Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Argumentum
Dorotheus, bishop of Tyre, who lived under Constantine the Great, and under Julian the Apostate died as a martyr at the advanced age of 107 amid torments, writes in his book On the Life and Death of the Prophets: "This Obadiah, from the land of Shechem in the field of Bethacaram, was a disciple of Elijah, and after having suffered much for his name, was preserved. He had been the third of the captains of fifty, whom Elijah had spared, and he had gone down to Ahaziah; and after leaving the service of his king, he acquired the grace of prophecy, and died and was buried with his fathers." St. Epiphanius has the same in his Life of Obadiah. Hear also St. Jerome here: "They say this Obadiah was a Hebrew who, under the king of Samaria Ahab, and the most impious Jezebel, III Kings XVIII, 12, fed a hundred prophets in caves, who had not bowed the knee to Baal. Therefore, because he had nourished a hundred prophets, he received the grace of prophecy, and from a commander of the army became a leader of the Church." And he adds: "His tomb is venerated to this day in Sebaste (where Elisha and John the Baptist are also buried), which was formerly called Samaria. Herod, in honor of Augustus Caesar, called it in the Greek language Sebasten," that is, Augusta. Note here that St. Jerome does not say this on his own authority, but from the opinion of the Hebrews: from which it follows that Obadiah lived and prophesied in the time of Elijah, under Ahab king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and was the first of all the Prophets who wrote down their oracles. This opinion of the Hebrews is followed, or rather cited, by St. Dorotheus, St. Epiphanius, St. Isidore, Eusebius in his Chronicle (but with a copyist's error, says St. Augustine, book XVIII of The City of God, ch. XXXI), Clement of Alexandria, I Stromata, Rupert, Hugh, Lyranus, Sanchez and a Castro in the Proem, book IV, ch. III. Mariana adds from the Hebrews that this Obadiah was the third captain of fifty, whom Ahaziah sent to summon Elijah; to whom, as a suppliant, Elijah showed mercy, IV Kings I, 13. For from that point he seems to have renounced the court, attached himself to Elijah, given himself wholly to God, and thereby obtained the gift of prophecy. Indeed, some think that this Obadiah is the same Obdiah whom King Jehoshaphat sent, II Paralipomenon XVII, 7, with Micah and others, to teach in the cities of Judah. Hence the Septuagint there reads Abdiam for Obdiam. But that Obdiah is said to have been a prince, not a prophet: and so he seems to have been a different person from our Obadiah.
The entire foundation of this opinion, namely that Obadiah was a captain of fifty under Ahab king of Israel, rests on the tradition of the Hebrews. But this tradition is uncertain and doubtful. For Rabbi David and Rabbi Abraham say it is not established at what time Obadiah prophesied.
More probably, therefore, others judge that Obadiah lived and prophesied much later, namely under Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and was a contemporary of Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Micah the prophets, as St. Jerome asserts at the beginning of his commentary on Hosea; Theodoret, Cyril here, Ribera in the Proem, prelude 2, and others. This opinion is proved: first, because Hosea is commonly placed as the first of the Prophets, according to the text: "The beginning of the Lord's speaking in Hosea," ch. I, 2. But Hosea began to prophesy under Uzziah and Jotham, as is said there. Therefore Obadiah was not the first, nor did he prophesy under Jehoshaphat, but under Jotham. Secondly, because Obadiah says in verse 1: "We have heard from the Lord" — namely I and Isaiah, ch. XXI, and Amos, ch. I, 11 — the destruction of Idumea. Therefore Obadiah did not precede Isaiah and Amos, but was their contemporary. Thirdly, if Obadiah the prophet had been a captain of fifty under King Ahab, surely Scripture would not have kept silent about this, nor Josephus, when they narrate at length the history of Ahab and Obadiah. Fourthly, if Obadiah had prophesied under Jehoshaphat, he would have predicted the nearer disaster of Idumea, namely the one inflicted by Amaziah king of Judah, IV Kings XIV, 17. But he does not predict that one; he predicts only the one inflicted by the Chaldeans. Therefore he prophesied after Amaziah, under Jotham; especially since not long before the times of Jehoshaphat, the Idumeans had been devastated and subjugated by David, III Kings ch. XI, 15, so that they did not need a Prophet and a new destruction.
