Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He continues to attack idols and their makers, that is, the idol-fashioners. Therefore at the beginning he gives thanks to God for having preserved the Israelites pure and chaste from idolatry in faith and worship of Himself. Then he convicts the vanity and deception of idols from the very potters who make them.
Vulgate Text: Wisdom 15:1-19
1. But You, our God, are sweet and true, patient, and governing all things with mercy. 2. For even if we have sinned, we are Yours, knowing Your greatness; and if we have not sinned, we know that we are counted among Your own. 3. For to know You is perfect justice, and to know Your justice and Your power is the root of immortality. 4. For the invention of evil human art has not led us into error, nor the shadow of painting — a fruitless labor — nor an image carved in various colors, 5. the sight of which gives desire to the senseless, and he loves the lifeless effigy of a dead image without a soul. 6. Lovers of evil are worthy to place their hope in such things — both those who make them, and those who love them, and those who worship them. 7. But also the potter, pressing soft earth, laboriously fashions each vessel for our uses, and from the same clay he fashions vessels that are clean for use, and likewise those that serve contrary purposes; but what use each of these vessels shall have, the potter is the judge. 8. And with vain labor he fashions a god from the same clay — he who a little before was made from earth, and after a short time will return to that from which he was taken, when the debt of the soul which he had is demanded back. 9. But his care is not because he will labor, nor because his life is short, but he competes with goldsmiths and silversmiths; and he also imitates the bronze-workers, and counts it a glory that he fashions worthless things. 10. For his heart is ashes, and his hope is cheaper than earth, and his life is more worthless than clay, 11. because he did not know the One who fashioned him, and who inspired in him a soul that works, and who breathed into him a vital spirit. 12. But they also considered our life to be a game, and the course of life arranged for profit, and that one must acquire gain from every source, even from evil. 13. For this man knows that he sins above all others, who from earthen material fashions fragile vessels and carved images. 14. For all are foolish and wretched beyond measure in soul, proud, enemies of Your people, and ruling over them, 15. because they reckoned all the idols of the nations to be gods, which have no use of eyes for seeing, nor nostrils for perceiving breath, nor ears for hearing, nor fingers of hands for touching, and their feet are too sluggish for walking. 16. For a man made them, and he who borrowed his spirit fashioned them. For no man can fashion a god like himself. 17. For being mortal, he fashions a dead thing with wicked hands. For he himself is better than those he worships, because he at least lived, being mortal, but they never did. 18. But they even worship the most wretched animals; for senseless creatures, compared with these, are worse than them. 19. Nor can anyone looking upon these animals see anything good in them. They have fled from the praise of God and from His blessing.
1. 1. BUT YOU, OUR GOD, ARE SWEET AND TRUE, PATIENT AND GOVERNING ALL THINGS WITH MERCY. — 'Our' not by creation alone, for in that sense You are the God even of idolaters and unbelievers; but also by calling, by religion, and by worship: for You called us Israelites from among all nations to faith and worship of Yourself, and chose us for Yourself. 'True,' as if to say: Idols are false gods, and therefore liars and deceivers; hence when consulted they deceive, and what they promise they do not perform in deed. But our God is the true God, and therefore truthful and faithful; whence He can neither be deceived nor deceive, but whatever He says is most true, and whatever He promises He fulfills most faithfully. 'Patient,' in Greek makrothymos, that is, long-suffering, possessing great patience and much endurance, so that You are not immediately roused to anger or spring to vengeance and hurl brutal thunderbolts, but patiently bear offenses, so that by this patience and mercy You may provoke sinners to repentance, as was said above. Whence it follows: 'For even if we have sinned,' etc. For to long-suffering is opposed precipitous anger, impatience, and vengeance,
of which demons are full, and therefore they rage, and severely avenge even slight neglect of themselves, and treat and punish idolaters and magicians who are less obedient to them most harshly. Note here four attributes of God in governing: the first, kindness and gentleness; the second, truth and faithfulness; the third, long-suffering and patience; the fourth, mercy and clemency. Kings, rulers, and governors should learn these from God and ask Him for them.
You govern all things. For 'sweet,' the Greek is chrestos, that is, good, kind, upright, humane, ready to oblige, agreeable, clement; also useful, fruitful, dutiful, distinguished, vigorous. Such was Chrestos, that is, our Christ, who was therefore called by the gentiles Chrestos, and Christians were called 'Chrestians,' because they were kind and beneficent to all. The meaning is, as if to say: Idolaters worship useless gods, indeed maleficent ones — for such are the demons, who when invoked by magicians provide scant help in order to inflict greater harm on them, both in body and in soul. But our God is most useful, as well as most benevolent and most beneficent, who heaps upon us every good thing. We therefore congratulate ourselves on having such a God, the best and greatest, and that He has freed us from the worst gods. So says Cantacuzenus, who notes that there is an antithesis between God and idols, such as I have described.
BUT YOU, OUR GOD, ARE SWEET AND TRUE, PATIENT AND GOVERNING ALL THINGS WITH MERCY. — Vatablus renders: 'But You, our God, are kind and true, and with long patience (or gentleness) and mercy You govern —'
2. 2. FOR EVEN IF WE HAVE SINNED, WE ARE YOURS, KNOWING YOUR GREATNESS — in Greek, to kratos, that is, Your strength, force, and power, as St. Augustine reads it in his book On Faith and Works, chapter 22 — by which, namely, You can punish us, since idols cannot do so, as he said at the end of the preceding chapter; and by which You can also pardon our sins, to show that You are no less powerful, magnificent, generous, and rich in grace and mercy than in force and strength, as the Apostle says, Romans 10:12, and elsewhere. For to forgive sins is the mark of supreme power, as I showed above. The meaning therefore is, first, as if to say: Idolaters boldly perjure themselves and sin, because they do not fear their mute and brute idols — for they know that those idols cannot avenge perjury and other crimes. But we, Your faithful, O Lord, if out of frailty we sin —
whether venially or even mortally, we honestly confess that we cannot escape You, as idolaters supposed they could escape their gods — because we are Yours, and subject to Your dominion, and we know Your supreme power, by which You can punish us wherever we may flee, unlike the feeble and powerless idols. For, as David says, Psalm 138:8: 'If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I descend into hell, You are present; if I take my wings at dawn and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will hold me.' Even if we have sinned, we are Yours, because we have a good and great God, who wills and is able to heal the sins of the penitent — not one who would never dare to destroy those who persist in wickedness. Whence he adds, 'knowing Your power,' from which the sinner cannot withdraw or hide himself. So says St. Augustine in the passage already cited, who therefore rightly admonishes the sinner not to flatter himself with a sense of security by thinking that he belongs to God.
Morally, 'if we have sinned, we are Yours': Yours through penance, confession, and chastisement; Yours through contrition and charity, just as St. Mary Magdalene was Yours, of whom St. Paulinus says in his letter to Severus: 'It was not the ointment in her that the Lord loved, but the charity, by which, modestly immodest and piously bold, without fear of reproach or rejection, uninvited she boldly entered the house of the Pharisee which was foreign to her — with that violence by which the kingdom of heaven is seized. And hungering only for heavenly words, she ran not to his riches but to the feet of Christ, and in them she washed herself and was nourished; and she made those very feet her sanctuary, so to speak, and her altar, upon which she made a libation with her tears, offered sacrifice with ointment, and made an offering of affection.' The penitent therefore belongs to God, because through contrition he loves God and dedicates and consecrates —
himself to Him; whence in return he is received by God into His former grace, love, and favor. Thus concerning the gentiles who were to be converted from idols to God through Christ, Isaiah says, chapter 44, verse 5: 'This one will say: I am the Lord's; and that one will call upon the name of Jacob; and another will write with his hand: To the Lord.' And David, Psalm 118:94: 'I am Yours,' he says, 'save me, for I have sought out Your statutes.'
