Basil of Caesarea — Commentary on Scripture

Kings' daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.

The queen … is the soul that is joined with the Word, its Bridegroom; not subjected by sin but sharing the kingdom of Christ, it stands on the right hand of the Savior in gilded clothing, that is to say, adorning itself charmingly and religiously with spiritual doctrines, interwoven and varied.

Psalms 45:13

The king's daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.

The spiritual garment is woven when the attendant action is interwoven with the word of doctrine. In fact, just as a bodily garment is woven when the woof is interwoven with the warp, so when the word is antecedent, if actions in accordance with the word should be produced, there would be made a certain most magnificent garment for the soul that possesses a life of virtue attained by word and action.

Psalms 46:1

To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Do not flee what you do not need to flee, and do not have recourse to him to whom it is unnecessary. But one thing you must flee: sin; and one refuge from evil must be sought: God. Do not trust in princes; do not be exalted in the uncertainty of wealth; do not be proud of bodily strength; do not pursue the splendor of human glory. None of these things saves you; all are transient, all are deceptive. There is one refuge, God.… God is the true aid for the righteous. Just as a certain general, equipped with a noble, heavy-armed force, is always ready to give help to an oppressed district, so God is our helper and an ally to everyone who is waging war against the wiliness of the devil, and he sends out ministering spirits for the safety of those who are in need.

Psalms 46:4

There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

Some give the definition that a city is an established community, administered according to law. And the definition that has been handed down of the city is in harmony with the celestial city, Jerusalem above. For there it is a community of the first-born who have been enrolled in heaven, and this is established because of the unchanging manner of life of the saints, and it is administered according to the heavenly law. Therefore, it is not the privilege of human nature to learn the arrangement of that city and all its adornment. Those are the things “eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the human heart, what things God has prepared for those who love him,” but there are myriads of angels there, and an assembly of saints and a church of the firstborn that are enrolled in heaven. Concerning that David said, “Glorious things are said of you, O city of God.” To that city through Isaiah God has promised, “I will make you to be an everlasting glory, a joy unto generation and generation, and there shall not be wasting nor destruction in your borders, and salvation shall…

Some give the definition that a city is an established community, administered according to law. And the definition that has been handed down of the city is in harmony with the celestial city, Jerusalem above. For there it is a community of the first-born who have been enrolled in heaven, and this is established because of the unchanging manner of life of the saints, and it is administered according to the heavenly law. Therefore, it is not the privilege of human nature to learn the arrangement of that city and all its adornment. Those are the things “eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the human heart, what things God has prepared for those who love him,” but there are myriads of angels there, and an assembly of saints and a church of the firstborn that are enrolled in heaven. Concerning that David said, “Glorious things are said of you, O city of God.” To that city through Isaiah God has promised, “I will make you to be an everlasting glory, a joy unto generation and generation, and there shall not be wasting nor destruction in your borders, and salvation shall possess your walls.” Therefore, having raised the eyes of your soul, seek, in a manner worthy of things above, what pertains to the city of God.

Psalms 46:5

God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.

Since God is in the midst of the city, he will give it stability, providing assistance for it at the first break of dawn … sending out equal rays of his providence from all sides to the limits of the world. Preserving the justice of God, he apportions the same measure of goodness to all.… Now, the perceptible sun produces among us the early morning when it rises above the horizon opposite us, and the Sun of justice produces the early morning in our soul by the rising of the spiritual light, making day in him who admits it. “At night” means we are in this time of ignorance. Therefore, having opened wide our mind, let us receive “the brightness of his glory,” and let us be brightly illumined by the everlasting Light, “God will help it in the morning early.” … For those on whom the spiritual light will rise, when the darkness that comes from ignorance and wickedness is destroyed, early morning will be at hand. Since, then, light has come into the world in order that he who walks about in it may not stumble, his help is able to cause the early morning … who on the third day, early on the…

Since God is in the midst of the city, he will give it stability, providing assistance for it at the first break of dawn … sending out equal rays of his providence from all sides to the limits of the world. Preserving the justice of God, he apportions the same measure of goodness to all.… Now, the perceptible sun produces among us the early morning when it rises above the horizon opposite us, and the Sun of justice produces the early morning in our soul by the rising of the spiritual light, making day in him who admits it. “At night” means we are in this time of ignorance. Therefore, having opened wide our mind, let us receive “the brightness of his glory,” and let us be brightly illumined by the everlasting Light, “God will help it in the morning early.” … For those on whom the spiritual light will rise, when the darkness that comes from ignorance and wickedness is destroyed, early morning will be at hand. Since, then, light has come into the world in order that he who walks about in it may not stumble, his help is able to cause the early morning … who on the third day, early on the morning of the resurrection, gained the victory through death.

