john chrysostom on sacrifices and subseqently circumcission > (4) then the jews will ask: "how is it that he straightway did permit the jews to sacrifice?" he was giving in to their weakness. suppose a physician sees a man who is suffering from fever and finds him in a distressed and impatient mood. suppose the sick man has his heart set on a drink of cold water and threatens, should he not get it, to find a noose and hang himself, or to hurl himself over a cliff. the physician grants his patient the lesser evil, because he wishes to prevent the greater and to lead the sick man away from a violent death. > (5) this is what god did. he saw the jews choking with their mad yearning for sacrifices. he saw that they were ready to go over to idols if they were deprived of sacrifices. i should say, he saw that they were not only ready to go over, but that they lad already done so. so he let them have their sacrifices the time when the permission was granted should make it clear that this is the reason. after they kept the festival in honor of the evil demons, god yielded and permitted sacrifices. what he all but said was this: "you are all eager and avid for sacrifices. if sacrifice you must, then sacrifice to me." but even if he permitted sacrifices, this permission was not to last forever: in the wisdom of his ways, lie took the sacrifices away from them again.
Germany