Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Just as Isaiah in chapter 14, under the type of the fall of Lucifer, describes the fall of the king of Babylon; and Ezekiel in chapter 28, under the type of the fall of the Cherub, describes the fall of the king of Tyre; and David in Psalms 71 and 88, under the type of the kingdom of Solomon, depicts the kingdom of Christ: and therefore some things are said that better fit the type, and some that better fit the antitype, as is customary in parables and symbols — so also does Zechariah here. For under the type of the affliction of Jerusalem by Antiochus, and its restoration by the Maccabees, he describes the afflictions, restoration, and celebration of the Church. Wherefore there is here a twofold quasi-literal sense. One is as it were material, concerning Jerusalem and the Maccabees; the other is quasi-formal and more intended by the Holy Spirit, concerning the Church and Christians. For that the discourse here concerns Jerusalem and the Maccabees in the literal sense is clear from the context of the entire chapter, where nothing else is mentioned but Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives, Remmon, Benjamin, Hananeel, Judah, cauldrons, bowls, etc., all of which properly belong to no other than the earthly Jerusalem. Add that he says the nations will come from every quarter to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles: but this was a Jewish feast. So Theodoret, Palacius, Mariana, and others cited by Eusebius, Demonstration, book 6, chapter 18. But that the Prophet's gaze does not stop at Jerusalem, as the Rabbis would have it, but extends through it to the Church, is clear, because he says things too august to apply to Jerusalem, such as in verse 4, that the Mount of Olives will be split; and verse 8, that living waters will go out from Jerusalem to the Eastern sea and to the Western sea; and verse 14, that the riches of all nations will be gathered into Jerusalem; and verse 16, that all nations will go up annually to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, etc. Since therefore we know that these things plainly do not apply to Jerusalem, we must say they look rather to the Church of Christ, and have been fulfilled in it. Zechariah therefore predicts that Jerusalem will be captured and devastated by Antiochus Epiphanes, but that God will fight for it against Antiochus through the Maccabees, and will therefore split the Mount of Olives: hence God will be exalted in all the earth, and Jerusalem will be secure and glorious, since God will crush its enemies and will gather into it the riches of the nations, so much so that the nations will annually visit it to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles and to worship God. Wherefore there will be in it an abundance of cauldrons, bowls, offerings, sacrifices, and nations.
Vulgate Text: Zechariah 14:1-21
that day: There shall be no light, but cold and frost. 7. And there shall be one day, which is known to the Lord, not day, nor night: and at the time of evening there shall be light. 8. And it shall come to pass in that day: Living waters shall go out from Jerusalem: half of them to the Eastern sea, and half of them to the Western sea: in summer and in winter they shall be. 9. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day the Lord shall be one, and His name shall be one. 10. And all the land shall return even to the desert, from the hill of Remmon to the south of Jerusalem: and it shall be exalted, and shall dwell in its place from the gate of Benjamin even to the place of the former gate, and even to the gate of the corners: and from the tower of Hananeel even to the king's wine-presses. 11. And they shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more anathema: but Jerusalem shall sit secure. 12. And this shall be the plague with which the Lord shall strike all nations that have fought against Jerusalem: the flesh of each one standing on his feet shall consume away, and their eyes shall consume away in their sockets, and their tongue shall consume in their mouth. 13. In that day there shall be a great tumult from the Lord among them: and a man shall take hold of the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall be clasped upon the hand of his neighbor. 14. But Judah also shall fight against Jerusalem: and the riches of all the nations round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and garments in great abundance. 15. And so shall be the destruction of the horse, and the mule, and the camel, and the donkey, and of all the beasts of burden that shall be in those camps, like this destruction. 16. And all that shall be left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem, shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles. 17. And it shall be: whoever shall not go up of the families of the earth to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts: there shall be no rain upon them. 18. And if the family of Egypt shall not go up, nor come: neither shall it be upon them, but there shall be the destruction with which the Lord shall strike all nations that shall not go up to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles. 19. This shall be the sin of Egypt, and this the sin of all nations that shall not go up to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles. 20. In that day that which is upon the bridle of the horse shall be holy to the Lord: and the cauldrons in the house of the Lord shall be like the bowls before the altar. 21. And every cauldron in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be sanctified to the Lord of hosts: and all that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and shall cook in them: and there shall be no merchant any more in the house of the Lord of hosts in that day.
Verse 1: Behold, They Shall Come
Verse 1. Behold, they shall come. — First, the Jews refer this entire chapter to the time of the Messiah, whom they, along with all the good things here enumerated by Zechariah, expect in the literal sense. But they err: for Jerusalem, the Temple, the commonwealth, and the Jewish nation have been utterly destroyed by Titus for 1,600 years, and this desolation will endure to the end of the world, as Daniel says in chapter 9, last verse. Add that the Prophet here says first that Jerusalem will be captured and devastated, and that half the Jews in it will go into captivity — both of which presuppose that the Jews will have been restored to Jerusalem; for those who are not there cannot be captured and devastated; and then that God will fight for them, through the Messiah, as they say. But this cannot be true: for then the Jews would be restored before the Messiah and would possess Jerusalem and flourish in it, which they themselves deny. For they say the restoration of Jerusalem and the Jews will come through the power and arms of the Messiah; otherwise, before the Messiah they would have to posit another Messiah who would restore Jerusalem to the Jews. Thus the Rabbis here refute themselves, and, as the saying goes, they peck out the eyes of crows. Then in verse 14 it is said: "But Judah also shall fight against Jerusalem;" but this cannot be said of their Messiah. For He will arise from the tribe of Judah, as son and successor of David and Solomon, and with His fellow tribesmen, the Jews, He will restore Jerusalem, as they say. Moreover, in verse 16 it is said that all nations will go up from year to year to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. But this cannot literally happen as it sounds, both because the city of Jerusalem cannot contain all the nations of the entire world, and because they teach that the happiness and kingdom of the Messiah pertains to the Jews, not to the nations: for the nations will then be the servants and slaves of the Jews, just as the Jews now serve the nations. Finally, some things, if taken as they sound concerning Jerusalem, are absurd and contradictory. Such is what is said in verse 21: "And every cauldron in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be sanctified to the Lord," for thus in the time of the Messiah, the Jews would have no cauldrons at home in which to cook meat, for which they nevertheless yearn in the manner of their fathers; but all their cauldrons would have to be consecrated to God in the Temple. Wherefore Saint Jerome truly says here at verse 11: "These things," he says, "the Jews dream according to the letter: and our Chiliasts, who again wish to hear: Increase
and multiply; and fill the earth, and instead of this life's continence and brief fasting, they promise themselves bulbs, and vulvas, and pheasants, and francolins, not an Ionian but a Jewish banquet, of whom the Lord can truly say: My spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh, etc. But let us interpret the heavenly Jerusalem as the Church, which, walking in the flesh, does not live according to the flesh, whose citizenship is in heaven. For after the Lord Jesus shall have been king over all the earth, of whom the Holy Spirit speaks to the Father through the Prophet: God, give Your judgment to the king, and Your justice to the king's son; then one Lord shall be, and His name shall be one, every false religion being trampled underfoot, according to that saying: O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is Your name in all the earth! And elsewhere: As is Your name, O God, so also is Your praise in all the earth."
Second, many think that the Prophet here literally describes the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, and this as punishment for Christ's crucifixion by them, as I said in the preceding chapter, verses 6 and 7. So Eusebius, Demonstration, book 6, chapter 18; Saint Cyril, Theodoret, Rupert, Vatablus, Ribera, Sanchez, and Saint Jerome seems to lean this way. But all the following details stand in the way. For God did not fight against the Romans who devastated Jerusalem, nor did He restore Jerusalem after Titus's destruction, nor did He bring about that all nations would come to worship God in it and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, since Jerusalem after Titus has remained destroyed and desolate for 1,600 years to this very day.
I say therefore: In the literal sense, what is signified here is Jerusalem to be captured by Antiochus Epiphanes and restored by the Maccabees, as I proved in the Proem, and as Palacius, Mariana, and a Castro teach, and the very outcome of events confirms, as is clear from the books of Maccabees, especially book 1, chapter 1, verse 22 and following.
Moreover, under the type of the devastation of Jerusalem, there is depicted here the devastation of the Church, especially the primitive Church, which was wrought by Nero, Trajan, and other pagan emperors. For at that time temples were seized and overturned by them; the faithful were deprived — some of their goods, some of their liberty, some of their lives. For the Church is said to be captured and devastated when its faithful are captured and devastated. So Arias. Whence the Gloss thinks that what is described here is the persecution of the Church carried out by Chosroes, king of the Persians, and by Omar, king of the Arabs: for both conquered Jerusalem, and they partly killed, partly carried away, and partly subjected the citizens to tribute: which servitude lasted until Godfrey of Bouillon, who by fighting restored the holy places to the Christians. So the Gloss.
Anagogically, what is signified here is the devastation of the Church to come through the Antichrist, whom the Jews will receive as their Messiah. For he will rage against the Church far more grievously than Nero, Decius, and other tyrants; he will violate the wives of the faithful (for he will be exceedingly lustful); he will overthrow all human and divine laws, especially at Jerusalem, where he will sit violently like a tyrant and place the throne of his tyranny, as Saint John expressly teaches in Revelation 20:8. For speaking of Gog and Magog, who will be the soldiers and leaders of the Antichrist, he says: "And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and encompassed the camp of the saints, and the beloved city," that is, Jerusalem, into which the Christians will take refuge so that the Antichrist might slaughter them. Hence in Jerusalem, Elijah and Enoch will be killed by the Antichrist, as Saint John teaches in Revelation 11:8 and following. So Lyranus, Dionysius, and others.
And in this sense, the opinion of the Jews will be true, who say that these things pertain to the last times, when the Messiah will come; but they err when they think the Messiah will restore Judaism, not Christianity, and therefore will give the Jews temporal goods, not spiritual ones. Thus, to the Jews who raise these and similar passages of Scripture as objections, we can respond that we too understand them of the coming of the Messiah; but of the first coming in the literal sense, and of the second anagogically. For since the second coming of the Messiah will take place at the end of the world, those things said here about the restoration and celebration of Jerusalem cannot be understood literally of it, namely that all nations will come to it annually to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles; for if the end of the world is then imminent, the end of the feasts of this life will also be imminent, and consequently we will henceforth celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles not literally but anagogically in heaven.
Verse 2: Half the City Shall Go Out Into Captivity
Verse 2. Half the city shall go out into captivity. — Those who understand these things of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus explain it thus, as if to say: Half the citizens will be killed and captured, the remaining part of the faithful, warned by the Prophets, will flee from the city and be saved, as Christ forewarned in Matthew 24:16. So Theodoret and Eusebius, Demonstration, book 6, chapter 18. But in fact by far the greater part was killed; for few were captured, whereas the Prophet here asserts that half were taken captive. For Josephus, Wars, book 7, chapter 17, says that 1,100,000 Jews died, but only 97,000 were captured. Furthermore, the Christians were not saved in the city, as the Prophet says here, but outside it. Wherefore Rupert, Ribera, and others explain it thus, as if to say: One part of the citizens of Jerusalem under Titus will be captured, but the other part will not be taken from the city: because they will be killed in it, or will be consumed and die of famine and hardship.
But I have already proved that these things pertain to the destruction of Jerusalem by Antiochus, not by Titus; that these things therefore happened under Antiochus is clear from the books of Maccabees, and specifically from book 2, chapter 5, verse 14, where it is said: "In the space of three days, eighty thousand were slain, forty thousand were bound, and no fewer were sold." Furthermore, many of the Jews, partly from fear, partly from malice, consented to Antiochus, and therefore remained in the city and plundered the rest, of whom it is said in 1 Maccabees 1:55;
"And many of the people gathered themselves to those who had forsaken the law of the Lord, and they committed evils upon the earth: and they drove the people of Israel into hiding places and into secret places of fugitives." And of these Zechariah says: "And the remnant of the people shall not be taken away from the city," that is, they surrendered themselves to Antiochus, or at any rate were bound by him. For "half" here is not to be taken precisely and arithmetically, but morally, as if to say: One part of the citizens will go out into captivity, the other will remain in the city, either in chains or as deserters.
Verse 3: And the Lord Shall Go Forth and Shall
Verse 3. And the Lord shall go forth and shall fight against the nations. — In Hebrew, baggoim, that is, "in the nations"; which can be taken in two ways. First, as if to say: With the nations, namely with Titus and the Romans, God will fight against the Jews. So Cyril and Theodoret. Second, baggoim is better translated "against the nations," as our Vulgate, the Chaldean, and others render it; and even the Septuagint in the Vatican edition; for in the Complutensian they have "in the nations." He speaks literally of the miraculous battles of the Maccabees against Antiochus, in which God, through angels even visibly appearing, was seen fighting for Judah, as is clear from 2 Maccabees chapter 10:29, and chapter 11:8, and chapter 15:12.
As He fought in the day of battle — Namely, that famous and most celebrated one, in which He fought against Pharaoh and crushed him in the Red Sea, as the Chaldean has it. Wherefore Judas Maccabeus, encouraging his men to battle with hope of divine aid, said: "Remember how our fathers were saved in the Red Sea, when Pharaoh pursued them," etc., 1 Maccabees 4:9.
Under this type of the Maccabees, the victory of Christ over paganism is parabolically signified, as if to say: Christ will subject to Himself through the Gospel the nations once opposed to God, and will drown their sins in baptism, "as He fought in the day of battle," that is, just as of old, in a type of this reality, fighting against Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the Red Sea, He drowned them there. So Saint Jerome.
Anagogically, what is signified is the battle of Christ against the Antichrist (for Antiochus was a type and precursor of the Antichrist, just as Pharaoh was), Gog and Magog, whom He will rout near Jerusalem from heaven, destroy, and cast down into hell, as the Apostle teaches in 2 Thessalonians 2:8, and Saint John in Revelation 20:9 and following. So Lyranus, Hugo, and Dionysius. Furthermore, what is signified is the contest and battle of Christ against all the impious on the day of judgment, whom He will condemn by His sentence and drive into Gehenna by His power, saying: "Depart, you cursed, into everlasting fire."
Verse 4: And his Feet Shall Stand in That Day
Verse 4. And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives. — Tertullian, Against Marcion, book 4, chapter 39, reads: His feet shall stand on the Elaeon, that is, on the Mount of Olives; for elaion in Greek means oil. For God will descend with His angels onto this mountain, so that from it He may defend Jerusalem and rout the forces of Antiochus, and therefore by treading on the mountain with His feet, He will cause it to tremble and split, of which more shortly. This mountain is called the Mount of Olives, or of Olive Trees, from the abundance of olives growing plentifully upon it, which is otherwise called the holy mountain and the famous mountain. It is distant five stadia from Jerusalem, and is separated from it by the intervening Valley of Kidron. Under this type is signified Christ, God made man, who would stand and dwell on the Mount of Olives, and there spend the night in prayer, teach the Apostles, and begin His Passion. For there, praying in the garden, He was seized; just as from the same mountain, as king and Messiah, He triumphantly entered the city with branches of olive on Palm Sunday. From this mountain too He gloriously ascended into heaven before His disciples, Acts 1. On the Mount of Olives, therefore, He both began and consummated both our redemption and His Church. For there, ascending, He commanded the Apostles and said: "You shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth," Acts 1:8.
