Беседа 6 на псалом 8

Ps.8:1-2. Finally, about the sharpeners. 17 O Lord our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth. 18 Arousing the attention of listeners by indicating the high subject of the psalm. The greatness of the name of God, which has been especially clearly revealed since the incarnation of the Only Begotten Son of God. – A special revelation of divine power in the praise of infants and the resulting lesson for those approaching divine teaching. Why were the Jewish people subjected to such great disasters after the crucifixion of Christ? – the Jews were not scattered throughout the earth in order to be teachers of the universe. – The sin of the Jews against the Lord Christ. – Wonderful divine providence for man, expressed especially in the matter of redemption. And after the Fall, only man’s earthly power was diminished, but not taken away. - Why is he deprived of power over wild animals and what is the use of them? – Refutation of the teachings of Pavel Samosatsky. – An admonition to avoid meetings of heretics. 1. In the previous psalm, the prophet said: “I will confess to the Lord His righteousness and sing to the name of the Lord Most High” 19 (Ps. 7:18). Here he fulfills his promise by offering songs to Him. In that psalm he spoke from one person: “Lord my God! in You I trust; save me” (Ps. 7:2), and here on behalf of many: “O Lord, our Lord! How wonderful is Your name throughout the whole earth!” But shut up and listen carefully. If at a spectacle, when satanic choirs sing, there is great silence in order to hear those destructive songs, while there the choir consists of jesters and dancers, they are controlled by some simple musician, a satanic and destructive song is sung, an unclean and evil demon is sung, then here, where the choir consists of holy men, is controlled by a prophet, the song is sung not by the inspiration of Satan, but by grace Spirit, and it is not the demon, but God, who is sung, shouldn’t we maintain deep silence and listen with reverent reverence? The forces on high also participate in our choir, because the choirs on high, the cherubim and seraphim, do the same thing - they constantly sing praises to God. Of these choirs, some appeared on earth and sang along with the watchful shepherds (Luke 2:13). Let us also listen to this chant. Those who sing praises to the kings of the earth tell them about power, about trophies, about victory, they number the peoples they have defeated, call them victorious and conquerors of the barbarians, etc. Blessed David also sings a similar song. He talks about victory, about trophies, about conquering enemies, not like those, but much more dangerous. And look how he begins: “Lord our God!” For others who do not believe in God, He is Lord in one respect, but for us in two: because He created us from nothing, and because we know Him. You see how the prophet at the very beginning expresses His main benefit. If you find out how He became your Lord, how He made us, alienated, enemies and dead, His own and revived, then you will clearly see that this is His main benefit. Wondering at this, the prophet says: “How wonderful is Your name,” i.e. amazing in the highest degree; but exactly how amazing he did not say - because he could not measure it - he only expressed it intensely and sublimely. Where are those who study the being of God? If the prophet, having spoken His name, was so surprised that he was amazed, then what excuse can those who say that they know the being of God have, while the prophet could not even know how amazing His name is? “How majestic is Your name.” With this name death is destroyed, demons are bound, heaven is opened, the doors of heaven are opened, the Spirit is sent down, slaves become free, enemies become sons, strangers become heirs, people become angels. What do I say: angels? God became man, and man God; the sky took on earthly nature, and the earth accepted Him who sat on the cherubim among the armies of angels; The mediastinum was taken away, the fence was destroyed, the divided was united, darkness was dispelled, light shone, death was swallowed up. Presenting all this and much more than this, the prophet loudly says: “How majestic is Your name throughout all the earth!” Where are the sons of Judah now, shamelessly rejecting the truth? I would like to ask them about whom this is being said. They will say: about the Almighty? But His name was not “wonderful” throughout the whole earth, as Isaiah testifies when he says: “My name will be dishonored every day” (Is. 52:5). If those who served Him were the perpetrators of blasphemy against Him, then how “wonderful” was it? That it is wonderful in its essence is undoubtedly; among people at that time it was not wonderful among many and was even subject to contempt. But now it’s not like that; when the Only Begotten Son of God came, then His name became wonderful everywhere along with Christ. “From the east of the sun,” says the prophet, “to the west my name will be great among the nations” (Mal. 1:11); and again: “in every place they will offer incense to My name, a pure sacrifice...; and you blaspheme him” (Mal.1:11, 12); and another; “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord” (Is. 11:9); and again: “Our fathers inherited only lies, emptiness” (Jer. 16:19). 