John Chrysostom — Commentary on Scripture

Isaiah 2:4

Not only would the church be firm, steadfast and indestructible, but it would also gain great peace for the world. Governments and monarchies will be destroyed; there will be but one kingdom put together for all people, and, unlike in times past, its greater part will be at peace. For, in the past, all craftsmen and men in public life were trained in warfare and took their place among the ranks. After the coming of Christ, all that was done away with, and wars were confined to widely separated areas.

DEMONSTRATION AGAINST THE PAGANS 6:6

Isaiah 2:7-8

Someone might ask, what is wrong with having silver or horses, particularly when what the people believed was not rigorous? How should we respond? The prophet was not criticizing the use of these possessions but the misuse of them. When he said, “Woe to the mighty,” he was not condemning them for having possessions but for hoarding so much more than they needed.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:7

Isaiah 3:16-24

But shouldest thou enter into a church, thou geest forth, without getting anything but countless leers, and revilings, and curses, not from the beholders only, but also from the prophet. For straightway Isaiah, that hath the fullest voice of all, as soon as he hath seen thee, will cry out, "These things saith the Lord against the princely daughters of Sion; because they walked with a lofty neck, and with winkings of the eyes, and in their walking, trailing their garments, and mincing at the same time with their feet; the Lord shall take off their bravery, and instead of a sweet smell there shall be dust, and instead of a stomacher, thou shalt gird thyself with a cord." These things for thy gorgeous array. For not to them only are these words addressed, but to every woman that doeth like them.

Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 89

Isaiah 5:8

You see, even if many people do not admit this in so many words but claim to believe in the doctrine of the resurrection and future retribution, nevertheless I take notice not of their words but of what they do day to day. That is to say, if you are looking forward to resurrection and retribution, why go chasing the values of this life to such an extent? Why, tell me, do you put yourself to such trouble day in and day out amassing more possessions than there is sand on the seashore, not to mention property and dwellings, as well as buying baths, often acquiring these things through robbery and greed and thus fulfilling that saying from the inspired author “Woe to those who add house to house, and join field to field so as to steal from their neighbor”? Cannot this sort of thing be seen happening day after day? One person says, “That house casts a terrible shadow on mine,” and he invents countless pretexts to get hold of it, while another lays hold of a poor person’s property and makes it his own. And what in fact is worse, remarkable and unheard of and quite beyond excuse, is for a p…

You see, even if many people do not admit this in so many words but claim to believe in the doctrine of the resurrection and future retribution, nevertheless I take notice not of their words but of what they do day to day. That is to say, if you are looking forward to resurrection and retribution, why go chasing the values of this life to such an extent? Why, tell me, do you put yourself to such trouble day in and day out amassing more possessions than there is sand on the seashore, not to mention property and dwellings, as well as buying baths, often acquiring these things through robbery and greed and thus fulfilling that saying from the inspired author “Woe to those who add house to house, and join field to field so as to steal from their neighbor”? Cannot this sort of thing be seen happening day after day? One person says, “That house casts a terrible shadow on mine,” and he invents countless pretexts to get hold of it, while another lays hold of a poor person’s property and makes it his own. And what in fact is worse, remarkable and unheard of and quite beyond excuse, is for a person comfortably situated in one locality being able to move elsewhere without any good reason for wanting to, either on account of a change of circumstances or because constrained by physical disability; all over the place, in city after city, he is bent on procuring monuments to his own avarice and having timeless effigies of his own evil for all to see. He heaps all sins of this kind on his own head without feeling his heavy and troublesome burden, whereas enjoyment of them he leaves for others, not only after his departure from this life but even here before his demise. You see, no matter what he wishes, he is stripped of his possessions, they are all squandered, so to say, by his friends and left in tatters without the smallest part of them falling to him to enjoy. Yet why do I say enjoy? Even if he wanted, how could he with one stomach manage to dispose of such an abundance of good things?

