Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The angel commands Joshua the son of Josedech to be stripped of the filthy garments of captivity, as well as of sin, and to be clothed in new ones, and with a mitre, to signify that He remits his sins and restores his pontificate, so that he may restore the temple and worship of God. Moreover in verse 8, He promises him the Orient, that is Christ, who will dwell in the temple to be restored by him, and there will gather the Church, of which He Himself will be the Pontiff: for He will be the angular stone of the Church, marked with seven eyes, and engraved with the sculptures of nails and wounds, who will take away the iniquity of the earth and will bring peace and happiness to the whole world.
Vulgate Text: Zechariah 3:1-10
1. And the Lord showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord: and Satan stood at his right hand to oppose him. 2. And the Lord said to Satan: The Lord rebuke you, Satan; and the Lord who chose Jerusalem rebuke you. Is not this a brand plucked from the fire? 3. And Joshua was clothed in filthy garments: and he stood before the face of the angel. 4. Who answered and said to those who stood before him, saying: Take away the filthy garments from him. And he said to him: Behold I have taken away your iniquity from you, and I have clothed you with change of garments. 5. And he said: Put a clean mitre upon his head. And they put a clean mitre upon his head, and they clothed him with garments, and the angel of the Lord stood by. 6. And the angel of the Lord protested to Joshua, saying: 7. Thus says the Lord of hosts: If you walk in My ways, and keep My charge: you also shall judge My house, and shall keep My courts, and I will give you some of those who now stand here to walk with you. 8. Hear, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who dwell before you, for they are men of portent: for behold I will bring My servant the Orient. 9. For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua: upon one stone there are seven eyes: behold I will engrave its engraving, says the Lord of hosts: and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. 10. In that day, says the Lord of hosts, every man shall invite his friend under his vine and under his fig tree.
Verse 1: And The Lord Showed Me
1. AND THE LORD SHOWED ME. — The word Lord is not in the Hebrew, nor in the Chaldean, but is understood. Hence the Septuagint and our Translator express it. Now the Lord revealed these things through an angel, as is His custom, and depicted them in the imagination of Zechariah: whether He did this on the same night as the preceding chapters I and II, as Rupert and Hugh maintain, or on another, is uncertain. For the Prophets often do not distinguish times, nor assign definite dates to their prophecies, since it is established that most of them were revealed to them by God at intervals on various days, months, and even years, either immediately, as when God spoke in their minds; or through an angel, as when through him He formed and depicted His symbols, namely visions or words, in the imagination of the Prophet.
Joshua — the son of Josedech, who was living at that time and had already returned from Babylon to Jerusalem, and was there the High Priest. Hence in verse 8, promising him Christ, he says: "Hear, O Joshua the high priest," etc. So say St. Jerome, Theodoret, Cyril, Remigius, Albert, Hugh, Lyranus here, and St. Augustine in Book XII Against Faustus, chapter XXXVI, and Eusebius in Book IV of the Demonstration, last chapter. Arias denies this, following Abenezra and R. Solomon, because, they say, Joshua the son of Josedech was already dead, since in Haggai II, 12 and 22, no mention is made of him, as was made in verse 3. Joshua therefore is taken here for his descendants, namely the Maccabees, whose wars against Antiochus Zechariah here predicts: so they say. But they err, for that this Joshua was then alive is clear from Zechariah chapter VI, verse 11, where it says: "You shall take gold and make crowns, and you shall place them on the head of Joshua the son of Josedech," etc. And Sirach XXX, 13, where it says that this Joshua together with Zerubbabel built and celebrated the temple; but the building of the temple was completed and dedicated in the 6th year of Darius, as is clear from I Ezra VI, 15; indeed Josephus, Book XI, chapter V, records that this Joshua lived until the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, who succeeded his father Darius; for then his son Joachim succeeded him in the pontificate.
Allegorically, Joshua the son of Josedech, the Pontiff of the old law, represented Jesus Christ the Pontiff of the New Testament, both in name and in dignity and office. So say the authors already cited; moreover Tertullian, Against the Jews, near the end; Origen, Homily 9 on Leviticus; Lactantius, Book IV, chapter XIV; St. Ambrose, Book III On the Faith, chapter IV; St. Chrysostom, Homily 5 from various on St. Matthew; St. Gregory, Book XX of the Moralia, chapter XX, who seems to assert that the literal sense here concerns Jesus Christ, and therefore the phrase "son of Josedech" is not added, which is elsewhere added to the old Joshua. But these Fathers are to be excused, because according to their custom they do not distinguish the literal from the allegorical sense, and only wish to say that the principal sense according to the mind and intention of the Holy Spirit concerns Jesus Christ, and therefore to indicate this, "son of Josedech" is omitted. Now it is agreed among all that although the literal sense concerning Joshua the son of Josedech is primary, nevertheless the allegorical sense concerning Jesus Christ is more important, and therefore principal. Moreover, Girolamo Savonarola, explaining these words of Zechariah in the year 1495, while Alexander VI, to whom he was hostile, sat as Pope, understood by Joshua an angelic Pontiff whom he prophesied Rome would shortly see, who in life and morals would seem an angel rather than a man, and would reform the whole Church and introduce new rites, indeed a new Gospel. But more than a hundred years have now passed since this prophecy of his, and that angel has not yet appeared. See Ambrosius Catharinus, Against the Prophecies of Savonarola, and Canon XXXIII in the Prooemium.
STANDING BEFORE THE ANGEL OF THE LORD. — This angel was St. Michael, as the guardian of the Synagogue, who fights against Satan for its head, namely Joshua the priest. Hence before him Joshua the priest stands as a defendant, with Satan accusing him. For this is a scene of a tribunal and judgment, in which the judge is God, the accuser is Satan, the defendant is Joshua, the advocate is Michael; but God delegates His role to Michael, so that he himself may be judge in His place. Hence before Michael as judge, Joshua stands here as the accused. For just as God, so also His angels, being most just, can be simultaneously advocates and judges. So say St. Jerome, Remigius, Hugh, and Lyranus: "It was fitting," he says, "that the angel who presided over the whole people should be present to the man who presided over that same people (namely the priest Joshua)."
AND SATAN STOOD. — Satan in Hebrew means the same as adversary; hence it is attributed to the devil, who supremely and everywhere opposes the faithful, according to St. Peter, First Epistle, chapter V, 8: "Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour." Hence the Septuagint translates Satan as Diabolos, that is, slanderer. Moreover, Satan is here understood antonomastically as the prince of demons, namely Lucifer: for just as St. Michael first fought against him in heaven, so he perpetually fights on earth for the Church, as St. John teaches, Apocalypse XII, 7: "And there was," he says, "a great battle in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels;" and chapter XX, 2: "He seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years." Against this prince of demons, who tempted Him, Christ fought, Matt. IV, 1 and 10. He also disputed with Michael about the body of Moses, as St. Jude says in his epistle, verse 9.
From this you may conclude that the Supreme Pontiff, such as Joshua the son of Josedech was, has St. Michael as his guardian and protector: for just as Michael is the guardian of the body of the Church, so he is also of its head, namely the Pontiff; just as on the other side Lucifer, the enemy of the Church, is also the enemy of the Pontiff, for he attacks him most vigorously so that by overthrowing him he may overthrow the Church; and this sometimes by himself, sometimes through demons subject to him. Therefore let pontiffs keep vigilant and brave watch, let them constantly remember that they have a fierce and perpetual war with the prince of darkness, who burns with wrath, prevails in power, swells with pride, is crafty in cunning, skilled by experience. Let them know that their antagonist is Lucifer; let them remember that when they enter the pontificate, they provoke Satan to a duel and single combat, along with all his infernal cohorts and legions, of which the Apostle says in Ephesians VI, 13: "Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the heavenly places." But let them not be struck with terror nor lose heart; let them know that on their side their champion and defender is St. Michael. Let them remember that to them in Blessed Peter it was promised by Christ: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell (that is, all the strength and power of hell) shall not prevail against it," Matt. XVI. Let them remember that the whole Church, and especially each priest individually, supplicates God daily on their behalf in the sacrifice of the Mass. Therefore their protectors are more numerous and more powerful than their enemies and attackers, as Elisha seeing them said, IV Kings VI, 16. Therefore Arias wrongly takes Satan to mean Antiochus Epiphanes, who attacked Joshua, that is the Maccabees, descendants of Joshua. For the passage here is about Joshua himself, not about his descendants, as I said a little before.
