Jerusalem and the Church

When the prohibition is shown by the wording, and when the thing set apart and confessed to God is shown. Regarding the former, it should be said as it is written: 'If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be anathema' (1 Cor 16:22), and as it is: 'No one speaking by the Spirit of God says: Anathema Jesus' (1 Cor 12:3). For this being the meaning, Paul wished 'to be anathema for the brothers and kinsmen according to the flesh' (Rom 9:3). And regarding the latter being signified: of the word anathema, there are many things to gather from the history of the Scriptures, which the philologist can discover for himself.

When Jerusalem dwells with certainty, no one will be anathematized in it, and no foundation will remain, for the carved things and the earthen things will have been destroyed. For these things having become outside, it shall dwell certainly having the spiritual safety, concerning which the prophet Jeremiah expressed, having said: 'And blessed shall be the man who has trusted in the Lord' (Jer 17:7).

And this shall be the fall, which the Lord will cut off all the peoples who turned against Jerusalem; their flesh shall fail while they are standing on their feet, and their eyes shall run out from their sockets, and their tongue shall fail in their mouths (Zech 14:12). This fall is for those who have encamped against it and surround it with trenches. What indeed is it that he foretells for those circling the beautiful city Jerusalem? They shall fail, he says, their flesh standing on their feet, that is, from much hunger or thirst of the expected evils and calamities. To this extent indeed the failure of their flesh shall be, as to hide their eyes and for them to come out of the sockets and for their tongue to fail in their mouth.

But this wickedness has exceeded not only those who circled and besieged the sensible Jerusalem, but also those who persecuted the Christian...

...and the Church of Christ, Jerusalem being viewed by way of an ascent. The history of Christians contains many things both terrible and true; they were judged by divine decree against those who attacked the servants of God and the gathering places, to scatter them into the ground and deliver the divine books to fire. More extensively regarding such things has been treated for us in the commentaries on Isaiah, which we send forward to the beautiful ones for reading as an exhortation.

God strikes those who surrounded Jerusalem by way of wars, so that they might fall from the steady state which they guarded by remaining in superstitious worship. When this fall occurs profitably, a resurrection and a standing shall be received, having praises exceeding all.

Concerning this vision, having been filled with the Holy Spirit, the justified Simeon, receiving into his arms the infant born of the virgin Mary, says that he shows this: 'Behold, this lies for a fall and a resurrection of many' (Luke 2:34-35).

For on his account they fall, and the fleshly ones, so that having been raised according to the holiness of God they might be shown secure, having been firmly established in faith and other virtue, according to that which was written by the Apostle to the ecclesiastical ones: 'In faith you have stood' (1 Cor 16:13). And this standing occurs with the Savior Jesus; for it is to him that one must learn, saying: 'There are some of those standing here who shall by no means taste death' (John 8:51).

Those thus benefited cast off the fleshly mindset and the eyes seeing badly, so that they might no longer be in the flesh, but in the spirit, and no longer live wickedly and adulterously, but uprightly and soberly, killing the deeds of the body with the spirit and turning the eyes away from vanity, lifting them toward God so as to say: 'To you I lifted up my eyes, you who dwell in heaven' (Ps 123:1), and again: 'The...