2. Do you see that all this is said about the Son? His name became wonderful throughout the whole earth. “For Your greatness is exalted above the heavens” 20 (Ps. 8:2). Another translator (Symmachus) says: You who have set your praise above the heavens. Having spoken about the earth, he turns his speech to the sky, as he usually and always does when he imagines the entire universe glorifying its Lord. Expressing the same thing here, he says: wonderful below, wonderful also above. Not only people, but also angels glorify what He has accomplished and send thanks for the benefits shown to people, as they did at the beginning, forming their choirs on earth. Thus, he either says what the angels sing, or he wants to depict the greatness of God. When Scripture wants to express something great, it indicates the distance between these objects, for example, when it says: “as the heavens are high from the earth” (Ps. 102:11); and again: “As far as the east is from the west, so He removes our crimes from us” (Ps. 102:12). So, here the prophet is amazed at what has happened, how great it is, how important it is, because God placed the being who is lower than all others above all. “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings You have made praise” (Ps. 8:3). Another translator (Aquila) says: from the mouths of babes he founded a kingdom; third (Symmachus and unknown translator. See Orig. Ex.): composed the force. And the meaning of his words is as follows: You showed your strength especially by bringing into activity an inactive ability and making the babbling tongue clear for praise. Here he foreshadows the praise of the children that took place in the church (Matthew 21:15). But why does He, leaving other miracles - the resurrection of the dead, the cleansing of lepers, the casting out of demons - mention this miracle with children? Because those miracles happened before, although not so striking, they nevertheless happened, i.e. there were similar things to them, although not in the method of execution. Thus Elisha raised the dead and cleansed the leper (2 Kings 4:31–37; 2 Kings 5:14); David drove out the demon when Saul was raving (1 Sam. 16:23); and the choir of infants spoke then for the first time. So that the Jew would not shamelessly assert that this was said about the miracles of the Old Testament, the prophet chose a sign that happened then for the first and only time. On the other hand, this event was a prototype of the apostles. And they, being completely babies and more silent than the fish themselves, caught the entire universe. And that the power of God is especially revealed in this, see what the prophets say about His Father in the Old Testament. Talking to Moses, God says: “Who gave man a mouth? who makes people dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind” (Ex. 4:11)? Also: “the giver is clear... the tongue of blasphemers” (Is. 35:6). And again: “The Lord gives me a language of teaching, so that I may understand when it is proper to speak a word” (Is. 50:4). And at the beginning he said: “Let us go down and confuse their language there” (Gen. 11:7). So, great and powerful is this sign. Regarding others, shameless people could, albeit unfoundedly, have some suspicion, but here they could not say anything, because here simple nature spoke for itself. Therefore, he did not just say: “babies,” so that no one would mean by them gentle and simple people, but added: “infants,” indicating their age by indicating food; He didn’t just say “babies”, but added: “infants” who have never taken solid food before. Indeed, it is surprising not only that they uttered words, and clear words, but also that with these words they expressed countless benefits. What the apostles did not yet know, the children sang. In addition, the prophet here inspires something else, namely, that those who approach divine teaching must be children in their souls. Truly, whoever does not turn to the kingdom of heaven like a child, says the Lord, cannot enter it (Matthew 18:3). “For the sake of Your enemies” (Ps. 8:3). It also shows the reason why this miracle happened. Other miracles were not for enemies, but so that those who approached would receive benefits and others would learn; and this miracle happened not only for this purpose, but also in order to stop the lips of the enemies, to whom another translator (Aquila and Theodotion) more precisely points out with the words: for those who bind you, since they, having bound Him, led to the cross. “To destroy the enemy and the avenger” 21 (Ps. 8:3). Another (Aquila, Symmachus and unknown translator. See Orig. Ex.): to stop the enemy and avenging himself. The Prophet speaks here about the Jewish people, because the Jews persecuted Christ as an enemy, under the pretext that they did this in vengeance for the Father. Therefore, the Lord, leaving no such excuse for them, said: “He who hates Me also hates my Father” (John 15:23); and again: “He who believes in Me does not believe in Me, but in Him who sent Me” (John 12:44), always uniting the Father with Himself, both in honor and in dishonor. And look with what precision the prophet expresses himself. He did not say: punish, but: “destroy”, which the other expresses more clearly with the word: “stop”, i.e. stop their shamelessness, not teach them, because they were terminally ill. Therefore, seeing such a miracle and not having anything to say against it, they turned to Christ and said: don’t you hear “what they say” (Matthew 21:16)? While they should have worshiped and marveled at Him, they were in great bewilderment, and instead of saying to each other, each to his neighbor: “Don’t you hear what they say!” - They, without turning to themselves, said this to Christ. But why was the angelic voice not heard? Because they would think that it was only what they heard, and they could not say anything against that miracle. What did the children say? They did not say anything strange, nothing disgusting, nothing that could offend them, but they very clearly expressed the agreement of the Son with the Father. “Blessed, they said, is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matthew 21:9). 