Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Nicanor, proudly contemning God, attacks Judas and the Jews: Judas, encouraged by a vision of Onias and Jeremiah giving him a sword, encourages his soldiers; wherefore he overthrows Nicanor, and suspends his head and hand on the wall opposite the temple, and throws his blasphemous tongue, cut up in pieces, to be devoured by the birds. Finally the Jews sing a victory hymn to God, and institute a feast to be celebrated annually in thanksgiving on the 13th of Adar.
Vulgate Text: 2 Maccabees 15:1-40
1. Now Nicanor, when he discovered that Judas was in the regions of Samaria, planned to attack him with all his might on the sabbath day. 2. But when the Jews who followed him by necessity said: Do not act so fiercely and barbarously, but give honor to the day of sanctification, and honor Him who sees all things: 3. that unhappy man asked whether there is One powerful in heaven who commanded the sabbath day to be kept. 4. And when they answered: The living Lord Himself is powerful in heaven, who ordered the seventh day to be kept. 5. But he said: And I am powerful on earth, who command arms to be taken up and the king's business to be accomplished. Nevertheless he did not succeed in carrying out his plan. 6. And Nicanor indeed, puffed up with the utmost pride, had planned to erect a public trophy over Judas. 7. But Maccabeus always trusted with all hope that help would come to him from God; 8. and he exhorted his men not to be afraid at the approach of the nations, but to keep in mind the help that had been given them from heaven, and now to hope that victory would come to them from the Almighty. 9. And speaking to them from the Law and the Prophets, and reminding them also of the battles they had fought before, he made them more eager: 10. and thus having raised their spirits, he at the same time showed the deceitfulness of the Gentiles, and their violation of oaths. 11. He armed each of them, not with the protection of shield and spear, but with the best words and exhortations, setting forth a dream worthy of belief, through which he made them all joyful. 12. The vision was of this kind: he saw Onias, who had been high priest, a good and kind man, modest in appearance, gentle in manners, and graceful in speech, and who from boyhood had been trained in virtues, stretching out his hands and praying for the whole people of the Jews; 13. after this there appeared also another man, remarkable in age and glory, and of great beauty of bearing around him; 14. and Onias in response said: This is the lover of his brothers and of the people of Israel; this is he who prays much for the people and for the entire holy city, Jeremiah the prophet of God. 15. And Jeremiah stretched out his right hand and gave Judas a golden sword, saying: 16. Accept this holy sword, a gift from God, with which you shall strike down the adversaries of My people Israel. 17. Encouraged therefore by the excellent words of Judas, from which their ardor could be raised and the spirits of the young men strengthened, they resolved to fight and engage fiercely, so that valor might judge the affairs; since the holy city and the temple were in danger. 18. For the concern for wives and children, and likewise for brothers and relatives, was less: but the greatest and foremost fear was for the sanctity of the temple. 19. But those who were in the city had no small anxiety for those who were about to fight. 20. And when all now expected judgment was at hand, and the enemy was present, and the army was drawn up, the beasts and the horsemen stationed in a suitable place, 21. Maccabeus, considering the approach of the multitude, and the varied array of weapons, and the ferocity of the beasts, stretching out his hands to heaven, invoked the Lord who works wonders, who gives victory to the worthy not according to the power of arms, but as it pleases Him. 22. And he spoke, invoking in this manner: You, O Lord, who sent Your angel under Hezekiah king of Judah, and destroyed one hundred and eighty-five thousand from the camp of Sennacherib; 23. and now, O Ruler of the heavens, send Your good angel before us, in the fear and trembling of the greatness of Your arm, 24. that those who come with blasphemy against Your holy people may be afraid. And so he concluded his speech. 25. But Nicanor and those with him advanced with trumpets and songs. 26. But Judas and those with him, having invoked God, engaged the enemy with prayers: 27. fighting indeed with their hands, but praying to the Lord with their hearts, they laid low no fewer than thirty-five thousand, magnificently delighted by the presence of God. 28. And when they had ceased and were returning with joy, they recognized that Nicanor had fallen with his arms. 29. And so, raising a shout and exciting a tumult, they blessed the almighty Lord in their native tongue. 30. And Judas, who in every way was prepared to die in body and soul for his fellow citizens, ordered the head of Nicanor, and his hand with the shoulder cut off, to be brought to Jerusalem. 31. When he had arrived there, having called together his fellow tribesmen and the priests at the altar, he also summoned those who were in the citadel. 32. And showing the head of Nicanor, and his wicked hand, which he had stretched out against the holy house of almighty God and had boasted magnificently. 33. He also ordered the tongue of the impious Nicanor to be cut off and given piece by piece to the birds: and the hand of the madman to be hung opposite the temple. 34. All therefore blessed the Lord of heaven, saying: Blessed is He who has kept His place undefiled. 35. He hung the head of Nicanor from the highest point of the citadel, that it might be a clear and manifest sign of God's help. 36. And so all by common counsel decreed that this day should by no means pass without celebration: 37. and that the celebration should be held on the thirteenth day of the month Adar, which is called in the Syriac language, the day before Mordecai's day. 38. Since therefore these things were done against Nicanor, and from those times the city has been possessed by the Hebrews, I too will make an end of my narrative here. 39. And if indeed well, and as befits history, this I myself would wish: but if less worthily, it must be granted to me. 40. For just as to always drink wine, or always water, is disagreeable, but to use them alternately is delightful: so for readers, if the discourse is always exact, it will not be pleasant. Here therefore will be the conclusion.