AND IF WE HAVE NOT SINNED, WE KNOW THAT WE ARE COUNTED AMONG YOUR OWN. — First, St. Augustine reads 'appointed'; in Greek, 'we are enrolled as Yours' — that is, if we do not sin, we are all the more dear to You, and all the more in Your heart and care. For You love, protect, direct, and advance the just and innocent as Your friends, indeed as Your most beloved children above the whole world, toward salvation and glory and every good. If therefore we sin, we are Yours by Your power, because we fall into the hands of Your mighty justice; if we do not sin, we are Yours by grace and adoption. Whether therefore we sin or do not sin, we are Yours — for You are the Lord our God, whose hands we cannot escape, but into them we fall whatever we do. The Vulgate translator read in the Greek hoti, that is —
but that word is now absent from the Greek, which accordingly reads: 'We will not sin, since we know that we are esteemed by You,' or that we are in Your care and held in esteem. For this above all should call each of us away from sin: that we know we are in God's care, dear to Him, and held in esteem, and at least incipiently predestined by God to be His children and heirs, and co-heirs with Christ. For God has destined all the faithful and just for glory, and thus has incipiently predestined them. So says St. Augustine, in On Faith and Works, chapter 22, who reads it in the past tense, 'we have not sinned,' as the Louvain scholars corrected, although the context seems to require 'we will not sin,' as the Greek has it. For who, thinking that he is enrolled in God's friendship, family, and intimacy, would dare to sin, and sell and squander so great a good for a cheap desire? Who, seriously considering that he has been chosen and called by God to such great grace and glory, would not strive with all his might to live worthily of so great a calling, to show himself a worthy citizen of heaven and companion of the angels? 'Who, worthily considering the dwelling with God, to which all are appointed by predestination who are called according to His purpose, would not strive to live in a way fitting for such a dwelling?' says St. Augustine in the passage cited. Second, and more genuinely, our author Castro says: Solomon seems, he says, to be speaking of the election of his people above other peoples (not of predestination), concerning which Moses says, Deuteronomy 32:8: 'When the Most High divided the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. But the Lord's portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance.' This knowledge and conviction, therefore, that we are of the number of God's people and that we are enrolled in the catalog of His faithful, above all keeps us or ought to keep us in all modesty and fear, lest we sin — and all the more, the more deeply we are admitted into His intimacy. The Greek word lelogismetha supports this — that is, 'we have been enrolled in Your accounts, assigned to Your reckoning, counted as Yours.' For logizomai is an arithmetical term and denotes a merchant's accounting.
3. 3. FOR TO KNOW YOU IS PERFECT JUSTICE; AND TO KNOW YOUR JUSTICE AND YOUR POWER IS THE ROOT OF IMMORTALITY. — The word 'justice' is not in the Greek, but only to kratos, that is, 'power,' meaning force, strength, and efficacy. The Syriac reads: 'It is the perfection of justice to acknowledge You, and to know Your truth as the root of immortality.' The Arabic reads: 'For knowledge of You is perfect justice, and recognition of Your power is the root of the absence of death.' 'To know You' — namely, not merely speculatively, as the philosophers knew God, but also practically, as it is fitting and proper to know God — so that the knowledge of God may beget affection and love for God. For in this love, or charity, consists perfect justice. 'And to know Your justice and power,' that is Your might, 'is the root' (that is, the principle) 'of immortality.' For this knowledge, by which we know God to be just and omnipotent, and therefore able and willing to punish all crimes according to their deserts, engenders in us —
a holy fear of God, which makes us abstain from all sin — which is the origin of death and all corruption — and therefore introduces every virtue, which is the root of immortality, happiness, and eternal glory. Moreover, this knowledge, or awareness of God, is obtained through faith. Whence the Apostle everywhere says that we are justified and saved by faith, because by faith the course toward justice, salvation, and immortality is begun (Romans 1:17; 3:28; and 5:1, etc.). See what was said there.
Finally, the word 'for' in 'to know' gives the reason for what preceded — namely, why he professed his knowledge of God and his faith, saying in verse 1: 'But You, our God, are sweet and true,' etc., and in verse 2: 'Knowing Your greatness.' But properly and principally it gives the reason for what immediately preceded: 'And if we have not sinned, we know that we are counted among Your own'; or, as the Greek has it, 'we will not sin, since we know that we are esteemed by You, or that we are in Your care.' For the knowledge of God's power and providence is the cause that makes us carefully guard against all sin and spurs us to strive with all our might for justice, so that we may please God and obtain from Him blessed immortality. See what was said at chapter 1, verse 13, and Proverbs 1:7.
The meaning therefore is, as if to say: That confession of our faith, by which we just now professed You to be supremely kind, patient, powerful, and merciful, and as such love and worship You with our whole heart, and therefore in return are loved by You as wholly Yours and bound to You by the closest bond of faith, religion, and charity — this, I say, is our perfect justice, from which, as from a root, the fruit of immortality and eternal happiness sprouts forth. Thus Christ says, John 17:3: 'This is eternal life' (that is, the way to eternal life, and as it were its beginning and commencement), 'that they may know (through faith) You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. For faith,' Hebrews 11:1, 'is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' See what was said there.
Tropologically, Blessed Lawrence Justinian, Patriarch of Venice, used to say: 'The true knowledge of man consists in knowing these two things: that God is everything, and that he himself is nothing.' So his Life records. For from this knowledge and faith follows distrust of self and confidence in God; thence hatred of self and love of God, which is consummate justice, consisting in the three theological virtues — namely, in excellent faith, hope, and charity. Hence St. John, Apocalypse 15:2, saw the saints who will live at the end of the world, having seen the seven last plagues of the earth in which the wrath of God will be consummated, standing in amazement, and heard them singing and exclaiming: 'Great and wonderful are Your works, O Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the ages! Who will not fear You, O Lord, and magnify Your name? For You alone are holy; for all nations will come and worship before You, because Your judgments are made manifest.' A similar expression of theirs is found —
after the destruction of Babylon, chapter 18:8 ff., and chapter 11, verse 17, and chapter 14, verse 7. The antistrophe to Solomon is the maxim of Jeremiah, chapter 9, verse 23: 'Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him glory in this: to know and understand Me.'
Anagogically, to know God through the beatific vision is perfect justice — perfect, I say, in grace and glory, and therefore confirmed, so that one who is blessed forever cannot fall from it through any temptation or misfortune. So says Hugo, who however less correctly adds that by 'God' the Father is understood, as if to say: We recognized God the Son in the Incarnation, the Holy Spirit at Pentecost when He appeared in tongues of fire, and likewise at the baptism of Christ when He appeared in the form of a dove; but God the Father we have not known by a similar symbol in this life, but shall know Him in the future; whence then there will be perfect knowledge of God, love, and justice. But this is foreign to the mind and purpose of the wise man; it is also not true, for the Father appeared in the Old Testament, just as the Holy Spirit did, when three angels appeared to Abraham representing the three divine Persons; likewise at the baptism of Christ, the voice of the Father thundered, Matthew 3:17: 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' The same voice of the Father was heard at the Transfiguration of Christ, Matthew 17:5.
4. 4. FOR THE INVENTION OF EVIL HUMAN ART HAS NOT LED US INTO ERROR, NOR THE SHADOW OF PAINTING — A FRUITLESS LABOR — NOR AN IMAGE CARVED IN VARIOUS COLORS. — He gives thanks to God that he himself was not numbered among those who worship false divinities and are deceived by fabricated images. But the Wise Man speaks in the person of all Israel, or the faithful, pious, just, and holy people. For although many, indeed the far greater part, in Israel were unjust and in a state of mortal sin, nevertheless the whole people is called just and holy — both because they were called by God to justice, and because this people was the lineage and posterity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who truly were holy: they were therefore holy, that is, children of the holy patriarchs; and finally because many among the people were just. In a similar sense the Church is called holy, and the Apostle calls all the faithful 'saints' at the beginning of his letters, as I noted there.
THE INVENTION OF EVIL ART. — That is, the art of sculpture and painting of beautiful images and idols, which is called 'evil' because it entices people to worship and adore them. In Greek, kakotechnos epinoia, that is, malevolent, maleficent, malignant — also deceitful, counterfeit, pernicious, and devised for the ruin of mankind — the invention of the sculptural art of idols. Vatablus renders it 'an insidious invention'; Jansenius, 'a malignant contrivance,' by which, namely, through the elegance of idol sculpture, the unlearned are incited to worship idols as if they were divinities. Our author Castro translates kakotechnos literally from its etymology as 'weaving evil, contriving evil,' or 'the invention of an evil craftsman,' as if to say: Among the other benefits with which You have heaped Your people, this one is preeminent: that You preserved them from the deceptive and pernicious inventions of men, who devise many things against God's law and establish many things.
NOR THE SHADOW OF PAINTING — the translator reads, with the Complutensian, the Royal, and other editions, by separation into two words, skia graphon, that is, 'shadow of painting.' But the Vatican manuscripts read more plainly and clearly as one word by contraction, skiagraphon, that is, 'of those who make shadow-paintings,' and they connect it with what follows: 'a fruitless labor,' as if to say: The fruitless labor of painters, who by painting represent and imitate things in shadow, has not deceived us. But the meaning comes to the same thing. It is called 'shadow of painting' because the painting itself is a shadow-depiction, or shadowy, and this first of all because the origin of painting is shadow. For the first natural likeness or image of a body is its shadow; whence from shadows men learned to paint, and by painting to make shadow-representations. Therefore Quintilian in Book 10 says: 'There would be no painting, except that which traced the outline of the shadow that bodies had cast in the sun.' Hence the first paintings were merely delineations of lines of the body depicted, or outlines. Listen to Pliny, Book 35, chapter 3: 'The Greeks say that some discovered painting at Sicyon, others at Corinth — all agree it began by tracing the outline of a man's shadow with lines. And so such was the first type (such as we still see in Rome in ancient works), the second was in single colors and called monochromaton, that is, single-colored.' The third succeeded from various colors, and was called polychromatos, that is, multicolored. Pliny continues: 'They say the linear style was invented by Philocles the Egyptian, or Cleanthes the Corinthian, etc. The first to paint with color using crushed tile (as they say) was Cleophantus the Corinthian.' The same author, Book 35, chapter 5: 'Both arts (namely, the art of statuary and of painting) began with Phidias in the 83rd Olympiad, about 332 years later' — from which time the art of sculpture or carving in marble began.
