John Chrysostom, Against the Jews

the disciples at what had happened, saying: Why was this not sold 48.885 for three hundred denarii, and given to the poor? Reproving them, therefore, he says something like this: Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work. For I say to you, wherever this Gospel is preached in all the earth, what this woman has done will also be told in memory of her. Therefore, did he lie, or did he speak the truth? Was the prophecy fulfilled, or did it fail? Ask the Jew; and though he be shameless ten thousand times, he will not be able to look this prophecy in the face. For in all the churches we hear the woman spoken of, and consuls, generals, men, women, the renowned, the distinguished, the illustrious in all cities stand listening; and wherever one may arrive in the inhabited world, all listen with complete silence to the woman’s good deed, and there is no part of the inhabited world that is ignorant of what was done. And yet how many kings have done many and great good things for cities, and have won wars, and have set up many trophies, and have saved nations, and have raised up cities, and have acquired countless revenues; but nevertheless they are passed over in silence along with their own accomplishments. And many queens, and great women, having bestowed countless benefits on their subjects, are not known to some even by name. But this humble woman, having only poured out oil, is sung of everywhere in the inhabited world, and so great a length of time has not extinguished her memory, nor ever will extinguish it; and yet the deed was not conspicuous; for what was it, to pour out oil? Nor was the person distinguished; for she was a cast-off woman; nor were the witnesses many; for she did it in the midst of the disciples; nor was the place well-known; for she did not come forward in a theater and do this, but in a house, with only ten men present. But nevertheless, neither the humbleness of the person, nor the fewness of the witnesses, nor the obscurity of the place, nor anything else had the strength to efface her memory; but the woman is now more illustrious than all queens and all kings, and no amount of time has consigned what was done to oblivion. From where? Tell me; by whose work was this? Was it not by the God who was then served, who spread this fame everywhere? Are these things, then, of human power, tell me, to foretell such things? And who having sense would say these things? For to foretell something that will be done by himself is wonderful and extraordinary; but to foretell also the things done by others, and to make them become credible and clear to all, is much greater and more wonderful. Again he foretold to Peter, On this rock I will build my Church; and the gates of hades will not prevail against it. What then, tell me, O Jew, can you take hold of in what has been said, and show this prophecy