In a vision Satan appeareth accusing the high priest. He is cleansed from his sins. Christ is promised, and great fruit from his passion.
In a vision the diuel appeareth accusing the hiegh Priest. 4. He is clensed from his sinnes. 8. Christ is promised, and great fruite of his passion.
1And the Lord shewed me Jesus the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord: and Satan stood on his right hand to be his adversary.Il Signore mi fece vedere Gesù sommo sacerdote, che stava in piedi dinanzi all'Angelo del Signore, e Satan stava alla destra di lui per fargli contro.AND our Lord shewed me Iesus the grand priest standing before the Angel of our Lord: and Satan stood on his right hand, to be his aduersarie.Et ostendit mihi Dominus Jesum sacerdotem magnum, stantem coram angelo Domini: et Satan stabat a dextris ejus ut adversaretur ei. 2And the Lord said to Satan: The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan: and the Lord that chose Jerusalem rebuke thee: Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?E il Signore disse a Satan: Ti reprima il Signore, o Satan, e ti reprima colui, chi si e eletta Gerusalemme: non è egli questo un tizzone tratto dal fuoco?And our Lord sayd to Satan: The Lord geue rebuke on thee Satan: and the Lord that chose Ierusalem geue rebuke on thee: Why, is not this a firebrand, taken out of the fire?Et dixit Dominus ad Satan: Increpet Dominus in te, Satan ! et increpet Dominus in te, qui elegit Jerusalem ! numquid non iste torris est erutus de igne ? 3And Jesus was clothed with filthy garments: and he stood before the face of the angel.E Gesù era vestito di sordida veste, e si stava dinanzi all'Angelo,And Iesus was clothed with filthie garments: and he stood before the face of the Angel.Et Jesus erat indutus vestibus sordidis, et stabat ante faciem angeli. 4Who answered, and said to them that stood before him, saying: Take away the filthy garments from him. And he said to him: Behold I have taken away thy iniquity, and have clothed thee with change of garments.Il quale disse a quelli, che stavano alla sua presenza: Levategli la sordida veste. E disse a lui: Ecco, che io ho tolta da te la tua iniquità, e ti ho rivestito di abito da festa.Who answered, and sayd to them that stood before him, saying: Take away the filthie garments from him. And he sayd to him: Behold I haue taken away thine iniquitie, and haue clothed thee with change of garments.Qui respondit, et ait ad eos qui stabant coram se, dicens: Auferte vestimenta sordida ab eo. Et dixit ad eum: Ecce abstuli a te iniquitatem tuam, et indui te mutatoriis. 5And he said: Put a clean mitre upon his head: and they put a clean mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments, and the angel of the Lord stood.E soggiunse: Mettetegli in testa una tiara monda: e gli messero sulla testa la tiara monda, e lo rivestirono; e l'Angelo del Signore stava in piedi.And he said: Put a cleane mitre vpon his head: & they put a cleane mitre vpon his head, and clothed him with garments: and the Angel of our Lord stood.Et dixit: Ponite cidarim mundam super caput ejus. Et posuerunt cidarim mundam super caput ejus, et induerunt eum vestibus: et angelus Domini stabat.
6And the angel of the Lord protested to Jesus, saying:E l'Angelo del Signore fece questa protesta a Gesù, e disse:And the Angel of our Lord contested Iesus, saying:Et contestabatur angelus Domini Jesum, dicens: 7Thus saith the Lord of hosts: If thou wilt walk in my ways, and keep my charge, thou also shalt judge my house, and shalt keep my courts, and I will give thee some of them that are now present here to walk with thee.Queste cose dice il Signore degli eserciti: Se tu camminerai nelle mie vie, e osserverai le mie cerimonie, tu pure sarai giudice della mia casa, e sarai custode del mio tempio, e darò a te alcuni di questi, che sono ora qui presenti, che vadan teco.Thus saith the Lord of hosts: If you wil walke in my wayes, and keepe my watch, thou also shalt iudge my house, and shalt keepe my courts, and I wil geue thee walkers of them that now assist here.Hæc dicit Dominus exercituum: / Si in viis meis ambulaveris, / et custodiam meam custodieris, / tu quoque judicabis domum meam, / et custodies atria mea, / et dabo tibi ambulantes de his qui nunc hic assistunt. 8Hear, O Jesus thou high priest, thou and thy friends that dwell before thee, for they are portending men: for behold, I WILL BRING MY SERVANT THE ORIENT.Ascolta, o Gesù sommo sacerdote, tu, e i tuoi amici, che abitan presso di te, che sono uomini da portenti: perocché ecco, che io farò venire il mio servo, l'Oriente.Heare ô Iesus thou grand priest, thou and thy frendes that dwel before thee, because they are portending men: for behold I WIL BRING MY SERVANT THE ORIENT.Audi, Jesu sacerdos magne, / tu et amici tui, qui habitant coram te, / quia viri portendentes sunt: / ecce enim ego adducam servum meum Orientem. 9For behold the stone that I have laid before Jesus: upon one stone there are seven eyes: behold I will grave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts: and I will take away the iniquity of that land in one day.Perocché questa è la pietra, che io ho posta innanzi a Gesù: sopra quest'unica pietra sono sette occhi: ecco, che io collo scalpello la lavorerò, dice il Signore degli eserciti: e in un giorno torrò via l'iniquità della terra.Because loe the stone that I layd before Iesus: vpon one stone there be seuen eyes, behold I wil graue the grauing therof, sayth the Lord of hosts: & I wil take away the iniquitie of that land in one day.Quia ecce lapis quem dedi coram Jesu: / super lapidem unum septem oculi sunt: / ecce ego cælabo sculpturam ejus, ait Dominus exercituum, / et auferam iniquitatem terræ illius in die una. 10In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, every man shall call his friend under the vine and under the fig tree.In quel giorno l'amico inviterà l'amico ad andare sotto la sua vite, e sotto il suo fico, dice il Signore degli eserciti.In that day, sayth the Lord of hosts, euerie man shal cal his frende vnder the vine and vnder the figtree.In die illa, dicit Dominus exercituum, / vocabit vir amicum suum subter vitem et subter ficum.
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Challoner
Jesus, or Josue, the son of Josedec, the high priest of that time. (Challoner)
Worthington
To him this literally refers. (Worthington)
Calmet
As high priest, he represented the nation, whom several calumniated to Darius, 1 Esdras iv., etc. God represses the adversary and adorns his people. It seems something has been done amiss, ver. 4. (Calmet)
Calmet
The high priest, (St. Jerome) or rather his sons, have married strangers. (Chaldean) (1 Esdras 10:18.) Many Fathers take Jesus for a figure of the Messias, covered with the sins of mankind. (Calmet)
But the Orient (ver. 8) would not thus be promised unto him, (St. Jerome) unless we consider him also as high priest.
Satan. Septuagint, "the devil;" the accuser and calumniator, Apocalypse 12:10.
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The Lord said. This may refer to the angel, or to the Father and the Son, Psalm cix. Both are styled Jehovah.
Calmet
Bread, alluding to the nation, or to Jesus. Have not the suffered enough? (Amos 4:11.) (Calmet)
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Challoner
Garments. Negligences and sins. (Challoner)
Worthington
Jesus had neglected to urge the building of the temple, or to repress unlawful marriages, 1 Esdras viii. (Worthington)
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Change, such as were worn on festivals. This shewed that the people should exchange adversity for joy.
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Josephus
Judge. The high priests were at the head till the Machabees. (Josephus, Antiquities 11:4., and 20:8.)
Calmet
Yet the nation was, (Calmet) till Simon, (Haydock) always dependent; and the judges were under foreign kings or governors. (Calmet)
Challoner
Give thee, etc. Angels to attend and assist thee. (Challoner)
Worthington
They are promised to help the pastors of the Church. (Worthington)
Calmet
They shall give information, ver. 9., and Exodus 23:20. (Calmet)
Theod.[Theodotion or Theodoret]
Of them. Septuagint, "who shall converse in the midst of these who stand:" (Haydock) thy children shall succeed in the pontificate. (Theod.[Theodotion or Theodoret])
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Calmet
Portending men. That is, men who by words and actions are to foreshew wonders that are to come; (Challoner) or rather they require prodigies before they will take courage to build the temple; or they understand how to explain such things. (Calmet)
Challoner
Orient; Christ, who according to his humanity is the servant of God, is called the Orient, from his rising like the sun in the east to enlighten the world. (Challoner)
Haydock
St. Luke explains this of Christ, (Worthington) recording the words of Zacharias. [Luke 1:78.] (Haydock)
Calmet
Christ's birth was most pure. He gave light to the world. Some would explain this of Zorobabel; but as he was already present, it would seem more applicable to Nehemias. Yet both were only figures of Christ, and could not efface the iniquity of Juda, etc. The Messias is styled the Bud, Zacharias 6:12., and Isaias 4:2., etc. (Calmet)
Haydock
Tsemach signifies either "the bud or the orient." (Haydock)
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The stone. Another emblem of Christ, the rock, foundation, and corner-stone of his Church.
Challoner
Eyes. The manifold providence of Christ over his Church, or the seven gifts of the Spirit of God. (Challoner)
The Jews were lately returned from a country where seven chief officers were styled "the king's eyes," having to inform him of the conduct of governors, etc. Zorobabel shall build the temple, as a figure of Christ establishing his Church, Zacharias 4:10.
Calmet
Grave. Septuagint, "dig a pit." The rest agree with us. Christ adorns and instructs his Church. (Calmet)
Challoner
Day. The day of the passion of Christ, the source of all our good: when this precious stone shall be graved, that is cut and pierced with whips, thorns, nails, and spear. (Challoner)
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Haydock
Tree. All shall be peace and concord. (Haydock)
Menochius
They shall communicate to each other spiritual goods, abounding in the Church. (Menochius)
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Jesus.... Alias, Josue, the son of Josedec, the high priest of that time.
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With filthy garments.... Negligences and sins.
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I will give thee, etc.... Angels to attend and assist thee.
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Portending men.... That is, men, who by words and actions are to foreshew wonders that are to come.—Ibid. My servant the Orient.... Christ, who according to his humanity is the servant of God, is called the Orient from his rising like the sun in the east to enlighten the world.
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The stone.... Another emblem of Christ, the rock, foundation, and corner stone of his church.—Ibid. Seven eyes.... The manifold providence of Christ over his church, or the seven gifts of the spirit of God.—Ibid. One day.... Viz., the day of the passion of Christ, the source of all our good: when this precious stone shall be graved, that is, cut and pierced, with whips, thorns, nails, and spear.
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Literally this vision perteyned to the hiegh priest of that time:
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Vvhose fault is here taxed, for that he admonished not the people to build the temple; and to abstaine from marying vvemen of strange nations, as. 1. •sd. 8 9 10.
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Angels are promised to assist the Prelates of the Church
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Christ according to his manh•od is the seruant of God. Of vvhó S Luke expoundeth this prophecie.
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Concordance Luc. 1. •. 78.
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St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Smyrnæans: Shorter and Longer Versions 7
They are ashamed of the cross; they mock at the passion; they make a jest of the resurrection. They are the offspring of that spirit who is the author of all evil, who led Adam, by means of his wife, to transgress the commandment, who slew Abel by the hands of Cain, who fought against Job, who was the accuser of Joshua
St Justin Martyr † AD 165 Dialogue with Trypho 79
… In vain will they labour for a people which will not profit them by assistance, but [will be] for a disgrace and a reproach [to them].’ And, further, Zechariah tells, as you yourself have related, that the devil stood on the right hand of Joshua the priest, to resist him; and [the Lord] said, ‘The Lord, who has taken Jerusalem, rebuke thee.’
St Justin Martyr † AD 165 Dialogue with Trypho 115
… Let all flesh fear before the Lord, for He is raised up out of His holy clouds. And He showed me Jesus (Joshua) the high priest standing before the angel [of the Lord ]; and the devil stood at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said to the devil, The Lord who hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Behold, is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?’ ”
Origen † AD 254 Origen De Principiis 3.2.1
… In the book of Ecclesiastes, too, Solomon says, “If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for soundness will restrain many transgressions.” In Zechariah
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 2.14
… And Jesus was clothed in filthy garments, and he stood before the face of the Angel Himself; and He answered and said to them who were standing before His face, saying, Take away his filthy garments from him. And he said to him, Behold, I have taken away thine iniquities. And put upon him a priestly garment, and set a fair mitre upon his head.”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 2.62
62. Whenever I remember Zechariah, I shudder at the reaping-hook, and likewise at his testimony against the priests, his hints in reference to the celebrated Joshua, the high priest, whom he represents as stripped of filthy and unbecoming garments and then clothed in rich priestly apparel.
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Against Eunomius 6.2
… For Jesus, the great High Priest (as Zechariah says
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 2.4
… Solomon, beloved of the Lord, and to whom God had twice revealed Himself, because he loved women forsook the love of God. It is related in the Book of Days that Manasses the wicked king was restored after the Babylonish captivity to his former rank. And Josiah, a holy man, was slain by the king of Egypt on the plain of Megiddo.
St Jerome † AD 420 Against the Pelagians 2
Zech. iii. 1 . Joshua is represented as clothed in filthy garments, and is freed through God’s mercy.
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Holy Spirit 1.10
… “Is not this a brand cast forth from the fire? And that was Joshua clothed in filthy garments.”
St Jerome † AD 420 Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus 2.18
… For we have been created for blessing, not for cursing. Therefore even Michael, when he disputed against the devil concerning the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a railing accusation even for so great an evil, but said; ‘The Lord rebuke thee.’ And we read something similar in Zachariah,
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St Ephrem the Syrian † AD 373 Ephraim Syrus: Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh 2
Glory to Him Who sowed His Light in the darkness, and was reproached in His hidden state, and covered His secret things. He also stripped and took off from us the clothing of our filthiness.
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On the Baptism of Christ 1
… from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I give you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh, and my Spirit will I put within you .” Most manifestly also does Zechariah prophesy of Joshua
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 53.8
… He represents the Lord (the Father, that is) as saying “Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations and he who is desired of all nations shall come.” Zechariah, he that is mindful of his Lord, gives us many prophecies. He sees Jesus, “clothed with filthy garments,”
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Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 2.21
… We may add that “He took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses,” both infirmities of the soul and sicknesses of the hidden man of our heart. On account of these infirmities and sicknesses which He bore away from us, He declares His soul to be sorrowful and sore troubled, and He is said in Zechariah to have put on filthy garments,
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Holy Spirit 1.10
114. Lastly, that we may know that this mystery of the common redemption was most clearly revealed by the prophets, you have also in this place: “Lo, it hath taken away thy sins;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.50
… It is plain from the words, of what he is speaking. The same phrase and sense occur in the prophet Zechariah, in the place where “the filthy garments” are removed from off the high priest, and it is said to him, “I have taken away thy sins.”
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St Justin Martyr † AD 165 Dialogue with Trypho 100
… and since we find it recorded in the memoirs of His apostles that He is the Son of God, and since we call Him the Son, we have understood that He proceeded before all creatures from the Father by His power and will (for He is addressed in the writings of the prophets in one way or another as Wisdom, and the Day,
Tertullian † AD 220 Against the Valentinians 3
… let him unroll his length through his sinuous joints; let him tortuously crawl, though not all at once, beast as he is that skulks the light. Of our dove, however, how simple is the very home!—always in high and open places, and facing the light! As the symbol of the Holy Spirit, it loves the (radiant) East, that figure of Christ.
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 2.17
… This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. O Lord, save therefore, O Lord, direct therefore. Blessed is He who cometh in the name of the Lord.” Also in Zechariah: “Behold, I bring forth my servant. The Orient is his name, because the stone which I have placed before the face of Jesus; upon that one stone are seven eyes.”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 5.8
107. Not only does He undergo service in the character of man by reason of His descent from David, but also by reason of His name, as it is written: “I have found David My Servant;” and elsewhere: “Behold I will send unto you My Servant, the Orient is His name.”
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Aphrahat † AD 346 Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations 1.9
9. And definitely did He show concerning this stone:— Lo! on this stone will I open seven eyes .
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 41
… And wicked neighbours receive sevenfold into their bosom; and the House of Wisdom rests on seven pillars and the Stone of Zerubbabel is adorned with seven eyes;
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 53.8
… and I will shake all nations and he who is desired of all nations shall come.” Zechariah, he that is mindful of his Lord, gives us many prophecies. He sees Jesus, “clothed with filthy garments,” a stone with seven eyes,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 108.13
13. It would be tedious were I tell of the valley of Achor, that is, of ‘trouble and crowds,’ where theft and covetousness were condemned; and of Bethel, ‘the house of God,’ where Jacob poor and destitute slept upon the bare ground. Here it was that, having set beneath his head a stone which in Zechariah is described as having seven eyes
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1. AND THE LORD SHOWED ME. — The word Lord is not in the Hebrew, nor in the Chaldean, but is understood. Whence the Septuagint and Our Version express it. Moreover the Lord revealed these things through an angel in His manner, and painted them in the imagination of Zacharias: whether He revealed them on the same night as the preceding chapters I and II, as Rupertus and Hugo wish, or on another night, is uncertain. For the Prophets often do not distinguish times, nor do they mark them with certainty in their prophecies, since it is established that most of them were revealed to them by God at various intervals, on different days, months, and even years, either immediately, as when God spoke in their mind; or through an angel, as when through him he formed and painted in the imagination of the Prophets their symbols, namely visions, or words. Jesus, — the son of Josedech, who at that time was living, and had already returned from Babylon to Jerusalem, and was there the High Priest. Whence in verse 8, promising Christ to him, it says: "Hear, Jesus the great priest," etc. Thus St. Jerome, Theodoret, Cyril, Remigius, Albert, Hugo, Lyran here, and St. Augustine in book XII Against Faustus chapter XXXVI, and Eusebius in book IV of the Demonstration chapter the last. Arias denies this, following Abenezra and R. Solomon, because, they say, Jesus the son of Josedech was already dead, for the reason that in Aggaeus II, 12 and 22, mention is not made of him, as it was made in verse 3. Jesus therefore is taken here for his posterity, namely for the Maccabees, whose wars against Antiochus Zacharias predicts here: thus they say. But they err, for that this Jesus lived at that time is evident from chapter VI of Zacharias verse 11, where it is said: "Thou shalt take gold and make crowns, and put them upon the head of Jesus the son of Josedech," etc. And in Ecclesiasticus XXX, 13, where it is said that this Jesus with Zorobabel built and rejoiced over the temple; but the building of the temple was completed and dedicated in the sixth year of Darius, as is evident from I Esdras VI, 15; indeed Josephus in book XI, chapter V, relates that this Jesus lived until the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, who succeeded his father Darius: for then his son Joachim succeeded him in the priesthood. Allegorically, Jesus the son of Josedech, the High Priest of the old law, represented Jesus Christ the High Priest of the New Testament, both in name and in dignity and office. Thus the authors already cited; moreover Tertullian Against the Jews, near the end, Origen homily 9 in Leviticus, Lactantius book IV, chapter XIV, St. Ambrose book III On Faith, chapter IV, St. Chrysostom homily 5 from various works on St. Matthew, St. Gregory book XX of the Morals chapter XX, who seems to assert that here in the literal sense it is spoken of Jesus Christ, and therefore the words "son of Josedech" are not added, which elsewhere are added to the old Jesus. But these Fathers are to be excused, because in their manner they do not distinguish the literal sense from the allegorical, and only wish to say that the principal sense in the mind and intention of the Holy Spirit is concerning Jesus Christ, and therefore to indicate this the words "son of Josedech" are omitted. Now it is established among all, that although the literal sense concerning Jesus the son of Josedech is the first, nevertheless the allegorical sense concerning Jesus Christ is superior to it, and therefore the principal. Moreover Jerome Savonarola, explaining these words of Zacharias in the year of the Lord 1495, with Alexander VI as Pope, to whom he was hostile, takes by Jesus an angelic Pontiff, whom he was prophesying would soon visit Rome, who would seem an angel rather than a man in life and morals, and would reform the whole Church, and introduce new rites, indeed a new Gospel. But now more than a hundred years have elapsed from this his prophecy, and that angel has not yet appeared. See Ambrose Catharinus Against the Prophecies of Savonarola, and Canon XXXIII in the Proem. STANDING BEFORE THE ANGEL OF THE LORD. — This angel was St. Michael, as the guardian of the Synagogue, who fights against Satan for its head, namely Jesus the priest. Whence before him Jesus the priest stands as it were as an accused, Satan accusing him. For this is a kind of tribunal and judgment, in which the judge is God, the accuser Satan, the accused Jesus, the advocate Michael, but God delegates his role to Michael, so that he himself is judge in his place. Whence before Michael as judge the accused Jesus stands here. For as God, so also his angels, as being most just, can be at the same time both advocates and judges. Thus St. Jerome, Remigius, Hugo and Lyran: "The angel," he says, "as the leader of the whole people, ought to be present to the leader of the same people as a man (namely to the priest Jesus)." AND SATAN STOOD. — Satan in Hebrew is the same as adversary; hence it is attributed to the demon, who supremely and everywhere opposes the faithful, according to that passage of St. Peter, 1 Epistle, chapter V, 8: "Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour." Hence the Septuagint translates Satan as Diabolos, that is, slanderer. Moreover, Satan here is understood by antonomasia as the prince of demons, namely Lucifer: against him, just as St. Michael fought first in heaven, so he perpetually fights on earth for the Church, as St. John teaches, Apocalypse XII, 7: "And there was made, he says, a great battle in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels;" and chapter XX, 2: "He laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years." Against