translated using ChatGPT
Acts 10:34 “In truth I am coming to understand (καταλαμβάνομαι, I grasp, I seize upon, I clearly perceive, cf. v. 34): that God is not a respecter of persons. This is elegantly expressed with a single word: God is not προσωπολήπτης (one who accepts persons, i.e., a respecter of persons). That is to say, God did not choose the Jews, as they suppose, in preference to the Gentiles, just as though He had chosen the Synagogue of Moses and then the Church of Christ to the exclusion of others; rather, He stands ready to receive into grace all who are willing to believe in Christ, whether they be Gentiles or Jews. For this distinction, in this election unto grace, the Church, and salvation, God does not regard.
Note carefully that this “acceptance” in this place is not that kind which is a vice opposed to distributive justice. God is not bound by such justice, since human beings have no right to God’s grace or to faith. Hence God could, without any injustice and without the vice of partiality, have chosen the Jews for Christianity and excluded the Gentiles from it. Therefore, this acceptance of persons spoken of here is that which occurs in gratuitous matters, which depend solely on free gifts, as when a rich man wishes to give alms, but only to certain persons—for example, to his fellow citizens or subjects. God, however, in distributing faith and grace, does not look to the person, namely, whether one is a Jew or a Gentile, but offers them to both, and especially in any nation, whoever fears God and works righteousness is acceptable to Him.
This is said of you, Cornelius: although you are a Gentile, because you fear God and work righteousness, by that very fact you are no less worthy than the Jews; you are acceptable to Him, and therefore through me He will bestow upon you explicit faith in Christ, baptism, and Christianity. See what I have said about the acceptance of persons in Romans 2:11.
Acts 10:35 “And works righteousness.” Here righteousness (iustitia) can be understood in several ways. First, it may be taken generally, as containing all the virtues and being their comprehensive whole, from which a man is called righteous. Thus it is also understood by Aristotle in the Ethics, book 1, chapter 1.
Second, righteousness can be taken for almsgiving, in which Cornelius’s righteousness was especially manifest, namely in the distribution of alms. Thus it is taken in Psalm 112:9: “He has distributed, he has given to the poor; his righteousness remains forever.” Righteousness here means almsgiving, which he scattered among the poor. The reason almsgiving is called righteousness is that through almsgiving we fulfill a threefold obligation: what we owe to God, what we owe to our neighbor, and what we owe to ourselves. A human being owes humanity to another human being, since he is of the same nature, a companion and sharer of the same body and blood, almost as a brother, whom he must help. He owes something to God, so that since he cannot benefit God in Himself, he does so to His image, namely to man, whom God created in His own image and likeness, so that man might be, as it were, a kind of earthly god—especially since God throughout the whole of Scripture so strongly commands and commends this, considers it as done to Himself, and will demand an account of it on the day of judgment, assigning the merciful to heaven and the unmerciful to hell (Matthew 25:35).
Hence, in Hebrew, the words are closely related and by metathesis almost the same: חסד (ḥesed, piety, mercy) and צדק (ṣedeq, justice). Accordingly, very often חסיד (ḥāsîd, pious, merciful) is the same as just and holy. I have given the reasons for this in 2 Corinthians 9:9 and Daniel 4:24.
Third, righteousness may be taken here antonomastically, that is, not merely as ordinary righteousness, but as outstanding, eminent, and heroic righteousness. Thus it is understood in Sirach 20:30: “He who works righteousness shall be exalted,” and in Hebrews 11:33: “The saints through faith conquered kingdoms, worked righteousness.” There the Apostle recounts the heroic deeds of the Fathers as illustrious effects and praises of faith. In the same way, Cornelius was not only righteous, but performed illustrious deeds of righteousness and almsgiving. Hence he deserved above others to be visited by an angel and to be the first of the Gentiles publicly initiated into Christianity by Saint Peter. For this reason Saint Chrysostom sets Cornelius before all as an example of righteousness and good works, as well as of divine recompense.
Acts 10:36 “God sent the word.” Here Peter, having finished his preface (v. 36), begins his discourse and catechizes the centurion with his household. Tertullian says (De corona militis, ch. 11) that the first sermons of the Apostles were catecheses, of which our catechists may glory and be their imitators. Peter teaches that Jesus Christ was sent by the Father in the flesh to redeem mankind, and therefore that He suffered, was crucified, rose again, will come as Judge, and that through His merits sins are forgiven and grace and salvation are given.
Note that this word (verbum) can be taken in three ways. First, for the sermon and preaching of the Gospel. Second, for the eternal Word, the incarnate Son of God—that is, Jesus of Nazareth—as Peter explains himself in verse 38. Thus John speaks of Him at the beginning of his Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word (λόγος, Word), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … and the Word was made flesh.” So understand Hugh of St. Victor, the Gloss, Dionysius, and here Saint Athanasius in his Oration against the Arians on the phrase “God from God.” Third—and most plainly—word may here be taken for the thing signified by the word, that is, purely for the deeds and acts done by Christ, of which more is said immediately.
Peter alludes to Isaiah 9:8: “The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it fell upon Israel.” In both places the phrase is the same, though the scope and sense differ. See what is said there.
“Announcing peace through Jesus Christ,” that is, peace and reconciliation with God, and from that peace with one’s neighbor, as well as peace of conscience. Hence, when Christ was born, the angels immediately sang: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will” (Luke 2). The Apostles frequently speak of this peace brought by Christ, especially in Ephesians 2:14: “For He is our peace, who has made both one.” See what is said there.
“He is Lord of all,” namely Jesus Christ, who was mentioned immediately before. From this passage Saint Athanasius (in the place already cited) and others prove the divinity of Christ against the Arians.
Acts 10:38 “You know,” that is, you have heard by rumor, from common report—confusedly, indeed, but not distinctly and in detail; now, however, you are being instructed distinctly by Peter. “You know the word.” Here word is taken somewhat differently by some than in the preceding verse, for there the Greek is λόγος (word in the sense of the eternal Word), but here it is ῥῆμα (spoken word, matter, event). For the eternal Word, that is, the Son of God, is called λόγος in Scripture, not ῥῆμα. Therefore here it signifies the preaching of the Gospel by Christ throughout all Judea, as Hugh, the Gloss, and Dionysius explain.
Second—and more plainly—word is taken here metonymically for the thing itself, that is, for the sum of the sayings and deeds of Christ, which the Greeks call the economy of Christ. This Peter explains and recounts in what follows, as Lyra, Cajetan, Gagneius, and our Lorinus teach: that you heard the report of Christ’s preaching, miracles, and deeds. That this is the sense is clear from the Greek text, which reads:
ὑμεῖς οἴδατε τὸ γενόμενον ῥῆμα καθ’ ὅλης τῆς Ἰουδαίας, ἀρξάμενον ἀπὸ τῆς Γαλιλαίας, μετὰ τὸ βάπτισμα ὃ ἐκήρυξεν Ἰωάννης, Ἰησοῦν τὸν ἀπὸ Ναζαρέτ, ὡς ἔχρισεν αὐτὸν ὁ Θεὸς Πνεύματι Ἁγίῳ…
“You know the word which was done throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached: Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit…” Thus render Pagninus, the Tigurinus, Vatablus, Gagneius, and others.
Hence it is clear, first, that this word is Jesus of Nazareth himself, that is, the sayings and deeds of Jesus the Nazarene, which, after He had received baptism from John and the testimony that He was the Messiah, He began to teach and to do, starting from Galilee and continuing through all Judea. Therefore Peter, explaining this, adds: “How God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.” For this reason Vatablus, by a transposition of one word, explains it thus: “You know the word which was done—that is, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit,” so that the pronoun “Him” redundantly appears by a Hebrew pleonasm.
Second, word in this verse signifies the same as in verse 38 preceding, namely, the sayings and deeds of Christ. Third, it is clear that the phrase “beginning” (or, as others translate, “originating”) refers to the word mentioned before, not to God; for although the Latin version has “beginning from Galilee,” supplying “it was,” the Greek omits “for” or “indeed,” and thus the sense is entirely clear.
“After the baptism which John preached.” The pronoun “which” refers to baptism, because just as in Greek βάπτισμα (baptism, neuter) and βάπτισμος (baptism, masculine) are used, so also in Latin baptismus (masculine) and baptismum (neuter) are used interchangeably, as Saint Augustine, Saint Jerome, and others often do.
Rabanus and Bede read this passage differently, namely thus: “You know how John preached Jesus of Nazareth”—that is, you know that Jesus of Nazareth is the word already spoken of. From there all these things follow coherently, as I have already shown from the Greek. Concerning the name “Nazarene,” I spoke in chapter 2, verse 22. Concerning “how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit,” I spoke in chapter 4, verse 27. See Eusebius, book 4 of the Demonstration of the Gospel, chapter 15, where he teaches that the grace of the Holy Spirit is rightly called oil and anointing, because like oil it makes bright, luminous, strong, vigorous, and joyful.
“Christ [was anointed] with power (ἐν δυνάμει, in power, in might). For this is the divine power which Christ displayed in working miracles, in casting out demons, and in converting souls.