to be false? But the testimony of the facts will not endure it, even if you yourself should contend ten thousand times. How many wars, indeed, have been stirred up against the Church? And many armies were prepared, and weapons were moved, and every kind of punishment and torment was devised, and 48.886 frying pans, and catapults, and cauldrons, and furnaces, and pits, and precipices, and the teeth of wild beasts, and seas, and confiscations, and ten thousand other tortures not to be described in words nor endured in deed, and not only from those outside, but also from their own people. For a certain civil war then held all things, or rather, one more grievous than any civil war. For not only were citizens pitted against citizens, but also kinsmen against kinsmen, and households against households, and friends against friends; but nevertheless none of these things destroyed the Church, nor made it weaker; and the wonderful and extraordinary thing is that all these things were set in motion in the very beginnings. For if the terrible things had been brought on then, when it was rooted, and the preaching was planted everywhere in the inhabited world, it would not have been so wonderful that the Church was not turned aside; but that in the beginning of the teaching, when the faith had just been laid down, and the mind of the hearers was more tender, for so many wars to have broken out, and for our affairs not only not to have been diminished at all, but even to have increased

μαθηταὶ τῷ γενομένῳ, λέγοντες· ∆ιατί μὴ ἐπράθη τοῦτο 48.885 τριακοσίων δηναρίων, καὶ ἐδόθη πτωχοῖς; Ἐγκαλῶν τοίνυν αὐτοῖς, οὕτω πως φησί· Τί κόπους παρέχετε τῇ γυναικί; ἔργον γὰρ καλὸν ἐποίησε. Λέγω γὰρ ὑμῖν, ὅπου ἐὰν κηρυχθῇ τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον τοῦτο εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν, καὶ ὃ ἐποίησεν αὕτη λαληθήσεται εἰς μνημόσυνον αὐτῆς. Ἆρ' οὖν ἐψεύσατο, ἢ ἠλήθευσεν; ἔλαβε τέλος ἡ προφητεία, ἢ διέπεσεν; Ἐρώτησον τὸν Ἰουδαῖον· κἂν μυριάκις ἀναισχυντῇ πρὸς τὴν πρόῤῥησιν ταύτην ἀντιβλέψαι οὐχ ἕξει. Καὶ γὰρ ἐν ἐκκλησίαις ἁπάσαις ἀκούομεν τὴν γυναῖκα λαλουμένην, καὶ ἑστήκασιν ἀκούοντες ὕπατοι, στρατηγοὶ, ἄνδρες, γυναῖκες, περιφανεῖς, ἐπίσημοι, λαμπροὶ ἐν ἁπάσαις πόλεσιν· καὶ ὅπουπερ ἂν ἀφίκῃ τῆς οἰκουμένης, μετὰ πάσης ἡσυχίας πάντες ἀκούουσι τοῦ τῆς γυναικὸς κατορθώματος, καὶ οὐκ ἔστι μέρος τῆς οἰκουμένης, ὃ τὸ γενόμενον ἠγνόησεν. Καίτοι πόσοι βασιλεῖς πολλὰ καὶ μεγάλα εἰργάσαντο τὰς πόλεις ἀγαθὰ, καὶ πολέμους κατώρθωσαν, καὶ τρόπαια πολλὰ ἔστησαν, καὶ ἔθνη διέσωσαν, καὶ πόλεις ἀνέστησαν, καὶ προσόδους μυρίας προσεκτήσαντο· ἀλλ' ὅμως σεσίγηνται μετὰ τῶν οἰκείων κατορθωμάτων. Καὶ βασιλίδες πολλαὶ, καὶ μεγάλαι γυναῖκες, μυρία τοὺς ἀρχομένους εὐεργετήσασαι, οὐδὲ ἐξ ὀνόματός εἰσί τισι γνώριμαι. Ἡ δὲ εὐτελὴς αὕτη γυνὴ, ἔλαιον καταχέασα μόνον, πανταχοῦ τῆς οἰκουμένης ᾄδεται, καὶ χρόνου πλῆθος τοσοῦτον οὐκ ἔσβεσεν αὐτῆς τὴν μνήμην, οὐδὲ σβέσει ποτέ· καίτοι οὐδὲ τὸ ἔργον περιφανές· τί γὰρ ἦν, τὸ ἔλαιον καταχέειν; οὐδὲ τὸ πρόσωπον ἐπίσημον· γυνὴ γὰρ ἦν ἀπεῤῥιμμένη· οὐδὲ οἱ μάρτυρες πολλοί· μεταξὺ γὰρ τῶν μαθητῶν ἐποίησεν· οὐδὲ ὁ τόπος κατάδηλος· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐν θεάτρῳ παρελθοῦσα τοῦτο εἰργάσατο, ἀλλ' ἐν οἰκίᾳ, δέκα μόνον παρόντων ἀνθρώπων. Ἀλλ' ὅμως οὔτε ἡ εὐτέλεια τοῦ προσώπου, οὔτε ἡ ὀλιγότης τῶν μαρτύρων, οὔτε τὸ ἄσημον τοῦ τόπου, οὔτε ἄλλο οὐδὲν ἴσχυσεν αὐτῆς ἀφανίσαι τὴν μνήμην· ἀλλὰ βασιλίδων πασῶν, καὶ βασιλέων ἁπάντων λαμπροτέρα νῦν ἐστιν ἡ γυνὴ, καὶ χρόνος οὐδεὶς λήθῃ τὸ γενόμενον παρέδωκε. Πόθεν; εἰπέ μοι· τίνος τοῦτο ἐργασαμένου; οὐχὶ τοῦ θεραπευθέντος τότε Θεοῦ, πανταχοῦ τὴν φήμην ταύτην διασπείραντος; Ταῦτα οὖν ἀνθρωπίνης δυνάμεως, εἰπέ μοι, τὸ τοιαῦτα προαναφωνεῖν; καὶ τίς ἂν ταῦτα εἴποι νοῦν ἔχων; Τὸ μὲν γάρ τι τῶν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ γενομένων προλέγειν, θαυμαστὸν μὲν καὶ παράδοξον· τὸ δὲ καὶ τὰ παρ' ἑτέρων γινόμενα προλέγειν, καὶ ποιεῖν εὔπιστα γίνεσθαι καὶ πᾶσι κατάδηλα, πολλῷ μεῖζον καὶ θαυμαστότερον. Πάλιν προεῖπε τῷ Πέτρῳ, Ἐπὶ τὴν πέτραν ταύτην οἰκοδομήσω μου τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν· καὶ πύλαι ᾅδου οὐ κατισχύσουσιν αὐτῆς. Τί οὖν, εἰπέ μοι, ἔχεις ἐπιλαβέσθαι τῶν εἰρημένων, ὦ Ἰουδαῖε, καὶ δεῖξαι ψευδῆ ταύτην εἶναι τὴν προαναφώνησιν; Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀνέξεται τῶν πραγμάτων ἡ μαρτυρία, κἂν μυριάκις αὐτὸς φιλονεικῇς. Πόσοι γοῦν πόλεμοι κατὰ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας ἀνεῤῥιπίσθησαν; Καὶ στρατόπεδα πολλὰ παρεσκευάσθησαν, καὶ ὅπλα ἐκινήθη, καὶ πᾶν εἶδος κολάσεως, καὶ τιμωρίας ἐπενοήθη, καὶ 48.886 τήγανα, καὶ καταπέλται, καὶ λέβητες, καὶ κάμινοι, καὶ λάκκοι, καὶ κρημνοὶ, καὶ θηρίων ὀδόντες, καὶ πελάγη, καὶ δημεύσεις, καὶ ἕτερα μυρία βασανιστήρια οὐδὲ λόγῳ ῥητὰ, οὐδὲ ἔργῳ φορητὰ, καὶ οὐ παρὰ τῶν ἔξωθεν μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ παρὰ τῶν οἰκείων αὐτῶν. Καὶ γὰρ ἐμφύλιός τις τότε τὰ πάντα κατεῖχε πόλεμος, μᾶλλον δὲ ἐμφυλίου παντὸς χαλεπώτερος. Οὐ γὰρ πολῖται πολίταις μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ συγγενεῖς συγγενέσι, καὶ οἰκεῖοι οἰκείοις, καὶ φίλοι φίλοις συνεῤῥήγνυντο· ἀλλ' ὅμως οὐδὲν τούτων κατέλυσε τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν, οὐδὲ ἐποίησεν ἀσθενεστέραν· καὶ τὸ δὴ θαυμαστὸν καὶ παράδοξον, ὅτι ἐν τοῖς προοιμίοις ταῦτα πάντα ἐκινεῖτο. Εἰ μὲν γὰρ τότε ἐπήγετο τὰ δεινὰ, ὅτε ἐῤῥιζώθη, καὶ πανταχοῦ τῆς οἰκουμένης κατεφυτεύθη τὸ κήρυγμα, οὐχ οὕτω θαυμαστὸν ἦν τὸ μὴ παρατραπῆναι τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν· τὸ δὲ ἐν ἀρχῇ τῆς διδασκαλίας, ἄρτι τῆς πίστεως καταβληθείσης, καὶ τῆς διανοίας τῶν ἀκουόντων ἁπαλωτέρας οὔσης, τοσούτους συῤῥαγῆναι πολέμους, καὶ μὴ μόνον μηδὲν ἐλαττωθῆναι τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς πράγματα, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπιδοῦναι