John Chrysostom, On Repentance

swift, through much goodness slow; and the proof of the words is the experience of the deeds. In six days God made the heaven and the earth, the heights of the mountains, the plains, the ravines, the glens, the forests, the plants, springs, rivers, paradise, all the visible diversity, this great and spacious sea, the islands, the coastal lands, and the inland regions; all this visible world, and the beauty in it, God made in six days; the living things in it, the rational and the irrational, and all the visible arrangement He makes in six days. This one, therefore, who is swift to create, when He planned to destroy one city, was found to be slow on account of goodness. He wants to destroy Jericho, and says to Israel: Circle it for seven days; and on the seventh day the wall will fall. You construct the whole world in six days, and you destroy one city in seven days? For what hinders your power? For why do you not destroy it at once? Does not the prophet cry out concerning you, saying: If you open the heaven, trembling from you will seize the mountains, and they will melt like wax before a fire? Does not David, recounting the works of your power, say: We will not be afraid when the earth is troubled, and mountains are moved into the hearts of the seas? You can move mountains, and cast them into the sea, and you do not wish to destroy one resisting city, but give seven days for its destruction? Why? "It is not that power," He says, "is weak, but that love for mankind is long-suffering." I give seven days, as to Nineveh three days; perhaps it will receive the proclamation of repentance, and will be saved. And who is the one preaching repentance to them? Enemies have surrounded the city; the general circled the walls; great is the fear, great the clamor; what path of repentance, then, have you opened for them? For did you not send a prophet? Did you not send an evangelist, was there not someone suggesting to them what was expedient? "Yes," He says, "they had within a teacher of repentance, that wonderful Rahab, whom I saved through repentance." She was of the same dough; but since she was not of the same mind, she who did not share in unbelief did not share in sin. 5. And behold for me the strange proclamation of love for mankind; He who says in the law: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit fornication, changing 49.330 the word through love for mankind, cries out through the blessed Jesus: Let Rahab the harlot live. That Jesus, the son of Nun, who says, "Let the harlot live," was a type of the Lord Jesus who says: Harlots and tax collectors will go before you into the kingdom of heaven. If she is to live, why a harlot? If a harlot, why let her live? "I speak," he says, "of her former state, so that you may marvel at her latter change." And what did Rahab do, he says, to bring about her salvation? That she received the spies with peace? This an innkeeper also does. But she does not reap salvation from the saying alone, but primarily from faith, and her disposition toward God. And that you may learn the excellence of the faith in her, hear the Scripture itself recounting the achievements attested to her. She was in a brothel, like a pearl mixed in mud, gold scattered in clay, a flower of piety buried in thorns, a pious soul shut up in a place of impiety. And pay close attention to my thought. She received the spies, and the one whom Israel betrayed in the wilderness, him Rahab proclaimed in the brothel. What do I mean, Israel in the wilderness? When the mountain was filled with cloud, and darkness, and trumpets, and lightning, and the other terrors, he heard from God out of the midst of the fire: Hear, Israel: The Lord your God, the Lord is one; you shall have no other gods; I am in heaven above, and on the earth below, and besides me there is no God; hearing these things, Israel cast a calf, and rejected God; he was ignorant

