The Bondage of Sin and the Substitutions of Sacrifice

They seem to say this: 'We have been sown among the nations, we have been dispersed in many places.' But they seem to have suffered this in Babylon and Assyria alone. Therefore, what he says is this: the sowing of these seeds, such as wheat or barley, is first useful in a Gospel-like way if they are sown in the earth; for this earth receives them into its own substance through a change and transformation. For from the earth, having changed, many came from one grain; they changed from the earth into harvests. It is animated... gap... into the adjacent earth, and it notifies it and transforms it into its own nature.

And he says 'seeds' regarding those saying these things, the saints, saying: 'In you we shall be praised and in your name we shall confess for ever' (Ps 111:3, 9). Behold, those saying: 'With you we horn our enemies' and the others, let them say: 'You have sown us among the nations' by way of seeds, so that the nations, in a certain way, if we are sown among them in a foreign land, we might change into ourselves, and one of us might become an ear of corn bearing many grains, benefiting many souls. And those being benefited are said to be different: sometimes children of those benefiting, when those are named fathers, sometimes sheep, when those have the state and conduct of a shepherd. These therefore, as seeds having been cast down, took into themselves those being benefited from being placed before them. Having been placed, the seeds changed the earth. The nations therefore are the earth, but the seeds are those cast down for the benefit of others. Let this also be simpler: that the Assyrians have become in Babylon, though they are not many nations and all the nations are. And let this also be toward my history.

You sent away your people without honor (Ps 79:2). Without honor... gap... sent away; for having been led into captivity, we were not led there with honor, but having been led by the law of captivity; for nothing is more dishonorable than this. 'Without honor' therefore is 'you sent away your people'. gap... the people whom they wished to hold. And it is possible also to call that people, for whom... gap... among the others. And since 'you sent away your people without honor', that is, not having received honor, 'you sent away', gap... them; for they were given over to their own sins. And it is possible also that 'without honor'...

And for this reason we have endured these things, to come into captivity and to be scattered among the nations, so that you might gather to yourself. He has done to himself through sin and has made himself a debtor.

Furthermore, the thing by which the enemy, the king of souls, holds us, is called a handwriting. And a handwriting is something which someone has fastened with his own hands. Therefore 'he took it out from the middle,' so that it might no longer hold us by the handwriting with which we had fastened ourselves, having written ourselves down in it. And are they also being written down together with themselves? —that is, us being your people, you sent away without honor (Ps 79:9)—then we were honored—by the manner of the captivity; or they speak concerning the people, for whom they themselves went into captivity: 'You sent away your people without honor' (Ps 79:9). And for this reason we endure these things, because for the sake of their help you made the same things for them to draw from again, unpleasantly.

And there was not a multitude in our substitutions. Often, for the sake of certain things, safe and redeeming substitutions are given. For instance, it says: 'It is holy everything that opens a male womb.' And it says that, if it is a firstborn sheep or an ox or a goat, among those brought to the altar, it is necessary to perform the sacrifice itself. But if it is a firstborn donkey or something else of the priests, it is not even brought to the altar; 'you shall change a sheep in its place.' Through a sheep its value is changed and it enters into the temple. He says therefore that, since there were many, 'there was not a multitude in their substitutions.' There were not so many substitutions so that... in this way that, since God is the one giving the substitutions in their place, the substitutions are given being changed. And through a few, he is able to nourish many-peopled multitudes. And so that I may speak from history, there were many people, and if ten righteous men were found there (Ezek 14:14)—for until they... there being no multitude of substitutions, they were being changed. No one will say, therefore, to Babylon, but few in number as the...