Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The chaste Susanna, falsely accused of adultery by two elders, is freed and vindicated by the boy Daniel.
Vulgate Text: Daniel 13:1-64
1. And there was a man dwelling in Babylon, and his name was Joakim: 2. And he took a wife named Susanna, the daughter of Helcias, very beautiful, and fearing God: 3. for her parents, since they were just, instructed their daughter according to the law of Moses. 4. Now Joakim was very rich, and had a garden near his house: and the Jews resorted to him, because he was the most honorable of all. 5. And there were appointed from the people two elders as judges in that year: of whom the Lord spoke: Because iniquity came out of Babylon from the elder judges, who seemed to govern the people. 6. These frequented the house of Joakim, and all who had lawsuits came to them. 7. And when the people departed at noon, Susanna went in and walked in her husband's garden. 8. And the elders saw her going in every day and walking: and they were inflamed with desire for her: 9. and they perverted their own mind, and turned away their eyes that they might not look towards heaven, nor remember just judgments. 10. So they were both wounded with love for her, nor did they make known to each other their grief: 11. for they were ashamed to disclose to each other their concupiscence, wanting to lie with her: 12. and they watched daily more eagerly to see her. And one said to the other: 13. Let us go home, for it is dinner time. And they went out and parted from each other. 14. And when they had returned, they came to the same place: and asking each other the cause, they confessed their concupiscence: and then they agreed upon a time when they might find her alone. 15. And it happened that while they watched for an opportune day, she went in on a certain day as yesterday and the day before, with two maids only, and desired to wash herself in the garden: for it was hot: 16. and there was nobody there except the two elders hidden and watching her. 17. So she said to the maids: Bring me oil and washing balls, and shut the doors of the garden, that I may wash. 18. And they did as she had commanded: and they shut the doors of the garden, and went out by a back door to fetch what she had ordered: and they did not know that the elders were hidden inside. 19. And when the maids had gone out, the two elders rose up and ran to her, and said: 20. Behold, the doors of the garden are shut, and nobody sees us, and we are in desire of you: therefore consent to us, and lie with us: 21. but if you will not, we will bear witness against you, that a young man was with you, and therefore you sent away your maids from you. 22. Susanna sighed and said: Straits are upon me on every side: for if I do this thing, it is death to me; and if I do it not, I shall not escape your hands. 23. But it is better for me to fall into your hands without the deed, than to sin in the sight of the Lord. 24. And Susanna cried out with a loud voice: and the elders also cried out against her. 25. And one of them ran to the doors of the garden and opened them. 26. So when the servants of the house heard the cry in the garden, they rushed in by the back door, to see what was the matter. 27. But after the elders had spoken, the servants were greatly ashamed: for never had such a word been said of Susanna. And the next day came. 28. And when the people came to her husband Joakim, the two elders also came, full of wicked design against Susanna, to put her to death. 29. And they said before the people: Send for Susanna daughter of Helcias, the wife of Joakim. And presently they sent. 30. And she came with her parents, and children, and all her kindred. 31. Now Susanna was exceedingly delicate and beautiful to behold. 32. But those wicked men commanded that she should be uncovered (for she was covered), that so at least they might be satisfied with her beauty. 33. Therefore her friends and all who knew her wept. 34. But the two elders rising up in the midst of the people, laid their hands upon her head. 35. And she, weeping, looked up to heaven: for her heart had confidence in the Lord. 36. And the elders said: As we walked in the garden alone, this woman came in with two maids: and she shut the doors of the garden and sent the maids from her. 37. Then a young man, who was hid there, came to her, and lay with her. 38. But we being in a corner of the garden, seeing this wickedness, ran up to them, and we saw them lying together. 39. And him indeed we could not take, because he was stronger than us, and opening the doors he leaped out: 40. but having taken this woman, we asked who the young man was, and she would not tell us: of this thing we are witnesses. 41. The multitude believed them, as being the elders and the judges of the people, and they condemned her to death. 42. Then Susanna cried out with a loud voice, and said: O eternal God, who knows hidden things, who knows all things before they come to pass, 43. You know that they have borne false witness against me: and behold I must die, whereas I have done none of these things which these men have maliciously invented against me. 44. And the Lord heard her voice. 45. And when she was led to death, the Lord raised up the holy spirit of a younger boy, whose name was Daniel; 46. and he cried out with a loud voice: I am clear from the blood of this woman. 47. Then all the people turning towards him, said: What is this word that you have spoken? 48. Who standing in the midst of them, said: Are you so foolish, you children of Israel, that without examination or knowledge of the truth, you have condemned a daughter of Israel? 49. Return to judgment, for they have borne false witness against her. 50. So the people returned in haste, and the old men said to him: Come and sit in the midst of us, and tell us: seeing God has given you the honor of old age. 51. And Daniel said to them: Separate these two far from one another, and I will examine them. 52. So when they were put asunder one from the other, he called one of them, and said to him: O you that are grown old in evil days, now are your sins come out, which you committed before; 53. judging unjust judgments, oppressing the innocent, and letting the guilty go free, whereas the Lord says: The innocent and the just you shall not put to death. 54. Now then, if you saw her, tell me under what tree you saw them conversing together. He answered: Under a mastic tree. 55. And Daniel said: Well have you lied against your own head: for behold the angel of God, having received the sentence from Him, shall cut you in two. 56. And having put him aside, he commanded that the other should come, and he said to him: O you seed of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty has deceived you, and lust has perverted your heart: 57. thus did you do to the daughters of Israel, and they being afraid spoke with you: but a daughter of Judah would not endure your wickedness. 58. Now therefore tell me, under what tree did you take them conversing together. And he answered: Under a holm oak. 59. And Daniel said to him: Well have you also lied against your own head: for the angel of the Lord waits with a sword to cut you in two, and to destroy you. 60. With that all the assembly cried out with a loud voice, and they blessed God, who saves them that trust in Him. 61. And they rose up against the two elders (for Daniel had convicted them of false witness by their own mouth), testimony), and they did to them as they had wickedly dealt against their neighbor, 62. that they might do according to the law of Moses: and they put them to death, and innocent blood was saved that day. 63. And Helcias and his wife praised God for their daughter Susanna, with Joakim her husband and all the kindred, because there was no dishonesty found in her. 64. And Daniel became great in the sight of the people from that day and thenceforth. 65. And king Astyages was gathered to his fathers, and Cyrus the Persian received his kingdom.
Verse 1: And there was a man dwelling in Babylon, and his name was...
