Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Nebuchadnezzar erects a statue and wishes to be adored in it: the three youths, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, refuse this, verse 8: whereupon, verse 19, the king commands them to be cast into the burning furnace: there, verse 24, they pray to God. God, verse 49, sends an angel who preserves them unharmed: hence, verse 51, they sing a canticle to God, whereupon, verse 91, the king celebrates this miracle of God, and His power and providence toward His own.
Vulgate Text: Daniel 3:1-100
1. King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue, sixty cubits high and six cubits wide, and he set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. 2. Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to assemble the satraps, magistrates, and judges, the captains, and tyrants, and prefects, and all the princes of the regions, to come to the dedication of the statue which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 3. Then the satraps, magistrates, and judges, the captains, and tyrants, and nobles who were placed in authority, and all the princes of the regions, were gathered together to come to the dedication of the statue which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up: and they stood before the statue which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up: 4. and the herald cried aloud: To you it is commanded, O peoples, tribes, and languages: 5. In the hour that you shall hear the sound of the trumpet, and the flute, and the harp, the sackbut, and the psaltery, and the symphony, and of every kind of instrument, fall down and adore the golden statue which King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6. But if anyone shall not fall down and adore, he shall the same hour be cast into the furnace of burning fire. 7. Therefore immediately after all the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the flute, and the harp, the sackbut, and the psaltery, and the symphony, and of every kind of instrument: all the peoples, tribes, and languages fell down and adored the golden statue which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 8. And presently at that very time some Chaldean men came and accused the Jews: 9. and they said to King Nebuchadnezzar: O king, live forever: 10. you, O king, have made a decree that every man who shall hear the sound of the trumpet, the flute, and the harp, the sackbut, and the psaltery, and the symphony, and of every kind of instrument, shall prostrate himself and adore the golden statue: 11. and that if anyone shall not fall down and adore, he shall be cast into the furnace of burning fire. 12. Now there are certain Jews, whom you have set over the works of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: these men, O king, have despised your decree: they do not worship your gods, and they do not adore the golden statue which you have set up. 13. Then Nebuchadnezzar in fury and in wrath commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego should be brought: who immediately were brought before the king. 14. And King Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said to them: Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not worship my gods, and that you do not adore the golden statue which I have set up? 15. Now therefore if you are ready, at whatever hour you shall hear the sound of the trumpet, the flute, the harp, the sackbut, and the psaltery, and the symphony, and of every kind of instrument, prostrate yourselves and adore the statue which I have made: but if you do not adore, you shall be cast the same hour into the furnace of burning fire: and who is the God who shall deliver you out of my hand? 16. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to King Nebuchadnezzar: It is not necessary for us to answer you concerning this matter. 17. For behold our God, whom we worship, is able to save us from the furnace of burning fire, and to deliver us out of your hands, O king. 18. But if He will not, be it known to you, O king, that we do not worship your gods, and we do not adore the golden statue which you have set up. 19. Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury: and the appearance of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and he commanded that the furnace should be heated seven times more than it had been accustomed to be heated. 20. And he commanded the strongest men of his army to bind the feet of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the furnace of burning fire. 21. And immediately those men were bound with their hose, and their caps, and
22. for the king's command was urgent: and the furnace had been heated exceedingly. Moreover the flame of fire killed those men who had cast Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 23. But these three men, that is, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the midst of the furnace of burning fire. 24. And they walked in the midst of the flame praising God, and blessing the Lord. 25. And Azariah stood and prayed thus, and opening his mouth in the midst of the fire, he said: 26. Blessed are You, O Lord God of our fathers, and Your name is praiseworthy and glorious forever: 27. for You are just in all that You have done to us, and all Your works are true, and Your ways are right, and all Your judgments are true. 28. For You have executed true judgments, according to all that You have brought upon us, and upon the holy city of our fathers Jerusalem: for in truth and in judgment You have brought all these things upon us because of our sins. 29. For we have sinned and acted wickedly in departing from You: and we have transgressed in all things: 30. and we have not heard Your precepts, nor observed them, nor done as You had commanded us, that it might be well with us. 31. All things therefore that You have brought upon us, and all that You have done to us, You have done in true judgment: 32. and You have delivered us into the hands of our enemies, wicked and most evil, and of transgressors, and to a king unjust and most wicked beyond all the earth. 33. And now we cannot open our mouths: we have become a shame and reproach to Your servants, and to those who worship You. 34. Do not, we beseech You, deliver us up forever for the sake of Your name, and do not annul Your covenant: 35. nor take away Your mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham Your beloved, and Isaac Your servant, and Israel Your holy one: 36. to whom You spoke, promising that You would multiply their seed like the stars of heaven, and like the sand on the seashore: 37. for, O Lord, we have been diminished more than all the nations, and are brought low in all the earth this day because of our sins. 38. And there is at this time no prince, nor leader, nor prophet, nor holocaust, nor sacrifice, nor oblation, nor incense, nor place of firstfruits before You, 39. that we may find Your mercy; but with a contrite spirit and a humble heart let us be received. 40. As in holocausts of rams and bulls, and as in thousands of fat lambs: so let our sacrifice be in Your sight this day, that it may please You: for there is no confusion for those who trust in You. 41. And now we follow You with our whole heart, and we fear You, and we seek Your face. 42. Do not put us to shame: but deal with us according to Your gentleness, and according to the multitude of Your mercy. 43. And deliver us by Your wonders, and give glory to Your name, O Lord: 44. and let all who show evils to Your servants be confounded, let them be confounded in all Your power, and let their strength be broken: 45. and let them know that You are the Lord God alone, and glorious over all the earth. 46. And the king's servants who had cast them in did not cease to heat the furnace with naphtha, and tow, and pitch, and faggots; 47. and the flame poured out above the furnace forty-nine cubits: 48. and it broke forth and burned those of the Chaldeans whom it found near the furnace. 49. But the angel of the Lord descended with Azariah and his companions into the furnace: and he drove the flame of fire out of the furnace, 50. and made the midst of the furnace as though a dewy breeze were blowing, and the fire did not touch them at all, nor grieve them, nor cause them any distress. 51. Then these three, as with one mouth, praised, and glorified, and blessed God in the furnace, saying: 52. Blessed are You, O Lord God of our fathers: and worthy of praise, and glorious, and exalted above all forever: and blessed is the holy name of Your glory: and worthy of praise, and exalted above all in all ages. 53. Blessed are You in the holy temple of Your glory: and exceedingly praiseworthy, and exceedingly glorious forever. 54. Blessed are You on the throne of Your kingdom: and exceedingly praiseworthy, and exalted above all forever. 55. Blessed are You who behold the depths, and sit upon the Cherubim: and worthy of praise, and exalted above all forever. 56. Blessed are You in the firmament of heaven: and worthy of praise, and glorious forever. 57. Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 58. Bless the Lord, you angels of the Lord: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 59. Bless the Lord, you heavens: praise and exalt Him above all forever.
60. Bless the Lord, all you waters that are above the heavens: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 61. Bless the Lord, all you powers of the Lord: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 62. Bless the Lord, sun and moon: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 63. Bless the Lord, stars of heaven: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 64. Bless the Lord, every shower and dew: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 65. Bless the Lord, all you spirits of God: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 66. Bless the Lord, fire and heat: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 67. Bless the Lord, cold and heat: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 68. Bless the Lord, dews and frost: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 69. Bless the Lord, frost and cold: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 70. Bless the Lord, ice and snow: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 71. Bless the Lord, nights and days: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 72. Bless the Lord, light and darkness: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 73. Bless the Lord, lightnings and clouds: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 74. Let the earth bless the Lord: let it praise and exalt Him above all forever. 75. Bless the Lord, mountains and hills: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 76. Bless the Lord, all things that spring up in the earth: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 77. Bless the Lord, you fountains: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 78. Bless the Lord, seas and rivers: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 79. Bless the Lord, you whales and all that move in the waters: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 80. Bless the Lord, all you birds of heaven: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 81. Bless the Lord, all you beasts and cattle: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 82. Bless the Lord, you sons of men: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 83. Let Israel bless the Lord: let it praise and exalt Him above all forever. 84. Bless the Lord, you priests of the Lord: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 85. Bless the Lord, you servants of the Lord: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 86. Bless the Lord, you spirits and souls of the just: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 87. Bless the Lord, you holy and humble of heart: praise and exalt Him above all forever. 88. Bless the Lord, Ananiah, Azariah, Misael: praise and exalt Him above all forever. For He has delivered us from the underworld, and saved us from the hand of death, and freed us from the midst of burning flame, and from the midst of fire He has delivered us. 89. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good: for His mercy endures forever. 90. Bless the Lord, all you religious, the Lord God of gods: praise and give thanks to Him, for His mercy endures through all ages. 91. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished, and rose up in haste, and said to his nobles: Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered the king and said: True, O king. 92. He answered and said: Behold, I see four men loose, and walking in the midst of the fire, and there is no harm in them, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of God. 93. Then Nebuchadnezzar approached the door of the furnace of burning fire, and said: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come forth and come here. And immediately Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth from the midst of the fire. 94. And the satraps, and magistrates, and judges, and the great men of the king gathered and beheld those men, that the fire had had no power over their bodies, and not a hair of their heads had been singed, and their garments had not been changed, and the smell of fire had not passed through them.
95. And Nebuchadnezzar burst out and said: Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent His angel, and delivered His servants, who believed in Him: and they changed the king's word, and gave up their bodies so that they might not serve or worship any god except their own God. 96. Therefore this decree is made by me, that every people, tribe, and tongue, that speaks blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall perish, and his house shall be laid waste: for there is no other God who can save in this way. 97. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. 98. King Nebuchadnezzar, to all peoples, nations, and tongues, who dwell in all the earth, may peace be multiplied to you. 99. The Most High God has worked signs and wonders for me. It has pleased me therefore to proclaim 100. His signs, for they are great; and His wonders, for they are mighty: and His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His power endures from generation to generation.
Verse 1: He Made a Golden Statue
1. He made a golden statue. — In what year? I answer, shortly after the dream of the preceding chapter, namely in the 37th year of his reign, which was the year of the world 3379. This is clear from the fact that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had already been appointed by him as governors of Babylon, as is said in verse 12; but this was done after the explanation of the dream made by Daniel, in that same year 37, as is clear from the preceding chapter, verse 48. That this cannot be pushed further into the king's year 38 or 39 is clear from the fact that the king was then cast out of his kingdom and dwelt with beasts, as will be said in the following chapter, verse 2.
Note here the inconstant and fickle character of the proud king: "Forgetfulness of truth is swift," says St. Jerome, "and he who had just adored a servant of God as a God, now commands a statue to be made for himself, so that he himself might be worshipped as a god in the statue." Hence it is clear that this statue was not of Bel, or of other gods of the Babylonians, but of Nebuchadnezzar himself. This is confirmed first, from verse 14, where the king says: "You do not worship my gods, and the golden statue which I have set up, you do not adore": therefore the king's gods, among which was Bel, were distinct from this statue: for this was new and recent, while the statue of Bel was most ancient. Second, from Isaiah 14:13, where Isaiah, describing the pride of the king of Babylon, as of another Lucifer, says he wished to make himself God. "You said," he says, "I will ascend into heaven, etc. I will be like the Most High." Third, because on account of this pride Nebuchadnezzar was supremely humbled by God, so that he who had wished to be a god would become a beast, as will be clear in the following chapter. So St. Jerome here, although he teaches the contrary in chapter 1 of Habakkuk. But there, as is his custom, he reports not his own but others' opinion. So also Pererius, Maldonatus, Pintus, and Theodoret, who adds that the king erected this statue for himself, from the fact that in the statue which he had seen in chapter 2, Daniel had said to him: "You are the head of gold." From this he grew swollen with pride, so as to erect a statue like himself, and wish to be adored in it. In a similar way Alexander the Great, Augustus Caesar, Caligula, Antiochus Epiphanes, the king of Tyre, as is clear from Ezekiel 28:2, and the other Nebuchadnezzar, who sent Holofernes, Judith 6:2, wished to be worshipped as gods, even while they were still alive.
Maldonatus plausibly conjectures that the king erected this statue at the suggestion of the Chaldeans, who envied the prefecture of Babylon held by three Jews, namely Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; and therefore, in order to make them odious to the king and to depose them from their rank, they suggested this statue to him, knowing that they would by no means adore it; and thus the king would be inflamed against them, as indeed happened. For in a similar way the Medes, in chapter 6:13, laid snares for Daniel before King Darius. And Maldonatus adds that out of hatred for Daniel, and his statue in chapter 2, they persuaded the king to set up this contrary statue, so that through it they might refute and overthrow what Daniel had predicted about the Persians overthrowing Babylon; and therefore they had it made not of four metals, but of pure gold, to signify that the king, whose statue this was, was not merely the head of gold, as Daniel had said, but was golden in his entire body, and would be the sole and perpetual monarch of the world. Moreover, the Chaldeans had murmured against the king because he trusted the Jew Daniel in everything, so that he seemed to have become a Jew, as they did in chapter 14:17. Therefore the king, fickle and changeable, in order to suppress this murmuring, and to remove from himself the suspicion of Judaism, and to win the Chaldeans to his side, commanded this statue to be erected for himself, so that he might seem not to worship the God of the Jews, but rather to wish to be worshipped as a god himself.
This conjecture is not without an appearance of truth, and Theodoret favors it, when he says the king wished to make a statue more excellent than the one he had seen in his dream, both in size and in the nobility of its material. Symbolically, this statue is heresy, which heretics adorn with gold, that is, with eloquence and testimonies of Sacred Scripture, says St. Jerome. Again, it is worldly happiness and pomp, says Irenaeus, book 5, at the end: for this has the gold of riches, and the height of honors and power, but deceptive and mendacious. Finally, these three youths were the firstfruits of martyrs, and a type of the martyrs whom Nero killed with flames in the circus, and other tyrants killed with the same or other torments. For Nero, who first raised persecution against Christians, was prefigured by Nebuchadnezzar: just as pagan Rome, stained with the blood of martyrs, was prefigured by Babylon, as is clear from Revelation chapters 17 and 18. So Rupert on Daniel, chapter 7.
GOLDEN. — This statue was hollow, not solid, otherwise it would have been of immense value; for it was sixty cubits tall.
SIXTY CUBITS IN HEIGHT. — Therefore the face of this statue was six cubits long, the nose two cubits, the chest ten cubits, the feet ten cubits, the hands six cubits; for this is the proportion of parts in the human body and stature, so that the face is its tenth part, the nose its thirtieth, the chest its sixth, the foot its sixth, the hand its tenth. So from Vitruvius and Cardanus, Pererius explains. Although the king's servants, whether from ignorance, or avarice, or some other cause, do not seem to have observed exact symmetry of proportions in this statue: for according to that symmetry, a length of sixty cubits would require ten cubits of width: for this is the sixth part of the length: not merely six, as the statue had. Whence you may say tropologically that the world and worldly people look more to lofty things than to solid ones; for to display their pomp, they seek high things, but destitute of proper foundations, which therefore quickly collapse and vanish.
Verse 2: To Gather the Satraps
2. TO GATHER THE SATRAPS. — The Chaldeans suggested this to the king, both so that the solemnity of the dedication might be greater, and so that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (as satraps of the kingdom) would be compelled to attend, against whom this plot was being contrived. Hence they also arranged for the penalty of fire to be established for those refusing to worship the statue, and for it to be proclaimed by a herald: for it was not necessary to compel the Babylonians, who were already inclined to idols, with this penalty. From this deed and command of Nebuchadnezzar, however, seems to be derived what Philostratus writes, book 1 on the Life of Apollonius, chapter 19, namely that in Babylon it was the custom that the satrap presiding at the city gate would permit no one to enter the city unless he had first adored the king's statue. Moreover, satrap is a Persian word, which in Latin means prefect, just as satrapy means prefecture. Wherefore it is ridiculous, and to be pardoned in that unlatinate age, what Lyranus says: "Satrap is so called because he 'snatches enough' (sat rapiat)." For greedy prefects are wont to be rapacious.
AND TYRANTS — the prefects of the treasury, who collected tributes. Hence Vatablus, Arias, and others translate it as quaestors. St. Jerome says truly: "The princes are gathered to adore the statue, so that through the princes the nations also may be seduced. For those who are rich and powerful, while they fear to lose riches and power, are more easily overthrown: and when magistrates are seduced, the subject peoples perish by the example of their superiors." For who among the common people would not worship a statue which he sees adored by his own prince? How many today worship the golden statue of wealth and honors, as an idol!
Verse 8: And Immediately
8. AND IMMEDIATELY. — The word 'immediately' confirms the suspicion already stated, namely that all these things were contrived by the Chaldeans out of hatred for the three youths, whom the king had appointed as governors of Babylon; and they remind the king of this, verse 12, when they say: "There are Jewish men whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon," as if to say: You appointed Jews over Babylon, and in this matter you preferred them to us, your own countrymen: behold these very men, wretched, foreign, captive, and Jewish, whom you so elevated, despise you, are ungrateful and rebellious toward you.
Verse 12: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego Despised
12. SHADRACH, MESHACH, AND ABEDNEGO DESPISED. — They make no mention of the other Jews, since they were commoners, because they were seeking the heads and positions of these three. They did not mention Daniel, because Daniel was absent, perhaps sent by the king to other affairs, as Lyranus holds. Or, if he was present, as first in rank under the king, he stood beside the king: whence just as the king did not adore his own statue, so neither did Daniel. Moreover Nazianzen, oration 47 (if indeed it is his): "It is reported," he says, "that the three youths cast into the furnace in Babylon were sons of Hezekiah": "sons," that is, descendants: for they were of royal blood, as is clear from chapter 1:3; for they could not properly have been sons of Hezekiah: for from the death of Hezekiah to this 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, 133 years had passed. Note: These three men were at this time about 57 years old: for they were contemporaries of Daniel, who at this time was 57 years old, as I said at chapter 2:1. They were therefore not boys or youths, since they governed all of Babylon; yet they are commonly called the three boys, because they had been carried away from Judea to Babylon as boys, chapter 1, verse 4. For thus even today many men are called by boyish names in common speech, because they were so called as children.
Verse 15: The Sound of the Sambuca
15. THE SOUND, etc., OF THE SAMBUCA. — The sambuca, or sambyx, was a type of triangular musical instrument, which consisted of strings unequal in length and thickness:
it consisted of strings: it was customarily employed for a lighter kind of songs: whence the proverb, "To fit a sambuca to a buskin," that is, to fit light things to serious ones. Symphonia in Greek is consonance and musical harmony: here however it seems to be a musical instrument (as the others here) which is played by turning iron in a circle, and produces a sweet harmony, like that which blind beggars today play by turning.
Verse 16: It is not Necessary for us to Answer You Concerning This Matter
16. IT IS NOT NECESSARY FOR US TO ANSWER YOU CONCERNING THIS MATTER. — Note: These three youths, questioned about their faith and religion by the king, were obliged to answer him, and to profess their faith and religion, as they in fact do here respond and profess. Therefore 'to answer' is taken here in a different sense. And so the meaning is, as if to say: "It is not necessary," that is, there is no need, "to answer," that is, to think and deliberate what we should answer. It is a metalepsis, as if to say: There is no need for deliberation in answering you about this matter, since it is easy and certain, or for any other deliberation which you, O king, seem to offer us, saying: "If you are ready"; for it is certain and fixed in our minds to worship one God of heaven and earth, and not to adore your statue, as follows: they do not therefore deny the need for an answer, since they immediately answer, but for deliberation.
Second and more plainly, as if to say: In a matter so foolish, impious, and unworthy as you propose to us, there is no need for a response. For it is clear that there is only one God whom we worship, and that He can deliver us from your hands: and if He should not wish to, we will still worship Him alone, not your idols. Hence the Seventy translate: We do not need to answer you about this word.
Note here the intrepid liberty, resolution, fortitude, and courage of these three youths, which St. Chrysostom vividly depicts, homily 4 and 6 to the People. Third, Vatablus and others translate: It is not our concern, or we are not anxious about answering you on this matter: because God takes care of us, He is able to deliver us, if He wills; if He does not will it, this too is pleasing to us: for both our death and our life are His concern; for whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. This sense is not inconvenient, but the former is more fitting. For the Chaldean word chasach means to be necessary, or to be needful, as the Seventy translate, not however to be anxious: unless you say the latter follows from the former: for they say there is no need for a response because they were not anxious about it. St. Zeno, Bishop of Verona and martyr under Emperor Gallienus, speaks beautifully and piously, sermon 1 on these three youths: "The three youths," he says, "in that sacred contest set God before their eyes, not the flames: the future reward, not the punishment. And thus triumphing amid the foul billows of surging fire, they taught the barbarian king, all his threats, and even the punishment itself, that fires are not stronger than holy men." And in sermon 6: "They are avenged upon those who kindled the fire, they see God: death passes into life, fear into glory. Thus who would not wish to burn?" These therefore are heroes, to whom that golden saying of Ptolemy applies, found in the preface of the Almagest: "He is higher than the world, who does not care in whose hand the world rests."
Similar was the resolution and response of St. Cyprian, to a similar proposition of the proconsul: "Either sacrifice to the gods, or you will perish." For Cyprian answered: "I am a Christian, and I cannot sacrifice to the gods; but do what has been commanded you. For in a matter so just, there is no need for consultation." Then, hearing that he had been sentenced to death, he said: "I give thanks to Almighty God, who deigns to free me from the chains of this body." So Pontius the Deacon in his Life.
Likewise, shortly before the death of St. Cyprian, they report that the governor had a kiln of lime set ablaze, and burning coals with frankincense were held before their mouths, and the governor said to the Christians: Choose one of two things, either offer incense here to Jupiter, or be plunged into the lime. Then three hundred men, armed with faith, trusting in Christ the Son of God, cast themselves with the swiftest leap into the fire, and were plunged amid the vapors of powdery lime, whom Christ consecrated to Himself. Pontius is the witness, in the same place.
So Pope Liberius, when Emperor Constantius commanded that unless he changed his position within two days and inclined toward the Arians, he would be exiled, replied: "I have no need, O Emperor, of days for deliberation. For these things have long ago been deliberated and decided by me. And so I am ready to depart from here." The witness is Sozomen, book 3, chapter 10. This was formerly the common sentiment of martyrs, whose cause Tertullian assigns, Apology, last chapter: "Crucify, torture, condemn, crush us," he says. "For the proof of our innocence is your iniquity; your cruelty is the enticement of our sect, we become more numerous every time we are reaped by you: the blood of Christians is seed. All sins are forgiven for this work; when we are condemned by you, we are absolved by God."