him as the prince of demons, Christ contended with himself, Matthew IV, 1 and 10. He also disputed against Michael concerning the body of Moses, as St. Jude says in his epistle, verse 9. From this you may gather that the Supreme Pontiff, such as was Jesus the son of Josedech, has St. Michael as his guardian and protector: for just as he is the tutor of the body of the Church, so he is also of the head, namely the Pontiff; just as on the other hand Lucifer, the enemy of the Church, is the enemy of the Pontiff; for he attacks him especially, so that with him overthrown he may overthrow the Church; and this sometimes through himself, sometimes through demons subject to him. Wherefore let pontiffs keep watch and be strong in their vigil, let them constantly think that theirs is a sharp and perpetual war with the prince of darkness, who burns with wrath, is mighty in power, swells with pride, is cunning in craft, experienced in experience. Let them know that their antagonist is Lucifer, let them remember that when they enter upon the pontificate, they provoke Satan to a duel and singular combat, and all his infernal cohorts and legions, concerning which the Apostle says, Ephesians VI, 13: "Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places." But lest they be struck down, nor fall in spirit, let them know that on the other hand their defender and protector is St. Michael. Let them remember that in Blessed Peter a promise was made to them by Christ: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell (namely all the strength and power of the infernal regions) shall not prevail against it," Matthew XVI. Let them remember that the whole Church, and especially each individual priest, prays to God daily in his name in the sacrifice of the Mass. Therefore their protectors are more numerous and more powerful than their enemies and assailants, as he who saw them said, Elisaeus, IV Kings VI, 16. Arias therefore wrongly understands Satan as Antiochus Epiphanes, who attacked Jesus, that is, the descendants of Jesus the Machabees. For here the discourse is concerning Jesus himself, not concerning his descendants, as I said a little before. AT HIS RIGHT HAND. — Satan, accusing Jesus the son of Josedech in the tribunal of God, stood at the right hand of Jesus, as if a victor, and in the dispute more powerful and superior; because he seemed in judgment to be prevailing, and to be driving Jesus to a sentence of condemnation, because the accusation which he brought against him was true, says St. Jerome. In a similar scheme and phrase the Psalmist speaks, Psalm CVIII, 6: "Set a legislator over him," namely make the devil stand at his right hand, as if prevailing over him, dictating laws and rights. Whence St. Augustine there explains it tropologically thus: "This," he says, "Judas the betrayer of Christ merited, that he should have the devil over him, that is, be subject to the devil, who refused to be subject to Christ. But let him stand at his right hand, it is said; because he preferred the works of the devil to the works of God. For that is not undeservedly called right to each one which he prefers, just as the right hand is preferred to the left. Therefore also concerning those who, preferring the joys of this world to God, he called blessed the people to whom these things are, it is most rightly said: Their right hand is the right hand of iniquity. The devil therefore stood at his right hand, when he preferred avarice to wisdom, and money to his salvation, so that he would betray him and be possessed by him to whom he ought to be possessed, lest he be possessed by him, whose works Christ himself dissolved, by whom he refused to be possessed." Whence it follows: "When he is judged let him go out condemned." On the other hand the just and holy say Psalm XV, 8: "I set the Lord always in my sight, for he is at my right hand that I be not moved." And Psalm CVIII, 31: "He stood at the right hand of the poor (so that the riches of the poor be the Lord himself, Augustine says in the same place) that he might save my soul from those that persecute me." Secondly, Albert, Hugh and Sanchez: Satan, they say, is at the right hand of the high priest, because, envying the prosperity of the Jews, he was opposed to the counsels of the angels and the pious from that people; for Satan through the evil counselors of the king in Babylon, and through the Samaritans in Judaea, disturbed the counsels of the Hebrews, and allowed nothing to be administered expeditiously, or with great effort and labor. For just as a friend is at the right hand to help and protect, as it is said, Psalm XV: "He is at my right hand that I be not moved:" so an enemy is at the right hand to disturb and weaken what in us is firmer and more suited to labor; which indeed Satan was doing through the Samaritans, while he was striving to delay and hinder both the workmen and the Jews who presided over the building by various arts. Thus also Pineda, On the Affairs of Solomon, book VII, chapter XX: The right hand, he says, is a symbol of some excellent attempt and work; hence he who opposes himself to another at his right hand in order to be adverse, without doubt maliciously and hostilely impedes the work, as Satan did here. Mystically, Hugo notes that the devil stands at the left of those whom he persecutes in temporal matters; at the right, of those in spiritual matters; before the face, of those who beware his cunning; behind, of those who do not foresee; above, of those whom he tramples; below and under the feet, of those who trample him. And Euthymius confirms this from Scripture in Psalm 108, 6: The devil, he says, stands at the right, that he may seize the right operations, that is, the good ones. Likewise Valentia there: Just as, he says, fear begins from the right side of an animal, so those are driven by the devil, doing nothing except according to avarice, hatred, infidelity. The devil therefore stands at the right, as the prince of sinners. So also Elias of Crete in the first oration of Nazianzen: Satan, he says, always attacks our right things, that is, those which are joined with praise, but not the left. Wherefore St. Ambrose, book III On the Intercession, chapter XI: Adam, he says, gave his right hand to the devil, which he extended to the forbidden fruit. Thus it was prejudged in him for all, and the devil began to stand at the right of all: for all are born condemned and children of wrath. Just as in Psalm 79, 18, David calls the man of the right hand whom God makes strong by his peculiar aid; so he has the devil at his right who, by consenting to him, subjects himself to him, and renders him strong and powerful against himself. The type of the devil was Naas, king of Ammon, saying to the Israelites, 1 Kings 11, 2: "In this I will make a covenant with you, that I may put out the right eyes of all of you," both in reproach, and that I may render them useless in war, as being blind; for soldiers cover the left eye with a shield. Which St. Gregory explains mystically, book V on the book of Kings, at the beginning: "The right eye of ours," he says, "is the sight of eternal brightness: but the left eye is that of carnal concupiscence. The right eye therefore is put out, when the mind is struck with such blindness that it is no longer opened to see heavenly things. Naas (Naas in Hebrew is the same as serpent, which is what the devil is) therefore put out the right eyes of those in covenant with him, when gluttony so prevails over those conquered by abstinence, that they desire only carnal things, and no longer attend to what they used to love," namely spiritual and eternal things. Finally, from this place and similar ones, Cassian, Conferences VIII, chapter XVII, concludes that there cleaves to each of us not only a good angel, but also an evil one, or that to each a demon is assigned by Lucifer to tempt, just as to each a guardian angel is assigned by God for protection. This was the opinion of Origen and some of the ancients. Nor is it disapprovable: both because Lucifer is the ape of God: and because he burns with hatred of God and envy of men, and knows this to be the best mode and order of harming men, if to each a demon is assigned, who may constantly observe him, and while occasion is present tempt him, lest there be disorder and confusion among demons; and lest what one begins another destroy. Moreover, to each his own Lucifer assigns, not God. THAT HE MIGHT RESIST HIM. — In Hebrew לשטנן listeno, from the root שטן satan, that is, he resisted, whence Satan is called the adversary. He therefore explains the etymology of Satan, as if to say Satan, that is, the adversary, stood, so that according to the name and office usurped by himself he might resist Jesus, namely that as it were an accuser he might accuse him in the tribunal of God, to this end that being condemned by him he might be judged unworthy both of the priesthood and of the restoration of the temple and divine worship: for Satan was striving to prevent this. You will ask: What was the crime of Jesus, of which Satan accused him? First, Theodoret and Sanchez think that these were not sins of Jesus, but of the people; which were many, and were imputed to Jesus as to the high priest, for in some way the whole people is in the priest, and in the priest sins; or rather the priest sins in all, as St. Cyril teaches. But the angel hints that some sin proper to Jesus intervened here, saying in verse 4: "Take away the filthy garments from him;" and: "Behold I have taken away thy iniquity." I say therefore that this sin was, that he did not sufficiently instruct the people, already almost in Babylon forgetful of the law and worship of God, in it, nor urged them in all ways to observe it, and especially that he did not compel him, torpid in the building of the temple, to it, as is evident from Haggai 1, 1 and 2. Again, that he did not turn away from marriages contracted with foreign wives. For this crime the people was rebuked and corrected by Ezra, book I, chapter IX, 2. Thus the Chaldean, Lyra, Emmanuel, Mariana and Vatablus. Moreover, that Jesus was negligent in this matter is evident from the fact that his sons and brothers married foreign women, as is evident from 1 Ezra 10, 18, whom indeed he himself as a father ought to have chastised and prevented. Whence the Chaldean translates: But they were the sons of Jesus, who had taken wives who were not worthy of the priesthood. St. Jerome adds from the Hebrews, whom Remigius, Haymo and Hugo follow: That he himself also took an alien wife with the others; which is also written most fully in Ezra and Malachi. But in Ezra it is written only that the sons of Jesus took alien wives, not Jesus himself; for if Jesus the high priest himself had taken an alien wife, surely Ezra would not have passed over this, since he himself makes it his business to recount and censure the vices of the Synagogue, and specifically in chapter X, he numbers those who had taken alien wives. It is less credible what St. Justin writes, in his Dialogue Against Trypho, that Jesus was accused by Satan of having taken a harlot as wife. For who would believe this of so great a man and high priest? Morally, learn here how great a burden superiors undertake, and how much subjects ought to sympathize with them, and ought readily to lighten that burden by obeying them. For they themselves are as it were Atlases, who bear the Church or the commonwealth, so that the sins of each individual who is in it are ascribed to the bishop, pastor or rector. Hence the Apostle in Hebrews chapter XIII, 17: "Obey," he says, "your prelates, and be subject to them. For they watch as being to render an account for your souls, that they may do this with joy, and not with grief: for this is not expedient for you." Where St. Chrysostom, homily 34: "I wonder," he says, "if any of the rectors can be saved." Likewise St. Thomas: Christ, he says, on the day of judgment will question the rectors concerning each of the souls of the subjects, and will demand from them the salvation of each, saying to them that word from Jeremiah chapter XIII, 20: "Where is the flock that was given to thee, thy beautiful cattle?" AND THE LORD SAID TO SATAN: LET THE LORD REBUKE THEE, O SATAN,—that is to say, God, out of the zeal with which he loved Jerusalem and its high priest Jesus, and being indignant at Satan's so wicked and harmful demands against Jerusalem, and impudently making them against God, did not wait for Michael the advocate of Jesus to plead his cause; but he himself, out of fervor, anticipated him and pleaded the cause of Jesus. He said therefore to Satan: "The Lord," in Hebrew Jehovah, that is God almighty, by his command, rebuke and reproof, restrain and check thy boldness and pride, O Satan, by which thou placest thyself at the right hand of Jesus the high priest, as if thou wert more worthy than he and his conqueror: God, I say, restrains thee lest thou harm Jesus praying for the restoration of Jerusalem and divine worship, and lest thou hinder him in so pious a purpose and pleasing to God. For God "hath chosen Jerusalem" from all the cities of the world, that he might dwell and be worshipped in it. Note first: God here speaks to Satan of himself in the third person. For the sense is, that is to say, I God will rebuke and restrain thee, O Satan. But he speaks in the third person: "The Lord shall rebuke thee," by a Hebraism, both to show him his majesty; and because Satan is unworthy that God should address him in the first person, as if to dispute and contend with him directly. Thus it is said in Genesis XIX: "The Lord rained from the Lord," that is from himself. Thus St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius and Rupert, who at the same time think that the Trinity of persons in God is hinted at here, as if the Lord Father should