Wherefore the Mount of Olives is a symbol of the Church gathered from the nations obedient to Christ, in which Christ's feet stand and rest: for the olive is a hieroglyphic of surrender, submission, obedience, reverence, and worship. For in ancient times, when peoples surrendered to some prince, they would hold out branches of olive, as if seeking peace, as Servius teaches on Aeneid 8; whence our Martin de Roa, Singularia, book 4, chapter 5, gives this sense for this passage, as if to say: The mountains of olives, that is, the Romans who will possess the empire of the whole world, will cast themselves at the feet of Jesus Christ, when the Jews shall have rejected Him. So Saint Ambrose on Luke chapter 21, and Eusebius, Demonstration, book 6, chapter 18, teach that the Church is signified by the Mount of Olives. For this reason Christ frequently prayed and dwelt on this mountain, and from it ascended into heaven, to signify that He would pass over to the Church of the nations, and pour out upon it His mercy and His gifts. So in Psalm 52:10, it is said: "But I, like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, have hoped in the mercy of God forever," as if to say: The rich hope in their riches, as preceded: but I hope in the mercy of God; I hold out to Him branches of olive, and cast myself as a suppliant at His feet; I surrender myself to Him, I worship Him prostrate: I confess myself conquered by His greatness, I yield; and therefore I do not doubt that I shall obtain the pardon and mercy that is owed to suppliants and the conquered. But he adds "forever," because the olive is a symbol of eternity, as Pierius attests: and such should be those who surrender themselves to God, that they persevere in their way of life, unlike those
unlike those who believe for a time and in the time of temptation fall away. Therefore Paul in Romans 11:17 says that the Gentiles were made olives from a wild olive tree, because the faith that the Church of the Gentiles once received, it will never abandon, nor will it fall away from the religion of Christ, as the Jews fell away. So in Psalm 128 it is said: "Your children like young olive plants around your table," as if to say: I will raise up for you children who are submissive and obedient, as well as harmonious and peaceful among themselves; for the olive is a symbol of submission and peace, as I said. I reviewed more analogies between the olive and the Church and the holy soul in Jeremiah 11:16.
Anagogically, what is signified is that Christ on the Mount of Olives will cast down the Antichrist, when the latter, imitating Christ, will wish to ascend into heaven from the same place. So Saint Jerome on Daniel 11, Damascene, On the Faith, book 4, chapter 27, Anselm on 2 Thessalonians 2, Lyranus, Hugo, and Dionysius. Furthermore, on the day of judgment He will descend with all His angels onto the Mount of Olives, which overlooks the Valley of Jehoshaphat, to judge there and contend with all nations, as Joel says in chapter 3:2.
Which is opposite Jerusalem to the East. — This alludes to the Ascension of Christ: for Christ ascended into heaven on the Mount of Olives, so that from the vineyard of the Jews growing wild, He might show that He had made an olive grove, that is, the Church, fruitful with olives, that is, with saints, the pious, the merciful, the luminous, and those anointed with the Holy Spirit. So Eusebius, Demonstration, book 6, chapter 18; whence he says: "Which is opposite" or facing the old "Jerusalem" and the Synagogue "to the East;" because the Church was elevated above the Synagogue and made nearer to the Sun of Justice, that is, Christ, so that it might receive the first rays of His rising — of faith, grace, and all spiritual gifts — so that in relation to it, Jerusalem was to the West: by which He signified that the Synagogue was to be blinded, and therefore would fall at the coming of Christ. Hence also Christ was crucified facing away from Jerusalem, looking toward the West, and thence by the Apostles' institution, Christians pray turned toward the East, and churches face the East, in which the image of Christ crucified faces West, so that those who worship it necessarily face East. So Damascene, On the Faith, book 4, chapter 13, and others. In like manner, Christ ascended into heaven on the Mount of Olives, with His face turned away from Jerusalem (as is clear from the footprints impressed on the stone, which are still visible), turned toward the West, and looking toward the Roman Church, to which He Himself sent Saint Peter, His Vicar, and Saint Paul, the teacher of the nations, so that they might transfer the seat of the Church there. So Adrichomius in Description of the Holy Land, treating of the Mount of Olives.
Note: Formerly outside Jerusalem there were two opposing mountains, namely to the East the Mount of Olives, and facing it to the West was Mount Calvary, on which Christ was crucified, which was formerly outside the city but is now within it. In the city itself there were two neighboring mountains, namely Zion facing South, on which was the citadel of David, and Moriah facing North, on which the Temple was built. Between these two mountains there was a short valley filled with the houses of citizens, which was called Mello and Tyropaeon.
And the Mount of Olives shall be split. — Saint Jerome, Cyril, Theodoret, Burgensis, and Palacius think that this splitting will be fourfold in the shape of a cross, toward the four regions of the world, so that the Mount of Olives will be split first from East to West, then those two split parts will be split again from North to South. But the Chaldean, Eusebius, Lyranus, Vatablus, Ribera, Sanchez, and others think it will be split into only two parts, namely toward East and West through the middle, so that one part of the split mountain will lean (whence for "shall be separated," the Septuagint translate "shall incline"; the Zurich Bible, "shall deflect"; Pagninus, "shall recede") toward the South, the other toward the North, and between the two there will be a steep precipice or deep valley, which will be joined to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, or Kidron, and thence to the valley of Mount Zion, so that the Jews fleeing from Zion and the city through the Valley of Jehoshaphat will pass through the valley made in the split Mount of Olives.
You will ask: when and how did this splitting of the Mount of Olives happen? Those who think the subject here is the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and the Romans explain these things in various ways. For some take the splitting of the Mount of Olives parabolically as the schisms and seditions of the Zealots and other Jews in the city. Others, like Theodoret, think the Mount of Olives is the name given to the army of the Romans who occupied that mountain: and the mountain is said to have been divided because the Roman army was divided to besiege and attack other parts of the city, since the city toward the Mount of Olives was more difficult to approach and storm because of the intervening valley or chasm of Kidron. Our Sanchez, however, explains it in three ways: First, he suspects that during the Roman siege the Mount of Olives was actually divided by a great earthquake, even though Josephus does not say this, nor any histories, just as they do not mention the earthquake under Uzziah, which nevertheless Zechariah here teaches did happen. Second, that the Roman camp on this mountain was so arranged by Titus that it extended from East to West, and left two parts on either side to the North and South, while the great precipice was the Valley of Kidron, which the Romans also occupied: for a valley is nothing other than a cleft between mountains, as if to say: The depth of Kidron will not protect the Jews, nor prevent the Romans from invading and seizing the city; because they will fill everything with their soldiers. Third, as if to say: Titus will so fill and level the most deep chasm of Kidron — which lay between the city and his camp situated on the Mount of Olives, and which fortified the city — by bringing in earthworks, that through it there will be easy access for soldiers to attack the walls. For that he did this in other valleys, Josephus teaches in Wars, book 6, chapter 4.
And that earthworks and walls were built in the very Valley of Kidron, the same Josephus teaches in book 6, chapter 13. The Septuagint support this, who say in verse 5 that the valley of the mountains was stopped up: therefore the Mount of Olives is said to have been split because the Romans cut stones from it and rolled them down with earth into the valley of Kidron below, and filled it with them. Wherefore the Prophet says: "You shall flee," O Jews, "to the valley of my mountains," that is, into the city, to the space that lies between Mount Moriah and Mount Zion (where the Temple of God was): "because the valley of the mountains shall be joined," that is, the Valley of Kidron, which lies between the Mount of Olives and Mount Zion, "even to the nearest," namely the Mount of Olives: for Titus encircled the city with a wall, led through Kidron up to the Mount of Olives. But only the tenth Roman legion was stationed on the Mount of Olives, which was to the East of the city: the rest of Titus's army besieged the city from the northern part, at the place called Sapha, or Scopos, which was situated opposite two towers called Psephina and Hippicus, as Josephus expressly says in Wars, book 6, chapter 5. And so Titus besieged the city right next to Mount Calvary. For this was nearly opposite Psephina, where the Jews had crucified Christ, as Adrichomius notes in his Description of Jerusalem, and others; so that the Jews might recognize that Titus had come for this purpose — to be the avenger of Christ's death, and to punish them there where they had committed the murder of Christ, indeed the killing of God. But finally Titus, in order to capture the city more quickly, surrounded it all around with a wall in which he established 40 forts, and he completed this work in the space of three days, and thus drove the Jews to famine and utter extremity. Therefore it is not likely that he filled in and leveled the Valley of Kidron. For Josephus in book 6, chapter 4, only says that he leveled the valley that was between his camp situated at Scopos, to the North; but not the valley of the Mount of Olives, which was to the East. Then Titus was entirely occupied with leading the wall around the city, and this one task occupied all his soldiers. For this wall was 39 stadia in circumference, that is nearly five miles, as Josephus says. Add that the subject here is not the time of Titus and the Romans, but of Antiochus and the Maccabees, as I said at the beginning.
I say therefore that from this passage it seems that in the time of Antiochus and the Maccabees the Mount of Olives was split, when God descended upon it with His angels, even though this is not narrated in the books of Maccabees nor elsewhere; just as the earthquake that occurred under Uzziah is not narrated in the books of Kings, and many other things. The words themselves and the context of the times demand this sense: for this passage concerns the age of the Maccabees: so a Castro, and Paul a Palacio, who writes thus: I believe this prophecy was fulfilled before the victories of the Maccabees, when many signs were seen in the sky, namely horsemen riding through the air, armed cohorts, the running of horses, 2 Maccabees 5. For these cohorts were of angels, with whom the Lord was coming in visible form: when therefore the Lord came, the mountain trembled (for when God goes forth, the earth is moved and shaken, Psalm 68:9). And from the trembling it was split into four parts, signifying the splitting and dispersion of the Jews from their homeland to the four regions of the world. So Palacius.
Moreover, this splitting of the mountain was a type of its splitting at the end of the world, as I shall soon say; but among other things it represented the then-present flights, on account of the impending disasters from Antiochus; and also the splits and schisms of the Jews, as some adhered to the Maccabees, others to Antiochus: and again, some favored Antiochus and the Syrians, others Ptolemy and the Egyptians.
In like manner, under the Emperor Constantius and Saint Cyril, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in the year of the Lord 353, a cross brighter than the sun appeared from heaven in full daylight above the Mount of Olives (and perhaps Zechariah also alluded to this), as if marking the mountain and cutting it like a cross, to represent the schism of the Church that the Arians were causing, and to warn Constantius, their supporter, that the Holy Cross and the Crucified Son of God, consubstantial with the Father, was to be worshipped as true God, as his father Constantine had worshipped Him, who consequently obtained divine victories over Maxentius and other enemies through the standard of the Cross; as if Christ were thundering from on high to the orthodox harassed by Constantius: Be confident, I have conquered the world by the Cross, and by the same you will conquer the Arians. Wherefore the entire city, aroused by this sign of the Cross, ran to the church, praising and celebrating God and the Son of God; indeed many Jews and Gentiles, seeing this radiant sign of the Cross in the heavens, were astounded and converted to Christ. Saint Cyril describes the event in detail — which he himself witnessed — in his letter to the Emperor Constantius at the end of the Mystagogical Catecheses. The same is briefly narrated thus in the Acts of Artemius the Martyr, on October 19, in Surius: "At which time indeed, when Magnentius had been defeated, a sign of the Cross appeared with marvelous splendor, surpassing even the light of day, and was seen at Jerusalem about the third hour of the day, on the feast day called Pentecost, extending from the place called Calvary to the Mount of Olives." So also Sozomen, book 4, chapter 4; Socrates, book 2, chapter 24; and from them Baronius, year of the Lord 353.
Similar was the apparition of Christ on the Mount of Olives in the year of Christ 419, which Baronius records from the chronicle of Marcellinus as follows: "In the year of Christ 419, many cities and villages of Palestine collapsed from an earthquake. Our Lord Jesus Christ, always everywhere wholly present, manifested Himself from a cloud above the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem. And then many nations of both sexes from neighboring peoples, terrified and made believers by both sight and hearing, were washed in the sacred font of Christ, and on the tunics of all the baptized the cross of Christ the Savior, by a nod of His divinity, was instantly imprinted and shone forth. On the occasion of this truly wonderful event, discussions about the time of the Lord's coming for judgment began to be mixed in everywhere,
discussions that from the prophecy of Daniel the prophet, chapter 7, the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds had already been foretold; and Zechariah, in chapter 14, had predicted the very place of His coming upon the Mount of Olives. And the angels had announced to the Apostles concerning Christ ascending into heaven on the Mount of Olives: Just as you have seen Him going into heaven, so shall He come. On which occasion Hesychius seems to have written in letter 79 to Saint Augustine, concerning the Last Day, which, since so many signs had preceded (as he says), now seemed imminent. To whom Saint Augustine responding in letter 80, discusses at length the time of the last day." Thus far Baronius, on the occasion of Melania the Younger, who in the same year, living separately from her husband Pinianus, led a monastic life, and persevered enclosed in a cell at the Mount of Olives for 14 years, and led a life like that of the angels in a narrow place.
Similar was the apparition on the same mountain at the time of the Crusade, by which the Christians were encouraged and stormed Jerusalem. William of Tyre narrates the event in History of the Crusade, book 8, chapter 16: when the Christians were exhausted in the siege of Jerusalem and therefore dispersing, he says: "Behold, in this desperate situation divine power was at hand. For from the Mount of Olives a certain soldier, who however afterward was not seen again, waving a splendid and shining shield, gave a signal to our legions to return to battle and renew the fight. Encouraged by this sign, Duke Godfrey of Bouillon was the first to scale the walls, and others following him immediately broke open the gate of Saint Stephen at his command, through which they led the entire Christian army into the city." And so Jerusalem was captured by the Christians in the year of the Lord 1099, on July 15, a Friday — the day on which Christ, dying, triumphed over death. The prophecy of a holy man helped, who living on the Mount of Olives had predicted that the city would be captured on that day, says Tyre in chapter 17. Whence also before the assault on the city, the Christians with bare feet and great devotion, singing litanies with crosses, processed up to the Mount of Olives, says the same author in chapter 11.
That Zechariah, or rather the Holy Spirit, looked to these and similar apparitions here is probable. Whence mystically Lyranus explains this passage of Zechariah concerning the capture of Jerusalem by Godfrey of Bouillon and the Christians: for the signal for capturing the city was given to them from the Mount of Olives, as I have just said from William of Tyre.
Finally, some explain these things conditionally, as if to say: God will so protect you, O Hebrews, that if it is necessary for your protection to split the Mount of Olives, so that through it you may escape the hands of the enemy, He will indeed do so, but such an enormous effort will not be necessary: for He can protect you in a thousand other ways. Similar is Isaiah 11:15 and Zechariah 10:11. So a Castro.