The same author, in his book To the Martyrs, addressing Christian women in prison: "You are about to enter," he says, "a good contest, in which the judge of the contest is the living God; the trainer is the Holy Spirit; the crown is the prize of eternity; angelic beings are the citizenry in heaven; glory for ages of ages; your master is Christ Jesus, who anointed you with the spirit, and brought you forth to this arena." Then having brought forward the examples of Gentiles — Lucretia, Dido, the wife of Hasdrubal, the Athenian courtesan, Mucius, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Regulus, and the Spartan boys: "If they," he says, "despised the sword, fire, the cross, beasts, and torments for the reward of human praise, why should these sufferings not be slight for attaining heavenly glory and divine reward?"
St. Cyprian, book 1 On the Praise of Martyrdom: "Martyrdom," he says, "is the end of sins, the limit of danger, the guide of salvation, the way of patience, the master of the house of life. If you are just, and believe in God, why do you fear to shed your blood for Him whom you know suffered so many times for you? In Isaiah He was cut in pieces, in Abel He was slain, in Isaac He was sacrificed, in Joseph He was sold, in man He was crucified. The glory of martyrdom is inestimable, its measure infinite, its victory immaculate, its triumph immense, as if adorned with the blood of Christ's companion."
The same, epistle to the Martyrs: "They stood," he says, "under torture, stronger than their torturers; the unconquerable faith could not be overcome by the long-repeated and raging blows, although the frame of their bowels was ruptured, what were tortured in the servants of God were no longer limbs, but wounds. Precious is this death, which purchases immortality at the price of its own blood: how joyful was Christ there, how willingly in such servants of His He both fought and conquered!" Finally that athlete said nobly: "Punishments are the wings by which I am borne above the stars."
Verse 17: For Behold Our God Whom We Worship
17. FOR BEHOLD OUR GOD WHOM WE WORSHIP. — They allude, says Maldonatus, to the words of the king, and with contrary words refute his insult against God, and assert God's honor. The king had said in verse 15: "And who is the God who will deliver you from my hand?" They respond: "Behold our God whom we worship is able to deliver us from the furnace of fire, and from your hands, O king, to set us free."
18. But if He will not. — Note the prudence and resignation of these youths: "Beautifully," says St. Jerome, "those young men said: But if He will not, so that if they perish, it be a matter not of God's impossibility, but of His will." And Theodoret, as if to say: "We do not serve our Lord for some reward, but out of love for Him we prefer His worship to all things, we commit all our governance and providence to Him; whatever sentence of His judgment, as better and more useful for us, we will willingly accept." For, as St. Cyprian says of these same youths, epistle 56 to the Thibaritans: "This is the strength of virtue and faith, to believe and know that God can deliver from present death; and yet not to fear death, nor yield, so that faith may be proved more strongly." This resolution, piety, fortitude, and resignation of the youths merited and obtained that they remain unharmed in the fire. The same happened to many virgins and martyrs of the New Testament. Let us imitate these, and we shall experience similar things.
21. With tiaras. — The tiara is a kind of cap which the Chaldeans and Persians use. So St. Jerome.
Verse 24: And they Walked in the Midst of the Flame Praising God
24. AND THEY WALKED IN THE MIDST OF THE FLAME PRAISING GOD. — This is a hysteron proteron. For this happened later, namely after they had seen the angel protecting them, and driving away the fires; so that they were certain they would be unharmed in the fire. For then, when the angel had loosened their bonds, they walked praising God, and saying: "Blessed are You, O Lord," etc., verse 32. And perhaps this verse belongs there, and was formerly placed in that position in the Hebrew; for in these additions inserted from Theodotion, the order that existed in the Hebrew was not everywhere preserved. The same can be seen in the additions to the book of Esther, chapter 1:11 and following. Hence Vatablus omits these words. This therefore was the order of events: first, these youths were cast bound into the furnace. The angel descended with them, protecting them from the fire, but not yet seen by them: hence they pray God to protect them from the fire, verse 26. Soon the angel showed himself to them, driving away the fire: hence, with their bonds loosened, they walked with him praising God, verse 52.
25. And Azariah stood. — Note: Azariah, in his own name and that of his companions, uttered this prayer in the midst of the flames, before the angel appeared to him, when he was still uncertain whether he would be delivered from the flames or not. Hence he prays to be delivered from them, verse 43, saying: "Deliver us by Your wonders," and by this prayer he obtained it: hence soon, verse 49, the angel appeared, delivering him with his companions. Thus God is accustomed to leave His own at first in temptation, so that they may invoke Him, and once invoked He quickly comes to their aid.
Wherefore in the Lives of the Martyrs we read everywhere that while they were being tortured, they always turned to God, and asked and obtained strength and fortitude from Him: for they knew they could not endure such fierce and varied torments by their own strength, but that these must be sought from God. Hence some who wavered on the rack, when they prayed, were strengthened by God: others who trusted in themselves, abandoned by God, fell.
Note: This prayer, and the rest up to verse 91, no longer exists in the Hebrew, but St. Jerome acknowledges that he translated it from Theodotion.
Verse 26: Blessed Are You, O Lord
26. BLESSED ARE YOU, O LORD. — Here Azariah teaches that prayer should begin with the praise of God: for God is to be praised even when He sends adversity upon us, even in death and martyrdom, just as these three in the fire praise God, and the justice of God chastising their own and their people's sins. See what was said at 1 Timothy 2:1.
27. All Your works are true — that is, they are whole, fair, and perfect. The works and judgments of God are true in three ways, says Pererius. First, with the truth of being: because they are conformed to their rule, namely the wisdom of God. Second, with the truth of justice: because through them God justly punishes the wicked, and rewards the pious. Third, with the truth of fidelity: because they correspond to God's promises and threats.
28. In truth and in judgment — that is, in the truth of judgment, or in true, that is, just judgment. It is a hendiadys. The meaning is, as if to say: Justly, O Lord, You delivered Jerusalem, the Jews, and us to the Chaldeans; because we sinned against You. Note the humility of the saints and martyrs, who attribute public calamities, and even their own deaths and martyrdoms in them, to their own and their people's sins, because evidently to the accumulation of sins, on account of which God sends such grave calamities, the sins of everyone, even of a saint and martyr, add and contribute something, however small and slight it may be. In the same way the seven Maccabean brothers attribute the slaughter of Antiochus, and their own death and martyrdom in it, to their sins, 2 Maccabees 7. Otherwise it is certain that the saints often have not merited such great calamities by their sins. For thus Job himself throughout his whole book teaches and protests against his friends that he has not merited his afflictions, and God approves this, chapter 42:7. Likewise David in the psalms often protests that he is innocent, and has not merited such great persecutions of Saul and his enemies. Finally, this proposition: "All the afflictions of the saints are punishments for their own sins," was condemned by Gregory XIII and Pius V. In the same way these youths had not merited this fire by their own sins, but the whole people, of which they were a part.
32. Most wicked beyond all the earth, that is, the most wicked above all the kings and tyrants of the earth. Thus Juventius and Maximianus, Christian soldiers, when Julian the Apostate would permit no food to be sold in the forum except what had been sacrificed to idols, or sprinkled with their lustral water, said: "O God! You have delivered us to a wicked king, who has abandoned You above all the nations of the earth." Wherefore, grievously tortured by Julian, they were put to death. So Theodoret, book 3 of his History, chapter 14. Thus God, on account of their sins, delivered Christians to the tyrants Decius and Valerian, and foreshowed this by a certain vision. St. Cyprian reports it, book 4, epistle 4: "These evils would not have come upon the brethren," he says, "if the brotherhood had been united as one. For this was shown, that a father of a family sat with a young man sitting at his right, who, anxious, and somewhat sad with a certain indignation, sat with a sorrowful countenance holding his jaw in his hand. But another standing on the left side carried a net, which he threatened to cast to capture the surrounding people. And when he wondered what this meant, it was told to him who saw this: The young man sitting thus at the right was saddened and grieving that his precepts were not being observed: but the one on the left was exulting that an opportunity was given him to receive from the father of the family the power of raging."
Verse 33: We Have Become a Shame and Reproach to your Servants
33. WE HAVE BECOME A SHAME AND REPROACH TO YOUR SERVANTS — namely to the Jews, to Your faithful: for against these our enemies and enemies of Your name, namely the Gentile idolaters, cast our calamities in reproach, we who worship You with the same faith as they; and they say: Are you the companions and countrymen of those criminals who were cast alive into the fire? Do you worship that God who permits your countrymen to be so afflicted and burned? who cannot, or will not, deliver you from captivity and such great sufferings?
34. Do not, we beseech You, deliver us — to the nations and to this fire to be devoured. AND DO NOT ANNUL YOUR COVENANT (that is, pact): 35. FOR THE SAKE OF ABRAHAM YOUR BELOVED. — Note: He calls Abraham the "beloved" of God: because chosen and led forth by Him from Chaldea and idolatry, he became the father of Christ and of believers. He calls Isaac the "servant" of God, because of his obedience, by which he gave himself to God as a victim through the hands of his father. He calls Jacob "holy," first, because of his innocence; second, because he offered himself to God, and was the first to vow tithes to Him; third, because filled with the Holy Spirit, Azariah predicted the future, and looked toward Christ, who is the Holy of Holies, who was to be born from Jacob.
Verse 38: And There is at This Time no Prince, nor Leader, nor Prophet
38. AND THERE IS AT THIS TIME NO PRINCE, NOR LEADER, NOR PROPHET. — Because Daniel was rather an interpreter of royal dreams than a prophet of the people: and the prophet Ezekiel was absent, and was dwelling by the Chebar and in other places of Chaldea, and he was alone and a captive. And so "there is not," that is, there is scarcely any. NOR SACRIFICE. — For the Temple and altar had been destroyed along with Jerusalem: and although the Jews afterward erected a new altar, as is clear from Baruch 1:1, yet they used it most poorly, most rarely, and most sparingly in those ruins of the city.
Verse 40: As in Holocausts of Rams
40. AS IN HOLOCAUSTS OF RAMS. — Many manuscripts punctuate these words so as to begin the sentence here, which is completed through the antapodoton, that is, the rendering of the comparison, when it adds: "So let our sacrifice be." But if so, it should have said: "So a holocaust (not in a holocaust) of rams, so let our sacrifice be." I say therefore that these words are to be referred to what precedes, and are to be arranged and punctuated with the Seventy and the Roman edition: "With a contrite spirit and a humble heart let us be received, as in a holocaust of rams," etc., as if to say: As You receive the holocaust of rams, so receive the contrite spirit and humble heart, by which we offer ourselves to You in sacrifice through martyrdom to expiate our own and our people's sins. Vatablus translates and punctuates differently, namely thus: Like the holocausts of rams, etc., let our sacrifice be before You.
SIC FIAT SACRIFICIUM NOSTRUM. — Their martyrdom they call a "sacrifice," not properly speaking, but metaphorical and mystical; which nevertheless is nobler than all the victims of the ancients, since those were irrational, and more pleasing to God. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Like the holocausts of rams, and of many fat lambs, so let our sacrifice be a holocaust, and fat, with the fatness of spirit and devotion, that it may please You, and that You may accept this as You accept those, namely this sacrifice of prayer, confession, penance, praise, and martyrdom, which we offer You in this fire.