3. So then He exposed their shamelessness, and then destroyed their city. And there is no place in the universe where the misfortunes of the Jews are not known; but just as those suffering from bodily deformities walk everywhere, showing their wounds, and like judges, having put to death many murderers, they put one of them on the gallows, so that even after their death, their execution, as if it had just been completed, would admonish the living, so God set the Jews, not the dead, but the living, as an example to everyone, scattering them: having previously lived in one country, they are now scattered throughout the whole earth. If you ask about the reason, you will not find out any other reason than that they crucified Christ. Really, tell me, why has this never happened before? And if there was no time, then they were assigned to one people and for a few years, but now it is not so - but they are punished endlessly. And if you ask them: why did you crucify Christ? - they say: because He was a deceiver and a magician. But for this you should have received greater honor and received possession of a vast country, as having pleased God. He who killed a deceiver, a wizard and an atheist, killed the enemy of God; and whoever killed the enemy of God could rightly expect His favor. Phinehas, having killed one harlot, pleased God so much that he was awarded the priesthood and such honor (Num. 25:12), and you, who should have been awarded much greater favor if you killed the deceiver, wander everywhere like exiles and vagabonds. No, you endure this for no other reason than because you crucified the Intercessor, Benefactor and Teacher of truth. If He were a deceiver and an atheist, if He, not being God, wanted to be God, and appropriated the honor that belonged to the Father to himself, then you should have deserved the favor of God much more than Phinehas, Samuel and all the others, as those who showed such zeal for the law. Meanwhile, now you endure what you did not tolerate even then, when you worshiped idols, indulged in wickedness, and slaughtered children; you see no end to your misfortunes, but wander about like exiles, fugitives, vagabonds and slaves of Roman laws; go around land and sea like immigrants, having neither city nor home, given into slavery, deprived of freedom, fatherland, priesthood and all former advantages - scattered among the barbarians and countless peoples, hated by all people, despised and consigned to reproach by all. And, of course, it is not because you did not receive rewards that you killed the enemy of God - this is reckless and absurd - on the contrary, what you are suffering now is characteristic of those who kill not the enemies of God, but of those who kill His friends. But, they will say, we don’t say that; we endure all this for sins. So, infidels, will you now confess? Tell me, for what sins are these? Are you the only ones who have become sinners now? On the contrary, now you have become more obedient. But for now I will not talk about this, but I would like to ask you this: why did you previously, constantly sinning, receive mercy from God, but now you no longer receive it, and moreover, what is especially strange, while now you sin less? Then you sacrificed to Beelphegor, and worshiped the calf, and slaughtered your sons, and killed your daughters, and, moreover, seeing such signs; but now you do not see the parting sea, nor the splitting rock, nor the prophets appearing to you, nor God’s usual providence for you, and yet you find yourself more obedient. Why, when you have fewer sins and more prudence, do you endure greater punishment and torment? Isn’t it obvious even to the most unreasonable people that your current sin is much greater than your previous ones? While you sinned against the slaves, killing and stoning the prophets, you received forgiveness; and when you raised your hands against the Lord, your wound became inhealable. And now about four hundred years have passed since the very foundation of your city was destroyed, the priesthood was taken away, the kingdom was destroyed, the tribes were mixed up, everything that was glorious and famous among you disappeared, so that not a trace remained - which has never happened before. In ancient times, although the church was destroyed, the prophets, the gifts of the Spirit, and miracles remained; now, so that you can clearly see that God constantly turns away from you, all this has been taken away; you have suffered slavery, captivity, deprivation of all blessings, and what is worse than all, you have been abandoned by God. 4. God dealt with you in the same way as if someone, who had been punished many times and had not reformed, having been deprived of his clothes, was allowed to wander naked and alone as a vagabond, begging for alms and being driven out from everywhere. But before it was not like this with you: you had prophets in Egypt, and in Babylon, and in the desert - in Egypt Moses, in Babylon Daniel and Ezekiel, in Egypt again Jeremiah - and miracles after miracles. Your people were the most famous, so that the captives who came from you were higher than kings. Now none of this is there, but the punishment remains, more severe than the previous ones, not only in terms of the length of time, but also in terms of the great rejection. Why, tell me, when you sinned more, then you enjoyed such care for you, and when, as you say, you showed zeal for the law, then you were subjected to the most severe disasters? By doing this you accuse God of injustice, i.e. as if He honored those who sinned, and subjected those who did a good deed to dishonor. If you killed the deceiver, as you say, then you did a good deed, and if God is just, as indeed He is, then you should be rewarded and not punished; if He punishes, then it is obvious that your present sins are heavier than your previous ones. If now you do not indulge in wickedness and do not kill children, as before, then what other sin is this for which you suffered the most severe disasters? Isn't it obvious that the crime of crucifixion is the height of crime? It destroyed you more than idolatry, the image of a calf and infanticide, because it is not the same thing - to slay your son, or to crucify your Master. That is why, when you slaughtered your sons, you received forgiveness, and