say to the Lord Son: Rebuke, that is restrain, Satan. For since Jesus son of Josedech could not by himself resist Satan, the Son of God, who was also to be called Jesus, rebuked Satan for him, and at the same time by this rebuke signified that he, when he should take on flesh, would rebuke the devil, as he did in Matthew IV when he says: "Begone, Satan." Thus Bellarmine, book I On Christ, chapter V. Whence also the Lord is named three times here, to indicate the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, says our Emmanuel. Second, more easily and plainly Albert, Hugh, Arias and Vatablus think that here not God speaks, but an angel, namely Michael, and that he invokes God, that he rebuke and restrain Satan. For just as Satan here is the accuser, so Michael is the defender, and likewise the judge of Jesus. For in the judgment, as soon as the accuser brought the charge, the advocate defends him; or certainly, if the accusation be calumnious, as it was here, the judge himself; "The Lord said," therefore, "to Satan," that is the angel of the Lord, "to Satan." It is a metonymy, or rather a prosopopoeia: for the angel is called Lord, in Hebrew Jehovah, that is God, because he was acting in God's stead in this judgment, and was judge for him of Jesus the high priest. For he himself was the president and guardian of the Synagogue, and therefore it pertained to him to judge the guilt and cause of Jesus, who was high priest in the Synagogue. Whence it is said that Jesus stood before him, as a defendant before a judge. For if Michael had been only the advocate of Jesus here, surely Zechariah would have said he stood at the left of Jesus, as he said the devil, as the accuser, stood at the right of Jesus. Finally, in the following passages the angel always acts and speaks, not God: therefore also here. In a similar way, the angel giving the tables of the law to Moses on Sinai, as the Apostle testifies in Galatians chapter III, 19, conducts himself as God, indeed calls himself God, saying: "I am the Lord thy God," Exodus chapter XX, 2: because he sustained the person of God the lawgiver. Thus the angel sending Gideon against the Midianites is now called an angel, now the Lord, because he was the Lord's legate, Judges chapter VI, 12. Finally, it appears that St. Jude explains it thus in his epistle, verse 9; for alluding to this he says: "When Michael the Archangel, disputing with the devil and contending about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a judgment of blasphemy (to blaspheme him, to revile him, to curse him, saying for example, Depart hence, accursed one, or may God curse thee); but (modestly) said: The Lord command thee," in Greek epitimesai, that is, commanding rebuke thee, and commanding rebuke thee with power and objurgation, as if thou wert an impudent actor and calumniator. REBUKE—that is, may God restrain and check thy impudence and insolence: for this is what the Hebrew יגער iiggar signifies, that is, rebuke, which the Septuagint, whom Jude follows, translate as epitimesai. Thus says the Psalmist, Psalm CV, 9: "He rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up," as if to say, With sharp command, as if rebuking a wild sea, he restrained it, divided it and dried it. And Psalm LXVII, 31: "Rebuke the beasts of the reed." Thus Christ in Luke chapter VIII, 25: "He rebuked the wind and the storm of the water," namely saying: Be silent and be mute, that is, be calm and quiet, as Mark chapter IV, 39 has it. For when against nature and natural causes, namely winds, force and impetuosity are exerted, there is need of a more vehement power and command of God, which Scripture calls rebuke, as if something violent and forced. For thus charioteers rebuke horses, grooms rebuke donkeys, masters rebuke lazy disciples, threatening blows, and force them to hasten their hand or step. Morally, let those who are tempted or vexed by Satan use this voice of God rebuking Satan, so that, relying on God's aid, they may generously repel him, despise him and trample him. Thus St. Bavo in Belgium, especially celebrated in Ghent, when he spurned the most ample estates (for he was descended from the blood of the kings of France and was heir of the Austrasian dukes) and gave himself entirely to God and divine things, fiercely attacked by a multitude of demons, now assuming the voices and forms of dogs, now wolves, now bears, now lions, now serpents, with great strength of spirit and confidence mocking them, said: "May God rebuke thee, O Satan, and may he rebuke thee, who chose Jerusalem." And without delay: the legion vanished, nor did it dare to attack the man of God any further. Thus his Life relates. IS NOT THIS A BRAND PLUCKED OUT OF THE FIRE?—The Syriac: this is a brand which escaped from the fire; the Arabic: this as a lamp immersed in fire, as if to say, I punished the Jews for their sins by the Babylonian fire, that is, captivity, and consumed many of them: from that fire Jesus, as a brand scorched and blackened by the flame, that is, wretched and poor, escaped, so that he might restore the Synagogue. Why therefore dost thou, O Satan, wish to overwhelm him entirely, burn him and destroy him, so that thou mayest scatter the people and the worship of God which thou enviest? It shall not be so: I will preserve him, lest he be entirely burned; because I have decreed through him to restore my temple, people, city and religion: for it is God's property not to break the bruised reed, and not to extinguish the smoking flax, Isaiah chapter XLII, 3. Thus St. Jerome and St. Cyril. The voice of a brand signifies Jesus and the people so deformed by Babylon, and as if scorched, that they are nearly consumed, and appear plainly to be consumed, unless God snatch them away and succor them. Hence the proverb: "Titius to the fire, a brand to the hearth," when someone is applied to that thing or office to which he appears to be made and born by nature, as when a cook is assigned to the kitchen, a gallows-bird to the gallows, a cook to pots, an incendiary to the pyre. Thus the Jews today are as brands plucked from the fire by which Jerusalem was burned by Titus. Half-burned, says Rupert, by the fire by which their city burned, they display marks everywhere, according to that in Amos chapter IV, 11: "Ye have been made as a brand plucked from the burning;" for it preceded: "I have overthrown you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha." Mystically, St. Gregory, lib. XII Moral. cap. XVIII: "The Jewish people, he says, was flowing toward the fires of hell under the leadership of faithlessness; but when it is brought back to the faith, it is freed from the same burning of eternal fire. Hence immediately concerning it is added: Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Thus tropologically, 'a brand plucked out of the fire' is any sinner, whom a preacher or confessor, by teaching and admonishing, snatches from hell, to which he was destined. For what else are sins than bellows; and sinners than brands and fuel of hell? Again St. Jerome: 'A brand, he says, plucked out of the fire can most rightly be understood as one who, when he was in Babylon (as also the just man in the world, and in the world's enticements and temptations), was not consumed by the Babylonian fire, nor touched by the flame of this age. Whence also Moses in the wilderness beholds a great vision, in which a bush was burning, and was not consumed.' Thus St. Jude in his epistle 22: 'These, he says, reprove who are judged, but others save, snatching them out of the fire.' Again St. Jerome adapts this brand to Christ; because burned by the flame of passion, and rising again he retained its marks, namely the glorious wounds.
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3. And Jesus was clothed with filthy garments. — The Arabic version: And there were upon him filthy garments: both because he had recently returned from Babylon soiled and squalid, poor and miserable. Thus Theodoret; and also on account of the sin mentioned in verse 3; for filthy garments denote a filthy mind and conscience, which the angel cleanses in the following verse, saying: "Take away the filthy garments from him." And: "Behold, I have taken away thy iniquity, and I will clothe thee with fine raiment." Thus St. Jerome, Remigius, Haymo, Albert and Lyran: "Jesus," says the same Jerome, "was clothed with filthy garments in three ways, either on account of an unlawful marriage, or on account of the sins of the people, or on account of the squalor of captivity." Moreover: "Splendid garments (such as those of the priest Jesus) make any stains more apparent," says the Nazianzene, oration 31. Whence morally St. Bernard in the sermon On Triple Custody: "Just as," he says, "the slightest stain disfigures a precious garment more shamefully, so much greater justice is required of us; since in others a blemish is a small mark, in us it is a grave stain." Symbolically, the filthy garments of Jesus the priest signify that the priesthood, temple and worship of sacred things were not so elegant and magnificent after the return from Babylon as they had been before: for besides the riches of Solomon they lacked many other things, those five insignia which I noted in Haggai, chapter II, 10. Thus Clarius. Allegorically, Jesus son of Josedec, clothed with filthy garments, represents Jesus Christ clothed in our filthy flesh. For human flesh in comparison with the flesh of all other animals is filthy, wretched, miserable, and subject to a thousand diseases, filth and putrefaction, so that it appears to be nothing other than a vessel of filth, as is evident to anyone observing what we discharge from the mouth, eyes, ears, nose and below. Indeed, if the soul of an infant, as it is being conceived, were to see the miseries, diseases and filth of the body it is about to enter, to which it will be subject throughout its entire life, it would shudder to enter it. Consider how your soul shudders when it sees some leprous, scabby, ulcerous body eaten away by cancer, putrid, cadaverous—such as we see commonly before the doors of the temples in Rome among beggars—and how it would recoil from entering into it, putting it on and animating it, if God commanded it. And see the condescension of our God, who, knowing and foreseeing that our flesh is by its nature subject to all these miseries and filth, nevertheless put it on, when the Word was made flesh, so that he might expiate it and cleanse it from these things, and even more from the filth of the soul. Thus St. Gregory, book XX of the Morals, chapter XVIII: "Jesus was clothed with filthy garments," he says, "because although he was alien from all sin, yet he came in the likeness of sinful flesh." Secondly, Jesus was filthy because he lived a poor and needy life in perpetual labors and sweats, and walking on foot with bare feet and going about everywhere preaching, he often soiled his feet with dust and mud. Thirdly and especially, because in his passion he was made filthy both by our sins and by bruises, blood, corruption, spittle, phlegm, wounds, etc. Whence St. Jerome: "Jesus was clothed with filthy garments, because although he committed no sin, yet he was made sin for us: and he himself bore our infirmities, and suffered for us, and we esteemed him stricken (indeed leprous, as Isaiah says in chapter LIII), and smitten, and in affliction. He himself was wounded for our iniquities, and was bruised for our sins. And in the Apostle we read: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Here in Psalm XXI he speaks: The words of my offences are far from my salvation. And in Psalm LXVIII: O God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my offences are not hidden from thee: all which are called filthy garments, and shall be taken away from him when he hath blotted out our sins; so that because he was clothed with filthy garments, we rising from him may hear from him after baptism: Let thy garments be always white. Hear also St. Ambrose in Psalm CXVIII, at that passage: Appoint me a law, O Lord, in the way of thy justices: "Jesus stood," he says, "and had filthy garments: for he bore my sins: he took our garments, that he might clothe us with the splendor of immortality: he came in a light cloud as it were justice: for iniquity sits in a talent of lead, Christ in the heart of the just whom sins do not burden." But concerning the talent of lead it must be said in chapter V, verse 7. Moreover, consider the wondrous combat and duel of Christ and the devil: the fiercest enemy stands, aims his sword, devotes to death, and dooms the priest's head; Christ opposes to him a naked side, a naked head and body, or, which is the same thing in battle, a torn and filthy garment, and conquers. Isaiah saw this in chapter LI, 9: "Arise," he says, "put on the strength of the arm of the Lord," why with torn and bloody garments in battle? But the leader Christ, instead of a bronze breastplate, offers a blood-stained cloak, instead of iron greaves and gauntlets iron nails, instead of a helmet thorns, instead of the protection of soldiers solitude, instead of the clanging of trumpets silence, and patience when about to engage with the enemy. Yet no breastplate is equally powerful as bloody flesh; no strength is more excellent against the enemy than the weakness of a lacerated body: when the devil sees this, he is weakened and broken, because he is the author of so atrocious a parricide, indeed of Christicide and Deicide; and therefore confused and defeated he flees. This is what John says of Christ in the Apocalypse, chapter XIX, 13: "And he was clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood: and his name is called the Word of God," namely effective and omnipotent, which, in order to show its strength, through the very wounds and injuries overthrows the enemy and destroys him.
