an early date to this sermon. Such elaborate contortions are, to be sure, characteristic of his mind,
SERMON 223H 235
NOTES
1. The style, and above all the excessively complex and mixed imagery, incline me to ascribe an early date to this sermon. Such elaborate contortions are, to be sure, characteristic of his mind, and never ceased to be so; but I think that as he grew more experienced in preaching he refrained from inflicting them on his hearers in such concentrated form. Let us guess a date about 400.
2. Because it is both tiny and hot.
3. See Jn 1:9. 4. See Rv 19:16; Dn 9:24. This latter text refers in fact to the Holy of Holies, the innermost shrine of the temple. But it was read by the early Church, in its Greek and Latin versions, as referring to a person, Christ.
5. The Fathers all assumed that the Church's major liturgical customs were inaugurated person¬ ally by the apostles.
6. See Mt 13:32.