In the same way, the martyrs who under Diocletian at Nicomedia, on the very feast of Christ's nativity, were surrounded in the temple, when the tyrant threatened them with fire and proposed that if anyone wished to save himself, he should come out and burn incense to Jupiter on the nearby altar, one answered freely for all: "We are all Christians, we believe in one and the same sole God and King, Christ; and we are prepared to sacrifice to Him, and to His Father, and to the Holy Spirit, and to offer ourselves all together." He had scarcely said this when fire was kindled, which in almost an instant encompassed the whole temple, burned all of them (and they were twenty thousand) like holocausts, and reduced them to ashes, as Nicephorus reports, book 7 of his History, chapter 6.
Similarly that noble heroine and martyr, who under the tyrant Dunaan, in the city of Najran in Arabia, in the time of Emperor Justin, in the year of Christ 522, suffered with her two daughters, when she saw them pierced with the sword, and their blood offered to her by the executioner; taking and tasting it, and looking up to heaven: "To You," she said, "O Christ the Lord, I offer this my sacrifice, and to You I present as martyrs chaste virgins who came forth from my womb, with whom also count me and bring me into Your bridal chamber, and, as the divine David says: Show a mother rejoicing because of her children." Wherefore she too was crowned with martyrdom. So from Procopius, Baronius, volume 7, year of Christ 522, page 91.
Likewise St. Barlaam the martyr, when the torturers held his right hand over a burning brazier, and placed incense upon it, hoping that his hand, overwhelmed by the force of the fire, would shake the incense onto the altar, and so it would appear that he himself had burned incense to the idol on the altar; he stood motionless in body and hand, bearing and overcoming the flame like ashes, and saying: "Blessed be the Lord my God, who teaches my hands to war, and my fingers to fight." The witness is St. Basil, in his oration on St. Barlaam.
Likewise those two noble youths of Antioch under Diocletian, of whom Eusebius speaks, book 8 of his History, chapter 12, when they were forced to sacrifice to idols, said: "Lead us to the altars. And when they had been led there, placing their hands upon the burning fire: If we withdraw them, they said, believe that we have sacrificed. And until all the flesh had melted into the fire, they remained immovable."
Likewise St. Getulius the martyr in his torments: "I give thanks," he said, "to God and Jesus Christ, and to Him I offer myself as a clean sacrifice": and his wife Symphorosa, when Emperor Hadrian said to her: Either sacrifice to the gods, or I will have you sacrificed with your children; responded: "Whence comes such great good to me that I should merit to be offered as a victim to God with my children?"
Likewise St. Vitus, a boy, with his companions Modestus and Crescentia, was cast by the ungrateful Emperor Diocletian (whose daughter he had freed from a demon) into a furnace blazing with lead, resin, and pitch, when Diocletian said: Now I will see if your God can deliver you from my hand; Vitus, making the sign of the holy cross, entered the furnace, and like these three youths stood unharmed by the fire, singing hymns and praises to God with his two companions, and came out purer, just as if he had stood in the sweetest bath. So his Life records, on June 15.
Likewise also St. Lawrence, whom St. Augustine, sermon 1 about him, rightly equates with these three youths: "For," he says, "they walked in the flames of their punishments, but this one even reclined in the very fire of his torment: they trampled the flames with the soles of their feet, he extinguished them by the exposure of his sides," etc. And further: "So that the prophecy of the psalm might be fulfilled, which says in the person of St. Lawrence: Prove me, O Lord, and try me, burn my reins and my heart — he asks to be consumed by a twofold fire. For if he were speaking only of worldly fire, it would have sufficed to offer only his reins to be burned with flames. But the heart is burned by no flame except the flame of Christ."
THAT IT MAY PLEASE YOU. — In Greek, teleiotheito opiso sou, that is, let it be perfected after You; or, as the Complutensian, let it fulfill after You; that is, as Vatablus, that we may fully and unto the end and death follow You. It is a Hebraism. For the Hebrews say limla acharecha, that we may fulfill after You, that is, that we may fully follow You, fully obey You, fully serve You.
44. Who show (that is, inflict) evils upon Your servants. — Thus often elsewhere 'to show' is used for 'to do.'
46. To heat the furnace with naphtha. — Naphtha is fuel and food of fire, similar to bitumen. See Pliny, book 2, chapter 105; whence in Greek pyr is derived from pyr, that is, fire. Others, says St. Jerome, think that the dried olive pits that are thrown out with the lees are called naphtha. AND WITH FAGGOTS. — Malleoli are vine branches for kindling fire, says Theodoret, or rather, as Nonius Marcellus says, malleoli are bundles of esparto smeared and covered with pitch, which when set alight are thrown at walls or at the siege shelters of enemies to set them on fire. Hence it is clear that what Albert the Great and Dionysius the Carthusian teach is not true, namely that in the midst of this furnace there was fire only as to its substance, not as to its action, that is, burning. For the fire here acted upon the faggots and consumed them.
49. But the angel of the Lord descended. — The angel had already descended with them as soon as they were cast into the furnace, protecting them: for otherwise they would immediately have been consumed by the fire; but he hid himself from the sight of the youths, so that they, seeing their peril in the fire, would pray to God. They prayed therefore, and soon the angel showed himself to them, and appeared to descend to them, and to bring in wind, as is said here.
Learn from the angel that in persecution and tribulation the sole remedy is prayer and refuge in God: those who used this stood firm and conquered; those who did not use it failed and fell. Hear St. Cyprian (or whoever is the author), treatise On the Twofold Martyrdom: "I have known and wept for some endowed with great strength of spirit, who, when already close to the crown, failed, and denied Him whom they had long professed. What was the cause? They had turned their eyes away from Him who alone gives strength to the weak; they had interrupted their prayer, and had begun to look to human supports. They contemplated the feeble resources of their nature, they considered the hooks, the spikes, the glowing plates, the iron and fire, and the rest of the executioner's apparatus, horrible even in appearance, and they compared the severity of the tortures with their own strength; and therefore they lost the victory from their hands. When a man thinks thus: This I can endure, that I cannot endure — he will never successfully complete martyrdom. But whoever commits himself entirely to the divine will, looking to nothing but His aid, he at last is firm and invincible. But this cannot happen unless there is present a true and living faith, wavering in nothing, questioning nothing, not thinking how great is the cruelty of the tyrant, how great the weakness of man, but how great is the power of the Lord, who fights and conquers in His members." And shortly after: "Nor let anyone be displeased with himself if he feels heavy and prolonged distress in both body and soul: only let him trust in the one for whom he fights, who will not allow anyone to be tempted beyond what he can bear, but will make with the temptation also a way of escape." Hence we read everywhere that martyrs prayed continually during their torments. There exists the ardent prayer of St. Cyprian before his martyrdom, at the end of his works.
Note first: The Chaldeans cast these three youths into the fire clothed and bound, as is clear from verse 23; but the ropes and bindings were soon loosened either by the fire of the furnace, as St. Jerome and Chrysostom hold, or by the angel descending with them into the furnace: hence they were seen walking with him there, verse 92.
Note second: These youths were preserved from the fire, first, because the angel drove out the fire, and drove and removed it from them to the sides of the furnace, and outside the furnace: hence there it kindled the Chaldean torturers and fire-stokers; but it did not touch the three youths. Second, because he supernaturally introduced in place of the fire a breeze "like a dewy wind" blowing, that is, refreshing; or, as Vatablus translates, like a dewy breath whispering, both for their refreshment and for their breathing: for otherwise the angel could not have suspended the force of the fire.
Hence St. Ambrose, book 6 on Luke, chapter 2: "The Hebrews sang," he says, "while their footsteps were moistened by the touch of the dewy flame, and while everything burned within and without, the fire only harmlessly licked them, without burning." And St. Zeno, Bishop of Verona, sermon 8 On the Three Youths: "Death," he says, "fleeing, changes its function, the fire-stokers are burned: to those set aflame singing hymns, the flame is gentle: God is blessed by all creation. In the three there is one mind, one virtue, one triumph. Life is improved by punishment. The king would have envied the youths, if he had not commanded them to burn." And St. Augustine, sermon 240 On the Seasons: "Into the furnace," he says, "the Saints were cast, the flames flee, the fires yield, the conflagrations are terrified. They show the merit of the just, while they despise the tyrant's command. It is permitted to the Saints to sport with fire, who were not permitted to dwell with men. Receive, O enemy, an example from your punishments, you who have lost all counsel of humanity. The fires flee the just whom you unjustly condemned. Enemies condemn, and fires acquit. The Chaldeans add fuel, and the punishments defend. Men rage, and torments pay reverence, and punish the persecutors."
Third, God continued the action of this wind, namely the cooling, strongly and continuously concurring with it, and consequently either weakened and diminished the action of the neighboring fire, if there was any, in that part where the three youths were, or wholly suspended it, by withdrawing His concurrence from it, without which neither fire can burn, nor the sun shine, nor any creature do or make anything, and this is implied in verse 94.
In a similar way God refreshed and cooled St. Thecla, Agnes, and very many other virgins and martyrs in fire and torments. God granted a similar refreshment to Theodore, a youth of Antioch, who because of his singing of psalms was cruelly tortured by the prefect of Julian the Apostate; when asked by Rufinus, the writer of Ecclesiastical history, whether he had not felt the greatest pain in those tortures, he answered: "Not much bitterness and torment came to me: for a young man stood by me, and wiped away the sweat that arose from that conflict, strengthened my spirit, and made the time of my torture be a source of pleasure rather than anguish." Hence he was grieved to be taken from his tortures, and wished to be returned to them, so that consolation might return. So Socrates, book 3 of his History, chapter 16.
Likewise St. Victor the martyr under Maximian, when at Milan he was drenched over his whole body with boiling lead, prayed saying: "Lord Jesus Christ, for whose name I suffer these things, help me and deliver me as You delivered the three spotless youths from the furnace of fire, and confounded the tyrant: so now deliver me too, that Maximian with his attendants may be put to shame." Immediately the angel of the Lord was present, and so cooled the lead that it was like water flowing from a spring, nor was any part of the martyr's body burned. Whence the martyr burst into praises of God: and finally, predicting that Emperor Maximian would die that year, he was beheaded and flew to heaven. So the eyewitness Maximianus the notary narrates in his Life, May 8.
Similarly St. Polycarp, the disciple of St. John, remained unharmed in the fire, with the flame surrounding him like a wind, as Eusebius testifies. Indeed also St. Francis, when he had to be cauterized with a red-hot iron to avert a discharge of the eyes and blindness, and his tender flesh shrank from it: "My brother fire," he said, "be gracious to me this hour. I beseech the great Lord who created you, to temper your heat for me, so that I may be able to endure your gentle burning." Wonderful to relate! As the iron burned, he felt neither the heat of the fire nor the pain of his flesh; for because his flesh was fully subject to the spirit, and the spirit to God, by His arrangement it came about that the creature, serving its Creator, was wonderfully subject to His will and command. Wherefore, rebuking the Brothers who could not bear to watch this surgery and were fleeing, he said: "Fainthearted and of little faith, why did you flee? Could not He who preserved the youths of Babylon unharmed amid the very flames temper for me the heat of brother fire?"