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4. AND STOOD BEFORE THE FACE OF THE ANGEL,—as one guilty, and therefore clothed in filth before the judge, as I said at verse 1, and as if distrustful of his own cause, and conscious of wrongdoing, he directed suppliant and tearful eyes toward the angel, seeking grace and aid. Thus formerly those accused appeared and stood in the tribunal clothed in dark garments, with unkempt hair, pale and squalid, in order to bend the judge toward mercy. 4. He (namely the angel presiding and judging, for instance Michael, assenting to Jesus with silent prayers) ANSWERED AND SAID TO THOSE WHO STOOD BEFORE HIM,—namely to the angels subject to him and ministering to him. Thus St. Jerome, Remigius, Lyra and others everywhere, with one exception, Arias, who thinks that here Michael speaks to the priests, or to the ministers of Jesus the high priest: for it was their office to strip him of garments and to clothe him; but not with these filthy and change-garments: for to strip Jesus of filthy and sinful garments, and to clothe him with change-garments, only the angels were able to do. TAKE AWAY THE FILTHY GARMENTS FROM HIM (and clothe him with change-garments, namely with beautiful and precious garments, and place a mitre upon his head, as verse 5 says. Both things the angels obedient to Michael did: he therefore, explaining this symbol and signification of the change of garments, adds): BEHOLD I HAVE TAKEN AWAY THY INIQUITY, AND I HAVE CLOTHED THEE WITH CHANGE OF GARMENTS,—that is to say, Therefore through the angels in the vision I commanded thee to be stripped of filthy garments and clothed with splendid garments, in order to represent that God has forgiven thee thy iniquity, of which I spoke at verse 3, and that he has changed the filthy garment of sin into the splendid garment of grace and virtues, with which he has clothed thee. For change-garments were beautiful and precious: for thus base garments are wont to be changed into festive ones; and therefore they symbolically represent grace, virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit, with which he himself clothes and adorns the soul of the sinner in justification as it were a queen, nay a bride of God. Whence the Chaldean renders: Behold that I have taken away from thee thy iniquity, and have clothed thee with justices. Thus Albert, Lyra, Arias and others. With such garments the Church glories in being clothed, Isaiah LXI, 10: "Rejoicing, I shall rejoice in the Lord, etc., because he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, and with the robe of justice he hath covered me, as a bridegroom adorned with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels." Moreover Michael did not properly take away the sin of Jesus: for God alone takes away and forgives sins: but "I have taken away," that is, taken away and forgiven to thee by God, I have signified and represented by this symbol of the change of garments. Whence it is clear that Jesus grieved over his sin and elicited an act of contrition, partly on account of the admonition and correction of Ezra, book I, chapter X, 19 (where it is said: "And they gave their hands, that they would put away their wives (foreign women), and for their sin they offered a ram of the flock") of Zechariah, and of other Prophets, or of pious priests; partly through grace exciting him to penance sent by God himself. For no one who is in sin can be purged from it, unless he makes himself fit for this purging and disposes himself through an act of sorrow and penance. Again, no one can repent unless he is stirred to it by the grace of God. Wherefore the Hebrews, St. Jerome, Remigius, Haymo and Hugh, who think that the sin of Jesus was that he had taken a foreign wife contrary to the law, think likewise that part of his penance was that he put her away and took a Jewish wife; so that the change-garments signify the change of wives. Whence the Chaldean renders verse 5: They placed a clean mitre upon his head, and they gave him a wife befitting the priesthood. That indeed his sons and brothers did this is clear from the place of Ezra cited a little before. Now indeed these change-garments were not lay garments, but sacred and pontifical, which is clear both from the Septuagint which renders: Clothe him with the poderis; for the poderis was a priestly tunic let down to the feet; and from the mitre, which is placed upon the head of Jesus; for the mitre was the tiara of the high priest; and because priests and high priests about to perform sacred rites changed common garments into sacerdotal ones, which were therefore called change-garments. The angel therefore signifies by this change of garments that the sin of the high priest has been dismissed, which as it were unclean kept him from sacred rites; and therefore God's grace being restored to him, he is worthy to perform sacred rites again and to exercise the high priesthood, as indeed he removes this suspension of sacred rites from him and restores to him the use and function of the same. Thus Remigius, Albert, Haymo and Arias. Allegorically and anagogically Jesus Christ is represented here, who in the incarnation and passion, clothed as it were with our flesh and with reproaches and wounds as with filthy garments, stripped them off in the resurrection, when he was clothed and crowned with glory and honor by the Father. Thus St. Jerome, Eusebius book IV of the Demonstration, last chapter, Origen homily 14 on Luke, and others. Wherefore Tertullian book III Against Marcion, chapter VII, thinks that a twofold advent of Christ is noted here: "For first indeed, he says, Jesus is clothed with filthy garments, that is with the indignity of passible and mortal flesh, when indeed the devil opposed him, namely the author of Judas the traitor, not to mention even after baptism the tempter: Then stripped of his former filth, and adorned with the poderis, and mitre, and clean tiara, that is with the glory and honor of the second advent."
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5. AND HE SAID, — namely the angel, that is Michael: for he continues to speak. The interpreter reads יאמר veamar, that is and he said. Thus also the Septuagint. Now by another pointing they read ואמר vaomar, that is and I said, in the first person. Thus the Chaldean, Pagninus, the Zurich Bible and the Rabbis, as if these were the words not of the angel, but of Zacharias, who prays the angel to command the mitre to be placed upon the head of Jesus. But the former reading is plainer and more fitting, as is evident to one who considers it. PUT A MITRE. — Place a mitre, or the pontifical tiara upon the head of Jesus the pontiff, as if to say, Restore to Jesus the pontiff the pontificate, or rather the use and exercise of the pontificate. What sort of mitre it was I have said in Exodus cap. XXVIII, 36 and 40. There is here a hysterologia: for the entire fifth verse, in which Jesus is clothed in pontifical vestments by command of the angel, is to be placed before those words of the angel in verse 4: "Behold I have taken away thy iniquity, and I have clothed thee with fine raiment." For these words signify and presuppose that he had already been clothed in pontifical vestments.
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6. AND THE ANGEL OF THE LORD TESTIFIED TO JESUS, SAYING. — Michael continues with grave exhortation to admonish Jesus the high priest, so that, having obtained the remission of sins and the dignity of the high priesthood, he might keep the commandments of God more diligently, and take care that they be kept by the people. If he shall do this, he promises him a stable high priesthood, and consequently the governance of the people: hence "he testifies to him," that is, as if calling upon witnesses, namely the angels his ministers, and Zechariah himself; or under the attestation of an oath he admonishes him gravely and seriously. 7. My custody, — that is my precepts, especially the ceremonial ones, which pertain to the worship of God and the rite of sacred things; for these are the laws of God to be kept with all care. See the sayings of Hosea cap. IV, 10. He alludes to royal custody, namely to the praetorian soldiers, who guard the king and the royal court, such as the Swiss. In a similar manner Jesus the high priest with his priests and Levites, as if with soldiers of the atrium, but ecclesiastical ones, kept watch over the temple and sacred things, and of God himself as it were, according to that in Numbers cap. III, 25: "They shall keep watch in the tabernacle of the covenant," etc. And thou also shalt judge my house, — that is, If thou, O Jesus, shalt keep my law, I in turn shall keep the high priesthood for thee, and shall make thee the keeper of the temple, nay more a stable judge in my temple, that is a prince and high priest: for this is the house of God in which the high priest was the governor, nay more a prince and as it were a king. Whence the Chaldean renders: Thou shalt judge those who minister in the house of my sanctuary, and thou shalt keep my courts. Thus St. Jerome, Theodoret, Hugh and others. Hence consequently thou shalt be judge, that is president and prince of the people with Zerubbabel: for after the return from captivity, the supreme power and governance of the Jews was in the hands of the high priests, as Josephus teaches in lib. XI Antiq. cap. IV, and is evident in Judas, Jonathan and other Maccabees, who were supreme princes, equally as high priests of the Jews until Herod. Hence by the house of God can be understood the Synagogue, namely the people of Israel. Thus God says of Moses in Numbers cap. XII, 7: "In all my house (namely in governing the Synagogue, or the people of God) he is most faithful." AND THOU SHALT KEEP MY COURTS, — that is, Thou shalt be keeper, that is prefect of the temple: for as a king is keeper of the kingdom, so a high priest of the Church; just as God is keeper of men, as St. Job says cap. VII, 20, and of the whole universe. AND I WILL GIVE THEE THOSE WALKING OF THESE WHO NOW STAND HERE, — that is, Besides the high priesthood which I have already promised, I will give thee some of the angels who stand before me, by whose aid thou shalt be surrounded, and secure from enemies thou shalt rightly govern the people, and lead them to salvation: for they shall walk with thee, and shall direct and protect thee. Thus St. Jerome, Hugh and Lyran. Secondly, from the Hebrew with the Septuagint thou mayest translate: I will give thee those who converse in the midst of these standing ones, that is, I will give thee sons and grandsons to succeed thee in the high priesthood, who shall live a heavenly life, and familiar with angels, as if they converse among them, according to that of the Apostle: "Our conversation is in heaven." And such indeed ought to be the life of a priest and high priest, that as an angel he may stand out among men, says St. Chrysostom. Thirdly, for מהלכים mehallekim, that is those walking, some with other pointing read מהלכים mahelekim, that is ways, passages. Whence Pagninus renders: I will give ways among these standing ones; the Zurich Bible: To thee among these standing ones I will give passage; then that thou mayest converse among these angels standing before me and implore their aid; then that through them, and supported by their patronage thou mayest approach the throne of God, and offer prayers and vows for the people; then finally that after death thou mayest be numbered among the company of angels, and among them glorious thou mayest live and walk. Whence the Chaldean renders: In the resurrection of the dead I will raise thee up, and swift feet among those walking Seraphim I will give to thee. Which indeed is a great promise of eternal happiness and blessed resurrection, in which inserted into the heavenly paradise we shall approach the multitude of many thousands of Angels, as the Apostle says in Hebrews XII, 22, and with them in the heavenly Jerusalem one society, and shall constitute the triumphant Church, in which shall stand out holy priests and high priests, who have lived as angels, and have been angels and mediators between God and men in this life. Less correctly Theodoret by those who stand before him understands priests, who from Malachi cap. II, 7, are called angels, that is, I will give thee successors who shall be priests, and as such walk and converse in the midst of other priests. For priests were not standing before Michael in this vision, but angels.
