The Hardening of the Senses
For these things weigh down and cause a sharp hearing. For the hymn-writer stretches himself out concerning certain things, saying: 'The sinners have been made strangers from the womb, they have been led astray from the stomach, they have spoken falsehoods. Like a deaf and ringing shield are the ears, which will not hear the voice of one singing, nor the medicine being prepared by a wise man.'
How is it that those who weigh down and ring the ears are not inattentive and deaf, those who have been made strangers from the womb of God, and having been led astray, have spoken falsehoods from the stomach? These things are said as children's things regarding those who have been made strangers from the womb of the Church which bore them, and having been led astray, spoke falsehoods at the same time as they came forth from its stomach, ringing the ears according to the shield; for it is an evil and venomous power.
Concerning such things the most wise John, the disciple loved by Jesus, says in which he inscribed in a holy epistle: 'They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us' (1 John 2:19). For they seemed to be from the apostles and disciples of Christ, and having taken the same gospel to themselves, and having been born 'through the bath of rebirth,' they became outside of the holy mother who bore them and of those born from her who remained in having 'the spirit of adoption.'
What, then, followed their apostasy, or the ringing and weighing down of the ears according to the shield of palm-leaves, which in no way hears those singing the holy words of God and preparing the medicine logically, capable of putting to sleep and hardening, so that, having been prepared, it might cast out the poisonous virus, as is the inheritance of the holy mountain of God, having come forth from the blessed and holy rod from the root of Jesse?
But more about these things has been said to us clearly, interpreting the territory of the prophet Isaiah, reaching to: 'And a child infant shall lay his hand upon a bed of shields, and they shall by no means do evil or defile anything upon the mountain...'
“...my holy, because the whole was filled to know the Lord.” 2.172 That the weighing down of the ears of the inner man is a matter of choice, as has been closely stated, is testified to by the prophecy of Isaiah, being proclaimed in such a way to those who attend to these things with a heavy heart: “For the heart of this people has become thick, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and their eyes they have dimmed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn, and I should heal them” (Isaiah 6:10). For, desiring to remain as they had chosen to have through malice and impiety, they weighed down the ears and their eyes were dimmed, the heart of them having become thick, so that, not having heard the words concerning virtue and the knowledge of the truth, they might not be improved and turn back to Him from whom they had turned away through their sunset and blindness.
