The Meaning of Understanding

Let it be known that according to your will, both Judas and the devil who worked in him are able. To make them rejoice, he surrounded him with death; but upon his resurrection they do not rejoice, but rather they experience shame and stand in fear, having seen the one they had betrayed. But you took hold of me through my innocence. For I did not know sin, even though I have become sin; even though I have become a curse, I was not shown to be a curse because of a preceding sin, but so that I might loose the curse and provide a blessing. And just as it has become sin so that God might make righteous those for whom sin has become, so it has become a curse, not so that it might be held by the curse. This very thing, then, has become a curse upon a blessing, sin upon righteousness, death received for life.

Innocence, then, often signifies the absence of something, and it is when there is complete purity from sin. But when it says, 'the simple believes every word' (Ps 119:7), and also, 'bad associations corrupt good morals' (1 Cor 15:34), it speaks of the surrounding good morals. And complete virtue is also called innocence, concerning which he says, 'the simple and upright cling to me' (Ps 15:2). And you have established me before you for ever. Not for a little time, then, did I not slip, being simple before falling to enemies, but I remained simple; for 'you have established me' indeed 'for ever.' Not simply, then, but 'before you.' And not everyone who is being established is additionally established by God, but he who has the perfection established. 'He who establishes you with us in Christ.' So, you testifying to my innocence.

Blessed is the Lord God of Israel from ever and to ever (Ps 102:28). Let it be, let it be. The one having mind regarding Israel, seeing God, is a blessed God. To him I write the grace and the victory, not by our power; for even if I am simple, I do not give the whole by my innocence, but by the cooperation of God. The 'let it be, let it be' is similar to the 'amen''amen''amen' as other interpreters say. And the 'amen' is when it is taken instead of an oath; for when it says, 'truly I say to you,' Matthew and Luke write the same word, and Matthew says, 'Amen, amen, I say to you,' but Luke says, 'Truly I say to you.' Indeed, it is also said in the writings, 'Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word' (Lk 1:38).

"Your word." It is also said by those interpreting the Hebrew sounds that it means that which is believed. To the end; for understanding, to the sons of Korah, a psalm. Three sons of Korah became temple singers. And their names are brought forward in Exodus and in the Chronicles. These, just as some take from faith one soul and one heart, so also these, having received one soul from the uniting spirit which grants the singing, because of this they bring forth the verses of the psalm in unison.

And this psalm is not one filled by chance with mysteries. Because of this, "for understanding" is inscribed. Thus also in the thirty-first Psalm we say that it is "of the understanding to David," because he contained mysteries and riddles. And here, therefore, many riddles lie. Therefore, understanding is needed by the one encountering such psalms which are so inscribed. And just as it is necessary "to pay attention" to the "reading" of the "God-breathed Scripture," not only of the scriptures but also of "all," so also these owe to speak and to be heard with understanding.

Since, however, the name of understanding is also made clear by proximity and signifies something else in: "but understanding is good to all who practice it." Here the understanding that comes to be and is practiced is moral virtue; for especially this regulates the character of men. He says, therefore, that this psalm ought not to be spoken by voice alone, but also to be understood by the mind and to practice the works appropriate to it, according to the other meaning of understanding, about which also Paul speaks. Writing about ministry and the service toward the saints, he says: "May God grant you understanding in all things" (Eph 1:17); for he does not say understanding as the knowledge of things combined and uncombined, but the practical virtue; for who is so wise as he who has perfected his own character and regulated it? And for himself and for those speaking and those hearing? The one teaching wisely about prudence possesses the virtue of prudence himself, which also those being instructed with him possess; for this reason the right word teaches as a teacher, and especially the one of ethics, so that those hearing might become such as the speaker is. The manner which he intends is like a light upon the...