Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The second part of the Epistle, namely the ethical, in which he exhorts the Ephesians to Christian conduct, and especially to union and concord both in faith and in the charity of Christ, and that by five arguments.
The first is, in v. 4, because we are one body and one spirit in Christ.
The second, in the same verse, because we have all been called to the same heavenly goods which we hope for.
The third, in v. 5, because we all have one Lord, one faith, one baptism.
The fourth, in v. 6, because we are all brothers of the same God the Father.
The fifth, in v. 7, because Christ, ascending into heaven, distributed His own grace to each one, with which each ought to be content, envying none, ambitioning nothing; and He gave some as Apostles, others as doctors, etc., so that they might perfect the individual faithful as members of Christ until the end of the world; thus the whole body of Christ, namely the Church, may grow and be made complete in the faith, unity, and charity of Christ.
Hence in v. 17 he exhorts them, having condemned their former blindness and the carnal and unclean life of the Gentiles, to put off the old man and put on the new man in Christ; explaining the parts of each in v. 25, namely, that they put off lying by speaking truth, that they renounce anger, theft, evil speech, bitterness, etc., through kindness, mercy, and the pardoning of injuries.
Vulgate Text: Ephesians 4:1-32
1. I therefore, a prisoner in the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation in which you are called, 2. with all humility and mildness, with patience, supporting one another in charity, 3. careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4. One body and one Spirit, as you are called in one hope of your calling. 5. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. 6. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all. 7. But to every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the giving of Christ. 8. Wherefore He saith: Ascending on high, He led captivity captive; He gave gifts to men. 9. Now that He ascended, what is it, but because He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10. He that descended is the same also that ascended above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. 11. And He gave some Apostles, and some Prophets, and other some Evangelists, and other some pastors and doctors: 12. for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13. until we all meet into the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ: 14. that henceforth we be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the wickedness of men, by cunning craftiness, by which they lie in wait to deceive. 15. But doing the truth in charity, we may in all things grow up in Him who is the head, even Christ: 16. from whom the whole body, being compacted and fitly joined together, by what every joint supplieth, according to the operation in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in charity. 17. This then I say, and testify in the Lord, that henceforward you walk not as also the Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, 18. having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts, 19. who, despairing, have given themselves up to lasciviousness, unto the working of all uncleanness, unto covetousness. 20. But you have not so learned Christ, 21. if so be that you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, as the truth is in Jesus. 22. To put off, according to former conversation, the old man, who is corrupted according to the desires of error. 23. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24. and put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth. 25. Wherefore, putting away lying, speak truth every one with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. 26. Be angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your anger. 27. Give no place to the devil. 28. He that stole, let him now steal no more; but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have something to give to him that suffereth need. 29. Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth: but that which is good, for the edification of faith, that it may give grace to those that hear. 30. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you are sealed unto the day of redemption. 31. Let all bitterness, and anger, and indignation, and clamour, and blasphemy be put away from you, with all malice. 32. And be kind one to another, merciful, forgiving one another, as also God hath forgiven you in Christ.
Verse 1: I Therefore, a Prisoner in the Lord, Beseech You That You Walk Worthy of the Vocation in Which You Are Called
I beseech you therefore. — As if to say: Since God through Christ has bestowed such great benefits on us, and has called you, O Ephesians, although you were Gentiles, equally with the Jews to His faith, grace, and glory — as I have shown in the three preceding chapters — it is fitting that you should be grateful for so great a calling, and live worthily and as Christians in accordance with it, and serve God in holiness; which, that you may do, I ask and beseech you.
I, a prisoner in the Lord, — for the Lord's sake and for the Gospel of the Lord. See Cap. 23. On the dignity and glory of these chains, see here Chrysostom. Symbolically St. Jerome: "This body is the bond and prison of the soul, from which the Apostle desired to depart and be with Christ."
That you may walk worthily of the vocation in which you are called, — that is, that you may live worthily of the hope, worthily of Christ, worthily of the Church, worthily of the angels, worthily of the heavenly glory; for to all these you have been called.
Note: "Walk" means "live your life," for he who walks repeats and continues his steps, so as to advance and proceed in the road begun with the same pace and tenor; thus he walks. Hence "to walk" in Hebrew signifies the habit of living and acting, the tenor of life, the manners of one's actions.
St. Bernard frequently asked himself: "Bernard, for what hast thou come?" Let the Christian frequently ask himself: For what, Peter, hast thou come; for what hast thou been called? Walk worthy of thy vocation, walk worthy of thy name. Thou art called to humility, sobriety, holiness: do not be proud, drunken, lustful. Thou art called to work: do not waste time in idleness. Thou art called to cultivate the vineyard, that is, thy soul: see that thou fill it not with the cockle and brambles of vices, fit to be burned in Gehenna. Thou art called to good works: pursue them, flee evils. From Christ thou art called Christian, that as a Christian thou mayest imitate Christ: imitate Christ, live as Christ lived, suffer what Christ suffered.
Verse 2: With All Humility and Mildness, With Patience, Supporting One Another in Charity
"He who knows that he is earth and ashes, and is in a little while to be dissolved into dust," says Jerome, "will never be lifted up by pride; and he who, having considered God's eternity, has weighed the brief space of human life that is almost as a point, will always have his death before his eyes, and will be humble and abject" (whence Anselm too says: "Humilis is so called, as it were humi alitus, fed on the ground, and mansuetus as if manu assuetus, accustomed to the hand and pliable"); "but all humility is not so much in speech as in mind, so that conscience may know us to be humble, and we may never reckon ourselves to know, understand, or be anything" — thus far Jerome. Hence in Greek the word for humility is not ταπείνωσις, that is, humility, lowness, abjection, but ταπεινοφροσύνη, that is, a humble sense of oneself, or the virtue by which one thinks humbly and modestly of oneself — the opposite of pride, which thinks of itself magnificently and arrogantly, esteems its own as great, and disregards others and others' deeds. The daughter of humility is mildness: for he who is humble and meek deals and speaks gently with all.
With patience, — μακροθυμία, that is, longanimity, by which a man becomes gentle and slow to anger; for the Hebrews call this ארך אפים erech appaim, "long of nostrils," that is, long or slow to anger: for anger especially shows itself in face and nostrils. Ambrose translates it as magnanimity: for he who is long is great, and longanimity is magnanimity. Hence, as Seneca teaches in the book On Clemency, magnanimous men and princes are long-suffering; they are disturbed or offended by nothing; when injured they do not avenge themselves, but rather show clemency even to all their enemies. On the contrary, base persons, plebeians, and others who have small and contracted souls and possess little brain or judgment, are stirred to anger and revenge by trifles, by small injuries, by a single sharper word, and burst forth into quarrels and blows.
Supporting one another (so that each may bear the manners of the other, even though dissimilar to himself and his own condition, however rustic, however rough, however petulant, however morose, however irascible — thus each may bear the other's burden, as he said in Galatians ch. VI, v. 2 — and this) in charity, that is, through charity.
Verse 3: Careful to Keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace
3. Careful, — σπουδάζοντες, that is, eagerly intent, doing this with care, applying themselves to this matter with great zeal. St. Augustine, in book II Against the Letters of Petilian, ch. LXIX, reads "acting solicitously"; the Syriac translates it "be diligent."
To keep (that you may keep) the unity of the Spirit, — that is, mutual charity, of which the Holy Spirit is the author, says Chrysostom. Secondly, more simply, "unity of spirit" means unity of mind and heart, namely, that though divided and separated in body, you may yet be joined, united, and as it were one in mind and spirit. For this union preserves even the weakest of men, just as schism dissolves the strongest: for by concord small things grow, by discord the greatest fall apart. See how earnestly one must strive after unity and concord, and how carefully schism is to be shunned, as Chrysostom teaches in his moral homily 11, where among other things he says that the sin of schism cannot be expiated even by martyrdom: which is to be understood thus, if anyone, while remaining in schism, is killed for the faith and becomes a martyr; for then, although materially he is a martyr, formally he is not; for martyrdom requires that the martyr be within the Church and not separate himself from it by schism. This solicitude for peace St. Bernard maintained, who, writing to the Abbot of Prémontré (offended at him because of one of his monks whom Bernard had received), says in epistle 252, near the end: "I, brethren," he says, "whatever you do, have resolved always to love you, even though I am not loved. I will cleave to you, though you will not have it; I will cleave, even if I myself wish not to. Long ago I bound myself with a strong bond, with charity unfeigned, that which never fails. With the troubled I shall be peaceful; to those who would disturb me I shall yield place to anger, lest I give it to the devil. I shall be conquered by quarrels, that I may conquer by deferences. To the unwilling I shall offer service, to the ungrateful I shall add favors, I shall honor even those who despise me. And now my soul is sad because in some way I have offended you, and it shall be sad until it is relieved by your forgiveness," etc.
In the bond of peace, — ἐν συνδέσμῳ τῆς εἰρήνης, that is, as Erasmus has it, "in the binding-together and chain of peace"; St. Augustine, "in the joining of peace." The bond therefore here is not of one, but of two or more, in that it binds and connects two or more. Secondly, "in the bond of peace" means in the bond which is peace itself: for peace, like a chain — nay, like a glue — mutually connects, joins, fastens, and binds souls together.
Verse 4: One Body and One Spirit, as You Are Called in One Hope of Your Calling
4. One body (supply: "is," that is, the body of all the faithful, namely the Church, of which the head is Christ) and one spirit, namely there is one spirit which, running through every member of this body — that is, through every one of the faithful — brings life and spiritual motion to each: so Adam. Secondly, and better, "one body and one spirit," supply: "be." So the Syriac, Theophylact, Vatablus, and others: for all these phrases are of one exhorting, not asserting. Hence he adds:
As you are called in one hope of your calling: — As if to say: So keep the unity of the spirit, that you may be as it were one body and one spirit, so that you may all appear to be one man, consisting of the same body, the same soul, the same spirit: "as you are called in one hope," that is, to one and the same hope of salvation, immortality, and heavenly glory; for so the commonwealth and the Church are said to be one civil man, or one civic and political body, which is united and animated by the same law, concord, charity, and spirit, and tends and conspires together toward the same end, namely the good and blessed life.
Note: A great stimulus to union and concord is the hope of our calling, by which we have all been called to behold the same eternal inheritance of God the Father. Since therefore we are soon to enjoy it, and are summoned from earth to heaven, where we shall live together for all eternity in the friendliest, most joyful, most happy way — why do we here quarrel over a clod of white or red earth? Why do we not strive together for heaven? If anyone had looked upon this hope, if anyone stood in heaven with those blessed minds and looked down on this little earth, he would surely exclaim: This is the point over which mortals divide themselves with sword and fire! Oh how narrow are the bounds of mortals! How narrow are the souls of mortals!
Verse 5: One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism
5. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, — supply "is," as if to say: For all Christians there is one Lord, one Christian faith, one baptism, by which they have been reborn and made Christians; since therefore we all have one Lord, one faith, one baptism, what remains save that, bound — nay, united — by so many bonds, we should love, cultivate, and preserve this unity of the Spirit? So at Paris (which is the seat of the most Christian king) one sees this emblem and symbol of unity — of king and law no less than of God and faith — inscribed on the gate of St. Anthony:
Un Dieu, une foy; Un roy, une loy.
One God, one faith; One king, one law.
Note first: God among the Hebrews is called אדוני Adonai, that is Lord, because He alone is the universal and supreme Lord of heaven and earth, of angels and men. Hence Attalus the martyr, when contemptuously asked by the tyrant what name his God bore, replied: Those who are many are distinguished by names; but He who is one needs no name. The witness is Eusebius, in book VI of the History, ch. III.
Note second: There is one faith which leads us to God and salvation, not many; one Lord, not many. Plainly, therefore, our Political Libertines err and lead others into error and eternal ruin, who promise salvation to their followers as much in the faith of Luther, Calvin, Menno, and any other, as in the one true Catholic Roman faith, provided only that they believe Christ to be the Redeemer and live honestly; for it is certain that these are not one faith but other and other faiths: the Apostle, however, teaches that there is only one true faith, which is the right way to salvation. Whence it follows that other faiths different from this true faith — nay, contrary to it — are not faith but perfidy, leading not to heaven but to Gehenna.
Again, just as our one Lord and Redeemer Christ consists of divinity and humanity, so that whoever takes away from Him either deity, or humanity, or soul, or mind, or human will takes away this one Lord of ours from our midst; and just as the one baptism is constituted of its proper parts, so that whoever wishes to baptize not with water but with wine, or not in the name of the Trinity but of the Father alone, or the Son alone, or the Holy Spirit alone, or in the name of angels — such a one overturns and abolishes the one true baptism: so likewise he who pertinaciously denies one article of the faith, or one essential proposition of the faith, overturns the one true faith and is not a faithful man but an infidel. For just as Christ and baptism are made up of their parts, so also faith is constituted and composed of its articles. Whoever you are who hesitate and waver here, weigh these things diligently; and as much as your eternal salvation is dear to your heart, so seriously and earnestly seek, embrace, and pursue this one, true, sound, ancient faith of all ages.
Thus St. Valerian, the betrothed of St. Cecilia, sent by her to St. Urban the Pope to be baptized by him, when he came to him, saw an old man clothed in snow-white garments, holding in his hand this inscription written in letters of gold: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all things and in us all." And he added: "Dost thou believe it to be so?" Valerian answered: "There is nothing else that can more truly be believed under heaven." Soon afterward St. Urban baptized him. This sentence is therefore the watchword of orthodox faith, and a summary of the Apostles' Creed. So the Acts of St. Cecilia narrate this matter, which Antonius Bosius, J.U.D., published pure and sincere from the most ancient exemplars of the Roman libraries.
Likewise Liberatus the abbot, Bonifacius the deacon, Rusticus and Servus the subdeacons, Rogatus, Septimus, and Maximus the monks, dragged from their monastery to Carthage, were at first solicited with flatteries to the Arian perfidy. But they with one mouth and one mind confessed their faith before all, saying: "One God, one faith, one baptism; nor can that be repeated in us which in the teaching of the Gospel was commanded to be given but once: For he that is once washed has no need to be washed again, but is wholly clean. It is better to endure momentary punishments than to suffer eternal torments." The king ordered a ship to be filled with brushwood, the confessors bound and laid upon it, fire set beneath, and the ship driven into the middle of the sea to be burned. They sang with great confidence: "Glory to God in the highest. Behold now the acceptable time, behold now the day of salvation, when for the faith of our God we shall endure punishments, lest we lose the garment of the faith we have acquired." Although the fire was kindled often, it was extinguished. Therefore the king, struck with shame and fury, ordered them to be killed with the bars of oars. So Victor of Utica, in book III On the Vandal Persecution.
One baptism. — "Against Valentinus he did this," says Jerome, "who contended that there are two baptisms; and against all heretics, that they may know they do not have baptism, but that in the one Church of Christ is the life-giving fountain." Here Jerome seems to say that heretics do not have baptism, nor is their baptism valid, and consequently those who are baptized by them must be rebaptized — which was the error of St. Cyprian: namely, that "one baptism" means that which is conferred from one and in one Catholic Church; and accordingly that heretics, who confer baptism outside the Church, confer not a true but a false baptism, and consequently those baptized by heretics must be rebaptized. But St. Jerome must be excused from this error: for he wishes only to assert against Valentinus that there are not two baptisms — one of the heretics, another of the Catholics — but that there is only one baptism, namely that which is in the Catholic Church; which, however, if heretics make use of, they make use of a true baptism and truly baptize; but if they introduce another baptism of their own, say with a different matter or form, they introduce a false baptism and one which is not, so that those who have been so baptized are not baptized, but ought to be rebaptized, indeed baptized for the first time.
Secondly, St. Augustine: "'One baptism' is so called," he says, "because it ought not to be repeated: for he who has been once baptized ought not to be baptized a second time."
Thirdly, St. Jerome: "One baptism" is so called because, although we are baptized three times (that is, dipped or immersed in water three times in baptism) on account of the mystery of the Trinity, yet it is reckoned as one baptism.
Fourthly, and genuinely: Just as there is one true faith, so there is only one true baptism, namely that which has been given to the Church by Christ, having its own matter (water) and its own form of words instituted by Christ, that, by washing the body and saying "I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," we may wash the soul of the baptized from all sins; for whoever should bring forward another baptism, or another matter or form of baptism, would take away the one true baptism and introduce a second, false and lying baptism.
This, then, is the watchword of our faith: "One God, one faith, one baptism." As the watchword of Islam is: "There is one God, and Muhammad is His counselor." The watchword of the Arians was: "The Son is ὁμοιούσιος, not ὁμοούσιος with the Father" — that is, the Son is of similar substance with the Father, not of the same. Hence the Arians introduced as it were a new God, a new faith, a new baptism, and even took care to have Catholics rebaptized in their manner, so that they might thus begin and profess Arianism. This impious advice was suggested to King Huneric by Cyrilla, the Arian bishop. Huneric therefore commanded all Catholics to be rebaptized by the Arians under the penalties of exile, prison, and death. But the Catholics, although they suffered the extreme, stood firm in the faith.