Mystically, St. Gregory, book 30, Moralia, chapter 13, teaches that the abstinent are not touched by the fire of lust: "When we restrain the flesh," he says, "by the very blows of our abstinence we strike the unclean spirits: and when we subject what is within us, we give battle to the adversaries placed without. Hence it is that when the king of Babylon commands the furnace to be kindled, he ordered heaps of naphtha, tow, pitch, and faggots to be supplied; but nevertheless this fire does not at all consume the abstinent youths: because although the ancient enemy places before our eyes innumerable desires for food, by which the fire of lust may grow, yet the grace of the heavenly spirit whispers to good minds, so that they may endure unharmed by the heats of carnal concupiscence, so that even if the flame burns up to the temptation of the heart, yet the temptation does not burn unto consent.
Verse 50: And the Fire Did not Touch them at all
50. AND THE FIRE DID NOT TOUCH THEM AT ALL. — Rightly some compare the bodies of these youths with the salamander, which by its coldness and moisture extinguishes coals (unless they are too great and too much kindled). Second, St. Basil, homily On the Praise of Fasting, compares the same to asbestos (of which I spoke at Isaiah 45:2), a stone which burns in fire but comes out of it whole and purer. Again he attributes their integrity in the fire (as also Bernard, On the Manner of Living Well, chapter 24) to the virtue of fasting, which the three youths practiced, as is clear from chapter 1:16. Damascene also, book 4, chapter 25, ascribes the same to their purity and virginity: and rightly. For thus the bodies of many virgins have remained unharmed by fire and corruption for a long time. For it is a greater miracle for the soul to remain unharmed in the temptation of lust than for the body to remain unharmed in fire. Hence the demons cried out to not St. Dominic the founder, but to another of his Order, when he had overcome a grave temptation from a certain woman: "You have conquered, you have conquered; because you were in the fire and did not burn."
I myself saw at Trent the body of St. Simon, an innocent boy and martyr killed by the Jews on Good Friday; and at Bologna the body of St. Catherine, a virgin who died 150 years ago, entirely whole and unharmed. But a memorable example was that of St. Cunegund, who lived in continence with Emperor Henry II; and when on a certain occasion her husband suspected her, as if she were too familiar with a certain servant, she, to prove her virginity, walked barefoot over red-hot iron unharmed; wherefore her dying husband, summoning her parents, said: Take back your daughter; I received her a virgin, I return her to you a virgin. Cunegund then exchanged the purple for a hair shirt, and took the habit of a Religious in the monastery of Kaufungen which she herself had built, where she gave wonderful examples of humility, piety, and virtue; and again she extinguished a fire that had caught the straw at night, by making the sign of the cross. Finally, having spent fifteen years in religious life in the monastery, she died in the hair shirt in which she had lived, and renowned for miracles flew to heaven to the bridegroom of virgins, Christ the Lord. So her Life records, which our Gretser published from an ancient and trustworthy author.
In the same way Theognia, who had secretly lived in continence with her husband Anastasius for 40 years, was tested by St. Basil, who ordered burning coals to be poured into her bosom, which she carried unharmed. So Amphilochius in the Life of St. Basil, although this Life is suspect to me as well as to Baronius and other learned men.
But what Cassian reports is wonderful, Conferences 15, chapter 10, about Abbot Paphnutius, who, when by accident a flame seizing his hand had burned it, was grieved that the flame neither spared nor yielded to him, to whom demons yielded, whom he expelled from the possessed; wherefore an angel, appearing to him, said: "Why, Paphnutius, are you sad that this earthly fire has not yet been made peaceful to you, when there still remains in your members the stirring of carnal motions not yet fully purged? As long as its roots live in your marrow, they will by no means allow this material fire to be peaceful to you. Go, take hold of a most beautiful virgin, and if while holding her you perceive that the tranquility of your heart remains immovable, and that the carnal heats in you have remained at peace, then the touch of this visible flame also, mild and harmless, will lick you gently, in the manner of those three youths in Babylon."
In the year of our Lord 530, at Toledo, under King Amalaric, a Council was celebrated, over which Montanus presided: who, as Isidore says, after Celsus was the metropolitan Bishop of the see of Toledo, distinguished in life and learning. He is reported by most ancient and trustworthy testimony to have held burning coals in his vestment for as long as he celebrated Mass, in order to dispel the infamy of a marital relationship: and when Mass was finished, neither had the coals lost their fire, nor was the vestment found to have lost its beauty. So John Vasaeus in the Chronicle of Spain, at the year 530.
Leontius writes something similar in the Life of St. John the Almoner, not far from the end of his Life: Porphyria, he says, formerly a harlot, when having been converted by an Abbot she lived with him as in a certain asylum of salvation, fell under the suspicion of the rash people, as if she had borne a child by the Abbot; whom she herself had not borne, but had taken in as an abandoned child. Therefore before a hundred or more witnesses, the Abbot ordered burning coals to be brought as testimony of his and the woman's chastity: and he rolled them in his own garment, which was not burned in any part whatsoever, to the admiration of all.
Gregory of Tours narrates another remarkable example, On the Glory of Confessors, chapter 76: "Simplicius," he says, "had preserved perpetual chastity with his wife; having been chosen as Bishop, at home he still cared for his wife, who remained a virgin, as a sister. On Christmas Day therefore, when the citizens were stirred up against the virgin by a baseless suspicion, they spoke to her thus: It is incredible that a woman joined to a man cannot be defiled, nor can a man joined to a woman's body abstain from intercourse. Moved by this, the most holy virgin went to the Bishop, who excelled in similar chastity, and having at hand a small chest filled with coals, as was customary for the winter cold, she summoned a maidservant and spread out her cloak, and took up the burning coals, and holding them for nearly the space of an hour, she afterward said to the priest: Take also yourself the fire, milder than usual, which will by no means harm your garments: and when the Bishop received them, his vestment was not harmed at all by the fire. Then the unbelieving people believed, and more than a thousand were initiated with sacred baptism.
St. Gregory narrates a similar miracle about a certain monk named Benedict, whom the Goths in the time of Totila wished to burn along with his cell, but could not, in Dialogues 3, chapter 18.
Tropologically, the furnace kindled by the Chaldeans signifies the incentives of lust, which demons arouse in man to burn and destroy the soul, say Cassian, book 6 of the Institutes, chapter 17, and Origen, on chapter 7 of Leviticus, and Hesychius, book 6 on Leviticus; but the chaste overcome these with the help of angels. Hence second, learn how much the angels are lovers and guardians of chastity, since they descended into the furnace with the three chaste youths, and protected them from the fire.
Thus St. Thomas Aquinas, because of his chastity, was dear to the angels, and was girded by them with a cincture of chastity: and thereafter he was free from all sense of lust. So his Life records. It is reported that Ammon, a pious man, who because of chastity had voluntarily separated from his wife, and then with her consent had embraced the monastic life, never saw himself naked, because he said it was unfitting for a monk to see even his own body naked; and when once he had to cross a river, and refused to take off his garment, and prayed to God that he might be allowed to cross without breaking his resolution, he was carried by an angel to the other bank of the river. So Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, book 4, chapter 23.
Cassian reports, Conference 1 on Abbot Serenus: "He," he says, "indefatigably persevering in nightly and daily prayers, fasts, and vigils for the internal chastity of heart and soul, perceived that he had at last through divine grace extinguished all the heats of carnal concupiscence in himself. Then, kindled with greater zeal for chastity, using the aforementioned remedies, he asked God that the chastity of the inner man might overflow into his body by God's gift. Finally an angel came to him in a nocturnal vision, and as it were opening his belly, tearing out and casting away a certain burning tumor of the flesh from his bowels, and restoring all his intestines to their places as they had been: Behold, he said, the incentives of your flesh have been cut away, and know that you have obtained today perpetual purity of body, according to the vow you requested, and he was no longer troubled even by that natural motion which is aroused even in infants and nursing children."
Pererius notes eight miracles in these three youths: the first, that the fire gave them light but did not burn them: on the contrary, the fire of hell maximally burns the damned, yet gives them no light at all, say St. Basil on Psalm 28, and St. Gregory, book 9, Moralia, chapter 49. The second, that this fire, sparing the youths whom it held within itself, burst forth and attacked the Chaldeans standing outside and at a distance, and burned them. The third, that this fire dissolved the bonds of the young men, says St. Jerome, and yet did not touch their bodies and garments. The fourth, that in the fire they could not only breathe but also speak freely and sing the praises of God. The fifth, that the angel with a most radiant face drove the flames from them, and walked with them in the furnace. The sixth, that the three youths there, inspired by the Holy Spirit, composed a most divine hymn (which is Canonical Scripture), and sang it with one voice. The seventh, was the dewy wind, which extinguished the force of the fire and cooled and wonderfully refreshed the youths. The eighth, that the king saw the angel walking in the furnace with the youths, whom others could not see.
And so in these youths was fulfilled that saying of Isaiah 43:2: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, etc.; when you walk through fire, you will not be burned, and the flame will not scorch you." Hear St. Chrysostom, homily 4 to the People: "The fire became a wall for them, and the flame a garment, and the furnace a fountain, and taking them bound it returned them loosed. It received mortal bodies, and abstained from them as if they were immortal; it did not recognize nature, but showed reverence to piety; the tyrant bound their feet, and fire bound the force of their feet. O wonderful thing! The flame loosed the bound, and itself was bound by the bound, etc., so that you may learn both the cruelty of barbarians and the obedience of the element." He adds then that the devil took care that they be handed over not to the sword or the blade, but to fire, so that they would be completely consumed and turned to ashes; but God turned this to glory, and brought it about that they triumphed as victors over the god of the Babylonians, namely fire. These and more says St. Chrysostom.
Morally, see here how true that saying of Psalm 118:15 is: "The voice of rejoicing and of salvation is in the tents of the just." And that of Psalm 97:11: "Light is risen for the just, and joy for the right of heart." For, as St. Bonaventure says, in the Mirror of Discipline, part 1, chapter 3: "The greatest sign of indwelling grace is spiritual joy: for the fruit of the Spirit is joy," says the Apostle, Galatians 5:22. Wherefore St. Bernard rightly says, sermon 14 on the Song of Songs: "My work is scarcely of one hour, and if more, I do not feel it because of love. Be glad therefore in the Lord, and rejoice, you just, and glory, all you right of heart." For the Lord is your protector, and from all tribulations He will deliver you, as He delivered the three youths from the fire.
52. Blessed are You, O Lord, etc. — that is to say, as Vatablus clearly translates: You are to be proclaimed, O Lord God of our fathers, to be celebrated and praised in perpetuity; likewise that glorious and holy name of Yours is to be proclaimed, exceedingly praiseworthy, and to be extolled beyond measure forever.
Verse 53: Exceedingly Praiseworthy and Exceedingly Glorious Forever
53. EXCEEDINGLY PRAISEWORTHY AND EXCEEDINGLY GLORIOUS FOREVER. — Vatablus: To be celebrated through everlasting ages, and exceedingly glorious. Hence at the preceding verse: "Exceedingly praiseworthy and exalted above all forever," some add hyperendoxos, that is, exceedingly glorious, You who surpass all praise and glory, and the glorification of all men, angels, and creatures, and transcend them immeasurably.