2.173 Many symbols of such healings are carried forth in the Gospels, and sensorially of Jesus having healed these things; for he healed the deaf and the blind to hear sharply and to see keenly, healing “every disease and weakness” (Mark 7:34) of the body, and much more of the soul. 2.174 Just as in the saying of Isaiah, those having become thick in heart weighed down the ears so as not to hear, and the things brought down worked toward their own harm, so also in the present voice of Zechariah, those having set their heart to be disobedient so as not to hear the law and the words sent in the Spirit of the Lord of all, weighed down the ears of the intellect, so that, not receiving the saving and blessed teachings and the words sent in the Spirit of the Lord of all, which the Holy Spirit is, they might remain in error. 2.175 Let the heretics be rebuked, for they propose natures uneducated and altogether untrained, differing from men; for they dogmatize some as being unfit for virtue, and others as not being of a nature for the assumption of malice; following which they disregard not even the law, nor exhortation, nor reproof, nor—
Greek
γὰρ βαρύνεται ταῦτα καὶ ὀξυηκοΐαν ἔχει. Ἀποτείνεται γὰρ περί τινων ὁ ὑμνῳδὸς οὕτω λέγων· «Ἀπηλλοτριώθησαν οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἀπὸ μήτρας, ἐπλανήθησαν ἀπὸ γαστρός, ἐλάλησαν ψεύδη. Ὡσεὶ ἀσπίδος κωφῆς καὶ βυούσης τὰ ὦτα, ἥτις οὐκ ἀκούσεται φωνὴν ἐπᾴδοντος, φαρμάκου τε φαρμακευομένου παρὰ σοφοῦ.» 2.168 Πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἀνήκοοι καὶ κωφοὶ οἱ βαρύνοντες τὰ ὦτα καὶ βύοντες, οἱ ἀπὸ μήτρας ἠλλοτριωμένοι Θεοῦ, πλανηθέντες τε καὶ ψεύδη λαλήσαντες ἀπὸ γαστρός; Ῥηθείη δὲ ταῦτα κατὰ παίδευσιν ἠθικὴν περὶ τῶν ἀλλοτριωθέντων ἀπὸ μήτρας τῆς τεκούσης αὐτοὺς Ἐκκλησίας καὶ πλανηθέντων ψεύδη τε λαλησάντων ἅμα τῷ προελθεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς γαστρὸς αὐτῆς, βυσάντων κατὰ τὴν ἀσπίδα τὰ ὦτα· πονηρὰ δὲ καὶ ἰώδης δύναμίς ἐστιν. 2.169 Περὶ τῶν τοιούτων ὁ σοφώτατος Ἰωάννης, ὁ ἀγαπώμενος ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ μαθητής, ἐν ᾗ ἐχάραξεν ἁγίᾳ ἐπιστολῇ φησιν· «Ἐξ ἡμῶν ἐξῆλθον, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἦσαν ἐξ ἡμῶν· εἰ γὰρ ἦσαν ἐξ ἡμῶν, μεμενήκεισαν ἂν μεθ' ἡμῶν.» Ἐκ τῶν γὰρ ἀποστόλων καὶ Χριστοῦ μαθητῶν δοκοῦντες εἶναι, καὶ τὸ αὐτὸ εὐαγγέλιον προσηκάμενοι, καὶ «διὰ λουτροῦ παλιγγενεσίας» γεννηθέντες, ἔξω γέγοναν τῆς τεκούσης ἁγίας μητρὸς καὶ τῶν γεννηθέντων ἐξ αὐτῆς παραμεινάντων ἐν τῷ ἔχειν «τὸ τῆς υἱοθεσίας πνεῦμα». 