Verse 6: One God and Father of All, Who Is Above All, and Through All, and in Us All
6. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all. — Supply that which the Apostle here intends to infer: therefore we are all brothers, as sons of the same God the Father, and therefore as brothers we ought to love one another and preserve the unity of the spirit, because we dwell and live in the same house of God our Father, namely the Church.
Note: God is "above all" by His majesty, power, and divine, transcending dominion; He is "through all" because by His power and wise governance, operation, and efficacy He passes and runs through all things; He is "in all" by His essence, by His friendly union with and containing of all things; "in us" also, who are Christians and just, He is by grace and holiness. So Jerome, Theophylact, Anselm.
Note second: The Greek ὁ ἐπὶ πάντων can be translated "who is above all things"; our Interpreter, however, preferred to render it "who is above all," that is, above all gods, in order to censure the Aeons of Valentinus and the gods of Simon Magus, of Hesiod, and of the Poets — which the Apostle often does in this Epistle, as I have noted in what precedes.
Note third: By "God and Father" some understand the first Person of the Most Holy Trinity, and ascribe these three things to Him — that He is above all, through all, and in all. But better Jerome and others take the name "Father" here not in relation to the Son and the eternal Word, but in relation to creatures, so that it is common to the whole Most Holy Trinity: for this is God and Father of all; then it designates the three Persons of the Trinity when he says: "Who is above all, through all, and in all." For "above all" is appropriated to the Father, and corresponds to what was said in Rom. XI at the end, "of whom are all things": for He who is above all and over all things is the author of all; "through all" is appropriated to the Son; "in all" to the Holy Spirit. So Jerome.
Note fourth: To God the Son is attributed διά, that is "through," because just as through Him all things were created, so also through Him all things are governed, directed, and perfected. So Zeno, the parent of the Stoics, in Laertius: Δία μὲν γάρ φασι δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα, Ζῆνα δὲ καλοῦσι παρ' ὅσον τοῦ ζῆν αἴτιός ἐστιν. "They call Jove," he says, "Δία ('Through'), because all things are through Him; and the same they call Ζῆνα ('Living'), because He is the author of life." Whence Virgil also concludes and sings: "God passes through all lands and the tracts of sea and the deep heaven."
For from the fact that all things are created through God, it follows that all things are preserved, subsist, and are governed through God, and that God penetrates and pervades all things both by His power and efficacy and by His presence and essence.
Verse 7: But to Every One of Us Is Given Grace, According to the Measure of the Giving of Christ
7. But to every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the giving of Christ, — that is, to each is given grace, not one and equal, but varied and unequal, greater to this one, less to that; given, I say, not from merit, or from the measure of our merits, but from the measure of the gratuitous gift of Christ, to whom it pleased to give to this man one measure of grace, to that man another, to a third yet another.
Here is the fifth argument by which Paul, as I said at the beginning, stirs the Ephesians to mutual charity, as if to say: There is no reason for the lesser in grace to envy the greater, nor for the greater to be proud and to despise the lesser (for this is the root of discord, which disturbs all union and concord), because both the gift and the measure of his own gift each has received from God, who has measured out to each his own measure of the gift, such as He foresaw to be fitting for him, out of His infinite liberality and wisdom, in which all ought to rest, and give Him thanks, and praise and celebrate this both in their own gifts and in those of others: for none other than He could most excellently and most wisely measure out and distribute His own gifts, who is the weigher of spirits and their Lord.
Note however, that often God measures out the measure of His grace according to the measure of our disposition, so that the greater or lesser the disposition, the greater or lesser the grace He gives; but this disposition itself must also be begun and flow from God's grace. "God," says Jerome, "whose magnificence is without number, does not give the Spirit by measure, but pours in the liquid according to the measure of the vessels, bestowing as much of the gift as the one to whom it is given is able to receive." He adds also a likeness: "As the sea is in itself immense, but each draws from it as much as he can hold and carry: so the Holy Spirit is in Himself immense, but to each is given of Him as much as is expedient and as he is able to receive."
Verse 8: Ascending on High, He Led Captivity Captive; He Gave Gifts to Men
8. Wherefore (namely, that he may show that Christ from His own liberality gives and distributes to each one the measure of His own grace) He saith (Holy Scripture, and the Holy Spirit through the mouth of David, Psalm LXVII): Ascending on high, He led captivity captive.
Note: In Psalm LXVII the royal Prophet, under the type of Israel's triumph over its enemies (which he touches upon in passing as if alluding to it), sings the triumph of Christ and the Church in Christ's ascension, the sending of the Holy Spirit, and the conversion of the Gentiles through the Apostles. So too in Psalms LXXI and LXXXVIII, he depicts the kingdom of the Messiah under the type of Solomon's reign. So Isaiah, ch. XIV, describes the fall of the king of Babylon, and Ezekiel, ch. XXVIII, the fall of the king of Tyre, by the fall of Lucifer and the devil. Therefore in these and similar passages Sacred Scripture has two literal senses: for it embraces both senses, namely both that of the type and the antitype, both of the allegory or parable and of the thing signified by it, and refers and orders the one to the other. Which I have demonstrated elsewhere at greater length.
So in this Psalm LXVII, the sense of the type is the triumph of Israel, both over Pharaoh through Moses and over the Philistines and other enemies through David. Whence he says: "The chariot of God is manifold by ten thousands, thousands of them that rejoice: the Lord is among them in Sinai, in the holy place," as if to say: The chariots in which God is borne to battle and triumph are multiplied to infinity, because these chariots are countless thousands of rejoicing angels — for captives, namely passively, or actively for those who take captive, as I said.
Secondly, to take captivity, in the Hebrew idiom, is nothing other than to capture, to make captives, to lead bound persons away, whether these captives had previously been taken by another or not. Hence in the books of Kings, David and others are said to take or lead away captivity, when they first make captives of their enemies — formerly free men with whom they had fought — after vanquishing them.
Thirdly, Euthymius expounds it thus: "You ascended, O Christ, on high," that is, onto the lofty and triumphal cross, by which You conquered and triumphed, and took captive all of us whom You redeemed, and made us Your captives. Hence He Himself says: "When I shall be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to Myself." This sense is not literal, but accommodated and preliminary to the literal: for literally He treats of Christ's triumph after His death and cross, when as victor He ascended into heaven, as the Apostle here explains.
Fourthly, for "ascending" the Greek has ἀναβάς, "when He had ascended," etc., "He gave gifts"; for the Apostle does not properly intend to treat of Christ's ascension, but of the distribution of gifts which after the ascension He sent from heaven, and distributed to the Apostles and other faithful.
Now secondly, the sense of the antitype, or of the thing signified by the type already mentioned, is the triumph of Christ foreshadowed and signified by the triumph of Moses, of David, and of Israel: for to Christ, ascending in triumph into heaven, these things apply far more truly and clearly than to Israel. Hence he says: "The chariot of God is manifold by ten thousands. Thousands of them that rejoice: the Lord is among them in Sina in the holy place," as if to say: many myriads of angels surround and accompany the triumphal chariot of Christ our God, like chariots and innumerable phalanxes, rejoicing and jubilant in the triumph; and the Lord Christ, among them and above them as it were riding, is borne into His holy heaven and throne of glory with such — indeed far greater — pomp and majesty than once when, surrounded by the same hosts, triumphing over Pharaoh, He showed Himself gloriously on Sinai through lightnings, thunders, the blast of the trumpet, smoke and flame, and gave the Law to Israel.
There follows: "You ascended," as triumphator, "into heaven" the empyrean, "You took captivity," or, as the Apostle has it, "He led captivity captive" (for he changes the second person to the third, since he had begun to speak of Christ in the third person), namely a twofold captivity, as Theophylact rightly says: First, the active, namely sin, death, the devil, hell, idols, the tyrants who had held us captive, which Christ led in triumph. So Chrysostom and Vatablus. Secondly, the passive, as Jerome and others say, namely the Patriarchs, the Prophets, and other Saints rescued from the captivity of hell and now made captives in the holy and blessed captivity of Christ — these Christ in triumph led with Him into heaven. So commonly the Fathers, and it is clear here from the Apostle.
Note: "Captivity" in the abstract is put for concrete, for captives, namely passively, or actively for those who take captive, as I said.
He gave gifts to men. — You will say: in Psalm LXVII, 19, it is said: "You received gifts among men." How then, in place of "You received" or "He received," does the Apostle say "He gave"?
First, St. Augustine answers: Christ received these gifts not in Himself, but in His body, which is the Church, and gave the same to His Church, inasmuch as He is its Head. This is true, but it does not seem to satisfy the question: for it makes one sense of Paul, another of David, when they ought to be one and the same. Add that the person is in fact thus changed: for the person of Christ is one thing, and the person of the Church another; but here one and the same is He who in the Psalm is said to have received gifts, and He whom Paul says gave them.
Secondly, St. Jerome: The Psalmist, he says, speaks before Christ's incarnation; for then Christ as God received these gifts from the Father, in order that after the incarnation He might give them to men. Hence, now that He is born, He gave them to men, as the Apostle says here.
Thirdly, Jansenius on Psalm LXVII: The Apostle, he says, changes "received" into "gave," to signify that God did not receive gifts among men, and from men, except those which He had first given them.
Fourthly, Theodoret: Christ, he says, both gives gifts and receives them, because these gifts given by Christ ought to redound and be expended for Christ's glory. And Euthymius on Psalm LXVII: From those, he says, from whom God has received faith — namely the faithful use of His gifts, and faithful obedience and thanksgiving — to these He gives His gifts. Likewise Theophylact: Christ, he says, who gives His charisms to men, receives ministry from those same men; each one receives a charism not that he may be idle, but that he may trade with it, and render it with interest to Christ — that is what he receives. But also the argument brought against the first explanation stands.
Fifthly, plainly and genuinely, "You received gifts among men," that is, for men, on account of men; for the Hebrew בּ beth, meaning "in," is taken here, as also elsewhere, for בעבור baabur, that is, "for the sake of," or for the dative ל lamed, as if to say: Christ received from the Father gifts that He might give them, and which in fact He gave to men, as Paul here explains; and thus to receive is the same as to give: for Christ received these gifts not that He might keep them for Himself, but that He might give them to men.
Hence the Hebrew לקח lacach, that is "to receive," occasionally signifies "to give" or "to bring," on the authority of Aben Ezra and R. Solomon, as in Genesis xxxviii, 6: "Judah gave a wife to his firstborn" — for "gave" the Hebrew is locach. In Exod. xxv, 2 the Hebrew is ויקחו לי תרומה vaikechu li teruma, that is, "they shall receive" (i.e., give or bring) "to Me an oblation." Likewise III Kings xvii, 10: "Give me a little water," where in Hebrew for "give" is "receive." Likewise Hosea, last chapter, verse 3: "Take away all iniquity, receive (that is, give) the good, and we will render the calves of our lips." So here "You received," that is, You gave, or You bestowed in greater measure, gifts to men. So the Chaldee. It is a metalepsis: for since when we are about to give gifts, such as money, we are accustomed first to take it out of a chest or from elsewhere; hence "to receive" for the purpose of giving is taken for "to give."
It could secondly be rendered, "You bought gifts for men," or "for the sake of men." "You bought," namely with the price of Your blood, O Christ. For lacach occasionally signifies "to buy," as is clear from Proverbs, last chapter, verse 16, and IV Kings v, 26. Hence those things which are sold and bought, such as merchandise, are called מקחות mickechot.
These gifts are the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which at Pentecost and thereafter Christ the triumphator scattered upon the Apostles and Christians, just as in a triumph it is customary for largesses and money to be scattered among the people for the common joy of all. So Genebrardus on Psalm LXVII, Ambrose and Jerome here. Namely these gifts are those that follow, such as apostleship, doctorate, prophecy, etc., which Christ distributed for this purpose, that they might build up and perfect each of the faithful, and consequently His whole body, namely the Church, in His one and true faith and charity: for all these things look to the stirring up among the Ephesians of union and concord in faith and charity, as I said in the argument.
Verse 9: Now That He Ascended, What Is It, but Because He Also Descended First Into the Lower Parts of the Earth?
9. Now that He ascended, what is it, but because He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? — That is, what David in Psalm LXVII, already cited, says, namely that Christ ascended, what does it imply but that previously Christ had descended "into the lower parts," εἰς τὰ κατώτερα, that is "into the lowest" (as Vatablus, and even Beza himself, render it) "parts of the earth"?
In this passage and others like it that article of faith is confirmed by which we believe and say of Christ: "He descended into hell"; namely, that when Christ's body was buried, His soul descended into hell, that is, to the limbo of the fathers. Calvin and Beza deny this, who understand by "hell" the sepulcher, so that "He descended into hell" means the same as "He was buried." But thus the Apostles would commit an absurd tautology in the Creed, when they say, "suffered, died, and was buried, descended into hell." For they would explain the word "buried," which is most clear, by an obscure and ambiguous one, namely "He descended into hell."
Again, the Apostle here says that Christ descended into the lowest parts of the earth: what are the lowest parts of the earth, if not hell properly so called, which is in the middle of the earth, around its center? Beza answers that the "lowest parts of the earth" are called the earth itself, which is the lowest part of the world. On the contrary, the Apostle does not say that Christ descended into the lowest parts of the world, but of the earth; therefore you twist and distort the words of Paul, O Beza, if you take them as the lowest parts not of the earth but of the world: for Paul does not even mention the world; why then do you add and append this to Paul's words, which are clear and complete in themselves? If Paul had wanted to say what you yourself want, he should certainly have said that Christ descended into the earth, which is the last part of the world. Thus when I say: "The praetor descended into the lowest parts of the prison," you understand, and all understand me to be saying that he descended into the deepest places of the prison, not however of the house in which the prison is: why do we not here likewise understand by "the lowest parts of the earth" — the lowest, not of the world, but of the earth, as the words sound? Look, I pray you, at these Novatorians, who wish to rely upon Scripture alone and its words: how they slash and distort them by their interpretations; and consequently how they rely not on Scripture, but on their own commentary and the figments of their own brains, and drag and force Scripture, willing or unwilling, to those interpretations.
Again the Apostle subjoins: "He who descended," supply "into the lowest parts of the earth," as preceded, "is the same also who ascended above all heavens, that He might fill all things," as if to say: Christ ascended most highly above all heavens, because He humbled Himself most profoundly and descended to the lowest parts of the earth, namely to hell, and thus filled the highest and the lowest, and consequently the intermediate also, and so all things: for if Christ did not descend to the limbo of the fathers, where the better part of the Church was, and so many thousands of Saints — namely all who lived from Adam to Christ for nearly four thousand years — then He did not fill all things, which nevertheless the Apostle asserts. Finally, the Fathers explain it thus. St. Jerome: "By 'the lower parts of the earth,' he says, hell is understood, to which our Lord and Saviour descended, that the souls of the Saints, which were there held enclosed, He might lead with Him as victor to the heavens." And the Apostle hints at this, when he says: "Ascending on high He led captivity captive," namely that captivity which, descending to hell, He had freed from there. Ambrose: "Christ descended," he says, "into the heart of the earth, that His slaying might be a preaching to the dead; so that as many as were desirous of Him might be freed." Chrysostom and Theophylact: "He descended," they say, "to the lowest parts, after which there is nothing else; and ascended above all things, beyond which there are no others." Anselm calls "the lower parts of the earth" the places of hell: "For thither," he says, "according to the soul Christ descended, that He might powerfully lead all His own from there."
You will say: Christ descended into the limbo of the fathers, not however into the hell of the damned; therefore He did not descend to the lowest parts of the earth.
I reply: Limbo, purgatory, hell, generally speaking, are one place, namely the lowest part of the earth, and are called and named by one name, hell. So the Fathers cited.
You will ask: Why does the Apostle here mention hell, or what does this descent of Christ contribute to his purpose, which is to exhort the Ephesians to union and concord? Theophylact answers that by this descent of Christ the Apostle exhorts the Ephesians to humility, which is the mother of concord, just as pride is the mother of envy and discord. The Apostle therefore touches the root of the evil: for the reason why in the Church, the city, the family, there are quarrels and schisms is that some wish to dominate over others, and others refuse to endure it; as if to say, Theophylact says: Just as Christ did not refuse to descend most deeply, so you also, O Christians, lower yourselves through humility, and condescend and yield to others, that you may preserve mutual union; and there is no reason for you to fear that this descent will harm your honor: for as it did not harm Christ, so neither will it harm you. Indeed, just as Christ ascended most highly above all heavens because He lowered Himself most deeply beneath the earth and descended: so the more deeply you lower yourselves, the more highly you will be exalted. So it happened to St. Francis and the other Saints.
Verse 10: He That Descended Is the Same Also That Ascended Above All the Heavens, That He Might Fill All Things
10. He who descended is the same also who ascended above all heavens. — "Descendit" and "ascendit" are here in the past tense: for this is what the Greek κατάβας and ἀναβάς signify. "Curious men," says Beza, "here dispute that there is no place above the heavens, and that therefore the body of Christ is ἀπερίγραπτον; but we," he says, "believe Christ's body is finite, and that His soul ascended into the heavens, and sits at the right hand of the Father, nor will He come thence before the day of judgment: let us leave other things to be vexed by curious sophists."