“He went about doing good” (εὐεργετῶν, doing good, acting as a benefactor). Thus Christ could rightly be surnamed Euergetēs (Benefactor), indeed far more truly than that Ptolemy, the third king of Egypt. It is therefore the proper characteristic of Christ and of His followers to do harm to no one, but to do good to everyone, so that wherever one dwells, one may scatter the rays of one’s beneficence, after the manner of the sun, which continually runs its course and passes through the sky so as to communicate its light, warmth, and influence to human beings, animals, and plants spread throughout the whole world.
Truly, as Saint Bernard says in Epistle 253 to Guarinus: “He passed through,” he says, “not fruitlessly, nor sluggishly, nor with a slow step, but as it is written of Him: He rejoiced as a giant to run his course.” Moreover, he who runs does not overtake unless he himself also runs. And what does it profit to follow Christ if one does not succeed in attaining Him? Therefore Paul said: “So run that you may obtain.” There, O Christian, fix the goal of your course and progress where Christ fixed His own: “He became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.”
The same Bernard, Sermon 11 On the Words of the Lord, says: “Righteousness is in two things: in innocence and in beneficence. Innocence begins righteousness; beneficence completes it.” The same, Epistle 181 to Haimeric: “The benevolent man judges nothing dearer to himself than benevolence itself, by which he is called benevolent and beneficent.”
Saint Chrysostom, Homily 27 on Genesis, says: “To do good to men is to lay up a great benefit with God. For to do good is proper to God, just as to do evil is proper to the devil. Those who do good therefore imitate God their Father.” Hear Christ in Matthew 5:44: “Do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute and slander you, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven, who makes His sun rise on the good and the bad, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.”
Hence that saying of Cicero is Gentile, not Christian: “A benefit should be conferred neither on a young man nor on an old one—on the former because he dies before there is an opportunity to return gratitude, on the latter because he does not remember.” More piously Titus Vespasian, the emperor, used to say that it was not lawful for anyone to depart sad from the face of the emperor. The same, when he remembered that on a certain day he had benefited no one, said: “Friends, we have lost a day,” as Suetonius relates in his life.
Pythagoras, when asked by what means men might be considered like the gods, replied: “If they embrace truth and do good to all,” as Aelian relates in book 12. Theophrastus, when asked what preserves human life, replied: “Beneficence,” as Stobaeus reports in Sermon 41. Anaxilaus, when asked what was most blessed in a kingdom, replied: “Never to be overcome by benefactions.” Publius Mimus said: “He who does not know how to give a benefit unjustly asks for one.” Alexander Severus, the emperor, when asked who was the best ruler, replied: “He who retains friends by gifts and wins over enemies by benefits and reconciles them to himself,” as Maximus records in Sermon 9 On Magistrates.
Epictetus says: “Just as the sun does not wait for prayers in order to rise, but immediately shines forth and is greeted by all, so neither should you wait for applause, noise, or praise in order to do good; rather, bestow benefits spontaneously, and you will be embraced just like the sun,” as Stobaeus testifies in Sermon 44 On Magistrates. More nobly still Saint Gregory of Nyssa, in his Oration on the Love of the Poor, says: “Beneficence is the most excellent of all the virtues that are praised. It is the companion of happiness; it sits beside God and is joined to Him by a great intimacy.”
“And healing all who were oppressed by the devil” (καταδυναστευομένους, those who were overpowered, tyrannized), that is, reduced under the power and tyranny of the devil, oppressed and sent under his yoke—namely, those possessed by the devil, whether in body or in soul, or in both. For the devil was the prince of the world, but Christ overthrew him from his tyrannical rule (Luke 11:22).
“For God was with Him.” First, by union—God was with Him by the hypostatic union. Second, by an exceptional grace, singular and supreme in Christ, such as befitted the only-begotten Son of God. Third, by the powerful operation of miracles and healings, and by the efficacious preaching by which He illuminated human minds and converted them to God. Hence He was called Emmanuel, that is, “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14).
Let Nestorius therefore be silent, who from this passage and similar ones inferred that Christ was a mere man and not God, because “God was with Him,” that is, with Christ—thus imagining one person of the man Christ and another of God who was with that man. I respond by denying the consequence: for “with Him” signifies Christ existing not as subsisting in a human person, but in the person of the Word; and therefore it does not posit a human person, but the human nature, and man in the concrete. In this nature God was present by the hypostatic union, and consequently communicated to it His own hypostasis and divine subsistence. Therefore God is in us in one way and in Christ in another: in us He is only by grace and operation; in Christ also by subsistence.
CONTINUE.
Comments
Post a Comment