48. On hearing these
statements, the multitudes assembled were greatly moved, as if they
felt that these reasonings gave the correct account of the truth, and
that Archelaus could have nothing to urge against them; for this was
indicated by the commotion which arose among them. But when the
crowd of auditors became quiet again, Archelaus made answer in the
following manner: No one, truly, shall ever be able to prove
himself mightier than the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ, neither is
there found any name equal to His, as it is written:
“Wherefore God hath exalted Him, and given Him a name which is
above every name.”2029
Nor, again, in the matter of
testimony can any one ever be equal to Him; and accordingly I shall
simply adduce the
testimonies of His own voice in answer to
you,—first of all, indeed, with the view of solving those
difficulties which have been enunciated by you, so that you may not
say, as is your wont to do, that these are matters which are not in
harmony with the Person Himself.
2030
Now, you maintain that the man who
brought the word to
Jesus about His mother and His
brethren was
rebuked
by Him as if he was in error, as the writer was in error.
2031
| 2031
Secundum id quod scriptorem fefellit. [i.e. on that
supposition.] |
Well, I
affirm that neither was this person
rebuked who brought Him the message
about His mother and His
brethren, nor was Peter only named
blessed
above him; but each of these two parties received from Him the answer
that was properly called forth by their several utterances, as the
discourse will demonstrate in what follows. When one is a
child,
he thinks as a
child, he speaks as a
child; but when he becomes a
mature man, those things are to be done away which are proper for a
child:
2032
in other
words, when one reaches forth unto those things which are before, he
will
forget those which are behind.
2033
Hence, when our
Lord Jesus Christ
was engaged in teaching and healing the race of men, so that all
pertaining to it might not utterly
perish together, and when the minds
of all those who were listening to Him were intently occupied with
these interests, it made an interruption altogether inopportune when
this messenger came in and put Him in
mind of His mother and His
brethren. What then? Ought He, now,
2034
| 2034
Reading “debuitne etiam” for the bad version of the Codex
Casinensis, “debuit et etiam.” |
yourself being
judge,
2035
| 2035 The
text gives, “se ipso judicante,” for which
“te ipso,” etc., may be substituted. |
to have left those whom He was healing and
instructing, and gone to speak with His mother and His
brethren?
Would you not by such a supposition at once lower the character of the
Person Himself? When, again, He chose certain men who were laden
and burdened with
sins for the honour of discipleship,
2036
| 2036 In
the Codex Casinensis the sentence stands in this evidently corrupt
form: “cum enim peccatis bonus et gravatus ad discipulatum
diligit.” We adopt the emendation given in Migne:
“cum enim peccatis onustos et gravatos ad discipulatum
delegit.” |
to the number of
twelve, whom He also named His
apostles, He gave them this injunction,
Leave
father and mother, that you may be made worthy of me;
2037
intending by
this that thence forward the memory of
father or mother should no more
impair the
stedfastness of their
heart. And on another occasion,
when a different individual chose to say to Him, “I will go and
bury my
father,” He answered, “Let the dead bury their
dead.”
2038
Behold,
then, how my
Lord Jesus Christ edifies His
disciples unto all things
necessary, and
delivers His
sacred words to every one, in due
accordance with what is meet for him. And just in the same way,
too, on this other occasion, when a certain person came in with the
inconsiderate message about His mother, He did not embrace the
occurrence as an opportunity for leaving His
Father’s commission
unattended to even for the sake of having His mother with Him.
But in order to show you still more clearly that this is the real
account of the matter, let me remind you that Peter, on a certain
season, subsequent to the time of his receiving that declaration of
blessedness from Him, said to
Jesus, “Be it
far from Thee,
Lord:
2039
| 2039
Propitius esto, Domine. |
this shall
not be unto Thee.”
2040
This he said after
Jesus had
announced
to him that the Son of man must go up to
Jerusalem, and be
killed, and
rise again the third day.
2041
And in answer then to Peter He
said: “Get thee behind me,
Satan; for thou savourest not
the things that be of
God, but those that be of men.”