3:8
8. THOU AND THY FRIENDS, etc., BECAUSE THEY ARE MEN OF PORTENTS. — In Hebrew אנשי מופר ansce mophet, that is, men of portent; Vatablus, men of prodigies; which can be taken in various ways: First, the Septuagint translates τερατόσκοποι, that is, spectators of portents, who namely observe and meditate upon the portentous deeds and oracles of the Prophets, says Theodoret. Where note what kind of servants the household of pontiffs ought to be, says Mariana. Second, Pagninus translates: Because they are men apt for performing portents; just as the Apostles wrought many signs and wonders among the people, Acts cap. II, 43. Whence the Hebrews think that here are denoted the three youths, companions of Daniel, Ananias, Azarias and Misael, and they are called men of portent, because they remained unharmed in a portentous manner in the Babylonian fire. Third, Cyril, as if to say: Because they desire to see and hear portentous things, let them hear the portent of the ages, namely: "Behold I bring my servant the Orient," that is, the Messiah. To this Vatablus adds: Men, he says, of prodigies are, that is, men are worthy in whose sight many prodigies are done, and to whom revelations are made concerning the coming of Christ; they are apt who prophesy and announce him. They are therefore men of portents, that is, Prophets of him. Fourth, Arias, as if to say: Men of portents, that is, they are eminent and admirable, who surpass other men in holiness, dignity, learning, and admirable deeds. For such ought to be priests and pontiffs, especially apostolic ones, namely rare and distinguished like portents; and of such holiness, that they are worthy through whom God may work portents and miracles, as were the Apostles and their followers. Whence the Syriac translates, men of admiration are; the Arabic of Antioch, men admirable are; the Arabic of Alexandria, men of signs are; that is, working signs. Fifth and genuinely, Zacharias alludes to that of Isaiah, VIII, 18: "Behold I and the children whom God hath given me in sign and in portent to Israel." And to that which God says to Ezekiel, cap. XII, 6: "I have made thee a portent to the house of Israel," as if to say: Thou, O Jesus the pontiff, and thy friends the Prophets, namely Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Ezra, Nehemiah, etc., are portents of Israel; because both in deeds and in oracles you are admirable and portentous: for you portend Christ, and Christ's life, doctrine and Church. For Christ shall be the portent of portents, namely the greatest of all things which have ever been wrought not only by men and angels, but even by God himself: for he himself shall be the Orient, shall be the stone with seven eyes carved with carvings, etc., as follows. In Christ indeed not a Prophet, not an angel, but God himself made himself a portent of the ages, which angels, men and all creatures behold and marvel at. Thus St. Jerome, Remigius, Haymo and Hugh. For the Word made flesh is the most wonderful and admirable of all the works of God, inasmuch as in it God gave not the world, but himself entire, as great as he is, to man, and made man his son and brother, and consequently elevated man, and in man all creatures, of which man is the compendium, nexus and knot, to himself and deified him. There was a portent of God's omnipotence, which joined clay, that is flesh, to the Word, man to God, earth to heaven most closely, nay hypostatically. There was displayed God's wisdom, justice and mercy, which avenged our guilt with condign punishment and expiated it in the death of his incarnate Son: there appeared before other attributes of God the portentous charity of God, by which, as St. John says in chapter III, 16: "God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son." Admiring this portent, Isaiah exclaims in chapter VII, 14: "Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel." And Jeremiah in chapter XXXI, 22: "The Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth: A woman shall compass a man." Moreover Christ was a portent in the incarnation, a portent in the nativity, a portent in his life, a portent in his death, a portent in his resurrection, a portent in his ascension, a portent in miracles, a portent in doctrine, a portent in grace, a portent in glory, a portent in time, a portent in eternity. For what is more portentous to the world than to hear these things from Christ: "Blessed are the poor in spirit: Blessed are they that mourn: Blessed are they that hunger and thirst: Blessed are they that suffer persecution: Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: Unless a man renounce all things that he possesseth, he cannot be my disciple: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me: If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and sons, and brothers, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple," Luke XIV. See the words of Isaiah chapter VIII, 18. Furthermore Jesus son of Josedec was a portent figuring and foreshadowing Christ. First, by the very name: for the name of Christ was likewise Jesus. Second, by holiness, office and dignity; for by his pontificate he represented the priesthood and pontificate of Christ. Third, by filthy garments he represented the sorrows and filth of Christ on the cross, just as by changed garments he represented Christ's glory in the resurrection, as I said verses 3 and 4. Fourth, just as Jesus brought the Jews from Babylon to Jerusalem, so Christ brought all nations from the confusion of sin into God's grace, glory, and into heaven itself. Fifth, just as Jesus rebuilt the temple, so Christ restored the old Church through the new. Thus St. Jerome, Tertullian, Ambrose, Origen and others whom I cited verse 4. Tropologically, priests and prelates, such as Jesus was, ought to be heroes and portents of holiness, wisdom and prudence, so that by a tranquil, holy and distinguished life, equally as by doctrine, they may foreshadow blessedness and heavenly life. Thus David was a portent of persecutions and patience. Whence he himself says Psalm LXX, 7: "I am become a prodigy to many." Nay, all priests, religious, and all the faithful ought to be such, as St. Augustine teaches in his tract On the Christian Life, tome IX: "Such," he says, "it behooves the worshippers and servants of God to be, meek, grave, prudent, pious, irreproachable, immaculate, so that whoever sees them may be amazed and wonder, and say: These men are gods, whose conversation is such. Thus ought a man of God to exhibit himself, that there be no one who does not wish to see him, who does not desire to hear him: no one has seen him without believing him to be the Son of God, so that truly in him that prophetic word may be fulfilled: His mouth is full of sweetness, and he is wholly desirable." Behold I bring (in flesh, in Judaea, and in this thy temple, O Jesus, son of Josedec) MY SERVANT THE ORIENT. — The Syrian: my servant born, namely the Messiah, of whom thou, O Jesus, and thy friends are portents, and "men" foreshadowing him. Note: For the Orient in Hebrew is צמח tsemach, that is, a shoot, a sprout, which springs forth and arises from the earth, or from a tree or shrub. It alludes to Isaiah chapter IV, 2: "In that day the shoot (in Hebrew tsemach) of the Lord shall be magnificent." And chapter XI, 1: "And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root: and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him." And chapter XLV, 8: "Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just: let the earth be opened, and bud forth a saviour." And chapter LIII, 2: "He shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground." And Jeremiah chapter XXXIII, 15: "In those days, and in that time I will make the bud of justice to spring forth unto David: and he shall execute judgment and justice in the land." Where the Chaldean, as also here, for shoot renders Messiah; for the later Prophets are wont to allude to the earlier ones. The Septuagint renders ἀνατολή, that is, a rising, or the east, namely not so much the sun as a shoot; for this is what tsemach signifies. You may ask, why is Christ called tsemach, that is, a sprout or shoot? I answer first, because tsemach by metathesis is the same as משיח Maschiach, that is, Messiah. For although in Maschiach there is the letter samech, in tsemach however tsade, yet this is akin to that; for both are equivalent to the Latin s; whence by interpreters it is rendered by s. Second, because Christ was born of the Virgin by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, just as a shoot springs forth from the earth watered by dew or heavenly rain, without the concourse of a male. Third, because the tree of Jesse, that is, the royal stock of David, in the time of Herod had been cut down even to the roots and trunk, and appeared dead; but Christ, as a shoot springing forth and rising from it, restored it. For this small shoot grew into a tree, which, embracing all nations under itself, rules over the whole world. Christ therefore restored both the stock and the kingdom of David that had collapsed; the kingdom, I say, not temporal, but spiritual and eternal. This is what Gabriel, announcing the birth of Christ, said to the Virgin Mother of God: "The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father: and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever," Luke chapter I, 32. Fourth, a shoot signifies the smallness, infancy, humility of Christ being born, which afterwards grew to such a body as is the whole Church, according to the parable of the grain of mustard seed, Matthew chapter XIII, 31. Fifth, the rising signifies Christ from his birth, and from the first instant of his conception by grace both of hypostatic union and habitual grace, to have been consecrated and united to God, according to that saying of Isaiah, chapter XLIX, 1: "The Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother he hath been mindful of my name." Thus St. Ambrose, book III On Faith, chapter III. To this Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, alludes, Luke chapter I, 78, when he sings: "Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Rising from on high hath visited us." Where for Rising in Greek is ἀνατολή, as here the Hebrew tsemach the Septuagint renders. Note here: Christ is called ἀνατολή, that is, the Rising or Orient substantively; which Greek word, although it can also be said of the rising of seeds and herbs, as Suidas testifies, is yet properly said of the rising of the sun, moon and stars. Christ therefore is tsemach, that is, a shoot or sprout; but a solar and heavenly shoot, ἀνατέλλων, that is, rising from on high, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, as Zechariah adds; whence the Arabic version renders it: Behold I will cause to rise above my servant illuminations, as if to say: Christ is tsemach, that is, a solar shoot, and a germinating sun in the first heavenly paradise, then in the earthly: for Christ is a shoot both heavenly and earthly; for he has two generations: first, divine, according to which he is the shoot of the eternal Father, and as it were the flower of minds, as Proclus says from the Chaldean mysteries; secondly, human, according to which he is the shoot of the virgin mother and of David. And thus Christ, as another Melchizedek, in heaven is ἀμήτως, on earth is ἀπάτως. Whence St. Ambrose, book I, epistle 8: "Behold I will send my servant, the Rising is his name. Is it because he had filthy garments, that therefore the brightness of his divinity, the sun of justice, did not shine?" And so Christ first in heaven was a germinating sun, and rising with supreme clarity and glory, then descending from heaven to earth, he began to germinate and be born in it. For Christ is the tree of life, transplanted from the heavenly paradise to earth through the incarnation, thence ascending again to heaven and the paradise of the blessed, by his vision and fruition he gives to the saints life, immortality and happiness through the light of glory, and with his leaves and fruits of all delight he continually soothes and satisfies them eternally, as I said in the Apocalypse, chapter XXII, 2. Wherefore both Zechariahs call Christ a germinating sun, and a rising sun; because Christ brought light, joy, fruitfulness, life, grace, glory, and all good things to the world, as the sun of justice shining forth before the Church. Thus Pompey, already becoming illustrious, called himself a rising sun; but his rival Cinna, declining, he called a setting sun, as Plutarch testifies in his Life. Hence Clement of Alexandria, in the Exhortation to the Gentiles: "All things become light," he says, "which cannot be put to sleep; and the setting believed in the Rising, equally illuminated by the light of faith, as the Rising itself. For the sun of justice rides over all things. It brought the setting into the rising, made it equally splendid, inasmuch as in it the light of faith did not set, but rather rose." Thus by tsemach, that is, a rising shoot, Christ is understood by the Chaldean, St. Jerome, Cyril, Remigius, Rupert, Albert, Hugh, Lyran, Vatable, Emmanuel, Mariana and others throughout. Therefore the Rabbis err, and Theodoret and Eusebius in the fourth Demonstration, final chapter, when by tsemach, that is, a shoot, they understand Zerubbabel. For he was not a shoot, that is, a boy, but a man, and was present. Whence it is falsely said of him: "I will bring my servant the Rising;" nor was Zerubbabel a stone having seven eyes, carved with carvings, etc., as follows. Tropologically, St. Athanasius, in the tract On the