Psalms 46:7

The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

Our protector, he says, is not another God besides him who was handed down by the prophets. But [he is] the God of Jacob, who spoke in an oracle to his servant, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”

Psalms 46:8

Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth.

Just as … great distances make the perception of visible objects dim, but a nearer approach offers a clear knowledge of the objects seen, so also in the case of objects of contemplation in the mind, he who has not drawn near to God is not able to see his works with the pure eyes of his mind. Therefore, “Come,” first approach, then see the works of the Lord, which are prodigious and admirable.… He who has heard the call and has approached and cleaves to the One commanding will see him who through the cross made all things peaceful “whether on the earth or in the heavens.”

Psalms 49:1

To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:

He who is assembling and summoning all by the proclamation is the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, who brings together through prophets and apostles those who are saved.… The sharing of the summons is a uniting in peace, so that those who were, up to this time, opposed to each other because of customs might, through gathering together, become habituated to each other in love.

Psalms 49:4

I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.

The things that I teach, he says, from the Spirit, these I proclaim to you, saying nothing of my own, nothing human; but, since I have been listening to the propositions of the Spirit, who hands down in mystery to us the wisdom of God, I am opening for you and am making manifest the proposition; moreover, I am opening not otherwise than through psaltery. The psaltery is a musical instrument that gives out its sounds harmoniously with the melody of the voice. Accordingly, the rational psaltery is opened especially at that time when actions in harmony with the words are displayed. And he is a spiritual psaltery who has acted and has taught. He it is who opens the proposition in the psalms, setting forth the possibility of the teaching from his own example.… There is nothing incongruous or out of tune in his life.

Psalms 49:6

They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;

Even if he seems to be one of the very powerful people in this life, even if he is surrounded with a great number of possessions, these words teach him to descend from such a notion and to humble himself under the mighty hand of God. … Not even the soul is complete in itself for salvation.… Every human soul has bowed down under the evil yoke of slavery imposed by the common enemy of all and, being deprived of the very freedom that it received from the Creator, has been led captive through sin. Every captive has need of ransoms for his freedom. Now, neither a brother can ransom his brother, nor can anyone ransom himself, because he who is ransoming must be much better than he who has been overcome and is now a slave. But, actually, no one has the power with respect to God to make atonement for a sinner, since he himself is liable for sin. “All have sinned and have need of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” our Lord.

Psalms 49:7

None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:

In fact, what can one find great enough that he may give it for the ransom of his soul? But one thing was found worth as much as all people together. This was given for the price of ransom for our souls, the holy and highly honored blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he poured out for all of us; therefore, we were bought at a great price. If, then, a brother does not redeem, will a man redeem? But if man cannot redeem us, he who redeems us is not a man. Now, do not assume, because he sojourned with us “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” that our Lord is only man, failing to discern the power of the divinity, who had no need to give God a ransom for himself or to redeem his own soul because “he did no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.” No one is sufficient to redeem himself, unless he comes who turns away the captivity of the people, not with ransoms or with gifts, as it is written in Isaiah, but in his own blood.… He does not need a ransom, but he himself is the propitiation.

Psalms 49:11

Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.

One who is dead through sins does not dwell in a house but a sepulcher, since his soul is dead.… The thoroughly depraved person dwells in a sepulcher and does not even lay down a foundation of penance because of his dead works, but he is “like a whited sepulcher, which outwardly is very conspicuous but inwardly is full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness.” Therefore, when such a one speaks, he does not open his mouth in the word of God, but he has an open sepulcher as his throat.

Psalms 49:12

Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.

Humankind, then, having been advanced above other created things in honor, did not understand and neglected to follow God and to become like the Creator. Becoming a slave of the passions of the flesh, “he is compared with senseless beasts and is become like them”: now he is like an amorous horse that neighs after his neighbor’s wife, now like a ravenous wolf, lying in wait for strangers, but at another time, because of his deceit toward his brother, he makes himself like the villainous fox. Truly, there is excessive folly and beast-like lack of reason, that he, made according to the image of the Creator, neither perceives his own constitution from the beginning, nor even wishes to understand such great dispensations that were made for his sake, at least, to learn his own dignity from them, but that he is unmindful of the fact that, throwing aside the image of the heavenly, he has taken up the image of the earthly. In order that he might not remain in sin, for his sake “The Word was made flesh and dwelled among us,” and he humbled himself to such an extent as to become “obedient to de…

