Oecumenius
Eastern & Byzantine Theology · 550
1,825 passages of commentary across 20 books.
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A few passages
Scales fell away, showing the sharpness of the blindness, and the undeniability of the healing.
I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and bore witness to your truth, as you walk in the truth. "you walk in the truth." He walks in truth who walks in the righteous simplicity of the Gospel. However, to walk does not refer to the motion of limbs, since such steps, passing from one place to another, are common to all animals that have feet; but it…
For if some must enter, and those who entered have not entered into the rest of the promised land, it again defines a third rest, so that, as he says, some may enter into it.
Then, having been baptized into the name of the Lord, he says that by the laying on of Paul's hands they immediately receive the Spirit. But this he did not see; for it is invisible. Yet grace gave some perceptible proof of that operation. And one spoke in the Persian tongue, another in the Roman, another in the Indian, another in some other such…
"Who makes His angels spirits." For they are created beings, therefore he says, "Who makes." Behold the greatest difference: that some are created, while the One is uncreated; for the act of creating denotes the production from non-being into being. It is not only to angels that the exceptional pertains, but also to every functional power. He did not say,…
Yet the solid foundation of God stands firm, having this seal: The Lord knows those who are His. And, let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Yet the solid foundation. Indeed, the faith of the weak is subverted; "a solid foundation", however, stands (referring to the faithful who cannot be overthrown), having this mark and sign:…
Two reasons are given for the inscription on the altar in Athens, "TO AN UNKNOWN GOD." For some say that when the Athenians sent Philippides to the Lacedaemonians about an alliance, at the time the Persians marched on Greece, a phantom of Pan appeared to him on Mount Parthenion and blamed the Athenians for neglecting him and worshiping other gods, and…
"Fear God." Consider carefully how the fear of God is said to be distributed, and honor to the king, so that if fear is to be given to God, who can destroy both soul and body (Matt. 10:28), we should by no means obey kings when they urge us to do something absurd. For fear knows how to conquer even the honor that is given to kings; moreover, it will…
"let us hold fast the confession."Let us hold fast, he says, the confession of our hope, firm and without wavering. What hope? To hope through the blood of Christ for entrance into heaven. To have our sins forgiven through Him. To be made worthy of adoption through Him. "For faithful," that is, "true is He who promised." And what did He promise? That we…
Who are ignorant what shall be tomorrow. For what is your life? It is a vapor appearing for a little while, and afterward it shall vanish away; "For what is your life?" This says, pointing out the vanity and wretchedness of our life: and shaming us for the fact that throughout all the time of our life we consume ourselves in temporary evils, and in those…
Here, in the passage "bound," it is necessary to insert, so that either the mind be such: I am going to Jerusalem, having foreknowledge through the Spirit of the things that will be; and yet I go as a prisoner. Then, for fear that anyone suppose it is bondage or compulsion, and to show that he departs willingly, he says that "in every city, saying that…
"they were stoned." He speaks about Stephen and Naboth. (Acts 7; 1 Kings 21) "they were sawn in two." It is said about Isaiah, whom they also sawed with a wooden saw, so that the punishment would last a long time. "they were tempted." Like Abraham (Gen. 22:1-2), Jacob, Moses, and Job. (Job 1:2) "they were killed with the sword." Micah, John, James, and…