[1247] "The eye that mocketh at his father, and dishonours the old age of his mother." That is to say, one that blasphemes God and despises the mother of Christ, the wisdom of God,--his eyes may ravens from the caves tear out, i.e., him may unclean and wicked spirits deprive of the clear eye of gladness; and may the young eagles devour him: and such shall be trodden under the feet of the saints.
[1248] "There be three things which I cannot understand, and the fourth I know not: the tracks of an eagle flying," i.e., Christ's ascension; "and the ways of a serpent upon a rock," i.e., that the devil did not find a trace of sin in the body of Christ; "and the ways of a ship crossing the sea," i.e., the ways of the Church, which is in this life as in a sea, and which is directed by her hope in Christ through the cross; "and the ways of a man in youth," [1249] --the ways of Him, namely, who is born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin. For behold, says the Scripture, a man whose name is the Rising. [1250]
[1251] "Such is the way of an adulterous woman, who, when she has done the deed of sin, wipeth herself, and will say that no wickedness has been done." Such is the conduct of the Church that believes on Christ, when, after committing fornication with idols, she renounces these and the devil, and is cleansed of her sins and receives forgiveness, and then asserts that she has done no wickedness.
[1252] "By three things the earth is moved," viz., by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. "And the fourth it cannot bear," viz., the last appearing of Christ. "When a servant reigneth:" Israel was a slave in Egypt, and in the land of promise became a ruler. "And a fool when he is filled with meat:" i.e., getting the land in possession readily, and eating its fruit, and being filled, it (the people) kicked. "And a handmaid when she casts out her mistress:" i.e., the synagogue which took the life of the Lord, and crucified the flesh of Christ.
[1253] "There be four things which are least upon the earth, and these are wiser than the wise: The ants have no strength, yet they prepare their meat in the summer." And in like manner, the Gentiles by faith in Christ prepare for themselves eternal life through good works. "And the conies, [1254] a feeble folk, have made their houses in the rocks." The Gentiles, that is to say, are built upon Christ, the spiritual rock, which is become the head of the corner. "The spider, [1255] that supports itself upon its hands, and is easily caught, dwells in the strongholds of kings." That is, the thief with his hands extended (on the cross), rests on the cross of Christ and dwells in Paradise, the stronghold of the three Kings--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
"The locust has no king, and yet marches out in array as by one command." The Gentiles had no king, for they were ruled by sin; but now, believing God, they engage in the heavenly warfare.
[1256] "There be three things which go well, [1257] and the fourth which is comely in going;" that is, the angels in heaven, the saints upon earth, and the souls of the righteous under the earth. And the fourth, viz. God, the Word Incarnate, passed in honour through the Virgin's womb; and creating our Adam anew, he passed through the gates of heaven, and became the first-fruits of the resurrection and of the ascension for all.
"The whelp of the lion is stronger than the beasts:" i.e., Christ as prophesied of by Jacob in the person of Judah. "A cock walking with high spirit among his dames:" such was Paul, when preaching boldly among the churches the word of the Christ of God. "A goat heading the herd:" such is He who was offered for the sins of the world. "And a king speaking among the people:" so Christ reigns over the nations, and speaks by prophets and apostles the word of truth.
[1258] That is one confirmed in wickedness. [1259] The apostle, too, says, "Them that sin, rebuke before all;" [1260] that is to say, all but reprobate. Who are meant by the "conies," [1261] but we ourselves, who once were like hogs, walking in all the filthiness of the world; but now, believing in Christ, we build our houses upon the holy flesh of Christ as upon a rock?