But it is not curious to search out the sense of Scripture, which it itself suggests and proposes — indeed, expresses. Secondly, from the terms it is clear that "above the heavens" is not the same as "into the heavens," as he wishes. Thirdly, Christ's body is not therefore ἀπερίγραπτον, that is uncircumscribed — that is, infinite in extent — because it is in those empty spaces which are above the heavens: for it is circumscribed and bounded by its own dimensions, figure, and quantity, although it is not externally circumscribed by air or any other surrounding body.
There is therefore a second opinion of certain Catholics, who say that Christ ascended above, that is above all heavens, in that sense in which someone is said to ascend above a tree, when he climbs above part of the tree, namely above the trunk into the branches, even though he does not surpass or transcend the whole tree and its very summit. But the Greek ὑπεράνω signifies more: for it is compounded of ὑπό, that is "above," and ἀνά, that is "over," as if to say "above-over," that is, Christ ascended altogether above all the heavens. Hence Beza translates: He ascended far above all heavens. But it could be answered that ὑπεράνω is taken for ὑπέρ: for so it is taken elsewhere. Hence this opinion is probable, and our Lessius follows it, in Book III On the Highest Good, ch. viii.
Thirdly, it can probably be said that by "all heavens" here are understood all the ethereal heavens, known to common people and philosophers, as if to say: Christ ascended above all the ethereal heavens into the empyrean heaven itself. But since the Apostle absolutely names "all heavens," why should we restrict the word "all" to the ethereal alone? Add that thus nothing rare or proper to Christ is said: for it is common to all Saints to ascend above all the ethereal heavens to the empyrean heaven.
I say therefore fourthly, if we take the Apostle's words properly and simply as they sound, as they seem to be taken, since nothing prevents it, that we must admit that Christ ascended above all heavens, even the empyrean, that He may be eminent above it and be in that empty space which is above the heaven, either with part of His body, or even with His whole body, so that He stands with His feet upon the convex surface of the empyrean heaven. So St. Thomas, Anselm, Paludanus, Cajetan, whom Francis Suárez cites and follows, III part, Question LVIII; and Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius seem to feel the same, since, as I said above, they assert that Christ ascended above all things, beyond which there are no others. Christ is therefore there, that He may fill all things, and that He Himself, as Lord and Judge of the whole universe, may stand eminent over the universe, and even above it in those empty spaces show His glory and dominion. Finally, that as He descended beneath the lowest earth, so He, ascending above all Saints and above the highest heaven, may there place the throne of His glory.
The Blessed therefore are in the empyrean heaven itself; but Christ as their king is eminent over them, and stands upon the empyrean heaven, yet so that He has the whole empyrean heaven before Himself, as one ample hall or basilica, in which He distinctly sees and perceives all and each thing — and the better, the higher His position: just as if a king sitting on a most lofty throne should see all that goes on in the hall beneath the throne; and by this very fact the king is reckoned to be and dwell in that hall — especially since Christ's whole hall is most ample, embracing not only the empyrean heaven but also those immense empty spaces which are above it. For in these Christ can rule, and there create new worlds, a new empyrean heaven, new dwellings for the Blessed, new thrones and choirs.
Nor does it stand in the way, that Christ is thus in those spaces as if in a vacuum: both because God by His power easily brings it about that He Himself may see, hear, and speak through a vacuum; and because in all probability that small space in which Christ is, which before was empty, is now no longer empty, but full of the ether of the empyrean heaven, which by God's command spreads itself around Christ's body.
From what has been said, it is clear that Christ dwells on that convex surface of the heaven, not as if someone on earth dwelt outside his house upon the roof of the house. For that surface is not the roof of the heaven, but is Christ's royal and magnificent throne: hence it ought to be reckoned not to be outside, but within the heaven, on its summit. Just as a prince, in order to watch the games, sits at the summit of the amphitheater, so that he stands out from the amphitheater with his head and neck, and from there beholds the spectacles better, and sees more than those who are in the middle or in the lowest part of the amphitheater; nay, he clearly contemplates those very seated ones, and their ranks, and all the spectators one by one; and nonetheless he is reckoned to be, and is, in the amphitheater itself: so it stands with Christ standing on the empyrean heaven. For He, as Lord of the world, is above the world, so that He may have the whole world present before Him and subject to Him, and may renew, direct, and govern it.
Mystically, St. Jerome: "Christ," he says, "ascended above all heavens, that is above all invisible things," namely above all the orders of angels.
That He might fill all things. — Namely, that ruling in the heavens and in the whole world, and sending the Holy Spirit, He might fill all kingdoms with His faith, religion, and worship, says Anselm.
Secondly, that He might restore and fill all the seats and the number of the elect angels and men. So the same Anselm.
Thirdly, Christ descended to hell, and ascended into heaven, that He might show to those above and to those below, as also to those on earth, that His blood had profited them, and so that He had filled all the places of the world with the fruit of His blood. So Jerome.
Fourthly, that He might fulfill all things that had been prophesied of Him: for among these the last are His descent to hell and His ascent into heaven. So Chrysostom.
Fifthly, that He might plainly conclude His pilgrimage and the work of our redemption, whose end and term is the ascent both of Christ and of us into heaven. So St. Thomas. For Christ by His ascent opened for us the way into heaven, and brought with Him our firstfruits, namely the holy Patriarchs and Prophets.
Sixthly, that from heaven, by sending all kinds of graces and gifts, and Guardian Angels, He might fill the Church according to His majesty and munificence. So Ambrose, epistle 16, and St. Thomas.
Seventhly and most plainly, Christ descended and ascended successively from one place to another, namely passing from hell through the heavens, that in the lowest, highest, and middle space of the world He might declare His glory and power, everywhere freeing His elect, despoiling and vanquishing His enemies, and so showing that He held dominion over absolutely all creatures and now to enter and take full possession of the kingdom of the whole world: and this rightly through that lowest humility, by which He descended below all men and creatures, even unto hell. As if to say: Christ descended and ascended, that He might fill all things with His power, with His majesty, victory, glory, triumph, possession, reign, empire, and as it were inauguration: just as a king as it were fills all the cities with his power, retinue, and pomp, when he is inaugurated in them, or enters them in triumph. So Theophylact and Oecumenius. Hence St. Bernard, Sermon 2 On the Ascension: "Christ ascended, he says, above all the heavens, that He might fill all things: for now since He had proved Himself Lord of all things in the earth, and in the sea, and in hell, it remained only that He should also prove Himself Lord of the air and of the heavens, by similar or even stronger arguments: for the earth knew the Lord, because at the voice of His power, when He had cried with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come forth,' He restored a dead man. The sea knew Him, because it offered itself solid beneath His feet, so that the Apostles thought Him to be a phantom. Hell knew Him, whose bronze gates and iron bars He Himself broke; where He also bound that insatiable murderer who is called the Devil and Satan. Indeed He who raised the dead, cleansed lepers, gave light to the blind, made the lame firm, and dispelled every infirmity, was Lord of all, and with the same hand by which He had made them, He restored what had failed." And below: "Therefore, in order to close Your seamless tunic, Lord Jesus, to perfect the integrity of our faith, it remains that, as the disciples watch, You should ascend through the midst of the air, as Lord of the air, above all the heavens. From then on it will be proved that You are Lord of all, because You have filled all things in all; and now it will be due to You that in Your name every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and in hell, and that every tongue should confess that You are in the glory and at the right hand of God the Father."
Hence the Ubiquitarians wrongly conclude that Christ's body, equally with His divinity to which it is joined, is everywhere, and fills all the places of the world simultaneously by its real presence. From what has been said it is clear that the Apostle's mind is otherwise — indeed that this is repugnant to the Apostle's mind: for he says that Christ ascended into heaven; therefore before He ascended into heaven, He was not in heaven: for He would have ascended thither in vain, if He were already there. Again, he says that Christ descended into hell; therefore before He descended thither, He was not there. For "He ascended" and "He descended" signify a change of place, by which one, leaving one place, transfers himself to another.
Add: the Apostle teaches that through and after the descent and ascent Christ has filled all things; therefore He did not have this same thing from the force of the union with the deity, in such a way that, because the deity is everywhere, hence also the body united to the deity is everywhere, and fills all places — which nevertheless the Ubiquitarians wish, and this is their fundamental argument: for thus Christ's body would have had this ubiquity (as the Scholastics speak) from the first instant of the incarnation, in which it was united to the deity; nor would He have acquired it through descent to hell and through ascent to heaven, which nevertheless the Apostle here teaches, if by "filling all things" he means this ubiquity, as they wish; therefore the Apostle is in conflict with their ubiquity and its principles.
Verse 11: And He Gave Some Apostles, and Some Prophets, and Other Some Evangelists, and Other Some Pastors and Doctors
11. And He gave some Apostles, and some Prophets, and other some Evangelists, and other some pastors and doctors. — He enumerates not all the gifts, but a few, under which he understands the rest, which, as he said in verse 8, Christ ascending on high gave to men, and the graces that have been given to each according to the measure of the giving of Christ, as he said in verse 7; namely these gifts and graces freely given are: apostleship, prophecy, the office of evangelizing, pastorate, doctorate: under which take grace "making one acceptable," which is given to each one suitably and fittingly for his office and function which he has received from God, that he may sanctify, piously, and fruitfully discharge it for his own and others' salvation.
Note: Apostles were and were called those who were sent throughout the whole world to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, that they might establish and found churches everywhere: such as were the twelve whom Christ during His life chose and named Apostles; likewise Paul, Barnabas, Silas, and others.
Prophets were those who foretold things to come, as Agabus and others: to these, says Ambrose, succeeded the interpreters of sacred Scripture. For a prophet is not only one who reveals things to come, but also one who unfolds and explains hidden and obscure things. Anselm adds another reason, namely because these interpreters of the sacred Letters, through them, foretell to men the future joys of the just and the punishments of the wicked.
The Evangelists are four — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — who wrote the Gospels. So Anselm and Theophylact. Secondly, the Seventy disciples and similar persons, who served the Apostles in preaching the Gospel, and who, as Theophylact says, did not go around everywhere, nor traverse all places, but here and there preached the Gospel; such as were Priscilla and Aquila, Stephen and Philip the deacons; for these served the Apostles, as deacons serve presbyters, and as catechists serve preachers: for they were as it were catechists, who taught the unbelievers the articles of the faith and of the Gospel necessary for salvation, and prepared them for baptism. Hence Ambrose, Theophylact, and Anselm understand by "Evangelists" the deacons. "The Evangelists," says Ambrose, "are the deacons, as Philip was: for though they are not priests, they can nevertheless evangelize without a cathedra, as also Stephen and the said Philip did."
Hence even today in the Mass the deacons sing the Gospel, says Anselm, and when they are ordained, they receive the power of announcing the Gospel. Hence the power of preaching seems to belong to them by virtue of the Order, as St. Gregory teaches in book IV of the Register, chapter LXXXVIII, which nevertheless they ought not to exercise while a priest is present who can preach, and only with license received from the Bishop, as Sylvester (under the word "Deacon") and others teach.
Pastors are Bishops, and pastors properly so called, who confine themselves to one parish or diocese over which they preside and which they govern; or to whom certain Churches are committed, as Ephesus was committed to Timothy, Crete to Titus. So Theophylact.
St. Augustine, epistle 59, St. Jerome, and Anselm wish the pastors and doctors to be the same: for he who is a pastor ought to be a doctor. "Nor in the Churches," says Jerome, "ought anyone, however holy he may be, to assume to himself the name of pastor, unless he can teach those whom he feeds." Hence the Apostle does not say "some pastors, some doctors," as he said of the preceding, "some Apostles, some Prophets;" but says, "some pastors and doctors," as if they were the same, or as if these were two functions and offices of one and the same head of the Church. The Syriac, however, and others distinguish, as even now in the Church we see some to be pastors, who teach the common people in the Church, others to be doctors, who in the schools teach the learned, that the sincere doctrine of dogmas may be retained in the Church: such were Heraclas, Pantaenus, Origen, Clement, and others at Alexandria.
Note secondly: Ambrose so adapts this hierarchy of the Church and the orders that exist in the Church, that the Apostles are Bishops, the Prophets are interpreters of sacred Scripture, the Evangelists are deacons, the pastors are readers, who feed the people with the sacred readings, the doctors or teachers are exorcists, who in the Church restrain and chastise the restless. Anselm a little differently: To the Apostles, he says, correspond the Primates and Archbishops, to the Prophets the interpreters of Scripture, to the Evangelists the Deacons, to the pastors the Bishops, to the doctors the Presbyters. But this sense is accommodated, not literal.
Verse 12: For the Perfecting of the Saints, for the Work of the Ministry, for the Edifying of the Body of Christ
12. For the perfecting of the saints. — The Greek καταρτισμόν descends ἀπὸ τοῦ καταρτίζειν, which signifies two things: first, to restore and repair a thing that has collapsed; secondly, to perfect, complete, consummate. According to the former meaning Erasmus and Vatablus translate "for the restoration of the saints," namely that men, having fallen through sin, may be repaired, restored, and recalled to their primeval sanctity. Secondly, better, our Interpreter, Ambrose, and Oecumenius translate it "consummation," that is, completion and perfection of the saints, as if to say: God in the Church gave Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, etc., that the saints and elect in Christ may be filled and perfected both in number and in merits, and so from all the saints as His members the Church, which is the building and house of Christ, may be brought to completion in all its parts, so that nothing be lacking to its fabric, but the whole, in every direction, may be consummated: for to this work of building and consummation of the Church the Apostle has regard, as is clear from what follows, when he subjoins: "Unto the edification of the body of Christ"; whence also Jerome reads: "for the instruction and perfection of the saints": for by "instruction" he does not mean institution and doctrine, but perfection, just as a house is said to be "furnished" with all things when nothing is wanting to it, and it has all its perfection; nevertheless this perfection of hers the Church acquires through instruction properly so called, that is, through doctrine. Hence St. Jerome subjoins: If anyone does not build up the Church of Christ, nor instruct the people subject to him, that the Church of Christ may be constructed out of the people subject, he is not to be called Apostle, nor Prophet, nor Evangelist, nor pastor, nor master.
For the work of the ministry. — Namely, that each Apostle, Prophet, pastor, doctor, may fully and strenuously exercise the work of the ministry entrusted to him; for if one were to do all things, he would not perfectly do each, says Anselm. Hence Vatablus translates "for the work of dispensation," namely, that he may dispense prophecy, the Gospel, doctrine, and other talents entrusted to him by God.
This sentence of Paul presses upon Apostles, pastors, doctors, that they may not grow insolent in their dignity, but consider themselves to be ministers and dispensers of the people, and that their gifts have been given to them not for their own sake, but that they may dispense them to others, and remember that God will exact from them an exact account of the dignity of this dispensation. Hence St. Gregory, homily 9 on the Gospels: "The reading of the Gospel," he says, "admonishes us to consider carefully lest we, who are seen to have received more than others in this world, be more grievously judged thereupon by the Author of the world; for when gifts are increased, the accounts also of the gifts grow; therefore each ought to be the more humble, and the more ready to serve God by reason of his office, the more obligated he sees himself to be in rendering account." See what is said in I Cor. ch. xii.
Unto the edification of the body of Christ. — Of the Church, namely, that she, as the spiritual building of Christ, may rise gradually, and increase in number and in virtues, until at length she is brought to completion, and is filled and consummated in all her parts, with all ornament and perfection. So Anselm.
Verse 13: Until We All Meet Into the Unity of Faith, and of the Knowledge of the Son of God, Unto a Perfect Man, Unto the Measure of the Age of the Fullness of Christ
13. Until we all meet into the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ. — As if to say: These grades, and this hierarchical order of the Church, that some be Apostles, others Prophets, others Evangelists, others pastors and doctors, will remain and endure, until all unbelievers are called to the one faith of Christ and to His Church, that they may believe in Christ the Son of God, and that all whom God foreknew and predestinated to believe may know Him; and until all of us who have believed grow in the knowledge and love of Him to the perfect age and solidity in Christ and Christ's Spirit.
Note: In the verb "we may meet" there is a metaphor taken from those who, having gone forth from different places, come together into one place: for thus from the East the Chinese and Japanese are called, from the South the Africans, from the North the Germans, the Gauls, the Poles, from the West the Mexicans and Peruvians, that they may meet one another in the same faith and spirit, and may come together in the same Christian Church.
Unto a perfect man. — From this passage many have thought that women would rise again not in their own sex, but in the virile, and would be transformed into men, as St. Augustine attests, Bk. XXII On the City [of God], ch. xvii et seq. And this seems to be the opinion of St. Jerome, of Basil on Psalm cxiv, of Hilary on that passage of Matt. xxii: "In the resurrection they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage," etc.; of Athanasius, Sermon 3 Against the Arians, near the end, and others, who say that in the resurrection there will be no diversity of sexes. Among the Scholastics indeed Scotus, in II, dist. xx, expressly teaches that all women, except only the Blessed Virgin, will rise again in the male sex.
His reason is that the female sex is an accident and imperfection of man; in the resurrection however every imperfection will be removed. Again, woman is "an occasioned male," says the Philosopher. Hence in producing woman nature seems to have erred, in such a way that, when she wanted to produce a male as a perfect man, the generative power of the seed failing (because it was not powerful enough to form a male), in place of a male she produced a female: hence indeed (as appears) the woman is called "an occasioned male."
