the next sign in good time. He had a zealous desire, at every occasion and opportunity, to strengthen the minds of the Apostles in faith in Him. And since they had to be teachers of the universe and, as it were, certain “lights to shine in the world,” according to the word of Paul (Phil. 2:15), he gave them the necessary guidance in everything useful, for this manifestation of grace was not only for them, but also for those whom they were to instruct in a true understanding of Him. But why, perhaps, someone will ask, immediately after that miracle it is reported that Jesus could walk on the sea itself? Let him listen to the very probable reason for this. After all, when He wanted to feed the people, Philip and Andrei assumed that He would not be able to fulfill this, and one said that even a considerable amount of money would hardly be enough for them even for a small amount of food, and the other pointed out that although one boy had five loaves of bread and two fish, this acquisition meant nothing for such a multitude of people - and in all their words, so to speak, they expressed the idea that He was not able to do anything beyond what is characteristic of ours. phenomena of order. That is why, in order to free Himself from such an idea that did not suit Him enough and in order to make the mind of the Apostles, which was still as if powerless, understand that He accomplishes everything that He wishes in a miraculous way, without encountering difficulties from the nature of objects and without any obstacle to Him from the order of necessity, He considered it necessary to put under His feet the liquid nature of waters, although it could not (naturally) obey human bodies, for to Him, as God, everything was possible. So, when it was already late and time weakened the zeal of those who sought Him, the company of the holy Apostles descended to the sea and immediately set sail, obeying God and the Teacher in everything and immediately. John 6:17–18. And the darkness was already gone, and Jesus came to them. The sea, breathing the great wind, rose up 460 At the same time, many useful things are given here, and what happened prompts the disciples to a most ardent search for the Savior. The deep darkness of the night is terrifying, spreading over the raging water like smoke and making it impossible to know where it was finally necessary to steer (the boat). The fierce wind, noisily rushing over the waves and already raising them to extraordinary heights, also confuses a lot. But even when all this had already happened, “Jesus had not yet come,” it is said, “Jesus came to them”; for this was especially the danger, and the absence of Christ increased the fear of those sailing. So, those who are not present with Him are inevitably overwhelmed, being, as it were, cut off from Him or finding themselves moving away through apostasy from the Divine laws and being removed because of sin from Him who is able to save. Therefore, if it is difficult to be in spiritual darkness and if it is difficult to drown in the bitter sea of ​​pleasures, then let us accept Jesus, for this will free us from dangers and from sin leading to death. And visual proof of what has been said can be seen in what happened: it, of course, will lie in the disciples. John 6:19–20. Having rowed about twenty-five or thirty furlongs, she saw Jesus walking on the sea and was near the ship, and was afraid. He said to them: I am, do not be afraid 461 When they were separated from the earth by a great distance and it was natural for them to despair of salvation - they were already in the middle of the sea - then the most desired appearance of Christ took place for them, for it could give the most desired salvation to the perishing, when fear had already cut off all hope for life. And it appears to them in a miraculous way that it was arranged for the greatest benefit (of the disciples). They are struck with fear when they are in the middle of the sea and see Jesus walking on the water itself, and they add wonder to fear; and Christ immediately frees them from what happened, saying: “I am, do not be afraid.” Yes, it was truly necessary for all fear to go far and for those among whom Christ was already to be above all danger. Therefore, we must also learn from this to have a gracious and courageous mood of spirit in temptations and to have constant and strong hope in Christ, being firm in the good hope of complete salvation, even if we are overwhelmed by many tempting fears. Pay attention to the fact that Christ appears in the boat not immediately after their departure and not at the beginning of the danger, but when they are already many stages away from the mainland. After all, it is not immediately, at the very beginning of the circumstance that frightens us, that the grace of the Savior comes, but when fear reaches its highest degree, when the danger is already in force and when we find ourselves, so to speak, in the middle of waves of sorrows. Then, unexpectedly, Christ appears, removes fear and frees us from all danger, with unspeakable power transforming horrors into joyful silence. John 6:21. I wanted to take Him into the ship: and if the ship was on the ground, I went to hell The Lord not only delivers the swimmers from danger by miraculously appearing to them, but also frees them from labor and effort, mooring the boat to the land of the opposite shore with Divine power. While they barely even hoped to sail (the sea) with the help of oars, He frees them from these labors, in a very short time appearing to certify them as the performer of many miracles. Thus, when Christ appears to us and shines, then we will easily accomplish deeds that exceed our hope - being exposed to dangers in His absence, we no longer need any labor to perform useful deeds in His presence. Truly, Christ is the cessation of all danger and the accomplishment of exploits beyond hope for those who receive Him. But just as we made a separate discussion about each interpreted text, now we will again form a spiritual speculation, bringing the meaning contained here into a consistent connection with the previous one. So, we said that Jesus, as if on a mountain, ascended into heaven, apparently ascending after being raised from the dead. But when this happened, then the disciples alone, representing a model for all subsequent and at all times church teachers, swim across, as if some sea, the unrest during real life, falling into frequent and great temptations and exposing themselves to significant dangers from opponents of the faith and enemies of the gospel preaching. But they will cease to be in fear and danger, they will cease their calamitous toils, when Christ again appears to them in divine power and with the whole universe under his feet. This, I think, means walking on the sea, since the sea in the Holy Scriptures is often taken into the image of the world, according to what is said in the Psalms: “This sea is great and spacious: there are reptiles there, of which there is no number, the small and the great animals” (Ps. 103:25). So, when Christ comes in the glory of His Father, as it is written, then the ship of the holy Apostles, that is, the Church, and those sailing in it, that is, through faith and love for God, who have become above worldly affairs, without worries and without any labor, will land at the land “to which they were going.” After all, their goal was to land, as if on a quiet pier, at the Kingdom of Heaven. The Savior confirms this thought in all this, saying to His disciples: “A little, and you will no longer behold Me, and again a little, and you will see Me” (John 16:16), then again: “You will have tribulation in the world, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). The Lord descends from the mountain at night and comes to the waking disciples, and they look at him walking not without timidity, for they are afraid, so that through all this something necessary will be revealed to our understanding. After all, He will descend from heaven as if at night, when the world will somehow rest and sleep in the deep sleep of sin. Therefore, he speaks to us in one place: “Watch, because you do not know at what hour your Lord will come” (Matthew 24:42). The parable of the virgins teaches us the same thing. Five, it is said, were intelligent, and five were stupid. But when the groom slowed down, everyone dozed off and fell asleep; In the middle of the night there was a cry: “Here is the bridegroom, come out to meet him” (Matthew 25:1-6). Do you see how the Bridegroom speaks to us in the middle of the night? And what kind of cry is this and what kind of this meeting is this, the divine Paul will explain, saying: “For the Lord Himself, with a command (an imperative cry), with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven” (1 Thess. 4:16), then again about the resurrected saints, that “we who are alive and remain, together with them in the clouds, will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so always with the Lord we will" (1 Thess. 4:17). And the falling into fear of the disciples, although they see Him walking and are caught in labor and wakefulness, indicates that the Terrible One will come as a Judge of all, and even the righteous, without a doubt, must fear in himself, like one tested through fire, although he is always waiting for the one who has to come and is not lazy in the labors of virtue, but practicing equally in sobriety and good wakefulness. The Lord does not enter (into the boat) to His disciples to sail with them, but, on the contrary, brings the ship to land. This is because Christ will appear (in the future life) not to help those who honor Him in the practice of virtue, but to bring about the expected end for people already perfect (in virtue). John 6:22–23. In the morning, the people, standing on the floor of the sea, saw that there was no other ship, only the one in which His disciples entered, and that Jesus did not go into the ship with His disciples, but His disciples left: and the ships came from Tiberias near the place where they ate bread, giving thanks to the Lord 462 The miracle is not hidden, I mean the walking of Jesus on the sea itself, although it happened at night and in darkness and completely secretly. Usually the people who followed Him, having ascertained themselves through what seems to be considerable observation, notice that He did not sail with His disciples, nor did He cross over on any other ship, for there was only one ship of the Apostles there, which they took and on which they crossed. Thus, nothing good is hidden, even if it is done by someone in secret, and from here we can see the truth of the saying: “There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be recognized and will not come into the open” (Luke 8:17). Therefore, whoever wants to follow in the footsteps of Christ, I think, must, according to the opportunity available to man, be transformed according to His example, not strive to lead a vain life, while practicing virtue, not be carried away in pursuit of praise - if one has chosen some amazing and very ascetic life, not indulge in excessive love of glory for this, but desire to be visible before the eyes of the Divine, who reveals the hidden and makes the perfect clear to everyone. secretly. John 6:24. When the people saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they themselves got into the ships and came to Capernaum, looking for Jesus 463 These follow, perhaps as a result of surprise at the signs, however, not receiving any benefit from them for faith, but bringing the Wonderworker, as it were, some kind of reward through only one involuntary praise of Him. This is a cruel disease of the mind and soul, which has not at all acquired through education the habit of choosing what is useful. And the reason for this for them is the enjoyment of carnal pleasures alone and an addiction to coarse and temporary food more than devotion to spiritual goods and the effort to acquire everything that can provide food for eternal life. You can learn this from what follows. John 6:25. And when he found Him on the floor of the sea, he said to Him: Rabbi, when will you be here? 464 Apparently, speech expresses the affection of those who love it and seems to be sweet, but (in reality) it turns out to be completely meaningless and childish. Indeed, when meeting such a great Teacher, it was not appropriate to speak in vain and not try to find out anything. Why was there any need to be curious when he could have come? And having learned this, what benefit could they get from this? Therefore, the wise should be sought from the wise, and reasonable silence should be preferred to ignorant speech. Our word must be seasoned with salt, as Christ’s disciple commands (Col. 4:6). And another one of the sages admonishes this, saying: “Child, if you have a word of understanding (reasonable), answer, but if not, let a hand be on your lips” (Sir. 5:14). And how bad it is to be accused of an ignorant tongue, we can learn from another: “If anyone,” he says, “thinks that he is pious among