Psuedo-Athanasius: Homily on the Holy Fathers and the Prophets

 Introduction

This Greek homily is one of the many, many spurious works ascribed to St. Athanasius.  Quite possibly it is a homily for the Sunday Before the Nativity (Sunday of the Holy Fathers), one of the many days when Hebrews 11 is read at Liturgy: a large portion of this chapter is paraphrased in the first section of this homily.  The homily is notable for its detailed portrayal of God as a judge, with various prophets and others who had been wronged by the wicked approaching Him with their complaints.  Due to the references to Iconoclasm in §8, it is probably from around the 8th century, or later.

Homily on the Holy Fathers and the Prophets

Psuedo-Athanasius

1. Faith, leading [us] on the way of God-knowledge, and in the virtuous and unconquered way of life, does not have a recent beginning, as the lawless and abominable Jews say; but it is from above, from the holy and pious Fathers, I say, from Abel, and from Enoch, and from Noah, and from Abraham, and from all the other righteous ones. And this is clear from the saying of the vessel of election, the myrrh-bearing jar, the pillar of truth, Paul, writing these things about the law, and saying (cf. Heb 11): “By faith, God accepted sacrifice better from Abel than from Cain, wherefore he also lives unto the age. By faith, Enoch, having been well-pleasing to God, was transferred to paradise, not beholding even the death common to [our] nature. By faith, Noah prepared the ark for the salvation of his house, characterizing the ineffable Church, having two-fold and three-fold stories, the invocation of Father and Son and Holy Spirit. By faith, Abraham, departing from the Chaldean region, dwelt in the land of promise, awaiting the heavenly city, the Jerusalem above, the mother of the first-born, whose craftsman and creator is God alone. By faith, Isaac, offered upon the altar, did not weep, seeing that he is an icon of the Lamb that is to come to take away the sin of the world. By faith, Jacob bowed down upon the tip of his staff, hinting beforehand at the victory-making and thrice-blessed Cross. By faith, Joseph, dying, instructed the sons of Israel about his bones, to bring them out of Egypt, so that the Egyptians would not worship them as God. By faith, Rahab did not sell the spies to the city of Jericho, receiving them with peace. By faith, Moses performed the Pascha and the sprinkling of blood, so that we would complete the saving Pascha in faith, and not in hypocrisy”—“For everything not coming from faith is sin” (Rom 14:23)—“anointing with blood, not the two lintels of the doors, but sealing soul and body; so that Pharaoh, with the devil, would be submerged in the wave of the Reed Sea. Then we, the new Israel, with Moses, sing the victorious ode. By faith, the prophets prevailed over kingdoms, received the promises, shattered the mouths of lions, namely, the wise Daniel; quenched the power of fire, namely, the three youths, walking upon the flame of fire softer than dew. And others were drummed by the axles of the wheels, members dislocated, not accepting the aid of the tyrant Antiochus, since [he said], ‘Sacrifice, and you will become my friends,’ so that they would have a better resurrection.¹ The name-bearing Stephan was stoned, placing the crown of righteousness around his temples. Isaiah was sawed asunder, but he is praised unto the age. John and Jacob were killed by swords;² Zachariah was slain;³ Elijah and Elisha went about in sheepskins, and in goat skins, needy, ill-treated by the ignorant, remaining in caves, and in the holes of the earth, of whom the whole world was not worthy. For these were worthy, as God-loving and virtue-loving men.”

2. And then David, the spiritual lyre, says, as we have suitably heard in the song we recited: “Judge, Lord, those who wrong me; fight against those fighting me” (Ps 35:1). Not revealing these things, God speaks to him: “Do you will, David, that I fight against those opposing you?” Then David: “Yes, Lord, and again I want them to be fought against.” Then the Only-Begotten: “And if your enemies submit to these things, where [is] your forgetting of wrongs? And how, then, can you psalm truthfully, ‘Lord, if I repaid those repaying me evil, let me fall, empty, before my enemies’ (Ps 7:4)?” Then David: “Yes, Master, since I thus psalm truthfully, but [only] if You fight them, and since the things done by You are all unknown and incomprehensible. And thus You also commanded me: ‘Do not avenge yourself; “Mine is vengeance, I will repay them.” (Dt 32:35)’” Then the Only-Begotten: “And how is it necessary to fight those opposing you? Speak, and make the reason clear.” Then David: “You have no need, Master, for asking or reminding, being the Fore-knower and knowing things through foreknowledge, and [knowing] by which plan the man who is to be born must come to be. You are not, like one of the princes, ignorant of laws, or needing an advocate or colleague, who give an explanation of each chapter. For You are co-throned with the Father, inventor of laws, corrector of the wise, bestower of righteousness, protector of the afflicted, avenger of the slandered. For You freed Susanna, slandered by the licentious old men, from the satanic decree, sending the wise and ungreedy rhetor Daniel to plead. Since, therefore, You have the knowledge of all, and You know how it is necessary to fight them; then, if You turn to me, I speak; for I am a slave of Your love for mankind, and this without profit, and I cannot act against Your command.” Then the Only-Begotten: “I turn to you; now speak without trembling and without obscurity.” Then David: “Take up arms and shield, and arise to my help” (Ps 35:2). Then the Only-Begotten: “And which arms will I take up, or which shield? How, then, will I arise to your help? Do I have to take up those arms or that shield which you took from the stranger⁴ Goliath, whom you struck in the valley, with me guiding the stone to his unsigned and obscure face? But know this simply, that I do not have need of any of these arms at all. Then, if I hold back [My] spirit,⁵ every flesh moving upon earth would die.” Then David: “I also know, Master, that You have no need of these arms, being mighty king, all-powerful, undefeatable, eternal. So I beg Your incomparable goodness to take up arms and shield, that is, humanization⁶ and Passion; then, to arise to help me, on the third day.” Then the Only-Begotten: “And you, whence do you know these divine and hidden mysteries, ‘into which the angels desire to peek’ (1 Pet 1:12)?” Then David: “I receive knowledge of them from the Holy Paraclete Spirit.” Then the Only-Begotten: “Along with these things which you know, speak, if you have something else [to ask]; for I will answer you about it both graciously and justly.” Then David: “Tell my soul, ‘I am your Savior.’” Then the Only-Begotten: “You have this, and take courage; for I save your soul through My humanization and Passion.” Then David: “I have taken great courage; and forthwith I reply: ‘Lord, who is like You?’ (Ps 89:8)” Then the Only-Begotten: “The Father. Whence I also say: ‘The one who has seen me has seen My Father’ (Jn 14:9). Go in peace, receiving the blessed hope of the promises.”

3. Therefore, having left these travelling supplies, the angels of God, departing, cried out in a great voice: “If someone else among the prophets has a lawsuit, let him approach, unhindered, pleading the truth.” To the summons comes Naboth the Israelite,⁷ to whom, seeing him, the Only-Begotten says: “You, then, with whom do you have [a complaint], or with whom do you wish to be judged? And if he, by himself, cannot explain the substance of your claim, then you will have judgment, and let him approach unhindered, pleading the truth to you.” Then Naboth: “Yes, Master, I have a most just advocate, a certain charioteer; and my suit is struck by false witnesses. Whence, beginning my claim, I will say like the rest: ‘Unjust witnesses rising against me, asking me what they do not know’ (Ps 35:11), confirming that I blessed God and king”; examining whom, the Lord said: “Tell me, with love of truth, who forced you to slander My servant and law-keeper?” Then they answered, “Ahab and his wife, Jezebel.” Then the Only-Begotten: “Therefore, let Ahab, in war, be shot with a well-cast arrow in the liver, or, rather, in the lung, [he who] unjustly panted with greedy desire. Then let Jezebel be tossed into a building-site, then let it be the grave of dogs. Then let Naboth inherit, in place of his destroyed vineyard, the produce of paradise and eternity.”

