Gregory of Neocaesarea — Commentary on Scripture

Ecclesiastes 12:5

Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:

Cities and their bloodstained leaders will wait for punishment from above. A most bitter and bloody time will arise like a blossoming almond tree, continuous punishments will be imposed like a swarm of flying locusts, and lawbreakers will be thrown out of the way like a black and contemptible caper plant. The good person will enter into his eternal home with rejoicing, but the bad people will fill all their homes with mourning.

Ecclesiastes 12:6

Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.

Neither stored silver nor tested gold will be of any further use. A mighty blow will strike everything, right down to a water pot standing next to a well, and to a carriage wheel which happens to have been left in the ditch, its time of revolving ceased, and to the life that, by water, has passed through the age of washing.

Ecclesiastes 12:7

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

For people lying on earth there is one salvation, if their souls acknowledge and fly up to the One by whom they were brought into being.

Isaiah 53:4 · 2 passages

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

Therefore, when it is said that he was “troubled in spirit,” that “he was sorrowful in soul,” that “he was wounded in body,” he places before us designations of susceptibilities proper to our constitution, in order to show that he was made man in the world and had his conversation with [people], yet without sin.

How could one say that the body of the Lord [Christ] is void of soul and understanding? For perturbation and grief and distress are not the properties either of a flesh void of a soul or of a soul void of understanding; nor are they the sign of the nature of immutable divinity or the index of a mere phantasm; nor do they mark the defect of human moral weakness. But the Word exhibited in himself the exercise of the affections and susceptibilities proper to us, having endued himself with our passibility, even as it is written, that “he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” For perturbation and grief and distress are disorders of soul; and toil, and sleep and the body’s liability to wounding are infirmities of the flesh.

John 16:33

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

[Christ] says, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” And he said this not as holding before us any contest proper only to God but as showing our own flesh in its capacity to overcome suffering, and death and corruption.

Joshua 7:1

But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.

Look, did not Achan the son of Zerah dishonestly steal from the devoted things, and wrath came upon the whole people of Israel? And he alone sinned, but he was not the only one to die in his sin. Now to us, in the present circumstance every asset which does not belong to us but to someone else should be regarded as “the devoted things.” For he, Achan, took as spoil, and these men now have taken “as spoil”; but he took what belonged to the enemy, while these now have taken what belonged to their brothers, making for themselves a deadly profit.

Luke 1:34-35

Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

If any one affirms that Christ was born of the seed of man by the Virgin, in the same manner as all men are born, and refuses to acknowledge that He was made flesh by the Holy Spirit and the holy Virgin Mary, mad became man of the seed of David, even as it is written, let him be anathema.

Explication: How could one say that Christ was born of the seed of man by the Virgin, when the holy Gospel and the angel, in proclaiming the good tidings, testify of Mary the Virgin that she said, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? " [Luke 1:34] Wherefore he says, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the highest shall overshadow you: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of the Highest." [Luke 1:35] And to Joseph he says, "Fear not to take unto you Mary your wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins." [Matthew 1:20-21]

Mark 1:10

And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:

And stretching forth slowly his right hand, which seemed both to tremble and to rejoice, John baptized the Lord. Then his detractors who were present, with those in the vicinity and those from a distance, connived together, and spoke among themselves asking: “Was John then superior to Jesus? Was it without cause that we thought John greater, and does not his very baptism attest this? Is not he who baptizes presented as the greater, and he who is baptized as the less important?” But just as they, in their ignorance of the mystery of the divine economy, babbled about with each other, the holy One who alone is Lord spoke. He who by nature is the Father of the only begotten (who alone was begotten in unblemished fashion) instantly rectified their blunted imaginations. He opened the gates of the heavens and sent down the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, lighting upon the head of Jesus, pointing him out right there as the new Noah, even the maker of Noah, and the good pilot of the nature which is in shipwreck. And he himself calls with clear voice out of heaven, and says: “This is my bel…

And stretching forth slowly his right hand, which seemed both to tremble and to rejoice, John baptized the Lord. Then his detractors who were present, with those in the vicinity and those from a distance, connived together, and spoke among themselves asking: “Was John then superior to Jesus? Was it without cause that we thought John greater, and does not his very baptism attest this? Is not he who baptizes presented as the greater, and he who is baptized as the less important?” But just as they, in their ignorance of the mystery of the divine economy, babbled about with each other, the holy One who alone is Lord spoke. He who by nature is the Father of the only begotten (who alone was begotten in unblemished fashion) instantly rectified their blunted imaginations. He opened the gates of the heavens and sent down the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, lighting upon the head of Jesus, pointing him out right there as the new Noah, even the maker of Noah, and the good pilot of the nature which is in shipwreck. And he himself calls with clear voice out of heaven, and says: “This is my beloved Son,”—Jesus, not John: the One baptized, and not the one baptizing; the One who was begotten of me before all time, and not the one who was begotten of Zechariah; the One who was born of Mary after the flesh, and not the one who was brought forth by Elizabeth beyond all expectation; the One who was the fruit of the virginity which he yet preserved intact, not the one who was the shoot from a sterility removed; the One who had his encounter with you, and not the one brought up in the wilderness. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: my Son, of the same substance with myself, and not of a different; of the same essence with me according to what is unseen, and of the same essence with you according to what is seen, yet without sin.

Mark 13:25

And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.

The powers above—the angels guarding the universe—will be put into action in that storm and tumult of all things. Powerful men will stop. Laboring women will also stop and flee into the dark places of their houses.

Matthew 6:22

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

The single eye is the love unfeigned; for when the body is enlightened by it, it sets forth through the medium of the outer members only things which are perfectly correspondent with the inner thoughts. But the evil eye is the pretended love, which is also called hypocrisy, by which the whole body of the man is made darkness. We have to consider that deeds meet only for darkness may be within the man, while through the outer members he may produce words that seem to be of the light: for there are those who are in reality wolves, though they may be covered with sheep's clothing. Such are they who wash only the outside of the cup and platter, and do not understand that, unless the inside of these things is cleansed, the outside itself cannot be made pure. Wherefore, in manifest confutation of such persons, the Saviour says: If the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness! That is to say, if the love which seems to you to be light is really a work meet for darkness, by reason of some hypocrisy concealed in you, what must be your patent transgressions!

Revelation 3:7

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;

These things, moreover, as I judge, he gives forth only and truly by participation in the divine Spirit. There is need of the same power for those who prophesy and for those who hear the prophets. No one can rightly hear a prophet unless the same Spirit who prophesies bestows on him the capacity of grasping his words. And this principle is expressed indeed in the holy Scriptures themselves when it is said that only he who shuts opens, and no other one whatever; and what is shut is opened when that word of inspiration explains mysteries.