AT HIS RIGHT HAND. — Satan, accusing Joshua the son of Josedech in the tribunal of God, stood at Joshua's right hand, as if victorious and prevailing and superior in the suit; because he seemed about to prevail in the judgment and to drive Joshua to a sentence of condemnation, because the accusation he brought against him was true, says St. Jerome. With a similar scheme and phrase the Psalmist says, Psalm CVIII, 6: "Set a lawgiver over him," namely make it so that the devil stands at his right hand, as if prevailing over him, dictating laws and rights. Hence St. Augustine in the same place explains tropologically: "This," he says, "Judas the betrayer of Christ merited, that he have the devil over him, that is, be subject to the devil, who was unwilling to be subject to Christ. But 'he stood at his right hand' was said because he preferred the works of the devil to the works of God. For not undeservedly is that called the right of each man which he prefers, just as the right hand is preferred to the left. Therefore also of those who, preferring the joys of this world to God, called blessed the people that has such things, it is most rightly said: Their right hand is a right hand of iniquity. The devil therefore stood at his right hand when he preferred avarice to wisdom, and money to his salvation, so as to betray Him, and where he ought to have been possessed, lest he be possessed by the one whose works Christ Himself loosed, by whom he was unwilling to be possessed." Hence follows: "When he is judged, let him go out condemned." On the contrary, the just and holy say in Psalm XV, 8: "I set the Lord always in my sight, for He is at my right hand that I be not moved." And Psalm CVIII, 31: "He stood at the right hand of the poor man (so that the riches of the poor man might be the Lord Himself, says Augustine in the same place) to save my soul from persecutors." Secondly, Albert, Hugh, and Sanchez say: Satan is at the right hand of the pontiff because, envying the prosperity of the Jews, he opposed the counsels of the angels and the pious of that people; for Satan through the wicked counselors of the king in Babylon, and through the Samaritans in Judea, was disturbing the plans of the Hebrews, and would not allow anything to be carried out promptly or with great zeal and effort. For just as a friend is at the right hand to help and protect, as it is said in Psalm XV: "He is at my right hand that I be not moved," so an enemy is at the right hand to disturb and weaken what is strongest in us and most suited for labor; which is precisely what Satan was doing through the Samaritans, while he strove by various stratagems to delay and impede both the workers and the Jewish overseers of the building. So also Pineda, On the Affairs of Solomon, Book VII, chapter XX: The right hand, he says, is a symbol of some notable endeavor and work; hence whoever positions himself at someone's right hand to oppose him, without doubt maliciously and hostilely impedes the work, as Satan did here.
Mystically, Hugh notes that the devil is at the left of those whom he persecutes in temporal things; at the right, of those whom he persecutes in spiritual things; before the face, of those who guard against his wiles; behind, of those who do not foresee; above, of those whom he tramples; below and under the feet, of those who trample him. And Euthymius confirms this from Scripture on Psalm CVIII, 6: The devil, he says, stands at the right in order to seize the right operations, that is, the good ones. In the same place Valentia says: Just as from the right begins the fear of the animal, so those who are driven by the devil do nothing except according to avarice, hatred, and unfaithfulness. The devil therefore stands at the right, as the prince of sinners. So also Elias of Crete on Oration 1 of Nazianzen: Satan, he says, always attacks our right things, that is, those which are joined with praise, not the left. Therefore St. Ambrose, Book III On Interpellation, chapter XI, says: Adam gave his right hand to the devil, which he caused to be extended to the forbidden fruit. Thus in him it was prejudged for all, and the devil began to stand at the right hand of everyone: for we are all born condemned and children of wrath. For just as in Psalm LXXIX, 18, David calls the man of the right hand the one whom God makes strong with His special help; so whoever subjects himself to the devil by consenting to him has the devil at his right, and renders him strong and powerful against himself. A type of the devil was Nahash king of Ammon, saying to the Israelites, I Kings XI, 2: "On this condition I will make a covenant with you, that I may pluck out all your right eyes," both for a reproach and to render them useless for war, being blind; for soldiers cover their left eye with the shield. Which St. Gregory explains mystically, Book V on the book of Kings, near the beginning: "Our right eye," he says, "is the vision of eternal glory; but the left eye is carnal concupiscence. The right eye therefore is plucked out when the mind is struck with that blindness so that it no longer opens to see heavenly things. Nahash (Nahash in Hebrew means the same as serpent, such as the devil is) therefore plucks out the right eyes of those allied to him, when gluttony so prevails over the vanquished abstinent, that they desire only carnal things and no longer attend to what they used to love," namely spiritual and eternal things.
Allegorically, St. Jerome says: "Jesus is seen standing and keeping His ground with a firm step, and he stood at His right hand to oppose Him. For He was tempted in every way without sin. And in the Gospel the tempter approaches Him, always seeking to oppose His right hand and His virtues." And St. Gregory, Book XX of the Moralia, chapter XVIII: "We are said to hold as the right," he says, "what we esteem as great, and as the left what we despise. Therefore when Christ came in the flesh, Satan stood at His right hand: for the Lord seemed to hold the Jewish people as great, and the nations as nothing; but after He appeared incarnate, the Gentile world which had been held as the left, believed; but the Jewish people declined to faithlessness. Satan therefore stood at His right hand because he snatched from Him that people which had long been beloved." And further on: "When those who seemed faithful assail the holy Church, calamities without doubt rise at her right hand;" but because the remnant will be saved at the end of the world, hence the Lord removes Satan from the right saying: "The Lord rebuke," etc.
Finally, from this passage and similar ones, Cassian, Conference VIII, chapter XVII, concludes that to each of us there adheres not only a good angel but also a bad one, that is, to each person Lucifer assigns a tempting demon, just as from God a guardian angel is assigned to each person for protection. This was the opinion of Origen and some of the ancients. Nor is it improbable: both because Lucifer is the ape of God, and because he burns with hatred of God and envy of men, and knows that this is the best method and order for harming men: that to each person a demon be assigned who constantly watches him and tempts him when there is an opportunity, lest there be disorder and confusion among the demons, and lest what one has begun another might destroy. Moreover, it is Lucifer, not God, who assigns to each person his own demon.
TO OPPOSE HIM. — In Hebrew לשטנן listeno, from the root שטן satan, that is, he opposed, whence Satan is called the adversary. He therefore explains the etymology of Satan, as if to say: Satan, that is, the adversary, stood there so that in accordance with the name and office he had usurped, he might oppose Joshua, that is, so that as a plaintiff he might accuse him in the tribunal of God, so that being condemned he would be judged unworthy both of the pontificate and of the restoration of the temple and divine worship: for Satan was striving to impede this.
One may ask: What was the crime of Joshua of which Satan accused him? First, Theodoret and Sanchez think these sins were not Joshua's own but the people's; which were many, and were imputed to Joshua as pontiff, for in a certain way the whole people is in the priest, and sins in the priest; or rather the priest sins in all of them, as St. Cyril teaches. But that some proper sin of Joshua's was involved here is suggested by the angel, saying in verse 4: "Take away the filthy garments from him;" and: "Behold I have taken away your iniquity." I say therefore that this sin was that he did not sufficiently instruct the people, who had nearly forgotten the law and worship of God in Babylon, nor urge them by every means to observe it, and especially that he did not compel them when they were sluggish in the building of the temple, as is clear from Haggai I, 1 and 2. Again, that he did not prevent them from contracting marriages with foreign wives. For Ezra rebuked and corrected this crime in the people, Book I, chapter IX, 2. So say the Chaldean, Lyranus, Emmanuel, Mariana, and Vatablus. Moreover, that Joshua was negligent in this matter is clear from the fact that his sons and brothers married foreigners, as is clear from I Ezra X, 18, whom certainly he as their father ought to have punished and prevented. Hence the Chaldean translates: Now the sons of Joshua himself had married wives who were not worthy of the priesthood.
St. Jerome adds from the Hebrews, whom Remigius, Haymo, and Hugh follow: That he himself too, along with the others, had taken a foreign wife; which is written most fully in Ezra and Malachi. But in Ezra it is written only that the sons of Joshua married foreigners, not Joshua himself; and if Joshua the pontiff himself had married a foreign woman, certainly Ezra would not have kept silent about it, since he professedly catalogs and censures the vices of the Synagogue, and in chapter X specifically names those who had taken foreign wives. Less credible is what St. Justin writes in the Dialogue Against Trypho, that Joshua was accused by Satan of having married a prostitute. For who would believe this of so great a man and pontiff?
Moreover, the phrase "to oppose him" suggests that Joshua had done or attempted something in which Satan opposed him. This seems to have been that he as pontiff was praying to God for the restoration of the temple, the religion, and the law of God. So say Arias and Vatablus; and that the Jews remaining in Babylon might return to their ancestral home and the ancient religion in Jerusalem, says Bede on the Epistle of Jude.
Morally, learn here what a great burden superiors bear, and how much subjects ought to sympathize with them and relieve them by promptly obeying them. For they are like Atlases who carry the Church or the state, so that the sins of each individual in it are ascribed to the bishop, pastor, or rector. Hence the Apostle in Hebrews chapter XIII, 17: "Obey," he says, "your prelates, and be subject to them. For they watch as being to render an account of your souls, that they may do this with joy and not with grief: for this is not expedient for you." Where St. Chrysostom says, Homily 34: "I wonder if any of the rulers can be saved." In the same place St. Thomas says: Christ, he says, on the day of judgment will question the rulers about each of the souls of their subjects, and will demand the salvation of each from them, saying to them that passage of Jeremiah chapter XIII, 20: "Where is the flock that was given to you, your beautiful cattle?"
AND THE LORD SAID TO SATAN: THE LORD REBUKE YOU, SATAN — as if to say: God, out of the zeal with which He loved Jerusalem and its pontiff Joshua, and out of His indignation against Satan, who so wickedly and harmfully and impudently demanded against Jerusalem and against God, did not wait for Michael, Joshua's advocate, to plead his case; but He Himself in His fervor anticipated him and pleaded Joshua's cause. He therefore said to Satan: "The Lord," in Hebrew Jehovah, that is, God almighty, by His command, rebuke, and objurgation, restrain and repress your audacity and pride, O Satan, by which you place yourself at the right hand of Joshua the priest, as if more worthy than he and his victor: God, I say, repress you lest you harm Joshua who prays for the restoration of Jerusalem and of divine worship, and lest you impede him in so pious a purpose, pleasing to God. For God "chose Jerusalem" from among all the cities of the world, that He might dwell and be worshipped there.
