Sophronius of Jerusalem’s (c. 560-638) Interpretation of Luke 1:28 in "Homily 5" and How Mary is “graced/favored”

  

“Be joyful, you who are full of grace, the Lord is with you.” What could be more sublime than this joy, Virgin Mother? Or what could be more beautiful or more glorious than this grace, which you alone have received from God? Everything is secondary to your miracle, everything ranks lower than your grace, and everything that is judged excellent places second to you and obtains the lesser glory of God. God is with you, so who would dare to contend with you? God is from you, so who will not be immediately bested and will not rather declare joyfully your excellence and superiority? That is why I announce to you the greatest things, seeing your superiority among all creatures. Be joyful, you who are full of grace, the Lord is with you, for from you joy is not only bestowed on mankind, but is granted also to the powers in heaven.

 

“Truly you are blessed among women, for you turned the curse of Eve into a blessing; for you made Adam, who was at first accursed, to be blessed through you. Truly you are blessed among women, because the blessing of the Father came upon men through you and freed them form the ancient curse. Truly you are blessed among women, because through you your forebears are saved; for you will give birth to the Savior who will bestow divine salvation upon them. Truly you are blessed among women, because without seed you produced a fruit that will bestow blessings on the whole earth and will ransom it from the throne-laden curse. Truly you are blessed among women, because being a woman by nature you will in fact become the Mother of God; for if He who will be born from you is God incarnate in truth, you will be most justly called Mother of God as the one that truly gives birth to God. (Sophronius of Jerusalem, Homily 5, in Homilies: Sophronius of Jerusalem [trans. John M. Duffy; Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 64; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2020], 183, 185)

 

 

“Hence again I raise my voice with the blessed salutation of joy, ‘Be joyful, you who are full of grace, the Lord is with you.’ I have come bringing joy to mankind, not deadly fear; I am a minister of joy, I am not recognized as a servant of sorrow; I appear as a messenger of joy, I am not known as a herald of sadness. Why do you fear the one who, on the contrary, fears you? Why are you frightened by him who is frightened by your rank? Why do you tremble before the one who trembles at your grace? Why are you wary of him who is wary of your splendor? I am a salve and the lowliest servant of your son and offspring. He is the one who created me from nothing; He is the one who sent me to you from the heavenly realms. I announce to you his coming that will bring joy; I cry out to you his indescribable conception; I proclaim to you his inexplicable Incarnation; I broadcast to you his birth that will be a source of all every kind of joy. That is why I say to you, all-praised Virgin, ‘fear not, Mary, for you have found favor with God;’ you have found favor which no woman has ever found; you have found favor which no one has witnessed; you have found favor which no one has received.

 

“And now, God-bearing vessel of the divine, hear that this favor is: ‘Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ These are the tidings I have been sent from heaven to announce loudly to you; these are the tidings I have been sent to proclaim clearly to you by the one who will be born from you; these are the tidings that the Word of the Father enjoined on me to convey in words expressly; these are the tidings that the only-begotten Son of God instructed me to deliver to you. On high He gave me the command, and here on earth I observe him; in heaven He entrusted me with the message, and here I see him abiding in you the Virgin. He was eternal, the one who now comes to you the Virgin; He was timeless, the one who now in time is carried in your womb; He was without flesh, the one who will be born in the flesh form you; He was without limitation, the one who now accepts confinement in you. (Sophronius of Jerusalem, Homily 5, in Homilies: Sophronius of Jerusalem [trans. John M. Duffy; Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 64; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2020], 195, 197)

 

Robert Alter on Psalm 137:5

 

may my right hand wither. The Masoretic Text reads “may my right hand forget [tishkaḥ].” This is problematic because there is no evidence elsewhere for an intransitive use of the verb “to forget”—hence the strategy of desperation of the King James Version in adding, in italics, an object to the verb, “her cunning.” But a simple reversal of consonants yields tikhḥash, “wither.” The loss of capacity of hand and tongue is linked with the refusal of song, for the right hand is needed to pluck the lyre and the tongue to sing the song. (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2019], 3:314)

 

Robert Alter on Isaiah 51:1

  

Look to the rock you were hewn from. Although “rock” (tsur) in biblical poetry is often an epithet for God, the reference to Abraham and Sarah in the next verse suggests that the poet has in mind here the human forefather and foremother of the people of Israel. “Quarry” is never an epithet for God, and the fact that a rock juts up (and is a masculine Hebrew noun) while a quarry is a cavity in the ground (and a feminine Hebrew noun) further aligns the two metaphors with Abraham and Sarah respectively. (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2019], 2:793)

 

Update on Liver Issues: x3 (possibly x6) 28 Day Treatment Plan, Etc.

 Cross posting from youtube

I have managed to use many of my sources when I worked in medical/hospital accounts. I will have three initial 28-day cycles on meds. It will be costly, but apart from having more frequent headaches/migraines, might work out better for me long-term. Based on US values, I did the following math:

 

Atezolizumab: $9,035 per cycle (total: $27, 105) (x2 = $54,210) Bevacizumab: $1,948 per cycle (total: $5,844) (x2 = $11,688) Durvalumab: $11,577 per cycle (total: $34,731) (x2 = $69,462) Grand total: $67,680 (x2 if I need a second three-month cycle: $135,360) (excluding loss of wages [bookkeeping and the like])

 

I will hopefully start the treatment in June or July.