you, without bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart, his piety is in vain” (James 1:26). John 6:26. Jesus answered them and said: Amen, I say to you, seek Me, not because you saw the sign, but because you ate the bread and were filled 465 Let us say something general, to which, however, little attention is usually paid 466. Teachers of great ability often become very angry when they are asked empty and useless questions. They should be exposed to such a state, of course, not out of arrogance, but, on the contrary, offended by the ignorance of the questioners. Not without reason, I think, this can be said about us and those like us. The Savior adds a strong accusation to those who proposed that question, as those who spoke unreasonably and recklessly tried not to learn about something from which they could become kind and good, but follow Him because of a physical and, moreover, insignificant reward. In fact, what could be more insignificant than daily food, and, moreover, inexpensive? Therefore, it is fitting for us to have reverence and love for Christ, not in order to seek anything bodily, but in order to obtain salvation through Him. And let us not speak flattering words to Him, like those “rabbis,” otherwise we will turn the verbal confession of Christ into a means of income and accumulation of wealth. Anyone who is trying to do this must finally learn that he will meet Christ, Who will bitterly expose him and reveal the evil hidden in him. One should again marvel at the economic significance of this too. When He saw them afflicted with the above-mentioned disease, then, like a certain skillful and experienced physician, he came up with a twofold cure for them, adding a useful revelation to the remarkable miracle. We will find a miracle in His knowledge of their inner mood, and in His words that they are diligently looking for the Wonderworker not for the sake of piety, you can see conviction. Uses it in two ways. On the one hand, with clear knowledge and exact knowledge of their intentions, He reveals them to be unreasonable, thinking that they will hide from the Divine eye, filled with wickedness in their hearts, and using sweet speech in their tongues: by this He has already encouraged them to avoid such illness and stop such a considerable sin, for truly an offender and a lawless one is the one who has such an idea about God. On the other hand, by usefully exposing those who have sinned, it in some way leads them away from the further path of evil, for it spreads and increases when there is no obstacle, and when exposed, as if at the scene of a crime, it is ashamed and, like a rope, gathers itself into itself. Thus, the Lord also benefits by convicting, and through what He may seem to someone to defeat him, by this very thing He will turn out to be beneficial to him. From this we must conclude that when someone flatters and pleases the heads of churches with good words, and does not walk directly in the faith, then they should not be carried away by these flatteries and those in need of correction should not be rewarded, as if in the form of some reward for their praise, by keeping silent about what they are sinning, but, on the contrary, they should reprove with boldness and convince them to move on to something better, and through this benefit others, as Paul said: “Rebuke those who sin before everyone, so that others also may fear” (1 Tim. 5:20). This is the separate meaning of the above saying. But, I believe, it should indicate its meaning in connection and consistency with the intuitions we have already given. We said that the descent of our Savior from the mountain depicts His second and again coming to us from heaven - and in generalizing the whole speculation we also added that He appears to His disciples, who were still awake and in labor, immediately freeing them from fear and bringing the ship to the earth. What is depicted here for us, as in images, we found out in that discussion. But even now, pay attention to the fact that after Jesus descended from the mountain, some lag behind in following Him and go to Him last, for they come “the next day,” which the Evangelist added not without purpose. Then, having met Christ, they try to flatter Him with good words, but Christ strikes them with hot and strong reproof. This is so that we also reflect on the fact that after the Lord comes to us from heaven, the search for blessings will be completely in vain and useless for people and the desire to follow Him will no longer be timely. And if some approach, thinking to soften Him with affectionate words, they will no longer meet in Him one who is condescending and meek, but one who denounces and defeats the judge. You can see this flattery of those who are accused and the very denunciation in the words of the Savior when He says: “Many will say to Me on that day,” obviously on the day of Judgment, “Lord, Lord!” Wasn’t it in Your name that they cast out demons!” But “then,” he says, “I will declare to them that truly I say to you, I never knew you” (Matthew 7:22-23). After all, he says, you did not seek Me with a pure goal, you did not like to adorn yourself with holiness - then thanks to this I would have known you - but since in order to acquire profit you performed only visible and apparent piety, then I will rightly declare that I did not know you. We think that what is the meaning of the appeal there: “Lord, Lord!”, the same here: “Rabbi.” Therefore, for whom it is bitter to be punished, let him not fall into powerlessness, do not become exhausted in various sins, counting on the goodness of God, but let him prepare “for the outcome of his deeds,” as it is written, “and let him be prepared in the field” (Prov. 24:27), that is, as long as he is in this world, since the Savior called the world a field (Matt. 13:38). Let him prepare to demonstrate holiness and righteousness before the Divine Throne; for he who had to strictly obey the One who called for salvation, when He gave time to mercy, to ask forgiveness for the sins already committed and to seek love for mankind from God the Savior, will not see the Judge as untimely loving people and heeding words conducive to mercy. John 6:27. Do not do what is worthwhile to perish, but do what is worthwhile to endure to eternal life 467 Paul also teaches us something similar, as if generalizing and expanding the speech, in the words: “He who sows to the flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” (Gal. 6:8). They sow, he says, into the flesh, those who, having loosened the bit with carnal pleasures, as it were, quickly head towards everything they desire, not at all distinguishing what is useful for them from what usually causes harm and evil, having not at all learned to value the will of the Lawgiver, being recklessly carried away by only the pleasant and temporary and not considering anything higher than the visible. On the contrary, they sow into the spirit, affirms (the Apostle), that with which the Holy Spirit wishes to decorate us, using all the diligence of their souls and taking advantage of such intense care for the cultivation of goods that if some natural and urgent law of necessity did not force them to give food to the body, they would never allow themselves to condescend to this. Therefore, I think, it is by no means proper for us to turn our concern for the flesh into lust (Rom. 13:14), but to indulge in what is more necessary and diligently exercise ourselves in that which leads us to eternal and Divine life. After all, to honor the pleasures of the body and not consider anything higher than the satiety of the belly is truly a bestial quality and is not alien to extreme senselessness. And to indulge in the good, to diligently adorn oneself with virtues and to obey the laws of the spirit, and also to willingly receive from God that which can guide us to salvation - all this, I agree, truly befits one who knows his own nature and is not ignorant of the fact that he was created as a rational animal in the image of the Creator. So the Savior Himself says in one place: “Do not worry (or say) what we shall eat, or what we shall drink, or what we shall wear” (Matthew 6:31), but, taking into account that “the soul is above food, and the body above clothing” (Matthew 6:25), let us think more about keeping the highest side of our being in good condition. Indeed, with the body in good condition and fattened by the corresponding pleasures, there is no benefit for the poor soul - but, on the contrary, even some great harm will appear, for it will descend into eternal fire, unless, of course, it is necessary for those who have not done anything good to be punished for this, and when the body is curbed by proper reasoning and submission to the laws of the spirit, it is, without a doubt, necessary to be saved together with both (body and soul). Therefore, it is extremely absurd for us to care about the temporary flesh, which is almost ready to be destroyed, so much so that we do not consider it necessary to deny it anything that pleases it, but take care of the soul casually and impute it to nothing, although I think we need to devote ourselves as much more diligently to the care of the soul, to the extent that it is better than the carnal. Thus, by preferring the comparatively higher over the lower and having a fair judgment about both, we will turn out to be righteous and wise judges - and we will not give the correctness of sound judgments to others, but we will leave it to ourselves. Let us, as the Savior says, “seek not for food that perishes.” Having been placed in the womb and having pampered the soul with the most insignificant pleasure for a very short time, it goes out to the aphedrone and is again taken out of the womb. And spiritual food, which preserves the heart, strengthens a person for eternal life, which Christ Himself promises to give us, saying: “Which the Son of Man will give to you,” uniting the human with the Divine and combining the whole mystery of the economy with the flesh in the world. Mysteriously, as it were, he points to the mysterious and spiritual food, through which, sanctified both in body and soul, we live in Him. However, as we will see, He speaks about this somewhat more clearly later. Therefore, let this discussion be saved for the appropriate time and place. That the Only Begotten is the image (χαϱαϰτήϱ) of the hypostasis of God and the Father and no other besides Him, or is, or of course the image John 6:27. The Son of Man will give you: For this God the Father of banners 468 Again, like God, He was not ignorant of the accusations that would arise as a result of Jewish ignorance, and of the reasons for which they often recklessly fell into ferocity. He knew that they would begin to reason within themselves, looking only at the flesh and not understanding the Word of God existing in it, like this: who is this who arrogates to Himself God-appropriate speech? Who will deliver food to people that will preserve them for eternal life? This is completely alien to human nature and belongs only to God alone above all. Therefore, the Savior warns with His answer and puts to shame their expected unbridled speech with His timely defense. He says that the “food” that feeds “to eternal life” will be given to them by the “Son of Man,” however, at the same time he immediately claims about Himself that He is “sealed” from the Father, or again using “sealed” instead of “anointed,” for the one who is anointed is sealed, or indicating that He is formed naturally according to the Father. This is the same as if he said: I will not be unable to give you food that endures and leads to eternal life and bliss, for even if I find myself, like one of you, obviously a man with flesh, I am anointed and sealed by God the Father in exact likeness with Him; and indeed, he says, you will see Him in Me, and Me again in Him naturally, although I was born for your sake as a man from a wife according to the ineffable arrangement of Providence, because I can do everything with Divine authority and in no way do I lack the power inherent in the Parent; and if God and the Father gives you spiritual food and preserves you for eternal life, then obviously the Son will also give it (to you), although He appeared in the flesh, but abides in His unchangeable Image, by which we obviously mean similarity in all respects, not in the features of the flesh and not in anything conceivable in bodily form, but in divine glory and equal strength and royal power. We must also pay attention to the fact that, having said that the Son of Man will give what is fitting for God and that He is sealed in the image of God and the Father, he does not allow a division that cuts off the church received from the Virgin from true sonship, but defines Himself as one and wants Him to be understood that way. And indeed, there is one Christ above us, clothed, as it were, in a royal scarlet with His burden, that is, with a human body or a church of soul and body, although one of both is Christ. But, my dear fellow, the champion of Christ will say again, give