Second, because in painting it is a matter of great art to paint shadows well; for through them are represented the heights of things, their depths, mountains and valleys, distances and intervals. Indeed, I have seen in Rome, through shadows alternated on walls, these things represented so lifelike that they would make any viewer doubtful whether there truly was that projection and depth in the wall, or whether it was merely produced and represented in shadow through painting and art. Whence painting itself is called 'shadow-representation,' and to paint is called 'to make shadows,' and skiagraphoi is the name for those who draw lines and shadows by which things that are flat appear to project in the painting.
AN IMAGE CARVED IN VARIOUS COLORS. — For 'image,' the Greek is eidos, that is, form, appearance, figure; whence the diminutive eidolon, that is, idol, as if to say: a diminished figure, a slight form, a small and contracted appearance, a little deity, a small god, a tiny divinity. For 'carved,' the Greek is spilothen, that is, spotted — that is, variegated with various colors. For 'spots' are the name for both the marks by which painters are accustomed to distinguish and embellish images and paintings, and also —
and also variegations of color. Whence Seneca, Epistle 116, says: 'We are delighted by the spots of great columns.' Add that the Wise Man by this word censures idols as being not so much painted with colors as spotted and stained, to bring them into disrepute — both because the colors themselves are in themselves dirty and spotty, and because if you consider God, certainly these idols painted with the colors of God must be called spotted, for they taint and stain God, who is pure spirit and therefore devoid of color, with earthy and foul colors of paint, and thus present God not as spiritual, but as corporeal and colored. Our translator renders it more profoundly as 'carved,' both to suggest that the ancient idols were skillfully carved statues which were then painted in various colors, and because the very act of coloring and painting is called by catachresis 'carving.' For a painter, by painting a thing in various colors, now bright and light, now dark and shadowy — especially when representing the heights or depths of things, that is, mountains and valleys (whence the Greek spilos signifies not only spots, but also heights and prominent things, such as cliffs, rocks, and islands in the sea) — virtually carves the thing itself, as can be seen in skillfully painted glass. Hence any idols whatsoever, even those merely painted, are called 'carved things' in the Scriptures, as in Exodus 20:4: 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image,' that is, an idol; Psalm 105:19: 'And they worshipped the carved image'; Isaiah 42:17: 'Those who trust in carved images,' and frequently in the prophets.
IN VARIOUS COLORS. — In Greek, chromasin ellagmenois, that is, in varied and distinct colors, variously arranged and distributed. For the marvelous variegation of colors in idols used to captivate the eyes of the unlearned people into admiration, and thence into worship and veneration. Whence it follows:
5. 5. THE SIGHT OF WHICH GIVES DESIRE TO THE SENSELESS, AND HE LOVES THE LIFELESS EFFIGY OF A DEAD IMAGE WITHOUT A SOUL. — In Greek, apnoun, that is, without spirit and breath — that is, lifeless and dead. 'The sight of which' — namely, of the carved effigy, that is, of the idol. The Greek has it in the plural, hon, that is, 'of which,' namely, the sight of the colors, with the same meaning. For 'desire,' in the Greek there is, first, eis epithymian, that is, 'into appetite, into craving, into desire.' So the Complutensian editions, and —
the Royal editions. Second, the Vatican manuscripts read eis erethistmon, that is, 'into provocation,' indeed into fury, into madness — for so keenly and eagerly is the senseless person, having seen a beautiful image, carried away into desire for it, that he virtually goes mad and rages. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Such is the power of painting and sculpture that it inspires in the rude and senseless people a desire for idols, and carries them away to love — indeed, to adore — these effigies of a dead image (or of an image representing a dead thing) without a soul, indeed without spirit or breath. Cantacuzenus adds that the word 'senseless' marks the Egyptians, who worshipped as gods not only effigies of humans but also of brute animals. Moreover, the demon so thoroughly renders idolaters senseless that they, as if driven mad, have fallen in love with their own effigies as if they were living women. Thus Pygmalion, king of Cyprus, according to Arnobius, Book 6 Against the Nations, loved the idol of Venus as a woman, and with it, as with a woman, practiced embraces, kisses, and other lustful gestures and touches. Pliny narrates a similar example of another person, Book 36, chapter 5. Hence idolatry in the Scriptures is called fornication, not only mystical but also real, because near the temples of idols there were brothels and harlots, with whom visitors would commit fornication. Thus Pineda explains that passage in Job 40:46: 'He sleeps under the shadow,' that is, under the idol, he says, the demon lurks, who is therefore called Baal, that is, 'husband,' arousing shameful love of himself. Whence for 'loves,' the Greek is eratai, that is, 'desires, lusts after.'
6. 6. LOVERS OF EVIL ARE WORTHY (Lyranus, Hugo, and Dionysius add 'of death,' but delete 'of death' with the Roman and Greek editions) TO PLACE THEIR HOPE IN SUCH THINGS (some incorrectly read 'in tablets'), AND THOSE WHO MAKE THEM, AND THOSE WHO LOVE THEM (in Greek, epithountes, that is, 'who desire'), AND THOSE WHO WORSHIP THEM — as if to say: The just penalty of idolaters who love evil, indeed the worst, idols is idolatry itself: namely, that they place their hope in gods — that is, in mute and brute idols, indeed diabolical ones, and therefore ruinous and most harmful — from whom nothing good can be hoped for, but every evil. Of all idolaters, I say — both of those who make and fabricate those gods, and of those who love and worship them. Vatablus renders: 'Lovers of evil, and worthy to have such hopes — the craftsmen, lovers, and worshippers of such things.' Lucas of Bruges in his Notes explains it thus: They love the most abundant fountain of all wickedness — both those who make idols, and those who desire them to be made and worshipped, and those who worship them — and therefore they are worthy to have vain and empty hopes in them. Our author Castro puts it thus: 'Lovers of evil,' that is, captivated by love and devotion to idols, 'and worthy to have vain hope in them' — these are both those who make them and those who desire, or love, or worship them. All of this comes to the same thing.
7. 7. BUT ALSO THE POTTER, PRESSING SOFT EARTH, LABORIOUSLY FASHIONS EACH VESSEL FOR OUR USES, AND FROM THE SAME CLAY HE FASHIONS VESSELS THAT ARE CLEAN FOR USE, AND LIKEWISE THOSE THAT SERVE CONTRARY PURPOSES; BUT WHAT USE EACH OF THESE VESSELS SHALL HAVE, THE POTTER IS THE JUDGE. —
one part into dishes, another into chamber pots, and other vessels for other uses, as he pleases and sees fit. Yet the potter, as he adds in verse 8, in the same way fashions an idol from the same clay, and chooses and selects for this purpose the portion of clay that seems more suitable to him. Therefore, if you consider the material, the idol is plainly similar to — indeed identical with — the material of dishes and chamber pots, which is the most worthless, namely clay. If you consider the craftsman, it is the same potter who fashions both the idol and the chamber pot. Therefore, just as worthless as the potter and the clay are, equally worthless is his product — namely, the idol fashioned by him. Wherefore Arnobius rightly pierces and dispatches the idolaters with this argument, as with a spear, in Book 6 Against the Nations: 'What reason is there, then, that if all these bodies remain untouched and uncut, they lack the force of divinity and heavenly authority, but if they receive human shapes — ears, noses, cheeks, lips, eyes, eyelids — they immediately become gods and are enrolled in the ranks and register of the celestials? Does fashioning add some novelty to these bodies, so that by the very addition you are compelled to believe that some divinity and majesty has been conferred upon them?' etc. Among all idols — golden and bronze — he mentions the clay ones especially, both because these were the most numerous and were commonly purchased at small cost by the poor, and because the material of clay idols is the most worthless, their molding the most sordid, their craftsman the most sordid. Yet that craftsman has full mastery and control over it, so that with remarkable ease he forms and fashions from soft clay whatever shape and figure pleases him. All of which convicts the supreme worthlessness of idols. Whence he adds:
8. 8. AND WITH VAIN LABOR HE FASHIONS A GOD FROM THE SAME CLAY — HE WHO A LITTLE BEFORE WAS MADE FROM EARTH, AND AFTER A SHORT TIME WILL RETURN TO WHERE HE WAS TAKEN FROM, WHEN THE DEBT OF THE SOUL WHICH HE HAD IS DEMANDED BACK. — As if to say: What madness it is to consider an idol of clay, produced by a potter from the same clay from which dishes and chamber pots were formed, to be a god, when the potter himself is a mortal man formed and fashioned from similar clay and earth by God in Adam, the first man, and will soon return to the same earth when he dies, when God demands back the soul He gave him! For man, such as the potter is, cannot form God; nor can a mortal form an immortal, nor one made of clay form a celestial being. For by what rationale could the potter breathe divinity into the clay statues he has fashioned, and attribute divinity to them? Hugo shrewdly observes the just and fitting judgment and vengeance of God, by which it happens that the potter and idolater, who was made from earth but refused to follow his soul — that is, his reason, which dictated that God should be worshipped, and on account of which he was similar to God — by listening instead to his baser part, namely his earthly body, also worships a clay god, similar to his own body. The same thing is done mystically by gluttons, the lustful, and other sinners. For 'vain labor,' the Greek is kakomochthos, which Osorius translates as 'a laborious and impious workman'; others, 'laboring badly'; Vatablus, 'employing his effort most poorly.'
