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of memory, on account of being cast off from your hand. For instead of, “Whom you no longer remembered, and they were cast off from your hand,” Aquila has rendered, “Whom you no longer remembered them, and they were cut off from your hand”; and Symmachus says, “Whom you will no longer remember, who were cut off by your hand.” They have placed me in the lowest pit, in darkness, and in the shadow of death. Instead of, “They have placed me,” Aquila has rendered, “You have placed me,” and Symmachus, “You have appointed me.” Through which he shows that by the nod and will of the Father, he has descended not simply into death, nor into Hades and the so-called pit, but also into the deepest and lowest and uttermost, as one might say, of the regions there. He himself also shows this in the Gospels, saying: The Son of Man must be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. And instead of, “in darkness, and in the shadow of death,” Aquila says, “in darkness, and in the depths”; and Symmachus, “covered in darkness”; and the fifth edition, “in darkness, in submerged places.” This I have 23.1060 necessarily observed, so that no one might suppose he was not in death, because it is said by the Seventy, “in darkness and in the shadow of death.” For it has been shown that he was in the darkened places and depths and submerged regions of death itself; wherefore neither the Hebrew, nor the other interpreters, translated it “shadow of death.” For Scripture is often accustomed to call the present life and this existing life, a shadow of death. But here the Savior, being in death itself, describes his whole economy. Your wrath has been established upon me, and you have brought all your billows upon me. Diapsalma. You have removed my acquaintances far from me; they have made me an abomination to themselves. I was delivered up, and I did not go forth. Since Christ died for us, according to the Apostle, having become a curse for us; wherefore it is written: Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, and since God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, according to the same, he rightly utters the preceding words, having drawn to himself the wrath of God that lay upon us who were formerly impious and sinners, and his anger against us, and having undertaken the punishment and chastisement for us through exceeding love for mankind; since indeed he became the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Wherefore the prophet says concerning him: He bears our sins, and suffers pain for us; by his stripes we were healed, and the Lord delivered him up for our sins. This, therefore, he himself also shows through the psalm, saying: Your wrath has been established upon me, and you have brought all your billows upon me. Instead of which Symmachus says, Your wrath raged against me, and you afflicted me with storms. For like some affectionate father in a time of storm or war, shielding his legitimate sons, covered them by hiding and sheltering them in his own arms; but he gave himself up instead of all to the storms and the arrows, exchanging his own death for the salvation of his children, and turning the wrath against them toward himself. Wherefore he became a curse, being himself the blessing of God; and he became sin, being righteousness, and having drawn to himself the wrath of God that raged against men, he dispersed it from himself, so as to harm neither himself nor others; and he made the Father, as it were, propitious to the human race. And how all the disciples forsook him at the time of the passion, and some even denied him, there is no need to say, since the four evangelists harmoniously teach the same things. Therefore he foretells these very things, prophesying the future through the preceding words, which Symmachus has interpreted in this way: You have made my acquaintances far from me; you have appointed
