Gregory of Elvira: "a time to keep and a time to cast away" (Ecclesiastes 3:6)

Bishop of Elvira, Gregory was a defender

of Nicaea during his service to the ancient

Church (approx. 359-385); he is notable

for many sermons in Origen's method

against the Arian heresy

Exposition of Ecclesiastes

Jerusalem, therefore, was abandoned "like a booth

in a vineyard" (Prophet ISAIAH 1:8)

because the guardian angels left it along with the

Lord when Christ had suffered.  A crop in the field

is guarded by the Lord not for its own sake

but only for the grain it yields, such that the

stalk is permitted to be destroyed once its fruit

is harvested.   So also it was not principally for

its own sake that Jerusalem was guarded temporarily,

but on account of Jesus Christ our Lord, who was

born according to the flesh within its borders.  But

when its fruit had been harvested, that is, the body

of Christ, whence came the heavenly bread of life,

then Jerusalem was abandoned like a field after

the harvest, like a booth in a vineyard after its

grapes had been gathered.  This, then is why it

was said here in the divine Scriptures,

There is a time for

guarding, and a time

for casting aside,

for there was a time when Jerusalem was guarded

and a time when it was being cast aside.

[edited & transl. by J. Robert Wright,

General Theol. Seminary, New York

for Ancient Christian Commentary of

Scripture volume IX (IV Press, 2005)