when you slain the Son of God and your Master, then you are punished without any mercy. How many years were it from the exodus from Egypt to the coming of Christ? I think more than one thousand five hundred. Why, during all these years, did God tolerate your sins, and now He has rejected you, when it especially ought to have crowned you, even though you had committed many other sins? Your cause is very great if you have killed the deceiver; Moreover, now, apparently, you keep the Sabbath, and do not worship idols, and try to observe other regulations. Consequently, when your life is better, and the work you have done is as wonderful as you say, then you suffer extreme disasters. What could be worse than such madness? What could be more reckless than how you, wanting to justify yourself, utter blasphemy against God? In fact, if the sin against Christ is no greater than all others, and even, as you say, is a just and good deed, then why does God punish you who did good, but spared those who committed sins? Not only God, but no sane person would ever dare to do this. But what do they say to this? We are scattered in order, they say, to become teachers of the universe. This is absurdity and idle talk. Future teachers should first be virtuous themselves and then go out to this work, just as the prophets and apostles were. And those who are themselves depraved and filled with all kinds of vices, how can they be sent to teach others? Let us see what their former life was like, and we will find that they were worse than wild beasts. They were parricides, child killers, idolaters, and covetous people; Prophecies are filled with stories about this. Depicting their voluptuousness, Jeremiah says: “they are fattened horses: each of them neighs at the other’s wife” (Jer. 5:8). What could be worse than such uncleanness? They, not like people, copulated with each other's wives; That’s why he called such fury their neighing. And not only does he accuse them of fornication, but also of adultery, which, moreover, was committed so shamelessly, like that of dumb animals. Another prophet says: “even father and son go to the same woman...; they recline on the garments taken as collateral” ( Am. 2:7, 8 ). Is it not for this reason, tell me, that God sent you as teachers, so that we might learn fornication and adultery, and that father and son should have the same bed? And what does Ezekiel say? “You do not even walk,” he says, “even according to the statutes of the pagans” (Ezek. 5:7). Tell me, did He not send those who were worse than the pagans as teachers? And who can bear their disgusting murders? They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons and burned them. David shows this: “they sacrificed, he says, their sons and daughters as sacrifices to demons” (Ps. 105:37). Didn’t God send you for this reason, so that the human race could learn what should slaughter sons and daughters? And you are not ashamed, not embarrassed, inventing such absurdities! And another prophet says: “Oathing and deceit, murder and theft, and adultery have become extremely widespread, and bloodshed follows bloodshed” (Hosea 4:2). And the third: “You had the forehead of a harlot, you threw away shame” (Jer. 3:3). And the fourth: “his princes in the midst of him are roaring lions” (Zeph.3:3). And again: “The Lord looked down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there was one who understood, seeking God. They all deviated and became equally obscene; there is no one who does good, no, not one” (Ps. 13:2, 3). 5. Is this not what you came out to teach—shamelessness, madness, fornication, adultery, murder, and all kinds of vices? But will you stop forcing us to declare your crimes? You are “carried from the womb... and punished even to old age” (Is. 46:3); you are blind men who throw each other into a pit: “If a blind man leads a blind man, says the Lord, then both will fall into a pit” (Matthew 15:14); you use prophets every day and never become better; and do you want to be teachers of others? When will you stop talking idle and admit your depravity? This has always ruined you - the unwillingness to recognize the cause of disasters in your sins. That is why, just as judges act when they order heralds to follow those sentenced to execution, announcing the reason for the punishment - whether they are thieves or robbers, so God, wanting to proclaim you everywhere, ordered the prophets to follow you, who announce the reason for your punishment. Throughout the entire universe they are inseparable from you, and to this day they still speak to you. If you enter synagogues, you will hear them constantly saying this very thing. David, describing the robber trial of Caiaphas, says that it was for this that you died. Having said: “let us break their bonds, and cast off their fetters from us,” he adds: then he will speak to them in his anger and will throw them into confusion with his wrath (Ps. 2:3, 5). Also, Isaiah, having said: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter..., adds: He was assigned a grave with the evildoers, but He was buried with a rich man” (Is. 53: 7, 9); and in another place, talking about the vineyard, he says: “He waited for justice, but behold, bloodshed; I waited for the truth, and behold, a cry” (Is. 5:7), - what cry? “Crucify, crucify” (Luke 23:21), and adds: therefore, “I will leave it desolate: they will neither prune it nor dig it, and it will be overgrown with thorns and thistles, and I will command the clouds not to rain rain on it” (Is. 5:6). So, it is not because of this that you are scattered (as you say), but because of your daring crimes at the cross, as is clear from the prophets. And so that you may know the power of Christ and learn from yourself what you did not learn from the prophets, see how the deeds themselves testify to this; What the law did not teach you, the power of Christ has done more abundantly. While you had