410

the thousand years have passed by. For the law of Moses was a lamp shining for them in the night; but also the prophets after Moses were lamps or even stars shining in the night, the light 23.1136 of the sun, that is, of the saving Word, not yet having shone its own day and midday upon all the nations. A watch of the night is called a period of the night; and you will understand this from the Gospel, in which it is said: But in the fourth watch of the night Jesus came walking on the sea; and again: If the master of the house had known in what watch the thief was coming. Therefore the thousand years are shown not as a day that is past and no longer exists only, but also as some small part of the night, so that one understands not even a whole night, but some part of it, in which they kept watch of the bodily worship of the law. After these things it is said: Their years will be as things of nought. And it seems to me that their meaning is something like this: Their years will be as things of nought. For they will no longer be honorable years, nor important and necessary, but will become despised and counted for nothing. But how their years will become counted for nothing, he clarifies, saying next: In the morning it would pass away like grass, in the morning it would flower and pass away; in the evening it would fall away, be hardened and withered, for we have fainted in your anger. Of old, therefore, he says, when our affairs had their beginnings and we were in the morning, we became like grass; but when that generation passed away, the grass passed away. But after these things we flowered, and we had something greater and more than the grass, so that even a flower was found in us; and this flower also passed away. But in the last times, when the light completely set for us, and evening overtook us, we have fallen away, having been hardened and withered; and we have suffered these things, because we have fainted in your anger, and in your wrath we were troubled. But the passage can also, according to another meaning, give a natural account through these things, as human nature sprouts like tender grass in youth, and after this flowers in the prime of life; then later on the threshold of old age it falls away, not otherwise than by first being hardened in old age, then completely withered. And evening signifies the last parts of human life. You have set our iniquities before you: our age in the light of your countenance. For all our days have fainted, and in your anger we have fainted. Symmachus: You have set our iniquities opposite you, our negligences to be seen by your face. For all our days have passed by, in your wrath we were consumed. And it is fitting to say these things of the present state of the people of the circumcision. For now truly all their former days have fainted, when the evening overtook them, and when they fainted in the anger of God. Because of old he passed by and overlooked their iniquities, but after the plot against the Savior this was fulfilled for them: I will no longer remit your sins; wherefore he says: You have set our iniquities before you, and, Our age in the light of your countenance. Instead of which Symmachus has rendered more clearly, 23.1137 saying: Our negligences to be seen by your face. Our years were spent as a spider's web. The days of our years in them are seventy years. But if in strength, eighty years, and the more of them is labor and sorrow. Here it is timely to cite the prophecy of Isaiah, through which he says: They have broken the eggs of asps and they weave a spider's web. And the Prophet prophesied these things, referring his word to the state of the people after the coming of our Savior, in which their rulers, like a bird laying eggs, bring forth their own offspring in such a way as to be likened to the offspring of an asp because of the venom sent forth by them of the blasphemy against our Savior and of their other unbelief in him. Of old, therefore, they used to weave

