The Spiritual Olive Trees and the Heavenly Citizenship
Regarding the Gospel, to the Jews who have become outside the truth: 'Behold, your house is being left to you' (Luke 2:3), and previously in the prophet: 'I have left my house, I have abandoned my inheritance' (Haggai 2:9), and the following. However, even if it has happened outside among those abandoned through impiety, nevertheless his feet stand unshakeably upon the mountain, where a planting is to be established, bearing fruit that is saving and guarding by the divine light and loosening diseases and pains. And they shall stand not in lowly planting, but in height and remaining on a mountain, from the risings of the divine light of the sun of righteousness.
What then is exceeded, by the standing of the feet of the Lord toward the risings of the mountain of olives, or the dividing of the divine planting, so that the part of it having cast its roots toward the risings remains, while the rest has passed into the sea, where there is great chaos? And since in the Scripture one finds olives praised and others reproached being gathered together, let us see which of these are set down in the light and the rising, and which ones have turned toward the sea.
The holy hymn-singer, crowing about himself, announces: 'I am like an olive tree bearing fruit in the house of God.' And concerning the one having perfected piety, in one of the Psalms of the Ascents he is carried: 'Blessed are you, and it shall go well with you. Your wife is like a vine flourishing in the trellises of your house; your sons are like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall a man be blessed who fears the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion, and may you see the good of Jerusalem, and may you see sons of your sons' (Psalm 128:3-6).
No one who encounters this psalm sincerely is so slow and dull as you think, believing that all these promised things approach every pious person; many have possessed it, the fear of God perfecting the one having it, according to that which is written: 'There is no support for those fearing him' (Job 27:4), and it is clear that it is God, not at all the material things they have possessed. For Elijah, indeed, the...
A great prophet, and Elisha his disciple, and—what am I saying?—John the Baptist, who became 'among those born of women no one is greater than him' (Matt 11:11), did not possess any of the things enumerated sensually, not having lived with women, nor having had sensual children; but even if they did not participate in these sensual things at all, they had sons and grandsons through an elevation, having been blessed by God in Zion and having seen the good things of the true Jerusalem, having arrived at the mountain of Zion and at Jerusalem, which is the heavenly city of the living God.
5.45 The olive trees thus attributed and their young shoots have their planting in the Mount of Olives toward the east, to be transplanted into the paradise which God planted in Eden toward the east. And the thing being announced is not paradoxical; for if the repentant robber, having confessed the King as Savior, heard from him: 'Today you shall be with me in paradise' (Luke 23:43), how much more will those who lived their whole life or the greater part of it in this way receive such a promise, as they can say with boldness: 'For our citizenship is in the heavens' (Phil 3:20), and again: 'Groaning on earth, we have a citizenship in the heavens' (2 Cor 5:1).
5.46 One must be planted toward this blessedness by elevation, and the wild olive tree, having been grafted into the holy root and becoming fruitful upon the good olive tree, as the singer says with the same boldness: 'But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God' (Ps 52:8), of the branches having been cut off through unbelief—and these are the Jews who committed the murder—being found in the sea, that is, by the waves and the salt of the affairs of the world, where there is great chaos.
5.47 In agreement with the Apostle and in Jeremiah concerning the branches having been cut off, God, expressing His opposition toward the assembly of the circumcision, says: 'What has the beloved done in my house to make an abomination? Are not sacrifices and holy meats...'
