Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Here begins the third part of the book. For (as I said at its beginning) in the first part, namely the first chapter, he delivered praises of wisdom. In the second part, namely from the second chapter up to this point, he delivered precepts of wisdom. Now in this third part, up to the end of the book, he gives examples of wisdom. For moral philosophers are accustomed to illustrate and commend their precepts by examples.
In this chapter, therefore, first he praises the Patriarchs and wise men in general up to verse 16. Then he specifically extols Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Hence the Greek codices corrected at Rome prefix to this chapter the title, Hymn of the Fathers; and the Zurich Bible, Praises of the Ancestors. In a similar way the Sage in the Book of Wisdom first sets forth praises of wisdom, then in chapter 10, subjoins examples of the same, praising Adam, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the Hebrews, etc. And the Apostle, in Hebrews XI, after the praises of faith, celebrates the champions of faith: Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, etc.
Vulgate Text: Ecclesiasticus 44:1-27
1. Let us praise glorious men, and our parents in their generation. 2. The Lord has made much glory by His magnificence from of old. 3. Ruling in their powers, men great in virtue, and endowed with their own prudence, announcing in the prophets the dignity of the prophets, 4. and commanding the present people, and by the power of prudence, most holy words to the peoples. 5. In their skill seeking out musical modes, and narrating the songs of the scriptures. 6. Men rich in virtue, having a zeal for beauty: making peace in their homes. 7. All these obtained glory in the generations of their nation, and in their days they are held in praises. 8. Those who were born of them left behind a name for narrating their praises: 9. and there are those of whom there is no memory: they perished as though they had not existed: and they were born as though not born, and their children with them. 10. But those men are men of mercy, whose acts of piety did not fail: 11. with their seed good things remain, 12. a holy inheritance their grandchildren, and in the covenants their seed stood firm: 13. and their children on account of them remain forever: their seed and their glory shall not be abandoned. 14. Their bodies were buried in peace, and their name lives from generation to generation. 15. Let the peoples tell of their wisdom, and let the church announce their praise. 16. Enoch pleased God, and was translated into paradise, that he might give repentance to the nations. 17. Noah was found perfect, just, and in the time of wrath he became the reconciliation. 18. Therefore a remnant was left to the earth, when the flood came. 19. The covenants of the world were established with him, so that all flesh might not be destroyed by a flood. 20. Abraham, the great father of the multitude of nations, and none was found like him in glory: who kept the law of the Most High, and was in covenant with Him. 21. In his flesh He made the covenant stand, and in trial he was found faithful. 22. Therefore by an oath He gave him glory in his nation, to increase him like a heap of earth, 23. and to exalt his seed like the stars, and to give them an inheritance from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. 24. And in Isaac He did likewise, on account of Abraham his father. 25. The Lord gave him the blessing of all nations, and confirmed the covenant upon the head of Jacob. 26. He acknowledged him in His blessings, and gave him an inheritance, and divided his portion among the twelve tribes. 27. And He preserved for him men of mercy, finding grace in the eyes of all flesh.
First Part of the Chapter
1. LET US PRAISE GLORIOUS MEN, AND OUR PARENTS IN THEIR GENERATION. - Origen says admirably, in book I on Job: 'Just as the luminaries of heaven and the stars shine unceasingly upon all things that are under heaven, etc.: so also the distinguished marks of the Saints' virtue, and their most blessed contests, shine upon all men singularly forever, give to all for eternity the form of good things, and show to all under the sun an example of piety. For the Apostle says: Star differs from star in brightness, etc. But also the angel said to Daniel: Then the just shall shine like the luminaries of heaven, and like the sun and moon, and like the stars forever. Thus therefore they shine forth and sparkle. One shines in faith, like Abraham; another in chastity, like Joseph,' etc. For this reason, therefore, God through Sirach sets before us these examples of the fathers, living models of the holy life, namely, as St. Basil says in epistle 1 to Gregory of Nazianzus: 'The lives of blessed men, handed down in writing, have been set forth like certain living images of the divine commonwealth, for the imitation of good works.' And a little later: 'Just as painters, when they paint an image from an image, frequently looking at the exemplar, strive to transfer the features from it to their own work: so it is fitting that he who strives to make himself perfect in all parts of virtue should fix his eyes upon the lives of holy men, as upon statues that are mobile and active, and make their good deeds his own through imitation.' More concisely Ennodius, in the Life of St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Pavia: 'He was painting by his deeds the page he had read. What books had taught, his life displayed.'
Hence Philo, in his book On Abraham: 'The same lives of the fathers,' he says, 'are laws also for their descendants.' And St. Isidore of Seville, II Sentences, chapter XI: 'If the divine precepts by which we are admonished were lacking as an incitement to good, the examples of the Saints would suffice as a law for us. For the conversion or correction of mortals, the examples of good men are greatly beneficial: for the habits of beginners cannot advance toward living well unless they are formed by the examples of perfect fathers.' And after some further remarks: 'For this reason, the falls and restorations of the Saints are recorded, so as to give hope for human salvation, etc. The examples of the Saints, by which a person is edified, cause one to pursue various virtues: humility from Christ, devotion from Peter, charity from John, obedience from Abraham, patience from Isaac, endurance from Jacob, chastity from Joseph, meekness from Moses, constancy from Joshua, kindness from Samuel, mercy from David, abstinence from Daniel.' And St. Basil, on Gordius the Martyr: 'The history of men,' he says, 'who have conducted themselves well in the state, shines forth like a certain light, for those who are being saved, on the path of life.' And again: 'An exhortation to temperance is the life of Joseph; an invitation to fortitude is the history of Samson,' etc.
This is the conclusion of the book, in which he passes from the praise of God's works to the praise of God's heroes; because these stand out and excel among His works. For these are like living heavens and suns, who by heart, mouth, and deed declare the glory of God. Therefore Sirach sets them forth and reviews them here, and celebrates their heroic deeds done for God's law and virtue: so that he may give examples of the teachings about virtues he has handed down up to this point, by which he may show that they are possible to practice, become easy by use, and are glorious in their fruit; so that he may thus incite and spur all to imitate them. Hence the Syriac translates: And I will praise gracious men, our fathers, who lived in their generations.
Note: He does not celebrate just anyone, but first, 'men,' those namely who are of a manly and lofty spirit, who show themselves men in virtue, who undertake and overcome difficult things. For women, and effeminate men, who are of a soft spirit, do not rise to great virtue. Under 'men' understand heroic women, such as Sarah, Rebecca, Hannah the mother of Samuel, Susanna, the mother of the Maccabees; and in the New Testament St. Helena, St. Pulcheria, St. Agnes, St. Cecilia, St. Lucy, St. Agatha, and innumerable others, whose leader and chief was the Blessed Virgin, as she was most full of all virtue and grace above all men and Angels, so she is superior to all our praise. For these women, though they were female in sex, showed themselves heroic women in virtue, and surpassed men by their manliness; and therefore they merited greater praises and eternal crowns in heaven above them.
Second, he celebrates men, not just any men, nor those of ordinary virtue and fame; but 'glorious' men, who namely performed heroic and glorious deeds of faith, hope, charity, patience, fortitude, etc., through which they obtained glory before God, men, and angels that will never perish. Sirach speaks of the glory of virtues properly, not of miracles; although some of the heroes he celebrates were also illustrious for miracles, such as Moses, Joshua, Isaiah, etc.; for of many we read of no miracle. For what miracle did Adam, Shem, Seth — whom he praises in chapter XLIX, 19 — or Nehemiah and Jesus the son of Josedech and Zerubbabel — in the same place, verse 13 — or Simon son of Onias, whom he praises throughout chapter L, perform? So in the first centuries after Christ, very many holy Martyrs and confessors were canonized on account of the glory of their virtues, not of their miracles. For virtue makes a person holy, and if it is heroic, glorious — not miracles; since these can sometimes be performed by the impious as testimony to truth and faith, as is evident from Matthew VII, 22. Now, however, the Church requires them in canonization for just reasons.
Third, he celebrates the 'parents' of his nation, that is, the patriarchs, princes, and prophets of the Hebrews: for the patriarchs were parents of later Jews both by natural generation and by the example of their distinguished virtue; the princes by wisely governing the people and fighting against the unfaithful; the prophets by teaching, preaching, performing great and wondrous deeds — whether political or mystical, they were parents of Israel: for it is the duty of children, out of filial love, gratitude, piety, and reverence toward their parents, to celebrate their illustrious deeds (for the honor of parents is the honor of children), and to inflame themselves, their fellow tribesmen, and all others to imitate them. For a great spur to virtue is the domestic mirror of fathers and grandfathers, continually striking the eyes and mind.
Fourth, 'in their generation,' that is, each of whom lived and shone in his own age. For some lived in the first age before the flood, and illuminated it with their worth, as Enoch; others in the age of the flood, as Noah; others in the first age after the flood, as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; others in the second, as Moses, Joshua, Caleb; others in the third, as David, Hezekiah, Josiah, etc. For each one was, as it were, the light and torch of his age. In Greek it is te genesei, that is, in generation, which coheres with 'parents,' as if to say: Let us praise our parents, who are our parents by generation, that is, who begot us either by natural propagation of nature, or by the moral propagation of virtue. Hence the Zurich Bible: Let us praise illustrious men, our ancestors from whom we are descended: others: Let us now praise famous men, our fathers by birth.
Now Sirach praises illustrious fathers for many reasons: first, because the praise of the fathers is the praise of God, who raised them to such heights, as he will say in verse 2. Second, because the praise of the fathers is the praise of their children and of the whole nation; for Sirach wished to celebrate his people and his Hebrews among the Egyptians, among whom he lived, and among the other nations, to whom the Hebrews were otherwise hateful and contemptible for many reasons. Third, because the virtue of the fathers deserved this public praise: for the proper reward of virtue is the tribute of praise; especially because many of them fled all the human praise they deserved, and voluntarily renounced it, and trampled upon all the glory of the world: which flight from honor and trampling of glory merited this honor and glory. For honor, like a shadow, follows those who flee it, but flees those who pursue and seek it. God therefore willed that they be celebrated here, because they themselves, while they lived, fled the celebrity of their name, devoted themselves to humility, chose to remain hidden; indeed many tried to accomplish this very thing not only in life, but also after death. St. Ephrem in his testament, under a grave prohibition, forbade that he be praised with a funeral oration after death: 'Sing no hymns for Ephrem,' he said, 'and apply no praise; do not bury me with a precious garment, nor set up a private tomb for my body: for it was agreed between me and God that I should dwell among strangers. For I am a stranger and a pilgrim, like all my fathers.'
The same thing was forbidden by Paschasius Radbertus, Abbot of Corbie, who wrote On the Truth of the Body of Christ in the Eucharist, and who died in the year of the Lord 851; for thus says the author of his life, which is prefixed to his works: 'Nothing was more distinguished than the supreme modesty and humility of his soul, by which he thought very little of himself, though he was held in the highest regard by all. And so he used to call himself the refuse of all the monks and the least of the Levites: content with the rank of deacon, he never aspired to the honor of the priesthood. In order to attest to this self-contempt even after death by a singular example, it is reported that, having summoned his disciples near the end of his life, he commanded that no one should commit anything about his life to writing.'
Marcian the Anchorite, when he heard that many desired his body after death, bound his disciple Eusebius by oath to commit it secretly to the earth, as Theodoret narrates in the History of the Holy Fathers, chapter III.
Likewise St. Anthony, when dying, compelled his followers to bury his body in secret, lest anyone pay him honor. The witness is St. Athanasius, in his Life.
It is well known from St. Jerome how much St. Hilarion fled all honors and praises. So great was the contempt of praise and glory among the Saints of the world; so great the love of silence and humility, that they lived unknown and died unknown.
Fourth, because virtue grows when praised. Again, for pursuing virtue, examples are more effective and more moving than precepts and exhortations.
Wherefore St. Basil, in his Ascetical works, wisely admonishes that one zealous for virtue should contemplate and reproduce the examples of the ancients. For he says thus: 'Just as painters, when they paint an image from an image, repeatedly looking at the exemplar, strive with great zeal to transfer its features to their own work: so he who aspires to render himself complete in every element of virtue must look upon the lives of the Saints as upon certain living and active statues, and make their proven deeds his own through imitation.' Gregory of Nyssa, in his Encomium of St. Basil: 'More powerful than a speech,' he says, 'will be that praise which is rendered and represented through works. But what does this mean? That through the memory of him our life may become better than it usually is. For just as no one expresses the beauty of an engraving on a seal by praising it with words: so more effective is the praise of a master that is represented through life than through speech. So therefore, brothers, let us also, imitating the sober man by our sobriety, praise virtue by our deeds according to its dignity; and likewise in all other things, let the wonder of wisdom be represented by participation in wisdom: let the praise of poverty consist in our also being free from superfluous material possessions: let contempt of this world not merely be spoken of as a praiseworthy and glorious thing; but let our life be a witness of contempt and disdain for those things which are approved and sought through the world. Do not merely say that he was dedicated and devoted to God; but you too dedicate and devote yourself to God: nor that he alone had as his good and possession the rest that is hoped for; but you too gather for yourself these riches as he did: for although he transferred his way of life from earth to heaven, you do the same. In the sacrosanct treasuries of heaven, safe from the injury of thieves, he deposited his riches; imitate through this also your master. For the disciple will be perfect, like his master.'
So also Climacus, at step 26, instructs that from among the many we should set before ourselves the best as examples.
By the example of Zeuxis, who when about to paint Juno, after inspecting all the virgins of Agrigentum, chose five outstanding ones, from whom he would imitate what was most excellent in each. Because St. Paul also says, Hebrews XIII, 7: 'Remember your leaders, and contemplating the outcome of their way of life, imitate their faith.' And: 'Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ,' I Corinthians XI, 1. Hence the same mirror of the Saints' examples, as a norm and rule, is highly commended by St. Augustine, on Psalm LXXXVII, St. Jerome, epistle 102; Cassian, Conference II, chapter IV; St. Gregory, XXIV Moralia, chapter VI, and book XXXIII, chapter XXXVII; St. Ambrose, II On Duties, XX; St. Chrysostom, On Compunction of Heart; St. Ephrem, tome II, epistle to John the monk; St. Bernard, sermon On the Heights and Depths of the Heart, and sermon 54 on the Song of Songs. 'For the spirits of the children are armed when the triumphs of the fathers are recounted,' says St. Eucherius.
Moreover, truer and more excellent fathers are those who beget by the spirit than those who beget by the flesh, namely those who form others to virtue and holiness by words and examples, and make them sons and heirs of God, who is the supreme Father. Hence St. Augustine, at the Third Conference of Carthage, 242: 'As a mark of honor,' he says, 'we call those "fathers" who have preceded us either in time or in merits.' Hence the same were called Popes, concerning the etymology of which word Remigius of Auxerre writes thus, On the Celebration of the Mass: 'Pope,' he says, 'according to some means admirable or crowned; but, what is better, father of fathers, that is, of Bishops.' And many authors allude to this. In earlier times, moreover, not only Bishops, but all clergy distinguished for virtue were called Popes. Hence Walafrid Strabo, On Ecclesiastical Matters, chapter VII: 'Pope,' he says, 'passed into a title of dignity, so that venerable clergy were called by the same name.' Therefore Co-bishops were called Protopopes, as Balsamon attests, Canon of the Apostles 59. Then only Bishops were called Popes. Thus in the Council of Ephesus, Canon I, Cyril is called Pope of Alexandria. St. Jerome, in his epistle to St. Augustine, calls him Pope. Sidonius Apollinaris, book VI, epistles 1 and following, calls Lupus, Leontius, Theoplastus, and other Bishops, Popes. Baronius adds, in the Martyrology, in the Addition to January 10, that Bishops were called Popes up to the year of the Lord 850. From that time on, however, the name Pope adhered to the Roman Pontiff alone, which was subsequently confirmed by the decree of Pope Gregory VII, at the Roman Synod in the year of the Lord 1073, in which he established against the schismatics that the name of Pope should be unique in the Christian world, and that it should not be permitted for anyone to call himself or another by that name. In the same place Baronius teaches that Pope is not the same as Father of fathers: for although Festus attests that 'Pa' is placed for 'pater' in the Salian hymn; nevertheless the ancients distinguish Pope from father of fathers, as when the Synod of Epirus, in its epistle to Pope Hormisdas, writes thus: 'The Synod of old Epirus, etc. To our Lord through
to our most holy and most blessed Father of Fathers, fellow minister and chief of Bishops, Pope Hormisdas.' The genuine interpretation of the name Pope, therefore, is that it descends from the Greek word pappas, that is, father: although others derive it from pappos, that is, grandfather. So says Baronius. Eustathius agrees, who says that in the Roman language Pope means father. Finally, some learned men skilled in languages believe that both the Greek pappas and the Latin Papa are derived from the Chaldean Abba (which descends from the Hebrew Ab), that is, father. Thus Peter Gregory, in the Synthesis of Universal Law, part II, book XV, chapter III, On Abbots, number 1: 'Abba,' he says, 'is the same as Pope universally.' And Spiegelius, in his Lexicon, under the word Abbas, says that among the Greeks an Abbot was called a Pope, just as the Muscovites pronounce it as popas. Therefore the ancient parents whom Sirach here celebrates were the first Abbots, pappai, Popes and fathers of fathers.