1. And there was a man dwelling in Babylon, and his name was Joakim: 2. And he took a wife named Susanna, the daughter of Helcias, very beautiful, and fearing God: 3. for her parents, since they were just, instructed their daughter according to the law of Moses. 4. Now Joakim was very rich, and had a garden near his house: and the Jews resorted to him, because he was the most honorable of all. 5. And there were appointed from the people two elders as judges in that year: of whom the Lord spoke: Because iniquity came out of Babylon from the elder judges, who seemed to govern the people. 6. These frequented the house of Joakim, and all who had lawsuits came to them. 7. And when the people departed at noon, Susanna went in and walked in her husband's garden. 8. And the elders saw her going in every day and walking: and they were inflamed with desire for her: 9. and they perverted their own mind, and turned away their eyes that they might not look towards heaven, nor remember just judgments. 10. So they were both wounded with love for her, nor did they make known to each other their grief: 11. for they were ashamed to disclose to each other their concupiscence, wanting to lie with her: 12. and they watched daily more eagerly to see her. And one said to the other: 13. Let us go home, for it is dinner time. And they went out and parted from each other. 14. And when they had returned, they came to the same place: and asking each other the cause, they confessed their concupiscence: and then they agreed upon a time when they might find her alone. 15. And it happened that while they watched for an opportune day, she went in on a certain day as yesterday and the day before, with two maids only, and desired to wash herself in the garden: for it was hot: 16. and there was nobody there except the two elders hidden and watching her. 17. So she said to the maids: Bring me oil and washing balls, and shut the doors of the garden, that I may wash. 18. And they did as she had commanded: and they shut the doors of the garden, and went out by a back door to fetch what she had ordered: and they did not know that the elders were hidden inside. 19. And when the maids had gone out, the two elders rose up and ran to her, and said: 20. Behold, the doors of the garden are shut, and nobody sees us, and we are in desire of you: therefore consent to us, and lie with us: 21. but if you will not, we will bear witness against you, that a young man was with you, and therefore you sent away your maids from you. 22. Susanna sighed and said: Straits
are upon me on every side: for if I do this thing, it is death to me; and if I do it not, I shall not escape your hands. 23. But it is better for me to fall into your hands without the deed, than to sin in the sight of the Lord. 24. And Susanna cried out with a loud voice: and the elders also cried out against her. 25. And one of them ran to the doors of the garden and opened them. 26. So when the servants of the house heard the cry in the garden, they rushed in by the back door, to see what was the matter. 27. But after the elders had spoken, the servants were greatly ashamed: for never had such a word been said of Susanna. And the next day came. 28. And when the people came to her husband Joakim, the two elders also came, full of wicked design against Susanna, to put her to death. 29. And they said before the people: Send for Susanna daughter of Helcias, the wife of Joakim. And presently they sent. 30. And she came with her parents, and children, and all her kindred. 31. Now Susanna was exceedingly delicate and beautiful to behold. 32. But those wicked men commanded that she should be uncovered (for she was covered), that so at least they might be satisfied with her beauty. 33. Therefore her friends and all who knew her wept. 34. But the two elders rising up in the midst of the people, laid their hands upon her head. 35. And she, weeping, looked up to heaven: for her heart had confidence in the Lord. 36. And the elders said: As we walked in the garden alone, this woman came in with two maids: and she shut the doors of the garden and sent the maids from her. 37. Then a young man, who was hid there, came to her, and lay with her. 38. But we being in a corner of the garden, seeing this wickedness, ran up to them, and we saw them lying together. 39. And him indeed we could not take, because he was stronger than us, and opening the doors he leaped out: 40. but having taken this woman, we asked who the young man was, and she would not tell us: of this thing we are witnesses. 41. The multitude believed them, as being the elders and the judges of the people, and they condemned her to death. 42. Then Susanna cried out with a loud voice, and said: O eternal God, who knows hidden things, who knows all things before they come to pass, 43. You know that they have borne false witness against me: and behold I must die, whereas I have done none of these things which these men have maliciously invented against me. 44. And the Lord heard her voice. 45. And when she was led to death, the Lord raised up the holy spirit of a younger boy, whose name was Daniel; 46. and he cried out with a loud voice: I am clear from the blood of this woman. 47. Then all the people turning towards him, said: What is this word that you have spoken? 48. Who standing in the midst of them, said: Are you so foolish, you children of Israel, that without examination or knowledge of the truth, you have condemned a daughter of Israel? 49. Return to judgment, for they have borne false witness against her. 50. So the people returned in haste, and the old men said to him: Come and sit in the midst of us, and tell us: seeing God has given you the honor of old age. 51. And Daniel said to them: Separate these two far from one another, and I will examine them. 52. So when they were put asunder one from the other, he called one of them, and said to him: O you that are grown old in evil days, now are your sins come out, which you committed before; 53. judging unjust judgments, oppressing the innocent, and letting the guilty go free, whereas the Lord says: The innocent and the just you shall not put to death. 54. Now then, if you saw her, tell me under what tree you saw them conversing together. He answered: Under a mastic tree. 55. And Daniel said: Well have you lied against your own head: for behold the angel of God, having received the sentence from Him, shall cut you in two. 56. And having put him aside, he commanded that the other should come, and he said to him: O you seed of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty has deceived you, and lust has perverted your heart: 57. thus did you do to the daughters of Israel, and they being afraid spoke with you: but a daughter of Judah would not endure your wickedness. 58. Now therefore tell me, under what tree did you take them conversing together. And he answered: Under a holm oak. 59. And Daniel said to him: Well have you also lied against your own head: for the angel of the Lord waits with a sword to cut you in two, and to destroy you. 60. With that all the assembly cried out with a loud voice, and they blessed God, who saves them that trust in Him. 61. And they rose up against the two elders (for Daniel had convicted them of false witness by their own mouth),
testimony), and they did to them as they had wickedly dealt against their neighbor, 62. that they might do according to the law of Moses: and they put them to death, and innocent blood was saved that day. 63. And Helcias and his wife praised God for their daughter Susanna, with Joakim her husband and all the kindred, because there was no dishonesty found in her. 64. And Daniel became great in the sight of the people from that day and thenceforth. 65. And king Astyages was gathered to his fathers, and Cyrus the Persian received his kingdom.
1. AND THERE WAS A MAN. — Note that this chapter and the following are no longer found in the Hebrew, but St. Jerome affirms that he translated them from the translation of Theodotion. That they formerly existed in Hebrew is clear from Theodotion and the Septuagint, who placed the history of Susanna and Bel in their translation three hundred years before Christ. The same does the Syriac translator, and both Arabic translators, the Antiochene and the Alexandrian. Therefore Africanus wrongly attacked this history (our Innovators follow him), whose eight arguments or rather conjectures Origen well refutes in a letter written to him; Leo Castrius published the letters of both in Latin, translated from Greek, and prefixed them to his Commentary on Isaiah. Wherefore this history is not only true, but also canonical Scripture, as I showed in the Prooemium.
Note second: This history should be placed before the other histories and chapters of Daniel, and positioned immediately after the first chapter; indeed in Greek codices, and in St. Athanasius in his Synopsis, and in the Arabic version it is chapter 1 of Daniel, and in many it is inscribed "Daniel," in some "Susanna," in another "The Judgment of Daniel" (Diakrisis Danielos): because what it narrates happened in Babylon while Daniel was a boy, verse 45. Hence this seems to have been the first prophecy of Daniel, for from it Daniel began to be highly esteemed by the people, verse 64.
of the Syrians, and in St. Athanasius's Synopsis, and in the Arabic version it is chapter 1 of Daniel, and in many manuscripts it is inscribed 'Daniel,' in some 'Susanna,' in another 'The Judgment of Daniel' (Diakrisis Danielos): because what it narrates happened in Babylon while Daniel was a boy, verse 45. Hence this seems to have been the first prophecy of Daniel, for from it Daniel began to be greatly esteemed by the people, verse 64.
The Hebrews report, and from them Origen and St. Jerome, that these two elders were Zedekiah and Ahab, adulterers, and killed on that account, of whom Jeremiah treats in chapter 29:22. Pererius, however, Maldonatus and others deny this; on which matter I spoke on Jeremiah chapter 29.
See here how lust is sticky and clings to a man even to old age and death: "Lust," says St. Thomas, I-II, Question 75, article 5, "has the greatest adhesion, and a man can scarcely be freed from it: for the appetite for pleasure is insatiable." Therefore those who have fallen should rise again immediately, lest, if they fall again and again, they be unable to extricate themselves from this glue. Surely the saying of St. Ambrose is true here: "I have found it easier to find those who have preserved their innocence than those who have done true penance." Again the Poet truly said:
Disgraceful is an old soldier, disgraceful is aged love.
Wherefore such frivolous and petulant old men are justly compared to thistle-down, about which there is this riddle of Eubulus:
I know one who is heavy when young, but when old, Flies lightly without feathers, and strikes the ground.
Peter Damian aptly applies the crime of these two elders in his letter to Cadaloüs the Antipope, to the Bishops of Piacenza and Vercelli, who created Cadaloüs as Antipope and handed over to him the Roman Church, as it were Susanna, to be invaded and violated. But Daniel, that is the judgment and vengeance of God, pursued and condemned them.
THE LORD SPOKE: BECAUSE, etc. — Where and how, whether in writing or by the living voice of some Prophet the Lord spoke this, is not clear.
WHO SEEMED — who were in repute, in authority of governing the people. For among other things this is what dokein signifies: hence dokountes means men who are honored and illustrious, Galatians 2:2 and 6.