HE WILL RETURN — as if to say: The potter, soon dying, will return to the earth from which his body was formed, 'when the debt of the soul is demanded back' — that is, the debt of dying, or departing from the body. Namely, when God demands from the soul the debt of departing from the body and returning to Himself, so that the soul may render an exact account to the true God who demands it — an account of debts, that is, of sins committed, and especially of idolatry and the idols it fashioned. As if to say: How vain and foolish it is to believe that the potter fashions God, when the potter receives his very being from God, and shortly returns it to God the giver, and will render an account of how it was well or ill spent! Hence learn morally that the soul and life are not ours, but God's, who as their Lord granted us only their use, and gave them to us as on loan, so that we might use them according to God's will and for His praise. But if we abuse them to fashion for ourselves some idol of honor, pride, greed, or luxury, He will demand from us in the judgment a strict account of what He gave, or rather lent, and will punish its abuse with eternal fires, according to the parable of the talents, Matthew 25:15. Then the abuser will hear from Christ the judge those words of Luke 12:20: 'Fool, this night they demand your soul from you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' God therefore is the creditor, man the debtor; the debt is the soul and its faults. Death is the debt of nature; hell is the debt of sin. Therefore whoever sins bears fruit for the second death, that is, yields a harvest for hell, says St. Ambrose on Romans, chapter 7. In a similar way, the earth demands back from dying men the debt of the body received from it, according to Ecclesiastes 12:7: 'Let the dust return to its earth whence it was, and let the spirit return to God who gave it.' See what was said there. Hence St. Ambrose, in his book On the Good of Death, chapter 10, proves the immortality of the soul: 'Did He say,' he asks, 'let your soul die in you? No, but let it be demanded back from you. What was given is demanded back, or they demand it from you. For the soul is demanded back, not destroyed. What is demanded back remains; what is destroyed does not remain.'
9. 9. BUT HIS CARE IS NOT BECAUSE HE WILL LABOR, NOR BECAUSE HIS LIFE IS SHORT, BUT HE COMPETES WITH GOLDSMITHS AND SILVERSMITHS; AND HE ALSO IMITATES THE BRONZE-WORKERS, AND COUNTS IT A GLORY THAT HE FASHIONS WORTHLESS THINGS. — He continues to demonstrate the madness of the potter, or idol-fashioner, as if to say: The potter fashioning a clay idol spares neither labor nor life. For he does not worry about or consider the great labor he must undertake to form each limb of the idol distinctly, perfectly, and elegantly, in the manner of human limbs. Again, he does not worry or consider that he has a short life remaining, which ought to be spent on more useful things and on securing eternal salvation; but he looks only to profit and honor, so that people may say: Behold, this is a distinguished idol-maker. Therefore he ambitiously competes with goldsmiths, silversmiths, and bronze-workers, to fashion idols from clay just as perfectly — indeed, more perfectly — than they do from gold, silver, and bronze. He strives therefore to equal or surpass them in art and form, even though he is surpassed by them in material.
Juvenal mocks the Egyptians for worshipping garlic and leeks as gods, and says: 'O holy nations, for whom these divinities grow in their gardens!' In like manner you may laugh at the idol-makers and say to them: 'O holy molders, who fashion divinities of clay! O holy hands, with which it is permitted to create divinities! O divine fingers, which can fashion gods!'
NOT BECAUSE HE WILL LABOR. — This 'labor' is taken in various ways by various interpreters. First and genuinely, for the labor with which the potter laboriously works in forming the idol and each of its parts and limbs, and in preserving them lest they crack or break, as I have already said. Second, for the sickness he contracts from excessive labor at molding, day and night. Whence Peter Nannius says here: 'About to labor,' that is, 'about to fall ill' — for kamontes means the sick or the dead — as if to say: The potter, intent on profit and glory, wears himself out, ruins, and destroys himself with excessive labor. Third, for the labor he will undergo in death, when the debt of his soul is demanded back, and in hell, where he will burn on account of his idols which he fashioned. So says Jansenius.
HE COMPETES (in Greek, antereidetai, that is, he contends, strives, and fights against a rival or competitor, so that by the excellence of his art he may gain more profit and glory). HE COUNTS IT A GLORY THAT HE FASHIONS WORTHLESS THINGS — that is, as in the Greek, he esteems it a glory that he fashions kibdela, that is, counterfeit things. Vatablus renders: 'He counts it a glory that he fashions impostures.' Others: 'that he fashions adulterations,' that is, things adulterated and falsified — namely, idols, which are not divinities but fabrications and monstrosities of divinities, and therefore are adulterated and falsified gods — that is, shadowy, painted, feigned, and false. For the Greek word kibdelos signifies a thing adulterated, counterfeited, and fabricated, and is properly said of debased coins, when bronze is mixed with gold, which vitiates and adulterates them. For in a similar way, an idol is a god that is not true but counterfeit and adulterated.
Wherefore Tertullian, in his book On Idolatry, chapter 7, asserts that Christian artisans who for the sake of profit fashion images for idolaters should be cast out of the Church, and indeed their hands should be cut off: 'All day long,' he says, 'the zeal of faith will plead this case, groaning that a Christian comes from idols into the Church, from the workshop of the adversary into the house of God; that he raises up to God the Father hands that are the mothers of idols; that he worships with those hands which outside are worshipped against God; that he applies to the body of the Lord those hands which confer bodies on demons. Nor is this enough — it would be a small matter if they received from other hands what they contaminate; but they themselves also pass on to others what they have contaminated. Artisans of idols are admitted into the ecclesiastical order — oh, what a crime! The Jews once laid hands on Christ; these people daily assault His body. O hands that should be cut off! Let them now consider whether it was said figuratively, Matthew 5:30: If your hand scandali-'
zes you, cut it off. What hands are more deserving of amputation than those by which the body of the Lord is scandalized?' For this reason, Saints Claudius, Nicostratus, Symphorianus, Castorius, and Simplicius, under the emperor Diocletian, underwent a glorious martyrdom, because although they were the finest sculptors, they could by no means be induced to make statues of idols. And when led to the image of the Sun to venerate it, they declared that they would never worship the works of men's hands. Wherefore they were cast into prison, scourged with scorpions, and finally enclosed alive in leaden coffins and thrown into the river, surrendering their bodies to the earth and their souls to heaven, and they celebrated a glorious triumph over idols. The Church celebrates their feast day on the Octave of All Saints, and we venerate their relics in Rome in the Church of the Four Crowned Saints.
10. 10. FOR HIS HEART IS ASHES, AND HIS HOPE IS CHEAPER THAN EARTH, AND HIS LIFE IS MORE WORTHLESS THAN CLAY. — Vatablus renders: 'His heart is dust; his hope likewise is cheaper than earth, and his life more abject than clay.' He speaks not of the idol but of the idol-fashioner, that is, the potter of idols, as if to say: The potter who fashions idols, in which he glories and boasts of his art of molding, fashions worthless things — that is, cheap, false, and fabricated things — because he fixes his whole heart, that is, his thought and care, on mud and ashes: namely, to form from clay vessels and clay idols, and then to bake them in a kiln by burning wood, which turns to ashes. Therefore he is entirely muddy and ashen, especially since he too will return to dust and ashes in death, according to that sentence pronounced by God upon Adam and his posterity, Genesis 3:19: 'For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.' The Wise Man here frequently repeats the same point in other words, and obscure ones at that, to impress upon readers a hatred of idols, as preachers do when they attack some dominant vice among the people. I am compelled to follow the author in interpreting, and to repeat the same thing in explaining — so let no one accuse me of tautology.