2. THE LORD HAS MADE MUCH GLORY (in Greek ektise, that is, created, founded) BY HIS MAGNIFICENCE FROM OF OLD. - That is, through His magnificence, that is, His magnificent power, wisdom, goodness, and operation, which He has had 'from of old,' that is, from the beginning of the world and of time, indeed of eternity. The Complutensian adds en autois, that is, in them, namely in the glorious men. For thus they read: The Lord created much glory in them by His magnificence from of old; the Roman edition: His magnificence from of old, as if to say: When God created such great glory in the Saints, by this very fact He showed and displayed His magnificence, which He had from of old, that is, from eternity. For the glory of the Saints is the work of God's magnificence, and therefore is itself the glorious magnificence of God; for this is nothing other than the magnificent glory of God; the Syriac: Much glory has been adjudged to them, and all their majesty surpasses the generations of the ages.
Note: The word 'glory' refers back to 'glorious' in verse 1, as if to say: Our fathers were glorious men because of the great glory which God bestowed upon them. Great, I say. For first, this glory made those men glorious and famous; second, this glory made their age glorious; for God gave them to the world like torches, indeed like suns, so that each might illuminate it in his own era: for example, He gave Enoch, so that he might illuminate like a sun the age of the law of nature; He gave Noah, so that he might illuminate like a sun the age of the flood; He gave Abraham, so that he might illuminate like a sun the first age after the flood, and so on with the others: for God in His magnificence gave to each age successively these heroes like stars, indeed like suns, to dispel the darkness of its ignorance and vices with their light; third, God created this glory for Himself; for when He bestowed such great glory on the Saints, by this very fact He glorified Himself before men, and showed and celebrated His own glory. Hence the Zurich Bible translates: The Lord through these men gained much glory for Himself, and this by His magnificence from the founding of the world. For the glory of the Saints and heroes is the glory of God who sanctifies and exalts them: just as the glory of the work is the glory of the craftsman, and the glory of the image is the glory of the original.
Therefore magnificence was the reason why God made the fathers so glorious; because God, being most magnificent, wished through it to show the whole world His munificence and magnificence.
This threefold glory was the threefold reason that moved the Apostle, in imitation of Sirach, after his praises of faith, to celebrate so greatly so many and such great heroes of faith, in Hebrews XI. Again, this threefold glory was the threefold reason that moved the Church, following Sirach and St. Paul, to celebrate illustrious Saints; for thus from ancient times the Latin Church in the Martyrology, and the Greek Church in the Menology, celebrates the heroic contests of Martyrs and Saints, and proposes them to posterity for imitation. And this was the first canonization of Martyrs and Saints, which was then followed by that particular and solemn one which is customarily performed by the Pontiffs. The first, however, whom we read was solemnly canonized by a Pontiff was St. Suitbert, Bishop of Werden, who was canonized under Charlemagne by Leo III, in the year of the Lord 803. So say Baronius, Bellarmine, and others. The second was St. Ulrich, Bishop of Augsburg, who was canonized in the year of the Lord 993, by Pope John XV, as is evident from his Bull of canonization.
Now in the canonization of each Saint, the Pontiff does two things: first, he enrolls him in the catalogue of Saints, and proposes and decrees that he be venerated as such by the Church; second, he prescribes that his feast, on the day he died and passed to heaven, be celebrated by the whole Church. In some cases he also commands that an office be performed on the same day. Thus in the canonization of St. Bonaventure, which took place in the year of the Lord 1480, Pope Sixtus IV says: 'We solemnly aggregate him to the company of the Holy Confessors, Pontiffs, and Doctors; commanding Patriarchs, Archbishops, etc., to celebrate his feast on the second Sunday of the month of July every year solemnly and devoutly, performing the divine office as for one Confessor, Pontiff, and Doctor, both publicly and privately, as occasion may arise. And to the Franciscans we grant the faculty of celebrating such an office under a double feast with an octave.' Thus in the canonization of St. Bernardine in the year 1450, Pope Nicholas V says: 'We canonize him, commanding that the feast be celebrated among the holy Confessors who are not Pontiffs.' The first of all to whom an office was granted was St. Bridget; for Boniface IX, in her canonization, which took place in the year of the Lord 1391, says thus: 'Decreeing that by the universal Church every year on the day of her death, her feast and office be devoutly and solemnly celebrated, as for one holy woman who is neither Virgin nor Martyr.' In a similar manner then Pius II, in the canonization of St. Benno, decreed that by the universal Church every year his feast and office, as for one Confessor Pontiff, be solemnly celebrated on June 16. Thus Clement VII, canonizing St. Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence, prescribes his feast, and decrees the divine office to be celebrated as for one Confessor Pontiff: and for the Dominican Fathers under the double rite. Sixtus V, in the canonization of St. Didacus: 'Decreeing,' he says, 'that by the universal Church every year on November 12 his feast and office be devoutly celebrated as for one holy Confessor.' The same office for St. Raymond and St. Hyacinth is prescribed by Clement VIII, and for St. Charles Borromeo and St. Frances of Rome by Paul V, in their canonizations.
Nor is this custom of honoring the recently canonized with a feast and office a new one, but very ancient, from the very beginnings of the Church. For the Apostles decreed that the feast of St. Stephen the Protomartyr and of the other Martyrs be celebrated, as St. Clement attests, book VIII of the Constitutions, chapter XXXIII. Thus St. Cyprian, epistle 37: 'Note down the days on which they (the Martyrs) depart,' he says, 'so that we may celebrate their commemorations among the memorials of the Martyrs.' Thus St. Augustine, book XX Against Faustus, chapter XXI: 'The Christian people,' he says, 'celebrates together the memorials of the Martyrs with religious solemnity — both to arouse imitation, and to be united with their merits and aided by their prayers.' St. Gregory, to Eulogius, epistle 29, book VII: 'We have,' he says, 'the names of almost all the Martyrs, with their passions distinguished by individual days, collected in one volume, and on daily basis we celebrate the solemnities of the Mass in their veneration.' Hence it is clear that the ancients celebrated the feasts of the Martyrs every year on the day of their martyrdom, by celebrating Mass, and in it commemorating and invoking their names; and from this it came about that in the Canon of the Mass we read only the names of Martyrs placed there, and we commemorate them daily when we say: 'Commemorating and venerating the memory above all,' etc. In earlier times, however, the names of Virgins and Confessors who were not Martyrs were also recited, as St. Augustine attests, book On Holy Virgins, chapter XLV: 'Ecclesiastical authority,' he says, 'in which it is known to the faithful in what place Martyrs and in what place deceased holy women are recited, bears witness to this.' Wherefore on the day before the birthday feast of each one, names were announced in the Church (as is done today in the Martyrology) whose birthdays were to be reviewed on the following day, and whose commemoration was to be made together with the sacrifice. These ecclesiastical registers Tertullian, in his book On the Crown of the Soldier, calls 'fasti.' Moreover, they celebrated these Masses on altars erected over the bodies and tombs of the Martyrs in their honor, and from this they called the churches 'Martyria,' as if tombs and monuments of the Martyrs. Baronius demonstrates all these things more fully, in the Preface to the Roman Martyrology, chapter IV.
The Greeks did the same from ancient times, commemorating their Saints in the Diptychs and Menologies.
Moreover, Sirach here, just as the Apostle in Hebrews XI, does not properly intend to weave a catalogue of Saints and the elect, but only of illustrious men. For although most of them were holy and elect, about some the matter is doubtful or uncertain, as about Solomon, Zerubbabel, Jesus the son of Josedech, Nehemiah, and the Judges of Israel.
3. RULING IN THEIR POWERS, MEN GREAT IN VIRTUE, AND ENDOWED WITH THEIR OWN PRUDENCE, ANNOUNCING IN THE PROPHETS THE DIGNITY OF THE PROPHETS. - Rabanus omits the phrase 'in the Prophets,' or as the Greek has it, 'in the Prophecies.' Hence he reads thus: Announcing the dignity of the Prophets. These participles — ruling, announcing, commanding, etc. — cannot be referred to 'let us praise' in verse 1; for then they would need to be in the accusative case; but they are in the nominative, as is clear from the Greek kyrieuontes, bouleuontes, apagelkontes; therefore in the Hebrew manner these participles should be taken as past tenses, as if to say: They ruled, they announced, they commanded. Hence the Zurich Bible translates: Who ruled in their kingdoms, men celebrated for power; who prevailed by the counsel of their genius, who revealed the oracles of the fates; others translate more literally: Who ruled in their kingdoms, and were men celebrated for power, deliberating with their understanding, announcing prophecies. I noted similar Hebraisms at II Corinthians X, 15; Romans XII, 12.
He gives the reason why the fathers should be praised, and assigns the various matter and objects of praise. The first is: 'Ruling in their powers,' in Greek, en tais basileiais auton, that is, in their kingdoms. Which our translator rendered as 'in their powers'; for to each king belongs the right and power of ruling and governing his kingdom, and to each prince his principality, according to the laws and rights of each kingdom and principality: hence some read, 'in their powers.' For most of the fathers whom Sirach is about to praise were Patriarchs, judges, princes, and kings of Israel: for to the Patriarchs belonged the right of a prince and king over their families, which were very large, as I showed at Genesis XXXVIII, 24. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Let us praise our glorious fathers; because they were distinguished kings and princes, who ruled in Israel with great authority, right, and command, and governed it according to the laws and rights sanctioned by God, especially to keep it in faith, worship, and obedience to the true God, and to protect it from unbelievers. Moreover, among temporal goods, none is more glorious than a kingdom and royal dignity.
Tropologically, Rabanus says: He is a great king who rules himself, who masters his own spirit, especially anger and concupiscence. For even the ancient kings, he says, 'were abundant in resources; but they governed themselves with a greater power when they restrained themselves from illicit desires.'
The second is: 'Men great in virtue;' in Greek it is, andres onomastoi en dynamei, that is, men named, famous, and celebrated for power and strength; both because they were powerful in their kingdom — for they had a large, rich, and powerful kingdom, as David, Solomon, and their successors had; and because they had powerful and victorious armies, with which they defeated neighboring kings and subjected them to themselves; and because they excelled in great strength of spirit, greatness, and generosity for bravely daring great things and steadfastly accomplishing them; for the Hebrews call these anse chail, that is, men of virtue, that is, vigorous, brave, courageous; such as were Joshua, David, Judas Maccabeus, etc., most famous for military valor; and finally because, endowed with great faith in God, they performed astonishing miracles and prodigies. Hence the Syriac translates: They showed signs in their prophecy.
Morally learn here that virtue consists in the vigor and strength of spirit to overcome any difficult thing; hence 'virtue' is derived from 'man' (vir), and properly signifies fortitude, because fortitude is especially a man's quality, says Cicero, Tusculan Disputations I. Wherefore virtue is variously defined or described by various authors: 'Virtue,' says Cicero, Tusculan Disputations II, 'is the strong and unconquered patience of enduring evils.' The same author, book V of On the Ends: 'Virtue is that force by which the thing whose virtue it is, is made perfect.' The same, book II of On Invention: 'Virtue is a habit of the soul, consonant with nature, moderation, and reason.' The same, to Plancus, book X, epistle 3: 'You have achieved the highest things with virtue as your leader and fortune as your companion.' Plato, in the Meno, or in the Dialogue on virtue, gives four definitions of it: 'The first virtue of a civic man is to be suitably prepared for the administration of civic affairs; the second virtue is the faculty by which we are able to preside over all; the third virtue is to delight in honorable things; the fourth virtue is the desire for the honorable, and the faculty of attaining it.' The same, in his book On the Republic: 'Virtue is a habit of the soul, by which its natural power best exercises its function.' The same, book II of On the Laws: 'Virtue is to obey reason.' Alcinous, On the Doctrine of Plato, chapter XXXI: 'Virtue is a perfect and best disposition of the soul, making a man well-ordered, harmonious, and stable.' Theages: 'Virtue is a habit of comeliness.' Again Plato, in the Theaetetus, said that virtue is likeness to God; and elsewhere: The best habit of the soul, praiseworthy in itself. Plotinus, Ennead I, book VI, chapter VI, says it is the purification of the soul. Aristotle, in VII Physics, context XVI, says it is the perfection of the soul and its constitution according to nature; in X Nicomachean Ethics, chapter V, he affirmed that virtue is the measure of all things; and in I Rhetoric, it is the faculty of acquiring what is good and preserving the same; and moreover it is the faculty of conferring many and great benefits upon others; it is the faculty that can help everyone in all matters; it is the habit rightly disposing the appetite of the senses and its actions. Others said it is the health of the human soul. The Stoics: 'Virtue,' they say, 'is the absence of disturbances and the tranquility of the soul.' St. Augustine, book On the Morals of the Church, chapter XI: 'Virtue is the most upright disposition of the soul.' The same, On the Greatness of the Soul, chapter XVI: 'Virtue is an equality of life, everywhere in agreement with reason.' And he adds that virtue is similar to a circle, because through it the wise man becomes
'in himself entirely smooth and round.' The same, book IV of The City of God, chapter XXI: 'Virtue is the art of living rightly and well. Hence from the fact that virtue is called arete in Greek, they thought the Latins derived the word art.' The same, book XV of The City of God, chapter XXII: 'Virtue is the ordering of love, according to that saying of Song of Songs II: He set charity in order in me.' St. Ambrose, book VIII on Luke, chapter XVIII: 'Virtue is not to will to sin, and so to maintain the perseverance of the will, that the will may imitate infancy, and practice may imitate nature.' The same, on Psalm I: 'The first virtue is not to be broken by adversity, nor puffed up by prosperity.' The same, book II on Abel, chapter II: 'Virtues are perfect if the conquering mind excludes worldly cares and bodily allurements and the enticements of pleasure, free from the world, devoted to God, diminishing nothing from the path of right intention, nor dividing the times of its affection now to luxury, now to labor.' Gregory of Nazianzus, in his Precepts to Virgins: 'Virtue is situated in the midst of vices, like a rose among thorns.' So also Aristotle, book II of the Ethics, chapter VI: 'He defines virtue as a mean.' Hence Horace: Virtue is the mean withdrawn from vices on either side.
The same Gregory of Nazianzus, elsewhere: 'Virtue is a good that is achieved by effort. The nature of virtue is to look to the worship of God alone; noble virtue raises itself aloft by silent steps.' Wherefore the Stoics and other philosophers judged that the supreme good of this life is situated in virtue, and they demonstrate this with ten arguments: first, the supreme good is in the soul: but in the soul nothing is more salutary and excellent than virtue; second, the supreme good must be judged to be that on which our entire perfection depends: virtue is of this kind, for virtue perfects that of which it is the virtue and its work; third, the supreme good must be determined to be that which, being good in itself, renders all other things good: virtue is of this kind; for by its benefit the gifts of fortune and nature are rendered good for us, which apart from virtue rather harm than help us; fourth, the supreme good must be judged to be that which (apart from all other things) renders good that to which it belongs, and when separated from other things, leaves it devoid of good: virtue is of this kind; for from the fact that a man is endowed with virtue, even if he lacks everything else, he is immediately called a good man; but if virtue is absent, though everything else be present, he will by no means be called good and upright; fifth, the supreme good is most powerful, conquering all things, overcoming all things, repelling all things that fight against it: virtue is of this kind; for armed with it alone, we conquer fortune, reject the disadvantages of nature, restrain incontinence by the gift of continence, and by heroic virtue cast down savagery; sixth, the supreme good must be firm and constant: but among us nothing is found firmer and more constant than virtue; for while externally the winds of fortune buffet us, while internally the opposing forces of nature of which we are composed contend, while friends desert us, while the powers of the world are against us; virtue alone, recalled within, renders the soul tranquil, virtue alone accompanies us fearlessly. Of which we can fittingly declare what Ovid sang of the Muses: At least no terror could prevail against these, That they should not accompany our journey.
