to them the sins, for which was the sacrifice, they both promised and seemed to accomplish, but a paralyzed man they were in no way strong enough to heal. Therefore it was easier for them to say, "Your sins are forgiven you," than "take up your bed and walk." Or it is also possible to speak and to explain otherwise, that each is of the same strength; for both are of divine and superhuman power; but since the one has the proof at hand, that is, the healing of the body, while the other has an unseen demonstration of the promise, it was reasonably said that the healing of the soul is easier than that of the body. And it is possible to speak in another way; that now the Jewish race did not accuse Christ for forgiving sins, but for saying "your sins are forgiven"; from which it is also necessary to place a comma after "easier," but not after "to say," so that what was said by the Lord is in a question of this sort: which is easier, to say, "your sins are forgiven." 37 Mt 9, 13 He said, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners," to show that "I came not to call you who justify yourselves, but those who confess they are sinners and obey my commands." 38 Mt 9, 14-17 The "no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth" is consequently to be understood as being said not concerning the disciples, but concerning those very ones who had brought the question, as if he were saying: you did not use the question soundly; for even if you were not able to imagine anything higher, yet you ought to have remembered the voice of your teacher proclaiming me the bridegroom, and not to demand fasting from those living with the bridegroom. But if you had your mind prepared by grace, I would have told you the most precise reason why these men do not need to fast, that those with whom God as man is continually present, associating with them and ordering their ways and sanctifying their minds, these have no need of fasting. And besides, the time has not yet called them to strip for the contests and prizes on my behalf; but when the master is taken from them and is not with them physically, and the time for the prizes arrives, then they will give themselves over to fasts and other hardships for the sake of the proclamation; and these things I would have said to you, if you were able to hear more perfect things, but I do not say these things, because you are still sitting under the shadows and the old laws and are not yet able to comprehend the newness of grace and the mystery of my presence. Therefore we do not for the time being put upon you the new and recent, unordered and unshrunk and unworked words; for we will not help, but rather what faith you have will be torn for you, and you will be harmed. And he mentions wineskins and wine, since just as wine in the wineskin, so also the things of grace were contained and hidden in the oldness of the law, having become drinkable for those who believed, but having burst for those who remained in the legalistic oldness. For he says, the Jews were saying, "How long will you keep us in suspense?" and other such things. Thus, if one were to take these things to have been said about those who asked; for it does not seem to me that the master condemns the weakness of the disciples toward fasting and is conscious of gluttony in them, who on account of great neglect even of necessary food were plucking heads of grain and then by the roadside were consoling the great want of nature; for even if they were still imperfect, with the all-holy Spirit not yet having been distributed to them in fiery tongues nor having been illumined in them by the master's inbreathing, yet it is clear that they were more perfect than the disciples of John and much more than the Pharisees. Thus if one were to take "no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth" and what follows as being about those who asked, but if about the disciples, I would not say that these things were said as if they were unable to fast, but that it was not fitting for the disciples, being disciples of the new grace, to perform the fasts of the disciples of John and of the Pharisees; for it is clear that these, when fasting, not according to the ordinance of the
αὐτοῖς τὰ ἁμαρτήματα, ὑπὲρ ὧν ἡ θυσία, ἐπηγγέλοντό τε καὶ ἐδόκουν καταπράττεσθαι, ἄνθρωπον δὲ παραλελυμένον οὐδενὶ τρόπῳ κατίσχυον ἐξιάσασθαι. διὸ εὐκοπώτερον ἦν αὐτοῖς λέγειν ἀφέωνταί σοι αἱ ἁμαρτίαι σου ἢ ἆρον τὸν κράββατόν σου καὶ περιπάτει. ἢ καὶ ἄλλως ἔστιν εἰπεῖν καὶ ἐπιλύσασθαι, ὡς ἑκάτερον μὲν τῆς αὐτῆς ἐστιν ἰσχύος· ἄμφω γὰρ τῆς θείας ἐστὶ καὶ ὑπὲρ ἀνθρώπους δυνάμεως· πλὴν ἐπειδὴ τὸ μὲν παρὰ πόδας ἔχει τὸν ἔλεγχον ἤτοι ἡ θεραπεία τοῦ σώματος, τὸ δὲ ἄδηλον ἔχει τῆς ἐπαγγελίας τὴν ἀπόδειξιν, εἰκότως εὐκοπώτερον ἐρρήθη ἡ τῆς ψυχῆς ἢ ἡ τοῦ σώματος ἴασις. ἔστιν δὲ καὶ ἑτέρως εἰπεῖν· ὅτι νῦν τὸ Ἰουδαίων φῦλον οὐκ ἐνεκάλεσε τῷ Χριστῷ ὡς ἀφιέντι ἁμαρτίας, ἀλλ' εἰπόντι ἀφέωνταί σου αἱ ἁμαρτίαι· ἔνθεν καὶ δεῖ ὑποστίζειν εἰς τὸ εὐκοπώτερον, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ εἰς τὸ εἰπεῖν, ἵν' ᾖ τὸ παρὰ τοῦ δεσπότου εἰρημένον ἐν ἐρωτήσει τοιοῦτον, ποῖον δέ ἐστιν εὐκοπώτερον, τὸ εἰπεῖν· ἀφέωνταί σου αἱ ἁμαρτίαι. 37 Mt 9, 13 Τὸ οὐκ ἦλθον καλέσαι δικαίους, ἀλλὰ ἁμαρτωλοὺς εἶπεν, ἵνα δείξῃ, ὅτι οὐκ ἦλθον καλέσαι ὑμᾶς τοὺς δικαιοῦντας ἑαυτούς, ἀλλὰ τοὺς ὁμολογοῦντας ἁμαρτωλοὺς εἶναι καὶ πειθομένους τοῖς ἐμοῖς προστάγμασιν. 