55. You sit upon the Cherubim — You sit both upon the Cherubim angels, who are in heaven; and upon the images of the Cherubim, which are upon the ark and the mercy seat. See what was said at Exodus 25:23, for he alludes to this. For the ark before the destruction of the city was brought by Jeremiah out of the city and the temple, and hidden in an unknown place, as is clear from 2 Maccabees 2:4. Hence even during the time of the captivity God was said to sit upon the Cherubim.
Verse 57: Bless the Lord, all You Works of the Lord
57. BLESS THE LORD, ALL YOU WORKS OF THE LORD. — The three youths, on account of so illustrious and miraculous a beneficence of God toward them, in order to testify and display the intimate feeling of their heart and jubilation, and the immense affection of gratitude, congratulation, reverence, and divine praise, with which they burned, here invite all creatures, even inanimate ones, to the praise of God; especially because those very creatures were witnesses, or even cooperators, of this miracle and beneficence, by which God's power and providence was so celebrated, such as the angels, wind, fire, etc.
About Abbot Equitius, St. Gregory narrates: "When," he says, "in the time of his youth the incentives of the flesh wearied him with fierce combat, the very straits of his temptation made him more zealous for the study of prayer. And when in this matter he sought a remedy from Almighty God by continual prayers, one night, with an angel present, he saw himself made a eunuch, and in his vision it appeared that all movement was cut away from his generative members, as if he had no sex in his body. Relying on this virtue, by the help of Almighty God, just as he had previously presided over men, so he began thereafter to preside over women also; yet he did not cease to warn his disciples that they should not easily trust themselves in this matter by his example, and should not, being about to fall, attempt a gift they had not received." Palladius narrates something similar about Elias, father of three hundred nuns, in the Lausiac History, chapter 35. Hear something similar from Belgium.
The blessed virgin Ermelindis, in order to be free for God alone, left her father's house and went to a village: where, when snares were being laid against her chastity by the lord, on that night when going to church she was about to be seized by him, she merited to hear an angelic voice warning her by name: "Depart, O virgin, depart," it said, "and keep inviolate the virginity which you have consecrated to God." Very frightened, she obeyed the command and set out. And when she was being led by the Holy Spirit, the angel of the Lord appeared to her a second time, and commanded her not to abandon the road she had taken. "You will come," said the angel, "to a village which you will call Meldrick: for there the Lord has prepared for you a place to fulfill the vow of your desire." Therefore the venerable virgin arrived at the place which the angel had foretold her: and there, living long in the frugality of wondrous abstinence, she fulfilled the commandment of the twofold love, says the author of her Life in Surius, October 29.
More illustrious is what St. Basil reports about St. Theophila, in his book On Virginity, and Baronius at the year of Christ 301. Which I reviewed at 1 Corinthians 7:35, at the end.
51 and 52. Then these three, as with one mouth, praised, etc., saying: Blessed are You, O Lord, etc. — Hence it is clear that the following hymn was spoken and composed by the three youths in the furnace by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: hence it is also called by the Church the hymn of the three youths. What therefore Polychronius writes here: "It should be known that this hymn is not found in the Hebrew or Syriac books: but it is reported that from what was said, it was composed afterward by certain persons" — the former is true, the latter is false.
Note: Inanimate creatures bless God and praise their Creator, not with mouth, but with their works, says St. Jerome. First, because by their beauty, variety, magnitude, position, motion, utility, service, perseverance, and obedience toward God, they show the power, wisdom, and providence of their Creator to be most worthy of supreme praise, thanksgiving, and veneration. Second, because by these same qualities they move and excite their beholders to the praise and admiration of their Maker: and thus they in a certain way use the tongue of the beholder for the praise of God. So St. Jerome here and Euthymius, on Psalm 148.
It is an ethopoeia for the sake of emotion; for here sense, voice, and praise are attributed to inanimate things, as I said at Isaiah 1:1, as if to say: You, O angels, O heavens, O fires, O winds, O beasts, who have witnessed, or could have witnessed this prodigy, with natural sense and mute voice be astonished at God's clemency and power toward us; congratulate us, and with us bless God, because without doubt you would do the same with rational sense, mind, and voice, if you had them. For we do not suffice to give thanks and bless God: and therefore we summon all creatures with us to His praise, and we would wish to celebrate the immense generosity of God toward us with the mouth of all angels, men, and creatures. You therefore, O heavens, stars, fires, etc., who have always obeyed your Creator, and by your beauty and obedience have praised Him, now do the same all the more. For you, O fire, praise God, when contrary to your nature, at the nod of God, you withdraw yourself and your power from us, as from the servants of God. You, O winds, praise God, when in the midst of fire you provide refreshment to us, as the servants of God. You, O heavens, O stars, praise God, when by your motion and light you cooperate with your God and with this prodigy of His; continue therefore, as you have begun, as long as we live and flourish in this furnace, and henceforth forever, by your beauty, action, and obedience, both natural and supernatural, praise God, and summon all men and angels to the praise of God.
This therefore is an illustrious canticle, about which the Council of Toledo IV, Canon 13, decreed that it be publicly sung, as we do in the Lauds of the Canonical Hours. Pererius expounds and develops this canticle beautifully and ornately throughout book 4. Moreover this canticle begins from the highest things, namely from the angels, whom it first invites to the praise of God. Thence it descends step by step in order to the heavens, sun, stars: then to the air, rain, dew; thence to the earth, fountains, seas, fish, birds, beasts, cattle: and finally at verse 82, to men, Israelites, saints, and the humble: lastly these three youths, at verse 88, rouse themselves to conclude this praise of God, just as they began it.
Verse 59: Bless the Lord, O Heavens
59. BLESS THE LORD, O HEAVENS. — Note: The heavens declare the glory of God, because from God they received, first, an incorruptible nature; second, immense magnitude; third, the most perfect and beautiful roundness; fourth, the swiftest and perpetual motion; fifth, the variety of orbs, and their wonderful harmony and fitting together; sixth, their most diverse and yet most orderly motions; seventh, the beauty, multitude, and efficacy of the stars; eighth, the presiding angels who govern and rotate these orbs; ninth, wonderful and varied light; tenth, the general power and ability of giving life, producing, moderating, and conserving all terrestrial and sublunary things; eleventh, that in the empyrean heaven there is a wonderful adornment and variety of things: for it is the temple, throne, and kingdom of God, and the dwelling of angels and blessed humans; where God offers Himself to be most clearly beheld, most ardently loved, and most joyfully enjoyed for all eternity. Rightly therefore the Psalmist says of the heavens in particular, Psalm 8: "For I will behold Your heavens, the works of Your fingers," namely, which are works of Your wisdom, power, and magnificence. So Pererius.
Verse 60: Bless the Lord, all You Waters that Are Above the Heavens
60. BLESS THE LORD, ALL YOU WATERS THAT ARE ABOVE THE HEAVENS. — What these waters are, whether elemental or celestial, I discussed at Genesis 1:6.
Verse 61: Bless the Lord, all You Powers of the Lord
61. BLESS THE LORD, ALL YOU POWERS OF THE LORD. — By powers understand first, intelligences, or angels moving the heavens; hence powers are here inserted between the heavens and the sun and stars, because they preside over all of them; second, the influences of the heavens on these lower things; third, some understand the seventh order of angels, which is called the Virtues, because they work wonders on earth; as if these three youths attributed to them their wonderful preservation in the fire, and that the angel who preserved them in the fire was of the order of Virtues; fourth, Pererius understands the operative powers of stones, herbs, animals, and all natural things, such as the power in the magnet to attract iron, in herbs to heat, to dry, to purge, etc.
The Scholiast notes that the order of these blessings is not the same in all manuscripts. Thus verse 67: "Bless the Lord, cold and heat," in the Roman Septuagint edition is placed later, namely at verse 73.
65. All spirits — every wind: because it protects us in the fire, and is "of God," that is, sent by God. Others understand angels by spirits, but these were named in verse 58. Add that in Scripture angels are not customarily called spirits of God, but simply spirits, as Alcazar rightly observed on Revelation chapter 1, page 183, at the end.
Note: The winds praise God, because their use and utility is great. For first, they ventilate and purify the air, lest it putrefy or become infected. Second, they now bring clouds and rain, now drive them away. Third, they nourish and enliven trees, plants, and crops. Fourth, they cool the heat. Fifth, they renew and refresh the condition of men and animals. Sixth, they propel ships. So Seneca, book 5, Natural Questions, chapter 18. Again because God alone properly gives to the winds their order, place, motion, time, force, alternation, and power, hence the winds are specifically invited to the praise of God.
Verse 66: Praise and Exalt him Above all Forever
66. PRAISE AND EXALT HIM ABOVE ALL FOREVER — namely, for eternity. For this is what the Greek eis tous aionas means, which Vatablus translates, through everlasting ages. This is an intercalary half-verse, so that while the cantor first sings, for example, "Bless the Lord, fire and heat," immediately the chorus, applauding with the common voice of all and crying out, chimes in everywhere: "Praise and exalt Him above all forever." Thus in Litanies, when one person leads with the names of the Saints, the rest respond: "Pray for us."
Verse 67: Cold and Heat
67. COLD AND HEAT. — In Greek it is kauson, that is, heat, and so the Roman edition reads: for this is directly opposed to cold. So it should be read, not summer. Hence Vatablus translates, burning heat; others, cauma; however the Plantin, Parisian, and most other Bibles, as well as St. Jerome, read summer. Indeed the Syriac version, an ancient one extant in the Medici Library, adds this half-verse to the Greek and Latin Bibles: Bless the Lord, summer and winter. But it amounts to nearly the same thing: for heat is in summer; whence summer is named from heat, says Varro, book 4, or, as others say, from the Greek aithesthai, that is, to burn. Hence Pliny, book 12, chapter 9: "The south winds," he says, "blow there so burningly that in summer they set forests on fire." Moreover, how much material for praising God heat and summer suggest to men is clear from the grain, wine, and so varied and manifold a kind of every sort of fruit, which they ripen and as it were bring forth; so that the Psalmist rightly sings, Psalm 74:17: "Summer and spring, You formed them." And Sirach, chapter 50:7-8, praising Simon the high priest: "He," he says, "shone forth in the temple of God, etc., like frankincense giving fragrance in the days of summer." Again summer reminds man of labor, that by it he may obtain food for himself by which to live in winter. Wherefore the Wise Man says, Proverbs 6:6: "Go to the ant, O sluggard, and consider her ways, and learn wisdom: who, etc., prepares her food in summer, and gathers in the harvest what she may eat," as if to say: So you, O man, acquire for yourself good works and merits in time, by which you may live and enjoy in eternity. Therefore, as the same says, chapter 10:5: "He who gathers in the harvest is a wise son; but he who sleeps in summer is a son of confusion." And chapter 20:4: "Because of the cold the sluggard would not plow: he will beg therefore in summer, and it will not be given to him."
