0' "
0' And the answer is, `Because the lenten fast forms a meet preparation for the reception of baptism. And moreover, there is a reason which weighed with our fathers, in respect of this season of the fifty days, the time of the Church's great festivity. The baptism newly received would restrain the neophytes from giving loose to carnal lusts; having prepared them to keep the feast with a holy and awful gladness.
0' It should be borne in mind, that these Homilies were commenced during the Penthkosth, i.e. the period of fifty days between Easter and Pentecost; at which season the Book of Acts was usually read in the Churches.
0' Chrys. had just said, apelqwn amoiroj thj xaritoj apairaithton ecei thn timwrion. The objector (with the usual prevaricating formula, ti oun ean to kai to; Hom. in Matt. 229 D.) says: ti oun an kataciwqeij, sc. thj xaritoj apelqh; to which Chrys. answers: 'Apeleusetai palin kenoj katorqwmatwn: He will depart as empty of good works as he was before his baptism: adding, For it is, I think, utterly impossible that such an one [though he should live ever so long after baptism] would have wrought out his own salvation.
0' that we may rise again to newness of life, not that we should pass at once from the spiritual burial to the literal."
5 Hom. cur in Pentec. Acta legantur, t. iii. p. 89. E. "The demonstration of the Resurrection is, the Apostolic miracles: and of the Apostolic miracles this Book is the school."
6 The statement that the Acts is a "Demonstration of the Resurrection" has a certain profound truth, but is incorrect if intending to assert that such was the conscious purpose of the author. The resurrection of Jesus is a prominent theme in the Apostolic discourses but the book is no mre designed primarily to prove the resurrection than are the Epistles to the Romans and Corinthians. The immediate purpose of the book is to record the labors and triumphs of the Apostolic Church as supplementary to the narrative of the teaching and work of Jesus (i. 1. 2). The events narrated presuppose the resurrection and would have been impossible without it.-G. B. S.
7 Chrys. states too confidently that "the brother" whose praise is referred to in 2 Cor. viii. 18, is Luke. It cannot be determined who this "brother" was. See Meyer in loco. Other conjectures are: Barnabas, Mark, Erastus, and an actual brother of Titus.-G. B. S.
8 Ms. C. has oiktirmonaj, merciful; the rest, akthmonaj, without possessions, which is certainly the true reading. Thus in the Sermon de futurae Vitae deliciis, where Chrys. discourses largely on the harmony of Christ's teaching and actions, he says, Palin akthmosunhn paideuwn, ora pwj dia twn ergwn authn epideiknutai, legwn, Ai alwpekej, k. t. l.
9 "He taught them to be poor." Here we have a tinge of asceticism. Even if we suppose that the beatitude of the poor refers to literal poverty (Luke vi. 20) as well as to poverty in spirit (Matt. v. 3), it is still incorrect to say that Jesus taught his disciples that poverty was in itself a virtue. The ascetic principle is of heathen, not of Christian origin. It is noticeable that Chrys. quotes no passage to sustain his statement.-G. B. S.
10 The latter is doubtless the correct interpretation. (So Meyer, Hackett). Cf. Matt. xii. 28; John iii. 34; Luke iv. 1.-G. B. S.
11 1. e. as Oecumenius explains in l. ina mh tij nomish eterou ounamei touto genesqai, lest any should suppose this to have been done by the power of another, he adds, to show that it was His own act, To whom also, etc.
12 It is more than doubtful whether the mention of the resurrection is introduced (i. 3 sq.) for the purpose of meeting sceptical objections. The writer will rather make it the point of departure for his subsequent narrative. He has mentioned the ascension; the resurrection is the other great event and he will introduce a resume of the more important circumstances which happened during the period between these two events and which have an important bearing upon the history about to be related. -G. B. S.
