Acts 13:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He did this so that you might understand that great watchfulness was needed.

Paul is ordained in Antioch, where he also preached. Why did the Spirit not say, "Set them apart to the Lord," but "to Me"? By this He shows that He has one authority and power with God.

Do you see how great a work fasting is? It is observed that the Spirit did everything. Yet fasting too is a great good.

It is not limited by a fixed time. When they had to ordain, then they fasted: "and as they fasted, the Holy Spirit said."

Fasting does not consist only in abstinence from food. Abstinence from sensual pleasure is also a form of fasting.

This is what I especially command: abstain not from food, but from sensual pleasure.

We need food, not corruption. We need food, not the cause of diseases, both of soul and of body. We need food that gives sweetness, not sensual pleasure filled with bitterness.

The one is useful, the other harmful. The one is pleasant, the other unpleasant. The one is according to nature, the other contrary to nature.

Tell me, if someone gave you poison to drink, would that not be contrary to nature? If someone offered wood and stones, would you not turn away? Certainly, because this is contrary to nature.

Such is sensual pleasure. As in a besieged city there is great disturbance and confusion when enemies invade it, so it is in the soul when drunkenness and sensual pleasure attack it.

"Who has woe? Who has groaning? Who has quarrels? Who has sorrow? Who has wounds without cause? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger long over wine, who come to seek mixed wine" (Prov 23:29-30).

Yet whatever we say, we shall not restrain people devoted to sensual pleasure unless we rise against another passion.

First, I shall address my word to women. Nothing is more shameful than a pleasure-loving woman. Nothing is more disgusting than a woman given over to drunkenness.

The bloom of her face withers. The brightness and meekness of her eyes are darkened, as if by some cloud that covers the rays of the sun.

This is the act not of a free person, but of a slave, and it is utterly ignoble.

How unpleasant is a woman breathing foul and spoiled wine, belching vapors of rotten meat, weighed down so that she cannot rise, flushed more than is proper, constantly yawning and dozing.

The woman who abstains from sensual pleasure is not like this. She is honorable, chaste, and comely, since the good disposition of the soul gives much beauty also to the body.

Do not think that beauty depends only on bodily comeliness. Imagine a comely maiden who is immodest, talkative, quarrelsome, inclined to drunkenness and extravagance. Is she not more ugly than any unattractive woman?

But if she is modest, silent, and bashful, and if she is accustomed to speak decently and keep the fast, her beauty is doubled. Her comeliness is greater, and her face is more attractive, full of chastity and grace.

Do you wish me now to speak about men as well? What is more disgusting than a drunkard?

He is ridiculous to slaves, ridiculous to enemies, pitiable to friends, worthy of every condemnation, and more beast than man. To be overfilled belongs to the tiger, the lion, or the bear.

It belongs to them because they do not have a rational soul. Yet even they, when they are filled beyond what is proper and beyond the measure appointed to them by nature, disorder their whole body.

How much more do we? For this reason God gave us a small stomach. For this reason He appointed us a small measure of food, to teach us to care for the soul.

Let us look at the very structure of our body, and we shall see that only one small part of us has this purpose, namely, nourishment.

Our mouth and tongue are appointed for hymns, and the throat for producing the voice. Therefore natural necessity compels us, even unwillingly, to abstain from excess.

If sensual pleasure were not accompanied by unpleasantness, infirmities, and diseases, it would not be opposed to us. But now limits have been appointed to you by nature, so that you cannot transgress them even if you wish.

Are you seeking pleasures, beloved? You will find them in a temperate life. Are you seeking health? This too is there.

Are you seeking tranquility? This too is there. Are you seeking freedom? Strength and symmetry of body? Wakefulness and activity of soul?

All these good things are there. In excess, by contrast, there is unpleasantness, ill health, disease, constraint, and needless expense.

Why then, they will say, do we all surrender to it? Because of sickness. Tell me, why does a sick man desire what is harmful? Is not this very thing a sign of sickness?

Why does the lame man not walk straight? All this comes from negligence and from refusing to come to the physician.

Some things give temporary pleasure and eternal torment. Others, by contrast, give temporary suffering and eternal blessedness.

Therefore one who is so pleasure-loving and careless that he does not despise present pleasures in order to attain future ones is soon deceived.

Tell me, why was Esau deceived? Why did he prefer present pleasure to future honor? Because of sensual pleasure and lack of self-control (Gen 25:34).

But where, they will say, does this itself come from? From ourselves, as is clear from the following. When we wish, we restrain ourselves and are patient.

If some necessity arises, and often even only out of rivalry, we choose what is useful.

Therefore, when sensual pleasure is stirred up, consider how brief that pleasure is. Consider the harm. Truly, it is harmful to make such expenditures for one's own destruction.

Consider infirmities and diseases, and reject sensual pleasure.

Do you wish me to list for you how many suffered grievously from sensual pleasure? Noah "drank wine, became drunk, and lay uncovered." Remember how much evil came from this (Gen 9:21-29).

