Homilies on Genesis 18–45

Homily 25

HOMILY 25 "Now, Noe was six hundred years old when the deluge came upon the earth.'" WANT [218] ONCE MORE TO TOUCH on the theme I broached to you, brethren, yesterday and set before you again the story of the good man Noe. You see, the good man's wealth of virtue was immense, and it is our duty to study it in detail as far as we possibly can and to draw great benefit from it for you. For your part, strain your attention , I beg you, so that none of the ideas contained there may escape you. It is necessary firstly, however, to remind your good selves to what point yesterday's teaching brought us so that we may resume the sermon from that point and in this way link up what we have said with what now remains to be said. (2) So how did our instruction conclude? The text says, "The Lord God said to Noe, 'Board the ark, you and your household, because I have found you to be law-abiding before me in this generation. Take on board with you the clean beasts seven by seven, and the unclean two by two. You see, after seven more days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe off the face of the earth all the life I have made, from human beings to cattle.' Noe did everything the Lord God commanded him."2 We brought the sermon to that point and concluded the instruction there. You recall just as well yourselves, of course, that we explained 1. Gen 7.6. 2. Gen 7.1-5, with textual differences from the quotation of these verses throughout Homily 24-which goes to document Baur's warning about the Fathers' erratic quotation of Scripture from memory (cf. FOTe 74, Introduction (15)') 124 HOMILY 25 125 to your good selves the reason why God directed that the clean beasts be embarked seven by seven but the unclean two by two. (3) So, come now, today let us move on to the following verses, and see what Sacred Scripture describes to us after Noe's boarding the ark. You see, at this particular time we ought especially display great interest when on account of the season of fasting we have without interruption been enjoying your gracious attendance and have been free of temptation to gluttony, and with our mind alert we have been able to attend with precision to what is said. (4) There is need, therefore, to say where today's reading takes its beginning. "Now, Noe was six hundred years old," the text says, "when the deluge came upon the earth." Pay attention, I beseech you, and let us not pass this verse by heedlessly; these brief words contain a hidden treasure, and provided we earnestly apply our attention, we shall be able to learn from them both the extraordinary degree of the Lord's loving kindness and the intensity of wickedness of people of that time. "Now, Noe," it says, "was six hundred years old." It was not idly that it taught us the good man's age, or merely for the purpose of our learning that figure itself of the good man's age; instead, because Sacred Scripture had previously taught us to the effect that "Noe was five hundred years old,"3 and after making known to us his age it had then recounted, people's extreme tendency to wickedness and that their mind was set firmly on evil from their youth, accordingly God said, "'My spirit is not to remain with these human beings on account of their being [219] carnal,' "4 giving them a premonition of the extremity of his anger. Then, so as to give them a sufficient opportunity to change direction and avoid experiencing his anger, he says, "'Instead, they will have a life of a hundred and twenty years,''' as if to say, I will put up with them for another fifty years.s You see, in those fifty years the 3· Cen 5.32. 4· Cen 6·3· 5. As De Montfaucon points out here and in Homily 23 where Chrysostom first commented on Cen 6.3, Chrysostom is making a moral point about 126 ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM just man by means of his own name did not cease reminding them all and encouraging them, provided they were...