Bread And Words

Scriptum est enim, inquit, non in solo pane vivit homo, sed in omni verbo quod procedit de ore Dei. Ubi non quasi Deus sua utitur potestate, sed quasi homo, ut homo disceret admodum pugnare Scripturarum potitur auctoritate. Et docet quod altera pars coeli sit, atque altera terrae. Idcirco non in solo pane, per quem non nisi exterior homo in commune cum pecoribus vivit, sed in omni verbo per quod interius angelis coaequaretur. Omne quippe verbum Deus charitas jure accipitur, in qua legis et prophetarum omnia pendent verba, sine qua nemo in Deo unquam vel cum Deo vivit. Quod bene Paulus insinuat: Et si quod est aliud mandatum, inquiens, in hoc verbo instauratur: Diliges proximum tuum tanquam teipsum. Ac si diceret, etsi est cibus alius quo pascatur interior homo, habeat aliquis charitatem, et omnibus abundabit bonis, quia fruitur illo verbo ad quod concurrunt universa. Nam in Christo Jesu Deus et homo erat; quisquis illo utitur verbo, charitate pascitur Dei et hominis, quia omnes in Christo diligit et veneratur ut membra Christi, et qui necdum sunt in Christo, curat ut ad eum perveniant, et compleantur omnia Christi membra. Alioquin si habeat omnia rerum verba, et compleat etiam reliqua quasi virtutum opera, factus est omnium reus, si non vixerit hoc omni verbo. Est autem hoc verbum generale omnium verborum, in quo pendent omnia verba, non qualiacunque, sed quae procedunt de ore Dei. Caeterum verba haereticorum et poetarum ac philosophorum, extra hoc verbum sunt, quia non sunt in charitate, neque Christo fruuntur, Patris videlicet Verbo, et ideo quae in Christo sunt omnino diligere nequeunt. Huic sane verbo Moyses intentus panem desiderare non potuit, illoque pastus Elias famem prolixioris inediae, omnino non sensit. Non enim qui hoc verbo vescitur panem terrenum, deliciis angelorum satiatus, inquirit. Sed et omnia Scripturarum sanctarum verba, cujuscunque enuntientur officio, sic quasi ex ore Dei sumantur, quia non ejus sunt a quo ex ministerio debite narrantur, sed Dei ex cujus ore procedunt. Quod si quidpiam doctor aliud voluerit interserere, quam quod in hoc omni verbo invenitur, quia non ex ore Dei profertur, neque ex charitate subsistit, tanquam venenum, tanquam virus lethiferum respuatur. Quandoquidem non humanis divina ministratur officiis, sed inimica, sed fraudulenta diabolicis suggerunter officiis. Paschasius Radbertus Corbeiensis, Expositio In Evangelium Matthaei, Liber III, Cap IV Source: Migne PL 120.192b-193a

'For it is written, He said, that man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word the proceeds from the mouth of God.' 1  Where He does not use His power as God but as a man it is so that man might learn how he is able to fight by the use of the authority of Scripture. And He teaches that there is one part of man that is of heaven and another of earth. Therefore one does not live on bread alone, by which lives only the exterior man which one has in common with beasts, but by every word by which the interior is made equal to angels. For every word of God is rightly understood as love, from which hang all the Law and the Prophets, without which no one is in God or lives with God. Which Paul well communicates: 'Whatever is the commandment, in this it begins: Love your neighbour as yourself.' 2 As if he said, Even if there is some bread which feeds the inner man, let him have some charity, and let him abound with every good, because he flourishes in that word all things run to. In Christ were God and man, and whoever uses this word, he is nourished by the love of God and man, because he loves all in Christ and he is venerated like a member of Christ, and they who are not yet in Christ, he cares that they come to Him, that they be perfected as a member of Christ. In other respects, if he has the words of all things, and he fills the rest as with the virtues of works, he is yet guilty of all things if he has not lived for all this with the Word. For this Word is the general word of all words, on which every word hangs, but not every sort, only that which proceeds from the mouth of God. For the words of heretics and the old poets and philosophers, are separate from this word, because they are not in love, nor do they profit by Christ, that is, by the word of the Father, and therefore they are unable to love what is in Christ. With this word Moses was able to go without bread, and by it Elijah, when a long famine blighted the fields, did not care for it. For indeed he who seeks this word does not eat the bread of earth, since he is filled with the joy of angels. But every word of Sacred Scripture, whatever is announced according to the office, they take up as if from the mouth of God, because the words are not his who narrates them as part of his service, but they proceed from the mouth of God. So if some teacher wished to insert something rather than this Word in which is found everything, because it does not proceed from the mouth of God, he would not stand in love, and it would be as a poison, and as a lethal venom that should be spat out. And whenever he attends to human offices, he does not do so for God but for the enemy, and they are fed with lies by the devil's offices.  Paschasius Radbertus, from the Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Book 4, Chap 10 1 Mt 4.4, Deut 8.3 2 Rom 13.9