In Noe et filios eius, de cherubim et in propthetam Oseam

A homily of our father among the saints John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on Noah and his sons, and concerning the cherubim, and on the prophet Hosea, how he married a harlot. The sequence of the preceding matters summons the discourse to Noah and the entire subject concerning him, and wishes to assign its proper course in order. For this both the discourse promises you and your zeal for learning expects. But since the time of the evening is short, while the thoughts are many, in order that we may not, enslaved by the brevity of the time, omit the breadth of the thoughts, having stored this subject for another discourse, let us today make a beginning for you from the prophetic voice. The blessed Hosea, who is numbered among the twelve prophets, being summoned to the works of righteousness, sets before us from the outset a rustic praise for the companions of the sequence, speaking thus: Sow for righteousness, and harvest the fruit of life. The end of injustice is death, the end of righteousness is life. Sow for yourselves for righteousness, and harvest the fruit of life. See how what Adam lost has been restored. He was then prevented from touching the tree of life and was cast out of paradise; he is commanded not to touch the tree, so that God might show that he cast out the man not out of hatred, but for discipline. Harvest the fruit of life, as if one were saying: That which Adam lost.

Sow for yourselves for righteousness, and harvest the fruit of life, since every sower in appearance scatters, but in truth gathers; for the sowing, while its appearance is that of scattering, its power and promise are that of gathering; for he scatters not in order to destroy, but in order to gather more. Therefore David compares almsgiving to the poor to sowing, saying: He scattered, he gave to the poor; his righteousness endures forever and ever. Adam was cast out of paradise; for I wish to relate some of the omitted thoughts, which the grace of the Holy Spirit itself placed in the scriptures; but I am constrained by the multitude of thoughts. When Adam was cast out of paradise, or rather sent away, God places the cherubim as guards around paradise. For God, it says, stationed the cherubim and the flaming turning sword to guard the way to the tree of life. See God everywhere forming one thing and effecting another. He stationed the cherubim in the guise of guards, but in truth they were being summoned. Why were the cherubim stationed? For was not the flaming turning sword sufficient to prevent anyone who attempted?

But the account of the cherubim is strange. If someone has read the account of the cherubim of the blessed Ezekiel, or rather his face-to-face vision, he sees in the cherubim themselves the pledge of our life. For they say, "I saw the cherubic animals on the river Chebar, and the heavens were opened, and I saw the chariot of the cherubim, eight wings to each one, and under the wings of the cherubim there was a lion's face, an eagle's face, a calf's face, a human face." Since, then, Adam was cast out of paradise, so that he might not cut himself off from hope as one who had become an outcast, this sight of the guardian guaranteed hope to him. "Do not," it says, "cut yourself off from hope; do not renounce your salvation. You were not cast out of paradise; see your image preserved in me, and see the divine mystery and the formation of God." It chose the most regal of the bright animals among men: for among quadrupeds there is nothing more regal than a lion, nor among birds than an eagle, nor among farm animals than an ox, nor among all than a human. The ox drives agriculture, the lion kingship, the eagle the heights of piety, the human the word of reverence for God.

The cherubim, brothers, are written in divine scripture as living beings, intellectual and spiritual, full of eyes. And to present their appearance to you as in an image, have you seen the variegations of the peacock? Have you seen the images of eyes in the bird? What in the peacock is an appearance having the shapes of eyes, but not having the power of eyes, this in the cherubim is an appearance attested with nature, providing both a flashing power and a truly all-brilliant appearance for contemplation. And pay attention. The cherubim are interpreted in the Hebrew tongue as "fullness of knowledge," upon which God sits. For since God is enthroned in wisdom, and the throne of God is nothing other than wisdom, God is written as sitting upon the cherubim: "He who sits upon the cherubim, appear." And it shows that the throne and resting place of God is the many-eyed wisdom, which sees all, which has nothing blind, which investigates all, both the upper and the lower, which seeks the present and investigates the future, which observes the nature of angels and posits angelic reason, which inspires prophets and discerns with apostles.

And the cherubim were full of knowledge. For this reason it says: "And the cherubim were full of eyes, and their backs and their feet were full of eyes." For nothing in wisdom is blind, nothing idle. Our entire body apart from the eyes is blind; no one sees with a hand or with a back, but the darkened body is illuminated by a single lamp, that of the eye. There, however, the intellectual natures see entirely through and through; each is entirely eye, entirely hand, entirely worker, entirely seeing wisdom. For this is what "seated upon the cherubim" means, that is, reposing upon intellectual wisdom. For just as our bodies find rest [...], so too do the thrones provide rest and honor. For the throne is both a symbol of honor and a service to bodies. But we comfort our weary bodies by resorting to the throne, while He Himself neither suffers nor endures pain, but remains and reposes upon wisdom. Upon every virtue, then, does God repose, which divine scripture also calls a throne. For this reason scripture did not speak of one throne of God, but of many and various ones. It called the heaven a throne: "The heaven is my throne, and the earth the footstool of my feet." It spoke of a throne of God established upon the winds. For it says that when He prepared His own throne, He had a throne of fire upon the winds: "His throne," it says, "is a blazing fire.

Sometimes it is enthroned upon the winds, sometimes upon flame, sometimes upon the heaven, sometimes upon a God-loving soul, so that you may not suppose a physical throne of heaven. Nothing circumscribes God, but everything is circumscribed by God. When Jerusalem had flourishing piety, when it had pure worship and unadulterated adoration, the scriptures called it the throne of God. Jeremiah cries out: "And they will call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord." You see that he does not have a throne as circumscribed by place, but wherever he finds a resting place of holiness, there he is enthroned. I know both Paul and Peter as thrones of Christ; I know every soul of a martyr as a throne of God; every soul upon which he rests, he calls it a throne. For this reason the Holy Spirit, when it came upon the apostles, did not simply come, did not simply say that it dwelt, but it says that tongues of fire appeared and sat upon each one of them. Do you see them becoming thrones? God therefore stationed the cherubim for Adam, having the appearance of the man who had been cast out, so that he might learn that even when cast out he has the pledge among those who guard. And observe the wonderful thing. He did not clothe Adam in paradise with as much dignity as he afterwards clothed the saints with glory, so that it might be shown that glory is not circumscribed by place, but that virtue is clothed with glory. Adam in paradise, having transgressed, was cast out, and the saints, having been crowned outside paradise, entered into it in this way. A fiery sword drove out Adam; a fiery chariot snatched up Elijah, so that it might be shown that it is not the nature of fire that is hostile to him, but transgression set everything in hostility against him.

Consider Elijah before his assumption, commanding fire, which was a terror to Adam. The flaming sword terrified Adam; Elijah, the holy man, while dwelling on earth, gave orders to the sky, called down thunderbolts and brought them against the impious. And one could see a man commanding thunderbolts and striking his enemies with fire. Observe the order of disobedience and obedience. Adam disobeyed and trembles at fire; Elijah obeyed and commands fire. A flaming sword pursues Adam, and a fiery furnace refreshes the three youths. For this reason, God gave the saints rewards greater than the life in paradise, so that from their participation in better things they might have hope of the ancient restoration. Paradise was closed to Adam, and Peter is entrusted with the keys of the heavens. See from what Adam was expelled and to what Peter is entrusted. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens. Did that man lose anything as great as what this man found? Did the lowliness of places hinder the correction of virtue? And what am I saying? Adam in paradise is condemned for transgression, and Job on a dunghill is crowned for endurance; and neither did paradise benefit that man, whose character was discordant with the place, nor did the lowliness of the place harm this man, whose character was adorned.

And one could see strange wonders provided to the saints. And observe the goodness of God, with such abundance of gifts from him, that having bestowed many things upon many, he gave back to each of the recipients a distinct grace. Truly great and great is the blessed Elijah, who was taken up in a chariot of fire. Wonderful are the three youths, who trampled the flame and, in a mortal body, bore pledges of immortality. When I see the furnace cooling, I marvel; when I see the lions muzzled, I am astounded. Neither does the beauty of the miracle concerning Ananias yield to this, nor does this yield to that, but all those things shine; and not one is overshadowed by another. And in order that God might show that he honors the virtues, not the bodies, see what he does. He paints for our souls that age of each righteous person in which he practiced virtue. No one from eternity imagines Joseph in his mind as an old man; you have your own conscience as a witness that the mind always depicts him as young, even though he died at one hundred ten years old. But because he did not flourish in virtue at the time of old age, but the fruits of virtue blossomed for him at the time of youth, he is remembered with that age with which he endured his struggles. Who from eternity, upon hearing about Abraham, supposed him to be young or formed an image of a young man? Did he not also become younger and a youth, did he not pass through every age of youth? But because none of the things he did in his youth are remembered—

For seventy-five years from the beginning, God called him pious, and thereafter he lived together with virtue in old age; every mind that pictures his form depicts him as an old man. Similarly, we all depict Isaac as young, since nothing else is recorded except the time when the time of the sacrifice arrived. God honors with memory the age at which the saints performed deeds of virtue, not dishonoring the other ages, but exalting those in which the deeds of virtue shone most brightly. The three youths entered the furnace and lived on after their martyrdom for many years, and the hymn of the three youths is heard for eternity. Did they not reach an age? Did they not grow old? But every age is passed over in silence, and only that age from which they shone is remembered. Adam, however, was immediately formed perfect, not having experienced a young age, but appeared perfect from the moment he came into being; for the first creation ought not to appear imperfect. He was then cast out of paradise, so that we might adhere to the earlier sequence; to his sons outside paradise was given something greater than what was in paradise, so that future things might be greater than what preceded. Listen. Adam heard because of the transgression: "You are earth, and to earth you will return," and the living one is deadened, but the apostles bring the dead to life. It is one thing to be preserved in life, another to provide life to others.

Adam was shut out of paradise, but for Paul both paradise and heaven were opened. I know a man who fourteen years ago (whether in body or out of body, I do not know, God knows) was snatched up to paradise and was snatched up as far as the third heaven. See how greater honors were given to the children. And here is the remarkable thing: Joshua son of Nun not only reined in the perceptible fire, but also the celestial fire. For when the sun was running and completing its own course, he halted it with a word, placing speech as a bridle upon it. For as he was about to rout the enemies, evening was already overtaking him, making the achievement incomplete. So that the sun's course would not hinder the completion of the victory, he took courage and said, "Sun, stand still at Gibeon." See the wonder. Let the heretics be ashamed: a servant commanded the sun without having prayed, yet they bring the master of the prophets under the order of service and say that Christ can do nothing without beseeching the Father. "Sun, stand still." And it stood still. And the word became a bridle for the luminary, so that the Greeks might learn the difference between believers and unbelievers—that believers give orders to those whom the Greeks worship.

God stationed the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword to guard the way to the tree of life. The prophet led us into this sequence, saying: Sow for yourselves into righteousness, and what transgression lost, the achievement of virtues found. The story of Hosea is strange. This voice of the prophet is a scandal for the impious, but a support for the faithful. The beginning of the Lord's words to Hosea: and the Lord said to the prophet: Go, take for yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry. How many of the unbelievers has this phrase confounded? How many of the unbelievers has ignorance led into perplexity? The faithful person, even if he suspects blasphemy, is at a loss to blaspheme. And it was fitting, he says, for a holy and venerable mouth to begin a prophecy with a profane name? And God said to the prophet: Go, take a wife of harlotry. The introducer of temperance, the herald of righteousness, the hater of profane things, the one who set before us the character of purity—did he suggest to his own prophet, who served with piety, to take a wife of harlotry?

Many, not understanding, have reduced the account to allegory. But it is not allegory; it is a true history. When you learn the subject, you find the solution. And often, as I have said before and will not cease saying, the solution to all difficulties is the subject at hand. God is accustomed to liken the word of piety to a bridegroom marrying the bride, dwelling with her, and begetting children from her. For what a husband is to a wife, that the word is to the soul, preparing it to give birth and to conceive truth. And Paul is a witness, speaking thus: "For I am jealous for you with a divine jealousy; for I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ." And John the Baptist, bearing witness to the Savior, said: "You know from the beginning that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I am sent before him.' He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but he who stands and listens rejoices with joy because of the voice of the bridegroom. My joy is fulfilled. He must increase, and I must decrease. The glory of the servant is the splendor of the master.

The New Testament thus showed the Word having the role of a bridegroom and the soul as the bride, and filling her with divine plantings so that she might conceive the fruit of righteousness. In the Old Testament, it clearly introduces God saying to the synagogue: Remember the days of your youth, that I brought you out of the land of Egypt, and I saw you naked and unseemly; and I clothed you in garments, and the hairs of your head grew, and you became my wife; and you abandoned me, and you committed adultery with wood and stone, and you forgot me, says the Lord. Pay attention, I beg you. The Word of God, then, is husband and bridegroom of the soul, not having a union similar to bodily marriage. The beginning of bodily marriage is desire; the beginning of spiritual marriage is fear. There, desire is the forerunner of marriage; here, fear is the forerunner of this holy communion. For this reason the prophet Isaiah says: Because of your fear, Lord, we conceived, and we travailed and gave birth to a spirit of salvation.