But this is an error, the contrary of which, namely that women shall rise again in their own female sex, St. Augustine teaches in the place cited; Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, ch. lx; Jerome, epistle 61 to Pammachius against the errors of John of Jerusalem, and the Scholastics commonly on IV, dist. xliv. The reason is that in the resurrection the same body in number will rise; therefore it will rise in the same sex. For if the same in number rises, it will have the same accidents and the same individuating conditions, among which not the least, indeed one of the chief, is a certain and determinate sex.
Hence the fundamental argument of Scotus is refuted. For it is false that the female sex is an imperfection: for it is a perfection, though less than the virile; nor is it a vice, but nature and a natural condition. For if it were an imperfection and a vice, it would not have been in paradise and in the state of innocence: but now it is established that God in paradise formed woman from man, Eve from Adam. For woman is necessary for the propagation of offspring, and consequently for the preservation of the human species. Hence it is equally false that woman is an occasioned male, since per se God and nature intend to produce Eve and woman, in order that through male and female the human species may be propagated. In this sense, however, woman could be called an occasioned male, because so Jerome, Theophylact, Ambrose, Oecumenius (interpret). So in 1 Corinthians 13 he says: "When I was a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away the things of a child." There, as also here, "man" signifies not sex, but partly age and partly perfection, manly strength and constancy by catachresis. Therefore, a perfect man is one who is adult, steadfast and robust. Whence, as if explaining Himself, he adds: "Unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ, that henceforth we be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine." Here you see that the perfect man is set in opposition to the wavering child unstable in faith and doctrine; and consequently the "perfect man" is here called him who is constant and perfect in faith and doctrine. As if to say: In the Church some will be Apostles, others pastors and doctors, etc., until all Christians, who have been predestined, meet together in one faith and Church, and in it be no longer infants and children, but adults in the faith and love of Christ, and so in Christ attain the full and perfect spiritual age, that is, perfect understanding, knowledge and love of God.
Secondly, he says "unto a perfect man," not "unto perfect men," because the Apostle is speaking not only of individual Christians and all of them, but still more of the whole Church, and he calls and compares her, and all who are in her, to one perfect man. Hence the Syriac renders: "until we all be one perfect man." For just as in the preceding verse he called the Church the building of Christ, so now, in order to show that this building is not lifeless and of stone, but living and human (for thus the Hebrews call "son" — בן ben — as it were a fabric and building of the father, from the root בנה bana, that is, "he built"), he calls her the body of Christ, the man of Christ, the perfect man of Christ; so that, namely, the Church is the body of this man, and Christ is as it were the soul of the same, or rather the head, as he says in verse 15, on which I have spoken in 1 Corinthians 12:12.
Therefore, just as, when the body and the bodily organs grow, the strength and vigor of the soul grow likewise, and conversely; and again, as, when the body grows, the head grows, and conversely, so that the whole man grows until he attains his proper and consistent age and manly stature: in the same way the Church, in each of her members, that is, in us the faithful, grows and matures in Christ, that is, in Christ's faith, grace and virtues; and in turn Christ matures in us, until the Church attains her proper perfection and as it were manly stature. Hence Clement in the Paedagogus understands by the name "man" Christ Himself, who, as we grow, grows together with us and in us, as it were, into a perfect man. So in Galatians 3:28 he says: "You are one," or, as Chrysostom reads, "one (namely, one civic man) in Christ." Christ therefore is one man and one political body — that is, Christ is one Christian Church. For Christ is, as it were, the hypostasis, soul and life of His Church, as I have said in 1 Corinthians 12. And so all Christians in the Church are, as it were, one — indeed, one civic and political man in Christ. And this is the root of that rule of Ticonius cited by St. Augustine, which teaches that Sacred Scripture attributes to Christ those things which belong to the Church of Christ, and conversely attributes to the Church those things which belong to Christ: as if there were a communication of properties (communicatio idiomatum) between Christ and the Church, just as there is between Christ as man and Christ as God.
You will say: In Matthew 22:30 Christ says, "In the resurrection they shall neither marry, nor be given in marriage, but shall be as the angels of God in heaven." I answer: Christ here only denies that there will be marriages and the use of marriage in heaven, not that there will be women; rather, He sufficiently implies that there will be women in heaven when He says, "Neither shall they marry," namely the men, "nor be given in marriage," namely the women. You will press: Christ adds that they shall be as the angels of God, but the angels lack sex. I answer: They shall be as the angels not as to nature or the privation of sex, but as to purity, and a spiritual, immortal and blessed life. For Christ is opposing this to the marriages which among mortal men are necessary for perpetuating the species, so that the man who dies may continue, as it were immortal, in the son whom he has begotten and leaves alive after him. Whence St. Luke adds: "Neither can they die any more, for they are the sons of God, being sons of the resurrection," as if to say: The saints will be most like God in body and soul, and will belong to the blessed resurrection, and will be immortal; and therefore in heaven they will have no need of marriage or of the use of marriage, which is employed to perpetuate the species and to acquire a kind of immortality.
Note here the Hebraism: among the Hebrews, the word "son," with the genitive of a penalty or reward, signifies one who is guilty or worthy and destined. Thus people are said to be "sons of death, of Gehenna, of the kingdom, of the resurrection," that is, guilty of death and Gehenna, worthy of the kingdom and the resurrection. And this is all that Jerome, Basil, Athanasius and the other Fathers mean when they deny that there will be diversity of sexes in heaven: namely, they deny it with regard to the use, not with regard to the substance. But the Apostle here says nothing of the kind; his meaning is far other, as I shall presently say.
Hence, secondly, others explain this passage thus: "unto a perfect man," as if to say: We shall rise as it were as men, with mature and perfect judgment such as belongs to men, even though in this life we died at a childlike age and judgment. Hence under the name of "man," as the more honorable sex, he includes also women — just as Psalm 1 says: "Blessed is the man (that is, blessed is the man and blessed the woman) who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly." But the Apostle is not here speaking properly of the resurrection, as will presently be clear.
Therefore I say, thirdly: "unto a perfect man" means: that in the faith, knowledge and love of Christ we may not be infants and children, but men, that is, advanced, virile, perfect, constant. So Chrysostom, Note here: the Apostle is speaking of the Church as of a single individual and one unique man, both in order to declare and inculcate that unity to which he has been exhorting the Ephesians from verse 3 down to here, and so that each individual may remember that this doctrine pertains to him personally, and that he in Christ ought to grow into a perfect man, or into a member of the perfect man — so that, as each grows individually, the whole Church may consequently grow into a perfect man, that thus the Church and the stature, proportion and perfection of each of the Church's members may become perfect and consummate. This will come about at the end of the world and at the general resurrection, not before; and so until then this hierarchical order and all these things will endure, that some may discharge the apostolate, others the pastorate, others the office of doctor, etc. For by these things the Church grows, advances and is brought to perfection "unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ."
Note first: by these words he explains the "perfect man" of which I spoke. Secondly, by a Hebraism the phrase "age of fullness" denotes a full and perfect age, namely an adult and manly age. Thirdly, although "age" can here be taken properly, we shall more clearly take it metonymically to mean "stature," which age brings with it and which is wont to belong to manly age: for the Greek ἡλικία, from ἧλιξ (meaning "how great"), denotes both quantity, magnitude and stature, and age. Hence our Latin translator sometimes renders it "stature," as in Matthew 6:27 and Luke 19; and the Syriac here renders it קומתא kometa, that is, stature. As if to say: until we grow up and "all meet unto a perfect man," that is, "unto the measure" and magnitude "of the age," that is, of the stature, "of the fullness," that is, of the full and manly stature, "of Christ," or that which Christ had in His adult and manly age — so that, just as Christ in the 34th year of His age had the proper stature of a man, He may also analogically and proportionally acquire and have the same in us, that is, in the increase and perfection of our faith, grace, spirit and virtues. So Ambrose, Jerome, Chrysostom.
He continues in the metaphor by which, as I have said, he calls the Church one perfect man, whose members are the individual faithful, and whose soul and head is Christ; so that, as the body grows, the head grows, and the soul itself — that is, the extension, force and vigor of the soul — and conversely; that is, as the Church grows, Christ grows in her, and conversely: so that Christ is said to acquire His proper and full stature in us, while we acquire our proper perfection and magnitude in the faith and grace of Christ. For our stature, magnitude and perfection is the stature, magnitude and perfection of Christ, as is clear from what has been said.
It could also, on the strength of "of Christ," be expounded as "in Christ," as if to say: until in Christ, that is, in the faith, grace and body of Christ, which is the Church, we obtain the proper measure and a full and manly stature.
Secondly, Anselm, Gagnaeus, St. Thomas, and the Scholastics on Book IV, distinction XLIV explain it differently, as if to say: until we all rise with a full and perfect measure, magnitude and bodily stature such as Christ had at His full and perfect age — so that, just as Christ in the 34th year of His age had the proper stature of a human body, so also at the resurrection all men, even those who died here in infancy or in childhood, will have the proper magnitude and stature of their own body: not as though we shall all be equal to Christ in bodily stature, but that we shall all have that magnitude and stature which we had, or would have had (if our nature had been vigorous and unimpeded), in the manly age — say, in the 34th year, which was Christ's age and is the established age of man. St. Augustine adduces both this and the preceding explanation, in De Civitate Dei XXII, ch. 15 and the three following chapters, but he prefers the preceding; and without doubt the preceding is plainly the genuine one and according to the Apostle's mind. Yet it can be extended, with the cited authors, to this second sense as well: because that full and perfect spiritual measure and stature of the Church, of which the Apostle is properly speaking here, will exist only at the resurrection, when in equal proportion the Church will have her full and perfect bodily stature — namely, when the Saints who are in the Church will have the proper magnitude and perfection of body just as they have it of soul and spirit.
Beautifully St. Augustine, in De Vera Religione ch. 26, tome X, attributes seven growths and ages to the interior man as well as to the exterior — namely, infancy, boyhood, adolescence, youth, manhood, old age and decrepitude. "This man," he says, "is called the new man, and the interior man, and the heavenly man, having himself a proportion of certain spiritual ages of his own, distinguished not by years but by progress. The first, at the breasts of useful history, which nourishes by examples. The second, already forgetting human things and tending toward the divine, in which one is not held within the bosom of human authority, but leans by the steps of reason on the supreme and unchangeable Law. The third, now more confident, marrying the carnal appetite to the strength of reason, and rejoicing inwardly in a certain conjugal sweetness, when the soul is coupled to the mind and is veiled with the covering of modesty, so that one is no longer compelled to live rightly, but, even if everyone should permit it, would have no pleasure in sinning. The fourth, already doing the same thing much more firmly and in better order, and shining forth into a perfect man, fit and ready to endure and break even all persecutions and the storms and waves of this world. The fifth, peaceful and tranquil on every side, living in the riches and abundance of the unchangeable kingdom, of the supreme and ineffable wisdom. The sixth, of every kind of change into eternal life, and passing, even to the total forgetfulness of the temporal life, into a perfect form, which has been made to the image and likeness of God. For the seventh is now the eternal rest, the perpetual blessedness to be distinguished by no ages: for as the end of the old man is death, so the end of the new man is eternal life. For that man is the man of sin, this one of righteousness."
Verse 14: That We May Now Be No More Children, Tossed to and Fro, and Carried About With Every Wind of Doctrine
14. That we may now be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about (Greek περιφερόμενοι, that is, driven about) with every wind of doctrine, in the wickedness of men. — Behold, here he explains what he had said, namely "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ," as if to say: that we may not be as boys, who are agitated by every wind, every impulse and persuasion, as the Syriac says, and let themselves be snatched away in every direction; but rather that against all the impulses, persuasions and novel dogmas of the Novatores (innovators) we may stand firm, like men constant in the true faith and in the Christian Church. Paul alludes to the Hebrew פתי peti, that is, "a little one and a simpleton," who is persuaded of anything: for the root פתה pata (whence the Greek πείθω) means to advise, persuade, allure, sway, incline.
Note: "in the wickedness of men" means "by the wickedness of men, through wicked and crafty men," that is, through pseudo-apostles and heretics, who make you waver in faith and toss you about with new doctrines. The Greek is ἐν τῇ κυβείᾳ ἀνθρώπων — "in the dice-play, or gambling, of men," that is, in the trickery customary among crafty dice-players, which St. Augustine above called "illusion" and our translator calls "wickedness." For κυβεύειν means "to play with dice or knucklebones," a game in which skill is needed and the player tries to outwit his fellow if he can, since he aims only at his own advantage. Hence κυβεία, that is, "gambling," signifies craftiness, deceitful artifice, and an artificer of fraud, says Erasmus. Theophylact says he therefore compares the false teachers to fraudulent dice-players who shift the doctrine of faith back and forth, like dice and knucklebones, to win the applause of men. So the sense is: that we may not be carried about with every wind of doctrine, wherever wicked and veteran tricksters may push us.
Therefore first, by the metaphor of dice and dice-players, he marks the uncertainty of heresy and of heretics.
Secondly, he notes their inconstancy and desultory fickleness — in that they cast, as it were, the dice over the faith, and change their doctrine as at the throw of the dice, in order to gratify these or those parties, or to indulge their own brain's inventions, fantasies and new dreams; and they do this with such art that they can only be detected and refuted by sharp-eyed observers — just as expert dice-players so dexterously turn the dice that they deceive the comrade with whom they play, and scarcely anyone notices. So in our age Luther, Philip (Melanchthon), Calvin and the other Novatores have repeatedly changed their catechisms, institutes and confessions within a few years, and have published and devised other and even contrary dogmas; whence those who follow them are driven about by them with every wind of doctrine. So that George, Duke of Saxony, when asked by Catholics what his Lutherans believed, deservedly answered: "What they believe now, I know; what they will believe next year, I have no idea." St. Hilary teaches the same thing about the Arians in his book to the emperors Constantius and Constans: "It is dangerous and even wonderful to us," he says, "that there now exist as many faiths as there are wills; that we have as many doctrines as customs; and that there spring up as many causes of blasphemy as there are vices, while the faith we have heard is either written as we please, or interpreted as we please. So a great many faiths have begun to be, that there may be none; nay rather, faiths concerning God are being decreed yearly and monthly, and old things are subverted by new ones," and so on.
Thirdly, by means of "dice" and "dice-players," as Chrysostom, Theophylact and Vatablus understand it, the Apostle marks the frauds of false teachers, by which through their captious arguments and flattering speech they cover their heresies and errors, substitute them in place of articles of faith, and lure the common people into them. Whence follows:
By craftiness unto the deceit of error, — namely, that by craftily circumventing and deceiving the simple and the unwary, they may lead them into error. For "circumvention" the Greek has μεθοδείαν, that is, snares of deception and insidious wiles. St. Augustine above renders it "machinations"; for μεθοδεύειν means to fall upon a man on the road stealthily and from ambush. All these things, however, amount to enormous wickedness, as our translator rightly renders — not word for word, but giving and translating the sense. Secondly, for "of error" the Greek has πλάνης, that is, "of imposture," so that by their imposture they may circumvent and deceive the simple — as if to say: These Novatores are impostors; with their impostures they are trying to impose on everyone.
Verse 15: But Doing the Truth in Charity, We May in All Things Grow Up in Him Who Is the Head, Even Christ
15. But doing the truth. — Ἀληθεύοντες δέ, that is, "but pursuing the truth." So Vatablus.
Note: There is a fourfold truth. The first is the truth of the mind, by which the mind and its conception and judgment are conformed to the object and the thing, and the mind so conceives and so judges of it as the thing really is in itself; to this is opposed falsity, by which the mind judges of a thing otherwise than the thing is in itself.
The second truth is that of the mouth, that is, veracity, by which our speech is conformed to the mind and intention, so that the mouth speaks what the mind really thinks and intends, and the tongue answers to the mind. To this is opposed lying, by which we speak one thing and think or intend another. And this truth is twofold: one assertoric, by which we assert what is true; the other promissory, which is the fidelity by which we perform what we have promised. Both these truths, of the mouth as well as of the mind, are as it were formal.
Hence the third truth is the objective truth — namely, the truth of doctrine and of faith, by which the doctrine and faith are in themselves true, so that, if you assent to it and teach it, you assent to the truth and teach the truth.
The fourth is the truth of actions and of life, which is nothing other than the rectitude and conformity by which our actions answer to their rule — namely, are conformed to the true practical judgment, to reason, to the law, to the will of God, and to the prescription of virtue. So this truth is the debt and duty of each person, that is, what is fitting for each to do; and to it is opposed depravity and sin, which deviates from and is at variance with reason and law. Thus it is said in John 8:44, "He (namely the devil) was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth," that is, did not stand in the integrity and rectitude of the nature in which he had been created; he did not remain in his rank and office; he did not do what was equitable, right and just; he did not do what it became an angel and a creature so wise and noble to do — namely, to acknowledge, worship, and submit himself to his Creator, and give Him thanks for such great gifts in himself; whence consequently he fell from the truth, as is plain from this, that now "there is no truth in him," and that "he is a liar, and the father thereof," that is, of lying. For the abstract noun lies tacitly hidden and contained in the concrete "liar": and so the Hebrews often refer their relatives to an antecedent not expressed but tacit and latent in another word which they did express. So elsewhere in Scripture "truth" is often taken in this sense — as when in the Psalms it is so often said that all the works of the Lord are true or are truth: for the sense is, the works of the Lord are upright, equitable, just and holy.