2.170 Τί δ' ἠκολούθησεν τῇ ἀποστασίᾳ αὐτῶν, ἢ τὸ βύσαι τὰ ὦτα καὶ βαρῦναι αὐτὰ κατὰ τὴν παλαμναίαν ἀσπίδα, μηδαμῶς ἀκούουσαν τῶν ἐπᾳδόντων τοὺς ἱεροὺς τοῦ Θεοῦ λόγους καὶ φάρμακον σκευαζόντων λογικόν, δυνάμενον κατακοιμίσαι καὶ καρῶσαι, ἵνα τιθασσευθεῖσα ἀποβάλῃ τὸν δηλητήριον ἰόν, ὡς νέμεσθαι ἐπὶ τὸ ὄρος τὸ ἅγιον τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐξεληλυθυίας τῆς μακαρίας καὶ 58 ἁγίας ῥάβδου ἐκ τῆς τοῦ Ἰεσσαὶ ῥίζης. 2.171 Ἐπὶ πλεῖον δὲ περὶ τούτων εἴρηται ἡμῖν σαφῶς ἑρμηνεύουσιν τὴν τοῦ προφήτου Ἠσαΐου περιοχήν, φθάσασιν εἰς τό· «Καὶ παιδίον νήπιον ἐπιβαλεῖ τὴν χεῖρα ἐπὶ κοίτη̣ς ἀσπίδων καὶ οὐ μὴ κακοποιήσουσιν ἢ λυμανοῦνταί τινα ἐπὶ τὸ ὄρος τὸ ἅγιόν μου, ὅτι ἐνεπλήσθη ἡ σύμπασα τοῦ γνῶναι τὸν Κύριον.» 2.172 Ὅτι δὲ προαιρετικόν, ὡς ἔναγχος εἴρηται, τὸ βαρύνειν τοῦ ἔσω ἀνθρώπου τὰ ὦτα, μαρτυρεῖ ἡ τοῦ Ἠσαΐου προφητεία, οὕτως ἀπαγγελλομένη πρὸς τοὺς τοῦτο ἐπιτηδεύοντας κακεντρεχῶς· «Ἐπαχύνθη γάρ, φησίν, ἡ καρδία τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου, καὶ τοῖς ὠσὶν αὐτῶν βαρέως ἤκουσαν, καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτῶν ἐκάμμυσαν, μήποτε ἴδωσιν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς καὶ τοῖς ὠσὶν ἀκούσωσιν, καὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ συνῶσιν καὶ ἐπιστρέψωσιν, κἀγὼ ἰάσομαι αὐτούς.» Ἡδόμενοι γὰρ ἐμμένειν ᾗ εἵλαντο ἔχειν κακίᾳ καὶ ἀσεβείᾳ, ἐβάρυναν τὰ ὦτα καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐκάμμυσαν, παχυνθείσης τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν, ἵνα μὴ ἀκούσαντες τοὺς περὶ τῆς ἀρετῆς λόγους καὶ γνώσεως τῆς ἀληθείας, βελτιωθέντες ἐπιστραφῶσιν πρὸς τὸν οὗ ἀπέστησαν ἰώμενον τὴν δυσηκοΐαν καὶ ἀβλεψίαν αὐτῶν. 2.173 Σύμβολα πολλὰ τῶν τοιούτων θεραπειῶν ἐν τοῖς Εὐαγ2.173 γελίοις φέρεται, καὶ αἰσθητῶς τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ταῦτ' ἰασαμένου· κωφοὺς γὰρ καὶ τυφλοὺς εἰς τὸ ἀκούειν ὀξέως καὶ ὀξυωπεῖν ἤγαγεν, «πᾶσαν νόσον καὶ μαλακίαν» ἰώμενος τοῦ σώματος καὶ πολλῷ πλέον τῆς ψυχῆς. 2.174 Ὥσπερ ἐν τῇ τοῦ Ἠσαΐου λέξει, οἱ παχυνθέντες τῇ καρδίᾳ ἐβάρυναν τὰ ὦτα τοῦ μὴ εἰσακούειν, καὶ τὰ συγκαθειλιγμένα ἐνήργησαν πρὸς βλάβῃ τῇ ἑαυτῶν, οὕτω καὶ ἐν τῇ προκειμένῃ τοῦ Ζαχαρίου φωνῇ, οἱ τάξαντες τὴν καρδίαν αὐτῶν ἀπειθῆ τοῦ μὴ ἀκούειν τοῦ νόμου καὶ τῶν ἀποσταλέντων λόγων ἐν Πνεύματι Κυρίου παντοκράτορος, ἐβάρυνον τὰ ὦτα τῆς διανοίας, ἵνα μὴ καταδέχωνται τὰ σωτηριώδη καὶ μακαριοποιὰ μαθήματα καὶ τοὺς ἀποσταλέντας λόγους ἐν Πνεύματι Κυρίου παντοκράτορος, ὅπερ τὸ ἅγιον Πνεῦμα ὑπάρχει. 2.175 Ἐλεγχέσθωσαν οἱ αἱρετικοί, ἀμαθῶς καὶ ἄγαν ἀπαιδεύτως φύσεις εἰσηγούμενοι διαφόρους τῶν ἀνθρώπων· δογματίζουσιν γὰρ τοὺς μὲν ἀνεπιδέκτους ἀρετῆς, τοὺς δὲ πρὸς ἀνάλημψιν κακίας μὴ πεφυκότας· ᾧ ἕπεται μηδὲ νόμον ἀνύειν τι, μὴ νουθεσίαν, μὴ ἔλεγχον, μὴ
About this text
Didymus the Blind on Zechariah.
Catalogue & scope
Khazarzar scan
Witnesses
- Copy-text PG (Khazarzar) (Greek)
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