The Vine and the Feast of Booths
In this way, the things after death are already useful in separating the righteous from the wicked, just as with King Josiah; for he, though righteous, died in war while Egypt was in power, and much Israelite impiety had already occurred and was not forgiven. Therefore for those righteous, if they suffer along with the sinners, there are set aside from God things more beautiful after the suffering; and indeed for the brothers and kinsmen who suffer through sin, much help is provided through them, so that because of their turning away, a certain turning of God toward the race might come to pass, which even now the prophet deserves. These things were lifted up as acceptable righteousness before God (Ps 78:4). For if even we are worthy, he says, of those whom we have suffered, but your name is shared in conscience, just as God himself through Isaiah says, 'Through all things my name is blasphemed among the nations' (Isa 56:5). Because like the judgment of beasts, he says, the God-fearing nation was desolated and they laid waste the holy land (Ps 78:7).
Sitting upon the cherubim, having named the authority, he makes manifest the heavenly authority through which everything is subject to him and nothing is able to withstand, if it were to appear; and he calls for the power to be raised because of the remaining silent and quiet and seeing the people suffering; just as it was suffered to come to an end by the Assyrians, not presently, they deserve it because of the abandonment. How, then, should it come—through energy or otherwise? Because of this, he says, 'Come to save us,' as if he were saying, 'Come in the act of saving.' But the 'Turn to us and shine your face,' because of the appearance, the one turned away from God is not able to encounter, unless he first turns back toward him; 'Turn to me,' he says, 'and I will turn to you.' He asks for this from the guidance and cooperation of God, such as is also, 'Incline my heart to your testimonies' (Ps 119:36). For the pious entrust the whole universe to God. But if you appear, he says, 'your face,' and we shall be saved; for the appearance of God is salvation (Ps 79:9). With the eighteenth shadow, indeed, the aforementioned vine covered the mountains because of all the height and surpassed all power that is above the earth, and with the outstretching of the unblemished ones, the cedars of God were moved because of the divine power...
To be surrounded, it extends both to the sea and the river. For even the boundaries of the land of Judah are thus called by God: from the wilderness to the Euphrates and from the Red Sea to the Philistine sea. Which vine therefore He, He says, brought out of Egypt and transplanted a vine, which He thus made manifest and so widely spread out; why then was it surrounded thus, having been stripped of its protection and being harvested by those passing by?
Trumpets begin at the new moons according to the law. At the new moon of the seventh month He commanded the sounding of trumpets, and on the fifteenth day the feast of the booths. And this was a gathering of fruits at the end of the year in the assembly of the works from the field, as has been declared in Exodus (Exod 23:16). And it might be to the one spiritually contemplating the law that the trumpet is a sign of the trumpets coming from heaven, and the fast appointed for atonement in the tenth of that same month is the month of that which is said by the Lord: 'Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted' (Matt 5:4). For the law, preparing for the rest of the booths and the joy in it, made the fast and the humility in it, introducing the trumpets which declare the fear of the presence of the Judge from heaven. Of these, the humility for atonement follows, announcing the coming judgment, and thus the feast for rest comes to be.
And the psalm, being sung at the new moons, let it be even at the time of the feast, differing according to the custom of the law, and for this reason mentioning trumpets at the beginning as a prelude to the feast of booths. Let it signify this: the end about which even the inscription sings to it, declares; when God has gathered all the fruits, and gives eternal booths to His own. For in that end, the good things are restored to the ones being saved, and the salvation from the evils of the present, for which the aforementioned psalms were making supplications to God. [The following things follow after it.]
Removals, that is, of the burdens, of the swellings; for those serving the brick-making, cutting the clay with a spade, they carry it on their backs. Their back, therefore, He says, stood away from swellings, that is, He freed it from the burdens (Ps 80:7).