Sabbath and Circumcision: "Like the sun," he says, "God rises, illuminating the mind of each one. Wherefore also in the saving passion the sun did not appear, indicating that the end of the former creation was at hand, and the beginning of another was coming, which obtained its dawn and rising in the Saviour. When the Prophet saw this, he spoke thus: Behold a man, the Rising is his name; and again: To you who fear him the sun of justice shall rise. For this is not the day of all, but of those who are dead to sin, and live to God." 9. Because behold the stone which I have given before Jesus. — Zechariah a little before called Christ a rising shoot; here with another metaphor he calls him a stone, because he alludes to the building of the temple, which was made by Jesus the high priest from stones. For these stones represented Christ, who is the cornerstone and the foundation stone in the building of the Church. He alludes to Isaiah XXVIII, verse 16: "Behold I will lay in the foundations of Sion a stone, a tried stone, a corner stone, a precious stone, founded in the foundation." Thus St. Jerome, Haymo, Remigius, Albert and Lyran. This stone God gave "before Jesus," that is, through a vision God showed to Jesus the son of Josedec the foundation stone of the temple, and revealed to him through it that Christ was to be represented, who would be the cornerstone of the Church. Thus Lyran, Hugh, Vatable, Clarius and others. For thus Zechariah explains himself in chapter VI, 12, where, when he had said: "Behold a man, the Rising is his name;" he adds: "And under him shall rise, and he shall build a temple to the Lord." For in a similar manner here, when he had said: "Behold I will bring my servant the Rising," he adds: "Behold a stone," etc., upon which he himself will build his Church. UPON ONE STONE ARE SEVEN EYES. — It is asked first, whether these eyes were carved into the stone or affixed to it; or whether they were separated from the stone, but looking upon and intent upon the stone. Lyra, Vatable, Ferdinand, Sanchez and others hold that they were separated and looking upon the stone: Because, they say, they signify angels intent upon the building of the temple and Church, and therefore intent upon the stone, that is Christ, so that whatever he commands they promptly execute. Or, as Clarius and Arias hold, because these eyes signify the most vigilant providence and care of God toward Christ, so that he might skillfully carve, polish, and appropriately establish and preserve him as a cornerstone in the foundation of the Church. Or, as others hold, they signify the eyes of all angels and men, especially of the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Doctors, Martyrs, Virgins and illustrious Saints, intent upon Christ, because from him they expect grace, salvation and all good. But more fittingly and appropriately others hold that these eyes were affixed to or carved into the stone; first, because they are said to be "upon one stone." For if they had been external and intent only upon the stone, he would have said: Toward one stone; second, because these eyes are of the stone, that is of Christ, through which he himself looks about, surveys, protects, cares for, advances the whole building of the Church; for although he does this through angels separated from himself, yet because these angels are as it were the eyes of Christ, hence they ought as it were to be fixed and depicted in his body; third, because this pertains to it. I say therefore that these seven eyes signify the full and perfect providence and vigilance of Christ concerning the temple, that is the building of his Church, to be erected, increased, advanced and preserved, which he exercises through seven primary angels, who are as it were princes of his court, and therefore prefects both of the other angels who are guardians of men, and of men themselves and of the whole Church and world. That this is so is evident from chapter IV, 10, where Zechariah says: "These seven eyes are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth." And Apocalypse chapter V, 6: "The Lamb had seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth." And Tobias XII, 15: "I," he says, "am Raphael the angel, one of the seven, who stand before the Lord." And Apocalypse chapter I, 4, St. John beseeches peace for seven Churches "from the seven spirits, which are in the sight of the throne," where I have treated at length of these seven angels. Moreover, angels are called eyes, because they are pure minds, most keen-sighted and most vigilant; hence they are also called intelligences. In a similar way the Egyptians depicted their god Osiris as an eye resting upon a scepter; by his scepter signifying his empire and governance, by his eye signifying his providence and vigilance. Thus Macrobius in book I, chapter XXI, and Plutarch in his book On Isis and Osiris. Thus Tertullian in book I On the Trinity said God is wholly an eye, who sees all things. And elsewhere: "God's eye," he says, "is sleepless, because it is itself the light, which watches over all things." Indeed, Diphilus also in Gellius, book XIV, chapter IV: "There is," he says, "an eye of justice that watches over all things;" and so the ancients called God "the eye of the world." Finally, Pausanias in his Corinthian account writes that the statue of Jupiter in an open-air shrine, to which Priam fled after the capture of Troy, was distinguished by three eyes; by these was signified the threefold providence of God, by which he cares for heavenly, maritime and infernal things, says Pierius in Hieroglyphics, book XXXV, chapter XV. The sense therefore is, as if to say: This stone which I have shown you, O Zechariah, namely Christ, who is the cornerstone of the Church, will not be inanimate and insensible, but living, eyed, watchful and keen, who by his most keen-sighted providence through seven angels will survey, direct, advance the whole building of the Church, and will abundantly provide for all its parts and members with all requisite things. Thus the kings of the Persians had princes, who were called the eyes of the king, and others, who were called the ears of the king, as Hesychius and Suidas testify in the word ὀφθαλμός βασιλέως. And perhaps Zechariah alludes to this here; for the kings of the Persians had seven princes of the court, just as God has seven principal angels of the world. You ask secondly, what do these seven eyes signify? First, some hold that these eyes were cracks in the stone, as if he were to say: Do not think this stone useless for the temple's construction on account of cracks; behold, I shall skillfully engrave them so that they bring beauty to the temple's fabric, not disfigurement. Second, Hugo holds that the seven eyes signify the industry and vigilance of architects and stonecutters, by which with seven eyes, as it were, that is with the utmost attention and care, they attended to the building of Zerubbabel's temple, so that it might be elegant and accurate in every respect. Yet although the Prophet alludes to this, he nevertheless looks to far greater and more sublime things. Moreover, what sort these eyes were, and how they are to be understood as conceived in the stone, our Mariana explains in this place: In the stone of the foundation, he says, seals are customarily carved out, by which ingots of gold and silver are enclosed, as a sign of perpetuity. These seals are called eyes, both because they were hollow, and because they had the appearance and form of eyes. Otherwise Prado in the Proem to Ezekiel, section VII: The seven eyes, he says, are so many stars engraved. For the world is as it were a great man, whose face is heaven, which is distinguished, illuminated and adorned by stars as by eyes. Yet stars are not eyes, except mystical and hieroglyphic ones. St. John alluding to this in the Apocalypse, chapter V, 6, saw "the Lamb (that is, Christ) standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth." Just as therefore the seven horns were affixed to the Lamb, so also the seven eyes; therefore also here the seven eyes were affixed to the stone, that is to Christ; fourth, because in like manner the Cherubim, Ezekiel chapter I, 18, and John Apocalypse chapter IV, 8, were full of eyes; nor only they themselves, but also the wheels of the cherubic chariot, as appears Ezekiel chapter I, 18, which represent the action of divine providence, and execution most attentive and watchful. See the things said there. Thus St. Jerome, Haymo, Remigius and others. Allegorically from Castro: The body of Christ, he says, in the passion like a stone carved with seven eyes, with many carvings, welts and wounds as with little eyes shall be engraved, and shall be distinguished by most beautiful variety, so that these eyes are the engraving, concerning which he adds: "I will engrave the carving thereof." Symbolically, from Zechariah, as also from the Apocalypse, the Roman Church has received many rites and ceremonies, and from thence has borrowed similar symbols of sacred things in ecclesiastical Offices. Thus from this place it appears that the Church once received seven Cardinal deacons, whom St. Clement in his First Epistle to St. James calls "the eyes of the Bishop," and as many Cardinal bishops, in the Lateran church, whose proper and true bishop is the Roman Pontiff. For in it is the seat and chair of the Roman Episcopate, and there the new Pontiff of it, and consequently of the Pontificate of the whole Church, which is annexed to the Roman Episcopate, is accustomed to take possession. Wherefore thus concerning it writes Blessed Peter Damian, book II, epistle 2, to the Cardinal Bishops of the Holy Roman Church: "The Roman Church is supported by more excellent privileges than all other churches of the whole world; but it is not doubted that it was also instituted and disposed by mystical sacraments. For, to touch upon a few out of many, the Lateran Church, as it is marked with the name of the Saviour, who is indeed the head of all the elect, so it is the mother, and a certain apex and summit of all churches throughout the world. This church has seven Cardinal bishops, to whom alone after the Apostolic most holy altar is it permitted to approach, and to celebrate the mysteries of divine worship. In which indeed that oracle of Zechariah is evidently contained: Behold, saith he, the stone which I have given before Jesus: upon one stone are seven eyes. But this stone is without doubt that rock, concerning which the true Jesus promises to Peter, saying: Upon this rock I will build my Church. Therefore this rock has seven eyes, because the holy Church shines forth with as many gifts of the Holy Spirit, by which indeed, as a golden candlestick shining inextinguishably, it puts to flight the darkness of ignorance, and illuminates the minds of men to contemplate the sun of justice. Concerning which the same Prophet in chapter IV: I saw, saith he, and behold a golden candlestick all, and a lamp thereof upon the head thereof, and seven lamps thereof upon it. Which indeed sacrament Blessed John in the Apocalypse did not pass over in silence that he had learned; to whom it was said: The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks are the seven churches." For the number seven is a symbol of universality. Therefore the seven churches are all churches, which the Lateran and Roman Church contains in itself as in a matrix, which is the prince and queen of all, as the same Damian saith. Tropologically, the seven eyes are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which were most fully in the soul of Christ: because these render his soul eyed, illuminated and watchful. Thus St. Jerome, Remigius, Rupertus, Emmanuel and others. He alludes to the little eyes which the Phrygians weave into their work, namely a Phrygian garment, so that it be eyed and elegant like the tail of a peacock, as if to say Christ, like a stone carved with seven little eyes, shall be carved and adorned with all gifts, graces and virtues, as with divine little eyes. Hear St. Gregory, book XXIX of the Morals, XVI: "Upon one stone are seven eyes. For to this stone (Christ) to have seven eyes is to retain at the same time all the virtue of the sevenfold grace of the Spirit in operation. For one receives prophecy, another knowledge, another virtues, another kinds of tongues, another interpretations of words according to the distribution of the Holy Spirit: but to have all the gifts of the same Spirit no one attains. But our Creator, taking upon himself our infirmities, because through the power of his divinity he showed himself to have at the same time all the virtues of the Holy Spirit, joined together the shining Pleiades without doubt." I WILL ENGRAVE. — In Hebrew: Behold I will open an opening thereof, which the Chaldean first explains: Behold I reveal his vision to thee, as if to say I show to thee, O Zechariah, this vision of the mystical stone, and reveal its signification concerning Christ. But the Hebrew phrase does not permit this: for to open an opening in Hebrew is the same as to engrave an engraving, or to carve a carving, as the Septuagint, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, Our Version, Pagninus, Vatablus and others translate everywhere. For in sculpture the sculptor opens and erases certain parts, either lengthwise, and makes grooves; or in a round form, or in a square form, or in a thousand other ways, so that he may engrave flowers, birds, apples, or whatever he wishes. Secondly, the Rabbis and from them Hugo understand these things of the carved work of the temple of