Christ ages and renews the prophets; the cosmic signs of the passion
Athanasius continues interpreting Job's cosmic language, explaining that Christ is the one who ages the mountains (the prophets) and shakes the whole world, with the apostles as its pillars, and that the darkening of the sun and appearance of stars at the crucifixion fulfill Job's words.
So as long as the new covenant had not come, the prophets were not old, for nothing had been said outside of a covenant before this. But Christ is the one making old the mountains—Moses and the prophets. “And they do not know it” (Job 9:5). Who does not know it? Those to whom he said, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me” (John 5:46). If the Jews had known that the mountains were being made old, they would have abandoned them—that is, the oldness of the letter—and would have passed over and come to the new covenant, and they would have worshiped God in newness of Spirit and not in oldness of letter (Romans 7:6). So he adds: the Jews do not know either the one who made them old or the things that have been made old. Therefore, he says, he is the one overturning them in wrath—that is, the Jerusalem according to the letter [or: of the letter]. Where is the perceptible altar? My Jesus has done something marvelous When he came, his own prophets he has both made old and renewed. He made them old—how? “The ministry of death was engraved in letters,” it says (2 Corinthians 3:7). He renewed them—how? “The law is holy, and its commandment is holy and just and good” (Romans 7:12). But those who did not learn the spiritual name did not know these things.
“He who shakes what is under heaven from its foundations” (Job 9:6). Christ is the one who shook what is under heaven. Many earthquakes happen in part: an earthquake happens here, but those in the neighboring city do not know it. But with Christ it did not happen partially. Therefore he is the one shaking what is under heaven from its foundations. And its pillars are shaken—clearly the apostles were shaken at the time of the passion. “All of you,” he says, “will be scandalized because of me this night” (Matthew 26:31).
“He who speaks to the sun, and it does not rise, and seals up the stars” (Job 9:7). This also happened at the cross. “And seals up the stars”: it is reported that during the three hours when the sun failed, stars appeared in the sky as at night.
“He who makes the Pleiad, and Hesperus, and Arcturus, and the chambers of the south” (Job 9:9). These matters are beyond me. For since there are many stars—Pleiads, planets and fixed stars—listed by those who do not know, as they suppose (there is Hesperus, and Phaethon, and Phainon, and Stilbon, and Phosphorus), why then did Job, speaking in the Spirit, name only the Pleiad out of so many stars in the fixed sphere? And out of so many planets spoken of, why did he mention only Hesperus? And one other, Arcturus, the one in the bear, called by some the bear-keeper?
