Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He continues the prayer and petitions up to verse 9; then he teaches that both Jews and Gentiles perished on account of their neglect of wisdom: for in wisdom lies immortality, salvation, and blessedness; therefore it must be sought from God, and God became incarnate in order to teach it to mankind.
Note: By wisdom he understands practical wisdom, namely the knowledge, love, and worship of God, that is, the observance of God's law: for this is what wisdom signifies in the Proverbs and in all the sapiential books: so Theodoret.
Vulgate Text: Baruch 3:1-38
1. And now, Lord Almighty, God of Israel, a soul in anguish and a troubled spirit cries out to You: 2. Hear, Lord, and have mercy, for You are a merciful God, and have mercy on us: for we have sinned before You. 3. For You sit forever, and shall we perish for eternity? 4. Lord Almighty, God of Israel, hear now the prayer of the dead of Israel, and of their children who have sinned before You, and have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord their God, and evils have clung to us. 5. Do not remember the iniquities of our fathers, but remember Your hand and Your name at this time: 6. for You are the Lord our God, and we will praise You, Lord: 7. for on this account You have placed Your fear in our hearts, and that we might call upon Your name, and praise You in our captivity, for we turn away from the iniquity of our fathers, who sinned before You. 8. And behold we are in our captivity today, where You have scattered us as a reproach, and a curse, and a punishment for sin, according to all the iniquities of our fathers, who departed from You, Lord our God. 9. Hear, Israel, the commandments of life: give ear, that you may know prudence. 10. What is it, Israel, that you are in the land of your enemies? 11. You have grown old in a foreign land, you are defiled with the dead: you are counted among those who go down to hell. 12. You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom; 13. for if you had walked in the way of God, you would indeed have dwelt in everlasting peace. 14. Learn where prudence is, where strength is, where understanding is: that you may know at the same time where length of life and sustenance are, where the light of the eyes and peace are. 15. Who has found its place? and who has entered into its treasures? 16. Where are the princes of the nations, and those who rule over the beasts that are upon the earth? 17. who sport with the birds of the sky, 18. who hoard silver and gold, in which men trust, and there is no end to their acquiring? who fashion silver and are anxious, yet there is no reckoning of their works? 19. They have been destroyed, and gone down to hell, and others have risen in their place. 20. Young men have seen the light, and dwelt upon the earth: but the way of discipline they did not know, 21. nor did they understand its paths, nor did their children receive it; it was made far from their face: 22. it was not heard in the land of Canaan, nor was it seen in Teman. 23. The children of Hagar also, who seek the prudence that is of the earth, the merchants of Merrha and Teman, and the storytellers, and the seekers of prudence and understanding: yet the way of wisdom they did not know, nor did they remember its paths. 24. O Israel, how great is the house of God, and how vast the place of His possession! 25. It is great and has no end: lofty and immense. 26. There were the famous giants, who from the beginning were of great stature, skilled in war. 27. The Lord did not choose these,
nor did they find the way of discipline: therefore they perished. 28. And because they did not have wisdom, they perished on account of their foolishness. 29. Who has ascended into heaven, and taken it, and brought it down from the clouds? 30. Who has crossed the sea, and found it? and brought it instead of choice gold? 31. There is no one who can know its ways, nor anyone who can search out its paths: 32. but He who knows all things, knows it, and found it by His wisdom: He who prepared the earth for eternal time, and filled it with cattle and four-footed beasts: 33. He who sends forth the light, and it goes: and He called it, and it obeyed Him with trembling. 34. And the stars gave their light in their watches, and rejoiced; 35. they were called, and they said: We are here: and they shone for Him with gladness, who made them. 36. This is our God, and no other shall be esteemed in comparison with Him. 37. He found out all the way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob His servant, and to Israel His beloved. 38. Afterwards He was seen upon earth, and conversed with men.
Verse 1: In anguish
1. In anguish. — For then the soul, being constrained, has recourse to God as its only consolation, and God has promised help to such persons. Finally, the Synagogue here sets forth its anguish and miseries, so as to move God to mercy by them. For He Himself said, Psalm 49:15: "Call upon Me in the day of tribulation: I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me." Thus all who were pressed by anguish and cried out to God were aided by Him. Thus Anna cast off the reproach of barrenness, when by weeping and groaning before God she obtained Samuel, 1 Kings 1:10. Thus David: "In my trouble, he says, I cried to the Lord: and He heard me," Psalm 119:1. Thus Jonah, chapter 2, in the belly of the whale invoked God: "When my soul, he says, was in distress within me, I remembered the Lord: that my prayer might come to You, to Your holy temple, etc. And the Lord spoke to the fish: and it vomited Jonah onto dry land." Thus Tobias in anguish, praying with tears, was heard, chapter 3, verse 24.
Hear also Cicero, book 3 of the Tusculan Disputations: "Theophrastus, he says, when dying is said to have accused nature because it gave a long life to deer and crows, for whom it mattered nothing, but gave so short a life to men, for whom it would have mattered greatly: for if their lifespan could have been longer, it would have come about that by all the perfected arts, human life would be instructed in all learning." The same was the complaint of Aristotle, according to Seneca, in his book On the Brevity of Life, chapter 1. There is also the fact that the end of life, namely the year and day of death, are uncertain to us, but seize us unexpectedly like a thief in the night, as Saint Paul says. Therefore Saint Augustine wisely warns, sermon 120 On Time: "The day that is accustomed to get ahead of us must be gotten ahead of." The day of death is accustomed to catch men unprepared; it must be anticipated by the prudent and those who love their salvation through diligent premeditation and preparation. Thus the pagan Seneca anticipated this day, so as to regard every day as his last; for so he says in epistle 94: "I did not prepare myself for that day which greedy hope had promised me as the last, but I regarded every day as the last." The greedy hope of life promises many years; restrain this hope, it will not deceive you: count each day as your last, prepare yourself for death, nay for immortality: Believe that each day has dawned as your last.
Verse 3: For You sit (that is, You remain and endure) forever, and sh...
3. For You sit (that is, You remain and endure) forever, and shall we perish for eternity? — As if to say: Since You live an eternal life, will You allow us to die so quickly, and to perish forever? For through and after this life we continually tend toward eternal death, so that, dead to this world, we may no longer return to it. This is what Saint Job says, chapter 14: "Man born of woman, living for a short time, etc. Who comes forth like a flower and is crushed, and flees like a shadow."
Therefore Seneca rightly says, epistle 115: "Nothing, he says, will profit you as much for temperance in all things as the frequent consideration of the brevity of life, and of its uncertainty. Whatever you do, look to death." And Martial, book 5 of the Epigrams: Why do you always say you will live tomorrow, Posthumus? Tell me, this tomorrow, Posthumus, when does it come? How far off is this tomorrow? Where is it, or whence must it be sought? Does it perhaps lurk among the Parthians and Armenians? This tomorrow of yours already has the years of Priam or Nestor. This tomorrow, tell me, for how much can it be bought? You will live tomorrow; to begin living today, Posthumus, is already too late. He is wise, whoever, Posthumus, has lived yesterday.
Indeed Hippocrates too, at the beginning of his Definitions: "The art, he says, is long, life is short." The same, in his epistle to Damagetus: "Man, he says, from birth is entirely a disease." And what is disease, if not the way and beginning of death? The same, in the same place: "Man, he says, while being reared, is useless and implores the help of others: while growing, he is insolent, foolish, in need of a tutor: while in his prime, he is reckless: while declining, he is wretched, when he foolishly recounts and boasts of his labors." Solon, when asked what man was, said: "He is rottenness at birth, a bubble throughout his whole life, food for worms in death." Rightly therefore Lucretius exclaims, and sighs and groans: O wretched minds of men, O blind hearts! In what darkness of life, and in what great dangers is spent whatever time of this life there is!