Verse 6: WHO HAD LAWSUITS
6. WHO HAD LAWSUITS — hoi krinomenoi, those who were being judged, that is, litigants.
Note third: This history does not seem to have been written by Daniel himself, at least in this his work; but by some Hebrew, who during the Babylonian captivity, or rather shortly after it, wrote the chronicles or journals of the kings of the Medes and Persians, and especially of Cyrus, who freed the Jews from Babylon, and at the same time wrote down the memorable events that happened to his people, namely the Hebrews, at that time. This is clear from verse 66, where it is indicated that the history either of Susanna or of Bel occurred before Cyrus, under Astyages the king of the Medes, who was the grandfather of Cyrus. From those journals therefore it was transferred into this book of Daniel, and added to it as a kind of appendix, because it was performed and carried out by Daniel: and this is the reason why it was relegated to the end of Daniel: indeed the Septuagint ascribed the history of Bel to Habakkuk the prophet, as I will say on chapter 14, verse 32.
Verse 5: AND THERE WERE APPOINTED TWO ELDERS
5. AND THERE WERE APPOINTED TWO ELDERS. — From this passage Africanus attacked this history. For how, he said, could the Jews have had their own judges in Babylon, when they were captives and entirely subject to the Babylonians? I answer that this was done by the indulgence of the Chaldeans: for they permitted the Jews themselves to judge those cases that pertained to their own law. The Romans permitted them the same, as is clear from John chapter 18:31. Thus we see that in Antwerp the Portuguese and Italian merchants have their own magistrates and judges of their own nation.
Verse 8: AND THEY SAW HER
8. AND THEY SAW HER. — The sight was the cause of their concupiscence; for the eyes are the guides in love. And: "Where the eye is, there is love; where the hand is, there is pain." Hence Job wisely says, chapter 31:1: "I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin." I heard a grave and chaste matron advising confessors to beware of gazing at and long conversations with women: For I, she said, am certain that there is no man so wise, so holy, so steadfast, whom I could not bend wherever I wished, if I were to talk with him for a quarter of an hour, and he were to gaze into my eyes. Serpentine therefore are the eyes, faces, bodies, and conversations of women. St. Jerome admirably says in his letter 2 to Nepotian: "Let your little dwelling, he says, seldom or never be trodden by the feet of women. All the maidens and virgins of Christ either ignore equally, or love equally: do not stay under the same roof, nor trust in your past chastity. Neither
can you be stronger than Samson, nor holier than David, nor wiser than Solomon. Remember always that a woman cast the colonist of paradise out of his possession."
In the same author, volume IX, in the Rule of Monks, which is inscribed to Eustochium under the fictitious name of Jerome, chapter 18: "Nothing is more dangerous to a man than a woman, nor to a woman than a man; each is straw, each is fire."
St. Bernard, sermon 65 on the Song of Songs: "To be always with a woman, he says, and not to know the woman, is this not more than raising the dead? What is less, you cannot do; and what is greater, shall I believe you?" See what was said on Genesis 34:2, and Numbers 25, at the end.
Hear therefore the sound advice of the Christian Poet, who as prudently as elegantly plays thus:
What will you do, when you come before the face of Venus? Do not sit down, but go away, lest you perish through them.
For, as Ovid sings, Metamorphoses XIII:
Oh! how great is the power of your realm, nourishing Venus!
And through your eyes he himself perishes, and his own.
Verse 9: THEY PERVERTED THEIR MIND
9. THEY PERVERTED THEIR MIND. — For love is blind and blinds the reason. A pagan said: "To love and to be wise is scarcely granted even to God."
THAT THEY MIGHT NOT SEE HEAVEN. — The Syriac: That they might not look up to heaven; the Arabic: Lest they should look up at heaven, and consequently that they might not reverence God the ruler of heaven. Indeed Maldonatus takes "heaven" to mean God Himself. For so it seems to be taken in Matthew 21:25: "The baptism of John, whence was it? From heaven?" that is, from God? Hence Angelus Caninius in his Hebrew Names teaches that God is called shamaim, that is, heaven: for He is, as the world, so also the uncreated heaven. Hence the Atlantes, a people of Africa, boasted that God kosmon, that is heaven, first reigned among them. So in Luke 15:21, the Prodigal says: "Father, I have sinned against heaven." So the Poet: "A river most pleasing to heaven:" "to heaven," that is, to the gods, who are contained in heaven. 1 Maccabees 3:18: "There is no difference in the sight of the God of heaven (in Greek enopion tou ouranou, that is, before heaven, that is, God the king of heaven) to deliver by many or by few." And chapter 4:10: "And now let us cry to heaven, and He will have mercy on us." For the word "Lord," which is added in the Latin, is not in the Greek. Thus the Rabbis often say: "All things are in the hand of heaven," that is, of God; also: "Let the fear of heaven be upon you;" and: "Let the name of heaven be frequent in your mouth." So "the fear of men excludes the fear of heaven." So in Jeremiah 17:12 it is said: "A throne of glory on high from the beginning," as if to say: There is God sitting on His heavenly throne, who will punish Zedekiah and other impious men. Moreover Pliny thus begins his work: "The world, and this which it has pleased us to call by another name, heaven, by whose vault all things are covered, it is fitting to believe is God." And Ovid, Metamorphoses VIII:
Immeasurable is the power of heaven, and has no end.
It is a metonymy. Similar is the case when "house" is put for the offspring inhabiting the house; as,
When the house of Assaracus shall rule over conquered Argos.
So the house of David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Josiah, etc., is called their royal stock and family itself. So again of Susanna it is said in verse 35: "Who weeping looked up to heaven," namely to God. Hence what follows here:
NOR DID THEY REMEMBER JUST JUDGMENTS — by which God is accustomed to avenge from heaven secret adulteries and crimes. This is what the Wise Man says, Ecclesiasticus 23:27: "He does not understand (the blind adulterer) that the eye of God sees all things, because he casts from himself the fear of God." And in verse 26, the adulterer says: "Who sees me? Darkness encompasses me, and the walls cover me, and no one regards me: whom do I fear? The Most High will not remember my sins." The fool asks: "Who sees me? Whom do I fear?" St. Bernard answers him, sermon to Clerics, chapter 16: "Suppose no one sees you, yet you are not unseen. The evil angel sees you, the good angel sees you: God, greater than both good and evil angels, sees you; the accuser sees you; the multitude of witnesses sees you; and the judge Himself sees you, before whose tribunal you must stand; under whose eyes indeed to be willing to sin is as insane as it is terrible to fall into the hands of the living God."
The impious therefore say that of Psalm 43:7: "The Lord will not see, nor will the God of Jacob understand." And that of Job 22:13: "For what does God know? And He judges as through a mist, the clouds are His hiding place, nor does He consider our things, and He walks about the hinges of heaven." And that of Psalm 72:11: "How does God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High?" And that of Isaiah 29:15: "Whose works are in darkness, and they say: Who sees us? And who knows us?" For, as the Psalmist says, Psalm 9:26: "God is not before his eyes;" hence, because he lacks the fear and shame of God, "his ways are defiled at all times."
But the pious say that of Ecclesiasticus 23:28: "The eyes of the Lord are far brighter than the sun, looking around upon all the ways of men, and the depth of the abyss, and looking into the hearts of men, into the most hidden parts." So Moses "endured the invisible (God) as if seeing Him," Hebrews 11:27. So David, Psalm 118:168: "I have kept, he says, Your commandments and Your testimonies; because all my ways are in Your sight." So Elijah: "The Lord lives, he says, in whose sight I stand," 3 Kings 17:1. "Blessed is the man," says Ecclesiasticus chapter 14:22, "who shall dwell in wisdom, and who shall meditate in his justice, and in his understanding (en synesei, that is, in intellect) shall think on the all-seeing providence of God." See,
O man! what you are doing; God looks upon you from head to toe, God looks into your mind and the depths of your heart, God will judge and condemn you if you sin.
Verse 10: WOUNDED WITH LOVE
10. WOUNDED WITH LOVE. — The Septuagint has: etimoremenai peri autes, stricken on account of her; the Scholiast, kekentemenoi te epithymia sphodros, pierced by concupiscence vehemently.
Verse 13: AND THEY WENT OUT
13. AND THEY WENT OUT. — When they had pretended to go home, in order to conceal from each other the hidden wound of their concupiscence, and had departed, they returned again by another way to the same place, to lay snares for Susanna: and then seeing that they were thinking the same thing and striving for the same end, they confessed their concupiscence to each other. So often an adulterer catches another adulterer, a thief catches another thief, and, as is commonly said: "One snare catches another."