Now parabolically and quasi-allegorically, the Mount of Olives is the Church, says Eusebius, Demonstration, book 6, chapter 18. It was split when there, at Christ's ascension, the Apostles were commanded to go into the whole world, and from there they divided and spread themselves to the four regions of the world, along with the faith and Church of Christ. Furthermore, this splitting of the mountain denotes the commotion and contrition of the nations upon hearing the Gospel of Christ, according to Luke 3:5: "Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth." But one part of them remained in the North, that is, persisted in its coldness of unbelief and impiety: for the cold North signifies those who are cold and torpid from unbelief and sin; the other part, tending toward the South, signifies the faithful, who are warm with charity and fervent with the Spirit of God: for the South is warm. As a symbol of this, Ezekiel saw the glory of God, that is, God sitting gloriously in the Cherubic chariot, accompanied by four Cherubim, flying from the Jewish Temple to the Mount of Olives. For thus he says in chapter 11:23: "And the glory of the Lord ascended from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain that is to the East of the city," namely upon the Mount of Olives, so that from this mountain He might await and behold the new Jerusalem, like a phoenix rising from the ashes of the old in Zion, namely the Church of Christ, as I said there. Moreover, the Gloss takes the splitting of the Mount of Olives as the schism of the Greeks from the Latins: for to the East dwell the Greeks, who were divided from the Latins dwelling in the West. Whence he says: "And you shall flee," that is, you ought to flee to the obedience of the Roman Church, whose great mountains, namely Saints Peter and Paul, are its patrons.
Anagogically, the Mount of Olives will be split when the Antichrist will wish to ascend into heaven from it: for cast down by Christ he will fall, and the earth, that is, the mountain opening up, will swallow him alive, as I said on 2 Thessalonians 2:8. This is what Saint John says in Revelation 19:20: "The beast was seized (that is, the Antichrist), and with him the false prophet, etc. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with sulfur."
Furthermore, on the day of judgment, Christ the Judge will descend onto the Mount of Olives: and then He will shake it with His majesty and power in a great earthquake, so that the mountain itself will tremble as if with horror and reverence for Christ the Judge; and at the same time, through this earthquake it will split apart and enlarge the Valley of Jehoshaphat, to receive all people to be judged there by Christ. For if God, about to give the law, descending on Sinai shook the mountain, Exodus 19, much more will He do so when descending for judgment. Saint Clement of Rome expressly teaches the same in Apostolic Constitutions, book 7, chapter 33: "The Mount of Olives itself," he says, "shall yield to the coming glory, and cut into four parts, shall flee far away, so that the tribunal of the Judge may have the theater of the whole world present. And the terror of men will be so great that they will flee in madness into the middle of the valley, which will be most spacious; since when the mountains are removed, it will be joined with the entire surrounding plain." This indeed agrees well with the words of Zechariah. So among others Emmanuel Sa, and
Joseph a Costa, On the Last Times, book 4, chapters 13 and 14, and Leonard Lessius, On the Divine Attributes, book 13, chapter 21, at the end: "Zechariah indicates," he says, "that the Mount of Olives (next to which is the Valley of Jehoshaphat) is to be split into four parts, so that a very great plain may be made, on which those to be judged may be received."
Moreover, this splitting of the mountain will represent the separation of the Southerners, that is, the fervent and the elect, from the Northerners, that is, the cold and the reprobate. For the former will be Easterners, because the light and glory everlasting will rise upon them: but the latter will be Westerners, because they will go into their setting and eternal death.
With a very great precipice — that is, a great chasm, as the Septuagint translate; or a valley, as the Chaldean, which will open deeply from the splitting of the mountain and gape wide. Parabolically, this chasm signifies the ruin and desolation of Jerusalem, when, after the Apostles departed to the nations, the unfaithful Jews were soon devastated by Titus and cast into the depths as into an abyss, by God's just vengeance.
Anagogically, it signifies the great chasm of the Mount of Olives and the Valley of Jehoshaphat that will occur on the day of judgment, by which the earth opening up will send all the reprobate standing there into hell. This chasm and abyss will therefore be most deep: for from the valley of the Mount of Olives it will extend to hell itself, which is in the center of the earth. On the day of judgment, therefore, this prophecy will be properly and fully fulfilled, and there will be a fissure of the Mount of Olives and an immense chasm reaching to hell, so that not only the reprobate but also the elect of God will look into it, and marvel greatly that they have escaped, by the grace of Christ, that horrible abyss of fire in which they will see so many of the impious being engulfed. Saint Carpus saw this horrible abyss in spirit, and Saint Dionysius the Areopagite describes it from his mouth in letter 8 to Demophilus, saying: "Carpus related that he had seen the house in which he stood first violently shaken, and then split from its highest point through the middle, etc. He said he also saw the floor itself split open like a vast dark chasm, and that those men against whom he had uttered curses were standing before him at the mouth of that deep abyss, trembling and wretched, seeming ready to be engulfed by the very instability of their footing. Moreover, from the lower part of the abyss he saw serpents emerging, which around their feet, so unsteady and wavering, were now coiling into a ball and weighing them down and dragging them along, now seemed to strike terror with their teeth and tails, mouths, throats, tongues, and every movement of their bodies, striving by every means to hurl them downward. And there were also certain men in the midst who were attacking them along with the serpents, harassing and pushing and striking them: and those men appeared ready to fall," etc.
Verse 5: And you Shall Flee to the Valley of
Verse 5. And you shall flee to the valley of their mountains. — The Hebrew, the Septuagint, and Saint Jerome in his Commentary
read "of mine" [meorum]. Whence in the Latin versions too it seems it should be read thus. Note the expression "to the valley": for physically, in an earthquake the counsel and remedy is to flee to the valleys and low places; for these are shaken by an earthquake less than mountains. Moreover, the sense of this passage is the one I gave at verse 4.
Because the valley of the mountains shall be joined even to the nearest — in Hebrew, even to atsal, which the Septuagint, the Chaldean, Aquila, Theodotion, Vatablus, and Pagninus take and leave as a quasi-proper name. But our Vulgate, Symmachus, and others translate it as a common noun, "even to the nearest"; others, "even to the separated one," that is, a place separated from the earthquake, and therefore a safe location.
Now various interpreters explain these things variously. Two explanations are more probable. The first, as if to say: In order to escape Antiochus and the enemies besieging and invading Jerusalem, you will flee through the Valley of Jehoshaphat and of Olivet (for God will split the Mount of Olives for this purpose, so that you may flee through its cleft and the adjoining valley: whence it is called the valley of the mountains, namely of the mountains now divided. For the Mount of Olives by this splitting will be divided into two, or as others say, into four mountains) as far as Atsal, where you will be safe and secure from the enemy. So a Castro, the Zurich Bible, and Arias. The latter explanation, as if to say: In order to flee and escape this earthquake, by which the Mount of Olives will be shaken and split, you will flee to the valley of my mountains, namely to the valley of Mello, or Tyropaeon, which lies between Mount Zion and Mount Moriah: for these are my mountains, because on Moriah I have my Temple, on Zion my citadel of David: "Because the valley of the mountains shall be joined even to the nearest," as if to say: Because the valley, that is, the chasm made in the now-divided Mount of Olives (which therefore is no longer the valley of one mountain, but of two, namely of the mountains now divided) will extend to the mountain nearest to it, namely Moriah. Whence in the entire Valley of Jehoshaphat as far as Moriah, you will not be safe from this earthquake and splitting: you will therefore flee beyond Mount Moriah to the valley of Mello, which is free from this earthquake, so that you may be safe there. So Saint Jerome. Or Lyranus: Because the valley of the mountains, that is, the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which lies between the Mount of Olives and Mount Zion, will be joined even to the nearest, namely to the chasm made in the Mount of Olives. Whence you will not be in it without fear and danger: therefore you will not dare to flee to it: you will therefore flee to the valley of my mountains, that is, the one lying between Zion and Moriah, which are my mountains. This explanation is supported by what follows: "And you shall flee just as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah:" they were therefore going to flee not enemies, but an earthquake; and consequently they were not going to flee
into the very cleft of the Mount of Olives made by this earthquake, but far from it into the valley of Zion and Moriah, which was entirely free from the earthquake.
Symbolically, this flight in the earthquake foreshadows the flight of the Maccabees and the Jews to the forests and caves in the earthquake, that is, in the persecution of Antiochus, of which 1 Maccabees 2:28.
Parabolically, take this of the hardening of the Jews, as if to say: When the Mount of Olives, that is, the Church of Christ, will be spread to the four regions of the world, then you, O unbelieving Jews, will flee from the Gospel, from Christ, and from the Church — not indeed to idolatry and paganism, but to the shaded valley of my mountains, that is, to the worship, shadows, and ceremonies of the old law, which flourished on the mount of the Temple, namely Moriah and Zion, which were formerly my mountains. So Eusebius, Demonstration, book 6, chapter 18: "What," he says, "can the valley of God's mountains be, except that bodily and Jewish worship which was once celebrated according to the law of Moses and in Jerusalem?" So also Stunica, Ribera, and others, who contend that this sense is the literal one: I acknowledge it is literal, but typical and parabolic, based on the preceding sense that I assigned, as I said at the beginning of the chapter. Whence follows: "Because the valley of the mountains shall be joined even to the nearest," as if to say: This valley, that is, this shaded but obstinate religion of the Jews, will cling all the more tightly to the temple near it and its rites, the more it sees the Church of Christ being spread and propagated. Otherwise Emmanuel Sa: as if to say, this worship of the old law will be most tenaciously joined to the Jews, and will cling closely to them wherever they dwell.
Note: For nastem, that is "you shall flee," from the root nus, that is "he fled," the Septuagint, reading with different vowel points nistam, from the root satam, that is "he closed, he stopped up," translate: And the valley of my mountains shall be stopped up (filled), and the valley of the mountains shall be joined even to Asal. So also the Chaldean. Which could be taken literally thus, as if to say: The Mount of Olives will be split, and by this splitting will fall and level the entire underlying Valley of Jehoshaphat, as far as the nearest mountain, Moriah. But parabolically Eusebius explains it thus, as if to say: This shaded valley of the Jewish religion will be stopped up, that is, it will cease and be obscured by the light of the Gospel, and its shadow will yield to the truth of Christ: because they will be joined to Asal, that is, to the Mount of Olives (for from there Christ sent the Apostles to the Jews and Gentiles), which is called Asal, that is, "the work of God," as if from the root asa, that is, "he made," and el, that is, "God."
But our Vulgate reads better nastem, and translates "you shall flee," because there follows: "Just as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah." And because there preceded: "The Mount of Olives shall be split"; for by the splitting the mountain was opened, not stopped up.
Just as you fled — as if to say: With that same terror, speed, confusion, and throng you will flee, as you fled from the earthquake that occurred in the time of Uzziah; about which I spoke at Amos 1:1.
And the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Him. — He repeats and reinforces what he said in verse 3: "And the Lord shall go forth and shall fight against those nations, and His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives." He speaks therefore literally of the descent of God, by which He descended to fight for the Jews through the Maccabees against Antiochus and to crush him, as I said at verse 3. Moreover, when the battle of the faithful is difficult and the victory illustrious, God is said to descend with all His saints, that is, His angels: because they all stand by Him to fight on His behalf; hence He is called the God of hosts. So Ezekiel saw in chapter 1 that God, borne on a war chariot, accompanied by four Cherubim, descended into battle against the Jews to punish them through the Chaldeans. And the Psalmist in Psalm 18 vividly describes the majesty, soldiers, wrath, and spirit of God descending into battle against His enemies. And among other things he says in verse 11: "He mounted upon the Cherubim and flew, He flew upon the wings of the winds." And verse 15: "He sent His arrows and scattered them: He multiplied lightnings and confounded them." With similar terror, pomp, and retinue He descended on Sinai to give the law to the Hebrews and to fight for them against the nations, Deuteronomy 33:2: "The Lord came from Sinai, etc.: He appeared from Mount Paran, and with Him were thousands of saints." Now under the type of the divine battle waged through the Maccabees, there is parabolically understood the spiritual battle of Christ to be waged through the Apostles, as if to say: Christ will come, who through the Apostles will conquer all nations and subject them to His faith and Gospel. So Theodoret, Vatablus, Arias, and Eusebius, Demonstration, book 6, chapter 18.
Anagogically, and most importantly, what is signified here is the descent of Christ to the universal judgment, with all His angels and saints, onto the Mount of Olives above the Valley of Jehoshaphat, to condemn and punish the Antichrist and all the impious. For alluding to this, Jude in his epistle, verse 14, says: "Behold, the Lord comes with His holy thousands to execute judgment against the nations." And Christ in Matthew 24:30: "And they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and majesty, and He shall send His angels." And in chapter 25:31: "When the Son of Man shall come in His majesty, and all the angels with Him." So Saint Jerome, Cyril, Remigius, Hugo, Lyranus, Ribera, Sanchez, and others everywhere, who contend that this is the literal sense: I judge it to be the anagogical sense, but most especially intended by the Holy Spirit; for the literal sense concerns the Maccabees, the parabolic sense the Apostles, as I showed at the beginning of the chapter.
Verse 6: There Shall Be no Light, but Cold and
Verse 6. There shall be no light, but cold and frost. — So also the Septuagint, the Chaldean, and the Zurich Bible: they seem therefore to have read in the Hebrew ki karot, that is "but cold," or rather vekarot (for easily if the vav is shortened, it turns into a yod, and vav is often adversative meaning "but," as is frequently seen in the Proverbs of Solomon), that is "and cold" or "frost": for the root karar means to grow cold. Now some read iekarot, that is "of precious things": for iakar means to be precious, beautiful, excellent. Whence they translate: There shall be no light of precious things, that is, precious, clear, excellent; and vekippaon, that is "and (meaning but) of congealing," that is, congealed, dense: this means, on that day there shall not be clear light, nor darkness, but a mixed, cloudy, and sinister light, such as at dawn, as if to say: On that day there shall be neither full joy nor full sorrow, but joyful things will be mixed with sorrowful: but in the evening, full happiness and joy shall follow. Our version and the Septuagint return to almost the same meaning. For the sense is, as if to say: On that day there will not be clear and pleasant light, such as in summer; but light congealed with cold mists and as if frozen, and therefore troublesome and sad. Whence Pagninus translates: On that day there shall be no precious light, and (but) coagulated snow: and the Arabic Alexandrian: There shall be snow and hail (cold and storms) on one day. And the Lord shall appear (be revealed) on that day: And there shall be no light on that day, nor night, nor evening.
