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the schemes of the devil, and to say likewise with Paul: "Who shall separate us from the love of God? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine?" and things similar to these. TO THE END, FOR THOSE WHO WILL BE CHANGED, FOR DAVID. 68. "Save me, O God, for the waters have come in even to my soul." There are four inscribed "For those who will be changed:" two of David, the one at hand and the 59th; one of the sons of Kore, the 44th, and likewise of Asaph the 79th. For all of them, instead of "For those who will be changed," Aquila has rendered, "Upon lilies," and Symmachus, "For the flowers." The 44th, then, contained the prophecy concerning the Beloved, and the change of the Church from the gentiles from worse things to better; the fifty-ninth, the rejection of the Jewish nation and the change of the foreign nations to the most excellent things; and the 79th again signifies the fall of the Jewish nation, and the incarnation of our Savior. Fittingly, then, the one at hand also is inscribed, "For those who will be changed," or, "For the flowers," according to Symmachus, or, "Upon lilies," according to Aquila; since it itself also contains the change for the worse of the people of the circumcision, whom, having appeared as lilies and flowers for a time, a change for the worse succeeded. And Isaiah also compares them 23.724 to flowers, saying: "All flesh is grass, and all its glory as the flower of grass; the grass withers, and the flower falls away;" through which he likens that which for a short time blossomed and appeared beautiful of the physical worship of the Jews to grass and flowers. And through the preceding things, therefore, the discourse, proceeding, presents the alteration and the change for the worse of their bloom in what it says: "Let their table before them become a snare and a recompense and a stumbling block. Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see," and what follows. And since indeed a long time later these things were to come to pass through deeds, "To the end" is necessarily pre-inscribed. It is neither a psalm, nor a song, nor a hymn, nor anything of the sort; since the things that are said were not at all suitable for such an inscription. Therefore you might call it a prophecy from the person of our Savior relating the things that happened to him, and a proclamation of the things that came upon the Jews after the things that had been dared by them. Beginning, then, the Savior sends up a prayer to the Father, saying: "Save me, O God, for the waters have come in even to my soul." And it seems to me that these things are logically connected to the things in the previously mentioned psalm. For in that one it was said: "The Lord said: 'From Bashan I will return, I will return from the depths of the sea';" but in this one, "I have come into the depths of the sea, and a tempest has overwhelmed me." For it was necessary for us to be taught how the Lord descended into Bashan, which is shame, and how he said, "I will return from the depths of the sea." For this very reason, he presents these same things through the preceding words; concerning shame, proceeding and saying: "Because for your sake I have borne reproach, disgrace has covered my face;" and again: "You know my reproach and my shame and my disgrace;" and concerning the depth of the sea, the words, "Save me, O God, for the waters have come in even to my soul. I am stuck in the mire of the deep, and there is no place to stand. I have come into the depths of the sea, and a tempest has overwhelmed me." For these things would have the greatest consistency with what was said in the psalm before this; in the words, "The Lord said: 'From Bashan I will return, I will return from the depths of the sea.'" Since in that one it was the Lord himself who said these things; then also now one must consider it to be the same one who relates the present text. He himself, therefore, whom we have shown through the foregoing to be none other than the Word of God, sends up a prayer to the Father, making his own the things concerning which he assumed