Verse 15: AND SHE DESIRED TO WASH HERSELF IN THE GARDEN
15. AND SHE DESIRED TO WASH HERSELF IN THE GARDEN. — Let those who love chastity learn here how great are the dangers of baths, and how sparingly and cautiously they should be approached; for in them the flesh, the world, and the devil lie in wait. Behold, Susanna, while you go to the bath, you at the same time encounter danger to your chastity, your reputation, and your life. We read in ancient histories that virgins, while going to baths, were quite often seized and possessed by a demon. To pass over others, memorable was the woman who, going to the bath and seized by a demon, was freed and cured at Rome at the Aquae Salviae by the invocation of St. Anastasius the martyr buried there, as the public Acts relate, which Cardinal Baronius reviews, volume VIII, in the year of our Lord 713. Wherefore St. Jerome, letter 7 to Laeta: "For my part, he says, baths are entirely displeasing to me for an adult virgin, who ought to blush at herself, and be unable to see herself naked." And to Rusticus, letter 4: "Let her not seek the warmth of baths, who desires to extinguish the heat of the body by the cold of fasting." Hence he praises St. Paula in her Epitaph that while living with other nuns, she never used baths, except when in danger and compelled by necessity. For just as theaters (as Tertullian says, in his book On Spectacles) were accustomed to be places in which the wicked demon reigned, so also baths. At the Synod of Poitiers, in the year of our Lord 593, Chrodieldis, a nun of royal blood, pretended the cause of her flight from the monastery was that baths were permitted in the monastery. To which the abbess replied that she neither approved what the nun said, nor knew whether it had happened: and if she herself had seen it, why had she not disclosed it to the abbess? St. Theodore Siceota, under the year of our Lord 608, rebuked the custom of those who after Holy Communion betook themselves to baths, saying: "Know that God has indicated to me that they sin greatly who after holy communion go to baths, to wash and care for the body. For who, anointed with perfume and spices, washes off their sweetness? Who, as soon as he has dined with the emperor, runs to the bath?" So Eleusius relates in his Life. Palladius writes in the Lausiac History, chapter 8, in the Life of Ammon, disciple of St. Anthony, that he was so modest that when he was about to cross the river Lycus,
he would not strip himself, lest he should see himself naked, and therefore was suddenly transported by an angel to the opposite bank.
Verse 22: FOR IF I DO THIS, IT IS DEATH TO ME
22. FOR IF I DO THIS, IT IS DEATH TO ME — I will be guilty of bodily death: for adulteresses were stoned according to the law. So St. Jerome and others. Second and better, understand death of the soul here, as if to say: I am pressed on every side, because I must fall into death either of body or of soul: for you threaten me with death of the body if I do not comply; but God threatens death of the soul if I do, that is, if I consent to your lust, and willingly and voluntarily lie with you, as you demand. For otherwise in this violence, and fear of infamy and death, Susanna could have said: I do not consent to the act, but I will endure and be silent, lest you defame me and drive me to death, as I shall say in verse 23; although perhaps Susanna either did not know this or did not think of it. For thus honorable and chaste virgins think themselves guilty, and think they have consented to seducers, if they do not resist and fight back with cries, hands, and all their strength. For they place all their honor in virginity, which they esteem as an incomparable gem.
Verse 23: BUT IT IS BETTER FOR ME TO FALL INTO YOUR HANDS WITHOUT...
23. BUT IT IS BETTER FOR ME TO FALL INTO YOUR HANDS WITHOUT THE DEED, THAN TO SIN IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD — as if to say: It is better for me to die in body than in soul: it is more worthwhile to reverence the presence and offense of God, than of men. For, as Christ says, and from Him St. Bernard, sermon 3 On the Annunciation: "Men, when they have killed the body, have nothing more that they can do to the soul; but He is to be feared, who has the power to cast both body and soul into hell." Let virgins hear this, let Christians hear and imitate it, when they are solicited by companions to obscene and illicit things. Rightly Chrysostom, homily On Susanna: "Susanna, he says, scorned what she heard, because she feared Him from whom nothing is hidden; for false witnesses can harm reputation, but not kill conscience. But God can do both." Consider here how we ought to reverence the most bright eyes of God, who sees all things, even the most hidden. On which matter I spoke on Genesis 5:24 and Genesis 17:1.
Hence Susanna was aptly named in Hebrew, that is, "lily" (for a lily in Hebrew is called shoshan, from shesh, that is, six, because it has six petals: for it has six leaves) on account of her chastity; just as Daniel means "judge of God": because he convicted these two elders, judges of the devil, and punished them with death.
On these words of Susanna, Dionysius the Carthusian writes thus: "Sin is of infinite fleeworthiness, because God is of infinite honorableness, as if to say: Man ought to flee sin with infinite effort and infinite flight; because God, whom sin offends, is to be infinitely honored; every punishment is to be undergone, that fault may be avoided; infinite flight must be undertaken, lest sin overtake us.
Similar to this Susanna in chastity and virtue was St. Susanna the virgin, niece of Pope Caius, as well as of the Emperor Diocletian, who preferred to die rather than
be violated. For when she refused marriage with the Emperor Maximian, to whom Diocletian wished to betroth her, and preferred her virginity vowed to God over marriage, she was killed by him and nobly won martyrdom in the contest of faith and virginity, in the year of our Lord 295, whose memory the Church recalls with annual celebration on August 11. Hence allegorically Susanna also bears the type of the Church, says St. Jerome on Zephaniah chapter 2, whose chastity heretics try to corrupt, but Daniel, that is the Pontiff, convicts and condemns them.
Note: Far purer, stronger, and more excellent was the chastity of Susanna than that of Lucretia the Roman. For Lucretia failed in three respects and showed a small mind. First, because she admitted the lust of Tarquin, lest she be stained by the infamy with which Tarquin threatened her: for she consented to the adultery, which she afterward expiated by voluntary death; for she brought death upon herself, in order thereby to expiate the crime as it were: learn, Lucretia: "Before the crime, death should have been undergone by the chaste." Second, because she valued reputation more than chastity and the testimony of conscience. Third, because she killed herself: for by this she did not expiate the crime, but added crime to crime. So St. Augustine, book I of The City of God, chapters 18 and 19: "That Lucretia, he says, killed herself—she who, since she had suffered adultery, killed even a non-adulteress—this is not the love of chastity, but the weakness of shame. Hence before the eyes of men, to whom she could not demonstrate her conscience, she thought that punishment should be applied as a witness of her mind; for she was unwilling to bear as a partner of the deed
that she should be believed to be the accomplice of the deed; if what another had done shamefully to her, she herself should bear patiently. Christian women did not do this, who having suffered similar things live on; nor did they avenge upon themselves another's crime, lest to the sins of others they should add their own; if, because enemies had committed rapes upon them in their concupiscence, they should commit shameful homicides upon themselves. For they have within the glory of chastity, the testimony of conscience; and they have it before the eyes of their God; nor do they seek more, lest they depart from the authority of divine law, while they wrongly try to avoid the offense of human suspicion." He then adds, and teaches that the sanctity of the soul is not lost if the body is violated by force; just as the sanctity of body and of the whole man is lost when the sanctity of the soul is violated, even with the body untouched. For the proper seat of sanctity is the soul, not the body. Hence the same, letter 112, teaches that this "violence is to be reckoned not as the disgrace of corruption, but as the wound of suffering."
More chaste and wiser than Lucretia were virgins, both pagan and Christian, who not after the violation, as Lucretia, but lest they should be violated, killed themselves, when they saw no other escape, or offered themselves to death. So a Spartan woman, when she was being sold, and the crier asked what she knew: I know, she said, how to be free. And when the buyer imposed upon her things unbecoming a free woman, she said: You will weep that you have begrudged yourself such a possession; and she brought death upon herself. So the Roman virgins handed over to King Porsenna, under the leadership of Cloelia, swam across a wide river, dangerous with deep whirlpools, with great effort, holding each other, and at last escaped to their own people on the other bank, voluntarily undergoing manifest danger of death for the sake of chastity.
So Micca, daughter of Philodemus, assailed for rape by the commander Leucius, said she would rather be slaughtered than violated; and finally resisting, she was beaten by Leucius and slaughtered in her father's bosom, as Plutarch witnesses in On the Virtues of Women.
