The Powers Above and Three Righteous Men
Fragments from the Catenae on Ezekiel.
“And four wings for each one” (Ezekiel 1:6). For in a sense the rational powers on high always stand: they do not sink down toward baser things, but speed along the straight and blameless path of the life that befits them.
“And they shall be on the mountains like doves” (Ezekiel 7:16). These are the blessed disciples. For they went about all the earth under heaven, speaking the mystery of Christ (Colossians 4:3), and they had it as their song and their lyre.
“And if these three men, Noah and Daniel and Job, are in its midst” (Ezekiel 14:14). Since I think we must not leave the prophet’s words unexamined, come, let us say why it is that, when Noah and Job and Daniel were already dead (and perhaps even Daniel himself), he says that they will be saved by their own righteousness (Ezekiel 14:14), even though all the rest of the land, against which the sentence of death might be pronounced, is being destroyed.
Greek
Καὶ τέσσαρες πτέρυγες τῷ ἑνί. Cat. Ezech. f. 12. b. Ἑστήκασι γὰρ ἀεί πως αἱ νοεραὶ καὶ ἄνω δυνάμεις, οὐκ ὀκλάζουσαι πρὸς τὰ αἰσχίω, ἀλλὰ τὴν ὀρθὴν καὶ ἀμώμητον τῆς αὐταῖς πρεπούσης ζωῆς διᾴττουσιν τρίβον. Καὶ ἔσονται ἐπὶ τῶν ὀρέων ὡς περιστεραί. Cat. 18.b. Οἱ μακάριοι μαθηταί· περιῆλθον γὰρ πᾶσαν ὑπ' οὐρανὸν, τὸ Χριστοῦ λαλοῦντες μυστήριον, καὶ ᾠδὴν καὶ λύραν ἔχοντες αὐτό. Καὶ ἐὰν ὦσιν οἱ τρεῖς ἄνδρες οὗτοι ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῆς, Νῶε, καὶ ∆ανιὴλ, καὶ Ἰώβ. Cat. f. 203. b.Ἐπειδὴ οἶμαι δεῖν οὐκ ἀβασανίστους ἐᾷν τὰς τοῦ προφήτου φωνὰς, φέρε λέγωμεν τί δήποτε, Νῶε καὶ Ἰὼβ καὶ ∆ανιὴλ τεθνεώτων ἤδη, ‹70.1460› τάχα δέ που καὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ ∆ανιὴλ, σωθήσεσθαί φησιν αὐτοὺς ἐν τῇ ἰδίᾳ δικαιοσύνῃ, καί τοι τῆς ἄλλης ἁπάσης γῆς, καθ' ἧς ἂν ἡ τοῦ θανάτου ψῆφος ἐκφέροιτο, καταφθειρομένης.