{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-5527","native_reference":{"book_number":550,"chapter_from":5,"chapter_to":5,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":24,"verse_to":24},"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>Basil of Caesarea</b>: We \"crucify\" the flesh, of course, by being baptized in the water of baptism, which is a likeness of the cross and his death, his entombment and his resurrection, as it is written.<br/><i>— ON BAPTISM 1.15</i></p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: \"Why call ye me Lord, Lord,\" He says, \"and do not the things which I say?\" For \"the people that loveth with their lips, but have their heart far away from the Lord,\" is another people, and trust in another, and have willingly sold themselves to another; but those who perform the commandments of the Lord, in every action \"testify,\" by doing what He wishes, and consistently naming the Lord's name; and \"testifying\" by deed to Him in whom they trust, that they are those \"who have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts.\" \"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.\" \"He that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.\"<br/><i>— The Stromata Book 4</i></p><p><b>Cyprian</b>: Paul proclaims in a loud and lofty voice, \"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.\" And yet a virgin in the Church glories concerning her fleshly appearance and the beauty of her body! Paul adds, and says, \"For they that are Christ's have crucified their flesh, with its faults and lusts.\" And she who professes to have renounced the lusts and vices of the flesh, is found in the midst of those very things which she has renounced! Virgin, thou art taken, thou art exposed, thou boastest one thing and affectest another. You sprinkle yourself with the stains of carnal concupiscence, although you are a candidate of purity and modesty. \"Cry,\" says the Lord to Isaiah, \"All flesh is grass, and all the glory of it as the flower of the grass: the grass withereth, and the flower fadeth; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever.\" It is becoming for no Christian, and especially it is not becoming for a virgin, to regard any glory and honour of the flesh, but only to desire the word of God, to embrace benefits which shall endure for ever. Or, if she must glory in the flesh, then assuredly let her glory when she is tortured in confession of the name; when a woman is found to be stronger than the tortures; when she suffers fire, or the cross, or the sword, or the wild beasts, that she may be crowned. These are the precious jewels of the flesh, these are the better ornaments of the body.<br/><i>— Treatise II On the Dress of Virgins</i></p><p><b>Epiphanius of Salamis</b>: If those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh, it is therefore clear that the slaves of Christ have presented their flesh in purity along with its desires and passions. They are participating in Christ, thus acknowledging that he crucified the flesh. That is why the faithful, thinking the same thoughts as their Lord, have crucified the flesh. And if believers have crucified the flesh it is unthinkable that those who suffered on Christ's behalf should not be reigning with him.<br/><i>— PANARION 42.12.3, SEVENTH REFUTATION OF MARCION</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: (Ver. 24.) But those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its vices and desires. Origen, connecting this passage with the previous ones, reads it as follows: There is no law against those who have crucified the flesh of Christ with its vices and desires, so that it does not mean, as it sounds in Latin, that they who belong to Christ say that they have crucified their own flesh with vices and desires; but Christ's flesh crucified by them with vices and desires. And he asks how in those who have the fruits of the Spirit, and against whom the Law ceased to be, the crucifixion of the flesh of the Lord is put in praise, when it is stated in Hebrews with condemnation: Crucifying again in themselves the Son of God, and making a show (Heb. VI, 6). As for 'crucifying again,' a better compound word in Greek is ἀνασταυροῦντες, which we can interpret as 'recrucifying.' First, therefore, it must be noted that crucifying is one thing, and re-crucifying is another. Furthermore, re-crucifying the Son of God is not the same as crucifying the flesh of Christ with vices and desires. For the flesh of Christ is not primarily and properly the Son of God, but Jesus Christ, who, when he was in the beginning with the Father, the Word of God was made flesh and emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, in order to crucify the flesh and strip off principalities and powers, triumphing over them in the cross, so that the words of the Apostle might be fulfilled: What is dead to sin is dead once (Rom. VI, 10). Therefore, if our bodies are the members of Christ, then our flesh is also the flesh of Christ, which we crucify, mortifying through it on earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and greed. And now it is spoken of us in praise, who have crucified the flesh of Christ Jesus with vices and lusts, and always carry about in our body the mortification of Jesus, so that His life may also be revealed in our flesh. However, it is no small amount of labor to live in the present age, so that the life of Jesus may now be manifested in our flesh. For in this way, our mortal bodies will be made alive through the Spirit dwelling in us. Where the Latin interpreter placed vices, in Greek they are read as παθήματα, that is, passions. And because passion can signify both pain and other needs of the body, the Apostle cautiously introduced desires: so that he would not appear to deny the nature of the body in spiritual men, but vices. And let it be understood in this way, if we follow the Vulgate edition, as we read: But those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its vices and desires; so that we may say, not that they have crucified the flesh of Christ, but their own. I have almost forgotten the second interpretation. For I have foretold that everything that follows is to be referred to the Law and circumcision. Therefore, the meaning is as follows: Those in whom there is the fruit of the Spirit, charity, joy, and the rest, have crucified the bodily understanding of Scripture, which is now called the flesh of Christ, with his passions and desires, which generate the nourishment of vices for infants and sucklings. He crucified the flesh of Christ, who does not wage war according to the flesh of history, but follows the spirit of allegory that precedes.<br/><i>— Commentary on Galatians</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: That they might not object, \"And who is such a man as this?\" he points out by their works those who have attained to this perfection, here again giving the name of the \"flesh\" to evil actions. He does not mean that they had destroyed their flesh, otherwise how were they going to live? for that which is crucified is dead and inoperative, but he indicates the perfect rule of life. For the desires, although they are troublesome, rage in vain. Since then such is the power of the Spirit, let us live therein and be content therewith.<br/><i>— Homily on Galatians 5</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: \"Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh.\" Then, for fear that they say, \"And who does these things?\" he says: These are they who do these things, who have crucified the flesh of Christ, that is, their own body (for the flesh of Christ is our body), and as it were have mortified it from fleshly affections. And not only the body, insofar as it was subject to passions they crucified, but also the passions themselves, insofar as they tended to be completed by them they were crucified, according to this interpretation; the rest is passing over.</p><p>Or in another way. And what do I say, he says, one by one a form of virtue? For there are some who have also crucified themselves, as regards their passions, and the passions, as regards themselves. According to this interpretation, the word does not apply to the δε. But those of Christ, that is, those who, stretching out their flesh, have crucified it. Therefore Clement in the fifth book of the Hypotyposes.</p><p>— [PHOTIUS] And there is the phrase, οἱ δὲ (But they), and instead of the phrase, \"οὗτοι δὲ (But these),\" to have heard. These are the ones I spoke of, those who crucified the flesh of Christ, and so on. [end of the excerpt by Photius] —<br/><i>— Commentary on Galatians</i></p><p><b>Pseudo-Clement</b>: Those, therefore, who imitate Christ, imitate Him earnestly. For those who have \"put on Christ\" [Romans 13:14] in truth, express His likeness in their thoughts, and in their whole life, and in all their behaviour: in word, and in deeds, and in patience, and in fortitude, and in knowledge, and in chastity, and in long-suffering, and in a pure heart, and in faith, and in hope, and in full and perfect love towards God.<br/><i>— Two Epistles on Virginity</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"e43699a57a2038bb9c44f12933053b12548a7fc728a3c6a5d01a1c9a31c986a7","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":5527,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"dc60a835e46ea33280d1386656683522f77801838edc82ecffb2cd814c6495c7","translator":null,"work":null}