Observe the prophet giving birth. He is a man who speaks, so that you may not suspect any physical matter: it is for the male to beget, not to conceive and give birth. The male takes up and adopts fitting utterances, as far as the natures of bodies are concerned not for everyone, but as far as the soul is concerned for everyone, both man and woman, and says: "Because of fear of you, Lord, we conceived in the womb, and we travailed and gave birth to a spirit of salvation." Paul, being a brother of that one (for he too had a soul betrothed to the divine Word), himself also takes up the voice of the one in labor and says to the Galatians: "My little children, whom I again travail with, until Christ is formed in you." Thus, brothers, the rain is called the husband of the earth; since just as a woman cannot give birth without a man according to natural sequence, nor the earth without rain, divine scripture introduces the rain as the husband of the earth. And God says: "Just as, if rain comes from heaven, it will not return until it has drenched the earth and she gives birth." For the earth gives birth, having the rain as her spouse and husband. Whence also the apostle Paul says: "For the earth that has drunk the rain that often comes upon it and gives birth to suitable herbage, for whose sake it is also cultivated." Just as, then, when you hear of the earth giving birth, you do not picture a desire for marriage or intercourse, but when you hear a word about bodies you ascribe passions to bodies, but when you take the birth of inanimate earth you assume nothing human, so also consider the bride of the divine Word. Fear is what betrothes the soul; for this reason it also produces a spiritual offspring, the thing born. "We gave birth," it says, "to a spirit of salvation." Since we also conceived a spirit, the Lord says in the Gospel:

What is born from the spirit is spirit. You have learned the history; now receive the resolution of the disputed matters. God had the synagogue like a married woman having the law as her husband. She committed fornication from piety and falls into the adultery of idolatry. For what adultery is for a woman, that idolatry is for a soul. Since, then, they drifted away to many gods and, abandoning the one who exists, loved those who do not exist, and since, often persuaded by the prophets and receiving both good promises and threats of evils, they did not recoil from wickedness, God introduces the audacity of the Jews' ingratitude in the form of a prostitute. For he says to the prophet: "Take for yourself a wife of harlotry." First, then, the matter is unlawful; for God did not wish the prophet to commit fornication, but to lead the prostitute to chastity. For he did not command him, nor did he simply permit him to be united with the prostitute, but to take her from harlotry and unite her to himself as a wife. For this reason he says: "Take for yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry," that is, for childbearing, not for the use of desire, but to become fruitful and to sprout fruits worthy of the prophetic teachings.

Why then, "Take for yourself a wife of harlotry"? Because, it says, having committed fornication, the earth will commit fornication. It sets that harlot in opposition to the fornication of the people, the one from God. And he went and took Gomer; and he gave a homer of barley and a nebel of wine. What need was there, or what benefit to the reader or hearer, to learn that the prophet took a harlot, and the manner and substance of the payment? It does not introduce the matter of the payment simply. For since the gift that persuaded the harlot to be chaste was cheap, and she, respecting a small measure of barley and being shamed by a little measure of wine, renounced harlotry and entered into honorable marriage, it commands the quantity of the payment to be written, so that it may shame the truly fornicating synagogue, that she, shamed by a small measure, laid aside harlotry and loved honorable marriage. But the synagogue, not shamed by the manna, not by the provision for forty years, not by the rocks that were split and brought forth water, not by the rod that sprouted, not by the plagues of the Egyptians, not by the wonders in the desert, not by the land of promise, not by the gifts from heaven, not by the sun being checked, not by the moon, not by all creation serving, was shamed into renouncing the harlotry of idols and entering into the honorable marriage of the covenant.

That harlot was also a type of the nations that once worshipped idols and were later called to the chaste marriage of the Gospel. "Go, take for yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry." What I do, you must not refuse to do; for I take the Church that is to be wedded from harlotry. Imitate my ways then; and just as I am not ashamed of the one who is to be taken from harlotry and sanctified, neither should you, looking back at the former life of the harlot, despair of her subsequent chastity. "Take for yourself a wife of harlotry," and he went and took her. Then the harlot conceives and gives birth. God says to him when she gave birth: "Call her name Not-Pitied." Again she gives birth, and God says to him: "Call his name Not-My-People." Pay attention to the meaning. Did you see an infant called by the name "Not-My-People"? Then the master commanded, the servant obeyed. It was an enigma of the people who were once neither beloved nor called "people," but who later came to knowledge. For going on much later—since many things are in between—he says to the prophet: "And it shall be in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they themselves shall be called sons of the living God.