Note first: God here speaks to Satan about Himself in the third person. For the sense is, as if to say: I, God, will rebuke and repress you, O Satan. But He speaks in the third person: "The Lord rebuke you," by a Hebraism, both to show him His majesty, and because Satan is unworthy for God to address in the first person, so as to dispute and debate with him at close quarters. Similarly it is said in Genesis XIX: "The Lord rained from the Lord," that is, from Himself. So say St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, and Rupert, who also think that the Trinity of persons in God is here suggested, as if the Lord the Father says to the Lord the Son: Rebuke, that is, suppress, Satan. For since Joshua the son of Josedech could not by himself resist Satan, the Son of God, who was also to be called Jesus, rebuked Satan on his behalf, and at the same time by this rebuke signified that when He would take flesh, He would rebuke the devil, as He did in Matt. IV when He said: "Get behind Me, Satan." So says Bellarmine, Book I On Christ, chapter V. Hence the Lord is named three times here, to indicate the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, says our Emmanuel.
Secondly, more easily and plainly, Albert, Hugh, Arias, and Vatablus think that the one speaking here is not God, but the angel, namely Michael, and that he invokes God to rebuke and repress Satan. For just as Satan here is the plaintiff, so Michael is the defender, as well as the judge of Joshua. For in a trial, as soon as the plaintiff accuses the defendant, the advocate defends him; or certainly, if the accusation is calumnious, as it was here, the judge himself does so. "The Lord said" therefore, that is, the angel of the Lord said, "to Satan." It is metonymy, or rather prosopopoeia: for the angel is called the Lord, in Hebrew Jehovah, that is God, because he was performing God's role in this judgment, and was judge of Joshua the priest in His place. For he was the president and guardian of the Synagogue, and therefore it pertained to him to judge the fault and cause of Joshua, who was the pontiff in the Synagogue. Hence Joshua is said to have stood before him, as a defendant before a judge. For if Michael here had been merely Joshua's advocate, Zechariah would certainly have said that he stood at Joshua's left, just as he said the devil, as plaintiff, stood at Joshua's right.
Finally, in what follows the angel always acts and speaks, not God: therefore here too. In a similar way the angel, giving the tablets of the law to Moses on Sinai in God's place, according to the Apostle in Galatians chapter III, 19, conducts himself as God, indeed calls himself God saying: "I am the Lord your God," Exodus chapter XX, 2, because he was sustaining the person of God the Legislator. So the angel sending Gideon against the Midianites is now called an angel, now the Lord, because he was the Lord's ambassador, Judges chapter VI, 12. Finally, St. Jude seems to explain it this way in his epistle, verse 9; for there, alluding to this passage, he says: "When Michael the Archangel, disputing with the devil, contended about the body of Moses, he did not dare to bring a judgment of blasphemy (to blaspheme him, to revile him, to curse him, saying for example: Go away, accursed one, or may God curse you); but (modestly) said: The Lord rebuke you," in Greek epitimesai, that is, may He command by rebuking, and rebuke by commanding, with power and objurgation, you who are a shameless plaintiff and slanderer.
LET HIM REBUKE — that is, let God restrain and repress your impudence and insolence: for this is what the Hebrew יגער iiggar means, that is, let Him rebuke, which the Septuagint, whom Jude follows, translates as epitimesai. Thus the Psalmist says, Psalm CV, 9: "He rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up," as if to say: By a sharp command, as if rebuking, He restrained, divided, and dried the fierce sea. And Psalm LXVII, 31: "Rebuke the wild beasts of the reeds." So Christ in Luke chapter VIII, 25: "He rebuked the wind and the storm of water," namely saying: Be silent and be still, that is, be calm and rest, as Mark has it in chapter IV, 39. For when one acts against nature and the force and impetus of natural causes, such as winds, a more vehement power and command of God is needed, which Scripture calls a rebuke, as something violent and forced. For thus charioteers compel horses, mule-drivers compel donkeys, and teachers compel lazy students, by rebuking and threatening blows, to quicken their hand or their step.
Morally, let all who are tempted or vexed by Satan employ this voice of God rebuking Satan, so that relying on God's help they may generously repel, despise, and trample him. Thus St. Bavo in Belgium, celebrated especially at Ghent, when having spurned vast estates (for he was descended from the blood of the Frankish kings and was heir of the Austrasian dukes) he gave himself entirely to God and divine things, being fiercely attacked by a crowd of demons, now taking on the voices and forms of dogs, now of wolves, now of bears, now of lions, now of serpents, with great strength of soul and confidence mocking them, he would say: "The Lord rebuke you, O Satan, and rebuke you, He who chose Jerusalem." Without delay the legion vanished, nor dared to attack the man of God any further. So his Life records.
IS NOT THIS A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE FIRE? — The Syriac reads: this is a brand that escaped from the fire; the Arabic: this is like a torch immersed in fire, as if to say: I punished the Jews for their sins with the Babylonian fire, that is, captivity, and consumed many of them. From that fire Joshua, like a brand touched by flame and covered in soot, that is, wretched and poor, escaped, in order to restore the Synagogue. Why then do you, O Satan, wish to utterly overwhelm, burn, and destroy him, so as to scatter the people and the worship of God which you envy? It shall not be so: I will preserve him, lest he be completely consumed; because I have decreed to restore through him My temple, people, city, and religion. For it is God's own nature not to break the bruised reed, and not to quench the smoking flax, Isaiah chapter XLII, 3. So say St. Jerome and St. Cyril. The word brand signifies that Joshua and the people had been so deformed and, as it were, scorched by Babylon, that they were nearly consumed and seemed about to be utterly consumed, unless God should rescue and help them. Hence the proverb: "The firebrand to the fire, the brand to the hearth," when someone is assigned and applied to that thing or office for which he seems made and born by nature, as when a kitchen worker is assigned to the kitchen, a rogue to the gallows, a cook to the pots, an arsonist to the pyre. So the Jews today are like brands plucked from the fire by which Jerusalem was burned by Titus. Half-burned, says Rupert, by the fire in which their city burned, they display the marks everywhere, according to Amos chapter IV, 11: "You became like a brand snatched from a fire;" for it was preceded by: "I overthrew you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah."
Mystically, St. Gregory, Book XII of the Moralia, chapter XVIII: "The Jewish people," he says, "were flowing toward the fires of hell with faithlessness as their guide; but when they are led back to the faith, they are freed from that same fire of eternal burning. Hence immediately it is added concerning them: Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?" Thus tropologically, a "brand plucked from the fire" is any sinner whom a preacher or confessor, by teaching and admonishing, snatches from hell, to which he was destined. For what else are sins but bellows, and sinners but brands and fuel for hell? Again, St. Jerome says: "The brand plucked from the fire can most rightly be understood as one who, though he was in Babylon (as also the just man in the world, with its allurements and temptations), was not consumed by the Babylonian fire, nor touched by the flame of this world. Hence Moses also in the desert sees a great vision, in which the bush burned but was not consumed." So St. Jude in his epistle, 22: "These," he says, "reprove when judged, but save those others, snatching them from the fire." Again, St. Jerome applies this brand to Christ; because, scorched by the flame of the Passion, and rising again, He retained its traces, namely the glorious wounds.
Verse 3: And Joshua was clothed in filthy garments. — The Arabic read...
3. And Joshua was clothed in filthy garments. — The Arabic reads: And there were upon him filthy garments: both because he had recently returned from Babylon soiled and squalid, poor and wretched. So says Theodoret. Also on account of the fault recounted in verse 3; for the filthy garment indicates a filthy mind and conscience, which the angel, expiating it in the following verse, says: "Take away the filthy garments from him." And: "Behold I have taken away your iniquity from you, and I have clothed you with change of garments." So say St. Jerome, Remigius, Haymo, Albert, and Lyranus. "Joshua," says the same Jerome, "was clothed in filthy garments for a threefold reason: either on account of an unlawful marriage, or on account of the sins of the people, or on account of the squalor of captivity." Moreover: "On a splendid garment (such as was that of the priest Joshua) the stains are more conspicuous," says Nazianzen, Oration 31. Hence morally, St. Bernard in the sermon On the Threefold Guard: "Just as," he says, "any small stain more shamefully discolors a precious garment, so from us a much greater justice is required; since what in others is a blemish, in us is a serious stain."
Symbolically, the filthy garments of Joshua the priest indicate that the pontificate, the temple, and the worship of sacred rites were not as elegant and magnificent after the return from Babylon as they had been before: for they lacked, besides the riches of Solomon and many other things, those five notable things which I noted on Haggai, chapter II, 10. So says Clarius.
