{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4114","native_reference":{"book_number":250,"chapter_from":3,"chapter_to":3,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":2,"verse_to":2},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Athanasius of Alexandria</b>: This is written in the Scriptures and is manifest to all. For although it be hidden and unknown to all, what period of time is allotted to each, and how it is allotted; yet every one knows this, that as there is a time for spring and for summer, and for autumn and for winter, so, as it is written, there is a time to die, and a time to live.<br/><i>— DEFENSE OF HIS FLIGHT 14</i></p><p><b>Cyril of Jerusalem</b>: For as our Savior passed three days and three nights in the bowels of the earth, so you by your first rising out of the water represented Christ's first day in the earth, and by your descent the night. For as in the night one no longer sees, while by day one is in the light, so you during your immersion, as in a night, saw nothing, but on coming up found yourselves in the day. In the same moment you were dying and being born, and that saving water was at once your grave and your mother. What Solomon said in another context is applicable to you: \"A time for giving birth, a time for dying,\" although for you, contrariwise, it is a case of \"a time for dying and a time for being born.\" One time brought both, and your death coincided with your birth.<br/><i>— MYSTAGOGICAL LECTURES 2:4</i></p><p><b>Gregory of Elvira</b>: \"A time to live and a time to die\": you can see, therefore, beloved brothers, that this was said concerning the time of the Lord's birth and death. Thus you must accept his virgin birth if we are to believe not only that the Word in the beginning who was called \"is\" was born, but, as I said, also that the humanity which he adopted and put on was born, both Lord and man. For it says, \"what is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the spirit is spirit.\" Yet, what suffered, died, was buried, and resurrected was not God but man, since he raised man to God, not God to man.<br/><i>— EXPOSITION OF ECCLESIASTES, FRAGMENT 1</i></p><p><b>Gregory of Nyssa</b>: It is right that at the start he makes this tight bond linking death to birth; for death inevitably follows birth, and everything born dissolves in decay. He intends, through the demonstration that death and birth are connected, by using the reference to death as a goad, to wake from sleep those who are sunk deep in fleshly existence and love this present life, and to rouse them in awareness of the future. This insight Moses, the friend of God, used secretly in the first books of Scripture, writing Exodus immediately after Genesis, so that those who read what has been written may learn what affects them even through the very arrangement of the books; for it is impossible to hear of a birth (\"genesis\") without also envisaging a departure (\"exodus\"). Here also the great Ecclesiast, having noticed this, points it out, classing death with birth.</p><p><b>Gregory of Nyssa</b>: He does well to mention right away the binding union between birth and death; death necessarily follows birth, and each generation passes away. To show the connection between death and birth, the former is like a spur to arouse persons immersed in the flesh who love this present existence that they may pay attention to the future. Moses, the friend of God, quietly philosophizes over these matters as we see in the first titles of his books; he immediately writes Exodus right after Genesis. Thus these titles teach us about the order of our lives, for there is no birth [genesis] without death [exodos]. The great Ecclesiastes shows that death holds the same rank as birth: \"There is a time to be born and a time to die.\"<br/><i>— HOMILIES ON Ecclesiastes 6</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: \"A time<br/>to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to uproot that which<br/>has been planted.\" No one doubts that men are born and die, and<br/>God knows that what he has planted will grow full and well; for to pull out<br/>what has been planted is to die. But<br/>since we read in Isaiah [Is. 26, 18.]<br/>\"we have conceived, laboured with and given birth out of a fear for<br/>You\", this must be said, because when a man is ready, that man in<br/>particular, who was born from fear, will die as soon as he has begun to love<br/>God. Since indeed \"perfect love<br/>sends fear outside\" [I. John. 4, 18.]. The Hebrews understand all that he has<br/>written about the contradiction of times, (until it says \" a time for war<br/>and a time for peace\") as concerning Israel. Because it is not necessary to go through<br/>each verse in turn here, commenting on how they are to be interpreted and what<br/>they mean, I will list them briefly, leaving a more detailed study to the<br/>reader's discretion. There was a time for growing and planting in Israel, a<br/>time for dying and leading it into bondage. A time for killing them in Egypt,<br/>and a time for freeing them from Egypt. A time for destroying the Temple under<br/>Nebuchadnezer, and a time for rebuilding under Darius. A time for bewailing the plundering of the<br/>city and a time for laughing and dancing under Zorobabel, Esdra, and<br/>Nehemiah. A time for dissemination from<br/>Israel and a time for gathering them together again. A time like a belt or harness put around the<br/>Jews by God, and a time for leading them into bondage in Babylon and there for<br/>them to rot across the Euphrates. Read \"perizoma\" of Jeremiah [Cfr Ier.. 13, I-II.]. A time for seeking them out and rescuing, a<br/>time for losing and a time for forsaking. <br/>A time for schism in Israel and a time for reunification. A time for hushing the prophets, now when in<br/>Roman bondage and a time for proclaiming them aloud, when even in enemy lands<br/>they weren't lacking in God's presence or comfort. A time for loving, in which He loved those<br/>men before our fathers, a time for hating, since they threw their hands up<br/>against Christ. A time for war, only not<br/>for those who are doing repentance for themselves and a time for peace in the<br/>future, when all the tribes return, and all Israel will be safe.<br/><i>— Commentary on Ecclesiastes</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"7debd112e44eefb3e983e365c4b82d9c049223b3be17da33a0b7b1869a95e515","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4114,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"b63c9007ee78934673f432bce9273d5d6d0134812cf42b8bce21be6b39d8f181","translator":null,"work":null}