 

You can help me by (1) prayers/well-wishes and (2) financially (esp by sharing on discord channels, youtube posts, email lists, f/b posts, etc):

 

Gofundme: https://www.gofundme.com/f/medical-expenses-liverrelated-and-other-issues

 

Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/irishlds/

 

Venmo: https://account.venmo.com/u/Robert-Boylan-16

(As an aside, I will be on a short trip from May 13 to 17, but I do have a couple of blog posts scheduled for those days).

Samantha L. Miller (Protestant): John Chrysostom (and his comtemporaries) not being "proto-Protestants" with Respect to Soteriology

  

CHRYSOSTOM IS NEITHER A PROTESTANT NOR A HERETIC

 

In all of this, twenty-first century Protestants tend to hear all Chrysostom believes people have to earn their salvation. That is not all the case. We hear this because Protestants have been trained to reject anything at all that sounds like salvation is about anything other than completely unearned grace because of the particular doctrines and behaviors Martin Luther was rejecting in the sixteenth-century Catholic Church. This misunderstanding becomes especially acute, as I noted above, when Chrysostom’s language of worthiness comes in.

 

Chrysostom’s articulation of salvation was completely normal in his time and among his contemporaries. Yes, Chrysostom tells his people that they have to contribute to their salvation with their faith and virtue, and that not adding those things to Christ’s work will see them suffering the greatest torments in hell, but this is not to say that anyone is “earning” their salvation. In fact, Luther would have agreed with this much, since he thought that people could end up in hell also, based on what they believed. Chrysostom insists that God’s work is prior to the human’s work and more significant. Without Christ’s death and resurrection, there is no salvation for anyone. This is the necessary condition, and it must precede any human action.

 

Chrysostom uses the phrase “up to us” and “our part and “what we bring or contribute” to salvation, suggesting that though God has done the major work, there is something for humanity to do as well, in addition or in response to that work. Further, Chrysostom says that God designed salvation this way so that human beings could show their effort and, more importantly, so God would respect human freedom and self-determination, with which he created them in the first place. In this way, God is just because any punishment or reward is just, since the human being made a choice for himself. For God to save unilaterally would not be just, in Chrysostom’s understanding.

 

Since Christ’s work is the primary and major component, Chrysostom is not suggesting that a person can earn her salvation, certainly not on her own. Christ has already offered salvation to everyone, regardless of how virtuous they are. In fact, in his baptismal homilies, Chrysostom is vivid in his description of how unworthy of salvation human beings are. He uses the metaphor of marriage to explain baptism, and he says that Christ marries the Christian even though the Christian is a hideously ugly bride, soiled in all kinds of ways. (For instance, this passage: Cathec. illum. 1.3 [SC 50:110) It is Christ’s choice of the hideous bride while in the condition of her unworthiness that implies neither ability nor need to make oneself worthy. Christ makes one worthy, and then the Christian must keep herself worthy by means of her virtue. So Chrysostom insists a person must participate in his salvation and has need to contribute to his salvation, but these are not the same as earning one’s salvation. (Samantha L. Miller, John Chrysostom: An Introduction to His Life and Thought [Cascade Companions; Eugene, Oreg.: Cascade Books, 2026], 114-16)

 

Samantha L. Miller on Redemtive Almsgiving in the Theology of John Chrysostom and His Contemporaries

  

One thing to recognize is that early Christians were extremely attentive to post-baptismal sin. Chrysostom and his contemporaries spoke often about the danger of sinning after baptism. Christ has saved, and Christ has washed clean in baptism, but it is the Christian’s duty to remain worthy of that salvation. They were all worried about what might wipe out sins committed after baptism. It is possible that Chrysostom is talking about that here. Almsgiving would counterbalance all post-baptismal sins. Almsgiving pays the debts incurred in sin—not the initial cosmic debt incurred for all of humanity when Adam and Eve ate the fruit, for that was forgiven in baptism, but the debt racking up with further sins. There are places Chrysostom speaks of Christ’s ongoing help in the struggle for post-baptismal virtue, so he does not think humans do this on their own, but he also thinks, along with his contemporaries, that almsgiving is a powerful enough virtue to pay that bill. (Samantha L. Miller, John Chrysostom: An Introduction to His Life and Thought [Cascade Companions; Eugene, Oreg.: Cascade Books, 2026], 99-100)

 

Further Reading:

 

David J. Downs, Alms: Charity, Reward, and Atonement in Early Christianity (Baylor University Press, 2016)

Sophronius of Jerusalem (c. 560-638) on the Offering in Luke 2

  

And why did Christ bring an offering of two birds? That was what the Law prescribed, seeing that Christ, while remaining one and the same, appeared in two natures; He possessed unity out of two nature and is acknowledged in two natures, without division or confusion of divinity and humanity, his two constituent elements. And we too consist of two elements, being composed of soul and body and appearing in body and soul, in order that we might achieve good with both, so as not to accomplish virtue with the one part, but be deficient with the other and fall short of the splendor of the virtues. The Lord himself, recognized as the good giver of all virtue, taught us this lesson when He said, “he perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect,” for whatever is imperfect and unfulfilled is surely not acceptable to God. (Sophronius of Jerusalem, Homily 4, in Homilies: Sophronius of Jerusalem [trans. John M. Duffy; Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 64; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2020], 145, 147)