Voices and influences
Theophylact of Ohrid
He wrote clear, useful Gospel commentaries while stuck serving a difficult Balkan diocese he never wanted.
Summary
This site quotes Theophylact of Ohrid 461 times across 25 books, and lists 0 works.
- Lived died 1107.
- Quoted here most in Acts: 176 of 461.
Theophylact of Ohrid
- Lived
- died 1107
- Tradition
- Patristic
5 of 461 quotations
Own words
Quoted at 50 words or fewer, because Theophylact of Ohrid's works are in copyright.
As the Lord promised the covetous ruler a treasure in heaven, he nevertheless did not heed, for he was a slave to his treasures, and therefore "became sorrowful" upon hearing the Lord urge him to part with his possessions, since he desired eternal life precisely …
Luke 18:23 But when the ruler heard this, he became very sad, because he was extremely wealthy. BSB
For that day will not come with observation, but unexpectedly, secretly, like a net capturing those who are inattentive to themselves. Another person might perhaps investigate in detail the expression: "dwelling (sitting) upon the face of all the earth." That day will capture in its …
Luke 21:35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of all the earth. BSB
Everywhere alongside virtue there is vice. Some marveled, others reviled. The former were truly devout; they lived in Jerusalem precisely because the law permitted them to appear three times a year at the temple in Jerusalem.
Acts 2:7 Astounded and amazed, they asked, “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? BSB
Because the words "pray to the Lord for me" Simon said not because he repented and converted, but only for the sake of appearances. For otherwise, where is the weeping? Where is the remorse and confession of sins?
Acts 8:24 Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me, so that nothing you have said may happen to me.” BSB
"Having called the saints and widows, he presented her before them alive" – to the former as a consolation, and to the latter as a protectress.
Acts 9:41 Peter took her by the hand and helped her up. Then he called the saints and widows and presented her to them alive. BSB
Influence, on the record
This site quotes Theophylact of Ohrid 461 times across 25 books.
This site’s own count of what it does with the voice
The life, in order
The life told as one accountfrom this site's record
Theophylact was born about 1050 on the island of Euboea, came to Constantinople, and studied under Michael Psellos, the outstanding scholar of eleventh-century Byzantium. He did well in the capital: he was a deacon of Hagia Sophia, held the post of maistor ton rhetoron — master of the rhetors, the senior teaching chair of the church — and was made tutor to Constantine Doukas, the young heir to the throne. Then, some time in the 1080s or early 1090s, he was appointed archbishop of Ohrid, the head of the Bulgarian church, and sent to the Balkans. His letters make no secret of what he thought about it. He was a Greek intellectual dropped into a Slavic province he found rough, poor, and provincial; he complains about the food, the smell, the mud, the tax collectors who bled his people, and the isolation. He calls himself an exile. He served there for something over twenty years — he was still writing after 1107, and the date of his death is not known. He was also, by the evidence of the same letters, a real pastor. He defended his flock against imperial tax officials, intervened for the poor, argued with governors, and stayed. He learned to respect the Bulgarians he had complained about, and he wrote a life of Clement of Ohrid, the disciple of Cyril and Methodius who had brought Slavic Christianity to that region, honouring the local tradition rather than replacing it. His commentaries are why he is on this wall. He wrote on all four Gospels, on Acts, on the epistles of Paul, on the catholic epistles, and on several minor prophets. They are not original, and he never claimed they were. They are largely a distillation of John Chrysostom, compressed, simplified, and made continuous — Chrysostom's exegesis without Chrysostom's length. That turned out to be exactly what people needed. Theophylact's Gospel commentary became the most widely used handbook on the Gospels in the Greek-speaking church, and it was read in the West too: Erasmus used it, Aquinas used it, and Calvin cites him. He also wrote a temperate treatise on the errors of the Latins, notable in a polemical age for how much of the quarrel he was willing to call a matter of custom rather than heresy. A man who wanted a chair in the capital, got sent to the mountains instead, and spent his exile writing the plainest commentaries in Byzantium. Sources: Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on the Gospels (Migne, Patrologia Graeca, vols. 123–126); Theophylact, Letters; Margaret Mullett, Theophylact of Ochrid: Reading the Letters of a Byzantine Archbishop; The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913).