In the literal sense, what is denoted is the time of calamity and affliction of the Jews in the persecution of Antiochus. For the symbol of this is darkness, cold, and frost. Hence in Scripture, at the destruction of Babylon, Samaria, Jerusalem, etc., not only the day is said to be darkened, but also the sun, moon, and stars, by hyperbole and hypallage: because, that is, to the Babylonians, Samaritans, and Jerusalemites most afflicted in such a catastrophe, the light seemed to grow dark, and the sun itself, even at midday, seemed to be obscured. Whence, explaining further, he adds:
Verse 7: And There Shall Be One Day, Which is
Verse 7. And there shall be one day, which is known to the Lord, not day nor night — as if to say: There will come a time of persecution, which (and whose bitterness) is known to God alone, indeed foreseen and predestined, in which the day, to the Jews grievously afflicted by so many hardships, will not seem to be day, but neither night, since the sun is shining: therefore this time will be something midway between day and night, and as if tempered from day and night: for from the sun it will have the light of day, but from the tyranny of Antiochus it will have darkness, that is, the sorrows of night.
And at the time of evening (in Hebrew, "in the evening") there shall be light — that is, as the Zurich Bible has it: At evening there shall be light, as if to say: At the end of this calamitous time, as if toward evening, its cloudiness shall cease, and the light of happiness and joy shall follow, namely when the Maccabees shall avenge their citizens and rout the forces of Antiochus.
Under this type of the Maccabees, it is parabolically signified that after the darkness and shadows of the Jewish law, and after the darkness of ignorance and the frost of malice, in which all nations before Christ — and even the Jews themselves — were living, the light of the Gospel of Christ would follow, and that dark day of Judaism would end as if at evening, according to that oracle of Zechariah: "To give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death," Luke 1:79. And Isaiah 60:1: "Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for your light has come." This is what Paul says in Romans 13:12: "The night is past, and the day is at hand." Hence also Christ is said to have come in the flesh
toward the end, and as if at the evening of the world.
Symbolically, Theodoret refers these things to the day of Christ's Passion: for then darkness fell over the whole earth, which turned day as if into night, so that that day was properly neither day nor night, but a participation of both, and there was cold in it. Hence Peter was standing by the fire warming himself, after which followed the clear day of Christ's Resurrection. So also Clement of Rome, Constitutions, book 5, chapter 13: "Afterward," he says, "there was darkness from the sixth hour until the ninth, and again light in the evening, as it is written: Not day, and not night, and at evening there shall be light." So also Eusebius, Demonstration, book 6, chapter 18. Moreover, the cold can be taken either properly, or metonymically for darkness and night: for these are cold; for cold is opposed to light, when he says: "There shall be no light, but cold and frost." So Sanchez.
Anagogically, in the time of this life there is no clear light of the knowledge of God, nor a serene day of the love and worship of God, both because we walk by faith, not by sight; and because we walk among the wicked, in whom charity is extinguished; and in the saints themselves too, on account of concupiscences and temptations, charity often grows cold: but at evening, that is, at the end of the world, there will be the light of eternal brightness, when God of gods will be seen face to face in Zion. Whence Saint Job prayed in chapter 3:3, saying: "Let the day perish in which I was born," as if to say: Let the day of mortality perish, and the light of immortality break forth, says Saint Gregory there. And the bride in the Song of Songs, chapter 2, verse 17, wishes "that the day" of eternity "may breathe, and the shadows" of time and mortality "may decline." This day therefore will be most luminous and most joyful for the saints and the blessed, but most dark and most sorrowful for the impious and the damned. Whence some say this one day will be as if double, namely: "in it there shall be no light, but cold and frost" for the wicked; but the same will be day and light for the righteous and pious: just as the same day for the Hebrews in Egypt was the brightest day, but for the Egyptians the darkest night through the plague of darkness that God had inflicted on them. For as the Wise Man says in chapter 17:19: "The whole world was illuminated with clear light, etc. But upon those alone a heavy night was laid, an image of the darkness that was to come upon them." Moreover, shortly before the day of judgment there will be cloudy and cold days, both physically because of eclipses and heavenly storms; and morally because of various errors and men's impiety, as well as because of the great plagues that God will send upon the impious, which are listed in Revelation chapters 7, 8, 9, and 16. But at evening, that is, at the end of the world, one clear light will follow, namely the eternal day of glory, after which no night shall follow. So Saint Jerome, Cyril, Remigius, Hugo, Lyranus, Sanchez, and others, who think this sense is the literal one: I judge it to be the anagogical sense, but especially intended here by the Holy Spirit: for the words of the text suit it excellently. For near that time there will be neither day, because the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars from
dissolved the ice of the pool and made the water warm. So their Life relates, in Surius, on March 9.
heaven will fall; but neither will it be night, because the sun, though darkened, will be present in this hemisphere. But finally there will be light, and indeed most brilliant, because when the judgment is completed and the reprobate are cast into hell, the world will be renewed, and the sun will shine seven times brighter, and the moon like the sun, as Isaiah says in chapter 30:26. The splendor of Christ and all the Saints will be added, who will shine like the sun, Matthew 13:43. Indeed even the elements, now purified, will add a great deal of light and splendor to the world. For if we believe Saint Thomas, in Sentences IV, distinction 48, question 1, article 4: "The earth will be luminous and transparent like glass on its surface, water like crystal, air like heaven now is, fire like the luminaries of heaven now are." Furthermore, there will be no day nor night, that is, no alternation and succession by which night continually follows day, because the sun will stand still, and therefore there will be one continuous most brilliant day. So Sanchez. Here also belongs that explanation of some which is as follows, as if to say: That day of judgment, which is known to God alone, because it will be the last of the world, hence will not have another day or night following it, and because it will be wonderful and extraordinary for both the elect and the reprobate; it will not properly be called day or night, but evening, that is, its end will end in light, that is, the eternal glory of the saints. Alluding to this, our Thomas, taught by God, in The Imitation of Christ, book 3, chapter 47, piously and vigorously, in the person of Christ, to the faithful and devout: "Do," he says, "what you do faithfully; labor in My vineyard: I will be your reward. Write, read, sing, mourn, be silent, pray, bear adversities manfully: eternal life is worthy of all these and greater battles; peace will come on one day, which is known to the Lord, and it will be not day, nor night — of this time, that is — but perpetual light, infinite brightness, firm peace and secure rest. You will not then say: Who will deliver me from the body of this death? Nor will you cry out: Woe is me! that my sojourning is prolonged, because death will be cast down, and salvation will be unfailing, anxiety nothing, blessedness joyful, society sweet and beautiful." This is what the holy soldiers and 40 Martyrs were thinking, condemned under the Emperor Licinius by the prefect Agricolaus to an icy pool. For they encouraged one another with these words to endure it bravely: "Hard is the cold, but sweet is paradise. Tormenting is the ice, but delightful is the rest. Enduring for a brief time, the bosom of Abraham will warm us perpetually. We shall exchange one night for an everlasting age (and for one perennial day, which has neither night nor end). Let the foot burn with cold, so that it may dance continually with the angels. Let the hand grow numb with cold, so that it may have the power to be raised to God. Since we must die once, let us die that we may live." So Saint Basil relates in his homily On the 40 Martyrs. Wherefore, sent into the pool before evening, when it was neither day nor night, at evening and night they were gifted with heavenly light. For around the third hour of the night the sun shone around them, as bright and warm as in summer, and the cold and
The divine Plato saw these things through a shadow, whose maxim in the Theaetetus is this: "Philosophy, or true wisdom, is the soul's return from this dark life, which should rather be called night than life, to the true light of being." Wherefore he everywhere exhorts students of wisdom to trample the lusts of the flesh and devote themselves solely to seeking and contemplating truth, and the divine light. For God is to on, to kallos — being itself, beauty itself, life itself, etc., says the same author in the Phaedo.
Verse 8: Living Waters Shall Go Out
Verse 8. Living waters shall go out. — "Living waters" is the name given to springs, which bubble up and gush forth from their veins. Springs and their aqueducts bring great convenience to a city and place, as well as refreshment and beauty. Hence modern Romans, and even more the ancients, filled Rome with spring waters and their aqueducts at enormous labor and expense, so much so that Pliny, book 36, chapter 15, calls them the wonders of the world, and asserts that nothing more marvelous can be found in Rome, or indeed in the whole world. The Jews did similar things in Jerusalem, especially Solomon, who says of himself in Ecclesiastes 2:6: "I built myself pools of water," so much so that our Vilalpando, On the Temple, volume 2, page 563, contends that Solomon's aqueducts were more magnificent than those of the Romans. Hezekiah also built such things, 4 Kings 20:20.
Zechariah therefore alludes to these fountains of Jerusalem, and implies that those broken or fallen into ruin during the Babylonian captivity or by Antiochus would be restored, enlarged, and beautified. For that the Jews returning from captivity did this, Nehemiah teaches in chapter 3, verse 15, saying: "And Shallum built the gate of the fountain, etc., and the walls of the pool of Siloam in the king's garden." And verse 16: "Even to the pool that was built with great work." And in Sirach 50:3, concerning Simon the high priest, who lived in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus (for he had as grandfather Jaddua the high priest, whom Alexander the Great honored), it is said: "In his days the wells of water flowed out, and they were filled beyond measure like the sea." That the Maccabees and their successors did the same in the restoration of Jerusalem is not in doubt: for they so adorned Jerusalem that it seemed to be the delight of the world. Hence Adrichomius and other geographers describe very many fountains in Jerusalem; namely to the East, "toward" — that is, in the direction of — "the Eastern sea" (which is the Dead Sea, or Lake Asphaltites), there faced the fountain of Siloam, the fountain of Rogel, the fountain of the Dragon, the torrent of Kidron, and the pool of Bethesda: to the West, "toward" — that is, in the direction of — "the Western sea," that is, the Mediterranean, among others the fountain of Gihon was prominent, where Solomon was anointed king, and it was twofold, upper and lower. Moreover, there was a stream that flowed from Jerusalem to the Eastern sea, and flowed into it at the pillar of salt, near En-Gedi. On the other side there was a hill
an aqueduct, near Gibeon and Jerusalem, where Abner struck down Azael, the brother of Joab, 2 Samuel chapter 2. We see that in many provinces entire rivers are led for many miles by digging channels with skill. Thus, to pass over others in silence, Brussels, a famous city of Belgium and the seat of princes, at its own expense dug a trench and made an artificial river for a distance of 15 Italian miles, as far as the Scheldt, which flows by Antwerp — a navigable river, I say, by which it carries and brings back all merchandise to Antwerp, and from there to Spain and throughout the whole world, with great convenience and profit. What if the Jews made a similar trench and river, leading it from Jerusalem to the Mediterranean Sea, so as to bring all maritime goods into the city by this route, and export their own by the same route, to be distributed and sold throughout the whole world? Indeed the distance of Jerusalem from the Mediterranean is only twice as great, namely about 30 miles (which is a day's journey), or indeed it would be equal, namely 15 miles, if you lead a river from Jerusalem to the torrent of Gaash: or to the torrent that flows from Eleutheropolis into this sea. If this is true, it corresponds precisely to the words of Zechariah, when he says: "Half of them to the Eastern sea, and half of them to the Western sea," which is the Western, or Mediterranean. Regarding the Temple, it is established from Aristeas, in his book On the Seventy Translators, that it was filled with underground aqueducts for up to five stadia.
Hence Saint John, alluding to these fountains of Jerusalem, in Revelation 22:1, says there will be similar but more excellent ones in the heavenly Jerusalem. By this great abundance of waters, the Prophet signifies nothing other than that Jerusalem will enjoy great happiness and pleasantness, so that it will be entirely irrigated by waters, which will flow out from it on both sides into the fields, making them fruitful and delightful; which was actually fulfilled in the time of the Maccabees and their successors.
Now under these fountains and aqueducts of Jerusalem, he symbolically understands the fortunate and joyful sorties of Judah and his brothers, both to undertake battles and victories against Antiochus, and to gather the fugitive Jews and recall to the faith those who had lapsed into paganism from fear of Antiochus, and to encourage those still standing to perseverance, and this throughout all Judea, whose boundary to the east was the Eastern or Dead Sea, to the west the Mediterranean Sea, as if to say: The Maccabees will go out from Jerusalem, who will so irrigate the dry and barren face of Judea in such a great persecution, that the Jews, nearly extinguished, will revive; namely Judas will go out against Gilead and the Ammonites, who are to the east near the Dead Sea; Jonathan against Joppa and the Philistines, who are to the west of Jerusalem, as is clear from 1 Maccabees 5:6 and 55, and chapter 10:76. So Paul a Palacio.
But parabolically and most importantly, understand the waters as the doctrine and grace of the Gospel: for these Christ and the Apostles poured forth from Jerusalem as from a mother, and channeled throughout the entire East and West (whence Arias, by the Eastern and Western sea, understands the Eastern and Western Ocean, to which the Spanish and Portuguese sail to the Indies, both Eastern and Western, and there sow the faith and Church of Christ) — under which understand also the remaining two regions of the world, namely the South and the North: and they did this both in summer and winter, that is, continually and at all times, in favorable and unfavorable conditions, in adversity and prosperity, as if to say: "From Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem," Isaiah 2:3; for from it the law and grace of Christ will be spread through the whole world. He alludes to what he said in chapter 13:1: "In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem," as if to say: From Jerusalem as from a fountain, the living waters of wisdom and grace will flow to all nations. So Saint Cyril, Saint Jerome, Remigius, Hugo, Ribera here, and Eusebius, Demonstration, book 6, chapter 18, and Saint Augustine, Against Fulgentius the Donatist, chapter 6. Theodoret agrees, who thinks there is an allusion here to the water and blood that flowed from the side of Christ, pierced with a lance on the Cross, which were symbols of our redemption and of the saints, by which all nations are saved: "Water," he says, "purges us and cleanses us from sins: blood nourishes, irrigates, and makes to germinate," namely the fruits of good works.
Anagogically, signified here are the gifts and joys of the blessed in the heavenly Jerusalem, which flow as from a fountain from the vision of God, of which Revelation 22:1: "And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb," etc. See what I said there. As a symbol of this, four rivers flowed from the earthly paradise, Genesis 2:10. So Lyranus.
In summer and in winter they shall be — as if to say: These fountains of Jerusalem will be perennial, continually gushing forth waters. Symbolically, the Maccabees both in winter and summer, that is, at any time however inopportune, fighting and conquering, gave consolation, rest, and joy to Israel, like perennial springs. So Palacius. Parabolically, in the Church the fountains of doctrine and grace, which are the sacraments, flow continually for those willing to draw from them.
Tropologically, by no labors and at no time, whether adverse or prosperous, do holy men dry up, so as to lose the grace of God; or if they are teachers and pastors, so as not to channel and pour it out upon others. So Stunica. The Septuagint translate: In summer and in spring it shall be so, which Saint Jerome explains mystically, as if to say: These waters will flow at Easter and Pentecost: for at those times solemn baptism is usually celebrated, and therefore the filling and blessing of the sacred font precedes it: "So that we may celebrate," he says, "Easter and Pentecost, in which we pass from earthly to heavenly things, and offer our fruits to God. For at the Passover is the end of winter and the beginning of spring: at Pentecost is the beginning of summer, when we offer the labors of our hands and fruits to God. Of this summer and spring the just man per-
Verse 9: And the Lord Shall Be King Over All
9. AND THE LORD SHALL BE KING OVER ALL THE EARTH. To the letter this applies in a limited way to the Maccabees, whose battles and divine victories were published and celebrated in all the land, namely Judea, indeed in the whole world; and consequently most nations feared and celebrated God as the giver and author of these things, as the Lord of the whole earth. But plainly and fully this applies to Christ, whom as God the Lord of the world, all nations acknowledged, invoked, and worshipped through the preaching of the Apostles. So St. Jerome, Remigius, Rupert, Haymo, Ribera, and others.
