The Desolation of Jerusalem
The spirit of a man being shaped within him is that about which the Apostle writes: 'Who knows the things of man, except the spirit of the man that is in him' (1 Cor 2:11), being something different from the rational soul, known as the 'hidden man of the heart'.'
The shaping of it is not like that of the body, but is that which the holy hymn-writer prays should exist in his heart, saying: 'Create in me a clean heart, O God' (Ps 51:10). And a clean heart is being shaped according to virtue and being stamped by another holiness, so that it may act and think strongly and harmoniously.
This opinion, which belonged to Judith, who struck down the tyrant Holofernes, the wisest elders, praising her, said to her: 'Good is the formation of your heart' (Judith 9:11). The formation and the shaping are homonymous with those of the body; for these indeed, in opposition to the being shaped, signify a material underlying substance, showing how the spirit is shaped through the forming of ideas and rational thoughts.
He who stretched out the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth, and shaped the spirit of man within him, threatens to lay waste and overthrow the city and land of the Jews because of the audacity of the atheists who struck at the Savior who had arrived—for indeed, with cross and blows He surrounded the one who gave His soul as a ransom, the one who bore the sin of the world—even though He had come for the salvation of all.
And what is it that is being pre-announced as a harsh thing against those who killed Christ? 'Behold, I set Jerusalem as a shaking threshold, and Judea around all the peoples' (Matt 22:45/allusion), He says, meaning that it no longer has any seat or security, having been abandoned by the one who founded and guards it, fulfilling the manner of the threat pre-announced in Isaiah: 'The daughter of Zion shall be left forsaken' (Isa 54:6), and in Jeremiah, regarding Him who, turning away from her because of her impious insolence, said: 'I have left my house' (Jer 12:7)...
“I have left my inheritance, I have given my beloved soul into the hands of its enemies.” (Ps 69:8). For before the leaving and the handing over, there existed house and inheritance and a beloved soul, concerning which these things are said by the speaker later because of the impiety against him: “Behold, your house is left to you desolate.” (Lk 19:44).
And not that the doors but the gate-posts shall be set; for the whole security is not struck from all, but the one according to the shadow and the letter, being an entrance of the outsiders of the law, what is said, “the requirements of the flesh lying ahead until the time of correction.”
And since the threatened hardships touched even the sensible Judah and its metropolis—for it was cast down so that no longer stone lay upon stone—the surrounding peoples of the foreign nations, not being permitted to enter to tread upon the holy ground, tread upon it, as if treading upon a bare and common stone by unwashed feet.
Jeremiah, having foreseen this gloomy thing with a long prophetic gaze, lamenting and wailing for the city falling into such wickedness, spoke mournfully: “How did the city, once filled with people, sit alone? Was the one filled with nations reckoned as a desert?” (Lam 4:1).
The Savior, approaching Jerusalem, said that these things would happen to her: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if you had known also the things toward peace; but now they have been hidden from your eyes; for your enemies, coming, will surround you, making a trench around you,” (Lk 19:44) as having been abandoned to be leveled to the ground, all the warring nations having come around you, as to see you desolate: “For when, he says, you see Jerusalem surrounded by encampments, you know that its desolation has approached.”
These things have risen to her as a trial by the murderers, when the Romans seized them and pulled down their cities and humiliated them, turning away by the law of captivity, rather being torn away from the...
