14. And when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the mount of Olives, etc.,^[60] up to, Mounted on a she-ass and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden ^[278]. Mark also recorded the passage in this way: “And when they were drawing near to Jerusalem and Bethany, to the mount of Olives,” etc., up to, “And immediately he will send it” ^[279]. Luke [records the event] in this manner: “And after he said these things, he went on ahead, ascending to Jerusalem,” etc., up to, “Thus you will say, ‘For the Lord has need of it’” ^[280]. It is especially important for these discourses of the Gospel to give attention to the intention of those who are recording [these things] and their purpose, why they who contemplate [these things]^[61] recorded alongside the marvellous and extraordinary things which the Savior caused to happen things that manifest nothing of the sort. Let one stipulate that the Evangelists gave systematic treatment concerning the recovery of sight for the blind, the healing of the weary, the resurrection of the dead, the cleansing of lepers, for edification concerning Jesus for those who would read these [events] by means of their writing. [But] what would their intention be for the present discourse, pertaining to when Jesus was drawing near to Jerusalem with the disciples and had come to Bethphage, the neighboring [village] to the mount of Olives, [and] he sent two disciples commanding them concering a she-ass and a colt, that they might loose [them] and bring [them] to him? Up to this point [Jesus] has had no hesitation to travel a greater distance on foot, and to complete the journey with his own feet, as when he came from Jerusalem through Samaria <into Galilee and> coming first to the well, he sat by it, resting “from the journey” ^[281]. Why also is Jesus himself portrayed as commanding that a bound she-ass along with [its] colt be loosed <and> as directing [the disciples] to say, the Lord has need of them, and immediately he will send them, to whomever says something about it? For would that the Lord who is so great show *** something worthy of his magnificence in his having need of a she-ass and a colt of those things bound of old.

The prophet Zechariah, the [son] of Berachiah, supplies the explanation to this passage, when he prophesied concerning these things a prophecy that is worthy of attention, in which [prophecy] these things are written with the same wording: “Rejoice exceedingly, O daughter of Zion; proclaim, O daughter of Jerusalem: Behold your king comes to you, righteous and saving, he is humble and mounted on a beast of burden, even a young colt” ^[282]. If someone would like to learn from the prophet how it is that joy is a fitting response to the things prophesied for the daughter of Zion, listen to “And he will destroy the chariots out of Ephraim, and the horse out of Jerusalem, and the bow of war will be destroyed, and abundance and peace out of the nations; and he will rule over the waters as far as the sea, and the rivers, the passages of earth. And you, by the blood of a covenant, have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit that has no water. You will dwell in a stronghold, O prisoners of the synagogue: and for [every] one day of your sojourning I will recompense you double” ^[283]. And, so that we might not go on at length about this passage, let us leave behind the investigation of all the things with respect to these passages for the text that lies at hand, [leaving them] for the one who desires to compare the prophecy with the history according to the Gospel. Let us indicate, though, that just as in other cases, Matthew and John have set forth the prophecy but not with the same wording,^[62] for this “Rejoice exceedingly, O daughter of Zion, <proclaim, O daughter of Jerusalem>” is not the same as, Speak to the daughter of Zion, <nor as “Do not fear, O daughter of Zion” ^[284]>. Matthew has <also> not set forth the phrase which reads, “he is righteous and saving,” that is situated after “Behold your king is coming to you” and before “humble.” Again, instead of And mounted on a she-ass and a colt, the foal of a beast of burden <[Zechariah] reads: “And mounted on a she-ass> and a young colt,” or as in some [manuscripts] “colt of a beast of burden.” But John, instead of “mounted on a beast of burden <and a young colt>” has rendered: “sitting he is coming on a colt of a she-ass” ^[285]. [John] indicates that the [teaching] according to this passage requires knowledge when he asserts, “His disciples did not understand these things at first” ^[286].

15. But let someone inquire how it is with good reason that the prophet commands the daughter of Zion to rejoice and the daughter of Jerusalem to proclaim on account of him who is mounted “on a beast of burden, even a young colt.” Shortly after, when Jesus sees Jerusalem, he “wept <over it” ^[287] and says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem,> who kills the prophets,” etc. ^[288]. You should attend, therefore, if the “Zion” now in question, which is called a daughter of him who commands her to rejoice, along with the “Jerusalem” who is the daughter of him who directs her to proclaim, can be said to be, <not the one who crucified the Lord, but the one who received him who was crucified,> the heavenly <Zion>, about which it is written in the [letter] to the Hebrews, “But you have come to Zion, to the mountain and city of the living God, to the heavely Jerusalem, and myriads of angels, to a festal gathering” ^[289], and in the [letter] to the Galatians, “The Jerusalem above is free, who is our mother” ^[290]. For perhaps these are symbols of the Savior’s own riding stock whom he loosed from the bonds through the disciples, [that is,] those who believed on him from the people [of Israel] at that time and those from the nations. For the synagogue at that time was bound by sins, and the colt who also was bound with it [is] the young people <who believes> from the nations who came into existence afterward; and when he draws near to the ascent unto the Jerusalem above the Savior commanded both of these groups to be loosed by the teaching of the disciples, giving to them the Holy Spirit and saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit. The sins of those whom you forgive, they are forgiven them; Those which you retain, they are retained” ^[291]. And the disciples <of Christ>, whom “he made competent as servants of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit” ^[292], who are continually loosing the bound she-ass and the colt, bring [them] to Jesus who desires to use as riding stock those who are loosed by his own genuine disciples from the bonds of the <sins> of old. And it is befitting the Son of God to make use (for he is a lover of man) of the bound she- ass and of the colt bound with it; but he has need of them, in order that after he has sat on them, he might give a greater rest to those on whom he is seated than he rests himself.

16. But let someone inquire, how the passage to follow, which reads like this, and immediately he will send them, or “and immediately he will send it back here” ^[293], is consistent with [the interpretation] just offered. You will solve the question just raised when you inquire about the sending either of the two [animals] according to Matthew, or of the colt according to Mark. Now it is clear that the Lord of those [animals] that were bound is none other <than him concerning whom the Apostle says>, “But for us the Lord Jesus Christ is one, through whom are all things” ^[294], to whom <that> the person who says, “why are you loosing the colt?” ^[295], or whatever they say [in the other Gospels], was in no way about to oppose. For it is not as though people are going to oppose him when the Savior says, And if someone says something to you, you will say that the Lord has need of them, or, “if someone says to you, why are you loosing the colt?, you will say that the Lord has need of it” ^[296], and according to Luke “if someone (he says) asks you, ‘Why are you loosing [it]?,’ thus you will say, ‘For the Lord has need of it’” ^[297]. Indeed you might inquire if after the Savior <ascends to> Jerusalem and is mounted on these [animals] or this [one animal], a certain sending was about to happen to the place for some necessary work, in order that the she-ass and the colt might do some work that has been left in silence, [a work] that is implied but has not been clearly indicated. I come to this understanding after attending to the order of the Beatitudes in the [Gospel] according to Matthew, in which, after “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” ^[298], it is written then, “Blessed are the lowly, for they will inherit the earth” ^[299]. For he maintains in these passages that “the kingdom” of those who are blessed is first “of heaven,” and second “they will inherit the earth,” not so as to be on it the whole age;^[63] for those who are comforted, and on account of having hungered and thirsted for righteousness, have been filled with it, and have been merciful and have seen God and are called sons of God again, are restored to the kingdom of heaven. If the she-ass and colt, on which the Savior travels, are those who have been mentioned [in the Beatitudes], you should not take offence at the word which compares those who bear Jesus who rides on them, with irrational beasts of burden. For perhaps you will understand something of this sort when the prophet speaks of having become <as> “like [unto] a beast,” not in general but in relationship to God or to Christ, as it reads, “I even became like a beast in relationship to you” ^[300]. For as in relationship to the Logos himself and to the majesty of God not only are we like beasts, but also [so are] those much more rational and wiser than us; in the same way also, as in relationship to the category of the shepherd we are his sheep, the comparison between men and even the more perfect with the Logos himself indicates [that] the distance [they have] from him is greater than the degree the soul has a distance from a she-ass and colt or of a sheep to a man. And perhaps those who are ascending to Jerusalem (with Jesus seated thereon) are such as the beast of burden or also the colt, but when they gets there they do not remain a beast of burden or a colt, but are sent forth after being changed and benefitted and partaking of the divinity of the Logos and supremacy of knowledge, so that they <are deemed worthy> to be sent forth for the glory of God to the place whence they were first loosed, the Lord transforming him and giving them this change as a reward for having carried him, as though indeed having sent them out to the former place, <but> no longer for the former works. For our Lord, <who is> philanthropic, and who once receiving them to honor with the loosing from bonds and for his own riding, was not about to send them again to bonds or to works inferior to the work he had performed. After they received the Son of God on [their] backs, it was appropriate that the daughter of God, Zion, rejoice exceedingly and increase in joy (the fruit “of the spirit”) over this mystery even with those who are mentioned with him, and that his daughter, Jerusalem, proclaim; for he comes to her [as]“the King righteous and saving,” <and not simply “saving,” that is> along with preserving [his] being “righteous” [he is] also “saving” with righteousness and making ready for salvation those who are being saved. But he himself was coming to Zion and Jerusalem “lowly and mounted on a beast of burden and a young colt” (as we have explained), visiting Israel by destroying “the chariots out of Ephraim,” which are similar to the chariots of Pharaoh, when “the chariots of Pharaoh and his force he threw into the sea” ^[301]. He also was coming to destroy [the] “horse,” the beast of warfare from Jerusalem ^[302], in order that he might cause there to be peace for Israel, turning back his wandering sheep ^[303], and [that there might be] peace also to Jerusalem when he restores her children that have fallen away. But how could there not be great joy worthy of the king who comes in this way, righteous and saving and lowly, to Jerusalem, when he was about to destroy every “bow of war” ^[304], in order that “sinners” might no longer extend bows nor prepare “arrows on a string for shooting those who are upright in heart on a moonless night” ^[305]? Then there was also about to be “abundance and peace” from the “nations” who believe and are saved, with the Savior ruling “waters up to the sea” and ruling also “rivers, passages of earth” and creating passage-ways and giving drink to its multitudes ^[306].