power to the truth, do not reinterpret the saying, ignoblely violating the meaning according to your own will. So, through these words, the Son clearly appears to us as existing not from the essence of the Father, but rather, as a reflection of His essence. Let Him be, he says, something that we say. After all, a seal or sign, imprinted on wax or on other substances convenient for this purpose and inscribing only the likeness of itself, is then separated from the imprinting seal, without any harm to itself. So the Father, having introduced all of Himself into the Son and imprinted in some way through the most precise likeness in Him, does not have Him from Himself as a part of His essence or conceivable from it (the essence of the Father originating), but only as an image and exact likeness. Let the inquisitive one see again that the enemy is now pouncing on us like a snake and raising his head filled with poison upward. But He who crushes the head of the dragon (Ps. 73:14) will crush this one too and give us strength to avoid their various wiles. Let him who has just deafened us with terrible words tell us: a seal or sign made of any substance - iron or gold, should not indicate in some mark (image) what it consists of (its image), or even without a mark (image) it will exist and be thought of as a sign (seal)? But, I think, each of them, drawn by the irresistible power of truth, will even be involuntary to admit that (the seal), of course, must imprint in an outline (image), and without an outline, according to correct reasoning, in no way (cannot be conceivable and exist). When, therefore, as the Divine Scripture testifies to us (Heb. 1, 3), the Son is the “mark (χαϱαϰτὴϱ) of the hypostasis” of God and the Father, being obvious in it and from it naturally, then He Himself (the Son) in whom has His sign or through whom else (except the Son) will the Father imprint His mark (image)? No one, of course, will say that the Father does not have a magnificent appearance, which is the Son, the image of His Parent, Whom if anyone begins to contemplate spiritually, then, obviously, he will see the Father Himself. This is why He says of Himself that He exists naturally in Him, although He is thought of as existing from Him according to a special or personal property, just as, for example, radiation in the radiating one and from the radiating one, although it is something else according to our mental representation, is again not something else when considered in relation to it, because from it, it is said, and in it again exists. And this is not taken in the sense of separation or cutting off in general and in essence, for it turns out to be innate, by the identity of the essence, of that from which it comes, and is considered to exist from it, appearing to our mind as if arising into another something special, but without being separated. Therefore, what is sealed from the Father is not the Word, which is from His essence, that is, not Himself in itself and incorporeal, but, rather, that which through Him is raised, as far as possible, to likeness with God, as we understand that saying in which on behalf of some it is said: “The light of Your countenance is marked upon us, O Lord” (Ps. 4:7). He calls the Son the face of God and the Father, which is again a mark. And the light from it is the grace spreading to creation through the Spirit, through which, through faith, we are transformed according to God, perceiving through the Son, as if in the form of a certain law, conformity with Him, Who is the image of the Father, so that what has been created in us in the likeness and image of the Creator may be fully preserved. Since the face of God and the Father is, undoubtedly, the Son, then He, of course, must also be the mark in which God is imprinted. Let it be so, says the adversary, - we believe that through the Spirit God seals the saints. But your reasoning turns out to have no significance for the proposed question. Therefore, we will say again and again: a seal, whether made of iron, for example, or made of gold, inscribes its likeness on any substance, without giving away anything of itself, but by the mere act of imprinting, leaving a sign (mark) on the substance that receives the image. This is how we understand the imprint by the Father of the Son, who has nothing of His essence, but has received only an exact likeness and exists as another something different from Him, just like an image in relation to the prototype. What immense madness and what dizzying thoughts! How easily you forgot what we were just arguing about! After all, we said that the Son is the mark of the Father, and something alien is imprinted on Him, and not He Himself, so that He would not be thought of as the mark of Himself. But you, having unfairly set aside our discussion about this, do not hesitate to assimilate His likeness by action alone (and not by essence). Consequently, the Son, in your opinion, will be God according to one mark and not at all by nature, but only by reflection and formation according to similarity with the Parent. And not at all with the Parent, because thanks to this it is time for you to destroy birth, or rather, it is even absolutely necessary, if you do not want it. But about the need to believe that the Son is born of the Father, we have already made a great deal of reasoning, as in due time and will be done again. Now it is more expedient for us to turn to the continuation of the reasoning we have begun and pose the following question to those accustomed to unbridled speeches: will they not, without a doubt, say that what is given can be taken away, and will they not admit that what has arrived can completely depart? Or does it not sometimes happen that some people reject from themselves everything that is not rooted in them by nature? But obviously so, at least one of them did not agree with it. Therefore, the Son, according to the above reason, can ever be deprived of likeness, for by one action alone, as you say, proceeding from the Father, He is reflected according to Him (the Father), not having the inherent possession of His (the Father's) natural advantages, but being thought and existing as someone else, completely different from the Parent and completely cut off from His essence. Yes, acting very well and foreseeing things with the wisest reasoning, you protected the Father by affirming that He gave nothing from Himself to the Son, except that He was worthy only of likeness, so that nothing passive could be thought about Him. After all, this is your hidden stupid thought! You, apparently, did not recognize that God and the Father, creating everything dispassionately, must also give birth dispassionately - and that He is above fire - reasoning forces us to use this comparison - not through suffering and cutting off the body, generating fieryness (heat) from itself. Let these people, strong in mere suppositions and considering unbridled blasphemy not an ungodly act, but, on the contrary, a virtue, listen to the fact that if the Son, as they assert, is with the Father only in the same property of likeness, then He will not have the inherent possession of goods, but will be in danger, of course, and His being God by nature and, according to the accepted basis, will allow the possibility of transformations for the worse. After all, to the face of the devil, with all thoroughness, we must apply what was said to the leader of the Tyrians: “You (are) the imprint of the likeness” (Ezek. 28:12). But the one to whom these words are spoken turns out to have fallen from the likeness. From here you can see with all clarity how unsteady in relation to the immutability of the state for spiritual beings the possession of mere likeness with God is, and how insufficient even for an unchangeable presence in any good to be imprinted in accordance with the nature of the Creator. This too falls and is overthrown, often ending in a worse mood than it was at the beginning. So, in view of this reasoning of ours, it is necessary to admit that the Son, ascending to likeness with the Father by the mere identity of action, not being established on the basis of natural unity and having support only in the inclinations of His will, can undergo change or, even if it did not undergo, would have to have this state as the fruit of a miraculous pre-election, and not as an integral natural basis, like God. So, what, my dears? Has the Son become no longer God for us? And if, in your opinion, He should turn out to be such, then why do we worship Him? Why is it co-glorified with God and the Father? How and above the highest powers sits as God? Consequently, the holy seraphim themselves do not know with us that they deviate from what is due, glorifying Him who is not God by nature, but they are mistaken, as one should think, by calling the Lord of hosts who is equal in honor to them (Is. 6:3). Or shall we not assert that the highest powers, principalities and thrones, and powers and dominions, if possible, achieve conformity with God? For if such a small earthly animal, I mean man, in comparison with those creatures, is awarded such a distinction (to be the image of God), then what reason does he have for not considering much more excellent creatures and in this respect much higher than us? How is it therefore that they call Him Lord of Hosts and stand around Him as spear-bearers, as servants around the King of all? Why then will He sit down to the Father Himself, and, moreover, at His right hand, a servant to the Lord, a creature to the Creator? Is it really true that the immutability acquired by attentive vigil should be acquired rather by creatures than by God in a being naturally endowed with impassibility? But this is all obvious, even if they didn’t say it. Who, in view of this, can already endure such talkers, or shouldn’t they listen in all justice: “Alas, those who are drunk without wine!” (Isa.28:1). But, perhaps, they will be ashamed of the absurdity of such reasoning and will resort to another statement, namely, that the Son is imprinted by the Father in the “most precise” likeness, so that He has an unchangeable nature, although He is not from the (essence) of the Father. But how, tell me, can something that is not from God by nature (does not have a Divine nature) possess His properties, and how can something that did not come from it according to the true method of birth turn out to be essentially uninvolved in the benefits of the Divine essence? For everyone, I believe, it is clear and indisputable that the properties of the Divine are completely inaccessible to a created creature and what is naturally inherent in that (Divinity) cannot be present in anything else that exists in exactly the same and unchanged form. Just as immutability is inherent in God by nature, so it cannot be in us at all, but what makes us conformable to Him in this through attentiveness and vigilance (ours in goodness) is a certain constancy that does not allow us to easily move on to what is not appropriate. If, in their opinion, it is completely acceptable that any of the properties of the Divine can be inherent in something that is not of it in essence, then tell me, what will prevent everything Divine from existing in those beings who are not gods by nature? If one property, I mean immutability, allowed this to happen completely unhindered, then the rest will open up this possibility. So what happens from here? Everything is confused with us, for will not the higher give way to the lower, and will the lower not ascend to a higher place? And what obstacle will there be to the Almighty God descending into our position, and we, for our part, being gods and like the Father, in the absence of any difference between us and God, if the advantages naturally inherent only in God will pass on and exist in us? And since God and the Father, in all truth, in Himself alone contains that through which we must be conformed to Him, then we remain human and the Angels are with us - what they are, without passing into the Supreme Being. And if God, as having no envy, transferred His own property to all beings, then, without a doubt, there would be many gods by nature, able to create the earth and sky and all other creation; for what has already once contained within itself the advantages of the Creator by nature, how will it not be the same as He (the creator)? Or what will prevent that which is distinguished by qualities equal to God from appearing in exactly the same glory? But, without a doubt, the atheist sees the multitude of absurd thoughts that accumulate in us from here, and he himself blames his inherent ignorance: the Divinity must abide in its own nature and the creature participates in Him through a spiritual property (likeness), but in no way rises to His inherent dignity. In view of these considerations we have presented, we must find immutability essentially inherent in the Son. Consequently, He is God by nature and is necessarily (born) already from the Father, so that anything that is not from Him (the Divinity) by nature does not appear