HOMILIES ON GENESIS 22:20 (6)

Isaiah 5:10

There are many instances in which the land suffers because of people’s sins. Why are you surprised if the people’s sin makes the land infertile and unfruitful when we caused it to be corrupt in the first place (and will again make it incorruptible)?… See Noah, for example. When humanity had become utterly perverse, turmoil ensued everywhere. Everything—the seed, the plants, all types of animals, the land, the sea, the air, the mountains, the valleys, the hills, the cities, the ramparts, the houses and the towers—everything was covered by the flood. When the time came for humanity to be replenished, the land was restored to the order and beauty it had before. It is clear that the land was restored in part as an honor to humanity.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 5:4

Isaiah 6:1

Why does God appear to be sitting on a throne with seraphim, when God does not sit? He is accommodating himself to the ways of human beings.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 6:1.78-81

Isaiah 6:1

It is obvious from the very words of Isaiah that he saw God because of God’s condescension. He said, “I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne.” But God is not sitting down. Beings with bodies sit. Isaiah also said, “on a throne.” But God is not encompassed by a throne, because divinity cannot be contained within boundaries. That said, the seraphim could not endure the condescension of God although they were nearby.… He said, “And the seraphim stood around him,” because he wanted to make it clear that although the seraphim are closer to the essence of God than human beings are, they cannot look upon his essence simply because they are closer to it. He is not referring to place in a localized sense. When he speaks of nearness, he is demonstrating that the seraphim are closer to God than we human beings are.

AGAINST THE ANOMOEANS 3:16

Isaiah 6:2

Let us bring our discourse back to our earlier proposition and let us show that God, even by the accommodation of condescension, cannot be seen by the powers above. Tell me this. Why do the seraphim stretch forth their wings? There is no other reason than the statement made by the apostle: “Who dwells in unapproachable light.” And these heavenly virtues, who are showing this by their very actions, are not the only ones. There are powers higher than the seraphim, namely, the cherubim. The seraphim stood near; the cherubim are the throne of God. They are not called this because God has need of a throne but so that you may learn how great is the dignity of these very powers.

AGAINST THE ANOMOEANS 3:24

Isaiah 6:3

Do you desire to learn how the powers above pronounce that name; with what awe, with what terror, with what wonder? “I saw the Lord,” says the prophet, “sitting upon a throne, high, and lifted up; around him stood the seraphim; and one cried to another and said, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” Do you perceive with what dread, with what awe, they pronounce that name while glorifying and praising him? But you, in your prayers and supplications, call upon him with much listlessness; when it would become you to be full of awe and to be watchful and sober!

HOMILY CONCERNING THE STATUES 7:9

Isaiah 6:3

What, then, do you think? Do you think that the angels in heaven talk over and ask each other questions about the divine essence? By no means! What are the angels doing? They give glory to God, they adore him, they chant without ceasing their triumphal and mystical hymns with a deep feeling of religious awe. Some sing, “Glory to God in the highest”; the seraphim chant, “Holy, holy, holy,” and they turn away their eyes because they cannot endure God’s presence as he comes down to adapt himself to them in condescension.

AGAINST THE ANOMOEANS 1:35

Isaiah 7:14

What precedes this passage also gives us its meaning. He does not simply say, “Behold, the virgin will conceive.” First he said, “Behold, the Lord will give you a sign,” and then he adds to it, “Behold, the virgin will conceive.” If the one who was to give birth was not a virgin but the conception occurred in the natural manner, then what sort of sign would this be? A sign must be extraordinary and strange, or how else could it be a sign?

HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 5:3

Isaiah 7:14

Were she not to be a virgin, the birth would not have been a sign. A sign is something that differs from the normal way things happen, that is outside the natural manner. A sign is so unusual and unexpected that someone who sees it or hears of it sees that it is out of the ordinary. It is called a “sign” because it is significant. Were the birth to be like normal births, it would not have been significant. If the prophecy is about a woman giving birth in the normal manner, like what happens every day, then why call it a sign?