Fifth, because the prophecy of Obadiah is almost the same as the prophecy of Jeremiah against the Idumeans, ch. XLIX, 24. Therefore he seems to have prophesied around the time, not of Elijah, but of Jeremiah. Sixth, because from the time of Elijah and Jehoshaphat to the destruction of Judea and Idumea by the Chaldeans, 300 years elapsed. Who would believe that Obadiah, passing over other nearer disasters, prophesied the destruction of Idumea to come 300 years later? God therefore seems to have wished to chastise the Idumeans through David, Amaziah, and others: but when He saw them not reformed by these scourges, through Obadiah He threatened them with the full and final destruction by the Chaldeans. Moreover, he assigns the same cause of destruction as Amos and Jeremiah, namely the inveterate and deadly hatred of the Idumeans against the Jews, to the point that they killed or plundered those fleeing from the enemy, and indeed assisted the Chaldeans in the siege of Jerusalem with resources and arms. Therefore he threatens them with the same destruction from the same Chaldeans by the law of retaliation: but to the Jews he promises the return from Babylon, and both temporal and spiritual happiness under Christ. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, Rupert, Albert, Vatablus, Hugh, and others. That this happened in this way is clear: for Nebuchadnezzar, in the fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem, which was the twenty-third year of his reign, invaded and devastated Idumea, as Josephus narrates, book X of Antiquities, ch. XI. Furthermore, that the Idumeans assisted the Chaldeans in the destruction of Jerusalem, and were therefore themselves destroyed, is clear from III Esdras IV, 45: "And you vowed to build the temple which the Idumeans burned, when Judea was laid waste by the Chaldeans." And Psalm CXXXVI, 7: "Remember, O Lord, the sons of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who say: Raze it, raze it, even to its foundation." Rabbi Solomon adds that Obadiah was an Idumean, and was therefore sent to the Idumeans, that he might more freely accuse the crimes of his own people: "The Rabbis say," he writes, "that Obadiah was an Idumean proselyte. Therefore the Lord said: From among themselves I will bring one against them. Obadiah shall come, who lived among two wicked people, Ahab and Jezebel, and did not imitate their ways, and he shall exact punishment from the wicked Esau, who lived among two just people, Isaac and Rebecca, and did not imitate their works." Rabbi David hands down the same here, who accordingly applies to Obadiah that Hebrew proverb: "The very spoon which the craftsman carved burns his mouth with sharp mustard" — which they are accustomed to say of craftsmen who suffer harm or trouble from their own work. For so Obadiah, though he was an Idumean and a prophet, nevertheless predicted the destruction of the Idumeans, that is, of his own people; and so from his own craft, namely from his prophecy, he seems to have suffered harm.
But St. Dorotheus, Epiphanius, and the others cited at the beginning report that Obadiah was a Jew, specifically a Shechemite, just as the other Prophets were Jews. St. Jerome writes in the Epitaph of St. Paula that she visited in Samaria, or Sebaste, the tomb of Elisha, Obadiah, and John the Baptist, "where," he says, "she trembled, struck by many marvels: for she beheld demons roaring under various torments, and before the tombs of the saints, men howling like wolves (let our opponents of the saints take note of this), barking with the voices of dogs, roaring like lions, hissing like serpents, bellowing like bulls; some spinning their heads and touching the ground behind their backs with the crown of their head, and women suspended by their feet with their garments falling over their faces." Obadiah was enrolled in the catalogue of Saints on November 19.
Now Obadiah in Hebrew means the same as "servant of God," so that by his name he represents Christ, who took the form of a servant and is called the servant of God in Isaiah XLII, 1, says St. Jerome, who also asserts in his Proem that as a young man thirty years earlier he had written on Obadiah, and had expounded him mystically; which he criticizes, on the grounds that first the literal sense of the Prophet ought to be set forth, and then the mystical sense suitably built upon it. "I was an infant," he says, "I did not yet know how to write, my hand trembled, my fingers shook. Now, even if I have made no other progress, I have at least that Socratic saying: I know that I do not know." And shortly after: "I will freely confess that the former was the work of a childish mind, and this of mature old age."
Furthermore, Obadiah is the briefest and smallest of all the Prophets, "in the count of verses, not of meanings," says St. Jerome, and after him Ribera. Small men, he says, so excel in talent and skill that a place has been given to the proverb, anous ho makros, that is, "foolish is he who is tall." Aristotle, in his Physiognomics, says: "The very small are very keen, for since the motion of the blood occupies a small space, their impulses also very quickly reach understanding. But those who are very large are slow: for since the motion of the blood occupies a large space, their impulses reach understanding slowly." From which rightly Ecclesiasticus ch. XI, 2: "Do not praise a man for his appearance, nor despise a man for his looks. The bee is small among flying creatures, yet its fruit holds the first place among sweets." What shall I say of silkworms, of flies and bees? Indeed St. Augustine, in his book On the Two Souls against the Manichees, ch. III and IV, does not hesitate to assert that the fly is more excellent than the sun: because it has a soul, life, movement, and all the organs of living things, which the sun lacks. Thus small things have more life and vigor than great ones. Why should I mention the remora, which, though it is a tiny fish, stops and holds back great ships driven by a strong wind, if it attaches and fastens itself to them? Thus the most high God displays His power, wisdom, and greatness in small things. Obadiah, says Hugh of St. Victor (who wrote on Obadiah in his characteristically keen and subtle, but mystical, manner), "is simple in speech and manifold in meaning: sparing in words but rich in thoughts, according to that saying of Ecclesiasticus XX: The wise man makes himself known by few words. He directs his prophecy literally against Idumea, allegorically against the world, tropologically against the flesh he sharpens his pen. Bearing the type of the Savior, he subtly introduces His coming by whom the world is destroyed, by whom the flesh is worn down, by whom liberty is restored." Wherefore Isidore rightly says, in his book of Allegories of Sacred Scripture: "Obadiah, that is, servant of the Lord, is shorter than all the Prophets in number of words, but equal in the grace of mysteries." Hence Jeremiah imitates Obadiah almost word for word in ch. XLIX, 23 and following.