the law, you committed murders, and killed children, and committed adultery, and when the Sun of righteousness shone, your atrocities decreased greatly and you began to lead a more modest life, having corrected yourselves from competing with us. God scattered you so that you would know what kind of life He has established on earth; destroyed the church in order to turn you away from vices against your will; and where the church was destroyed, there Christ was buried, so that, moving away from there because of His tomb, you would see both the trophy of His power and the truth of the word that He said: “here there will not be left one stone upon another” (Matthew 24:2). However, His trophy and monuments of His power are everywhere. If, as you say, He was a wicked and atheist, then, even if you committed countless sins, you should not have been punished; and if it should have been, then not at that time, so that no one would think that you were receiving punishment for Him. Did you not hear God say when you were in captivity: “I will not do it for your sake..., but for the sake of My holy name, which you have profaned” (Ezek. 36:22)? Your vices were very great then; but, He says, so that foreigners do not think that I am powerless, I forgive your sins and save you. If then He saved you, who committed iniquities, so that His name would not be blasphemed, then why would He not do this now? Even though you have committed countless sins, you should not have suffered such calamities if Christ were a deceiver, so that no one would think that you are suffering for Him, but you should have received salvation; if it was necessary to endure, then, as I said, not at that time. Meanwhile, all this happened together. As soon as the cross appeared and a little while after the apostles came out, a cruel war immediately began against that city, and what was said in the Gospels: “Woe to them that are with child and to them that nurse with breasts” (Matthew 24:19) and everything else was fulfilled, and the words: “There will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now” (Matthew 24:21), were justified in practice. Then the wives ate their children, the enemies tore apart the entrails of the dead, enemy fire caused devastation everywhere, everything was filled with blood and a new kind of disaster, and the whole universe heard about the misfortunes of the Jews. Delve into this and recognize your Master. Didn't you kill the prophets? - and yet they did not experience anything like it. Have you not destroyed the altars? - and yet such a disaster never happened to you. Didn't you worship the calf, serve Beelphegor, rebel against nature? - and, however, were not exposed to such enemies. Have you not found yourself ungrateful in the midst of the very blessings? - and yet were saved. Why have endless disasters befallen you now? Is it not because, obviously, you dared to sin not against slaves, but against the Master himself? Therefore, there is no deliverance for you from the disasters that have befallen you, and there never will be. If it had happened, the prophets would have predicted it. Meanwhile, having predicted this captivity, they did not say anywhere about returning from it, although they constantly combined threats with consolations and determined their time. So Jeremiah definitely spoke about seventy years (Babylonian captivity, Jer. 29:10), and Daniel about three weeks and a half (Dan. 9:23); it was also said that in Egypt you will be slaves for four hundred and thirty years (Gen. 15:13; Exod. 12:40). As for this captivity, neither the time nor the end of it is defined anywhere, but “your house is left to you empty” (Matthew 23:38), and your circumstances are becoming worse and worse every day. 6. Considering all this carefully and drawing further conclusions from here (“give instruction to a wise man, it is said, and he will be even wiser” (Prov. 9:9)), you can expose the shamelessness and ingratitude of the Jews. “As I look at the heavens..., the works of Your fingers” 22 (Ps. 8:4). Another translator (unknown. See Orig Ex.) says: “I see heaven.” “The moon and the stars which you founded” 23 (Ps. 8:4). Another (Aquila and Theodotion): “prepared.” Third unknown translator, see Orig Ex.: “approved”. Having said: You have overthrown your enemies, the prophet also provides confirmation of such a brilliant victory. You, he says, crucified, put to death, appeared as the Creator of the universe. That’s why he says: “I’ll look at heaven,” expressing that before few knew this, but over time everyone will know it. But why does he not count all the parts of the universe? Because, having mentioned the most important visible objects, he did not need to talk about all the others. The enemies were overthrown in such a way that the one persecuted by them and put to death appeared as the Creator of all visible things. Why didn’t he say: your hands, but: “your fingers.” In order to show that everything visible is an easy work of His power, and to point out that miracle of creation, that the stars, being hung, do not fall. Although it is not typical for a foundation to hang at the top, but rather to lie at the bottom, the Creator, as an excellent artist and performer of wonderful deeds, created many things in the visible world not according to the ordinary laws of nature. Why doesn’t he say anything about incorporeal forces and show His creativity in this? Because the object of the prophet was to teach his listeners concerning the visible world. Therefore, His Father often, when talking with the Jews, does not say: I created angels and cherubim, but: “My hand founded the earth, and My right hand stretched out the heavens” (Is. 48:13); and in general he always talks about visible objects, directing everything towards the salvation of his listeners, because they, being rude, were carried away more by the visible than by the invisible. That is why Paul, in the