John Chrysostom, On John

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He is the one. And he says: Let him go. Did you see his humility? He does not take him with him, nor command him to go about with him, so that he might not seem to some to be showing off; thus he knew how to be moderate. And when the sign was done, some marveled; but others went and reported to the Pharisees. What then did they do? When they ought to have been astonished and to have marveled, they plot to kill him, the one who raised a dead man. O the folly! He who had overcome death in the bodies of others, they thought to deliver over to death. And they say: What do we do, for this man does many signs? They still call him a man, they who had received such great proof of his divinity. What do we do? They ought to have believed and served, and worshiped, and no longer considered him a man. If we let him alone like this, the Romans will come, and take away both our nation and our city. What is it they are plotting to do? They wish henceforth to incite the people, as if they were in danger on suspicion of tyranny. For if, he says, the 59.359 Romans learn that he is leading a mob, they will suspect us, and will come, and destroy our city. For what reason? Tell me. Did he teach rebellion? Did he not permit giving tribute to Caesar? Did you not want to make him king, and he fled? Did he not display a humble and simple life, having neither a house, nor anything else of that kind? So they said these things, not expecting them, but out of envy. But it came to pass even though they did not expect it, and they took both the nation and the city, because they killed him. For what was happening was far from all suspicion. For one who heals the sick, and teaches the best life, and commands to obey rulers, was not establishing a tyranny, but destroying it. But we are guessing from former things, he says. But they taught rebellion; but he the opposite. Do you see that what was said was hypocrisy? For what such thing did he display? Did he lead about strutting bodyguards? Did he trail chariots? Did he not seek the desolate places? But so that they might not seem to speak from their own passion, they say the whole city is in danger, and the common good is being plotted against, and that their fear is for the utmost extremities. These things were not the causes of your captivity, but the opposite things, both of this one and of the one into Babylon, and of the one under Antiochus after these things; not that there were those among you who served, but that there were among you those doing injustice and provoking God, this is what made you be given over. But such is envy; it does not allow one to see any of the things one ought, once it has blinded the soul. Did he not teach to be gentle? When struck on the