Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Prooemium
There were some among the ancients who thought that Ezekiel was Pythagoras. Hear Clement in the first book of the Stromata: "Alexander," he says, "in his book On the Pythagorean Symbols, reports that Pythagoras was a disciple of Nazareth the Assyrian. Some think he was Ezekiel; but this is not the case, as will be shown later. Clearchus the Peripatetic says he knew a certain Jew with whom Aristotle was acquainted." He implies that Aristotle drew his ideas from the Jews, as did Pythagoras and Plato, who was therefore called the Attic Moses. And from Ezekiel the tragic poet Ezechielus seems to have received his name, about whom the same Clement writes in the same book: "Ezechielus, the poet of Jewish tragedies, will also agree with us regarding the education of Moses, in the Act entitled Exagoge, that is, The Leading Out, writing thus in the person of Moses," where he recites many of his verses about Moses. To these we may add St. Ambrose, who considers Pythagoras to have been of Jewish origin. For he writes thus to Irenaeus, book III, epistle 20: "We find the Pythagorean precept proclaimed in the writings of some, by which he forbade his disciples to travel the common and ordinary road of the people. But whence he derived this is not unknown. For since he drew his lineage from the Hebrew people (as most believe), he derived from their discipline even the precepts of his teaching, and was deservedly held great among the Philosophers, such that (as they say) you would scarcely find his equal. He had read therefore in Exodus the divine command given to Moses: Loose the sandals from your feet. Also the command to Joshua, namely, that they should shake off the dust of their worn and common life, who desired to walk in the way of the Lord. He had read the command given to the same Moses, that he should ascend the mountain with the priests, while the people stood below." And Theodoret, in book I On Faith, where he asserts that Pythagoras was circumcised: "It is reported," he says, "that Pythagoras underwent circumcision, having received it from the Egyptians, who however had received it from the Hebrew patriarchs." Reason also supports this, or rather conjecture. For both Ezekiel and Pythagoras are entirely mystical and symbolical, each teaching his oracles and ethics through symbols and enigmas.
In addition, both flourished at nearly the same time, namely Ezekiel under Nebuchadnezzar, Pythagoras under Cyrus and Cambyses, as Eusebius testifies in the Chronicle. Moreover, just as Ezekiel conversed with God and was taught by Him, so too Pythagoras said that he was familiar with Apollo and was taught by him: whence Pythagoras was named after Pythian Apollo, because he conversed with him, and therefore taught things no less true than the Pythian himself. For this reason he was himself like an oracle to his followers: for they would say of him, autos epha, Pythagoras said this; therefore it is true and beyond doubt. Whence Ovid sings of him in book XV of the Metamorphoses:
With his mind he approached the gods, and what nature denied
To human senses, he drank in with the eyes of his heart.
But it is certain that Pythagoras was neither Ezekiel nor a Jew, even though he borrowed his doctrines, and perhaps even circumcision, from the Jews and Prophets. For first, the ancients everywhere teach that Pythagoras came from the island of Samos: therefore he was Greek, not Jewish. Second, Pythagoras taught metempsychosis, that is, the transmigration of souls from one body to another, not only of a human but also of a beast: which plainly contradicts the teaching of the Hebrews, and specifically the oracle of Ezekiel chapter 37, concerning the soul returning to its own bones and its own flesh. For Pythagoras, as Tertullian expressly teaches in his book On the Soul, chapter 28, in order to persuade the people of this error of the transmigration of souls, feigned death, hid in an underground cave for seven years, condemning himself there to patience with only his mother privy to it: and when he seemed to have sufficiently altered his bodily appearance, he emerged from the sanctum of deception, so that he might be believed to have returned from the underworld, saying that he had previously been Aethalides or Euphorbus; then Pyrrhas the fisherman, and next Hermotimus. That saying belongs to Pythagoras, which Hermias the Philosopher, mocking it and applying it to himself, ridicules in his tract On the Mockery of the Gentile Philosophers, which is found in volume IV of the Library of the Holy Fathers: "Now," he says, "I am immortal, and I rejoice; now on the contrary I become mortal, and I weep: death dissolves compound bodies; I become water, I become air, I become fire: a little later it makes me neither air nor fire, but a wild beast, it makes me a fish. And so in turn I have Dolphins for brothers. But when I look at my body, I am terrified, and I know not what name to call it, whether dog, or wolf, or bull, or bird, or serpent, or dragon, or chimaera, for I am changed into all manner of beasts: terrestrial, aquatic, winged, multiform, wild, tame; mute, vocal; brute, endowed with reason. I swim, I fly, I am borne aloft through the air, I creep, I run, I sit."
Third, because Ezekiel and Pythagoras were not contemporaries, but the latter was later than the former. For Ezekiel flourished when Nebuchadnezzar reigned among the Chaldeans, Tarquinius Priscus among the Romans, in the 49th Olympiad. But Pythagoras flourished after the Chaldean monarchy was overthrown, when Cambyses reigned among the Persians, Tarquinius Superbus among the Romans, in the 64th Olympiad. So Eusebius in the Chronicle. Therefore Ezekiel preceded Pythagoras by fifteen Olympiads, that is, 60 years. Moreover Eusebius says: "In the fiftieth Olympiad under Cyrus flourished Thales, the teacher of Anaximander; he of Anaximenes, he of Anaxagoras, he was the teacher of Pericles; and in the times of Anaxagoras lived Xenophanes and Pythagoras." Therefore Pythagoras was later than Cyrus by two, and later than Ezekiel by three or four generations.
Question 1: Who Was Ezekiel, and of What Character?
St. Jerome responds in chapter 47 and elsewhere: "Ezekiel is both an ocean of the Scriptures and a labyrinth of the mysteries of God:" the mysteries which other prophets prophesy in plain speech, he covers and seals with the sacred, so to speak, arcana of hieroglyphs.
First, then, Ezekiel was a priest, descended from the tribe of Levi, as St. Jerome testifies in chapter 14 of Ezekiel, verse 23, and indeed Ezekiel himself in chapter 1, verse 3. His homeland was Sarara, says Epiphanius in his Life. He was the son of Buzi. This Buzi the Hebrews relate, or rather fabricate, to have been the Prophet Jeremiah, who was called Buzi, that is, despised, because he was held in contempt and derision by the Jews. But Gregory of Nazianzus, in oration 47, says: "They report that Ezekiel was formerly a servant of Jeremiah." But this too appears to be a fable. For he was himself of the priestly lineage, which was the most noble among the Jews. It seems, therefore, that this bit was sewn onto Nazianzen's text: or certainly Nazianzen merely reports the opinion of the Rabbis of his time, without approving it, as his disciple St. Jerome also frequently does.
Second, Ezekiel in Hebrew means the same as chezek el, that is, the strength or fortitude of God, or one strengthened by God. Whence in chapter 3, verse 8, he hears from God: "Behold, I have made your face stronger than their faces, and your forehead harder than their foreheads. Like adamant and like flint I have made your face." Yet Origen and St. Jerome in chapter 47, verse 8, interpret Ezekiel as meaning the dominion of God; for the root chazak means to be strengthened and to prevail, that is, to dominate and to rule.
Third, he was himself a type of Christ, and therefore, just as Christ, he is called the son of man. So St. Gregory, Isidore, and others.
Moreover St. Gregory, in book XXVI of the Moralia, chapter 5: "Ezekiel," he says, "bears the appearance of teachers." The same in his Homily 12 on Ezekiel: "Ezekiel," he says, "bears the type of preachers." The same, in book III of his Exposition on 1 Kings, chapter 9: "Ezekiel," he says, "came as a stern preacher against the stubborn in evil, so that being about to announce the harsh things that were to come, he wept for seven days in their midst before he spoke," Ezekiel 3:15. "For the chosen preacher ought to imitate those who both preach sharp truths and observe what they proclaim."
Fourth, he was himself the prodigy of his age, as God says of him in chapter 24, verse 24, so that by his portentous words and deeds he might bend and break the hardness and obstinacy of the Jews in their sins. For this reason he depicted the siege of the city on a brick, ate bread baked with cow dung, and lay on one side for 390 days, chapter 4, verse 1. For this reason he describes in chapter 1 the war-chariot of God, with angels threatening and preparing war, vengeance, and destruction against the Jews and other nations.
Fifth, he was a Martyr, killed by the Jews, and by the leader of his people, says Epiphanius, at Babylon, because he reproved them for the worship of idols. Whence in the Roman Martyrology we read of him on the 10th of April: "Of the Prophet Ezekiel, who, because he reproved the judge of the people of Israel for the worship of idols, was killed at Babylon, and was buried in the tomb of Shem and Arphaxad, the progenitors of Abraham, to which many were accustomed to flock for the sake of prayer." The same is taught by St. Dorotheus in his Synopsis, chapter 16, Isidore in his book On the Life and Death of the Saints, chapter 39, and Epiphanius in his book On the Life and Death of the Prophets, chapter 19. However, the manner of his death is not established. The author of the Incomplete Work on Matthew, homily 46, relates that he was dragged and his skull crushed: "I sent," he says, "Ezekiel, and you dragged him over stones and dashed out his brains." Adrichomius in his Description of the Holy Land, page 246, under the year of the world 3386, relates that he was torn apart by horses; but he cites no ancient authority for this.
Sixth, Epiphanius, Isidore, and Dorotheus in the same place recount his miracles. First, that like a second Moses, he led the Jews across the river Chobar dry-footed, while the Chaldeans pursuing them were drowned in it; second, that by his prayers he obtained from God an abundance of fish, with which he restored the Jews who were nearly dead from hunger; third, that he sent venomous serpents against the impious Danites and Gadites. But the credibility of these accounts rests with their authors.
Question 2: When Did Ezekiel Begin to Prophesy, and for How Long?
I answer. Daniel was carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in the 3rd year of Jehoiakim, Daniel 1:1. Ezekiel, however, was carried away after him 8 years later, namely in the 11th and last year of Jehoiakim, that is, after he was killed by the Chaldeans, and his son Jehoiachin succeeded him in the kingdom for three months; and when he too was likewise carried away, Zedekiah, who was the brother of Jehoiakim, succeeded. So Josephus, book X of the Antiquities, chapter 8.
Second, Ezekiel began to prophesy in the 5th year after he was carried away, namely in the 5th year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, which was likewise the 5th year of the reign of Zedekiah. This is clear from Ezekiel 1:2. Therefore Ezekiel began to prophesy 199 years after Isaiah, and 34 years after Jeremiah. For Jeremiah began in the 13th year of Josiah, Jeremiah 1:2, and from that 13th year to the 3rd year of Zedekiah there are 34 years. So St. Jerome at the beginning of chapter 1 of Ezekiel. Before Daniel, however, Ezekiel began to prophesy by 22 years. I make an exception for the story of Susanna: for Daniel delivered her from death by the prophetic spirit before Ezekiel began to prophesy, as will be shown in Daniel 13. Ezekiel continued to prophesy, however, and after him Daniel, to the Jews in Babylon, at the same time that Jeremiah continued to prophesy to the Jews in Jerusalem. St. Jerome gives the reason in his commentary on Ezekiel chapter 12, verse 7: "His (Jeremiah's)," he says, "prophecy was sent to the captives in Babylon, and his (Ezekiel's) to those who dwelt in Jerusalem, so that the providence of the one God in different regions might be proven, and the hearers might understand that whatever befell the people was by no means due to the power of idols, but stood by the Lord's command."
Finally, St. Jerome, Origen, Gregory, and the Hebrews judge that Ezekiel began to preach and prophesy at the age of 30. For at that same age others began, both Christ and John the Baptist. But this is uncertain: for he was carried away as a youth, if we believe Josephus, and then began to prophesy in the 5th year: and concerning Jeremiah it is established that he began to preach as a youth, Jeremiah 1:6.
Third, Ezekiel prophesied for 20 years. For he began in the 5th year of the captivity of Jehoiachin: he finished in the 25th year of the same, as is clear from chapter 40, verse 1. Therefore St. Gregory, in homily 13, seems to be mistaken when he writes that he prophesied for 25 years; for he supposes that he began in the 5th year of Jehoiakim the father, not of Jehoiachin the son, the contrary of which Josephus expressly states in book X, chapter 8, and St. Jerome as well. Indeed Ezekiel himself, who throughout this book marks his prophecies by the years of the captivity of Jehoiachin, not of Jehoiakim (for the latter did not go into exile, but was killed); because clearly he himself was carried away to Babylon in the same year as Jehoiachin, and as it seems, together with Jehoiachin. For so St. Jerome states in his Preface, and this is the common opinion of the interpreters.
Add to the foregoing one prophecy which Ezekiel had in chapter 29, verse 17, in the 27th year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, which if you add to the rest, you will reckon that he prophesied for precisely 22 years. Whether he prophesied any further is not clear from his writings.
Ezekiel therefore began to prophesy in the year of the world 3317, which was 632 before Christ, for the 5th year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah, falls in this year, which was also the 5th year of the reign of Zedekiah, as I said in the Prooemium in the chronological Synopsis. He ceased to prophesy in the year of the world 3339, which was 610 before Christ, when Daniel began to prophesy, as I shall show in Daniel 2:1. Therefore in the same year in which Ezekiel ceased, Daniel began, so that the former seems to have passed the torch to the latter. Now receive the four-horse chariot of the chronology of the four Prophets. Isaiah began to prophesy in the 17th year of Uzziah, when he was about 30 years old; therefore he began about 50 years before Rome. For Rome was founded around the 11th year (though Eusebius in the Chronicle has the sixteenth) of Jotham the son of Uzziah; and after 4 years, Romulus, having killed his brother Remus, began to reign in it, when Isaiah was about 80 years old, as I said in the Prooemium on Isaiah. From the 11th year of Jotham to the 13th year of Josiah, when Jeremiah began to prophesy, 120 years elapsed. The same number elapsed from the 1st year of the founding of Rome to the 2nd year of Ancus Martius, who was the fourth king of the Romans. Therefore Jeremiah began to prophesy in the 2nd year of Ancus Martius. From this 2nd year of Ancus to the 13th year of Tarquinius Priscus, 34 years elapsed. The same number elapsed from the 13th year of Josiah to the 5th year of Zedekiah, when Ezekiel began to prophesy. He began therefore in the 13th year of Tarquinius Priscus. From this 13th year of Tarquinius Priscus to the 35th year of the same Tarquinius Priscus, 22 years elapsed. The same number elapsed from the 5th year of the captivity of Jehoiachin to the 27th year of the captivity of the same, when Daniel began to prophesy. Daniel therefore began in the 35th year of Tarquinius Priscus. Receive the series and synopsis of these, through the parallel years of the kings of Judah and the kings of Rome.
Chronological Table: Kings of Judah and Kings of Rome
Uzziah or Azariah, in whose 17th year Isaiah began to prophesy, reigned 52 years.
Jotham reigned 16 years.
Ahaz reigned 16 years.
Hezekiah reigned 29 years.
The founding of Rome (when the first foundations of the city were laid) preceded the reign of Romulus by five years.
So Eusebius in his Chronology, and other more exact Chronologists, though some confuse the origins of Rome and of Romulus. For Rome was founded on the Parilia (which afterward became a feast day) in the 40th year of Amulius, king of Latium, says Eusebius, which according to the chronological table that I prefixed to Genesis, was the 11th year of Jotham, and after 4 years, namely after the 44th year of Amulius, his great-uncle, that is, in the 16th year of Jotham, Romulus began to reign in it, and he reigned 39 years.
Moreover Rome was founded in the 3rd year of the sixth Olympiad, as Gordonus, Mercator, Torniellus, and other Chronologists commonly teach from Varro, Livy, Solinus, and Dionysius. Therefore the beginning of the Olympiads preceded the founding of Rome by 23 years; for six Olympiads make that many years. For this reason the beginning of the Olympiads in the chronological table which I prefixed to Genesis is assigned to the 40th year of Uzziah or Azariah, king of Judah; who reigned 52 years, and was succeeded by his son Jotham, in whose 11th year Rome was founded. For count the years from the 40th of Uzziah to the 11th of Jotham, and you will find 23. The same authors, though they vary in assigning the beginning of the Olympiads and of the city of Rome to the years of the kings of Judah, agree nevertheless that Rome was founded 432 years after the destruction of Troy.
After Romulus, before Numa, there was an interregnum of one year.
Manasseh reigned 55 years.
Amon reigned 2 years.
For Eusebius wrongly gives Amon 12 years in his Chronicle following the Septuagint, when it is established that he reigned only two years, as is expressly stated in 2 Chronicles 33:21 and 4 Kings 21:19.
Numa Pompilius, the second king of the Romans (under whom Isaiah was killed by Manasseh), reigned 41 years.
Tullus Hostilius, the third king of the Romans, reigned 32 years.
Ancus Martius, the fourth king of the Romans, reigned 23 years.
The second year of Ancus falls in the 13th year of Josiah, when Jeremiah began to prophesy.
Josiah reigned 31 years.
At the same time Pharaoh Necho reigned in Egypt; for by him Josiah was killed.
Jehoiakim reigned 11 years.
Jehoiachin or Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, reigned three months: after which, captured by Nebuchadnezzar, he was carried away to Babylon, being succeeded by his uncle Zedekiah: therefore the years of the captivity of Jeconiah and the years of the reign of Zedekiah are the same. From this captivity of Jeconiah begin the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity.
Zedekiah reigned 11 years.
After which, captured by Nebuchadnezzar and blinded, Jerusalem was destroyed and the kingdom of Judah ended. Thus indeed, as Jerusalem fell, Rome grew, and in it, as if in a seed, the Roman Church, for which the Prophets wrote their oracles.
Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of the Romans, reigned 38 years.
The 13th year of Tarquinius Priscus falls in the 5th year of the captivity of Jeconiah, and in the 5th year of the reign of Zedekiah, when Ezekiel began to prophesy, which was likewise the 13th year of Nebuchadnezzar, who was then reigning in Babylonia.
In the same year likewise, Astyages began to reign in Media and Persia, and he reigned 38 years, after which Cyrus succeeded him.
Again, the 35th year of Tarquinius Priscus falls in the 27th year of the captivity of Jeconiah, when Daniel began to prophesy.
Servius Tullius, the sixth king of the Romans, reigned 44 years.
In the 14th year of Servius Tullius, Astyages died, and Cyrus succeeded him in the kingdom of Persia, who reigned in it for 30 years, and in the 27th year of his reign captured Babylon and became the sole monarch. At the same time Croesus was reigning in Lydia, whom Cyrus defeated; at that time also Solon the Athenian lawgiver flourished.
Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last king of the Romans, reigned 35 years.
The 70 years of the Babylonian captivity end in the 27th year of Cyrus, which was the 1st year of the monarchy of Cyrus and the 7th year of Tarquinius Superbus; although Eusebius in the Chronicle thinks that this was the 27th year of Tarquinius, because he gives Amon king of Judah not 2 years, but 12 (which contradicts the Hebrew and Latin Sacred Scripture), and begins the 70 years of captivity not from the captivity of Jeconiah, but ten years later, namely from the capture of Zedekiah, and from the destruction of Jerusalem. For if you add to these 10 years the 10 years of Amon, you will have the 20 years of Eusebius, which he here adds and inserts, so that he thinks the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity are completed not in the 7th, but in the 27th year of Tarquinius Superbus, which was also the 27th of Cyrus. Moreover Eusebius begins the years of Romulus five years later than we do, namely from the 5th year of Ahaz, whereas we begin them from the 16th year of Jotham.
Therefore the 27th year of Cyrus, in which he captured Babylon and obtained the monarchy and freed the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, falls in the 7th year of Tarquinius Superbus; and the 30th year of Cyrus, in which he died, falls in the 10th year of the same Tarquinius. Cambyses succeeded Cyrus, and reigned 8 years, under whom Pythagoras flourished, says Eusebius in the Chronicle, who assigns to each king of the Romans as many years as I have assigned here; although others vary, and give some more, and some fewer years.