410

τὰ χίλια ἔτη παρεληλυθέναι. Λύχνος γὰρ ἦν ὁ Μωϋσέως νόμος ἐν νυκτὶ φαίνων αὐτοῖς· ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ προφῆται, οἱ μετὰ Μωϋσέα, λύχνοι ἦσαν ἢ καὶ ἀστέρες ἐν νυκτὶ φαίνοντες, οὔπω τοῦ φωτὸς 23.1136 τοῦ ἡλιακοῦ, τουτέστι τοῦ σωτηρίου Λόγου, τὴν οἰκείαν ἡμέραν τε καὶ μεσημβρίαν πᾶσι τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἐπιλάμψαντος. Φυλακὴ δὲ νυκτερινὴ καιρὸς ὠνόμασται τῆς νυκτός· τοῦτο δὲ νοήσεις ἀπὸ τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου, ἐν ᾧ εἴρηται· Τετάρτῃ δὲ φυλακῇ τῆς νυκτὸς ἦλθεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς περιπατῶν ἐπὶ τῆς θαλάσσης· καὶ πάλιν· Εἰ ᾔδει ὁ οἰκοδεσπότης ποίᾳ φυλακῇ ὁ κλέπτης ἔρχεται. ∆ηλοῦται τοίνυν τὰ χίλια ἔτη οὐχ ὡς ἡμέρα ἡ παρελθοῦσα, καὶ μηκέτ' οὖσα μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὡς βραχύ τι μόριον νυκτὸς, ὡς μηδὲ ὅλην νύκτα νοῆσαι, ἀλλὰ μέρος τι ταύτης, ἐν ᾧ τὴν φυλακὴν τῆς σωματικῆς τοῦ νόμου λατρείας περιεῖπον. Τούτοις ἑξῆς εἴρηται· Τὰ ἐξουδενώματα αὐτῶν ἔτη ἔσονται. ∆οκεῖ μοι καὶ ἡ τούτων διάνοια τοιαύτη τις εἶναι· Τὰ ἔτη αὐτῶν ἐξουδενώματα ἔσονται. Οὐκ ἔτι γὰρ ἔντιμα ἔτη, οὐδὲ σπουδαῖα καὶ ἀναγκαῖα, ἀλλ' ἐξουθενημένα καὶ εἰς τὸ μηδὲν λελογισμένα γενήσεται. Πῶς δὲ εἰς οὐδὲν λελογισμένα γενήσεται αὐτῶν τὰ ἔτη, διασαφεῖ λέγων ἑξῆς· Τὸ πρωῒ ὡς ἡ χλόη παρέλθοι, τὸ πρωῒ ἀνθήσαι καὶ παρέλθοι· τὸ ἑσπέρας ἀποπέσοι, σκληρυνθείη καὶ ξηρανθείη, ὅτι ἐξελίπομεν ἐν τῇ ὀργῇ σου. Πάλαι μὲν οὖν, φησὶν, ὅτε ἀρχὰς εἶχε τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς καὶ ἐν πρωΐᾳ ἦμεν, γεγόναμεν ὡς ἡ χλόη· ἀλλὰ παρελθούσης ἐκείνης τῆς γενεᾶς, παρῆλθεν ἡ χλόη. Μετὰ ταῦτα δὲ ἠνθήσαμεν, μεῖζόν τε καὶ πλέον τῆς χλόης ἐσχήκαμεν, ὥστε καὶ ἄνθος ἐν ἡμῖν εὑρεθῆναι· καὶ τοῦτο δὲ παρῆλθε τὸ ἄνθος. Ἐπ' ἐσχάτων δὲ τῶν καιρῶν, δύντος ἡμῖν παντελῶς τοῦ φωτὸς, καὶ ἑσπέρας ἡμᾶς καταλαβούσης, ἀποπεπτώκαμεν σκληρυνθέντες καὶ ξηρανθέντες· καὶ ταῦτα πεπόνθαμεν, Ὅτι ἐξελίπομεν ἐν τῇ ὀργῇ σου, καὶ ἐν τῷ θυμῷ σου ἐταράχθημεν. ∆ύναται δὲ καὶ καθ' ἑτέραν διάνοιαν φυσικὸν λόγον ἀποδιδόναι διὰ τούτων ἡ λέξις, ὡς τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως ἐν μὲν τῇ νεότητι δίκην ἁπαλῆς χλόης βλαστώσης, μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα ἐν τῇ ἀκμῇ τῆς ἡλικίας ἀνθούσης· εἶθ' ὕστερον ἐπὶ γήραος οὐδῷ ἀποπιπτούσης, οὐκ ἄλλως ἢ πρῶτον σκληρυνομένης κατὰ τὸ γῆρας, ἔπειτα παντελῶς ξηραινομένης. Ἑσπέραν δὲ σημαίνεσθαι τὰ τελευταῖα τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ζωῆς. Ἔθου τὰς ἀνομίας ἡμῶν ἐναντίον σου· ὁ αἰὼν ἡμῶν εἰς φωτισμὸν τοῦ προσώπου σου. Ὅτι πᾶσαι αἱ ἡμέραι ἡμῶν ἐξέλιπον, καὶ ἐν τῇ ὀργῇ σου ἐξελίπομεν. Ὁ Σύμμαχος· Προσέθηκας τὰς ἀνομίας ἡμῶν ἄντικρύς σου, τὰς ἀμελείας ἡμῶν φαίνεσθαι τῷ προσώπῳ σου. Πᾶσαι γὰρ αἱ ἡμέραι ἡμῶν διέδρασαν, ἐν τῷ χόλῳ σου ἀνηλώθημεν. Καὶ ταῦτα λέγειν ἁρμόζει τῇ παρούσῃ καταστάσει τοῦ λαοῦ τοῦ ἐκ περιτομῆς. Νῦν γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς πᾶσαι αἱ πρότεραι ἡμέραι αὐτῶν ἐξέλιπον, ὅτε ἡ ἑσπέρα αὐτοὺς κατέλαβε, καὶ ὅτε ἐξέλιπον ἐν τῇ ὀργῆ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Ἐπειδὴ πάλαι μὲν παρῄει καὶ ὑπερέβαινε τὰς ἀνομίας αὐτῶν, μετὰ δὲ τὴν κατὰ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἐπιβουλὴν ἐπληροῦτο εἰς αὐτοὺς τό· Οὐκ ἔτι ἀνήσω τὰς ἁμαρτίας ὑμῶν· διό φησιν· Ἔθου τὰς ἀνομίας ἡμῶν ἐναντίον σου, καὶ, Ὁ αἰὼν ἡμῶν εἰς φωτισμὸν τοῦ προσώπου σου. Ἀνθ' οὗ σαφέστε 23.1137 ρον ὁ Σύμμαχος ἀπέδωκεν εἰπών· Τὰς ἀμελείας ἡμῶν φαίνεσθαι τῷ προσώπῳ σου Τὰ ἔτη ἡμῶν ὡσεὶ ἀράχνη ἐμελέτων. Αἱ ἡμέραι τῶν ἐτῶν ἡμῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς οʹ ἔτη. Ἐὰν δὲ ἐν δυναστείαις ὀγδοήκοντα ἔτη, καὶ τὸ πλεῖον αὐτῶν κόπος καὶ πόνος. Ἐνταῦθα κατὰ καιρὸν παραθετέον τὴν Ἡσαΐου προφητείαν, δι' ἧς φησιν· Ὠὰ ἀσπίδων ἔῤῥηξαν καὶ ἱστὸν ἀράχνης ὑφαίνουσι. Ταῦτα δὲ ἐθέσπιζεν ὁ Προφήτης, ἀναπέμπων τὸν λόγον ἐπὶ τὴν κατάστασιν τοῦ λαοῦ τὴν μετὰ τὴν παρουσίαν τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν, καθ' ἣν οἱ ἄρχοντες αὐτῶν δίκην ὄρνιθος τικτούσης τὰ ἑαυτῶν ἀπογεννώμενα τοσαῦτα προβάλλονται, ὡς ἀσπίδος ὁμοιοῦσθαι γεννήμασι διὰ τὸν ἐνιέμενον ὑπ' αὐτῶν τῆς κατὰ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν βλασφημίας ἰὸν καὶ τῆς ἄλλης εἰς αὐτὸν ἀπιστίας. Πάλαι μὲν οὖν ὕφαινον