right cheek, to turn the other also? To bear being wronged? To show greater readiness to suffer evil, than others have to do evil? Are these things, then, tell me, of one establishing a tyranny, and not of one destroying a tyranny? d. But as I said, envy is a terrible thing and full of hypocrisy. This has filled the world with countless evils; from this disease the courts have been filled with those being judged; from this comes the love of glory and of money; from this, love of power and arrogance; from here the roads have foul robbers, and the sea pirates; from here the murders throughout the world, from here our race has been torn apart. Whatever evil you might see, you will find it comes from this; this has even burst into the Churches; this from the beginning has wrought countless terrible things; this gave birth to avarice; this disease has turned things upside down, and corrupted justice (For gifts, it says, blind the eyes of the wise, and as a muzzle in the mouth, turn away reproofs); this makes slaves instead of free men; about this we discourse every day, and nothing more is done. We become worse than wild beasts, we plunder orphans, we strip widows, we wrong the poor, we join woe upon woe. Woe is me! For the godly man has perished from the earth. And it is for us henceforth to mourn; or rather, this we must say every day. We accomplish nothing in prayers, nothing in counsels and 59.360 exhortations; therefore it remains to weep. This Christ also did; having exhorted those in Jerusalem with many things, since nothing

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ἐκεῖνός ἐστι. Καί φησιν· Ἄφετε αὐτὸν ὑπάγειν. Εἶδες τὸ ἀκόμπαστον; Οὐκ ἐπάγεται αὐτὸν, οὐδὲ κελεύει μετ' αὐτοῦ περιιέναι, ὥστε μὴ δόξαι τισὶν ἐπιδείκνυσθαι· οὕτως ᾔδει μετριάζειν. Γενομένου δὲ τοῦ σημείου, οἱ μὲν ἐθαύμαζον· οἱ δὲ προσελθόντες ἀπήγγελλον τοῖς Φαρισαίοις. Τί οὖν ἐκεῖνοι; ∆έον ἐκπλήττεσθαι καὶ θαυμάζειν, βουλεύονται αὐτὸν ἀνελεῖν, τὸν ἀναστήσαντα νεκρόν. Ὢ τῆς ἀνοίας! τὸν ἐν τοῖς ἄλλων σώμασι θανάτου περιγενόμενον, θανάτῳ παραδώσειν ἐνόμιζον. Καὶ λέγουσι· Τί ποιοῦμεν, ὅτι ὁ ἄνθρωπος οὗτος πολλὰ σημεῖα ποιεῖ; Ἄνθρωπον αὐτὸν ἔτι καλοῦσιν, οἱ τοσαύτην λαβόντες ἀπόδειξιν τῆς αὐτοῦ θεότητος. Τί ποιοῦμεν; Πιστεῦσαι ἔδει καὶ θεραπεῦσαι, καὶ προσκυνῆσαι, καὶ μηκέτι νομίζειν ἄνθρωπον. Ἐὰν ἀφῶμεν αὐτὸν οὕτως, ἔρχονται οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι, καὶ ἀροῦσιν ἡμῶν καὶ τὸ ἔθνος καὶ τὴν πόλιν. Τί ἐστιν ὃ βουλεύονται ποιεῖν; Τὸν λαὸν ἐπισεῖσαι βούλονται λοιπὸν, ὡς μέλλοντες κινδυνεύειν ἐπὶ ὑποψίᾳ τυραννίδος. Ἐὰν γὰρ ὀχλαγωγοῦντα, φησὶ, μάθωσιν αὐτὸν οἱ 59.359 Ῥωμαῖοι, ὑποπτεύσουσιν ἡμᾶς, καὶ ἐλεύσονται, καὶ καθελοῦσιν ἡμῶν τὴν πόλιν. Τίνος ἕνεκεν; εἰπέ μοι· μὴ γὰρ ἀποστασίαν ἐδίδασκεν; οὐκ ἐπέτρεψε φόρον δοῦναι Καίσαρι; οὐχὶ βασιλέα αὐτὸν ποιῆσαι ἠθελήσατε, καὶ ἔφυγεν; οὐχὶ τὸν εὐτελῆ καὶ ἀπέριττον ἐπεδείκνυτο βίον, μήτε οἰκίαν ἔχων, μήτε ἄλλο τῶν τοιούτων οὐδέν; Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἔλεγον, οὐ προσδοκῶντες, ἀλλὰ βασκαίνοντες. Ἐξέβη δὲ καὶ μὴ προσδοκώντων αὐτῶν, καὶ τὸ ἔθνος καὶ τὴν πόλιν ἔλαβον, ἐπειδὴ ἀνεῖλον αὐτόν. Καὶ γὰρ πόῤῥω πάσης ὑποψίας ἦν τὰ γινόμενα. Ὁ γὰρ ἰώμενος νοσοῦντας, καὶ ἄριστον διδάσκων βίον, καὶ ἄρχουσι πείθεσθαι ἐπιτάττων, οὐχὶ τυραννίδα συνίστη, ἀλλὰ κατέλυεν. Ἀλλ' ἀπὸ τῶν προτέρων στοχαζόμεθα, φησίν. Ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνοι ἀποστασίαν ἐδίδασκον· οὗτος δὲ τοὐναντίον. Ὁρᾷς ὅτι ὑπόκρισις ἦν τὰ λεγόμενα; Τί γὰρ ἐπεδείξατο τοιοῦτον; δορυφόρους σοβοῦντας ἐπήγετο; ὀχήματα ἐπεσύρετο; οὐχὶ τὰς ἐρημίας ἐδίωκεν; Ἀλλ' ἵνα μὴ δόξωσιν ἀπὸ πάθους τοῦ ἑαυτῶν λέγειν, τὴν πόλιν φασὶ κινδυνεύειν πᾶσαν, καὶ τὸ κοινὸν ἐπιβουλεύεσθαι, καὶ περὶ τῶν ἐσχάτων αὐτοῖς εἶναι τὸν φόβον. Οὐ ταῦτα τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας ὑμῖν αἴτια γέγονεν, ἀλλὰ τὰ ἐναντία, καὶ ταύτης καὶ τῆς εἰς Βαβυλῶνα, καὶ τῆς ἐπὶ Ἀντιόχου τῆς μετὰ ταῦτα· οὐ τὸ εἶναι παρ' ὑμῖν θεραπεύοντας, ἀλλὰ τὸ εἶναι ἐν ὑμῖν ἀδικοῦντας, καὶ τὸν Θεὸν παροργίζοντας, τοῦτο ὑμᾶς ἐκδότους ἐποίησεν. Ἀλλὰ τοιοῦτον ὁ φθόνος· οὐδὲν τῶν δεόντων ὁρᾷν ἀφιεὶς, ἅπαξ πηρώσας τὴν ψυχήν. Οὐχὶ πράους ἐδίδασκεν εἶναι; οὐχὶ ῥαπιζομένους τὴν δεξιὰν, στρέφειν καὶ τὴν ἑτέραν; οὐ φέρειν ἀδικουμένους; οὐ μείζονα ἐπιδείκνυσθαι προθυμίαν πρὸς τὸ κακῶς παθεῖν, ἢ ἕτεροι ἔχουσι πρὸς τὸ κακῶς ποιῆσαι; Ταῦτ' οὖν, εἰπέ μοι, τυραννίδα συνιστῶντος, ἀλλ' οὐ τυραννίδα καθαιροῦντος; δʹ. Ἀλλ' ὅπερ ἔφην, δεινὸν ἡ βασκανία καὶ ὑποκρίσεως γέμον. Τοῦτο τὴν οἰκουμένην μυρίων ἐνέπλησε κακῶν· ἀπὸ τοῦ νοσήματος τούτου τὰ δικαστήρια κρινομένων πεπλήρωται· ἀπὸ τούτου δόξης καὶ χρημάτων ἔρως· ἀπὸ τούτου φιλαρχία καὶ ὑπεροψία· ἐντεῦθεν ὁδοὶ λῃστὰς μιαροὺς, καὶ θάλαττα πειρατὰς ἔχει· ἐντεῦθεν οἱ κατὰ τὴν οἰκουμένην φόνοι, ἐντεῦθεν τὸ γένος ἡμῶν διέσπασται. Ὅπερ ἂν ἴδῃς κακὸν, ἀπὸ ταύτης ὂν ὄψει· τοῦτο καὶ εἰς τὰς Ἐκκλησίας εἰσεκώμασε· τοῦτο ἄνωθεν τὰ μυρία εἰργάσατο δεινά· τοῦτο τὴν φιλαργυρίαν ἔτεκεν· αὕτη ἡ νόσος τὰ ἄνω κάτω ἐποίησε, καὶ τὸ δίκαιον διέφθειρε (∆ῶρα γὰρ, φησὶν, ἐκτυφλοῖ ὀφθαλμοὺς σοφῶν, καὶ ὡς φῖμος στόματι, ἀποστρέφει ἐλέγχους)· τοῦτο δούλους ἀντ' ἐλευθέρων ποιεῖ· περὶ τούτου καθ' ἑκάστην διαλεγόμεθα τὴν ἡμέραν, καὶ πλέον οὐδὲν γίνεται. Θηρίων γινόμεθα χείρους, ὀρφανοὺς ἁρπάζομεν, χήρας γυμνοῦμεν, πένητας ἀδικοῦμεν, οὐαὶ ἐπὶ οὐαὶ συνάπτομεν. Οἴμοι! ὅτι ἀπόλωλε εὐλαβὴς ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς. Καὶ ἡμῶν ἐστι τὸ θρηνεῖν λοιπόν· μᾶλλον δὲ τοῦτο δεῖ καθ' ἑκάστην λέγειν τὴν ἡμέραν. Οὐδὲν ἐν εὐχαῖς ἀνύομεν, οὐδὲν ἐν συμβουλαῖς καὶ παραι 59.360 νέσεσι· λείπεται ἄρα τὸ δακρύειν. Τοῦτο καὶ ὁ Χριστὸς ἐποίησε· πολλὰ τοῖς ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις παραινέσας, ὡς οὐδὲν