Allegorically, Joshua the son of Josedech, clothed in filthy garments, represents Jesus Christ clothed in our filthy flesh. For human flesh compared to the flesh of all other animals is filthy, full of hardships, miserable, and subject to a thousand diseases, impurities, and stench, so that it seems to be nothing other than a vessel of filth, as is clear to anyone observing what we discharge from the mouth, eyes, ears, nose, and below. Indeed, if the soul of an infant, when it is conceived, about to enter the body, were to see its miseries, diseases, and filth, to which it will be continually subject throughout its entire life, it would recoil from entering it. Consider how your soul would recoil upon seeing some body that is leprous, scabby, ulcerous, eaten away by cancer, putrid, cadaverous — such as we commonly see among the beggars before the doors of churches in Rome — and how it would refuse to enter such a body, to put it on and animate it, if God commanded it. And see the condescension of our God, who knowing and foreseeing that our flesh is by its nature subject to all these miseries and filth, nevertheless put it on when the Word was made flesh, in order to purify it and cleanse it from these and even more from the filth of the soul. So says St. Gregory, Book XX of the Moralia, chapter XVIII: "He was clothed in filthy garments," he says, "because although He was a stranger to all sin, nevertheless He came in the likeness of sinful flesh." Secondly, Jesus was soiled because He led a destitute and poor life in perpetual labors and toils, and going on foot with bare feet and preaching everywhere, He often soiled His feet with dust and mud. Thirdly and especially, because in His Passion He was soiled both with our sins and with bruises, blood, discharge, spittle, phlegm, wounds, etc. Hence St. Jerome says: "Jesus was clothed in filthy garments, because although He had committed no sin, He was made sin for us: and He bears our infirmities, and grieves for us, and we thought Him to be in pain (indeed a leper, as Isaiah says in chapter LIII), and in affliction, and in distress. But He was wounded for our iniquities, and He was weakened for our sins. And in the Apostle we read: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. He speaks in Psalm XXI: Far from my salvation are the words of my offenses. And in Psalm LXVIII: God, You know my foolishness, and my offenses are not hidden from You: all of which are called filthy garments, and they will be taken from Him when He has destroyed our sins; so that because He was clothed in filthy garments, we rising from Him may hear after baptism: Let your garments always be white." Hear also St. Ambrose on Psalm CXVIII, at the verse: Set a law for me, O Lord, the way of Your justifications: "Joshua stood," he says, "and had filthy garments: for He was bearing my sins. He took our garments, so that He might clothe us with the splendor of immortality. He came in a light cloud as justice: for iniquity sits on a leaden talent, Christ in the heart of the just whom sins do not burden." But concerning the talent of lead, more will be said in chapter V, verse 7.
Now consider the wondrous litigation and duel between Christ and the devil: the fiercest enemy stands, brandishes his sword, condemns to death and devotes to destruction the head of the priest; Christ opposes him with His naked side, His naked head and body, or — which amounts to the same in battle — clothed in a torn and soiled garment, and conquers. Isaiah had seen this, chapter LI, 9: "Arise," he says, "put on strength, O arm of the Lord." What have torn and bloodied garments to do with battle? But the commander Christ, instead of a bronze breastplate, puts forward a bloody cloak; instead of iron greaves and iron gauntlets, iron nails; instead of a helmet, thorns; instead of a garrison of soldiers, solitude; instead of the blare of trumpets, silence and patience as He engages the enemy. But no breastplate is as powerful as bloodied flesh; no strength against the enemy is greater than the weakness of a lacerated body: for when the devil sees it, he is weakened and broken, because he is the author of so atrocious a parricide — indeed a Christicide and Deicide; and therefore, confounded and conquered, he flees. This is what John says about Christ in Apocalypse chapter XIX, 13: "And He was clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood: and His name is called the Word of God," namely the efficacious and omnipotent Word, which to show His power, through His very wounds and injuries strikes down the enemy and destroys him.
Verse 4: And He Stood Before The Face Of The Angel
4. AND HE STOOD BEFORE THE FACE OF THE ANGEL — as a defendant, and therefore soiled before the judge, as I said in verse 1, and as if distrusting his cause and conscious of his guilt, he directed his tearful eyes suppliantly toward the angel, seeking grace and help. So in ancient times defendants in dark clothing, with uncut hair, pale and squalid, appeared and stood in the tribunal, to move the judge to mercy.
4. He who (namely the angel presiding as judge, that is Michael, granting Joshua's silent prayers) ANSWERED AND SAID TO THOSE WHO STOOD BEFORE HIM — namely to the angels subject to him and ministering to him. So say St. Jerome, Remigius, Lyranus, and others generally, with the single exception of Arias, who thinks Michael here speaks to the priests or to the ministers of Joshua the pontiff; for it was their task to strip and clothe him; but not with these filthy and change garments: for only angels could strip Joshua of these filthy and sinful garments and clothe him with the change garments. TAKE AWAY THE FILTHY GARMENTS FROM HIM (and clothe him with change of garments, that is, with beautiful and precious garments, and place a mitre on his head, as verse 5 says. Both of these the angels did, obeying Michael, who therefore, explaining the symbolism and significance of this change of garments, adds): BEHOLD I HAVE TAKEN AWAY YOUR INIQUITY FROM YOU, AND I HAVE CLOTHED YOU WITH CHANGE OF GARMENTS — as if to say: Therefore through the angels in the vision I commanded you to be stripped of filthy garments and clothed in beautiful ones, to represent that God has pardoned your iniquity, of which I spoke in verse 3, and that He has exchanged the filthy garment of sin for the splendid garment of grace and virtues with which He clothed you. For the change garments were beautiful and precious: for with such garments the common people are accustomed to change their clothes on feast days; and therefore they symbolically represent grace, virtues, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, by which He clothes and adorns the soul of the sinner in justification as a queen, indeed as the bride of God. Hence the Chaldean translates: See that I have taken away your iniquity from you and have clothed you with righteousness. So say Albert, Lyranus, Arias, and others. The Church glories in being clothed with such garments, Isaiah LXI, 10: "Rejoicing," she says, "I will rejoice in the Lord, etc., because He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, and He has encompassed me with the garment of justice, as a bridegroom adorned with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels." Moreover, Michael did not properly take away Joshua's sin: for God alone takes away and pardons sins; but "I have taken away" means: I have signified and represented by this symbol of the change of garments that it has been taken away and pardoned by God. Hence it is clear that Joshua grieved for his sin and elicited an act of contrition, partly because of the admonition and correction of Ezra, Book I, chapter X, 19 (where it says: "And they gave their hands, that they would put away their (foreign) wives, and would offer a ram of the flock for their offense"), of Zechariah, and of other Prophets or pious priests; partly through the exciting grace for repentance sent to him by God. For no one who is in sin can be purged of it unless he makes himself suitable for this purgation and disposes himself through an act of sorrow and repentance. Again, no one can repent unless he is stirred to it by the grace of God. Therefore the Hebrews, St. Jerome, Remigius, Haymo, and Hugh, who think Joshua's sin was that he had married a foreign wife contrary to the law, likewise think that part of his repentance was that he dismissed her and married a Jewish woman; so that the change garments signify the change of wives. Hence the Chaldean translates verse 5: They placed a clean mitre on his head, and took for him a wife worthy of the priesthood. That his sons and brothers did this is clear from the passage of Ezra cited shortly before.
Now that these change garments were not lay garments but sacred and pontifical is clear both from the Septuagint which translates: Clothe him with a podere (for the poderis was a pontifical tunic reaching down to the feet); and from the mitre which is placed on Joshua's head (for the cidaris was the tiara of the pontiff); and because priests and pontiffs about to perform sacred rites would change their ordinary garments into sacerdotal ones, which were therefore called change garments. The angel therefore signifies by this change of garments that the pontiff's sin has been forgiven, which had barred him as unclean from sacred rites; and therefore, God's grace having been restored to him, he is worthy to again perform sacred duties and exercise the pontificate, just as in fact the angel removes this suspension from sacred rites and restores to him the use and function of the same. So say Remigius, Albert, Haymo, and Arias.
Allegorically and anagogically, Jesus Christ is here represented, who in His incarnation and passion, clothed as with filthy garments both in our flesh and in reproaches and blows, put them off in the resurrection, when He was clothed and crowned with glory and honor by the Father. So say St. Jerome, Eusebius Book IV of the Demonstration, last chapter, Origen Homily 14 on Luke, and others. Therefore Tertullian, Book III Against Marcion, chapter VII, thinks the twofold coming of Christ is indicated here: "For first," he says, "Jesus is clothed in filthy garments, that is, in the indignity of passible and mortal flesh, when also the devil was opposing Him, being the author of Judas the betrayer, not to mention also the tempter after baptism. Then, stripped of His former filth and adorned with a robe, and a miter, and a clean mitre, that is, with the glory and honor of His second coming."
Verse 5: And He Said
5. AND HE SAID — namely the angel, that is Michael, for he continues to speak. The translator read יאמר veamar, that is, and he said. So also the Septuagint. But with different vowel points they read ואמר vaomar, that is, and I said, in the first person. So the Chaldean, Pagninus, the Zurich Bible, and the Rabbis, as if these were the words not of the angel but of Zechariah, who asks the angel to command the mitre to be placed on Joshua's head. But the former reading is plainer and more fitting, as is clear upon inspection. PUT A MITRE. — Place the miter, that is the pontifical tiara, on the head of Joshua the priest, as if to say: Restore to Joshua the priest the pontificate, or rather the use and exercise of the pontificate. What the cidaris was I explained in Exodus chapter XXVIII, 36 and 40. There is a hysteron proteron here: for the entire fifth verse, in which Joshua is clothed in pontifical vestments by the angel's command, should be placed before those words of the angel in verse 4: "Behold I have taken away your iniquity from you, and I have clothed you with change of garments." For these words signify and presuppose that he had already been clothed in the pontifical vestments.
Verse 6: And The Angel Of The Lord Protested To Joshua, Saying
6. AND THE ANGEL OF THE LORD PROTESTED TO JOSHUA, SAYING. — Michael continues with a solemn discourse to admonish Joshua the priest that, having obtained the remission of sins and pontifical dignity, he should more diligently keep the commandments of God and ensure the people keep them. If he does this, he promises him a stable pontificate and consequently the governance of the people. Hence "he protested to him," that is, as if with witnesses present, namely his angelic ministers and Zechariah himself; or under the attestation of an oath he gravely and seriously admonishes him.