Among Christian women, Pithomena of Alexandria, slave of a Roman citizen, when she was vainly solicited by him to sin, and accused by him of being a Christian, was immersed in boiling pitch, and preferred to lose her life rather than violate her chastity.
St. Dympna was beheaded by her father, the king of Ireland (because she refused to marry him, so as to be his wife as well as daughter) at Geel, a town in Brabant, where I once venerated her relics. Her feast day, inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, is celebrated annually on May 15. So among the Greeks, St. Thomais was cut to pieces by her father-in-law, who likewise sought her in marriage, because she preferred to be a martyr rather than an adulteress and incestuous, about whom our Raderus writes in the Garden of Saints, April 14.
Maxelendis, a virgin of Cambrai, when she refused the wedding of her betrothed Harduin on account of her vow of virginity, was killed: but after three years she restored sight to the man who had been blinded, in the year of our Lord 670. So Sigebert, Platina in his On Gifts, and others.
Truly memorable was St. Euphrasia of Antioch, who when seized by a soldier lover, since she could not escape, said she would teach him an art by which even the unarmed could not be harmed, if he would spare her, and that he should try the experiment on her. So she anointed her neck, which when he struck he immediately cut off. Thus by a pious stratagem she redeemed her chastity by her own death. So Cedrenus and Nicephorus, book VII, chapter 13.
Distinguished also was Sophronia, a Roman matron, who when assailed by the Emperor Maxentius through messengers, entered her chamber and brought death upon herself with a sword, signifying to the tyrant through the messengers: "Such women, she said, may better please a tyrant as Christian women." So Eusebius, book VIII of his History, chapter 17.
Equally illustrious was Digna, who when captured at Aquileia by Attila, was seized by a barbarian for rape, and pretending to desire privacy, climbed onto a balcony overhanging the river Natisone. Then turning to the Hun who followed: Follow me, she said, if you wish to have me, and immediately threw herself into the river. So Olaus in the Life of Attila, and others. St. Ambrose, in his book On Virgins, writes that St. Pelagia with her mother and sisters threw herself headlong into a river, lest she be violated by a pursuing soldier, and that she is venerated by the Church as a martyr.
Entirely in conformity with this is what Nicephorus Callistus writes, book XIII of his Ecclesiastical History, chapter 35: In the first sacking of the city of Rome by Alaric, king of the Goths, which took place in the year of Christ 412, a certain woman displayed a supreme example of chastity. For since she was outstanding in the flower of youth and the beauty of form, a certain young man among Alaric's soldiers, captivated by her beauty when he saw her, solicited her for intercourse. But when she gently refused, the soldier with drawn sword threatened her with death, and as if wrestling with love, out of mercy wounded only the top of her neck: but she, streaming with blood, presented her throat to the sword, thinking it better to meet death with a chaste mind than to lie with another man. And after the more fierce barbarian had assailed her and accomplished nothing by all his assault, struck by her chastity he led her to the Apostolic church of St. Peter, and commended her to the guardians of the Church, giving them six gold coins, so that they would preserve the girl for her husband.
Bernardus Scardeonius, book III of his History of Padua, writes that Blanca Rubea of Padua, wife of Baptista a Porta, having set out with her husband to the garrison of the municipality of Bassano in the territory of Padua, in the year of Christ 1233, when the tyrant Ezzelino, having lost Padua, had turned all the force of war against Bassano, and had even taken it by treachery, and had slaughtered Baptista at the very gates: Blanca too, armed and fighting bravely, was surrounded by soldiers and led captive to the tyrant. He, moved by her beauty (which her arms enhanced), attempted first by blandishments, then also by force to corrupt her: but she, since she could not escape by any other means, threw herself headlong through a window. Half-dead from the fall, she was with difficulty at last healed. When healed, the tyrant again assailed her, and because she would not consent, had her bound by his servants and raped her. She, concealing her grief, obtained from friends that to relieve her sorrow and longing, she might look just once upon the fetid corpse of her husband with his tomb opened. They granted her wish. When therefore the tomb where he lay was opened, she, uttering a great wail, hurled herself into the tomb, and at the same time pushed the stone with such violence that it fell and broke Blanca's neck. Thus having avenged her chastity, she obtained, according to her wish, a tomb shared with her husband.
Sophronius narrates in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 189, a wonderful thing about a woman who, when tempted by an adulterer, kept faith with her husband, and therefore was enriched by the adulterer.
THAN TO SIN. — For Susanna would have sinned by consenting and cooperating, namely by lying with the elders, which they demanded in verse 20; she could, however, in such great danger of infamy and death, have taken a passive stance and permitted their lust upon herself, provided she had not consented to it by an internal act, but had detested and abhorred it, because reputation and life are a greater good than chastity: hence it is permissible to sacrifice the latter for the former. And so she was not bound to cry out, as Dominicus Soto teaches, book V On Justice, Question 1, article 5, and Navarro, Manual, chapter 16, number 1. That she therefore did cry out, and in no way permitted their lust upon herself, was an act of distinguished and heroic chastity: for such is the choice to prefer death to defilement. She properly says "to sin": for peccare (to sin) was originally said as if pellicare, that is, to act as a concubine, or to have intercourse with a concubine.
Verse 24: SHE CRIED OUT (imploring help against the lustful elders): AND THE ELDERS...
24. SHE CRIED OUT (imploring help against the lustful elders): AND THE ELDERS ALSO CRIED OUT — they themselves, since they were already exposed by Susanna's cry, in order to accuse her; so that they might seem to be not the guilty parties, but avengers of the crime. From Susanna let virgins learn, when they are tempted by lustful men, to oppose them courageously, to cry out, to struggle with hands and feet: for those who do this will rarely suffer violence: for it is difficult to violate someone who is fully struggling. Ambrose teaches this in his letter to a Fallen Virgin, chapter 4: "But you will say, he says: I did not want this evil, I suffered violence. The most brave Susanna will answer you, whose name you falsely bear: For I, placed between two elders, between two judges of the people, alone in the groves of a garden, could not be overcome, because I did not wish it. You, by one most foolish young man, and in the middle of the city, how could you have suffered violence, unless you voluntarily wished to be violated? Who finally heard your cries? Who felt your struggles?"
Verse 25: AND ONE OF THEM RAN TO THE DOORS OF THE GARDEN
25. AND ONE OF THEM RAN TO THE DOORS OF THE GARDEN — so that they might seem to have entered by that way, or so that they might say that the young man whom they were about to falsely claim had been there had escaped by that way, as they say in verse 39. So Maldonatus.
Verse 27: THE ELDERS SPOKE
27. THE ELDERS SPOKE. — eipon tous logous auton, that is, they set forth their reasons, namely the accusation of Susanna with their evidence and proofs.
27 and 28. AND THE NEXT DAY CAME, AND WHEN THE PEOPLE HAD COME, etc. — as if to say: When on the following day the people had assembled at the house of her husband Joakim. So from the Greek, Vatablus and others.
Verse 34: THEY LAID THEIR HANDS UPON HER HEAD
34. THEY LAID THEIR HANDS UPON HER HEAD. — It was the custom of the Hebrews that the accuser and witnesses would lay their hands upon the head of the accused, to signify that they were accusing this person and demanding death. See what was said on Leviticus 24:14. Behold the elders, who before were robbers of chastity, now become robbers of life: on the contrary Susanna, twice victorious, both escaped lust and death: indeed she even saw the punishment of her enemies, says Cyprian, in his book On the Good of Chastity.
Verse 35: AND SHE, WEEPING, LOOKED UP TO HEAVEN
35. AND SHE, WEEPING, LOOKED UP TO HEAVEN. — Admirably St. Ambrose, book On Joseph, chapter 5: "Susanna, he says, while she is silent in the judgment, spoke better than an oracle; and therefore she deserved the defense of a Prophet, who did not seek the aid of her own voice." For in silence and in hope was her strength. "She looked up therefore to heaven," speaking with face and eyes, and saying: "Behold, my witness is in heaven, and He who knows me is on high," Job 16:20. And: "To You, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul: my God, in You I trust, let me not be ashamed. My eyes are ever towards the Lord, for He will pluck my feet out of the snare," Psalm 24. We do not read that Susanna ever sent up such ardent prayers to God, nor looked up so intensely to heaven, as when she saw herself
in these extreme straits. Thus tribulation teaches one to pray efficaciously: efficacious prayer obtains the help of God, even through a miracle. Note again here that God allows His own to be brought into straits, so that they may learn to hope in Him and invoke Him: for in their straits God is most present, and is closest to them, to come to their aid.