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μεθοδείας τοῦ διαβόλου, καὶ λέγειν ὁμοίως Παύλῳ· «Τίς ἡμᾶς χωρίσει ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Θεοῦ; θλίψις ἢ στενοχωρία, ἢ διωγμὸς, ἢ λιμός;» καὶ τὰ τούτοις παραπλήσια. ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΤΕΛΟΣ, ΥΠΕΡ ΤΩΝ ΑΛΛΟΙΩΘΗΣΟΜΕΝΩΝ, ΤΩ ∆ΑΥΙ∆. ΞΗʹ. «Σῶσόν με, ὁ Θεὸς, ὅτι εἰσήλθοσαν ὕδατα ἕως ψυχῆς μου.» Τέτταρές εἰσιν οἱ ἐπιγεγραμμένοι «Ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀλλοιωθησομένων·» δύο μὲν τοῦ ∆αυῒδ, ὁ μετὰ χεῖρας καὶ ὁ νθʹ· τῶν δὲ υἱῶν Κορὲ εἷς, ὁ μδʹ, καὶ τοῦ Ἀσὰφ ὁμοίως ὁ οθʹ. Ἐπὶ πάντων δὲ ἀντὶ τοῦ, «Ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀλλοιωθησομένων,» ὁ μὲν Ἀκύλας, «Ἐπὶ κρίνων,» ἐκδέδωκεν· ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος, «Ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀνθῶν.» Ὁ μὲν οὖν μδʹ τὴν περὶ τοῦ Ἀγαπητοῦ προφητείαν περιεῖχε, τῆς τε ἐξ ἐθνῶν Ἐκκλησίας τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν χειρόνων ἐπὶ τὰ κρείττω ἀλλοίωσιν· ὁ δὲ πεντηκοστὸς ἔνατος ἀποβολὴν τοῦ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους καὶ τῶν ἀλλοφύλων ἐθνῶν τὴν ἐπὶ τὰ κάλλιστα μεταβολήν· ὁ δὲ οθʹ αὖθις τὴν τοῦ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους ἀπόπτωσιν, καὶ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν τὴν ἐνανθρώπησιν σημαίνει. Εἰκότως οὖν καὶ ὁ μετὰ χεῖρας, «Ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀλλοιωθησομένων,» ἢ, «Ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀνθῶν,» κατὰ τὸν Σύμμαχον, ἢ, «Ἐπὶ κρίνων,» κατὰ τὸν Ἀκύλαν, ἐπιγέγραπται· ἐπειδὴ τὴν ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον ἀλλοίωσιν τοῦ ἐκ περιτομῆς λαοῦ καὶ αὐτὸς περιέχει, οὓς, κρίνα καὶ ἄνθη κατὰ καιρὸν ὀφθέντας, ἡ ἐπὶ τὰ χείρω διεδέξατο μεταβολή. Ἄνθεσι δὲ αὐ 23.724 τοὺς παραβάλλει καὶ ὁ Ἡσαΐας λέγων· «Πᾶσα σὰρξ χόρτος, καὶ πᾶσα δόξα αὐτῆς ὡς ἄνθος χόρτου· ἐξηράνθη ὁ χόρτος, καὶ τὸ ἄνθος ἐξέπεσε·» δι' ὧν τὸ πρὸς βραχύν τινα χρόνον ἀνθῆσαν καὶ ὡραῖον ὀφθὲν τῆς σωματικῆς Ἰουδαίων θρησκείας χόρτῳ καὶ ἄνθεσιν ἀπεικάζει. Καὶ διὰ τῶν προκειμένων τοίνυν τὴν ἀλλοίωσιν καὶ τὴν ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον μεταβολὴν τῆς ἄνθης αὐτῶν παρίστησι προϊὼν ὁ λόγος ἐν οἷς φησι· «Γενηθήτω ἡ τράπεζα αὐτῶν ἐνώπιον αὐτῶν εἰς παγίδα καὶ εἰς ἀνταπόδοσιν καὶ εἰς σκάνδαλον. Σκοτισθήτωσαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ αὐτῶν τοῦ μὴ βλέπειν,» καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. Καὶ ἐπειδήπερ μακροῖς ὕστερον χρόνοις ταῦτα δι' ἔργων χωρεῖν ἔμελλον, ἀναγκαίως «Εἰς τὸ τέλος» προγέγραπται. Οὔτε δὲ ψαλμός ἐστιν, οὔτε ᾠδὴ, οὔτε ὕμνος, οὔτε τι τοιοῦτον· ἐπεὶ μηδὲ κατάλληλα ἦν τὰ ἐπιλεγόμενα τοιαύτῃ προγραφῇ. ∆ιὸ εἴποις ἂν προφητείαν ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν διεξιόντος τὰ περὶ αὐτὸν συμβεβηκότα, προαναφώνησίν τε τῶν Ἰουδαίοις ἐπελθόντων μετὰ τὰ κατ' αὐτοὺς τετολμημένα. Ἀρχόμενος δ' οὖν ὁ Σωτὴρ, εὐχὴν ἀναπέμπει πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα λέγων· «Σῶσόν με, ὁ Θεὸς, ὅτι εἰσήλθοσαν ὕδατα ἕως ψυχῆς μου.» Καί μοι δοκεῖ κατὰ λόγον ταῦτα τοῖς ἐν τῷ προλεχθέντι συνῆφθαι ψαλμῷ. Ἐν ἐκείνῳ μὲν γὰρ ἐλέγετο· «Εἶπε Κύριος· Ἐκ Βασὰν ἐπιστρέψω, ἐπιστρέψω ἐκ βυθῶν θαλάσσης·» ἐν τούτῳ δὲ, «Ἦλθον εἰς τὰ βάθη τῆς θαλάσσης, καὶ καταιγὶς κατεπόντισέ με.» Ἔδει γὰρ ἡμᾶς διδαχθῆναι πῶς εἰς τὴν Βασὰν κατῆλθεν ὁ Κύριος, ὅπερ ἐστὶν αἰσχύνη, καὶ πῶς ἔλεγεν, «Ἐπιστρέψω ἐκ βυθῶν θαλάσσης.» ∆ιὸ δὴ ταῦτα αὐτὰ διὰ τῶν προκειμένων παρίστησι· περὶ μὲν τῆς αἰσχύνης προϊὼν καὶ λέγων· «Ὅτι ἕνεκα σοῦ ὑπήνεγκα ὀνειδισμὸν, ἐκάλυψεν ἐντροπὴ τὸ πρόσωπόν μου·» καὶ αὖθις· «Σὺ γινώσκεις τὸν ὀνειδισμόν μου καὶ τὴν αἰσχύνην μου καὶ τὴν ἐντροπήν μου·» περὶ δὲ τοῦ βυθοῦ τῆς θαλάσσης τὸ, «Σῶσόν με, ὁ Θεὸς, ὅτι εἰσήλθοσαν ὕδατα ἕως ψυχῆς μου. Ἐνεπάγην εἰς ὕλην βυθοῦ, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ὑπόστασις. Ἦλθον εἰς τὰ βάθη τῆς θαλάσσης, καὶ καταιγὶς κατεπόντισέ με.» Ταῦτα γὰρ πλείστην ἔχοι ἂν ἀκολουθίαν πρὸς τὰ ἐν τῷ πρὸ τούτου ψαλμῷ λελεγμένα· ἐν τῷ, «Εἶπεν ὁ Κύριος· Ἐκ Βασὰν ἐπιστρέψω, ἐπιστρέψω ἐκ βυθῶν θαλάσσης.» Ἐπειδὴ ἐν ἐκείνῳ αὐτὸς ἦν ὁ Κύριος ὁ ταῦτα λέγων· ἔπειτα καὶ νῦν τὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι ἡγεῖσθαι τὸν τὰ προκείμενα διεξιόντα. Αὐτὸς τοιγαροῦν, ὃν οὐδ' ἕτερον εἶναι ἢ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγον διὰ τῶν ἔμπροσθεν παρεστήσαμεν, εὐχὴν ἀναπέμπει τῷ Πατρὶ, ἰδιοποιούμενος τὰ καθ' οὗ ἀνείληφεν