These things we did not conceive on our own, but we were supplied with apostolic words. As it is also written in the prophet Hosea: "I will call my 'Not-my-people' my people, and the 'not-beloved' beloved." And it will be in the place where it was said to them, "You are not my people," they themselves will be called sons of the living God. Moses anticipated this when he said: "For they provoked me with 'Not-gods,' and I will provoke them with a 'Not-nation.'" In the place, he says, it was said "Not my people," that is, the law that called them "Not people" will call them sons of the living God. Observe the image of the apostles. Paul says: "As it is also in Hosea, he says: 'I will call my Not-my-people my people.'" And Peter says in his letters to the faithful: "Sanctified brothers, who once were Not-People, now are people." And since it is written: "Call her name Not-beloved," he says: "who once were not beloved, now are even over-pitied." From this, the prophetic chorus also calls the Church the bride of Christ, taken from harlotry and perfected into chaste marriage. Corruption of bodies is the fall; corruption of bodies and soul is transgression. For this reason, the Savior calls the Church his own spouse, and Paul does not refuse, saying: "Men, love your own wives, just as Christ loves the Church," and he gave himself for her, in order to sanctify her in both body and spirit.

The heretics did not attend to the phrase "he gave himself up," but, struck in their understanding from reading badly what was well written, see what they contrived. They say: It is written by Paul concerning the Son: "Who did not spare even his own Son, but gave him up for all of us," that is, the Father gave up the Son. What then? Did he undergo a forced surrender? Did he suffer unwillingly? And who is so impious, so devoid of divine words, so alien to apostolic teaching, as to dare to call the Lord's passion forced and not occurring by the will of the sufferer? Was he given up by necessity who says, "I am the good shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep"? Does he have necessity who says, "No one takes my life from me; I have the power to take it again"? Did he endure the passion by necessity who says, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it"? Did he endure by necessity who said, "I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world"? Since you cite Paul's statement, which you read badly, calling the Son subordinate, listen to Paul saying: "Let this be thought among you which is also in Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider it a usurpation to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, and, found in appearance as a man, humbled himself, emptied himself." Since it is written concerning the Savior that the Father gave him up for you, let us see if we find Christ giving himself up. Paul says:

Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a sacrifice and offering to God for a fragrant odor. Do you see not a constrained will, but one concurrent with the Father? For what the Son wills, the Father also wills. And the one who says, "He who has seen me has seen the Father," does not lie. It was said in the previous passage how the unequal can be shown through the unequal. He who has seen the one able to do nothing by himself has seen the one able to do everything. He who has seen the subordinate has seen the self-determined. He who has seen the offspring has seen the begetter. He who has seen, as the heretics say, the creature has seen the uncreated. Yes, he says, just as works show the craftsmen. For the heretics take "He who has seen me has seen the Father" in this way. Since it is a result, he says, of the Father's energy, just as great works show even the craftsmen who are not visible, as, for example, a well-polished column becomes an image and representation of the art, so, he says, since it became a great work of the Father's power, it thus shows the one who worked it. What then? Do you also bid the heaven to say, "He who has seen me has seen God"? For the heaven is also a result of the creator. Let creation then seize the Son's utterance; let it no longer say alone, "He who has seen me has seen the Father." Let the heaven say, "He who has seen me has seen God"; for I too am his result. Let the earth also say, "He who has seen me has seen God"; for he also created me. Let the sea also say,

The one who has seen me has seen the one who crowned or the one who separated. The one who knows the stars has seen the one who adorned them. Who is so wretched as to divide the master’s voice among creation? But let the matters of the promise run to their end; for concerning Noah and the entire contemplation of him, if God cooperates according to his manifest will to set forth the subject […] and I wish us to meet prepared. We say these things not simply to spread open our minds, but so that we may not, through ignorance of the historical account, fall short of the meanings. For the task is to show the flood, having an appearance of severity but a power of philanthropy, and the entire subject concerning it full of heavenly and earthly contemplations, not from what reason suggests, but from what scripture establishes for itself. And may the God of the saints, who has granted us this evening table, also grant us the morning table and all the days of our life, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom are the glory and the power unto the ages of ages. Amen.