4. Then, remembering this sentence, there approaches the great-named Isaiah, crying out: “Lord, hear Me graciously and justly.” Then the Only-Begotten: “Speak against the one wronging you, rather, you, being a prophet righteous, spiritual, worthy, set forth for yourself the substance of your claim.” Then the prophet: “I have a claim with Manasseh, since, I having eagerly and without hesitation preached the divine and God-breathed word, he unsympathetically and unmercifully destroyed me with a wooden saw.” Then the Only-Begotten: “If Manasseh did this, let him be handed over to the Chaldeans in captivity, and to mockery and slaughter; so that the kings would learn to not insult My prophets, or to kill them, but [rather] to honor and magnify them; considering that, through Me, every king reigns, and the powerful write out righteousness (cf. Prv 8:15). You, instead of the earthly Jerusalem, will dwell in the heavenly one, mother of the first-born; but he [will dwell] in that place, ‘from which escapes pain, sorrow, and sighing’ (Is 35:10).”

5. Then, having completed this sentence also, there approaches the most wondrous Jeremiah, to whom, seeing him, the Only-Begotten says: “You, then, with whom do you have [a claim], or with whom do you wish to be judged?” Then Jeremiah: “I have a claim with the Jews, and I wish to be judged by You, the Master without partiality.” Then the Only-Begotten: “And why do you condemn your co-tribesmen?” Then the prophet: “I condemn them, since they repaid me evils instead of noble things, and wicked things instead of goods. I having prayed for their health and salvation, they wished to destroy me with poison, hiding it, with much guile, in my bread.”⁸ Then the Only-Begotten: “And what do you want to be done to them?” Then the prophet: “Do to them what is written in the Proverbs, ‘The one repaying evil for good, evil will not be removed from his house’ (Prv 17:13).” Then the Only-Begotten: “You have sought nothing out of place. See, evils will not be removed from the house of the Jews, Jerusalem, until it be deserted to the foundations. You, then, rest in the unstraitened bosom of [your] forefather Abraham.”

6. Having completed this sentence also, there approaches the prophet Zachariah, crying out: “Lord, hear me also, graciously and justly.” Then the Only-Begotten: “Speak against those wronging you.” Then Zachariah: “Those wronging me are the high priests and the law-teachers.” Then the Only-Begotten: “And how did the high priests and the law-teachers wrong you?” Then Zachariah: “They slew me between the temple and the altar (cf. Lk 11:51). Then my blood was also sprinkled upon the rocks, as condemnation for their blood-stained plan.” Then the Only-Begotten: “Therefore, they will also be killed under the altar by the Romans; by which someone sins, by these he will also be chastised; and by the measure by which one measures out to his neighbor, by this will he be measured out from heaven, justly. Then, having suffered these things, equal to those which the worthy [suffered], you, then, enter into the noetic bridal chamber, hearing from Me the most desired saying: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; over a little you were faithful, over much I will place you; enter into the joy of your Lord’ (Mt 25:21).”

7. Then, having fulfilled this sentence also, there approached also the children slain in Bethlehem, crying out and saying: “Lord, we also, for Your Name, were destroyed with swords by the most impious and law-breaking Herod.” Then the Only-Begotten: “If you endured the profitable death for Me, and preferred it to life, even ten thousand of you, do not sorrow, seeing clearly, that those dying for Me do not die; for they live unto the age. Wherefore I order Herod to be subject to nine incurable diseases, but for you to be placed among the choirs of the struggle-bearing martyrs, sounding with them the victorious hymn.”

