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
so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
“I understand this in two ways. First, thus: previously I instructed you, Theophilus, without writing, and now, transmitting the Gospel to you in writing, I confirm your mind so that it would not forget what was delivered without writing.”
as He spoke through His holy prophets, those of ages past,
“That Christ was born of the house of David, Micah relates, saying, And thou, Bethlehem, art not the least in the city of Juda, for out of thee shall come a governor who shall rule my people Israel. (Micah 5:2.)”
How can you say, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while you yourself fail to see the beam in your own eye? You hypocrite!
“But these words are applicable to all, and especially to teachers, who while they punish the least sins of those who are put under them, leave their own unpunished.”
So if you cannot do such a small thing, why do you worry about the rest?
“And if you cannot add even the least thing, why do you worry about the rest? It is obvious that just as God grants growth in stature, so too will He provide the rest.”
But when the ruler heard this, he became very sad, because he was extremely wealthy.
“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…”
Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
“With men therefore whose thoughts creep earthward, salvation is impossible, but with God it is possible. For when man shall have God for his counsellor, and shall have received the righteousness of God and His teaching concerning poverty, as well as have invoked His aid…”
“I will also ask you a question,” Jesus replied. “Tell Me: John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or from men?”
“For that He might show that they had always rebelled against the Holy Spirit, and that besides Isaiah, whom they remembered not, they had refused to believe John whom they had lately seen; He now in his turn puts the question to them, proving that…”
Everyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”
“The Lord speaks here of a twofold destruction. One is the destruction of their souls, which they suffered because they were scandalized. For everyone who falls on this stone will be broken.”
For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of all the earth.
“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."”
And Judas went to discuss with the chief priests and temple officers how he might betray Jesus to them.
“By "captains" he here means the overseers of the temple buildings, or the supervisors of good order. For the Romans had appointed certain overseers over the people, so that they would not revolt, for they were rebellious.”
For I tell you that I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.”
“The resurrection is called the kingdom of God, because it has destroyed death. Therefore David also says, The Lord reigneth: He hath put on beauty, (Ps. 93:1.) that is, a beautiful robe, having put off the corruption of the flesh. (Isa. 63:1.)”
They blindfolded Him and kept demanding, “Prophesy! Who hit You?”
“Likewise the Lord of prophets is derided as a false prophet. It follows, And they blindfolded him. This they did as a dishonour to Him who wished to be accounted by the people as a prophet.”
And if I ask you a question, you will not answer.
“"And if I also ask, you will not answer." For they often remained silent when questioned, for example, about the baptism of John (Mark 11:30, 33), about the words: "The Lord said to my Lord" (Matt.”
But all those who knew Jesus, including the women who had followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching these things.
“But the race of women formerly cursed remains and sees all these things; for it follows, And the women which followed him from Galilee, seeing these things.”
“What things?” He asked. “The events involving Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered. “This man was a prophet, powerful in speech and action before God and all the people.
“First comes deed, then word; for no word of teaching is approved unless first he who teaches shows himself to be a doer thereof.”
Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had described. But Him they did not see.”
“"And some of our people went," they say, that is, either Peter alone, or Peter and John. And from this it is evident that what some relate at length, others mention briefly and in passing, since John narrates more extensively about Peter and John going…”
And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, gathered together
“Therefore were they so rejoiced, that without delay they returned to Jerusalem. And hence what follows, And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem.”
While He was blessing them, He left them and was carried up into heaven.
“And Elias indeed was seen, as it were, to be taken up into heaven, but the Saviour, the forerunner of all, Himself ascended into heaven to appear in the Divine sight in His sacred body; and already is our nature honoured in Christ by a…”