introductions of his speeches, always begins with visible creatures: “God,” he says, “created the world and everything that is in it” (Acts 17:24), and always mentions the annual rains and the human race. And indeed, if I say that God created the cherubim, then I need to prove two things: that the cherubim exist, and that God created them; and regarding visible things, I need only show that He created them. Consequently, it is more convenient to talk about this, because the appearance itself serves as evidence of what has been said. The listener sees the greatness, and beauty, and benefit, and constancy, and improvement of these things; and I only need to show that God created them. Why didn't he mention the sun, but only the moon and stars? Having spoken about them, he suggested a thought about him as well. Since some separate the night from the creatures of God, he, designating it as the moon, shows that God is also its creator. Moreover, there is a lot of diversity both in the stars and in the phenomena of the lunar flow. “What is man, that You are mindful of him, and the son of man, that You visit him?” (Ps. 8:5). Another translator (unknown) says: “that every person”, “that you remember him.” The third (unknown translator, see Orig. Ex.) instead of: “you visit”, says: “visit him.” Having spoken about created nature and through the part signifying the whole, the prophet now turns his speech to the industry of people. Although the creatures mentioned exist for our race and are proof of the providence that it uses - because all creatures are for man - the prophet also touches on another type of providence, beginning to speak about it not suddenly, but with great foresight, giving thanks for the universe and speaking about universal benefits, and then presenting the greatness of the care relating to man. If before man was nothing, then even more so after so many and great sins, when Christ came. Thus, he shows that the coming of Christ was a matter not only of mercy, but also of great love for mankind. Truly, God, like an excellent doctor, leaving the healthy, came to us - the sick, the insignificant. Imagining this, he said: “What is a person”? In other words: he is nothing, a creature that means nothing. Seeing such providence, such care and such orders as God made for the salvation of the human race, he is extremely surprised and amazed why He honored man with such providence. Imagine that for him everything visible, for him all the orders from Adam until the coming of Christ, for him paradise, commandments, executions, miracles, punishments and blessings, during the time of the law, for him the Son of God became man. What can we say about the future benefits that he will enjoy? Presenting all this, the prophet says: what is man that he is awarded such benefits? 7. Indeed, whoever imagines how much has been and is being done for man, and how much time he will subsequently receive, will be filled with great amazement and will clearly see how God cares for this creation. “You have made him a little lower than the angels: You have crowned him with glory and honor” (Ps. 8:6). Another translator (Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion) says: “to the little ones from God.” Third (unknown translator, see Orig. Ex.): “a little from God.” In Hebrew: “you have humbled him a little before God” (ufasiu mat mi eloim). Here the prophet mentions condemnation and ancient sin, pointing to death. But the Only Begotten came and destroyed it too. “He crowned him with glory and honor.” Another (Aquila and unknown translator, see Orig. Ex.): “You will crown him with glory and dignity.” This can be understood both historically and figuratively. The Prophet also speaks of the power of man, which was given to him at creation; He also speaks about the subsequent benefits that he received after the coming of Christ. In the beginning, man was told: “Let all the beasts of the earth fear and tremble at you” (Gen. 9:2); and again: “And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea” (Gen. 1:26). And subsequently it is said: “I give you power to tread on snakes and scorpions” (Luke 10:19). But, leaving the higher, he talks about the lower, leaving the first to be discussed by those who can see more clearly. And there is great glory and honor in what is in the new covenant, when a person has Christ as his head, when he becomes His body, when he becomes a brother and a joint heir and the image of His body, when he receives greater glory than Moses, as Paul said: “But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord; That’s why he notices: what is glorified does not even turn out to be glorious from this side, because of the predominant glory of what follows “(2 Cor. 3:10, 18). The prophet speaks of this glory in a figurative sense. And truly, what can compare with such glory, when we form choirs with the angels, when we receive adoption as sons by God, when He does not spare the Only Begotten Son for us? What purple, what diadem is not more brilliant when we laugh at death, when we achieve the dispassion of ethereal forces, whereas before we were dishonest, inglorious and despised? Adam, having done nothing good or bad, was honored immediately after creation - because how could he do anything without existing? - and we, having committed countless sins, received a much greater honor. “I no longer, says the Lord, call you servants: you are My friends” (John 15:14, 15). The angels are no longer ashamed of us, but even serve our salvation - for example, an angel came to Philip and many others - and preached the gospel to people. Now we are not heirs of earthly blessings, but we have fellowship in heavenly blessings, partakers of Christ and “called into the fellowship of His Son...our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9). The prophet expresses all this with “glory and honor.” That is why another translator says: You will crown him