461 quotations across 25 books
Where this voice is quoted
He left Judea and returned to Galilee.
“The Lover of mankind, having once become incarnate for us, does everything for our benefit. So now too, having learned that the Pharisees heard of His fame, and knowing that they would envy Him and rise up against Him, He withdraws to Galilee, teaching us…”
but I know you, that you do not have the love of God within you.
“You persecute Me under the pretext that you love God. But this is not so, no. For I know about you that you do not have the love of God in yourselves, even though you put forward everywhere that you persecute Me out of love…”
Now the Jewish Feast of the Passover was near.
“The persecutions of the Jews gave Him reason for retiring, and thus setting aside the Law. The truth being now revealed, types were at an end, and He was under no obligation to keep the Jewish feasts.”
One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, “Here is a boy with five barley loaves and two small fish.
“Andrew is in the same perplexity that Philip is; only he has rather higher notions of our Lord: There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes.”
He was speaking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. For although Judas was one of the Twelve, he was later to betray Jesus.
“Consider also how fiercely the devil wages war. He was able to carry away one of the twelve apostles, who raised the dead, performed miracles, and heard the spiritual and life-giving teaching of the Lord.”
“Does our law convict a man without first hearing from him to determine what he has done?”
“What does Nicodemus point out to them? He says: "Does our Law condemn a man without first hearing him?" By this he shows that they neither read the Law nor fulfilled its requirements, although they boasted much about lawfulness.”
I am One who testifies about Myself, and the Father, who sent Me, also testifies about Me.”
“Do you see the equality of authority, and how He presents Himself as equally trustworthy as the Father? He would not have dared to say this if He were lower in dignity than the Father and were not equal to Him and Consubstantial.”
That was why his parents said, “He is old enough. Ask him.”
“They were unsteady and more fainthearted than their son. But he was becoming a fearless witness of the truth; he had begun to see well with the eyes of his mind also.”
But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will flee from him because they do not recognize his voice.”
“"A stranger they will not follow," because they do not know the voice of a stranger. And here, without a doubt, He hints at Theudas and Judas, whom the sheep did not follow, for few were deceived, and even those, after their death, fell away.”
His disciples replied, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will get better.”
“The disciples, wishing to keep Him from traveling there, say: "It is enough if he has fallen asleep; if he has fallen asleep, he will recover; therefore we have no need to go, for there is no necessity."”
and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them in the loss of their brother.
“Many of the Jews had come to comfort the sisters, not because Christ loved them (for the Jews had already agreed to put out of the synagogue anyone who acknowledged Him as the Christ (John 9:22)), but either because of the severity of the calamity…”
“Where have you put him?” He asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they answered.
“"Where have you laid him?" the Lord asks not because He does not know (for, being in another place and far away, He still knew that Lazarus had died), but so that they would not think that He Himself volunteers to perform the miracle of…”
But some of them asked, “Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept Lazarus from dying?”
“But the wicked Jews, despite the great misfortune before their eyes, still do not abandon their malice. They say: "Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?"”
That is also why the crowd went out to meet Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign.
“Therefore those who had heard of the performance of this miracle also met Him with glory, that is, they believed; for if they had not believed, they would not have changed so quickly.”
And whoever sees Me sees the One who sent Me.
“Does he who sees the physical features? No. For the Father is not a body, so that one could say that he who sees Christ bodily also sees the Father, but by seeing, I ask you, understand mental contemplation.”
Jesus told them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net ashore.
“To show that it was no vision, He bade them take of the fish they had caught. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Another miracle follows; viz.”