IN THAT DAY THE LORD SHALL BE ONE, AND HIS NAME SHALL BE ONE, as if to say: Now in the world many are regarded and named as gods, such as Jupiter, Apollo, Saturn, Mars, etc.; but in the time of Christ, one God will be worshipped and named by all nations, namely Christ, who alone is the true God, and the same with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Then therefore everywhere the name of Christ alone will be invoked, not that of idols. So Vatablus and the others already cited. Note the metonymy: for "name" signifies the thing, namely the person named. Thus poets call celebrated and renowned men "names." Whence Ovid, elegy IV, book III of the Tristia: "Live for yourself, and flee great names from afar" -- names, that is, the powerful and princes, such as Augustus was, who banished Ovid to Sarmatia, which is now Poland, where the place of his exile is still shown.
Verse 10: And All the Land Shall Return as Far
10. AND ALL THE LAND SHALL RETURN AS FAR AS THE DESERT. In Hebrew, "like a desert," that is, equal to a desert. Whence the Septuagint translate: "Going around (the Lord, who preceded) all the land and desert," that is, as far as the desert, inclusively, as our Translator renders it. To the letter it signifies that the Jews, who in the persecution of Antiochus had fled to deserts, mountains, and caves, after the battles and victories of the Maccabees will return to their homes and dwellings; they will return, I say, from the hill, namely Gibeah, as the Hebrew has it (which was a city of Benjamin, where Saul the first king of Israel was born), which was the northern boundary of the kingdom of Judah, as far as Rimmon, which was the other boundary of Judah on the southern side, as if to say: Jews dispersed to the farthest boundaries of the kingdom will return to their homes, and especially to Jerusalem, and will live there peacefully and happily: by which he signifies that all Judea will be peaceful, quiet, and happy. So Palacius and Mariana.
This was true of the Maccabees and the Synagogue, but more truly of the Apostles, through whom all nations flowed together into the Church.
Secondly, because the Hebrew word araba signifies not only a desert, but also a plain, hence others explain it thus, as if to say: "It shall return," that is, all the land near Jerusalem shall be reduced to a desert, that is, to level ground, or to a plain and open area, so that the city of Jerusalem may be extended that far, and its suburbs, villas, and vineyards may be built there. Whence from the Hebrew the Chaldean and Pagninus translate: "All the land shall be encompassed like a plain," as if to say: By those living waters, which I said in verse 8 would flow forth from Jerusalem, all the land, namely that near Jerusalem, will be irrigated and encompassed. That this happened in the time of the Maccabees is clear from the fountain of Gihon, Rogel, Kidron, and others named shortly before, by which Jerusalem is irrigated and, as it were, bordered on both sides, both to the East and to the West, as is evident to anyone inspecting the plan and delineation of Jerusalem, which Adrichomius and others exhibit from life. Therefore the Jews vainly contend that these things have never been fulfilled, but are to be fulfilled by their Messiah. For they began to be fulfilled under the Maccabees corporally, as Palacius, Mariana, and others teach; but spiritually, and much more excellently and divinely, they were fulfilled through the preaching of Christ and the Apostles.
AND IT SHALL BE EXALTED -- Jerusalem, both in houses and walls, and in fame and glory. For the Maccabees fortified Mount Zion, namely surrounding it with high walls and towers all around. So Palacius.
FROM THE HILL OF RIMMON. In Hebrew miggheba, which the Septuagint, the Chaldean, the Rabbis, and following them the Tigurine, Pagninus, and other more recent interpreters, take as a proper name, and translate: "From Gibeah to Rimmon." And thus our Translator can be understood: from the hill, namely Gibeah, to Rimmon. For Rimmon is in the accusative case: this is clear from the article lamed, which is prefixed to it: for lamed serves the accusative among the Hebrews. But since lamed sometimes also serves the genitive, hence secondly it can be translated, "from the hill of Rimmon," that is, of Rimmon. If you explain it by the accusative, the sense will be what I gave a little before, namely that the dispersed Jews will return from everywhere, that is, from the hill of Gibeah, which is to the north of Jerusalem, to Rimmon, which is to the south of the same. Where note that there were two Rimmons: one in the tribe of Simeon, of which Joshua 19:7; this was south of Jerusalem, and hence is the one treated here; the other in the tribe of Judah; this was to the north, which Josephus in book V of the Antiquities, chapter 6, calls Roob, and it was a steep rock, and on it a city, distant 15 miles from Jerusalem, not far from Gibeah between the north and east, in which six hundred men confined themselves during the destruction of the tribe of Benjamin, from whom the whole tribe was restored, Judges chapters 20 and 21. So St. Jerome, Adrichomius, and others.
Now if you take this second Rimmon, and that in the genitive, the sense will be similar to what was already said: but according to the other version brought forth a little before, the sense will be, as if to say: The region near Jerusalem will be leveled from the hill of Rimmon, which is to the north, to the south -- understand "and," as if to say: and to the region which is to the south, so Sanchez; or as far as the south, that is, as far as the place of Rimmon, on the opposite southern side, so that the intermediate space may be a level, pleasant, and delightful plain, and an open field, through which may extend partly the streets of Jerusalem, partly the suburbs, partly villas, vineyards, and gardens. Or, as if to say: The inhabitants of the Holy Land from Rimmon to the southern place opposite to it, will come to Jerusalem to build it. Or by the living waters flowing forth from Jerusalem, the plain lying between Rimmon and the southern place opposite to it will be irrigated.
Mystically, the faithful in the Church say with the bride, Song of Songs 4:6: "I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense," namely of penance and prayer; and from there they proceed to Rimmon, that is, the pomegranate (whence also Andreas Masius in Joshua, chapter 19:13, thinks this place was called Rimmon from the abundance and fertility of pomegranates), namely to full charity, both of God and of neighbor. For just as the pomegranate contains very many seeds, and as it were grows together with them; so charity embraces all neighbors in its bowels, and binds and unites them to itself, and from all the loves of each and every person, as it were, grows together.
AND IT SHALL DWELL IN ITS PLACE, that is, it shall be rebuilt in its former place, says St. Jerome. But the Roman and Hebrew texts read "it dwelt," that is, it shall dwell, in its place, that is, it shall dwell quietly, securely, and happily in its own home, fearing no enemies. The Septuagint take the Hebrew word rama, that is, "it shall be exalted," as a proper name. Whence they translate: "But Ramah shall remain in its place."
FROM THE GATE OF BENJAMIN. This was in Bezetha, or Coenopolis, that is, the new city. It therefore signifies that the old city was to be enlarged by a new one, namely by adding Bezetha, or Coenopolis, to it. Where note that Jerusalem was so enlarged that two other parts, like new cities, were added to the old city, so that it was, as it were, triple, or a threefold city, each of which had its own walls and gates. Hence they were called the first, second, and third city. The first was the old one, in which was the former gate. The second was nearest to the old one, in which Huldah the prophetess lived, 2 Kings 22:14. The third was the outermost, and was called Bezetha, or Coenopolis, in which was the Gate of Benjamin. See the plan of Jerusalem in Adrichomius.
FROM THE TOWER OF HANANEEL (which was the last part of the old city, and from there the city began to be enlarged, with Coenopolis added), TO THE ROYAL WINE-PRESSES, which were on the farthest opposite side, namely on Mount Zion, in which the wine of the kings was pressed. All these things signify that Jerusalem was to be greatly enlarged and adorned at its four gates under the Maccabees, say Mariana and Palacius, by which is symbolically signified the amplification, leveling, and adornment of the Church of Christ to the four quarters of the world, and the multitude of believers and Christians. A similar symbol of the expansion of the Church under the type of the extension of Jerusalem is found in Jeremiah chapter 31, at the end, and in Isaiah chapter 51:2, as I discussed there.
Whence St. Jerome mystically explains it thus: "Then all the land in which the Jews dwelt shall return, as far as the desert, that is, as far as the people of the nations, who were formerly deserted and did not have knowledge of the law, from Gibeah to Rimmon, that is, from a hill to a high place: because from the land, and from the desert to the hills, and from the hills we rise up to the mountains. Whence also the bridegroom, Song of Songs 2, leaps over the hills, which are smaller, and springs upon the lofty mountains, of which it is written: The high mountains for the deer." But Mariana explains this version more plainly and easily according to the letter: "All the land shall be encompassed like a plain," as if to say: By those living waters, which I said in verse 8 would flow forth from Jerusalem, all the land, namely that near Jerusalem, will be irrigated and encompassed. That this happened in the time of the Maccabees is clear from the fountain of Gihon, Rogel, Kidron, and others named shortly before.
Verse 11: There Shall Be no More Anathema
11. THERE SHALL BE NO MORE ANATHEMA. In Hebrew man cherem, that is, cutting off, that is, a thing to be abominated and cut off, namely the idol which Antiochus placed in the temple, which by Daniel chapter 11:31 is called the abomination of desolation, as if to say: Idols will no longer pollute the temple, nor will they be worshipped. So Theodoret and Palacius. This was accomplished under the Maccabees. Secondly, properly, anathema in Hebrew is called cherem, that is, cutting off, destruction, as the Chaldean translates it, which I discussed at Romans 9:3 and Leviticus chapter 27:28, as if to say: Jerusalem shall no longer be cut off or destroyed, namely for a long and immemorial time: for afterwards it was utterly destroyed by Titus. Parabolically, the Church of Christ will not be cut off, as the Synagogue was cut off, but will endure forever, until it is transferred from the militant state to the triumphant. Whence St. Jerome: "There shall be," he says, "no fear of hostile attack, no dread"; for "Jerusalem shall sit secure" in faith and hope of divine guardianship and protection; in like manner every faithful and holy person will sit secure in it, according to that saying of Psalm 91:1: "He who dwells in the help of the Most High shall abide in the protection of the God of heaven."
Do you want an illustrious example, indeed many outstanding ones in a single person? Receive it. The great St. Sabas, who in the time of the Emperors Anastasius and Justinian vigorously defended the Council of Chalcedon, and laden with merits in the 92nd year of his age, in the year of Christ 531, gloriously departed to heaven -- when Satan furiously rushed at him in the form of a lion, he stood secure, because he relied on God, and said: "If you have received power against me, why do you restrain your attack? I am ready, yielding to God's will, and offering myself not unwillingly to be devoured; but if not, why do you rage and exult in vain? For I shall walk, and I shall trample you, the lion, fortified by the power of Christ." Satan fled: and all wild beasts from that time were more tame and obedient to him, so that he lived among them and was not harmed at all. A Saracen plotting the death of St. Sabas -- while the saint was praying: "Some trust in chariots, O Lord, and some in horses, but we shall glory in Your name" -- was immediately swallowed up by the earth, like another Dathan. From then on the grace of God so imbued the holy man that he thought nothing of the plots of barbarians: and not only was he not overcome by them, but he was not even terrified in the least. Therefore, with many giving themselves to his holy discipline, his Laura became a chorus of Apostles, or a Church of angels praising the Lord. He himself during the entire period of fasting ate nothing, and touched no food, except that on Sabbaths and Sundays he received the divine sacraments. When tempted by a demon he would sing psalms: hence his heart was filled with tranquility and cheerfulness, and the demon cried out that it was defeated by him.
Through great confidence in God he obtained by miracle water, money, and whatever he wished. Having entered the cave of a huge lion, when after prayers he had given himself to sleep, the beast approached him at midnight, and seizing him by his garment dragged him outside. He, awakened and not at all disturbed by the sight of the lion, immediately began the nocturnal hymns. The lion went outside and waited until he finished his prayers: when they were finished, the lion returned and tried to drag him out by his garment; to whom he said fearlessly: "O lion, this cave, if you wish, is sufficient for both of us to dwell in. But if this does not seem good to you, rather you yield the cave to me, for I was formed by the hand of God, and I am honored with His image." Having heard these words, the lion departed, yielding the cave and lair to St. Sabas. Indeed even robbers, when lions confronted them, said: "By the prayers of the monk Sabas, yield us the way": and immediately the lions, as if struck by a heavy blow at the name of Sabas, took flight: upon seeing this, the robbers were converted and changed their lives. A lion whose foot had been pierced by a stake approached St. Sabas, extending its foot and seeking help. The holy man removed the stake, and the grateful lion thereafter clung to him like a servant, and served him in all things as much as it could, guarding the donkey that carried water and necessities to the monastery. He who did not fear wild beasts did not fear kings. He freely rebuked the heretical Emperor Anastasius. The Emperor Justin, beholding his face shining with light, received him as an angel of God and sought his blessing. The Emperor Justinian, revering him, accomplished wonderful things at his request. He had scheduled the third hour for a conversation with him: when that hour struck, Sabas, leaving the emperor, withdrew to his customary psalmody. When his disciple urged him to go meet the emperor: "The emperor," he said, "does what befits him; and we do what we ought." These things are from Cyril in the Life of St. Sabas.
Verse 12: The Flesh of Each One Shall Waste Away
12. THE FLESH OF EACH ONE SHALL WASTE AWAY (in Hebrew hamec, that is, it shall melt, just as wax melts and dissolves before fire, so Pagninus and Vatablus; it shall waste away, I say) UPON HIS FEET, that is, while living and thriving, as if to say: The enemies of Jerusalem shall waste away, not by fever, not by disease, but by a divine plague, so that while healthy, standing, living, and thriving, one shall wither and waste away. This happened to Antiochus, whom God, when he was swelling with pride and raging, suddenly "struck with an incurable and invisible plague: for as soon as he finished this very speech (about utterly devastating Jerusalem), a dreadful pain of the bowels seized him, and bitter torments of the internal organs, etc." (2 Maccabees 9:5). In like manner, the commanders and strong soldiers of Antiochus fighting against Judas and the Maccabees, struck and terrified by God, fell in spirit and strength, as if wasting away. Thus of Lysias it is said in 1 Maccabees chapter 4:27: "When he heard these things, dismayed in spirit, he was failing." And Judas prays to God in verse 32, saying: "Give them fear, and cause the boldness of their strength to waste away, and let them be shaken by their own destruction." Likewise in book II, chapter 10:30, it is narrated that the angels surrounding Judas "kept him safe: but against the adversaries they hurled weapons and thunderbolts, whereby they fell, confused with blindness and filled with perturbation." And in chapter 12:22, speaking of the battle of Judas with Timothy: "When the first cohort of Judas appeared, fear was struck into the enemies by the presence of God, who sees all things, and they turned to flight one from another, so that they were cast down more by their own men, and weakened by the blows of their own swords."
