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

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

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To Optimus the bishop.he had a passible body, <strong>and</strong> others that he fulfilled the bodily œconomy by a kind of appearance.Some say that his body was earthly, some that it was heavenly; some that He pre-existedbefore the ages; some that He took His beginning from Mary. It is on this accountthat He is a sign that shall be spoken against.9. By a sword is meant the word which tries <strong>and</strong> judges our thoughts, which pierceseven to the dividing asunder of soul <strong>and</strong> spirit <strong>and</strong> of the joints <strong>and</strong> marrow, <strong>and</strong> is a discernerof our thoughts. 3164 Now every soul in the hour of the Passion was subjected, as itwere, to a kind of searching. According to the word of the Lord it is said, “All ye shall beoffended because of me.” 3165 Simeon therefore prophesies about Mary herself, that whenst<strong>and</strong>ing by the cross, <strong>and</strong> beholding what is being done, <strong>and</strong> hearing the voices, after thewitness of Gabriel, after her secret knowledge of the divine conception, after the great exhibitionof miracles, she shall feel about her soul a mighty tempest. 3166 The Lord was boundto taste of death for every man—to become a propitiation for the world <strong>and</strong> to justify allmen by His own blood. Even thou thyself, who hast been taught from on high the thingsconcerning the Lord, shalt be reached by some doubt. This is the sword. “That the thoughtsof many hearts may be revealed.” He indicates that after the offence at the Cross of Christa certain swift healing shall come from the Lord to the disciples <strong>and</strong> to Mary herself, confirmingtheir heart in faith in Him. In the same way we saw Peter, after he had been offended,holding more firmly to his faith in Christ. What was human in him was proved unsound,that the power of the Lord might be shewn.3164 cf. Heb. iv. 12.3165 Matt. xxvi. 3.3166 The Ben. note strongly objects to this slur upon the constancy of the faith of the Blessed Virgin, <strong>and</strong> issure that St. <strong>Basil</strong>’s error will not be thus corrected without his own concurrence. It supposes this interpretationof the passage in question to be derived from Origen, Hom. xxvii. In Lucam, <strong>and</strong> refers to a list of commentatorswho have followed him in Petavius, De Incar. xiv. 1.818

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