7. My charge — that is, My precepts, especially the ceremonial ones that pertain to the worship of God and the rite of sacred things; for these are the rights of God that must be guarded with all diligence. See what was said on Hosea chapter IV, 10. He alludes to the royal guard, namely the praetorian soldiers who guard the king and the royal court, such as the Swiss Guard. For in a similar way Joshua the priest with his priests and Levites, like soldiers of the court but ecclesiastical ones, kept guard over the temple and sacred things, and over God Himself, as it were, according to Numbers chapter III, 25: "They shall keep watch in the tabernacle of the covenant," etc. You also shall judge My house — as if to say: If you, O Joshua, keep My law, I in turn will preserve the pontificate for you, and I will make you the guardian of the temple, indeed in My temple a stable judge, that is, prince and pontiff; for this is the house of God in which the pontiff was governor, indeed prince and as it were king. Hence the Chaldean translates: You shall judge those who minister in the house of My sanctuary, and you shall keep My courts. So say St. Jerome, Theodoret, Hugh, and others. Hence consequently you will be the judge, that is, the president and prince of the people together with Zerubbabel; for after the return from captivity, the supreme power and government of the Jews rested with the pontiffs, as Josephus teaches in Book XI of the Antiquities, chapter IV, and is clear in Judah, Jonathan, and the other Maccabees, who were supreme princes as well as pontiffs of the Jews until Herod. Hence by the house of God can be understood the Synagogue, that is, the people of Israel. Thus God says of Moses in Numbers chapter XII, 7: "In all My house (that is, in governing the Synagogue, or the people of God) he is the most faithful."
AND YOU SHALL KEEP MY COURTS — as if to say: You will be the guardian, that is, the superintendent of the temple; for just as a king is the guardian of the kingdom, so the pontiff is of the Church; just as God is the guardian of men, as St. Job says in chapter VII, 20, and of the entire universe. AND I WILL GIVE YOU SOME OF THOSE WHO NOW STAND HERE TO WALK WITH YOU — as if to say: Besides the pontificate which I have already promised, I will give you some of the angels who attend upon Me, so that you may be surrounded by their help, and secure from enemies may rightly govern the people and lead them to salvation; for they will walk with you and will direct and protect you. So say St. Jerome, Hugh, and Lyranus.
Secondly, from the Hebrew with the Septuagint you may translate: I will give you those who may walk in the midst of those standing here, as if to say: I will give you sons and grandsons who will succeed you in the pontificate, who will lead a heavenly life and, being familiar with the angels, will walk among them as it were, according to the Apostle's saying: "Our citizenship is in heaven." And such indeed ought to be the life of a priest and pontiff, that he may stand out as an angel among men, says St. Chrysostom. Thirdly, for מהלכים mehallekim, that is, walking ones, with different vowel points they read מהלכים mahelekim, that is, ways, passages. Hence Pagninus translates: I will give you ways among those standing; the Zurich Bible: To you among those standing here I will give passages; both so that you may walk among these angels who attend upon Me and implore their help; and so that through them and supported by their patronage you may approach the throne of God and offer prayers and petitions for the people; and finally so that after death you may be enrolled in the company of angels, and walk among them in glory. Hence the Chaldean translates: In the resurrection of the dead I will raise you up, and swift feet among those walking Seraphim I will give you. Which indeed is a great promise of eternal happiness and blessed resurrection, in which, grafted into the heavenly paradise, we shall come to the assembly of many thousands of Angels, as the Apostle says in Hebrews XII, 22, and together with them we shall constitute one society in the heavenly Jerusalem and the Church Triumphant, in which holy priests and pontiffs will excel, who lived like angels and were angels and mediators between God and men in this life.
Less correctly, Theodoret understands those who stand by as priests, who by Malachi chapter II, 7 are called angels, as if to say: I will give you descendants who will be pontiffs, and as such will walk and converse among the other priests. For it was not priests who were attending Michael in this vision, but angels.
Verse 8: You And Your Friends, Etc., For They Are Men Of Portent
8. YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS, ETC., FOR THEY ARE MEN OF PORTENT. — In Hebrew אנשי מופר ansce mophet, that is, men of a portent; Vatablus translates, men of prodigies; which can be understood in various ways: First, the Septuagint translates τερατόσκοποι, that is, observers of portents, who contemplate and meditate on the portentous deeds and oracles of the Prophets, says Theodoret. Where note what kind of men the members of the pontiff's household should be, says Mariana. Secondly, Pagninus translates: Because they are men fit for performing portents; just as the Apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people, Acts chapter II, 43. Hence the Hebrews think the three youths are indicated here, companions of Daniel: Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, and they are called men of portent because they miraculously remained unharmed in the Babylonian fire. Thirdly, Cyril interprets: Because they desire to see and hear portentous things, let them hear the portent of the ages, namely: "Behold I will bring My servant the Orient," that is, the Messiah. To this Vatablus adds: They are men of prodigies, that is, men worthy in whose sight many prodigies may be performed, and to whom revelations may be made about the coming of Christ; they are fit to prophesy and announce Him. Therefore they are men of portent, that is, His own Prophets. Fourthly, Arias explains: They are portentous men, that is, eminent and admirable, who surpass other men in sanctity, dignity, learning, and wonderful deeds. For such ought to be priests and pontiffs, especially apostolic ones, namely rare and exceptional like portents, and of such great sanctity as to be worthy to be the instruments through whom God works portents and miracles, as were the Apostles and their followers. Hence the Syriac translates, they are men of admiration; the Antiochene Arabic, they are admirable men; the Alexandrian Arabic, they are men of signs, that is, performers of signs.
Fifthly and genuinely, Zechariah alludes to Isaiah VIII, 18: "Behold I and my children, whom the Lord has given me for a sign and a portent in Israel." And to what God says to Ezekiel, chapter XII, 6: "I have given you as a portent to the house of Israel," as if to say: You, O Joshua the priest, and your friends the Prophets — namely Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Ezra, Nehemiah, etc. — are portents of Israel; because both by your deeds and by your oracles you are admirable and portentous: for you portend Christ, and the life, teaching, and Church of Christ. For Christ will be the portent of portents, namely the greatest of all that have ever been wrought not only by men and angels, but even by God Himself: for He will be the Orient, He will be the seven-eyed stone engraved with sculptures, etc., as follows. For in Christ it was not a Prophet, not an angel, but God Himself who made Himself the portent of the ages, at which angels, men, and all creatures gaze in wonder. So say St. Jerome, Remigius, Haymo, and Hugh.
For the Word made flesh is the most stupendous and admirable of all the works of God, inasmuch as in it God gave to man not the world but His whole entire Self, and made man His son and brother, and consequently elevated and deified man, and in man all creatures — of which man is the compendium, bond, and knot — to Himself. There the omnipotence of God was a portent, which joined clay, that is flesh, to the Word, man to God, earth to heaven most closely, indeed hypostatically. There the wisdom, justice, and mercy of God were displayed, which avenged and expiated our fault with a fitting punishment in the death of His incarnate Son. There, above all other attributes of God, appeared the portentous charity of God, by which, as St. John says in chapter III, 16: "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son." Admiring this portent, Isaiah exclaims in chapter VII, 14: "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel." And Jeremiah chapter XXXI, 22: "The Lord has created a new thing upon the earth: A woman shall encompass a man." Moreover, Christ was a portent in His incarnation, a portent in His nativity, a portent in His life, a portent in His death, a portent in His resurrection, a portent in His ascension, a portent in His miracles, a portent in His teaching, a portent in His grace, a portent in His glory, a portent in time, a portent in eternity. For what is more portentous to the world than to hear from Christ: "Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are those who mourn; blessed are those who hunger and thirst; blessed are those who suffer persecution; love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; unless a man renounce all that he possesses, he cannot be My disciple; if anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me; if anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple," Luke XIV. See what was said on Isaiah chapter VIII, 18.
Moreover, Joshua the son of Josedech was a portent prefiguring and foretelling Christ. First, by his very name: for Christ's name was likewise Jesus. Secondly, in sanctity, office, and dignity; for by his pontificate he represented the priesthood and pontificate of Christ. Thirdly, by his filthy garments he represented the sorrows and filth of Christ on the cross, just as by the change garments he represented the glory of Christ in the resurrection, as I said on verses 3 and 4. Fourthly, just as Joshua led the Jews from Babylon to Jerusalem, so Christ led all nations from the confusion of sin into God's grace, glory, and into heaven itself. Fifthly, just as Joshua rebuilt the temple, so Christ renewed the old Church through the new one. So say St. Jerome, Tertullian, Ambrose, Origen, and others whom I cited on verse 4.
Tropologically, priests and prelates, such as Joshua was, ought to be heroes and portents of sanctity, wisdom, and prudence, so that by a tranquil, holy, and outstanding life, as well as by their teaching, they may portend blessedness and heavenly life. Thus David was a portent of persecutions and patience. Hence he himself says in Psalm LXX, 7: "I have become like a wonder to many." Indeed, all priests, religious, and all the faithful ought to be such, as St. Augustine teaches in the treatise On the Christian Life, volume IX: "It is fitting," he says, "that the worshippers and servants of God be meek, serious, prudent, pious, irreproachable, spotless, so that whoever sees them may be amazed and marvel, and say: These men are gods, whose manner of life is such. Thus the man of God ought to present himself so that there be no one who does not wish to see him, who does not desire to hear him: let no one who sees him fail to believe him a son of God, so that truly in him that prophetic word may be fulfilled: His palate is full of sweetness, and He is entirely desirable."
For behold I will bring (into flesh, into Judea, and into this your temple, O Joshua, son of Josedech) MY SERVANT THE ORIENT. — The Syriac reads: My servant the rising one, namely the Messiah, of whom you, O Joshua, and your friends are portents, and "men portending" Him.