For 'ashes,' the Greek is spodos — not the simple kind, which is called tephra, but the dirty kind, in which extinguished coals are mixed, along with the remains of other things, such as fragments of pottery, which in a hotter fire in the kiln often burst and break. In these, therefore, lies the whole heart, that is, the thought and occupation of the potter, so that he, entirely immersed in ashes and clay, seems to lead a life among ashes that is not human and vital, but ashen and funereal. So Lyranus says: 'The heart of the potter is ashes by affection, because, as St. Augustine says: If you love the earth, you are earth; if you love heaven, you are heaven; if you love God, what shall I say? You are divine — indeed, you are God! For love transforms the lover into the beloved, since the soul is more where it loves than where it gives life.' The same St. Augustine, Book 2 of On the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, chapter 9, says: 'Just as the sinner was called earth, when it was said to him: You are earth, and to earth you will go — so conversely the just man can be called heaven. For to the just it is said: The temple of God is holy, which you are. Wherefore, if God dwells in His temple and the saints are His temple, then rightly it is said: You who are in the heavens — You who are —'
in the saints. And this comparison is most fitting, so that the difference between the just and sinners seems to be spiritually as great as the bodily difference between heaven and earth. To signify this, when we stand for prayers, we turn toward the east, whence the sky rises — not as if God were there and had abandoned the other parts of the world, since He who is present everywhere is not bounded by spatial distances but by the majesty of His power — but so that the mind may be reminded to turn itself toward a more excellent nature, that is, toward the Lord, when the body itself, which is earthly, is turned toward a more excellent body, that is, the heavenly body.' And after some further remarks: 'So that when they have come to recognize the dignity of the soul, which surpasses even the heavenly body, they may seek Him more in the soul than in the body, even the heavenly body.'
their Author and Giver of all good things. For 'which works,' the Greek is energousan, that is, working, lively, efficacious — which is not idle and empty, but is always in action and always doing something that demonstrates its vital force and vigor. Hence Cicero, in Tusculan Disputations I, calls it a certain continuous and perpetual motion. For the soul is the fountain and origin of life and vital operation, which continually flows from life. For just as a spring that is always gushing never rests or stops, so also the soul never rests, but always nourishes the body, gives life to the limbs, animates the brain, and pours into each part of the body through the vital and animal spirits nourishment, life, sensation, and motion. The indicator of this is the pulse, which is in perpetual agitation and motion as long as a person lives; if it ceases, the person dies. Likewise the vital spirit, that is, the power of breathing, and the continuous respiration throughout one's entire life — when it ceases, the person is extinguished and dies. Therefore some have wrongly concluded from this passage that there are multiple souls in a human being — namely, two or three: a vegetative, a sensitive, and a rational soul. For there is but one rational soul in a human being, but it is threefold in power: for it alone performs all the functions that the vegetative soul performs in plants, and the sensitive soul in animals, and the rational soul (so to speak) in angels. It is this soul, therefore, that nourishes the person so he may grow; it is this soul that sees, hears, and feels; it is this soul that understands and reasons. The 'vital spirit' could also be understood as the soul itself, for it is called 'soul' (anima) insofar as it animates and vivifies the body; the same is called 'spirit,' both because it is itself spiritual and incorporeal, and because it grants to the person the power of breathing, and because it produces and supplies the vital and animal spirits to the head and to the entire body.
HIS HOPE IS CHEAPER THAN EARTH — that is, he hopes for worthless earthly things — namely, cheap profit, cheap gold and silver, for these are nothing other than white and red earth, says St. Bernard. The Greek reads: 'His hope is cheaper than earth, and his life more abject than clay,' because he has placed his hope in a clay idol, which is therefore cheaper than earth itself. For earth, as created by God, remains what it is; but the idol has that which it is not — for it is deemed a god, when it is not one at all. Whence the potter also lives more abjectly than the very earth or clay of the idol, because he subjects himself to the clay, as a servant to a master, and as a creature to its creator. Finally, the Syriac translates: 'Earth is his hope, and a habitation of clay is his reproach.' For the potter constantly handles clay, so that he seems to dwell in it as in his own house.
Tropologically, three primary vices are noted here: ashes, which are produced from fire, denote anger and pride; earth, which produces crops and wealth, denotes avarice; mud, which stains and spots, denotes gluttony and lust. For the idol of the avaricious is gold; of the proud, honor; of the gluttonous and lustful, wine and sensual pleasures. But all these are of clay — that is, cheap and fragile — and pass into earth and ashes together with the person himself, according to Job 30:19: 'I am compared to mud and made like ashes and cinders.' For the natural heat, like a fire, consumes the radical moisture of a person. Therefore man dies, and his body turns to ashes and earth. Whence in chapter 2, verse 3, he said: 'When that spark is extinguished, our body will be ashes,' like the embers remaining from a fire. See what was said there.
11. 11. BECAUSE HE DID NOT KNOW THE ONE WHO FASHIONED HIM, AND WHO INSPIRED IN HIM A SOUL THAT WORKS, AND WHO BREATHED INTO HIM A VITAL SPIRIT. — In Greek: 'Because he did not know the One who fashioned him, and who inspired in him a lively soul, who breathed in the vital spirit.' As if to say: The potter has his whole heart in the idol he fashions, because he is so mad that he does not know the true God, who fashioned him — indeed, created him from nothing — and who inspired a soul in him that is always doing something, and breathed the vital spirit into him. He gives the reason why he said that the heart of the potter is ashes, and therefore that he is cheaper than earth and more abject than clay — namely, because he subjects himself to clay as to his idol. For he does not know the true God, the Author of life —
12. 12. BUT THEY ALSO CONSIDERED OUR LIFE TO BE A GAME, AND THE COURSE OF LIFE ARRANGED FOR PROFIT, AND THAT ONE MUST ACQUIRE GAIN FROM EVERY SOURCE, EVEN FROM EVIL. — Vatablus renders: 'But these people consider our life to be a sport, and the course of life a profitable market, as those who say that gain must be sought from every source, even from evil.' The Syriac: 'And they considered the dwelling of their life to be a joke, and their dwelling to be a time of buying and selling of a merchant, and all his commerce is in evil.' The Arabic: 'And they considered our life to be a gain for clothing (or a gain of confusion), and because they say they are in need, hence they profit from evil.'
He assigns the root of the evil — namely, why potters fashion idols: because they consider that all the things done in this life are not serious matters on which salvation and the eternal happiness of man depend, but mere sport, with which people, like children with their dolls, play for the brief time they live. And therefore they fashion idols like dolls, to play with them as sportive gods, and to make fools of people, and to drain their wealth and purses — whether by right or by wrong — while they sell these fabrications and sportive idols at high prices to anyone. For 'game,' the Greek is paignion, that is, a toy, a plaything, a jest, and especially the amusements with which children play, such as little figurines —
and effigies, especially those which they themselves form from earth or clay. For from pais, that is, 'boy,' comes the word 'player'; and paignion, that is, a toy that a boy plays with; or certainly from pais comes paizo, that is, 'I play, I jest like a boy.' Some incorrectly read 'luxury' instead of 'play.' Whence Lyranus takes 'play' to mean luxury, namely carnal pleasure; Hugo takes 'play' to mean derision, by which the impious mock the pious; Dionysius says, as it were: Idolaters and the impious pursue the goods of this life, which are mere playthings, while neglecting the goods of the future life, which are true and solid. But the genuine meaning is what I gave at the beginning, to which add that this 'play' denotes atheism, as if to say: Idol-fashioners play with their idols and grow rich from them, because they think this life is nothing but play, and that no account will be demanded of it as a serious matter by God. For mere play is just play, and is not directed to any further end, says Aristotle in Ethics Book 10, chapter 6. So also these men think that this life is not directed toward a future one, but that when it ends, the soul perishes with the body. Therefore they feast, play, and fornicate without care, etc., as he said in chapter 2.
Hence St. Thomas, in Summa Theologiae II-II, Question 168, article 2, reply to objection 2, considers that those who are immoderate and excessive in play are rebuked here, as though they set up their highest good and happiness in it. He reproves them from the saying of Cicero in Book 1 of On Duties: 'We were not so created by nature as to appear made for sport and jest, but rather for seriousness, and for certain weightier and greater pursuits.' (Aristotle asserts the same, Ethics Book 10, chapter 6.) And from St. Chrysostom, Homily 6 on Matthew: 'God does not give us leave to play (with excessive or forbidden play), but the devil does. Hear what those who played suffered, Exodus 32:6: The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play' — when they worshipped the golden calf. Wherefore St. Thomas in the same place identifies the virtue of eutrapelia, whose function is to moderate jests and play, so that they are neither excessive nor too restrained. The result is that a person becomes neither too frivolous and sportive, nor too serious, stoic, and stern, but gravely festive and festively grave. He cites that passage of Cicero, Book 1 of On Duties: 'We may indeed use play and jest, but as we use sleep and rest — only after we have satisfied the demands of serious and weighty affairs,' according to that saying of Cato: 'Mingle joys with your cares from time to time, that you may be able to endure any labor of mind.'