Greek
τῷ Εὐαγγελίῳ τοῖς ἔξω τῆς ἀληθείας γεν̣αμένοις Ἰουδαίοις· «Ἰδοὺ ἀφίεται ὑμῖν ὁ οἶκος ὑμῶν», καὶ πρότερον ἐν τῷ προφήτῃ· «Ἐγκατέλιπα τὸν οἶκόν μου, ἀφῆκα τὴν κληρονομίαν μου», καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. Πλὴν εἰ καὶ ἔξω γέγονεν τῶν δι' ἀσέβειαν ἐγκαταλειφθέντων, ἀλλ' οὖν ἀκραδάντως ἵστανται οἱ πόδες αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸ ὄρος ἔνθα φυτεία ἐστὶν καρπὸν φέρουσα σωστικὸν καὶ φυλακτικὸν τοῦ θείου φωτὸς καὶ λύοντα νόσους καὶ πόνους. Ἵστανται δὲ οὐκ ἐν ταπεινῇ φυτείᾳ, ἀλλ' ἐν ὕψει καὶ ὄρει μενούσῃ, ἐξ ἀνατολῶν τοῦ θείου φωτὸς τοῦ ἡλίου τῆς δικαιοσύνης. 5.41 Τί δὲ ὑπῆρκται, στάντων τῶν ποδῶν τοῦ Κυρίου πρὸς ἀνατολὰς τοῦ ὄρους τῶν ἐλαιῶν, ἢ διαιρεθῆναι τὴν θείαν φυτείαν, ἵνα τὸ μὲν αὐτῆς πρὸς ταῖς ἀνατολαῖς τὰς ῥίζας βαλὸν διαμείνῃ, τοῦ λοιποῦ εἰς θάλασσαν μεταβάντος, ἔνθα χάος ἐστὶν σφόδρα. Καὶ ἐπεὶ ἔστιν ἐν τῇ γραφῇ ἐπαινετὰς ἐλαίας εὑρεῖν καὶ ψεγομένας εἰς ταὐτὸν συναγομένας, ἰδῶμεν ποῖαι τούτων ἐν τῷ φωτὶ καὶ τῇ ἀνατολῇ κατάκεινται καὶ ποῖαι εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν ἀπέκλιναν. 5.42 Ὁ ἅγιος ὑμνῳδὸς κελαδῶν περὶ ἑαυτοῦ ἀπαγγέλλει· «Ἐγὼ ὡσεὶ ἐλαία κατάκαρπος ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ.» Περὶ δὲ τοῦ εὐλάβειαν κατορθώσαντος, ἐν μιᾷ ᾠδῇ τῶν ἀναβαθμῶν φέρεται· «Μακάριος εἶ, καὶ καλῶς σοι ἔσται. Ἡ γυνή σου ὡς ἄμπελος εὐθηνοῦσα ἐν τοῖς κλίτεσι τῆς οἰκίας σου· οἱ υἱοί σου ὡς νεόφυτα ἐλαιῶν κύκλῳ τῆς τραπέζης. Ἰδοὺ οὕτως εὐλογηθήσεται ἄνθρωπος ὁ φοβούμενος τὸν Κύριον. Εὐλογήσαι σε Κύριος ἐκ Σιών, καὶ ἴδοις τὰ ἀγαθὰ Ἰερουσαλὴμ καὶ ἴδοις υἱοὺς τῶν υἱῶν σου.» 5.43 Οὐδεὶς τῶν ἐντυγχανόντων γνησίως τῇ ᾠδῇ ταύτῃ οὕτως βραδὺς καὶ εὐήθης ὑπάρχει ὡς νομίσαι ὅτι πάντα ταῦτα τὰ ἐπηγγελμένα παντὶ εὐλαβεῖ πρόσεστιν, πολλῶν κεκτημένων φόβον Θεοῦ τελειοῦντα τὸν ἔχοντα, κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον· «Οὐκ ἔστιν στέρημα τοῖς φοβουμένοις αὐτόν», δῆλον δ' ὅτι τὸν Θεόν, οὐδαμῶς τὰ αἰσθητὰ ἐσχηκότων. 