to achieve equality with Him in the Divinity. And since they present to us as irrefutable evidence the consideration that the Son is different from the Father, as an image in relation to the prototype, and on this basis they think to cut Him off from the essence of the One who gave birth, then again they will turn out to be quite unreasonable and completely unable to confirm that in reality it was so, as it is well formed in their minds. In fact, why do they try in vain about this and why, on the basis of the mere difference in personal existence, do they cut off the Son from the Father? After all, His personal existence, of course, does not at all show Him to be alien to the essence of the One who gave birth. Therefore, without a doubt, He is from the Father, as from His essence, but on the other hand, He is also in the Father because of His existence in Him by nature. So you can hear from Him Himself: “I came from the Father and am going” (John 8:42), then again: “I am in the Father and the Father in Me” (John 14:10). After all, He is not separated into a completely and completely separate individuality, since the Holy Trinity is conceived as a single Divinity, but, being in the Father, as Inseparable from Him and Consubstantial with Him, He must be thought of from Him (existing) according to an ineffably accomplished origin, consisting, as it were, in a reflection, for He is Light from Light. So, He is in the Father and from the Father inseparably and together separately, as a mark existing in Him, and as an image in relation to the prototype being thought to exist separately (personally). We cannot give a simple verbal reasoning about this, but we will confirm it with a legal example, defending the power of truth from everywhere against those who think differently. Thus, the law commanded the Israelites to bring a ransom to each of their heads “half a didrachma” (Ex. 30:13), and one statir contained a didrachma (a two-drachma coin). And in this, too, Christ Himself is secretly indicated to us, for all, as it were, offering Himself as a ransom from all to God and the Father and represented, as it were, in one drachma, however, inseparably from the other, since, according to what we have already said above, one coin contained two drachmas. Thus one can imagine the Son in relation to the Father, and the Father again in relation to the Son, both in one nature, each in particular, separately, as existing in a special person, but not completely cut off and not One without the Other. And just as in one coin there were two drachmas, which had a quantitative measure completely equal to each other, and one was no less than the other, so understand the complete identity of the essence of the Son with God and the Father, or vice versa also of the Father with the Son, and in this case you will finally receive a sound teaching about everything that is said about Him. John 6:28–29. Having decided to Him: what shall we do, let us do the work of God? Jesus answered and spoke to them... 469 This question does not come from a good disposition and not from curiosity, as anyone might imagine, but rather, these words came out of very great pride. As if no longer deigning to know anything other than what they knew, they seem to say something like this: enough, my good friend, we have had enough of the Mosaic laws - we know no less than we need, what an expert in Divine affairs should strive for - what new things will you add to what was established at that time? What else will you teach us that is not foretold to us in the Word of God? So, the question was a consequence of their stupidity rather than a real desire for knowledge. You have something similar in Blessed Matthew. The young man alone, surrounded by the hard-to-get abundance of estates, gave as if a hint that he was finally turning to serving God. When he came to Jesus, he diligently began to inquire about what he needed to do in order to become an heir to eternal life. The Lord says to him: “You know the commandments, of course: do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not bear false witness,” and so on. But he, already as not needing any of this or even as not accepting such teaching, which is much lower than his inherent experience, says: “I have kept all this since my youth, what else am I lacking?” (Matthew 19ff; cf. Luke 18:18–20). So, just as he, combining arrogance with ignorance, says: “What else am I lacking,” so they, out of their great pride and high opinion of themselves, say: “What must we do to do the work of God?” Therefore, it is good for humility and the work of a noble soul to allow teachers to know more useful things and to feed them with such teachings as they consider beautiful - to teachers who have more information. In fact, how could they appear as teachers, of course, without acquiring more knowledge for themselves than the minds of educators have, when even the greatest success is barely able to bring them to the level of those (educators), as the Savior said: “There is no student greater than the teacher” and “it is enough for the student to be like his teacher” (Matthew 10:24-25). John 6:29. This is the work of God, so believe in Him whose messenger He is Amazingly, again, although still secretly and covertly, the Lord exposes the foolishness of those who question. If you pay attention to just the simple words of the Lord’s speech, you might think that He commands them nothing else except that they must believe Him. But upon closer examination of the meaning of these words, one can see in them an indication of something else. Having done very well, He made a speech about this that corresponded to the foolishness of those who asked. After all, they, as having sufficiently learned through the law to do what is pleasing to God, wickedly reject the teaching of our Savior, saying: “What must we do to do the work of God?” But it was necessary to show them that they are still very far from service pleasing to God, and those who, indulging in the letter of the law, have a mind full of simple images and external indications, do not know at all any of the true blessings. That is why he says with some special expressiveness, contrasting the fruit of faith with service according to the law: “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” This, he says, is not what you believe, looking only at the images, but learn, even if you did not want to know, that the Lawgiver did not once honor your sacrifices of oxen, and it is not appropriate for you to slaughter sheep, as if this is what God requires of you and desires. What does incense mean, even if it spreads fragrant vapors in the air - what benefit, he says, will a goat and bringing rare cinnamon bring (Jer. 6:20)? God does not eat the flesh of bulls and does not drink the blood of goats, - he knows “all the birds of the air, and the beauty of the field” with Him (Ps. 49:13, 11), - He hated and rejected your holidays and does not smell (the sacrifices) in your celebrations, as He Himself says in one place ( Am. 5:21), but He did not speak “to your fathers about burnt offerings and sacrifices” ( Jer. 7:22). So, this is not “the work of God,” but, on the contrary, “that you should believe in Him whom He Himself sent.” And in fact, salvation through faith is truly superior to subordinate and typical worship, and justifying grace is superior to the condemning commandment. So, the task for a God-loving soul is faith in Christ, and the desire to be wise in His words is much more important than to indulge in types and shadows. And besides, marvel at this. Having the custom of not paying any attention to those who questioned Him for the sake of temptation, in the present case, however, he gives this answer with a prudent purpose, although he again knew that they would not benefit, but to condemn them, as in another case he says: “If I had not come and told them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin” (John 15:22). John 6:30–31. Deciding to Him: what sign have You done, so that we may see and believe You? What are you doing? Our fathers ate manna in the desert, as it is written: Bread from heaven gave them to eat 470 Little by little the mood of the Jews is revealed, although somewhat darkly and still under the cover of unclear reasoning. After all, they said out of thoughtlessness: “What should we do to do the works of God,” since, according to what we have already said above, they considered the Mosaic Law sufficient so that they could be guided to all wisdom, through which they could do what is pleasing to God. But such a goal, although they had it, remained somewhat unclear, and now it is being discovered and little by little comes to light, “for there is nothing hidden,” according to the words of the Savior, “that will not be revealed” (Luke 8:17). So, what, they say, “What sign are you doing?” Blessed Moses, they say, and quite rightly, was honored, accepted for mediation between God and people, and indeed he gave a sufficient sign - everyone who was with him ate manna in the desert. Finally, how quickly do you place yourself before us in a higher place than you and do not refuse to add your own institutions to what was once legalized? With what signs do you certify us or with what worthy of surprise do you appear before us as the introducer of the newest teachings? Thanks to these words, the very word (about them) of our Savior is true, for from what they say, they are convicted of the fact that they considered it necessary to seek Him not in order to be amazed at Him for His Divine deeds, but because they ate from the loaves and were satisfied (John 6:26). And indeed, they do not simply demand any sign from Him, but the one that they thought Moses did, not for one day, but for all forty years, feeding the people (who came out) of Egypt in the desert by giving manna. Completely unaware, as it turns out, of any of the secrets (contained) in the Divine Scripture, they did not reflect on the fact that this miracle-working should assimilate the Divine power of the One who created it, but they very unreasonably crown the head of Moses for this. So, they demand an equal sign from Christ, not deserving any surprise at all at the sign revealed to him on (only) one day, even if it turned out to be great, but they also demand to extend the supply of food for a long time, because in this case, and even then with difficulty, one could only force them to bow down and finally agree that the power of the Savior is worthy of surprise and therefore His teaching should be accepted. Thus, it is obvious, although they do not say very clearly, that they do not attach any importance to signs, and under the pretext of wanting to be surprised at them, they strive to serve the unclean pleasure of the womb. About manna - that it was an image of the coming of Christ and the spiritual gifts (communicated) through Him John 6:32. Jesus said to them: Amen, Amen, I say to you: Moses did not give you bread from heaven. And now the Savior strongly exposes those who are unreasonable and who are completely ignorant of the writings of Moses. After all, they, of course, should have known well that Moses served as an intermediary in transmitting Divine commands to the people and back - the desires of Israel to God, but was not the personal performer of any of the miracles, but only a servant and executor of what the Giver of all kinds of benefits wanted to do for the benefit of those called out of slavery. Thus, what was in their wicked thoughts, Christ now suppresses it very decisively. In fact, what is characteristic and appropriate for the Divine nature alone to assimilate not to her, but to the honor of people, is this not the height of madness and, at the same time, wickedness? Having then removed the priestly leader Moses from performing miracles and having taken the supernatural from his hand, He, obviously, for this reason alone, together with the Father, assimilates this honor to Himself, although He refuses to speak more clearly, due to the ignorance of the listeners. After all, it could easily happen that, considering such words as an insult to Moses, they would again become enraged and inflamed with uncontrollable anger, not in the least examining the true property of the object and not recognizing the dignity of the Speaker, but being recklessly carried away by the veneration of Moses alone, and of course unreasonably, when he was equated even with a higher something (elevated to a higher being). Let us learn from here, precisely and thoroughly, to show reverence to our holy fathers and to render, according to what is written, “to whom fear is fear, to whom honor is honor” (Rom. 13:7). We will not commit any unrighteousness if we assimilate to each what is due to him, since “the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets” (1 Cor. 14:32). And when it comes to our Savior Christ, then we need to say: “For who in the clouds can be compared with the Lord, or who can be like the Lord among the sons of God?” (Ps.89:7). John 6:32–33. But My Father gives you the true bread from