Greek
ὤν, τούτῳ τὰ μετὰ θάνατον ἤδη χρηστὰ πρὸς διάκρισιν τὴν ἀπὸ πονηρῶν ἀποκείσεται, καθάπερ Ἰωσίᾳ τῷ βασιλεῖ· δικαιότατος γὰρ δὴ καὶ οὗτος ὢν ἐν πολέμῳ τέθνηκεν ἐπικρατοῦντος τοῦ Αἰγυπτίου, τῆς Ἰσραηλιτικῆς ἀσεβείας πολλῆς τε προγεγενημένης καὶ οὐ δεχομένης συγχώρησιν. αὐτοῖς τε οὖν τοῖς δικαίοις, εἰ μετὰ τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν πάθοιεν, ἀπόκειται τὰ παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ μετὰ τὸ πάθος καλλίονα· καὶ δὴ καὶ τοῖς δι' ἁμαρτίας πάσχουσιν ἀδελφοῖς καὶ ὁμογενέσι πολλὴ δι' αὐτῶν ἐπικουρία, ὥστε τῆς ἐκείνων ἀναιρέσεως ἕνεκα γενέσθαι θεοῦ τινα εἰς τὸ γένος ἐπιστροφήν, ὅπερ καὶ νῦν ὁ προφήτης ἀξιοῖ. 129 Ps 78,4 Ταῦτα δικαιολογίας ἤρτηται δεκτῆς παρὰ θεῷ. εἰ γὰρ καὶ ἡμεῖς ἄξιοι, φησίν, ὧν πεπόνθαμεν, ἀλλὰ τὸ ὄνομα τὸ σὸν συνονειδίζεται, ὥσπερ καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ θεὸς διὰ τοῦ Ἡσαΐου λέγει ∆ιὰ παντὸς δι' ὑμᾶς τὸ ὄνομά μου βλασφημεῖται ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν. 130 Ps 78,7 Ὅτι θηρίων δίκην, φησίν, ἐλυμήναντο τὸ θεοσεβὲς ἔθνος καὶ χώραν ἠρήμοσαν ἱεράν. 131 Ps 79,3.4 Καθήμενον ἐπὶ τῶν χερουβὶμ ὀνομάσας τὴν ἐξουσίαν δηλοῖ τὴν οὐράνιον δι' ἣν ὑποχείρια πάντα αὐτῷ καὶ οὐδὲν ἀντιστατεῖν δύναται, εἰ μόνον φανείη· καὶ τὴν δυνάστειαν ἐξεγερθῆναι παρακαλεῖ διὰ τὸ παρασιωπῆσαι καὶ ἡσυχάσαι καὶ περιϊδεῖν τὸν λαὸν πάσχοντα· οἷα πέπονθεν ὑπὸ Ἀσσυρίων ἐλθεῖν τέως, οὐ παρόντα, αὐτοῖς ἀξιοῖ διὰ τὴν ἐγκατάλειψιν. πῶς δ' ἐλθεῖν ἢ κατὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν; διὰ τοῦτό φησιν Ἐλθὲ εἰς τὸ σῶσαι ἡμᾶς, ὥσπερ εἰ ἔλεγεν Ἐλθὲ κατὰ τὸ σῴζειν. τὸ δὲ Ἐπίστρεψον ἡμᾶς καὶ ἐπίφανον τὸ πρόσωπόν σου διότι τῆς ἐπιφανείας οὐχ οἷός τε τυχεῖν ὁ ἀπεστραμμένος θεοῦ, εἰ μὴ πρότερον ἐπιστραφείη πρὸς αὐτόν· Ἐπιστράφητε γάρ φησι πρός με, καὶ ἐπιστραφήσομαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς. αἰτεῖ δὴ τοῦτο παρὰ τῆς ὁδηγίας καὶ συνεργίας τοῦ θεοῦ, οἷόν ἐστι καὶ τὸ Κλῖνον τὴν καρδίαν μου εἰς τὰ μαρτύριά σου. θεῷ γὰρ οἱ εὐσεβεῖς τὸ σύμπαν ἀνατίθεισιν. εἰ δὲ ἐπιφανείη, φησί, τὸ πρόσωπόν σου, καὶ σωθησόμεθα· ἐπιφάνεια γὰρ θεοῦ σωτηρία. 