{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-2619","native_reference":{"book_number":510,"chapter_from":14,"chapter_to":14,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":14,"verse_to":14},"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>Bede</b>: Having torn their clothes, they rushed out into the crowd, and so on. They, fearing, tear their garments because they were being honored with the worship of gods. For this is a custom of the Jews whenever they hear anything blasphemous and as if against God. But Herod, because he did not give honor to God but acquiesced to the excessive favor of the people, was immediately struck by an angel.<br/><i>— Commentary on Acts</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"Which when the Apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, and saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you.\" See how on all occasions they are clean from the lust of glory, not only not coveting, but even repudiating it when offered: just as Peter also said, \"Why gaze ye on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made him to walk\"? so these also say the same. And Joseph also said of the dreams, \"Is not their interpretation of God?\" And Daniel in like manner, \"And to me also, not through the wisdom that is in me was it revealed.\" And Paul everywhere says this, as when he says, \"And for these things who is sufficient? Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think aught as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.\"<br/><i>— Homily on Acts 30</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Let us imitate them: let us think nothing our own, seeing even faith itself is not our own, but more God's than ours. \"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and this,\" saith he, \"not of ourselves; it is the gift of God.\" Then let us not think great things of ourselves, nor be puffed up, being as we are, men, dust and ashes, smoke and shadow. For say, Why dost thou think great things of thyself? Hast thou given alms, and lavished thy substance? And what of that? Think, what if God had chosen not to make thee rich? think of them that are impoverished, or rather, think how many have given not their substance only, but their bodies moreover, and after their numberless sacrifices, have felt still that they were miserable creatures! Thou gavest for thyself, Christ not for Himself, but for thee: thou didst but pay a debt, Christ owed thee not. See the uncertainty of the future, and \"be not high-minded, but fear\"; do not lessen thy virtue by boastfulness. Wouldest thou do something truly great? Never let a surmise of thy attainments as great enter thy mind. But thou art a virgin? So were those in the Gospel virgins, but they got no benefit from their virginity, because of their cruelty and inhumanity. Nothing like humility: this is mother, and root, and nurse, and foundation, and bond of all good things: without this we are abominable, and execrable, and polluted. For say, let there be some man raising the dead, and healing the lame, and cleansing the lepers, but with proud self-complacency: than this there can be nothing more execrable, nothing more impious, nothing more detestable. Account nothing to be of thyself.<br/><i>— Homily on Acts 30</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Mark the vehemence with which all this is done by the Apostles: \"rent their clothes, ran in, cried out,\" all from strong affection of the soul, revolted by the things that were done. For it was a grief, indeed a grief inconsolable, that they should needs be thought gods, and introduce idolatry, the very thing which they came to destroy! This also was a contrivance of the devil-but he did not prevail. But what say they? \"We also are men of like passions with you.\" At the very outset they overthrew the evil. They said not simply, \"Men,\" but \"As ye.\" Then, that they may not seem to honor the gods, hear what they add: \"Preaching unto you, that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, Who made heaven, the sea, and all things that are therein.\" Observe how they nowhere mention things invisible.<br/><i>— Homily on Acts 31</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: First by the sight they checked them, by rending their garments. This did Joshua the son of Nun upon the occasion of the defeat of the people. Then think not that this action was unworthy of them: for such was the eagerness, they would not otherwise have restrained it would not otherwise have quenched the conflagration. Therefore when need is to do something that is fit to be done, let us not decline it. For if even after all this they hardly persuaded them, if they had not acted thus, what might have been the consequence? For if they had not done thus, they would have been thought to make a show of humility, and to be all the more desirous of the honor. And observe their language, how in rebuking it is moderated, alike full of wonder and of rebuke. This above all it was that hindered them, the saying, \"Preaching unto you to turn from these vanities unto God.\" We are men indeed, they say, but greater than these: for these are dead things. Mark how they not only subvert the false, but teach the true, saying nothing about things invisible-\"Who made,\" say they, \"heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein.\"<br/><i>— Homily on Acts 31</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: \"they tore their clothes.\" It is a custom among the Jews, when slanders are uttered against God, to tear their clothes. And indeed Caiaphas, when the Christ was called the Son of God, tore his robe, crying out and saying that he had blasphemed. (see Matt. 26:65) The divine disciples Barnabas and Paul likewise did this, being considered gods there, turning away from what was happening by an inclination of soul, and making signs of mourning. For it was truly mourning, if they were about to be considered gods and to introduce idolatry, which they had come to abolish. [AMMONIUS]<br/><i>— Commentary on Acts</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"ec1c60acd25cae3592f63c99150ec79f8ef178a224e4fdee3232c9a775072dcf","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":2619,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"0173792c914c24de1525f6fcce39d2ffb939fb0517bd733d47690543e0c863a3","translator":null,"work":null}