Here the Apostle understands partly the third truth, namely the truth of doctrine: for he sets it over against the error which preceded, as if to say: Do not follow the errors of the Novatores and impostors, but pursue the true faith and doctrine. He understands it partly also of the fourth: for he wants us not only to believe and teach the truth, but also to do it, as our translator renders — namely, that we should live as Christians according to our faith, and express the truth of doctrine by the truth and rectitude of our life. Whence he says: "But doing the truth," that is, performing the duties owed to Christianity, "in charity," that is, through charity and works of charity; "we may grow up," αὐξήσωμεν — increase; Vatablus, "grow to maturity"; others, "grow great"; Theophylact, "may we grow," namely "both in good works and in faith, both in holy life and in dogmas." So too Chrysostom, who maintains that a triple growth is here signified.
First, that by which the body achieves growth, while the spirit works in the individual members according to the measure and need of each member. Secondly, that by which the individual members receive their growth from the supply of the spirit. Thirdly, that by which the spirit itself is increased, as flowing from the head it passes through all the members, touching and joining each one; for this is what he says: "Let us grow in Him in all things," namely in (all) members. Again, "in all things" — that is, in every direction, in length, breadth, depth, with every increase, namely in all gifts, graces and virtues: for as charity grows, all the gifts and virtues in a person grow likewise.
Note, "in Him," namely in Christ; whence, explaining himself, he adds: "Who is the head, Christ." For by a Hebraism the antecedent "in Him" is redundant; in proper Latin he should have said: "Let us grow up in Christ, who is the head." For Christ, as the head, pours into the individual members of the whole body — that is, of the Church — grace and the power of growing and increasing; so that this body and each of its members grow in Christ, that is, by the power and influx of Christ their head; and conversely Christ, as the head in the Church, is as it were in His own body. For while the Church grows, Christ as it were grows — that is, the influx, faith, grace, operation, glory and kingdom of Christ. He plainly explains this in the following verse.
Verse 16: From Whom the Whole Body, Being Compacted and Fitly Joined Together, Maketh Increase of the Body Unto the Edifying of Itself in Charity
16. From whom (namely Christ the head) the whole body (of the Church) being compacted (συναρμολογούμενον, that is, knit together and joined: for from the head all the members are joined together, and descend through their joinings. So from Christ all Christians — French, Spanish, Belgians, Italians, as well as Africans, Syrians, Indians — descend and are knit together into one body, the Church) and fitly joined together (so that, namely, member may cleave to member, faithful to faithful, by the same faith and spirit, and from all may be made one body, namely the Church) by every joint (that is, the connection by which one member is committed and joined to another. For the Greek ἁφή signifies the mutual contacts of the limbs at the place where they are joined. Whence St. Augustine above reads "by every contact") of supply (that is, by every joint that supplies — namely the animal and vital spirits — that is, by the mutual union by which the spirit and grace of Christ our head are ministered to us), according to the operation (κατ' ἐνέργειαν — by virtue and efficacy acting and operating from within. Understand the power of Christ, who, like the head, pours in and quickens each member) in the measure of each member (that is, according to the manner, measure and need of each member, so that the individual members — namely, the individual faithful — according to their nature, state and condition, may receive from the power of the quickening soul, that is, from the grace and spirit of Christ, their proper measure and increase: and so) maketh increase of the body (supply: the body itself; for this subject, supposed since the beginning of this verse, demands the verb "maketh." It is a Hebraism: "the body makes increase of the body," that is, of itself — as if to say: this body, namely the Church, builds and perfects itself, so that the whole grows equally — yet uniformly-disformly, as the Philosophers say: because, namely, the individual members grow not equally but proportionally, and that according to its nature and condition. For although, for example, the foot and the arm grow absolutely more than the eyes, yet the eyes grow proportionally as much as the foot and the arm) unto the building up of itself (that it may build itself, complete and perfect this body, which is the Church) in charity, — that is, through charity, as if to say: Charity is that joining or junction of the members through which nourishment, spirit, vitality, and the power of growth is supplied to each member, so that as each member grows, the whole body of the Church may grow, be built up, and perfected.
Note first: This charity is the union to which from verse 3 to this point he has been exhorting the Ephesians. Therefore, just as one member cannot share in the common nourishment and growth in the body unless it is united to the other members and the whole body, so a believer cannot share in the common spirit, grace, and increase of the Church unless he adheres to the other believers and the whole Church through union and charity. For just as the joining or junction of the limbs supplies each member, so charity supplies to each believer the common spirit, vigor, and life of the body, that is, of the Church. So Chrysostom. Secondly, and better, charity here is not taken as the joining, but as the soul of the Church, as I shall presently show.
Note secondly, with St. Jerome, that this body is called the Church, and ought to be compacted: for if a member be divided from it and severed through schism, it will receive no vigor or spirit from the body. Again, it ought to be connected, namely so that each member stands in its place, connection, and order. For if the foot be dislocated, so that it goes outside its joint and bone, it pains both itself and the whole body: so if anyone, having abandoned his rank, office, or station, invades another's, he brings no profit but much trouble both upon himself and upon others. So Chrysostom.
Note thirdly: When it is said "the joint of supply," the word of supply can be taken both actively and passively. First, passively, so that it signifies the joint supplied, that is, furnished to each member by the whole body and by the head; or so that the joint of supply is the joint of the members to which the common spirit, vigor, and life of the body is supplied, as if he were saying, says Chrysostom: The members of the body, if they receive according to their own measure the necessary supply of nourishment and spirits, will grow accordingly; or the spirit infused from the brain and supplied to each member according to its capacity produces increase, first of the member itself, then consequently of the whole body.
Secondly, and more significantly, it is taken actively, so that "the joint of supply" is the joint supplying through the veins and arteries both the influx of the heart, namely the vital spirits and the blood; and the mutual cooperation and assistance, by which through the joining one member, bound to another, fosters and helps it in all things, so that while each one supplies its own part, faculty, and operation, and in some way contributes its own token to the common store, the other members also share in it from there, and the whole body grows and is perfected; and most of all the influx of the head and its animal spirits necessary for motion, sensation, and life. For in this way Christ, as our head, pours into us motion, sensation, and spiritual life through the joints, that is, through the mutual union by which one member is joined and subordinated to another, that is, one believer to another, both through the internal union of souls and through the external union, communion, and communication in the same Sacraments, sacrifices, prayers, sermons, readings, and assemblies. For to this external union belongs all society, instruction, and edification of one's neighbors, by which we are advanced in spirit and piety by mutual examples, exhortations, counsels, prayers, etc.
In charity. — Note: Of this political body, which the Apostle is here treating, the head is Christ, the body itself is the Church, the members are the individual faithful, the joining is the mutual union and communication of the faithful, the soul is faith and charity, and the vital and animal spirits are the prevenient and exciting graces, which descend from the brain, that is, from Christ, and are breathed into each member, that is, into each of the faithful. Hence secondly, although Chrysostom and some others apply charity in this body to the joint, as if the Apostle were explaining what he said, "through every joint," by what he adds, "in charity," that is, through charity, as if to say: The charity I have spoken of is that joint, which supplies all the spirit of the body to all the members, and joins and adds member to member, so that it may thus be expanded and grow, and that the body of Christ, which is the Church, may be filled with all its members, that is, with all the faithful. But others better take the "joint" to be the mutual union, concord, and communication; while they consider charity to be the soul of this body, that is, of the Church, for this is what the Apostle's words clearly mean: "He says, the increase of the body makes for the building up of itself in charity." Where the Syriac translates, unto the increase of the body itself, whose edifice is perfected by charity.
For no other soul of this body, namely of the Church, can be imagined than faith and charity: nor is there any part in this body more noble than charity. Whence in the preceding verse the Apostle said: "In charity let us grow in Christ, who is the head, in all things." Therefore charity, as it were the soul, makes us grow in Christ, so that as charity grows, the whole man grows in Christ, and as individuals in this way grow in faith and charity, the whole body of the Church grows, as if to say: See therefore, O Ephesians, that you zealously cultivate, preserve, and increase the mutual union to which I have been exhorting you from the beginning of this chapter up to this point, that through it you may become partakers of the spirit of Christ and of the Church, and that you may grow in faith and charity, so that as each one grows, the whole Church may grow and be perfected.
For the magnitude, advancement, increase, and perfection of each believer, and consequently of the whole Church, lies in the advancement, increase, and perfection of faith and charity, and consequently of the other virtues which accompany charity: so that, as much as each believer advances in the acts of faith and charity, and consequently in the habits of the same, his spiritual magnitude grows that much; and as much as all the faithful grow in the same, the magnitude of the whole Church grows and is perfected by that much.
You will say: If charity is the spirit and soul of the Church, then sinners who lack charity are not members and parts of the Church: for a part which is not informed by the form of the body, and in living things a part which is not animated by the soul of the body, is not a part and member of the body.
By way of response, note that the Church is, as it were, a civil and political man, and has its own soul and its own body. The body of the Church is the faithful themselves, who externally and visibly profess the same faith of Christ, and who together with the same visible head, namely the Roman Pontiff, who on earth is Christ's vicar, communicate in the same Sacraments, sacrifices, doctrine, governance, and polity. For this is the exterior form of the body of the Church, inasmuch as it is a visible commonwealth. And thus presbyters and Bishops, who are secretly heretics, as long as they retain this external profession of the true faith and the aforesaid communication of the Church, are members of the same body and commonwealth, adhere to it, and retain the jurisdiction which they received in the Church. The soul of this body, namely of the Church, is faith; so that whoever has faith lives by the soul of the Church.
There is, however, another more noble and more perfect soul of the Church, namely charity. For just as the embryo first lives by the sensitive soul, and is said to be alive and sentient before it lives by the rational soul: so a believer through faith first lives, and is truly a living part of the Church, even though he does not yet have charity; but with this once possessed, he lives with a far nobler soul and life. For as much as the rational soul exceeds the sensitive, so much does charity exceed faith. And of this second form Paul speaks here and from time to time elsewhere, so that he calls only the Saints endowed with charity the body and Church of Christ: not as if he wished to exclude from it the faithful who are in sin, but because the saints who excel in charity are the most perfect members and body of Christ, and have the most perfect form and soul of the Church, and live the life of grace, which is the most perfect life of Christ; while the other faithful, who lack charity, are indeed members of Christ, but more imperfect ones, inasmuch as they live only by the soul of faith. As therefore in a man some members exercise only the offices of the sensitive soul, while one head alone exercises the offices of the rational soul, so that the head alone can rightly be called the body of the rational soul, by which it is rational and uses reason: so faithful sinners exercise the offices of faith, and are members of the Church, which is nothing else than the assembly and congregation of the faithful; but only the Saints exercise the offices of charity, which is, as it were, the rational soul and the most perfect life of Christ and of the Church: and from this only these are said by Paul to be the body (that is, the Church) of Christ, understand the most noble and most perfect.
Hence again the Church is said to be holy, namely because its noblest part, which is that of the just, is holy, on which see again the next chapter, verse 27.
Verse 17: This Then I Say, and Testify in the Lord, That You Walk Not as Also the Gentiles Walk in the Vanity of Their Mind
17. This therefore I say and testify in the Lord (μαρτύρομαι, that is, I testify and adjure through the Lord), that ye no longer walk (conduct yourselves) as the Gentiles also walk (conduct themselves) in the vanity of their mind, — τοῦ νοὸς αὐτῶν, that is, of their mind. For the mind in a man and in the soul holds the primacy, and rules and directs the rest: and therefore if the mind is corrupt and given to vanity, the other faculties of the soul and the whole man must of necessity be corrupted and become vain. Thus we see the merchant, who in mind and soul thinks and seeks nothing but profits, wholly occupied with gold and silver; thus the drunkard, who in his mind reflects on and thinks not of God, not of heaven, but of his cups, wholly occupied with wine and drinking parties, thinking, fantasizing, dreaming, and speaking of nothing else; thus the proud man in honors, the lewd man in lusts, the wrathful man in vengeance, and so on for the rest. Therefore the Apostle signifies that the Gentiles, because they treated nothing but vain things in their minds, devoted themselves entirely to vanity, and occupied themselves with vain things and goods.
Verse 18: Having Their Understanding Darkened, Being Alienated From the Life of God Through the Ignorance That Is in Them, Because of the Blindness of Their Hearts
18. Having their understanding darkened. — This is the source of the vanity of the Gentiles, namely that they have their understanding, in Greek διανοίαν, that is, their thought, darkened by infidelity and the other practical errors which follow from it, namely so that they neither acknowledge God nor Christ, but think wooden and stone idols are gods, worship demons, and at the suggestion and instinct of demons think that fornication, drunkenness, thefts, and robberies are not sins. For thus, with the understanding corrupted — as it were the guide and light of man — it is necessary that the appetite and all the actions of the man be corrupted, so that he freely fornicates, steals, and gets drunk, while he thinks these are not sins, or at any rate small ones.
Alienated from the life of God (from that mode of living which God instituted, commanded, and declared pleasing and acceptable to Himself, and that) through ignorance, — namely because they are ignorant of God, of God's law, and of His will.
On account of the blindness of their heart, — In Greek πώρωσιν, on account of the blinding. It could also be translated, on account of the hardening; or, as Ambrose has it, the hardness of their heart: and thus this part is distinguished from what precedes, lest the Apostle repeat the same thing, as if to say: in the Gentiles, just as it is darkened through ignorance the understanding: so consequently the heart, that is, the appetite, has been hardened by the bad habit of living, and has acquired a callus (for πῶρος means callus). Hence, as follows, they have rushed headlong into desperation, insensibility, and every abyss of crimes.
Verse 19: Who, Despairing, Have Given Themselves Up to Lasciviousness, Unto the Working of All Uncleanness, Unto Covetousness
19. Who despairing, — namely of salvation and of the way of virtue and beatitude. Our Interpreter, and with him the Syriac, reads ἀπηλπικότες: for ἐλπίζω is the same as "I hope"; ἀπελπίζω the same as "I despair", as if to say: Since the Gentiles did not believe, nor hope, that the soul is immortal, that God is the avenger of evils and rewarder of goods, that the Saints are to be blessed with eternal life, and supposed that there remained no other punishments or rewards after this life, they boldly and as it were with impunity gave themselves over to pleasures and lusts. Hence Erasmus also judges that this reading fits this passage excellently, namely that we should read "despairing": since those who despair that there is any other life after the death of the body most greedily snatch the pleasures of this life and gorge themselves on them, as if, once these are lost, they would have nothing pleasant.
But the Greek now has ἀπηλγηκότες, and so Jerome, Chrysostom, and the Greeks read, that is, "past feeling"; insensible, and, as St. Jerome translates, "painless," namely those who have ceased to grieve, and who have lost every sense of pain: for ἀλγέω means "to feel pain"; ἀπαλγέω, "to lay aside and lose pain": which the Comic poet calls "to suffer through to the end"; Ovid, "to grieve no more": "He, says he, was the best avenger, who broke the chains hurting his breast, and grieved out his grief once for all."
That is, one who once for all has laid aside and cast off every sense of pain (for thus a pot is said to have ceased boiling when it has stopped seething, and so a man is said to have lost his senses when he has ceased to be wise), which Cicero calls "to draw a callus over pain": "Habit," he himself says to Varro, "has now drawn a callus over my stomach." Therefore just as habit induces, as it were, a callus on the senses, so that they do not feel the disease and pain to which they have grown accustomed: so it also induces a callus on the soul, so that it does not feel the remorse or pain in the sins to which it has grown accustomed. And so from the habit and impudence of sinning there arises in the soul ἀπαλγησία, that is, insensibility or non-grieving, by which the soul has so become deaf and hardened in evils that it does not feel sins, so that when it sins it loses all remorse of conscience, and as if its conscience were amputated, it does not repent, does not grieve at anything; but like a brute, rushes headlong into whatever it pleases, however shameful and abominable, and delights and glories in it, says Jerome. Therefore, since insensibility arises from the habit of sinning, and the habit of sinning arises from desperation and is connected with it: hence both are true, namely both that the Gentiles, despairing, and that they, past feeling, in their paganism gave themselves up to all uncleanness. See into what abyss desperation, and the liberty and habit of sinning, lead a man.
They have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to the working of all uncleanness, to covetousness. — St. Ambrose reads: to the working of all uncleanness and covetousness, and takes the name "covetousness" properly, as if to say: The Gentiles, not having the hope of a future life, gave themselves to all uncleanness and covetousness, that they might insatiably desire and invade what belongs to others. But the Greek is εἰς ἐργασίαν ἀκαθαρσίας πάσης, ἐν πλεονεξίᾳ, that is, as Our Translator renders, "to the working of all uncleanness, with covetousness;" or, as it is in Greek, in covetousness. Here note that covetousness is here attributed to uncleanness, and pertains not to a desire for wealth, but to lust and luxury, says Jerome: for in Greek it is not φιλαργυρία, but πλεονεξία, which Vatablus and Erasmus translate "greediness"; Theophylact, "immoderate concupiscence." Properly and literally πλεονεξία is an excessive desire of having, whether this desire be of wealth, of honors, of lusts (as it is here), or of other pleasures, as if the Apostle were saying: The Gentiles, who have no hope of another life, with insatiable greediness and desire, or most greedily and lustfully (for it is a Hebraism: "to covetousness," that is, most greedily and lustfully), work all uncleanness and are borne to it with full impetus; just as covetous merchants are wholly carried away into profit, so as to contend over it, and each strives to snatch it away from another and to excel all others in profit and wealth: so these Gentiles are driven so greedily and intemperately into unclean pleasures, that each strives to snatch them from others and to surpass another in them, so that their lust has no limit, because they wish to enjoy the pleasures of this life and to fill themselves with them and to be made happy by them, since they do not expect any others.