Verse 1: Nicanor Plans to Attack on the Sabbath
1. Nicanor, etc., planned to attack with all his might on the sabbath day, — because he presumed that the Jews, because of the religious rest of the sabbath prescribed by God, would not fight on that day, but would allow themselves to be killed.
5. But he said: And I am powerful on earth, who command arms to be taken up — on the sabbath. See here the blasphemous act of Nicanor, by which he makes himself equal to God, as if to say: God may command in His heaven; but I command on earth, and I order you, O Jews, whom I have compelled to follow my camp, to fight on the sabbath against Judas and your fellow Jews; by which blasphemy he kindled the anger of the Jews who followed him, so that they refused to obey, and he provoked the indignation of God upon himself, so that he was cut down, mutilated, and hung up by Judas. For he seemed to have challenged God from heaven to a duel with him on earth. With similar pride Mezentius the atheist in Virgil, Aeneid Book X, thunders:
"My right hand is my god, and the weapon I hurl as a missile — now let them aid me."
Of Capaneus, Statius says in Thebaid Book II:
"Valor is my deity, and my sword."
And again of Capaneus in Book X:
"Be present to me, my right hand alone: you, the ruler of wars and inevitable deity — I call upon you, I the despiser of the gods worship you alone."
Caeneus ordered his spear to be counted among the gods, and oaths to be sworn by it; hence the proverb: "Caeneus's spear." And in Plutarch's Life of Pelopidas, Alexander the tyrant wanted the spear with which he killed Polyphron to be considered sacred, and adorned it and honored it with sacrifices, that is, with divine honors, as though it were a god. So Habakkuk says of Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 1, verse 16: "Therefore he sacrificed to his net, and offered incense to his dragnet," where by net and dragnet he means his forces, arms, and armies. For he worshipped these as his deities, as though they had conquered so many nations for him.
Nevertheless he did not succeed — because the Jews themselves resisted, and were unwilling to fight against Judas and the Jews on the sabbath.
Verse 9: From the Law and the Prophets
9. And he spoke to them from the Law and the Prophets, — that is, bringing forth passages from Sacred Scripture in which God promises victory to the Jews who duly worship and invoke Him, Deuteronomy 28, and elsewhere.
Verse 11: Armed with Words and a Dream
11. And he armed each one of them, not with the defense of shield and spear (since they were already armed and equipped with these), but with excellent words and exhortations. — For it is certain that they went forth to battle not unarmed, but armed.
Having set forth a dream worthy of belief, by which he gladdened them all. — Instead of "hyper ti," that is "by which," the Roman edition has "hypar ti," that is "a true vision," which was not so much a dream as truth itself. So Homer in the Iliad says: "not a dream, but a waking vision," that is, not an empty and false dream, but a solid and true one. From this one might suppose that Judas truly saw Onias and Jeremiah with his own eyes, and really received the golden sword from him. But the opposite is more likely, namely that all these things were presented to Judas's mind only through an imaginary vision; for this is what the word "enypnion" means, that is, "dream." Furthermore, because if he had truly received the sword, he would certainly have shown it to his fellow soldiers to encourage them; which however we do not read that he did. So Sanchez.