Saint Jerome brilliantly says in his Epitaph of Nepotian: "Xerxes, he says, that most powerful king, who overturned mountains and paved the seas, when from a lofty place he had seen an infinite multitude of men and a countless army, is said to have wept because after a hundred years none of those whom he then beheld would survive. O if we could ascend to such a watchtower, from which we might behold the whole earth beneath our feet, I would show you the ruins of the entire world, nations dashed against nations and kingdoms against kingdoms; some being tortured, others slain, others swallowed by waves, others dragged into slavery; here weddings, there lamentations; some being born, others dying; some abounding in luxury, others begging; and not the army of Xerxes alone, but all the people of the whole world who now live, destined to pass away in a short space. Speech is overcome by the magnitude of the reality, and everything we say falls short. Let us therefore return to ourselves, and as if descending from heaven let us briefly observe our own condition. Do you perceive, I ask you, when you became an infant, when a boy, when a youth, when of robust age, when old? We die daily, we are changed daily, and yet we believe ourselves eternal. This very thing that I dictate, that is written, that I re-read, that I correct, is taken from my life. As many punctuation marks as the scribe makes, so many are the losses of my time. We write and we copy: the seas of our letters pass by; and as the keel cuts its furrow, with each wave the moments of our age are diminished. The only profit we have is that we are united by the love of Christ."
Hear the touching epitaph of Blessed Peter Damian, who, having laid aside the cardinalate purple and the bishopric of Ostia, voluntarily withdrew to his hermitage, out of desire for solitude and contemplation, and died in holiness in the year of the Lord 1072. He composed it himself: What you now are, we were: what we are, you yourself shall be. Let no faith be placed in these things that you see perishing. Trifles will outrun what is real, dreams will outrun truths, Ages succeed upon brief times. Live mindful of death, that you may ever live, Whatever is present passes: behold, what remains is coming. How well he provided, who left you, evil world, Choosing to die to the flesh before dying by the flesh to you. Prefer heavenly things to earthly, lasting things to fleeting, Let the mind, set free, return to its own origin. Let the spirit seek the heights, let it run back to the fountain whence it came: Let it look down upon whatever drags it down to the depths. Be mindful, I pray, of me; kindly look upon the ashes of Peter: With prayer, with groaning say: Spare him, O God.
In Greek, for 'forever' and 'eternity,' the same word is αἰών, as if ἀεὶ ὤν, that is, 'ever existing,' as if to say, says Theodoret: You are eternal, we are temporal, indeed of almost no age at all. For eternal life belongs to You, destruction and eternal death to us; You live forever, we die and perish forever; You have the αἰών, or age, of life, we the age of death: for once dead to this life, we will not return to it again forever. Have mercy therefore, O Eternal One, on mortals and on our mortality: for it is so fragile that, just as from its life, so also from rectitude and virtue it daily falls and sins: we therefore greatly need Your mercy, since You do not need our misery; what greatly avails to obtain mercy is both the weakness of the one asking and the celebrated power of the one from whom it is sought. Thus the Psalmist says, Psalm 102:13: "As a father has compassion on his children, the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him: for He Himself knows our frame. He has remembered that we are dust." So Maldonatus.
Verse 4: Hear now the prayer of the dead of Israel,
4. Hear now the prayer of the dead of Israel, — namely of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the other holy patriarchs, who while they lived prayed, and now dead in limbo pray for their descendants. So Hugh and Lyranus. For thus Judas Maccabeus saw Jeremiah, already deceased, praying for the salvation of the people, 2 Maccabees 15:14. But because he calls these dead 'sinners,' since he calls their children 'children of τῶν ἁμαρτανόντων,' that is, of sinners; hence it is better to understand by 'the dead' those who had recently and lately departed this life, who although they had sinned, nevertheless had departed penitent, and therefore in limbo, just as in life and death, they prayed for the freedom of their children. From this it is evident that the soul remains after death and is immortal, says Theodoret. It can thirdly be explained with Maldonatus thus: "The prayer of the dead," that is, our prayer, who are so afflicted that we seem to differ in nothing from the dead, as verse 11 says: "And (that is, therefore) evils have clung (that is, tenaciously adhere) to us."
Verse 5: Remember Your hand,
5. Remember Your hand, — that is, Your power, which You have often exerted on behalf of Your people, and displayed to the whole world, as if to say: Do not consider what we deserve, but what befits Your accustomed power, assistance, and glory.
Verse 7: You have placed Your fear in our hearts
7. You have placed Your fear in our hearts. — That is, You terrified us by afflicting us with many disasters and calamities, so that we might learn to fear and reverence You. We turn back. — In Greek ἀπεστρέψαμεν, we have turned away from the sins of our fathers. So Theodoret. Otherwise Vatablus: We turn back, he says, to our heart, we revolve in our mind, we remember the sins of our fathers, on account of which they were punished. Otherwise also Maldonatus: We had returned, he says, to the disposition (and to) all the iniquity of our fathers. But the first sense is the most plain, and our Vulgate, the Latin edition, requires it.
Verse 8: Into sin
8. Into sin — That is, into the punishment and reproach of sin, so that we are called by all great sinners, because on account of our sins we suffer such great calamities. So Hugh and Lyranus. Otherwise Dionysius: "Into sin, he says, that is, into the occasions of sin, for example, of idolatry, which we have in our continual association with the idolatrous Chaldeans. Thirdly, in Greek it is ὄφλησις, that is, a debt, which is owed to the treasury, as if to say: Here in captivity we are burdened with tributes, and consequently with debts and borrowed money. So Vatablus.
Verse 9: Hear, Israel
9. Hear, Israel. — Here the prayer ends, and the second part of the book begins, namely the admonition to repentance and prudence, that is, to take up again and observe the law of God: for it was by neglecting this that they had fallen into the calamities of captivity. Here therefore is a pathetic apostrophe to the people with an emphatic oration.
10 and 11. What is it? (as if to say: Consider what is the cause of so great an evil, of so long an exile of yours; for) you have grown old (that is, you have aged) in a foreign land, — in Chaldea. You are defiled with the dead, — as if to say: In Babylon you dwell as in a tomb, as if already dead among the dead, so great is your filth, so great your squalor. This is clear from what follows. For the dead or corpses are defiled both naturally and morally under the old law. You are counted among those who go down to hell. — Hell here signifies the state of the dead, for the body descended underground to the tomb, the soul to the underworld. So Theodoret. The Hebrews are accustomed to compare the very wretched and squalid to the dead. For thus David says, Psalm 27:1: "Lest at any time You be silent to me, and I shall be like those who descend into the pit;" and Psalm 87:5: "I have been counted among those who descend into the pit: I have become like a man without help, free among the dead."
Otherwise Hugh and Lyranus, as if to say: "You are defiled with the dead," namely spiritually, that is, with sinners, namely the Chaldeans, contaminated by whose vices, like them you are consigned to hell. This sense is more mystical than literal; following which Saint Bernard, sermon 85 on the Song of Songs, teaches how a soul, however much corrupted by vices, can through love return to the nuptials and to the bridal chamber of the spouse, namely God and Christ: "We have taught, he says, that every soul, though burdened with vices, entangled in sins, captured by allurements, a captive in exile, imprisoned in the body, stuck in the mire, fixed in the mud, bound to its members, pierced with cares, distracted by affairs, contracted by fears, afflicted with sorrows, wandering in errors, anxious with worries, restless with suspicions, and finally a stranger in the land of enemies according to the Prophet's word, defiled with the dead, counted among those who are in hell: though, I say, thus condemned and thus despaired of; we have nevertheless taught that such a soul can find within itself not only a way to breathe again in hope of pardon, in hope of mercy, but also to dare to aspire to the nuptials of the Word, not to tremble at entering into a covenant of fellowship with God, not to shrink from bearing the sweet yoke of love with the King of angels, etc. Examples are found in the Life of Saint Mary Magdalene, Saint Mary of Egypt, Saint Pelagia the penitent, etc., whom God, having snatched from the filth of lust, betrothed to Himself, and from women and sirens made them terrestrial angels.