I recall that in Belgium, some people, to alleviate the grief conceived from public calamities, established a society of play and jest, whose axiom and rule was: 'Be neither too jocular nor too grave; be neither too wise nor too foolish.'
Wisely does Clement of Alexandria say, Book 3 of the Pedagogue, chapter 11: 'He is not wise for whom play is taken for something serious.' Whence Jeremiah, chapter 15, verse 7: 'I did not sit,' he says, 'in the assembly of those who play.' And Tobit, chapter 3, verse 17: 'Never,' he says, 'did I mingle with those who play, nor with those who walk in frivolity did I make myself a par-'
ticipant.' The world plays with its lovers just as a harlot plays with her suitors, whom she deceives and despoils, just as a cat plays with a mouse. So Ishmael played with Isaac by persecuting him, and therefore was expelled from the house of his father Abraham by God's command, Genesis 21:10. Finally, Lusus was a companion of Bacchus, from whom Portugal (Lusitania) is said to have received its name, as Pliny asserts, Book 3, chapter 1: 'Varro says —'
'Lusus, companion of Father Liber, and Lysa reveling with him, gave their name to Lusitania, and Pan was its overall governor.' Now Lusus reigned among the Celtiberians at the time when Pharaoh was drowned in the Red Sea. So says Berosus, Book 5. See here the antiquity of Lusitania (Portugal), which received its name from King Lusus in the time of Moses and Pharaoh.
Symbolically, our life is a children's game, a comedy, a tragedy — but let each person see to it that he plays his part in it fittingly, and plays this game wisely, because on it depends everyone's salvation and perpetual happiness. For we cast the die over all eternity, and it is either most happy or most miserable — and this irrevocably. Hence Epictetus, Enchiridion 23, says: Our whole life is a mime, a stage, and a play. Augustus Caesar said the same on his deathbed, according to Suetonius. Plato compared our life, especially the free years of youth, to a game of dice, where one must both throw what is advantageous, and make good use of whatever falls. But casting this die is not in our power, but in God's, or fate's, or fortune's. If we are truly wise, however, it is in our power to suitably accept what fortune offers, and to arrange each thing in its proper place, where one's own advantages are best served, and where things that happen contrary to one's will cause the least offense. Otherwise, those who live without any skill or prudence, when prosperity blows, exalt their lot; when adversity strikes, they are cast down. And so they are disturbed in both fortunes and are never at peace — just as we see the sick unable to bear either heat or cold. Following Plato, Plutarch, in his book On Tranquility of Mind, compares human life to a game of dice: 'What falls by the throw is not in our power,' he says, 'but to arrange rightly what has fallen is in our power. So the outcome is not in our power —'
but to turn what happens to good is our duty. Synesius, Book 1 of On Providence, says: 'Just as in the theater, a tragic actor, whatever role the producer of the play assigns him, is expected to play it well — so God and fortune dress us in various kinds of life, as it were various roles in this grand play of the world. Nor is one condition in any way better or worse than another: each person plays it as he can. A good man, however, can conduct himself rightly in any place, whether he plays the part of a beggar or a king. Nor is it usual to quarrel about one's role — for in a tragedy it would be ridiculous to refuse this role or choose another. For even in the role of an old woman, if one plays it well, one earns garlands and applause. On the contrary, if in a royal role one conducts himself disgracefu-'
lly, he is booed and hissed off the stage — and sometimes even pelted with stones.'
St. Chrysostom, Homily 47 to the People, says: 'The present life is a game — indeed, something worse. But the future life is no sport. For how do we differ from children who play and build houses, when we raise our splendid mansions? How do we differ from those who feast, when we live in luxury? In no way — except that we do these things at our peril. If we do not yet perceive the truth of things, it is no wonder: for we have not yet become men. But when we have, we shall know that these things are childish — for we abandon them when we grow up. When we are children, we think these things are serious, and as we pile up potsherds and clay, we are no less anxious than those who raise great enclosures. But they immediately perish and collapse; and even if they stood, they would not be useful to us — just as these splendid houses are not. For they cannot admit a citizen of heaven.' He then adds that the heavenly beings laugh at these games of men on earth: 'Nor would one who possesses a heavenly homeland endure to remain in these things; but just as we destroy these things with our feet, so He overturns them by His judgment. And just as we laugh at children who weep when their things are overturned, so the heavenly beings not only laugh at us when we groan over these things, but also weep — because their hearts are full of mercy, and the loss is great. Let us therefore become men! How long shall we crawl on the ground, thinking lofty thoughts about stones and wood? How long shall we play — and would that we were only playing! But now we have even betrayed our own salvation. And just as little children, when they devote their efforts to these things and neglect their studies, endure many beatings — so also we, when we spend all our effort on these things, will, when we are examined in spiritual disciplines, then through our works not have what we should present, and we shall face the ultimate retribution, and no one will be there to rescue us, neither father nor brother.' He says the same things in Homily 24 on Matthew. The same author, Epistle 6: 'The present life is not unlike theatrical scenes. For just as there one fills the role of emperor, here of judge, and another of soldier — but when night falls, neither is the emperor recognized as emperor, nor does the one who was judge appear as judge, nor the former soldier as soldier — so each of us, on that day of the next age, will receive a standing suited not to roles but to deeds and actions.'
Play, O mortals, not the game of vices, but of virtues! The miser plays with his coins, as he heaps them up through usury, fraud, right and wrong. The ambitious man plays with his offices and honors, which he obtains by illicit arts. The glutton plays with his feasts; the lustful man with his women. But a sad catastrophe follows this game; a mournful lamentation follows this applause, when one goes from play to grief, from jests to the fires of hell. Nor does he remember the heavenly warning: 'Udo, Udo, cease your playing; you have played enough, Udo!' — not until, when the game of life is over, he is condemned after death along with Udo of Magdeburg to the underworld, and becomes a spectacle to the world and a laughingstock of demons. Is it so that for a cheap coin —
for a paltry honor, for the foul mask of a woman, the die of hell is cast, the blessed glory of heaven is squandered, and the immense and interminable eternity is gambled away? O shame, O stupor, O mindless mind, O senseless heart! How much more wisely, more healthily, more joyfully, and more happily do those play who play with humility, charity, patience, and the other duties of the virtues, so that they perform them gladly and sportively out of the sure hope of eternal happiness! How well did St. Paul play the game of his life, saying, 1 Corinthians 4:9: 'We have been made a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake,' etc. How well did St. Athanasius, St. Chrysostom, St. Anthony, St. Francis, and all the other saints play the same game! How well did they play their part in this comedy and play of life!
AND THE COURSE OF LIFE ARRANGED FOR PROFIT — in Greek, ton bion panegyrismon epikerdie, that is, life or the manner of living is a market prepared for profit, or a profitable trade fair. Whence the Syriac translates: 'the buying and selling of a merchant,' that is, commerce. Thus Pythagoras, as Cicero relates in Tusculan Disputations 5, said that the life of men resembles a market fair celebrated with games to which all of Greece would flock — some to buy, others to sell. The meaning is, as if to say: Idol-fashioners think of nothing but profit. They therefore make idols to sell them and thereby amass wealth. For they know no other spiritual riches, nor do they think of or believe in a future life. In a similar way, St. Gregory Nazianzen in his Tetrastichs said that this life is a spiritual market, in which anyone may purchase the wares of the virtues, by which he may live in the age to come. For when life ends in death, as when the market closes, it is no longer lawful for anyone to acquire anything more. But listen to Nazianzen: 'Believe me, this life is a market fair: if you know how to trade, you will carry away profit, exchanging passing things for lasting advantages. After that time, no other will be available.'
AND THAT ONE MUST ACQUIRE GAIN FROM EVERY SOURCE, EVEN FROM EVIL — in Greek, porizein, that is, 'to make profit,' as if to say: The idol-fashioner, wholly intent on profit, seeks it from evil — namely, from idols, which he fashions and sells at a higher price than either the material or —
the workmanship deserves. So the rude and greedy populace today, intent solely on profit, hunts for it from every source, even evil ones. For the avaricious set up their highest good in gain, and therefore propose profit to themselves as their god. The Emperor Vespasian, more attentive to money, extracted taxes and profit even from sordid things, such as urine. When some objected that this tax was sordid, he replied: 'Urine stinks, but gold does not stink — for from every source, the smell of profit is good and sweet.' More honorably and wisely Chilon, as cited by Laertius, Book 1, chapter 1, said: 'Gain acquired by crime is a loss, not a gain.'