heaven: for this is the bread of God, come down from heaven and give life to the world 471 It was necessary not only to remove Moses from the Divine power, which the Jews attributed to him, and to present him as a servant during that miracle, and not as a giver (of manna), but also the miracle itself, although performed in a supernatural way, was already belittled and, by comparison with the greater, showed its utter insignificance. Therefore, imagine Christ again exclaiming something like this... You consider the great to be small and insignificant, and you have limited the generosity of the Lord of everything to very small sizes. You reveal considerable ignorance if you consider manna “bread from heaven,” although in the desert it fed only the people of Judah, while there are countless other nations throughout the universe. And this is such a limited benefit, in your opinion, that God wants to show that he provides food only to one people. But these were images of more general objects and a particular manifestation of universal good deeds as a kind of preliminary deposit. But when the time of the coming of truth appeared to us, then “My Father gives you bread from heaven,” which, through the giving of manna, was foreordained by the ancients, as if in the shadows. Therefore, let no one think or say that this was the true bread from heaven, but let him recognize as such the One who has the inherent power to nourish the entire universe and deliver perfect “life” to the “world.” Thus, the Jew is accused of adhering to what was in the image, and for refusing to seek the beauty of truth itself. After all, it (the beauty of truth) was not manna itself, but the Only Begotten Word of God Himself, emanating from the essence of the Father, just as He is life by nature, life-giving. since he was born of the Living Father, he Himself is life by nature, and since giving life is a work inherent in life by nature, then Christ gives life to everything. What the earthly bread turns out to be for us, not allowing the weak nature of the flesh to be destroyed, is what He also serves, through the action of the Holy Spirit, life-giving our spirit - and not only this, but also preserving the body itself for incorruption. But if since our reasoning has already reached the topic of manna, then there seems to be nothing harmful in saying something briefly about it, taking from the books of Moses themselves for a detailed consideration what is written about it. Having thus made a most thorough presentation of the subject, we will correctly consider everything that needs to be understood about it. Through all this we will show that the true manna is Christ Himself, as in the type, understood in the manna to be given to the ancients from God the Father. The revelation about her begins like this: “On the fifteenth day, in the second month, when they came out of the land of Egypt, the whole host of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, and the children of Israel said to them: It would have been better for us to die stricken by the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of flesh and ate the loaves until we were full, than for you to bring us out into this desert to kill this whole host with hunger” ( Ex.16:1-3). The historical meaning is clear and quite obvious, so I think no research is required for such a simple subject. Let us speak again, bearing in mind only the spiritual side. So, while still in the land of Egypt, the Israelites, by Divine command, celebrated the feast of Christ in a typical manner and, having eaten the ram, barely thus escaped the cruel oppression of Pharaoh and shook off the heavy yoke of slavery. Then, in addition, having miraculously crossed the Red Sea, they found themselves in the desert. And in it, being exposed to hunger, they wished to eat meat and were carried away by the usual desire for bread. So, they murmur against Moses and repent of the gift of God, when they should have given thanks in every possible way for it. Therefore, Egypt means “darkening” and by it we should mean that we, as if assigned to live in a country - to the state of the present age and to the worldly situation, in this state endure cruel slavery, not working for God at all, but doing what is pleasing only to the devil - plunging into the pleasures of the unclean flesh, as if into the mud or a fetid swamp, enduring unpaid and useless labor and serving, so to speak, not without miserliness of voluptuousness 472. But when the law of God speaks in our mind and we begin to see cruel slavery in this, then, having desired to remove ourselves from all evil, we come, as it were, to the beginning and door of freedom, to Christ Himself, and then, guided through the Honest Blood by security and grace, we leave carnal temptations in this life, as if some stormy and agitated sea, and, having become beyond all worldly confusion, we come to the spiritual and the purest state, settling as if in a desert country. And just as one who is trained to it through the law should not remain without deeds of virtue, then when we find ourselves having already reached this state, then, falling under the test of temptations, we are sometimes remorseful at the memory of carnal lusts, and then, when we are strongly inflamed by lust, out of carelessness we often blame the Divine law, although it calls us to freedom - and, as if feeling the hunger of the former and usual pleasures and Having neglected the work of abstinence, we no longer look at slavery in the world as an evil. Yes, the lust of the flesh is indeed able to lead the spirit to any cowardice in goodness. “The Lord said to Moses: Behold, I will rain down bread from heaven for you” (Ex. 16:4). You can also see a very clear indication of these words in the saying of the psalm: “He gave them the bread of heaven; man ate the bread of angels” (Ps. 77:24–25). But for everyone, I think, it is obvious that by bread and food of the heavenly intelligent powers we must mean no one other than the Only Begotten of God the Father. Consequently, He is the true manna, the bread of heaven, given from God the Father to every intelligent creature. In addition, regarding the items under consideration, let’s say this. Pay attention to how Divine and highest grace attracts to itself and in various ways saves human nature, which suffers from a primordial illness. The thought of the flesh, sinking into the soul, pushes it like a stone and violently draws it to its own lust, but Christ again directs us, as if with some kind of bridle, to desire the best and raises those who are ill to a God-loving state. So, to those who deviate into bodily pleasures, He promises to provide food from heaven, obviously consolation through the Spirit, spiritual manna. Through it we are strengthened in all patience and courage and gain strength not to fall through weakness into unseemly things. This is how spiritual manna, that is, Christ, once strengthened us in piety. But if we have already made this digression in reasoning out of necessity, I consider it inconvenient to leave it without exploring how quickly it can bring great benefit. So, someone can reasonably ask why such a humane and good-loving God, instead of warning the petition, hesitates with a promise and does not punish from the very beginning those who are so depraved in their mood, although He punished them later, when, suffering from the same lust, they began to dream of bread for satiety and cauldrons of meat and strongly desire stinking onions; for in Numbers we will find that some were subjected to punishment, and the area in which they then camped was called “the graves of lust”, for there, it is said, the lustful people were buried (Num. 11:34)? In response to the first, we will say that it was appropriate to wait for the wish, no doubt, in order to thus later turn out to be the giver (of the desired) in good time. After all, giving to those benefiting is especially pleasant when it is preceded and preceded by some pleasures that make them desire a good that does not yet exist. The human soul would not experience the most pleasant sensation if it were not first tense and excited by the pleasures of well-being. But, perhaps, you will say, there was no request at all on their part, but, on the contrary, grumbling, repentance and accusation, which really happened, or rather, to be more accurate. Let us answer this that for people who are morally perfect, of course, petition through prayer is appropriate, but equivalent to it will be partly the murmur of weaker people, whether due to negligence or for whatever reason. The Savior of all, being a lover of mankind, of course, does not become angry. Just as crying in very young babies sometimes serves as a means of asking for something useful for them, and through it the mother is often called upon to inquire what is pleasant for the child, so in those who are still infants and have not matured in intelligence, crying, so to speak, out of negligence, has the meaning of a petition to God. And he punishes not at the beginning, although he sees them in submission to earthly lusts, but already in the middle of time, as it seems to me, for the following reason. Those who recently left Egypt, having not yet received manna and not having heavenly bread to strengthen the human body (Ps. 103:15), naturally fall into carnal lusts, which is why they enjoy leniency. And those who have already enjoyed the Lord, as it is written (Ps. 37:4), if they preferred the physical goods to spiritual ones, are already subject to the most just punishment and with this punishment they also leave as a legacy a famous monument of disaster, for “coffins” (gravestones) “lust” is the name given to the place of punishment (Num. 11:34). “And the people will go out and gather the day’s goods for the day” (Ex. 16:4). We must take sensory manna as a prototype of spiritual manna. Spiritual manna means Christ Himself to us, and sensual manna secretly points to the rough education of the law. It is not without reason that the Lawgiver commands it to be collected only for the day and forbids it to be stored for tomorrow, as if in a riddle, pointing out to the ancients that with the dawning of the time of salvation, when the Only Begotten appeared in the world with flesh, the subordinate prototypes must be completely abolished and it is in vain to collect food from there, when the truth itself is already set before us for food and eating. “And on the sixth day they will prepare what they bring in, and what they gather will be double” (Ex. 16:5). Notice again and understand that it is not permissible to collect sensual manna on the seventh day, but commands it to be used for food that has already been mined and collected on the previous day. The seventh day signifies the time of the coming of our Savior, in which we observe the Sabbath (celebrate) in holiness, having stopped sinful deeds, taking in food both the evidence of faith and the knowledge already collected from us through the law, however, no longer being subject to the need to collect it, when the most excellent food is already laid out, and having heavenly bread. The manna is gathered in double quantity before the seventh day. And from here again understand that with the conclusion of the law at the end of time and with the beginning of Holy Week, that is, with the coming of Christ, in a double measure there must be the acquisition of heavenly blessings and a double grace, introducing the gospel instruction to what is useful from the law. The Lord Himself teaches this when He says in one place, as if in the form of a parable: “Therefore every scribe who has been taught of the Kingdom of Heaven is like a rich man, who brings out from his treasury new and old things” (Matthew 13:52). The old is what is from the Law, and the new is what is through Christ. “And Moses and Aaron said to all the congregation of the children of Israel: In the evening you will know that the Lord brought you out of Egypt; in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, in that the Lord has given you meat in the evening and loaves in the morning for your satisfaction” (Ex. 16:6-8). Moses announces to the children of Israel that in the evening they will be given quails from God, and claims that through this they will clearly know that the Lord has brought them out of Egypt. In the morning, he says, clearly, you will see the glory of the Lord in receiving bread until you are full. Pay attention again to the difference in word expression about each subject. The quail can indicate the law, for indeed it always flies low and near the ground. This is how you see those brought up through the law in base and educational worship, if we mean Jewish sacrifices and sprinklings and cleansings. After all, they rise not far from the earth and although they seem to rise above it, they revolve on it and around it, for the perfection of good and the height of understanding are not in the law. Sent, then, in the evening; Moreover, through the evening we are given an indication either again of the darkness of the letter (the law), or of the dark state of the world, which did not yet have true Light, that is, Christ, who, having become man, says: “I have come as light into the world” (John 12:46). The sons of Israel will learn, it is further said, that the Lord brought them out of Egypt, for in the Mosaic writings one can see only the knowledge of universal salvation through Christ, but grace itself is not yet present in them. He pointed to this very thing, adding: “In the morning you will see the glory of the Lord in giving you bread to satisfy you.” With the cessation of legal blindness, as if it were night, and with the rising of the Spiritual Sun for all of us, we, as in a mirror, contemplate (2 Cor. 3:18) the glory of the Lord who has already come, collecting the bread of heaven for saturation, that is, again Christ Himself. “Evening came, and the quails came and covered the camp; and in the morning (it came) when the dew was removed from around the camp, and behold, on the surface of the desert (something) small, like coriander, white” (Ex. 16:13-14). Pay attention again to the purpose and meaning of this story. “About quails” it is said that “they covered the camp,” and about “manna” that “in the morning” came down, “after the dew had been removed, around the camp onto the surface of the desert.” After all, education through the law, that is, in types and shadows, which we compared to the appearance of quails, covers the synagogue of the Jews, for, as Paul says, “a veil lies over their hearts” (2 Cor. 3:15) and “blinding is in part” (Rom. 11:25). And when the morning appeared, that is, with the sunrise and the illumination of the entire universe by Christ, when the dew had already ceased, that is, the rough and dark introduction of legal decrees, for Christ is the end of the law and the prophets; then the true manna from heaven must descend to us, that is, the gospel teaching, we affirm, - not on the host of Israelites, but around the camp, obviously, on all the nations - and on the surface of the desert, that is, the Church of the Gentiles, about which it is said in one place: “For she who is abandoned (desert) has many more children than she who has a husband” (Is. 54:1). The grace of spiritual manna spreads over the entire universe, which is compared to “coriander” and called “fine manna.” And indeed, the power of the Divine word is shallow and cools the kindling of passions, taming the flame of carnal lusts in us. And coriander herb is said to have the natural property of producing a cooling effect. “And when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is this?” For they did not know what (it) was” (Ex. 16:15). Not familiar with such an extraordinary and wonderful phenomenon and not being able to clearly say from experience what it could be, they say to each other: what is this? This last saying (“what is this?”), expressed in the form of a question, is made the name of the object and in the Syrian language is called “Manna,” that is, again: “What (is) this?” And from this you can understand that Christ had to be not recognized by the Jews, for experience showed what was contained in the type to be accomplished in reality itself. “Moses said to them, “Let no one leave her until the morning.” And they did not listen to Moses, but some left it until the morning, and it was filled with worms and stank, and Moses was offended by them” (Ex. 16:19-20). The morning here again points us to the bright and glorious time of the coming of our Savior, when, with the cessation of the shadow of the law and the devilish darkness in the pagans, the Only Begotten shone to us like light and the spiritual morning appeared. Therefore, blessed Moses again commands not to leave the representative manna until the morning, for with the advent of the time just mentioned, the shadows of the law are already unnecessary and completely untimely due to the truth that has already arrived. And that with the rise of Christ, the righteousness of the law actually becomes useless, Paul showed this when he said about it: “For whose sake I have suffered all things,” that is, all the benefits under the law, “and I count them as rubbish, so that I may gain Christ and be found in Him to have my righteousness, which is not in the law, but through faith (in) Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:8-9). You see from here how wisely he warned not to leave (the manna) until the morning. Those who remained until the morning were a type of the crowd of Jews who had to disobey Him, for whom the strong desire to keep the law to the letter should have been the cause of rotting and worms, for you hear how much the lawgiver is offended by them. “And Moses said to Aaron: Take one golden vessel and put in it a full omer (measure) of Manna, and you will lay it up before God for safekeeping” (Ex. 16:33). It is quite timely now to speak about this with surprise: “Oh the depth of the wealth and wisdom and knowledge of God!” (Rom.11:33). The wisdom hidden in the inspired scriptures is truly inaccessible, “and the deep depth,” according to what is written, “who will find it?” (Eccl.7:24). You see, therefore, how our last word on this ends. since Christ Himself appeared to us as the true manna, through the type indicated by the ancients, then in the above words, it is necessary to think, teaches what kind and in what quantity he is filled with virtue and glory by collecting spiritual manna within himself and bringing Jesus into the interior of his heart through both right faith in Him and complete love. After all, you hear how in a golden vessel a full omer (measure) of manna was deposited by the hand of Aaron for safekeeping before God. And indeed, a righteous and truly God-loving soul, sacredly keeping within itself the word about Christ and having received all the heavenly treasure, will be a precious vessel, as if made of gold, and will be offered through the Bishop of all to God and the Father, and will be lifted up for safekeeping in the sight of Him who contains and saves everything and does not allow what is corruptible by its nature to be subject to decay. This is how a righteous man is described, having, as it were, spiritual manna in a golden vessel, that is, Christ, ascending into incorruption, as if in the sight of God, and remaining for safekeeping, obviously, into eternal life and endless life. This is why Christ rightly denounces the immeasurably extravagant Jews, who thought that manna was given to the ancients by the wise Moses, and who stopped there in their understanding of this narrative, but who did not at all understand its representative significance - in the words (Christ denounces): “Truly I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you” manna. Indeed, on the contrary, they should have kept in mind and understood that Moses contributed only his indirect service to this (miracle). This gift was not the acquisition of a human hand, but a work of heavenly grace, describing the spiritual in sensory objects and pointing us to the heavenly bread, which gives life to the whole world, and does not feed, as if by predisposition, only the people of Israel. John 6:34–35. I decided to Him: Lord! always give us this bread. Jesus spoke to them... These words clearly reveal, even with a strong desire to hide, the purpose of the Jews. With undeniable truth, everyone can see from this that they sought to follow Him, not because they were spectators of signs, but because they ate from the loaves and were satisfied (v. 26). For this great ignorance of theirs, they are subject to fair condemnation, and, I think, one can really say to them: “Behold, they are a stupid and heartless people - they have eyes and do not see, they have ears and do not hear” (Jer. 5:21). While Christ our Savior, through many speeches, as can be seen from the Gospel, turned them away from bodily thoughts and through all-wise teaching raised them to spiritual contemplation, they do not rise above carnal needs and, hearing about the bread that gives life to the world, they also dream about earthly bread, having a belly with God, according to what is written (Phil. 3:19), and being possessed by the vices of the belly, so that justly hear that “the glory is in their shame” (ibid.). You will find this speech very similar to the words of the Samaritan woman. Our Savior Christ spoke to her at length and taught about spiritual water, clearly saying: “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst, but the water that I will give him will be in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life” (John 4:13-14). But due to her inherent ignorance, she is carried away in the other direction, leaves the spiritual source and, without thinking about it at all, directs her thought to the donation of sensual moisture, saying: “Lord, give me this water, so that I will not thirst, nor come here to draw” (John 4:15). And the speech of the Jews is similar to these words of hers. Just as she turns out to be weak by nature, in exactly the same way, I think, they have nothing masculine, so to speak, or youthful in their thoughts, but are, as it were, feminine in the unmanly lusts of the womb and prove the truth of what is written about them: “For a fool will speak foolish things, and his heart will think vain things” (Is. 32:6). John 6:35. I am the bread of life Usually it was the Savior Christ, when explaining the Divine and already foreshadowed sacraments, to give as if mysterious and not very clear instructions on them, for He did not allow such a holy teaching to be offered without secrecy to be trampled upon by all who wanted it, the unworthy and the wicked. But by covering it, as it were, with a veil of riddles, He makes it inaccessible to the intelligent. When He saw some listeners ignorant and not understanding anything at all from what was being communicated, He clearly stated what He wanted to point out, and, removing all the darkness from the word, He offered openly and publicly understandable knowledge of the secret, thereby making disbelief unrequited for them. And what was usual for Him, as we said, to use often hidden and unclear speech, He Himself will teach this, saying in the book of Psalms: “I will open My mouth in parables” (Ps. 77:2). The blessed prophet Isaiah will no less certify our explanation of this and show it to be not unfounded, exclaiming: “Surely the Just King will reign, and the rulers will begin with judgment, and he will be a man who hides His words” (Is. 32:1-2), for the Righteous King, it is said, has reigned over us, saying: “I have been appointed king by Him over Zion, His holy mountain, declaring commandment of the Lord" (Ps. 2:6-7). According to the court, that is, in truth, the holy disciples who approached the Savior Christ, who often spoke in secret, are called living leaders with the following words: “Tell us a parable” (Matthew 15:15). And when He once heard: “Why do you speak to the people in parables,” He clearly indicated the reason for this, saying: “For seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear nor understand” (Matthew 13:10, 13). Without a doubt, they were not worthy of this when the just God determined such a sentence for them. Therefore, the Savior, having used numerous turns of speech, when he saw that the listeners still did not understand anything, said more clearly: “I am the bread of life.” He almost attacks their immeasurable foolishness, saying this: O, having incomparable superiority over everyone due to ignorance alone! When God says that he will give you bread from heaven and honors you with such a promise, you limit Divine generosity to the food of manna and are not ashamed to extend the highest grace to this limit, not knowing that it is not enough for you to receive it from God and to bestow it on God Himself (this is not enough). Therefore, do not believe, he says, that it was the bread of heaven, for “I am the bread of life,” once foretold to you as if in a promise and shown in a type, and now coming, in fulfillment of the promise given to you. And “I am the bread of life,” not bodily bread, stopping only the suffering of hunger and protecting the flesh from the destruction that occurs from it (hunger), but completely transforming all living beings (humans) into eternal life and showing man created for eternal existence above death. This secretly points to life and grace through the Holy Flesh, through which the property of the Only Begotten, that is, life, penetrates into us. It is necessary to know - for I consider it necessary to diligently grasp everything that serves for the benefit - that throughout the entire forty-year period, the Israelites were given educational manna from God, while Moses was still with them. When he reached the general end of his life, and Jesus (Joshua - Ed.) had already been installed as the leader and leader of the Jewish hordes, he led them through the Jordan, as it is written (Joshua 3rd), circumcising them with stone knives and leading them into the Promised Land, where, finally, he gave them the opportunity to eat bread, when the all-wise God had