Esau, through lack of self-control, sold his birthright and was ready for fratricide (Gen 25:31-34). The Israelites sat down "to eat and drink, and rose up to play" (Ex 32:6).

Therefore it was said to them, "Take heed lest your heart be deceived and you forget the Lord" (Deut 6:12).

Those given over to sensual pleasure stand on a slippery path. "The widow," Scripture says, "who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives" (1 Tim 5:5-6).

And again: "He grew fat, became thick, and was swollen" (Deut 32:15). Likewise the Apostle says, "Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts" (Rom 13:14).

I no longer prescribe fasting, for no one would listen to this. But I forbid lack of self-control and restrain sensual pleasure, for your own benefit.

Sensual pleasure, like a violent torrent, destroys everything. No obstacle holds it back. It cuts one off from the Kingdom.

What more? Do you desire pleasures? Give to the poor, invite Christ in their person, and you will enjoy yourself even after the meal is ended.

Now you cannot do this, precisely because present goods are unstable. Then you will be able to do it.

Do you desire pleasures? Feed your soul. Set before it the food proper to it, and do not waste it with hunger.

Now is the time of struggle, the time of contests. Yet you sit and overfill yourself?

Do you not know that even scepter-bearing kings live sparingly on campaign in time of war?

"Our warfare is not against flesh and blood" (Eph 6:12), and you fatten yourself as you prepare for battle?

The adversary stands grinding his teeth (1 Pet 5:8), and you surrender to softness and busy yourself with the table?

I know that I say this in vain, though not for all. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Lk 8:8).

Christ is exhausted with hunger, and you are bursting from excess. A twofold intemperance!

What evil does sensual pleasure not produce? It contains contradiction within itself. I do not even know why it received this name.

Perhaps just as earthly glory, which is dishonor, and earthly wealth, which is poverty, received their names, so also sensual pleasure received its name, though in itself it is bitterness.

Are we preparing ourselves to be slaughtered as a sacrifice, that we fatten ourselves so much? Why do you prepare a luxurious table for worms?

Why do you increase the amount of fat? Why do you multiply the springs of sweat and stench? Why do you make yourself useless for anything?

Do you wish your eye to be sound? Make the whole body well ordered.

Among strings, the one that is fat and uncleansed is unable to produce pleasant sounds. The one that is fully cleansed is harmonious and melodious.

Why do you bury the soul? Why do you make its enclosure thicker? Why do you bring upon it great smoke and a cloud, when vapors rise from every side like mist?

If no one else, let the athletes at least teach you that a less corpulent body is stronger.

So too the philosophical soul is better ordered, as happens with a charioteer and a horse.

One must see how hard to move are those devoted to sensual pleasure, who have fattened their bodies. They are like fat horses that stand unmoving and cause the charioteer much trouble.

The man whose horse is obedient and swift can easily receive the prize of victory.

But when the charioteer must drag a horse that keeps falling, and cannot raise it even with blows, he will not win, even if he is very experienced.

Let us not be negligent of our soul, then, when it is oppressed by the body. Let us make its vision brighter, its wings lighter, and its bonds more bearable.

Let us feed it with discourses while living temperately. Let the body be only healthy and strong, so that the soul may rejoice and not grieve.

Thus, having ordered ourselves well, may we attain the highest degree of virtue and be counted worthy of eternal blessings.

May this be by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, belong glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

When the apostles were fasting and praying, it says, the Holy Spirit said: "Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." If the Lord, the God of the fathers. Chooses the one whom He has forechosen, and the Son calls him, and the Spirit sets the same one apart, possessing equal power of nature, then whence comes a difference of essence in the Trinity? In the Trinity, identity of action is made manifest.

While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your power? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God" (Acts 5:3-4). Here he has clearly called the Holy Spirit God. Then again in the Acts of the Apostles it says: "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for Me Barnabas and Paul for the work to which I have called them'" (compare Acts 13:2). By the words "set apart," He showed His authority, as though God Himself were speaking. For if He were a creature of God and had been sent by Him, He ought to have said, "The Lord has said: Set apart for Me Barnabas and Paul." This is how Holy Scripture usually speaks when the Lord speaks through someone lower. And the Lord Himself says in the Gospel, "The Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father" (Jn 15:26). That is, He is the offspring of the Father's essence. For it seems that Holy Scripture nowhere uses this verb with reference to creatures. And again, in another place, the Lord says: "Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt 28:19). If the Holy Spirit were a creature, He would not have numbered Him together with the uncreated Ones, so that He might be worshiped and glorified together with Them.

It was proclaimed on the occasion of a special fast appointed for this purpose (Acts 13:2). Then they learned that the time had come to consecrate and send Paul and Barnabas to the work for which they had been called by the Lord.