Verse 41: THEY CONDEMNED HER
41. THEY CONDEMNED HER — both the people and the judges, namely to be stoned: for the penalty of stoning was established for adulterers among the Jews, as I showed in Leviticus 20:10.
Note here the ancient law concerning the death penalty established for adulterers. The Emperor Aurelian punished a soldier who had committed adultery with the wife of his host in this way: he bent down the branches of two trees, tied them to the soldier's feet, and suddenly released them, so that he was split apart and hung on either side. So Nauclerus and others, in the year 276.
The Emperor Constantine, writing back to Catullinus, established this law against adulterers: "You ought, out of respect for public institutions, to have punished those detected by confession with the severity of the laws, and not to have admitted the delaying appeals of those who vainly postpone their life, but to have condemned the charge of adultery brought forth and proved by examinations, with punishment equal to the enormity of the crime. Which henceforth ought to be observed in crimes of this kind, so that when adultery is proved by manifest proofs, a frivolous appeal should not at all be admitted; since by the same and similar reasoning a judge ought to sew those guilty of sacrilege against marriage, as manifest parricides, alive into a sack, or burn them." So it is found in law 4 of Whose Appeals, Code of Theodosius.
In Germany, Count Otto, a most shameless adulterer, and excommunicated for adultery by the Bishop of Constance, was most disgracefully beheaded by the judgment of God at the hands of the soldiers of Count Ludwig, whose wife he had most wickedly joined to himself in a public wedding while the count was still living. He was buried by his men at a monastery built on his estate, but was ejected by order of the Bishop of Constance, and (as it is written) was consigned to the burial of a donkey, in the year of our Lord 1089, says Baronius.
In the year of our Lord 993, the Empress named Maria, daughter of the king of Aragon, wife of Otto III, was publicly burned with fire for adultery, says Crantzius, book IV of the History of Saxony, chapter 26. I reviewed more examples in Genesis 38:24, and Numbers 5, at the end of the chapter.
Verse 42: BEFORE THEY COME TO PASS
42. BEFORE THEY COME TO PASS. — How much more so after it has happened.
Verse 44: AND THE LORD HEARD HER VOICE
44. AND THE LORD HEARD HER VOICE. — Learn here how efficacious are the prayers of those condemned to death, especially unjustly, and how God, the Father of orphans and the afflicted, has compassion on them and comes to their aid. For this reason those dying unjustly have not infrequently summoned their judges to the tribunal of God, and those judges, taken from life within the time appointed by the dying, had to present themselves before Him. I brought forward many examples in Jeremiah 17:12.
Verse 45: THE LORD RAISED UP THE HOLY SPIRIT
45. THE LORD RAISED UP THE HOLY SPIRIT — namely first, the spirit of prophecy, by which Daniel, being enlightened, knew that the elders were falsely accusing Susanna. Second, the spirit of boldness and skill, for refuting these elders and freeing Susanna. For this Spirit suggested to Daniel the method of detecting the false accusation, namely of separating the elders and examining them apart, so that they would say things contradictory to each other, and thus refute themselves. The Syriac translates: God suddenly sent His holy spirit upon a small boy, whose name was Daniel; the Arabic: God stirred the holy spirit in a youth named Daniel. From the word "raised up," Origen, as cited by St. Jerome, infers that the Holy Spirit had already before occupied Daniel's soul, but here only stirred him up to undertake this heroic work: for this is what the word "raised up" implies. From this liberation of Susanna and similar events, Gregory of Nyssa, book VIII On Providence, chapter 1, teaches that there is a Divine Being and providence of God, which governs the world, protects the pious, and detects and punishes the impious.
OF A YOUNGER BOY — paidariou neoterou, that is, of a younger little boy. But it is certain that Daniel at this time was not a little boy: paidarion therefore, a diminutive, is taken for the simple pais, that is, boy, meaning young man. For the Hebrews lack diminutives. Hence Daniel, in chapter 1:3, is called yeled, that is, as the Septuagint translates, neaniskos, that is, young man. For he was already learned in all wisdom; so he was easily 24 years old: for these events seem to have happened not 1 but 4 or 5 years after Daniel came to Babylon, namely around the 7th year of the reign of Joakim, which was the 4th year of Nebuchadnezzar. This is confirmed: for after 10 years, Daniel was most celebrated for wisdom and holiness, so that by God he is compared with Noah and Job, as is clear from Ezekiel 14:14. Therefore he was then easily 34 years old, not 24, as others claim. For what young man of 24 years could be compared in holiness with Noah and Job?
It is therefore remarkable that St. Ignatius, in his letter to the Magnesians, and from him Theodoret on Ezekiel chapter 1, and Torniellius, say that Daniel at this time was twelve years old: for it was not fitting for a twelve-year-old boy to be a judge, nor would the people have listened to a twelve-year-old boy protesting and summoning the elders to his judgment. Such also is what St. Ignatius says in the same place, that Solomon was twelve years old when he rendered the judgment of the two harlot mothers. For it is established that Solomon was then already king, and therefore was easily 20 years old: for he had already fathered Rehoboam, as is clear from the fact that when Solomon died in the 40th year of his reign, his son Rehoboam succeeded him at the age of 41, as is clear from 3 Kings 11:42 and chapter 14:21.
Do you wish to see wonderful evidence of truth and judgments and testimonies of innocence shown through boys, or even infants? Take Gregory of Tours, book II of the History of the Franks, chapter 1; he narrates that St. Brictius, Bishop of Tours, when he was falsely accused of fornication, as if he were the father of a child born to a laundress of his clothes, said: "Bring the infant to me." And when the infant had been brought (and he was thirty days old), the Bishop said to him: "I adjure you by Jesus Christ, the Son of almighty God, that if I fathered you, declare it before all." And the child said: "You are not my father." But when the people asked that he should inquire who the father was, the priest said: "This is not my concern; what pertained to me, I took care of; if you have further questions, seek the answer yourselves."
Sophronius in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 114, narrates that Abbot Daniel, who at the request of a husband had prayed over his wife and obtained offspring for her, when impious men slandered him as if he himself were the father of the child, questioned the little child: "Who is your father, infant?" To which the infant replied: "This man," pointing with his finger to the true father. Now the infant was 25 days old.
Similar is the story in the Life of St. Brigid, a Scottish virgin, who died in the 7th year of the Emperor Justin the Elder, that is, in the year of Christ 521. A certain woman no less impiously than shamelessly lied that she had conceived a child from Bishop Broon, who was a disciple of St. Patrick. When St. Brigid had commanded her to be summoned and had impressed the saving sign of the holy cross upon her mouth, immediately the head and tongue of the brazen woman were swollen with a great tumor. Then in like manner signing the tongue of the infant: "Tell us, she said, little child, who is your father?" A wondrous thing: He who once gave Balaam's donkey the ability to speak opens the infant's mouth, and the little one said: "By no means Bishop Broon, but that deformed and vile little man who sits in the last place among the people, is my father." And so all praised God, and the woman did penance.
Tropologically and symbolically, St. Augustine, sermon 343 On Time: "In the holy woman (Susanna), he says, while her tongue is silent, chastity speaks for her. For the chastity of Susanna was present in the judgment, which was absent from Eve in paradise. For there it protected her modesty, here her salvation. There, lest her chastity be stained, here, lest her innocence be condemned. For the chastity of Susanna both convicted the shameless elders in the garden and prevailed over the false accusers in the judgment, and, twice victorious, makes them guilty of false testimony whom she makes guilty of adultery. And at last her chastity merits as judge the boy Daniel, of an age not yet past puberty; much therefore does chastity obtain from God, when it merits a virgin as judge. For chastity is secure of victory, when virginity is to judge."
Verse 46: I AM CLEAN
46. I AM CLEAN. — I do not consent to the unjust death of Susanna.
Verse 48: NOR KNOWING WHAT IS TRUE
48. NOR KNOWING WHAT IS TRUE. — oude to saphes epignontes, that is, without the case being sufficiently known, discussed, and examined.