Verse 12: You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom,
12. You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom, — namely God, Ecclesiasticus 1:1, when you forsook His stream, namely the law. It is an anthypophora or subjection, by which he responds to the preceding question, and assigns the cause of so great a disaster and captivity, namely the same cause that his master Jeremiah assigned, chapter 2:13, saying: "For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that cannot hold water." For he calls wisdom living water, for with God is the fountain of life, Psalm 35:10.
Verse 13: In everlasting peace
13. In everlasting peace. — So it is to be read with the Roman and Greek editions, Hugh and others, not "in peace upon the earth," as is commonly read. Moreover, peace in Hebrew means prosperity, and the abundance and happiness of all things. Hence the Psalmist, Psalm 121:7, having said: "Let there be peace in your strength," explaining this added: "And abundance in your towers." Moreover, peace and happiness cannot be full unless it lasts forever and is eternal. Hence a wise man said: "Without eternity the divine plans would have no rest," much less human and angelic ones. Hence the same: "Without eternity, he says, æviternity would not exist, and without æviternity no creature would have rest," especially a rational creature, which was created and destined for eternal eternity. Therefore Saint Bernard: "In order that the mind, he says, may be at rest, it must be fixed in eternity." And Saint Augustine, explaining that passage, Psalm 4: "In peace in the selfsame I will sleep and rest," says: "We must therefore be singular and simple, that is, separated from the multitude and crowd of things being born and dying, lovers of eternity and unity, if we desire to cling to the one God and our Lord." The same in his Sentences: "No one whose joy is Christ can be defrauded of his delights. For eternal is the exultation that rejoices in an eternal good."
Verse 14: Learn (by your scourge and beating) where prudence is,
14. Learn (by your scourge and beating) where prudence is, — just as if someone were to say to a person sick from excess: Learn where temperance is, so that you may learn where health is; or were to say to a boy chastised for insolence: Learn what it is to be insolent, learn what modesty is, so that you may know where freedom is, and immunity from blows. Where strength is. — In Greek ἰσχύς, that is, fortitude to resist enemies, say Theodoret and Hugh; he is not therefore speaking of moral virtue, as Lyranus holds. Where understanding is, — that is, the comprehension of things to be done. Note: Baruch now calls practical wisdom 'prudence,' now 'understanding.' It is called wisdom because it is 'tasty knowledge,' or knowledge joined with savor, taste, affection, and love of the things known; it is called prudence because it belongs to the truly prudent person to be wise in this way, namely to fear and love God and heavenly things, not passing things. It is called understanding because it makes the faithful person truly intelligent, and one who esteems things as they are in themselves, namely small things as small, temporal things as temporal, great things as great, eternal things as eternal. Thus, Luke 1:17, this wisdom is called the prudence of the just, "That he (John the Baptist, says Gabriel) may turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the incredulous to the prudence of the just, to prepare for the Lord a perfect people." The same, Wisdom 10:10, is called the knowledge of the saints: "He gave, it says, him (Jacob) the knowledge of the saints." Thus in Proverbs and elsewhere the Wise Man calls this wisdom or Ethics of the saints, for variety's sake, now wisdom, now knowledge, now prudence, now understanding, now doctrine, now discipline, now discretion, now instruction: for all these are the same, and denote the same thing, and are only distin-
guished by their connotation, or etymology, and the proper signification of the etymology, as is clear to anyone considering this. For it is called knowledge because it makes a person knowing; it is called discretion because it distinguishes between good and evil; it is called doctrine because it teaches the way of virtue and salvation; it is called discipline because it must be learned, and befits a faithful disciple, etc.
That you may know at the same time where length of life is, — In Greek, ποῦ ἐστὶν μακροβίωσις καὶ ζωή, where longevity and life are, or rather sustenance and nourishment by which we sustain life. For thus ζωή, that is, sustenance, is better distinguished from μακροβίωσις, that is, longevity. Where the light of the eyes is, — which illuminates the eyes of the mind, for "the law is light," Proverbs 6:23. Secondly, as Maldonatus says, the light of the eyes signifies prosperous things, just as darkness signifies adverse things.
Note here six effects of wisdom, or of obedience to the divine law. The first is, verse 13, everlasting peace; the second, verse 13, is prudence and strength; the third is understanding; the fourth is longevity; the fifth is sustenance and abundance of things; the sixth is the light of the eyes. Hence, Wisdom 6:21, it is said: "The desire for knowledge leads to an everlasting kingdom. If then you delight in thrones and scepters, O kings of the people, love wisdom, that you may reign forever;" and verse 26: "A multitude of the wise is the health of the world; and a wise king is the stability of the people;" and chapter 7:8: "I preferred her (wisdom) to kingdoms and thrones, and counted riches as nothing in comparison with her. All good things came to me together with her. For she is an infinite treasure to men;" and verse 25: "She is a vapor of the power of God, and a certain pure emanation of the glory of the almighty God: for she is the brightness of eternal light, and a mirror without spot. And being one, she can do all things: and she renews all things, she makes friends of God and prophets. For God loves no one except him who dwells with wisdom. For she is more beautiful than the sun;" and chapter 8:1: "She reaches from end to end mightily, and disposes all things sweetly. Her I loved, and sought to take as my spouse. And if riches are desired, what is richer than wisdom? She teaches sobriety and prudence, and justice, and virtue. If one desires a multitude of knowledge, she knows the past, and judges the future. On her account I shall have glory among the crowds, etc., immortality and eternal memory; I shall govern peoples, dreadful kings will fear me when they hear of me." Hence in chapter 9 he entreats for her with all his affection saying: "You have chosen me as king over Your people: send her (wisdom) from Your holy heavens, that she may be with me and labor with me, that I may know what is acceptable before You."
And the wonderful effects and examples of wisdom he recounts in chapter 10. First, of Adam, verse 1: "She (wisdom), he says, guarded him who was first formed, etc., and brought him out of his sin;" second, by contrast, of Cain, verse 3: "From her departed the unjust man (Cain) in his anger, and he perished through the anger of fraternal murder;" third, of Noah, verse 4: "When the flood was destroying the earth, wisdom healed it again, governing the just man by a contemptible piece of wood;" fourth, of Abraham, verse 5: "She knew the just man (Abraham), and kept him blameless before God, and kept him strong in the mercy of his son," because, namely, she brought it about that Abraham bravely conquered the love and compassion for his son Isaac, when at God's command he wished to sacrifice him; fifth, of Lot, verse 6: "She delivered the just man fleeing from the perishing impious (Sodomites), when fire descended on the Pentapolis;" sixth, of Jacob, verse 10: "She guided the fugitive (Jacob) from the wrath of his brother (Esau), the just man, through right ways, and showed him the kingdom of God (in Bethel, Genesis 28:12) and gave him the knowledge of the saints: she honored him in his labors, and completed his labors. In the fraud of those who deceived him (Laban and his sons) she assisted him;" seventh, of Joseph, verse 13: "She did not forsake the just man who was sold, but delivered him from sinners: she descended with him into the pit, and in chains she did not forsake him, until she brought him the scepter of the kingdom;" eighth, of the Hebrews, verse 15: "She delivered the just people from the nations (Egyptians) that oppressed them. She entered the soul of the servant of God (Moses), and stood against dreadful kings by portents and signs. And she gave the just the reward of their labors (by despoiling Egypt), and led them by a wonderful way: and she was to them a covering by day, and the light of stars by night: she brought them through the Red Sea," etc.