Verse 12: Onias the Former High Priest
12. Onias who had been high priest. — This Onias, surnamed the Holy, had been known to Judas; hence Judas recognized him by his face and appearance. For Onias had been pontiff eleven years earlier, but had been expelled by his brother Jason who bought the pontificate from Antiochus Epiphanes, and was afterward killed by Andronicus at the order of Menelaus in the year 140 of the Greeks, as was said in chapter IV, verse 34. Judas therefore seemed in his dream to see Onias the holy and zealous Pontiff praying for him and for all Israel.
One may ask whether, just as the souls of the fathers in limbo, so also the souls in Purgatory pray for us. Richard affirms this, in Book IV, dist. 45, art. 7, Question 2, ad 3; Gabriel, in the Canon, lecture 58, near the end; John de Medina, in the Code on Penance, treatise on Prayer, in the special question. St. Thomas denies it, in Book IV, dist. 15, Question 4, art. 3, Question 2, and in II-II, Question 83, art. 4, ad 3, and art. 9, ad 2, and art. 11, ad 3; Alexander of Hales, Part IV, Question 92, mem. 1, art. 3; Abulensis, on Matthew chapter 6, Question 87; St. Antoninus, Part IV, title 5, chapter 8, section 2; Sylvester, under the word Prayer, section 3; Navarre, on the chapter Quando. The reason is that those souls do not know our prayers, and that they are in prison to suffer for their faults, not to pray for others; hence it seems futile and disordered to invoke them. Therefore Francis de Victoria, Relection on Magic, no. 17, disapproves of the custom of some who invoke the souls of Purgatory in their distress. But Alphonsus Mendoza, scholastic Question 6, page 846, considers it holy and useful to invoke them. For, he says, whether they are able to pray for us while they are in Purgatory or not, certainly when they depart from there and arrive in heaven, then they pour forth prayers and intercede for those who commended themselves to them, and who helped them with suffrages and prayers. Add that the Angels, who visit and console the souls in Purgatory, can announce to them the prayers of the living; nor does the suffering of punishment prevent them from praying, because they endure these punishments with great patience, humility, and resignation, and continuously love and praise God. Nevertheless it is more useful and more certain to invoke the Saints reigning with God in heaven, both because they certainly know the prayers addressed to them, God revealing them — for this pertains to their state; and because they see God, and are in His love and honor, and therefore obtain from Him whatever they wish; and because they are in the state of blessedness, and triumph in the kingdom and glory of heaven; hence it belongs to their honor that they be invoked by us and come to the aid of our afflictions. See Francis Suarez, Book I On Prayer in Common, chapter 10, at the end, where he says it is probable that the guardian Angels carry our prayers to the souls of Purgatory. Therefore if anyone invokes them, he says, piously believing that he is heard by them, he will not sin, because he acts from pious belief and affection, and exposes himself to no danger; because even if it is perhaps not so, and those souls do not perceive such prayers, nevertheless his prayer returns to his own bosom. And perhaps it is also true that those souls, at least when they become blessed, come to know all the prayers that were offered to them during all that time, and are moved by them to intercede in their heavenly home for those who prayed for them. Therefore, whoever has experienced the fruit and devotion of praying in this way in this world should not, it seems, be called away from it.
Verse 13: Another Man Remarkable in Glory
13. After this there appeared also another man, remarkable in age and glory, and of great dignity of bearing around him — it can also be read as "dignity," because in the Greek it is "megaloprepestaten hyperochen," "most magnificent eminence," adorned on every side with excellent magnificence, which glory was an index of the merits of the most holy prophet, and of the glory that was owed to him in heaven.
Verse 14: Jeremiah the Prophet of God
14. And Onias answered (From this it appears that Judas did not recognize Jeremiah, since he had died more than four hundred years before; and therefore he asked Onias, whom he knew, who that man was, so august and venerable, and Onias answered): This is the lover of his brethren (in Greek, "philadelphos") and of the people: this is he who prays much for the people and for all the holy city, Jeremiah the prophet of God. — Above Isaiah, Amos, Jonah, and the other Prophets, Jeremiah appeared to Judas, because he with immense zeal labored for 45 years prophesying for the salvation of Israel and to prevent the destruction of his nation, which nevertheless, on account of the enormity of their sins, and because they refused to listen to his oracles and sound counsels, he could not prevent Jerusalem with its temple from being captured and burned by the Chaldeans. On account of this, Jeremiah suffered very many harsh and bitter things from the Jews, which I have explained in his prophecy itself.