Greek
πλαττόμενον πνεῦμα ἀνθρώπου ἐν αὐτῷ ἐκεῖνό ἐστιν περὶ οὗ Ἀπόστολος γράφει· «Τίς οἶδεν ἀνθρώπων τὰ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου εἰ μὴ τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τὸ ἐν αὐτῷ», ἕτερον ὂν παρὰ τὴν λογικὴν ψυχὴν «κρυπτὸν ἄνθρωπον τῆς καρδίας» καλούμενον. 4.183 Πλάσις δ' αὐτοῦ οὐχ οἵα ἡ τοῦ σώματός ἐστιν, ἀλλ' ἐκείνη ἣν ὑπαρχθῆναι τῇ καρδίᾳ ἑαυτοῦ εὔχεται ὁ ἅγιος ὑμνῳδὸς λέγων· «Καρδίαν καθαρὰν κτίσον ἐν ἐμοί, ὁ Θεός.» Πλάττεται δὲ καρδία καθαρὰ ἡ κατὰ ἀρετὴν καὶ τὴν ἄλλην ἁγιότητα τυπουμένη, ἵνα τρανῶς καὶ εὐρύθμως ἐνεργῇ τε καὶ νοῇ. 4.184 Ταύτης τῆς γνώμης τυγχανούσης τῆς κτεινάσης τὸν ὠμὸν τύραννον Ὀλοφέρνην ἀνδρειωτάτης Ἰουδίτ, οἱ σοφώτατοι πρεσβύτεροι ἐπαινοῦντες εἶπον πρὸς αὐτήν· «Ἀγαθὸν τὸ πλάσμα τῆς καρδίας σου.» Ὁμωνυμεῖ τὸ πλάσμα καὶ ἡ πλάσις τοῖς τοῦ σώματος· ταῦτα μὲν γὰρ ἀντέρεισιν πρὸς τὸ πλαττόμενον σημαίνει ὑλικὸν ὑποκείμενον ὑπάρχον, τῆς τοῦ πνεύματος πλάσεως διὰ τύπωσιν ἐννοιῶν καὶ λογικῶν φαντασιῶν παριστάσης. 4.185 Ὁ ἐκτείνας τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ θεμελιώσας τὴν γῆν καὶ πλάσας τὸ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου πνεῦμα ἐν αὐτῷ ἀπειλεῖ ἐρημῶσαι καὶ καθελεῖν τὴν Ἰουδαίων πόλιν καὶ χώραν διὰ τὰ τολμηθέντα κατὰ τοῦ ἐπιδημήσαντος Σωτῆρος ὑπὸ τῶν ἄθεα δεδρακότων, – σταυρῷ τε γὰρ καὶ μάστιξιν περιέβαλον τὸν δόντα τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ λύτρον, τὸν τὴν τοῦ κόσμου ἄραντα ἁμαρτίαν, –καίτοι ὑπὲρ σωτηρίας πάντων ἐληλυθότος. 4.186 Τί δ' ἐστὶν ἃ προαναφωνεῖ ἀνιαρὰ κατὰ τῶν χριστοκτονησάντων; «Ἰδοὺ τίθημι, φησίν, τὴν Ἰερουσαλὴμ ὡς πρόθυρα σαλευόμενα καὶ τὴν Ἰουδαίαν πᾶσι τοῖς λαοῖς κύκλῳ», ὡς μηδεμίαν ἔτι ἕδραν καὶ ἀσφάλειαν ἔχειν, ἐγκαταλειφθεῖσαν ὑπὸ τοῦ θεμελιώσαντος καὶ φρουροῦντος αὐτήν, πληρουμένου τοῦ ἀπειλῆς τρόπῳ προαναφωνηθέντος ἐν μὲν Ἠσαΐᾳ· «Ἐγκαταλειφθήσεται ἡ θυγάτηρ Σιών», ἐν δὲ Ἰερεμίᾳ πρὸς αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἀποστραφέντος αὐτὴν δι' ἐπιπολάσασαν ἀσέβειαν εἰπόντος· «Ἐγκατέλιπα τὸν οἶκόν μου, ἀφῆκα τὴν κληρονομίαν μου, ἔδωκα τὴν ἠγαπημένην 132 ψυχήν μου εἰς χεῖρας ἐχθρῶν αὐτῆς.» 