Parabolically, this was more truly fulfilled in the persecutors of the Church. "Let us read," says St. Jerome, "the ecclesiastical histories, what Valerian, what Decius, what Diocletian, what Maximian, what Maximinus the cruelest of all, and recently Julian suffered; and then we shall prove by the facts, even according to the letter, that the truth of the prophecy was fulfilled, that their flesh rotted, and their eyes wasted away, and their tongue dissolved into stench and pus."
Thus the blasphemous tongue of Nestorius, which he had put forth against the Church and the Blessed Virgin, teaching that she was not the Mother of God but the Mother of Christ, was consumed and wasted away by worms. Thus Arius, struck by a heavenly plague, while proceeding to invade the church of Christians in Constantinople, seized by a tremendous pain of the bowels, withdrawing to the latrines, voided his intestines and breathed out his wretched soul, as St. Ambrose reports in book I of On the Faith, chapter 9, and Socrates in book I of the History, chapter 25. Thus Calvin, like Herod consumed by stench and worms, was a portent and example of divine vengeance to the whole world, as Bolsec reports in his Life. This is what Isaiah says in chapter 49:26: "I will feed your enemies with their own flesh, and as with new wine, they shall be made drunk with their own blood." See what was said there.
Anagogically, thus God will dissolve and cause to waste away the Antichrist, Gog, Magog, and all the impious, at the end of the world through the dreadful plagues He will send upon them, "men withering away from fear, and from the expectation of those things which will come upon the whole world," as Christ says in Luke chapter 21:26. For these plagues and terrors will be sent properly and directly upon the impious, yet indirectly and accompaningly they will affect even the pious, but for their own good. For this will be for them either a purgatory of penance, or a martyrdom of patience, to illuminate their virtue and increase their crown. So Lyranus.
Tropologically, the flesh, eyes, and tongue waste away in us when through the grace of Christ we mortify the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which shows itself most in the boasting of the tongue. For these are the three enemies and tempters we face in the world, as St. John teaches in his first epistle, chapter 2:16. So Stunica.
AND HAND SHALL BE JOINED. In Hebrew: "And the hand shall rise upon the hand of his neighbor," which Remigius and Hugo explain thus, as if to say: The infidels, seeing the stupendous miracles of the Apostles, will join hands, and by that sign will enter into a covenant, to equally surrender themselves to Christ and the Apostles. Secondly, Vatablus translates "shall rise," namely into the air, that is, "shall vanish" -- his hand in the hand of his neighbor, as if to say: If anyone seeks help from his companion to attack Jerusalem, he will do so in vain, because neither human strength nor human counsels will avail anything against the strength and counsels of God. Thirdly, the Chaldean translates: "And his hand shall be torn away with the hand of his neighbor"; and Pagninus: "His hand shall be cut off upon the hand of his friend," as if to say: They will implore the help of their companions, but will be cut down together with them. Fourthly and more probably, Theodoret and Lyranus explain it, as if to say: So great will be the tumult of the enemies that, turned against one another, they will join hands in battle and cut each other down with mutual wounds. Fifthly and most simply, as if to say: So great will be the trepidation and so great the terror of those in tumult that, lifeless with fear, they will seize hands and clasp and huddle them together, so that united in this cluster they may somehow resist their terror. For thus we see sheep, oxen, pigs, and all animals in fear -- for example, when a wolf comes -- instinctively huddling and pressing together, as if seeking mutual help from one another, so that packed together in one common mass they may resist the common enemy and protect themselves. Such is the force of terror, and on the other hand of fellowship, according to that saying of Ecclesiastes 4:9: "Therefore it is better for two to be together than one: for they have the advantage of their fellowship, etc. And if anyone prevails against one, two resist him: a threefold cord is not easily broken."
Verse 13: There Shall Be a Tumult of the Lord
13. THERE SHALL BE A TUMULT OF THE LORD (that is, stirred up by the Lord, and therefore) GREAT AMONG THEM, namely the enemies...
Verse 14: But Also Judah, as If to Say: Many
14. BUT ALSO JUDAH, as if to say: Many Jews, partly out of fear, partly out of wickedness, in hope of wealth and honors, will join themselves to Antiochus and will fight against Jerusalem and the Maccabees, as I said in chapter 12:2. Likewise in the time of Christ, Jews will attack Jerusalem, that is, the Church being born in Jerusalem. Mystically, the people of Judah, that is, those who confess and are faithful, fight against Jerusalem, that is, the Church -- those who renounce and abjure the Christian faith which they professed, and become heretics, apostates, Saracens, pagans: for these are usually the most hostile enemies of the faith once acknowledged and of the Church. So Remigius and Lyranus. We see this in renegades, who are the strength of the Turks against Christians.
AND RICHES SHALL BE GATHERED TOGETHER. Thus literally with the spoils of Nicanor and other commanders and forces of Antiochus, Judas Maccabeus enriched himself and his followers, 2 Maccabees 8:27: so Theodoret, Palacius, and Mariana, under whose type he understands the spoils which the Apostles brought into the Church from the nations. For, as Isaiah says in chapter 60:16, the nations converted to Christ brought all their wealth into the Church. Whence he congratulates the Church, saying: "You shall suck the milk of the nations, and you shall be nursed at the breast of kings, etc. Instead of bronze I shall bring gold, and instead of iron I shall bring silver"; under which he again typically understands wisdom, philosophy, eloquence, mathematics, and other sciences and arts, both liberal and mechanical, with which the converted Gentiles adorned the Church. Less fittingly, Lyranus takes these things as referring to the spoils of nations which the Antichrist will bring into Jerusalem, where he will fix his throne; for he will be an enemy and tyrant of Jerusalem, not a king and protector.
Mystically, Remigius, Albert, Vatablus, and Arias take gold to mean charity, silver to mean divine wisdom, and garments to mean the other graces and Christian virtues which the nations converted to Christ had received from God. But they did not bring these things into the Church; rather they received them in the Church, though they adorned it with them.
Verse 15: And so Shall Be the Ruin of the
15. AND SO SHALL BE THE RUIN OF THE HORSE, AND THE MULE, ETC., LIKE THIS RUIN, as if to say: Just as I said in verse 12 that the men and nations who fight with Antiochus against Jerusalem, and typically against the Church, will be slain and will fall; so I say likewise that their horses, mules, camels, etc., with which they will fight against Jerusalem, whether by fighting or by carrying baggage, will be slain and will fall.
Symbolically, all these things by catachresis signify the wealth and military instruments of the enemies of the Church, namely nobility, cunning, talent, wisdom, power, eloquence, etc., which will yield to the victorious Church.
Mystically, with St. Jerome and Remigius, by horses understand the lustful or the arrogant; by mules, the deceitful, or rather the headstrong and fantastical; by camels, those laden with riches and vices; by donkeys, the slothful, dull, and foolish. For the lust, arrogance, deceit, avarice, sloth, etc. of these fell when in baptism or penance they put on the chastity, humility, sincerity, charity, and fervor of Christ.
Verse 16: And All Who Shall Remain
16. AND ALL WHO SHALL REMAIN, namely from the slaughter of battle. He alludes literally to the nations which, after so many and so illustrious victories of the Maccabees, partly adopted Judaism, and partly, allied with them, flowed together annually to Jerusalem for their feasts, and worshipped their God there. So Theodoret, Palacius, and Mariana. For thus Josephus teaches in book XIII of the Antiquities, chapter 18, that the Idumeans, subjugated by the arms of Hyrcanus, who was the son of Simon the brother of Judas Maccabeus, adopted circumcision and Judaism. But since few nations did this, hence typically and rather under these he understands all who were converted to Christ, as if to say: While the rest perish in their infidelity, the remnant of the nations converted to the faith of Christ will come each year to the Church, and there will celebrate Christian feasts, not Jewish ones. So Stunica, Sanchez, and others.
Mystically, they will always celebrate the feast of Tabernacles; because they will live as pilgrims in this world, constantly striving toward the heavenly homeland, on which they will fix their minds, so that there they may celebrate the perpetual feast of Tabernacles in glory. He names the feast of Tabernacles above the others, both because it was celebrated longer than the rest, namely for seven days; and because it alludes to the tabernacles of the Hebrews in the desert, in which, overshadowed by the heavenly pillar of fire by night and cloud by day, they were protected from the darkness of night as well as from the heat of day: for in a similar way the faithful in the Church are protected by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit from every temptation and affliction; and finally so that Christians may remember that here they do not have an abiding city and home, but dwell in tabernacles as soldiers and pilgrims, and journey toward their eternal home in heaven. See the commentary on Leviticus 33:42. So St. Jerome, Remigius, Hugo, Lyranus, Vatablus, Ribera, and others throughout.
Mystically, Eusebius in book VIII of the Demonstration, chapter 4, by tabernacles understands particular churches, in which as in tabernacles, secure from every storm and hostile attack, the faithful dwell as they journey toward heaven.
The Jews object that the feast of Tabernacles is to be taken properly, and therefore these things are to be expected from the Messiah to come. For why should we take it spiritually and mystically? I respond that partly it is taken properly, and so was fulfilled in the Maccabees; partly and rather spiritually, and so is more fully fulfilled in Christians. Moreover, the reasons why the Prophet calls the feasts of Christians by the name of the Jewish feast of Tabernacles are various. First, because he was speaking to Jews, who knew only Jewish feasts. Second, to show that the Jewish feasts are types and figures of Christian feasts, and that the latter would correspond to the former, just as the body corresponds to the shadow. For the agreement and harmony of the New Testament with the Old produces great faith in the Church, and the fact that all its sacraments and gifts were foreshadowed by the old and Jewish ones. Third, because Christians celebrate the feast of Tabernacles far more and more truly, not once a year as the Jews did, but continuously and perpetually. This is what St. Peter admonishes them in his first epistle, chapter 2:11, saying: "Beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims to abstain from carnal desires." And St. Paul often teaches that, like Abraham, we are pilgrims on earth, but citizens of heaven and of the saints, and members of God's household: "Faith," he says in Hebrews 11:4 and 9, "is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. By faith Abraham dwelt in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, co-heirs of the same promise. For he was waiting for the city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." See what was said there.
Fourth, because the Prophets speak prophetically, that is, parabolically, symbolically, enigmatically, both because of the absence of future things, which they saw through shadows and figures; and because of their obscurity; and for the elegance of prophecy. Thus this entire chapter, as well as nearly all of Zechariah, and Ezekiel in many places, and St. John in the Apocalypse, are symbolic and parabolic. In a similar way the Egyptians represented their mysteries through hieroglyphics: and the Jews were neighbors of the Egyptians, and when originally living in Egypt they themselves had seen those things: whence they also from time to time imitated them, for whom therefore the Prophets prophesy in a similar manner, lest they appear inferior to the Egyptians, especially since the Egyptians drew their symbols and letters, and their wisdom, from the Hebrews, namely from Abraham, Jacob, Moses, etc., as Eusebius teaches in book X of the Preparation, book II, Clement of Alexandria in book I of the Stromata, and St. Augustine in book XVIII of the City of God, chapter 39.
Fifth, because spiritual things and spiritual goods, which Christ brought in the New Testament, could not be conveniently explained to men, and especially to uneducated Jews, except through the physical symbols to which they were accustomed.
Tropologically and anagogically, St. Jerome says: "As long as we are in progress, and in the race and the contest, we dwell in tabernacles; striving with all our mind to pass from tabernacles to a firm and stable dwelling, that is, the house of God. Whence also David says in the Psalm: 'Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged!' And: 'I am a stranger and a pilgrim, like all my fathers.' He speaks this who is in Egypt, and still established in the world. But he who goes forth from Egypt (which in Hebrew is called mitsraim, and is interpreted as tribulation) and enters the wilderness of vices, takes up his journey, and says in the Psalm: 'I shall pass through to the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God,' etc. Whence also he speaks: 'How lovely are Your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord.' And shortly after: 'Blessed are those who dwell in Your house, O Lord, they shall praise You forever and ever. The voice of exultation and salvation is in the tabernacles of the just,' etc. 'One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may see the delight of the Lord, and visit His temple.' He who dwells in such tabernacles, and hastens from tabernacles to courts, and from courts to the house, and from the house to the temple of the Lord, ought to celebrate the solemnity of tabernacles with the most beautiful wood of wisdom" (Leviticus 23:40).
Verse 17: And it Shall Be That Whoever Does not
17. AND IT SHALL BE THAT WHOEVER DOES NOT GO UP FROM THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH, namely of Judea: for that is what is treated here, and it alone was bound by the old law, and consequently to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles. So Vatablus, as if to say: Jews who will not have gone up to Jerusalem for the feast of Tabernacles will be deprived of rain, both physical (for God punished the Jews for their impiety in the time of Ahab and Elijah, and thereafter often, with drought and barrenness), and rather spiritual rain of the word, doctrine, and grace of God: much more will those Jews and nations who have not gone up to the mystical Jerusalem, that is, the Church, and have not celebrated there the mystical feast of Tabernacles, which I have just explained, be deprived of this rain. So St. Jerome, Remigius, Lyranus, and others.
Sanchez rightly notes that rain signifies the greatest benefits. Whence Theodoret explains thus: "There shall be no rain upon them, that is, they shall obtain no mercy." For all the fertility and happiness of Judea depended on the early and the late rain, namely of sowing and harvest: whence the Prophets promise it so often, and threaten the impious with its withdrawal. Zechariah therefore alludes to that saying of Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 11:10: "For the land which you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you came out, where when seed was cast, water was conducted to irrigate it in the manner of gardens: but it is mountainous and level, expecting rain from heaven, which the Lord your God always watches over, and His eyes are upon it from the beginning of the year to the end thereof. If therefore you obey, etc., He will give rain to your land, early and late, so that you may gather grain, and wine, and oil."
Verse 18: And If the Family of Egypt Does not
18. AND IF THE FAMILY OF EGYPT DOES NOT GO UP. He mentions Egypt rather than other regions and nations: first, because he directly looks to the Jews who, under Jonathan the brother of Judas Maccabeus, with the consent of Ptolemy Philometor king of Egypt, built there a temple similar to the one in Jerusalem, at Heliopolis, and in it established as pontiff Onias the son of the pontiff Onias, from whom the city and region, as well as the temple, was called Onion. In the same place the child Jesus, fleeing from Herod, lived in exile: whence even now the fountain of Jesus is shown there, irrigating the garden of balsam, from whose irrigation Bredenbachius thinks balsam arises, as Adrichomius reports under Heliopolis. This temple stood until the reign of Vespasian for 350 years. It was erected against the law of God, which commands that sacrifice be offered only in the place chosen by God, namely in the temple of Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 16:2). Therefore the Jews in Egypt sinned by erecting, as it were, an altar against an altar, and making a schism from Jerusalem and the temple built there by God's command, concerning which see Josephus, book XIII of the Antiquities, chapter 6. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: If the Jews who dwell in Egypt wish to go to their Onion temple and not go up to Jerusalem, they will likewise be deprived of the rain already mentioned.
