Толкование на группу стихов: Прем: 2: 21-21
THE JEWS ERRED ABOUT JESUS’ NATURE. AUGUSTINE: Because Jesus was crucified and not freed, they believed he was not the Son of God. Thus, insulting him as he hung on the cross, they shook their heads, saying, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. He saved others, but he cannot save himself.” With these words, as one reads in the book of Wisdom, “they thought thus but were mistaken. Their wickedness blinded them.” What would have been so amazing about coming down from the cross, for one who rose from the grave without difficulty? But why did he want to be patient to death? To flee from the presence of Saul into the cave. “Cave,” here, can be understood as a lower part of the earth. It was attested, in fact, and known to all, that Jesus’ body was placed in a grave that had been hewn out of rock. This grave, then, was the cave, and Christ took refuge there from Saul. The Jews, in fact, persecuted him until he was placed in the cave. How can we show that they persecuted him until he had been put in the cave? They wounded him with a lance, when he was already dead on the cross. But when, after the funeral practices, the corpse was wrapped in linen and placed in the cave, by then they had nothing to do with his flesh. It was then that the Lord arose, unharmed and incorrupt, from the cave where he had taken refuge to flee the presence of Saul. He hid himself from the godless, whom Saul prefigured, and showed himself to his members. Once risen, his bodily members were touched by his members, the apostles. They touched the risen one and believed. Thus, Saul’s persecution came to nothing. EXPOSITIONS OF THE PSALMS 56.4.
THE BLINDNESS THAT SPRINGS FROM WICKEDNESS. AUGUSTINE: The third way in which sin itself is also the punishment for sin can be seen in the one who says, “I do the evil that I do not want to do.” To this third type also belong all those evil actions one does through ignorance, believing them not evil or even good. In fact, blindness of heart, if it were not a sin, would be unjustly reproved, and yet it is reproved justly where it says, “Blind Pharisee!” as well as in a great many other passages of the Word of God. Moreover, if blindness itself were not a punishment for sin, it would not be said, “Their wickedness has blinded them.” And if this did not happen by a judgment of God, we would not read, “Their eyes are darkened so they would not see; he weakens their backs forever.” Indeed, who would blind his heart by his own choice, when no one would want to be blind in his body? UNFINISHED TRACTATE AGAINST JULIAN 1.47.