already stopped the alms of manna. So - after all, the image must already be converted into truth - when Moses was removed, when, that is, the prototypes of the subordinate ministry ceased and the true Christ, Jesus, appeared to us, for He saved “people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21), then we crossed the Jordan, then we received circumcision in the spirit through the teaching of the twelve stones, that is, the holy disciples, about whom the prophets wrote, “that the holy stones roll on earth" (Zechariah 9:16). Having gone around and around the entire universe, these holy stones are, of course, those through which we too were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the Spirit, obviously through the Spirit. Therefore, when we are called by Christ into the Kingdom of Heaven - for this, I believe, and no other, means the entry of someone into the Promised Land - then we no longer have representative manna, for we no longer feed on the Mosaic writings, but already the bread of heaven, that is, Christ, feeding us into eternal life through the alms of the Holy Spirit and the communication of His Flesh, which imparts into us the communion of God and destroying the deadness (existing) from the original curse. John 6:35. He who comes to Me will never be hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty 473 There is also something hidden in these words that needs to be explained. Usually the Savior Christ not only never deprived the saints of glory, but, on the contrary, crowned them with wonderful honor. However, when some of the most ignorant, not knowing what superiority He had over them, ascribed to them the highest glory, then He very beneficially convinced them to have a more correct idea of ​​Him, forcing them to reflect on who the Only Begotten is and by what incomparable superiority He is distinguished. But His speech about this is not particularly clear, but somewhat obscured and without any embellishment, by contemplation of the deeds themselves or by comparison, forcing us to recognize His superiority. So, for example, He once spoke with a Samaritan woman, to whom he promised to give living water. The woman, not understanding anything of His words, said: “Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well?” (John 4:12). And since the Savior wanted to convince her that He is higher than Jacob and in no small measure more worthy of faith, he turns his speech to the difference of waters, saying: “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will become in him a source of water flowing into eternal life” (John 4:13-14). And through this, He, without a doubt, convinces us to understand precisely that the giver of the highest must necessarily have, of course, superiority over the one with whom the comparison is made in anything. He uses a similar way of explaining and teaching now. Since the Jews dared, as it were, to despise Him and to philosophize over Him, in all respects preferring the lawgiver Moses, and often asserted that it was proper to follow his decrees, and not at all the instructions of Christ, considering the giving of manna and the flow of water from the rock to be the most reliable proof of his superiority over everyone and even over our Savior Christ Himself; then he finally moves on to His usual method and does not say more clearly that He is higher than Moses, due to the unbridled insolence of the listeners and their very great inclination to anger, but turns again to the most wonderful thing and from comparison with the big reveals the small. “He who comes to Me,” he says, “will never hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” Let it be so, he says, and I myself agree with you that the manna was given by Moses, but those who ate were hungry, - I will say that water was given to you from the rock (by Moses), but those who drank were thirsty, and the gift of the said objects brought only a very short-term use of them - but he who comes to Me “will never hunger” “and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” So, what does Christ promise? Nothing perishable, but a blessing consisting in the acceptance of Holy Flesh and Blood, which raises a person to complete incorruption, so that he no longer needs anything that removes death from the flesh, I’m obviously talking about food and drink. Water, it seems, is again called sanctification here through the Spirit or the Divine and Holy Spirit Himself, often called so in the Divine Scriptures. So, the holy Body of Christ gives life to those in whom it will be, and strengthens them to immortality, uniting with our bodies, for the body is meant not of anyone else, but of Life Itself by nature, having in itself all the power of the Word united with it and, as it were, endowed with His property, or rather, already filled with His effectiveness, through which everything is quickened and preserved into being. If this is so, then let those who have been baptized and have tasted Divine grace already know, finally, that by lazily and rarely going to church, evading the blessing of Christ for a long time, 474 and inventing harmful piety, which consists in not wanting to participate in the mysterious communion with Christ, they thereby remove themselves from eternal life and refuse life. Refusal (of the Eucharist) turns into a snare and temptation, although it seemed to them the fruit of reverence (for the sacrament). On the contrary, they must exert all their inherent strength and zeal in order to be quick to cleanse sin - most of all, try to assimilate the most worthy behavior and thus move very cheerfully towards receiving life. But since Satan uses various means to deceive, he tries not to allow them to have healthy and proper thoughts and, contaminating them with vices, makes them tremble and even grace itself, through which they should, as if sobered up from wine and drunkenness from the pleasure that leads to evil (Joel 1:5), see and understand what is useful. Therefore, having broken his bonds and thrown off the yoke placed on us by his cruelty, let us work with fear for the Lord, as it is written (Ps. 2:3, 11), and, through abstinence, finding ourselves above carnal pleasures, let us approach Divine and heavenly grace and ascend to the holy acceptance of Christ. It is in this way that we will overcome the devil’s seduction and, having become partakers of the Divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4), we will ascend to life and incorruption. John 6:36. But Reh to you, because you have seen Me and do not believe 475 By means of many reasons he refutes them and in every possible way attracts them to salvation through faith. But, like God, He did not know that they would turn to the familiar and ordinary, as if acquired through education, unbelief and would not pay any attention to the One who Called them to life. So that they would therefore know that Jesus is not ignorant of how some will turn out to be again; or rather, it should be said, so that they may know that they are under Divine wrath, he adds again: “But I told you that you have seen Me and do not believe.” I foresaw, he says, and clearly predicted that you would probably remain cruel and, relentlessly devoted to your kind disobedience, you would remain unparticipated in My gifts. When did Christ say something like that about them? Remember the words of the blessed prophet Isaiah: “Go and tell this people: You will hear by hearing and will not understand, and seeing will you see and will not know; for the heart of this people has become hardened” (Is. 6:9–10). Will not this word turn out to be true in the events we are now considering? After all, of course, they saw that the Lord is God by nature, when He fed the countless multitudes who followed Him with five barley loaves and two fish. But “having seen, they do not believe,” because of the bitterness, like blindness, that weighed heavily on their minds as a result of Divine wrath. And they were, undoubtedly, worthy of this state if, subject to immeasurable falls and suffocated by the indissoluble chains of iniquities (Proverbs 5:22), they did not even accept Him Himself who came, possessing the power to liberate. For this reason, the heart of this people became hardened. And that the Jewish people perceived from the greatness of the sign that Jesus was God by nature, you can understand this especially from the following. Surprised at what had happened (the miracle), as the Evangelist said above, they tried to “seize Him to make him king” (John 6:15). Therefore, the Jews have no excuse for their madness. Rightly amazed by the Divine sign and from deeds accordingly coming to the power of the Wonderworker, they almost tremble at good obedience and (in horror) recoil from good morals, happily plunging, as it were, to the very bottom of destruction. John 6:37. Everything the Father gives Me will come to Me 476 It was not just necessary for the Lord to say: “Because you have seen Me and do not believe,” but it was necessary to add to what was said the reason for the bitterness, so that they would know that they had been subjected to Divine wrath. So, like some very skillful doctor, illness shows them and reveals the cause of the illness - not, of course, so that, having learned, they would calmly remain in the same state, but so that in every possible way they would appease the Lord of all who was offended by them - of course, for good reasons, since He is never offended unjustly and the One who judges what is right would never have made such a judgment on them, if this had not been caused by the reasons that make Him completely free from any accusation. Then the Savior affirms here that “everything” that God and the “Father” will give will come to Him - not because He Himself was unable to bring believers to Himself. If He had willed, He would have done it very easily, “according to the working of His power and the subjection of all things to Him” (Phil. 3:21). But since it seems necessary to say that those who are ignorant are illuminated by the Divine nature, then again, as a person, he assimilates to the Father the accomplishment of what is due to God. It was His custom to do this, as we have often said. And in the words that “all that He will give Him” will be brought to Him by God and the Father, he makes, as can be seen, a covert reference to the pagan peoples who had believed and almost no longer believed. This served as a noble threat that they would fall from grace and in their place would come all those of the pagans who would be brought by the mercy of God the Father to the Savior and Life-Creator by nature, the Son, so that, participating in the blessing from Him, they would thus ascend to incorruptibility and life and be transformed into their original natural form. So, just as if someone brings a sick person to a doctor in order to drive out the disease that has afflicted him, so, let’s say, God and the Father brings to the Son those who are worthy of salvation from Him. Consequently, hardness of heart turns out to be bitter and completely fatal for those who have it, which is why the prophetic word rises up against the Jews, loudly exclaiming: “Circumcise to God and circumcise your hardness of heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem” (Jer. 4:4). But not for them, but, on the contrary, for us, God and the Father preserved the circumcision of the heart, that is, performed by the Holy Spirit on the hidden Jew (Rom. 2:29). Therefore, it is right to distance ourselves from the disobedience of those and try to renounce hardness of heart, and, on the contrary, acquire a meek mood for ourselves if we want to avoid the disastrous wrath (of God) against them. John 6:37. And he who comes to Me I will not cast out Conversion through faith, he says, will not remain useless for those who come to Him, for it was necessary to show that being brought to Him by God and the Father is a truly wonderful thing and filled with numerous benefits. So, he says, there will be great blessings for those who are called and come to Me through the highest grace, for “I will not cast out him who comes here,” that is, I will not cast him out as an unfit vessel, as one of the prophets said: “Jechoniah was dishonored, like a vessel for which there is no need, - he was rejected and cast out into a land that he did not know: earth, earth! Listen to the word of the Lord! Write down this man as an exiled man” (Jer. 22:28–30). So, he says, he will not be cast out and cast out as dishonorable, or separated as someone unparticipated in My beneficence, but will be brought into the treasury, will rest in the heavenly abodes and will see himself within every hope that exceeds the mind of man, for “eye has not seen, nor ear has heard, nor has the heart of man entered into the things that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). With the words: “I will not cast out him who comes to Me,” it seems to again indicate that the believer and the one who approaches Divine grace will not be brought to judgment. The word “outside” has the same meaning, as