He had been called for this very purpose, to proclaim the name of Christ among the Gentiles (Acts 9:15; Acts 22:21). At that time the Antiochian Church had already attained such spiritual perfection that it had its own prophets and teachers. In the Apostolic Church, prophets were God-inspired persons through whom God revealed to the Church the mysteries of His wisdom and will, unknown to ordinary human understanding. Knowledge of the future was one form of divine revelation granted to those who possessed this gift. Because of extraordinary revelations, the word of the prophets possessed special power to convince, edify, and console (1 Cor ch. 14). Teachers were people who, likewise through illumination from the Holy Spirit, possessed a special ability to explain already revealed truths to the consciousness of believers. The apostle Paul elsewhere calls these two gifts the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge (compare 1 Cor 12:8; 28-29). Among them the writer of Acts names Barnabas first. He probably enjoyed special honor among Christians as the organizer of the Church of Antioch by commission of the apostles themselves (Acts 11:22). Saul is named last, because he entered into communion with the Church of Antioch and became one of its members after the others. Once, when all the members of the Antiochian Church were assembled at divine service and fasting, the Holy Spirit said. Through one or several prophets: "Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." The calling of the apostle Paul to be apostle to the Gentiles was of course known to everyone in the Church of Antioch. Therefore all understood what the Holy Spirit was now calling Barnabas and Saul to do. All also understood the importance and greatness of the contest to which these apostles were being called. Therefore they did not simply send them on their way. Rather, after a special fast and prayer for Christ's preachers, and after laying hands on them, they dedicated them to a new and special ministry. Through the common fast and prayer, they called upon them the grace of the Holy Spirit, which helps human infirmities.

Rome, once renowned for the simplicity of its morals, had now lost this virtue. In Seneca's expression, it was a sewer of every abomination. Or, according to the saying of the apostle John, it was the harlot who made the nations drink the cup of her fornications. The capital of the world at this time presented a picture of shame and misery unmatched in the annals of the world. It lay under the oppression of unbridled, half-mad emperors. It was corrupted by filthy theatrical performances and hardened by the bloody spectacles of the amphitheater. It swarmed with every kind of parasite and deceiver, prisoners and most dissolute slaves. It had no serious religion and no public education. It was terrorized by insolent soldiers and an impoverished mob. Suffocating from inward exhaustion, the Roman world sought consolation in superstition, sensuality, and Stoicism. The superstition consisted chiefly in attachment to mysterious systems of Eastern priestcraft, in rites that inflamed sensuality, and in terrible propitiatory sacrifices. These were borrowed from the decaying mythologies of Egypt, or from the grossly sensual religions of Galatia and Phrygia. All this was so dangerous to morality and order that long before this time the senate had vainly tried to forbid the rites performed in honor of Isis and Serapis. But everything was in vain. Paganism was visibly decomposing and was in a tormenting agony. It tried vainly to soften that agony with the pleasures of the most shameful sensuality and debauchery. Amid this universal corruption there were only a few who still valued virtue and kept to the simplicity of ancient family life and religion. These few sought refuge in stern Stoicism. Yet Stoicism was too soulless to give any satisfaction to afflicted souls that thirsted for truth in its most perfect expression. It was precisely this truth that the humble apostles from Antioch went forth to preach to the pagan world.

This service was joined with fasting, since they were fasting. It was, of course, Christian worship, for they ministered to the Lord, that is, to Jesus Christ. Probably this was the divine service of the Eucharist, which the Lord Himself commanded the apostles to perform in remembrance of Him (Lk 22:19). During this great liturgical act, the Holy Spirit said, and so forth. Probably this was spoken through one or several of those taking part in the divine service, most likely through a prophet or prophets (Chrysostom). Before the whole assembly they explained the command of the Holy Spirit. "Set apart," from among yourselves, is used in the sense of sanctification and consecration of the chosen men to a special ministry. See the note on Mt 1:1; Jn 17:17 and following. "For the work to which I have called them." The work itself is not named directly. Yet the Church of Antioch undoubtedly already knew that Saul had been called by the Lord to be apostle to the Gentiles (compare Acts 9:15). It seems that the utterance of the Holy Spirit also points to an inward calling that had come to both of the chosen men. This occurred before the face of the whole community, to whom they probably explained their calling. At least the community sent them forth, verse 3, knowing the work for which it was sending them. That work was that they were going with the preaching of the Gospel into the Gentile world.

For the writer first noted that there were prophets there, and that they remained in fasting and service, so that you might understand that great watchfulness was needed." According to blessed Theophylact, "ministered" means "preached." The expression "Set apart for Me for the work" is said instead of "for the apostleship." This ministry was probably the celebration of the Eucharist. Then the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart," in the sense of sanctifying and consecrating the chosen men to a special ministry (see Jn 17:17). It seems that the utterance of the Holy Spirit also points to an inward calling that had come to both of the chosen men. This took place before the face of the whole community, to whom they probably explained their calling. According to Artobolevsky, "the whole Apostolic Church had already been inspired by the thought of mission among the Gentiles, especially its chosen circle of prophets and teachers, and among them first of all Saul. Now it received sanction, namely during the celebration of the Eucharist, accompanied by prayer and teaching. This is disclosed from the root meaning of the word service and by comparing it, along with the rest, with Heb 10:11; Acts 2:42; Lk 22:19."