13. 13. FOR THIS MAN KNOWS THAT HE SINS ABOVE ALL OTHERS, WHO FROM EARTHEN MATERIAL FASHIONS FRAGILE VESSELS AND CARVED IMAGES. — He proves what he said, that the idol-fashioner 'acquires gain from evil,' from the fact that the potter himself knows he cannot form and fashion gods from the clay out of which he fashions chamber pots and dishes. Therefore he sins above all other idolaters and idol-makers — namely, silversmiths, goldsmiths, and bronze-workers — because they often labor under ignorance, and fabricate idols from silver, gold, and bronze, into which the proud demon more readily insinuates himself. These can also serve other purposes — such as representing kings or men distinguished for virtue — or if they are broken, the gold, silver, and bronze can be distributed to the poor. But a clay idol is good for nothing except, when broken, to be crushed underfoot. Therefore, the cheapness and fragility of earth and clay convicts the potter of guilt regarding his own impiety, if he is unwilling to be utterly blind and insane. For the potter knows his gods are made of clay; he likewise knows the common saying: 'A potter's wealth is clay wealth.' He knows therefore that his riches consist in earthenware vessels, which accordingly are easily broken and perish. This very fact should warn him not to commit and fabricate so great a sacrilege of idolatry for so fragile a profit.
14. 14. FOR ALL ARE FOOLISH AND WRETCHED BEYOND MEASURE IN SOUL, PROUD, ENEMIES OF YOUR PEOPLE, AND RULING OVER THEM. — The Benedict Bibles incorrectly have 'entreating them.' The meaning is, as if to say: The idolatrous enemies of Your people — for example, the Egyptians, Ammonites, Philistines, etc. — are proud, foolish, and wretched 'beyond measure in soul,' that is, as the Greek has it, 'beyond every soul,' or 'above every soul,' meaning above every man — because other men, even though they may be idolaters, do not persecute God and the worshippers of the true God, namely the Israelites, as the Egyptians and Philistines do, who will therefore be most severely punished by God in this life or in the next. The Greek reads: 'beyond the souls of infants,' or as the Vatican manuscripts have it, 'of a senseless infant.' For nothing is more foolish than the soul of an infant, which although rational in capacity, cannot use reason due to the weakness of its organs. Rather, an infant is entirely senseless and, in act, irrational like a brute. Therefore 'all' cannot refer to 'soul,' since soul is feminine, but 'all' is pantes, which is masculine.
More properly and precisely, St. Bonaventure, Lyranus, and Dionysius say: The enemies of the Israelites are called proud 'beyond measure in soul,' that is, more than any person's soul can presume and exalt itself, according to Isaiah 16:6: 'His pride (that of Moab), and his arrogance, and his indignation are greater than his strength.' For this seems to be what 'beyond measure in soul' implies, even though in the Greek it reads 'beyond the souls of infants,' as if to say: Presuming beyond what they are able to conceive, as foolish and senseless children do. Again, Vatablus takes 'infants' to mean 'fools.' Hence he translates: 'More wretched than the souls of fools are all the enemies of Your people, who oppress him with power, because they regard all the images of the nations as gods.' For 'all,' the Greek is pantes de, that is, 'all indeed.' But these particles are often interchanged —
and de is taken for gar, that is, 'for,' and vice versa, as I showed above. For he responds to a tacit objection, as if to say: Do not, against me as I attack idols and idolaters, object that the enemies of Israel are wise and prosperous — and that this is through their idols and gods whom they worship and invoke — on the grounds that they now rule and reign over the people of God, namely the Israelites. I say therefore that they are more foolish and more wretched than all other nations, because they worship mute and stupid idols — not only their own, but also those of any nations whatsoever, however foul and base — and what could be more foolish or more wretched than this? For lest the Hebrews be infected by the idolatry of the Egyptians through proximity to them — especially since they saw them as lords ruling over them — the Wise Man rises up against them, and in the following chapter demonstrates their foolishness and wretchedness. For the same reason, Baruch, chapter 6, thunders against the idols of the Babylonians, to dissuade the Jews who were about to go into Babylonian captivity from worshipping them.
For 'ruling,' Lyranus, Hugo, and others incorrectly read 'reproaching.' For the Greek is katadynasteuontes auton, that is, 'oppressing him with power and force' — namely, the people of God. The prayer of Esther is relevant here, chapter 14, verses 7 ff.: 'And now it is not enough for them (the Persians, our enemies) that they oppress us with the harshest servitude, but attributing the strength of their hands to the power of idols, they wish to change Your promises, to open the mouths of the nations and praise the power of idols,' etc. Gorionides, narrating this, has Esther speak thus: Behold, they do not say that You (O God) delivered us into their hands, but they credit this very thing to their idols and worship them, saying: You delivered the Jews into our hands. From this passage it is clear that Solomon is not the author of this book. For in his time no nations ruled over Israel; rather, Israel through Solomon ruled over other nations, especially neighboring ones. Therefore this book seems to have been written in the time of the Seventy translators, when Ptolemy Lagus, father of Philadelphus, and the idolatrous Egyptians were ruling Judea, as I said in the Prooemium. Whence in the following chapter he continues to attack the Egyptians. For what Lyranus holds — that the author of the book is Philo the Jew, who lived after Christ under Emperor Gaius Caligula, who sent his statue throughout the whole world and also to Jerusalem to be worshipped by the Jews and other nations, and caused much trouble for the Jews who refused to do so, on which account Philo, sent to him by the Jews, was rebuffed — this, I say, seems hardly plausible. For who would believe that a Jewish man, Judaism now having been abrogated, unfaithful and perfidious, could be the author of a canonical, holy, and sacred book?
15. 15. BECAUSE THEY RECKONED ALL THE IDOLS OF THE NATIONS TO BE GODS, WHICH HAVE NO USE OF EYES FOR SEEING, NOR NOSTRILS FOR PERCEIVING BREATH, NOR EARS FOR HEARING, NOR FINGERS OF HANDS FOR TOUCHING, AND THEIR FEET ARE TOO SLUGGISH FOR WALKING.
In Greek, argoi, that is, idle, ineffective, unfit for walking. For 'use,' as the Greek and Roman editions have it, some incorrectly read 'sight,' although the meaning is the same. He alludes to Psalm 113:4 and Psalm 134:18. The words are clear in themselves and are evident from what has been said. St. Cyprian, Book 3 of Testimonies, chapter 59, reads 'fingers in hands' instead of 'fingers of hands.' The meaning is, as if to say: The Egyptians worshipped the gods of all nations — namely, idols, which have neither true fingers, nor true feet, nor true hands, but are like posts and logs. If their own makers were to become like them, they would cease to be human. Hence it is clear that the Egyptians, being very superstitious, worshipped not only their own gods but also those of other nations. The Romans did the same after them, so that they might have the gods of the nations on their side, and through them might subjugate all nations to themselves. St. Augustine wisely says in Book 1 of The City of God, chapter 2: 'Nor did Troy perish because it lost Minerva. For what had Minerva herself first lost, that she should perish? Was it perhaps her guardians? This is certainly true, for when they were slain, she could be carried off. For it was not men who were protected by the image, but the image by men. How then was she worshipped as one who would guard the fatherland and citizens, when she could not guard her own guardians?'
16. 16. FOR A MAN MADE THEM, AND HE WHO BORROWED HIS SPIRIT FASHIONED THEM (as if to say: The idol-maker made idols from clay, and the very same person, who received his spirit from God only on loan, to return and surrender it to Him at death, fashioned those clay gods. Therefore they are not true gods, but fabricated ones). FOR NO MAN CAN FASHION A GOD LIKE HIMSELF. — In Greek, plasai, that is, 'to form like a potter.' As if to say: No idol-maker can insert into his idol a spirit similar to the one he himself received from God. Therefore he cannot form a god similar to himself — that is, he cannot form an idol that has a soul similar to his own soul. In other words, he cannot make an animated and rational idol. As if to say: The craftsman and potter of the idol cannot bring it about that his god — namely, the idol — should be a living man similar to himself. Therefore, much less can he bring it about that the idol should be a god and a divinity. For if he cannot insert into it the soul which he has, much less can he breathe into it the divinity which he does not have. The Greek here varies and is corrupt, therefore one must follow the Vulgate, which renders the sense excellently.