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μνήμης, διὰ τὸ ἀπὸ τῆς σῆς χειρὸς ἀπεῶσθαι. Ἀντὶ γὰρ τοῦ, Ὧν οὐκ ἐμνήσθης ἔτι, καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐκ τῆς χειρός σου ἀπεώσθησαν, ὁ μὲν Ἀκύλας ἐξέδωκεν, Ὧν οὐκ ἐμνήσθης αὐτῶν ἔτι, καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐκ τῆς χειρός σου ἀπετμήθησαν· ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχός φησιν, Ὧν οὐ μνημονεύσεις ἔτι, οἵτινες ὑπὸ τῆς χειρός σου ἐξεκόπησαν. Ἔθεντό με ἐν λάκκῳ κατωτάτῳ, ἐν σκοτεινοῖς, καὶ ἐν σκιᾷ θανάτου. Ἀντὶ τοῦ, Ἔθεντό με, ὁ μὲν Ἀκύλας, Ἔθου με, ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος, Ἔταξάς με, ἐκδεδώκασι. ∆ι' ὧν παρίστησιν, ὅτι νεύματι τοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ βουλῇ, οὐχ ἁπλῶς εἰς τὸν θάνατον, οὐδὲ εἰς τὸν ᾅδην καὶ τὸν καλούμενον λάκκον κατελήλυθεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ εἰς τὰ βαθύτατα καὶ τὰ κατώτατα καὶ τὰ ἔσχατα, ὡς ἂν εἴποι τις, τῶν ἐκεῖ χωρίων. Παρίστησι δὲ τοῦτο καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν τοῖς Εὐαγγελίοις φάσκων· ∆εῖ τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ποιῆσαι ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ τῆς γῆς τρεῖς ἡμέρας καὶ τρεῖς νύκτας. Ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ, ἐν σκοτεινοῖς, καὶ ἐν σκιᾷ θανάτου, ὁ Ἀκύλας, ἐν σκοτεινοῖς, φησὶ, καὶ ἐν βυθοῖς· ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος, ἐν σκοτεινοῖς ἐσκεπασμένον· ἡ δὲ πέμπτη ἔκδοσις, ἐν σκοτεινοῖς, ἐν καταδύτοις. Τοῦτο δέ μοι παρα 23.1060 τετήρηται ἀναγκαίως, ὡς ἂν μή τις ὑπολάβῃ μὴ ἐν θανάτῳ αὐτὸν γεγονέναι, διὰ τὸ λέγεσθαι παρὰ τοῖς Ἑβδομήκοντα, ἐν σκοτεινοῖς καὶ ἐν σκιᾷ θανάτου. ∆έδεικται γὰρ, ὅτι ἐν ἐσκοτισμένοις καὶ βυθοῖς καὶ καταδύτοις αὐτοῦ τοῦ θανάτου γέγονε· διόπερ οὔτε τὸ Ἑβραϊκὸν, οὔτε οἱ λοιποὶ ἑρμηνευταὶ, σκιὰν θανάτου, ἡρμήνευσαν. Τὸν γὰρ παρόντα βίον καὶ τὴν ἐνεστῶσαν ζωὴν, πολλάκις ὁ λόγος σκιὰν θανάτου εἴωθεν ἀποκαλεῖν. Ἐνταῦθα δὲ ὁ Σωτὴρ, ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ θανάτῳ γεγονὼς, πᾶσαν αὐτοῦ τὴν οἰκονομίαν διαγράφει. Ἐπ' ἐμὲ ἐστηρίχθη ὁ θυμός σου, καὶ πάντας τοὺς μετεωρισμούς σου ἐπήγαγες ἐπ' ἐμέ. ∆ιάψαλμα. Ἐμάκρυνας τοὺς γνωστούς μου ἀπ' ἐμοῦ, ἔθεντό με βδέλυγμα ἑαυτοῖς. Παρεδόθην, καὶ οὐκ ἐξεπορευόμην. Ἐπειδὴ Χριστὸς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἀπέθανε, κατὰ τὸν Ἀπόστολον, γενόμενος ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν κατάρα· δι' ὃ γέγραπται· Ἐπικατάρατος πᾶς ὁ κρεμάμενος ἐπὶ ξύλου, καὶ ἐπειδὴ τὸν μὴ γνόντα ἁμαρτίαν ὁ Θεὸς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἁμαρτίαν ἐποίησε, κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν, εἰκότως τὴν ἡμῖν τοῖς πρότερον ἀσεβέσι καὶ ἁμαρτωλοῖς ἐπικειμένην ὀργὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ τὸν θυμὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν καθ' ἡμῶν εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἐπισπασάμενος, δι' ὑπερβάλλουσάν τε φιλανθρωπίαν ἀναδεξάμενος τὴν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τιμωρίαν τε καὶ κόλασιν, τὰς προκειμένας προφέρεται φωνάς· ἅτε δὴ γενόμενος Ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ ὁ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου. ∆ιό φησιν ὁ προφήτης περὶ αὐτοῦ· Οὗτος τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν φέρει, καὶ περὶ ἡμῶν ὀδυνᾶται· τῷ μώλωπι αὐτοῦ ἡμεῖς ἰάθημεν, καὶ Κύριος παρέδωκεν αὐτὸν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ἡμῶν. Τοῦτο τοίνυν καὶ αὐτὸς παρίστησι διὰ τοῦ ψαλμοῦ φάσκων· Ἐπ' ἐμὲ ἐπεστηρίχθη ὁ θυμός σου, καὶ πάντας τοὺς μετεωρισμούς σου ἐπήγαγες ἐπ' ἐμέ. Ἀνθ' οὗ φησιν ὁ Σύμμαχος, Ἐμοὶ ἐπέβρισεν ὁ θυμός σου, καὶ ταῖς καταιγίσιν ἐκάκωσάς με. Οἷα γάρ τις φιλόστοργος πατὴρ ἐν ὥρᾳ χειμῶνος ἢ πολέμου, γνησίων υἱῶν προασπίζων, τοὺς μὲν ἐκάλυπτεν ἀποκρύπτων καὶ σκέπων ὑπὸ τὰς ἰδίας ἀγκάλας· ἑαυτὸν δὲ ἀντὶ πάντων ταῖς καταιγίσι καὶ τοῖς βέλεσι παρεῖχε, τῆς τῶν παίδων σωτηρίας τὸν αὐτοῦ θάνατον ἀντικαταλλαττόμενος, καὶ τὸν κατ' ἐκείνων θυμὸν εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἀποστρέφων. ∆ι' ὃ γέγονε κατάρα, ἡ εὐλογία τοῦ Θεοῦ αὐτὸς ὤν· καὶ γέγονεν ἁμαρτία, δικαιοσύνη τυγχάνων, καὶ τὸν κατ' ἀνθρώπων ἐπιβρίσαντα θυμὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰς ἑαυτὸν περισπάσας, τὸν μὲν ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ διεσκέδασεν, ὡς μηδὲν μήτ' αὐτὸν, μήθ' ἑτέρους ἀδικῆσαι· τὸν δ' οἷα Πατέρα ἵλεων τῷ τῶν ἀνθρώπων κατεστήσατο γένει. Ὅπως δὲ πάντες οἱ μαθηταὶ καταλελοίπασιν αὐτὸν παρὰ τὸν καιρὸν τοῦ πάθους, οἱ δὲ καὶ ἠρνήσαντο, οὐδὲν δεῖ λέγειν, τῶν τεσσάρων εὐαγγελιστῶν συμφώνως τὰ αὐτὰ διδασκόντων. Αὐτὰ δὴ οὖν ταῦτα προλέγει προφητεύων τὸ μέλλον διὰ τῶν προκειμένων φωνῶν, ἃς ὁ Σύμμαχος τοῦτον ἡρμήνευσε τὸν τρόπον· Μακρὰν ἐποίησας τοὺς γνωστούς μου ἀπ' ἐμοῦ· ἔταξάς