13 Chrys, seems to overlook the appearance "to above five hundred brethren at once," 1 Cor. xv. 6.-G. B. S.
14 Peripeirousi, Ms. C. and Cat. (see 1 Tim. vi, 9, pierced themselves through with many sorrows), and in this sense Hom. in Matt. 455 B. 463 A. The word is used as here, ibid. 831 C. where several mss. have pantaxou h planh eauthn peripeirei, for eauth peripiptei.
15 Sunalizomenoj. In the margin of E. V. "Eating together with them." The Catena here and below, had pr. man. the other reading, sunaulizomenoj, but corrected in both places. St. Chrys. so takes the word, Hom. in Princip. Act. §11.767 E. in Joann. 522 D. Oecumen. in 1. explains it, toutesti koinwnwnalwn, koinwnwn trapezhj, "Partaking of the salt, partaking of the table."
16 Chrys. here follows the interpretation which derives sunalizenoj (i. 4) from sun and alj (salt) hence, eating together. So several ancient authorities as Vulgate (convesceus) and even modern, as Meyer. But the preferable derivation is from sun and alhj (crowded), hence to be assembled, to meet with (sc. autoij). So Olshausen, Hackett, Lechler, Thayer's Lex. and most modern authorities.-G. B. S.
17 So mss. C. F. D. and the Catena. The others have monou antou, "of him (John) alone," not of his testimony.
18 'Ean gar mh oikeiwqwmen proj to didomenon. Erasm. Nisi rei datae addicti fuerimus.
19 Oi thn alourgida baptontej. <\=85_ina mh ecithlon genhtai to anqoj. Comp. Plat. Republ. iv. vol. i. p. 289. Stallb. Oukoun oisqa, hn d egw, oti oi bafeij, epeidan boulhqwsi bayai eria wst einai alourga, prwton men eklegontai ek tosoutwn xrwmatwn mian fusin thn twn leukwn, epeita proparaskeuazousi ouk oligh para: skeuh qerapeusantej opwj decetai oti malista to anqoj, kai outw dh baptousi.
20 The question, fully expressed, is, `Why do we baptize, not at Pentecost, but on Easter Eve?
21 This view, that baptism cleansed from all sin, and that, therefore, sin after baptism was far more heinous and hard to be forgiven, held wide sway in the early church and operated as a powerful motive for the delay of baptism. The reception of the grace of baptism involves this increased liability to deadlier sin. For this reason Tertullian had urged its postponement. "And so according to the circumstances and disposition, and even age, of each individual, the delay of baptism is preferable; principally, however, in the case of little children." "If any understand the weighty import of baptism, they will fear its reception more than its delay," etc. De Baptismo, xviii. Chrys. did not carry the idea to this length.-G. B. S.
22 Ti oun dn kataciwqeij fhsin apeleusetai palin kenoj katorqwmatwn, Cod. C, and so A, but with apeleush In the latter recension this sentence is omitted, and instead of it, we have, Ti de tauta kata thj seautou swthriaj proballh; `But why dost thou put forth such pretences against thine own salvation?
23 Meta akribeiaj mustagwgeisqai: alluding to the kathxhsij mustagwgikh, i.e. the course of instruction by which the catechumens were prepared for baptism. See the Catechetical Discourses of St. Cyril of Jerusalem.
24 Ta rhmata ekeina: i.e. not (as Ben seems to interpret) "Buried with Christ; "as if this were part of the form of words put into the mouth of the person to be baptized; but the words, "I renounce thee, O Satan, and all thy angels, and all thy service, and all thy pomp: and I enlist myself with Thee, O Christ." St. Chrysost. Serm. ad pop. Antioch, xxi. p. 244. The words, "buried with Him," serve to show more clearly the absurdity of such delay: "we are `buried with Christ in His death,
25 The catechumens were allowed to be present at the first part of the service (Missa catechumenorum); and were dismissed after the Sermon, before the proper Prayers of the Church, or Missa Fidelium.
26 Kathciwqhsan thj xaritoj, as above, p. 8, note 1, ti oun an kataciwqeij;
27 The Holy Communion, administered immediately after baptism.