Jeremias 31
Augustine of Hippo · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Jeremias 31:31
Because of the offense of the old Adam, which was by no means healed by the law that commanded and threatened, it is called the old covenant. The other is called the new covenant, because of the newness of the spirit that heals the new Adam of the fault of the old. Then consider what follows, and see in how clear a light the fact is placed, that people who have faith are unwilling to trust in themselves: "Because," says he, "this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, says the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts." — ON THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 35
Jeremias 31:31
Finally, that we may not be disturbed by the words I have quoted and many others of like importance, about returning the sins of the parents on the children—words written truthfully, yet that might be thought contrary to this prophecy—he solves this very vexed question by adding, "Behold, the days shall come, says the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their ancestors." In this new covenant through the blood of the Mediator, the paternal decree having been cancelled, humankind by rebirth begins to be no longer subject to the paternal debts that bind them at birth, as the Mediator says: "And call no one on earth your father," inasmuch as we but shall live forever with the Father. — AGAINST JULIAN 6:25.82
Jeremias 31:31
Nowhere, or hardly anywhere, except in this passage of the prophet, do we find in the Old Testament Scriptures any mention so made of the New Testament as to indicate it by its name. It is no doubt often referred to and foretold as about to be given, but not so plainly as to have its name mentioned. Consider, then, carefully what difference God has testified as existing between the two Testaments—the old covenant and the new. — ON THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 33
Jeremias 31:32
Learn, all of you—learn! What better law of God is there, after all, than the holy gospel? It is the law of the New Testament, about which you heard, when the prophet was read, "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, I will perfect on the house of Jacob a new testament, not like the testament that I laid down for their ancestors when I led them from the land of Egypt." The testament (or covenant) is promised there, delivered here. It is promised through the prophet, delivered through the Lord of the prophets. — SERMON 25:1
Jeremias 31:32
"But I," he says, "hold on to what God handed over to Moses." Listen to what God says through the prophet. What is God telling Jeremiah? "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, I will confirm on the house of Jacob a new covenant." Leave the old aside, take up the new, and you can see that you ought to leave aside circumcision, and unleavened bread taken literally, and the sabbath taken literally and the sacrifices taken literally. Listen to how the new covenant is promised: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, I will confirm for them a new covenant, not like the covenant that I gave to their ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt," when the law of commandments was given, when the people were led through the desert. It is not like that that I will give the new covenant. So do not go on wearing the old tunic. That was what crucified Christ. Your parent crucified him; you hate him. He by his own hand, you in your heart, both of you have carried out the crime. Therefore be displeased with what your parent did, and listen to what your Lord has done. — SERMON 196A.2
Jeremias 31:33
You should not write the creed out in any way, but, so as to hold the exact words of the creed, learn it by listening. Not even when you have learned it should you write it down, but, rather, always hold it and cherish it in your memory. For whatever you will hear in the creed is contained in the inspired books of the Holy Scriptures. The fact that it is not permitted to write down what has been thus collected and reduced to a definite form comes about in memory of the promise of God in which, predicting a New Testament, he said in the words of the prophet: "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, by setting my law in their minds, I will write it also in their hearts." — SERMON 212:2
Jeremias 31:33
Here, God is Jerusalem's reward. Its highest—its entire—good is to possess him and to be possessed by him. — City of God 17.3
Jeremias 31:33
I have acted thus, not as a finished master but as one needing to be perfected with his pupils, excellent lady, daughter deservedly honored and cherished in Christ. Indeed, even in the subjects that, one way or another, I know, I am more anxious for you to be learned than to be in need of my learning, for we ought not to desire the ignorance of others in order to teach what we know. It surely is much better for all of us to be ready to be taught of God what will certainly be perfected in that country on high when the promise will be fulfilled in us, that a person shall not say to his neighbor, "Know the Lord, for all shall know him," as it is written, "from the least of them even to the greatest." — LETTER 266
Jeremias 31:33
Isn't the finger of God to be understood as being the Holy Spirit? Read the gospel, and see that where one Evangelist has the Lord saying, "If I with the Spirit of God cast out demons," another says, "If I with the finger of God cast out demons." So if that law too was written by the finger of God, that is by the Spirit of God, the Spirit by which Pharaoh's magicians were defeated, so they said, "This is the finger of God." So if that law too, indeed because that law too was composed by the Spirit of God, that is, by the finger of God, why can it not be said of it, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ has delivered you from the law of sin and death"?… So, the "law of the Spirit of life," written on the heart, not on stone, in Christ Jesus, in whose person was celebrated the ultimately real and genuine Passover "has delivered you from the law of sin and death." — SERMON 155:3, 6
Jeremias 31:33
What are you asking about, you see, is what special thing God is keeping for the good, if he generously bestows so many things on both good and bad. When I said, "What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it come up into the heart of people," there is no lack of people to say, "Can you think what it is?" Here is what it is that God is keeping for the good alone, though it is he who has made them good. Here is what it is. Our reward has been very briefly defined by the prophet: I will be their God, and they shall be my people. I will be their God. He has promised us himself as our reward. — SERMON 331:4
Jeremias 31:33
God is the reward, in him the end, in him the perfection of happiness, in him the sum of the blessed and eternal life. For after saying, "I will be their God, and they shall be my people," he at once adds, "And they shall no more teach everyone his neighbor, and everyone his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest of them." — ON THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 39
Jeremias 31:34
You do not say, "Let man be made," but, "Let us make man." Nor do you say, "after his kind," but after "our image" and "likeness." Because, being renewed in his mind and beholding and apprehending your truth, a person does not need another person as his director so that he may imitate his own kind. By your direction he proves what your good, acceptable and perfect will is. You teach him—now that he has been made capable—to perceive the Trinity of the Unity and the Unity of the Trinity. Therefore this being said in the plural, "Let us make man," it is yet followed by the phrase in the singular, "and God made man." This is said in the plural, "after our likeness," followed by the phrase in the singular, "after the image of God." Thus humankind is renewed in the knowledge of God, after the image of him who created them. Being made spiritual, he judges all things—all things that are to be judged—"yet he himself is judged by no mortal." — Confessions 13.22.32
Jeremias 31:34
If we are asked why we do not worship God as the Hebrew ancestors of the Old Testament worshiped him, we reply that God has taught us differently by the New Testament fathers, and yet not in opposition to the Old Testament, but as that Testament itself predicted. For it is thus foretold by the prophet Jeremiah … that that covenant would not continue but that there would be a new one. And to the objection that we do not belong to the house of Israel or to the house of Judah, we answer according to the teaching of the apostle, who calls Christ the seed of Abraham and says to us, as belonging to Christ's body, "Therefore you are Abraham's seed." — REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICHAEAN 32:9