17. 17. FOR BEING MORTAL, HE FASHIONS A DEAD THING WITH WICKED HANDS. FOR HE HIMSELF IS BETTER THAN THOSE HE WORSHIPS, BECAUSE HE AT LEAST LIVED, BEING MORTAL, BUT THEY NEVER DID. — As if to say: The idol-maker cannot fashion an idol or god similar to himself, namely a living one, because being mortal, he cannot fashion and give the idol an immortal soul (for the sole creator of this is the immortal God alone). Therefore he must necessarily fashion a lifeless idol, and one that is, as it were, dead — which is why he is wicked, and works sacrilege with wicked hands. 'For he himself is better than those he worships,' sebasmaton autou, that is, 'than his objects of worship' —
than his objects of worship — namely, his idols and gods, which he both fabricated and worships and reveres. For idols never had the soul and life that their maker has or had. But one who is animated and endowed with a soul is far better and more excellent than a lifeless thing. What therefore is more wicked and unjust, as well as more foolish, than for a craftsman to exalt above himself an effigy made by himself and lifeless — and therefore far inferior to himself who is alive — and to make it his god, and as such to supplicate, invoke, and adore it? Hence St. Cyprian, in the passage cited, more plainly reads 'better however' instead of 'better for.' Because, as I have already said, these particles 'for' and 'however' are interchanged. Our translator, however, more profoundly renders 'for,' because he gives the reason why he said the idol-maker makes a god with wicked hands: 'For the reason is that it is wicked for a living man to worship a dead thing far more worthless, weaker, and more powerless than himself, and for the craftsman to worship his own work, to which he himself gave being.'
18. 18. BUT THEY EVEN WORSHIP THE MOST WRETCHED ANIMALS: FOR SENSELESS CREATURES, COMPARED WITH THESE, ARE WORSE THAN THEM. — For 'most wretched,' the Greek is echthista, that is, 'most hostile, most hateful, most harmful' — such as serpents, cats, dogs, crocodiles, mice, and worms, which the Egyptians worshipped, yet which are supremely noxious and harmful to men, and therefore most wretched. For the most wretched animal is one that is rebellious and harmful to man, who is its master as well as its end, and whom therefore it ought to obey and serve — being an animal that plainly strays and deviates from its own end and purpose, for which it was created by God the Creator. Lyranus reads 'most wretched' (in the masculine, referring to the Egyptians) instead of 'most wretched' (in the neuter, referring to the animals), and although this is less exact, it is fitting: as if to say, the Egyptians worshipped the most wretched animals as gods, and therefore they themselves became most wretched. For everyone becomes like the god he worships.
FOR SENSELESS CREATURES, COMPARED WITH THESE, ARE WORSE THAN THEM. — Lyranus, reading 'most wretched' (masculine) for 'most wretched' (neuter) in what preceded, explains it thus: Senseless animals, compared with these — namely, with human beings — are worse than those same human beings. This gives the reason why he said that those who worship animals are most wretched: because senseless creatures are inferior to the men who worship them, since those men are endowed with sense and reason. Others explain it thus: Senseless things — namely, wooden and stone idols — compared with these, namely with animals, are worse than them. As if to say: A wooden idol is worse than a brute animal; if therefore a brute is not God, much less is a wooden idol God. But these are digressions, and dissonant from the Greek. For the Greek reads: Akia gar synkrinomena ton allon, esti cheirona — that is, 'for the mindless ones, compared with the others, are worse.' Whence some manuscripts of the Vulgate read 'others' instead of 'them.' Akia in Greek is properly a singular noun meaning dementia, madness, fury. But the author of this book, who occasionally coins new Greek words and uses them in novel senses (as we saw above), seems to take akia as an adjective in the neuter plural, so that it is the same as anoita, meaning 'mindless' or 'sense-'
less.' The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Whatever senseless or mindless animals, if compared with those which the Egyptians worship, we will find the latter worse than the former. That is, the animals worshipped by the Egyptians, when compared with others, must be reckoned as mindless even among rational creatures, and hence are worse than those others. For since all are devoid of reason, those other animals harmonize more with the human mind, because they are benign and useful to man. But the ones worshipped by the Egyptians are hostile to man, because they are venomous and most harmful to him, so that one marvels at what these people worship, having forgotten their own humanity. So say Cantacuzenus, Osorius, Emmanuel Sa, and Christopher Castro.
Again, if you take the Greek akia substantively and properly, with the accent shifted from the antepenultimate to the penultimate syllable, in the dative case, which in Greek serves for the Latin ablative, so that akia means 'with madness, through madness, on account of madness, madly, foolishly and senselessly,' as some read in the Vulgate 'senselessly' instead of 'senseless,' then the meaning will be as follows: These most harmful animals which the Egyptians worship, by reason of this madness — that is, because of the madness by which the captivated Egyptians render worship to them — when compared with other animals, are worse than those others. For the other animals please God, since they serve human uses for which they were created; but these are accursed, since they have been adapted to the undeserved use of usurped divinity. Hence Vatablus translates: 'because, compared with others, they are worse on account of this madness' — namely, of the Egyptians, who worship such worthless and destructive animals as gods in preference to other salutary animals, and thereby render them more objectionable and hateful before God, as if they were rivals of the divinity. For it was madness to compare crocodiles and serpents with horses, oxen, and other animals, and to choose them as gods precisely because they are worse and more hostile to man. For this is a demented and insane comparison and choice. Whence some read 'senselessly,' that is, 'insanely compared,' as I said. Cantacuzenus adds that the Egyptians worshipped as gods flies and worms born from putrid matter, and therefore, as it were, errors and faults of nature, which accordingly God did not create at the beginning of the world along with the other animals, nor did He call them good, nor bless them saying: 'Increase and multiply.' For these are entirely senseless animals, and worse than all others. But what should be thought about their generation or creation, I discussed in Genesis 1.
BUT NOR CAN ANYONE LOOKING UPON THESE ANIMALS SEE ANYTHING GOOD IN THEM. THEY HAVE FLED FROM THE PRAISE OF GOD AND FROM HIS BLESSING. — For 'see,' the codex of Monte Amiata reads 'desire'; for 'anyone,' some manuscripts read 'anything,' as if to say: the animals — as good things — can be seen. 'As good things,' that is, as beautiful — for this is the Hebrew tob and the Greek kalon. As if to say: No one among the Egyptians who worship crocodiles and serpents takes delight in the sight of them; rather, one shudders and abomi-
nates them as ugly, deformed, and horrible. Who therefore would believe that they are gods, who are most beautiful and most delightful? Or, what comes to the same thing: But not even if someone should look at any of these animals could he see them as good or beautiful. For one finds them endowed with no beauty, on account of which they should be loved and worshipped; but rather one sees them as foul and hideous, and therefore to be shunned and rejected. The Greek reads: 'Nor even so far as to be desired, as good things in the sight of animals' — that is, crocodiles and serpents, among the other good, beautiful, and fair animals, are not good, desirable, or delightful to look at. Therefore, much less are they good for worship, to be worshipped as gods. Cantacuzenus puts it differently: God at the beginning of the world did not create the flies and worms which the Egyptians worship. Hence, when God saw that everything He had created was good (Genesis 1), He did not see or count among these good things flies and worms. Vatablus adds from the Greek that the animals which the Egyptians worshipped — namely, crocodiles — are avoided and dreaded by the other animals as foul and frightful. As if to say: Therefore, much more should they not be worshipped by men, but avoided and shunned with horror, lest men appear more stupid than animals. For thus Vatablus translates: 'And which do not even appear beautiful to animals, so as to be touched by desire for them.'
THEY HAVE FLED FROM THE PRAISE OF GOD AND FROM HIS BLESSING. — 'They have fled' refers not to the Egyptian idolaters, but to the animals — such as crocodiles and serpents — worshipped by them as gods. For in the Greek it is ekpepheyge, that is, 'it has fled,' in the singular, which by Greek syntax elegantly agrees with the neuter plural zoa, that is, 'animals.' As if to say: The animals which the Egyptians worship are alien from the praise and blessing of God. For they worship serpents; and God long ago cursed the serpent because it had seduced Eve, saying, Genesis 3: 'Because you have done this, you are cursed upon the earth.' The meaning is, first: The Egyptians worship as gods serpents that are not only deadly and hideous, but also cursed by God. What good, then, can they hope from them? For serpents are hateful to God, to men, and to all animals, and therefore they flee the light and shun the sight of men and animals, as well as of God, and hide themselves in darkness and hiding places. This is what 'they have fled' denotes. So say Osorius, Jansenius, Sa, and others. Again, 'they have fled the praise of God,' because they are compelled by the idolaters who worship them to deny in a certain way to God the praise and blessing that all created things render to their Creator. Second, our author Lorinus says more significantly: The animals worshipped by the Egyptians 'have fled,' that is, have driven away from themselves, the praise and blessing of God, since they themselves usurped for themselves the praise due to God, when it was conferred upon them by those who 'exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image, not only of corruptible man, but also of birds, and four-footed animals, and serpents,' Romans 1:23.