Verse 16: The Holy Sword from Heaven
16. Accept this holy sword (from the holy God, and blessed by me, that you may fight for His holy Church, faith, religion, with holy fortitude) a gift from God, with which you shall overthrow the adversaries of my people Israel. — Jeremiah did not truly and really give Judas a sword, as I have said. For this was a dream, and a symbolic vision in which it seemed to Judas that he received a sword from Jeremiah, so that through it Judas and his companions might be encouraged to fight, and conceive a sure hope of victory, because God was fighting with them and through them against the impious, faithless, and blasphemous Nicanor. So also this sword was not made of iron, which men use in war, but of gold, as being heavenly and divine. For whatever belongs to God is golden; for gold, being most precious and most splendid, represents to us God and His most august gifts.
Note here the holy sword, that is, a blessed one. For this custom has prevailed, that leaders and soldiers have their standards and weapons blessed by bishops and priests, both so that through the prayers and blessing of the Church they might be more effective for victory, and to ward off magical arts, by which enemies often make themselves invulnerable by the power of the devil, as we have experienced in the German war. So St. Louis, when about to lead his forces to the Holy Land, received a standard blessed by the Bishop of Paris. The other leaders of that expedition did the same. So Italicus, having had his horses and chariot blessed by St. Hilarion, defeated his adversary in a circus contest — one who was using the magical arts of his god Marnas. Hear St. Jerome in his Life: "Asked (St. Hilarion) by the brothers to fill a clay cup from which he was accustomed to drink with water, and have it given to him; and when Italicus had received it, and his stable and horses, and his charioteers, and the bars of the chariot and the starting gates had been sprinkled. Wonderful was the expectation of the crowd; for his adversary had mockingly spread the news of this very thing, and the supporters of Italicus, promising themselves a certain victory, were exulting. And so when the signal was given, the latter flew forward, while the former were impeded; beneath the chariot of the latter the wheels glowed with speed, while the former could scarcely see the backs of those flying past; the shout of the crowd was excessive, so that even the pagans themselves cried out: 'Marnas has been defeated by Christ!'"
In the Roman Ceremonial there exists a blessing of the sword and of the soldier. The English also formerly had a rite of consecrating a knight, whose form Ingulph describes in his History, saying: "It was the custom of the English that whoever was to be legitimately consecrated to military service, on the evening preceding the day of his consecration, should make confession of all his sins to a bishop, or abbot, or monk, or some priest, being contrite and compunctious, and having been absolved, should spend the night in the church devoted to prayers, devotions, and pious affections. On the morrow also, about to hear Mass, he would offer his sword upon the altar, and after the Gospel the priest would place the blessed sword upon the neck of the soldier with a blessing, and having received Communion at the same Mass in the sacred mysteries of Christ, he would thenceforth remain a legitimate soldier."
Our Gretser likewise recounts this, in his book On Blessings, chapter 49, where he also reports from Baronius that Pope Alexander II sent blessed standards to Hermibald and to William Count of Aquitaine, so that they might defeat the heretics and Harold the invader of England. See the same Gretser, Book II On the Cross, chapter 58, where he shows that entire armies setting out for the Holy Land used to be blessed by the Popes, and signed with the cross, and that from this those expeditions were called Crusades, or expeditions of the Cross-signed. Many expeditions, he says, were formerly undertaken to Palestine to defend the Holy Land from the tyranny of the Mohammedans, chiefly at the exhortation and urging of the Supreme Pontiffs: Urban II, Paschal II, Lucius II, Eugene III, Clement III, Celestine III, Honorius III, Gregory IX, under the leadership of Godfrey of Bouillon, Emperor Conrad, St. Louis King of France, Emperor Frederick, Philip King of France, Richard King of England, Andrew King of Hungary, and other most brave and distinguished princes and heroes, who led most well-equipped armies.
All of these were marked with the cross, so that they might fight more confidently against the enemies of the cross, and be more ready for all dangers out of love of the cross and the Crucified. There exists in the Roman Ritual a prayer for the blessing of the cross customarily given to those setting out for Palestine for the defense of the Christian faith and the recovery of the Holy Land. Indeed Constantine the Great, having received the sign of the cross from heaven with the motto: "In this sign you shall conquer," ordered the cross to be engraved on his standard, and to be carried before his entire army, so that as though through the cross divinely blessed by God He might give them sure hope and complete victory, as Eusebius and others narrate in the Life of Constantine.
