Philoxenus of Mabbug — Commentary on Scripture

My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:

Pure prayer such as is worthy of God, O disciple of God, is not uttered by means of compound words. Prayer that is worthy of God consists in this: that one gather in one’s mind from the entire world and not let it be secretly bound to anything; that one place it entirely at God’s disposal and forget, during the time of prayer, everything that is material, including one’s own self and the place where one is standing. One should be secretly swallowed up in the spirit of God, and one should clothe oneself in God at the time of prayer both outwardly and inwardly, set on fire with ardent love for him and entirely engulfed in his thoughts of God, entirely commingled in all of him, with the movements of one’s thoughts suffused with wondrous recollection of God, while the soul has gone out in love to seek him whom it loves, just as David said, “My soul has gone out after you.”

Ezekiel 3:17

Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

The words are addressed to the Jews, since it was to them that the prophet Ezekiel had been sent at that time; and today, too, after the coming of our Savior, the words apply to pagans and to Jews and to those who once believed but then denied their faith. The prophet’s words are applicable to those who sin without perceiving their sin, since a sinner who has received baptism, even though he may be dead toward his soul, because he does not perceive his sin, yet he is alive to God because of the grace of baptism that he possesses.

Luke 15:11-24

And he said, A certain man had two sons:

It was the same with the younger son who squandered his property and wasted his father’s property living among prostitutes. Despite all this, he did not lose his honorable title of son. In the land of captivity, having rejected his father, he rather remembered, “How many hired servants are at this moment in my father’s house who have more than enough bread, but here am I perishing from hunger.” He was still a sinner. He had sinned to such an extent that he had thrown to the winds with his misdeeds the entire inheritance he had received from his father. He still called God his father. This indicates that the grace of the Spirit, which authorizes him to call God Father, did not depart from him.We are unable to employ this term of address and call God Father, except through the authority of the Holy Spirit who is within us. It is well known that those who have not yet become God’s children by the holy rebirth of baptism are not authorized to use this term. They are not permitted to say, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” The apparent reason for this is that the Holy…

It was the same with the younger son who squandered his property and wasted his father’s property living among prostitutes. Despite all this, he did not lose his honorable title of son. In the land of captivity, having rejected his father, he rather remembered, “How many hired servants are at this moment in my father’s house who have more than enough bread, but here am I perishing from hunger.” He was still a sinner. He had sinned to such an extent that he had thrown to the winds with his misdeeds the entire inheritance he had received from his father. He still called God his father. This indicates that the grace of the Spirit, which authorizes him to call God Father, did not depart from him.We are unable to employ this term of address and call God Father, except through the authority of the Holy Spirit who is within us. It is well known that those who have not yet become God’s children by the holy rebirth of baptism are not authorized to use this term. They are not permitted to say, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” The apparent reason for this is that the Holy Spirit is not yet within them to give them this authorization. It is well known to all that, when they approach the holy mysteries, the newly baptized all repeat this prayer with confidence in accordance with the tradition handed down by our Lord, and then they proceed to the holy mysteries.

Luke 20:27-40

Then came to him certain of the Sadducees, which deny that there is any resurrection; and they asked him,

The prophet’s words are applicable to those who sin without perceiving their sin. A sinner who has received baptism, although he may be dead toward his soul because he does not perceive his sin, he is alive to God because of the grace of baptism that he possesses. This agrees with the words “God is not of the dead but of the living, for they are all living in him.”

John 6:54

Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

Now, in as much as a sinner receives our Lord’s body and blood in faith, he is in our Lord, and our Lord is in him, as our Lord himself says. Where the Lord dwells, there is his Spirit too.

Romans 8:27

And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

You see that all the good promptings which bring us to repentance result from the activity of the Spirit, and pure prayer, which brings all these good promptings to completion, is also stirred up in our soul as the result of the Spirit’s activity. He too, in a hidden way, initially arouses us to groans at the memory of our sins.