[1262] The shaking (of the earth) signifies the change of things upon earth.--Sin, then, which in its own nature is a slave, has reigned in the mortal body of men: once, indeed, at the time of the flood; and again in the time of the Sodomites, who, not satisfied with what the land yielded, offered violence to strangers; and a third time in the case of hateful Egypt, which, though it obtained in Joseph a man who distributed food to all, that they might not perish of famine, yet did not take well with his prosperity, but persecuted the children of Israel. "The handmaid casting out her mistress:" i.e., the Church of the Gentiles, which, though itself a slave and a stranger to the promises, cast out the free-born and lordly synagogue, and became the wife and bride of Christ. By Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the whole earth is moved. The "fourth it cannot bear:" for He came first by lawgivers, and secondly by prophets, and thirdly by the Gospel, manifesting Himself openly; and in the fourth instance He shall come as the Judge of the living and the dead, whose glory the whole creation will not be able to endure.
[1217] Mai, Bibliotheca nova Patrum, vii. ii. 71, Rome, 1854.
[1218] 1 Kings iii. 12.
[1219] Prov. i. 3.
[1220] Ch. i. 11.
[1221] Ch. iii. 35.
[1222] Prov. iv. 2.
[1223] Ch. iv. 8.
[1224] Ch. iv. 14.
[1225] Ch. iv. 25.
[1226] Ch. iv. 27.
[1227] This is the Septuagint translation of ch. xxvii. 16.
[1228] Prov. v. 19.
[1229] Ch. vi. 27.
[1230] Job xxxi. 1.
[1231] Prov. vii. 22. The Hebrew word, rendered "straightway" in our version, is translated kepphotheis in the Septuagint, i.e., "ensnared like a cepphus." [Quasi agnus lasciviens, according to the Vulgate.]
[1232] [If the "cemphus" of the text equals "cepphus" of note, then "cepphus" equals "cebus" or "cepus," which equals kebos, a sort of monkey. The "Kophim" of 1 Kings x. 22 seems to supply the root of the word. The kepphos, however, is said to be a sea-bird "driven about by every wind," so that it is equal to a fool. So used by Aristophanes.]
[1233] Prov. vii. 26.
[1234] tameia, "magazines."
[1235] Ch. ix. 1.
[1236] Ch. ix. 12.
[1237] Ch. xi. 30.
[1238] hos autozoe.
[1239] Ch. xii. 2.
[1240] Ch. xvii. 27.
[1241] Ch. xxx. 15.
[1242] Other reading (phthonos) ="envy."
[1243] [The place of torment (2 Pet. ii. 4). Vol. iv. 140.]
[1244] [Sheol, rather,--the receptacle of departed spirits. See vol. iii. pp. 59 and 595; also vol. iv. p. 194.]
[1245] Prov. xxx. 19.
[1246] John xiv. 30.
[1247] Ch. xxx. 17.
[1248] Prov. xxx. 18, 19.
[1249] [The Authorized Version reads very differently; but our author follows the Sept., with which agrees the Vulgate.]
[1250] The reference probably is to Zech. vi. 12, where the word is rendered "Branch." The word in the text is anatole.
[1251] Ch. xxx. 20.
[1252] Ch. xxx. 21-23.
[1253] Ch. xxx. 24-28.
[1254] choirogrulloi, i.e., "grunting hogs."
[1255] askalabotes, i.e., a "lizard."
[1256] Prov. xxx. 29, etc. [As in Vulgate.]
[1257] Prov. xxx. 29, etc. [As in Vulgate.]
[1258] Cf. xxvii. 22, the Septuagint rendering being: "Though thou shouldest disgrace and scourge a fool in the midst of the council, thou wilt not strip him of his folly." [What version did our author use?]
[1259] Cf. xxvii. 22, the Septuagint rendering being: "Though thou shouldest disgrace and scourge a fool in the midst of the council, thou wilt not strip him of his folly." [What version did our author use?]
[1260] 1 Tim. v. 30.
[1261] Literally, "grunting hogs."
[1262] Ch. xxx. 21, etc. [As to version, see Burgon, Lett. from Rome, p. 34.]
Another Fragment. [1263] St. Hippolytus [1264] on Prov. ix. 1, "Wisdom Hath Builded Her House."
