Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Jeremiah gave this epistle to the Jewish captives gathered by Nebuzaradan who were about to go to Babylon, which exhorts them not to follow the idols of the Chaldeans: for it proves that they are nothing other than logs and stones, from their material, their makers, their baseness, their powerlessness, and their unfitness for everything. Moreover, that this epistle is Jeremiah's is clear from 2 Maccabees 2:1, where it is cited under his name; and from the Fathers, namely from Tertullian in the Scorpiace, where he says that the three youths in Daniel 3 refused to worship the king's statue because Jeremiah had forewarned them about this matter in his epistle and had strengthened them not to do it.
Vulgate Text: Baruch 6:1-72
A copy of the epistle which Jeremiah sent to those who were to be led captive to Babylon by the king of the Babylonians, to announce to them according to what was commanded him by God. 1. Because of the sins which you have sinned before God, you shall be led captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar king of the Babylonians. 2. Having therefore entered into Babylon, you shall be there many years, and for long periods, even to seven generations: but after this I will bring you out from there with peace. 3. Now you shall see in Babylon gods of gold, and of silver, and of stone, and of wood carried upon shoulders, making a show of fear to the nations. 4. See therefore that you do not become like the deeds of strangers, and be afraid, and that fear seize you in their presence. 5. When, therefore, you see the crowd behind and before, worshipping, say in your hearts: You ought to be adored, O Lord. 6. For My angel is with you: and I Myself will require your souls. 7. For their tongue is polished by the craftsman: they themselves, though gilded and silvered, are false, and cannot speak. 8. And as for a maiden that loves ornaments, so with gold received they are fashioned. 9. Their gods certainly have golden crowns upon their heads: from which the priests steal gold and silver, and spend it on themselves. 10. And they even give from it to prostitutes, and adorn harlots: and again when they have received it from harlots, they adorn their gods. 11. But these are not freed from rust and moth. 12. When they are covered with a purple garment, they wipe their face because of the dust of the house, which is very thick among them. 13. He holds a scepter like a man, like a judge of the region, who does not put to death one who sins against him. 14. He has also in his hand a sword and an axe: but he does not free himself from war and from robbers. From this let it be known to you that they are not gods. 15. Therefore do not fear them. For as a man's vessel when broken becomes useless, such also are their gods. 16. When they are set up in the house, their eyes are full of dust from the feet of those entering. 17. And as the doors are shut round about upon one who has offended a king; or as a dead body is brought to the sepulchre, so the priests secure the doors with locks and bars, lest they be stripped by robbers. 18. They light candles to them, and many of them, of which they can see none: and they are like beams in a house. 19. And they say that serpents which are of the earth lick their hearts, while they eat them and their garments, and they feel it not. 20. Their faces are made black by the smoke that is made in the house. 21. Over their body and over their head fly owls and swallows, and birds likewise and cats. 22. From which you may know that they are not gods. Therefore do not fear them. 23. The gold also which they have is for show. Unless someone wipes off the rust, they will not shine: for neither did they feel when they were being cast. 24. They are bought at a great price, in which there is no spirit. 25. Without feet they are carried upon shoulders, displaying their unworthiness to men. Let those also who worship them be confounded. 26. Therefore if they fall upon the ground, they do not rise up of themselves: nor if any man set one upright, will he stand by himself, but their gifts shall be set before them as before the dead. 27. Their priests sell their sacrifices and abuse them: likewise also their wives pluck from them, and share nothing with the sick or the beggar; 28. their sacrifices are handled by women in childbed and in their courses. Knowing, therefore, from these things that they are not gods, do not fear them. 29. For why are they called gods? Because women set offerings before gods of silver, and gold, and wood: 30. and in their houses the priests sit, having their garments rent, and their heads and beards shaven, and their heads uncovered. 31. And they roar, crying out before their gods, as at the feast of the dead. 32. Their garments
the priests take away and clothe their own wives and children with them. 33. Whether they suffer any evil from anyone, or any good, they cannot repay it: they can neither set up a king, nor put him down. 34. Likewise they can neither give riches, nor requite evil. If anyone makes a vow to them and does not keep it, they do not require it. 35. They do not deliver a man from death, nor rescue the weak from the mighty. 36. They do not restore sight to a blind man, they will not deliver a man from distress. 37. They will not pity a widow, nor do good to orphans. 38. Their gods are like stones from the mountain — wooden, and stone, and golden, and silver. But those who worship them shall be confounded. 39. How then is it to be thought or said that they are gods? 40. For even the Chaldeans themselves do not honor them: for when they have heard that a mute idol cannot speak, they bring it to Bel, asking it to speak — 41. as though those who have no motion could perceive, and they themselves, when they shall understand this, will abandon them: for their gods have no sense. 42. And the women girt with cords sit in the ways, burning olive stones. 43. And when one of them, drawn away by some passerby, has lain with him, she reproaches her neighbor that she was not thought worthy as she was, nor was her cord broken. 44. But all things that are done for them are false. How is it then to be thought or said that they are gods? 45. They are made by carpenters and goldsmiths. They shall be nothing else but what the priests will have them to be. 46. The artificers also themselves who make them are of no long continuance. Can the things then that are made by them be gods? 47. But they have left false things and reproach to those who come after. 48. For when war and evils come upon them, the priests consult among themselves where they may hide with them. 49. How then can it be supposed that they are gods, who neither deliver themselves from war, nor save themselves from evils? 