The hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me forth in the spirit of the Lord: and set me down in the midst of a plain that was full of bones.2 And he led me about through them on every side: now they were very many upon the face of the plain, and they were exceeding dry.3 And he said to me: Son of man, dost thou think these bones shall live? And I answered: O Lord God, thou knowest.4 And he said to me: Prophesy concerning these bones; and say to them: Ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.5 Thus saith the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will send spirit into you, and you shall live.6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to grow over you, and will cover you with skin: and I will give you spirit and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.7 And I prophesied as he had commanded me: and as I prophesied there was a noise, and behold a commotion: and the bones came together, each one to its joint.8 And I saw, and behold the sinews, and the flesh came up upon them: and the skin was stretched out over them, but there was no spirit in them.9 And he said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, O son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus saith the Lord God: Come, spirit, from the four winds, and blow upon these slain, and let them live again.10 And I prophesied as he had commanded me: and the spirit came into them, and they lived: and they stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.11 And he said to me: Son of man: All these bones are the house of Israel: they say: Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, and we are cut off.12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will open your graves, and will bring you out of your sepulchres, O my people: and will bring you into the land of Israel.13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have opened your sepulchres, and shall have brought you out of your graves, O my people:14 And shall have put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall make you rest upon your own land: and you shall know that I the Lord have spoken, and done it, saith the Lord God:
For the prophets have proclaimed two advents of His: the one, that which is already past, when He came as a dishonoured and suffering Man; but the second, when, according to prophecy, He shall come from heaven with glory, accompanied by His angelic host, when also He shall raise the bodies of all men who have lived, and shall clothe those of the worthy with immortality, and shall send those of the wicked, endued with eternal sensibility, into everlasting fire with the wicked devils. And that these things also have been foretold as yet to be, we will prove. By Ezekiel the prophet it was said: "Joint shall be joined to joint, and bone to bone, and flesh shall grow again; and every knee shall bow to the Lord, and every tongue shall confess Him." And in what kind of sensation and punishment the wicked are to be, hear from what was said in like manner with reference to this; it is as follows: "Their worm shall not rest, and their fire shall not be quenched;" and then shall they repent, when it profits them not.
Let them say so that have been redeemed by the Lord, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy: and gathered out of the countries.3 From the rising and the setting of the sun, from the north and from the sea.4 They wandered in a wilderness, in a place without water: they found not the way of a city for their habitation.5 They were hungry and thirsty: their soul fainted in them.6 And they cried to the Lord in their tribulation: and he delivered them out of their distresses.7 And he led them into the right way: that they might go to a city of habitation.8 Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to him: and his wonderful works to the children of men.9 For he hath satisfied the empty soul, and hath filled the hungry soul with good things.
Prophetic language affirms that the conversion of those in error is the work of God. For "they went astray in the wilderness in a thirsty land," the psalmist says, and then he adds, "So he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to the city where they dwelled," and "when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion." In like manner also the comfort of the afflicted is ascribed to God, Paul thus says, "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who comforts us in all our tribulation." Again, the psalmist says, speaking in the person of God, "You called on me in trouble, and I delivered you." And the setting upright of those who stumble is ascribed innumerable times by Scripture to the power of the Lord: "You have held me by the hand that I might fall, but the Lord was my help," and "Though he fall, he shall not be cast away, for the Lord upholds him with his hand," and "The Lord helps them that are fallen." And the recovery of the distressed admittedly belongs to the loving-kindness of God, if Eunomius means the same thing of which we learn in prophecy, as the Scripture says, "You laid burdens on our backs; you allowed people to ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, and you brought us to a place of abundance."
But the Pharisees hearing that he had silenced the Sadducees, came together:35 And one of them, a doctor of the law, asking him, tempting him:36 Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law?37 Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind.†38 This is the greatest and the first commandment.39 And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.40 On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.
Jesus had put the Sadducees to silence, to shew that the tongue of falsehood is silenced by the brightness of truth. For as it belongs to the righteous man to be silent when it is good to be silent, and to speak when it is good to speak, and not to hold his) peace; so it belongs to every teacher of a the Not indeed to be silent, but to be silent as far as any good purpose is concerned.
All who thus ask questions of any teacher to try him, and not to learn of him, we must regard as brethren of this Pharisee, according to what is said below, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of mine, ye have done it unto me. (Matt. 25:40.)
Or otherwise; With all thy heart, that is, in all recollection, act, thought; with all thy soul, to be ready, that is, to lay it down for God’s religion; with all thy mind, bringing forth nothing but what is of God. And consider whether you cannot thus take the heart of the understanding, by which we contemplate things intellectual, and the mind of that by which we utter thoughts, walking as it were with the mind through each expression, and uttering it. If the Lord had given no answer to the Pharisee who thus tempted Him, we should have judged that there was no commandment greater than the rest. But when the Lord adds, This is the first and great commandment, we learn how we ought to think of the commandments, that there is a great one, and that there are less down to the least. And the Lord says not only that it is a great, but that it is the first commandment, not in order of Scripture, but in supremacy of value. They only take upon them the greatness and supremacy of this precept, who not only love the Lord their God, but add these three conditions. Nor did He only teach the first and great commandment, but added that there was a second like unto the first, Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself. But if Whoso loveth iniquity hath hated his own soul, (Ps. 11:5.) it is manifest that he does not love his neighbour as himself, when he does not love himself.
He said Master tempting Him, for none but a disciple would thus address Christ. Whoever then does not learn of the Word, nor yields himself wholly up to it, yet calls it Master, he is brother to this Pharisee thus tempting Christ. Perhaps while they read the Law before the Saviour’s coming, it was a question among them which was the great commandment in it; nor would the Pharisee have asked this, if it had not been long time enquired among themselves, but never found till Jesus came and declared it.
Or, because he that has fulfilled the things that are written concerning the love of God and our neighbour, is worthy to receive from God the great reward, that he should be enabled to understand the Law and the Prophets.
About CSB. A personal translation of the New Testament, rendered directly from the public-domain Greek in a literary style — not a scholarly critical edition, and not for liturgical or doctrinal authority. It is one reader's work, offered for enjoyment; where it matters, weigh it against an established translation. (Placeholder text — final wording to come.)