Secondly, because the Egyptians were neighbors of the Jews and hostile to them; whence by synecdoche they represent all gentiles and enemies of the Jews, as if to say: If Gentiles most alienated from Jerusalem, such as the Egyptians were above all, do not wish to ascend to it mystically, that is, if they do not wish to go to the Church and become Christians, there shall be no rain of heavenly grace upon them. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, Lyranus, and Vatablus.
Thirdly, because Egypt lacks rain and heavenly showers: for instead it has an earthly substitute, namely the Nile, by whose flooding it is irrigated and made fertile, more or less according to the greater or lesser extent of its inundation. Whence Pliny in book V, chapter 9: "Egypt," he says, "at twelve cubits (to which the Nile, overflowing upon the fields, rises and stands) feels famine; at thirteen it is still hungry; fourteen cubits bring cheerfulness; fifteen, security; sixteen, delights." Therefore when he here threatens the Egyptians and says: "There shall be no rain upon them," by rain understand the irrigation of the Nile: for this serves Egypt in place of rain; otherwise there is no punishment for them in the lack of rain, if the flooding of the Nile is present. Whence the Chaldean translates: "Its Nile shall not rise." So Mariana.
The sense is, as if to say: The Gentiles, who seem to themselves to abound in the rain of wisdom, where Egypt abounds in the water of the Nile, will be deprived of it unless they go to the Church and draw it down from heaven within her. They will be punished with dryness and barrenness, not so much physical as spiritual, of saving grace and doctrine.
Fourthly, because Egypt in Hebrew is called mitsraim, a word which means straits, or two straits, or something narrow and confined between two pressing things: whence it aptly represents the straits of unbelievers, both present and eternal, which await them unless they go to the Church and are irrigated by its divine rain. Therefore he adds: "But there shall be a ruin, with which God shall strike all nations," etc. This ruin is partly temporal, for example, that by which Constantine, Theodosius, Charlemagne, and other Christian princes struck and prostrated the infidels in battles; and partly eternal, by which God will strike them in hell.
Verse 19: This Shall Be the Sin of Egypt. "sin,"
19. THIS SHALL BE THE SIN OF EGYPT. "Sin," that is, the punishment and plague of sin, namely the ruin already mentioned. Whence the Chaldean: "This shall be the vengeance upon the Egyptians, and the punishment of the peoples"; it is metonymy. Secondly, properly, as if to say: This will be pre-eminently the sin, namely the greatest sin of all sins, if the nations should refuse to go out from their paganism and enter Jerusalem, that is, the Church of Christ, and there celebrate the spiritual feast of Tabernacles, striving by faith, hope, and charity toward the heavenly homeland. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, and Hugo.
Verse 20: In That Day That Which is on the
20. IN THAT DAY THAT WHICH IS ON THE BRIDLE OF THE HORSE SHALL BE HOLY TO THE LORD. The Hebrew has metsillot, which the Septuagint, the Syriac, the Antiochene Arabic, and our Translator render as "bridle." Marinus gives the reason in his Lexicon: "I would believe," he says, "that metsillot is that iron part of the bridle which protrudes from the horse's mouth (commonly called the morso del cavallo), so named from the clashing and tinkling, namely from the word tsiltsel, which by onomatopoeia signifies a cymbal (or something similar) that tinkles." Hence secondly, Rabbi David and Pagninus translate it as "bell," which muleteers hang from the head or neck of mules and pack-horses, especially those of princes, both for adornment and so that by its sound it may be known where they are, lest they stray from the road and be lost. Whence Pagninus translates: "In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses, holiness to the Lord," as if to say: On the bells of the horses these two words shall be engraved, "holiness to the Lord," to signify that they are consecrated to God.
Thirdly, the Chaldean and St. Jerome in the Commentary translate it as "trappings," which cover, adorn, and overshadow the horse; for the root tsalel means to cover, to overshadow: whence tsel is "shadow." Therefore the Chaldean translates: "In that time the burden of the horse's trappings shall be sanctified to the Lord"; and the Tigurine: "In that day what is on the trappings of horses shall be consecrated to the Lord." Fourthly, Clarius translates it as "collars"; others, as "saddle-cloths" and any ornaments of horses; finally, the Alexandrine Arabic translates it as the "decay" or "corruption" of the horse.
The sense is, as if to say: The victorious Maccabees, as well as the victorious Christian princes, will consecrate to God in the temple the spoils of the enemies, especially the trappings and ornaments which they stripped from their horses, just as David consecrated to God in the temple the sword which he took from Goliath, with which he also killed him (1 Samuel 13). Again, as if to say: After the victory and dominion of the Church, there will be deep peace everywhere, so that the gold, silver, and gems with which the bridles of princes are customarily adorned, and the precious saddle-cloths and trappings of nobles, will be converted to the worship of God, and dedicated to God, either as trophies in thanksgiving, as Theodoret holds, or to testify to their affection of piety and devotion. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Vatablus, Arias, Ribera, and others.
To this is added the exposition of Stunica, who thinks that there is an allusion here to the plate that was on the tiara of the pontiff, hung upon his forehead, on which was inscribed: "Holiness to the Lord," as if to say: This is the pontiff sanctified and consecrated to the Lord. Zechariah therefore indicates that the Maccabees and the victorious soldiers would carry before them in their battles the holiness of the Lord, as a title and cause, as well as a symbol of war, in which they would place all their hope of victory, as if to say: We fight for the holy law of God; whence we carry His symbol on our banners and arms, and therefore we trust that we shall be victorious. That Judas Maccabeus did this is very well known from the books of Maccabees.
This is what Christian princes now do, contending against heretics and infidels in France, Germany, Bohemia, Wallachia, India, etc., and for this reason they triumph over them, and obtain almost miraculous victories. The same thing the Gentiles saw and did in shadow. For there is a saying worthy of Alexander in Dio, Oration 2 On Kingship: "Temples," he says, "ought to be adorned with the spoils and arms of enemies; since even Hector vowed that he would hang the spoils of his enemies at the shrine of the arrow-bearing Apollo." I have cited more of their maxims and examples at Numbers 31:50, where the Israelites consecrated the spoils of the Midianites to God, as the giver of victory; and at Genesis 14:20, where Abraham, having won the victory over the four kings, offered tithes of the spoils to Melchizedek, as God's vicar and pontiff.
Moreover he mentions bridles rather than other things, because he has been speaking about the enemies of Jerusalem and the Church, whom he asserts, once conquered, will offer their bridles and trappings, that is, their ornaments, delights, and wealth, either willingly or by force through the victors, to the Church. For soldiers, namely cavalrymen, formerly placed, and still place, all their wealth in adorning their arms and horses. Whence Juvenal, Satire 11:
"Whatever silver there was, shone only in their arms."
And shortly after:
"The soldier broke the goblets of great craftsmen, that his horse might rejoice in its trappings."
Hence they made golden bridles. Such were those of Pallas, Aeneid VIII:
"And the two golden bridles which my Pallas now has."
Such also were the horses which Latinus sent to Aeneas, Aeneid VII:
"Covered with gold, they champ tawny gold beneath their teeth."
Indeed even the angels attending Judas Maccabeus appeared on horses, adorned with golden bridles, 1 Maccabees chapter 10:29. Hence that saying of St. Bernard, censuring the luxury not of soldiers but of prelates: "Learn, O bishops, what is gold doing on bridles?"
Hence secondly, many think that here Constantine the Great is signified, who placed the nail by which Christ was crucified on the bridle of his horse, to show his piety toward Christ, and to profess that he had obtained victories by the help and power of Christ crucified, and hoped hereafter to obtain them against the infidel enemies of Christ. For in the time of Constantine the Church triumphed over her enemies, and obtained that glory which Zechariah here describes, as if to say: Upon the bridle of Constantine's horse shall be "holy to the Lord," that is, the nail sanctified to the Lord by contact with the most holy body of Christ. For why should the nail not be holy, which was the chief instrument of the passion of Christ and of our redemption?
St. Jerome laughs at this, but not St. Cyril: "One would not call this incredible," he says, "nor is it alien to propriety to remember that God honored a most pious emperor even by prophetic prediction, etc. For what else does the adorning of the horses of kings with the nail of the cross of Christ declare, than the supreme piety of emperors?" More emphatically St. Ambrose, in his oration On the Death of the Emperor Theodosius: "She (St. Helena) sought the nails by which the Lord was crucified, and found them. From one nail she ordered a bridle to be made; from the other she wove a diadem; one she turned to adornment, the other to devotion. And so she sent to her son Constantine a diadem distinguished with gems, which the more precious gem of the divine cross of redemption connected, set in iron: she sent also a bridle; Constantine used both, and transmitted the faith to succeeding kings. The beginning therefore of believing emperors is holy -- that which is upon the bridle: from that came faith, so that persecution might cease and devotion succeed." And shortly after: "Rightly the nail is on the head, so that where the mind is, there may be protection: on the crown a diadem, in the hands a rein. The crown from the cross, so that faith may shine: the rein also from the cross, so that power may govern, and there may be just moderation, not unjust command." And after many things on the same topic: "What else, then, did the work of Helena accomplish in directing the reins, except that she seemed to say to all emperors by the Holy Spirit: 'Do not become like the horse and the mule'; but in bridle and bit she would constrain the jaws of those who did not recognize themselves as kings, so that they might govern those subject to them?" And he adds that by this bridle he restrained the insolence of tyrants, Licinius, Maximus, etc.
The same is found in Theodoret, book I of the History, chapter 18: "Helena," he says, "had a part of the nails skillfully enclosed in the emperor's helmet, so that she might protect the head of her son and repel the weapons of enemies: she mixed another part into the bridle of his horse, so that she might both render the emperor safe and secure and fulfill the ancient prophecy. For Zechariah the prophet had long ago foretold: 'What is on the bridle of the horse shall be holy to the Lord Almighty.'" The same is found in Sozomen, book II of the History, chapter 1, Nicephorus, book VIII, chapter 29, and others.
Moreover, Gregory of Tours, in the book On the Glory of Martyrs, chapter 6, consistently affirming that the nails by which Christ was crucified were four -- namely one in each foot as well as each hand -- narrates their distribution by St. Helena as follows: "The beautiful nails of the Lord's cross, nobler than any metal, which held His blessed limbs, were found by Queen Helena after the discovery of the Holy Cross itself; and with two of them she fortified the emperor's bridle, so that more easily, if hostile nations should resist the prince, they might be put to flight by this power -- concerning which it is well known that Zechariah the prophet prophesied," etc. He adds that the third was cast by St. Helena into the stormy Adriatic Sea, infamous for shipwrecks, and that after this was done, the sea was thereafter calm and peaceful for sailors: and that the fourth was placed in the helmet of a statue of Constantine. The same is found in Zonaras, book III of the Annals, although St. Ambrose and Baronius, under the year of Christ 326, assert that it was placed not in the helmet of a statue but in the crown itself, which Constantine used to wear on his head. Gregory adds a miracle of the nail in the bridle, which happened in his own time, namely in the time of the Emperor Justin: "They say," he says, "that the power of this bridle is great, which cannot in any way be doubted: the Emperor Justin publicly experienced it and made it known to all his people. For having been deceived by a certain magician for money, he endured intolerable attacks sent against him by the phantom of a demon over the course of two nights; but when on the third night he placed the bridle on his head, the enemy no longer had any means of laying ambushes, and he struck the discovered author of the ambushes with his sword."
Finally, by the bridle is signified the Emperor Constantine himself, who submitted and sanctified, that is, consecrated, himself and his empire with the bridle to Christ. Whence the Antiochene Arabic translates: "In that day there shall be (one sitting, namely Constantine) upon the bridle of the horse, sanctified to the Lord"; and the Alexandrine Arabic: "In that day he who shall seize the corruption of the horse (of the enemy slain by him) shall be holy to the Lord Almighty."
Tropologically, St. Jerome takes the bridle to mean continence and mortification, by which we restrain the itch of concupiscence, especially of the mouth and tongue, through the word of God, concerning which Psalm 32 says: "Constrain their jaws with bit and bridle." And St. James chapter 3: "We put bridles in the mouths of horses, and turn about their whole body, so that they may walk in the right path and offer their soft backs for the Lord to sit upon. Such a bridle, and such a speech composed of the variety of gold and silver, prepares wild horses for the Savior to sit upon, and makes them holy and properly consecrated to His worship." These are the words of St. Jerome.
Note: For metsillot, Aquila and Symmachus read with a different vowel pointing metsullot. Whence they translate bathos, that is, "depth"; Symmachus, peripaton syskion, that is, "a shady walk" or "dark path," by which St. Jerome understands arcane and mystical knowledge, "which David also," he says, "boasted of having as the best horse, saying: 'The uncertain and hidden things of Your wisdom You have made manifest to me' (Psalm 51); and the Apostle: 'O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and how untraceable His ways!' (Romans 11:33). From this depth the Prophet cried out to the Lord, and He heard him (Psalm 18:7). Moses entered these darknesses and divine mysteries in the darkness of Mount Sinai, that he might see God; concerning which David also says in Psalm 36:7: 'Your judgments are a great abyss.' These secrets, and these mysteries, are holy to the Lord, which the Evangelist John knew, because he used to say what perhaps the angels did not know: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' And for this reason he is loved by the Lord: because he had the best depth, and had reclined upon the breast of Jesus; whence he had also drawn wisdom."
AND THE CAULDRONS IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD SHALL BE LIKE BOWLS. Cauldrons were pots in which the flesh of victims sacrificed to God was cooked. The bowls in the temple had a threefold use: First, incense was burned in them. Second, wine was poured as a libation in them, that is, it was drunk or poured out as an offering to God, according to that saying of Amos 6:6: "Who drink wine in bowls." Third, in the bowls the blood of victims was received, which was then poured out at the horns of the altar, to signify that the blood in which consists the life of the animal, and consequently its very life, was given and sacrificed to God, as I discussed in Leviticus. Therefore there was a great supply of bowls, and far more than of cauldrons or pots.
The Prophet therefore says that so great will be the concourse of nations in Jerusalem to sacrifice at the feast of Tabernacles, that there will be as great an abundance of cauldrons, in which the victims are to be cooked, as there usually is of bowls at other times. For at that feast, just as the number of sacrifices and cauldrons will increase, so too will the number of bowls increase proportionally. For one cauldron requires three or four bowls: therefore at that time there were more bowls than cauldrons; but there will be as many cauldrons as there usually are bowls, as if to say: There will be many instruments of sacrifice and divine worship, because the attendance of the people will be great, as well as their piety and religion.
This was fulfilled literally under the Maccabees, who by their battles restored and increased the glory of Jerusalem and its temple.
Parabolically, it is more truly fulfilled in the Church of Christ, in which there are as many cauldrons, that is, chalices, patens, ciboria, reliquaries, thuribles, and other sacred vessels in which either the flesh and blood of the immaculate Lamb, Christ the Lord, are sacrificed, or some ministry for this sacrifice is performed, as there were bowls in the old law and temple. So Lyranus. Or, as if to say: Just as there will be many cauldrons, that is, patens, ciboria, and reliquaries, in which the consecrated hosts, namely the flesh of Christ, are consecrated or stored: so likewise there will be many bowls, that is, many chalices, in which the blood of Christ is consecrated, sacrificed, and drunk: for the flesh cannot be consecrated unless the blood is also consecrated: whence every chalice also has its paten, on which the body of Christ is placed.