ταχὺς, διὰ πολλὴν ἀγαθότητα βραδύς· ἔλεγχος δὲ τῶν ῥημάτων, ἡ πεῖρα τῶν πραγμάτων. Ἐν ἓξ ἡμέραις ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν, τὰ μεγέθη τῶν ὀρέων, τὰς πεδιάδας, τὰς φάραγγας, τὰς νάπας, τὰς ὕλας, τὰ βλαστήματα, πηγὰς, ποταμοὺς, παράδεισον, πᾶσαν τὴν ὁρωμένην ποικιλίαν, τὴν θάλατταν ταύτην τὴν μεγάλην καὶ εὐρύχωρον, τὰς νήσους, τὰς παραλίους χώρας, καὶ τὰς μεσογείους· πάντα τὸν ὁρώμενον τοῦτον κόσμον, καὶ τὸ ἐν αὐτῷ κάλλος, ἐν ἓξ ἡμέραις ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεός· τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ ζῶα τὰ λογικὰ, καὶ τὰ ἄλογα, καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν ὁρωμένην διακόσμησιν ἐν ἓξ ἡμέραις ποιεῖ. Οὗτος οὖν ὁ ταχὺς εἰς τὸ κτίζειν, ὅτε ἐβουλεύσατο μίαν πόλιν καθελεῖν, εὑρέθη βραδὺς δι' ἀγαθότητα. Θέλει καθελεῖν τὴν Ἱεριχὼ, καί φησι πρὸς τὸν Ἰσραήλ· Κυκλώσατε αὐτὴν ἐπὶ ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας· καὶ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ ἡμέρᾳ πεσεῖται τὸ τεῖχος. Τὸν κόσμον ὅλον ἐν ἓξ ἡμέραις κατασκευάζεις, καὶ μίαν πόλιν ἐν ἑπτὰ ἡμέραις λύεις; τί γὰρ ἐμποδίζει σου τῇ δυναστείᾳ; διὰ τί γὰρ μὴ ἀθρόον καθαιρεῖς; οὐ περὶ σοῦ ὁ προφήτης βοᾷ λέγων· Ἐὰν ἀνοίξῃς τὸν οὐρανὸν, τρόμος λήψεται ἀπὸ σοῦ ὄρη, καὶ τακήσονται ὡς κηρὸς ἀπὸ προσώπου πυρός; οὐ τὰ ἔργα τῆς δυνάμεώς σου διηγούμενος, φησὶν ὁ ∆αυῒδ, Οὐ φοβηθησόμεθα ἐν τῷ ταράσσεσθαι τὴν γῆν, καὶ μετατίθεσθαι ὄρη ἐν καρδίαις θαλασσῶν; Ὄρη δύνῃ μεθιστᾷν, καὶ εἰς θάλασσαν ἐμβάλλειν, καὶ μίαν πόλιν οὐ θέλεις καθελεῖν ἀντιλέγουσαν, ἀλλ' ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας δίδως τῇ καθαιρέσει; διὰ τί; Οὐχ ἡ δύναμις, φησὶν, ἀτονεῖ, ἀλλ' ἡ φιλανθρωπία μακροθυμεῖ. ∆ίδωμι ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας, ὡς τῇ Νινευῒ τρεῖς ἡμέρας· ἴσως δέξεται κήρυγμα μετανοίας, καὶ σωθήσεται. Καὶ τίς ὁ κηρύττων αὐτοῖς τὴν μετάνοιαν; Πολέμιοι τὴν πόλιν περιετειχίσαντο· ὁ στρατηγὸς ἐκύκλου τὰ τείχη· πολὺς ὁ φόβος, πολὺς ὁ θόρυβος· ποίαν οὖν αὐτοῖς ὁδὸν τῆς μετανοίας ἀνέῳξας; μὴ γὰρ προφήτην ἀπέστειλας; μὴ γὰρ εὐαγγελιστὴν διεπέμψω, μὴ γὰρ ἦν τις αὐτοῖς ὑποτιθέμενος τὸ συμφέρον; Ναὶ, φησὶν, εἶχον ἔνδον διδάσκαλον τῆς μετανοίας τὴν θαυμαστὴν ἐκείνην Ῥαὰβ, ἣν ἔσωσα διὰ μετανοίας. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἦν φυράματος· ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ ἐξ αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἦν τοῦ φρονήματος, οὐκ ἐκοινώνησε τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ ἡ μὴ κοινωνήσασα τῇ ἀπιστίᾳ. εʹ. Καὶ ὅρα μοι τὸ ξένον τῆς φιλανθρωπίας κήρυγμα· ὁ λέγων ἐν τῷ νόμῳ· Οὐ μοιχεύσεις, οὐ πορνεύσεις, με49.330 ταβαλὼν τὸ ῥῆμα διὰ φιλανθρωπίαν, βοᾷ διὰ τοῦ μακαρίου Ἰησοῦ· Ῥαὰβ ἡ πόρνη ζήτω. Ἰησοῦς ἐκεῖνος ὁ Ναυῆ υἱὸς ὁ λέγων, Ἡ πόρνη ζήτω, εἰκὼν ἦν τοῦ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ τοῦ λέγοντος· Πόρναι καὶ τελῶναι προάξουσιν ὑμᾶς εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν. Εἰ ζῇν ὀφείλει, διὰ τί πόρνη; εἰ πόρνη, διὰ τί ζήτω; Λέγω, φησὶ, τὴν προτέραν κατάστασιν, ἵνα θαυμάσῃς τὴν δευτέραν μετάστασιν. Καὶ τί ἐποίησε, φησὶν, ἡ Ῥαὰβ σωτηρίας πρόξενον; ὅτι ἐδέξατο τοὺς κατασκόπους μετὰ εἰρήνης; Τοῦτο καὶ πανδοχεύτρια ποιεῖ. Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀπὸ τῆς λέξεως μόνης καρποῦται τὴν σωτηρίαν, ἀλλὰ προηγουμένως ἀπὸ τῆς πίστεως, καὶ τῆς πρὸς Θεὸν διαθέσεως. Καὶ ἵνα μάθῃς τὴν ὑπερβολὴν τῆς ἐν αὐτῇ πίστεως, ἄκουε αὐτῆς τῆς Γραφῆς διηγουμένης τὰ μεμαρτυρημένα αὐτῇ κατορθώματα. Ἦν ἐν πορνείῳ, ὥσπερ μαργαρίτης ἐν βορβόρῳ συμπεφυρμένος, χρυσὸς ἐν πηλῷ διεῤῥιμμένος, ἄνθος εὐσεβείας ἀκάνθαις κεχωσμένον, εὐσεβὴς ψυχὴ ἐν ἀσεβείας χώρῳ κατεκέκλειστο. Καί μοι πρόσεχε τὸν νοῦν ἀκριβῶς. Ἐδέξατο τοὺς κατασκόπους, καὶ ὃν προέδωκεν Ἰσραὴλ ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, τοῦτον ἐκήρυξεν ἡ Ῥαὰβ ἐν τῷ πορνείῳ. Οἷον τί λέγω, ὁ Ἰσραὴλ ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ; Ὅτε τὸ ὄρος ἐπεπλήρωτο νεφέλης, καὶ γνόφου, καὶ σαλπίγγων, καὶ ἀστραπῶν, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων φοβήτρων, ἤκουσε παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐκ μέσου τοῦ πυρός· Ἄκουε Ἰσραήλ· Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου, Κύριος εἷς ἐστιν· οὐκ ἔσονταί σοι θεοὶ ἕτεροι· ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ ἄνω, καὶ ἐν τῇ γῇ κάτω, καὶ πλὴν ἐμοῦ Θεὸς οὐκ ἔστι· ταῦτα ἀκούων ὁ Ἰσραὴλ, μόσχον ἐχώνευσε, καὶ Θεὸν ἠθέτησεν· ἠγνόησε