{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-7688","native_reference":{"book_number":290,"chapter_from":56,"chapter_to":56,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":3,"verse_to":3},"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>Cyril of Alexandria</b>: The stranger who comes before the Lord should not say, \"The Lord will surely cut me off from his people.\" For it will not be because he is foreign in the sense of not having Israelite blood therefore that he will be without a share in the gifts from the Lord, the intimate and spiritual relationship with him. But if he clings to the Lord in his domestic affairs and his friendships, he will be made to belong in the holy people and to the royal priesthood and to the inheritance of God. He will be numbered among the children of Abraham. For not all from Israel are Israel as most-wise Paul said: not all the progeny are the seed of Abraham, but the children of the promise are reckoned as descendants.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON Isaiah 5:3.56:3-5</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: (Vers. 4, 5.) Because the Lord says these things to the eunuchs: If they keep my Sabbaths, and choose what I desire, and hold fast to my covenant, I will give them a place in my house and within my walls, and a better name than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off. LXX: Thus says the Lord to the eunuchs: Those who keep my Sabbaths, and choose what I desire, and hold fast to my covenant, I will give them a place in my house and a named place within my walls, better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not fail. He had proposed two things, proselytes and eunuchs. First, he speaks about eunuchs and gives them instructions for living, and promises them future rewards. And after them, he comes to the proselytes, promising them similar things. Therefore, he speaks to the eunuchs who have said in despair, 'Behold, I am a withered tree' (Exod. 23), so that they may not consider themselves subject to the curse spoken of the barren: 'Cursed is the barren one who does not bear seed in Israel' (Deut. 7). Yes, he said, if they have kept my Sabbaths and chosen the things I wanted and not the things I allowed for the weakness of the listeners, and have faithfully kept my covenant or testament, I will give them a place in my house, and in my Temple, and in the strong walls of my city, and a better name to my sons and daughters, which will never be erased from memory. Those who are eunuchs, as we mentioned before, who are devoted to the things of God; to them speaks Wisdom, which is called by the name of Solomon: Blessed is the sterile and stainless woman, who has not known a bed in sin, she will have fruit in the visitation of souls. And the eunuch, who has not worked with his hand iniquity, nor thought evil against the Lord. For the chosen grace of his faith will be given, and a pleasing part in the temple of the Lord (Wisdom 3:13, 14). This one is fruitful in virginity; this eunuch exercises power in the kingdom of heaven, and violently seizes it. This one is the keeper of the sabbaths, so that he never engages in the works of marriages (I Corinthians 7). This one has chosen what the Lord willed, to offer more than what was commanded: to consider not his indulgence, but his will. This one holds the everlasting covenant of the Lord, so that he does not cease from prayer for a time, and again returns to it, but knows that he will be accepted in the house of the Lord, which is his Church, the best place. For there are many mansions with the Father (John XIV). And whoever is a eunuch, and does all the things that are written, will have the best place within its walls, so that he may become a tower of the Lord, and may stand in a priestly rank, and may have many spiritual children for the children of the flesh. It is said that such was the eunuch whom Jesus loved most, the Evangelist John, according to the accounts of Ecclesiastical history, who reclined on Jesus' breast (John 13); who, with Peter walking more slowly, ran to the Lord on the wings of his virginity (John 20); who, immersing himself in the mysteries of the divine birth, dared to say what all ages did not know: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; this was in the beginning with God (John 1, 2). Therefore, let all the mockery of the Jews cease, and let him no longer offer himself for ridicule, opening the kingdom of heaven to those of half-heartedness, when chastity does not lie in the weakness of the body, but in the willingness of the soul.<br/><i>— Commentary on Isaiah</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: Those who please me are those who choose to be eunuchs voluntarily.… Who can receive this teaching, let him receive it. It is a matter of great faith and great virtue to be the purest kind of temple of God, in that one dedicates oneself completely to the Lord as a burnt offering and to be holy in body as well as spirit. Those are eunuchs who, thinking themselves to be \"dry trees\" because of their infertility, hear through Isaiah that instead of sons and daughters they will have a place prepared in heaven. Of this sort were Ebedmelech in Jeremiah and that eunuch of Queen Candace.<br/><i>— Against Jovinianus 1.12</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: (Verse 3.) And let not the son of the stranger, who adheres to the Lord, say, 'The Lord will surely separate me from His people.' And let not the eunuch say, 'Behold, I am a dry tree.' LXX: Neither let the foreigner, who is joined to the Lord, say, 'The Lord will surely separate me from His people.' And let not the eunuch say, 'I am a dry tree.' Those who understand this passage humbly refer it to proselytes from the nations and truly to eunuchs, as it is said that even strangers, if they receive the law of the Lord and are circumcised, and eunuchs, like the eunuch of Queen Candace (Acts 8), who could not even be idle on a journey, and while he was seeking an interpreter of the reading, found Christ whom he was seeking, may not be excluded from the salvation of God. But this, they say, is said against the Jews, who boast of the nobility of their lineage, and claim to be descendants of Abraham, and believe those to be blessed who have offspring in Zion and dwellers in Jerusalem (John VIII). But we, who were previously interpreted as thorns and thistles and κονύζη and στοιβὴν (Above, to chapter LV), we now understand to be turned into fir trees, cypresses, and myrtle trees, and the same people are being challenged in regard to the faith of the Gospel: which they should not despair of, as long as they adhere to the Lord; and they should not consider themselves separated from God's people. For all who have been baptized in Christ have clothed themselves with Christ (Galatians 3:27). There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, nor free, but Christ is all and in all (Colossians 3:11). And it is written in Deuteronomy: Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people, that is, the God who had the prior people of the Jews (Deuteronomy 33:43). Those who come from the East and West will rest in the bosom of Abraham. This is what John the Baptist also said: And do not say, we have Abraham as our father. For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham (Matthew 3:9). And just as there is no distinction among proselytes, both men and women are equally called to salvation; so also in eunuchs who have castrated themselves for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, both sexes are accepted; those who have mortified their members upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, until they all attain to the perfect man, and can say with the Apostle: We know no one according to the flesh. And if we have known Christ according to the flesh, but now we no longer know him (I Cor. V, 16). Therefore, in the case of eunuchs, they should in no way be understood, whom a passionate poet describes (Lucan. lib. X):</p><p>And also the unfortunate youth, cut off by the sword, and the men who were cut off . . . . . . . But those of whom the Lord speaks in the Gospel: 'Those who have castrated themselves for the kingdom of heaven' (Matthew 19:12), such were also the Apostles, to whom, marveling and saying because of the difficulty: 'Who then can be saved?' the Savior answered: 'He who can accept it, let him accept it.' Therefore, the Apostle also testifies that he does not have the commandment of the Lord regarding such eunuchs, that is, regarding virgins, but he gives advice as if having obtained mercy from the Lord, desiring that all be like himself: 'For the time is short,' he says, 'it remains, that both they who have wives be as though they had none' (1 Corinthians 7:29). For whoever is called to freedom and released from the duty of marriage, that person is truly a servant of Christ.<br/><i>— Commentary on Isaiah</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"6b34393dbc55366ed2d21e7311a1892928e1cfa66536dfc768b7e3ebe7dea66b","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":7688,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"6779ee04cfc4f882006823692eadb47b0dcd1c074892fdba740e2386e115c86c","translator":null,"work":null}