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18. Prophets in Their Country.
“But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not
without honour, save in his own country.”5272
We must inquire whether the expression
has the same force when applied universally to every prophet (as if
each one of the prophets was dishonoured in his own country only, but
not as if every one who was dishonoured was dishonoured in his
country); or, because of the expression being singular, these things
were said about one. If, then, these words are spoken about one,
these things which have been said suffice, if we refer that which is
written to the Saviour. But if it is general, it is not
historically true; for Elijah did not suffer dishonour in Tishbeth of
Gilead, nor Elisha in Abelmeholah, nor Samuel in Ramathaim, nor
Jeremiah in Anathoth. But, figuratively interpreted, it is
absolutely true; for we must think of Judæa as their country, and
that famous Israel as their kindred, and perhaps of the body as the
house. For all suffered dishonour in Judæa from the Israel
which is according to the flesh, while they were yet in the body, as it
is written in the Acts of the Apostles, as having been spoken in
censure to the people, “Which of the prophets did not your
fathers persecute, who showed before of the coming of the Righteous
one?”5273
And by Paul
in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians like things are said:
“For ye brethren became imitators of the churches of God which
are in Judæa in Christ Jesus, for ye also suffered the same things
of your own countrymen even as they did of the Jews, who both killed
the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drave out us, and please not God,
and are contrary to all men.”5274
A
prophet, then, is not without honour among the Gentiles; for either
they do not know him at all, or, having learned and received him as a
prophet, they honour him. And such are those who are of the
Church. Prophets suffer dishonour, first, when they are
persecuted, according to historical fact, by the people, and, secondly,
when their prophecy is not believed by the people. For if they
had believed Moses and the prophets they would have believed Christ,
who showed that when men believed Moses and the prophets, belief in
Christ logically followed, and that when men did not believe Christ
they did not believe Moses.5275
Moreover, as
by the transgression of the law he who sins is said to dishonour God,
so by not believing in that which is prophesied the prophet is
dishonoured by the man who disbelieves the prophecies. And so far
as the literal truth is concerned, it is useful to recount what things
Jeremiah suffered among the people in relation to which he said,
“And I said, I will not speak, nor will I call upon the name of
the Lord.”5276
And again,
elsewhere, “I was continually being mocked.”5277
And how great sufferings he endured
from the then king of Israel are written in his prophecy. And it
is also written that some of the people often came to stone Moses to
death; for his fatherland was not the stones of any place, but the
people who followed him, among whom also he was dishonoured. And
Isaiah is reported to have been sawn asunder by the people; and if any
one does not accept the statement because of its being found in the
Apocryphal Isaiah,5278
| 5278 Probably the
Ascensio Isaiæ. Cf. Orig. Ep. ad Afric.
c. 9. | let him believe
what is written thus in the Epistle to the Hebrews, “They were
stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted;”5279
for the expression, “They were sawn
asunder,” refers to Isaiah, just as the words, “They were
slain with the sword,” refer to Zacharias, who was slain
“between the sanctuary and the altar,”5280
as the Saviour taught, bearing testimony, as
I think, to a Scripture, though not extant in the common and widely
circulated books, but perhaps in apocryphal books. And they, too,
were dishonoured in their own country among the Jews who went about
“in sheep-skins, in goat-skins, being destitute,
afflicted,” and so on;5281
“For all that
will to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution.”5282
And probably
because Paul knew this, “That
a prophet has no honour in his own country,” though he preached
the Word in many places he did not preach it in Tarsus. And the
Apostles on this account left Israel and did that which had been
enjoined on them by the Saviour, “Make disciples of all the
nations,”5283
and, “Ye
shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judæa and
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”5284
For they did that which had been
commanded them in Judæa and Jerusalem; but, since a prophet has no
honour in his own country, when the Jews did not receive the Word, they
went away to the Gentiles. Consider, too, if, because of the fact
that the saying, “I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all flesh,
and they shall prophesy,”5285
has been
fulfilled in the churches from the Gentiles, you can say that those
formerly of the world and who by believing became no longer of the
world, having received the Holy Spirit in their own country—that
is, the world—and prophesying, have not honour, but are
dishonoured. Wherefore blessed are they who suffer the same
things as the prophets, according to what was said by the Saviour,
“For in the same manner did their fathers unto the
prophets.”5286
Now if any
one who attends carefully to these things be hated and attacked,
because of his living with rigorous austerity, and his reproof of
sinners, as a man who is persecuted and reproached for the sake of
righteousness, he will not only not be grieved, but will rejoice and be
exceeding glad, being assured that, because of these things, he has
great reward in heaven from Him who likened him to the prophets on the
ground of his having suffered the same things. Therefore, he who
zealously imitates the prophetic life, and attains to the spirit which
was in them, must be dishonoured in the world, and in the eyes of
sinners, to whom the life of the righteous man is a burden.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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