Verse 68: Frost
68. FROST. — In Greek psekadoi, which Vatablus translates, snowy rains; others commonly, frosts.
Verse 75: Bless the Lord, Mountains and Hills
75. BLESS THE LORD, MOUNTAINS AND HILLS. — For mountains, first, receive and collect snows, vapors, mists, and clouds, and dissolve them into water; and thus they are the cause and origin of torrents and rivers, by which fields are irrigated and made fertile, and which produce very many and very wholesome fish, being rock-dwelling and free from slime. This is what the Psalmist says, Psalm 104:10: "You send forth springs in the valleys: between the mountains the waters will pass." For mountains are not only springs but also embankments of rivers and seas, and they restrain their waves and swelling from overflowing. Second, mountains protect the valleys and fields beneath them from winds and storms, as well as from heat. Third, mountains contain minerals and ores, such as coal, iron, copper, tin, gold, silver. Fourth, mountains and rocks provide stones and marble, which I saw quarried from the very Alps themselves. Fifth, mountains nourish vines and ripen grapes by the reflection of the sun's rays. Sixth, they produce the largest oaks and trees of every kind. Indeed nowhere have I seen fir trees more numerous, larger, or more aptly arranged in order than in the Alps, and near Nuremberg on the way to Augsburg, where I passed through a vast forest of firs that extends for many miles. Seventh, mountains if cultivated produce wheat and grain of every kind. Hence in the Alps I saw affluent villages and very many towns, which rival the flatlands in beauty and wealth. Again mountains abound in grass, meadows, vegetables, herbs, flowers beautiful and fragrant even in winter: whence the Alpine people would customarily offer us elegant bouquets of flowers as we departed from our lodging. Eighth, mountains are like walls and ramparts of cities and provinces, lest they be invaded by neighboring and other peoples. Thus the Ardennes mountains are the walls of France, the Alps of Germany, the Apennines of Italy, the Pyrenees of Spain: for these separate the French from the Spanish, and block the approach lest they attack each other. Thus the Swiss in their mountains stand as if impregnable, and indeed they defeated Charles the Bold, a most warlike prince, with his numerous army. Ninth, in the mountains because of the cold, and the pure and brisk air, bodies are healthy, and men are vigorous and robust, and they are driven by both cold and hunger to the labor by which they earn their livelihood: whence it happens that they do not dissolve in idleness, luxury, lust, and vices; but are modest, industrious, upright, and pious. Indeed in the mountainous County of Tyrol I observed the greatest monuments of ancient uprightness and piety on the roads and hills, such as chapels, crosses, images, votive offerings, etc. Tenth, in the mountains there is the most suitable place for solitude, and for contemplating heaven and heavenly things. Hence there are hermitages there, and hermits most freely gazing at the stars, and despising the earth and all earthly things. Hence Christ on a mountain praying was transfigured, and delivered that divine sermon, Matthew 5:1, on a mountain, and finally on the Mount of Olives, praying according to His custom, was seized and bound. These things, standing and contemplating in the Alps, among, indeed above, the clouds, I repeatedly said: "Bless the Lord, O mountains." Finally the mountains of the Alps and Apennines surround and protect Rome, as the head of the Church and empire, so that it appears to be impregnable, as though founded upon rock. On which matter Rutilius beautifully writes:
If we confess the world was made with a sure plan, And so great a machine was the counsel of God, He set the Apennine before the Latin guards, And passes barely accessible by mountain roads.
Nature feared envy, and thought it too little To have set the Alps against northern threats. As it fortified vital members with many defenses, And enclosed more than once what it bore as precious: Already then it merited to be girded with manifold protection, And Rome-to-be kept the gods anxious.
Verse 87: Bless the Lord, You Holy and Humble of Heart
87. BLESS THE LORD, YOU HOLY AND HUMBLE OF HEART. — Humility of heart is joined here with holiness, because humility is the foundation of holiness, and because true humility should not be feigned in outward display, but real in the soul: hence 'of heart' is added. "For simulated humility is double pride," by which some seek a reputation for holiness among men, but this cannot last long: for soon the hidden pride betrays itself. To these could be applied that saying of Nahum 3:14: "Go into the clay, and tread it, working take hold of the brick," namely, go into yourself, and feeling that you are vile clay, tread it down, and embrace humility of soul.
Note: Above other virtues, humility, and the humble person, praises God; because he recognizes his own nothingness, and that whatever good he has, he has it from God. Hence the Wise Man says, Sirach 3:21: "Great is the power of God alone, and He is honored by the humble." "Nothing," says St. Jerome to Celantia, "makes us so pleasing to men and to God, as if we are great in the merit of our life, yet the lowest in humility." Thus St. Francis for entire nights prayed nothing else than: "Who are You, Lord? Who am I?" Hear also St. Augustine, Sentences, sentence 83: "True humility of the faithful," he says, "is to be proud in nothing, to murmur in nothing, to be neither ungrateful nor querulous; but in all the judgments of God to give thanks to God, and to praise God, whose works are all either just or kind."
Verse 88: He Has Delivered us from the Underworld
88. HE HAS DELIVERED US FROM THE UNDERWORLD — He caused that we should not die, and go to the limbo of the fathers. AND SAVED US FROM THE HAND (that is, the power and dominion of certain) DEATH.
90. All religious — all worshippers of God: for they are sebomenoi ton Kyrion (those who revere the Lord).
92. And the appearance of the fourth was like a Son of God — that is, like Christ, of whom the king could have heard something from Daniel, say Rupert and Tertullian, book 4 Against Marcion, chapter 10, and St. Augustine in his address to the Catechumens. Indeed many of the ancients, such as Tertullian, Justin, Hilary, and others, think that this fourth was truly not an angel, but Christ, who even then before assuming human nature had put on its likeness, and was in a certain way exercising Himself for His future office of Redeemer. For they think that the apparitions which are said in the Old Testament to have been made through angels, were made through the very Son of God Himself, who is the Angel of great counsel. On which matter I spoke at Genesis chapter 18. And from their opinion seems to be derived the Antiphon which we prefix to this hymn of the three youths in the Ecclesiastical Office, at Lauds during the Easter season: "Christ has risen from the tomb, who freed the three youths from the furnace of burning fire, Alleluia."
Second, Dionysius the Carthusian: "like the Son of God," means like Apollo, he says, or Hercules, or some similar one born of Jupiter or another god: for such were the inventions and objects of worship of the Gentiles. Hence Symmachus translates: The fourth is like a son of the gods; and the Syriac: The appearance of the fourth resembles a son of the gods. Third, "like the Son of God," means like an angel, as the Seventy translate, according to St. Jerome. For he was truly an angel, as is clear from verse 49, and he had an angelic countenance: and there is no doubt that the king had heard of angels. Thus in Job 38:7 it is said: "Where were you when the morning stars praised Me, and all the sons of God shouted for joy," that is, all the angels? So Vatablus, indeed St. Jerome, who also adds: "This according to history. But in type this angel, or Son of God, prefigures our Lord Jesus Christ, who descended to the furnace of hell; in which the souls of both sinners and the just were held confined, so that without burning or harm to Himself, He might free from the bonds of death those who were held imprisoned. And thus the Antiphon cited a little earlier can be explained, that Christ, that is the angel bearing the type of Christ, and sent by the Son of God, freed the three youths from the furnace of fire. Both Arabic versions favor this, both the Antiochene and the Alexandrian: The appearance (vision, form) of the fourth is like the Son of the Most High God.
Fourth, Pererius: "Like the Son of God," means like an illustrious, distinguished, and august man above all men. For thus are called mountains and cedars of God, that is, illustrious, distinguished; and thus the sons of God are called, Genesis 6:2. Of these interpretations the third seems most genuine: for the one whom the king here calls the Son of God, he himself, in verse 95, calls an angel. Moreover God sent the angel to appear to the king, lest the king think the youths were being preserved unharmed in the fire by sorcery.
Wherefore the king here wondered at three things: first, that there were four; second, that they were loose; third, that they were unharmed in the fire. Rightly does St. Chrysostom exclaim here, homily On the Three Youths: "O with what triumphs," he says, "do you extend yourself, uncorrupted faith! Friendly majesty is present with you, so that innocence may be freed: God suffers Himself to be numbered with the youths in punishment, and the sacrilegious one (Nebuchadnezzar) is able to see Him; but is not permitted to know Him, so that the glory of the youths may increase."
Learn here how angels are present to the saints praying in their torments, and protect and strengthen them. Thus an angel stood by St. Theodore the martyr, and restored him to strength and health. Hear rare and wonderful things about him from the author of his Life, which is preserved in a grave account in Surius, February 7. When St. Theodore, a general of the army, had slain a most fierce dragon in the name of the Trinity, and had broken the gods of Emperor Licinius made of gold and silver, and distributed them to the poor (for which reason very many were giving their names to Christ): the Emperor summoned him and exposed him to the ridicule of all the enemy's troops.
But the blessed Theodore said to him: "You snarl, O Emperor, but I roar: You snore, but I leap up: You fight against God, but I discourse about God: You blaspheme, but I praise God with hymns: You worship dead gods, but I worship the living God: You worship Serapis, but I worship Him who is above the Seraphim: You worship Apollo, but I worship God who lives forever: You are a Thracian coal, but I am a Roman prince: You are Licinius the winnower, but I am Theodore, the gift of God. Wherefore do not take it hard, O Emperor, nor kick against the goad: for by doing these things, you show your own torments: for you bear the likeness of donkeys and mules." Then Licinius, full of great wrath, ordered him to be beaten with ox sinews, and more than a thousand blows to be inflicted on him. Then his flesh to be torn with iron hooks, and his wounds to be scorched with fire torches, and the clotted blood to be scraped with sharp potsherds. After this they affixed the martyr to a stake through his hands and feet. The impious Licinius, thinking him dead, left him hanging on the stake. But about the first watch of the night, the angel of the Lord stood by, loosed him, and restored him whole in body as before, and greeted him, and said: "Rejoice and be strengthened in the wisdom and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. For behold the Lord God is with you: and why did you say: You have departed from me? Complete therefore the course of your struggle, and you will come to our Lord Jesus Christ, receiving the crown of immortality." When the angel had said these things to the martyr, he departed from him. And the holy martyr gave thanks to his Lord, and began to sing: "I will exalt You, my God, my King, and I will bless Your name forever and ever."
Hear also another no less memorable account. When the blessed Constantius, Bishop of the city of Perugia at Danabi, was being tortured, and his strength was already failing from the torments inflicted by certain soldiers of Emperor Marcus, turning to God with his whole heart: "Receive now," he prayed, "my spirit, O Lord, let it rest in You, which has labored for You, with Your own help, at all times." He had scarcely uttered these pious words, when behold the angel of the Lord was present, comforting the afflicted man with these words: "Do not fear, Constantius, I am the angel of God: Christ has sent me to apply a cure to your wounds, and henceforth to be with you in all your ways"; and immediately every wound was healed. Then he, refreshed by this angelic consolation: "I give You thanks," he said, "Lord Jesus Christ, who through Your angel have comforted me when placed in distress, and healed my wounds; now I truly know that You never abandon those who hope in You." So it is recorded in his Life in Surius, January 29.
Hear also a third, still more admirable, in an Italian virgin. St. Christina, believing in God, broke the golden gods of her father Urbanus the prefect, and distributed them to the poor. For this, at her father's command, she was struck with blows, torn with scourges, loaded with iron, and cast into prison. After this, when she was being torn apart most cruelly and for a very long time, she threw the falling pieces of her flesh into her father's face. And when tied to a wheel, with fire placed beneath and oil poured from above, she was being roasted, the bursting flame killed a thousand pagans. Again handed over to prison, she was healed and restored by the visit of an angel. Then cast with a great weight of stone into Lake Bolsena, she was freed by angelic protection. So Ado of Trier in his Martyrology, July 24. The lake and place celebrated for this martyrdom is visited not far from Rome on the Siena road, and was pointed out to me as I was passing through on my way to the City.