And Seneca, in epistle 93, used to say: Calamities, losses, and injuries avail against the virtues as much as mists avail against the sun — indeed less, because virtue shines in calamity and is perfected in adversity. Furthermore, the supreme good is of such a nature and condition that, insofar as it is the supreme good, it cannot fail to be beneficial: and this belongs to virtue. For it is the splendid privilege of virtue (as the Philosopher noted in the first book of the Rhetoric) that we cannot misuse it alone, and moreover — what is more admirable — we cannot fail to use it alone (when a necessary occasion presents itself to us); for it belongs to the nature of moral virtue not only that we do what is fitting, but moreover when it is fitting. Furthermore, the supreme good must be judged to be that which is the measure and rule of other goods, and which makes us like God as far as possible: such is virtue alone; therefore (as the Philosopher said, X Nicomachean Ethics, chapter V) it is the measure of all things (for what is right is the judge of what is crooked), it alone most purifies us, and once purified, elevates us to the heights. Hence God is said to visit the good and wise man as a friend and one like Himself. Finally, the supreme good is said to be most delightful, most honorable, most useful, always consistent, consonant with the nature of man, establishing order among the parts of the soul, and rendering a man like the great world: such is virtue alone.
The third is: 'Endowed with their own prudence;' in Greek, bouleuontes en synesei, that is, deliberating or taking counsel; understanding, that is, prudent and wise: for the first and chief part of prudence is counsel. For he is prudent who knows how to give wise counsel in any event, especially in a difficult and dangerous matter. Moreover, this prudence is threefold: namely, ethical, which prudently governs the individual person; economic, which governs the household; political, which prudently governs and administers the state. The patriarchs and princes whom Sirach here celebrates possessed this threefold prudence; for as St. Dionysius wisely says in his epistle to Demophilus: 'He who has ruled himself will also rule another; and he who rules another, will rule a household also; he who rules a household, will rule a city also; he who rules a city, will rule a nation also.'
The fourth is: 'Announcing in the prophets the dignity of the prophets,' that is, they announced, commended, and impressed upon the people, in the writings of the Prophets, the dignity of those same Prophets — how great, namely, both the prophecies themselves and the Prophets who authored them are in dignity and authority, that is, divine authority, because they were dictated and inspired by God to the Prophets; and consequently with what reverence and obedience they should be received. So say Lyra and Dionysius. Under 'Prophets' understand the law and the Pentateuch; for Moses was the chief not only of princes and pontiffs, but also of the Prophets. Now Moses commands, in Deuteronomy XVII, 18, that a new king, as soon as he is inaugurated, should have the Deuteronomy, and read it continually, so that according to it he may govern himself and his people; 'After,' he says, 'he has sat upon the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself the Deuteronomy of this law in a volume, receiving a copy from the priests of the Levitical tribe, and he shall have it with him, and shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and to keep His words and ceremonies, which are commanded in the law.' So did the pious kings and princes, as Josiah, IV Kings XXII, 1, and Ezra, II Esdras VIII, 18, and the like, who therefore, as they governed their kingdom piously and holily, so also prosperously and successfully with God's favor; for the kingdom of Israel was not merely civil and political, but also ecclesiastical and divine: therefore kings were obliged to govern the people according to the law of Moses and the oracles of the Prophets, just as Christian kings and emperors must govern the people according to the law of Christ and the Gospel.
In this matter Jagiello excelled, prince of Lithuania and then of Poland, who preached the faith of Christ to the Poles and Lithuanians so fervently, like a teacher and preacher, that he converted them to Christ; therefore he was both the Apostle and the prince of the Poles. His piety and zeal are imitated by the modern kings and princes of Poland, who, descended from him, are called Jagiellonians, and glory in that title. Jagiello flourished in the year of the Lord 1390, in the time of Tamerlane. So says Martin Cromer, On Polish Affairs, book XV, and in the Funeral Oration on the death of Sigismund the First.
Second, Jansenius explains it thus, as if to say: The fathers announced, he says, in the prophetic books the dignity of the Prophets, that is, they declared it by their writings and the divine oracles they left behind; they announced, therefore, that is, they really showed and exhibited the dignity of prophecy, when, receiving it from God, they wrote it down in books, from which it might be read and announced to the people. For most of the fathers were Prophets, who dictated their prophecies either by mouth or wrote them with a pen; and thus they announced God's oracles and will to the people. Hence in Greek it is, apagelkontes en propheteiais, that is, announcing in prophecies, that is, as the Zurich Bible and others translate, announcing prophecies and oracles. For the Hebrews construct verbs of contact, both mental — such as 'I announce' — and physical, with beth, that is, 'in,' and the ablative, as I have already frequently noted. Hence our Emmanuel Sa, understanding the word 'according to,' explains it thus, as if to say: Announcing prophecies according to the dignity of the Prophets, as if to say: Our ancestors were Prophets, and produced prophecies worthy of Prophets, so that they should rightly be reckoned among the great Prophets. Such was Joshua, of whom he says in chapter XLVI, verse 1: 'Mighty in war was Jesus Nave, the successor of Moses in the Prophets,' as if to say: Our ancestors were endowed not only with prudence, but were also distinguished for prophecy and the prophetic spirit; therefore their governance was not only prudent, but also prophetic and divine; because they governed the people with not so much human as divine prudence, inasmuch as they consulted the oracle of the Lord in all doubtful matters, as Moses and Joshua did, Numbers XVII, 21.
Third, Palacius explains it thus, as if to say: Our ancestors were those who announced among the Prophets their own prophetic dignity, which is the highest praise. To understand this, note the following: Although God once gave to many the spirit of predicting the future, and therefore that they should be in their own way Prophets, as He gave to the Sibyls and Balaam; nevertheless He gave the prophetic and canonical dignity only to the Jews, who, recognizing that they spoke inspired by the Holy Spirit, asserted that they were Prophets; and therefore they announced and proclaimed their prophetic dignity; and for this reason the Church received and revered their prophecies as canonical. Now the meaning is clear: Our ancestors were among the Prophets who predicted the future the most worthy, announcing their prophetic dignity, that is, declaring themselves to be Prophets of the true Church.
Again others explain it thus, as if to say: Announcing not only to the common and unlearned people, but also to the very Prophets, that is, to learned and wise men, a prophecy, that is, a wisdom, worthy of God and of themselves. Hence the Syriac translates: The wise learned in their wisdom.
Fourth, Francis Lucas, in his Annotations here, says: Two manuscripts, along with Rabanus's text, omit the phrase 'in the Prophets,' and read: Announcing the dignity of the Prophets. Other manuscripts remove not only 'in the Prophets' but also 'announcing,' and write what remains as: In the dignity of the Prophets. Of these readings, one seems preferable to the common one placed in the note of this chapter; for from the Greek codices we learn that one of the two is superfluous, either 'the dignity of the Prophets' or 'in the Prophets': apagelkontes (the Greek codices have) en propheteiais, 'who announced in prophecies'; which means, 'who announced prophecies and divine oracles.' But which should be preferred I would not easily say: the former, 'announcing the dignity of the Prophets,' is more conformable to the Greek; the latter, 'in the dignity of the Prophets,' is more free from the suspicion of being an interpolation: to which, if you supply 'placed' or something similar, it means what the author seems to intend: Excelling in the prophetic spirit. The former reading can be taken in the same sense, if by 'the dignity of the Prophets' you understand the prophecies, on account of which the Prophets are held in honor. So says Francis Lucas. But we must follow the reading corrected at Rome, which the Latin codices generally contain.
AND COMMANDING THE PRESENT PEOPLE. - For 'commanding,' the Greek is hegoumenoi, that is, leaders, or commanders, guiding, going before, preceding, shining forth. For it is the duty of a leader to go before soldiers and peoples: so these fathers and princes of Israel went before Israel both with arms and with word and example; and this 'in the present,' that is, the people of their own age, which was then present to them. This is an extension: for 'present' here is extended to the past; because what is past for us was present for the fathers.
4. AND BY THE POWER OF PRUDENCE, MOST HOLY WORDS TO THE PEOPLES. - A verb is understood here; but which one? Rabanus and Palacius supply 'speaking' or 'instructing,' as if to say: They spoke words worthy not of cedar but of heaven. Lyra, from the preceding verse, repeats 'announcing,' as if to say: The fathers spoke or announced to the peoples the most holy words of the divine law. Jansenius, however, explains it without a verb, as follows: Since, he says, it is difficult to repeat the verb 'announcing' from another sentence, when already another participle has intervened; and because what corresponds to those words 'most holy words' is placed in the nominative case among the Greeks (for they have sophoi logoi), therefore it is more fitting to understand it thus, as if to say: And through the power and efficacy of their prudence, they were for the peoples the most holy words, that is, through them the people received the holy oracles of God. Many manuscripts read: 'of the people the most holy words'; which reading better agrees with the Greek, in which there is the genitive laou, and the nominatives sophoi logoi, 'wise words.' And so the sense would be that those fathers by the power of prudence were the most holy words of the people, that is, they were those through whom the people received the most holy words from God: so that it is said causally that the fathers were the most holy words of the people. But this explanation is rather forced and strained. I say therefore that the participle 'commanding,' in Greek hegoumenoi, that is, 'going before,' should be repeated, as if to say: Our ancestors commanded and led the peoples subject to them in the most holy words, as they incited them by word and example to the observance of the most holy law of God. For this is the power of prudence, that what you teach and command by word, you also teach and lead by example; for deeds give efficacy to words, and example gives authority to command. Thus Joseph did, according to that saying of Psalm CV: 'The king sent and released him, etc., that he might instruct his (Pharaoh's and Egypt's) princes as himself, and teach his elders prudence.' Thus David, Hezekiah, Josiah, etc., handed down God's precepts not only to the Jews, but also to other peoples whom they subjected. For as St. Basil says, in homily 3 on the Hexaemeron, comparing and preferring divine teaching to profane: 'As much as the beauty of chastely living women is preferred to the comeliness of a harlot, by so much is our teaching recognized to be set above theirs.'
Moreover, our translator read and punctuated the Greek differently from the way it is now read; for now it is read and punctuated thus: Hegoumenoi laou en diabouliois, kai en synesei grammateias laou. Then in a new verse: Sophoi logoi en paideia auton, that is, as the Complutensian and Roman editions have: Leaders or rulers of the people in counsels, and in the understanding of the literature of the people. Wise words in their instruction; the Zurich Bible: Who presided over the people by counsel, and by knowledge, by skill in the literature of the scribes of the people, by whose wise sayings instruction was established.
But our translator read hagious logous, that is, most holy words, and connected these with 'commanding,' which preceded; the Syriac: Speaking parables in the book of mighty men.
5. IN THEIR SKILL SEEKING OUT MUSICAL MODES, AND NARRATING THE SONGS OF THE SCRIPTURES. - For 'in skill,' Rabanus, Lyra, and others read 'in youth' (for the Greek word epidexiotes signifies both), and Jansenius thinks our translator thus rendered it. For Sirach seems to have looked back to David, who from boyhood and youth began to play the harp, and afterwards narrated and dictated the songs of the Scriptures: and to the sons of the Prophets, who sang hymns and songs to God, I Kings X. But the correct reading is 'in skill': for thus read the codices corrected at Rome and nearly all the others. For he notes not singers, but the authors of psalms and sacred songs, as well as of the music and melody by which they sang psalms and hymns in the temple, both with voice and with psaltery and other instruments, and taught others to sing: such were David, Asaph, Jeduthun, and the sons of Korah.
The sense is, as if to say: Some of our ancestors not only governed the people and taught them the law of God; but in their skill and knowledge they discovered musical modes for praising and celebrating God; and they narrated, dictated, and composed 'songs of the Scriptures,' that is, songs already written in Sacred Scripture, especially in the Psalter, so that by this means they might strengthen the people in the worship of God and teach them to praise, invoke, and adore Him.
That this is the sense is clear from the Greek, which reads thus: Ekzetountes mele mousikon, diegoumenoi epe engraphe. Others read, with a diastole, en graphe, which the Complutensian translates: Seeking the melodies of musicians, and narrating songs that were written; the Roman edition, reading en graphe, translates: Songs in writing; others: Setting forth written verses; the Zurich Bible: Who investigated musical harmonies, who explained songs set forth in writings; so that he here praises not only singers and psalmists, but also teachers and interpreters of hymns and psalms. For these by their exposition teach the people to sing intelligently and wisely; so that they may understand with the mind and relish with the heart what they sing: which is a great good for the Church and the faithful. Wherefore among the other praises of St. Gregory, this is not the least, that he reduced the chant of hymns and psalms to a better order and melody, which is called Gregorian after him. Indeed St. Paul exhorts the faithful to this melody, saying: 'Be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God the Father,' Ephesians V, 18. Thus we read of St. Cecilia: 'While the instruments played, Cecilia sang to the Lord, saying: Let my heart be made immaculate, that I may not be confounded.'
With a similar phrase and tribute, St. Basil is called by St. Gregory of Nyssa the golden lyre of doctrines, that is, a nightingale, so called as if philon melos, that is, perpetually singing, once it has begun. For this bird has a varied and most sweet song without interruption for fifteen continuous days and nights, as Pliny attests, book X, chapter XXIX, and Aristotle, book VIII of On the Nature of Animals, chapter III. For thus St. Basil unceasingly, like a nightingale, sang to all the golden doctrines of God with his voice. Thus St. Dionysius the Areopagite is called 'a bird of heaven' by St. Chrysostom, in his homily On False Prophets: St. Ephrem is called 'the resounding lyre of the Holy Spirit' by Theodoret: St. Athanasius is called by St. Gregory of Nazianzus 'the trumpet of truth.'
Moreover, the ancient theologians and patriarchs of nearly all nations committed their wisdom about God and their moral ethics to posterity in measured verse, so that it might flow more sweetly into minds and cling more tenaciously to memory, and by the musical harmony of verse frequently soothe both ears and mind. Thus indeed God, bringing His law to the nations in the manner of the ancient Poets, gently slipping through the ear into the mind, invaded the realm of souls with the sweetness of songs, so as to transport them to the delights of heaven and the love of the most loving God. Thus Moses sang the song of the law to be observed, Deuteronomy XXXII. Thus before Moses, holy Job, the master of patience and the first author of heroic verse, composed his work in the same manner. Following these leaders, Deborah, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Isaiah, and the other Prophets, and indeed the Blessed Virgin, poured forth their fervent outpourings of heavenly doctrine and piety in the melodious harmony of verses. The heroes and philosophers of the nations imitated the same, such as Orpheus, whose hymns about God survive; Hermes Trismegistus, Pythagoras, Solon, Apollo, Homer, Hesiod, the Sibyl, Hystaspes the ancient king of the Persians, Socrates, Plato — who is said to have composed tragedies, dithyrambs, and epigrams with divine genius; Aristotle, Numa Pompilius, Scipio Africanus, Cato, Cicero, Julius and Augustus Caesar, and innumerable others, who handed down their moral teachings in the measured modulation of verse. Among Christians, the same was followed by St. Gregory of Nazianzus, St. Gregory the Great, St. Damasus, Clement of Alexandria, Maximus, Synesius, Amphilochius, Damascene, Sophronius, and recently St. Francis Xavier, the Apostle of the Indies, who, to imbue the Indians with the faith of Christ, elegantly bound the chief points of Christian doctrine in the meters of the Indian language: with these he first instructed the boys; then the boys, forming a chorus with Xavier leading, sang the same songs in the streets, at the crossroads, in the fields and temples. To the novelty and delight of this unheard singing, crowds of Indians gathered from everywhere, and while they were suspended in wonder at the things being sung, Xavier explained each point: and by this means he converted the Indians. Plato saw the same thing when, in book III of the Republic, he taught that boys should first be taught music, and through it ethics and good morals.
Mystically, St. Augustine on Psalm LVI, verse 9, commenting on the words 'Arise, psaltery and harp,' teaches that Christ is the musician and harpist, who sings sweet songs of doctrine and piety to the soul, and this so that we may sing our song to our God more eagerly. 'That virginal flesh of Christ the Lord,' he says, 'working divine things for us, is the psaltery: the same flesh of the same Lord, suffering human things for the salvation of men, is the harp, with the strings of love harmoniously stretched upon the cross; and therefore resonant and melodious.'