Humankind, then, having been advanced above other created things in honor, did not understand and neglected to follow God and to become like the Creator. Becoming a slave of the passions of the flesh, “he is compared with senseless beasts and is become like them”: now he is like an amorous horse that neighs after his neighbor’s wife, now like a ravenous wolf, lying in wait for strangers, but at another time, because of his deceit toward his brother, he makes himself like the villainous fox. Truly, there is excessive folly and beast-like lack of reason, that he, made according to the image of the Creator, neither perceives his own constitution from the beginning, nor even wishes to understand such great dispensations that were made for his sake, at least, to learn his own dignity from them, but that he is unmindful of the fact that, throwing aside the image of the heavenly, he has taken up the image of the earthly. In order that he might not remain in sin, for his sake “The Word was made flesh and dwelled among us,” and he humbled himself to such an extent as to become “obedient to death, even to death on a cross.”

Psalms 49:16

Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;

When you see the unjust becoming rich and the just poor, do not fear for yourself; do not be dismayed in mind, as if the providence of God is nowhere looking on human affairs, or perhaps, somewhere there is a divine watchfulness, but it does not reach to places near the earth, so as to watch over our affairs; for, if there were a providence, it would be apportioning to each person what is proper to him, so that the just, who understand how to use wealth, would be rich, but the wicked, who have wealth as the instrument of their wickedness, would be poor.… Now, since there are many who have such notions and who, because of the apparent inconsistency of the distribution of the fortunes of life, assume that the world is not the work of providence, the Scripture addresses these to calm their uninstructed emotion.… Do not be faint about present affairs, but await that blessed and everlasting life. Then you will see that poverty and contempt and the lack of luxuries befall the just person for his good. And do not be troubled now about imagined good things, as though they were unjustly divid…

When you see the unjust becoming rich and the just poor, do not fear for yourself; do not be dismayed in mind, as if the providence of God is nowhere looking on human affairs, or perhaps, somewhere there is a divine watchfulness, but it does not reach to places near the earth, so as to watch over our affairs; for, if there were a providence, it would be apportioning to each person what is proper to him, so that the just, who understand how to use wealth, would be rich, but the wicked, who have wealth as the instrument of their wickedness, would be poor.… Now, since there are many who have such notions and who, because of the apparent inconsistency of the distribution of the fortunes of life, assume that the world is not the work of providence, the Scripture addresses these to calm their uninstructed emotion.… Do not be faint about present affairs, but await that blessed and everlasting life. Then you will see that poverty and contempt and the lack of luxuries befall the just person for his good. And do not be troubled now about imagined good things, as though they were unjustly divided. You will hear how it will be said to a certain rich man, “You in your lifetime have received good things,” but to the poor person that he receives evils in his life. As a consequence, therefore, the latter is consoled, but the former suffers pain.

Psalms 51:10-14

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

We shall now examine what kinds of ideas about the Spirit we hold in common, as well as those that we have gathered from the Scriptures or received from the unwritten tradition of the Fathers. First of all, who can listen to the Spirit’s titles and not be lifted up in his soul? Whose thoughts would not be raised to contemplate the supreme nature? He is called the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, right Spirit, willing Spirit. His first and most proper title is Holy Spirit, a name most especially appropriate to everything that is incorporeal, purely immaterial and indivisible.

Psalms 55:12-15

For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:

But what especially strengthens us in our desire for union with you is the account of your reverences’ zeal for orthodoxy—the fact that neither by a vast number of treatises nor by subtlety of sophisms was your firmness of heart overcome, but that you recognized those who were making innovations contrary to the teachings of the apostles and did not consent to cover over in silence the harm done by them. Truly, we have found great grief among all those who are clinging to the peace of the Lord because of the manifold innovations of Apollinaris of Laodicea, who has grieved us so much more in that he seemed to belong to our party in the beginning. In fact, any suffering from an evident enemy, even if the pain is excessive, can somehow be borne by the one afflicted, as it is written: “For if my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it.” But, to experience some hurt from one who is of like spirit and an intimate friend, this is most certainly hard to bear and holds no consolation. For, him whom we had expected to have as a fellow defender of the truth, him, I say, we have n…

But what especially strengthens us in our desire for union with you is the account of your reverences’ zeal for orthodoxy—the fact that neither by a vast number of treatises nor by subtlety of sophisms was your firmness of heart overcome, but that you recognized those who were making innovations contrary to the teachings of the apostles and did not consent to cover over in silence the harm done by them. Truly, we have found great grief among all those who are clinging to the peace of the Lord because of the manifold innovations of Apollinaris of Laodicea, who has grieved us so much more in that he seemed to belong to our party in the beginning. In fact, any suffering from an evident enemy, even if the pain is excessive, can somehow be borne by the one afflicted, as it is written: “For if my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it.” But, to experience some hurt from one who is of like spirit and an intimate friend, this is most certainly hard to bear and holds no consolation. For, him whom we had expected to have as a fellow defender of the truth, him, I say, we have now found hindering in many places those who are being saved by perverting their minds and drawing them away from the right doctrine.

