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John Damascene

Late Patristic · AD 500–800 · 201 passages across 33 books

Commentary

21–40 of 201
2 Timothy 4:3

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

That is to say, they delight in their ears.

2 Timothy 4:7

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

One must give gentle council to the depressed student, urging him to be courageous, as if he was far from his crown, fulfilling everything, you must rejoice, he says, not agonize.

2 Timothy 4:9

Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me:

That is, for relaxation and luxery.

2 Timothy 4:10

For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.

He does not find fault with them; for they were sent for preaching.

2 Timothy 4:13

The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.

The money-bag had the books and the paper. He teaches us as if its our last breath, that if we are in prison, the divine oracles not must not be neglected. He speaks of the Jewish propitiation of the law.

2 Timothy 4:16

At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.

For he once stood before Nero, and he escaped.

2 Timothy 4:17

Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.

So that everything may be revealed through preaching. Not by force, but as he said, through preaching, as if he was bearing a purple garment and a crown (see John 19:2), and because of them he was dilivered up. By "lion" he means Nero.

2 Timothy 4:18

And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

For then, he says, the threat had vanished. But because the Gospel became sufficient, he will rescue me from all: that is to say, he will not leave me and the threat will disappear.

2 Timothy 4:21

Do thy diligence to come before winter. Eubulus greeteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren.

As if to say: Do not grieve which removes oneself from a settled position. The Lord is with you: And he did not say, with you, but, with your spirit, so there's a double of assistance with the grace of the Spirit, also to assist him. It was written to Timothy from Rome. He wrote the letter while he was in prison in Rome, together with the first letter that he wrote to him, and from the feet of perfection. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come (2 Tim 4:6).

Amos 3:6 · 2 passages

Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

Since the word evil is ambiguous it has two meanings, for it sometimes means what is by na­ture evil, being the opposite of virtue and against God's will, while at other times it means what is evil and painful in relation to our sensibility, which is to say, tribulation and distress. Now while these last seem to be evil, because they cause pain, actu­ally they are good because to such as understand them they are a source of conversion and salvation. It is these last that Scripture says are permitted by God. Moreover, one must know that we too cause them because involuntary evils spring from volun­tary ones.

It is, then, customary for sacred Scripture to speak of his permission as an action and deed, but even when it goes so far as to say that God “creates evil” and that “there is not evil in a city which the Lord has not done,” it still does not show God to be the author of evil. On the contrary, since the word evil is ambiguous it has two meanings, for it sometimes means what is by nature evil, being the opposite of virtue and against God’s will, while at other times it means what is evil and painful in relation to our sensibility, which is to say, tribulation and distress. Now while these last seem to be evil, because they cause pain, actually they are good because to such as understand them they are a source of conversion and salvation. It is these last that Scripture says are permitted by God. Moreover, one must know that we too cause them because involuntary evils spring from voluntary ones.

ORTHODOX FAITH 4:20

Colossians 1:15

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

He who has been born first is firstborn, whether he is the only child or has preceded other brothers. So, if the Son of God were called “firstborn” without being called “onlybegotten,” then we should understand him to be firstborn of creatures as being a creature. Since, however, he is called both firstborn and onlybegotten, we must maintain both of these as applying to him. Thus, we say that he is “the firstborn of every creature,” since he is from God, and creation is also from God…. For this very reason, that he shared flesh and blood along with us and then, also, that we were made sons of God through him by being adopted through baptism. He who is by nature Son of God has become firstborn among us who have by adoption and grace become sons of God and are accounted as his brothers.

Colossians 2:3

In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

For, although he was impassible, he became subject to the experience of human passions and was made minister of our salvation. Now, they who say that he is a servant divide the one Christ into two, just as Nestorius did. But we say that he is Lord and Master of all creation, the one Christ, the same being at once God and man, and that he knows all things, “for in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Daniel 2:20

Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his:

Further, the divine nature has the property of penetrating all things without mixing with them and of being itself impenetrable by anything else. Moreover, there is the property of knowing all things with a simple knowledge and seeing all things simply with his divine, all-surveying, immaterial eye, the things of the present, and the things of the past and the things of the future before they come into being. The divine nature is also sinless, and can cast sin out and bring salvation. And all that it wills, it can accomplish, but it does not will all it could accomplish. For it could destroy the universe, but it does not will so to do.

ORTHODOX FAITH 1:14

Daniel 5:2-3

Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.

The third kind of relative worship we give to objects dedicated to God, such as the holy Gospel and other books, for they have been written for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Obviously, patens, chalices, censers, candlesticks and altars should all receive respect. Remember how Belshazzar made his people serve wine in sacred vessels and how God brought his kingdom to an end.

ON DIVINE IMAGES 3:35

Daniel 8:17

So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision.

Joshua, the son of Nun, and Daniel bowed in veneration before an angel of God, but they did not adore him. For adoration is one thing, and that which is offered in order to honor something of great excellence is another.

ON DIVINE IMAGES 1:8

Daniel 12:2 · 2 passages

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

The dead shall rise again, and they that are in the graves shall awake. They that have kept the commandments of Christ and have departed this life in the true faith shall inherit eternal life; and they that have died in their sins and have turned aside from the right faith shall go away into eternal punishment. Do not believe that there is any true being or kingdom of evil or suppose that it is without beginning, or self-originated or born of God—forget such an absurdity! But believe rather that it is the work of us and the devil, come on us through our inattentiveness, because we were endowed with free will, and we made our choice, of deliberate purpose, whether it be good or evil.

BARLAAM AND JOSEPH 19:164-65

“Many shall awake” means the resurrection of their bodies, for I do not suppose that anyone would speak of souls sleeping in the dust of the earth.… The Lord, too, has clearly shown in the holy Gospels that there is a resurrection of the body, for “they that are in the graves,” he says, “shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they that have done good things shall come forth to the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.” Now, no person in his right mind would ever say that it was the souls that were in the graves.

ORTHODOX FAITH 4:27

Deuteronomy 4:24

For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.

And the Holy Spirit descended upon the holy apostles in the form of fire, because he is God, and “God is a consuming fire.”

ON THE ORTHODOX FAITH 4.9

Ecclesiastes 1:14

I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

So, following the teachings of these blessed saints, we utterly renounce these corruptible and perishable things of life, wherein may be found nothing stable or constant, or that continues in one stay. But all things are vanity and vexation of spirit, and many are the changes that they bring in a moment, for they are slighter than dreams and a shadow, or the breeze that blows the air. Small and short-lived is their charm, that is after all no charm, but illusion and deception of the wickedness of the world; which world we have been taught to love not at all but rather to hate with all our heart. Yes, and truly it is worthy of hatred and abhorrence; for whatsoever gifts it gives to its friends, these in turn in passion it takes away and shall hand over its victims, stripped of all good things, clad in the garment of shame, and bound under heavy burdens, to eternal tribulation. And those again whom it exalts, it quickly abases to the utmost wretchedness, making them a footstool and a laughing stock for their enemies. Such are its charms, such its bounties.

BARLAAM AND JOSEPH 12:109-10

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