Because from the rising of the sun to its
setting may my name be glorified by the nations, and in every place incense is
offered to my name and a pure offering, because my name is great among the
nations, says the Lord almighty (v. 11): everywhere on earth all people wherever they may be found
seek after my name, each of them anxious to reverence God and honor his name as
master and Lord, as in fact I am, so that even if they are deceived in applying
my name to what they should not, all still honor it as mine and in my name they
perform their sacrifices, believing the divinity excels and surpasses
everything. You, on the contrary, are seen to insult what is believed by
everyone to be so mighty and venerable, since by treating my table as common
and lacking anything beyond the ordinary, by believing what is placed on it to
be worthy of no attention, and by offering such things to me you clearly insult
my name and appear to set at nought the divinity, who is rightly regarded by everyone
as so mighty, fearsome, august, and surpassing everything. (Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on the Twelve Prophets [trans. Robert
C. Hill; The Fathers of the Church 108; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic
University of America Press, 2004], 404)
Note
for the above:
This v. 11 has been taken in various
ways over the ages, from messianic and even eucharistic interpretation to an
endorsement of other religious traditions. On first principles Theodore shows
no interest in the former, and in a guarded fashion sees value in the latter,
though principally seeing the words directed at the restored community’s
indifference.
