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| No Forgiveness to the Unforgiving.
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13. No Forgiveness to the Unforgiving.
Only, I have said these things with the view of
referring his return when he comes with his kingdom to the
consummation, when he commanded the servants to whom he had given the
money to be called to him that he might know what they had gained by
trading, and from a desire to demonstrate from this, and from the
parable of the Talents, that the passage “he who wished to make a
reckoning with his own servants”6131
is
to be referred to the consummation when now he is king, receiving the
kingdom, on account of which, according to another parable,6132
he went into a far country, to receive for
himself a kingdom and to return. Therefore, when he returned
after receiving the kingdom, he wished to make a reckoning with his own
servants. And “when he had begun to reckon, there was
brought unto him one who owed many talents,”6133
and he was brought as to a king by those who
had been appointed his ministers—I think, the angels. And
perhaps he was one of those under the kingdom who had been entrusted
with a great administration and had not dispensed it well, but had
wasted what had been entrusted to him, so that he came to owe the many
talents which he had lost. This very man, perhaps not having the
means to pay, is ordered by the king to be sold along with his wife, by
intercourse with whom he became the father of certain children.
But it is no easy task to see what is intellectually meant by father
and mother and children. What this means in point of truth God
may know, and whether He Himself has given insight to us or not, he who
can may judge. Only this is our conception of the passage; that,
as “the Jerusalem which is above” is “the
mother”6134
of Paul and of
those like unto him, so there may be a mother of others after the
analogy of Jerusalem, the mother, for example, of Syene in Egypt, or
Sidon, or as many cities as are named in the Scriptures. Then, as
Jerusalem is “a bride adorned for her husband,”6135
Christ, so there may be those mothers of
certain powers who have been allotted to them as wives or brides.
And as there are certain children of Jerusalem, as mother, and of
Christ, as father, so there would be certain children of Syene, or
Memphis, or Tyre, or Sidon, and the rulers set over them. Perhaps
then, too, this one, the debtor of many talents who was brought to the
king, has, as we have said, a wife and children, whom at first the king
ordered to be sold, and also all that he had to be sold; but
afterwards, being moved with compassion, he released him and forgave
him all the debt; not, as if he were ignorant of the future, but, in
order that we might understand what happened, it was written that he
did so. Each one then of those who have, as we have said, a wife
and children will render an account whenever the king comes to make a
reckoning, having received the kingdom and having returned; and each of
them as a ruler of any Syene or Memphis, or Tyre or Sidon, or any like
unto them, has also debtors. This one, then, having been
released, and having been forgiven all the debt, “went out from
the king and found one of his fellow-servants,”6136
etc.; and, on this account, I suppose that
he took him by the throat, when he had gone out from the king, for
unless he had gone out he would not have taken his own fellow-servant
by the throat. Then observe the accuracy of the Scripture, how
that the one fell down and “worshipped,” but the other fell
down and did not worship but “besought;”6137
and the king being moved with compassion
released him and forgave him all the debt, but the servant did not wish
even to pity his own fellow-servant; and the king before his release
ordered him to be sold and what was his, while he who had been forgiven
cast him into prison. And
observe that his fellow-servants did not bring any accusation or
“said,” but “told,”6138
and that he did not use the epithet “wicked” at the
beginning in regard to the money lost, but reserved it afterwards for
his action towards the fellow-servant. But mark also the
moderation of the king; he does not say, You worshipped me, but You
besought me; and no longer did he order him and his to be sold, but,
what was worse, he delivered him to the tormentors, because of his
wickedness.6139
But who may
these be but those who have been appointed in the matter of
punishments? But at the same time observe, because of the use
made of this parable by adherents of heresies, that if they accuse the
Creator6140
| 6140 That is, the God of
the Old Testament—according to Marcion. | of being
passionate, because of words that declare the wrath of God, they ought
also to accuse this king, because that “being wroth,” he
delivered the debtor to the tormentors. But it must further be
said to those whose view it is that no one is delivered by Jesus to the
tormentors,—pray, explain to us, good sirs, who is the king who
delivered the wicked servant to the tormentors? And let them also
attend to this, “So therefore also shall My heavenly Father do
unto you;”6141
and to the same
persons also might rather be said the things in the parable of the Ten
Pounds that the Son of the good God said, “Howbeit these mine
enemies which would not that I should reign over them,”6142
etc. The conclusion of the parable,
however, is adapted also to the simpler; for all of us who have
obtained the forgiveness of our own sins, and have not forgiven our
brethren, are taught at once that we shall suffer the lot of him who
was forgiven but did not forgive his fellow-servant.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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