50. For since they are of wood, and gilded, and silvered, it shall be known hereafter that they are false things, by all nations and kings: which are manifest that they are not gods, but the works of men's hands, and that there is no work of God in them. 51. Whence, therefore, is it known that they are not gods, but the works of men's hands, and no work of God is in them? 52. They do not raise up a king for a country, nor do they give rain to men: 53. They determine no judgments, nor do they deliver countries from injustice: for they can do nothing, like jackdaws between heaven and earth. 54. For when fire falls upon the house of gods of wood, of silver, and of gold, their priests indeed will flee and save themselves: but they themselves shall be burned in the midst like beams. 55. They do not resist a king nor war. How is it then to be supposed or admitted that they are gods? 56. The wooden, stone, gilded, and silvered gods do not deliver themselves from thieves or robbers: those who are stronger than them 57. shall take from them the gold, and silver, and garments wherewith they are clothed, and shall go their way, nor shall they help themselves. 58. Therefore it is better to be a king who shows his power; or a useful vessel in a house, in which he who owns it shall glory; or a door in a house, which guards what is within; than false gods. 59. The sun indeed, and the moon, and the stars, being bright and sent forth for useful purposes, obey. 60. Likewise also the lightning when it appears is plain to see: and in like manner the wind blows in every region. 61. And the clouds, when God commands them to go over the whole world, accomplish what is commanded them. 62. The fire also being sent from above to consume mountains and woods, does what is commanded it. But these are in no way like them, either in appearance or in power. 63. Wherefore it is neither to be supposed nor to be said that they are gods, when they can neither judge causes nor do anything for men. 64. Knowing, therefore, that they are not gods, do not fear them. 65. For they shall neither curse kings, nor bless them. 66. They show no signs in the heaven to the nations, nor do they shine as the sun, nor give light as the moon. 67. Beasts are better than they, which can flee under a cover and help themselves. 68. Therefore by no means is it manifest to us that they are gods: for which cause do not fear them. 69. For as a scarecrow in a cucumber field guards nothing, so are their gods of wood, and silver, and gilded. 70. In like manner also the white thorn in a garden, on which every bird sits. In like manner also to a dead body cast into the dark, their gods of wood, and gilded, and silvered are alike. 71. From the purple also and the scarlet, which moths eat upon them, you shall know that they are not gods. They themselves also at last are consumed, and shall be a reproach in the country. 72. Better is the just man who has no idols: for he shall be far from reproach.
Which Jeremiah sent. — Hence it is clear that this epistle is Jeremiah's, though written by Baruch; hence in the Greek Sixtine or Caraffa edition, this epistle is placed immediately after the Lamentations of Jeremiah.
To those about to be led captive, — so the Roman and Greek editions, not "to those who had been led captive," as Hugh and Lyra read, whence also verse 1 says, "you shall be led captive," not "you have been led captive." Hugh responds that this epistle was written to the Jews while they were on the journey, at which time they had been partly led away and were partly still to be led away. But Lyra and Denis say it was written before they were led away, but sent after they had been led away. But they cite no witness for this; therefore these things are said without foundation. Therefore the true reading is, "to those about to be led captive."
Verse 2: Even to seven generations
2. Even to seven generations. — That is, you shall remain in Babylon for 70 years. Note that the Greek γενεά, that is, an age or generation, which in Scripture is called a generation, is variously defined. First, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, book 1 of the Roman Antiquities, gives it 100 years. So also Varro, book 5, who also adds that a "saeculum" (age) is named from "senex" (old man), "because they thought it the span in which men grow old." So also Scripture, Genesis 15:16, where it is said that the Hebrews will return from Egypt in the fourth generation, that is, after 400 years. Second, Censorinus in On the Birthday, and others generally, give it 30 years. So Nestor is said to have lived three ages, that is, 90 years. Third, Herodotus, book 1, gives it 23 years. Fourth, Eusebius, book 10 of the Preparation, last chapter, gives it 20 years. Fifth, St. Augustine, on Psalm 104, gives it 15 years: for at that age a man is able to beget. Sixth, γενεά or generation is a space of seven years; thus physicians forbid opening a vein on a boy before two generations (14 years); and according to the Suda, Orpheus is said to have lived nine generations, that is, 63 years. Seventh, an age is a year: hence Virgil, Georgics 3:
When three are past and the fourth age has come.
Where Servius says: "The fourth age, that is, the fourth year," and adds: An age, he says, means any period of time. So also Varro says: "Having barely entered the tenth age," that is, barely the tenth year; and Pliny, book 8, chapter 11: "The annual age of dogs is fitting for bearing young." Hence, eighth, γενεά or age is a space of ten years: for the number ten is a notable and complete number, which comprises in itself all the simple numbers, which arithmeticians call digits, namely all from one to nine. Moreover, ten is the first number of multitude after the digits, and is the terminus of counting: for after ten we return to unity: ten and one are eleven; ten and two are twelve, and so on. So in this passage γενεά, that is, generation, is taken.
Seven generations, therefore, are the seventy years of captivity, which begin in the eleventh year of Jehoiakim, and end in the first year of Cyrus, as I said on Jeremiah 25:11; for Baruch, the disciple and secretary of Jeremiah, refers to this. Although Castro refers these to the 70 years of desolation, which, he says, begin in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, and end in the second year of Darius Hystaspes, about which see Zechariah 1:12. Some take the generation here as seven years, so that seven generations are 49 years; for so many years, they say, elapsed from the eleventh year of Zedekiah, when Jeremiah wrote this, to the first year of Cyrus: for Nebuchadnezzar reigned from then 24 years, Evilmerodach 23, Belshazzar 3; but this does not agree with our chronology: for beginning the 70 years of captivity from the eleventh year of Jehoiakim, it must be said that from the eleventh year of Zedekiah to the first year of Cyrus, 59 years elapsed.
Our Vilalpando explains these seven generations differently in the Apparatus on Ezekiel, part 1, book 3, chapter 2: A generation, he says, comprises fourteen years; for at that age a male is able to beget, and then validly contracts marriage. Moreover, generation here is taken not for the act of begetting, but for those begotten, that is, children. The first generation, therefore, was transported from Jerusalem to Babylon: when it first arrived in Babylon, it begot children, that is, the second generation; this one after fourteen years begot the third; the third after the same number of years, namely in the 28th year of the desolation, begot the fourth; the fourth in the 42nd year of the desolation begot the fifth; this one begot the sixth in the 56th year, which finally produced the seventh generation in the 70th year of the desolation, in which they were freed from captivity. This explanation is not improbable, nor unfitting.
Verse 3: Making a show of fear to the nations,
3. Making a show of fear to the nations, — to strike into men a religious awe and a kind of sacred fear and reverence.
4. The deeds of strangers. — In Greek it is ἀλλοφύλοις, that is, foreigners, namely the Chaldeans, that is to say: Do not conform yourselves to the idolatry of the Chaldeans.
5. Worshipping, — In Greek it is προσκυνοῦντας αὐτά, that is, worshipping (namely the crowd, that is, the Chaldeans) them, namely the idols. Our translator did not read τὸ αὐτά; hence he referred "worshipping" to the Jews, not to the Chaldeans.
Verse 6: For My angel,
6. For My angel, — namely Michael, as is gathered from Daniel 12:1, where Michael is presented as the guardian and protector of the Hebrews, that is to say: Worship Me, not the idols of the Chaldeans, nor have you reason to fear the Chaldeans: for I will defend you from them; for I bear a fatherly care for you. First, because I appoint My angel for you as a guardian, and to lead you out of Babylon, just as he led you out of Egypt; for he alludes to this, namely to Exodus 33:2. Second, because I will require your souls, that is, I will be your avenger, I will punish the injuries done to you, and especially death if anyone inflicts it upon you. So Hugh and Lyra.
Verse 8: As a maiden who loves ornaments (like a maiden φιλοκόσμῳ, th...
8. As a maiden who loves ornaments (like a maiden φιλοκόσμῳ, that is, one who loves and desires adornment, from wherever ornaments are gathered): so (the Chaldean idolaters) with gold received — procure adornment for their idols.
9. From which the priests steal, — that is to say: The priests take the gold away from their gods and convert it to their own uses, and give it to prostitutes and harlots whom they keep at home. So the Greek. From the fact that idols are insensible, like rocks and metals, which suffer their ornaments to be snatched away and endure every other injury, he shows that they are not gods, indeed that they are not animate, and have no knowledge, care, or providence for us. Truly the Poet says:
An idol is nothing but useless marble, whose Property is never to live, to know nothing.
Verse 11: From rust and moth,
11. From rust and moth, — that is to say: The idols are corroded by rust and moth, and filled with dust, and cannot shake it off, just as if they were mere wood or stones, as indeed they are: therefore they are not gods.
13. He holds a scepter, — the idol bears a scepter, as if it were a king and judge governing all things, when it cannot condemn or put anyone to death. It is an enallage: for he was speaking of idols in the plural, and now speaks of them in the singular.
17. As the doors are shut round about upon one who has offended the king (when he is imprisoned, as it were, as a criminal); or as a dead body brought to the sepulchre. — That is, just as when a dead body is brought to the sepulchre, guards usually protect it, lest it be stripped of the precious garments, arms, and implements with which both Jews and Gentiles customarily bury it. So Hugh and Lyra.
Vatablus translates differently from the Greek, thus: Just as for someone who offends the king the halls are usually shut around him, as if leading him to punishment, so the priests fortify the temples of their gods with doors, bolts, and bars, lest they be plundered by robbers, or rather thieves (whom we also call "latrones" from "latere," to hide).
18. They are like beams, — the idols are logs, wood, and stones, which cannot see light. See Delrio, adage 883.
19. Their hearts. — For some idols were earthen on the inside, or of some other fragile material; but on the outside they were bronze or gold, and so serpents that eat earth would eat the hearts, that is, the interiors of these gods. Secondly, Maldonatus says: "Their hearts, that is, the pith of the wood from which they are made, serpents, that is, worms, lick and gnaw," so that it is a catachresis.
22. Cats, — catti, felines: for in Greek it is αἴλουροι. So Vatablus.
Verse 24: Bought at a great price,
24. Bought at a great price, — they are bought at the greatest price, and yet they lack spirit. So Vatablus.
In which there is no spirit in them. — "in them" is redundant by a Hebraism, whence it seems the translator translated this from the Hebrew: for it is not in the Greek.
Verse 26: Gifts
26. Gifts. — The Greek δῶρον also means the lesser palm, which was four fingers wide, the same as ζαλαισίν, or a third part of a span, as Eustathius reports. Pagninus takes it so here, that is to say: With their palm and shoulders they prop up the idol, so that it may stand and not fall.
27. Their wives pluck from them, — from the offerings which have been presented to the idols. In Greek ταριχεύουσαι, that is, storing away in the pantry, that is to say: They keep everything for themselves and share nothing with the needy.
28. Women in childbed, — that is, women who have just given birth, who because they are unclean are kept from the temple and sacred things, Leviticus 12:2. For although the Gentiles were not bound by this Jewish law, nevertheless it was in itself indecent for persons so defiled and polluted to touch sacred things, especially among the Jews, to whom this was abominable; hence the Prophet emphasizes this to them, to show from the irreverence of the worshippers the baseness of the worship itself, namely of idolatry.
Verse 29: Because women set offerings before
29. Because women set offerings before — foods, or votive offerings and dedications before their idols. This is a subjection: for he had asked: Why are idols called gods? He answers: Because foolish and superstitious women offer gifts to them as if they were gods: therefore women make these gods.
30. Their garments rent. — Which is forbidden to the Jews, Leviticus 10:6.
Their beards shaven. — Which is forbidden to Jewish laymen, Leviticus 19:27; and to priests, Leviticus 21:5, both for the sake of propriety and seemliness, and lest in this matter they should share the customs of the priests of Isis and other pagan gods. See what was said on Leviticus 19 and 21, Ezekiel 44:22. He notes their hypocrisy and pretense. Again, he deters the Jews from their worship and ceremonies, because they conflict with the rites instituted by God and Moses.
Verse 31: They roar, crying out before their gods (they cry out to the...
31. They roar, crying out before their gods (they cry out to their gods with wretched and mournful wailing) as at the feast of the dead, — that is, as mournful cries and groans are usually heard at the funeral feast of some dead person, especially where the pagans, as Epiphanius says in the Ancoratus, carrying food to the sepulchre, would call upon the dead with wild clamor, saying: Rise, O Hector! Eat and drink. Or saying: Farewell. So Homer says Achilles did at the funeral of Patroclus, Iliad 18: "Hail, my Patroclus, and farewell;" and Aeneas at the funeral of Pallas, Virgil, Aeneid 11:
Hail forever, O greatest Pallas, And forever farewell.
So Hugh, Lyra, and Denis. He implies that the gods of the nations were men, and are now dead. For as Cicero says, book 1 of On the Nature of the Gods: "The life and common custom of men took it upon itself to raise to heaven by fame and goodwill men excellent in benefits. Hence Hercules, hence Castor, hence Pollux, hence Aesculapius, hence Liber." For Aesculapius was made a god by medicine; Liber, Saturn, and Ceres by agriculture; Apollo by the lyre; Vulcan by the forge. Hence Egypt worshipped Isis, and learned Athens Minerva; because the former was believed to have discovered the use of linen, the latter the use of oil and the art of weaving.
"The Poets also added," says Lactantius, book 1, chapter 15, "who with songs composed for pleasure raised them to heaven, just as those do who flatter even wicked kings with lying panegyrics. This evil originated from the Greeks. Hence the Sibyl thus rebukes them:
Greece, why do you trust in princely men? Why do you set vain gifts before the dead? You sacrifice to idols: who put into your mind the pain Of accomplishing these things, having abandoned the mouth of the great God?
Moreover, this feast of the dead was called by the Greeks περίδειπνον, by Tertullian in the Apology and by the Latins "silicernium." Hence aged men on the verge of death were also called "silicernii," as if the funeral feast were about to be prepared for them who were about to die. They were not so called, therefore, from bending down, because they look at stones (silices), as some have thought, but from this feast which was called "silicernium," because they were seen eating in silence, or because in silence they reflected that they would soon follow the deceased. Hence those departing from the banquet, as if they would see each other no more, used to greet one another and say: Farewell.
Hence Varro: "Having followed the funeral, we sumptuously prepared a silicernium at the tomb according to ancient custom, that is, a banquet at which, having dined, those departing say to one another: Farewell."
Verse 34: They do not even require this,
34. They do not even require this, — they do not complain, they do not avenge the neglect and breach of a vow and promise made to them.
40. For even the Chaldeans themselves do not honor them, — that is to say: Especially since even the Chaldeans themselves despise their idols; for when they ask speech from the mute Bel, a mute god, and do not obtain it, and thus understand that their idols are mute, they abandon them and dismiss them. So Juvenal, Satire 13, mocks Jupiter:
Do you hear These things, Jupiter, and not move your lips? When you should have sent forth a voice, Whether of marble or of bronze.
41. As though those could perceive who have no motion, — namely natural motion, such as animals have. For nothing which is whole and entire and retains its nature, lacking such motion, can have sensation. Everything, therefore, that perceives can of itself also be moved, either by walking forward, or by expanding and contracting itself. I say "of itself": for accidentally, namely through diseases, motion can perish while sensation remains, both in the whole animal and in a part: in the whole, as through catalepsy; in a part, when paralysis does not extend to the abolition of sensation. Add that we judge of sensation and life from motion: hence the Church does not baptize abortive fetuses unless they show some appearance of motion. These and more in Valesius, Sacred Philosophy, chapter 79. The a priori reason is that all animals have a brain: and from the brain, as from its proper principle, both motion and sensation flow, through instruments, namely through nerves and muscles.
Note: Idols and statues can move themselves in various ways. First, if quicksilver is put into them. Second, by wind which they receive through their artfully made folds, in the way that Albertus Magnus of old, and now makers of curiosities, make flying crows and dragons, which I have often seen. Third, by weights, wheels, and balances skillfully arranged in the statue, as in a clock. Thus at Nuremberg there was offered to me for sale a most elegant statue of the child Jesus, which as soon as you opened the case in which it lay, seemed to nod and smile by moving its head. So at Augsburg I saw, among other things, a gilded Centaur given to our Father Trigaut for the Chinese, which at the touch of a certain little wheel moved forward by itself spontaneously for a space of three or four feet, shot an arrow from a bow to the ceiling, sounded, struck, and did other marvelous things. But none of these things is done by animal motion, which proceeds from an intrinsic form, namely from the soul and vital spirit: hence these motions do not last long, and when the impelling cause ceases, they cease.
And they themselves — the worshippers of idols, namely the Chaldeans, abandon them, as I said. The Greek has the opposite meaning: and they themselves, even understanding, cannot abandon them, that is, the idolaters themselves are so demented and blinded, that although they understand the vanity and stupidity of their mute idols, they still cannot abandon them because of their ingrained evil custom.
42. Women girt with cords. — Note from Herodotus, book 1, that the Babylonian and Cyprian virgins before marriage, indeed all their women, so worshipped Venus that at least once in their life they would sit at the temple of Venus and expose their chastity, so that whoever first came by and wished could use them, though he had to pay a price with this invocation: "I beseech the goddess Mylitta" (that is, Venus) "for you at such a price," and these deluded women dedicated this price to the temple of Venus, and so, as if their virginity were dedicated to Venus, they thought they were entering upon favorable marriages. Hear St. Augustine, book 4 of The City of God, chapter 10: "The Phoenicians," he says, "gave a gift to Venus from the prostitution of their daughters, before they married them to men." St. Athanasius testifies the same about Phoenician women, in the oration Against Idols, where in investigating the origin of idolatry he says it was instituted "out of desire for those who, full of debaucheries and shameful acts, are represented by images;" and thus the worshippers of idols proposed to imitate the most shameful life of their gods.
And Strabo, book 11, at the end, treating of the sacred rites of the Persians, Medes, and Armenians, writes thus about Anaïtis: "This is Venus worshipped in the East, the idol of the Armenians: the most illustrious men of that nation dedicate their virgin daughters to her, and the law is that after having been deflowered for a long time at the goddess's temple, they are then given in marriage, no one disdaining the marriage of such a woman (O the wretched cuckolds, and the shameful husbands of the pagans!)" Herodotus indeed writes the same of the Lydian women: for they are all harlots.
So the pagan Scots used to hand over their betrothed daughters to their king to be violated before they were known by their betrothed: in place of which incest, after they had become Christians, they introduced the custom that new brides pay a certain coin to the king. The witnesses of this are Polydore Virgil and Hector Boece in the History of Scotland. See here the stupid and insane filth of paganism, covered over with the mask of religion, that is, of superstition, at the suggestion of the devil.
For this reason, next to the temple of Venus there were very many alcoves, says Herodotus, separated by cords, and he adds that some ugly women sat there for two or three years, and waited for lovers in tents that were stretched with ropes. And some think that Baruch is speaking here of these ropes. But the objection is that it was not necessary to break these ropes; yet Baruch here says of their ropes that they are broken: moreover, he adds that the women themselves were bound with cords: therefore these were the women's cords, not the tents'.
Therefore, second, these cords can be understood as garlands woven of rushes and flowers, with which these prostitutes garlanded their heads, as Herodotus and Strabo attest, who says they were crowned with a "thominge," that is, a band or cord.
Third, and most properly, these women bound their body with a girdle or cord, to signify that they were virgins, and were held captive by the religion and love of Venus, and by this sign, as being sacred to Venus, they would offer themselves to the first man they met, and ask that he loose the cord and perform the wicked rites of Venus: and thus through unchaste union, with the girdle or zone broken, they would enter into marriage. Married women did the same if they wished to dedicate themselves to Venus. So from Herodotus, Strabo, and Curtius, book 5, cited by Castro. Hence the girdle or zone was among the ancients a sign of a maiden and of virginity, which husbands then first loosened when the new bride first entered their bedchamber. So the Romans in a love-charm would tie the statue of a beloved with three cords. The witness is Virgil, Eclogue 8.
Olive stones, — τὰ πίτυρα, that is, bran of wheat or barley, says Vatablus. For so Hesychius, Dioscorides, and Theophrastus understand πίτυρα. But our translator better renders it here as "olive stones," that is, the hard and quasi-bony kernels of olives (so Beroaldus, cited by Henri Estienne in his Lexicon, calls πίτυρα the little bone of the olive), or small, harder, and almost bony olives, as being composed almost entirely of kernel. These are called πίτυρα because they are bran-colored, or because in crushed and bruised olives the stones are like bran and refuse. So Athenaeus, book 2, chapter 14, from Callimachus and Philemon: Πιτυρίδες, he says, are olives μασταί, that is, crushed, bruised; or, as others read, φαῦλαι, that is, bad. For to the ancients, both Egyptians and Hebrews, as Pierius attests, Hieroglyphics 53, the olive was a hieroglyph of mercy, peace, love, harmony; indeed of supplication, hope, and prayer. Hence Statius:
Wrapped laurels and the olive, tree of the suppliant.
Hence the Romans instead of olive burned laurel, as Virgil attests, as if supplicating a lover. This, therefore, was the love-charm or magical sorcery by which these diabolical women, whom neither wealth, nor beauty, nor birth recommended, by burning the stones, that is the kernels, of olives testified to the flame of their lust, and strove to soften and enchant the hardness of their suitors, so that they would not long remain wanting, but would quickly attract a lover. Hence together with this burning they prayed that thus their guests might be scorched with love for them. Finally, having thus burned them and reduced them to ashes, they would scatter them in the wind, cast over the head. For so Theocritus, in the Pharmaceutria, teaches that the Greeks learned this from the Babylonians, namely the sorceress Simaetha, who was desperately in love with the young man Delphis. For she says thus: "Just as with God's help I melt this wax, so may the Myndian Delphis immediately melt with love; and as this bronze wheel turns by the power of Venus, so may he turn before our doors. Iynx, draw that man of mine to our house; now I will sacrifice or burn pityra." And Virgil, Eclogue 8:
Carry out the ashes, Amaryllis, and cast them Into the flowing stream and over your head.
So Guevara in the preface to Habakkuk. See Delrio in the Magic, part 1, Question 3, section 2, and Pererius on Daniel 5:4.
Moreover, they fittingly testified to the fire of their lust by burning olive kernels, because these kernels, being oily and fatty, burn intensely, indeed they blaze more than the kernels of other trees: for which reason in Apulia the furnaces in which glass, lime, etc. are baked, which require the most intense heat, are fired with crushed olive kernels; for they so abound in olives that they build their fires from them. Olive wood, moreover, even if it is green and freshly cut, still burns and produces flame, because it is fatty and oily. Grave and eyewitness men affirmed this same thing to me at Rome, indeed they showed it before my eyes.
Jeremiah brings up this obscenity of the idolaters, that is to say: O Hebrews, observe the obscenity of idolatry; see whether this is a God to whom, as to a procurer, the pagans offer their fornications and the price of fornication, against the law, Deuteronomy 23:18; and again, to whom they dedicate not even olives or oil, but only crushed olive stones, that is, refuse and waste. Naturally the demon delights in such things; this is his incense, as the Greek has it. But your God, the true God, delights in chastity, in the purest and best victims, and in the most fragrant incense.
Hence Isidore, book 3 of the Sentences, chapter 13: The Poets, he says, invented Venus as an unchaste goddess, and Mars as an adulterous god, in order to persuade men to these shameful acts, as though in them they were imitating the gods; for who would not think it honorable, and judge it lawful for himself, what the gods were said to have done?
44. False, — they are vain, things of nothing, lying things, that is to say: The idols and all their worship are false, and superstitiously invented by men.
45. Priests. — In Greek τεχνῖται, that is, makers or artificers of idols, such as the priests were, who had them made, or made them themselves.
46. They are not of long duration, — that is to say: The makers of idols are of short life and age; how then can they make eternal and immortal gods?
Verse 47: They have left false things and reproach,
47. They have left false things and reproach, — they have left behind idols, which are false and lying things, and worthy of reproach. Second, they have left to posterity a false faith and religion of idols, and one worthy of reproach. Third, that is to say: Instead of gods they have left to posterity the material of falsehood and reproach: for it is a great falsehood, error, and reproach to worship wood and stones as gods. So Maldonatus.
49. To be supposed, — to be esteemed, that is to say: It can almost be grasped with the hands that they themselves are not gods. So the Greek.
50. It shall be known hereafter, — natural prudence from the outcome and experience that idols do not feel or help will finally teach all nations that they are not gods. So Hugh. Second, that is to say: In the law and light of the Gospel, the whole world shall know and despise idols. So Lyra.
And there is no work of God in them, — namely that idols can do nothing that is proper to God; that is, they cannot raise the dead, enlighten the blind, give speech to the mute, create kings, or bestow rain, as follows.
51. Whence then is it known, — that is to say: From nothing else than from the very inspection of the idols, and from experience, that is to say: What need is there of arguments? The thing is self-evident and clear, namely that idols are not gods. Hence the Greek has, τίνι οὖν γνωστέον ἐστίν, to whom then is it to be recognized that they are not gods? That is to say: Who is so dull as to need to be taught that idols are not gods? Vatablus reads "who" instead of "to whom," hence he translates: Who does not know that they are not gods?
Verse 53: They shall not determine judgment,
53. They shall not determine judgment, — they shall not settle the disputes of men by producing a miracle, as God settled the dispute of Aaron against Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Numbers 16, and often elsewhere.
Like jackdaws, — unwarlike and feeble, which although they are thought to be leaders of birds, yet flying sluggishly barely escape the cast of a spear, and in battle immediately yield to the enemy.
Second, just as jackdaws are the feeblest of birds, and have nothing besides their cawing: so also idols have nothing besides their material and outward form. Hence from jackdaws comes the proverb κωρικίζειν, that is, "to play the jackdaw," meaning to chatter foolishly, which St. Jerome uses in the letter to Rusticus, and Persius, Satire 5:
I know not what weighty matter you foolishly caw about with yourself.
Third, just as the pagans observed the flights and cries of jackdaws, to superstitiously divine future events from them: so also they observed idols, that is, the victims of idols, and their gestures and movements,
in order to divine future events from them. So of old, marriageable girls, to obtain omens for their marriages, would bring a rich meal to the crow, as is clear from Phoenix of Colophon in Athenaeus, book 8.
Moreover, among the Romans, says Festus, "a grove of the divine crows was dedicated to crows beyond the Tiber, because they were thought to be under the protection of Juno." The origin of the superstition was that the crow is a symbol of conjugal love. For males, once joined to females in marriage, never turn to another crow, nor does the female as long as she lives turn to another male: and if death causes a divorce, the survivor imposes perpetual celibacy upon itself. So Horapollo, book 1 of the Hieroglyphica, chapter 8, and there also Father Nicolas Caussin. Moreover, the common people think the jackdaw prophetic, because it is garrulous. Hence its riddle:
I live nine lives, if Greece does not deceive me: And not angered, I freely utter reproaches.