In the 27th year of the captivity of Jeconiah and of the Babylonian captivity, which was the 16th year from the destruction of Jerusalem and the capture of Zedekiah, Daniel began to prophesy in Babylon, Daniel 2:1.
Question 3: What Is the Subject Matter of His Book?
I answer: It is the same as that of Jeremiah, but more wrapped in figures and enigmas, and more obscure. Just as Jeremiah in the first 27 chapters threatens and foretells to the impious Jews the destruction of the Jews and the Babylonian captivity, so Ezekiel does the same through the first 24 chapters, and recounts and reproves the causes, namely their sins.
Second, just as Jeremiah from chapter 27 to 51 threatens the same Chaldean destruction against other nations, such as Ammon, Moab, Edom, the Philistines, Tyre, and Egypt: so Ezekiel does the same from chapter 25 to 34.
Finally, in the last 14 chapters he prophesies the liberation and return from captivity, the pastoral kingdom of Christ, baptism, the calling of the Gentiles, the resurrection, the destruction of Gog and Magog, and thus comforts his people. Whence from chapter 40 and following, to the very end, he foretells the burned city, and the temple with its parts and dimensions which he minutely describes, to be rebuilt, not so much literally as mystically in Christ and in the Church.
Jeremiah does the same in part from chapter 30 to 34. God, therefore, who at all times provides teachers and heralds for the Church and the faithful, in this age gave Ezekiel to the Jews in Babylon, and Jeremiah to the Jews in Jerusalem.
The reason for his prophesying was to confirm Jeremiah's prophecy concerning the destruction of the city and the nation. For there was Hananiah, Jeremiah 28, and Shemaiah, chapter 29, and other false prophets, who accused Jeremiah of falsehood, prophesying to the Jews peace and all prosperity, and that those who had been carried away to Babylon would soon return to their homeland; while Jeremiah proclaimed the contrary, and wrote to those carried away to Babylon that they should build houses, plant vineyards, and take wives, as if they would remain there for 70 years, chapter 29:5. Ezekiel therefore was sent by God, both to confirm the oracles of Jeremiah and to console the captives in Babylon. For there were some who regretted their surrender to the Chaldeans, because they saw Jerusalem still standing and not destroyed, as Jeremiah had threatened. To these Ezekiel foretells that after five years Jerusalem would certainly be destroyed, and all the citizens carried away to Babylon, and therefore they ought to rejoice that they would not have to witness this destruction, but would live peacefully in Babylon. So St. Jerome in the Preface.
And for this reason, so great is the affinity and agreement between Jeremiah and Ezekiel that each not only preaches the same things, but often uses the same words and thoughts, as I shall show in the course of the commentary. Wherefore, what the philosopher replied when asked how Dialectic differed from Rhetoric: "As a contracted hand from the same hand opened;" the same may be said of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, that each prophesies the same things in the same terms, but Ezekiel obscurely through symbols, like a hand folded and clenched; while Jeremiah does so openly and plainly, like a hand opened and spread out. Just as Zeno compared Logic to the fist and Rhetoric to the open palm; so you may compare Ezekiel to the fist and Jeremiah to the palm. Again, just as St. Augustine said in Psalm 105, "The New Testament is veiled in the Old, the Old is revealed in the New:" so likewise you may say that Jeremiah is veiled in Ezekiel, and Ezekiel is revealed in Jeremiah, so that "Ezekiel is Jeremiah veiled, and Jeremiah is Ezekiel revealed."
Moreover Josephus, in book X of the Antiquities, chapters 10 and 11, writes that Zedekiah and the Jews believed neither the oracles of Ezekiel nor of Jeremiah, because they seemed to prophesy contradictory things. For Jeremiah, in chapter 21:7, had foretold that Zedekiah would be carried away to Babylon: but Ezekiel in chapter 12:11 had denied that he would see Babylon. But the outcome showed that both were true. For Zedekiah, blinded by the Chaldeans, was led to Babylon, and so he went there; but because he was blind, he did not see it. And Ezekiel predicted both things in the passages cited. Therefore this supposed contradiction is vainly alleged as a pretext for the incredulity of the Jews.
Finally, Ezekiel attracts and invites all, both Gentiles and Jews, to the worship of God and obedience to Jesus Christ, both by the hope of rewards and by the fear of punishments and destruction. This is what Ecclesiasticus says in chapter 49:10: "Ezekiel saw the vision of glory, which God showed him in the chariot of the Cherubim. For he made mention of the enemies under the figure of rain, and of doing good to those who showed right ways," meaning that God would avenge His enemies, like a rain and storm rushing down from above (for Ezekiel compares God the Avenger to this, in chapter 18:22 and chapter 38:5), and that He would do good to those who act rightly, or to those returning to Him through repentance, as is clear from the same passages already cited.
The ancients cite an oracle concerning the Virgin Birth, taken from Ezekiel according to the Septuagint version, and it is this: The heifer shall give birth and they shall say: She has not given birth, that is, the Blessed Virgin shall give birth, but heretics will deny that a virgin gave birth. So Epiphanius, in book I Against the Heresy of the Ebionites, and Tertullian in his book On the Flesh of Christ, chapter 23. Others read: She gave birth, and did not give birth, as if to say: The Virgin gave birth, but did not give birth as other mothers do from the seed of a man, with pain and the opening of the virginal enclosure. So Clement, book VII of the Stromata.
Question 4: How Great Is the Sublimity and Obscurity of Ezekiel?
I answer: that sublimity and obscurity is evident to the eye, if one inspects only chapter 1 and chapter 40 with the following eight chapters. Hence St. Gregory of Nazianzus, oration 23: "Ezekiel," he says, "is the greatest and most exalted of all the Prophets." The same, in oration 34: "Why," he says, "should I mention Isaiah and Ezekiel, the spectator of the greatest things, and the other Prophets? Of whom the one saw the Lord of hosts sitting on a throne of glory, encircled by Seraphim with six wings, praised and veiled, and himself purged by a coal, and prepared for undertaking the office of Prophet: the other describes also the vehicle of God, that is, the Cherubim, and a throne more exalted than they, and a firmament still more sublime than that, and moreover Him who in the firmament somehow made Himself visible, and certain voices too, and impulses and actions, whether this was a divine vision, visible only to the best and holiest men, or a most reliable nocturnal vision; or a certain impression and formation of the mind, having commerce with future things as if with present ones; or some other secret kind of prophecy, I cannot say; the God of the Prophets knows this, and those who are moved by such inspirations."
The Hebrews relate that there are two laws in Scripture, one written, concerning the creation of things; the other secret, handed down to Moses concerning the form of the divinity: the former is called Bereshit, the latter Merkabah; the former is contained in Genesis, the latter in Ezekiel's chariot; the former is common knowledge to all, the latter revealed only to the wise. For this reason St. Jerome here asserts that among the Hebrews it was forbidden for anyone to read the beginning and end of Ezekiel, the Song of Songs, and the beginning of Genesis, before the priestly age, that is, before the thirtieth year. For Ezekiel is among the Prophets what Heraclitus is among the Greeks, who, as Plutarch testifies in the Life of Fabius Maximus, was called skoteinos, that is, obscure, on account of his darkness, says Delrio, adage 197.
Furthermore, the Rabbis relate and observe that they admit no one to the reading of Ezekiel before the age of thirty. Again, they deny that it is lawful for anyone to explain Ezekiel in written commentaries, except by touching only upon the main points. But this is their superstition. For what God willed to be written through the Prophet, He also willed to be read and explained. Aided therefore by the prayers of Ezekiel, we shall begin.
Now the cause of obscurity in Ezekiel is twofold. The first is the sublimity of the matter and subject, as in chapter 1, where he shadows forth and explains God, and the attributes of God and of the Angels through the chariot of the Cherubim, through wheels covered with eyes, through the four faces of the living creatures, through the firmament, through crystal, through electrum, etc. The second is the mode of speaking and the language, in itself indeed easy and simple, but which is figurative, and presents its matters through symbols and enigmas. For this Theodoret gives one reason, namely, that he reproves the Jews and preaches that they are to be cut off and rejected, while on the other hand he foretells the calling and salvation of the Gentiles, and therefore it was to be feared that if the Jews clearly understood his words and writings, they would out of envy abolish the book. But if this is so, why did they not abolish the prophecy of Jeremiah, which clearly (as do also certain chapters of Ezekiel) announces this destruction? It should rather be attributed to the variety of prophecy, so that what Jeremiah spoke clearly to the Jews in Jerusalem, the same things Ezekiel represented to the same Jews in Babylon through symbols; so that the Babylonians could not understand them, and therefore mock and jeer at their outcome; but only the Jews, to whom Ezekiel explained them.
Commentators on Ezekiel
Among the Latin writers, St. Jerome and St. Gregory wrote on Ezekiel; among the Syrians, Theodoret; among the Greeks, Apollinaris the Younger, Bishop of Laodicea (who was the teacher of St. Jerome), in the year of Christ 380, under the Emperor Gratian; Polychronius, Bishop of Apamea (from whom Theodoret drew much), brother of Theodore of Mopsuestia, in the year of Christ 400; Origen, Severus, and others who are listed in the Catena of the Greeks, which is preserved here in the Vatican Library, which was also used by Father Prado and Villalpando, who by the command and at the expense of the Most Serene Philip II, King of Spain, devoted sixteen years and their lives to publishing three volumes on the first 28 and the three final chapters (namely 40, 41, 42, which concern the temple) of Ezekiel.
Moreover St. Jerome and Gregory undertook this exposition of Ezekiel when Rome and the Roman Empire were being devastated by the Vandals and Goths, and by the Lombards, just as Judea and Jerusalem had been devastated by the Chaldeans in the time of Ezekiel, so that from it, and from the similar destruction of the Israelites, they might console themselves and their people: "Two things," says St. Gregory in the Preface to book II of his Commentary on Ezekiel, "disturb my mind in this matter (the exposition of Ezekiel). One, that this same vision is covered with such clouds of obscurity that scarcely anything seems to shine through with understanding. The other, that we have learned that Agilulph, king of the Lombards, making all haste to besiege us, has crossed the Po." Therefore St. Gregory wrote these things in the year of the Lord 595, the 10th of the Emperor Maurice, the 6th year of his Pontificate, as Baronius notes. St. Bernard, in book I of De Consideratione to Eugenius, chapter 9, marvels, and rightly so, that Gregory, so occupied in the Pontificate and equally afflicted, was able to accomplish this: "There have not been wanting Roman Pontiffs," he says, "who found leisure for themselves amid the greatest affairs. A siege threatened the city, and the barbarian sword hung over the necks of the citizens: yet did this terrify the Blessed Pope Gregory from writing wisdom in his leisure? At that very time (as is clear from his Preface) he expounded the most obscure and final part of Ezekiel as diligently as he did elegantly;" and he not only expounded it, but delivered it to the people in sermons, as he himself testifies in the preface of book I. St. Jerome, however, in his Preface to book I on Ezekiel, says: "I desired to pass on to Ezekiel: and behold, suddenly the death of Pammachius and Marcella, the siege of the city of Rome, and the death of many brothers and sisters was announced to me;" and shortly after: "After the brightest light of all lands was extinguished, indeed after the head of the Roman Empire was cut off, and, to speak more truly, the whole world perished in one city, I fell silent and was humbled." He therefore wrote these Commentaries on Ezekiel in the year of the Lord 410, which was the 16th of the Emperor Honorius, and the 9th of Pope Innocent I; for in that year this destruction of Rome occurred at the hands of Alaric, king of the Goths, as Baronius teaches from Orosius and others.
Finally, Lyranus, Hugo, Dionysius, Vatablus, Hecker, Pintus, and Petrus Serranus of Cordoba wrote on Ezekiel, whose commentaries on Leviticus also survive.