Therefore covetousness here signifies the greedy desire of lust and pleasures, which is always opposed to temperance and continence: and sometimes also to justice, as when someone, not content with his own wife, invades another's, and not one but many, in order to avoid satiety of pleasure and to remove its tedium by changing persons. And this is πλεονεξία, concerning which 1 Thessalonians 4:3: "This, he says, is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel (his wife) in sanctification and honor: not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles who know not God; and that no one overreach or circumvent (in Greek πλεονεκτεῖν, the same as here) his brother in business (so as to secretly court and solicit his wife), because the Lord is the avenger of all these things."
Verse 20: But You Have Not So Learned Christ
20. But you have not so learned Christ, — Christ, that is, the doctrine of Christ, or Christianity. For "Christ" is taken for the things adjoined to Christ, according to Canon 37, as if to say: This you have not learned in the doctrine of Christ, you have not been so taught in Christianity, namely so as to live luxuriously as the Gentiles do. So Jerome and Anselm; to learn Christ, says Jerome, is to learn the temperance, wisdom, and virtue of Christ; and Theophylact: To learn Christ, he says, is to live rightly: for those who live wickedly are ignorant of Christ; "for God," as the Apostle says elsewhere, "they confess that they know, but in deeds deny Him."
Verse 21: If So Be That You Have Heard Him and Have Been Taught in Him, as the Truth Is in Jesus
21. If so be that you have heard Him. — The little word "if" is not that of one doubting, but of one affirming, in this place, as also in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1, verse 6: "If so be (that is, since indeed) it is just with God to repay tribulation to those who afflict you." So Chrysostom, as if the Apostle were saying: Just as you have certainly heard and learned Christ and the doctrine of Christ.
And have been taught in Him (namely in Christ and in the school and discipline of Christ).
As the truth is in Jesus, — as if to say: As truth, that is, as it is true, through Jesus, namely I swear. So Vatablus, for the preposition "in" among the Hebrews is a particle of swearing: "in Jesus," that is, through Jesus, whom I attest and swear by. For thus we swear when we say: By God, By my soul.
But the Syriac better translates: if so be that you have heard and learned how great the truth is in Jesus. So also Vatablus, almost: if so be, he says, that you have been taught what the truth of Jesus' own doctrine is, which teaches that the former conversation must be put off, as follows; as if to say: If so be that you have been taught that doctrine which is truth, and the true doctrine "in Jesus," that is, of Jesus Christ (for "in" among the Hebrews signifies the rule of the genitive: in the Lord, that is, of the Lord; in Christ, that is, of Christ). Or more plainly: if so be that you have been taught so truly, as we are taught the truth by Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Or thirdly, as others have it: if so be that you have been taught in the same way as those are taught who truly and seriously know Jesus and the doctrine of Jesus. For thus the Greek καθώς, which Our Translator renders "as," is conveniently explained. This sense of the Syriac, then, fits both the Greek phrase and Paul's style well, and is most aptly connected with what precedes.
Fourthly, it can be taken here with St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Anselm, as the truth both of life and of doctrine, of which I spoke at verse 15, as if to say: "As truth is in Christ," that is, as in Christ and in the school of Christ, namely the Church, we are taught to live only truly, that is, justly, piously, soberly, and chastely. Whence from St. Chrysostom Theophylact says: "But when he says, As the truth is, understand this thus: that not, as the Gentiles walk about in vanity, so also are you composed and prepared to the same vain things. For the things of Christ, both as doctrines and as life, are not vanity, but truth: but sin is vanity and a lie, as that which lacks substance and subject, and has no perfection. But virtue is truth, as that which subsists and has perfection and an end. But what have you been taught? And what is truth according to Christ? Namely, that we should cast off the old man, that is, the manners of our former life and conversation."
Verse 22: To Put Off, According to Former Conversation, the Old Man, Who Is Corrupted According to the Desires of Error
22. To put off. — Theophylact, Vatablus, and others refer this to "you have been taught," as if to say: You have been taught by Christ to put off the old man.
Secondly, it can be a Grecism and Hebraism, by which through an enallage of moods the infinitive is placed for the imperative, "to put off," that is, put ye off: for thus our Interpreter renders the following infinitives in the Greek, ἀνανεοῦσθαι καὶ ἐνδύσασθαι, by imperatives: "be renewed" and "put ye on."
Thirdly, and best in keeping with the manner and spirit of Paul, refer "to put off" to verse 17: "This therefore I say and testify, to put off," that is, that you put off the old man. For often the Apostle, and especially in this epistle, is carried away by the abundance of matter and the force of his spirit, so that he turns the discourse he had begun in another direction, and after a long parenthesis returns to himself and to the discourse he had begun. Thus we saw him do in chapter 3, where the first verse is left hanging and is completed at verse 14. For thus when in verse 17 the Apostle was thinking to immediately attach this verse 22, he was carried away into the vanity of the Gentiles, of which he had made mention in verse 17, in order to explain their blindness and shamefulness, until verse 22, where he returns to the sentence begun at verse 17.
To put off, according to (that is, in respect of) the former conversation, the old man. — As if to say: I say, and desire that you put off the old man, not as to nature and substance, but as to the former habit of living, lusting, and sinning. Whence the Syriac, rendering not the words but the sense, plainly translates: "that you put off from yourselves your former conversations, that old man, I say, who is corrupted by the lusts of error."
The old man. — Note: "The old man" is the old life and manners of a sinful man, which he drew from the old or first Adam, namely the old habits of lusting, of following his lusts, and of sinning. For such as the life of the old Adam in sinning was, such also is the life of those who, sprung from him, have drawn from him that old leaven of concupiscence. Or, more properly and elegantly, the old man is the man himself, who once a Gentile and sinner, and as it were having put on and imitated the old Adam the first-formed, was following his old lusts and ingrained depraved habits, as will appear more clearly in the following verse.
Who is corrupted according to the desires of error. — Namely because the lusts, while a man indulges them, corrupt and destroy body and soul, says Theophylact. Secondly and properly, the old man is corrupted and has corrupted the integrity of the first Adam and of man, who was created, as follows, in the justice and holiness of truth: this old man already mentioned, being thus corrupted, is corrupted day by day more and more, and grows old, while he continues to follow the desires of error, that is, the carnal lusts which are erroneous and contrary to reason, or the deceptive cupidities. Hence St. Jerome notes that the Apostle does not say "the old man" who has been corrupted, but "who is being corrupted," because through every hour and moment he is corrupted more and more, and degenerates from a man and human life into a brutal and brute one.
He adds thirdly that, according to Theophylact, the old man is here said to be corrupted because, just as the old man himself, so also these lusts of his are dissolved and perish by disease, old age, and death. But the second sense is the genuine one; for the Apostle adds: "Who is corrupted according to the desires of error"; therefore by his own desires and lusts, not by death or old age, is this old man corrupted.
Verse 23: And Be Renewed in the Spirit of Your Mind
23. Be renewed (ἀνανεοῦσθαι, that is, to be renewed, in the infinitive, which depends on verse 17, as I have said, as if to say: I say to be renewed, that is, that you be renewed, which Our Translator plainly renders "be renewed") in the spirit of your mind, — that is, by that vivifying power of grace and spirit instilled in our minds, by which the Holy Spirit regenerates us and transforms us into new men, namely Christians and saints. It is the same as what he said in Romans 12:2: "Be reformed in the newness of your sense"; whence, explaining, he adds here:
Verse 24: And Put On the New Man, Who According to God Is Created in Justice and Holiness of Truth
24. And put ye on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth. — Here note first: by "the new man" he understands Christ, as Jerome and Anselm; or more simply Adam newly and freshly created by God, as follows, in grace, innocence, and justice, whom Christ, growing old through sin, has renewed and restored to the first new man, as he had been created by God, and in baptism and penance has, as it were, stripped off the old Adam from us, and clothed us again with the new, when He restored to us the new grace, innocence, and holiness of the first and new Adam.
Note secondly the Apostle's phrase: he here places two men contrary to one another, and says we put them on, so that while we put off one, we put on the other. With a similar phrase he says we put on Christ, as I have said on Romans 13:14. Just therefore as we put off an old garment in order to put on a new one: so we put off the old man, that is, the habits and vices of the old Adam, in order to put on the new man, that is, the new manners restored by the new Adam created in grace and by Christ's renewal — namely Christian purity and holiness.
Note thirdly: As we are said to put on Christ, so also to put on Adam: Adam, I say, not as he was a particular person, but as he was the parent and head of all his posterity. For thus the new man was created, and received the newness of grace and holiness, not for himself only, but also for all his posterity; which newness and new man, if he had not sinned, he would have transmitted to all his posterity. Thus, then, the Apostle here speaks of the new man, as also of the old, as a kind of abstract universal and common, which each one of us can and ought to put on, and which is communicated to individuals after the manner of a Platonic idea. For thus Plato held that the idea of man is communicated to this man, that man, and to any other particular man, and communicates to him his being-as-a-man, so that through it each particular man becomes a man; so through this new man, as it were abstract and universal, each particular Christian is a new man, as the Apostle speaks; not that there is truly any universal man after the manner of a Platonic idea, but that this newness of the new man may be signified as common, and as communicated to individual Christians, that they may be renewed through it. For this new man (that is, the newness of the new man already mentioned) was given to Adam, that through him as the head of the human race it might be communicated to all his posterity: but with him sinning, this new man was given to Christ, that through Christ as parent it might be communicated to all Christians. Hence Christ in Isaiah 9 is called "the father of the future (new) age," and of Him the Sibyl sings:
A great order of ages is born anew from the start, / Now a new generation is sent down from high heaven. / Do thou but for the boy now being born, with whom the iron race shall first cease, / And throughout the whole world a golden race (of Christians) shall arise, / Show favor, chaste Lucina. / He shall receive the life of God, and shall see / Heroes mingled with gods, and Himself shall be seen by them.
Note fourthly: "Be renewed" and "put on" signify that we, even though we have been renewed, regenerated, and clothed in baptism, nevertheless ought daily to renew ourselves more and to put on more newness, and more to put off and strip away the old man (that is, concupiscence), which is so innate in us and clings to us that it cannot in this life be entirely put off and wholly renewed. Therefore the Apostle wishes that every Christian should daily more and more mortify and extirpate the old bad habits, vices, and propensities to evil which each one feels in himself; and graft into his soul the contrary virtues of Christ and of the first and new Adam, renew them, and increase them through fervor and zeal in advancing and perfecting himself. "For the mind," says St. Gregory, in book 22 of the Moralia, chapter 4, "while it is fired by the flame of love, ever preserves in itself the splendor of beauty, by the daily renewal of fervor. For the mind that ever, through desire, strives to begin afresh, knows not how to grow old." See what was said on Romans 12:2. Beautifully also Jerome here: "Put on the new man, that is, he says, as he says in another place (Romans 13), put on Jesus Christ. He, indeed, is the new man, with whom all believers ought to be clothed and dressed. For what was there in the man whom our Savior assumed that was not new? Conception, nativity, birth, infancy, doctrine, life, virtues, and at last the cross and the passion, despoiling in it the principalities and powers and exposing the contrary forces to public shame, His resurrection also and ascent to heaven. This therefore was truly created in the justice and holiness of truth, because He was true God, Son of the true God, and in Him all religion and the justice of God was completed in truth. He, therefore, who can imitate His conversation, and express in himself all the virtues, so as to be meek, as He was meek and humble of heart; and lay down his soul for his friends, as He laid it down for His sheep; when struck, not strike back, when cursed, not curse, but conquer pride by humility: that man has put on the new man, and can say with the Apostle: I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me."
Who according to God is created. — The Greek κατά, that is "according to," corresponds to the Hebrew כ kaph, which is the sign of likeness and assimilation, by which an image is assimilated to its exemplar, from which it is expressed; as if to say: Put on the new man, who has been created according to the exemplar of God. For he alludes to Genesis, chapter 1, verse 26: "Let us make man to our image and likeness."
Whence the question is here asked, in what this image of God in man consists. Oleaster on Genesis 1, and Eugubinus in his Cosmopœia, think that God, when He created man, put on a human form, so that He might create man according to it and its likeness. But this is frigid and Judaic.
Note therefore first that "image" is here taken metonymically for the exemplar from which the image is expressed, and which it refers to and represents. As if God were saying: Let us make man according to our exemplar, that he may be an image expressed from us and our nature as from an exemplar, and one which refers to and represents our divinity. Yet secondly, "image" can here be taken properly, if you explain it through a Hebraism thus: "Let us make man unto an image," that is, that he may be an image of us, which expresses and represents us as its exemplar.
Note secondly: many distinguish "image and likeness"; but I say it is a hendiadys, as if to say: Let us make man unto the image of our likeness (as the Wise Man speaks, Wisdom 2:23), that is, unto an image very similar, or most similar, to us. Hence Sacred Scripture sometimes uses one, sometimes the other, sometimes both; so that sometimes it says man was created to the image of God, sometimes to the likeness, sometimes to the image and likeness: as appears in Genesis 5:1; Ecclesiasticus 17:1; Colossians 3:10. Whence it is gathered that image is not distinguished from likeness.
Note thirdly: This image of God is not in the man alone, as Theodoret would have it, but also in the angel and in the woman. For just as Eve, of women and angels, so Adam, of men, were created to the image of God, as St. Augustine teaches at length in book 12 of On the Trinity, chapter 7, and St. Basil in homily 10 of the Hexaemeron.
I say therefore: This image of God is situated in the mind of man, or in this, that man is in the highest grade of things, in which are God and the angel, namely that he is of an intelligent nature, that is, a rational animal. From which six excellent properties of man arise and follow, in some one of which, or another, the Fathers place this image of God in man: they place it, I say, not fully and adequately, but partially and incompletely. The first is, that man has an incorporeal and individual soul: the second, that the soul of man is immortal; the third, that the same is endowed with intellect, will, and memory; the fourth, that he is of free will; the fifth, that he is capable of wisdom, virtue, grace, beatitude, and the vision of God, and of every good, as Nyssen says; the sixth, that he can be set over and rule all the animals. Whence when God had created all other things, He said: "Let us make man," as it were the king of created things, that he may rule over them:
An animal more holy than these and more capable of a lofty mind was still lacking, and one which could rule over the rest: man was born.
To which add a seventh: as in God all things and all grades of things exist either formally or eminently, so also proportionally all things are in man. For man has and binds together in himself all the grades of spiritual and corporeal things: for with angels he understands, with brutes he senses, with plants he grows, with inanimate things he is and subsists; and man, having one soul in three faculties, is the image of the uncreated world, that is, of the Most Holy Trinity, and the testimony of His infinite art and wisdom, and His most perfect work: of the created world man is king, end, compendium, bond, link, and microcosm. The eighth: man is the image of God's wisdom, because he can contemplate and understand all things; again, of God's omnipotence, because man is, as it were, omnipotent, while he can form and shape all things in his mind, and many also by art. Moreover, as God is the end of all things and of the whole world, so in his own manner man is the end of all. Finally, as God is wholly in the world and wholly in any part of the world, and is, as it were, the soul of the world — not properly, as the Platonists hold, but metaphorically, namely because, as the Poet sings:
A spirit within nourishes, and a mind, infused through every limb, sets the whole mass in motion and mingles itself with the great body:
so the soul of man is wholly in the whole body, and wholly in any part of his body. This image of God, then, is natural to man, which could not be lost by sin, as St. Augustine teaches against Origen in book 2 of the Retractations, chapter 24, where he retracts what he had said in book 6 of On Genesis according to the Letter, chapter 27, that Adam by sinning had lost the image of God. Which, he says, take thus: not as if no image of God remained in Adam; but that it had been made so deformed through sin that it required reformation.
I say secondly: There is also another image of God in man, namely supernatural, which is situated in man's justification, holiness, and grace, which of the divine natural [image of God] becomes a partaker of [the divine] nature, which will be confirmed and perfected in heavenly glory. Hence St. John, 1 Epist., ch. III, v. 2: "We know, he says, that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him: for we shall see Him as He is." That Adam was created in this supernatural image, and that this is to be understood literally when God said, "Let us make man to our image and likeness," equally with that prior natural [image] of which I spoke a little before, is plain from this passage of the Apostle, and from Coloss. III, 10, and it is the common opinion of the Fathers. For the words of the Apostle clearly signify this: "Who, he says, according to God," that is, after the exemplar of God, "is created in justice and holiness of truth." Therefore the image of man is placed in justice and holiness, in which he was created after the exemplar of justice and holiness which is in God.