Tropologically, note here that God, when He selects someone for a particular office, gives him the symbols and instruments necessary and suitable for that office. So St. Paul appeared in a vision to St. John Chrysostom, and handed him the book of the Gospel, so that by this symbol he might establish him as an outstanding preacher of the same after himself. So St. John the Apostle, receiving the scroll of oracles from the Angel, was made a prophet to foretell the things to come under the Antichrist, Revelation 10:9. So Moses, in Exodus 4, verse 17, received through the rod from God the power of working miracles and the ten plagues, with which he struck Pharaoh and the Egyptians. In a similar manner and way God here gave Judas a sword, to slay Nicanor and the impious. Hence also to kings, when they are inaugurated, a sword is given, that they may defend the Church, religion, and justice, and punish the wicked. For this reason an Angel appeared to Joshua invading Canaan, to encourage him, holding an unsheathed sword as though he would slay the Canaanites with it, Joshua 5:13. So Jeremiah and Ezekiel often threaten the Jews with a sword to be given by God to Nebuchadnezzar, to punish their crimes. So Christ the King of kings is said to have a sword sharp on both sides, Revelation 1:16. Indeed Emperor Trajan, handing a sword to the prefect of the city whom he had appointed, said: "Use this for me, if I exercise my power rightly; but if not, use it against me."
Allegorically, Rabanus understands Jeremiah as Christ, and the golden sword as Sacred Scripture, by which Christ overthrew the devil when He was tempted by him in the desert, and even now strikes down and routs the heretics, his followers, through the Doctors of the Church.
Again, the holy sword is mortification, by which we cut away the lusts and vices of the flesh and of the spirit, according to that saying of Christ: "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Matt. 10:34). Wherefore Jeremiah, chapter 48, verse 10, says: "Cursed is he who withholds his sword from blood." Jeremiah therefore, that is, Christ, extends to each of the faithful this sword of mortification, golden with the love of God, so that with it he may slay all His enemies, that is, the passions and appetites of corrupt nature that resist God and His law.
Verse 27: Thirty-Five Thousand Slain
27. They struck down no fewer than thirty-five thousand. — Josephus therefore errs, who counts only nine thousand, and Gorionides, who assigns only thirty thousand.
Verse 28: Nicanor Falls in Battle
28. They recognized that Nicanor had fallen. — Gorionides narrates the matter somewhat differently, Book III, chapter 22: "Judas saw," he says, "in the very battle Nicanor holding in his hand an unsheathed sword, and crying out, he said: Against you, O Nicanor. And when he ran against him in the strength of his fervor, Nicanor turned his shoulder, and fled from the face of Judas, and Judas seized him, and struck him with his sword, and cut him in two parts, casting him to the ground."
Moreover Judas ordered the head of Nicanor, as well as the hand which he had threateningly stretched out against the temple, to be hung up as a trophy, not from the citadel of Zion (because the enemies held this), but opposite the temple; and his blasphemous tongue, cut into small pieces, to be thrown to the birds to be devoured.
Verse 29: Blessing the Lord in Their Native Tongue
29. And so raising a shout, and causing a commotion (in Greek "taraches," that is, noise, tumult, applause), in their native tongue (that is, in the Hebrew language, singing Davidic psalms appointed for victory songs and thanksgiving, or "native," that is, in a voice generous and befitting strong men and victors, says Salianus), they blessed the Lord.
Verse 34: All of Heaven Blessed the Lord
34. Therefore all of heaven (that is, the heavenly ones, namely the Angels and holy men living a heavenly life on earth) blessed the Lord. — Rather refer the word "of heaven" to "the Lord," as if to say: All the Jews blessed God, who is Lord of heaven; hence the Greek has: They blessed the Lord toward heaven, that is, crying out with a loud voice toward heaven.
Verse 37: The Feast on the Thirteenth of Adar
37. And to hold the celebration on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar (that is, February. Therefore on that day every year a feast was celebrated in thanksgiving for the slaying of Nicanor), which is called in Syriac the day before Mardocheus — that is, the day before the feast of lots, which Mardocheus with Esther instituted to be celebrated on the 14th and 15th of Adar, in memory of the deliverance of Israel from the death decreed for them by Haman through lots, Esther 9:17 and 31. Therefore the fast which had been prescribed for the Jews on the day before the feast of lots, through this triumphal feast for the slaying of Nicanor, was either abolished or transferred to another day.