He who desires to entertain a simpler [explanation] of “daughter of Zion” and “daughter of Jerusalem” in reference to the people <of the Jews> to whom the Savior visited, might say that, on the one hand, the word commands the daughter of Zion to rejoice and the daughter of Jerusalem to proclaim; but on the other hand, if certain ones were disobedient, neither doing the things worthy of rejoicing, nor receiving the command to proclaim, these one become for themselves the cause of the things that they suffer, so that it is said to them: “It was necessary that the word of God be announced to you, but since you judged yourselves unworthy, behold we have turned to the nations” ^[307]. One should also know that, after having encountered five manuscripts of Zechariah, we find according to the Septuagint and Aquila, “he is lowly and mounted upon a beast of burden and a young colt” or “on a she-ass and a colt, a foal of an ass;” according to Theodotion, “He is obedient and mounted on a she-ass and colt, a foal of an ass,” and according to Symmachus, “He is poor and seated on a she-ass and a colt, a foal of an ass.” And in the fifth manuscript [it reads], “he is poor and mounted on a beast of burden and a colt, a foal of an ass.” Someone might indeed be able to apply these things to the narrative of the Gospel passage just examined, when the Savior came to Jerusalem “lowly” and “obedient” and “poor;” for “he who was rich became poor, in order that” those who listen to him who hearkened to us might, “by” his “poverty,” be made rich ^[308].

17. Let us observe that, according to Matthew, [the village mentioned] is Bethphage, but according to Mark, “Bethany” ^[309],^[64] and then according to Luke, “Bethphage and Bethany” ^[310]. These are “towards the mount that is called ‘of Olives’” ^[311]. We understand Bethphage to be translated HOUSE OF JAWS^[65] (which was the region of the priests), and Bethany [as] HOUSE OF OBEDIENCE. He brings, therefore, those who are loosed or the one who is loosed to the “house of obedience,” in order that Jesus might travel from there upon them, or to the “house of the jaw,” the origin of which expression is taken from [the book of] the Judges, in which there is a spring named “of the jaw”, from which Samson drank when he was thirsty ^[312]. Or perhaps since “to him who strikes on the jaw^[66]” ^[313] it is necessary also to provide the other [jaw for him to strike], Bethphage was a symbol of endurance of evil of those being saved, whence Jesus is seated on those loosed by the disciples according to the command of Jesus. And the mount of Olives is <the Church>, which consists of those said to be bearing the fruit of beautiful olives: “But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God” ^[314]; and those who are beginning and being initiated among them are “as newly planted olive trees around the table” of Christ ^[315], those who are his children and “sons.” If it is necessary to give attention also to the two disciples, whom Jesus sent to the bound she-ass and the colt with it, in order that, after loosing [it], they might bring [it] to him, one must say <perhaps not without reason> that perhaps the two disciples are Peter and Paul, who gave to one another the right hand of “fellowship” ^[316], in order that Peter might be for the circumcision in reference to the beast of burden, the <people> who existed under the yoke of the law, but Paul [might be] for the nations, the young and untamed colt. And together they (I refer to the beast of burden and the colt) were before Jesus in a village and not in a city, where they were bound. But the disciples of Jesus loose [them] and bring both of them to Jesus.

Returning again to the word about the two disciples, you might say that one is the order of those who minister to those from the circumcision, and another to those from the nations. Yet there is communion among their works, for [both are] loosing those whom Jesus commands to be loosed. If someone might say to them, when they are loosing them, “Why are you loosing the colt?,” or whatever [is recorded^[67]], he says concerning both of them: we are proclaiming that the Lord has need of them who were first bound. He has need of them when he travels on them, those who have been loosed from sins and have received forgiveness of them, for Jesus does not sit upon those who are still bound and are being held “by the cords of their own sins” ^[317]. However, according to Mark and Luke the colt that is bound <in fact> is one “upon which no man has sat” ^[318], for he had performed nothing that is rational and in accordance with <human> manner of life <at the time> that he is seated on the colt from the nations. And this [colt] upon which nothing rational is seated before has the good fortune to have God the Logos seated on it, the Son of God, in order that being led by him who is holding the reins [the colt] might arrive at the Jerusalem of God. Such are the things that present themselves to us for this passage. Let him who is able and capable, by grace, of greater things for the passage say greater and better things, and let him be heard especially by those who thirst for a clear exposition of the Gospel.