Note: This supernatural image of God depends on man's will, and is lost when he sins; and thus Augustine, as I said, and other Fathers regularly say that the image of God has been lost by sin — namely this supernatural image, not however the prior natural one of which I spoke a little before — but is repaired through grace and justification. Through grace therefore and holiness man is more properly and perfectly the image of God than through the nature of the rational soul and free will: because through grace man participates in, and expresses in himself, the highest grade of being, which is in God, namely the divine and supernatural Being itself, by which God in Himself is most holy, most perfect, and most glorious, and which is the fount of all goods that are not natural but supernatural — that is, of all grace and glory — which transcend all the nature of man and of angel, indeed of any creature whatsoever that can be created by God.
All Christians receive this supernatural image in baptism, and daily perfect it, while they grow in holiness through acts of grace and the virtues. Hence the Apostle here exhorts the Ephesians, already baptized and sanctified, that they renew themselves more day by day, and ever more put on and assume the new man, who according to God is created in holiness and justice of truth.
For "Put ye on" here signifies not an action begun, but continued, advancing and perfected, according to Canon 32; as if to say: Put ye on — that is, go on putting on, clothing, perfecting yourselves with that new, just, Christian, and holy life which you have put on, assumed, and begun in baptism.
Here the saying of Abbot Agatho, Vitae Patrum book VII, ch. XLII, is very useful: "Observe, he says, above all this: that as you are on the first day when you enter into the community of the brethren, so spend the rest of your time, and you will fulfil your pilgrimage in peace. Beware lest you ever assume boldness of speech." And another which someone else gave in the same book, last chapter: "From the time, he says, I renounced the world, I said to myself: Today you are reborn, today you have begun to serve God, today you have begun to dwell here; so be every day a pilgrim, and tomorrow to be released. This I counselled myself daily."
In justice and holiness of truth, — that is, in true holiness, not painted, not masked, not imputed, such as the Novatians introduce. So Chrysostom. "Sanctity," says St. Dionysius, and from him Anselm, "is freedom from all defilement, the most uncontaminated and most perfect purity." Hence in 1 Cor. VII, v. 34, he says a virgin ought to be "holy (that is, chaste and pure) in body and spirit." Hence again "holy" is called ὅσιον, which, says Origen, is compounded (symbolically) from γῆ (earth) and the alpha privative — as if you said, without earth — so that ἅγιον, i.e. holy, is what is set apart from earth and earthly torches, pure, heavenly, divine, cleaving to God, devoted and consecrated. Here however the Greek is not ἁγιότης but ὁσιότης, though they signify the same. For Ὅσιος, say Chrysostom and Theophylact, is called he who is free from every crime and stain, pure and clean.
Secondly, [ὅσιος is] he who fulfils and pays every debt. Hence ὅσια are called the parentalia, the funeral rites, the obsequies that are owed to the dead.
Thirdly, ὅσια means expiation; hence ἀφοσιοῦν is properly to do something for the sake of discharging the mind from a religious obligation, as when we pay what we have vowed. So Budaeus. Again ἀφοσιοῦν means to expiate, to dedicate, to consecrate: thus then ὁσιότης, that is sanctity, is first purity and innocence; secondly justice; thirdly penance and expiation of sins; fourthly religion and the religious worship of God, by which the soul dedicates and consecrates itself to God.
Verse 25: Wherefore, Putting Away Lying, Speak Ye the Truth Every Man With His Neighbour, for We Are Members One of Another
25. Wherefore putting away lying, speak ye the truth. — He here descends to the parts and members of the old man, and to these he opposes the parts and members of the new man. For a teacher and preacher must descend from the thesis to the hypothesis [from the general to the particular]. Sermons that treat of vices and virtues in general are of little use to the common people, who are unlearned and do not know how to apply to themselves what is said in general terms. Hence those who wish to teach and preach to them well must prescribe to them in particular practical rules of living, so that they may know in particular, here and now, what is to be done and what to be avoided. The particular members, therefore, of the old man, which the Apostle wants to be put off and stripped away, are lying, fraud, anger, injustice, theft, lust, and the rest that follow. To these he opposes the members of the new man, which he wills to be assumed and put on, namely truth, meekness, justice, liberality, chastity, etc.
Speak ye the truth every man with his neighbour, — so that you do not deceive or cheat your neighbour, but faithfully perform what you have promised him.
For we are members one of another, — as if to say: one member does not lie to another, does not deceive the other, but each is faithful to the other and sincerely helps it as much as it can; for example, the hand does not deceive the foot, does not put a stumbling-block in its way against which the foot might strike and fall; but rather warns and takes care that the foot not be deceived: so we Christians, each of us who are members one of another, ought to deceive no one, but to be faithful to all, and to help all faithfully and sincerely.
Plato therefore errs, who in book III of the Republic teaches that for a good and wise man, and especially for a prince and magistrate, it is sometimes lawful to lie: "To the gods," he says, "a lie is useless, but to men it is useful as a medicine. Wherefore it must be granted to public physicians, but in no way touched by private men. Therefore those who administer the commonwealth may lie, either for the cause of enemies or of citizens, for the common good of the city; but the rest must abstain from lying." Far truer and holier here is Paul, who commands truth to every man universally, and forbids lying. This the Christians of the first centuries so imbibed that Justin Martyr writes in Apology 2 that Christians would rather die than lie even once.
Verse 26: Be Ye Angry, and Sin Not: Let Not the Sun Go Down Upon Your Anger
26. Be ye angry. — He quotes Psalm IV, v. 5, where in Hebrew it is רגזו rigzu, which though to the Hebrews means "tremble," yet to the Syrians (whose idiom the Psalmist sometimes adopts in the Psalms as in poetry, for elegance) means "be ye angry," namely at lust, says Hesychius in the Greek Catena, on Psalm IV.
Secondly, Theophylact: be ye angry, namely at yourselves, your sins and vices, by punishing them through penance.
Thirdly: If you are prelates and set over others, show anger — that is, severity of correction — toward the vices of delinquent subjects. Whence Eusebius in the Greek Catena on Psalm IV will have these to be literally the words of David to his great ones, as Jerome translates — namely to Joab, Abishai and the other captains and soldiers, indignant and preparing themselves for the conflict with the parricide Absalom; as if David said: O Joab and you my soldiers, be ye angry at Absalom, fight against him, but beware lest your wrath and vengeance exceed the measure of just battle and war.
Fourthly, best and most genuinely: in this Psalm IV David speaks to his enemies, and exhorts them to acknowledge, worship, and invoke God as protector of His worshippers, and not to persecute His saints; but if at any time they are stirred to anger and grow angry against them, yet to take care not to sin. As if to say: If, O Philistines and other enemies of mine and of the just, anger should arise in you against me or against another just or innocent man, and if (as Aquila renders) you are troubled — namely against me or against any other — yet do not sin, that is, do not foster and consummate your wrath; but suppress it by the fear of the divine majesty and of death, says the Chaldee. So Origen, Chrysostom, and Theodoret in the Greek Catena, who teaches from this that anger which forestalls reason is not a sin. Secondly, that anger, if ruled by reason, is the whetstone of virtue. For the passion of anger has been given to man for this reason: that he may attack and overcome arduous things.
He says therefore "be ye angry"; as if to say: If it happen that, by reason of the frailty and proclivity of nature, you are stirred to anger and suddenly become angry (for the Greek παροργισμός signifies a commotion, irritation, and stirring up — that is, sudden anger; the Hebrew רגזו rigzu signifies the same, from which some derive the Greek ὀργή), yet do not sin — that is, do not consent to wrath through will and reason so as to cling to it and indulge it by plotting and carrying out vengeance; but as quickly as possible by the dominion of reason, and through fear of God, break off and restrain your wrath, so that:
Let not the sun go down upon your anger. — It is a proverb meaning that anger is to be restrained at once: for the Apostle does not literally permit anyone to indulge in anger and avenge himself the whole day long, provided he lay it down at sunset; for thus he would permit one to plot and carry out vengeance throughout the entire day. Rather, as I said, it is a proverb meaning that anger must be checked immediately, lest, as follows, we give place to the devil.
The first degree therefore of subduing anger is to bridle it at once, lest it cling in the mind, or burst out into some harsher word or deed.
The second is, if it has clung [in the mind] or burst forth, that before sunset — that is, as soon as we can — we return to our right mind and tranquillity. So Anselm, Genebrardus, and Jansenius on Psalm IV.
Secondly, the sunset here can be taken properly, as if to say: If anger has clung to your mind during the day, and has constantly recurred even against your will, at least shake it off before that night — both lest it recur at night and disturb you and your rest, and be the more enkindled (for the thoughts of the day, especially sad and troublesome ones, are wont to recur at night and harry, disturb, and enkindle a man); and that it may not impede the nightly prayer; and finally, lest, if it should happen at night that you fall into sickness or sudden death and are summoned by God to judgment, you die in anger and bitterness of mind and aversion from your neighbour, and so dare not appear at the tribunal of Christ.
For which cause in some Religious Orders this pious law has been laid down: that if anyone has offended another during the day, he may not give himself to nightly rest until he has first asked pardon of the one he offended and been reconciled to him.
Thus St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Cyprus, said to St. Hilarion: "I, from the time I received this habit, never let anyone sleep who had anything against me; nor did I myself sleep having anything against anyone." To whom Hilarion: "Pardon me, for your way of life is greater than mine." Likewise St. John the Almsgiver, Archbishop of Alexandria — as Leontius testifies in his Life — when on a certain day he had been moved, with however just anger, against the Patrician Nicetas, in order to reconcile himself with him before evening, sent his presbyter to Nicetas to say: "The sun is now setting, most reverend lord"; pricked by which stimulus Nicetas ran to St. John, and both before sunset rushed into mutual embraces. And this is what Pythagoras taught: "When you have lifted the pot from the ashes, the trace must be disturbed," that is, when the first onset of anger has cooled and settled, the memory of the past evil must be blotted out, and every trace of wrath must be utterly removed.
Thus also "Antony," says St. Athanasius, "used to urge that this saying of the Apostle be held by constant meditation: Let not the sun go down upon your anger. He understood that the sun must not go down not only upon anger, but also upon all the failings of men, lest the moon by night or the sun by day should ever depart as witnesses of our sins. He likewise reminded them of that precept: Judge yourselves, and prove yourselves; so that, taking account of day and night, if they detected any fault in themselves, they should cease from sinning; but if no error had deceived them, they should persevere rather in what was begun, than, swollen with arrogance, despise others or claim justice for themselves."
Hence in the Psalm IV cited, when David had said: "Be ye angry, and sin not," he added: "The things you say in your hearts, be sorry for upon your beds" — supply, as if to say: For the things you say and think wickedly and angrily during the day against me, David, and other innocent ones, when in your beds at evening and night you are alone, silent and quiet, be pricked, grieve and do penance. Hence the Hebrew has: Speak in your heart upon your beds, and be still — as if to say: For the wrath and sins you have committed by day, in the evening and at night, in silence and silent meditation, prayer, and examination of conscience, exact account and punishment from conscience, says Theodoret, Origen, Athanasius, Chrysostom in the Greek Catena — namely that for death and for God's judgment, should you perchance be called to it that night, you may by this examination of conscience, compunction, and penance prepare yourselves.
Tropologically, St. Jerome and Anselm: The sun — that is, Christ, and the light of Christ, truth, prudence, wisdom, justice — sets upon the angry man; for nothing so clouds the mind as anger. As if to say: Beware therefore, and at once suppress anger, lest the Sun of justice, Christ, set upon your mind. Whence St. Augustine on Psalm XXVI, exposition 1, thus explains: "Let not the sun go down — that is, let not Christ desert your mind, because Christ will not dwell with anger"; and a little before: "Cast wrath out of your heart before this visible light sets, lest that invisible Light desert you."
Symbolically, let the sun — that is reason and mind — not set upon wrath, namely lest the wrath be so heavy and savage that it dulls or destroys reason, and makes the mind mindless, and reduces you to madness. So St. Anselm and St. Thomas here, so St. Gregory Nazianzen in his poem On Anger, and St. Augustine in the place already cited.
Anger (iracundia). — Iracundia signifies not a habit but an act, which we commonly call excandescentia (a flaring up). He does not say ira (anger), because this is a natural passion, and often lawful and holy; but iracundia. For this signifies the excess and effervescence of anger, and this is what the Greek παροργισμός signifies, as I said — namely the boiling-over, stirring-up, and onrush of the soul, by which beyond (for this is what the Greek παρά means) reason and attention one is stirred up and carried away by a sudden movement of anger against someone.
Wrath is rightly compared to the bee, which to avenge itself out of anger fixes its sting in another, and so deprives itself of its sting and often of its life: for thus the wrathful man buzzes and stirs himself up like a bee, and to avenge himself and harm another, wounds himself, and gashes his soul with mortal sin. Hence concerning his enemies David says, Psalm CXVII, v. 12: "They surrounded me like bees." Truly "the thoughts of an angry man, as St. Jerome says from Philo, are the offspring of a viper gnawing through the entrails of the mother by an admirable secret of nature." Wherefore Aristotle, as Aelian testifies, advised Alexander the Great, who was naturally wrathful, to esteem himself superior to all and despise insults: so let the Christian despise insults, not as if he were better than the reviler, but as if he were stronger than the reviling. "For every injury," says Tertullian, On Repentance, "whether dealt by tongue or hand, when it has met patience, will be discharged with the same outcome as some weapon hurled against the hardness of an immovable rock."
"It is proper to true greatness," says Seneca, On Anger book III, ch. XXV, "not to feel oneself struck. Thus the huge wild beast looks slowly upon the barking of dogs; thus the wave dashes against the vast crag; he who is not angry stands unshaken in injury: he who is angry has been moved; therefore it is not the suffering of injury, but the doing of injury, or the not knowing how to suffer it, that is evil."
Chrysostom beautifully shows the same thing in homily 76, whose title is, That no one is harmed except by himself, where among other things he says: "If anyone should reckon the sun the author of darkness, has he detracted from the sun, or from himself? From himself, of course, since he wins the reputation of being mad and out of his mind: in the very same way, those who think the depraved are good, and the contrary, censure themselves." For it is womanly to repel insult with insult; for, as St. Ambrose says, On Duties book I, ch. VI: "He who is quickly moved by injury makes himself appear worthy of contumely, while wishing to appear unworthy of it."
Finally Damascene in the Parallels: "The mind," he says, "mindful of injuries sins every hour, and carries the vice round in its breast"; whereas a thief, a robber, etc., having committed his crime, soon grieves and repents.
Verse 27: Give Not Place to the Devil
27. Give not place to the devil, — which happens while wrath and similar offspring of the devil are nursed; as if to say, says Oecumenius: By wrathful thoughts — especially nightly ones — do not nurse and inflame your anger, so as to give place to the devil, but lay them all aside before night and sunset. For nothing so inflames anger, lust, and the other passions as turning over in mind the injuries inflicted on oneself, the appearances of women, and the other objects and enticements by which the passions are sharpened and inflamed. On the contrary, no remedy against them is more effective than to draw the mind and imagination forcefully to other thoughts, to summon other glad and pleasing thoughts, to occupy oneself with studies and other meditations — especially of death, judgment, hell, heavenly glory — which exclude the former, to bend oneself to them, and to give oneself wholly to them; most of all at night, if someone cannot sleep from disturbance of mind.
Note: Vatablus and Erasmus translate, "Do not give place to the slanderer" (for this is what the Greek διάβολος means); as if to say: Restrain your anger, lest the Gentiles slander the Christians as being so wrathful and greedy for vengeance.
But better, others everywhere understand by διάβολος Satan, who is called diabolos, that is calumniator, by antonomasia, because he is the prince of all calumniators, and tries to drag all good men and the works of good men into slander, both before God and before men. Tertullian reads, "Give not place to the evil one" — for the devil is called "the evil one" by antonomasia.
Note secondly: Anger most of all gives entrance and place to the devil: for he most easily and most secretly insinuates himself into wrathful thoughts, and stirs them up the more by aggravating the injury done, and inflames them by his suggestion and counsel of vengeance as with a bellows; besides, he stirs up the spirits and the blood, that he may inflame the bile; and so disturbs the reason and judgment of the angry man that the angry one thinks his vengeance to be not vengeance but justice, and so leaps forth into revenge as if equitable and just, and does not see the sins and dangers into which he flings himself; but as raging and out of his mind he is borne into reviling, blows, and slaughter, and nothing is so monstrous that he does not dare and attempt it, while fury supplies him weapons: for, reason and mind being snatched away, the angry and raging man does not so much act as he is acted upon by fury and the demon, and seems to be a demon incarnate.
Whence St. Gregory Nazianzen begins to sing, or rather to fume, against anger thus:
"I am wrathful at wrath, the demon hidden within."
Finally Anselm symbolically: Our heart, he says, has two leaves [i.e. doors] — of desire and of fear: shut these, and the enemy will not enter into it, and so you will not give place to the devil.
Verse 28: Let Him Labour, Working With His Hands the Thing Which Is Good
28. Let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good. — "Which is good," that is, which is honourable; as if to say: Let him labour and work, but in such a way that he seeks his livelihood not from a base craft, but from an honourable one.