6. MEN RICH IN VIRTUE, HAVING A ZEAL FOR BEAUTY: MAKING PEACE IN THEIR HOMES. - In Greek it is: Men rich, supplied or equipped with strength or fortitude; living peacefully in their dwellings, or their residences and neighborhoods: for in Greek the Complutensian reads katoikiais; others, paroikiais; the Zurich Bible: Rich men, who excelled in power, who lived prosperously at home. For 'peace' to the Hebrews signifies prosperity and abundance of things: for they did not always wage war, but by war they sought and prepared peace for themselves and their people. The Syriac: Resting in their strength. Here that saying is true: 'Virtue is the pillar of fortune.' In the Greek, therefore, the ancestors are commended for three external goods: namely first, for riches; second, for virtue, that is, strength both of body and spirit, and of soldiers and armies; third, for peace and prosperity. But the Latin translator adds a fourth, namely 'having a zeal for beauty,' which is variously explained:
First, Lyra says: 'Beauty,' he says, means the law and the Prophets, the study of which is very beautiful, according to that saying of Genesis XLIX: 'Naphtali is a deer let loose, giving eloquent words of beauty.' Second, Palacius, connecting 'beauty' with 'virtue,' explains it thus: 'They had a zeal,' he says, 'in the virtue of beauty,' that is, in the most beautiful virtue. For it is a Hebrew phrase to say 'the firmament of height' for the highest firmament; so 'the virtue of beauty,' that is, the most beautiful virtue, to acquire which those ancestors, attracted by its beauty, applied all their zeal. Third, Jansenius, to adapt the Latin to the Greek, says: It is signified, he says, that they had in virtue, that is, in fortitude and strength, 'a zeal for beauty,' that is, that they said it was a beautiful and excellent pursuit to acquire for themselves fortitude, and to be equipped with the strength both of body and of their army. For while others place the pursuit of beauty and excellence in pleasures and delights, and consider that beautiful, these men had the pursuit of beauty in strength, so that they might be well equipped against their external enemies. But the phrase 'having a zeal for beauty' is absent from the Greek: hence it cannot be adapted to it. Again, the Bibles corrected at Rome and others everywhere separate 'virtue' by a comma from 'beauty': therefore the two cannot be joined together.
I say therefore: the sense is, as if to say: Our ancestors were zealous for beauty, namely to beautifully adorn the temple and sacred objects, and to maintain propriety and decorum in all things, as if to say: They were decorous in the worship of God and in every action; and therefore lovable to God and the Angels, and admirable to men. Thus Rabanus: 'Having a zeal for beauty,' he says, 'as Moses and Solomon, who built the tabernacle and temple with various vessels and utensils for the Lord.' And Dionysius the Carthusian: 'Men rich in virtue,' he says, 'that is, powerfully wealthy in spiritual and temporal matters; as is evident of David, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Jotham, and Josiah, in the books of Kings and Chronicles, having a zeal for beauty, that is, diligently attentive to the adornment of divine worship and the beauty of the temple.' For the allurement of beauty is great: for men are greatly attracted to the worship of God and every virtue if they see beauty in it. Hence St. Dionysius, On the Divine Names, chapter IV: Kallos, he says, that is, beauty, is so called because it kalei, that is, calls and attracts all things to itself. We see this in the adornment of temples, altars, sacred vestments, music, organs, etc., which by their appearance and beauty draw men to themselves and to the worship of God. Thus Christ by the beauty of His face, mouth, words, and actions drew all to love of Himself, according to that saying of Psalm XLIV, verse 4: 'Beautiful in form above the sons of men (the Chaldean: You are beautiful in soul and body, O King Messiah, above all other men). Grace is poured out on Your lips, etc. In Your comeliness and Your beauty set out, proceed prosperously, and reign.' So also the Church, His spouse, of whom it is said in the same psalm, verse 12: 'The queen stood at Your right hand in gilded vesture, surrounded with variety, etc. And the king shall desire your beauty.'
7. ALL THESE OBTAINED GLORY IN THE GENERATIONS (through the generations, ages, and centuries continually succeeding one another) OF THEIR NATION, AND IN THEIR DAYS THEY ARE HELD IN PRAISES, — that is, in their days they gave material for perpetual praise, so that then and thereafter they might be praised by all posterity. For in Greek it is: kai en tais hemerais auton kauchema; which the Complutensian translates: and in their days a boast, supplying and repeating, 'they obtained'; the Roman edition: and in their days a boasting; others: and in their days is something for us to glory in; the Zurich Bible: All these obtained glory in their own ages and were a source of praise in their own times; the Syriac: All these had honor in their generations, and in their days there were praises.
8. THOSE WHO WERE BORN OF THEM LEFT BEHIND A NAME FOR NARRATING THEIR PRAISES; — because, namely, being holily educated by holy fathers and having imitated their holy ways, they gave posterity material for praise, both their own and their fathers'. The translator read: Hoi ex auton katelipon onoma, that is (as our translator rightly renders): 'Those who were born of them left behind a name.' For he praises the fathers for their like offspring, holy and blessed progeny. Now, placing the apo after, they read thus: There are from among these very ones those who left behind a name for the narration of praises. As though two kinds of pious men were described here, one of illustrious ones in this verse, who namely left behind a name and fame after themselves; the other of obscure ones in the following verse, whose name namely perished with their life; hence of these he says: 'And there are those of whom there is no memory.' But I shall better show that those words pertain to the impious, not to the pious. Therefore the Latin reading here and elsewhere is purer and truer than the modern Greek; although the Greek can also be explained according to the Latin in this way, as if to say: There are from among them, namely children born from them, who left behind a name for praise both their own and their parents'; for this is the same as what our translator renders: 'Those who were born of them left behind a name for narrating their praises.' 'So live that you may not think yourself born in vain,' says Cicero, in Cato the Elder.
9. AND THERE ARE THOSE OF WHOM THERE IS NO MEMORY; THEY PERISHED AS THOUGH THEY HAD NOT EXISTED; AND THEY WERE BORN AS THOUGH NOT BORN; AND THEIR CHILDREN WITH THEM. — Some, as I said, take this of the other kind of pious men; namely of those who lived and died in obscurity, so that they left no fame of themselves behind. Hence the Syriac, following the Greek, renders this whole sentence thus: There are among them those who left behind a name after themselves, so that there might be talk in their praises. And there are among them those of whom there is no memory, and they perished as they perished. But that these words pertain to the impious is clear from the customary phrase in Scripture, by which it is said of the impious, not of the pious, that they perished as though they had not existed; and that they were born as though not born. Again this is evident from the antithesis of the following verse, in which, opposing pious fathers to these impious ones, he adds: 'But those are men of mercy, whose acts of piety did not fail.'
You will ask: Which impious men does Sirach here censure? Jansenius thinks the Philistines, Ammonites, and Moabites are censured, as being unfaithful and enemies of Israel; whose name and posterity therefore entirely perished; but this seems too remote and far-fetched, and not sufficiently connected to and contrasted with the preceding verse. (For this verse depends on the preceding one, and is its part and second member, as is clear from the Greek and the Latin Roman editions.) For he would rather have opposed these nations to the fathers and Patriarchs, than to those who were born of them; and a name, and therefore represent them; but not their children, especially since among their children many were obscure, indeed impious. Better therefore Palacius judges that this verse, as well as the preceding one, pertains to those born, or the children, of the Patriarchs. For he assigns two kinds of these children: one of the pious, and therefore illustrious; the other of the impious, and therefore buried in oblivion. For lest anyone object that the Patriarchs also had perverse children, and therefore ignoble ones, who dishonored rather than honored their parents' name; he anticipates this, saying that it is true; but that such children with their own perished completely, and therefore are in such a state as though they had not existed. Hence as though not existing, indeed as though they had never
existed in the nature of things, they are reckoned; who therefore whether by counseling, or teaching, or governing, or defending, or instituting holy laws, rites, and orders, or by helping in any other way, do good. For this beneficence is a certain sign of piety, justice, and holiness; because it is its certain and inseparable companion and effect. Hence he gives the fathers this praise above all others, that they were men of mercy, and unceasingly pious and beneficent.
For 'did not fail,' the Greek is ouk epeleiphthesan, that is, they have not been consigned to oblivion. Hence Rufinus thinks it should be read 'they did not cease.' But the Roman edition and others read 'did not fail,' namely from the memory of men, that is, they did not fall into oblivion. But since this is of lesser importance, and is treated at length in what follows, it seems more likely that our translator read ouk eteleiothesan, that is, they were not finished, they did not fail, they did not cease, as if to say: These men were so full of mercy and piety that their pious and beneficent works never had an end or limit; but by heaping one upon another, indeed increasing them, they always strove without measure or limit to do good to each and to all, and devised and employed new ways of doing good. The Syriac supports this, translating: But these are men of grace and justice; their grace will not come to an end.
St. Bernard fittingly applies these words to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, in sermon 3 On the same: 'Rightly,' he says, 'brothers, does Mother Church attribute to the holy Apostles what is read in the books of Wisdom: These are men of mercy, whose acts of justice have not been forgotten, with their seed good things remain. For these are truly men of mercy, whether because they obtained mercy, or because they were full of mercy, or because they were mercifully given to us by God. And see what mercy they obtained. Ask Paul about himself, or rather listen to him confessing of his own accord: I who was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and unjust; but I obtained mercy.' And after many things he asserts, 'the Apostles were men of mercy, that is, full of mercy, or men of mercy given to the universal Church; for we know that these men neither lived for themselves nor died for themselves, but for Him who died for them, and indeed for all of us on His account. For how much will their justice benefit us, when even their sins, as has been shown, so greatly benefited? Their life serves us, their teaching, even their very death. For in their conversion the blessed Apostles gave us continence, in their preaching wisdom, in their passion patience. A fourth gift, even to this day, they do not cease to bestow, being full of mercy — which is the fruit of their holy prayers. Although even in their life you may still find something to add to the list, namely the confidence which they afforded us by their display of miracles. And who can enumerate how many benefits have come to us through them? Rightly therefore does Scripture speak of them: Because these are men of mercy.'
Then St. Bernard continues: For 'whose acts of piety did not fail,' reading with the Greeks: 'Whose acts of justice have not been forgotten,' he applies this to individuals thus: 'Do you wish that yours also not be forgotten? Guard against three dangers, and it will flourish forever before the Lord. For you read: Because you are lukewarm, I will begin to vomit you from my mouth, Apocalypse III. You read: If the just man turns away from his justice, etc., I will not remember any of his just deeds, Ezekiel XVIII. You read that to some it will be said at the judgment: I do not know you, Matthew VII. To those without doubt who have received their reward. Therefore every justice that is lukewarm, every justice that is transitory, every justice that is sold, will be in oblivion before the Lord. But not so the justice of the Apostles, which is sufficiently clear from what follows: With their seed good things remain. For even to this day the footsteps of the Apostles remain in us, and their religion, because it is from God, cannot be dissolved. And so we are the seed of the Apostles through preaching, but through adoption and inheritance we are the seed of Christ, and the grandchildren of the Apostles.'
10. BUT THOSE MEN ARE MEN OF MERCY, WHOSE ACTS OF PIETY DID NOT FAIL. — 'Men of mercy' are called this not so much passively, as those who obtained mercy from God (as Rabanus would have it), but rather actively, namely men truly merciful, so much so that they seem to have been born from mercy as from a mother, and entirely formed from it, as was Job who says, chapter XXXI, 18: 'From my infancy compassion grew with me, and from my mother's womb it came forth with me.' In Hebrew they are called anse chesed, that is, 'men of piety,' that is, men of beneficence, that is, thoroughly beneficent; hence Vatablus translates: 'well-deserving men'; the Zurich Bible, men relying on mercy: or anse tachnunim, that is, men of compassion; whose bowels and hearts, namely, are full of compassion and mercy. It could also be translated, men of prayers, of supplications, that is, most fervent intercessors and petitioners for the people. For piety is twofold: one toward God, namely His worship, invocation, and prayer; the other toward the neighbor, namely mercy and beneficence; especially because the prayer of the just person is the greatest beneficence. For it obtains more good from God than a person can give.
For 'piety' the Greek is dikaiosynai, that is, acts of justice; but justice in the Scriptures often signifies works of mercy, which our translator calls 'acts of piety,' by which, namely, one helps one's neighbor either by giving or by lending
of the fathers, and the fathers of the children who followed them, cannot obscure their glory. The sense therefore and the antithesis of this verse and the preceding one is, as if to say: From those glorious men were born worthy children, whose praises and names may be recounted; and other children unworthy of remembrance were born, who perished as though they had not existed; not they alone, but also their children. For from those holy and powerful men were born not only good children worthy of remembrance, but also bad ones, whom perpetual oblivion has buried: for not all fruits that a good tree bears are good. But the praise and name of the pious children remains, while that of the impious has been consigned to oblivion; therefore the former commends the glory of the fathers, while the latter, since it has been erased, can neither harm nor detract from them.
Moreover, he especially notes the distinction and disparity among the children of Abraham and Isaac with their descendants. For from Abraham was born Isaac, who was the heir of Abraham's faith and holiness, as well as of his family, wealth, and blessings. From the same Abraham was born Ishmael, who, cast out and disinherited from Abraham's family, thus became an exile and stranger from it, and his descendants, the Hagarenes and Saracens, infamous for their unbelief and wicked ways, were nearly always enemies of the people of God, formerly the Jews, now the Christians. Similarly Isaac begot Jacob, and left him heir of his faith, family, the Holy Land, and the promises made to him by God; but Esau, equally begotten by him, and his descendants the Edomites, he excluded from these; hence the Edomites so perished that not even their name survives.
11 and 12. WITH THEIR SEED GOOD THINGS REMAIN, A HOLY INHERITANCE THEIR GRANDCHILDREN. — So reads the Roman edition; for there is a varied reading here in both Latin and Greek codices. For the Greek Complutensian reads: With their seed a good inheritance remains, their grandchildren in the covenants. Which Vatablus explains: For whose offspring a good possession remains, and whose seed is comprised in the covenant; the Syriac: With their seed their happiness endures, and their root extends to the children of their children; the Roman edition: With their seed a good inheritance shall remain, their grandchildren; Rabanus: With their seed endures a holy good inheritance of their grandchildren; Hugo, Jansenius, and others: And with their seed a good inheritance endures, and the seed of their grandchildren stood in the covenants. And Francis Lucas thinks this should be read thus, because this reading is more conformable to the modern Greek. But we must follow the Roman reading, as both more common and more fitting and true. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Because the acts of piety of the fathers did not fail but endured, hence by their merit God granted that with their seed, that is, their descendants, all good things likewise should endure, both temporal and spiritual; and especially this, which should rightly be considered the greatest: that 'a holy inheritance should be their grandchildren,' that is, that they should leave behind them holy heirs, namely holy grandchildren, and that those grandchildren should imitate their holy fathers; and just as they succeed to their possessions and wealth, so also to their holiness by a kind of hereditary right; for God often grants to the holiness of a father that his grandchildren be holy; for He is merciful 'to the third and fourth generation,' Exodus XX. Truly great is God's blessing upon fathers and families, when, on account of the fathers' teachings, examples, and merits, holiness is transmitted to children and grandchildren through a long series of generations, just as faith and the worship of the true God was transmitted from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, etc., to all their descendants and the whole of Israel. Add: The phrase 'a holy inheritance of their grandchildren,' as many read, denotes God's holy promises about the Messiah, about God's protection, about justice, grace, glory, etc., which God promised and bestowed upon the grandchildren of the fathers, because they imitated the faith and holiness of the fathers; for into the right of such promises, says Jansenius, the children of the Patriarchs succeeded their fathers as by hereditary right, and those promises were for them like a good inheritance. Hence St. Paul among other things says that the promises of God belonged to the Jews; and he admonishes that we should become imitators of those who by faith and patience inherited the promises, Romans VII. And he adds concerning the heirs of the promise: 'God, wishing to show the heirs of the promise the immovability of His counsel, interposed an oath,' Hebrews VI. And afterwards he says that Noah was appointed heir of the justice which is through faith, Hebrews XI. This therefore is the good inheritance which passes to the seed of the Patriarchs, not only carnal but much more spiritual.
AND IN THE COVENANTS THEIR SEED STOOD FIRM. — The 'and' is exegetical and causal, as if to say: Their grandchildren were the holy inheritance of the fathers, that is, their holy heirs; because those who were their 'seed,' that is, children and descendants, 'stood in the covenants,' that is, persevered in the laws and commandments of God; for these are called 'covenants,' that is, pacts; because under this condition God entered into a covenant with the Patriarchs and their descendants, namely if they would keep His laws and precepts. Hence second, this statement should be referred to the first part of the preceding verse: 'With their seed good things remain'; all these good things are explained here, and he calls them 'covenants,' as if to say: Because they holily persevered in the covenants, that is, in the laws sanctioned by God's covenant; hence likewise they persevered in the covenants, that is, in the good things promised by God's covenant, as if to say: Children and grandchildren succeeded to the inheritance and good things which God had promised as hereditary to the fathers and their descendants; and this on account of those very fathers, whom the children imitate, and whom they succeed by hereditary right both in faith and in goods. Hence the Zurich Bible and Jansenius explain it thus: Their seed stood in the covenants, that is, in the pacts of God, that is, in those covenants their seed was comprised forever in the future. Hence for este, that is, 'stood,' the Complutensian reads esti, that is, 'is'; for God promised the fathers that He would be God not only of them, but also of their seed after them forever, Genesis XVII, 7; and this on account of the fathers' merits, according to that saying of Genesis XXII, 18: 'In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you obeyed my voice.' Rightly therefore it is said here: And their children stood, that is, they were comprised in the covenants of God on account of them. Hence the Greek repeats the same thing, and from the same the Zurich Bible, repeating, translates thus: Their offspring was comprised in the covenant, and likewise the posterity succeeding them.
Now this seed of the fathers, in the time of Sirach,
was carnal, namely the Hebrews, descended from the fathers according to the flesh. But now, since they have degenerated through unbelief and impiety against Christ from the faith and life of the fathers, and are therefore excluded from their inheritance and blessing, spiritual children succeed to it, namely the faithful and Christians, who according to faith are children of Abraham, and therefore heirs of his blessing and of the promises of grace and eternal glory, as the Apostle teaches in Romans IX, 8. Hence of these he adds:
13. AND THEIR CHILDREN ON ACCOUNT OF THEM REMAIN FOREVER, ('children' not so much carnal, namely the Jews; for although these in the time of Sirach were faithful, and therefore glorious, now however they are unfaithful, and therefore without glory, degenerate, base, abject, and infamous because of the slain Christ: but rather spiritual children, namely the faithful from both the Gentiles and the Jews, who follow the faith and religion of Abraham and the Patriarchs. For these will remain forever, both in heaven through blessedness, and on earth through the continual propagation and increase of the faithful. And therefore 'their seed' is not carnal but spiritual, namely the continual offspring of the faithful and holy), AND THEIR GLORY SHALL NOT BE ABANDONED. — In Greek, ouk exaleiphthesetai, that is, it shall not be destroyed, not obliterated; the Zurich Bible: Their posterity shall remain in perpetuity, nor shall the glory of the same be abolished; the Syriac: In their covenant their seed stands, and the children of their children in good works, and their memory endures forever, and their glory shall not be consigned to oblivion.
14. THEIR BODIES WERE BURIED IN PEACE; — the Syriac, were gathered: First: 'In peace,' because they died full of days and equally of good works, in a good old age, satisfied with this life, eager for another better one, as is said of Abraham in Genesis XXV, 8. For the body, weary and broken by so many and such long and continuous labors, pains, hardships, persecutions, and enemies of this life, with which it continually struggles, longed through death to be freed from all these, and to rest in the tomb, as the soul rests in the bosom of Abraham, according to that saying of Job III, 13: 'For now sleeping I would be silent, and in my sleep I would rest,' etc.
Second, 'in peace,' because they had their proper funeral rites, namely obsequies, lamentation, funeral procession, etc., as those buried in peace, which are often denied in war. Among these rites, moreover, are reckoned prayers, alms, and sacrifices for the dead, which it is clear the Jews believed in and practiced, from II Maccabees XII, 43.
Third, 'in peace'; because they were buried by their own people and among their own, with whom they had lived peacefully and amicably. For this is a natural human desire, that you should be buried peacefully with those with whom you lived amicably, so that among friends and kinsmen there may be a sharing of the tomb in death, just as there was of the home in life. Hence Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah in the double cave, Genesis XXV, 10. In the same place Isaac was buried with Rebecca; and therefore Jacob wished to be buried in the same place with Leah, Genesis XLIX, 31. Hence Joseph, dying in Egypt, did not wish to be buried there, but among his own in Canaan; hence adjuring his people: 'Carry my bones with you from this place,' he said, Genesis L, 24. Hence that phrase frequent in Scripture: 'He was gathered or added to his fathers.'
Fourth, 'in peace,' because while the body rested in the tomb, the soul descended to the limbo of the fathers, and there among its own rested amicably in the bosom of Abraham. Hence the Zurich Bible translates: In a state of tranquility their bodies were buried.
Fifth, 'in peace,' because their tombs were not disturbed or violated, as the Gentiles used to disturb the tombs of their dead by summoning the shades of the deceased through diviners and magicians. Just as Saul through the witch summoned the soul of Samuel, who therefore, being indignant, said to him: 'Why have you disturbed me to be raised up?' I Kings XXVIII, 15.
Sixth, 'in peace,' because they awaited the resurrection in which the body together with the soul would live blessed and glorious in perpetual peace and happiness, according to that saying of the Psalmist: 'In peace, in the selfsame, I will sleep and rest.' And that saying of Simeon: 'Now You dismiss Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word in peace.' Hence at Rome, at the entrance of the crypt of St. Priscilla, where very many bodies of Saints are buried, we read the inscription: 'We await rest here,' which the Church prays for the dead, saying: 'Eternal rest grant to them, O Lord.'
Seventh, 'in peace,' that is, in honor, beauty, and splendor, or opulently, splendidly, and magnificently (for 'peace' to the Hebrews signifies wealth, abundance of things, and every good) they were buried; because they had monuments, indeed opulent and magnificent mausoleums, such as that of David, of which Josephus says, book VII of Antiquities, near the end: 'His son Solomon buried him in Jerusalem magnificently, beyond the usual solemnities at the funerals of kings, placing also in his monument the greatest riches, whose magnitude may easily be conjectured from what we shall say. For after 1300 years, the high priest Hyrcanus, being besieged by Antiochus, surnamed Pius, the son of Demetrius, and wishing to give him money to withdraw his army and lift the siege, but being unable to obtain it from elsewhere, opened a chamber of David's monument, took out from it three thousand talents, and having paid a portion to Antiochus, freed himself from the danger of the siege, as we have also indicated elsewhere. And again after many years had elapsed, King Herod opened another chamber and took out a great sum of money.'
Similar were the monuments of other Kings, Patriarchs, and Prophets, which posterity cultivated and venerated with great reverence, according to that saying of Christ: 'Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who build the tombs of the Prophets and adorn the monuments of the just! etc.,' Matthew XXIII, 29. Thus Jacob erected a pillar at the tomb of his wife Rachel, Genesis XXXV, 20. Thus Isaiah predicted of Christ, chapter XI, 20: 'And His tomb shall be glorious.' Thus at Rome and elsewhere we see and venerate the glorious and magnificent monuments of St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Lawrence, St. Sebastian, St. Cecilia, St. Agnes, etc. To say nothing of other admirable things that I have reviewed on this subject, at Isaiah XI, 14.
See and marvel how glorious is the monument at Assisi of the humble and poor St. Francis (who for Christ made himself a laughingstock and prodigy to the world, and when dying, out of supreme humility, wished and as far as it was in his power wanted to be buried on the hill of hell, that is, in the place destined for the punishment of criminals); hence the Pontiff ordered this epitaph to be inscribed on it in capital letters: 'To Francis of Rome, conspicuous for lofty humility, the pillar of the Christian world, the restorer of the Church, whose body, neither living nor dead, is admirable for the marks of the wounds and nails of the crucified Christ, the Pope, weeping, rejoicing, and exulting over the new structure, placed this by his command, hand, and munificence, in the year of the Lord 1218, on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of August. Dead before death, alive after death.' Because, namely, in life he carried about in his body the mortification of Jesus; but after death, standing with an intact body, and gazing into heaven with vivid eyes, he perseveres with the sacred stigmata impressed on him by Christ, flowing with blood as if fresh. For Pope Nicholas V saw him thus in the year 1449. See Wadding, in the Annals of the Minors, at the year of Christ 1230.
AND THEIR NAME LIVES FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION. — The Zurich Bible: And their name lives through all the ages of the centuries, both in heaven before God, the Angels, and the Blessed, and on earth before the people of all lands and times. By 'name' understand both name and fame, and by metonymy the thing named, or the one whose name it is, namely the fathers themselves. For these, as to their souls, in the time of Sirach lived happily in the bosom of Abraham; but now after Christ they live more happily in heaven, and rising in the general resurrection in body and soul, they will live most happily and be endowed with eternal glory; indeed many of them already rose with Christ and ascended gloriously into heaven, as is clear from Matthew XXVII, 52. For to their body, which he said was buried in peace, he opposes the name, which consists chiefly in the soul. For the soul desires an eternal name and fame, because it itself is immortal and eternal, and desires to be blessed and happy forever: and the companion and attendant of this blessedness is eternal fame. This desire for fame and an eternal name, therefore, is a sign and effect of the immortality of the soul. For from the very fact that the soul is immortal, it desires an immortal name, but a true one, not a shadowy one, namely one founded on its immortal happiness and glory. For what does an eternal name profit Alexander, Pompey, or Julius Caesar, when their soul is tormented in hell, and cannot have any sense of this name and fame, or indeed is ignorant of it? or if it knows it, this does not conduce to pleasure but to greater torment. Moreover, the root and cause of this name, fame, and glory is eminent virtue; for this begets name and fame, and fame begets glory.
Hence at Rome in the church of St. Mary of the Angels we read this epitaph engraved on the tomb of Cardinal Alciati: By virtue he lived. In memory he lives, In glory he will live, Fame flies through men's lips, his spirit holds the stars. Great and happy is he to whom this epitaph can be given in truth!
15. LET THE PEOPLES TELL OF THEIR WISDOM, AND LET THE CHURCH ANNOUNCE THEIR PRAISE. — So read the Roman edition, although Jansenius and some others read in the present tense 'tell' for 'let them tell,' and 'announces' for 'let it announce.' Likewise the Zurich Bible: The peoples, it says, proclaim their wisdom, and the assembly celebrates their praises. The Greek has in the future: The peoples will recount their wisdom, and their praise ekdiegesetai (although the Complutensian and Roman with a different accent read ekdiegeitai in the present, that is, announces), that is, the Church will announce. All these come to the same thing, as if to say: These heroes, on account of their deeds, are worthy that the Church should perpetually celebrate their wisdom and praises; and therefore I urge all to do this, and I do not doubt that many will do so: therefore just as they celebrate them now, so they will celebrate them henceforth in every age. For 'the memory of the saints is a path to virtue and a stimulus to sanctification,' says St. Anthony, as Athanasius attests in his Life, XXVIII.
Second Part of the Chapter: Praise of Enoch
16. ENOCH PLEASED GOD, AND WAS TRANSLATED INTO PARADISE, THAT HE MIGHT GIVE REPENTANCE TO THE NATIONS. — After the common praises of all, he now begins the individual tributes. He begins with Enoch, omitting Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos; because Enoch was more illustrious than all these and his other predecessors, and therefore worthy to lead this chorus of heroes as their chief; especially because Enoch did not merely live holily for himself, as did Abel and Seth, but also shone by his holiness before the whole world, and will shine much more at the end of the world, for which he is reserved and destined by God. For Enoch 'walked with God,' that is, as the Septuagint, and Sirach following them, translate, 'pleased God,' namely as a most beloved servant pleases his master, or a son pleases his father. See what I said at Genesis V, 22, where I also spoke of his translation. Moreover, St. Irenaeus,
Book IV, chapter 30: "Henoch," he says, "pleasing God without circumcision, though he was a man, discharged the office of God's embassy to the Angels, was translated, and is preserved even now as a witness of God's judgment; because indeed the Angels who transgressed fell under judgment, but the man who was pleasing was translated unto salvation." He calls "Angels" those whom Moses, Genesis 6:2, calls "sons of God," namely the sons of Seth, who, mingled with burning concupiscence with the daughters of men, namely of Cain, begat from them proud and impious giants, on account of whom God therefore brought the flood upon the world, having first sent Henoch to correct them, but in vain. These sons of God and giants Irenaeus, following Josephus, Philo, and others, judged, as it seems, to have been angels, either good or evil, that is, demons. See the commentary on Genesis 6. The cause, therefore, of Henoch's translation was his extraordinary holiness, by which he wonderfully pleased God. Whence Gregory of Nazianzus, in the poem On the Praise of Virginity:
"Nourishing faith," he says, "and piety carried Henoch to the stars."
And in Oration 20: "His whole life," he says, "was nothing other than a translation;" for he had translated his mind from earth to heaven unto God, with whom he walked. And the author of On the Wonders of Holy Scripture, in St. Augustine, Book I, chapter 3: "Henoch," he says, "without death, for nearly the whole duration of the age, removed from the company of men, is kept, so that in him it might be shown how men, if they had not sinned, having begotten offspring, would have been changed into spiritual life without death."
Note: The phrase "into paradise" is no longer in the Greek, but our translator formerly read it in the Greek, as Sixtus of Siena, Delrio, and others judge; or certainly he understood it to be implied in "was translated," as Jansenius holds. For the common understanding of the Church and of the faithful in every age has been that Henoch was translated into paradise: therefore when it was said that Henoch was translated, everyone immediately understood him to have been translated into paradise. That this is so is clear from St. Athanasius, in the narrative of the Council of Nicaea, where he says that Henoch was pateten, that is, "was translated," namely into paradise, as his interpreter learnedly translates; for St. Athanasius compares Henoch with Adam in this, that Adam was placed in paradise, while Henoch was metetethe, that is, was translated into paradise: for no other place could suitably be assigned to one who walked with God and was now translated from the earth. Therefore it is a matter of faith that Henoch was translated into paradise; for Holy Scripture expressly asserts this here, namely the Latin Vulgate, which the Holy Council of Trent, session IV, decreed must be received as the authentic and true Holy Scripture in all things, and preferred to the Greek and Hebrew texts. Whence the concordant opinion of the Fathers and Interpreters, and the common understanding of the whole Church, is that Henoch was translated into paradise, although some doubt who and where this paradise is. In a similar way, in Psalm 95:10: "The Lord has reigned," the Septuagint formerly added, "from the wood." For so read St. Justin, St. Cyprian,
St. Augustine, St. Leo, Arnobius, Theodorus, Theodulphus, and even the Roman Breviary, indeed even the hymn on the Passion; yet no Greek or Latin manuscripts have it, nor indeed does St. Jerome, in his edition of the Psalms corrected according to the Septuagint, much less in his translation from the Hebrew. For in the Hebrew there is no "from the wood"; but the Septuagint added it for the sake of the mystery, to prophesy Christ's kingdom obtained by the merit of the cross, which however has now dropped out and is found in no Bibles; indeed Theodoret himself did not read it in his Commentary on the Psalms.
The question is therefore asked: what is the paradise into which Henoch was translated? First, some understand by paradise the limbo of the fathers, or the bosom of Abraham, of which Christ on the cross said to the penitent thief: "Today you shall be with Me in paradise." But before Christ, this limbo was a prison of hell, not a paradise of earth or heaven; Christ, however, descending there after death and beatifying the fathers and granting them the vision of His divinity, changed this prison into a paradise.
Second, others understand by paradise heaven. So St. Ambrose, in the book On Paradise, chapter 3, says Henoch was caught up to heaven; and St. Jerome, on Amos chapter 9, asserts he ascended into heaven with Elijah. So also St. Gregory, Homily 29 on the Gospels. So also Dorotheus in the Synopsis says they penetrated the heavens and dwell with the angels in heaven. And Alcimus Avitus, Book IV, On the Flood, chapter 6, sings of them:
"That they left their earthly homes and entered the heavenly ones."
Whence Procopius of Gaza, on Genesis 2, and some others infer that they are blessed and enjoy the vision of God, and reign with Christ in glorified bodies. But against this opinion stands the fact that they have not yet died and are to return, so that they may labor and die for Christ, and thus be beatified and glorified. For they will fight against the Antichrist and be killed by him. I refuted this same opinion at greater length in the commentary on Genesis 5:22.
Furthermore, St. Ambrose, St. Gregory, and certain others already cited are to be conveniently explained as meaning by heaven the air; for they judged paradise to be in a place higher than the earth and in the air, and this from the fact that Elijah is said to have been caught up into heaven by a whirlwind, 4 Kings 2. Therefore, just as that passage can be explained to mean that Elijah was caught up into the air so that through it he might be transferred to paradise, so also the Fathers cited can be explained in the same sense. For St. Gregory explicitly explains himself thus in Homily 29 on the Gospels.