Verse 50: COME AND SIT
50. COME AND SIT. — The elders say this to Daniel either sarcastically or by flattery, in order to win him over, lest he expose their crime.
THE HONOR OF OLD AGE — the office of elders and the dignity of judging: for it belongs to the elderly to judge. For in them is prudence, experience, and impassibility, which three things are required for a sincere judgment. Hence Ecclesiasticus 42:4: "Speak, he says, O elder, for it is fitting for you."
Verse 51: I WILL JUDGE THEM
51. I WILL JUDGE THEM — anakrino, I will examine.
Verse 52: O YOU GROWN OLD IN EVIL DAYS
52. O YOU GROWN OLD IN EVIL DAYS — full of evil days, who from boyhood to old age have spent your days in lust and crimes, as if to say: An old man of aged years and equally aged wickedness.
NOW YOUR SINS HAVE COME — to their fullness and maturity, so that in this crime they are exposed and punished.
Verse 54: UNDER A MASTIC TREE
54. UNDER A MASTIC TREE. — The schinus, or mastic tree, is a tree of the size of an oak, with the scent of a terebinth, with berries that are red when ripening, black when ripe: it exudes a resin, which on the island of Chios they call mastic. And hence it is called lentiscus, because it is flexible (lentescat) from this liquid or resin. It is thrice-bearing: for three times a year it produces fruit. Hence Cicero, On Divination, from an ancient poet:
Now indeed always green and always laden, The mastic tree, accustomed to swell with triple offspring: Pouring forth fruits three times, it shows three seasons of plowing.
Moreover, Hippocrates calls the fruit of the mastic tree schinida, and the tree schinon. So Ruellius, book I, chapter 20.
Some codices read, under a cynus, and so Jacobus Constantius maintains it should be read, who says the cynus is a species of laurel. But that it should be read under a schinus, not under a cynus, St. Jerome, Africanus, Origen, the Roman Bible, and others everywhere teach. For the cynus is a fictitious tree, and unknown to Theophrastus, Pliny, Columella, and other ancient writers. For the passages of Pliny and Ovid which Constantius cites in support of the cynus, Antonius Nebrissa in his Quinquagena, chapter 11, shows to be corrupt.
Verse 55: HE SHALL CUT YOU IN TWO
55. HE SHALL CUT YOU IN TWO. — The Greek schisei beautifully alludes to schinos, as if to say: An angel threatens you and menaces to cut you apart, and will actually cut you, unless God prevents it, or the people forestall by stoning you, as in fact they did forestall: for that the angel threatened them with death is clear from verse 59.
Verse 56: SEED OF CANAAN
56. SEED OF CANAAN — O man, a Canaanite rather than a Hebrew, if you consider your character and vices. So Ezekiel says in chapter 16:45: "Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite."
Verse 57: THUS YOU DID TO THE DAUGHTERS OF ISRAEL
57. THUS YOU DID TO THE DAUGHTERS OF ISRAEL. — Daniel contrasts the daughters of Israel with the daughters of Judah, such as Susanna was, as if the former were more timid and easier to consent, while the latter were stronger and more steadfast: for the Israelites, having abandoned God and inclined to idolatry, became more prone to lust and other crimes. Note: Not only the tribe of Judah, but also many from other tribes were led away with them to Babylon, and there they maintained the distinction of tribes, as is clear from this passage.
Verse 58: UNDER A HOLM OAK
58. UNDER A HOLM OAK. The prinus is not a plum tree, as St. Augustine thought, sermon 242 On Time, but a species of holm oak: for there are various species of holm oak, and one from which the scarlet dye is produced, of which Pliny writes, book XVI, chapters 6 and 8.
Verse 59: WELL HAVE YOU ALSO LIED AGAINST YOUR OWN HEAD
59. WELL HAVE YOU ALSO LIED AGAINST YOUR OWN HEAD. — See here how a lie destroys the liar, and deceit the deceitful, by the just judgment of God. This is what Christ says: "Out of your own mouth I judge you, wicked servant."
Wherefore the judgment of Alessandro de' Medici, the first Duke of Florence, was as just as it was wise. For when a certain man had lost a purse in which there were sixty gold coins, and had ordered it to be proclaimed by a herald, promising ten gold coins to the finder who returned it: but the finder, a poor man, bringing it back demanded the ten gold coins; the other, having received his property, began to equivocate, and said there had been seventy gold coins in the purse, and that the finder had taken out ten and kept them for himself. The Duke rendered his judgment: This purse of sixty gold coins does not belong to the man who says he lost a purse of seventy gold coins: therefore let the finder keep it, until the true owner is found. Thus the man who maliciously slandered the finder by a lie and accused him of theft was justly deprived of his purse.
See here again how aptly the sentence corresponds to the crime, and the punishment to the fault. The elder was plotting slander and death against Susanna under the holm oak (prinos), which in Greek signifies a cutting; hence he fittingly hears from Daniel: "The angel of the Lord waits with a sword to cut you in two." So God punished the murmuring and blasphemies of Pharaoh through chattering frogs, his pride through gnats, and by the blood of the Nile the blood of Hebrew infants shed by him, as I said on Exodus 7 and following. Namely, by that through which one sins, by that also is he punished, says the Wise Man.
Finally, in these two perverse elders, the following two maxims of Ptolemy at the beginning of the Almagest are verified, the first: "He who wishes to be hidden while doing evil is sufficiently exposed;" the second: "He who trusts in a lie will quickly fail; for it will abandon him." And the ancient Hebrew saying: "Falsehood has weak feet, truth has solid ones." And the Arabic: "Falsehood is weakness, truth is stability."
TO CUT YOU IN TWO. — In the Greek there is again an elegant wordplay: for from prinos comes prisai, that is, to cut; for it is as if you were to say to another: I saw you under a crab-apple tree (malus); and he should answer: Go then to an evil (mala) cross; or: I saw you under a cedar (cedrus); and he should answer: Let the executioner then cut (caedat) you. And this was the reason for Africanus and others to suspect that these things were fabricated; because the Hebrews or Chaldeans in their language could not use these allusions. But Origen and others answer Africanus that in Hebrew there were other trees corresponding to the mastic and holm oak, in which Daniel could allude in Hebrew by wordplay to the words for splitting and cutting. But this seems to derogate from the simple truth and historical narrative, and from the integrity and fidelity of the translator, and therefore is said more freely than is fitting; for otherwise our Latin translator too could have played better on the same trees, in this way: I saw you under a mastic tree (lentiscus); not slowly (lente) therefore, but suddenly you will perish. I saw you under a holm oak (ilex), straightaway (illico) therefore you will be killed. With this freedom in translating, however, the Syriac and Arabic seem to have taken liberties. For instead of under a mastic tree, the Arabic translates, under a terebinth tree; the Syriac,
under a pistachio tree. The pistachio is a kind of nut like a hazelnut, of which Pliny, book XIII, chapter 5, says: "Among the kinds of nuts, pistachios are well known;" the common term among apothecaries is phisticorum. Again, for under a holm oak, the Syriac translates, under a pomegranate tree; the Antiochene Arabic, under an apple tree; the Alexandrian Arabic, under an almond tree.
I say therefore that in the Hebrew of that time there could have been a similar wordplay with the same trees, such as there now is in Greek. For at that time there were more Hebrew words than there now are: for now we have no others besides those which exist in the Bible. Second, granted that these allusions did not exist in the Hebrew, just as they do not exist in the Latin translator; yet the Greek translator, translating faithfully and literally, could have found such a wordplay in Greek which did not exist in the Hebrew. We see the same happen often in other translations, when a history or subject is transferred from one language to another. For what Daniel adds: "Rightly have you lied against your own head," the word "rightly" means the same as "truly," and not the same as "aptly" or "allusively."
Verse 61: THEY DID TO THEM AS THEY HAD WICKEDLY DEALT
61. THEY DID TO THEM AS THEY HAD WICKEDLY DEALT — they punished the elders with the penalty of retaliation, according to the law of Deuteronomy 19:16.
Verse 62: THEY PUT THEM TO DEATH
62. THEY PUT THEM TO DEATH — by stoning. For an adulteress was stoned under the old law, as is clear from Ezekiel 16:40. See what was said on Leviticus 20:10 and 27.
