Nemesius of Emesa — Commentary on Scripture

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

If anyone should think it out of all reason that a godly man should suffer grievously so that someone else should be put right, let him reflect that this life is a contest and a striving ground for virtue. The victors’ chaplets are splendid in exact proportion, therefore, to the pains with which they are won. That is why Paul was allowed to fall into countless afflictions. The purpose was that the crown of victory which he should bear off might be the greater.

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Even if it is granted that the God of all things followed an order [in the creation], he is shown to be God and Creator and to have brought all things into being out of nothing.

Genesis 6:1-2

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

Of the incorporeal beings, only angels fell away, and not all of them, but some only, that inclined to things below and set their desire on things of earth, withdrawing themselves from their relations with things above, even from God.

Isaiah 45:9-10

Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?

For we, who do not know at all what the future has in store and see merely our present circumstances, misjudge what will profit us. God … sees what is to come as if it were present. These prophecies are addressed, however, to those who make themselves God’s judges. To them may also fittingly be cited those words of Scripture, “shall the clay say to the potter” and so forth.How shall we not shun a person who legislates in opposition to the laws of God and issues decrees in opposition to the works of providence, whereas he dares not breathe a word against human laws? Therefore, leaving such exaggerations, or, to speak more truly, blasphemies, on one side, let us demonstrate the error of denying particular providence while acknowledging universal and general providence.

Joshua 10:14

And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.

What we say is that God not only stands outside the power of all necessity; he is its Lord and Maker. For in that he is authority and the very source whence authority flows, he himself does nothing through any necessity of nature or at the bidding of any inviolable law. On the contrary, all things are possible to him, including those we call impossible. To prove this, he established once for all the courses of the sun and moon, which are borne on their way by inevitable laws, and forever and ever will be thus borne, and at the same time to prove that nothing is to him inevitable but that all things are possible that he may choose, just once he made a special “day” that Scripture sets forth as a “sign,” solely that he might the more proclaim, and in no way invalidate, that divine ordinance with which, from the beginning, he fixed the undeviating orbits of the stars.

Matthew 6:31-33

Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

(De Nat. Hom. 42.) That there is a Providence, is shown by such signs as the following; The continuance of all things, of those things especially which are in a state of decay and reproduction, and the place and order of all things that exist is ever preserved in one and the same state; and how could this be done unless by some presiding power? But some affirm that God does indeed care for the general continuance of all things in the universe, and provides for this, but that all particular events depend on contingency. Now there are but three reasons that can be alleged for God exercising no providence of particular events; either God is ignorant that it is good to have knowledge of particular things; or He is unwilling; or He is unable. But ignorance is altogether alien from blessed substance; for how shall God not know what every wise man knows, that if particulars were destroyed, the whole would be destroyed? But nothing prevents all individuals from perishing; when no power watches over them. If, again, He be unwilling, this must be from one of two reasons; inactivity, or the mea…

(De Nat. Hom. 42.) That there is a Providence, is shown by such signs as the following; The continuance of all things, of those things especially which are in a state of decay and reproduction, and the place and order of all things that exist is ever preserved in one and the same state; and how could this be done unless by some presiding power? But some affirm that God does indeed care for the general continuance of all things in the universe, and provides for this, but that all particular events depend on contingency. Now there are but three reasons that can be alleged for God exercising no providence of particular events; either God is ignorant that it is good to have knowledge of particular things; or He is unwilling; or He is unable. But ignorance is altogether alien from blessed substance; for how shall God not know what every wise man knows, that if particulars were destroyed, the whole would be destroyed? But nothing prevents all individuals from perishing; when no power watches over them. If, again, He be unwilling, this must be from one of two reasons; inactivity, or the meanness of the occupation. But inactivity is produced by two things; either we are drawn aside by some pleasure, or hindered by some fear, neither of which can be piously supposed of God. If they affirm that it would be unbecoming, for that it is beneath such blessedness to stoop to things so trifling, how is it not inconsistent that a workman overseeing the whole of any machine, leaves no part however insignificant without attention, knowing the whole is but made up of the parts, and thus pronounce God the Creator of all things to be less wise than craftsmen? But if it be that He is unable, then is He unable to bestow benefits on us. But if we are unable to comprehend the manner of special Providence, we have not therefore any right to deny its operation; we might as well say that, because we did not know the number of mankind, therefore there were no men.

Matthew 6:33

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

De Nat. Hom., 42: That there is a Providence, is shown by such signs as the following; The continuance of all things, of those things especially which are in a state of decay and reproduction, and the place and order of all things that exist is ever preserved in one and the same state; and how could this be done unless by some presiding power? But some affirm that God does indeed care forthe general continuance of all things in the universe, and provides for this, but that all particular events depend on contingency.