I say, therefore, that this paradise is on earth, and appears to be that terrestrial one in which Adam was originally placed by God. This is proved, first, because this is what the name "paradise" commonly signifies in the Scriptures when it is simply named; for otherwise something is added by which it is determined to mean something else. Second, because Elijah and Henoch are not in
heaven, since they have not yet died, much less are they blessed; nor are they in hell, because that is a prison and gehenna, not a paradise. Therefore they are on earth. If on earth, therefore they are in the terrestrial paradise, since there is no place better or more worthy of their rapture and happy life, both on account of the purity and pleasantness of the place, and on account of the mildness and benignity of the climate.
Third, because very many of the Fathers and Doctors expressly teach that Henoch was caught up there, and then Elijah, and in the first place St. Irenaeus, Book V Against Heresies, chapter 5, where he asserts that he received this from the tradition of the presbyters of Asia, who received the same from the Apostles: St. Justin Martyr (or whoever the author is, for he does not seem to be St. Justin, because he cites Origen, Questions 81 and 83, and in Question 86 he cites Irenaeus and calls him a Martyr, although Justin was more ancient than both), Question 85 to the Orthodox; Victorinus, on Apocalypse chapter 11; St. Athanasius, Epistle On Receiving the Council of Nicaea; St. Ephrem, in Barcephas, On Paradise, chapter 1; St. Jerome, Epistle 61 to Pammachius, where he calls Henoch and Elijah "colonists of Paradise"; St. Augustine, Book I On the Merits and Remission of Sins, chapter 3; Primasius, Haymo, Anselm, Ribera, on Hebrews chapter 11; St. Isidore, On the Life and Death of the Saints, chapter 3; St. Thomas, III Part, Question 49, article 5, reply to 2, where he adds that it is probable they are nourished and preserved by the tree of life; Lyranus, and Palacius here, Abulensis, on Genesis chapter 5; Bellarmine, On the Grace of the First Man, chapter 12; Soto, on the Sentences IV, distinction 46, Question 1, article 1; Gregory of Valencia, volume 1, disputation 7, Question 6, point 2 reply to 3; Tyraeus, On the Apparition of the Son of God on Tabor, chapter 3; Suarez, III Part, Question 59, article 6, disputation 56, section 1; Malvenda, On Paradise, chapter 87; Delrio, adage 787. These authors say that Elijah and Henoch were not only caught up into paradise,
but that they still dwell there even now; whence Rabanus reads this passage of Sirach thus: "Henoch pleased God and was translated into paradise."
You will object: Paradise after Henoch, in the time of Noah, was overwhelmed by the waters, and its pleasantness thereby perished; therefore Henoch could not dwell there at that time. I respond: Many deny the antecedent, some entirely, others in part. For what prevents saying that God preserved some part of paradise untouched by the flood, in order to preserve Henoch in it, who, as he was free from guilt, so it was fitting that he should also be free from the punishment of the flood? But even granting that the entire paradise was overwhelmed by the cataclysm, yet when the waters soon subsided it emerged again, and God accordingly restored to it with its pleasantness its citizen Henoch, who had been lifted into the air during the time of the flood. For the place of an earthly man is the earth, not the air: and on earth there was no place more fitting for Henoch, already confirmed in grace by his rapture and a candidate for eternity, than paradise. These things are stated with great probability; yet nothing here is certain as a matter of faith, as St. Augustine teaches, Book II On the Merits and Remission of Sins, chapter 3. Wherefore Sixtus of Siena goes somewhat astray,
Book V of the Bibliotheca, annotation 36, when he asserts that it is against the rule of right faith to deny that Henoch and Elijah were translated into the terrestrial paradise; for paradise signifies any pleasant place, whether it be in heaven, or in the air, or on earth. Whence St. Chrysostom, Homily 21 on Genesis, St. Gregory, Homily 29 on the Gospels, St. Cyprian, On the Mountains of Sinai and Zion, say it is unknown to what place Henoch and Elijah were translated.
Symbolically, "into paradise" signifies that Henoch as well as Elijah dwell in great repose and pleasure of body and soul; for paradise is a place of pleasure. So St. Gregory, Homily 29 on the Gospels, where he teaches that the rapture of Henoch and Elijah prefigured the ascension of Christ into heaven. For each through the rapture was confirmed in grace and in good, so that they are in no danger of any sin; for they are midway between wayfarers and the blessed, and candidates for beatitude. Again, since they are just and cannot merit, it is surely fair that neither can they demerit; otherwise their condition would be unjust, more inclined to evil than to good, and therefore worse. Second, from this Suarez infers, at the cited place, that they by no means suffer the disordered movements of concupiscence, nor that corruption of the body which weighs down the soul and depresses the mind that thinks on many things; both because this is almost necessary for perfect purity and tranquility of soul; and also because, since they are deprived of perfect happiness and bear that absence of God most patiently for the sake of God Himself, it is fitting that they should at least enjoy the greatest goods and joys both in soul and in body; for neither do bodies that are corrupted weigh down their souls, nor does an earthly habitation depress their senses as those thinking on many things, who are known to have walked with God: every impediment has been removed from their midst, every occasion taken away, no material
is left which might burden their affections or depress their intellect. For Scripture also commemorates the rapture of the former (that is, Henoch) for this reason, lest perhaps malice should overcome wisdom, and lest his intellect, or soul, should be capable of being further deceived or changed.
Third, from what has been said Suarez gathers in the same place that they enjoy the greatest consolations of God and divine illuminations, and frequent revelations; at least concerning those things which are suited to their state. Whence I do not doubt, he says, that they have recognized the coming of Christ and the redemption of the world already accomplished through Him. For they previously had an explicit faith in His coming and most greatly desired His advent; therefore it was not fitting that they should now be in darkness and error; indeed rather, concerning Elijah it is established from the Gospel that on the day of the Transfiguration he saw and spoke with Christ, and the same can be supposed of Henoch, namely that he at some time saw Him. But whether he now sees Him according to His humanity is uncertain. Whence St. Bernard, Sermon 6 On the Ascension of the Lord: "Happy," he says, "are those men through whom the divine ascension is recorded to have been prefigured, Henoch caught
up, Elijah translated; happy indeed are those who alone now live for God, who alone are free, in understanding, in loving, in enjoying." And he adds the reason, which see in the same author.
Tropologically, Religious who have renounced worldly cares and consecrated themselves entirely to God, and devote themselves to prayer and contemplation, imitate Henoch walking with God and dwelling in paradise. Such was Bonosus, companion of St. Jerome, of whom he himself says, Epistle 41 to Rufinus: "He walks," he says, "as if a new colonist of paradise; no farmer, no monk clings to his side as a companion. Alone there, or rather no longer alone since Christ accompanies him, he sees the glory of God, which even the Apostles had not seen except in the desert." Such also was St. Marcella. Whence the same St. Jerome, Epistle 18 to Marcella: "Let Rome," he says, "keep its tumults, let the arena rage, the circus go mad, the theaters wallow in luxury: for us it is good to cling to the Lord and to place our hope in the Lord, so that when we find such great things in heaven, we may grieve that we sought such small and passing things on earth." And he adds: "To be seen and to see, to be greeted and to greet, is foreign to the purpose of monks and to their quiet."
Anagogically, Henoch was a type of the resurrection and renewal of the world, whence Henoch in Hebrew means the same as "renewal," says Anastasius of Sinai, Patriarch of Antioch, Book VII of the Hexaemeron. And in Book X: "Henoch," he says, "the first, as one pleasing to God, described and prefigured the resurrection, having been made immortal and translated by God." And Tertullian, in the book On the Soul, chapter 58, speaking of Henoch and Elijah: "Candidates for eternity," he says, "they learn the immunity of the flesh from every vice, from every harm, from every injury and insult." So also Theodoret, Question 45, teaches that Henoch was a herald and type of the resurrection. And St. Gregory, Book VIII of the Moralia, near the end: "Henoch," he says, "is called 'dedication': the wicked therefore dedicate themselves in the beginning, because in this life, which comes first, they plant the root of the heart, so that here they may flourish as they wish, and in the fatherland that follows, utterly wither. But from the just, Henoch arises as the seventh, because the festive dedication of their life is reserved for the end." Hence St. Epiphanius, in the Ancoratus, somewhat before the end, calls Henoch and Elijah "the two firstborn of our resurrection." And St. Augustine, Book XV of the City of God, chapter 19: "The translation of Henoch," he says, "is a prefigured delay of our dedication (which will take place in the resurrection)."
Similar to Henoch was St. Julian the Second, Bishop of Cuenca in Spain, who, about to die in the year of the Lord 1208, on January 28, covered with ashes and a hairshirt, saw the Blessed Virgin attended by choirs of angels and virgins singing: "Behold the great priest, who in his days pleased God," etc., and the Blessed Virgin, turning to him, said: "Receive, servant of God, a palm as a sign of the virginity which you have always kept intact." Whence after his death those standing by saw coming forth from his mouth a palm whiter than snow, which as they sang
together with the angels was carried into heaven. For his life had been wondrous, and among other things, when he was baptized, a mitre appeared with a staff, portending his holy episcopate; in which office he distributed all his revenues to the poor, while he himself earned a meager living by weaving baskets. Wherefore beasts of burden sent from heaven carried to him the grain to be distributed to the poor. These and more things are reported in his Life by Francisco Escudero, a priest of the Society of Jesus.
THAT HE MAY GIVE THE NATIONS REPENTANCE. -- So it should be read with the Roman and Greek texts, namely "repentance," not "wisdom," as Rabanus and others read; although the meaning comes to the same thing; for the true wisdom of a sinner is repentance. The sense is, as if to say: Henoch was translated so that, returning, he might give the nations examples, admonitions, incentives, and exhortations to repentance, by which they, being moved, might do penance for sins, which at the end of the world through the Antichrist, and his precursors and followers, will abound throughout the whole world and overflow like a flood. For just as the voice of St. John the Baptist, who was the precursor of the first coming of Christ, was: "Do penance," Christ draws near, "the kingdom of heaven draws near," Matthew 3:2; so much more will the same be the voice of Henoch and Elijah, the precursors of the second coming of Christ coming to judgment.
Note the word "nations": for Henoch was a Gentile, namely before Abraham and Moses, to whom circumcision and Judaism were given. He therefore, as a Gentile, will preach repentance to the Gentiles, his fellow tribesmen, indeed his children (for all men are descended from Noah, and likewise from Henoch, who was the great-great-grandfather of Noah); just as Elijah, as a Jew, will preach the same to the Jews, and therefore they will be clothed in sackcloth, that is, in hairshirts, as heralds of repentance, Apocalypse 11:3.
From this passage of Sirach it is certain that Henoch as well as Elijah will return at the end of the world, to lead back to faith and virtue those who have been drawn by the Antichrist into unbelief and every vice. For this is the meaning and the consensus of the Church and of all the orthodox. The same was predicted by St. John, Apocalypse 11:3, where he also describes their life and death. See the commentary there.
Furthermore, God by His good pleasure chose these two from among countless men for so great a work, and therefore clothed and armed them with extraordinary love of God, religion, and zeal. And this fittingly, because Henoch was before the flood in the law of nature, from among the ancient and earliest Patriarchs of the world. Elijah, however, was a Prophet under the law of Moses, most renowned for holiness, zeal, and miracles, and most eagerly expected by the Jews. Therefore He destined them, and not others, for this work; both so that their preaching and testimony might be more wonderful; and so that it might be shown that the same God is the God of every law -- of nature, of Scripture, and of grace; and that the same Christ, the same faith is preached from the beginning of the world to its end, and perseveres in the same Church Militant.
The modern Greek manuscripts here, as also often elsewhere,
disagree with the Latin Vulgate. For they have: Henoch metetethe hypodeigma metanoias tais geneais, that is: "Henoch was translated as an example of repentance to the generations"; the Zurich Bible: "Henoch was taken up as an example of amending one's life to the nations," others: "to the ages," so that, as Jansenius says, from his translation all, understanding that God cares for those who strive to please Him, might themselves also be converted from their evil life and do penance, striving to commend themselves to God. Or, as if to say: Henoch was translated because, while he lived, he was to all generations an example of repentance: so that it is signified that he was translated because, while he lived, he was a mirror of repentance to all; namely because by his holy life he taught the men of his age repentance and drew them to it. Our reading, therefore, to bring it closer to the original reading, seems to be understood thus: Henoch was translated into paradise, that is, into some place of pleasure known to God alone, so that by this translation of his he might give the nations repentance, that is, provoke men to a better life, understanding how much God cares for those who please Him, and how much He hates sinners, from whose company He hastened to snatch away His servant before his time. For that saying of Wisdom, chapter 4, seems to have been spoken particularly of him: "He was snatched away lest malice should change his understanding, or lest deceit should deceive his soul." For when the world had already begun, from the corruption of Adam's sin and the examples of the children of Cain, to be most pestilential, with already a thousand and a hundred years and more having passed since the creation of Adam, 669 years before the flood, the Lord implanted in this Henoch a remarkably good mind and perfected him in the fear of God, so that he might walk in the innocence of his heart in every good pleasure of God, so that he might be like a burning lamp in a dark age; for he lived most holily for 365 years, teaching the men of his age repentance by deed and word: whom, when they did not profit, He snatched from this wicked age; both lest malice should change his mind through the depravity of the worst examples; and so that by this very translation God might show how much He cares for the pious and how much He hates the impious, from whose company He snatched His servant, as one of whom the world was not worthy, and thus also give them an occasion for repentance.
So says Jansenius, who therefore denies that from this passage it is effectively proved that Henoch will come at the end of the world to fight against the Antichrist. But the sense of the other Interpreters and of the faithful is plainly different. Wherefore our translator, instead of hypodeigma metanoias, seems to have read hina do metanoian, that is, "that he may give repentance": and the old and more recent authors generally seem to have followed this reading, who from this passage unanimously and constantly teach that Henoch will come with Elijah against the Antichrist; for there is no other passage in Scripture which clearly signifies the same, except this one. Therefore the Latin Vulgate is to be preferred in this passage, as in others, to the modern Greek, and is to be fully embraced according to the decree of the Council of Trent, session IV. Therefore not the Latin to the Greek, but the Greek to the Latin must be adapted, so that the meaning is: He was translated, He-
noch, so that he might be an example and proof of repentance to future ages at the end of the world. For this is what the words "he was translated" indicate. For in order to be a living example of repentance to his own age, he would not have needed to be translated, but to remain surviving in life; since therefore he was translated, it is a sign that he is being reserved for future ages. Whence Tertullian, in the book On the Soul, chapter 50, speaking of Henoch and Elijah: "They are reserved to die," he says, "so that they may extinguish the Antichrist with their blood." And St. Augustine (or whoever the author is; for it does not seem to be St. Augustine's), Book I of the Wonders of Holy Scripture, chapter 3: "Henoch," he says, "still without death as a testimony of the last
time is reserved." The same St. Augustine, Book IX of the Literal Commentary on Genesis, chapter 9, assigns Henoch as a companion to the coming Elijah: so also St. Prosper, in the Half-Time, chapter 13, Caesarius, Dialogues 3 and 5, at the end, St. Gregory, Book XIV of the Moralia, 11, and Homily 2 on Ezekiel, Damascene, Book IV, chapter 27, and others generally, whom I cited on Apocalypse 11. Indeed St. Cyprian, or whoever the author is (for the style indicates it is not the work of St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage), in the treatise On Sinai and Zion, asserted that Henoch was named from this, that is "renewed," "because at the consummation of the world he is to be renewed in this world, to confound and refute the Antichrist." For just as he himself in his age renewed a world corrupted by lust and vices, so the same, returning at the end of the world and as if renewed, will renew that same world, now grown old, indeed decrepit, by the strength and vigor of his spirit.
Hence it is probable that this rapture of Henoch was in broad daylight and public, visible to all, indeed splendid and majestic, for example by angels appearing in a fiery chariot, or in a cloud, or in a glorified body; both because his extraordinary holiness and his communion with God and the Angels merited this; and because through his rapture he was established by God as an example of repentance and holy life for the men of his age, as well as for future ages; and because from this public rapture it was the common opinion and talk of men in every age that Henoch was caught up into paradise and would return from there to fight against the Antichrist; and finally, because his companion Elijah was caught up in a fiery chariot, 4 Kings 2; but Henoch was not inferior to Elijah; indeed Elijah was a son of Henoch, because he descended from him through Noah in a direct line of generations. Whence St. Ambrose, on Psalm 118, stanza 7: "Henoch," he says, "on account of his devotion was caught up to heaven and escaped the poison of earthly malice." Hence the same St. Ambrose, Book III on Luke, near the end, teaches that Henoch was a type of Christ: "Is not Henoch," he says, "a manifest sign of both the Lord's piety and divinity, in that the Lord did not taste death and returned to heaven, whose ancestor in lineage was caught up to heaven?" The same again, in the book On Paradise, chapter 3: "Henoch," he says, "who in Latin is called 'the grace of God,' was caught up to heaven," that is, into the air. And then: "Henoch is indeed a carbuncle, a stone
of good fragrance, which Henoch produced by his holy works, breathing forth a certain grace by his deeds and character. But Noah, like a Prasius stone, displayed a vital color. For at the time of the flood he alone, as the vital seed of the future establishment, was preserved in the ark." Finally, in the book On Isaac, chapter 8: "On these wings (of charity) Henoch flew, caught up to heaven."
Third Part of the Chapter: Encomium of Noah
17. NOAH WAS FOUND PERFECT, JUST, AND IN THE TIME OF WRATH HE BECAME A RECONCILIATION. -- Rabanus adds, "that he may give the nations repentance"; but the other Latin and Greek manuscripts have nothing of the sort. From Henoch, as the first herald of repentance in a world covered with vices, he proceeds to the second, namely Noah, who was Henoch's great-great-grandson; for Henoch begat Methuselah, who begat Lamech, whose son was Noah: therefore, just as Henoch was the seventh from Adam, so Noah was the tenth from the same, and in him the first decade of generations ends, and the first age of the world. Again, Henoch was caught up in the year of the world 987. But Noah's flood occurred in the year of the world 1656: therefore the flood was later than Henoch's translation by 669 years, during which, as men gradually fell more and more from faith and justice and rushed into every vice, so that all flesh had corrupted its way, God sent Noah to be a herald of repentance and by threatening the flood to bring men back to their senses. But when he attempted this in vain, men being hardened in wickedness, God, angry with the whole world, sent the flood, by which He destroyed all, with the sole exception of Noah. The word "just" can be joined with "perfect"; whence the Zurich Bible translates: "Noah was found perfectly just," as if to say, Noah was perfect in justice and holiness: or if you separate "just" from "perfect" by a comma, as the Roman edition, Rabanus, and others do, then "just" explains "perfect," as if to say, Noah was perfect because he was just par excellence, that is, by eminence, because he was most just and most holy, and thus the phoenix and sun of justice of his age; for he walked with God, "and," that is, therefore, "in the time of wrath," when God in His anger wished to destroy the entire human race, "he became a reconciliation," because he appeased God so that He would preserve the human race through him and his sons in the ark. He was therefore the seedbed of human nature and of the new age; whence he was also called Janus the two-faced, as I said in Genesis: Janus, because he was a life-giver and inventor of wine (for jain in Hebrew is wine); two-faced, because he saw two ages, one before and the other after the flood, and so, as Gregory of Nazianzus says: "Noah was the father of the second world." And in Oration 20: "Noah," he says, "received the ark committed to his faith, and of the second world
the seeds were entrusted to a small piece of wood and preserved against the force of the waters." The same, in the Poem on the Life of Christ: "O ark of Noah," he says, "alone rescued from the deadly waters, and bearing another world in a small seed, endowed with right and sound faith." Otherwise Ly-
ranus and Dionysius; for they judge that Noah is called a "reconciliation" because by his sacrifice he reconciled God to promise that He would no longer bring a cataclysm upon the world. But Sirach says this in verse 29.
For "reconciliation" in Greek is antallagma, that is, exchange, interchange, redemption and the price of redemption. The piety and holiness of Noah was therefore the price by which he, as it were, redeemed from God's justice both his own family, lest it be submerged in the common flood, and consequently the hope and propagation of the human race. Therefore "there was left" to him "a remnant of the earth," that is, a remaining seed on earth, by which the offspring of men was preserved from extermination. Whence Noah was a type of Christ the Redeemer, who by His blood, as by a price, purchased and redeemed the human race from destruction. See the commentary on 1 Peter 3:20-21.
Again, Noah was an antallagma and antallagos, that is, one exchanged, interchanged, a substitute, one put in another's place; because for the impious men of his age who perished in the flood, he was substituted and put in their place to preserve the seed and propagation of mankind. The Syriac: "Noah in the time of the flood became a recovery for the world, and on account of him there was deliverance." Less correctly the Zurich Bible translates antallagma as "reward"; for it translates: "To whom (Noah) in the time of punishment came a reward."
Our translator takes antallagma for katallagma, that is, conciliation, reconciliation, pacification, and so the Complutensian, Roman, and other editions generally understand it. Noah was therefore a reconciliation, that is, a remedy, a price, and the restoration of the human race which on account of its crimes had been condemned and adjudged to destruction by God. Whence St. Ambrose, on Psalm 118, stanza 7: "Noah," he says, "by reason of his justice, conqueror of the flood, was made the survivor of the human race." Therefore, to gather briefly what has been said, Noah in the time of wrath became a reconciliation, so that by the merit of his justice he might escape the flood, and by appeasing an angry God, might as it were redeem and reconcile the human race. Both are signified by the word "reconciliation," in Greek antallagma, that is, exchange, redemption, reconciliation; or the price which is offered for redeeming or reconciling; or the very thing which is exchanged, from the verb antallatto, that is, I exchange, I redeem. This, therefore, was the antallagma of God's wrath: first, because by offering, as it were, a certain price of his justice, he redeemed the world from destruction, and preserved himself with his family as the seedbed of human nature in the ark; second, because
also by offering from the holocausts which he offered to God, Genesis 8:20, "an odor of sweetness," as a kind of price or exchange for the stench of sins, offered to God's nostrils, he reconciled the world to God. "Therefore" in favor of Noah "there was left a remnant of the earth," namely the remains of both men and other living beings, which when the flood inundated all things were preserved in the ark and granted to the world; for te ge, that is, "of the earth," is a dative case, as if to say: To the earth itself, that is, to the earth-dwellers themselves, the remnants were granted.
See here how great was the holiness of Noah, and how much one eminently holy person can do before God; for Noah by his holiness resisted God who wished to destroy the entire human race, and as it were bound His hands, so that He would spare him and the race. So powerful is even one man who is perfect and extraordinarily holy.
Tropologically, Rabanus and Lyranus say: Noah signifies rulers who amid the waves of the world govern the ark, that is, the Church, and preach the baptism of repentance, appeasing God for the human race by prayers and sacrifices. So also St. Augustine on Psalm 132: "Noah," he says, "signifies the rulers of the Church, because he himself steered the ark in the flood."
18. THEREFORE THERE WAS LEFT A REMNANT OF THE EARTH, WHEN THE FLOOD OCCURRED. -- "Remnant" is here taken as a substantive; for it is the same as "remains"; for this is what kataleimma signifies, as if to say: On account of Noah's holiness, by which he reconciled an angry God to the earth and the human race, God granted him something remaining, that is, some remnants of mankind to inhabit and cultivate the earth and to propagate the human race lest it perish, namely Noah with his sons. For, as St. Peter says, 1 Epistle, chapter 3:20, in the ark "eight souls were saved." Whence the Syriac clearly translates: "And therefore he was made the remnant of the earth, when the flood occurred"; others: "Therefore there were remnants on the earth." With a similar phrase and meaning Isaiah says, chapter 1:9: "Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have been like Sodom and would have resembled Gomorrah," that is, we would have perished like Sodom and Gomorrah. Instead of "when the flood occurred," less correctly the Greek has: "Therefore the flood occurred"; for Noah was not preserved because of the flood, nor was the flood made because of Noah, unless you explain it in this sense, as if to say: So that Noah alone with his family might be left as the remnant of the earth, therefore the flood occurred; so that all the rest would be submerged by it; but Noah alone might swim out of it through the ark, which was God's intention.
Hence the Hebrews say that Noah saw and experienced three worlds: the first before the flood, most corrupt; the second in the flood, now submerged and destroyed; the third after the flood, being reborn and reflourishing from himself and his family. Therefore he received a blessing similar to Adam's: "Increase and multiply," etc., Genesis 9:1. Hence he also lived the longest of all, with the sole exception of Methuselah, so that he might both propagate and teach his posterity,
and establish them in the faith and worship of the one God. For Noah lived 950 years, while Methuselah lived 969 years. Furthermore, Methuselah was born in the year of the world 687. Since Adam lived 930 years, it follows that Methuselah lived with Adam for 242 years, so that he could have fully heard from him true philosophy and theology. Again, Noah was born in the year of the world 1056, and could have lived with Methuselah for 600 years, and received from him all sacred and natural knowledge, so that he might be a teacher to the new world being born from him. Whence St. Ambrose on Psalm 39: "Noah," he says, "was reserved for the seed of future generations, so that from him the seeds of justice might sprout among men." And in the book On Noah, chapter 1: "God reserved Noah for the renewal of the seed of men, so that he might be a seedbed of justice." Allegorically, Hugh: "Therefore," he says, "that is, by the merit of the passion of Christ (who in the time of wrath became the reconciler of the human race to God the Father, making peace through the blood of His cross, whether the things on earth or the things in heaven), there was left a remnant of the earth, that is, the human race was saved, when the flood occurred, namely of the blood and water flowing from the side of Christ."
19. THE COVENANTS OF THE WORLD WERE PLACED WITH HIM, THAT ALL FLESH MIGHT NOT BE DESTROYED BY A FLOOD. -- He calls "covenants" the pacts "of the world," that is, with the world, namely with Noah and the other men, his posterity, made by God, that He would not bring another flood upon the world by which all flesh of men and animals would again be submerged; or he calls the pacts "of the world" meaning eternal pacts, lasting for every age, to allude to "I will remember the everlasting covenant which was made between God and every living soul," Genesis 9:16, where He gives the rainbow as the sign and confirmation of this perpetual covenant. See the commentary there. Whence the Zurich Bible translates not so much literally as paraphrastically: "With him (Noah) an everlasting pact was made that all mortals would never be destroyed by a flood." So also the Syriac: "And God swore that there would be no more flood, oaths which He swore to him in truth, that all flesh would not perish." Understand "flood of water"; for by a flood of fire the world will perish and
the whole world will be burned on the day of judgment, as St. Peter teaches, 2 Epistle, chapter 3. Therefore God with Noah, as with a second Adam, the head of the entire human race, struck an eternal covenant, never to be violated, that men would never again be destroyed by a flood. This covenant, together with the rest of God's knowledge, faith, and worship, Noah handed down to his posterity after the flood (for he lived 350 years after the flood), but especially to Abraham, who lived with Noah while he was still alive for 58 years; for Abraham was born 292 years after the flood.
Similar to Noah was St. Basil, whom therefore St. Gregory of Nazianzus adorns with these praises in his epitaphs: "You alone have equaled both a life worthy of your teaching and a teaching worthy of your life: as there is one God who reigns on high, so our age has seen you, Basil, as the one worthy pontiff, the most eloquent herald of the truth.
the most brilliant eye of Christians, shining with the manifold beauty of his soul, and still the illustrious glory and ornament of Pontus and Cappadocia. I humbly pray you to stand for the world and to offer gifts." And below: "Basil, the great glory of Christ, the pillar of priests and of the city, now divided into many parts, etc. Your speech was thunder, your life was lightning."
Fourth Part of the Chapter: Encomium of Abraham and Isaac
20. ABRAHAM, THE GREAT FATHER OF A MULTITUDE OF NATIONS, AND THERE WAS NOT FOUND ONE LIKE HIM IN GLORY. -- The Zurich Bible: "The great Abraham, father of many nations, nor did a glory equal to his exist"; the Syriac: "Abraham, father of assemblies of peoples, and no blemish was found in his glory." This is the third Patriarch and restorer of the world in the faith and worship of God, namely "Abraham," who was "great" in election, in holiness, in honor. He alludes to the etymology of Abram and Abraham; for at first he was called Abram, as if ab ram, that is, "exalted father," then by God he was called Abraham, as if ab ram hamon, that is, "father of a great multitude of nations" from him to be born and propagated, partly according to the flesh (as were the Jews), partly according to faith and spirit (as are the faithful and Christians, who imitate the faith of Abraham). See the commentary on Genesis 17:5.
AND THERE WAS NOT FOUND ONE LIKE HIM IN GLORY -- both on account of his extraordinary faith and holiness, by which he was made and called the father of believers, that is, of the faithful and saints; and because God entered into a singular covenant with him and his posterity, and gave him the new religion of circumcision and Judaism; and finally because He promised him the Messiah, namely that from his posterity Christ would be born, in whom all nations would be blessed. You will gather more from the commentary on Genesis 12 and following chapters, whence St. Ambrose, on Psalm 118: "Abraham," he says, "on account of faith, spread the seedbed of his posterity throughout the whole world: Israel (Jacob), on account of his endurance of labors, consecrated the believing people with the seal of his own name." The same, in the book On Abraham, and elsewhere: "Abraham," he says, "father of faith, prince of the family of the Gentiles (for Abraham was a Gentile before circumcision), and of the Lord's generation, father of the election of pious confession, made heir of the world through the justice of faith, most brave and most patient, a fountain of devotion and faith, a pattern of all virtues." Finally, in the ancient Church, namely in the synagogue of the Jews, no one had as much veneration and glory as Abraham, as its father, founder, and Patriarch.
Limbo is called the bosom of Abraham: so great was Abraham.
A similar eulogy Theodoric, king of the Goths, gave to St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Pavia, who in his age was the father and salvation of Italy, as Blessed Ennodius reports in his Life. For Theodoric speaks of him thus: "Behold a man whose like the whole East does not have: to have seen him is a reward, to dwell with him is security. The city of Pavia, while he is safe, is surrounded by the strongest wall: which no force of attackers can overwhelm, which no cast of a Balearic sling can surpass. If any necessity arises amid the waves of battles, it is safe to entrust to this man one's mother and household, and unencumbered to serve in the expeditions of wars." For he, besides many other things, rebuilt Pavia, which had been demolished and destroyed by King Odoacer, as a Papa, that is, father of the fatherland, and gave it the name Pavia; in which Theodoric then established the seat of his kingdom.
A similar eulogy is found in Pirke Avoth, that is, in the Apophthegms of the Hebrew fathers, chapter 2, where Rabbi Joseph gave to his disciple Rabbi Eliezer, saying: "Eliezer, son of Hyrcanus, is such, and of such known and proven virtue, that I can freely affirm of him that even if all the sages of Israel were placed on one side of a balance, he alone placed on the other would make an equilibrium of wisdom." A similar testimony of innocence, purity, and candor, surpassing all his disciples, Alexander of Hales gave to his disciple St. Bonaventure, saying: "Bonaventure is so innocent that he does not seem to have sinned in Adam."
WHO PRESERVED THE LAW (the Syriac: the words) OF THE MOST HIGH. -- Incorrectly Dionysius reads "would preserve"; for the Greek and Latin manuscripts, as well as the Interpreters, consistently read "preserved." The author of the Epistle in the Mass of the Common of a Confessor Pontiff followed Dionysius: "Behold the great priest," etc., which epistle is fashioned from various verses of this chapter and the next, with some added and some omitted, namely from this verse 20 omitting "in glory," from verses 22 and 25, and from the following chapter verses 8, 19, and 20; but changed and adapted to a Pontiff.
"The law," both natural and positive, by which he was commanded by God to go out from his land and his kindred, to be a pilgrim his whole life, to sacrifice his son Isaac, to expel Ishmael with Hagar his wife from his home, to circumcise himself and his household, etc.; for in these and all other things commanded him by God, however difficult and arduous, Abraham promptly obeyed
God, and immediately carried them out: therefore he was most dear to God, so much so that He entered into a special covenant with him not once but a second and a third time, by which He promised him His every blessing. Whence he adds of him:
AND HE WAS IN A COVENANT (that is, a pact) WITH HIM -- as if to say: God deigned to make a pact with Abraham, as with a friend and associate, indeed as an equal with an equal, and to enter into a covenant. The first covenant was in Genesis 15, when to ratify it Abraham sacrificed a cow, a goat, and a ram, divided them through the middle, and God in the form of fire passed through the middle of the covenant victims in the manner of the ancients: whence in verse 18 it says: "On that day the Lord struck a covenant with Abram." The second was the covenant of circumcision, Genesis 17; a third could be added, when he sacrificed Isaac; for on account of this sacrifice God renewed and confirmed the pacts and promises made to him, and added another far greater one concerning the Messiah who would be born from him: "In your seed," He says, "shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice," Genesis 22:18.
