Basil of Caesarea — Commentary on Scripture

2 Timothy 2:2

One does not speak of the Spirit and of angels as if they were equals. The Spirit is the Lord of life. The angels are our helpers, our fellow servants, faithful witnesses of the truth. It is customary for the saints to deliver God’s commandments in the presence of witnesses. St. Paul says to Timothy: “what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men.” He asks the angels to testify with him, because he knows that angels will be present when the Lord comes in the glory of his father to judge the world in righteousness.

ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 13.29

2 Timothy 2:4

Where is Christ, the King? In heaven, to be sure. In this direction it behooves you, soldier of Christ, to direct your course. Forget all earthly delights. A soldier does not build a house. He does not aspire to the possession of lands. He does not concern himself with devious, coin-purveying trade.… The soldier enjoys a sustenance provided by the king. He need not furnish his own nor vex himself in this regard.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ASCETICAL LIFE

2 Timothy 2:5

But, if you place yourself in the hands of a man rich in virtue, you will become the heir of the good qualities he possesses and you will be supremely blessed with God and men. On the other hand, if, to spare the body, you seek a master who will condescend or, rather, degrade himself to the level of your vices, all in vain did you endure the struggle of renunciation, since you have surrendered yourself to a life of gratifying your passions by choosing a blind guide who will lead you into the pit.

ON RENUNCIATION OF THE WORLD

2 Timothy 2:11

Having been planted with him in the likeness of his death, we will assuredly be raised up together with Christ (for the planting implies this eventuality). But in the present life, we are formed in the inner man according to the measure of the incarnation in newness of life and obedience unto death, fully persuaded of the truth of his words, so that we may become worthy to say with truth, “And I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me.” That this obtains also for the future life. The same apostle has strongly affirmed this in these words: “For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.”

CONCERNING BAPTISM.1.15

2 Timothy 2:17

“Let the wickedness of sinners be brought to nought.” He who says this prayer is obviously a disciple of the evangelical precepts. He prays for those who treat him maliciously, asking that the wickedness of the sinners be circumscribed by a definite limit and boundary. Just as if someone, when praying for those who are suffering in body, would say, “Let the disease of those who are suffering come to an end.” In order that the sin slowly creeping farther may not spread like cancer, since he loves his enemy and wishes to do good to those who hate him, and for this reason prays for those who treat him maliciously, he begs of God that the further outpouring of sin may cease and have definite bounds.

HOMILIES 11.6

2 Timothy 2:20

Every one of us, indeed, who is instructed in the holy Scripture is the administrator of some one of those gifts which, according to the gospel, have been apportioned to us. In this great household of the church not only are there vessels of every kind—gold, silver, wooden and earthen—but also a great variety of pursuits.

HOMILY ON THE WORDS: “GIVE HEED TO THYSELF.”

2 Timothy 2:21

The infinite God, remaining changeless, assumed flesh and fought with death, freeing us from suffering by his own suffering!… He himself has bound the strong man and plundered his goods—that is, us, who had been abased in every manner of evil—and made us vessels fit for the Master’s use, the use of our free will being made ready for any good work.

ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 8.18

2 Timothy 2:25

The superior should not administer a rebuke to wrongdoers when his own passions are aroused. By admonishing a brother with anger and indignation, he does not free him from his faults but involves himself in the error.… Nor should he become vehemently angry even when he himself is treated with contempt. When he sees such treatment inflicted upon another, he should again show himself indulgent toward the sinner; but more than that, he ought, in the latter case, to manifest displeasure at the wrong done.

THE LONG RULES, Q.50.R

2 Timothy 3:3

The apostle also showed how much incontinency is to be dreaded by including it among the signs of apostasy, when he said, “In the last days shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves.” Then, after enumerating several forms of iniquity, he adds, “slanderers, incontinent.” Also, for selling his birthright for one portion of food, Esau was charged with incontinency as the greatest of evils. The first disobedience befell men as a consequence of incontinency.

THE LONG RULES, Q.16.R

2 Timothy 4:7

“Turn, O my soul, into your rest: for the Lord has been bountiful to you.” The brave contestant applies to himself the consoling words, very much like to Paul, when he says: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. For the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice.” These things the prophet also says to himself: Since you have fulfilled sufficiently the course of this life, turn then to your rest, “for the Lord has been bountiful to you.” For, eternal rest lies before those who have struggled through the present life observant of the laws, a rest not given in payment for a debt owed for their works but provided as a grace of the munificent God for those who have hoped in him.

HOMILIES 22

Acts 1:6-7

That is to say, the knowledge of such a kingdom is not for them that are bound in flesh and blood. This contemplation the Father has put away in his own power, meaning by “power” those that are authorized, and by “his own” those who are not held down by the ignorance of things below.

LETTER 8.7

Acts 2:20

these are the signs of the end of the world.