with glory and honor, foretelling the future. “And He set... him over the works of Your hands; He put everything under his feet” (Ps. 8:7). Another (Theodotion): “made him ruler of the works of your hands.” “He put everything under his feet: the sheep and the oxen, and also the beasts of the field” (Ps. 8:7–8). Another (unknown translator, see Orig. Ex.): “wild beasts.” “Birds of the air and fish of the sea, everything that passes along the paths of the sea. Lord our God! How majestic is Your name throughout the whole earth!” (Ps.8:9-10). Just as, speaking about creation, he not only touches on the heavenly powers, but also reduces speech to sensory things, so, speaking about the honor bestowed on people, and touching upon the hidden and incorporeal goods that are counted, he now especially dwells on sensory objects, which seemed clearer to coarser people. On what exactly? On the earthly power given to man. And it is wonderful, and he especially noted, that a person who was awarded honor before the crime, God did not deprive him of this honor even after the sin. “Not much,” he says, “You have made him a little lower than the Angels,” i.e. You condemned the sinner to death, and yet, after condemnation to death, You did not deprive him of this gift. That is why, having spoken about the first, he then speaks about the last, in order to show the ineffable love of God, according to which He left a belittled man, for his own crime, crowned with the honor of glory and did not deprive him of power. And if he deprived a few, then this too was a matter of His care. Before the crime, man had power over wild animals; but after the crime this power is somewhat reduced, because, although he still rules over them now by some artificial means, it is with fear and trembling. God did not take all the power from him and did not leave it all to him; but he left those animals that were suitable for him for food and work in his power, but the wild ones were no longer there, so that in the fight against them man would remember the ancient sin of the forefather Adam. Thus, even from the fact that they are not completely subordinate to us, great benefit has arisen. And what good is it for us to have a lion as our tame and subordinate? What is the use of having a leopard at your mercy? No; but this would only lead to vanity and pride. That is why God left them outside our power; and he made useful animals subject to us - the ox that cultivates the land, the sheep that provides clothing for the nakedness of the body, the beasts of burden that serve to transport movables, birds and fish, suitable for making our table more plentiful. 8. Just as sometimes someone, depriving a son of an inheritance, deprives him not of all his property, but of some part, in order to admonish him, so God acted exactly, or - better - not this way, but differently. When a man disinherits his son, he deprives him of the greater part and leaves him the lesser part; and God, having left the large part, deprived him of some small part, and, moreover, for the benefit of man, so that he would not easily receive everything else. But this is also a matter of God’s care. In order to refine the mind of man, to overthrow arrogance and prevent inappropriate idleness - since he, receiving everything easily, would give in to carelessness - God combined the satisfaction of life's needs with some difficulty and made it possible for him to acquire not everything with difficulty and not everything without labor. What constitutes necessity, He allowed a person to have without much labor and effort, and what relates to pleasure, He combined with labor and effort, wanting to stop excessive pricelessness in this too. And if someone asks: what is the use of wild animals? - then we will say: firstly, they produce humility in a person’s soul, make him active, and, when he is too arrogant, they remind him of the weakness of his nature, if a dumb animal is scary for him. Moreover, they produce many medicines for those suffering from bodily illnesses. Whoever asks why wild animals exist, let him also ask: why do we have phlegm and bile? After all, they too, having multiplied beyond measure, act worse than a wild beast and cause harm to the whole body. There is also anger and lust in us, which, more ferociously than wild animals, torment those who do not restrain and bridle them. What am I saying: irritability and anger, when even our eyes, worse than a wild beast, expose us to suffering, hurting us with pitiful love? Therefore, we will not ask why all this exists, but we will give thanks to the Lord for everything. What a rod is to a child, a beast is to adults. If, even in the face of so many dangers, many reach such arrogance, then imagine to what extent evil would spread if this bridle were taken away. That is why our body is designed this way - painful, passionate, subject to a thousand disasters, and the earth hardly gives back what belongs to it, and our whole life is associated with effort. Since real life is a school, and peace and idleness ruin many people; then God made labors and efforts inseparable from her, so that with them, as if with some kind of bridle, she could restrain the arrogance of the soul. However, look how the Lord subjugated the creatures, both swimming in the depths of the water and flying in the heights of the air, to you through art. But why did the prophet not number all visible things, plants, seeds and trees? He expressed everything in part, and left it to the curious to calculate it themselves. Then he ends the speech in the same way as he began: “Lord our God!” , - using the same expressions both before and after the presentation. Let us also constantly repeat them, marveling at God’s care for us, marveling at His wisdom, love for mankind, and providence for us. We said this in explanation of the psalm. If you want, then we will continue the competitive speech and ask the Jews: where did