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
Once again Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, “All of you, listen to Me and understand: Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him; but…
“Teaching people to understand the dietary prescriptions of the Law not in a carnal manner, the Lord begins here to gradually reveal the meaning of the Law and says that nothing entering from outside defiles anyone, but what comes from the heart defiles.”
After Jesus had left the crowd and gone into the house, His disciples inquired about the parable. “Are you still so dull?” He asked. “Do you not understand?
“The Lord begins by chiding them, wherefore there follows, Are ye so without understanding also? Then the Lord shows them what was hidden, saying, Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot make him common?”
Instead, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit soon heard about Jesus, and she came and fell at His feet.
“The aforementioned woman, having heard about Him, displays a fervent faith. Therefore the Lord does not immediately consent to her request, but delays the gift in order to show that the woman's faith is firm and that she waits patiently despite the refusal.”
Then Jesus told her, “Because of this answer, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.”
“Because therefore the woman answered with much wisdom, she obtained what she wanted; wherefore there follows, And he said unto her, &c.”
In those days the crowd once again became very large, and they had nothing to eat.
“After the Lord had performed the former miracle concerning the multiplication of the loaves, now again, a fitting occasion presents itself, and He takes the opportunity of working a similar miracle; wherefore it is said, In those days, the multitude being very great, and having…”
He got into the boat with His disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.
“After that our Lord had worked the miracle of the loaves, He immediately retires into another spot, lest on account of the miracle, the multitudes should take Him to make Him a king; wherefore it is said, And straightway he entered into a ship with…”
And He left them, got back into the boat, and crossed to the other side.
“The Lord leaves the Pharisees as incorrigible people. For one should linger where there is hope of correction, but where the evil is incorrigible, one must flee from there.”
“Watch out!” He cautioned them. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod.” So they began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread.
“For when the Lord said that they should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, that is, the teaching of the Pharisees, they thought that the Lord was reminding them about the leaven of bread.”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
“They answer that some take Him for John, others for Elijah; for many thought that John had risen, as Herod also supposed, and that upon his resurrection he had received the power of miracles, whereas during his lifetime John had not performed a single sign.”
Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
“Otherwise, he who gained the whole world but lost his soul would give it all away when he is burning in the flames, and would thus ransom himself. But such a ransom is impossible there.”
And they asked Jesus, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” He replied, “Elijah does indeed come first, and he restores all things.
“Among the Jews there circulated a report that before the coming of Christ, Elijah would come. However, the Pharisees did not interpret what was written about Elijah as they should have, but maliciously distorted the meaning of the Scriptures, concealing the truth.”
But I tell you that Elijah has indeed come, and they have done to him whatever they wished, just as it is written about him.”
“For again, John rebuked vice, and was a zealous man, and a hermit like Elias; but they heard him not, as they will hear Elias, but killed him in wicked sport, and cut off his head; wherefore there follows, And they have done unto him…”
As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were filled with awe and ran to greet Him.
“Meanwhile, the crowd, as soon as they saw Him, immediately greeted Him. The people looked at Him and greeted Him as though He had returned from far away.”
So they brought him, and seeing Jesus, the spirit immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
“He also permits the child to be vexed, that in this way we might know the devil's wickedness, who would have killed him, had he not been assisted by the Lord.”
But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up.
“(ap. Pseudo-Hier.) Again, when Jesus, that is, the word of the Gospel, takes hold of the hand, that is, of our powers of action, then shall we be freed from the devil.”
“What did Moses command you?” He replied.
“But Christ, Self-Existent Wisdom, answers them in such a way that He escapes their snares. He asks them: what did Moses command them?”
Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
“By the Kingdom of God He here means the preaching of the Gospel and the promise of future blessings. Therefore, whoever receives the Divine preaching as a child, that is, without any hesitation and admitting no unbelief in himself, shall enter into the Kingdom of…”
“Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes.
“He did this to confirm the hearts of the disciples, that from hearing these things beforehand, they might the better bear them afterwards, and might not be alarmed at their suddenness, and also in order to show them that He suffered voluntarily; for he who…”
When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.
“The disciples, still reasoning in a human manner, fell into envy, and therefore they are indignant at the two apostles. However, when? When they saw that the request of the latter was not accepted by the Lord but rejected, then they began to be indignant.”
So Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their superiors exercise authority over them.
“But now Christ heals them, first calming them and drawing them near to Himself — which is what is meant by the word "summoning." Then He shows that seizing honor from others and striving for preeminence is a matter of paganism.”
and some who were standing there asked, “Why are you untying the colt?” The disciples answered as Jesus had instructed them, and the people gave them permission.
“But they would not have allowed this, if the Divine power had not been upon them, to compel them, especially, as they were country people and farmers, and yet allowed them to take away the colt.”
As they were walking back in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from its roots. Peter remembered it and said, “Look, Rabbi!
“The greatness of the miracle appears in the drying up so juicy and green a tree. But though Matthew says that the fig tree was at once dried up, and that the disciples on seeing it wondered, there is no reason for perplexity, though Mark…”
Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine vat, and built a watchtower.
“Or, the hedge is the law, which prohibited their mingling with strangers. There follows, And went into a far country. Or else, By the first servant, understand the prophets who lived about the time of Elias, (2 Chron. 18:23.)”
Later, they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to catch Jesus in His words. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that You are honest and seek favor from no one.
“We have said elsewhere of the Herodians, that they were a certain new heresy, who said that Herod was the Christ, because the succession of the kingdom of Judah had failed.”
While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, He asked, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?
“Because Christ was coming to His Passion, He corrects a false opinion of the Jews, who said that Christ was the Son of David, not his Lord; wherefore it is said, And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple.”