Note: For the Orient, the Hebrew has צמח tsemach, that is, a sprout, a shoot, which buds forth and rises from the earth, or from a tree or shrub. He alludes to Isaiah chapter IV, 2: "In that day the sprout (Hebrew tsemach) of the Lord shall be in magnificence." And chapter XI, 1: "A rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise from his root: and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him." And chapter XLV, 8: "Drop down dew, you heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just one: let the earth be opened and bud forth the Savior." And chapter LIII, 2: "He shall grow up as a tender plant before Him, and as a root out of thirsty ground." And Jeremiah chapter XXXIII, 15: "In those days and at that time I will cause the sprout (Hebrew tsemach) of justice to spring forth for David: and He shall execute judgment and justice in the land." Where the Chaldean, here as elsewhere, translates sprout as Messiah; for the later Prophets are accustomed to allude to the earlier ones. The Septuagint translates ἀνατολή, that is, rising or orient, namely not so much the sun as a sprout; for this is what tsemach means.
One may ask why Christ is called tsemach, that is, a shoot or sprout. I answer: First, because tsemach by metathesis is the same as משיח Maschiach, that is, Messiah. For although in Maschiach there is the letter samech, while in tsemach there is tsade, nevertheless the latter is related to the former; for both have the value of the Latin s, hence they are rendered by interpreters with s. Secondly, because Christ was born of a Virgin through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, just as a sprout buds forth from the earth when moistened by dew or heavenly rain, without the participation of a male. Thirdly, because the tree of Jesse, that is, the royal line of David, had been cut down in the time of Herod to its roots and trunk, and seemed dead; but Christ, as a sprout shooting forth and rising from it, restored it. For this small sprout grew into a tree which, embracing all nations under itself, rules the whole world. Christ therefore restored the line of David and his collapsed kingdom — a kingdom, I say, not temporal but spiritual and eternal. This is what Gabriel, announcing the birth of Christ, said to the Virgin Mother of God: "The Lord God will give Him the throne of David His father: and He shall reign in the house of Jacob forever," Luke chapter I, 32. Fourthly, the sprout signifies the smallness, infancy, and humility of Christ at birth, which then grew into a body as great as the entire Church, according to the parable of the mustard seed, Matt. chapter XIII, 31. Fifthly, the Orient signifies that Christ from His birth and from the first instant of His conception, through the grace both of the hypostatic union and habitual grace, was consecrated and united to God, according to Isaiah chapter XLIX, 1: "The Lord called Me from the womb; from the bowels of My mother He was mindful of My name." So says St. Ambrose, Book III On the Faith, chapter III. To this alludes Zechariah the father of John the Baptist, Luke chapter I, 78, when he sings: "Through the tender mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high has visited us." Where for Orient the Greek is ἀνατολή, as here the Septuagint translates the Hebrew tsemach.
Note here: Christ is called ἀνατολή, that is, the Orient as a substantive; which Greek word, although it can be said also of the rising of sprouts and herbs, as Suidas attests, nevertheless is properly said of the rising of the sun, moon, and stars. Christ therefore is tsemach, that is, a sprout; but a solar and heavenly sprout, ἀνατέλλων, that is, rising from on high, to enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, as Zechariah adds. Hence the Arabic translates: Behold I will cause illuminations to ascend upon My servant, as if to say: Christ is tsemach, that is, a solar sprout, and a germinating sun, first in the heavenly paradise, then in the earthly one. For Christ is a sprout both heavenly and earthly; for He has two generations: first, a divine one, according to which He is the sprout of the eternal Father, and as it were the flower of minds, says Proclus from the Chaldean mysteries; secondly, a human one, according to which He is the sprout of His virgin mother and of David. And thus Christ, as another Melchizedek, in heaven is without mother, on earth is without father. Hence St. Ambrose, Book I, Epistle 8: "Behold I will send My servant, the Orient is His name. Just because He had filthy garments, did the sun of justice not therefore have the splendor of His divinity?" And so Christ was first in heaven a germinating sun, rising with the highest clarity and glory; then descending from heaven to earth, He began to germinate and be born on earth. For Christ is the tree of life, transplanted from the heavenly paradise to the earth through the incarnation, and from there ascending again into heaven and the paradise of the blessed, by His vision and enjoyment He gives the saints life, immortality, and happiness through the light of glory, and with His leaves and fruits of every delight He continually soothes and satisfies them for eternity, as I said on Apocalypse chapter XXII, 2. Therefore both Zechariahs call Christ the germinating sun and the Orient; because Christ brought light, joy, fruitfulness, life, grace, glory, and all good things to the world, as the sun of justice shining upon the Church. So Pompey, already growing famous, called himself the rising sun; but Cinna, his declining rival, he called the setting sun, as Plutarch attests in his Life. Hence Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks: "All things," he says, "become light that cannot be quenched; and the west believed in the Orient, equally illuminated by the light of faith as the Orient itself. For the sun of justice rides over all things. He brought the west over to the east, made it equally resplendent, since in it the light of faith did not set, but rather rose." Thus by tsemach, that is, the rising sprout, the Chaldean, St. Jerome, Cyril, Remigius, Rupert, Albert, Hugh, Lyranus, Vatablus, Emmanuel, Mariana, and others generally understand Christ. Therefore the Rabbis, Theodoret, and Eusebius in Book IV of the Demonstration, last chapter, wrongly understand tsemach, that is, sprout, to mean Zerubbabel. For he was not a sprout, that is, a child, but a man, and he was already present. Hence it is falsely said of him: "I will bring My servant the Orient;" nor was Zerubbabel the stone having seven eyes, engraved with sculptures, etc., as follows.
Tropologically, St. Athanasius in the treatise On the Sabbath and Circumcision: "Like the sun," he says, "God rises, illuminating the soul of each person. Therefore also in the saving Passion the sun did not appear, indicating that the end of the former creation was at hand, and the beginning of another was coming, which achieved its dawn and rising in the Savior. When the Prophet had seen this, he spoke thus: Behold a Man, the Orient is His name; and again: For you who fear Him the sun of justice shall rise. For this day is not for all, but for those who have died to sin and live for God."
9. For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua. — Zechariah shortly before called Christ the rising sprout; here by another metaphor he calls Him a stone, because he alludes to the building of the temple, which was constructed by Joshua the priest out of stones. For these stones represented Christ, who is the angular and foundation stone in the building of the Church. He alludes to Isaiah XXVIII, verse 16: "Behold I will lay in the foundations of Zion a stone, a tried stone, angular, precious, founded in the foundation." So say St. Jerome, Haymo, Remigius, Albert, and Lyranus. God gave this stone "before Joshua," that is, through a vision God showed Joshua the son of Josedech the foundation stone of the temple, and revealed to him that through it Christ was represented, who would be the angular stone of the Church. So say Lyranus, Hugh, Vatablus, Clarius, and others. For thus Zechariah explains himself in chapter VI, 12, where having said: "Behold a Man, the Orient is His name," he adds: "And under Him it shall spring up, and He shall build the temple of the Lord." In a similar way, here having said: "Behold I will bring My servant the Orient," he adds: "Behold the stone," etc., upon which He will build His Church.
UPON ONE STONE THERE ARE SEVEN EYES. — The first question is whether these eyes were cut into or attached to the stone, or rather separated from the stone but looking at and directed toward it. Lyranus, Vatablus, Fernandez, Sanchez, and others think they were separate and looking toward the stone: Because, they say, they signify the angels intent on the building of the temple and the Church, and therefore directed toward the stone, that is Christ, so that they may promptly execute whatever He commands. Or, as Clarius and Arias say, because these eyes signify God's most vigilant providence and care for Christ, that He may skillfully engrave and polish Him as a stone, and suitably establish and preserve Him as the angular stone in the foundation of the Church. Or, as others say, they signify that the eyes of all angels and men, especially Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Doctors, Martyrs, Virgins, and illustrious Saints, are directed toward Christ, because from Him they expect grace, salvation, and every good thing.
But more elegantly and fittingly, others think these eyes were affixed to or incised in the stone. First, because they are said to have been "upon one stone." For if they had been external and only directed toward the stone, he would have said: Toward one stone. Secondly, because these eyes are of the stone, that is of Christ, through which He Himself surveys, inspects, protects, cares for, and promotes the entire building of the Church; for although He does this through angels separated from Himself, yet because these angels are like the eyes of Christ, they ought to be depicted and painted as eyes set in His body. Thirdly, because this is the point. I say therefore that these seven eyes signify the full and perfect providence and vigilance of Christ over the building of the temple, that is, His Church, to be erected, increased, promoted, and preserved, which He exercises through seven chief angels, who are like the princes of His court, and therefore set over both the other guardian angels of men and over men themselves and the whole Church and world. That this is so is clear from chapter IV, 10, where Zechariah says: "These seven eyes are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth." And Apocalypse chapter V, 6: "The Lamb had seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent into all the earth." And Tobit XII, 15: "I am the angel Raphael," he says, "one of the seven who stand before the Lord." And Apocalypse chapter I, 4, St. John wishes peace to the seven Churches "from the seven spirits who are before the throne," where I treated at length of these seven angels. Moreover, angels are called eyes because they are pure minds, most perceptive and most vigilant; hence they are also called intelligences. In a similar way the Egyptians depicted Osiris their god as an eye resting on a scepter: by the scepter signifying his rule and governance, by the eye his providence and vigilance. So Macrobius, Book I, chapter XXI, and Plutarch in his book On Isis and Osiris. Thus Tertullian in Book I On the Trinity called God all eye, who sees all things. And elsewhere he says: God's eye knows no sleep, since it is light itself, which keeps watch over all things. And Diphilus in Gellius, Book XIV, chapter IV: "There is," he says, "an eye of justice that watches over all things;" and so the ancients called God "the eye of the world." Finally, Pausanias in the Corinthians writes that the statue of Jupiter on an open-air altar, to which Priam fled when Troy was captured, was distinguished by three eyes; by these was signified the threefold providence of God, by which He cares for heavenly, maritime, and infernal things, says Pierius in Hieroglyphics, Book XXXV, chapter XV. The sense therefore is, as if to say: This stone which I showed you, O Zechariah, namely Christ, who is the angular stone of the Church, will not be lifeless and insensible, but living, clear-sighted, vigilant, and keen, who by His most watchful providence through seven angels will survey, direct, and promote the entire building of the Church, and will abundantly provide all its parts and members with everything required. Thus the kings of Persia had princes who were called the eyes of the king, and others who were called the ears of the king, as Hesychius and Suidas attest under the word ὀφθαλμός βασιλέως. And perhaps Zechariah alludes to this here; for the kings of Persia had seven princes of the court, just as God has seven angelic princes of the world.