56. Those who are stronger than they, — that is to say: Those who injure idols and plunder them are stronger than they, that is to say: Thieves are more powerful than idols.
Verse 59: They obey,
59. They obey, — they obey God their Creator and Governor.
60. In like manner the spirit (that is, the wind) blows in every region. — For, as Seneca says, book 5 of the Natural Questions, chapters 16, 17, 18: "There are as many winds as there are divisions of the sky. For there is scarcely any region that does not have some blast arising from it and falling around it." And Pliny, book 2, chapter 47: "All winds," he says, "blow in their turns, and for the most part so that the opposite wind begins when one ceases." Moreover, St. Thomas on Job, chapter 37:12: The winds, he says, seem to follow the motion of the sun in their turns, so that first with the rising sun the east winds blow, then the south winds, then the west winds. The same is implied in Ecclesiastes 1:5: "The sun rises, and sets, and returns to its place: and there being born again, it goes round by the south, and turns to the north; the spirit goes forward surveying all things round about."
Verse 62: But these (idols) are not like them either in appearance (in...
62. But these (idols) are not like them either in appearance (in Greek εἴδεσι, that is, in forms and beauties) or in powers (that is, in strength) — not like the sun, fire, lightning, etc.; but they are shapeless, useless, dead, feeble.
63. They shall neither curse kings, — they shall neither do evil nor good to kings, they shall not make kings happy or unhappy. Among all other men he names kings, because in guiding them the providence of God is most clearly seen, which rewards or punishes kingdoms and republics through their kings and rulers. For He Himself confers, preserves, enlarges, or diminishes, weakens, or removes kingdoms, as he indicated in verse 33 and 52, and Job 12:18, and Daniel 4:14. So Maldonatus.
Verse 66: Signs also in the heaven,
66. Signs also in the heaven, — that is to say: The sun and moon can do more, and provide more to men than idols: both because they are signs of days, months, and seasons, and mark them out, Genesis 1:14, for to this he alludes; and because they strike fear into the nations: for the nations from superstition feared the stars, as is clear from Jeremiah 10:2.
69. A scarecrow, — in Greek τὸ βασκάνιον, that is, a frightening device, for example a straw boy with a bow, set in a garden to scare and chase away the birds, which when they see the boy does not move, having dismissed their fear, freely descend upon the cucumbers. The Greeks call these μορμολύκεια.
So Horace:
Once I was a fig-tree trunk, a useless piece of wood, When the carpenter, uncertain whether to make a bench or a Priapus, Preferred it to be a god. A god, therefore, I am: the greatest terror of thieves and birds.
He compares the idols to these scarecrows for birds, which do not truly guard the fruit, but only in the opinion and imagination of the birds, which think them to be real men, when they are only images of men: for so also idols are not gods, but images. Second, he compares them to a garden thorn, that is, a buckthorn, on which birds freely perch, when they see the thorn is without prickles. Third, to a dead and insensible corpse.
Tropologically, such is a prince and prelate who is foolish and timid, says Hugh, and from him Delrio, adage 886: For just as, he says, birds at first sight fear this scarecrow, but soon, when they notice it cannot move or harm them, they perch closer, then sit upon it and befoul it: so subjects first revere a prelate, but when they see he is cowardly and timid, they despise, undermine, and trample upon him.
Such a one is like Shebna, the overseer of the temple, to whom Isaiah says in chapter 22:15: "What are you doing here, or as if you were somebody here?" Of such men Jeremiah complains, chapter 23:13: "In the prophets of Samaria I saw folly." And Zechariah, chapter 11:17: "O shepherd, and idol, abandoning the flock." For such are idols: shadows and phantoms of shepherds, not true shepherds; to whom, as to idols and scarecrows, the old proverb rightly applies: "A monkey in purple." How many monkeys of this kind one can see in the courts of princes, from whom if you strip the purple, the torque, and the jewel, you will discover mere cobblers! To these applies what, as St. Jerome testifies in his letter to Pammachius, Cicero excellently said about Caesar: "When he wished to adorn certain men," he says, "he did not honor them, but dishonored the ornaments themselves."
Verse 71: From the purple also and the scarlet, which moths eat upon them
71. From the purple also and the scarlet, which moths eat upon them. — So it should be read, not "which they hold," that is to say: From the purple and scarlet garments of the idols, which are consumed by moths, you shall certainly know what the idols are, namely that they are rocks and wood, not gods.
Note: Instead of "scarlet" (murex) some read "marble": for in Greek it is τῆς μαρμάρου, which Vatablus translates as "splendor"; for μάρμαρος signifies brightness, splendor, and from splendor both the stone marble is named, as Anselm de Boodt teaches in book 2 of On Stones, chapter 264, and here the murex or purple: for, as the Poet says, Aeneid 4: "And the mantle blazed with Tyrian purple" — the mantle (laena), that is, a double toga, which was the augural cloak, says Paulus Manutius; if it blazed, therefore it also shone. Second, marble is usually dyed with a red color. Hence it signifies the purple-dyed or scarlet and purple color and garment, which upon the idols is moth-eaten, that is, is gnawed and consumed by moths; in Greek σηπομένης, that is, which rots.
Knowing therefore. — It should rather be read with Maldonatus, "you shall certainly know": for so the preceding sentence will be connected, and will here be completed. That this is so is clear from the Greek.
And they shall be a reproach, — they shall be a laughingstock and disgrace to all. For everyone laughs when they see some stone or wooden idol, decayed, missing its feet, hands, eyes, or head, being adored or having been adored.
From this chapter Calvin is refuted, who says the Gentiles were not so stupid as to adore wood and stones, but in them adored God, as in an image, as Christians do. For that this is most false is clear from this entire chapter, and from Arnobius, Lactantius, Tertullian, Justin, Athenagoras, and others, who everywhere mock the Gentiles for worshipping stones and wood as gods. We see the same done today by the Japanese and Indians. The simple therefore worshipped statues as gods: the wiser as the body or members of God; for they thought a divine power was attached to the statue and idol, as to its image, dwelling in it and moving about and playing around it: the wisest laughed at idols, like Socrates and Plato; although some of them worshipped them out of fear of men, about which I have said more elsewhere.
Wherefore Barlaam, in Damascene's History, chapter 10, demonstrates to Josaphat the foolishness of idolaters through the fable of the birdcatcher and the nightingale, showing it to be threefold. First, that they wish to revive past things, namely Jupiter, Mercury, and other shameful men now dead. Second, that they attempt impossibilities: for they seek life from an inanimate statue. Third, that they believe an incredible thing, namely that stones are gods. I recounted the fable of the nightingale on Jeremiah 8:7. And St. Augustine, in the Sentences, Sentence 2, 15: "So," he says, "are those who worship idols, like those who see vain things in dreams. But if their soul awakes, it understands by whom it was made, and does not worship what it itself made."
Morally, therefore, learn from this chapter how impious and foolish idolatry is, which endeavors to strip the true God of His divinity and to transfer it to a creature. Hence the Saints so greatly detested it, as the supreme crime of injured divine Majesty, that they preferred to endure any torments and the most bitter deaths rather than worship idols. In the first three hundred years of the Christian Church, more than six hundred thousand Christians underwent martyrdom for this one cause alone, condemned to the gallows, or to the flames, or to the sword, or to the cross, or to wild beasts.
Wherefore Blessed Remigius, Archbishop of Rheims, when he was about to baptize Clovis, king of the Franks, the first of the kings of France converted to Christ after overcoming the Alemanni, in the presence of a great assembly of nobles, as he was laying aside his royal ornaments and humbling himself for the sacred washing, said to him in the hearing of all: "Bow your neck meekly, O Sicambrian; worship what you have burned; burn what you have worshipped," that is: Worship Christ, whose churches you burned as a pagan; burn the idols which you then worshipped. So John Trithemius, book 1 of the Compendium of Annals, and the book On the Origin of the Franks.
St. Chrysogonus, under the Emperor Diocletian, was shut up in prison at Rome, where he lived for two years. But when the Emperor Diocletian, a Dalmatian born of humble origin, wrote to Rome that the remaining Christians who were in chains should be killed and Chrysogonus should be sent to him at Aquileia, he was brought there; to whom the Emperor said: I have summoned you, Chrysogonus, to increase you with honors, if only you will bring yourself to worship the gods. But he replied: "I venerate with my mind and prayer Him who is truly God; but the gods, who are nothing but images of demons, I hate and abhor." Inflamed by this response, the Emperor ordered him to be struck with an axe at Aquae Gradatae. So his Life reports.
At Rome, under the Emperor Hadrian, Seraphia, an Antiochene virgin, while she was living in the house of Sabina, a most illustrious woman, near the city, was seized by the officials of the Prefect and brought before him. He said to her: Sacrifice to the immortal gods, to whom the lord Emperors sacrifice. Blessed Seraphia replied: "I fear and worship the Almighty God, who made heaven and earth, and all things that are in them. For the gods whom you order me to worship are not gods, but are demons; and therefore it is not lawful for me to worship them, because I am a Christian." Again the Prefect said: Sacrifice to the gods, lest you be punished with death. To whom the virgin said: "I do not do the will of your father Satan, because I am a Christian." Wherefore, having been variously tortured, she was finally beheaded, and as a Martyr flew to heaven. So Ado in the Martyrology, September 3.
Saints Perpetua and Felicity, African Martyrs under the Emperor Severus in the year of our Lord 205, whom St. Augustine often praises, condemned to the lions, when they were led to the amphitheater to be thrown to them, sang in a loud and eager voice: "All the gods of the nations are demons, but the Lord made the heavens;" and when the Prefect ordered their face and mouth to be beaten with slaps, they repeated the same thing singing in an even louder and more forceful voice, as their Acts for March 7 record. For on that day St. Perpetua was torn apart by lions, and St. Felicity by leopards, and they triumphed over idols and demons.
Tropologically, the idol of the heretic is heresy, of the proud man honor, of the glutton debauchery, of the disobedient man his own will, etc. Die to these idols of yours, live for God: despise vain things, look up to true things: despise earthly things, look up to heavenly things: die to the world, live for heaven: die to time, live for eternity.
Verse 72: Better is the just man who has no idols: for he shall be far from reproach
72. Better is the just man who has no idols: for he shall be far from reproach.
That is to say: Far more excellent and happier is the just man who does not worship images, because he shall be far removed from the reproach and punishments with which God punishes idolaters here and for eternity. This verse is, as it were, the closing statement and conclusion of the entire epistle, in which Jeremiah, as if embracing the Hebrews, asks and entreats them to beware of idols and to detest them, that is to say: Beloved, you see how vain, foolish, and harmful idolatry is: therefore beware of it; rather endure anything whatsoever than worship idols. Remain in the worship of your God, who alone is the true God, who alone loves you, who alone protects you, who alone will free you from captivity, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.