Книга пророка Иеремии, Глава 11, стих 18. Толкования стиха

Ты же, Господи, открыл мне и я узнал; Ты показал мне деяния их, а я как аг­нец кроткий, несомый на жертву, и не знал, что они составили замыслы против меня. Положим дерево в пищу ему и сотрем его с земли живых, чтобы и имя его не упоминалось более. Ты же, Гос­поди Саваоф, судящий праведно и испытующий сердца и утробы, дай мне увидеть мщение Твое над ними, ибо тебе открыл Я дело мое. Все Церкви согласно разумеют, что в лице Иеремии это говорится Христом, что Ему Отец открыл, как ему должно говорить и по­казал ему деяния Иудеев; а Он, как агнец ведомый на жертву, не отверз уст своих и не познал, подразумевается, греха, по оному сказанному апостолом: "не ве­давший греха, за нас сделался грехомъ". И сказали они: положим дерево в пищу ему, то есть крест в тело Спасителя, ибо Он Сам сказал: аз есм хлеб сшедый с небесе (Ин. 6:51). И искореним или сотрем его с земли живых, ибо замыслили в душе такое пре­ступление, чтобы имя Его истребить навсегда. С своей стороны, по таинству воспринятой плоти, Сын обращается к Отцу и просит суда Его, когда восхваляет Его право­судие и призывает Бога испытующего сердца и утробы, чтобы Он Сам воздал народу, чего он заслуживает, и говорит: дай мне увидеть мщение Твое над ними, то есть над теми, кои упорствуют в преступлении, а не над теми, кои обращаются к покаянию. О них Он ска­зал на кресте: отче, отпусти им: не ведают бо что творят (Лк. 23:34). Он открывает Отцу и объявляет дело свое, что не по своей заслуге, а по преступлению на­рода Он распят на кресте, говоря: грядет сего мира князь, и во мне не имать ничесоже (Ин. 14:30). Иудеи и наши иудействующие думают, что это говорится от ли­ца Иеремии, утверждая, что за предсказание будущего и за угрозы предстоящими бедствиями плена он терпел это от народа; но не знаю, как они могут доказать, что Иеремия был распят, когда Писание об этом не упоми­нает; разве только может быть они задумают сделать это, но не сделают.

CHRIST SPOKE THROUGH JEREMIAH ABOUT THE FUTURE. JEROME: It is the consensus of all the church that these words are spoken by Christ through the person of Jeremiah. For the Father made it known to him how he should speak and revealed to him the zealotry of the Jews—he who was led like a lamb to the slaughter, not opening his mouth and not knowing. But the word sin is implicitly added to this last phrase, in agreement with what was said by the apostle: “When he did not know sin, he was made to be sin on our account.” And they said, “Let us put wood on his bread,” clearly referring to the cross on the body of the Savior, for he is the one who said, “I am the bread that descended from heaven.”

They also said “let us destroy (or eradicate) him from the land of the living.” And they conceived the evil in their soul that they would delete his name forever. In response to this, from the sacrament of the assumed body, the Son speaks to the Father and invokes his judgment while praising his justice and acknowledging him as the God who inspects the interior and the heart. He asks that the Father would return to the people what they deserve, saying, “Let me see your vengeance on them,” obviously referring only to those who continue in sin, not to those who repent. Concerning the latter, he said on the cross: “Father forgive them, for they do not realize what they are doing.” He also “disclosed his cause” to the Father, that he was crucified not because he deserved it but for the sins of the people, as he declared: “Behold, the prince of the world came and found nothing against me.” The Jews and our Judaizers believe that all of this was said only by Jeremiah, arguing from prophecy that the people have sustained these evils in their captivity. But I fail to see how they hope to prove that Jeremiah was the one crucified, since such an event is nowhere recorded in Scripture. Perhaps it is just a figment of their imagination. SIX BOOKS ON JEREMIAH 2.110.2-4.

THE CROSS FORETOLD. CYPRIAN: That the Jews would fasten Christ to the cross. . . . Also in Jeremiah: “Come, let us cast the tree into his bread, and let us blot out his life from the earth.” TO QUIRINUS: TESTIMONIES AGAINST THE JEWS 2.20.

CHRIST SPOKE THROUGH JEREMIAH ABOUT THE FUTURE. JEROME: It is the consensus of all the church that these words are spoken by Christ through the person of Jeremiah. For the Father made it known to him how he should speak and revealed to him the zealotry of the Jews—he who was led like a lamb to the slaughter, not opening his mouth and not knowing. But the word sin is implicitly added to this last phrase, in agreement with what was said by the apostle: “When he did not know sin, he was made to be sin on our account.” And they said, “Let us put wood on his bread,” clearly referring to the cross on the body of the Savior, for he is the one who said, “I am the bread that descended from heaven.”

They also said “let us destroy (or eradicate) him from the land of the living.” And they conceived the evil in their soul that they would delete his name forever. In response to this, from the sacrament of the assumed body, the Son speaks to the Father and invokes his judgment while praising his justice and acknowledging him as the God who inspects the interior and the heart. He asks that the Father would return to the people what they deserve, saying, “Let me see your vengeance on them,” obviously referring only to those who continue in sin, not to those who repent. Concerning the latter, he said on the cross: “Father forgive them, for they do not realize what they are doing.” He also “disclosed his cause” to the Father, that he was crucified not because he deserved it but for the sins of the people, as he declared: “Behold, the prince of the world came and found nothing against me.” The Jews and our Judaizers believe that all of this was said only by Jeremiah, arguing from prophecy that the people have sustained these evils in their captivity. But I fail to see how they hope to prove that Jeremiah was the one crucified, since such an event is nowhere recorded in Scripture. Perhaps it is just a figment of their imagination. SIX BOOKS ON JEREMIAH 2.110.2-4.

EXPLAINING THE PROPHECY OF THE CROSS. LACTANTIUS: Jeremiah, too, said, “Show me, O Lord, and I shall know. Then I saw their plots. And I was carried as a meek lamb to be the victim. They devised counsels against me, saying, ‘Let us put wood on his bread and cut him off from the land of the living, and his name shall be remembered no more.’ ” Now the wood signifies the cross and the bread his body, because he is himself the food and life of all who believe in the flesh that he put on and by which he hung on the cross. DIVINE INSTITUTES 4.14.

JESUS IS THE LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER. ORIGEN: In Jeremiah, too, he likens himself to a lamb, as thus: “I was as a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter.” These and other similar sayings he applies to himself. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1.23.

JESUS AS THE LAMB OF GOD. ORIGEN: If we examine the declaration about Jesus who is pointed out by John in the words, “This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” from the standpoint of the dispensation itself of the bodily sojourn of the Son of God in the life of people, we will assume that the lamb is none other than his humanity. For he was “led as a sheep to the slaughter and was dumb as a lamb before its shearer,” saying, “I was as an innocent lamb being led to be sacrificed.” COMMENTARY ON ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.273.

JEREMIAH SPEAKS OF CRUCIFIXION. RUFINUS: He was led to the cross, and the life of the whole world hung suspended from its wood. Would you care to have this, too, confirmed by the testimony of prophets? Listen to what Jeremiah has to say about it: “Come, and let us put wood on his bread, and let us cut him off from the land of the living.” Moses again, lamenting over them, remarked, “And your life shall be hanging suspended before your eyes, and you shall fear by day and by night, neither shall you trust your life.” COMMENTARY ON THE APOSTLES’ CREED 22.