Acts 2:36

just as the angel who announced the glad tidings to the shepherds says, ‘To you is born to-day a Saviour, Who is Christ the Lord.’ (Luke 2:11)

Acts 3:6

Faith is superior to rational methodologies when it comes to drawing the soul to assent. It is not the logical necessity of deductive proofs that engenders faith, but the activity of the Spirit. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk! [Acts 3.6]. What followed this command was the work of the Spirit, and those who witnessed this miracle were compelled to admit the divinity of the Only-Begotten. Tell me, what is more compelling for assent, a complicated set of syllogistic premises entailing the logical conclusion, or a clearly seen miracle so great that it surpasses all that is humanly possible? Yet currently such things are not held in high regard. Indeed, what now inspires confidence when discussing God is not the works of the Spirit, but rather elaborate demonstrations which place their hope in the plausibility of the wisdom of the world, not in the powerful and clear revelation of the Spirit. It was through those who believed God in simplicity of heart without engaging in futile investigations that the Spirit gave this revelation for the salvation of many. - "On P…

Faith is superior to rational methodologies when it comes to drawing the soul to assent. It is not the logical necessity of deductive proofs that engenders faith, but the activity of the Spirit. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk! [Acts 3.6]. What followed this command was the work of the Spirit, and those who witnessed this miracle were compelled to admit the divinity of the Only-Begotten. Tell me, what is more compelling for assent, a complicated set of syllogistic premises entailing the logical conclusion, or a clearly seen miracle so great that it surpasses all that is humanly possible? Yet currently such things are not held in high regard. Indeed, what now inspires confidence when discussing God is not the works of the Spirit, but rather elaborate demonstrations which place their hope in the plausibility of the wisdom of the world, not in the powerful and clear revelation of the Spirit. It was through those who believed God in simplicity of heart without engaging in futile investigations that the Spirit gave this revelation for the salvation of many. - "On Psalm 115. Chapter 1."

Acts 4:32

For he said that experience was needed in order to distinguish between cases of genuine need and of mere greedy begging. For whoever gives to the afflicted gives to the Lord and from the Lord shall have his reward; but he who gives to every vagabond casts to a dog, a nuisance indeed from his importunity but deserving no pity on the ground of need.

LETTER 150.3

Acts 4:32

The Christian ought to regard all the things that are given him for his use, not as his to hold as his own or to lay up. Moreover, giving careful heed to all things as the Lord’s, he should not overlook any of the things that are being thrown aside and disregarded, should this be the case. No Christian should think of himself as his own master, but each should rather so think and act as though given by God to be slave to his fellow brothers and sisters. But “every person in his own order.”

LETTER 22.1

Acts 5:4

Peter’s words to Sapphira—“How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? You did not lie to men, but to God”—show that sins against the Holy Spirit and against God are the same. And thus you might learn that in every operation the Spirit is closely conjoined with, and inseparable from, the Father and the Son. While God works the differences of operations and the Lord the diversities of administrations, the Holy Spirit is present also, administering in his own power the distribution of the gifts according to each recipient’s worth.

ON THE SPIRIT 16.37

Acts 8:20

He who through ignorance wishes to buy is less guilty than he who sells the gift of God, making it a business transaction. And, if you sell what you have received as a gift, you will be deprived of its grace, as if you had been sold to Satan. Furthermore, you are introducing into the church, where we have been entrusted with the body and blood of Christ, the bartering of material for spiritual things.

LETTER 53

Acts 9:4

For it is written, “And when all things are made subject to him, then the Son himself will also be made subject to him who subjected all things to him.” Do you not fear, O man, the God who is called unsubjected? For he makes your subjection his own, and, because of your struggle against virtue, he calls himself unsubjected. Thus, he even said at one time that he himself was the one persecuted; for he says, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” when Saul was hastening to Damascus, desiring to put in bonds the disciples of Christ. Again, he calls himself naked, if anyone of his brothers is naked. “I was naked,” he says, “and you covered me.” And still again, when another was in prison, he said that he himself was the one imprisoned. For he himself took up our infirmities and bore the burden of our ills. And one of our infirmities is insubordination, and this he bore. Therefore, even the adversities that happen to us the Lord makes his own, taking upon himself our sufferings because of his fellowship with us.

LETTER 8

Acts 10:4

Are there even now some who work from the first hour and others from the eleventh, and who are they?Perhaps [the answer to this] is most evident to anyone from the events recounted in the divinely inspired Scripture that while there are many, in the words of the apostle, who have learned the holy Scriptures from childhood, many still, such as Cornelius, although making good use of natural movements, are slow in coming to perfection of knowledge because of a lack of teachers. “For how,” he says, “do they believe, if they do not hear?” If, therefore, it happens that some, like Cornelius, are engaged in nothing evil but rather are desirous of perfection and genuinely demonstrate the good that they can and that comes to their knowledge, to these God gives the same blessings as he did to Cornelius by not holding them culpable for the period of idleness, since it was not their fault, as I said, and he is content with their desire that was previously made manifest through their eager actions and what has been more diligently set right in relation to perfection.

THE SHORT RULES 2.224