Second, "he was in a covenant" could be explained as if to say: Abraham stood by the pacts entered into with God, that is, he constantly fulfilled the conditions of the pact required by God, namely he obeyed God's commands in all things, so that the latter part of the verse pertains to the same thing as the former, namely to the preservation of the law of the Most High. Whence the Zurich Bible translates: "He kept the law of the Most High and remained in the covenant with Him": by "covenant" understand the conditions and laws of the pact; for about the covenant itself, or pact, he adds in the following verse.
Finally, the word "who" is taken for "because"; for it gives the reason why there was none "like him in glory," namely because he preserved in all things the law of the Most High. Whence the Syriac: "Who kept the decrees of the Most High and entered into a covenant with Him."
21. IN HIS FLESH HE MADE THE COVENANT TO STAND (the Syriac: In his flesh the covenant was established), AND IN TEMPTATION HE WAS FOUND FAITHFUL. -- Two things, says Jansenius, this sentence commemorates which are illustrious in Abraham. One, that "in the flesh
he made the covenant to stand," that is, God established His pact, when He commanded him the circumcision of the flesh as a sign and confirmation of the covenant entered into with him, and this most aptly and fittingly. For since the pact of God contained certain things pertaining not only to himself but also to his seed, namely that He would be the God of his seed after him, that He would give his seed the promised land, that his seed would be multiplied like the sand of the sea, and that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed (which was to be accomplished only through Christ to be born from him), rightly in the member of generation the sign of that covenant was established, so that by this sign the seed of Abraham, to which those promises about the seed pertained, might be distinguished from the rest of the nations. Therefore God marked Abraham with his posterity, as His servants, with the brand of circumcision,
so that, as servants signed by God, they alone would serve Him; and God in turn, as their Lord, would nourish, protect, and bless them as His own servants.
Note: For "in his flesh" it can be translated "in his own flesh." So the Zurich Bible: "He made the pact firm," it says, "in his own body"; others: "With his flesh he confirmed the covenant." For it pertains to the outstanding praise of Abraham that, in order to obey God and enter into a covenant with Him, he himself, on behalf of himself and his whole family and all his posterity, voluntarily undertook so hard a condition of the covenant, and circumcised his own and his family's flesh, indeed that he everywhere proclaimed the circumcision of the flesh as a sign of the pact entered into with God, and gloried in it.
The other illustrious deed of Abraham was that "he was found faithful in temptation," by which God tested his faith and obedience, commanding him to sacrifice his son Isaac, from whom shortly before He had promised a numerous offspring, and indeed Christ the Lord: obedience, because he sacrificed his only son, most dear to him; faith, because he firmly believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead, so that He might provide the posterity promised from him. Whence the Apostle, Romans 4:18, says of him: "Who against hope believed in hope," namely against the hope of nature he believed in the hope of grace and divine providence, that God would raise Isaac; and Hebrews 11:17: "By faith Abraham offered Isaac when he was tried, and he who had received the promises offered his only-begotten son, to whom it was said: 'Because in Isaac shall your seed be called,' accounting that God is able even to raise from the dead: whence he also received him as a parable," and a manifold one, as I explained in that place.
Wherefore no one has sufficiently praised the vigorous and manly strength of Abraham's spirit, by which he so bravely conquered paternal affection that he shed no tears; so steadfastly carried out God's commands that he did not pause for even a moment of time; so manfully completed the sacrifice that he drew the sword upon the neck of Isaac. Wherefore he is deservedly distinguished by St. Chrysostom, in the Homily on Abraham, with this eulogy: "A Mar-
tyr living and not living, dead and not dead." And Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 41: "Venerable Abraham," he says, "that patriarch, that dear and august head, that abode of all virtues, the norm of virtue, the perfection of the priesthood, who offers to God a voluntary sacrifice, namely his only-begotten son, and one received through the promise."
Furthermore, Palacius explains thus: "There was not found one like him in glory," namely the glory of faith. For he believed (when he was already very old and the womb of Sarah was dead) that his seed would be like the stars of heaven, as Paul relates. Then second, there was none like him with whom the Lord would speak so frequently and familiarly, and to whom He would promise so much; third,
you have done this thing, and have not spared your only-begotten son for My sake: I will bless you, and I will multiply your seed like the stars of heaven, and like the sand that is on the seashore: your seed shall possess the gates of their enemies." Then He adds the greatest promise concerning Christ, saying: "In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Whence Jansenius considers that this is signified here when he says: "He gave him glory in his nation"; for the supreme glory of Abraham was that in his seed all nations were to be blessed, because from him Christ was to be born, in whom, in imitation of the faith of Abraham, all nations were to believe, and through faith were to be blessed with faithful Abraham. Whence the Greek text in this place has: "Therefore by an oath He established, or confirmed, that nations would be blessed in his seed"; for our author calls this blessing "glory in his nation." Second, you may take "glory" here in a broader sense, namely that he was to be the father of a numerous and holy nation, that is, the father of the faithful and of the saints, among whom nevertheless the first and chief was Christ. Whence Rabanus reads: "He gave him seed in his nation," which he explains when he adds "to grow," that is, so that it would grow, "like a heap of earth," namely of sand, "and to exalt his seed like the stars," that is, so that He would exalt "his seed" both in glory, in number, in wealth, in kingdom, in victories, in the temple, in oracles, etc., "and that they should inherit" from "the sea," namely the Western sea, "to the sea," namely the Dead Sea, "and from the great river," the Euphrates, "to the ends of the land," not of the whole earth, but of Palestine, in which Abraham then dwelt, whose peoples he had enumerated in Genesis 15.
Allegorically, however, this is true of the whole earth in Christ the son of Abraham, who obtained all the ends of the world and subjected them to Himself and to His faith and Church.
Furthermore, the Zurich Bible translates thus: "Wherefore it was confirmed to him by oath that the nations were to be blessed through his seed, and that he himself was to be multiplied like earthly dust (for the Greek χοῦν signifies both dust and earth), and that his posterity was to be raised to the stars, and that they would have their dwelling places from sea to sea, and from the river to the end of the earth." The Syriac: "Therefore God swore oaths to him that all peoples would be blessed in his seed, to multiply his seed like the sand of the sea, and to give his seed above all peoples, to make them inherit from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth." This promise was fulfilled in David, who ruled over nearly all the land promised in this passage, as is gathered from 2 Samuel 8. And in Solomon, as is clear from 1 Kings 4.
22 and 23. THEREFORE BY AN OATH HE GAVE HIM GLORY IN HIS NATION, TO INCREASE HIM AS THE DUST OF THE EARTH, AND TO EXALT HIS SEED AS THE STARS, AND TO CAUSE THEM TO INHERIT FROM SEA TO SEA, AND FROM THE RIVER TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.
24. AND IN ISAAC HE DID IN LIKE MANNER (the Syriac, "He swore") BECAUSE OF ABRAHAM HIS FATHER. -- For "He did," the Greek is ἔστησε, that is, He established, constituted, confirmed, as if to say: The oath by which God swore to give Abraham and his posterity, first, the promised land; second, ample posterity; third, the blessing of all nations in Christ who was to be born from him -- this He transferred from the dying Abraham not to Ishmael, but to Isaac his son by Sarah, and established and confirmed it upon the head of Isaac, so that these three goods promised by God would pass to him, and be derived to his posterity, not that of his brother Ishmael, and He did this on account of the merits of Abraham his father. For to Isaac God speaks thus, Genesis 26: "I will be with you, and I will bless you: for to you and to your seed I will give all these lands, fulfilling the oath that I pledged to Abraham your father. And I will multiply your seed like the stars of heaven. In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because Abraham obeyed My voice."
The Greek text connects this verse with the following one; whence the Zurich Bible translates and connects both thus: "With Isaac likewise it was established because of Abram his father: that all men were to be gifted with happiness, and that the pact was ratified upon the head of Jacob in rest." Others: "And in Isaac He established these things because of Abraham his father, namely the blessing of all men, and the covenant that rested upon the head of Jacob."
Now the first and principal reason why God transferred His covenant and His promises to Isaac, not to Ishmael, was His free will and election; the secondary reasons were: first, that Abraham begot Isaac from Sarah his primary wife, but Ishmael from Hagar the handmaid; by the law of nations therefore Isaac succeeded Abraham, not Ishmael. Second, that Abraham loved Isaac more than Ishmael. Third, the faith and obedience of Isaac, by which, imitating his father Abraham, he consented to him when he wished to sacrifice him to God, and voluntarily offered himself as a victim; whence the question arises, whose virtue and obedience was greater, that of Abraham sacrificing his son, or that of Isaac being sacrificed? I reviewed the arguments on both sides in Genesis 22.
Furthermore, this was done as a figure of the Lord's Passion, says Rabanus, so that Abraham would represent God the Father sacrificing His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world.
23. THE LORD GAVE HIM THE BLESSING OF ALL NATIONS, AND CONFIRMED THE COVENANT UPON THE HEAD OF JACOB. -- The Syriac: "The blessing of all the ancients rested upon the head of Israel, whom He called, 'My firstborn son Israel.'" As if to say: God arranged that from Isaac, not from Ishmael, Christ would be born, promised to Abraham and his seed, in whom all nations were to be blessed, that is, justified and saved, or, as the Zurich Bible translates, made happy. For the blessing of all nations is nothing other than the grace and glory promised and bestowed by God upon all nations believing in Christ and obeying Him, as is clear from the cited passages of Genesis. Wherefore some less correctly take "blessing" here actively, as meaning the praise by which all nations were to praise Isaac and bless him on account of these promises of God bestowed upon him.
AND HE CONFIRMED THE COVENANT UPON THE HEAD OF JACOB, as if to say: God confirmed the covenant entered into by Him with Abraham and
Isaac He established upon the head of Jacob, not of his brother Esau, and willed that it should be ratified and firm in Jacob and his posterity; the Greek has κατέπαυσεν, that is, "He made to rest," according to that saying: "I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated" (Malachi 1). God accomplished this for Jacob in Genesis 28:13, when Jacob, sleeping, saw a ladder by which angels ascended and descended, and heard God leaning upon the ladder saying to him: "I am the Lord God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you sleep I will give to you and to your seed. And your seed shall be like the dust of the earth: you shall spread to the West, and to the East, and to the North, and to the South: and in you and in your seed shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed."
Fifth Part of the Chapter: The Encomium of Jacob
26. HE ACKNOWLEDGED HIM IN HIS BLESSINGS, AND GAVE HIM AN INHERITANCE, AND DIVIDED HIS PORTION AMONG THE TWELVE TRIBES. -- The Syriac: "He gave him an inheritance, and established him the father of the tribes, and he went forth and was divided into twelve tribes." God's "acknowledging" is not bare and idle, but efficacious and affectionate, because it is joined with favor, love, benevolence, and beneficence. For thus God acknowledges His predestined and elect when He prepares and grants them grace and glory, according to that saying: "The Lord knows who are His" (2 Timothy 2:19). Conversely, on the day of judgment, condemning the reprobate, He will say to them: "I never knew you: depart from Me, you who work iniquity" (Matthew 7:23). In a similar way a father acknowledges his son when he nourishes, teaches, and makes him his heir; and a ewe acknowledges her lamb when she admits it to her teats and excludes another's; and a hen her chicks, when she receives the legitimate ones under her wings and repels the illegitimate.
"God therefore acknowledged Jacob in blessings," that is, He favored, fostered, and loved him by doing good to him and giving him the inheritance of the promised land, namely Canaan. Whence the Zurich Bible translates: "God assisted him with His inspiration," as if to say: God breathed upon Jacob His favor, grace, and help. Second, God properly "acknowledged" Jacob "in blessings" when He established him as the legitimate son and heir of Abraham, likewise the heir of the blessings promised by Him to Abraham, and excluded Esau from them as less approved; and therefore to Jacob, not Esau, He gave the possession of the promised land -- to the person of Jacob, I say, He gave it in hope and promise, but to his posterity He gave it through Joshua in reality and possession.
Furthermore, God blessed Jacob on many occasions: first, through his father, when Isaac blessed him and bestowed on him the right of primogeniture over Esau (Genesis 27). Second, when he saw and heard God leaning upon the ladder and blessing him (Genesis 28). Third, when, wrestling with the angel and prevailing over him, he was blessed by him and called Israel (Genesis 32:28). Fourth, when, having cast away the idols of his household, he worshiped God at Bethel (Genesis 35:9).
AND HE DIVIDED HIS PORTION AMONG THE TWELVE TRIBES. By "portion" Jansenius and others understand the inheritance or hereditary share, namely the land of Canaan, which was the entire inheritance promised by God to Jacob; for God divided this among the twelve tribes descended and propagated from the twelve sons of Jacob. Whence the Complutensian text reads: "And He divided his portion among the tribes, which He divided into twelve." Second, by "portion" can properly be understood the part of the inheritance, or of the promised land, which Joshua by God's command divided and measured out to each tribe (chapter 15), as if to say: God divided the inheritance for him, that is, for Jacob, apportioning it into parts "among the tribes," that is, through the "twelve" tribes, so that to each tribe He would assign its own part, proportionate and due to it from the equal division of the whole land; for "portion" is taken distributively, since He assigned to each individual tribe its part by equal right of division. Whence the Greeks, Romans, and others, reading μερίδες in the plural (that is, "portions") instead of μερίδος (that is, "portion"), have it thus: "And He divided his portions, and parceled them out among twelve tribes"; for there were as many portions of land as there were tribes, namely twelve. The Zurich Bible: "He distributed the portions of the same (inheritance), and divided it among twelve tribes." For although the tribe of Levi, being sacerdotal, did not have a portion of Canaan, but God, that is, the offerings and sacrifices of God, were its portion and inheritance, yet in place of Levi the tribe of Joseph succeeded, which, divided by Jacob into two, namely Ephraim and Manasseh, completed the number of twelve tribes of Israel, that is, descended from Jacob who was called Israel (Genesis 48:13).
27. AND HE PRESERVED FOR HIM MEN OF MERCY, FINDING GRACE IN THE EYES OF ALL FLESH -- as if to say: God granted Jacob this favor, that from among his posterity in every age some men of mercy would arise, who would guide, foster, nourish, and protect their fellow tribesmen, and especially preserve and advance them in the true faith and worship of God. Such were Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Phinehas, about whom the following chapter speaks. Whence the Syriac: "And from him went forth righteous men, and he found mercy in the eyes of all the living." The Greek reads in the singular, "a man" and "finding," and some refer this to Joseph, who nourished his brothers and was gracious to Pharaoh and the Egyptians; others to Moses, about whom the text immediately continues. Whence the Zurich Bible and some others begin chapter 45 from this point, and translate thus: "And He brought forth from him a man of mercy, or a pious man." The Zurich Bible: "From this one a vessel
He begot one who obtained mercy, gracious in the eyes of all mortals, and dear alike to God and to men: Moses, whose memory is blessed. For of Moses it is said, Exodus 11:3: "And Moses was a very great man in the land of Egypt, before the servants of Pharaoh and all the people."
Furthermore, Rabanus reads the text thus: "And He preserved for him mercy finding grace in the eyes of all flesh." But in his Commentary he reads thus: "He preserved for him His mercy, and he found grace," etc. Following this, the author of the Epistle "Behold a great priest," etc., which is read in the Mass of the Common of a Confessor Bishop, reads: "He preserved for him His mercy, and he found grace before the eyes of the Lord"; which words he adapted from his own understanding, as more fitting for a holy Bishop, changing "flesh" to "the Lord"; because all Bishops were gracious in the eyes of the Lord, but not all in the eyes of all men: for many who chastised the vices of the people and the rulers (as they were bound to do by their office) were hated and detested by them. Moreover, the same author compiled that entire Epistle from the more illustrious passages of this chapter and the following one; and the things said about Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, and Phinehas, he applied to any holy Bishop, with certain changes, just as St. Bernard adapts the sayings of Sacred Scripture to the Saints. For Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and all the others already reviewed were priests and pontiffs, as firstborn sons or as those possessing the right of primogeniture, in which was contained the right of the priesthood.
Allegorically, Rabanus writes: "The covenant was confirmed upon the head of Jacob, that is, of the Gentile people, who came later to the grace of faith and the regeneration of baptism. Yet to him came the fullness of the paternal blessing; and He gave him an inheritance, namely of the heavenly fatherland; and He divided for him a portion among twelve tribes, so that, instructed through the twelve Apostles, he might together with them possess the eternal kingdom of God. For him the Lord preserved His mercy, that he might have grace in the eyes of all flesh; because the Church of Christ is honored by all nations, and is proclaimed throughout the whole world with fitting praise on account of the worship of the true God."