you can see, in the famous parable of Blessed Matthew. Like, it says there, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered from every kind (of fish), which they lifted up and pulled ashore, gathered the good into vessels, and threw the bad out (Matthew 13:47-48). By the gathering of the good into vessels we must understand that good people will be gathered into the Divine and heavenly courts, and by the casting out of the wicked we must see an indication that the wicked will be deprived of all goods and will be subject to judgment. So, when Christ says: “Whoever comes to Me I will not cast out,” then we must accept that people who come to Him through faith will not be punished at all. And to those who fall into absurd recklessness in these words, it seems to me, the wisest threat is given that if they do not wish to turn to prompt obedience, they will find themselves outside of all good and will even involuntarily lose His friendship; for by the fact that he promises not to cast out the one who comes, through this same thing he indicates that He will, of course, cast out the one who does not come (to Him). St. Al.: “burn and shine” (candlemaker) exactly. Ancient Greek: “want”, but St. Al.: “you don’t want” – derived from unused. ἀϑελέω. – “At an hour” – Zogr. vm. others: “in a time of need,” – St. Al.: “in times of need never shine for him.” Kut.: “for a while in its light.” Own or: “for an hour, for a while” (small), as in Russian. and St. Cyrus. Wed 2 Cor.7:8; Gal.2:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:17, - or: “in time, in due time” (in good time), - then: “in” or “in the light thereof.” Those. “which still had existence, existence, and still stood.” “Even as I create” – author. and Ostr. Mar. Zogr. Gal., but no. coming "az" – now. Slav. Ass. Al. Vm. “more” Al.: “more than Himself” – αὐτός alone and Al., and others ἐϰεῖνος, ancient: “t”, Ass.: “and t”, Gal. op. Vm. "testimony" author. and ancient words in D and Zogr.: “testifies”. “You hear it nowhere” resp. author. Spicy Mar. Zogr., but Ass.: “no one hears”, Gal.: “no one hears”. Carp. "hearing no one." St. Al.: “not a voice” (ουδε) “you heard him when” (correspondingly nek.), “below” (οὔδε) “view” (better than the ancient: “vision”) “You saw him.” St. Al.: “you don’t believe” - more precisely, but the time is not right, - personal: “you don’t believe.” Also more precisely St. Al.: “He is an ambassador” vm. "t ambassador" ancient. and now. Literally: “bed, crib.” Those. was wonderfully created by God. Another translation is possible: the Spirit of Christ Himself, speaking to them through the prophet Jeremiah. St. Al. and Jur.: “torture”, – Const. Al. and later: "Writings" (or "Writings") vm. ancient: "books". Author. and glory: “as you remember in them.” Vm. "belly" and "belly" in St. Al.: "life". ’Ανϑϱώπου – one vm. ἀνϑϱώπων etc. and slav. St. Al.: “I knew” – exactly, – Mar.: “I understand”, Greek. past Sov., Russian: “I know”. St. Al.: “about the name - receive” resp. Greek vm. "accept" etc. Op. ὑμεῖς as some. ἀνϑϱώπων, as some, but to 8, 43. Pusey, 2, 90 as the author. and glory St. Al.: “Glory from one another... and glory from one God,” so does Mar. Pandas. Const., but acute. Gal. Ass. Mst. Nickname: “one-children” (Gal. Ass. “one-children”) “Son of God”, - Zogr.: “other-children of God”. Those. all Three Persons of the Holy Trinity. Al.: “I’ll verbalize – there’s a verbatim” – the accuracy and uniformity of the translation are maintained, – vm. "river" etc. and "like the verb" Ostr. “like you say” Mar. Gal. "speaks" Zogr. "You trust" Al. and Zogr. other "upovaste", in Greek. past owls Those. those accused by Christ through His renunciation of them must also be accused by the Father through His renunciation of them. So Al. Const. Nick. Legal vm. “they had faith - they yali” Ostr. Mar. Gal. Zogr., but Ass. and Sim. "had" vm. "yali". Al.: “he” vm. "t, that". St. Al.: “If you do not believe this scripture, then you believe” resp. Thurs. πιστεύετε 2nd, vm. ancient words: “even if you do not eat the books of faith, you have faith,” resp. πιστεύσετε – ητε. Sim. and Karp.: “even more”, some: “words”, proper: “sayings”. Καὶ – and in Ostr. Mst. ("and therefore"), no. δε and Zogr., but the author. op. and Mar. Gal. St. Al. other "from" St. Al. vm. "ide" other τῆς γαλιλαίας op. no. and Ostrom. Mst. Zogr., and Gal.: “Sea of ​​Galilee”, St. Al.: "Gal. and Tiv". like code. V and some. Σϰηνοπηγία - the holiday of setting up, or building, tents (tabernacles). Zogr. Gal. “according to Him”, as some Greek, but Acute. Mst. pl. “and according to Him” as in other Greek. St. Al.: “and will follow” (the time is not right) “To Him” – exactly. “Signs” is an ancient word, but Al. Const. other late adj.: "His". Ancient “for the sick”, Al.: “for the weak”. Vm. "their" Al. "His" . Zogr. "be" without "zhe" like other Ancient. and St. Al. "Jewish" vm. Now. "Jewish". The coincidence of Ephraim is noteworthy. 135: in tempore enim festi azymorum with Sir. syn.: and... the holiday of “unleavened bread” vm. kur.: “Easter holiday...” sch.: “Easter holiday”. "Ubo" Const. and late vm. "same" ancient and Al. to "eyes" and some approx. “Ours” as in. Greek "Eyes of Jesus" Mar. Zogr. Gal. vm. "Jesus eyes" Ostr. other acc. Greek Vm. "comes" Mar. Zogr. Gal. Al. "goes" Ostr. Mst. other St. Al.: “verb: from where” (and some later) – “want” and Ass., and Acute. Gal. Mar. Mst. "although", Zogr. "want" (mistake), but Nick. Const. and later: “wants” resp. very rare and non-author. Thu: μέλλει vm. ἔμελλεν. All slav.: “to create”, coll.: “to create”. Spicy Mst.: “silver”, Al.: “denarii”. Mar. Zogr. Gal. other: “bread”, but acute. Mst. other: “bread”; Ass. Gal.: “does not prevail” as a code. L. After “everyone” there is no cheat. "their" Ostr. Mst. Gal., but other cheat. resp. Greek various "United" op. Spicy Gal. Mst. acc. one Greek, and others named after. acc. Greek etc. – Ass. and Al.: “one here”. Al.: “but this is what so many are.” Type: “what is selitse.” Ass. Nickname: "seliku". Mar. Zogr. Gal.: "in celiko". Spicy Mst.: “seliku people”. Gal. unread "same" acc. Greek various Legal Sim. Al.: “man” (people) Russian: “to them” (?) command. Kind: “command to recline on the grass.” Al.: “lying down” op. "wretched" as plural gr., and Good. Type. "and" as in no. Good Carp. op. "in number" as in no. Mn. op. ὡς or ὡσεί. Note Sire. kur.: said (ὁ) Jesus: go and lay down (that is, force them to recline, seat them - afel, and sch’ two verbs, like the Greek: make all the people so that they can recline) people in crowds (like Mark 6:39). There was a lot of grass “in that place” (like sch.); And “they laid down the people” (sch: “men”) “to the number of five thousand.” But Sin. thus: he said to them: lay (aphel) the people. There was a lot of grass “in that place” (ancient Syriac word). He said to them: “Go and lay the people” (like chickens) in the meadow. And when they had laid them, he took... the number of those reclining is indicated in the 13th verse. "Ubo" Ass. resp. "oun", and others "same" respectively. "de" Al.: “let’s take it”, other ϰαὶ Mar. Ass.: "bread", - code. D. 59 and Sir. (?): πέντε ἄϱτους. Al. exactly: “thanks”, other reading: ϰαι εὑχαϱηστήσεν. Greek ἔδωϰεν and διέδωϰεν (Cyr.). Slav.: “to give” Ostr. Ass. Gal. etc. "give" Mar. Zogr., but Al. "distributed" Good “give to those reclining”, as in Cyrus. resp. א* AV other. But other glory: “student, disciples” Al., “but learn” ., Ost., “and learn...” Mar. Zogr. other acc. אс D etc. Mst. "fish", Good. “and fish too”, Al. exactly: “like the fish,” but: “you want.” St. Al. exactly: “as” (vm. “and” others) – “verb – let nothing perish: gathering slaughter” (οὖν Kir. vm. δε others and slav. and ϰαὶ nek.) – “fill” (and Ost. Mst. vm. “performer” others) – “excess” (ἐπεϱίσσευσεν as some and Kir. vm. “excess” of ancient ancient ἐπεϱίσσευσαν others). Ass.: "koshnitsy", Legal: "remains", Type: "remains". Ancient: "five" vm. now: "five". Those. the dead do not remember You. “Ezh sotv. zn. AND." Spicy Nick., and Al. resp. one Greek, and others as heat. Slav. and Mar. Gal. Zogr. St. Cyrus op.: ἀληϑῶς resp. code. D. “Coming into the world” alone and Sir. chickens syn. Efr. 134, vm. al.: “to come into the world.” Sire. syn. chickens op. "Jesus" ὅτι op. nek., and "e" op. the whole verse. Vm. "ugly" (οὖν) ancient and Al.: "same". Al. resp. Greek: “come and capture Him, yes...” vm. ancient and tep.: “Yes, rise...” Now. "his" before "king" read. pl. Greek and Zogr. Al., but the author. Greek and Ostr. Mar. no cheat Al.: “go away” and nothing. "packs" as plural Greek "Alone" resp. Greek Al., and Ostr. Mar. Gal.: "t one", and other op. and now. Vm. ἀνεχώϱησεν pl. cheat φεύγει. In Legal and Karp. there is no “priity”, as in Sir. chickens and syn. (both also have a characteristic: “left them” before “runs” chicken, but in the synonym it is lost). ҆Αποφεύγων - Tischendorf puts this expression in connection with the reading of article 15: φεύγει. But th. ἀνεχώϱησεν is fully verified by the triple quotation of the term below: 424. 12; 425.9 and 20. “Well” – definitely Al. vm. ancient: “and like”, modern: “like”. Everything is ancient. and Al.: “got in” resp. Greek vm. now. inappropriate Greek Mar. Gal.: ladia (Zogr. galia) - more precisely. Al.: "ridge". Cyrus does not have Έίς before πέϱαν. “Already” – St. Al. more precisely vm. "Abie" is ancient, and some. op. "u be" ancient. resp. οὔπω other Thurs. οὐϰ. “Jesus came to them” Mar. Zogr. Al. resp. one gr. vm. "to them etc. And" . resp. other acute Gal. Ass. Dr. and Al.: “I breathe greatly” Yur.: “I breathe.” All others and Al.: “get up.” Cyrus. cheat τε vm. δε after ϑάλασσα, but slav.: “the same”. Sire. chickens and syn. and Ephr. coincident in v. 18: “and the sea and the wind were troubled against them...” Eph. 134: mare contra eos commotum insurgeret. Al. “they see... rushing through the sea and being afraid” (op. “and near...” as very rare)... “to them” vm. "to them" resp. Greek Mar. Legal Al. op. "same", and Al. op. "day" as Const. and late Ancient English: “like standing” Zogr.: “standing”, but Al. "stand" acc. Greek "Seeing" Al. Mar. Gal. other: “having seen”, Greek. and Kir. ἰδών, other: εἶδον. In plural Greek no: “in the onzhe vnidosha uch. Him”, as in Nick. Serb. "Otydosha" St. Al. acc. Greek vm. "Idyahu" Mst. walking Mor. Zogr. "into" Sharp. Gal. "idosha" now. "Ini" - St. Al. acc. Greek vm. “and ini” etc. “I gave thanks (to God)” – St. Al. "To the Lord" Const. in others: “I gave praise to the Lord” Ostr. Mor. Zogr. or "Gods". Ass. resp. Greek various But Gal. and tep.: “having rewarded” resp. rare and non-author. Thurs. At St. Al. precisely distinguished: “ships” – πλοιάϱια and “ship” – πλοῖον, – and “where” vm.: “idezhe” (and “vlezosha” vm.: “vnidosha”). “When I saw the people” - Al. Nick. a, Jur. Typ., but different as now. (Ostr. "and always"), and Carp.: "having seen the people" resp. Greek var., - late: “and I saw Jesus” Ass. Zogr. Legal "students" – Ass. – “No” – Carp. resp. Greek and Kir. and Al.: “Jesus does not exist, nor does his disciple.” In Legal and later: “not be”, now. "not to be" resp. Greek var. Al.: "idosha". So Al. and late resp. one Greek, but ancient: “when this comes” resp. other Greek "Yadoste" Al. "naturally" Acute Mst. "yaste" Pandas. vm. al.: “ate” or “yale of nature - from bread” Jur. Nick. Al. resp. Greek – “The Sign” at St. Cyrus. and Pandas. Mar. Sim. Const. Al. vm. "signs" Ostr. Zogr. Gal. Ass. resp. author. Greek Or: something, although common, but bad. "Dying" Ostr. and Al. vm. "perishing" Gal. Mar. Pandas. etc. "life in" . Pandas. Al.: "in life in" . vm. "in the stomach" or "in the stomach in" . etc. "Izhe" Ost. and others vm. "hedgehog" others "will give you" others resp. Greek various Al.: “print” – exactly. Slav. and author. Greek: “to Him” (but Good: “To Him”) - “the works of God, the work” and further in the interpretation, but to v. 30–31: “the works of God.” Al.: what are you doing, just like the author. Greek vm. ancient and tep.: “you create” as no. "yadosha manna in p". as no. vm. big: "m. i. in p" . St. Al.: “we believe” vm. ancient and heat “we have faith.” "Life Give" St. Al. resp. א others and Sir. chickens syn. vm. slav.: “give belly” Adr. and sire. utr. and hr. Egypt is interpreted in this meaning by all the ancients, starting with “Philo the Jew”: Leg. alleg. 2. 19. ed. Cohn contin. Wendland, § 77, 1.105; Migr. Abr. 14, Wendl. § 77. II. 283. “Naasseni” in Hippolytus the Philosopher. V. 7. "Clement of Alexandria". Strom. ed. Pottery, II. 380. "Origen" In Genes. Hom. XV, 3. 9 – XVI, 2. 6 others. “Ambrose of Milan”. De Abrahamo 2, 10. "Jerome" Ad Jovin. 1, I Wed. Lib. interpr. hebr. nom. ed. Lagarde, 2. 29 – 66, 28–29 etc. Wed. Onom. Vat. ib. 174, 3 – 181, 62, etc. according to index. St. Al.: “He will not hunger, he will not thirst” - exactly. That is, from the Eucharist and the reception of the Holy Mysteries. Spicy op. "and" before "videst" as no. Greek and others. In Zogr. and Gal. approx. "mi" after "believe", resp. no. Greek St. Al.: “for not believing.” Ev. Al.: “everyone like that” = πᾶς ὅν (?). You might be interested in: