Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Daniel as a youth, together with three companions, is carried off to Babylon, where he is educated and instructed to serve the king. Second, in verse 8, he abstains from the royal food and drink. From this, in verse 15, he obtains bodily beauty, wisdom, and the gift of prophecy from God. Finally, in verse 18, he serves before kings until Cyrus.
Vulgate Text: Daniel 1:1-21
1. In the third year of the reign of Joakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it: 2. and the Lord delivered into his hand Joakim king of Judah, and part of the vessels of the house of God: and he carried them away into the land of Shinar, into the house of his god, and brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god. 3. And the king spoke to Ashpenaz the chief of the eunuchs, that he should bring in some of the children of Israel, and of the royal seed, and of the princes, 4. youths in whom there was no blemish, handsome in appearance, and instructed in all wisdom, skillful in knowledge, and learned in understanding, and who could stand in the king's palace, that he might teach them the letters and language of the Chaldeans. 5. And the king appointed them a daily provision of his own food, and of the wine from which he himself drank, that being nourished for three years, they might afterward stand before the king. 6. Now among them were of the children of Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. 7. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: to Daniel, Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego. 8. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's food, nor with the wine which he drank: and he asked the chief of the eunuchs that he might not be defiled. 9. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs. 10. And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel: I fear my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink: for if he should see your faces thinner than the other youths your age, you will endanger my head with the king. 11. And Daniel said to Melzar, whom the chief of the eunuchs had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: 12. Test us your servants, I pray, for ten days, and let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink: 13. and then observe our appearance, and the appearance of the youths who eat the royal food: and as you see fit, deal with your servants. 14. And he, having heard such words, tested them for ten days. 15. And after ten days their appearance was better and plumper than all the youths who ate the royal food. 16. So Melzar took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables. 17. And to these youths God gave knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and to Daniel He gave understanding of all visions and dreams. 18. And when the days were completed, after which the king had said they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them before Nebuchadnezzar. 19. And when the king had spoken with them, none were found among all of them like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: and they stood before the king. 20. And in every matter of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers in his whole kingdom. 21. And Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus.
Verse 1: In the Third Year of the Reign of Joakim
1. IN THE THIRD YEAR OF THE REIGN OF JOAKIM. — You will say: in Jeremiah XXV, 1 and following, it is said this happened in the fourth year of Joakim, therefore not the third. I answer: the first year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign began in the third year of Joakim and ended in the fourth year of Joakim. Hence the things Nebuchadnezzar did in the first year of his reign are said to have been done now in the third, now in the fourth year of Joakim: for he began to prepare his expedition against the Jews in the third year, and completed it in the fourth. Note: Nebuchadnezzar captured and devastated Jerusalem three times. First, in this third year of Joakim, when he captured him, and at that time Daniel too was captured and carried away; but when Joakim submitted to Nebuchadnezzar and promised tribute, Nebuchadnezzar restored him to his kingdom, having taken hostages, namely Daniel and others of the royal seed. So says the Historia Scholastica, chapter XXXIX on IV Kings. But when after eight years Joakim refused tribute and rebelled, Nebuchadnezzar came a second time in the eleventh year of Joakim's reign, captured him by treachery, killed him, and ordered his body to be cast unburied outside the city, to be devoured by birds and beasts. For this is the burial of a donkey, which Jeremiah had threatened him with in chapter XXII, 19. And then Nebuchadnezzar, in place of Joakim, made his son Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah, king; but when he likewise after three months wanted to throw off the yoke, Nebuchadnezzar captured and carried him away, and in his place installed his uncle Zedekiah, who after reigning eleven years, rebelled. Hence Nebuchadnezzar came a third time, in the eighteenth year of his reign, captured the city, burned the temple, blinded Zedekiah, carried off all the Jews, and overthrew the entire kingdom of the Jews.
R. Saadia, Lyranus, Dionysius the Carthusian, and Maldonatus answer differently, namely that this third year should be reckoned from the eighth year of Joakim, and that it is the eleventh and last year of his reign: for in his first eight years Joakim was tributary to Nebuchadnezzar, and therefore was not so much a king as a vassal; but in his eighth year he rebelled and made himself an absolute king; from that point, then, Daniel here counts his years. This is supported by the fact that Ezekiel and Jeremiah nowhere mention any captivity under Joakim, but only under Jehoiachin or Jeconiah, and from that point number and record their prophecies. Indeed, Jeremiah in chapter LII, 28, states that the first captives were taken from Judea to Babylon in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar, which coincides with the eleventh and last year of Joakim. Therefore Nebuchadnezzar carried off no one in the first year of his reign, which was the third or fourth of Joakim, when Joakim was still his tributary. This opinion seems probable; nevertheless Eusebius and other ancient writers commonly assign the first captivity to the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, which was the third of Joakim; for this is what Daniel's words here simply signify: hence it seems there was some captivity at that time, but of a few — namely, that Daniel and a few others were then carried off.
Verse 2: Into the Land of Shinar
2. INTO THE LAND OF SHINAR — that is, into Babylonia. See what was said on Genesis XI, 2.
OF THE ROYAL SEED. — Hence it is clear that Daniel and the three youths were descended from David, Solomon, and the other kings of Judah. Josephus asserts that Daniel was of the kindred of Zedekiah. Therefore Dionysius the Carthusian is wrong to assert that Daniel was of the tribe of Levi on his father's side and of the tribe of Judah on his mother's: for Scripture customarily records the paternal lineage, not the maternal. Since therefore it here traces Daniel's lineage to the kings of Judah, it follows that this was his paternal descent.
AND OF THE PRINCES. — "Tyrants" here and elsewhere means princes: for they were formerly called tyrants not from tyranny, but from strength and power. For, as Trogus Pompeius says in Justin, at the beginning of his History, originally every city and nation had the government of their commonwealth in the hands of kings, whom not popular ambition but tested moderation among the good elevated to such a height of majesty; and these were called tyrants on account of their strength. Hence Virgil, Aeneid VII: "It shall be part of my peace to have touched the right hand of the ruler." And Horace, book III, ode XVII: "Widely ruling" — that is, ruling broadly, having a wide kingdom. But afterward, "the name of tyrant, as wickedness increased and kings began to reign arrogantly, was transferred only to those who ruled not by right and just laws, but by force and a certain passion of the soul," says Cicero, book IV On Ends. That this is so is clear from the Hebrew, or rather Chaldean, parthemim, which means princes, governors, provincials.
Verse 3: The Chief of the Eunuchs
3. AND THE KING SPOKE TO ASHPENAZ THE CHIEF OF THE EUNUCHS. — Hence Josephus, Origen in homily 4 on Ezekiel, Zonaras in volume I of his Annals, and St. Jerome in book I Against Jovinian, think that Daniel and his three companions were castrated and made eunuchs. For God had threatened this to Hezekiah, in Isaiah XXXIX, 7: "Of your sons, He says, who shall come forth from you, whom you shall beget, they shall take, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." For the ancient pagan kings took the sons of princes into their service as intimate attendants; and to safeguard the virtue of their wives and concubines, lest these attendants attempt anything against them, they castrated them, as the kings of the Chinese, Turks, and other unbelievers still do. Therefore their chief was called the chief of the eunuchs. Eunuchs, then, were intimates of kings, and were chiefs not only of the women's quarters, but also of the court, and governors of provinces and commanders of armies among the Gentiles; indeed even under Constantius, Justinian (whose army commander was the eunuch Narses, famous for so many victories), and certain other Christian emperors. Therefore at that time being a eunuch was not a disgrace, but an honor and distinction, and a step toward the highest dignities of the court. Such therefore Daniel and his three companions seem to have been: hence we read nowhere of their wives or children. And this was the origin of their complete chastity, both of body and soul, on account of which they remained unharmed by fire in the Babylonian furnace, as I will say in chapter III.
For this same reason Daniel, although he was very old, is nevertheless commonly depicted in the most ancient images — such as that in the Vatican which I reproduced at the beginning of the book — as beardless, like a young man: for such are eunuchs. This reason for his portrayal is assigned by an ancient anonymous Greek author of a book entitled The Book of Christians, an Exposition of the Octateuch, which is preserved in the Vatican Library and cited by Photius in his Bibliotheca, who asserts it was written under the Emperor Justin.
Moreover, from this frequency and power of eunuchs in courts, it subsequently came about that any courtiers were called eunuchs. And thus Lyranus, Maldonatus, and others think that Daniel is here placed among eunuchs — meaning courtiers — but was not truly a eunuch, that is, castrated. The same is asserted by St. Epiphanius and Dorotheus in their Life of Daniel, who also add that he was not a eunuch, but was thought to be one because of his virginal modesty and chastity: hence it is not surprising that he is depicted beardless, as if a eunuch. This opinion seems more likely, and more worthy of Daniel the prophet; for among the Jews, eunuchs were held in disgrace and barred from the assembly, by a decree of God, Deuteronomy XXIII, 1. Therefore Scripture nowhere calls Daniel a eunuch, nor says that he was placed over the women's quarters, but only that he was raised in the royal court so as to serve the king. This also further commends Daniel's chastity, inasmuch as it was not forced and violent, but entirely voluntary and from free choice.
R. Joseph, and following him Pagninus and others, think that they were called parthemim by the Chaldeans from perat, that is the Euphrates — as Peratheans, that is, Euphrateans — meaning those who governed the places and provinces adjacent to the Euphrates, just as we call them the Counts Palatine of the Rhine. Therefore Theodotion in his Greek version retained the Hebrew name Parthemim, translating it as Phorthommin. Hear St. Jerome: "In place of meglequir, which Theodotion put, the Septuagint and Aquila translated 'Chosen,' Symmachus 'Parthians,' understanding a nation's name instead of the word: which we, following the edition of the Hebrews which is read as 'accurate' (so he writes elsewhere that the second edition of Aquila was commonly called by the Hebrews), have translated as 'Tyrants.'" Theodoret is mistaken when he thinks the word is parthenos, that is, virgins.
Verse 4: Instructed in All Wisdom
4. YOUTHS, etc., INSTRUCTED IN ALL WISDOM. — For "instructed" the Hebrew is maskilim, which Pintus translates as "teachable": for they were still youths, and therefore unskilled, but capable of wisdom. So also Vatablus. He says these youths were of keen and sharp intelligence. So also our Pineda, On the Affairs of Solomon, book III, chapter XIII, where he explains this passage in two ways: first, by anticipation: "And instructed in all wisdom, etc., that he might teach them the letters and language of the Chaldeans" — that is, he says, that he might teach them the letters of the Chaldeans, so that they might become learned in all wisdom. Second, as if to say: the king required in these youths a prior sharpness and keenness of intellect, as well as eloquence and learning in the rational sciences, so that they might be better suited for the higher studies of the sublime and hidden matters proper to the Chaldeans. For the Chaldeans were formerly celebrated for their astrology and wisdom.
Second, "instructed" means eloquent and speaking skillfully, and discoursing aptly on any subject: for this is more or less the wisdom of courtiers. Third and more genuinely, the same Pintus, Maldonatus, and others judge that these youths were polished and educated in all disciplines. For this is what the Hebrew maskilim properly signifies, and the Greek synetous, and the Latin "instructed in all wisdom, skillful in knowledge, and learned in understanding." For there is a difference between "learned" and "teachable"; between "instructed" and "able to be instructed." Nor is this surprising: for these royal youths were of excellent intelligence and at the same time most studious. Hence it is clear that these youths were not small children, as Epiphanius and Isidore call Daniel, nor was Daniel three years old, as a certain learned man holds; or ten, as Pererius holds; but easily twenty years old, as Maldonatus teaches. Hence the Septuagint calls them neaniskous, that is, young men. For who has ever seen three- or ten-year-old children instructed in all wisdom, knowledge, and understanding?
SKILLFUL IN KNOWLEDGE. — Pintus understands by "wisdom" rational philosophy, that is grammar, rhetoric, dialectic; by "knowledge" he takes physics, metaphysics, mathematics; by "understanding" he takes ethics, politics, economics. But it is better to take "wisdom" as knowledge of sublime and divine things (for so Sacred Scripture, St. Augustine, and the Doctors everywhere commonly take the word "wisdom"); "knowledge" as the understanding of natural things; "understanding" as prudence. Hence the Septuagint clearly translate from the Hebrew: "understanding in all wisdom, and knowing knowledge, and discerning prudence." For "skillful" in Hebrew is iodee, that is, knowing. "Skillful" therefore means the same as clever and shrewd in investigating the hidden secrets of nature and the causes of things, as are physicists and philosophers. Moreover, "understanding" in Proverbs and the wisdom books, which contain sacred ethics, commonly signifies the prudence of things to be done, which in Hebrew is properly called bina, which our translator renders in verse 20 and elsewhere as "understanding." These youths therefore — that is, young men — were theologians, philosophers, and statesmen. Our Pineda, book III On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter XIV, thinks that "skillful in knowledge" is put for subtle and captious dialectic, about which Seneca says in epistle 82: "You compose captious words for me, and weave little questions together: you catch a lion with an awl."
Let our courtiers learn here from this pagan king to polish themselves in all these disciplines. For true nobility consists not in birth, not in servants, not in chains of office, not in pomp, but in learning and virtue, and these are the jewels and ornaments of nobles.
Hence Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, handed him over to Aristotle for education, and wrote to him in these words: "I give thanks to the gods, not because a son has been born to me, but because he was born in the time of your life. For I hope that, taught by you, he will prove worthy both of us and of so great a kingdom." Trajan was a student of Plutarch, and from this became so great an emperor that he was set before later emperors as an example alongside Augustus, to whom was customarily acclaimed: "May he be more fortunate than Augustus, better than Trajan." Scipio listened to the philosopher Panætius so attentively that he even brought him with him to the camp. Augustus Caesar used Athenodorus as his teacher, and took care that his grandsons by his daughter were trained in both literary and military studies, while he ordered his daughters to be taught in weaving and other womanly arts. Charlemagne did the same.
Plato said the world would be blessed if either kings learned wisdom, or the wise learned to rule: as Aristotle attests in book II of the Rhetoric. Hence among the ancient Egyptians no one was chosen king unless he was a priest, and no one was chosen priest unless he was a philosopher. Nor is learning the distinction of princes alone, but of all people. Aristotle judged that parents who take care to have their children educated are far more honorable than those who merely beget them: for the latter are the authors of living, but the former also of living well and happily.
Aristippus, cast upon Rhodes by a shipwreck and generously treated by the inhabitants on account of his knowledge of geometry, ordered this message sent to his people: "Prepare for your children such riches and such provisions as will follow them even swimming from a shipwreck." St. Augustine in the Confessions praises his parents for having maintained him in his studies at Carthage beyond the means of their family's resources: "For my mother," he says, "a most prudent woman, judged that learning itself would be of great help for knowing and sustaining the Catholic faith." Crates the Theban used to say: "If I could, I would climb to the highest part of the city and cry out: Where are you rushing, O men, who put all your effort into heaping up wealth, yet take no care for the education of your children, to whom you leave it?"
Apuleius, On the God of Socrates: If, he says, you praise someone because he is noble, you praise his parents; if you praise someone because he is rich, this is owed to fortune; if because he is strong, he will be worn out by illness; if because he is swift, this will pass in old age; if because he is handsome, wait a little, and he will not be so. But if you praise him because he is instructed in good morals and arts, then you praise the man himself: because this good is neither inherited from a father, nor dependent on chance, nor changeable with age, nor perishable with the body.
Verse 7: The Eunuchs Gave Them Names
7. AND THE CHIEF OF THE EUNUCHS GAVE THEM NAMES — Chaldean names; both because the Chaldeans did not want them to retain Jewish names in their land, but as they had now become citizens of Babylon and courtiers of the king, they wanted them to have Babylonian names, says St. Jerome; and so that the Hebrew youths, with their Chaldean names, might put on a Chaldean spirit and customs. So also Pharaoh called Joseph by the Egyptian name Zaphnath-Paaneah, that is, the savior of the world, Genesis chapter XLI, 45. So also the Romans changed the name of a foreigner to whom they granted citizenship. So God changed the names of Sarah and Abraham, and Christ changed the name of Cephas, calling him Peter. Hence Cardinals who become Popes change their names. Platina reports that the first Pope who changed his name was Sergius II, because his former name was unseemly, as he was called "Pig's Mouth." Baronius more accurately judges that the first Pope who changed his name was Sergius III, who was previously called Peter: and this out of reverence for the first Pope, namely St. Peter: hence after him no Pope has been called Peter. So Gentiles who are baptized as adults lay aside their pagan name and take a Christian one, namely that of some saint whom they may invoke and imitate.
For this reason Daniel the Stylite received the name of our Daniel, as I said in the Prooemium; and those five Egyptian martyrs under Diocletian, whose contest and triumph are celebrated in the Life of St. Pamphilus the Martyr, found in Eusebius, book VIII of his History, chapter XXX — who, converted from paganism to Christianity and having renounced their former pagan names, took the names of our Prophets, and were called Isaiah, Jeremiah, Samuel, Elijah, Daniel; and at the same time put on their heavenly mind, life, and death. Therefore, captured at Caesarea and having professed themselves Christians, when asked what their homeland was, the first answered for all: "The heavenly Jerusalem" — meaning that of which Paul spoke in Galatians IV, 26: "The Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother." And: "You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem." When the governor Firmilian pressed him: "What and where is that city?" he answered: "It is the homeland of Christians: for no others besides them share in it. It is situated toward the East, and toward the very light and sun." And when the governor could not wring another word from him by the most bitter torments, which the martyr bore bravely as if feeling nothing — indeed as if free from flesh and bodiless — he sent him with his companions, struck by the axe, crowned with laurel to that heavenly Jerusalem, to Daniel and the other prophets. The Church commemorates their feast day on February 16. So too — to pass over others in silence — Blessed Daniel of the Order of St. Francis, minister of the province of Calabria, a man of wondrous holiness, indeed a martyr, received the name of our Daniel. He, together with six Brothers of his Order, having gone to the Saracens at Ceuta for the sake of the Gospel and of martyrdom, was seized by them and condemned to death. Exhorting his brothers to martyrdom, he said: "Let us all rejoice in the Lord, celebrating the feast day. For the angels are present; the gate of heaven lies open to us: and on this very day we shall likewise receive the crown of martyrdom in the heavenly paradise." And turning to the judge, in the manner of our Daniel: "O you who have grown old in evil days! Turn from Muhammad to Christ." Wherefore, beheaded with his companions, he died a glorious martyrdom in the year of the Lord 1221, on the 8th of October, five years before St. Francis departed this life. He was canonized with his companions by Leo X, in the year of Christ 1519. So his Life records.
TO DANIEL, BELTESHAZZAR. From the name of Nebuchadnezzar's son Belshazzar, Daniel seems to have been called Belteshazzar, as if you were to say, the hidden treasure of Baal or Bel — that is, the wisdom of Bel. So says Maldonatus. Note here: Daniel did not have exactly the same name as the king's son: for the latter was called Belshazzar, as is clear from the Chaldean and the Plantin Latin editions (therefore it is surprising that the Septuagint and the Roman Latin version call him Baltassar); Daniel, however, was called Baltassar, or, as it is in Chaldean, Belteshazzar, with the addition of the letter tet; about which more in chapter IV, 5. The Syriac version has Biltshiossor, meaning the idol of Bil or Bel.
TO HANANIAH, SHADRACH. — In Hebrew, Hananiah means "cloud" or "protection of the Lord"; Mishael means "who asks" or "who is asked" or "God has taken away"; Azariah means "God is helper." In Chaldean, Shadrach means "tender breast" or "delicate plundering" or "your envoy"; Meshach means "prolonging" or "drawing out" or "enclosing and fencing in the waters"; Abednego means "servant of brightness" or "anxious servant." More aptly and genuinely, the Syriac Scholia, which are preserved in Rome in the Vatican and Medici Libraries, explain these names from the Syro-Chaldean language as follows: Shadrach means "missile" or "one sent," because he was sent here and there on business. Meshach means "surveyor of land" or "of the field." Abednego means "a servant who goes in and out before the king" — that is, a chamberlain and intimate of the king. Or, as others explain, an overseer of the king's manner of cooking, or of the king's chief foods. Whence one might gather that these three offices in the king's court were given or assigned to them and distributed among them, and from each office a name was imposed on each one.
Verse 8: He Purposed Not to Be Defiled
8. HE PURPOSED (to take care) NOT TO BE DEFILED BY THE KING'S TABLE. — Both because the pagan king ate pork and other things forbidden by the law of Moses, which would have defiled Daniel and the Jews; and because royal delicacies and the abundance of foods and wines entice to intemperance, gluttony, and lust, and through these defile the mind and body; and because the more devout Jews avoided the tables of the Gentiles; and finally, because these royal foods had often already been offered to Bel and his other idols, or blessed in their name — which the Jews abhorred. Therefore Calvin blasphemes here when he mocks Daniel's abstinence and his fear of defilement as childish, and attributes it to his superstition and indiscrete zeal.
Verse 10: You Will Endanger My Head
10. YOU WILL ENDANGER MY HEAD WITH THE KING. — Your petition, abstinence, and thinness will be the occasion for the king to seek my head, condemn and cut it off, because I allowed you to abstain and grow thin contrary to his command. Hence the Greek Scholiast explains "you will condemn" as "you will cause to be condemned."
Verse 12: Vegetables to Eat and Water to Drink
12. LET US BE GIVEN VEGETABLES TO EAT AND WATER TO DRINK. — They ask for vegetables and water for two reasons. First, so that Melzar could not object to the expense of buying new foods. Second, out of the religious practice of fasting, by which the ancient saints abstained from meat and wine, and used vegetables and oil, as is clear from chapter X, 3. Daniel here shows his trust in God: for he knew that naturally it was impossible to grow as plump from vegetables and water as from meat and wine.
Verse 14: He Tested Them for Ten Days
14. HE TESTED THEM. — The Scholiast renders this as edokimasen, that is, "he proved" or "he examined." So also in verse 12, for "test" he translates dokimason, that is, "prove." For this testing was a trial, or an experiment.
Verse 15: Their Appearance Was Better and Plumper
15. THEIR APPEARANCE WAS BETTER AND PLUMPER. — In Hebrew berie, that is, fatter; the Septuagint renders it as "strong in flesh." Therefore what Epiphanius says in his Life of Daniel — that he was most withered in appearance and covered with a natural roughness, but most beautiful with the beauty of grace — must be understood of his more advanced age, when through excessive fasting and labors he had drained the body's vigor, as is clear from Daniel IX, 3, and chapter X, 3. This health, plumpness, and beauty was not so much natural as supernatural, both because vegetables and water could indeed make one healthier but not fatter, and because this was the reward of abstinence, by whose merit — as also that of chastity — they obtained by divine gift such great wisdom, just as by the same merit Judith in chapter X, 4, obtained beauty, and Samson strength, in Judges XIII, 5. Naturally, however, abstinence also contributed to this.
