The Dogs and the Assembly of Fornicators

A soul having been made alive by the preceding and blessed life; and it is good also to say: 'You have led me into the dust of death' (Ps 22:14). It was not He who descended into the dust of death, nor did the soul descend into the dust of death. But this happens to those being incarnated through wickedness.

Since He himself, for the sake of the economy and the salvation of all, received a body and God prepared a body for Him, He says: 'to be led by God into the dust of death.' But when men were, who confessing say: 'our belly has been joined to the earth' (Ps 79:10). When anyone does not nourish himself with the heavenly breads, the heavenly food, but the earthly—not the earthly sensible, but the opposite of the true bread—this food binds the soul being nourished to the matter, and it becomes a humiliation into the dust of the soul.

Here, however, the soul was not humiliated by Jesus into the dust, but was led by God. He came to this in an economical manner; for He had by no means committed sin, even though He was receptive; for if he were not receptive, he would not be praised at all. The abstaining therefore from sins brings praise to the one who has refrained when he was by nature prone to act.

Now, is dust and death the same thing? No; for He did not say: 'and into the dust of death You have led me.' If dust and death were the same, He would have said: 'into the dust of death You have led me'; but: 'into the dust of death.' The mortal body, which is able to be dissolved from the essence carrying it, is 'the dust of death.' And perhaps also by a second sense it is the dust of death, because it brings death to the flesh-loving soul.

'Many dogs have surrounded me; the body of the saints is dead'—for 'always they carry the death of Jesus in the body' (2 Cor 4:10). But the dead body does not have desires; for how is it possible? Is the mortal living? And it lives then when it is entwined with the soul. Then it has desires. Having died, it does not have desires. Having killed the members which are on the earth, it does not have desire.

Now, is the soul found to be the cause of sin? The soul of the one sinning is the cause of the sin; for nothing else is sin except the disobedience of a commandment, the transgression of a law. The body is not under a commandment in order that it might also transgress. The soul, transgressing, leads the body into...

To serve the sinful eyes; it is like an instrument. We do not say that the sword that sheds blood is a killer, but rather the one using it? For how is it possible? If we do not attribute sin or righteousness to a rational animal having a soul, do we attribute these things to the soulless body? By its own logic, the body is soulless.

'For many dogs have surrounded me, a company of fornicators has enclosed me, they have gripped my hands and my feet' (Psalm 22:17). Thus write: 'For many dogs have surrounded me, a company of fornicators has enclosed me,' because of this 'they have gripped my hands and my feet.' The 'for' is a causal conjunction. It is not attached to those following: 'You have led me into the pit of death,' 'for many dogs have surrounded me.' No, but: since 'many dogs have surrounded me and a company of fornicators has enclosed me,' because of this 'they have gripped my hands and my feet.' Humans remaining would not have done this.

But he says 'dogs' here to mean men having a dog-like manner. And he slanders the movements of the dog in many ways. They are entirely base toward filth. Thus, it has become customary to call the lawless and the women 'dogs' in this sense. Indeed, even the law also, suggesting this meaning, counted the dog along with the prostitute: 'You shall not substitute a dog for a change, nor a prostitute's hire' (Deuteronomy 23:18). He did not say a change of a donkey or a horse; for these changes were being brought into the house of the Lord.

And it is both shameless—'and the dogs are shameless to the soul'—and flattering. Therefore, men who have such movements are called dogs in judgment. These, then, surrounded the Savior. When they were sheep of God, they were at least outside the dog-like state. But when the people had become lost sheep, the loss did not turn them into non-existence, but into a dog-like, deficient, and scorpion-like state. And all this was said regarding the Hebrews: 'And all dogs are inward, knowing how to bark' (Psalm 22:16).

When the Israelites thought against the Savior, then they became dogs. And the being a 'company of fornicators' followed their becoming dogs; for when they were sheep, they were a divine flock. So they became dogs around me and a company of fornicators. Because of this they cast me to the cross; for the...