{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-444","native_reference":{"book_number":530,"chapter_from":9,"chapter_to":9,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":9,"verse_to":9},"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>Apostolic Constitutions</b>: Let him use those tenths and first-fruits, which are given according to the command of God, as a man of God; as also let him dispense in a right manner the free-will offerings which are brought in on account of the poor, to the orphans, the widows, the afflicted, and strangers in distress, as having that God for the examiner of his accounts who has committed the disposition to him. Distribute to all those in want with righteousness, and yourselves use the things which belong to the Lord, but do not abuse them; eating of them, but not eating them all up by yourselves: communicate with those that are in want, and thereby show yourselves unblameable before God. For if you shall consume them by yourselves, you will be reproached by God, who says to such unsatiable people, who alone devour all, \"You eat up the milk, and clothe yourselves with the wool;\" [Ezekiel 34:3] and in another passage, \"Must you alone live upon the earth\"? [Isaiah 5:8] Upon which account you are commanded in the law, \"You shall love your neighbour as yourself.\" [Leviticus 19:18] Now we say these things, not as if you might not partake of the fruits of your labours; for it is written, \"You shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox which treads out the grain;\" [Deuteronomy 25:4; 1 Corinthians 9:9] but that you should do it with moderation and righteousness. As, therefore, the ox that labours in the threshing-floor without a muzzle eats indeed, but does not eat all up; so do you who labour in the threshing-floor, that is, in the Church of God, eat of the Church: which was also the case of the Levites, who served in the tabernacle of the testimony, which was in all things a type of the Church.<br/><i>— Apostolic Constitutions (Book II), Section 4, XXV</i></p><p><b>Fulgentius of Ruspe</b>: These animals accomplish their life and purpose in this world according to the incomprehensible will of the Creator. They render no account of their deeds because they are not rational. \"Is God concerned about oxen?\" Human beings, however, because they have been made rational, will render an account to God for themselves and for all the things which they have received for use in this present life.<br/><i>— TO PETER ON THE FAITH 42</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.\"</p><p>And on what account hath he mentioned this, having the example of the priests? Wishing to establish it far beyond what the case required. Further, lest any should say, \"And what have we to do with the saying about the oxen?\" he works it out more exactly, saying, \"Is it for the oxen that God careth;\" Doth God then, tell me, take no care for oxen? Well, He doth take care of them, but not so as to make a law concerning such a thing as this. So that had he not been hinting at something important, training the Jews to mercy in the case of the brutes, and through these, discoursing with them of the teachers also; he would not have taken so much interest as even to make a law to forbid the muzzling of oxen.</p><p>Wherein he points out another thing likewise, that the labor of teachers both is and ought to be great.</p><p>And again another thing. What then is this? That whatever is said by the Old Testament respecting care for brutes, in its principal meaning bears on the instruction of human beings: as in fact do all the rest: the precepts, for example, concerning various garments; and those concerning vineyards and seeds and not making the ground bear divers crops, and those concerning leprosy; and, in a word, all the rest: for they being of a duller sort He was discoursing with them from these topics, advancing them by little and little.</p><p>And see how in what follows he doth not even confirm it, as being clear and self-evident. For having said, \"Is it for the oxen that God careth?\" he added, \"or saith he it altogether for our sake?\" Not adding even the \"altogether\" at random, but that he might not leave the hearer any thing whatever to reply.</p><p>And he dwells upon the metaphor, saying and declaring, \"Yea for our sakes it was written, because he who ploweth ought to plow in hope;\" i.e., the teacher ought to enjoy the returns of his labors; \"and he that thresheth ought to thresh in hope of partaking.\" And observe his wisdom in that from the seed he transferred the matter to the threshing floor; herein also again manifesting the many toils of the teachers, that they in their own persons both plough and tread the floor. And of the ploughing, because there was nothing to reap, but labor only, he used the word, \"hope;\" but of treading the floor he presently allows the fruit, saying, \"He that thresheth is a partaker of his hope.\"</p><p>Further, lest any should say, \"Is this then the return for so many toils,\" he adds, \"in hope,\" i.e., \"which is to come.\" No other thing therefore doth the mouth of this animal being unmuzzled declare than this; that the teachers who labor ought also to enjoy some return.<br/><i>— Homily on 1 Corinthians 21</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: God's care was not only for the oxen but moreso for the apostles, for whose sake he uttered these words.<br/><i>— ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.4.2</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: But the new law's wont was to point to clemency, and to convert to tranquillity the pristine ferocity of \"glaives\" and \"lances,\" and to remodel the pristine execution of \"war\" upon the rivals and foes of the law into the pacific actions of \"ploughing\" and \"tilling\" the land. Therefore as we have shown above that the coming cessation of the old law and of the carnal circumcision was declared, so, too, the observance of the new law and the spiritual circumcision has shone out into the voluntary obediences of peace.<br/><i>— An Answer to the Jews</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: But why enlarge on such a subject? When the very apostle whom our heretics adopt, interprets the law which allows an unmuzzled mouth to the oxen that tread out the corn, not of cattle, but of ourselves; and also alleges that the rock which followed (the Israelites) and supplied them with drink was Christ; teaching the Galatians, moreover, that the two narratives of the sons of Abraham had an allegorical meaning in their course; and to the Ephesians giving an intimation that, when it was declared in the beginning that a man should leave his father and mother and become one flesh with his wife, he applied this to Christ and the church.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book III</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: What was the use, however, of adducing the Creator's, which he was destroying? It was vain to do so; for his god had no such authority! (The apostle) says: \"Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn,\" and adds: \"Doth God take care of oxen? \"Yes, of oxen, for the sake of men! For, says he, \"it is written for our sakes.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"ff085472ebc2db2d31330a05a907cc9feb36d7e7e3fd0d5be7671f3a63764c8f","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":444,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"c4ffb6fe2d9523120aec02660461b77252f9cc351fdeb3467ebf1380f877b8c6","translator":null,"work":null}