5.44 Ἠλίας γοῦν, ὁ μέγας προφήτης, καὶ Ἐλισαῖε, ὁ μαθητὴς αὐτοῦ, καί, τί λέγω, ὁ βαπτιστὴς Ἰωάννης «οὗ μείζων οὐδεὶς ἐν γεννητοῖς γυναικῶν» γέγονεν, οὐδὲν τῶν ἐξηριθμημένων αἰσθητῶς ἔσχον, οὐδαμῶς συνοικήσαντες γυναιξίν, οὐκ αἰσθητὰ τέκνα ἐσχηκότες, ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ τῶν αἰσθητῶν τούτων οὐδαμῶς μετέσχον, ἀλλά γε κατὰ ἀναγωγὴν καὶ υἱοὺς καὶ υἱωνοὺς ἔσχον, εὐλογηθέντες ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν τῇ Σιὼν καὶ ἑωρακότες τὰ ἀγαθὰ τῆς ἀληθινῆς Ἰερουσαλήμ, προσεληλυθότες τῷ τῆς Σιὼν ὄρει καὶ τῇ 150 Ἰερουσαλὴμ τῇ ἐπουρανίῳ οὔσῃ πόλει τοῦ ζῶντος Θεοῦ. 5.45 Αἱ οὕτως ἀποδοθεῖσαι ἐλαῖαι καὶ τὰ νεόφυτα αὐτῶν ἐν τῷ ὄρει τῶν ἐλαιῶν πρὸς τῇ ἀνατολῇ τὴν φυτείαν ἔχουσιν, μεταφυτευθησόμεναι εἰς τὸν παράδεισον ὃν ὁ Θεὸς ἐφύτευσεν ἐν Ἐδὲμ κατὰ ἀνατολάς. Καὶ οὐ παράδοξον τὸ ἀπαγγελλόμενον· εἰ γὰρ ὁ μετανοήσας λῃστής, ὁμολογήσας βασιλέα τὸν Σωτῆρα, ἤκουσεν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ· «Σήμερον ἔσῃ μετά μου ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ», πῶς οὐ πολλῷ πλέον δέξονται τὴν τοιαύτην ὑπόσχεσιν οἱ τὸν πάντα βίον αὐτῶν ἢ τὸν πλείονα οὕτω πολιτευσάμενοι, ὡς φάναι μετὰ παρρησίας· «Ἡμῶν γὰρ πολίτευμα ἐν οὐρανοῖς ὑπάρχει», καὶ πάλιν· «Ἐπὶ γῆς στενάζοντες τὸ πολίτευμα ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἔχομεν.» 5.46 Εἰς τὴν μακαρίαν ταύτην πρὸς ἀναγωγὴν φυτείαν τακτέον καὶ τὴν ἐγκεντρισθεῖσαν ἀγριελαίαν̣ εἰς τὴν ἁγίαν ῥίζαν καὶ πιότητα ἐπὶ τὸ καλλ̣ιέλαιον γενέσθαι, ὡς τὴν αὐτὴν παρρησίαν τῷ ὑμνῳδῷ ····σαμένην φάναι· «Ἐγὼ δὲ ὡσεὶ ἐλαία κατάκαρπος ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ», τῶν ἐκκλασθέντων κλάδων δι' ἀπιστίαν, οὗτοι δ' εἰσὶν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι οἱ κυριοκτονήσαντες, εἰς τὴν θάλατταν εὑρισκομένων, δηλαδὴ τῷ κλύδωνι καὶ ἁλμυρίδι τῶν τοῦ κόσμου πραγμάτων, ἔνθα σφόδρα χάος ἐστίν. 5.47 Συνῳδὰ τῷ Ἀποστόλῳ καὶ ἐν Ἰερεμίᾳ περὶ τῶν ἐκκλασθέντων κλάδων ὁ Θεὸς ἀποτεινόμενος πρὸς τὴν ἐκ περιτομῆς συναγωγήν φησιν· «Τί ἡ ἠγαπημένη ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ μου ἐποίησεν βδέλυγμα; Μὴ εὐχαὶ καὶ κρέα ἅγια
About this text
Didymus the Blind on Zechariah.
Original English Translation — new OET from PG Greek.
Catalogue & scope
Khazarzar scan
Witnesses
- Copy-text PG (Khazarzar) (Greek)
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