Joel

Joel, says Epiphanius in the book On the Life and Death of the Prophets, was born in the field of Bethor, of the tribe of Reuben; so also Dorotheus in the Life of Joel, except that he calls the field Bethomeron in Reuben. R. Solomon thinks Joel was the son of Samuel the prophet, who anointed David as king; because his son is called Joel by Josephus, book VI of the Antiquities III. But this is a different Joel from ours; for our Joel lived much later in time, as will soon be evident. Some think that Joel, like Hosea, prophesied both against the ten tribes and against the two tribes, namely both against Samaria and against Judah. Thus St. Jerome according to the opinion of the Hebrews, epistle 103 to Paulinus: "Joel, he says, son of Phatuel describes the land of the twelve tribes (although Albertus reads two) devastated by the caterpillar, the locust, the grasshopper, and rust, and after the overthrow of the former people the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon the servants of God and handmaids, that is upon the hundred and twenty believers by name, and will be poured out in the cenacle of Sion." So also Theodoret, Remigius, R. Solomon, Lyra, Vatablus and other more recent Hebrews, who think Joel lived and prophesied with Elisha under King Joram, and therefore in chapter 1 prophesy a famine, which at that time afflicted both Samaria and Judah, as is evident from IV Kings VI, 25.

But the same St. Jerome better judges, in the Preface to Joel, that Joel prophesied to only two tribes, namely Judah and Benjamin: "How, he says, in the prophet Hosea under the name Ephraim the prophecy is directed to the ten tribes, which is often called either Samaria or Israel; so in Joel everything that is said must be believed to pertain to the tribe of Judah and to Jerusalem, and no mention is made at all of Israel, that is of the ten tribes." So also Epiphanius in the book On the Life of the Prophets, in Joel, Hugo, Albertus, Haymo, Ribera, Dionysius a Castro, Sanchez and others; and it is evident from the words of Joel, chapter I, 13: "Weep, ye priests, howl, ye ministers of the altar;" and chapter II, 15 and 17: "Blow the trumpet in Sion. Between the porch and the altar the priests shall weep," etc. For the altar was in Jerusalem, nowhere else.

Moreover Joel prophesied at almost the same time as Hosea, under Oziah, Joatham, Achaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, says St. Jerome, Cyril, Theodoret, Rufinus, and St. Augustine XVIII On the City of God chapter XXVII, although the Hebrews in the Seder Olam, and from them R. David, Genebrardus in the Chronology, Arias and a Castro here think he prophesied under Manasseh, and consequently after the destruction of Samaria and the ten tribes: for this happened in the sixth year of Hezekiah, who was the father of Manasseh: and this is made probable from the fact that Joel prophesies to only two tribes, not the remaining ten; because those had already been cut off and carried away. Again from the fact that Scripture says God sent Prophets, who would threaten Judah with calamities in the name of God on account of the sins of Manasseh, IV Kings XXI, 10, and chapter XXIII, 26. It seems therefore from these things that Joel was of that time; for he himself threatens these calamities to Judah, equally as Jeremiah chapter LI, 4, who also expressly asserts that the sins of Manasseh brought these about.

This opinion is very probable; hence in the Roman edition of the Septuagint, Joel is placed after Micah. Hence also he depicts the day of the destruction of Jerusalem so vividly and horrifically, that one seems almost to see it as imminent and nearly present before one's eyes. From what has been said it follows that Joel threatens not the Assyrian captivity, by which Samaria was devastated; but the Babylonian captivity, by which Jerusalem and Judea were devastated by the Chaldeans.

The argument of Joel therefore is to predict God's vengeance and the Babylonian captivity, and from this its antitype the final judgment, in which the reprobate will be adjudged to hell, the approved to heaven. First therefore, chapter I, he threatens the Jews with destruction by the Chaldeans, and in order that they might escape this, he exhorts all to lamentation and to penance. Second, chapter II, he continues to describe the atrocity of this day and destruction, and from this he stirs all to mourning and public supplications. Then to the penitent he promises a return from captivity and from Babylon. Moreover he promises the coming of Christ, who will pour out the Holy Spirit upon his faithful. Thence he passes to the second coming of Christ, and recounts its preceding signs. Third, chapter III, he teaches that Christ in the valley of Josaphat will judge all nations as it were a judge, and will condemn the impious to hell; but will translate the pious to the heavenly Jerusalem, whose delights, glory and happiness he describes.

Tropologically, Joel in Hebrew is the same as willing, beginning, or the descent of the Lord; but Phatuel his father, in Hebrew is the same as breadth, or door, or persuasion of God, or God opening; so that it may be signified morally that he who has the door, persuasion and knowledge of God, rightly begins to prophesy, so that with Paul he may be able to say: "Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged;" who heard from the Lord: "Enlarge thy mouth, and I will fill it." For the very opening of the mouth is not in the power of man, but in the power of God, as the same Paul says: "A great door and evident is opened to me," II Corinthians II, 12. Thus St. Jerome, who in chapter I of Hosea says: Joel is the same as Lord God; so that Joel by crasis is the same as Jehova el, or Ja el, which are all names of God. Finally, Joel is numbered among the Saints, and is read inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on the 13th of July.