The Ancient Witnesses

Chapter 7: The Last Times • 241

Chrysostom: This reminds us of the difference between physical death and spiritual death: it is no sin to die physically, and there is no blame in it since physical death is a matter of nature and not of deliberate choice . 21 Marius Victorinus: Yet as the passage shows, death can be taken in a second way when the soul, established in this very body, acts out of the desires of the flesh and lives in its sins. 22 Ambrosiaster: Paul is saying that those who follow the errors of this age are dead. Whoever turns away from confessing the one God is considered to be dead because he does not remain in the root from which he derived his origin . 23 Chrysostom: Paul indeed shows us what a terrible thing

is spiritual death: to heal a dead soul is a far greater thing than to raise the dead! 24

Each witness offered his commentary in turn, though the Roman witnesses deferred to Chrysostom and he set the agenda for the commentary.

21 Paraphrase of Chrysostom, Homilies on Ephesians , Homily IV (NPNF I.13, 65).

22 Marius Victorinus, Commentary on the Letter to the Ephesians , Book 1, 2:1-2. Published in Stephen Andrew Cooper, Metaphysics and Morals in Marius Victorinus’ Commentary on the Letter to the Ephesians (New York: Peter Lang, 1995), 63.

23 Ambrosiaster, Commentaries on Galatians-Philemon , in Gerald Bray, Ambrosiaster, Ancient Christian Texts, page 38.

24 Paraphrase of Chrysostom, Homilies on Ephesians , Homily IV (NPNF I.13, 65).