Psalms 55:19-23 · 2 passages

God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.

But do not lament a burden that surpasses your strength. For if you were the one destined to bear this responsibility alone, it would not be merely heavy but utterly unendurable. But, if the Lord is the one who helps you bear it, “Cast your care on the Lord,” and he himself will bear it. Only, let me urge you in all things to guard against this—that you be not carried along with others by wicked customs, but that through the wisdom given to you by God you change the formerly adopted evil practices into something good. For Christ has sent you, not to follow others but that you yourself may guide those who are being saved.

All of them will stand about Job when the Judge of human life will gather together the universal church, when the trumpet that is to announce the coming of the King calls loudly to the tombs and demands the bodies that have been entrusted to their charge. Then, they who now appear to be dead will take their place before the Maker of the whole world more quickly than will the living. For this reason, I think, the Lord allotted to Job a double portion of his other wealth but judged that he would be satisfied with the same number of children as before. Do you see how many blessings the just Job reaped from his patience? You, also, should therefore bear patiently any harm that may have come to you from yesterday’s fire enkindled by a demon’s treachery, and alleviate your feelings of distress over your misfortune with more courageous thoughts, in accordance with the words of the Scripture: “Cast your care on the Lord, and he will sustain you.”

Psalms 60:3-8 · 2 passages

Thou hast shewed thy people hard things: thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment.

“Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine.” Gilead is a grandson of Manasseh; this is said in order that he may show that the succession of the patriarchs, from whom is descended Christ according to the flesh, comes down from God. “And Ephraim is the support of my head. Judah is my king.” He will join together by agreement the parts that are severed. “Moab is the washbasin of my hope.” Or “a pot for washing,” another of the interpreters says; or “a pot of security”; that is to say, the excommunicated person, who has been forbidden with threats to enter the church of the Lord. For the Moabite and the Ammonite will not enter until the third and until the tenth generation and until everlasting time. Nevertheless, since baptism possesses remission for sins and produces security for the debtors, he, showing the deliverance through baptism and the affection for God, says, “Moab is a pot for washing” or “a pot of security.” Therefore, all “foreigners are made subject,” bowing down under the yoke of Christ; for this reason he will set his shoe in Edom. The shoe of the divinity is the God-bearing…

“Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine.” Gilead is a grandson of Manasseh; this is said in order that he may show that the succession of the patriarchs, from whom is descended Christ according to the flesh, comes down from God. “And Ephraim is the support of my head. Judah is my king.” He will join together by agreement the parts that are severed. “Moab is the washbasin of my hope.” Or “a pot for washing,” another of the interpreters says; or “a pot of security”; that is to say, the excommunicated person, who has been forbidden with threats to enter the church of the Lord. For the Moabite and the Ammonite will not enter until the third and until the tenth generation and until everlasting time. Nevertheless, since baptism possesses remission for sins and produces security for the debtors, he, showing the deliverance through baptism and the affection for God, says, “Moab is a pot for washing” or “a pot of security.” Therefore, all “foreigners are made subject,” bowing down under the yoke of Christ; for this reason he will set his shoe in Edom. The shoe of the divinity is the God-bearing flesh, through which he approaches humans. In this hope, pronouncing blessed the time of the coming of the Lord, the prophet says, “Who will bring me into the fortified city.” Perhaps he means the church, a city, indeed, because it is a community governed conformably to laws; and fortified, because of the faith encompassing it. Whence one of the interpreters produced a very clear translation: “Into a city fortified all around.” Who, then, will permit me to see this great spectacle, God living among people? These are the words of the Lord: “Many prophets and just people have longed to see what you see, and they have not seen it.”

Therefore, “O God, you have cast us off.” You have cast off those who in proportion to their sins removed themselves a distance from you. You have destroyed the accumulations of our wickedness, doing good to us because of our weakness. You were angry, since “we were by nature children of wrath,” having no hope and being without God in the world. You had mercy on us when “you sent forth your only-begotten Son as a propitiation for our sins,” in order that in his blood we might find redemption. We would not know that we were having these kindnesses done to us, unless “you have made us drink the wine of sorrow.” By wine he means the words that lead the hardened heart to conscious perception.