Книга пророка Даниила, Глава 14, стих 27. Толкования стиха

THE MARTYRS’ FIGHT AGAINST THE IDOLS. PSEUDO-EPHREM: Christ has given to the martyred saints the power to defeat the inhuman plans of the tyrants. He has given to his soldiers all the necessary armor for this war, surrounding them from every side with “the shield of faith,” with the armor of love and a strong mind. He has provided their ramparts with “the sword of the Spirit,” with which they cut off the head of the adversary. He has devastated the foundations of the temples of the idols, crushing the carved images as if they were light powder. He overturns the temples and the altars of the impure sacrifices and the illicit libation offerings, condemning to the fire the hideous dress of their caretakers and driving away the demons of the effigy who have been deceiving them and leading them to Gehenna. Seeing these things, the glorious martyrs, energized from the power of Christ, have conceived a desire more burning than to suffer for the power of his name. With their own hands they have overturned the images, casting down to earth all these monstrosities. And anywhere they found an effigy, they shattered it, throwing it down into the mud for the ultimate shame and derision of those who venerated and adored it. And they said to the governors and the tyrants, “Here is what you adored,” things impotent, blind and immovable—these weak things that you honored. You, equipped of reason, venerate dumb things, you, whom God has honored with his own image, so that you would recognize his power and adore him with fear and trembling when you come to stand before him and come to understand who he is. He is in fact the God who is without beginning, strong, frightening and powerful, most glorious and invisible. Leaving the adoration of him who has made you, you adored the creation instead of the Creator. He made the sun in order to illumine the day, so that enjoying its light and the heat, you would always glorify your Creator. And so he has allowed you to enjoy it. Instead, like blind people, you abandoned the Creator, preferring to adore the creature. Similarly, the Creator created the moon for you in order to dissipate the shadow of the night; you, like fools, imagining that the moon has replaced God, adore it instead of him. PRAISE OF THE MARTYRS.