Secondly, the Roman Bibles enclose "that which is good" between two commas, as if it were a parenthesis; as if to say: Let him labour, working with his hands — which is a good and honourable thing, not base and unbecoming — especially if by his labour he succours not himself alone, but also his neighbour suffering need, as follows; as many pious workmen do: for this is an act of Christian simplicity, charity, patience, liberality, and hope: therefore it is good and honourable.
Verse 29: Let No Evil Speech Proceed Out of Your Mouth, but That Which Is Good for the Edification of Faith
29. Let no evil speech proceed out of your mouth. — For "evil" the Greek is σαπρός, that is putrid and corrupt — which, namely, is not seasoned with the salt of prudence; but is infected and corrupted either by lasciviousness and obscenity, or by buffoonery, or by bitterness, or by sharp speech, or by envy, or by some other vice, and which betrays a putrid and filthy root and tree — namely a heart that is obscene, or scurrilous, or bitter, or envious. For "an evil tree (in Greek σαπρά, putrid) brings forth evil fruit," Matth. ch. VII, v. 17. Such therefore as our heart is, such is also the mouth; and such things as we think and desire, such we also speak. Do you wish to know what mind and soul someone has? See what he speaks. Hence Socrates to a young man: "Speak," he said, "O young man, that I may see you"; for speech is the mirror of the mind. As, therefore, a vessel full of urine, dregs, and other putrid and corrupt things, if it be opened, scatters and breathes out the putrid and corrupt smell of those things, which strikes and infects the nostrils of bystanders and sometimes breathes pestilence and death upon them: so a vicious mind belches forth through the mouth the rottenness, corruption, and vice that is within it, and strikes, infects, and corrupts the hearers; so that the Poet most truly said, and the Apostle from him: "Evil conversations corrupt good morals." Hence Theophylact: σαπρός, he says, that is filthy and putrid, or stinking speech, is not idle, rash, untimely [speech]; but is foul-talk, reviling, detraction.
But if any [speech] be good, to the edification of faith, that it may give grace to the hearers, — supply: let this proceed out of your mouth. Note: For "to the edification of faith," the Greek is πρὸς οἰκοδομὴν τῆς χρείας, which Theophylact translates "to the edification of necessity," namely that this speech be brought forth in necessity, or when it is necessary for the hearers, and then edify them.
Secondly, Erasmus translates "to the edification of usefulness," that is, a speech that edifies the hearers by speaking those things that are useful.
Thirdly, St. Jerome and Vatablus translate "to the edification of opportunity," that is, speech that edifies whenever there is need or it is opportune to teach, help, or promote others.
Fourthly, the Syriac translates "speech that is fitted to edification." Whence he seems himself to take οἰκοδομὴν χρείας by hypallage for χρείᾳ οἰκοδομῆς, as if to say: speech that is for the use of edification, that is, which is useful and adapted to edification.
But the Latin interpreter, says Jerome, in place of χρείας — that is, of use and opportunity — translated "of faith," for the sake of euphony; but I do not see what euphony or cacophony there is here. Others think that by "use and opportunity" our Interpreter understood faith, on the ground that there is most need of faith.
I should rather say that our Interpreter, with Ambrose, in place of χρείας read πίστεως, that is "of faith." For the Greek text is more corrupt than the Latin, as we have often already seen.
The Apostle therefore wishes us to speak "for the edification of faith," namely so that through our speech Christian faith and piety may grow and be advanced in the minds of the hearers. Or "of faith," that is of the faithful, according to Canon 21 — namely, that the faithful may be edified, and may make progress in faith and virtues by our conversations. Hence a certain wise man prudently warns: "What you are about to say to others, first say to yourself."
That it may give grace to the hearers. — "Grace," that is, usefulness, advantage. Secondly, "grace," that is, progress in grace, piety, and virtues. For thus Hebrew nouns and verbs often signify an action not begun but growing and advancing, as I said in Canon 32. Thirdly, more simply, he wishes our speech not only to be such as edifies, but at the same time to be gracious — that is, brought forth with grace, gracefully and pleasantly — so that it may flow more sweetly and better into the mind of the hearers. Hence it is the office of an orator not only to teach and to move, but also to delight; for by delighting he teaches better and moves more effectively: namely,
"He has won every vote who has mingled the useful with the sweet."
Fourthly, Theophylact expounds it in two ways. First: "Let your speech," he says, "be opportune and convenient, so that the hearers may give thanks to you. For if we say something profitable to the soul, the hearers will give thanks to us, as those who have been helped by us." So by "grace" he understands the giving of thanks which the hearer renders to one who speaks well. Or secondly, he says, "that it may give grace to the hearers," that is, that our speech may render them gracious and lovable. For as ointment adds grace to those who use it, so also divine speech, useful to the soul, adds grace to those who hear it and receive it. But the third sense is the genuine one, as I said; for this is what the Wise Man says: "The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge," Prov. XV, 2.
Verse 30: And Grieve Not the Holy Spirit of God, in Whom You Are Sealed Unto the Day of Redemption
30. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom (that is, by whom) you are sealed unto the day of redemption. — That is: do not offend the Holy Spirit by obscene, putrid, slanderous, evil words, as he said in the preceding verse (for to that he is referring), and by any sin, says Jerome. Paul alludes to Isaias LXIII, 10, where it is thus said: "But they provoked to wrath and afflicted the Holy Spirit," or as the Greek has, "His Holy Spirit."
Note: Sadness, anger, or any passion does not fall upon the Holy Spirit; but anthropopathically He is said to be grieved when He is offended, when He withdraws Himself and His grace from the soul, while He punishes the one who speaks or does base and evil things. For when a man receives an injury or insult from a friend and is offended thereby, he is wont to grieve: so too the Holy Spirit, when we speak or do base and evil things, is offended, and would grieve if grief could fall upon Him, and if God were not ἀπαθής (impassible). The obscene man and sinner, therefore, so far as is in him, grieves the Holy Spirit, because he gives the cause that is fitted to grieve, and which of itself grieves the angels and the saints. That however he does not grieve the Holy Spirit is not from any defect in the cause, but from the perfection of the Holy Spirit, who is imperturbable. So Theophylact and others; as if to say: The Holy Spirit by grace dwells in you as in His own house, which He has sealed for Himself; take care therefore that your soul by purity and holiness be a pleasing and joyful dwelling for the Holy Spirit, and beware lest anything be done in it which could grieve and offend so great a guest. St. Anselm adds that those properly grieve the Holy Spirit who by depraved words and morals grieve the saints in whom the Holy Spirit dwells.
Note secondly: Just as by base, slanderous, and scandalous words we grieve the Holy Spirit, so by pious and holy ones we gladden the Holy Spirit. With this goad, then, the Apostle pricks us, that we may take most diligent care lest evil speech (obscene or slanderous) proceed from our mouth, but only such as edifies others: because the former grieves, the latter gladdens and cheers the Holy Spirit. Whence Chrysostom, beautifully and effectively rising up here against slanderous words (which you may apply far better also to obscene ones), in homily 14 of his Morals: "You have," he says, "a spiritual mouth, sealed with the Holy Spirit: think what is the dignity of your mouth. You call God Father, and immediately revile your brother. Consider with what table your mouth has been deemed worthy, what it touches, what it tastes, with what food (in the Eucharist) it is delighted. Weigh with whom you stand at the time of the mysteries — namely, with the Cherubim, with the Seraphim. The Seraphim revile no one, but one and the same use fills their mouths, namely of blessing and glorifying God. How then can you say with them: Holy, holy — you who abuse your mouth for slander? Tell me, I pray you: if anyone should abuse a royal vessel, which always has royal foods and is appointed to them, [using it] for the dung of servants — would he dare to put it again, refilled with dung, with the rest assigned to the same delicacies? By no means. And yet such is what you do when you accuse your brother, when you revile him (when you speak obscenely): and so you make yourself filthy and polluted. You stand in the heavens, you converse with angels, you have been deemed worthy of the Lord's kiss. With so many and so great things has God adorned your mouth, namely with angelic hymns, with food not only angelic but surpassing the angelic dignity, with His own kiss, even with His own embraces — and do you revile?" and speak base or slanderous things with a mouth so holy, a mouth consecrated to God and to God's praises and to the Eucharist? So Chrysostom.
In whom you are sealed unto the day of redemption. — As if to say: You are sealed by the Holy Spirit, and as if marked with a seal (for this is what the Greek ἐσφραγίσθητε is), not as cattle in the body — as the Jews were sealed by the sign of circumcision — but as sons of the promise and as the royal flock of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, you are sealed in soul; and in it you have received the sign, figure, and image of the Creator, of which I spoke at verse 24 — that is, grace and holiness — so that, as from a seal it is recognized whose the letters are (e.g. that they are the letters of the king), so from this seal of grace it may be known that you are the sons of God and consecrated to God.
Chrysostom notes that not only our soul, but also our mouth, and consequently our other members, are likewise sealed with this sign of the Holy Spirit — that is, sanctified and consecrated to God — so that we are bound to keep our mouth, thus sealed, shut, lest by speaking base and slanderous things it unseal and break this sign of the Holy Spirit, says Theophylact from Chrysostom.
Unto the day of redemption, — that is, on the day on which you were baptized: for by baptism you were made partakers of Christ's redemption, and on that day you were redeemed from the bondage of sin and the devil. So Oecumenius and Anselm.
But note: the Greek, the Syriac, and the Roman Latin read "unto the day of redemption," that is, of resurrection — as if to say: We are sealed with the seal of grace to this end, namely that on the day of resurrection we may be received into redemption (that is, full liberation from death, sin, and every evil), and into heavenly glory and blessed immortality, inasmuch as we are inscribed in the book of life, as citizens of the saints and of the household of God, and sealed with His grace as with a seal and earnest of the heavenly inheritance. So Chrysostom, Jerome, Theodoret, Ambrose. This inscription and sealing therefore is done through grace, which is the pledge of the inheritance and of future redemption: it is done, I say, fully and perfectly. For inchoately this sealing is done through the character which in Baptism and Confirmation is indelibly impressed on the soul, as Francisco Suárez rightly teaches, Part III, Quaest. LXIII, art. 3, and others; by which character, as by a sign, we are stamped to be and remain always Christ's flock and Christ's soldiers, even if through sin we lose grace and desert to the camp of the devil. For from this sign it is always plain that we are sworn soldiers of Christ and deserters from the devil.
Verse 31: Let All Bitterness, and Anger, and Indignation, and Clamour, and Blasphemy Be Put Away From You, With All Malice
31. Let all bitterness, and anger, and indignation, and clamour, and blasphemy be put away from you, with all malice. — "Bitterness," says St. Jerome, is contrary to sweetness, both in morals and in flavours. For sweet, kindly, sweet-tempered, courteous, and gentle morals are contrary to bitter, harsh, and morose ones. And as sweet dishes are pleasing to the palate, but bitter ones unpleasing: so to all is pleasing courtesy, unpleasing the bitterness and harshness of morals.
Note the degrees of anger: Its first root is bitterness, by which the mind, offended by some word or deed of the neighbour, is turned away from him, becomes bitter, and with reluctance and unwillingness sees, hears, or thinks of him. Hence follows wrath, in Greek θυμός (which our Interpreter is wont to render ira — anger; St. Jerome renders it furor), that is the boiling and flaring up of the mind; thence thirdly arises and springs indignatio, in Greek ὀργή — that is, anger fully kindled, by which the angry man feels indignant at being despised or hurt, and by which he seeks vengeance and desires to harm him by whom he thinks himself harmed; thence fourthly it bursts forth into shouts, blasphemies, and every kind of malice. So Theophylact, Jerome, and others. All these Christ took away; all these Christians can and ought to overcome and put away by the grace of Christ, through the virtue of patience. For, as St. Cyprian, citing these words of the Apostle, says in the book On the Good of Patience: "If a Christian has gone forth from carnal fury and strife as from the storms of the sea, and has now begun to be tranquil and gentle in the harbour of Christ, he ought to admit neither anger nor discord within his breast, who is not even allowed to render evil for evil, nor to hate." And further on: "For as patience is the good of Christ, so on the contrary impatience is the evil of the devil; and as he in whom Christ dwells and abides is found patient, so he in whose mind the wickedness of the devil is in possession is always impatient." As St. Cyprian taught, so he also performed in deed: for writing to Demetrianus, a Pagan blustering and noisy against him, he says: "I kept silence, and I overcame the impatient man by patience, since I could neither teach the unteachable, nor restrain the impious by religion, nor curb the raging man by gentleness." Golden is the saying of St. Ephrem, tract. On the Fear of God, at the beginning of vol. III: "He who hides the memory of injuries in his heart is like him who nurtures a serpent in his bosom, which assuredly will harm himself more than others."
Note again: The remedies for anger are: First, "that we first persuade ourselves that in no way is it lawful to be angry, neither for just nor for unjust causes. The sum, therefore, of our amendment and tranquillity is not to be placed in another's choice, but consists in our own condition. And so, that we not be angry, this ought to descend not from another's perfection, but from our own virtue, which is acquired not by another's patience, but by our own longsuffering," says Cassian.
The second is to restrain the tongue and the hand. Hence the philosopher Athenodorus, taking leave of Caesar Augustus, left him this memento: "When angry, say or do nothing before you have run through the twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet." Plato, angry with a slave, said to Xenocrates: "Whip this boy for me: for I cannot, since I am angry with him." The same to another slave: "Give thanks," he said, "to the gods: for unless I were angry, I would beat you with thongs." The common run of men therefore errs, who punishes most heavily when he is angry. Eusebius, or rather Rufinus (for he added an eleventh book to Eusebius), book XI of the History, ch. XVII, writes that the Emperor Theodosius decreed that sentences pronounced by princes against the accused be deferred to the thirtieth day, so that there might be place for mercy, or, if matters so required, for repentance. Hence Seneca too, On Anger book II, writes thus: "Time must always be given: for the day opens up the truth. A punishment deferred can still be exacted; one exacted cannot be recalled."
Third, if you often consider the ugliness of anger. Cato the Elder said, "An angry man is distinguished from an insane man only by delay: for anger is a brief insanity." Plato, when asked by what a wise man is recognized, said: "The wise man, when he is reproached, is not angered; when he is praised, is not exalted"; for the foolish man is the slave of anger and cannot rule over praise and other desires. And this is what the Hebrews say, that a man's character is known בכים בכוס בכנס backis, baccos, baccaas, that is, in his purse, in his cup, in his anger. Plutarch advises that the angry man should contemplate himself and his behavior in a mirror: for seeing his face and gestures resembling those of a raging and frenzied man, he will detest and avoid anger. For, as Philemon says, "we are all insane when we are angry."
Fourth, if you consider that anger casts darkness over reason, disturbs sound counsels, social life, government, and the body politic. Demonax, when asked by a general by what method he might best command an army, answered: If you are free from anger; if you remember that one ought to be angry not at the man but at the vice; if, like a physician with a sick man, you do not become indignant but calmly cure the disease of his soul.
Fifth, if you consider the worthlessness of the thing on account of which you are angry, and so lessen the injury and say: My enemy did not hurt me, but only wished to hurt; and when you see him in your power, consider that you could have taken vengeance: it is a great kind of revenge to forgive, and to conquer by forgiving.
Sixth, if you root out from your soul the desires for which, when they are taken from you, you become angry. That Anchorite did this, of whom Nicephorus speaks in Book XI, ch. XLIII. Finally, if you consider the meekness of Christ on the cross.
Verse 32: But Be Kind to One Another, Merciful, Forgiving One Another, as God Also in Christ Hath Forgiven You
32. But be kind to one another. — Affable and gentle: this is the root of all patience and charity, which he opposes to bitterness. For anger is not extinguished by anger, just as fire is not extinguished by fire; but as fire is extinguished by water, so anger is extinguished by patience and kindness, as Chrysostom says. In place of "kind" the Greek has χρηστοί, which means not only kind, but also beneficent, advantageous, useful. Whence "Christus" was the proper name of certain Gentiles, by which mistaken reasoning some Gentiles called Christ the Lord "Chrestus." See what was said about the Chresti and chrestology at Rom. xvi, 18.
Merciful, — εὔσπλαγχνοι, as it were of good bowels, or visceral; for it answers to the Hebrew רחם racham, which means to have compassion from the innermost bowels, so that all the bowels seem moved by sorrow and commiseration at the misery of one's neighbor. Such are holy men, who in their bowels, that is intimately, feel and grieve over the poverty, hardships, and afflictions of their neighbors, especially the spiritual ones, and who display the bowels of mercy to all.
Forgiving one another, as God also in Christ has forgiven you. — The Greek χαριζόμενοι ἑαυτοῖς means giving, that is bestowing, gladly giving, or, as Vatablus translates, showing favor to yourselves; as if to say: If you give, bestow, do good, or show favor to another, you do this not so much for him as for yourself: for you accumulate the merit of your beneficence to yourself, which is far more than the gift which the neighbor receives from you. But secondly, the Syriac, Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Œcumenius better translate "giving" as "forgiving," as if to say: Forgive mutual injuries, just as God "in Christ," that is through Christ, "gave," that is forgave, "to you" your offenses and sins against Him. The pagans and ungrateful, as Blessed Thomas More rightly said, write benefits in the dust; if they suffer any evil, they engrave it on marble: but it belongs to a Christian to engrave evil deeds on the dust, and benefits on marble.