132 Ps 79,9®14 Τῇ 18 σκιᾷ μὲν τὰ ὄρη ἐκάλυψεν ἡ προειρημένη ἄμπελος διὰ τὸ πᾶν ὕψος καὶ πᾶσαν δύναμιν τὴν ὑπὲρ γῆς ὑπερβαλέσθαι, ταῖς δὲ τῶν ἀκρεμόνων ἐκτάσεσι τὰς κέδρους τοῦ θεοῦ διὰ τὸ ταῖς θείαις δυνάμεσιν ὑπερείδεσθαι διήκειν τε ἕως θαλάσσης καὶ ποταμοῦ. διότι καὶ ὅρια τῆς χώρας τῆς Ἰουδαϊκῆς οὕτως ὑπὸ θεοῦ καλεῖται· Ἀπὸ ἐρήμου ἕως Εὐφράτου καὶ ἀπὸ θαλάσσης ἐρυθρᾶς ἕως θαλάσσης Φυλιστιείμ. ἣν οὖν αὐτός, φησίν, ἐξήγαγες ἐξ Αἰγύπτου καὶ μεταφύτευσας ἄμπελον, ἣν οὕτως ἐμφανῆ κατέστησας καὶ εἰς τοσοῦτον ἐξέτεινας, διὰ τί περιεῖδες οὕτως ἀπογυμνωθεῖσαν τῆς ἀσφαλείας καὶ τρυγωμένην ὑπὸ τῶν παριόντων; 133 Ps 80 arg. Σάλπιγγες κατάρχουσι ληνῶν κατὰ τὸν νόμον. νουμηνίᾳ μὲν τοῦ ἑβδόμου μηνὸς σαλπισμὸν ἐπέταξε, πεντεκαιδεκάτῃ δὲ τὴν τῶν σκηνῶν ἑορτήν. αὕτη δὲ ἦν συγκομιδῆς καρπῶν ἐπ' ἐξόδῳ τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ ἐν τῇ συναγωγῇ τῶν ἔργων τῶν ἐκ τοῦ ἀγροῦ, ὡς ἐν τῇ Ἐξόδῳ δεδήλωται. καὶ εἴη ἂν τῷ πνευματικῶς θεωροῦντι τὸν νόμον ὁ μὲν σαλπισμὸς δήλωσις τῶν οὐρανόθεν ἐρχομένων σαλπίγγων, ἡ δὲ πρὸς ἐξιλασμὸν ὡρισμένη νηστεία τῇ δεκάτῃ τοῦ αὐτοῦ μηνὸς μήνυσις ἐκείνου τοῦ λεγομένου παρὰ τῷ κυρίῳ· Μακάριοι οἱ πενθοῦντες ὅτι αὐτοὶ παρακληθήσονται. εἰς γὰρ τὴν τῶν σκηνῶν ἀνάπαυσιν καὶ τὴν εὐφροσύνην τὴν ἐν αὐτῷ παρασκευαστικὸν ἐποιήσατο τὴν νηστείαν ὁ νόμος καὶ τὴν ἐν αὐτῇ ταπείνωσιν προεισαγαγὼν τὰς σάλπιγγας αἳ τὸν φόβον δηλοῦσι τῆς ἐξ οὐρανοῦ παρουσίας τοῦ κριτοῦ. ὧν προκαταγγελουσῶν τὴν μέλλουσαν κρίσιν ἡ πρὸς ἐξιλασμὸν ταπείνωσις ἕπεται, καὶ οὕτως ἡ πρὸς ἀνάπαυσιν ἑορτὴ γίνεται. Ὁ δὲ ψαλμὸς ἐπὶ ληνοῖς ᾀδόμενος ἔστω μὲν καὶ τῷ καιρῷ τῆς ἑορτῆς διαφέρων κατὰ τὴν συνήθειαν τοῦ νόμου καὶ διὰ τοῦτο σαλπίγγων ἐν ἀρχῇ μεμνημένος ὡς προοιμίου τῆς σκηνοπηγίας. σημαινέτω δέ· τὸ τέλος περὶ οὗ καὶ ᾄδεται αὐτὸν ἡ ἐπιγραφὴ δηλοῖ· ὅτε συναγαγεῖ ὁ θεὸς καρποὺς ἅπαντας, καὶ τὰς αἰωνίους δίδωσι τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ σκηνάς. ἐν ἐκείνῳ γὰρ τῷ τέλει τὰ ἀγαθὰ τοῖς σῳζομένοις ἀποκαθίσταται καὶ ἡ ἐκ τῶν νῦν κακῶν σωτηρία περὶ ὧν οἱ προειρημένοι ψαλμοὶ τὰς δεήσεις ἐποιοῦντο πρὸς θεόν. [τὰ δ' ἑξῆς τῷ πρὸ αὐτοῦ ἀκολούθως.] 134 Ps 80,7 Ἄρσεων τουτέστι τῶν βασταγμάτων τῶν ἐπάρσεων· οἱ γὰρ τοῖς τῆς πλινθείας ὑπηρετοῦντες πόνοις κοφίνῳ τὸν πηλὸν ἐκβάλλοντες φέρουσι κατὰ νώτου. τὸν τοίνυν νῶτον αὐτῶν, φησίν, ἀπέστησεν ἀπὸ ἄρσεων, τουτέστιν ἠλευθέρωσε τῶν βασταγμάτων.
About this text
Apollinaris of Laodicea on the Psalms (catena fragments).
Catalogue & scope
Khazarzar scan
Witnesses
- Copy-text PG (Khazarzar) (Greek)
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