Hence note that health and longevity are procured not so much by abundance of food as by temperance. For temperance cherishes and nourishes the radical moisture, as well as the natural heat, which intemperance overwhelms and suffocates: especially if there be added, first, moderate exercise. Hence "Cyrus never dined unless he had sweated," says Xenophon. The same is done by some Indian princes, who therefore remain so vigorous and whole to a great age, that when they are 70 years old, they appear to be only 30. Second, tranquility of soul and freedom from cares. Third, gladness and cheerfulness of mind. Hear the School of Salerno:
"If you lack physicians, let these three be your physicians: A cheerful mind, easy rest (sleep), and a moderate diet."
See Lessius in his learned and pious little book on this subject.
Note second: Temperance and abstinence are most beneficial. First, for health: for it consumes harmful humors and purifies and sharpens the vital spirits. Second, for chastity and virtue: for it removes excess blood, fluid, and spirits which nourish and stir up lust, anger, and other passions. Third, for wisdom. On which more in verse 17.
Verse 17: God Gave Knowledge and Skill in All Learning
17. AND TO THESE YOUTHS GOD GAVE KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL IN ALL LEARNING. — Symmachus translates: God gave them the grammatical art. Better, Theodotion: God gave them understanding in every matter of letters, or in all literature, so that they could read, understand, and explain not only Hebrew letters and books (for these are called in Hebrew sepher, and in Greek grammata), but also Chaldean and any other.
Note: Sobriety naturally contributes to knowledge, both because it protects health and prolongs life; and because it makes the head clear, and the animal spirits free, pure, and apt for speculation and meditation; and because the soul (which is one in man, and the same soul is at once vegetative, sensitive, and rational) has limited power and activity, and therefore the less it is occupied with food, and with the cooking, digestion, and excretion of food, the more it can and does apply itself to study and contemplation, and exert its whole force therein. Hence Solomon, Ecclesiastes II, 3: "I thought in my heart to withdraw my flesh from wine, so that I might transfer my mind to wisdom and avoid folly." And Isaiah chapter XXVIII: "Whom shall He teach knowledge, and whom shall He make to understand the message? Those weaned from milk, those drawn from the breasts."
Thus men before the flood, abstaining from meat and wine and living on herbs and fruits, were long-lived and wise; for they lived up to 900 years. Thus the Nazarites and the Rechabites are commended for their wisdom as well as their abstinence. Thus Moses and Elijah, by their fast of 40 days, merited wisdom and the vision of God. Thus Judith, Esther, and the Maccabees obtained by fasting that wisdom and fortitude by which they overthrew Holofernes, Haman, and Antiochus. Thus John the Baptist by his abstinence became like an Angel. Thus Paul the first hermit, Anthony, Hilarion, and so many swarms of anchorites and monks, lived a long life — like certain earthly angels — in abstinence, contemplation, and wisdom, and lived a hundred years and more.
Thus the cenobites of old, as St. Jerome testifies, fasted perpetually, drinking water and eating only bread with legumes and vegetables.
St. Augustine excellently says, in book X of the Confessions, chapter XXXI: "This, he says, You have taught me, O Lord: that I should approach food as I would approach medicine."
St. Ambrose lays down this rule for his sister Marcellina and her companion virgins, in book III On Virgins: "Let your drink be from the spring, your weeping in prayer, your sleep on a book."
St. Bernard, in sermon 66 on the Song of Songs: "I abstain, he says, from wine, because in wine there is luxury: or if I am sick, I use a little, according to the counsel of Paul. I abstain from meats, lest while they too much nourish the flesh, they also nourish the vices of the flesh. I will strive to take bread itself in measure, lest with a loaded stomach it become tedious to stand for prayer; and lest the Prophet also reproach me, because I have eaten my bread to the full; and I will not even accustom myself to gorge on plain water, lest the distension of the belly reach even to the titillation of lust."
The same to his nephew Robert: "For one who lives prudently and soberly, salt with hunger is sufficient as every seasoning."
The same in the Formula of an Honest Life: "Approach food as you would approach the cross; that is, never feed on pleasure, but on necessity; and let hunger, not taste, provoke your appetite."
The same, On the Way of Living Well, chapter XXIV: "Do not nourish your flesh for the worms; so eat that you are always hungry."
