THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
"But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and declared to them." There you see his care, and here his courage.
Let them have marveled, let them have been struck with awe. Yet even then, was it a small thing to lift up one's voice amid such a multitude?
If you become troubled even when speaking among your own, much more so when speaking among enemies, among men breathing murder.
That the Apostles were not drunk became immediately clear from their voice. They did not fall into frenzy like possessed men, and they were not deprived of freedom and self-command.
But what does "with the eleven" mean? It means that they made their defense with one common voice. Peter served as the mouth of all, while the other eleven disciples stood by, confirming his words by their testimony.
"He lifted up his voice," that is, he spoke with great boldness. He acts this way so that they may know the grace of the Spirit.
Before this he could not endure the question of an insignificant maidservant. Now, amid a crowd of people, when all are breathing murder, he speaks with such boldness.
This was an undoubted testimony of the Resurrection. He acts with such courage among people who laughed and mocked at so great an event.
Consider how much insolence, impiety, and shamelessness were needed to regard the extraordinary gift of tongues as drunkenness. Yet none of this troubled the Apostles or took away their courage, though they heard these mockeries.
With the coming of the Spirit they were already changed and became higher than everything carnal. For where the Holy Spirit appears, there even things of clay become golden.
Look, I ask you, at Peter. Recognize in him that man who was fearful and uncomprehending, as Christ said, "Are you also still without understanding?" (Mt 15:16).
Recognize the man who, after his wondrous confession, was called Satan (Mt 16:23). Notice also the unanimity of the Apostles. They yield to him to speak to the people, because it was not fitting for all to speak.
"He lifted up," it says, "his voice," and began to speak to them with great boldness. This is what it means to become a spiritual man.
Let us also make ourselves worthy of grace from above, and then everything will be easy for us.
As a man of fire, falling into straw, suffers no harm, but instead causes harm, since he himself suffers nothing and the stalks that strike against him destroy themselves, so it was now.
Or better, as a man who holds fire in his hands boldly enters combat with one who carries hay, so the Apostles went out against these people with great courage.
What harm, indeed, did that numerous crowd do them? Tell me, did they not wrestle with poverty and hunger? Did they not battle with dishonor and ill repute? They were considered deceivers.
Were they not subjected to mockery and abuse from those present? Both fell upon them. Some laughed at them, and others reviled them.
Were they not exposed to the rage and madness of whole cities, to uprisings and plots? Did fire, iron, and beasts not threaten them? Did battle with innumerable enemies not confront them on every side?
Were they not in such a state as though they saw these calamities in a dream or in a picture? And what happened? Did they not exhaust the fury of their enemies? Did they not put them themselves in perplexity?
Were not those men more than all others possessed by anger and fear? Were they not in anxiety, dread, and trembling?
Indeed, listen to what they say: "You intend to bring this Man's blood upon us" (Acts 5:28).
What is astonishing is that the Apostles, completely unarmed, took the field against armed men, and against rulers who had authority over them.
Inexperienced, unskilled in speech, and utterly simple, they opposed and fought against experts, deceivers, and a crowd of sophists, rhetoricians, and philosophers rotted through in the Academy and the Peripatetic school.
The man who formerly busied himself only around lakes overcame them as though he were struggling with speechless fish. Yes, he conquered them all as a true fisherman conquers speechless fish.
Plato, who raved so much, fell silent. But this man speaks not only before his own people, but also before Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and in India. He speaks everywhere on earth, even to the uttermost bounds of the world.
Where now is the pride of Greece? Where is the glory of Athens? Where is the raving of philosophers? A Galilean, a Bethsaidan, an unlearned man, conquered them all.
Are you not ashamed, tell me, at the mere name of the land that was the homeland of your conqueror? If you also hear his name, and learn that he was called Cephas, you will be still more ashamed.
This is precisely what destroyed you. You consider this humiliating for yourselves. You find all glory in eloquence, and you consider lack of skill in speech a disgrace.
You did not walk the path on which you should have walked. You left the royal way, easy and level, and went by an uneven, steep, and difficult road. For this reason you did not attain the kingdom of heaven.
But why, you will say, did Christ not act through Plato or Pythagoras? Because Peter's soul was far more suited to philosophy than the soul of those men.
They were true children, drawn everywhere by empty glory. Peter was a philosophical man and capable of receiving grace.
If you laugh when you hear this, there is nothing surprising in it. The Jews then also laughed and said that the Apostles were drunk with new wine.
But afterward, when they suffered those heavy and most bitter calamities, they no longer laughed. They saw the city perishing, fire spreading, and the walls falling to the ground.
They also saw those various frenzies that no one can describe in words. Then they laughed no more.
So you also will not laugh when the time of judgment comes and the fire of Gehenna is kindled.