Learn here how God, like a rhinoceros, is the indicator and avenger of chastity and innocence. So He declared and exalted the chastity of Joseph, tempted and falsely defamed by his mistress, and through Moses celebrated it throughout the whole world and all ages, Genesis 49 and following. So a woman falsely accused and condemned of adultery could not be killed by the executioner, God blunting the blow, and therefore she was struck in vain many times, indeed seven times: St. Jerome is the witness, in his letter to Innocentius. So St. Agnes, Lucy, Theophila, and very many other virgins unjustly condemned to lions or to brothels remained unharmed by them, with an angel protecting them. So St. Cunegundis, wife of Emperor Henry, falsely accused of adultery, walked unharmed with bare feet over red-hot iron. So three perjured witnesses falsely accused Narcissus, Bishop of Jerusalem, of a shameful and infamous crime: and when the first had called down fire upon himself, the second the royal disease, and the third blindness, if he were not speaking the truth; each of these, as they had wished upon themselves, befell them severally, God punishing them, as Eusebius relates in book VI of his History, chapter 7. So St. Marina, who with changed dress lived as if a man among monks, was falsely accused by the daughter of an innkeeper as if she had committed rape, was expelled from the monastery and condemned to perpetual penance until death; when after death it became apparent as she was being prepared for burial that she was not a man but a woman, and therefore could not have committed the rape; the girl who had accused her, seized by a demon, ran to the tomb, and confessing the crime of falsehood, was not freed until the seventh day at her tomb, with all celebrating the chastity as well as the patience of St. Marina.
as his Life in the Lives of the Fathers relates.
So Fausta, wife of Constantine the Great, having fallen in love with her stepson Crispus, when she had repeatedly tried to seduce him to sin, and he refused, she reported to her husband that he had tried to violate her. Constantine believed her, and ordered Crispus to be killed. But after some years, the truth having been discovered, he punished Fausta with death, and restored to his son his name and reputation, though belatedly: Eutropius, Nicephorus, and others are witnesses.
But more illustrious and more apposite than all these is what we read in the Life of St. Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal, who when she was falsely accused before King Dionysius of being in love with a certain page; the credulous king destined the page for death, namely by fire, to be thrown into a furnace burning with lime. Secretly therefore he ordered the overseers of the furnace that the page whom he would send there the next morning, to ask whether they had completed what the king had ordered, they should immediately throw into the furnace. And so in the morning he sends the page there: but the page on the way hears the bell being rung for Mass in a nearby church; he turns aside there, and hears one Mass, then another, and a third. Meanwhile the king, thinking the page had already been thrown into the furnace, sends the other page, the rival of the first, who had falsely accused both him and the queen. He comes and asks whether what the king ordered has been completed: the overseers, judging from the sign the king had given, thinking this was the one the king had destined for the furnace, suddenly seize him and thrust him into the furnace. Then, after the sacrifices of Mass were finished, the first page, whom the king had designated for death, arrives and asks the furnace keepers whether they have carried out the king's orders; they affirm it: the page returns to the king and reports this. The king is astonished, and investigating the matter discovers that the other one whom he had sent was burned. He therefore asks the messenger where he had lingered so long. He answers that having heard the bell for divine service he had attended, because his dying father had given him this admonition, that he should be present at all sacrifices which he saw being begun, until they were finished. From this the king understood the innocence of the queen and the page, and the calumny of the rival, and the just judgment of God, who turned back the death which that man had contrived for the innocent upon the very head of the guilty man. That lime furnace is still preserved in memory of the event, as I have heard from our Portuguese eyewitnesses. The same is related in the Chronicle of St. Francis, part II, book VIII, chapter 28.
Verse 65: AND KING ASTYAGES
65. AND KING ASTYAGES. — Pererius thinks these words should be transposed and referred to the end of chapter 9. Theodoret, however, to the end of chapter 12; for this chapter in Greek immediately precedes here. But this transposition is forced, produces confusion, and conflicts with the Latin text.
Second, others think the history of Susanna occurred during the time of the Babylonian captivity, namely during the time of Astyages and Cyrus. But against this is the objection that Daniel was a boy when he freed Susanna; therefore shortly after the 5th year of Joakim (for in that year Daniel as a boy was carried off to Babylon) this history occurred; therefore before the Babylonian captivity, which lasted 70 years, and was ended by Cyrus at the end of his life and reign, namely in the 27th year of his reign when he took Babylon and from king of Persia made himself monarch. (Less probably therefore Pererius thinks that Cyrus conquered Babylon in the 1st year of his reign. For from this among other things it would follow that Daniel lived 138 years, as I showed in the Prooemium.) For Astyages reigned before Cyrus for 38 years. Add to these the 27 years of Cyrus, and you will have only 65, so that 5 years are still lacking to complete the 70 years of the captivity. Hence it follows that in the 5th and 6th year of the Babylonian captivity, or the deportation of Jechoniah, Astyages began to reign, when Daniel was already 34 years old, and therefore was a man, not a boy, as is said here; especially since these events must be said to have occurred not at the beginning but at the end of Astyages' reign, if we follow this interpretation. For it follows: "And Cyrus the Persian received his kingdom."
I say therefore with Lyranus, Hugo, Dionysius the Carthusian, Torniellius, and others, that these words are to be referred to the beginning of the following history of Bel and the Dragon. That this is so is most clearly taught by the most accurate Greek text of Caraffa, which begins chapter 14 with these words. The same does each Arabic version, namely the Antiochene and Egyptian, or Alexandrian. This is therefore like a chronological heading of the following history, so that we may know at what time it happened, namely after the death of Astyages under Cyrus. A similar heading is prefixed to chapter 4 at chapter 3, verse 98, as I said there. Moreover this heading seems to have been taken from the journals of the Persian kings, and transferred here, just like the entire following history. For the words "And king Astyages" are inserted here as if abruptly, and have no connection with what precedes. For it seems that some Jew, with Cyrus and the Persians now fully dominating after the overthrow of Babylon, in gratitude toward Cyrus who was so benevolent to the Jews, and toward the Persians, wrote their chronicles or journals, and recorded under their era the deeds both in Persia and in Babylon and elsewhere. Therefore this heading is not to be connected with the first words of the following chapter, as will be evident there, but is to be prefixed to them as a heading. For it was transferred here from the journals just mentioned; in which it closed the preceding histories there, and was at the same time the beginning of the following one, which is placed here.
Note: The Astyages here is not Darius the Mede, the son of Astyages and uncle of Cyrus, as some claim: for Cyrus did not succeed him except after the overthrow of Babylon: but these events took place while the kingdom and king of Babylon were still standing, as will be clear from the following chapter, verse 1. The Astyages here was therefore the grandfather of Cyrus, whom in the kingdom of the Medes his son Darius succeeded; but in the kingdom of the Persians Cyrus, his grandson through his daughter, succeeded. For although Darius, as son, should by the law of nations have succeeded to both kingdoms, namely of both the Persians and the Medes; nevertheless he yielded the kingdom of the Persians to Cyrus, either because he himself was only the adoptive son of Astyages, as Torniellius claims, or because he was born of his concubine, as others say; or because, being a lover of quiet, to his spirited grandson Cyrus
and warlike he conceded Persia, and was going to concede Media as well after death. I proved this very point at greater length in Ezra 1:1.
Note second: The phrase "was gathered to his fathers," etc., signifies that Astyages was not conquered and killed by Cyrus, as Herodotus and Justin narrate, but that he died a natural death, so that Cyrus as his grandson succeeded him by hereditary right, not by right of war. Again, from this it is clear that this phrase, "was gathered to his fathers," is not said only of the saved and the blessed: for it is not likely that Astyages was faithful and saved. So in Genesis 25:17, Ishmael is said to have been "gathered to his people:" yet the salvation of Ishmael is doubtful.
Moreover, the death of Astyages and the reign of Cyrus in Persia and of Darius in Media happened many years before the destruction of Babylon. For that was accomplished through Cyrus in Persia and Darius in Media already reigning; so the Hebrews in the Seder Olam, Lyranus on Daniel chapter 9, Vatablus on Daniel chapter 1, Torniellius, and others. Indeed the same is expressly asserted in 3 Esdras, chapter 5, last verse, and Josephus, Antiquities XI, 2, where he says that Cyrus, after taking Babylon and releasing the Jews from captivity, soon perished in the Massagetic war.