Do you want examples from Christians? Alfonso, the most powerful king of Aragon, as Panormitanus testifies in book 3 of his Deeds of the Same, when asked how he could be deprived of so many kingdoms and riches he had won, and be reduced to poverty, replied: "If wisdom were for sale; for I would prefer it to all riches and buy it." For truly "man does not know its price," as Job says, "nor is it found in the land of those who live pleasantly." When the same person asked him by what name he thought wisdom should be honored, he said: "I consider her the daughter of God, and the only immortal thing among all things, and given to man alone among living creatures."
The Emperor Constantine, in his Oration to the Assembly of Saints, chapter 25: "This, he says, is plainly heavenly and divine wisdom, that we should prefer to suffer injury rather than to inflict it, and be prepared to receive loss rather than to cause it." For thus we conquer all enemies, and preserve peace with God and men, and joy of soul, as Christ and the apostles taught us, by example as much as by word.
Do you want examples from the pagans? Cicero, in his book On the Ends, teaches that wisdom is the guardian and creator of man. Another used to call the wise 'Prometheuses.' For the fire of Prometheus is learning, without which man is a log; and with which, from a log he is restored to being a man; Lucretius, book 2: Nothing is sweeter than to hold well-fortified the lofty, serene temples built by the learning of the wise: From which you can look down on others, and see them everywhere wandering, and seeking the way of life as they stray.
Juvenal: "No divine power is absent, if there is prudence." Another: "There is one art of governing rightly, without which no one can rule or be ruled: prudence." The Queen of Sheba came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and having heard it said: "Blessed are your men, who stand before you always, and hear your wisdom. Blessed be the Lord your God, in whom You have pleased, and who set you upon the throne of Israel, because the Lord has loved Israel forever," 3 Kings 10:8.
Moreover, that this wisdom is not an empty speculation, but consists in the fear of God and the keeping of His laws, the Psalmist teaches, Psalm 110:10: "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord;" and Job chapter 28:28: "The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;" and Ecclesiasticus chapter 1:20: "The fullness of wisdom is to fear God;" and Ecclesiastes chapter 12:13: "Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole of man. If this is the whole of man," therefore, says Saint Bernard, "without this man is nothing;" nor is he a man, but either a stone or a beast. And Moses, Deuteronomy 4:6: "This is your wisdom, and understanding before the peoples, so that hearing they may say: Behold a wise and understanding people, a great nation. Nor is there any other nation so great, that has gods drawing near to it, as our God is present to all our supplications." Finally, Wisdom 6:18: "For the truest beginning of it (wisdom) is the desire of discipline; the desire of discipline therefore is love; and love is the keeping of its laws; and the keeping of laws is the consummation of incorruption; and incorruption makes one close to God."
Verse 15: Who has found its place?
15. Who has found its place? — namely of wisdom or discipline: this is clear from what precedes and follows. He teaches that true wisdom which makes men blessed cannot be found by any art or ingenuity, nor acquired by any power, but must be sought in God as in its fountain, and asked from Him. In a similar way, Job says, chapter 28:36: "Who has placed wisdom in the inner parts of man? or who has given the rooster (in Hebrew לשכוי lassecui, which Arias translates as 'contemplation'; others, 'understanding') intelligence?" And James, chapter 1:5: "If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask from God, who gives abundantly to all."
Verse 16: Where are the princes,
16. Where are the princes, — as if to say: What did principality, pomp, and glory bestow on the princes? Certainly a little vanity, but nothing of truth: for these things could not confer wisdom upon them.
Verse 17: Who sport with the birds of heaven
17. Who sport with the birds of heaven. — In Greek ἐμπαίζοντες, that is, they mock them, when they deceive them with song, bait, or a net, capture them, and then misuse them for singing and recreation. Hence Vatablus translates: Who make the birds of heaven their playthings. Secondly, our own Vincentius Regius, in Evangelical Elucidation, book 4, chapter 14, rightly says: To sport, he says, is to do something as if playing, that is, without difficulty, as Proverbs 8:30: "With Him I was arranging all things, playing before Him at all times, playing in the world of the earth." Therefore to sport with the birds of heaven is to be so powerful and domineering that one seems to rule at will not only over beasts, but even over the birds of heaven; hence Nebuchadnezzar is said to have ruled over the birds of heaven, Daniel 4:48.
Verse 18: Who fashion silver
18. Who fashion silver. — To fashion silver, says Maldonatus, is not only to smelt silver, but also to scrape it together by any means and arts, and to devise various methods for finding money, so that they seem in a way to mint it. Properly speaking, those fashion silver who by melting and smelting it from its veins and minerals form it, and store the formed product: which is the prerogative of kings and princes. Nor is there any reckoning of their works, — supply: of number or limit, there is no finding the number or limit of their excellent works. Otherwise Maldonatus and Vincentius Regius, as if to say: They gain no profit from their works; for εὑρεμα or εὕρεσις or ἐξεύρεσις, that is, 'finding,' signifies gain and profit; because what we find we count as profit, as Ecclesiasticus 20:9: "There is a finding that results in loss," that is, a harmful gain; and chapter 29:4: "Many regarded interest as a finding," that is, "as a profit;" and verse 7: "He will count it as a finding," that is, he will place it among his profits. Thirdly, others say: It is impossible to find, that is, to comprehend their works. Fourthly, others say: Their works perish, so that they are no longer found. Fifthly, others say: "There is no finding," that is, there is no end to their works, namely of heaping up gold and wealth. The third and first senses are the plainest, and aptly correspond to what preceded: "There is no end to their acquiring," as if to say: What does it profit princes that they rule not only over men, but also over beasts? that they sport with the birds of heaven? etc., since they lack wisdom, and cannot attain it; for they seek it where it is not. For it is to be sought not in gold and pomp, but in God as in its fountain, and asked from Him: therefore the princes once famous were destroyed, and went down to hell.
Verse 19: They went down to hell
19. They went down to hell. — Such was Belshazzar, the most powerful king of the Chaldeans, whose miserable fall and descent like Lucifer Isaiah describes, chapter 14:4 and following, and Daniel, chapter 5. Likewise the king of Tyre, whose fall Ezekiel describes in chapter 28, and Pharaoh, whose drowning in the sea and abyss Moses describes, Exodus chapter 14, and another Pharaoh, whose destruction Ezekiel describes, chapter 29.
Verse 20: Young men,
20. Young men, — as if to say: Those who rose up in the place of the fathers, the young men, beheld the light of this life, lived fiercely and spiritedly, or still live on the earth, but the way of wisdom, just like their parents, they did not know, as if to say: Young men were born who would succeed them, and squander all the wealth they had accumulated. So Vatablus and Maldonatus.