Zerubbabel, as if to say: I will perfect this temple, and I will adorn it with elegant carved work on the outside; or the sky, that is, a carved vault I will bring to it: for perfect construction is accustomed to be carved and adorned with carvings. But even if the Prophet alludes to this, nevertheless he looks to higher things concerning Christ. I say therefore that the carved stone is Christ, and its carvings are called either seven eyes carved in it, as some wish; or rather the very insignia of the builder carved in the first stone of the structure. For that these carvings are different from the eyes is clear from the antitype: for the eyes represent angels, the carvings, the gifts and stigmata of Christ, as I shall presently declare. He alludes to the first stone of the temple, or structure, which architects place in the foundations with solemnity and pomp, and thus begin the structure. Whence that first stone is accustomed to be inscribed with the insignia of the prince who is the author of the structure: thus in Christ, as it were the first stone of the Church, God inscribed His insignia and emblems: first, in His incarnation, in which the Holy Spirit wrought Christ's body and soul with such perfection, that that humanity appeared to be most elegantly turned and carved by God. Moreover He adorned and carved it with all wisdom, virtue, grace and glory, as it were some divine heaven carved and distinguished with the most beautiful sun, moon and stars; finally through the grace of hypostatic union He so adapted it to the Word, that the humanity appeared to be as it were a gem most perfectly carved and adapted to a golden ring of the divinity of the Word. Hear St. Irenaeus, book III, chapter XXVIII: "This stone consists of earth and of the power and art of God: but it signifies birth from a virgin on earth, but artfully carved by the power of the Holy Spirit." Thus also Lyra, Dionysius and others. For the Holy Spirit so skillfully united, served and as it were carved the humanity to the divinity, that between the divine and human nature there is the highest union in the Word, and through the union there is mutual and intimate conjunction of the same, or περιχώρησις, as Damascene says, book III, chapter VIII. And yet the Word itself contracted no relation to human nature, no order, no inclination. For that infinite hypostatic force suffices, so that it extends itself to it extrinsically as it were attracted and inserted, without any change of itself as it were the hypostatic terminus and basis, and binds and couples it to itself with an indissoluble and substantial bond: just as divine intellection on account of its infinite power of understanding extends itself to future contingents, and touches and foreknows them; and divine volition on account of its infinite power of willing extends itself to all existing things, of which it is the cause without the addition of any real relation to them: for the intellect or the will of God acquires or contracts no real relation to them. Secondly, and more fully, Christ as a carved stone was carved in His passion, both actively by nails, thorns and scourges; and passively by wounds, blows and welts, by which He wished His whole body to be pierced and opened, so that He might show and pour forth the immense charity toward us lying hidden within through these as it were cracks, according to that: You see how love is carved in the whole body. Whence the Hebrew texts have word for word: Behold I will open an opening of it; the Syriac and Antiochene Arabic: Behold I will open its gates: for the gates of the body and heart of Christ are His wounds and blows; the Alexandrine Arabic: I fitting them together, namely the seven eyes of the stone; the Septuagint: Behold I dig a pit. For by these carvings of His passion were polished the patience, obedience, charity, fortitude and other divine virtues of Christ: and thus the perfect image of God appeared carved in Him; and therefore in this stone and rock excavated with so many blows, and as it were inscribed and decorated with the emblems of His kingdom, God built His Church, when through Him He took away the iniquity of the world, as follows. Thus St. Jerome, Remigius, Haymo, Rupertus, Vatablus and Clarius. Therefore Theodoret wrongly understands by this pit the slaughter and carving of Gog and Magog: "He predicted this, he says, concerning Gog and Magog, to whom in one day he brought destruction, and led all alike to slaughter, which he called a pit by translation and comparison." For Gog and Magog are to come in the time of Antichrist, and are to be slain at the end of the world, as I said on Ezekiel XXXVIII. Tropologically, this sculpture of Christ being born and suffering represents the carving and adornment of the soul, engraved with all virtues and gifts, and refined and polished through crosses and suffering, and it is the prototype and exemplar thereof. Do you wish, O Christian, to carve in your soul the most elegant and divine image of obedience, humility, tolerance, constancy, love and Christian perfection? Look upon and do according to the exemplar shown to you on Mount Calvary by Christ. God in your creation and generation impressed and engraved upon you His image and likeness, Genesis I, 27, and that which was deformed by sin He reformed through Christ in baptism and justification; you through His grace carve, polish and perfect it. If you know not the manner, Christ will teach you: behold His carving on the cross. Disease invades you, poverty, loss of fortune, bear it by the example of Christ, and say: Not my will, but thine be done. An enemy invades you, a rival, a detractor, a slanderer, spreads about you what you never thought: bear it, do not through indignation bring a stain upon your image, do not mar the carving of your patience through impatience. You are cast down by your rank, depressed, neglected, your rivals are exalted, they despise you, they insult you: bear it, Christ the Son of God endured these things and greater for you, when He was mocked by the Jews, spat upon, scourged, and as a robber led to the cross. A superior commands something difficult and dangerous, undertake it willingly: follow Christ, who became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. If you resist, shake off, make excuses, see how far you are from the carving of Christ's obedience. In teaching, preaching, hearing confessions, going about the villages, teaching rustics, the rude and the poor, you feel labors and pains: come now, athlete of Christ, transcend and overcome all things through His love: He likewise preached the Gospel to the poor, went about the villages and towns preaching on foot, was wearied, sweated, was hot and cold. After His likeness carve these small pains and labors of small duration in your soul: "Carve in it the heaven and sun of charity: paint and carve for eternity." You will soon hear what He heard on the third day rising: "Wherefore God also hath exalted Him and hath given Him a name which is above all names, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth." Thus after the exemplar of Christ did St. Paul paint and carve his soul, equally as his body, saying: "I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus in my body," Galatians VI, 17. Thus did St. Andrew paint, burning with love of the cross, St. Ignatius provoking lions, St. Lawrence delighting on the gridiron, St. Vincent mocking the torments of Dacian, St. Agnes fighting and triumphing against tyrants, fires, suitors unto death. Thus did all the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, Anchorites, Doctors, Confessors, Virgins and all Saints paint. Follow these, imitate these painters, equal these carvers, or pursue them with equal steps, that you may paint an image, that you may carve a carving in heaven throughout all ages to the glory of God and your honor, enduring before angels and all saints. For that which is momentary and light of our tribulation, humiliation, mortification, shall work for us an eternal weight of glory, and that shortly and as it were after a moment. By blows, by pressures, polished stones, are fitted to their places, by the hands of the craftsman, are arranged to endure in sacred buildings. Heaven, says Varro in book IV, is so called because it is as it were carved, that is marked, with stars; much more is the empyrean heaven carved with gems, flowers, fruits, as St. John describes in the Apocalypse XXI and XXII. Heaven is your soul, if it be holy; carve it therefore with patience, obedience, humility and every virtue, that it may deserve to be carved in the empyrean heaven, nay, to carve and adorn that very heaven. AND I WILL TAKE AWAY THE INIQUITY OF THAT LAND (namely Judaea, in which the first faithful converted to the faith and grace by the power of Christ's blood, were as it were built upon a carved and foundational stone) IN ONE DAY,—namely that day on which He Himself was carved, that is suffered and died, and satisfied God for all iniquity, and abolished it as far as in Him lay, equally as the old victims and the old priesthood, which could not expiate the stains of the soul. Thus St. Jerome, Remigius and Haymo. He mentions Judaea before other nations, because Christ was promised to the Jews, and because Zacharias prophesied to the Jews. Whence He already comforts them returning from Babylon and afflicted, with the promise of the Messiah: after the Jews, however, the iniquity of the whole world was taken away from the minds of believers through the Apostles.
3:10
10. HE SHALL CALL HIS FRIEND UNDER THE VINE, AND UNDER THE FIG TREE, — that is to say, Christ by His passion will not only take away iniquity, but will also bring peace, an abundance of goods, delights, and likewise friendship and the sharing of things, so that all things among Christians will be common, and from the same vine and the same fig tree they will together pluck fruit, and will invite and feast with one another securely and cheerfully, and this both corporally, and more especially spiritually. For this peace and plenty is signified by this phrase and Hebrew proverb, as is evident from III Kings IV, 25, where it is said that each one dwelt under his vine and his fig tree all the days of Solomon, that is to say, Peace and abundance of things were full under Solomon's rule. Furthermore, Christ brought not only peace and spiritual riches, but also temporal ones. For the Law of Christ commands charity, forgiveness of injuries, patience, love of enemies, etc.: all which things produce temporal peace, and from this an abundance of temporal things, as I have shown on Isaiah II, 4. Thus in the primitive Church Christians had all things common, Acts cap. IV, 32. Mystically, the vine and the fig tree, not of this one or that one in particular, but absolutely of all the faithful is Christ, and His passion, Gospel, sacraments, graces, consolations, and all goods, which as most delicious figs and grapes from Christ, as from a fig tree and vine we pluck abundantly, in which Christians delight and are made drunk with heavenly nectar, especially in the Eucharist, concerning which more at cap. IX, 17. Thus St. Jerome and Remigius. Moreover I have applied the conditions of the vine to Christ, Ezech. XV, 1, and of the fig, Jerem. XXIV, 2. Wherefore the Rabbis wrongly think this happiness was given to the Jews by the Maccabees, lib. I Machab. cap. XIV, 4. For although he may allude to that, nevertheless the Prophet looks to greater and spiritual things, which Christ brought; for Christ alone took away the iniquities of the earth, not the Maccabees.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
3:1
as a divine messenger (of Yahweh or of Elohim) and at the same time speaks and acts as God. He makes promises like Yahweh himself (Gen. 16:10-13; 21:17-19; 22:11-17), identifies himself with God (Gen. 31:11-13; 48:15-16; Ex. 3:2-4, 10 [Act. 7:31-35]; Iud. 2:1-4; 6:11-24; 13:6-23; Zach. 3:1-6). At the end of the "covenant code", Yahweh promises "his angel" who will lead Israel (Ex. 23:20-23), the "angel of the covenant" (Mal. 3:1). Sometimes the angel of Yahweh is clearly …
… for the most part slanderous [Plato, Apol., 18d-24a, 33a; Eutyphr., 3b], and can take on the broader sense of "aggression" [Num. 22:32]) and "slanderer." In the Septuagint it corresponds to šāṭān (1 Chron. 21:1; Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7; Ps. 108:6; Zech. 3:1-2) designating the adversary of God's servants; but when šāṭān, without the article, indicates a human enemy (1 Sam. 29:4; 2 Sam. 19:22; 1 Kings 5:4 [Heb. 18], and cf. 11:14, 23, 25), …
The term (from the verb šātan "to oppose, to persecute," especially by accusing: Ps. [Heb.] 38:21; 71:13; 109:4, 20, 29; Zech. 3:1 [Septuagint ἀντιχαῖσθαι], "to obstruct" the way: Num. 22:22, 32; cf. the abstract šītnōh "hostility"
3:7
… of the covenant with the blood of the bull and then with the blood of a scapegoat for the sin of the people; then, laying both hands on the head of the live goat ('āzā'zēl), he confessed "all the iniquities of the children of Israel." A "man of omen" (Zech. 3:7), he also had to consult Yahweh, by means of the 'ūrim (v.) and tummim (lost with the exile), in doubts concerning decisions that affected the life of the nation. …
3:8
… called han-Nāsiri, and the Christians han-Nāsirim (with s). The plural "by the prophets" can be understood as "of category" (standing for the singular) or as including other passages in which the Messiah is called seed or shoot (semah: Jer. 23:3; 33:15; Zech. 3:8; 6:12).
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.