4.187 Πρὸ γὰρ τῆς καταλείψεώς τε καὶ παραδόσεως, οἶκος καὶ κληρονομία καὶ ψυχὴ ἠγαπημένη ὑπῆρχεν ἡ περὶ ἧς λέγεται ταῦτα τοῦ εἰρηκότος ὕστερον διὰ τὴν εἰς αὐτὸν ἀσέβειαν· «Ἰδοὺ ἀφίεται ὑμῖν ὁ οἶκος ὑμῶν ἔρημος.» 4.188 Εὖ δὲ μὴ τὰς θύρας ἀλλὰ τὰ πρόπυλα τεθήσεσθαι· οὐ γὰρ ὅλη ἐξ ὅλων ἡ ἀσφάλεια κεκλόνηται, ἀλλ' ἡ κατὰ τὴν σκιὰν καὶ τὸ γράμμα, εἴσοδος οὖσα τῶν ἐξωτερικῶν τοῦ νόμου, ἃ εἴρηται «δικαιώματα σαρκὸς μέχρι καιροῦ διορθώσεως ἐπικείμενα». 4.189 Ἐπειδὴ δὲ τὰ ἀπειληθέντα ἀνιαρὰ ἥψατο καὶ τῆς αἰσθητῆς Ἰουδαίας καὶ μητροπόλεως αὐτῆς, –καθῃρέθη γὰρ ὡς μηκέτι λίθον λίθῳ ἐπικεῖσθαι, –οἱ πέριξ λαοὶ τῶν ἀλλογενῶν ἐθνῶν, οὐκ ἐπιτρεπόμενοι εἰσελθεῖν ἐπὶ τῷ τὸ ἱερὸν ἔδαφος πατῆσαι, καταπατοῦσιν αὐτήν, ὡς καταπατούμενον ψιλὸν καὶ κοινὸν λίθον ποσὶν ἀνίπτοις ἐπιβαίνοντες. 4.190 Τοῦτο τὸ σκυθρωπὸν μακρῷ βλέμματι προφητικῷ προθεασάμενος ὁ Ἰερεμίας, θρηνῶν καὶ ὀλοφυρόμενος τὴν τοσαύτῃ κακοπραγίᾳ ὑποπεσοῦσαν πόλιν, γοερῶς ἀνεφθέγξατο· «Πῶς ἐκάθισεν μόνη ἡ πόλις ἡ πεπληθυμμένη λαῶν, εἰς χήραν ἐλογίσθη ἡ πεπληθυμμένη ἐν ἔθνεσιν;» 4.191 Ταῦτα συμβήσεσθαι τῇ Ἰερουσαλήμ, ἐγγίσας αὐτῇ ὁ Σωτὴρ εἶπεν· «Ἰερουσαλήμ, Ἰερουσαλήμ, εἰ ἔγνως καὶ σὺ τὰ πρὸς εἰρήνην· νῦν δὲ ἐκρύβη ἀπὸ ὀφθαλμῶν σου· ἐπελευσόμενοι γὰρ ἐχθροί σου συνέξουσίν σε, χάρακά σοι περιβαλόντες», ὡς ἐγκαταλειφθεῖσαν εἰς τὴν γῆν ἐδαφισθῆναι, κύκλῳ σου γεναμένων πάντων τῶν πολεμίων ἐθνῶν, ὡς ἔρημόν σε ὀφθῆναι· «Ὅταν γάρ, φησίν, ἴδητε τὴν Ἰερουσαλὴμ κυκλουμένην ὑπὸ στρατοπέδων, γιγνώσκετε ὅτι ἤγγισεν ἡ ἐρήμωσις αὐτῆς.» 4.192 Ὑπῆρκται δὲ ταῦτα αὐτῇ πείρᾳ τοῖς κυριοκτόνοις, ὅτε Ῥωμαῖοι ἐκράτησαν αὐτῶν καὶ τὰς πόλεις αὐτῶν καθεῖλον καὶ αὐτοὺς ἐξηνδραπόδισαν, ἀποστραφέντας νόμῳ αἰχμαλωσίας, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀποσπασθέντας τῆς
About this text
Didymus the Blind on Zechariah.
Catalogue & scope
Khazarzar scan
Witnesses
- Copy-text PG (Khazarzar) (Greek)
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