2042
Now, since
it is your opinion that the man who brought the message about His
mother and His
brethren was
rebuked by
Jesus, and that he who said a
little before, “Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living
God,” obtained the word of
blessing, mark you that
Jesus (may be
said to have) rather preferred that person to whom He condescended to
give the more gracious and
indulgent answer; whereas Peter, even after
that benediction, now got no appellation expressive of indulgence
addressed to him, by reason of his having
failed carefully to observe
the
nature of the announcement that was made to him. For the error of
that messenger was at once corrected by the tenor of the reply; but the
dulness of this
apostle’s apprehension was
condemned with a
severer
rebuke. And from this you may perceive that the
Lord
Jesus, observing what was proper and opportune with regard to the
interrogations thus addressed to Him, gave to each the reply that was
worthy of it, and suited to it. But supposing that, as you say,
Peter was pronounced
blessed on the ground of his having said what was
true, and that that messenger was reproved on account of the error he
committed, tell me then why it is, that when the
devils confessed Him,
and said, “We know Thee, who Thou art, the holy
God,”
2043
| 2043
Luke iv. 34, reading sanctus Deus.
[i.e., not the received text.] |
He
rebuked them,
and commanded them to be
silent?
2044
| 2044
Reading silere. The Codex Casinensis gives sinire,
which may be meant for sinere = give over. |
Why was it not the case, if He does
indeed take
pleasure in the
testimonies borne to Him by those who
confess Him, that He recompensed them also with benedictions, as He did
to Peter when he gave utterance to the
truth? But if that would
be an absurd supposition, it only remains that we must understand the
words spoken by Him always in accordance with the place, the time, the
persons, the subjects, and the due consideration of the
circumstances.
2045
| 2045 Pro
accidentium salute. |
For only
this method will
save us from falling into the error of pronouncing
rashly on His sayings, and thus making ourselves liable to merited
chastisement: and this will also help me to make it more and more
intelligible to you, that the man who brought the tidings of His mother
was much rather the person honoured.
2046
| 2046
We have adopted Migne’s arrangement of these clauses.
Routh, however, puts them thus: And that it may be made more
intelligible to you, etc.,… (for in forgetfulness,
etc., you have turned off, etc.), listen to me now for a
brief space. |
However, in forgetfulness of the
subject which was proposed to us for discussion, you have turned off to
a different theme. Nevertheless listen to me for a brief
space. For if you choose, indeed, to consider those words
somewhat more carefully, we shall find that the
Lord Jesus displayed
great clemency in the case of the former of these two parties; and this
I shall
prove to you by illustrations suited to your capacity. A
certain king who had taken up arms, and gone forth to meet an
enemy,
was earnestly considering and planning how he might
subdue those
hostile and
foreign forces. And when his
mind was occupied with
many cares and
anxieties, after he had forced his way among his
adversaries, and when, further, as he began afterwards to make captives
of them, the anxious thought was now also pressing upon him as to how
he might
secure the
safety and interests of those who had toiled with
him, and borne the burden of the
war,
2047
| 2047
Reading “pondus belli toleraverant,” instead of the
“pondus bellico tolerarant” of the Codex Casinensis. |
a certain messenger broke inopportunely
in upon him, and began to remind him of domestic matters. But he
was
astonished at the man’s
boldness, and at his unseasonable
suggestions, and thought of delivering such a fellow over to
death. And had that messenger not been one who was able to appeal
to his tenderest affections in bringing the news that it was well with
those at
home, and that all went on prosperously and successfully
there, that
punishment might have been his instant and well-merited
doom. For what else should be a king’s care, so long as the
time of
war endures, than to
provide for the
safety of the people of
his
province, and to look after military matters? And even thus
it also was that that messenger came inopportunely in upon my
Lord
Jesus Christ, and brought the
report about His mother and His
brethren
unseasonably, just when He was fighting against ills which had assailed
the very citadel of the
heart, and when He was healing those who for a
long time had been under the
power of diverse infirmities, and when He
had now put forth His utmost effort to secure the salvation of
all. And truly that man might have met with a sentence like that
pronounced on Peter, or even one severer still. But the hearing
of the name of His mother and His brethren drew forth His
clemency.
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