Secondly, one may ask what these seven eyes signify. First, some think these eyes were cracks in the stone, as if to say: Do not think this stone useless for the building of the temple because of its cracks; behold I will skillfully engrave them, so that they may bring beauty, not disgrace, to the building. Secondly, Hugh thinks the seven eyes signify the industry and vigilance of the architects and stonemasons, who with seven eyes, as it were, that is, with the utmost attention and care, attended to the building of the temple of Zerubbabel, so that it would be elegant and accurate in every part. But although the Prophet alludes to this, he nevertheless looks to far greater and more sublime things.
Moreover, what these eyes were like and how they should be conceived as being in the stone, our Mariana explains in his commentary on this passage: In the foundation stone, he says, seals are usually hollowed out, in which deposits of gold and silver are enclosed as a token of permanence. These seals are called eyes, both because they were concave and because they had the appearance and form of eyes. Otherwise Prado in the Prooemium on Ezekiel, section VII, says: The seven eyes are as many engraved stars. For the world is like a great man, whose face is the sky, which is distinguished, illuminated, and adorned with stars as with eyes. But stars are not eyes except in a mystical and hieroglyphic sense.
alluding to this, St. John in Apocalypse chapter V, 6, saw "the Lamb (that is, Christ) standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent into all the earth." Just as therefore the seven horns were affixed to the Lamb, so were the seven eyes; therefore here too the seven eyes were affixed to the stone, that is to Christ. Fourthly, because in a similar way the Cherubim, Ezekiel chapter I, 18, and John Apocalypse chapter IV, 8, were full of eyes; and not only they, but also the wheels of the cherubic chariot, as is clear from Ezekiel chapter I, 18, which represent the most attentive and watchful action and execution of divine providence. See what was said there. So say St. Jerome, Haymo, Remigius, and others.
Allegorically, a Castro says: The body of Christ in the Passion, like a stone incised with seven eyes, will be engraved with many incisions, stripes, and wounds as with little eyes, and will be distinguished with a most beautiful variety, so that these eyes may be the engraving of which he adds: "I will engrave its engraving."
Symbolically, from Zechariah, as also from the Apocalypse, the Roman Church received many rites and ceremonies, and from them borrowed similar symbols of sacred things in the ecclesiastical Offices. Thus from this passage it seems to have received of old its seven Cardinal deacons, whom St. Clement in Epistle I to St. James calls "the eyes of the Bishop," and an equal number of Cardinal bishops, in the Lateran church, whose proper and true bishop is the Roman Pontiff. For in it is the see and chair of the Roman Episcopate, and there the new Pontiff is accustomed to take possession of it, and consequently of the Pontificate of the whole Church, which is annexed to the Roman Episcopate. Therefore Blessed Peter Damian writes thus about it in Book II, Epistle 2, to the Cardinal Bishops of the Holy Roman Church: "The Roman Church rests upon more excellent privileges than all the other Churches in the world; and there is no doubt that it was also established and arranged according to mystical sacraments. For, to touch briefly on a few of many points, just as the Lateran Church is distinguished by the title of the Savior, who is indeed the head of all the elect, so it is the mother and, as it were, the summit and peak of all the Churches throughout the world. It has seven Cardinal bishops, to whom alone after the Apostolic See it is permitted to approach that most holy altar and to celebrate the mysteries of divine worship. In which is evidently contained that oracle of Zechariah: Behold, he says, the stone that I have laid before Joshua: upon one stone there are seven eyes. Now this stone is without doubt that rock of which the true Jesus promises Peter, saying: Upon this rock I will build My Church. This rock therefore has seven eyes, because the holy Church shines with as many gifts of the Holy Spirit, by which indeed, like a golden candlestick gleaming inextinguishably, it dispels the darkness of ignorance and illumines the minds of men to contemplate the sun of justice. Of which the same Prophet in chapter IV says: I saw, and behold a golden candlestick wholly of gold, and its lamp upon the top of it, and seven lamps thereon. Which sacrament Blessed John also did not conceal that he had learned in the Apocalypse, to whom it was said: The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks are the seven Churches." For seven is a symbol of universality. Therefore the seven Churches are all the Churches, which the Lateran and Roman Church contains within itself as in a matrix, being the princess and queen of all, as the same Damian says.
And he adds: "Therefore we, my brothers, that I may boldly insert myself among you (for he too was a cardinal and Bishop of Ostia, who among the Cardinals is the first and customarily consecrates the Roman Pontiff); we, I say, who are like seven eyes upon one stone, who bear the image of the stars, who hold the dignity of angels through the office of announcing, let us see, let us shine, and through the words of life let us proclaim the message to the peoples not only by our voices but also by our conduct. For the tongue of preachers indeed announces, but their life commends. The Apostle says: He who desires the Episcopate desires not a good dignity, not a good honor, but a good work; as if to say: He who aspires to possess the Episcopate without good work wishes to put on an empty name without the reality of the thing. The Episcopate therefore does not consist in the towering caps of Ghibellines or exotic furs, not in the flaming roses of marten chin-pieces, not in the trappings of flowing ornaments, not in wedge-formations of crowding soldiers, nor in snorting horses champing foaming bits; but in honesty of conduct and the exercise of holy virtues." And further on: "You therefore, most beloved, to whom it has been given from the authority of the Apostolic See to correct what is wrong, present yourselves to others — not only to the faithful but also to priests — as a certain rule of living. In your life let it be read what ought to be done and what avoided: let no idle words flow from our lips, let the censure of discreet silence restrain the priestly tongue: let jests not dissolve us, let immoderate gaiety not shake our breast. Let childish play depart; let biting eloquence and urbane witticism vanish. For how can prayer from the mouth of a priest be directed pure to God, when it is polluted by the filth of wicked speech?" And at the end: "You are the salt of the earth; it is fitting that you be not only priests, but also the teachers of priests. It is necessary that your life be a certain measuring line and like a diamond seal, which provides to others a pattern of living. For a diamond seal impresses its own image on others, but takes no image from any metals. When therefore the multitude of those arriving from various parts of the world presses upon you, when each one importunately urges you to accommodate them, let your countenance always be the same, responding with a certain festive serenity, lest in anything childish levity break out: let there be cheerful gravity and grave cheerfulness."
Tropologically, the seven eyes are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which were most fully in the soul of Christ; because these make His soul clear-sighted, illuminated, and vigilant. So say St. Jerome, Remigius, Rupert, Emmanuel, and others. He alludes to the eyelet patterns which embroiderers weave into their work, namely Phrygian garments, so that it is eye-spotted and elegant like a peacock's tail, as if to say: Christ, like a stone engraved with seven eyelets, will be engraved and adorned with all gifts, graces, and virtues, as with divine eyelets.
Hear St. Gregory, Book XXIX of the Moralia, XVI: "Upon one stone there are seven eyes. For this stone (Christ) to have seven eyes means to retain simultaneously every power of the sevenfold grace of the Spirit in operation. For one person receives prophecy, another knowledge, another powers, another kinds of tongues, another interpretation of words according to the distribution of the Holy Spirit: but no one attains to possessing all the gifts of that same Spirit. But our Creator, taking upon Himself our weakness, because through the power of His divinity He taught that He possessed simultaneously all the powers of the Holy Spirit, without doubt joined together the shining Pleiades."
I WILL ENGRAVE. — In Hebrew: Behold, I will open its opening, which the Chaldean first explains: Behold, I reveal its vision, as if to say: I show you, O Zechariah, this vision of the mystical stone, and I reveal its meaning concerning Christ. But the Hebrew phrase does not permit this: for to open an opening among the Hebrews is the same as to sculpt a sculpture or to engrave an engraving, as the Septuagint, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, our Translator, Pagninus, Vatablus, and others generally translate. For in sculpture the sculptor opens and scrapes certain parts, either lengthwise making grooves, or in a round shape, or in a square, and in a thousand other ways, in order to sculpt flowers, birds, fruit, or whatever he pleases.