St. Catherine of Siena approached food as if approaching a torment, and when called to table would say: "Let us go and take vengeance on this sinner"; for she took food with immense pain, and was soon forced to reject it.
St. Charles Borromeo said that not only should delicacies and pleasures be fled, but they should be pursued and slain as mortal enemies of the soul. Therefore he himself practiced wondrous abstinence, so that in the end he lived on bread and water alone. For he arrived at this gradually, ascending from small things to great; and he taught that by this method one easily reaches the summit of any virtue — namely by practicing these two principles: first, that beginning from small things and gradually increasing, you always advance and grow; second, that you do not grow sluggish in it, but constantly retain what you have once obtained, and persevere in it. Thus he himself, first abstaining from meat, then from eggs, then from milk, was finally content with bread and water alone. He did the same in other virtues.
Finally, that holy man cited by Socrates, book IV of the History, chapter XVIII: "A drier and thinner regimen of food, he says, always observed with consistent moderation, provided it be joined with charity, will quickly lead Christians to the harbor of anexia, that is, freedom from all disturbances of the soul."
St. Jerome adds, writing against Jovinian, that on account of their fellowship in fasting, Moses and Elijah appeared with Christ on the mount of the Transfiguration, and that on account of fasting the three youths remained unharmed in the Babylonian furnace, and the mysteries were revealed to Daniel, and he remained untouched in the den of lions.
Hear also the Gentiles and the Jews. Xenophon reports that the ancient Persians were accustomed to eat nothing with their bread except cress: hence among them it was considered shameful to spit, as a sign of overindulgence. For mucus and saliva are indicators and signs of being overfull: for it is repletion that produces discharges, says Hippocrates in book III On Diet. Therefore the Persians wanted the material of spittle to be consumed by exercise and a frugal, abstinent life. Hence also Plato, in book III of the Republic, teaches that in Homer's time catarrh was unknown, but first became known in his own age, when men began to eat not once, as formerly, but twice a day — indeed to feast. Moreover, at that time the Persians, being so frugal, flourished in wisdom and military valor, and held the empire of the world for two hundred years, namely from Cyrus to Darius, who lost his empire and his life through luxury and wine. There is in Xenophon, book I, a saying of Cyrus. For when Astyages, king of the Medes, preparing a lavish royal feast for his grandson Cyrus by his daughter Mandane, said: "Does not this dinner seem to you better than a Persian one?" Cyrus answered: "Not at all, grandfather, but there is a much simpler and more direct way among us to the satisfaction of hunger than among you. For bread and meat lead us to this. But you, although you aim at the same thing as we do, through many
detours, wandering up and down, you scarcely arrive at where we had long since arrived."
Chaeredemus the Stoic reports, and Pererius after him, that the ancient Egyptian priests always abstained from meat, wine, eggs, and milk — and this so that they might devote themselves more purely, intently, and ardently to divine matters, and extinguish the fire of lust. And these were the wise men and astrologers of Egypt.
The Essenes forbade themselves wine and meat, and devoted themselves entirely to prayer and the study of Sacred Letters, about whom Josephus, Philo, and Pliny relate wonderful things. Indeed Porphyry, in his book On Abstinence from Animal Food, asserts that most of them became prophets, inspired by the divine spirit.
Dubulus reports that among the Persians there were three kinds of Magi, of whom the first (who were considered the wisest and most eloquent) ate nothing besides meal and vegetables.
Bardesanes the Babylonian reports that the gymnosophists of India lived solely on the fruits of trees, rice, and meal.
In Euripides, the prophet of Jupiter in Crete abstained from meat and all cooked food.
Socrates urged those devoted to virtue to cultivate abstinence and to reject delicacies as one would reject the Sirens. When asked how he differed from other men, he said: "Others live to eat; I eat to live." The following is also his saying, found in Xenophon, book I of the Memorable Sayings and Deeds of Socrates: "You seem, O Antipho, to measure happiness by delicacies and riches; but I consider that to need nothing at all is divine, and to need very little is the lot of those who are closest to the gods: and divine things are the best of all, and those who approach the gods are closest to the best."
Isreus the Assyrian, as Philostratus attests, when asked what the most pleasant feast was, answered: "I have ceased to care about such things."
Xenocrates said that only three precepts remained in the temple of Eleusis, namely: first, that the gods are to be venerated; second, that parents are to be honored; third, that one must abstain from meat. Similar to this is the trio of Plutarch, in his book On Diet: Three things, he says, are most healthful: first, to eat short of satiety; second, not to shun labor; third, to preserve nature's seed — that is, sobriety, exercise, and chastity. This is the golden maxim for preserving health.