Moreover this passage, says Ribera, Book V On the Temple, chapter 18, has been corrupted in the Latin versions; for it should be read thus: "And to hold the celebration on the thirteenth day of the month (Adar is the word in Syriac) the day before the day of Mardocheus." That this is the true reading is evident from the most carefully edited Greek manuscripts, and among them from the Pontifical edition and from the variety of Latin versions; then from the sense itself, for the author of this book placed no Syriac word except Adar, and therefore used a parenthesis saying: "Adar is the word in Syriac;" which Josephus imitated and similarly added: "The month of Adar, as our people call it." Therefore he did not indicate the name of the feast when he said: "The day before the day of Mardocheus," but the time. So also Salianus, Vatablus, and others.
Verse 38: I Make an End of My Narrative
38. I also will here make an end of my narrative — because it was the purpose of Judas the Essene, who was the author of this book, to write only the heroic deeds of Judas Maccabeus up to his glorious victory over Nicanor, and the feast instituted on account of it, so that the Jews in Egypt (to whom he wrote this book, as is evident from its beginning) might celebrate the same feast there. For this reason he ends his book here. So St. Thomas.
But if less worthily, it must be pardoned me. — The author of the book tacitly asks pardon not for some slip or error, or falsehood (far be this from a sacred writer, who was the organ and instrument of the Holy Spirit), but of his style and expression, if it should seem to anyone less elegant and polished. For the Holy Spirit so assisted sacred writers, and so directed them that they never strayed from the truth, and conceived in their minds an entirely true meaning, but nevertheless allowed them to write it down in their own words, and with their own expression and style. Therefore the style of Isaiah is more elegant and beautiful than that of the other Prophets, because he, being a noble, learned, and elegant man, had by study absorbed a more elegant style. For the Holy Spirit in expression accommodates Himself to His writer as to an instrument. Therefore this author, although he is elegant and eloquent, nevertheless out of modesty asks to be pardoned if he has written "less worthily" (in Greek, if thinly and slenderly), that is, in a less worthy, weighty, and elegant style than the dignity of the divine history, or the learned ears of the readers might desire (so St. Paul calls himself "unskilled in speech, but not in knowledge," 2 Corinthians 11), especially because he claims to have deliberately used this moderate and mixed style for the reason that he adds, saying:
Verse 40: Wine and Water, Style and Variety
40. For as it is harmful to always drink wine, or always water (to the appetite, the stomach, and health), but pleasant to use them alternately; so if the discourse were always exact, it would not be agreeable to the readers. — For human nature delights in variety, according to the saying:
"The Muses love alternation."
Therefore readers delight in a writer's variety of style, that he may at times elevate it and make it weighty and polished, and at times lower it and present it lighter and less polished. In Greek it reads: For as to drink wine alone, and similarly again water alone, is disagreeable; but wine mixed with water produces a sweet and delightful pleasure (that is, it brings an agreeable delight to the one tasting it), so also the preparation of speech (so that it may be harmonious and well-composed with a certain pleasing balance and moderation) "delights the hearing of the readers," if it is heard read by another, and the eyes, if it is read by themselves. As if to say: Just as always drinking neat wine, or always pure water, is troublesome and unhealthy — for wine overheats and inflames the head and body, while water over-cools it and creates phlegm — but to mix water with wine, and to drink the mixture, is pleasant and delightful, as well as healthy and beneficial, because water breaks and tempers the heat and sharpness of the wine, and in turn wine breaks and tempers the coldness and crudeness of the water, and reduces both to a certain agreeable moderation: so likewise a discourse that is either too weighty or too thin is disagreeable to readers and brings tedium; but one moderated from both extremes and reduced to a suitable balance is agreeable and pleasant. So I for a similar reason in this book have used a moderate style that tempers gravity with gentleness; for variety as well as moderation in all things is agreeable, flavorful, and delightful to all; otherwise satiety and disgust creep over all things in the world, as Cicero says, and daily experience teaches.
Here therefore it shall be concluded. — In Greek, it will be the end or consummation both of this book and of the entire Old Testament, so that we may hand the torch to Christ who is soon to come, who is the end and goal, and the perfection and consummation of the Law and the Prophets and of the entire Testament, both New and Old.