NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

Establishment of the natural communion of the Spirit from His being, equally with theFather and the Son, unapproachable in thought.clean through the word which I have spoken unto you,” 1176 wherefore “the world cannotreceive Him, because it seeth Him not,…but ye know Him; for he dwelleth with you.” 1177And so says Isaiah;—“He that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it; hethat giveth breath unto the people upon it, and Spirit to them that trample on it” 1178 ; forthey that trample down earthly things and rise above them are borne witness to as worthyof the gift of the Holy Ghost. What then ought to be thought of Him whom the worldcannot receive, and Whom saints alone can contemplate through pureness of heart? Whatkind of honours can be deemed adequate to Him?1176 John xv. 3.1177 John xiv. 17.1178 Is. xlii. 5, LXX. πατοῦσιν αὐτήν. So St. Basil’s argument requires us to translate the lxx. The “walktherein” of A.V. would not bear out his meaning. For this use of πατειν, cf. Soph., Ant. 745. οὐ γὰρ σέβεις τιμάςγε τὰς θεῶν πατῶν. So in the vulgate we read “et spiritum calcantibus eam,”—calcare bearing the sense of“trample on,” as in Juvenal, Sat. x. 86, “calcemus Cæsaris hostem.” The Hebrew bears no such meaning.214