But why do I speak of the future? Do you wish me to show what Peter is and what Plato is? Let us examine, if you like, their morals for now, and see what each occupied himself with.
The latter spent the whole time of his life on useless and empty matters. Indeed, what profit is there in knowing that the soul of a philosopher becomes a fly?
Truly Plato's soul was a fly. It did not turn into a fly, but a fly entered the soul that dwelt in Plato.
What empty talk is this? Whence could it enter his mind to speak such nonsense? He was a man full of mockery and envy toward all.
He seems to have tried neither to produce anything useful from himself nor to borrow anything useful from another.
Thus from another he borrowed the transmigration of souls. From himself he presented the teaching about the commonwealth, where he prescribed the most shameful rules.
Let wives, he says, be common. Let naked maidens wrestle before the eyes of lovers. Let fathers be common, and let the children born be common.
Is this not beyond every madness? Such is Plato with his teaching.
Here, however, it is not nature that makes fathers common, but Peter's philosophy. As for Plato's teaching, it even destroys common fathers, since it produces nothing except this: the true father is scarcely known, and one who is not the father is recognized as father.
Plato cast the soul into a kind of drunkenness and filth. Let all, he says, use women without any fear.
For this reason I will not examine the teachings of the poets, lest they say that I occupy myself with myths. I will speak of other myths, which are far more ridiculous than these.
Have the poets ever uttered any such absurdity? Yet the man who was regarded as the head of philosophers even clothes women in armor, helmets, and greaves. He asserts that the human race differs in nothing from dogs.
Since among dogs, he says, female and male share equally in work, let women also share in everything, and let everything be turned upside down.
Through these men the devil has always tried to prove that our race has no advantage over irrational animals.
Indeed, some of them reached such vain wisdom that they asserted reason exists even among irrational animals.
See how variously the devil raved in their souls. The chief men among them said that our soul passes into flies, dogs, and animals. Their successors, ashamed of this, fell into another shameful thing.
They attributed every rational knowledge to animals and constantly tried to prove that beings created for us are worthier than we are.
Nor do they say only this. They also say that animals have foreknowledge and piety. The raven, they say, knows God, and so does the crow.
They have the gifts of prophecy and foretell the future, they say. Among animals there is justice, society, and laws. In Plato's opinion the dog among them is envious.
Perhaps you do not believe my words. This is natural, because you have been brought up in sound doctrines. Whoever has been nourished with this food cannot believe that there is a man who eats filth with pleasure.
Yet when you tell them that all this is myth and complete madness, they answer, "You have not understood." May we never even wish to understand your ridiculous teaching.
Yes, very ridiculous. No deep mind is needed to grasp the meaning of all this impiety and confusion.
Do you speak in crow-language, madmen, as boys do? In truth, you are real children, like those boys.
But Peter said nothing of the sort. On the contrary, he uttered a voice that, like abundant light shining in a dark place, dispersed the darkness of the universe.
How meek and modest was his character! How far above all empty glory he stood! How he had only heaven in view and was free of boasting, even though he raised the dead.
If one of those foolish men had happened to do anything of the kind, even only in appearance, would he not at once have demanded an altar and a temple for himself? Would he not have wished to be numbered among the gods?
Even now, when nothing like this exists, they constantly dream of it. What, indeed, are Athena, Apollo, and Hera among them? For them these are kinds of spirits.
They also have a king who wished to die so that he might be honored as equal to God.
But the Apostles did not act so. They acted in the completely opposite way.
Listen to what they say at the healing of the lame man: "Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this, or why do you look at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk?" (Acts 3:12).
And elsewhere: "We also are men of like nature with you" (Acts 14:15).
But there there is great boasting and great pride. Everything is only for honors from men, and nothing is for philosophy.
When something is done for glory, everything becomes base. Let a man have everything, yet if he does not possess contempt for glory, he is utterly a stranger to philosophy and is possessed by the strongest and most shameful passion.
Contempt for glory can teach every good thing and drive every destructive passion from the soul.
Therefore I urge you also to show great zeal in uprooting this passion. Otherwise there is no possibility of pleasing God or obtaining favor before that sleepless eye.
Therefore let us strive in every way to obtain heavenly help. Then we shall not experience present sorrows, and we shall be counted worthy of future good things.
This is by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Here the Apostle turns his speech to those whom he earlier called foreigners. He seems to speak only to them, yet at the same time he corrects those who laughed.
The fact that some laughed was arranged by God so that Peter would begin to speak in defense of the Apostles, and by defending them would teach others.
These people considered it great praise for themselves that they lived in Jerusalem. "Let this be known to you," he says, "and give ear to my words." By this he first awakens their attention, and then he begins to defend.
But let us return to what was said above. Peter rises nobly against those who laugh and mock, saying, "Let this be known to you, and give ear to my words."