Note: The bowl was holier and more sacred in the temple than the cauldron, firstly because it was physically cleaner and purer, as well as more precious, since it was often made of silver or gold; but the cauldron was of clay or bronze, and because of the fire, meat, and smoke, it was black, sooty, smelly, and dirty. Whence that common saying:
"Woe to you!" the pot said to the black kettle:
for a pot (cacabus) is a cauldron, just like a cooking pot (olla). Secondly, because the bowl properly and immediately served the sacrifice, namely the collecting and pouring out of the blood of the victim, that is, the libation; likewise for incense, and its burning and offering: but the cauldron only served for cooking and boiling the flesh of the victim already immolated, and therefore after the sacrifice was performed, so that the lay people who offered might partake of it, and eat and feast on the flesh of the victim they had offered before the Lord. Hence thirdly, all the bowls belonged to the temple, and therefore were consecrated to God: but the cauldrons were not. For although some cauldrons were in the temple for cooking flesh, especially for the priests, yet when a great crowd of sacrificers came, as happened at the feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, these were not sufficient: whence then each layperson sacrificing had to procure a cauldron for himself, by borrowing or renting one, in which to cook his meat; which he then returned to the lender or renter.
Zechariah therefore predicts here that so great will be the devotion of the people that, since very many will flock together to sacrifice at the feast of Tabernacles, very many also from Jerusalem and Judah will bring their own cauldrons, not only for themselves but also for others, whom they will lend freely to visitors, so that there will be no need to buy or rent them from merchants; and after the sacrifices are performed, they will leave them to the temple and dedicate them to God in perpetuity: whereby the number of holy cauldrons will be as great as that of the bowls, and they will be considered almost as sacred (inasmuch as they have been consecrated to God with such devotion, and sanctified by contact with so many immolated victims of God) as the bowls, and thus will seem to pass, as it were, into the dignity and holiness of bowls.
This was fulfilled literally under the Maccabees, when they purified the temple and celebrated its dedication and rededication, having received divine fire from heaven which consumed the sacrifices; upon seeing this miracle, everyone eagerly rushed together to offer victims, which this fire would burn up for God.
Hence mystically, the cauldrons are priests: for just as in cauldrons the flesh of the victim was cooked with fire beneath; so by priests, through the fiery power and virtue of the Holy Spirit, the Eucharist is consecrated and confected, which they then distribute to the faithful as heavenly and life-giving bread, as if to say: So great will be the number of priests in the new law as was the number of bowls and other sacred vessels in the old law. So a Castro. More generally, Remigius and Vatablus take the cauldrons to mean the minds of Christians, in which the vices of the flesh are consumed by the fire of charity, and prayers and vows to the Lord are cooked: the same are the bowls, in which the incense of devotion and praise continually rises and is fragrant to God, as if to say: So great will be the multitude of the faithful who will slay themselves in their hearts as victims, and offer themselves to God as the sweetest incense, as was the number of cauldrons for sacrifices and of bowls for fragrant offerings in the Old Testament.
Somewhat differently St. Jerome; for he assigns cauldrons and pots of flesh to the Jews, but bowls of spices to Christians: "Let those love bronze cauldrons," he says, "who loved the pots of Egypt; and flesh, and melons, and garlic, and onions, and cucumbers. Let us turn the Jewish cauldrons in which the flesh of victims was cooked into bowls of spices before the altar of the Lord, of which the bride says to the bridegroom in Song of Songs 6: 'My beloved went down to his garden, to the bowls of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies,' etc., that he might fill the bowls of believing souls, and pour out libations to the Lord from them. When cauldrons of this kind have been turned into bowls of the Lord, and they are able to say: 'We are the good fragrance of Christ'; and instead of the foulness of flesh they have begun to bear the various flowers of virtues, then they shall be sanctified to the Lord in Jerusalem and in Judah. For Jerusalem means 'vision of peace,' and Judah means 'one who confesses.'" The Church alludes to this when she sings of St. Mary Magdalene:
"The cauldron becomes a bowl, Translated into a vessel of glory, From a vessel of disgrace."
As if to say: She who was formerly a black cauldron, full of flesh, gluttony, wine, and lust, became a golden bowl offering the incense of penance and charity to Christ. Whence she devoted her hair, spices, and other allurements, and cauldrons, that is, the instruments of gluttony and lust, to the honor of Christ, and offered them to Him as if in a bowl, just as she poured precious ointments from a broken alabaster jar upon His head. Thus St. Jerome, Cyril, and Haymo mystically expound these things concerning mortification, by which the cauldrons, that is, whatever in us is pot-like and carnal, are so cooked by the fire of the Holy Spirit that they entirely exhale and pass into spirit; whereby mortified flesh breathes forth such a fragrance to God and the angels as fragrant bowls of spices usually have, says Sanchez.
Certainly this sense aptly corresponds to the literal sense, and to the difference between the cauldron and the bowl, which I assigned a little before. The Apostle also alluded to this in 2 Timothy 2:20 and Romans 9:21, where he teaches that in the house of God there are some vessels for honor, others for dishonor; and that the sinner, who is a vessel of dishonor, if he repents and purges himself from sins, becomes a vessel of honor and glory. For thus Mary Magdalene, who as a sinner was a cauldron of disgrace, by repenting became a bowl of glory.
Verse 21: Every Cauldron
21. EVERY CAULDRON (namely one needed for sacrifices) SHALL BE SANCTIFIED TO THE LORD, as if to say: The temple will abound in vessels and things necessary for the worship of God, so that nothing will be lacking to anyone for sacrificing and duly worshipping God. Or, as if to say: Every cauldron that is in the house of the Lord, as he said in the preceding verse, will perpetually remain there as sanctified to the Lord, and will not be taken out to be applied to profane uses. For chalices and sacred vessels once consecrated to God remain sacred forever, and it is not lawful to reduce them to profane uses. Or, as Palacius says, as if to say: So great will be the multitude of those sacrificing that from all Jerusalem and Judea cauldrons will be eagerly brought in which the flesh of victims may be cooked, and thereafter those cauldrons, as now sanctified by these victims, will remain for the use of the temple and will be consecrated to God and the temple. This was true of the Maccabees, but more truly of Christians; for they abound in chalices, thuribles, cauldrons, and all vessels suitable for sacrifice and the worship of God. For in these things churches, monasteries, and temples are rich, to the envy of heretics.
Mystically, every cauldron, that is, every priest, and indeed every faithful person, will remain a priest and faithful, that is, devoted to the worship of God and as it were consecrated to God, so that in his rank he may serve God faithfully and devoutly, and may no longer return to infidelity, wickedness, and profane uses -- that is, he may not lawfully return; and if he conducts himself as he professed, he will never in fact return.
From this passage it is clear that these things are to be taken spiritually rather than corporally. For corporally, in strict terms, it is false that every cauldron in Jerusalem and Judah was sanctified to the Lord: for otherwise the Jerusalemites and Jews would have had to carry all their cauldrons to the temple and dedicate them to God, and could not have kept any at home for their own use, which is clearly false. But spiritually it is true that every cauldron, that is, every priest and faithful person, is consecrated to the Lord in ordination and baptism. Whence St. Peter, speaking to the faithful including laypersons: "You," he says, "are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of acquisition, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:9). And St. Paul: "I beseech you, brothers, by the mercy of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, your reasonable service" (Romans 12:1). And: "Through Him therefore let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips confessing His name. But do not forget beneficence and sharing: for by such sacrifices God is won over" (Hebrews 13:15).
AND THEY SHALL COOK IN THEM, as if to say: The Jews under the Maccabees will cook in their cauldrons the flesh which they have sacrificed to God; but Christians, especially priests, will cook in their minds devout and ardent desires, resolutions, and vows, as victims to God -- both of contrition and penance, and of praises and hymns, and of charity, especially concerning the conversion of souls, namely that they may teach their neighbors the things of salvation, call them away from sins to virtues, and lead them to a holy and perfect life; for these are victims most honorable to God, and thus most pleasing and delightful to Him.
A Castro adds another sense, as if to say: The faithful of Christ will choose from among men consecrated to God, whom they will find everywhere, whichever one they wish, so that through him they may offer to God the true sacrifice of Christ, namely the Eucharist, without cost or expense; for which formerly there was need to purchase victims and rent pots, for cooking the flesh of the sacrifices. Whence follows:
AND THERE SHALL BE NO MERCHANT. The Hebrews and the Septuagint: "There shall be no Canaanite," that is, no merchant, as Aquila, the Chaldean, and our Translator render it. For formerly the Canaanites were famous in trade. Now the sense is, as if to say: In the temple there will be an abundance of cauldrons, bowls, and other vessels which are necessary for sacrificing, and therefore there will be no merchants to sell or rent them to pilgrims coming to Jerusalem to sacrifice. Or, as Palacius says, as if to say: So great will be the charity of those flocking to the temple that each person will freely offer and lend cauldrons and bowls without charge to another, especially to a stranger and pilgrim; so great also will be the devotion and diligence of those coming that each will bring with him what is necessary for the sacrifice, and therefore there will be no need for merchants, who usually sell such things to those coming for the feasts. This was accomplished under the Maccabees.
Now under this type it is parabolically signified that among Christians wishing to sacrifice to God, there will be no merchants to sell sheep, oxen, doves, and other victims to sacrifice to God, and other things necessary for sacrifice, as there were among the Jews, because the sacrifice of Christians will be not the carnal sacrifice of oxen and sheep, but a mystical one, namely the Eucharist; or a spiritual and mental one, namely of prayer, contrition, charity, etc., as if to say: In the Church of Christ it will be easy and without cost to worship God and sacrifice to Him. As a symbol of this, Christ drove the buyers and sellers out of the temple, Matthew 21:12.
Hence Stunica explains it thus: There shall be no Canaanite, that is, no Gibeonite, who after his custom (for Joshua in chapter 9:27 condemned the Gibeonites to carrying wood and water for the sacrifices of the temple) would supply what is necessary for sacrifice. But the Gibeonites were not merchants but servants of the Hebrews. Again, there shall be no merchant in the Church, namely of spiritual things, that is, no simoniac, who would sell or buy the Eucharist and sacred things for a price, because Christ commanded the Apostles and their successors: "Freely you have received, freely give" (Matthew 10:8). So Lyranus and Vatablus. Moreover, there shall be no simoniac -- that is, it will not be lawful to be one, nor will it be permitted; because he will be punished by the prelates of the Church, and if the matter is established, he will be deprived of the benefice he obtained by simony.
Differently, Theodoret, Albert, and Clarius: for by "Canaanite" they understand a wicked and evil person. For such were the Canaanites of old, and therefore they were expelled from the holy land by God through the Hebrews, as if to say: Christians will not be wicked but devout and holy; understand this insofar as the power of Christianity and the grace of Christ are concerned: for all who obey and cooperate with this grace are holy; but if anyone refuses to do so, it is no wonder if he turns out wicked, but through his own fault and malice. Moreover, if someone is wicked, the Church will strive to correct him; if after a second and third warning he refuses to correct himself, the Church will excommunicate him and expel him from the assembly of the faithful, according to the precept of Christ, Matthew 18:15. "May the Lord Almighty," says Theodoret, "make this word true in our time, so that no one among us may appear to be a Canaanite, but may we all live according to the Evangelical tradition, and await the blessed hope and the coming of the great God our Savior Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father be glory, and with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen."
Argumentum: Introduction to Malachi
It is asked FIRST: Who was Malachi? Origen, as cited by St. Jerome and Cyril, responds first that he was an angel who assumed a body and hypostatically united it to himself, so that he might be a type of Christ and announce these oracles of God to the Jews. He proves this from the fact that Malachi in Hebrew means the same as "angel of the Lord." And so the Septuagint translate chapter 1:1, and from them Clement of Alexandria in book I of the Stromata, and St. Augustine in book XX of the City of God, chapter 25. And St. Chrysostom in Oration 2 Against the Jews, and Homily 14 on the Epistle to the Hebrews: "Read," he says, "what Haggai says, what Zechariah, what the angel (namely Malachi), what Ezra accuses." Moved by a similar argument, Origen held that Haggai and John the Baptist were incarnate angels, because they are called angels in Scripture, as is clear from Haggai 1:13 and Matthew 11:10. Tertullian seems to have agreed with Origen in his book On the Flesh of Christ, chapters 3 and 6, where he proves that it was not impossible for the Word of God to assume flesh, from the fact that this was possible for angels: which, unless you understand it of a hypostatic assumption, his argument would be futile and of no weight. Moreover, Origen hands down this opinion both elsewhere and expressly in volume II on John, explaining those words of Malachi: "Behold, I send My angel." But this is an error. For it is a matter of faith that John the Baptist was a man, begotten from Zechariah and Elizabeth, as is clear from Luke 1:15 and John 1:6. And it is certain that all the Prophets were men. Whence Sirach chapter 49:12: "And may the bones of the Twelve Prophets," he says, "sprout from their place." If they had bones, and these bones will sprout again and rise; therefore they were true men: for men consist of flesh and bones. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Theodoret, and others throughout. To the argument I respond that the Prophets are called angels, that is, messengers and envoys of God. Thus any priest is called an angel by Malachi, when he says in chapter 2:7: "The lips of the priest shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law from his mouth; because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts." Secondly, they are called angels because of their angelic character, form, and life.
In a similar way many today give their children the name Angel, because of the devotion they have toward angels, and so that they may imitate their purity. So St. Epiphanius in his book On the Life and Character of the Prophets, under Malachi and Haggai, who also adds from the opinion of the Hebrews that Malachi is called an angel because whatever he preached was taught and confirmed by an angel coming from heaven. But let the Hebrews answer for the truth of this matter; it certainly seems to have the flavor of a Rabbinic fable and invention.
Secondly, the ancient Hebrews, as well as the modern ones, hand down that Malachi was Ezra the priest and scribe. This tradition is reported and followed by St. Jerome, Remigius, Rupert, Ribera, and others. The reasons and conjectures for this opinion are various. First, because Malachi treats the same subject matter as Ezra, namely he censures the neglect of the law and the worship of God, and specifically marriages with foreigners, which Ezra blames in chapter 9. Second, because Ezra lived at the same time as Malachi, and mentions in chapter 5:1 Haggai and Zechariah, but not Malachi: therefore it is a sign that he himself was Malachi, who was so called when he was sent by God to the people as an angel, that is, a messenger and prophet, to lead them to repentance, by which they might escape the impending disasters. Third, because Ezra, a man wonderfully holy, zealous, and an outstanding preacher, altogether seems to have been a prophet, and he could not have been any other than Malachi. Fourth, because Sirach chapter 49, when he praises Zerubbabel, Joshua, and Nehemiah, passes over Ezra, who does not yield to them in virtue and deeds: therefore it is likely that he praised him among the 12 Minor Prophets, under the name of Malachi. On the other hand, Josephus...