Therefore I testify to you this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.
Read Chapter 20
John Chrysostom
AD 407
This was fit and proper for Paul to say, but we dare not say it, conscious as we are of numberless faults. Wherefore for him the ever vigilant, ever at hand, the man enduring all things for the sake of the salvation of his disciples, it was fit and proper to say this: but we must say that of Moses, The Lord was angry with me for your sakes Deuteronomy 3:26, because ye lead us also into many sins. For when we are dispirited at seeing you make no progress, is not the greater part of our strength struck down? For what, I ask you has been done? Lo! By the grace of God we also have now passed the space of three years, not indeed night and day exhorting you, but doing this, often every third day, or every seventh. What more has come of it? We accuse, we rebuke, we weep, we are in anguish, although not openly, yet in heart. But those (inward) tears are far more bitter than these (outward ones): for these indeed bring a kind of relief to the feelings of the sorrowful, whereas those aggravate i...
Do you mark how he terrifies them, and troubled and afflicted as their souls are, how hard he rubs them (ἐ πιτρίβει)? But it was necessary. For I have not shunned, he says, to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