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 7:5

Isaiah 7:14

You have heard, therefore, that the Father is called Lord. Come now, and let me show you that the Son is called God. “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall give birth to a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means, ‘God is with us.’ ” Did you see how both the name Lord is given to the Father and the name God is given to the Son? In the psalm, the sacred writer said, “Let them know that Lord is your name.” Here Isaiah says, “They shall call his name Immanuel.”

AGAINST THE ANOMOEANS 5:15

Isaiah 7:14

To prevent you from thinking that his coming to earth was an accommodation, as those others were, and to give you solid grounds for truly believing that his was real flesh, he was conceived, born and nurtured. That his birth might be made manifest and become common knowledge, he was laid in a manger, not in some small room but in a lodging place before a throng of people. This was the reason for the swaddling clothes and also for the prophecies spoken long before. The prophecies showed not only that he was going to be a man but also that he would be conceived, born and nurtured as any child would be. Isaiah proclaimed this when he said, “Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call his name Immanuel.” He eats butter and honey. And again, the same prophet said, “A child is born to us, a son is given to us.” Do you see how these prophecies foretold his infancy?

AGAINST THE ANOMOEANS 7:49

Isaiah 8:3

How was it, then, one may say, that his name was not called Emmanuel but Jesus Christ? Because he did not say “you shall call” but “they shall call,” that is, the multitude and the issue of events. For here he uses an event (i.e., God being “with us”) as a name; and this is customary in Scripture, to substitute the events that take place for names. Therefore, to say, “they shall call” him “Emmanuel” means nothing else than that they shall see God among humanity. For he has always been among them, but never so manifestly.

HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 5:2

Isaiah 8:18

Not only do we become his brothers but even his children, for he says, “Behold, I and my children, whom God has given me.” Not only do we become his children but also his members and his body. As if the things already mentioned were not enough to prove the love and kindness that he shows toward us, he set down another thing, greater and more intimate than these, when he spoke of himself as our head.

BAPTISMAL INSTRUCTIONS 12:14 (2:2)

Isaiah 9:6

Come now, and let me show you that the Son is called God. “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall give birth to a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means, ‘God is with us.’ ” Did you see how both the name Lord is given to the Father and the name God is given to the Son? In the psalm, the sacred writer said, “Let them know that Lord is your name.” Here Isaiah says, “They shall call his name Immanuel.” And again, he says, “A child is born to us, and a son is given to us; and his name shall be called Angel of Great Counsel, God the Strong, the Mighty One.”

AGAINST THE ANOMOEANS 5:15

Isaiah 9:6

The Son of God is said to be the angel of great counsel because of his many other teachings, but especially because he revealed his Father to humankind.

HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 81

Isaiah 9:6

When Scripture wishes to show that God needs no one, it says that he has no counselor. When it wishes to show the equal honor of the Only Begotten, it calls the Son of God his counselor.

AGAINST THE ANOMOEANS 11:14

Isaiah 9:7

Listen to how Isaiah predicted this long beforehand when he said, “and his name shall be called Messenger of Great Counsel, Wonderful Counselor, God the Strong, the Mighty One, the Prince of peace, Father of the world to come.”No one could say this of a mere man, as is obvious even to those who are very eager to show how stubborn they can be. No man from the beginning of time has been called God the Mighty or Father of the world to come or the Prince of peace. For Isaiah said, “There is no end of his peace.” And what did happen makes it clear that this peace has spread over the whole earth and sea, over the world where people dwell and where no one lives, over mountains, woodlands and hills, starting from that day on which he was going to leave his disciples and said to them, “My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.”
Why did Christ speak in this way? Because the peace which comes from a human being is easily destroyed and subject to many changes. But Christ’s peace is strong, unshaken, firm, fixed, steadfast, immune to death and unending.

DEMONSTRATION AGAINST THE PAGANS 2:8-10