Verse 94: And their Garments Had not Been Changed
94. AND THEIR GARMENTS HAD NOT BEEN CHANGED. — "Saraballa" (some incorrectly read sarabara) is a Chaldaic word meaning leg-coverings. The Syriac and Arabic retain the word saraballa, and say it denotes upper stockings of linen or fine linen, loose and long, namely reaching to the ankles, and often of various colors. So also Jerome: Saraballa, he says, signifies both the legs or thighs, and their coverings: hence our translator renders it as trousers, verse 21. Hence the Spanish call them saraguellas. Wherefore it is less probable that some Rabbis, and more recent scholars who follow them, consider saraballa to have been an outer garment, namely a cloak or mantle. For besides what has already been said, Symmachus, according to St. Jerome, translates anaxyrides, which Hesychius and Suidas in their Lexicons, Eustathius on the Iliad, and St. Jerome to Fabiola, interpret as leg-coverings, or trousers, that is, coverings of the legs and thighs: with which Cyrus and other kings and princes of the Persians (as well as of the Babylonians) were clothed, as Xenophon teaches, book 8 of the Education of Cyrus. Again Hesychius interprets omiz as coverings of the legs and thighs, and reports that these are called Sarabara by the Parthians (for so it seems it should be read). And Suidas: "Sarabara (for so I read) is a Persian garment, some call it trousers"; hence Ovid also calls it "the Persian trouser," book 5 of Tristia, elegy 11. Moreover Xenophon, book 1, Strabo, book 15, Pollux, book 7, Onomastes, chapter 13, Herodotus, book 5, and Dio Chrysostom, oration 72, teach that all the Persians wore trousers and covered their legs with leg-coverings. Hence Persius also calls "the trousered Medes," satire 3. Plutarch also reports that Alexander used leg-coverings, in his Life. Finally Curtius, book 4, and Isidore, book 19 of Origins, teach that Semiramis and the Babylonian women covered their legs with coverings. Much more therefore did the Babylonian men use the same, whom these three companions of Daniel governed, and therefore they were clothed in their garb, namely leg-coverings. Although therefore the king's fury pressed that they be immediately thrown into the furnace, yet the outer garment, namely the cloak (if indeed they were wearing one) could be removed from them in a moment: for otherwise they could not have been conveniently bound with ropes and cast into the furnace. Likewise Pagninus expressly translates saraballa as leg-coverings.
And the smell of fire had not passed through them — that is to say, the fire had not touched nor scorched even their outermost parts.
Note: First and genuinely, "odor" is taken here metaphorically for the emanation of a fire, as if to say that they had not been even slightly touched by the fire, nor had the hairs of their skin or garments been singed or shaved off. For just as a fragrant object exhales its odor from afar, so fire exerts its force upon distant bodies and breathes upon them, as if it smelled that there was some combustible object there, owed to itself. Thus it is said of Samson in Judges 16:9: "He broke the bonds as if one were to break a thread of tow twisted with a shell, when it has received the smell of fire," that is, when it has been breathed upon by fire. And Wisdom 11:19: "Or breathing the vapors of fires, or emitting the smell of smoke." "The smell (therefore) of fire" is the vapor and exhalation either emitted by fire, or produced and drawn out by fire from combustible material, while that material senses the fire from a distance, and is breathed upon by it, before it catches fire and is consumed.
Second, "the smell of fire" can properly be taken here; for burning has its own smell; hence we say: I smell something burning. Third, "the smell of fire" can be taken for an indication or trace of a conflagration. Thus Cicero says to Atticus, book 4, epistle 85: "The matter drifts toward an interregnum, and there is some smell of dictatorship": "smell," that is, indication, says Budaeus. Thus "the smell of gain is good from anything whatever," says Juvenal, satire 14. And Cicero for Cluentius: "Canutius," he says, "a skilled man, who by a certain smell of suspicion had sensed that Stalenus was corrupted, and did not yet think the matter complete, decided," etc. Hence smell is often taken for reputation, as when Paul says: "We are the good odor of Christ," as if to say: We spread a good reputation of Christ everywhere, by the example of a holy life, as well as by the preaching of holy doctrine, 2 Corinthians 2:15.
Moreover, after these words: "And the smell of fire had not passed through them," in many Septuagint manuscripts is added: And the king worshipped the Lord before them: which however the Latin manuscripts do not read, nor is it recognized by St. Jerome or by Theodoret.
Verse 95: They Changed the King's Word
95. THEY CHANGED THE KING'S WORD. — That is, they acted against the king's command. So Vatablus. In Chaldaic it is scanniu, which can secondly be translated, they set aside, they regarded as secondary, that is, they subordinated the king's word to the law of God, knowing that one must obey God rather than men. Hence it is clear that these three youths are martyrs, indeed the firstfruits of martyrs, who paved the way for the rest, and gave an example of fortitude to all posterity, especially to Christians: because they, before Christ, without any precedent, first in the Old Law, for the worship of the one God, most willingly and most constantly endured the fires of the tyrant, and gave themselves over to most certain death, and would indeed have utterly suffered the most violent death: and this naturally and necessarily, unless they had been miraculously preserved and rescued by God against the course of nature. For a similar reason Daniel, cast into the lions' den, although he was rescued from it by God, is to be considered a martyr. For it is not fitting that miracles should be a loss to virtue and diminish its merit and reward, since they are employed to illustrate it. "For these things do not diminish the merit of confession (martyrdom), but display the wonders of divine protection," says St. Cyprian, epistle 58, which is to Pope Lucius. St. Chrysostom, homily That No One Is Harmed Except by Himself; and St. Jerome favors this in chapter 20 of Matthew, and others; and expressly St. Athanasius, sermon 3 Against the Arians, calls these three youths martyrs: and the Vatican Codex of Emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus, which I cited at the beginning of the book, affirms that they actually did at last undergo martyrdom. But Epiphanius, Dorotheus, and others have nothing of this, nor does the Roman Martyrology, in which these three are recorded as Saints, with no mention of martyrdom, on December 16; for it says: "Of the three youths, Ananiah, Azariah, and Misael, whose bodies were buried at Babylon under a certain cave": later translated to Rome and buried in the church of St. Adrian in the Forum Boarium, as the marble inscription there records, they are religiously venerated."
Finally, as regards their offspring and posterity, there are here in Rome Jews and Rabbis who boast of being descended from these three youths, and trace their genealogy to them through a continuous and long line of ancestors; and therefore from them they take the name Ananiah, etc., and the surname Sforno (from their furnace and oven, into which they were cast). Thus they, the unfaithful, unhappy, and ignoble sons of faithful, happy, and noble fathers. I add also, fabulous ones; for these three youths were virgins, and therefore unharmed by the fire, as I taught above from Damascene. You will say: They were then virgins; but afterward they married and begot children. I answer that this is said gratuitously and is improbable. For who would believe that they corrupted their virginity, so nobly adorned by martyrdom and miracle, with marriage, and gave so great a stain to their glory? They were already old men, and those who had abstained from a wife up to that age, in their declining years, after such great trophies of chastity, could not or would not preserve it?
ANY GOD — any god at all: for in Hebrew 'every' is the same as 'no.'
Verse 96: Shall Have Spoken Blasphemy
96. SHALL HAVE SPOKEN BLASPHEMY. — The king does not appear to have been fully converted by this prodigy: for he does not forbid the worship of idols, nor command the worship of the one God of the Hebrews, but only forbids anyone to blaspheme Him.
Verse 97: He Promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
97. HE PROMOTED SHADRACH, etc. — that is to say, the king not only restored the three youths to their former dignity, and to their prefectures; but moreover increased their rank and prefectures. So St. Jerome; the Roman Septuagint edition adds: And he magnified them, and considered them worthy to preside over all the Jews who were in his kingdom.
See here what constancy, virtue, and the holy example of a few can accomplish: for by this these three youths converted the most fierce and most powerful monarch of the Babylonians, so that he proclaimed the true God throughout his entire kingdom, as his following edict will show. Thus St. Pachomius, while still a pagan serving in the army of Constantine, seeing at Thebes the charity of Christians toward afflicted soldiers, to whom they generously supplied all necessities, was converted to Christ by this example, and became as great as he is celebrated in histories. So Baronius, at the year of Christ 316.
So St. Pachomius, while he was still a pagan serving in the army of Constantine, seeing at Thebes the charity of the Christians toward afflicted soldiers, to whom they generously supplied all necessities, was converted to Christ by this example, and became as great as he is celebrated in the histories. So Baronius, in the year of Christ 316.
St. Afra, as her Life in Surius records (August 3), was converted from a life of prostitution, together with her three maidens, to Christ by the example of the piety, gravity, and chastity of St. Narcissus the Bishop, whom she had received as a guest during the raging persecution.
Rufinus, Book XI of the History, chapter 9, writes thus about St. Gregory Nazianzen: Having been substituted as Bishop at Nazianzus in the place of his father, he faithfully endured the whirlwind of heretics. When peace was restored, being asked to come to Constantinople to teach the church, he did not refuse. Where in a short time he accomplished so much in reforming the people infected with the long-standing poison of heretics, that they seemed to themselves then for the first time to be becoming Christians and to behold a new light, since the teacher of religion taught much indeed by words, but more by examples: nor did they see anything commanded to his disciples that he himself had not first done.
The Venerable Bede, book 1, History of the English, chapter 7, reports that St. Alban was converted from paganism to Christ through the pious and holy life of a certain cleric whom he had received as a guest, and finally became a martyr. St. Afra, as her Life records in Surius, August 3, was converted from a life of harlotry along with her three young women to Christ by the example of the piety, gravity, and chastity of St. Narcissus the Bishop, whom she had received as a guest during a raging persecution. Rufinus, book 11 of his History, chapter 9, writes thus of St. Gregory of Nazianzus: Substituted as Bishop at Nazianzus in the place of his father, he faithfully endured the storm of heretics. When peace was restored, being asked to come to Constantinople to teach the church, he did not refuse. Where in a short time he made such progress in reforming a people infected with the ancient poisons of heretics, that they then seemed to themselves to become Christians for the first time, and to behold a new light, since the teacher of religion taught many things indeed by words, but more by examples: and they saw nothing commanded by him to his disciples which he himself had not first done.
Verse 98: King Nebuchadnezzar's Letter
This is a new narration of a new matter: for this is the title of the king's letter which follows in chapter 4, in which the king narrates his own pride, humiliation, transformation into a beast, and restoration to his kingdom. Hence from this place Theodoret and Lyranus and others begin the fourth chapter; for these things belong to it. Wherefore in some Greek manuscripts before these words is inscribed, as it were a title, horama; that is, the Fifth Vision of Daniel.
Verse 100: His Kingdom is an Everlasting Kingdom, and his Power Endures from Generation to Generation
100. HIS KINGDOM IS AN EVERLASTING KINGDOM, AND HIS POWER ENDURES FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION. — The conjunction 'and' is the same as 'therefore.' For the first clause is the reason and, as it were, the cause of the second: because God's kingdom is eternal, therefore His power extends to all ages. For, as Trismegistus says in Asclepius, chapter 11: "Eternity is immovable, into which the agitation of all times returns, just as from the same it takes its beginning."