Pliny says, "wine is the hemlock of man"; and Seneca says, "drunkenness is voluntary madness."
Epicurus, although a patron of pleasure, asserts that frugality of diet contributes greatly to living pleasantly and agreeably; and in his letters he testifies that he was accustomed to live on water and bread alone.
Seneca, in epistle 109, writes that he abstains from animals and the eating of meat, on account of the reasons and example of Sextius and Pythagoras. The reasons of Sextius were: first, "that man has sufficient food without blood, and the habit of cruelty develops when butchery is turned into a pleasure." Second, "that the material of luxury should be reduced." Third, "that varied foods are contrary to health and foreign to our bodies." Fourth, "that meats are the food of lions and vultures." The fifth reason was Pythagoras's: that he believed the souls of men transmigrate into various bodies, even those of animals. "And so he instilled in men the fear of parricide, since they might unknowingly encounter their parent's soul and violate with sword or bite a body in which some kindred spirit was dwelling." Hence Pythagoras held the following about the transmigration of his own soul:
"First I was Aethalides, in ancient time; Then in the Trojan war, Panthoïdes; Next Hermotimus; then Pyrrhus; and finally great Pythagoras, the great glory of Samian soil."
Empedocles, following Pythagoras, thus sings of himself:
"For once I was a bush, a boy, a girl, A bird of the sky, and a fish dwelling in the deep sea."
Laertius, Plutarch, and Philostratus relate wonderful things about the abstinence of Pythagoras, Antisthenes, Diogenes, and Apollonius of Tyana. See more in St. Jerome, book II Against Jovinian, and in Plutarch's two orations On the Eating of Meat.
AND TO DANIEL (God gave) THE UNDERSTANDING OF ALL VISIONS. — Hence it is clear that this wisdom of Daniel and his companions was more supernatural than natural; both because God is said to have bestowed it on them as a special reward for their temperance; and because they were given knowledge in every book, that is, in every branch of knowledge, as is said here; and so much so that in chapter II, 30, it is said that there was in Daniel a wisdom greater than in any mortal, and he obtained it in those three years not so much by study as by abstinence, piety, and prayer, as is gathered from verse 5; and because God bestowed on Daniel the gift of prophecy and the knowledge of interpreting dreams: and this is supernatural, and is not a permanent habit, but an illumination actually sent by God at certain times when Daniel prophesied or interpreted dreams.
Note: This reward is fitting; for it is proper, as St. Gregory testifies in book XXX of the Morals, XVIII, that those who reject carnal things should savor spiritual things, and that those who fast in the belly should be fed in the mind. Do you therefore wish to draw in mental and heavenly delights? Despise earthly and brutish ones, and you will find that the saying of St. Bernard is most true: "Once the spirit has been tasted, all flesh loses its savor." Thus a pagan prophet celebrates the gentile seer as all-knowing and all-divining, but superstitiously:
"O Trojan-born interpreter of the gods, who perceives the will of Phoebus, Who understands the tripods, the laurels of Clarus, the stars, And the tongues of birds, and the omens of swift-winged flight."
AND OF DREAMS — sent by God. On dreams and divination see what was said on Genesis XLI and XLII, and Pererius here.
Verse 20: Above All the Magicians and Astrologers
20. ABOVE ALL THE MAGICIANS AND ASTROLOGERS. — Who these were I will say in chapter II, 2.
Verse 21: Daniel Continued Until the First Year of Cyrus
21. AND DANIEL CONTINUED UNTIL THE FIRST YEAR OF KING CYRUS — that is to say: Daniel was in great glory and authority with all the kings of Babylon; he lived in the king's court, dear and familiar to Nebuchadnezzar and his successors, and to Belshazzar; and this constantly and always, until Belshazzar was stripped by Cyrus of both kingdom and life. "Daniel," says St. Jerome, "was powerful in Chaldea until the first year of Cyrus, who destroyed the Chaldean empire; but afterward he was transferred by Darius into Media." So also Theodoret. Therefore Calvin erroneously explains it thus: "he was," meaning he prophesied, Daniel until the first year of Cyrus; for he also prophesied in the third year of Cyrus, as is clear from chapter X, 4.
Second, the phrase "until the first year of Cyrus" hints at something latent here: namely, Isaiah had predicted in chapter XLIV, 28, and chapter XLV, 1, that the Jews would be freed from Babylon by Cyrus. Daniel therefore signifies here that he saw that time predicted by Isaiah — not that he lived no longer, but that he lived long enough to help the Jews with his authority and console them with his prophecies throughout the entire time of the captivity. So says Maldonatus.