Secondly, the Rabbis and from among them Hugh understand this of the engraving of the temple of Zerubbabel, as if to say: I will complete this temple and will adorn it outwardly with elegant engraving; or I will add a ceiling, that is, an engraved vault to it; for when a building is completed, it is customary to engrave and adorn it with engravings. But even if the Prophet alludes to this, he nevertheless looks to higher things concerning Christ. I say therefore that the stone engraved is Christ, and that His engravings are called either the seven eyes engraved in Him, as some wish, or rather the coats of arms of the Builder engraved in the first stone of the building. For that these engravings are different from the eyes is clear from the antitype: for the eyes represent angels, while the engravings represent the gifts and stigmata of Christ, as I will shortly explain. He alludes to the first stone of a temple or building, which architects place in the foundations with solemnity and pomp, and thus begin the construction. Hence that first stone is customarily inscribed with the insignia of the prince who is the author of the building. So God inscribed His insignia and coats of arms on Christ, as upon the first stone of the Church: first, in His incarnation, in which the Holy Spirit fashioned the body and soul of Christ with such perfection that His humanity seemed most elegantly shaped and engraved by God. Moreover, He adorned and engraved the same with all wisdom, virtue, grace, and glory, like a divine heaven engraved and distinguished with the most beautiful sun, moon, and stars. Finally, through the grace of the hypostatic union, He so adapted it to the Word that the humanity seemed to be like a gem most finely polished and engraved and fitted to the golden ring of the divinity of the Word. Hear St. Irenaeus, Book III, chapter XXVIII: "This stone consists of earth and of the power and art of God: for it signifies one born of the virgin earth, but skillfully engraved by the power of the Holy Spirit." So also say Lyranus, Dionysius, and others. For the Holy Spirit so skillfully united, fitted, and as it were engraved the humanity to the divinity, that between the divine and human natures there is the highest union in the Word, and through the union there is a mutual and intimate interweaving of the same, or περιχώρησις, as Damascenus says in Book III, chapter VIII. And yet the Word Itself contracted no disposition, no order, no inclination toward the human nature. For that infinite hypostatic power suffices so that It extends Itself to that nature externally attracted and as it were inserted, without any change of Itself, as a hypostatic terminus and basis, and binds and couples it to Itself with an indissoluble and substantial bond; just as the divine intellection, because of its infinite power of understanding, extends itself to future contingent things and reaches and foresees them; and the divine volition, because of its infinite power of willing, extends itself to all existing things, of which it is the cause without the accession of any real disposition toward them; for the intellect or will of God acquires or contracts no real relation to them.
Secondly, and more fully, Christ as a stone was engraved in His Passion, both actively by nails, thorns, and scourges, and passively by wounds, blows, and stripes, by which He willed His entire body to be pierced and opened, so that He might show and pour forth through these crevices, as it were, His immense love for us that lay hidden within, according to the verse: You see how love is sculpted in His entire body. Hence the Hebrew has literally: Behold I will open its opening; the Syriac and Antiochene Arabic: Behold I will open its gates; for the gates of Christ's body and heart are His wounds and injuries. The Alexandrian Arabic: I am fitting them together, namely the seven eyes of the stone. The Septuagint: Behold I am digging a pit. For by these engravings of the Passion, Christ's patience, obedience, charity, fortitude, and other divine virtues were polished; and thus the perfect image of God engraved in Him appeared; and therefore upon this stone and rock, excavated by so many wounds and as it were inscribed and decorated with the coats of arms of His kingdom, God built His Church, when through Him He took away the iniquity of the world, as follows. So say St. Jerome, Remigius, Haymo, Rupert, Vatablus, and Clarius. Therefore Theodoret wrongly understands this pit to mean the slaughter and sculpture of Gog and Magog: "This," he says, "he predicted about Gog and Magog, upon whom He brought destruction in one day and led all alike to slaughter, which by metaphor and comparison he called a pit." For Gog and Magog are to come in the time of the Antichrist, and are to be slain at the end of the world, as I said on Ezekiel XXXVIII.
Tropologically, this sculpture of Christ being born and suffering represents the engraving and adornment of the soul, inscribed with all virtues and gifts, and incised and polished through crosses and patience, and Christ is its prototype and exemplar. Do you wish then, O Christian, to sculpt in your soul the most elegant and divine image of obedience, humility, endurance, constancy, love, and Christian perfection? Look and do according to the pattern which Christ showed you on the mount of Calvary. God in your creation and generation impressed and inscribed in you His image and likeness, Genesis I, 27, and that image deformed by sin He reformed through Christ in baptism and justification. You, through His grace, engrave, polish, and perfect it. If you do not know the method, Christ will teach you: look at His engraving on the cross. Disease, poverty, losses of fortune attack you — bear them after the example of Christ, and say: Not my will, but Yours be done. An enemy, a rival, a detractor, a slanderer attacks you, spreads about you things you never even thought of — bear it; do not through indignation stain your image; do not through impatience mar the engraving of your patience. You are cast down from your position, depressed, neglected; your rivals are exalted, they despise you, they insult you — bear it; Christ the Son of God bore these and greater things for you, when He was mocked, spat upon, scourged by the Jews, and driven to the cross like a thief. A superior commands something arduous, dangerous — undertake it eagerly: follow Christ, who became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. If you resist, balk, make excuses — see how far you are from the engraving of Christ's obedience. In teaching, preaching, hearing confessions, going about the villages, teaching peasants, the unlearned, and the poor, you feel labors and pains — come, athlete of Christ, by His love transcend and overcome all things: He likewise preached the Gospel to the poor, went on foot preaching through the towns and villages, grew weary, sweated, suffered heat and cold. After His example, sculpt these small and short-lived labors and pains in your soul: "Engrave in it the heaven and sun of charity: paint and sculpt for eternity." You will hear shortly what He rising on the third day heard: "Therefore God also has exalted Him, and has given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth." Thus after the example of Christ, St. Paul painted and engraved his soul as well as his body, saying: "I bear the stigmata of the Lord Jesus in my body," Galatians VI, 17. Thus painted St. Andrew, burning with love for the cross; St. Ignatius, provoking the lions; St. Lawrence, delighting on the gridiron; St. Vincent, mocking the torments of Dacian; St. Agnes, fighting and triumphing against tyrants, fires, and suitors even unto death. Thus painted all the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, Anchorites, Doctors, Confessors, Virgins, and all the Saints. Follow these, imitate these painters, equal these engravers, or pursue them with equal steps, that you may paint the image, that you may engrave the engraving in heaven for all ages, to the glory of God and your own honor, enduring forever before all the angels and saints. For what is momentary and light of our tribulation, humiliation, and mortification works an eternal weight of glory in us, and that soon and as it were after but a moment.
By blows and pressures The polished stones Are fitted to their places, By the hands of the artisan, They are arranged to endure In the sacred buildings. Heaven, says Varro in Book IV, is so called because it is as if engraved, that is, marked with stars; much more is the empyrean heaven engraved with gems, flowers, and fruits, as St. John describes in Apocalypse XXI and XXII. Heaven is your soul, if it is holy; therefore engrave it with patience, obedience, humility, and every virtue, so that it may deserve to be engraved in the empyrean heaven, indeed to engrave and adorn that heaven.
AND I WILL REMOVE THE INIQUITY OF THAT LAND (namely of Judea, in which the first faithful, converted to the faith and grace by the power of the blood of Christ, were built upon Him as upon an engraved and foundation stone) IN ONE DAY — namely the day on which He Himself was engraved, that is, suffered and died, and made satisfaction to God for all iniquity, and abolished it as far as was in Him, as well as the ancient sacrifices and the old priesthood, which could not expiate the stains of the soul. So say St. Jerome, Remigius, and Haymo. He mentions Judea before other nations because Christ was promised to the Jews, and because Zechariah was prophesying to the Jews. Hence he consoles them, already returning from Babylon and afflicted, with the promise of the Messiah. Nevertheless, after the Jews, the iniquity of the whole world was removed from the minds of believers through the Apostles.
Verse 10: Every Man Shall Call His Friend Under His Vine And Under His Fig Tree
10. EVERY MAN SHALL CALL HIS FRIEND UNDER HIS VINE AND UNDER HIS FIG TREE — as if to say: Christ by His Passion will not only remove iniquity but will also bring peace, abundance of goods, delights, as well as friendship and sharing of things, to such a degree that all things among Christians will be common, and from the same vine and fig tree they will together pick fruits, and securely and cheerfully will invite each other and feast together, both corporally and even more so spiritually. For this peace and opulence is what this Hebrew phrase and proverb signifies, as is clear from III Kings IV, 25, where it says that each man dwelt under his vine and fig tree all the days of Solomon, as if to say: There was full peace and abundance of things under the rule of Solomon.
Moreover, Christ brought not only spiritual peace and riches but also temporal ones. For the law of Christ commands charity, forgiveness of injuries, patience, love of enemies, etc., all of which produce temporal peace, and from that an abundance of temporal goods, as I showed on Isaiah II, 4. Thus in the primitive Church Christians had all things in common, Acts chapter IV, 32.
Mystically, the vine and fig tree — not of this or that person in particular, but absolutely of all the faithful — is Christ, and His Passion, Gospel, sacraments, graces, consolations, and all good things, which as the most flavorful figs and grapes we abundantly pluck from Christ, as from a fig tree and vine, in which Christians delight and are inebriated with heavenly nectar, especially in the Eucharist, about which more will be said in chapter IX, 17. So say St. Jerome and Remigius. Moreover, I applied the properties of the vine to Christ in Ezekiel XV, 1, and of the fig tree in Jeremiah XXIV, 2. Therefore the Rabbis wrongly think this happiness was given to the Jews by the Maccabees, I Maccabees chapter XIV, 4. For even if the passage alludes to that, the Prophet nevertheless looks to the greater and spiritual things which Christ brought; for Christ alone removed the iniquities of the earth, not the Maccabees.