Romans 12:1

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Just as with the former law of Moses, all the priests … must first offer a rational sacrifice to God for themselves, and only then for the people. In his prayer, the priest asks in the first place for forgiveness of his own sins and a cleansing of his own soul and body from all sinful thoughts and actions. Then each priest offers these prayers to God in accordance with the measure of his own purity of soul.

2 Corinthians 6:14

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

It is the same now with us who are baptized: neither the wetness of the water in which we are baptized nor the oiliness of the oil with which we are anointed remain with us after our death. But the Holy Spirit, who is mingled in our souls and bodies through the oil and the water, does remain with us, both in this life and after our death.

2 Corinthians 6:15

And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

The Holy Spirit is our true baptism, and for this reason we remain always baptized, for he is in us always, and nothing can deprive us of our baptism apart from the denial of God and consorting with demons. In such cases the Holy Spirit really does depart, because he cannot agree to remain in a place where Satan dwells. “For what fellowship does Christ have with Satan or the believer with the unbeliever, or God’s temple with that of demons?”

1 Thessalonians 4:13

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

“Brothers, I want you to know about those who sleep: you must not grieve like the rest of humanity, who have lost all hope.” Our resurrection too will take place by the power of the Holy Spirit who is within us. Because the Holy Spirit is in faithful persons when they die, their death cannot be called death, but only sleep.

1 Thessalonians 5:19

Quench not the Spirit.

That is to say, do not grieve him by sin, otherwise his light will be quenched from your soul—a light which, when kindled within you, gives you the possession of a power that is beyond expression; and you will be able to contend “with principalities and powers,” and fight against the evil spirits under heaven, and reject all the world with its pleasures and pains. All are effected by the fervor of the Spirit within us. .

Hebrews 9:19-22

For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,

Vice is a sickness of the soul, and delusion is a loss of truth. Most men who are sick with the disease of vice and delusion proclaim health and are lauded by men. Unless the soul is cured from vice and is found in her natural state of health (with which she was created) so that she can be reborn by health of spirit, it is impossible for a man to desire the supernatural things of the Spirit. For so long as the soul is sick with passions, her senses have no perception of what is spiritual, and she does not even know how to desire it, saving only from the hearing of the ears and from writings.… Those who desire perfection must keep all the commandments, since the working of the commandments heals the powers of the soul. The practice of the commandments is not accomplished simply and by chance, for it is written that, “There is no remission without the shedding of blood.” Our nature first received renewal through the incarnation of Christ, and it participated in His passion and death, and then, after the renewal of the shedding of blood, our nature was renewed and sanctified and became…

Vice is a sickness of the soul, and delusion is a loss of truth. Most men who are sick with the disease of vice and delusion proclaim health and are lauded by men. Unless the soul is cured from vice and is found in her natural state of health (with which she was created) so that she can be reborn by health of spirit, it is impossible for a man to desire the supernatural things of the Spirit. For so long as the soul is sick with passions, her senses have no perception of what is spiritual, and she does not even know how to desire it, saving only from the hearing of the ears and from writings.… Those who desire perfection must keep all the commandments, since the working of the commandments heals the powers of the soul. The practice of the commandments is not accomplished simply and by chance, for it is written that, “There is no remission without the shedding of blood.” Our nature first received renewal through the incarnation of Christ, and it participated in His passion and death, and then, after the renewal of the shedding of blood, our nature was renewed and sanctified and became able to receive his new and perfect commandments. For if the new commandments had been given to men before the shedding of the Lord’s blood, before our nature was renewed and sanctified, then it is perhaps possible that even the new commandments, like those of old, would have merely cut off vice from the soul but would have been unable completely to pluck out the very root of vice from her. But now it is not so; now there is a secret labour that accompanies the new, spiritual commandments. When the soul keeps these through the circumspection of the fear of God, they renew her, sanctify her and secretly heal all her members. For it is obvious which passion is quietly cured in the soul by each commandment. The operation of the commandments is perceived only by the healer and the healed, after the likeness of the woman who had an issue of blood.