Christ, he means, the wisdom and power of God the Father, hath builded His house, i.e., His nature in the flesh derived from the Virgin, even as he (John) hath said beforetime, "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us." [1265] As likewise the wise prophet [1266] testifies: Wisdom that was before the world, and is the source of life, the infinite "Wisdom of God, hath builded her house" by a mother who knew no man,--to wit, as He assumed the temple of the body. "And hath raised [1267] her seven pillars;" that is, the fragrant grace of the all-holy Spirit, as Isaiah says: "And the seven spirits of God shall rest upon Him." [1268] But others say that the seven pillars are the seven divine orders which sustain the creation by His holy and inspired teaching; to wit, the prophets, the apostles, the martyrs, the hierarchs, the hermits, the saints, and the righteous. And the phrase, "She hath killed her beasts," denotes the prophets and martyrs who in every city and country are slain like sheep every day by the unbelieving, in behalf of the truth, and cry aloud, "For thy sake we are killed all the day long, we were counted as sheep for the slaughter." [1269] And again, "She hath mingled her wine" in the bowl, by which is meant, that the Saviour, uniting his Godhead, like pure wine, with the flesh in the Virgin, was born of her at once God and man without confusion of the one in the other. "And she hath furnished her table:" that denotes the promised knowledge of the Holy Trinity; it also refers to His honoured and undefiled body and blood, which day by day are administered and offered sacrificially at the spiritual divine table, as a memorial of that first and ever-memorable table of the spiritual divine supper. And again, "She hath sent forth her servants:" Wisdom, that is to say, has done so--Christ, to wit--summoning them with lofty announcement. "Whoso is simple, Let him turn to me," she says, alluding manifestly to the holy apostles, who traversed the whole world, and called the nations to the knowledge of Him in truth, with their lofty and divine preaching. And again, "And to those that want understanding she said"--that is, to those who have not yet obtained the power of the Holy Ghost--"Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled for you;" by which is meant, that He gave His divine flesh and honoured blood to us, to eat and to drink it for the remission of sins.
[1263] From Gallandi.
[1264] [I omit here the suffix "Pope of Rome," for obvious reasons. He was papa of Portus at a time when all bishops were so called but this is a misleading absurdity, borrowed from the Galland ms., where it could hardly have been placed earlier. A mere mediæval blunder.]
[1265] John i. 14.
[1266] i.e., Solomon.
[1267] Other reading, "hewn out."
[1268] Isa. xi. 2.
[1269] Ps. xliv. 2; Rom. viii. 36.
On the Song of Songs. [1270]
1. Arise, O north wind, and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out (Canticles iv. 16). As Joseph was delighted with these spices, he is designated the King's son by God; as the Virgin Mary was anointed with them, she conceived the Word: then new secrets, and new truth, and a new kingdom, and also great and inexplicable mysteries, are made manifest.
2. And where is all this rich knowledge? and where are these mysteries? and where are the books? For the only ones extant are Proverbs, and Wisdom, and Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. What then? Does the Scripture speak falsely? God forbid. But the matter of his writings was various, as is shown in the phrase "Song of Songs;" for that indicates that in this one book he digested the contents of the 5,000 songs. [1271] In the days moreover of Hezekiah, there were some of the books selected for use, and others set aside. Whence the Scripture says, "These are the mixed [1272] Proverbs of Solomon, which the friends of Hezekiah the king copied out." [1273] And whence did they take them, but out of the books containing the 3,000 parables and the 5,000 songs? Out of these, then, the wise friends of Hezekiah took those portions which bore upon the edification of the Church. And the books of Solomon on the "Parables" and "Songs," in which he wrote of the physiology of plants, and all kinds of animals belonging to the dry land, and the air, and the sea, and of the cures of disease, Hezekiah did away with, because the people looked to these for the remedies for their diseases, and neglected to seek their healing from God. [1274]