Verse 22: It was not heard in the land of Canaan
22. It was not heard in the land of Canaan. — Note: The Canaanites, that is the Phoenicians, such as the Tyrians, were devoted to navigation and commerce, and most skilled in these: hence they were also the first among the Gentiles to invent letters. Hear Eusebius, book 1 of the Preparation for the Gospel, chapter 7: "Jaatus, he says, a Phoenician, was the first to compose the elements of letters, the first to build ships, and the Phoenicians were the first to discover the powers of herbs for medicine." And Lucan, book 3: The Phoenicians first (if report is believed) dared to form a lasting voice in rude figures. In Teman. — It was the metropolis of Idumea, so called from Teman the son of Eliphaz, son of Esau, Genesis 36:11 and 15. By Teman he means all of Idumea. It is a synecdoche, as if to say: Granted that the Canaanites and Idumeans were considered most wise in naval affairs, in commerce, in parables and stories of natural things; nevertheless the true wisdom which sanctifies the soul and leads to salvation and blessedness, they did not know: for although Saint Job and his friends knew it, nevertheless they received it not from the Canaanites or Idumeans, but from God; not from the earth, but from heaven: for it "is from above, descending from the Father of lights," James 1:17.
Note here the antiquity of schools and academies. For in the time of Moses and Joshua, Kirjath-Sepher, that is, the city of letters, was called the academy of Palestine, Joshua 15:15. Thus Teman was the academy of Idumea, Tekoa of Canaan; hence it is called a mother in Israel, 2 Kings 20:19, and from it came that wise woman of Tekoa, who reconciled Absalom to David, 2 Kings 14:2. Thus the academies of Egypt were Memphis, Heliopolis, Alexandria; as Athens was of Greece. See Middendorp's book On Academies.
Verse 23: The children also of Hagar,
23. The children also of Hagar, — who, as if children of Abraham, paraded wisdom, but worldly wisdom: for they were traders of merchandise, and most skilled in trading and sometimes in deceiving. Merchants of the earth. — Correct with the Roman and Greek texts to: merchants of Merrha; it is the name of a place: perhaps Merrha is the Maara of the Sidonians, mentioned in Joshua 13:4; for these were the chief merchants, from whom the Tyrians descended. Storytellers, — who tell stories, such as the metamorphoses of Jupiter, of men, of animals; or, as Theodoret says, who convey through themselves symbols and parables: for thus Aesop by his fables shaped the morals of men. Thus the μυθολόγοι, or writers or interpreters of fables, were once regarded as philosophers, indeed as theologians, from whom arose poetical theology, that is, mythological theology, about which Fulgentius wrote a book, and which Saint Augustine mentions, book 5 of The City of God, chapter 5, and Eusebius book 3 of the Preparation, chapter 2, as if to say: "The wicked have told me fables: but not as Your law," Psalm 118:85. Seekers of prudence and understanding, — natural and worldly, that is, they existed and were celebrated and famous: but nevertheless the way of true and divine wisdom they did not know.
Verse 24: O Israel!
24. O Israel! — After showing that wisdom was not found in Canaan, nor in Teman, nor among other Gentiles; he now turns his discourse to the Israelites, to teach them how great thanks they owe to God, that they alone of all nations have attained this wisdom through God's law and the prophets, and how much they ought to cultivate it, and live and conduct themselves according to it.
How great is the house of God. — By the house of God he does not mean the Temple of Jerusalem, as Hugh holds; nor heaven alone, as Lyranus holds, for there were no giants in the temple or in heaven; the temple also had its end, both of which things are here denied of the house of God. Therefore the house of God here is the whole world. So Saint Ambrose, book 6 of the Hexaemeron, chapter 3, and others; for, as Diogenes says according to Plutarch at the end of his book On Tranquility of Soul: "The world is a most holy temple worthy of God." And Thales of Miletus, when asked: "What of all things is most beautiful?" replied: "The world: for it is the work of God, than which nothing is more beautiful." So Laërtius, book 1, as if to say: Wisdom was not seen in Canaan, nor in Teman, which regions seemed to men the wisest, nor is it found anywhere in the whole world, which is the house of God: indeed, not even among the most warlike giants, nor in heaven, nor beyond the sea, as follows in verses 26, 29, 30; but only with God, the maker of the world, and its guide and teacher, as is said in verse 32. For God is uncreated wisdom, who created the earth, animals, and stars, and governs creation in wisdom, as is said in verses 33 and 34, and who placed this wisdom in a small corner of the world, when He communicated it to the Jews almost alone of old: but now through Christ He communicates the same to all nations, and spreads it through the whole world, as is said in verses 37 and 38.
Hence, secondly, the Prophet here tacitly insinuates that the place, source, and path to wisdom is to ascend from the world, which is the house of God, to God Himself, that is, to ascend from creatures to the Creator. For wisdom is given to those who acknowledge and worship God as the master and householder of the whole world, which seems immense to us, as of His own house; and who measure the greatness and beauty of God from the greatness and beauty of the world, and especially of heaven, where the throne of the glory of God is, and the inheritance of His wise and holy ones; of those, I say, who do not crawl on the earth, but above the sun in heaven associate with God and the angels, despise the meager earth, and long for the immense heaven. Wisely Demonax, when some were inquiring whether the world was animated, and again, whether it was spherical,
"You, he said, are concerned about the world, yet you do not care about your own uncleanness." So reports Antonius in the Melissa, part 2, sermon 77. And Saint Augustine in his Sentences, number 73: "Wonderful, he says, is the fabric of the world, but more wonderful is the Maker. And he is ill-occupied with created things who departs from the Creator; if he clings to Him, he will trample on lower things, lest what he has loved contrary to nature be turned into punishment."
Verse 25: It is great, and has no end,
25. It is great, and has no end, — as if to say: The place of God's possession, which was mentioned above, is immense and has no limit. You will say: how can the world be called immense, since it is created and finite? Theodoret responds that Baruch is speaking not of a material place, but of the spiritual place of the saints, which is God Himself: for he is not speaking, he says, of any finite possession, but of the possession of an infinite good, which is God Himself. Our own Christophorus Gillius adds to this, book 2, treatise 9 On the Immensity of God, chapter 16, where he interprets this house and place of God as the immensity and ubiquity of God: for the place, as it were, of God is everywhere. Hence, just as God is immense, so also is His place immense: for above the heavens through those immense spaces of the void the immense substance of God extends itself. However, this place of God is symbolic rather than proper and literal; for the literal meaning is the world: for this is "the place of His possession" and the very possession of God; hence it follows: "There were the giants:" for these were in the world, not in God, nor in the empty spaces above heaven. I acknowledge, however, that Baruch also looks to this symbolic place of God: for from the world as the vast created place of God, he infers the vastness and immensity of God the creator and possessor of the world. Hence Saint Augustine, book 3 Against Maximinus, chapter 2, from this passage argues against the Arians that the Son of God is immense; for it is an argument drawn from analogy and proportion, as if to say: If the world is so great and almost immense, how great and how immense must be the Creator and Lord of the world Himself?
The world therefore is called immense, because it is the greatest and most capacious, by hyperbole. For which note: The vast extent of the earth and sea is evident from the many kingdoms and islands in geographical maps, and from the fact that mathematicians teach the circumference or circle of the earth at the equator, where it is greatest, to be 22,500 miles. How great the amplitude of the heavens is, is clear first from the fact that, as Alfraganus and astronomers commonly teach, any fixed star of the sixth and lowest magnitude (for they distinguish them into six classes of magnitude) contains the entire magnitude of the earth eighteen times; while one of the first and greatest magnitude contains it one hundred and seven times. Second, from the fact that the globe of the earth, in relation to the firmament, is like a point. Hence Diogenes used to say "the heaven is a revolving sphere and an immense roof."
Third, from the fact that the convex surface of the firmament covers in its revolution one thousand and seventeen millions and a half. From which it follows that any point placed on the equator, or any star on the equinoctial, covers by its motion and revolution each hour forty-two million, three hundred ninety-eight thousand and four hundred thirty-seven miles, that is, 42 millions, and in addition a third part of a million, that is, as much as a horseman covering 40 miles per day could cover in 2,904 years. Therefore in one hour any star under the equinoctial covers twice a thousand times the circumference of the earth: while the sun in one hour traverses one million one hundred forty thousand miles, that is, the circumference of the earth fifty times.
Fourth, from the fact that the sun is distant from the earth by four millions of miles, so that if you were to ascend straight from the earth to the sun, you would have to cover forty times a hundred thousand miles: for a million is ten times a hundred thousand, as I said. The firmament indeed is distant from the earth by 80 million and a half miles, so that if you were to ascend from the earth to the concave surface of the firmament, you would have to cover 80 millions and a half. Now the same distance extends from the concave surface of the firmament to its convex surface: for the thickness of the firmament is 80 millions. From which it follows that if a millstone were to fall from the convex surface of the firmament, it would need 92 years to reach the earth, even if it fell 200 miles per hour: for it could not go faster.
Fifth, from the fact that the whole world contained within the concave surface of the firmament, if compared to the globe made up of earth and water, bears the same proportion as 11 thousand and 623 myriads to one or unity. By a myriad I mean a thousand millions, a million being ten times a hundred thousand, as I said. Hence Ptolemy, prince of mathematicians, who flourished under the Emperor Hadrian in the year of the Lord 130, book 1 of the Almagest, chapter 6, teaches that the earth is a point in relation to the firmament, or the starry heaven, and he demonstrates this clearly by three mathematical arguments. The first is that if the earth were of any quantity in relation to the firmament, it would not happen that half the sky would be seen. Again, an eye existing at the center of the earth would see half the sky: but the same eye existing on the surface of the earth sees the same half: therefore the quantity of the earth from its surface to its center is imperceptible, and consequently the quantity of the whole earth is imperceptible in relation to the firmament. The second: we observe daily the outermost shadows of gnomons on sundials, and of other bodies, proceed so uniformly and regularly, and conform to the motion of the sun, as if the tips of those gnomons or bodies were placed at the center of the earth. Therefore any gnomon or style placed on the surface of the earth does not differ perceptibly from the center of the world: because the sun moves with a uniform motion both around the center of the world and around such a style; for this could not happen if the style differed notably from the center of the world. The third: in all parts of the earth, or climates, at the same time by various astronomers the magnitude and distance of one and the same star, for example Mars, has always been found to be the same. Therefore no place on earth differs perceptibly from another in relation to one and the same celestial point. Again, the same stars appear no larger, but equal, when placed near the horizon, where half the earth intervenes between the eye and the star, as when placed in the middle of the sky, where nothing of the earth intervenes. This is therefore a sign that the earth adds nothing here, and is imperceptible.
Sixth, from the fact that the proportion of the whole world contained within the concave surface of the firmament to the extent of the empyrean heaven is much less than that of the globe of earth and water to the firmament. Seventh, because from what has been said it follows that if you were to live for two thousand years, and daily ascend straight upward a hundred miles, and this continuously, after two thousand years you would not yet reach the concave surface of the firmament. Again, after another two thousand years ascending straight and covering a hundred miles daily, you would not reach from the concave surface of the firmament to its convex surface: and from there to the empyrean the distance is far greater.
Father Christophorus Clavius teaches these and more things in his work On the Sphere, from the common opinion of mathematicians, whom, like others in their own art, we should believe. Go now, mortals, covet estates, houses, villas, kingdoms, and tear this point into infinite points. Indeed, for this point you gamble away heaven: for this instant, eternity is gambled away by you. More wisely Cicero: "What can seem great to him in human affairs, to whom the whole of eternity and the magnitude of the entire world is known?" The same in the Dream of Scipio: "The earth itself appeared so small to me that I was ashamed of our empire, by which we touch, as it were, a mere point of it: as I gazed at it more intently, Africanus said, I ask you, how long will your mind be fixed on the ground? Do you not see the temples to which you have come?" And further on: "I perceive, he said, that you are even now contemplating the dwelling and home of men: which if it seems to you as small as it is, always look at these heavenly things, and despise those human things." Hence Horace teaches that in human affairs nothing is to be marveled at, because nothing is great: To marvel at nothing is practically the one and only thing, Numicius, that can make and keep a man happy.
And Ptolemy, as found in the Preface of the Almagest, used to say that it should not be surprising if kingdoms are transferred from one to another: "He, he says, among men is higher than the world, who does not care in whose hand the world lies." Hence Plotinus, book 3, demands from a good and wise man forgetfulness of lower and earthly things, so that he may be mindful only of the highest and divine things. Seneca brilliantly says, book 1 of Natural Questions, in the Preface: "It is a point, he says, on which you sail; on which you wage wars, on which you dispose of kingdoms: above are immense spaces." Likewise: "This is the point that is divided among nations by fire and sword: O how ridiculous are the boundaries of men!" Then comparing men with ants: "When you have raised yourself, he says, to those truly great things, as often as you see armies marching with standards raised, you will say: A black column goes across the fields. That is the scurrying of ants, laboring in a narrow space." Boethius, indeed, in book 2 of the Consolation of Philosophy, calls "the earth" not only a point, but "a point of a point." For the whole earth is a point in relation to heaven: how tiny a portion of this earth is that which we possess! Indeed, we pluck and occupy a point from a point. "Shut up therefore, he says, in this tiny little point of a point, do you think of spreading your fame, of making your name known?" So small is the village of the world, if compared to heaven.
Therefore Saint Louis, bishop of Toulouse, son of Charles king of Sicily, rightly called an earthly kingdom a splendid servitude: "If I contemplate, he said, the house and my father's kingdom, it is small to one contemplating those immense spaces which are above; into the possession of which the soul is admitted, if a man raises himself above himself." And Saint Fulgentius, upon seeing the magnificence of Rome: "How beautiful, he said, must the heavenly Jerusalem be, if the earthly Rome shines so brightly, and if in this world such dignity of honor is given to those who love vanity, what will be bestowed on the saints who love truth?" And Porphyrius, bishop of Gaza, seeing the infant of the Emperor Theodosius baptized with such great pomp: "If those things, he said, which shortly after vanish have such splendor of glory, how great will be the glory of the heavenly things which are prepared for the saints and elect of God?" Finally, from this Saint Ambrose, book 6 of the Hexaemeron, shows that the poor man is equally happy as the rich man: because, he says, this most ample house is common to him, namely the world, and the common torch, namely the sun, the common stars like tapestries, the common air, the common water, etc.
Verse 27: The Lord did not choose these
27. The Lord did not choose these. — For God chooses not stature, not strength, not number, but character; indeed in the first calling to faith and grace He does not choose character, but by choosing He makes and forms good character. This is what Moses says, Deuteronomy 7:6: "The Lord has chosen you, that you may be to Him a peculiar people out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth. Not because you surpassed all nations in number was the Lord joined to you, and chose you, since you are fewer than all peoples."
Verse 29: Who has ascended,
29. Who has ascended, — as if to say: By man wisdom can be found nowhere, neither in heaven nor on earth, but only with God who is the fountain and ocean of wisdom: since therefore wisdom is divine and heavenly, no one can know it unless God reveals it, just as He Himself revealed it of old to the Jews through Moses and the prophets, to whom therefore this wisdom was easy and at hand, as is said in Deuteronomy chapter 30:11, and in order to teach the same more fully and clearly, He at last descended to us and to our flesh, made man, as the last verse says.
Thus the poets feign that Prometheus, when light was lacking in the world, lit his torch in heaven, and by it provided light to the world. For by this torch and light, they signified wisdom sent down from God to the earth, illuminating it, and teaching the way of salvation. See Job 28:12 and following.
Verse 30: He brought it instead of (that is, rather than) choice gold
30. He brought it instead of (that is, rather than) choice gold. — For wisdom is the precious pearl, for which the wise merchant will cross the sea in order to obtain it for himself, indeed he will give all his wealth and all he has for it: for she surpasses all price, as Job says, chapter 28:15, and Solomon, Proverbs chapter 3:15.
Verse 31: Nor anyone who may search out its paths
31. Nor anyone who may search out its paths. — In Greek it is: there is no one who can comprehend in his mind its path.
Verse 32: But He who knows all things
32. But He who knows all things. — as if to say: God alone, who is Himself eternal and uncreated wisdom, found it, and communicates it to whom He wills. Note: God from eternity had, as it were innate to Himself, uncreated wisdom, and then from it He devised and drew out created wisdom to be given to creatures, of which Baruch here speaks. He prepared (that is, made firm) (for this is the Hebrew כון con) the earth, — so that it may last for eternal time, that is, forever.
Verse 33: He who sends forth the light, and it goes
33. He who sends forth the light, and it goes. — "Who makes His sun rise upon the good and the bad," Matthew chapter 5:45. And it obeys Him in trembling, — that is, immediately, most swiftly and at His nod, as if with the utmost humility and trembling it acknowledged God as its Lord. It is a poetical catachresis.
Verse 34: In their watches,
34. In their watches, — in their stations and places designated by God. It is a metaphor from the watches of soldiers: for the stars are the army of heaven and soldiers of God. And they rejoiced. — That is, they shone, or promptly and eagerly obeyed God, both in giving light and in revolving, and even miraculously at God's nod halting themselves, or bending back their light and course, as happened under Joshua.
Verse 35: They said,
35. They said, — not by word, but by deed: for here there is a continuous prosopopoeia. Job uses a similar one, chapter 38:35: "Shall you send lightnings, and they will go, and returning, will they say to you: Here we are?"
Verse 36: In comparison with Him
36. In comparison with Him. — In Greek, πρὸς αὐτόν, to Him, that is, who may be compared to Him, namely to God.
Verse 37: He found out
37. He found out. — This is the conclusion of the whole discourse, namely that God is He from whom wisdom must be sought and asked. And He gave it to Jacob His servant, — Namely, to the descendants of Jacob He gave the law through Moses on Sinai, and He taught them the way of salvation through Isaiah and the other prophets.
Verse 38: After this He was seen upon earth,
38. After this He was seen upon earth, — namely on Sinai, when appearing in a cloud to the Hebrews He gave the law, and when He dwelt with them, especially with Moses, for 40 years in the desert, speaking with him familiarly, now in a pillar of fire and cloud, now in the tabernacle. So some say, according to Lyranus. Hence from the Greek it can be translated: "this," namely wisdom, or the way of discipline, that is the law of God, "was seen on earth," namely on Mount Sinai. But I respond: "He was seen on earth," namely God, who is wisdom itself, when He put on flesh and dwelt with men for thirty-three years: "He was seen," that is, He will be born and will be seen: "He dwelt," that is, He will dwell: for he speaks prophetically. So Theodoret, Hugh, Lyranus, Dionysius here: likewise Tertullian, book Against Praxeas, chapter 6; Cyprian, book 1 Against the Jews, chapter 5; Chrysostom, homily 2 on Matthew; Athanasius, Question 36 to Antioch; Eusebius, book 6 of the Demonstration, chapter 19; Ambrose, book 1 On the Faith, chapter 2; Hilary, book 5 On the Trinity, at the end; Gregory Nazianzen, oration 4 On Theology; Augustine, book 18 of The City of God, chapter 33; Cyril, book 10 Against Julian; Basil, book 4 Against Eunomius; Bernard, sermon 13 on the Song of Songs, and others, who from this passage teach against the Arians that Christ the Son of God is true God, and one with the Father. Hence he says: "After this," that is, after the old law was given to Israel on Sinai.
Note here: In the Incarnation the union of God with man in Christ was so close that, upon seeing this man, namely Jesus, God could truly be said to be seen, and when this man walked and conversed among men, God Himself could truly be said to walk and converse with men; and so, pointing with our finger at this same man, we could truly say: This is our God, as Baruch says here. For through the Incarnation the divinity and humanity were so united in one hypostasis that the properties and attributes were mutually communicated to each other, and it can be said both that God was born, seen, suffered, was crucified, and died; and that this man, namely Jesus, is the Son of God, consubstantial with the Father, eternal, immense, etc. For the term 'this man' and the term 'God' in Christ signify one and the same hypostasis, namely of the Word and Son of God, which sustained both natures, the divine and the human, to which therefore all attributes and actions, as well as the sufferings of both humanity and divinity, belong and are truly attributed. See here how great is the harmony and equality of the Prophet with the Evangelist Saint John; for what the Prophet here predicts as future: "After this He was seen on earth, and conversed with men;" this the Evangelist narrates as accomplished, and says: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us: and we saw His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father." From which it is clear against the Jews that the Messiah is truly God, not a mere man.
Thirdly, a Castro and Lyranus combine both senses already given, as if to say: After God, that is, the Son of God, devised from eternity wisdom and the way of discipline (for He Himself is the Word, the wisdom and idea of the eternal Father), He was seen on earth; because the Son of God appeared to the Fathers throughout the Old Testament, namely an angel assuming a human body, and appearing in it bore the person of the Son of God who would one day become incarnate. Thus therefore the Son of God was seen by the patriarch Jacob, or by Jacob, that is by the descendants of Jacob, namely Moses and the Hebrews, especially when on Sinai He gave them the law: for he is treating of it in what precedes and follows. Then plainly and perfectly in the truth which was foreshadowed by that old type on Sinai, He was seen bodily on earth, when born of the Virgin He conversed with men. But the phrase 'after this,' namely after He "found out the way of discipline, and gave it to Jacob His servant," as preceded, excludes the former sense; and only bears and demands the second sense of the Fathers, which is about Christ; otherwise the Greek μετά ταῦτα, that is, 'after this,' namely after He devised the way of discipline, admits both senses to some extent, but more the second; for 'after this' seems to refer to the whole preceding verse, as if to say: "After He found out the way of discipline, and gave it to Jacob His servant," He was seen on earth.
Saint Bernard beautifully says, sermon 2 On the Lord's Supper: "In order that the Invisible One, he says, might be seen by us, in order that the Immortal One might die for us, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. This Word dwelt in us, overshadowed by the flesh which He assumed from us for our sake; the Word in the flesh, the sun in a cloud, honey in wax, light in a lamp, a candle in a lantern. He bore in the assumed flesh our hardships, without the sin of the flesh carrying in His flesh our sins, and all this not for His own sake, but for ours, in order to make us healthy from the sick, co-heirs from strangers, free from slaves. See here how pure was the love of Christ for us, who sought nothing for Himself, everything for us, without His own advantage, indeed with great disadvantage: for He spent and exhausted Himself entirely for us in life and death. Return love for love, pure for pure.
To this Saint Paul alludes, Hebrews 1:1, when he says: "God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spoke of old to the fathers through the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us in His Son." And Titus 3:4, saying: "But when the kindness and humanity (in Greek φιλανθρωπία, that is, that singular love towards men) of our Savior appeared, etc.," and chapter 2:11: "The grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, instructing us, that denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly and justly and piously in this world, looking for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God." Behold, this is true wisdom, which Christ became incarnate in order to teach us. Hence, 1 Timothy 3:16, he calls this "the great mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh," etc.
Saint Cyprian brilliantly says, in his sermon On the Ascension: "What more, he says, do you want, O man? Previously it was said to God: This man is Yours; now it is said to man: This God is Yours." From which he most rightly concludes: "O man! you are sufficient for God, let God be sufficient for you." Hence Saint Augustine, sermon 26 On Time, argues thus: "God, who could not be seen, was to be followed; man, who could be seen, was not to be followed: therefore, so that man might have both someone to see and someone to follow, God was made man." Therefore Saint Leo, sermon 1 On the Nativity: "Recognize, he says, O man, your dignity, and having been made a sharer in the divine nature, do not return by degenerate conduct to your former baseness." Rightly Saint Paul, 1 Corinthians 16:22: "If anyone, he says, does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema," that is, let him be separated from God. And he gives the reason: maranatha, that is, our Lord has come, as if to say: Such a person cannot be excused in any way, because the Lord has already come, showing us the highest love as well as humility, and teaching in reality all wisdom,
namely true faith in God, hope, charity, patience, religion, mercy, zeal, prayer, meekness, sobriety, modesty, justice, magnanimity, and all the other virtues, and every perfection of the Christian life. Hence He Himself says: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: I am the light of the world. Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart. Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, blessed are the merciful, blessed are those who hunger, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the pure of heart, blessed are those who suffer persecution," etc.
O wise, O happy are those who hear, drink in, and taste this wisdom of Christ, so that they may say with Saint Paul: "I live, yet no longer I: but Christ lives in me;" and: "For I did not judge myself to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified," 1 Corinthians chapter 2:2. Truly the Poet says: If you know Christ, it matters not if you know nothing else. If you know not Christ, it matters not if you know all else.
Of such persons it can be said what Dionysius the Areopagite said of Saint Paul, that he "lived in Paul an amorous life." For, as the same says in 1 Corinthians 15:48: "As was the earthly man (Adam), such are the earthly also: and as is the heavenly, such are the heavenly also. Therefore, as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of the heavenly," and Ephesians 4:23: "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who according to God was created in justice and holiness of truth."
For Christ is such a master and teacher of wisdom that, as is said in Acts chapter 1:1, He began first to do, then to teach. Therefore we Christians must hold to that passage, Isaiah 30:20: "Your eyes shall see your teacher, and rejoice," as Joel says, chapter 2:23, "in the Lord our God, because He has given us the teacher of justice," and rejoice as often as we hear in the Gospel: "Jesus said to His disciples;" and indeed mutually exhort one another with the words, Isaiah chapter 2:3: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths;" and chapter 30:21: "This is the way, walk in it; and do not turn aside either to the right or to the left." And so Christ and the wisdom and life of Christ is all our good. "Therefore, says Saint Paulinus, epistle 4, let us love Him, whom it is our duty to love: let us kiss Him, whom to kiss is chastity: let us be subject to Him, under whom to lie is to stand above the world: let us be cast down for His sake, in whom to fall is resurrection: let us die with Him, in whom is life." Again, Christ teaches us not only by words and examples, but also by His grace, illuminating the mind and inflaming the affection. Hence the Apostle says, 1 Corinthians chapter 1:30: "Who (Christ) was made to us wisdom from God, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption."
Let us therefore carry Christ in our eyes, on our lips, in our ears, in our hearts. Thus the Emperor Constantine always wore the name of Christ, inscribed in the two initial letters, as God had shown him in a vision, always on his helmet and on his standard, and thus he emerged victorious everywhere. See Baronius at the year of Christ 312. Thus that Deacon and Martyr in Eusebius, book 5 of the History, chapter 1, named Sanctus, when he was examined about his name, homeland, family, and status, would answer nothing other than "I am a Christian;" and Saint Blandina, saying continually in her torments: "I am a Christian, and among us no crime is committed," felt the greatest relief and consolation in her sufferings.
"Christianity," says Gregory of Nyssa, in his treatise On the Christian Profession, "is the imitation of the divine nature." If therefore you are a Christian, imitate Christ; do not bear an empty and vain name, but a full one; fill the measure of so great a name with works worthy of the name: whoever does otherwise falsifies the name, and is an ape of Christ, not a Christian. Let the Christian therefore say: My lineage is from the supreme Jove, the Son of God is my brother, my teacher, my tutor: I must therefore live divinely: I must be an angel; for, as Saint Peter says, 1 Peter chapter 2:9: "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of acquisition." Finally, since Christ became man in order to dwell with us, and that we might learn to associate familiarly with Him, to think of Him and converse with Him. Let each one set before himself and impress upon himself the image of Christ either being born, or teaching, or crucified, or doing something else, namely that image by which he perceives himself more easily and more powerfully moved to love and piety: and through it let him ascend to the contemplation and veneration of the deity and the Trinity. For Christ became a sharer in our humanity so that He might grant us to be sharers in His divinity, so that while we know God visibly, through Him we may be carried away into the love of invisible things.
Thus for 34 years the Blessed Virgin associated constantly with Christ, with how much fruit, with how great a sense of piety, of love, and of sweetness? Thus Saint Paul: "I live, he says, yet no longer I: but Christ lives in me." And: "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Thus Saint Mary Magdalene for thirty years in her cave at La Baume did nothing other than associate with Christ, recalling His words, deeds, the benefits bestowed upon her, His passion and death, and continually weeping from the sweetness of heavenly consolations: for which reason Christ visited her from heaven in visible form more than a hundred times, and wonderfully refreshed her. Thus Saint Jerome, in order to keep Christ always vividly before his eyes, withdrew to Bethlehem, and there at the manger of Christ, continually contemplating Him being born, crying, nursing, he spent his life most joyfully and most holily with Christ. Hence he himself writes to Eustochium: "Let us love Christ, he says, and let us always seek His embraces, and everything difficult will seem easy: we will think short all things that are long, and wounded by His dart, through the moments of the hours we will say: Alas for me, that my pilgrimage has been prolonged." Eustochium therefore, Paula, Melania, and the chorus of most noble Roman virgins followed Saint Jerome to Bethlehem. Hear the words with which Paula and Eustochium invite Marcella to the same place, epistle 17, in Saint Jerome: "When with Christ accompanying us through Shiloh and Bethel and the other places in which churches have been raised as standards, as it were, of the Lord's victories, we shall have returned to our cave (of Christ's birth in Bethlehem); we shall sing constantly, weep frequently, pray unceasingly, and wounded by the dart of the Savior"
we shall say together: I have found Him whom my soul sought, I will hold Him and will not let Him go." Thus Saint Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, while still a boy, familiarly associated with the boy Christ who appeared to him bodily in school, and from this he became so great a prelate of the Church. Thus Saint Catherine of Siena constantly dealt with Christ as a bride with her bridegroom, and from Him received both the crown of thorns which He impressed on her head, and a new heart and a new Christ-formed mind. Thus from childhood Blessed Queen Joanna associated with Christ: hence she is also depicted with the boy Jesus who extends to her a ring, and by it betroths her to Himself. The inscription beneath her image from her Life is this: "Blessed Joanna, renowned for holiness, daughter of Louis XI and wife of Louis XII, kings of France, Duchess of Berry, after various revelations received even from her childhood years from the Son of God and His most holy Mother, in the year 1502 founded the most holy Order of the same Virgin Mother of God Mary (of the Annunciation, hence they are commonly called the Annunciatæ, which flourish greatly in France and Belgium, especially at Louvain and Antwerp), approved and confirmed by Popes Alexander VI, Julius II, and Leo X. Finally, illustrious for miracles after death, she departed to her heavenly Spouse at Bourges in the year of the Lord 1504, not yet having entered the fortieth year of her age."