Greek
Ὅσον οὖν ἡ καινὴ διαθήκη οὐκ ἔρχεται οὐκ ἦσαν παλαιοὶ οἱ προφῆται, οὐδαμοῦ γὰρ παρὰ διαθήκην, εἴρηται πρὸ τούτου· Χριστὸς δέ ἐστιν ὁ παλαιῶν ὄρη, Μωσέα καὶ τοὺς προφήτας. Καὶ οὐκ οἴδασι· Τίνες οὖν οὐκ οἴδασιν; ἐκεῖνοι πρὸς οὓς ἔλεγεν· Εἰ ἐπιστεύετε Μωσεῖ, ἐπιστεύετε ἐν ἐμοί· περὶ ἐμοῦ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος ἐγράφη. Εἰ εἴδησαν Ἰουδαῖοι ὅτι περιπαλαιῶται τὰ ὄρη, καταλιπόντες ἂν αὐτὰ, τουτέστιν τὴν τοῦ γράμματος παλαιότητα, διήλλανται καὶ ἐληλύθησαν ἐπὶ τὴν καινὴν διαθήκην· καὶ ἐλάτρευον Θεῷ ἐν καινότητι Πνεύματος, καὶ οὐ παλαιότητι γράμματος· ἐπάγει οὖν· οὐκ οἴδασιν οὖν Ἰουδαῖοι οὔτε τὸν παλαιώσαντα, οὔτε τὰ πεπαλαιωμένα. Διὸ ὁ καταστρέφων, φησὶν, αὐτὰ ὀργῇ, τουτέστι τὴν κατὰ τὸ γράμμα Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἢ τοῦ γράμματος. Ποῦ τὸ αἰσθητὸν θυσιαστήριον; Παράδοξον ὁ Ἰησοῦς μου πεποίηκεν; ἐλθὼν τοὺς αὐτοῦ προφήτας καὶ πεπαλαίωκεν καὶ ἀνεκαίνισε, πεπαλαίωκε, πῶς; ἡ διακονία τοῦ θανάτου τοῦ ἐν γράμματι ἐντετυπωμένη ἦν, φησίν· ἀνεκαίνισε, πῶς; ὁ μὲν νόμος, φησὶν, ἅγιος καὶ ἡ ἐντολὴ αὐτοῦ ἁγία καὶ δικαία καὶ ἀγαθή· ἀλλ' οὐκ ἤδεισαν ταῦτα οἱ μὴ μαθόντες τὸ ὄνομα πνευματικόν. 24 Ὁ σείων τὴν ὑπ' οὐρανὸν ἐκ θεμελίων. Χριστός ἐστιν ὁ σείσας τὴν ὑπ' οὐρανόν· πολλοὶ ἐκ μέρους γίνονται σεισμοί· σεῖσμος γέγονεν ἐνθάδε· ἀλλ' οἱ ἐν τῇ πλησίον πόλει οὐκ ἔγνωσαν· ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ Χριστοῦ οὐ γέγονε μερικῶς, διὰ τοῦτο ὁ σείων τὴν ὑπ' οὐρανὸν ἐκ θεμελίων· οἱ δὲ στύλοι αὐτῆς σαλεύοντες, δηλονότι οἱ ἀπόστολοι ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τοῦ πάθους ἐσαλεύθησαν Πάντες ὑμεῖς, φησὶ, σκανδαλισθήσεσθε ἐν ἐμοὶ ἐν τῇ νυκτὶ ταύτῃ. ῃ. 7. Ὁ λέγων τῷ ἡλίῳ, καὶ οὐκ ἀνατέλλει, κατὰ δὲ ἄστρων κατασφραγίζει. Καὶ τοῦτο ἐν τῷ σταυρῷ γέγονε· Κατὰ δὲ ἄστρων κατασφραγίζει· φέρεται ὅτι ταῖς τρισὶν ὥραις ἐν αἷς ἐξέλιπεν ὁ ἥλιος, ἀστέρες ἐφάνησαν ἐν οὐρανῷ ὡς ἐν νυκτί. Ὁ ποιῶν Πλειάδα, καὶ Ἕσπερον, καὶ Ἀρκτοῦρον, καὶ Ταμεῖα Νότου. Ταῦτα ὑπὲρ ἐμέ ἐστι τὰ μαθήματα. Πολλῶν γὰρ ὄντων τῶν ἀστέρων Πλειάδων, πλανητῶν καὶ ἀπλάνων παραλεγομένων ὑπὸ τῶν μὴ εἰδότων ὡς αὐτοὶ νομίζουσιν (ἔστι καὶ Ἕσπερος, ἐστι καὶ Φαέτων, καὶ Φαίνων, καὶ Στίλβων καὶ Φωσφόρος) τί δήποτε οὖν ὁ Ἰὼβ ἐν Πνεύματι φθεγγόμενος ἀπὸ τοσούτων ἀστέρων τῶν ἐν τῷ ἀπλάνει τὴν Πλείαδα μόνην ὠνόμασε; καὶ ἀπὸ τοσούτων πλανητῶν λεγομένων Ἕσπερον μόνον εἴρηκε; καὶ ἄλλον ἕνα τὸν Ἀρκτοῦρον τὸν ἐν τῷ ἀρκτοῦν ὄντα, τὸν λεγόμενον ὑπό τινων ἀρκτοφύλακα;