8. Then, last of all, there approaches also the undeniable Church, seeing whom, the Only-Begotten says: “You, then, what do you have, My bride and pollution-less maiden, and stainless virgin?” Then the Church: “I weep, therefore I also say: ‘Judge, Lord, those wronging me, fight against those fighting me (cf. Ps 35:1).’” Then the Only-Begotten: “And why do you fight? Speak, and make clear the cause.” Then the Church: “I fight, Master, for the precision of the evangelical dogmas, and the performance of the true and steady Pascha, and for Your honorable and immaculate icon, which the God-bearing apostles handed down to me, to hold it as an inscription and as earnest of Your enfleshed economy.” Then the Only-Begotten: “And if you fight for this, do not be despondent or weary in mind or in thought. For, behold clearly, that the one denying the Pascha and My immaculate icon, him also will I deny before My heavenly Father, and His chosen angels. But the one, again, suffering with Me because of the Pascha, will also be glorified with [Me]. Or did you not hear that which I commanded to the law-giver Moses: ‘Make for Me two Cherubim in the tent of witness,’ (Ex 25:18) as a prediction of My icon? And again, when the Jews tested Me, saying: ‘Teacher, is it allowed for us to give tax to Caesar or not?’ Then I said to them, ‘Show Me the coin,’ and I say to you, they brought Me the denarion, and I said to them, ‘Whose icon is this, and inscription?’ Then they said, ‘Caesar’s,’ and I said to them, ‘Therefore, repay to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s’ (Mt 22:17-21). And again, to Peter: ‘Go forth, cast a net into the sea, and the fish that you take up, open its mouth, and you will find a stater; give it for Me and you’ (Mt 17:26). That is, give My icon and yours into the world. Or did you not hear your betrothed Paul, saying, ‘If we suffer with [Him], so we will also be glorified with [Him]’ (Rom 8:17), and to the Athenians, ‘In all ways, I see you as superstitious. Going about your objects of awe, I found a stand, on which was written, “To the unknown God”; and Him Whom you, not knowing, venerate, Him I announce to you’ (Acts 17:22-23). And to the Galatians: ‘O thoughtless Galatians, who bewitched you so to not trust in the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was set forth to you, and Him crucified?’ (Gal 3:1). And to the Corinthians: ‘If someone does not worship our Lord Jesus Christ, come in the flesh, he is—Maranatha!—anathema’ (1 Cor 16:22). You, then, My bride, give law to your children to keep My commands, and to not fear the wraths of kings, or the boasts of tyrants, or the insolences of heresiarchs, or fire, or sword, or wild beast, or loss of goods, or possessions, or houses, or the like. For however much the transgressors expect to destroy, they will be destroyed; and however much they deliberate a counsel, I will scatter them; for you have a firm and living rock as the foundation.” Amen.

    

1 This story seems to come from one of the apocryphal books, 4 Maccabees, Chapter 8. It seems to be a retelling of 2 Mac 6, the story of the seven brothers tortured and killed in turn, while their mother watched. The version in 4 Maccabees includes torture via wheels and pleas from Antiochus.

2 The original name of the apostles called “James” in English was really “Jacob”; through a long string of changes across multiple languages, it reached the present form. (Hebrew Ya’aqov --> Greek Iakobos --> Latin Jacobus --> Jacomus --> Old French James --> English James.)

3 Tradition, at least the Greek tradition, holds that the “Zachariah, son of Barachiah” spoken of by Jesus, who was slain “between the temple and the altar” (Mt 23:35) was the same as Zachariah, father of John the Baptist.

4 Literally, “of the other tribe.”

5 Or “breath.”

6 This is the term often used in the Greek tradition where the Latin would say “Incarnation”; however, the Greek term literally means “becoming man,” while “incarnation” specifies “becoming flesh.” The Greeks has a separate term for “becoming flesh.”

7 On Naboth, see 1 Kgs 21 and 2 Kgs 9; King Ahab wanted to acquire Naboth’s vineyard, and, when Naboth would not sell, Jezebel—Ahab’s wife—set up a mock trial, which led to Naboth’s being killed and Ahab’s being declared heir of the vineyard. Elijah then foretold doom for Ahab, in punishment for his sin.

8 The typical Jewish tradition said that Jeremiah was killed by being stoned. However, one interpretation of Jer 11:19 sees it as a conspiracy to poison Jeremiah by putting poison in his bread. See a translation found in an English Roman Breviary from the 1800s: “Come, let us put [poison of a deadly] tree into his bread, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.” The same Breviary, in a footnote to this verse, quotes a paraphrase by Jonathan ben Uzziel, found in the Targums: “Let us cast poison of death into his food.” See The Roman Breviary: Reformed by Order of the Holy Œcumenical Council of Trent; Published by Order of Pope St. Pius V.; and Revised by Clement VIII. and Urban VIII…., trans. John, Marquess of Bute, Vol. I, Winter (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1879), 416 and n. 4.

Source: PG 28:1061B-1073A.

Translation ©2024 Brandon P. Otto.  Licensed via CC BY-NC.  Feel free to redistribute non-commercially, as long as credit is given to the translator.