38 Mt 9, 14 17 Τὸ οὐδεὶς ἐπιβάλλει ἐπίβλημα ῥάκους ἀγνάφου ἀκόλουθόν ἐστιν ἐννοεῖν οὐ περὶ τῶν μαθητῶν εἰρημένον, ἀλλὰ περὶ αὐτῶν ἐκείνων τῶν τὴν ἐρώτησιν προσαγηοχότων, ὡσανεὶ ἔλεγεν· οὐχ ὑγιῶς τῇ ἐρωτήσει ἐχρήσασθε· εἰ γὰρ καὶ μηδὲν ὑψηλότερον φαντασθῆναι ἐδυνήθητε, ἀλλ' οὖν ἐχρῆν ὑμᾶς τῆς τοῦ διδασκάλου ὑμῶν μεμνῆσθαι φωνῆς νυμφίον με κηρυττούσης καὶ μὴ ἀπαιτεῖν νηστείας τοὺς ἅμα τῷ νυμφίῳ διαιτωμένους. εἰ δὲ τὴν διάνοιαν κατηρτισμένην εἴχετε τῇ χάριτι, εἶπον ἂν ὑμῖν τὴν ἀκριβεστάτην αἰτίαν τοῦ μὴ δεῖσθαι τούτους νηστείας, ὅτι παρ' οἷς ὁ θεὸς ὡς ἄνθρωπος συνεχῶς ὑπάρχει συνὼν καὶ συναναστρεφόμενος καὶ ῥυθμίζων τὰ ἤθη καὶ ἁγιάζων τὰς διανοίας, οὗτοι νηστείας οὐ δέονται. ἄλλως τε δὲ οὐδὲ πρὸς τοὺς ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ ἀγῶνας καὶ τὰ ἆθλα οὐδέπω καλεῖ ὁ καιρὸς ἐναποδύεσθαι· ἐὰν δὲ ἀρθῇ ἀπ' αὐτῶν καὶ οὐκ ἔστι σὺν αὐτοῖς σωματικῶς ὁ δεσπότης, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ἄθλων ὁ καιρὸς ἐπιστῇ, τότε καὶ νηστείαις καὶ ταῖς ἄλλαις ταλαιπωρίαις ὑπὲρ τοῦ κηρύγματος ἑαυτοὺς ἐπιδώσουσιν· καὶ ταῦτα ἂν εἶπον ὑμῖν, εἰ τελειοτέρων ἀκούειν ἐδύνασθε, ἀλλ' οὐ λέγω ταῦτα, ὅτι ἔτι ταῖς σκιαῖς καὶ ταῖς παλαιαῖς νομοθεσίαις ὑποκάθησθε καὶ οὔπω δύνασθε συνιέναι τῆς χάριτος τὴν καινότητα καὶ τῆς ἐμῆς παρουσίας τὸ μυστήριον. διὸ οὐδὲ ἐπιβάλλομεν τέως ὑμῖν τοὺς νέους καὶ καινοὺς ἀνοικονομήτους καὶ ἀγνάφους καὶ ἀκατεργάστους λόγους· οὐ γὰρ ὠφελήσομεν, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ῥαγήσεται ὑμῖν καὶ τὰ προσόντα πιστὰ καὶ βλαβήσεσθε. ἀσκῶν δὲ καὶ οἴνου μέμνηται, ἐπειδήπερ ὥσπερ ὁ οἶνος τῷ ἀσκῷ, οὕτω καὶ τὰ τῆς χάριτος ἐν τῇ τοῦ νόμου παλαιότητι περιείχετο καὶ κατεκρύπτετο πότιμα μὲν γεγονότα τοῖς πιστεύσασι, διαρρήξαντα δὲ τοὺς ἐν τῇ νομικῇ παλαιότητι διαμείναντας. ἔλεγον γάρ φησιν, οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι ἕως πότε αἴρεις τὴν ψυχὴν ἡμῶν καὶ ἄλλα τοιαῦτα. οὕτως μὲν εἴ τις ἐκλάβοι περὶ τῶν ἐρωτησάντων ταῦτα εἰρῆσθαι· οὐ γάρ μοι δοκεῖ τῶν μαθητῶν ἀσθένειαν πρὸς νηστείαν καταγινώσκειν τὸν δεσπότην καὶ γαστριμαργίᾳ συνειδέναι ἐκείνων, οἵ γε διὰ πολλὴν ἀμέλειαν καὶ τῆς ἀναγκαίας τροφῆς στάχυας τίλλοντες καὶ τότε παρὰ τὴν ὁδὸν τὴν πολλὴν ἔνδειαν παρεμυθοῦντο τῆς φύσεως· εἰ γὰρ καὶ ἀτελεῖς ἐτύγχανον ἔτι οὔπω τοῦ πανα γίου πνεύματος αὐτοῖς ἐν πυρίναις γλώσσαις διανεμηθέντος οὐδὲ διὰ τῆς δεσποτικῆς ἐμπνεύσεως αὐτοῖς ἐναυγασθέντος, ἀλλ' οὖν τῶν μαθητῶν Ἰωάννου καὶ πολλῷ μᾶλλον τῶν Φαρισαίων δῆλον ὅτι τελειότεροι ἐχρημάτιζον. οὕτως μὲν εἰ περὶ τῶν ἐρωτησάντων τις ἐκλάβοι τὸ οὐδεὶς ἐπιβάλλει ἐπίβλημα ῥάκους ἀγνάφου καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς, εἰ δὲ περὶ τῶν μαθητῶν, οὐκ ἂν φαίην ὡς μὴ δυναμένων νηστεύειν αὐτῶν εἰρῆσθαι ταῦτα, ἀλλ' ὡς μὴ προσῆκον τοὺς μαθητὰς τῆς νέας χάριτος ὄντας μαθητὰς τὰς νηστείας τῶν μαθητῶν Ἰωάννου καὶ τῶν Φαρισαίων ἐπιτελεῖν· δῆλον γὰρ ὡς οὗτοι νηστεύοντες οὐ κατὰ τὸ θέσπισμα τῆς