the babies give their voice? Where did this voice overthrow the enemy? When was the name of God wonderful? They cannot indicate any other time than that which is brighter than the sun and reveals the power of truth. That is why the prophet says: “I look at Your heavens - the work of Your fingers,” although Moses also said: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth” (Gen. 1:1). However, both this and what was said above are enough against the Jews. But since some of those who do not belong to the circumcision, imitating and competing with them, namely the followers of Paul of Samosata, say that Christ has existed since the time He came from Mary, we ask them too: if Christ has existed since that time, then how did He create the heavens? The Prophet says here that it is the same one who brought praise “from the mouths of babes and sucklings” and created the heavens. If He is the creator of the universe, then He was before the heavens and did not receive the beginning from Mary, but was before Mary. And look at the wisdom of the prophet. He not only represents Him as the creator, but also as the one who created everything with great ease: “I look at Your heavens - the work of Your fingers” - not because God has fingers, but to show the ease of creating everything visible, and with names close to us to teach us what is higher than us. Likewise, when the prophet says: “He measured the heavens with a span, and contained the dust of the earth in measure” (Is. 40:12), he does not mean a handful, not a span, but wants to represent the infinity of God’s power. How then do some dare to say that the Son is a servant (of God the Creator)? The one who did not bring all his power into activity when it was necessary to create the heavens - what do I say: all? - not even the smallest part of it, but the smallest, how can one be a servant? How can He be a minister if “whatever He does, the Son also does likewise” (John 5:19)? How can one say “also” if one is a servant and the other is a Creator? And how does the prophet call these works His works, saying in one place: “In the beginning You [Lord] founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands” (Ps. 101:26), and here: “I look at Your heavens - the work of Your fingers”? Works belong not to the servants, but to the doers, and if someone is only a minister, then the work is attributed not to him, but to the one doing the work. Consequently, what Moses said before was said about the Son: “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”; and: “Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea” (Gen. 1:1, 26). He who performed praise “from the mouths of babes and sucklings”, He also “visited” man. 9. What Moses says about the Father, Paul applies to the Son, expressing the perfect equality between Them. If the saints indifferently attribute what is said about the Father to the Son, and what is said about the Son to the Father (“all things came into being through Him” - (John 1:3), then where is the name of the servant given to Him? This is not visible anywhere. Behold, you say, it is said about Him: to those. But isn’t the same thing said about the Father? And listen to how: “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord" ( 1 Cor. 1:9); also: “Paul..., an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the commandment of God” (2 Tim. 1:1); and again: “For all things are from Him, by Him, and to Him” (Rom. 11:36). he, obviously, does not honor the Father (John 5:23) What, they say, should you not call the Son Father? No. He did not say: so that you, who remain the Son, will honor Him as the Father. This is why He said: “Son” and “Father,” so that you would not merge their personalities. And how would He demand equal honor for Himself if He did not have the same essence with the Father? But, you say, why does Christ say so many humiliating things about Himself? Because He wants to teach us humility, and because He was clothed in flesh, and because of the insensibility of the Jews, and because it was necessary to bring the human race to knowledge little by little, and because of the imperfection of the listeners; Moreover, He often speaks in relation to the concepts of the listeners. The highest expressions mean only the dignity (of God’s being), or - better - whatever you say about God, all this is incomparably lower than His essence and is said in relation to our concepts. For example, what do you want to say about Him? What - God is great? But this is not enough to say about God: the great, no matter how great it is, is limited, but God is infinite; Even this is not enough to say about God: knowing that He has no limit, I do not know what He is and where He is. Whether you call Him wise, or good, and, moreover, infinitely, you will not say anything worthy of His being; but the expression must also include a thought decent to God. If such lofty names do not fully express the essence of God, then what forgiveness do those who try to diminish these names deserve? So, let us flee from their gatherings and, having cognized the eternal existence of the Only Begotten, His creative power and original power, His inseparability with the Father, the condescension of His economy and the varied care of His providence for us (and all this and even more is taught to the attentive by the treasure contained in this psalm) - we will strictly observe the dogmas and demonstrate a life worthy of them, so that we may receive future blessings, whom may we all be worthy of, by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Another translator (Symmachus): song of victory (Ἐπινίκον) about the winepresses. Third (Aquila and Theodotion): to the winner, about Goetheitis. And in Hebrew: lamanassi al ageffie. Another (unknown translator, see Orig. Ex.): how great (τί μέγα) is your name. Translation by P. Yungerov – Editorial office of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: