Wisdom is preached in conspicious and most frequented places, that none may pretend wante of admonition, 7. her doctrin is true, godlie, profitable, & necessarie to al sortes of men. 12. wisdom (increated which is God himselfe) is eternal. 32. and bringeth eternal happines.
1Doth not wisdom cry aloud, and prudence put forth her voice?Non grida ella forse la sapienza, e la prudenza non alza ella la voce?DOTH not wisdom crie, and prudence geue her voice?Numquid non sapientia clamitat, / et prudentia dat vocem suam ? 2Standing in the top of the highest places by the way, in the midst of the paths,Nelle cime più alte, e più rilevate, lungo le pubbliche vie, ai capi delle strade ella si sta,Standing in the high & loftie toppes ouer the way, in the middes of the pathes,In summis excelsisque verticibus supra viam, / in mediis semitis stans, 3Beside the gates of the city, in the very doors she speaketh, saying:Presso alle porte della città, sulle porte medesime parla ella, e dice:beside the gates of the citie in the verie doores she speaketh, saying:juxta portas civitatis, / in ipsis foribus loquitur, dicens: 4O ye men, to you I call, and my voice is to the sons of men.O uomini, a voi io grido, e a' figliuoli degli uomini si indirizza il mio parlare.O men, to you I crie, and my voice is to the children of men.O viri, ad vos clamito, / et vox mea ad filios hominum. 5O little ones understand subtlety, and ye unwise, take notice.Imparate, o piccoli, la prudenza, e voi stolti prestate attenzione,O litle ones vnderstand subtiltie, and ye vnwise marke.Intelligite, parvuli, astutiam, / et insipientes, animadvertite. 6Hear, for I will speak of great things: and my lips shall be opened to preach right things.Ascoltate, mentre di cose grandi son io per discorrere, e le mie labbra si apriranno ad annunziar la giustizia.Heare ye, because I wil speake of great thinges: and my lippes shal be opened to preach right thinges.Audite, quoniam de rebus magnis locutura sum, / et aperientur labia mea ut recta prædicent. 7My mouth shall meditate truth, and my lips shall hate wickedness.La mia bocca sarà organo della verità, e le mie labbra detesteranno l'empietà,My throte shal meditate truth, and my lippes shal detest the impious.Veritatem meditabitur guttur meum, / et labia mea detestabuntur impium. 8All my words are just, there is nothing wicked, nor perverse in them.I miei discorsi son tutti giusti, nulla è in essi di storto, o di perverso:Al my wordes are iust, there is no wicked, nor peruerse thing in them.Justi sunt omnes sermones mei: / non est in eis pravum quid, neque perversum; 9They are right to them that understand, and just to them that find knowledge.Sono diritti per quei, che hanno intelligenza, e facili per quelli, che amano di imparare.They are right to them that vnderstand, and iust to them that finde knowlege.recti sunt intelligentibus, / et æqui invenientibus scientiam. 10Receive my instruction, and not money: choose knowledge rather than gold.Fate acquisto della mia disciplina, piuttosto che del denaro, e anteponete all'oro la scienza.Receiue ye discipline, & not money: choose doctrine rather then gold.Accipite disciplinam meam, et non pecuniam; / doctrinam magis quam aurum eligite:
11For wisdom is better than all the most precious things: and whatsoever may be desired cannot be compared to it.Perocché la sapienza più vale, che tutte le cose più preziose, e non è da compararsi con lei qualunque cosa più cara.For wisdom is better then al most precious riches: and whatsoeuer is to be desired can not be compared to it.melior est enim sapientia cunctis pretiosissimis, / et omne desiderabile ei non potest comparari. 12I, wisdom, dwell in counsel, and am present in learned thoughts.In la sapienza abito trai buoni consigli, e presiedo ai saggi pensieri.I wisdome dwel in counsel, and am present in lerned cogitations.Ego sapientia, habito in consilio, / et eruditis intersum cogitationibus. 13The fear of the Lord hateth evil; I hate arrogance, and pride, and every wicked way, and a mouth with a double tongue.Il timor del Signore è odio del male: io detesto l'arroganza, e la superbia, e la via storta, e la bocca a due lingue.The feare of our Lord hateth euil: arrogancie, and pride, and wicked way, and a duble toungued mouth I doe detest.Timor Domini odit malum: / arrogantiam, et superbiam, / et viam pravam, et os bilingue, detestor. 14Counsel and equity is mine, prudence is mine, strength is mine.A me appartiene il consiglio, e l'equità, a me la prudenza, a me la fortezza.Myne is counsel & equitie, prudence is mine, strength is mine.Meum est consilium et æquitas; / mea est prudentia, mea est fortitudo. 15By me kings reign, and lawgivers decree just things.Per me regnano i regi, e i legislatori ordinano quello, che è giusto:By me kinges doe reigne, and the makers of law decree iust thinges.Per me reges regnant, / et legum conditores justa decernunt; 16By me princes rule, and the mighty decree justice.Per me i principi comandano, e i giudici amministrano la giustizia.By me princes rule, and the mightie decree iustice.per me principes imperant, / et potentes decernunt justitiam. 17I love them that love me: and they that in the morning early watch for me, shall find me.Io amo quei, che mi amano, e quelli, che di buon mattino si svegliano a ricercarmi, mi troveranno.I loue them that loue me: and they that watch toward me shal finde me.Ego diligentes me diligo, / et qui mane vigilant ad me, invenient me. 18With me are riches and glory, glorious riches and justice.A me appartiene la dovizia, la gloria, le ampie ricchezze, e la giustizia:With me are riches, and glorie, glorious riches, and iustice.Mecum sunt divitiæ et gloria, / opes superbæ et justitia. 19For my fruit is better than gold and the precious stone, and my blossoms than choice silver.Perocché migliore dell'oro, e delle pietre preziose è il mio frutto, e dell'argento più fino li miei prodotti.For my fruite is better then gold, and precious stone, and my blosomes then chosen siluer.Melior est enim fructus meus auro et lapide pretioso, / et genimina me argento electo.
20I walk in the way of justice, in the midst of the paths of judgment,Nelle vie della giustizia io cammino, in mezzo ai sentieri di rettitudine,I Walke in the wayes of iustice, in the middes of the pathes of iudgement,In viis justitiæ ambulo, / in medio semitarum judicii: 21That I may enrich them that love me, and may fill their treasures.Per far ricchi coloro, che mi amano, e riempiere i loro tesori.that I may enriche them that loue me, and may replenish their treasures.ut ditem diligentes me, / et thesauros eorum repleam. 22The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made any thing from the beginning.Il Signore mi ebbe con seco nel cominciamento delle opere sue, da principio, prima che alcuna cosa creasse.Our Lord possessed me in the beginning of his wayes, before he had made any thing from the beginning.Dominus possedit me in initio viarum suarum / antequam quidquam faceret a principio. 23I was set up from eternity, and of old, before the earth was made.Dall'eternità ebbi io principato, e ab antico, prima che fosse fatta la terra.From eternitie I was ordayned & of old before the earth was made.Ab æterno ordinata sum, / et ex antiquis antequam terra fieret. 24The depths were not as yet, and I was already conceived, neither had the fountains of waters as yet sprung out.Non erano ancora gli abissi, ed io era già concepita, non iscaturivano ancora i fonti delle acque,The depthes were not as yet, and I was now conceiued, neither had the fountaines of waters as yet gushed forth:Nondum erant abyssi, et ego jam concepta eram: / necdum fontes aquarum eruperant, 25The mountains, with their huge bulk, had not as yet been established: before the hills, I was brought forth:Non posavano ancora i monti sulla gravitante lor mole: prima delle colline era io partorita:the mountaines with heauie hugenesse stoode not as yet: before the litle hilles I was brought forth:necdum montes gravi mole constiterant: / ante colles ego parturiebar. 26He had not yet made the earth, nor the rivers, nor the poles of the world.Egli non avea ancor fatta la terra, né i fiumi, nè i cardini del mondo.he had not yet made the earth, and the riuers, and the poles of the round world.Adhuc terram non fecerat, et flumina, / et cardines orbis terræ. 27When he prepared the heavens, I was present: when with a certain law, and compass, he enclosed the depths:Quand'egli dava ordine ai cieli io era presente; quando con certa legge, e ne' loro confini chiudeva gli abissi:When he prepared the heauens, I was present: when with a certaine law, and circuite he compassed the depthes:Quando præparabat cælos, aderam; / quando certa lege et gyro vallabat abyssos;
28When he established the sky above, and poised the fountains of waters:Quand'egli lassù stabiliva l'aere, e sospendeva le sorgive delle acque:When he established the firmament aboue, & poysed the fountaines of waters:quando æthera firmabat sursum, / et librabat fontes aquarum; 29When he compassed the sea with its bounds, and set a law to the waters that they should not pass their limits: when he balanced the foundations of the earth;Quando i suoi confini fissava al mare, e dava legge alle acque, perché non oltre passassero i limiti loro; quand'ei gettava i fondamenti della terrawhen he compassed the sea with her limites, and set a law to the waters that they should not passe their boundes: when he hanged the foundations of the earth. I was with him framing al thinges:quando circumdabat mari terminum suum, / et legem ponebat aquis, ne transirent fines suos; / quando appendebat fundamenta terræ: 30I was with him forming all things: and was delighted every day, playing before him at all times;Con lui era io disponendo tutte le cose, ed era ogni di mio diletto lo scherzare dinanzi a lui continuamente,and was delighted euetie day, playing before him at al time;cum eo eram, cuncta componens. / Et delectabar per singulos dies, / ludens coram eo omni tempore, 31Playing in the world: and my delights were to be with the children of men.Lo scherzare nell'universo: e mia delizia lo stare co' figliuoli degli uomini.playing in the world: & my delights to be with the children of men.ludens in orbe terrarum; / et deliciæ meæ esse cum filiis hominum. 32Now, therefore, ye children, hear me: blessed are they that keep my ways.Or adunque, o figliuoli, ascoltateli: Beati quelli, che battono le mie vie.Now therfore children heare me: blessed are they, that keepe my wayes.Nunc ergo, filii, audite me: / beati qui custodiunt vias meas. 33Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.Udite i mie documenti, e siate saggi, e non li rigettate.Heare ye discipline, and be wise, and reiect it not.Audite disciplinam, et estote sapientes, / et nolite abjicere eam. 34Blessed is the man that heareth me, and that watcheth daily at my gates, and waiteth at the posts of my doors.Beato l'uomo, che mi ascolta, e veglia ogni dì all'ingresso della mia casa, e sta attento sul liminare della mia porta:Blessed is the man that heareth me, & that watcheth at my doores dayly, & wayteth at the postes of my doore.Beatus homo qui audit me, / et qui vigilat ad fores meas quotidie, / et observat ad postes ostii mei. 35He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord.Chi mi troverà, arerà trovata la vita, e dal Signore riceverà la salute:He that shal finde me, shal finde life, and shal draw saluation of our Lord:Qui me invenerit, inveniet vitam, / et hauriet salutem a Domino.
36But he that shall sin against me shall hurt his own soul. All that hate me love death.Ma chi contro di me peccherà, farà torto all'anima propria. Tutti quelli, che odiano me, amano la morte.but he that shal sinne against me, shal hurt his owne soule. Al that hate me, loue death.Qui autem in me peccaverit, lædet animam suam; / omnes qui me oderunt diligunt mortem.
8:1
Calmet
Voice. Men are wanting to themselves: they cannot plead ignorance. (Calmet)
Worthington
Wisdom stands on high in the Catholic Church inviting all to virtue and happiness. (Worthington)
Some explain this of the light which is communicated to men; but the Fathers apply it to Jesus Christ, some of the expressions regarding his divine, and others his human nature, Ecclesiasticus xxiv.
8:3
Doors. Amid disputants, whose eagerness ought to convince us of the preference due to wisdom over all terrestrial concerns, ver. 10.
8:10
Money. They are generally incompatible.
8:12
Worthington
Thoughts. All good comes from God, the eternal wisdom, (Calmet) which speaks here. (Worthington)
8:15
8:18
Haydock
Glorious. Literally, "proud." (Haydock)
Calmet
But here it only means great, Isaias ix 15., and 61:6. Riches too commonly nourish pride, and it is very rare to see them joined with justice. (Calmet)
8:19
Calmet
Stone. So the Septuagint translate paz, (Haydock) which designates a more pure sort of gold, Genesis 2:11. (Calmet)
8:21
Enrich. Hebrew, "grant what is (real goods) an inheritance to them," etc.
Calmet
Treasures. Septuagint add, "with goods. If I announce to you daily occurrences, I will admonish you to number the things of the world," (Haydock) and all past events. (Calmet)
8:22
Calmet
Possessed. As Christ was with God, equal to him in eternity, John 1:Septuagint, "created," which many of the Fathers explain of the word incarnate, (see Cornelius a Lapide; Bossuet) or he hath "placed me," (St. Athanasius 3:contra Arian. Eusebius) a pattern of all virtues. The Septuagint generally render kana, "possessed," as Aquila does here. (Calmet)
8:23
Up. Hebrew, "anointed." Septuagint, "he founded." Christ was appointed to be the foundation, on which we must be built. (St. Athanasius 3:Orat.)
8:24
Calmet
Conceived. Having yet manifested none of my works. Since the creation, wisdom only seeks to communicate itself to us. (Calmet)
8:26
Haydock
Poles. Hebrew, "head or height of the dust of the world." (Haydock)
Calmet
I subsisted with the chaos, before things appeared in their present form. (Calmet)
Menochius
The poles denote the north and south, or the four quarters of the world. (Menochius)
8:28
Haydock
Sky. Protestants, "clouds." Pagnin, "the air." Vulgate aethera. Septuagint, "the clouds above." (Haydock)
Moses assigns the higher and lower waters the same origin, Genesis 1:7.
8:29
Pass. This is often remarked, Psalm 41:8.
Calmet
Earth. See Job 38:8. (Calmet)
8:30
Pagnin
Forming. Hebrew, "one nursed," (Calmet) or nursing, nutritius. (Pagnin)
He was not an idle spectator.
Calmet
Playing. With ease and surprising variety. (Calmet)
8:31
Menochius
Men. God saw that all was good, but delighted most in his own image. (Menochius)
Worthington
He prefers man before all other corporeal creatures. (Worthington)
To him alone below he has granted understanding, and a soul capable of virtue. The Son has also assumed our nature, Baruch 3:37.
8:35
Calmet
Lord. Wisdom, or Jesus Christ, is our salvation, happiness, and life. Septuagint, "and the will is prepared by the Lord." St. Augustine often quotes this to prove the necessity of preventing grace. (Ep. ccxvii., and clxxxvi.) (Calmet)
8:36
Menochius
Death. Not in itself, (Haydock) but by adhering to such things as bring death. (Menochius)
8:2
True vvisdom directing to good life & so to eternal saluation, is only found in the visible Church standing vpon a mountaine, not hidde in corners or obscure places.
8:12
These singular praises perteine to the increated wisdom, God himself, from whom procedeth wisdom geuen to men by the Holie Ghost. See Annot. ch. 1. v. 2.
8:31
God much preferreth man before al other corporal creatures.
8:2
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 20
… Having first drunk of these things, they go on to say those things which the whore saith in the Proverbs, ‘Lay hold with delight on hidden bread, and sweet stolen waters .’ They lay snares secretly, because they have not the freedom of virtue, nor the boldness of Wisdom
8:3
sant'Agostino d'Ippona † 430 d.C. Expositions on the Book of Psalms 127.8
… For he who chooseth not to speak in the gate, wisheth what he speaketh to be hidden, and perhaps wisheth it to be hidden for this reason, that it is evil. If he be confident, let him speak in the gate; as it is said of Wisdom, “She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city.”
8:4
sant'Ilario di Poitiers † 367 d.C. De Trinitate or On the Trinity 12.44
… For thus it begins: If I shall declare unto you the things which are done every day, I will remember to recount those things which are from of old . For Wisdom had said before, You, O men, I entreat, and I utter my voice to the sons of men. O ye simple, understand subtilty, moreover ye unlearned, apply your heart
8:5
Origene † 254 d.C. Origen Against Celsus 3.54
… “Oh, ye fools, be of an understanding heart,”
san Gregorio di Nissa † 395 d.C. Against Eunomius 2.4
“God,” he says, “Who is without beginning, eternally, without end, alone.” Once more “understand, ye simple ones,” as Solomon says, “his subtlety
san Gregorio di Nissa † 395 d.C. Against Eunomius 4.8
… But as for what that is which is at variance with the good—“O ye simple,” as the Proverb saith, “understand his craftiness
8:8
Origene † 254 d.C. Origen's Commentary on Matthew 2
“ Blessed are the peacemakers .…” To the man who is a peacemaker in either sense there is in the Divine oracles nothing crooked or perverse, for they are all plain to those who understand.
8:9
san Metodio d'Olimpo † 311 d.C. Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna On the Day that They Met in the Temple 1
… Thou wilt not stand in need of many words to come to a knowledge of the matter; only fix thine eyes on the things which are taking place there. “All things truly are plain to them that understand, and right to them that find knowledge.”
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. De Sententia Dionysii. (Defence of Dionysius.) 12
… The Arians then ought, if their intelligence were sound, thus to have thought and held concerning the Bishop: ‘for all things are manifest to them that understand, and right to them that find knowledge’ (
8:10
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 1.13
… And of this we have proof from divine Scripture; David, for instance, saying in the Psalm, ‘One day in Thy courts is better than a thousand :’ and Solomon crying out, ‘Receive my instruction and not silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it
sant'Agostino d'Ippona † 430 d.C. Expositions on the Book of Psalms 72.17
… But by Arabia we understand the Gentiles; by gold wisdom which doth as much excel among all doctrines as gold among metals. Whence hath been written, “Receive ye prudence as silver, and wisdom as proved gold.”
8:12
Eusebio di Cesarea † 339 d.C. The Church History of Eusebius 1.2.14
… “I, Wisdom, have dwelt with prudence and knowledge, and I have invoked understanding. Through me kings reign, and princes ordain righteousness. Through me the great are magnified, and through me sovereigns rule the earth.”
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 1.6
… Now the Son is all this, who says, ‘I am the Life ,’ and, ‘I Wisdom dwell with prudence
san Gregorio di Nissa † 395 d.C. Against Eunomius 3.2
Let us then begin our examination from the context of the passage in question, and see whether the reading of the neighbouring clauses gives any clear sense. The discourse describes Wisdom as uttering certain sayings in her own person. Every student knows what is said in the passage
sant'Ambrogio † 397 d.C. On the Holy Spirit 2.6
… For as we read that the Father created the mystery of the Lord’s Incarnation, the Spirit too created it; and so too we read that Christ Himself created His own Body. For the Father created it, as it is written: “The Lord created Me,”
8:13
Giovanni Cassiano † 435 d.C. The Conferences of John Cassian 11.6
… There are, said he, three things which enable men to control their faults; viz., either the fear of hell or of laws even now imposed; or the hope and desire of the kingdom of heaven; or a liking for goodness itself and the love of virtue. For then we read that the fear of evil loathes contamination: “The fear of the Lord hateth evil.”
8:14
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 3.30
… For being the own Word of the Father, He allows us not to account of will as before Himself, since He is Himself the Father’s Living Counsel , and Power, and Framer of the things which seemed good to the Father. And this is what He says of Himself in the Proverbs; ‘Counsel is mine and security, mine is understanding, and mine strength
8:15
sant'Ireneo di Lione † 202 d.C. Against Heresies 5.24.1
… for “the heart of the king is in the hand of God.” And the Word also says by Solomon, “By me kings do reign, and princes administer justice. By me chiefs are raised up, and by me kings rule the earth.”
sant'Ilario di Poitiers † 367 d.C. De Trinitate or On the Trinity 12.44
… For Wisdom had said before, You, O men, I entreat, and I utter my voice to the sons of men. O ye simple, understand subtilty, moreover ye unlearned, apply your heart ; and again, Through Me kings reign, and mighty men decree justice. Through Me princes are magnified, and through Me despots possess the earth
sant'Agostino d'Ippona † 430 d.C. City of God 5.19
… Nevertheless power and domination are not given even to such men save by the providence of the most high God, when He judges that the state of human affairs is worthy of such lords. The divine utterance is clear on this matter; for the Wisdom of God thus speaks: “By me kings reign, and tyrants possess the land.”
sant'Agostino d'Ippona † 430 d.C. Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichæans 32
Likewise because the power even of those that are hurtful is from God alone, thus it stands written, Wisdom speaking: "Through me kings reign and tyrants hold the land through me."
8:17
sant'Ignazio di Antiochia † 108 d.C. Epistle to Mary at Neapolis 3
… For I did not hold that those things were simply to be glanced over by my eyes, of which I had received from thee such an incontrovertible demonstration. May I be in place of thy soul, because thou lovest Jesus, the Son of the living God. Wherefore also He Himself says to thee, “I love them that love Me; and those that seek Me shall find peace.”
8:20
sant'Ilario di Poitiers † 367 d.C. De Trinitate or On the Trinity 12.44
… and again, Through Me kings reign, and mighty men decree justice. Through Me princes are magnified, and through Me despots possess the earth ; and again, I walk in the ways of equity, and move in the midst of the paths of justice; that I may divide substance to those that love Me, and fill their treasures with good things
8:21
san Giustino † 165 d.C. Dialogue with Trypho 61
… Blessed is the man who shall listen to me, and the mortal who shall keep my ways, watching daily at my doors, observing the posts of my ingoings. For my outgoings are the outgoings of life, and [my] will has been prepared by the Lord. But they who sin against me, trespass against their own souls; and they who hate me love death.’
sant'Ilario di Poitiers † 367 d.C. De Trinitate or On the Trinity 12.44
… and be taught by the words of Wisdom itself the folly of your impious dulness. For thus it begins: If I shall declare unto you the things which are done every day, I will remember to recount those things which are from of old
san Gregorio di Nissa † 395 d.C. Against Eunomius 3.2
… “If I declare to you,” she says, “the things that happen day by day, I will remember to recount the things from everlasting: the Lord created me
8:22
sant'Ignazio di Antiochia † 108 d.C. Epistle to the Tarsians 6
… For “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And in another place, “The Lord created Me, the beginning of His ways, for His ways, for His works. Before the world did He found Me, and before all the hills did He beget Me.”
san Giustino † 165 d.C. Dialogue with Trypho 129
… The Lord created me the beginning of His ways for His works. From everlasting He established me in the beginning, before He formed the earth, and before He made the depths, and before the springs of waters came forth, before the mountains were settled; He begets me before all the hills.’ ”
sant'Ireneo di Lione † 202 d.C. Against Heresies 4.20.3
… “The Lord created me the beginning of His ways in His work: He set me up from everlasting, in the beginning, before He made the earth, before He established the depths, and before the fountains of waters gushed forth; before the mountains were made strong, and before all the hills, He brought me forth.”
Tertulliano † 220 d.C. Against Hermogenes 20
But in proof that the Greek word means nothing else than beginning, and that beginning admits of no other sense than the initial one, we have that (Being) even acknowledging such a beginning, who says: “The Lord possessed me, the beginning of His ways for the creation of His works.”
Tertulliano † 220 d.C. Against Hermogenes 45
But it is not thus that the prophets and the apostles have told us that the world was made by God merely appearing and approaching Matter. They did not even mention any Matter, but (said) that Wisdom was first set up, the beginning of His ways, for His works.
Tertulliano † 220 d.C. Against Praxeas 6
… Listen therefore to Wisdom herself, constituted in the character of a Second Person: “At the first the Lord created me as the beginning of His ways, with a view to His own works, before He made the earth, before the mountains were settled; moreover, before all the hills did He beget me;”
Tertulliano † 220 d.C. Against Praxeas 7
… does the Word also Himself assume His own form and glorious garb, His own sound and vocal utterance, when God says, “Let there be light.” This is the perfect nativity of the Word, when He proceeds forth from God— formed by Him first to devise and think out all things under the name of Wisdom—“The Lord created or formed me as the beginning of His ways;”
Tertulliano † 220 d.C. Against Praxeas 11
… before all the hills, too, did I beget myself;”
sant'Ippolito † 235 d.C. The Refutation of All Heresies 6.9
… When, therefore, (the followers of Simon) affirm that there are three days begotten before sun and moon, they speak enigmatically of Mind and Intelligence, that is, Heaven and Earth, and of the seventh power, (I mean) the indefinite one. For these three powers are produced antecedent to all the rest. But when they say, “He begot me prior to all the Ages,”
Origene † 254 d.C. Origen De Principiis 1.2.1
… “The Lord created me—the beginning of His ways, and among His works, before He made any other thing; He founded me before the ages. In the beginning, before He formed the earth, before He brought forth the fountains of waters, before the mountains were made strong, before all the hills, He brought me forth.”
Origene † 254 d.C. Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 1.11
… “I am the resurrection.” But the door also is a good, through which one enters into the highest blessedness. Now Christ says: “I am the door.” And what need is there to speak of wisdom, which “the Lord created
Origene † 254 d.C. Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 1.17
… This meaning of the term “beginning,” as of origin, will serve us also in the passage in which Wisdom speaks in the Proverbs.
Origene † 254 d.C. Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 1.22
… It is in virtue of His being wisdom that He is called arche. For Wisdom says in Solomon:
Origene † 254 d.C. Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 1.39
… Whoever is able to conceive a bodiless existence of manifold speculations which extend to the rationale of existing things, living and, as it were, ensouled, he will see how well the Wisdom of God which is above every creature speaks of herself, when she says:
san Tascio Cecilio Cipriano † 258 d.C. Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 2.2
… and when He set apart His seat. When He made the strong clouds above the winds, and when He placed the strengthened fountains under heaven, when He made the mighty foundations of the earth, I was by His side, ordering them: I was He in whom He delighted: moreover, I daily rejoiced before His face in all time, when He rejoiced in the perfected earth.”
san Metodio d'Olimpo † 311 d.C. Fragments 2
… He says, concerning the words, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” that one will not err who says that the “Beginning” is Wisdom. For Wisdom is said by one of the Divine band to speak in this manner concerning herself: “The Lord created me the beginning of His ways for His works: of old He laid my foundation.”
Eusebio di Cesarea † 339 d.C. The Church History of Eusebius 1.2.15
… When he prepared the heavens I was present with him, and when he established the fountains of the region under heaven I was with him, disposing. I was the one in whom he delighted; daily I rejoiced before him at all times when he was rejoicing at having completed the world.”
sant'Ilario di Poitiers † 367 d.C. De Synodis or On the Councils 1
V. “If any one hearing the words formed or created it and begat me spoken by the same lips
sant'Ilario di Poitiers † 367 d.C. De Trinitate or On the Trinity 1.35
35. Ignorance of prophetic diction and unskilfulness in interpreting Scripture has led them into a perversion of the point and meaning of the passage, The Lord created Me for a beginning of His ways for His works
sant'Ilario di Poitiers † 367 d.C. De Trinitate or On the Trinity 4.11
… but that He was made out of what was nonexistent, that is, that He is a perfect creature of God, though different from His other creatures. They argue that He is a creature, because it is written, The Lord hath created Me for a beginning of His ways
sant'Ilario di Poitiers † 367 d.C. De Trinitate or On the Trinity 12.1
… by the uncertain wind of doctrine, there is panic here and danger there, and then again there often is even shipwreck, because it is maintained on prophetic authority that God Only-begotten is a creature—so that to Him there belongs not birth but creation, because it has been said in the character of Wisdom, The Lord created Me as the beginning of His ways
sant'Ilario di Poitiers † 367 d.C. De Trinitate or On the Trinity 12.35
… For there is brought forward against us the declaration of Wisdom concerning itself, when it taught that it was created in these words: The Lord created Me for the beginning of His ways
sant'Ilario di Poitiers † 367 d.C. Homilies on the Psalms 1
… planted by the rills of water ,—wherein growth in happiness is set forth in a figure—be possibly applied to His Person, and a tree be said to be more happy than the Son of God, and the cause of His happiness, which would be the case if an analogy were established between Him and it in respect of growth towards happiness? Again, since according to Wisdom
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Expositio Fidei. (Statement of Faith.) 1
… ‘No man taketh My life from Me. I have power to lay it down, and have power to take it again’ ( Joh. x. 18 ). In which humanity He was crucified and died for us, and rose from the dead, and was taken up into the heavens, having been created as the beginning of ways for us (
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Expositio Fidei. (Statement of Faith.) 3
… ‘The Lord created a new thing in woman,’ that is in Mary. For nothing new was created in woman, save the Lord’s body, born of the Virgin Mary without intercourse, as also it says in the Proverbs in the person of Jesus: ‘The Lord created me, a beginning of His ways for His works’ (
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. De Decretis. (Defence of the Nicene Definition.) 3
… e.g. that our Lord only was created immediately by God (Asterius’s view), or that our Lord alone partakes the Father. The second and true sense; God begets as He makes, really; though His creation and generation are not like man’s; His generation independent of time; generation implies an internal, and therefore an eternal, act in God; explanation of
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. De Decretis. (Defence of the Nicene Definition.) 6
… Not attending, as I consider, to this circumstance, the authors of this opinion have entirely missed the truth, in explaining, contrary to the sense of divine and prophetic Scripture in the passage, the words, ‘The Lord created me a beginning of His ways unto His works
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. De Sententia Dionysii. (Defence of Dionysius.) 10
Dionysius, teaching exactly thus, in his letter to Euphranor and Ammonius wrote in view of Sabellius concerning the human pre dicates of the Saviour. For to the latter class belong the sayings, ‘I am the Vine and My Father the Husbandman’ ( Joh. xv. 1 ), and ‘faithful to Him that made Him’ ( Heb. iii. 2 ), and ‘He created me’ (
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. De Sententia Dionysii. (Defence of Dionysius.) 11
This then being the sense of the expression, it follows that it is of the vine, so understood, that it is written: ‘Who was faithful to Him that had created Him’ ( Heb. iii. 2 ), and ‘made so much better than the angels’ (ib. i. 4 ), and ‘He created me’ (
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. To the Bishops of Egypt 2
… But this one alone more madly than the rest has dared to assail the very Godhead, and to assert that the Word is not at all, and that the Father was not always a father; so that one might reasonably say that that Psalm was written against them; ‘The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God . Corrupt are they, and become abominable in their doings.’
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 1.11
… or how is He exalted, being before His exaltation the Most High? or how did He receive the right of being worshipped, who before He now received it, was ever worshipped? It is not a dark saying but a divine mystery
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 1.13
53. But it is written, say they, in the Proverbs, ‘The Lord created me the beginning of His ways, for His Works
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.14.1
… They, however, for whatever reason, still do not succumb; but, as swine and dogs wallow in their own vomit and their own mire, rather invent new expedients for their irreligion. Thus they misunderstand the passage in the Proverbs, ‘The Lord hath created me a beginning of His ways for His works
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.16
… and no creature can create. The Word then differs from all creatures in that in which they, though otherwise differing, all agree together, as creatures; viz. in being an efficient cause; in being the one medium or instrumental agent in creation; moreover in being the revealer of the Father; and in being the object of worship.
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.17
… but Moses was not the Agent in creation:—again, that unity is found in created ministrations, but all such ministrations are defective and dependent:—again, that He learned to create, yet could God’s Wisdom need teaching? and why should He learn, if the Father worketh hitherto? If the Son was created to create us, He is for our sake, not we for His.
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.18
… perverse sense put on them by the Arians, refuted. Mystery of Divine Generation. Contrast between God’s Word and man’s word drawn out at length. Asterius betrayed into holding two Unoriginates; his inconsistency. Baptism how by the Son as well as by the Father. On the Baptism of heretics. Why Arian worse than other heresies.
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.19
… For it is written, ‘The Lord created me a beginning of His ways, for His works
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.21
… Sense of ‘First-born of the dead;’ of ‘First-born among many brethren;’ of ‘First-born of all creation,’ contrasted with ‘Only-begotten.’ Further interpretation of ‘beginning of ways,’ and ‘for the works.’ Why a creature could not redeem; why redemption was necessary at all. Texts which contrast the Word and the works.
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.22
Chapter XXII .— Texts Explained; Sixthly, the Context of
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. History of Arian Opinions 1
… For we, knowing that God is absolute and sovereign over Himself, have a religious judgment that He generated the Son voluntarily and freely; yet, as we have a reverent belief in the Son’s words concerning Himself (
san Gregorio Nazianzeno † 389 d.C. Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 29
But in opposition to all these, do you reckon up for me the expressions which make for your ignorant arrogance, such as “My God and your God,” or greater, or created, or made, or sanctified;
san Gregorio Nazianzeno † 389 d.C. Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 30
II. In their eyes the following is only too ready to hand “The Lord created me at the beginning of His ways with a view to His works.”
san Gregorio di Nissa † 395 d.C. Against Eunomius 1-2.22
… no matter if there are some who, for the contradiction of the truth, do take literally and without any explanation, words used with a hidden meaning in the dark form of parable, and adduce the expression ‘created,’ put into the mouth of Wisdom by the author of the Proverbs
san Gregorio di Nissa † 395 d.C. Against Eunomius 2.10
But of course they bring forward the passage in the book of Proverbs which says, “The Lord created Me as the beginning of His ways, for His works
san Gregorio di Nissa † 395 d.C. Against Eunomius 3.2
Perhaps that passage in the Proverbs might be brought forward against us which the champions of heresy are wont to cite as a testimony that the Lord was created—the passage, “The Lord created me in the beginning of His ways, for His works
sant'Ambrogio † 397 d.C. On the Holy Spirit 2.6
… But the Holy Spirit is eternal, and if any one dares to call Him a creature, still he cannot say that He is daily created like the blast of the wind. Then, again, Wisdom herself, speaking after the mystery of the assumed Body, says: “The Lord created Me.”
sant'Ambrogio † 397 d.C. Exposition of the Christian Faith 1.15
An explanation of Acts ii. 36 and Proverbs viii. 22 , which are shown to refer properly to Christ’s manhood alone.
sant'Ambrogio † 397 d.C. Exposition of the Christian Faith 3.7
46. Hereby we are brought to understand that the prophecy of the Incarnation, “The Lord created me the beginning of His ways for His works,”
san Giovanni Crisostomo † 407 d.C. The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 3
… that they are created, but He uncreated. While of His angels He saith, who “maketh”; wherefore of the Son did He not say “Who maketh”? Although he might have expressed the difference as follows: “Of His Angels He saith, Who maketh His Angels spirits, but of the Son, ‘The Lord created Me’: ‘God hath made Him Lord and Christ.’” (
sant'Agostino d'Ippona † 430 d.C. The Confessions 7.21
… for he induced our will to be like his will, whereby he remained not in Thy truth. What shall “wretched man” do? “Who shall deliver him from the body of this death,” but Thy grace only, “through Jesus ‘Christ our Lord,’” whom Thou hast begotten co-eternal, and createdst
sant'Agostino d'Ippona † 430 d.C. On Christian Doctrine 1.34
… Whence also that expression, “The Lord created me in the beginning of His way,”
sant'Agostino d'Ippona † 430 d.C. On the Holy Trinity 1.12
24. According to the form of God, it is said “Before all the hills He begat me,” that is, before all the loftinesses of things created and, “Before the dawn I begat Thee,” that is, before all times and temporal things: but according to the form of a servant, it is said, “The Lord created me in the beginning of His ways.”
sant'Agostino d'Ippona † 430 d.C. A Treatise on Faith and the Creed 4
6. But as “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” the same Wisdom which was begotten of God condescended also to be created among men. There is a reference to this in the word, “The Lord created me in the beginning of His ways.”
Socrate Scolastico † 440 d.C. The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus 2.18
… For knowing that God is self-dependent and Lord of himself we devoutly maintain that of his own volition and pleasure he begat the Son. And while we reverentially believe what is spoken concerning him;
Socrate Scolastico † 440 d.C. The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus 2.21
… An artificer, also, may be called the framer, but not the father of his work; while he could by no means be styled the framer of him whom he had begotten. So also the God of the Universe is the Father of the Son; but might be fitly termed the Framer and Maker of the world. And although it is once said in Scripture,
Teodoreto di Cirro † 458 d.C. The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret 1.5
… and so the Lord says, ‘ God created me in the beginning of His way; I was set up from everlasting; before the hills was I brought forth
Teodoreto di Cirro † 458 d.C. The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret 1.7
… For instance, Eustathius, the famous bishop of Antioch, who has been already mentioned, when explaining the text in the Proverbs, ‘ The Lord created me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old
Teodoreto di Cirro † 458 d.C. The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret 2.27
… There, too, were Jews and Gentiles all eager to see the great Meletius. Now the emperor had charged both Meletius and the rest who were able to speak to expound to the multitude the text “The Lord formed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old” (
Teodoreto di Cirro † 458 d.C. Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 1
Of the same from his sermon on “the Lord created me in the beginning of His way”:
Teodoreto di Cirro † 458 d.C. Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 2
Of the same from his discourse on “The Lord formed me in the beginning of His ways”:
Teodoreto di Cirro † 458 d.C. Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 3
Of the same from his discourse on “the Lord created me in the beginning of His ways”:
san Giovanni Damasceno † 749 d.C. An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.18
… But others, though future, are put in the past tense, as, for instance, This is our God: Therefore He was seen upon the earth and dwelt among men , and The Lord created me in the beginning of His ways for His works
8:23
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 1.4
… And now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, ye might believe .’ And concerning the creation He says by Solomon, ‘Or ever the earth was, when there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, was I brought forth
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.16
… or if simply He be a creature, then let Him be assigned the same condition as the rest one with another, and let them as well as He be said every one of them to be ‘a creature but not as one of the creatures, offspring or work, but not as one of the works or offsprings.’ For ye say that an offspring is the same as a work, writing ‘generated or made
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.22
But since the heretics, reading the next verse, take a perverse view of that also, because it is written, ‘He founded me before the world
san Gregorio di Nissa † 395 d.C. Against Eunomius 2.10
… He is at once our foundation before the world to come, according to the words of Paul, who says, “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid ,” and it is true that “before the springs of the waters came forth, before the mountains were settled, before He made the depths, and before all hills, He begetteth Me
sant'Ambrogio † 397 d.C. Exposition of the Christian Faith 3.8
… “That which was in the beginning;” and again: “In the beginning was the Word.” To return to the passage we set before us to discuss. “In the beginning,” saith the Scripture, “before He made the earth, before He made the deeps, before He brought forth the springs of water, before all the hills He begat Me.”
8:24
Tertulliano † 220 d.C. Against Hermogenes 32
… It is therefore because of such persons, that Scripture in other passages teaches us of the creation of the individual parts. You have Wisdom saying, “But before the depths was I brought forth,”
sant'Ilario di Poitiers † 367 d.C. De Trinitate or On the Trinity 12.37
37. But now, lest the terms ‘creation’ and ‘establishing’ should be an obstacle to belief in the divine birth, these words follow, Before He made the earth, before He made firm the mountains, before all the hills He begat Me
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.22
… the beginning of wisdom’), then advancing upwards in his thoughts and perceiving the Framing Wisdom which is in the creation, will perceive in It also Its Father , as the Lord Himself has said, ‘He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father,’ and as John writes, ‘He who acknowledgeth the Son, hath the Father also .’ And He says, ‘Before the world He founded me
8:25
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Expositio Fidei. (Statement of Faith.) 3
3. He is then by nature an Offspring, perfect from the Perfect, begotten before all the hills (
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. De Decretis. (Defence of the Nicene Definition.) 3
… of the creatures, ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth ;’ but of the Son it introduces not another, but the Father Himself saying, ‘I have begotten Thee from the womb before the morning star ;’ and again, ‘Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee .’ And the Lord says of Himself in the Proverbs, ‘Before all the hills He begets me
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. De Decretis. (Defence of the Nicene Definition.) 6
… ‘Is not He thy Father that hath bought thee? hath He not made thee and created thee ?’says Moses in his great song in Deuteronomy. And one may say to them, O reckless men, is He a work, who is ‘the First-born of every creature, who is born from the womb before the morning star ,’ who said, as Wisdom, ‘Before all the hills He begets me
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.18
… but while they pretend us, their real fight is against the Godhead Itself. For if the voice were ours which says, ‘This it My Son ,’ small were our complaint of them; but if it is the Father’s voice, and the disciples heard it, and the Son too says of Himself, ‘Before all the mountains He begat me
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.20
… and where the reason is added, surely the reason rightly explains the lection. Thus here, when He says ‘He created,’ He sets down the cause, ‘the works;’ on the other hand, when He signifies absolutely the generation from the Father, straightway He adds, ‘Before all the hills He begets me
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 4.15
… My Well-beloved hath a vineyard ;’ Who is this ‘Well-beloved’ but the Only-begotten Son? as also in the hundred and ninth, ‘From the womb I begat Thee before the morning star ,’ concerning which I shall speak afterwards; and in the Proverbs, ‘Before the hills He begat me;’ and in Daniel, ‘And the form of the Fourth is like the Son of God
san Gregorio Nazianzeno † 389 d.C. Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 29
… If God has never ceased to beget, the Generation is imperfect; and when will He cease? But if He has ceased, then He must have begun. Thus again these carnal minds bring forward carnal arguments. Whether He is eternally begotten or not, I do not yet say, until I have looked into the statement, “Before all the hills He begetteth Me,”
sant'Agostino d'Ippona † 430 d.C. Letters of St. Augustin 102.29
29. The answer is brief: Solomon not only did not say this, but, on the contrary, expressly said that God hath a Son. For in one of his writings Wisdom saith: “Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth.”
sant'Agostino d'Ippona † 430 d.C. On the Holy Trinity 1.12
24. According to the form of God, it is said “Before all the hills He begat me,”
8:26
sant'Ilario di Poitiers † 367 d.C. De Trinitate or On the Trinity 12.38
… When He was preparing the heaven, I was with Him; and when He was setting apart His own seat. When above the winds He made the clouds huge in the upper air, and when He placed securely the springs under the heaven, and when He made firm the foundations of the earth, I was by Him, joining all things together
san Gregorio di Nissa † 395 d.C. Against Eunomius 3.2
… First it is created, and after that it is set up, and then it is begotten. “The Lord made,” she says, “lands, even uninhabited, and the inhabited extremes of the earth under heaven
8:27
sant'Ignazio di Antiochia † 108 d.C. Epistle to the Tarsians 6
Nor is He a mere man, by whom and in whom all things were made; for “all things were made by Him.” “When He made the heaven, I was present with Him; and I was there with Him, forming [the world along with Him], and He rejoiced in me daily.”
san Giustino † 165 d.C. Dialogue with Trypho 76
… For He exclaimed before His crucifixion: ‘The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the Scribes and Pharisees, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’ And David predicted that He would be born from the womb before sun and moon,
sant'Ireneo di Lione † 202 d.C. Against Heresies 4.20.3
… “When He prepared the heaven, I was with Him, and when He established the fountains of the deep; when He made the foundations of the earth strong, I was with Him preparing [them]. I was He in whom He rejoiced, and throughout all time I was daily glad before His face, when He rejoiced at the completion of the world, and was delighted in the sons of men.”
Tertulliano † 220 d.C. Against Hermogenes 18
… I was He in whom He took delight; moreover, I daily rejoiced in His presence: for He rejoiced when He had finished the world, and amongst the sons of men did He show forth His pleasure.”
Tertulliano † 220 d.C. Against Praxeas 6
… “When He prepared the heaven,” says Wisdom , “I was present with Him; and when He made His strong places upon the winds, which are the clouds above; and when He secured the fountains, (and all things) which are beneath the sky, I was by, arranging all things with Him; I was by, in whom He delighted; and daily, too, did I rejoice in His presence.”
Tertulliano † 220 d.C. Against Praxeas 7
… when God says, “Let there be light.” This is the perfect nativity of the Word, when He proceeds forth from God— formed by Him first to devise and think out all things under the name of Wisdom—“The Lord created or formed me as the beginning of His ways;” then afterward begotten , to carry all into effect—“When He prepared the heaven, I was present with Him.”
Tertulliano † 220 d.C. Against Praxeas 19
… If, now, it is in this sense that He stretches out the heavens alone, how is it that these heretics assume their position so perversely, as to render inadmissible the singleness of that Wisdom which says, “When He prepared the heaven, I was present with Him?”
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Heathen (Contra Gentes) 46
… it follows then that some one was with Him to Whom He spoke when He made all things. 6. Who then could it be, save His Word? For to whom could God be said to speak, except His Word? Or who was with Him when He made all created Existence, except His Wisdom, which says
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.20
… Accordingly, though He thus speaks, yet He taught also that He Himself existed before this, when He said, ‘Before Abraham came to be, I am ;’ and ‘when He prepared the heavens, I was present with Him;’ and ‘I was with Him disposing things
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.22
81. But since He proceeds to say, ‘When He prepared the heaven, I was present with Him
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 3.28
… For this as before is not the Word’s deficiency , but of that human nature whose property it is to be ignorant. And this again will be well seen by honestly examining into the occasion, when and to whom the Saviour spoke thus. Not then when the heaven was made by Him, nor when He was with the Father Himself, the Word ‘disposing all things
san Gregorio di Nissa † 395 d.C. Against Eunomius 1-2.22
… for these proverbial discourses do not show their aim at once, but rather conceal it, revealing it only by an indirect import, and we may judge of the obscurity of this particular passage from its context where he says, “When He set His throne upon the winds
san Gregorio di Nissa † 395 d.C. Against Eunomius 3.2
… For this Scripture gives a contrary sound to that of the Gospel, in ascribing to the Creator of Wisdom the making of land uninhabited and inhabited. So, too, with all that follows
sant'Ambrogio † 397 d.C. On the Holy Spirit 3.11
85. Learn also that the Father was with Him, and He with the Father, when all things were being made. Wisdom says: “When He was preparing the heavens I was with Him, when He was making the fountains of waters.”
sant'Ambrogio † 397 d.C. On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus 2.86
… For neither have they climbed up into the heavens, nor measured the sky, nor examined the universe with their eyes; for none of them was with God in the beginning, none of them has said of God: “When He was preparing the heavens I was with Him, I was with Him as a master workman, I was he in whom He delighted.”
sant'Ambrogio † 397 d.C. Exposition of the Christian Faith 5.2
… “I stretched forth the heavens alone.” The Father certainly did not stretch them forth without the Son. For the Son Himself, Who is the Wisdom of God, says: “When He prepared the heavens I was present with Him.”
sant'Agostino d'Ippona † 430 d.C. City of God 11.4
… But where have we heard Him? Nowhere more distinctly than in the Holy Scriptures, where His prophet said, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Was the prophet present when God made the heavens and the earth? No; but the wisdom of God, by whom all things were made, was there,
8:28
Tertulliano † 220 d.C. Against Hermogenes 32
… but He speaks of that spirit of which the winds consist, as He says by Isaiah, “Because my spirit went forth from me, and I made every blast.” In like manner the same Wisdom says of the waters, “Also when He made the fountains strong, things which are under the sky, I was fashioning them along with Him.”
Tertulliano † 220 d.C. Against Praxeas 7
… thus is it evident that it is one and the same power which is in one place described under the name of Wisdom, and in another passage under the appellation of the Word, which was initiated for the works of God which “strengthened the heavens;”
sant'Ilario di Poitiers † 367 d.C. De Trinitate or On the Trinity 4.21
… It was I, over Whom He rejoiced. Moreover, I was daily rejoicing in His sight, all the while that He was rejoicing in the world that He had made, and in the sons of men
san Gregorio di Nissa † 395 d.C. On the Faith 1
… But surely it is equally impious not to worship the Son, and to worship the strange God. We must then say that the Son is the true Son of the true Father, that we may both worship Him, and avoid condemnation as worshipping a strange God. But to those who quote from the Proverbs the passage, “the Lord created me
8:29
sant'Ambrogio † 397 d.C. Exposition of the Christian Faith 4.6
64. The Son, moreover,—to consider now our fourth premiss,—is not self-assertive, for He, the Divine Assessor,
8:30
Tertulliano † 220 d.C. Against Praxeas 19
… is it that these heretics assume their position so perversely, as to render inadmissible the singleness of that Wisdom which says, “When He prepared the heaven, I was present with Him?” —even though the apostle asks, “Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counsellor?” meaning, of course, to except that wisdom which was present with Him.
san Dionigi di Alessandria † 265 d.C. Containing Various Sections of the Works 4.1.3
… Therefore the eternal brightness shines forth before Him, and co-exists with Him, in that, existing without a beginning, and always begotten, He always shines before Him; and He is that Wisdom which says, “I was that wherein He delighted, and I was daily His delight before His face at all times.”
san Dionigi di Alessandria † 265 d.C. Containing Various Sections of the Works 4.6
12. In the beginning was the Word . But that was not the Word which produced the Word. For “the Word was with God.” The Lord is Wisdom; it was not therefore Wisdom that produced Wisdom; for “I was that” says He, “wherein He delighted.”
sant'Alessandro di Alessandria † 326 d.C. Epistles on the Arian Heresy and the Deposition of Arius 1.7
… who, not in time, nor after an interval, nor from things which are not, hath begotten His only-begotten Son. How, then, is it not impious to say, that the wisdom of God once was not which speaks thus concerning itself: “I was with Him forming all things; I was His delight;”
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Expositio Fidei. (Statement of Faith.) 2
… For the Lord says, ‘I came out from the Father and am come’ ( Joh. xvi. 28 ). But He is ever with the Father, for He is in the bosom of the Father, nor was ever the bosom of the Father void of the deity of the Son. For He says, ‘I was by Him as one setting in order’ (
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. De Sententia Dionysii. (Defence of Dionysius.) 15
… But God is light eternal, never beginning nor ceasing. The brightness then lies before Him eternally, and is with Him without beginning and ever-begotten, shining in His Presence, being that Wisdom which said, “I was that wherein he rejoiced, and daily I was glad in his presence at all times” (
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 1.6
… for God’s Image is not delineated from without , but God Himself hath begotten it; in which seeing Himself, He has delight, as the Son Himself says, ‘I was His delight
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 1.11
… but of the Samosatene and of the present Jews. Why then, if they think as Jews, are they not circumcised with them too, instead of pretending Christianity, while they are its foes? For if He was not, or was indeed, but afterwards was promoted, how were all things made by Him, or how in Him, were He not perfect, did the Father delight
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.16
… works shake and tremble at it .’ But if the whole earth hymns the Framer and the Truth, and blesses, and fears it, and its Framer is the Word, and He Himself says, ‘I am the Truth ,’ it follows that the Word is not a creature, but alone proper to the Father, in whom all things are disposed, and He is celebrated by all, as Framer; for ‘I was by Him disposing
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.20
… For because of our need, the Word, though being Creator, endured words which are used of creatures; which are not proper to Him, as being the Word, but are ours who are created in Him. And as, since the Father is always, so is His Word, and always being, always says ‘I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him
sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.22
82. Hence the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of Him; for the knowledge of Father through Son and of Son from Father is one and the same, and the Father delights in Him, and in the same joy the Son rejoices in the Father, saying, ‘I was by Him, daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him
sant'Ambrogio † 397 d.C. On the Duties of the Clergy 1.46
… Therefore this comeliness, which shone forth in each single part of the world, was resplendent in the whole, as the Book of Wisdom shows, saying: “I existed, in whom He rejoiced when He was glad at the completion of the world.”
Teodoreto di Cirro † 458 d.C. The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret 1.3
“Is it not then impious to say that there was a time when the wisdom of God was not? Who saith, ‘ I was by Him as one brought up with Him: I was daily His delight
Pseudo-Clement The Clementine Homilies 16.12
And Peter answered: “One is He who said to His Wisdom, ‘Let us make a man.’ But His Wisdom was that with which He Himself always rejoiced
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sant'Atanasio di Alessandria † 373 d.C. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.22
… When then was it, when the Father rejoiced not? but if He ever rejoiced, He was ever, in whom He rejoiced. And in whom does the Father rejoice, except as seeing Himself in His own Image, which is His Word? And though in sons of men also He had delight, on finishing the world, as it is written in these same Proverbs
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san Gregorio di Nissa † 395 d.C. Against Eunomius 3.2
And that this is the reference of the enigmatical sayings is clearly revealed by the passage that follows, which says, “Now therefore hearken unto me, my son: and blessed is he that keepeth my ways
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sant'Agostino d'Ippona † 430 d.C. A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 2.30
… Since therefore the will is either good or bad, and since of course we have not the bad will from God, it remains that we have of God a good will; else, I am ignorant, since our justification is from it, in what other gift from Him we ought to rejoice. Hence, I suppose, it is written, “The will is prepared of the Lord;”
sant'Agostino d'Ippona † 430 d.C. A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.36
… For a man is not good if he is unwilling, but by the grace of God he is even assisted to the point of being willing; because it is not vainly written, “For it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do for His good pleasure,” and, “The will is prepared by God.”
sant'Agostino d'Ippona † 430 d.C. A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.12
… and thus grace were no more grace, seeing that it is not free when it is rendered as a debt. But if they should so understand what is written, “If ye be willing,” as to confess that He prepares even that good will itself of whom it is written, “The will is prepared by the Lord,”
sant'Agostino d'Ippona † 430 d.C. A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.13
… For how is there a good purpose in a man without the mercy of God first, since it is that very good will which is prepared by the Lord?
sant'Agostino d'Ippona † 430 d.C. A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 32
… but because the will is prepared by the Lord, we must ask of Him for such a force of will as suffices to make us act by the willing. It is certain that it is we that will when we will, but it is He who makes us will what is good, of whom it is said (as he has just now expressed it), “The will is prepared by the Lord.”
sant'Agostino d'Ippona † 430 d.C. A Treatise on Rebuke and Grace 17
… As if Peter could in any measure will otherwise than Christ had asked for him that he might will. For who does not know that Peter’s faith would then have perished if that will by which he was faithful should fail, and that it would have continued if that same will should abide? But because “the will is prepared by the Lord,”
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Tertulliano † 220 d.C. A Strain of Sodom 1
By nature rebels ’gainst themselves; and hurts
sant'Agostino d'Ippona † 430 d.C. A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.26
… We pray, therefore, not only for the unwilling, but also for the objecting and resisting. What, then, do we ask, but that from unwilling they may be made willing; from objecting, consenting; from resisting, loving? And by whom, but by Him of whom it is written, “The will is prepared by God”?
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NUMQUID NON SAPIENTIA CLAMITAT, ET PRUDENTIA DAT VOCEM SUAM? — Simile audivimus cap. 1, vers. 20: «Sapientia foris praedicat, in plateis dat vocem suam.» Syrus: ideo (ut scilicet avocet te a meretrice, cujus aemula est) sapientia clamitat, et prudentia dat vocem suam. Mirum est quod Septuaginta vertunt longe diversa; sic enim habent: «Tu sapientiam praedicabis, ut prudentia tibi obsequatur.» Quod quadrupliciter explicari potest. Primo, q. d. Si sapientiam praedicaveris, et aliis verbis et factis eam docueris, sapientia tibi obsequetur, aderit, auxiliabitur. Secundo, si sapientiam ejusque praecepta animae et menti tuae magna voce quasi praeconis inclamaveris, ut ea feriant, excitent, et penetrent, prudentia vicissim tibi obsequetur. Tertio, planius, si sapientiam animae tuae praedicaveris, ut ipsa obsequatur et se tradat sapientiae, prudentia vicissim vocem suam ei dabit. Quarto, si sapientiam, id est fidem et virtutem, magno et Apostolico spiritu quasi Dei praeco praedicaveris, tunc prudentia tibi dabit vocem suam, id est, Deus dabit tibi spiritum et sermonem prudentiae.
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IN SUMMIS EXCELSISQUE VERTICIBUS SUPRA VIAM, IN MEDIIS SEMITIS STANS. JUXTA PORTAS CIVITATIS IN IPSIS FORIBUS LOQUITUR — Haec omnia in genere significat sapientiam ubique, tam in locis sublimibus quam humilibus, tam in viis quam in compitis et ipsis portis urbium, publice exaltare vocem suam, ut omnes ad se vocet. In specie significat: primo, Deum de summo coeli vertice hominibus praedicasse leges et dogmata sapientiae suae. Secundo, sapientiam, id est Deum, Mosi et Hebraeis in vertice montis Sinai legem dedisse. Tertio, sapientiam in templo, quod erat in monte Sion, per Sacerdotes et Scribas jugiter praedicasse. Ibidem praedicavit Christus et Apostoli. Quarto, Prophetas, qui legem Dei praedicabant, in montibus habitasse. Quinto, quia in ecclesiis ab editis locis, id est e suggestis, praedicatores verbum Dei et sapientiam praedicant. Mystice, Ecclesia haec proprie accommodat B. Virgini; unde hoc caput legitur in lectionibus festi B. Virginis ad Nives, die 5 Augusti, quia basilica S. Mariae Majoris Romae aedificata est in summo Exquilini colle, ubi nix miraculose aestate cecidit, locum a Virgine ipsa designatum pro sua ecclesia.
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O VIRI, AD VOS CLAMITO, ET VOX MEA AD FILIOS HOMINUM. INTELLIGITE, PARVULI, ASTUTIAM, ET INSIPIENTES ANIMADVERTITE — Mystice, Beda notat sapientiam, id est virtutem, postulare viros, non mulieres, id est non effeminatos, sed viriles spiritus, qui viriliter pugnent contra carnem, mundum et daemonem.
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AUDITE, QUONIAM DE REBUS MAGNIS LOCUTURA SUM: ET APERIENTUR LABIA MEA, UT RECTA PRAEDICENT — Sapientia sibi attentionem conciliat, promittendo se dictura res magnas et rectas. Magnas, tum quia de virtutibus et vitiis, praemiis et poenis, gloria et infamia, vita et morte, coelo et inferno, summisque theologiae quaestionibus tractat; tum quia de rebus probatis et certis, divinis et aeternis loquitur. Rectas, quia nihil nisi verum, justum et sanctum praedicat. Salomoni consonat vox Christi, veri Salomonis et Sapientiae incarnatae: «Aperiam in parabolis os meum, eructabo abscondita a constitutione mundi,» Matth. xiii, 35. Mystice, B. Virgo res magnas praedicavit, cum concepto Verbo Dei cecinit: «Magnificat anima mea Dominum; et exultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo,» Luc. i, 46.
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VERITATEM MEDITABITUR GUTTUR MEUM, ET LABIA MEA DETESTABUNTUR IMPIUM. JUSTI SUNT OMNES SERMONES MEI. RECTI SUNT INTELLIGENTIBUS — Sensus est, q. d. Me attentissime audite, quia loquar veritatem, non speculativam et otiosam, sed practicam, quae vos faciet bonos, probos, justos, felices et beatos. ET LABIA MEA DETESTABUNTUR IMPIUM — id est impietatem, ut habent Hebraeus et Chaldaeus. Impium hic non est generis masculini, sed neutri, designans rem, non personam. 9. RECTI SUNT INTELLIGENTIBUS, ET AEQUI INVENIENTIBUS SCIENTIAM — q. d. Sermones mei, qui in se recti et justi sunt, tales agnoscuntur ab intelligentibus et eruditis; stulti vero et improbi eorum rectitudinem non percipiunt, ideoque eos contemnunt et rejiciunt.
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ACCIPITE DISCIPLINAM MEAM, ET NON PECUNIAM; DOCTRINAM MAGIS, QUAM AURUM ELIGITE. MELIOR EST ENIM SAPIENTIA CUNCTIS PRETIOSISSIMIS — Hebraice, et scientiam magis quam aurum electum. Sensus est: Praeferte disciplinam meam pecuniae et auro; sapientia enim longe superat omnes divitias, gemmas et pretiosa, et nihil desiderabile ei comparari potest. Noster Pineda, lib. IV De Rebus Salomonis, cap. xviii, acute notat aurum hic hebraice vocari charuts, id est «incisum» vel «sculptum,» quia aurum signatum inciditur et sculpitur. Et sicut aurum incidi et sculpi debet ut pretiosum sit, ita sapientia requirit incisionem et sculpturam vitiorum et malorum habituum, per mortificationem et disciplinam, ut in suo pleno valore resplendeat.
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EGO SAPIENTIA HABITO IN CONSILIO, ET ERUDITIS INTERSUM COGITATIONIBUS — Sapientia hactenus se commendavit, desideriumque sui auditoribus excitavit; jam desiderantibus ostendit locum et domicilium suum. Sensus est: Quicumque me desiderat, meumque domicilium quaerit, eat ad domum prudentiae, sive callidi et sapientis consilii: ibi enim me reperiet. Habito apud prudentes, quia prudentia nihil aliud est quam applicata sapientia. Salomoni consonat illud Christi: «Ubi sunt duo vel tres congregati in nomine meo, ibi sum in medio eorum,» Matth. xviii, 20. Mystice, haec apte conveniunt B. Virgini. Primo, quia ipsa praeest in Conciliis et piis congregationibus, et in Sodalitatibus B. Virginis.
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TIMOR DOMINI ODIT MALUM: ARROGANTIAM, ET SUPERBIAM, ET VIAM PRAVAM, ET OS BILINGUE DETESTOR — Timor Domini, id est sapientia quae ex eo manat ejusque comes est, odit malum, et praesertim arrogantiam, superbiam, viam pravam et os bilingue. Sapientia ergo docet haec quatuor Deo et sapientibus praecipue esse odio. Huc facit fabula hominis et Satyri apud Aesopum. Homo quidam, cum societatem cum Satyro iniisset, cum eo edebat. Cum frigeret, insufflabat manibus ut calefierent; cum puls ferveret, insufflabat ut refrigeraretur. Satyrus id videns societatem dissolvit, dicens: «Nolo cum homine societatem habere, qui ex eodem ore calidum et frigidum efflat.» Ita Deus detestatur bilingues, qui eodem ore benedicunt et maledicunt. Salomoni consonat illud Christi: «Discite a me, quia mitis sum, et humilis corde, et invenietis requiem animabus vestris,» Matth. xi, 29. Mystice, B. Virgo, plena timoris et amoris Dei, odit malum, sed praecipue detestatur arrogantiam et superbiam, quia ipsa omnium creaturarum humillima est. S. Ambrosius: «Paritura humilem et mitem, humilitatem ipsam prae se ferre debuit.»
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MEUM EST CONSILIUM, ET AEQUITAS; MEA EST PRUDENTIA, MEA EST FORTITUDO — Sapientia redit ad id quod dixit vers. 12: «Ego sapientia habito in consilio,» quia ipsa est ipsum consilium, ipsa aequitas, ipsa prudentia, ipsa fortitudo. In ea reperiuntur omnes virtutes, et ex ea omnibus eam amantibus et quaerentibus communicantur. Mystice, noster Canisius, et ex eo Salazar: «Tria B. Virgini competunt, quae stulti Graeci suae Minervae (sapientiae deae) tribuebant: nempe consilium, aequitas, et fortitudo.»
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PER ME REGES REGNANT, ET LEGUM CONDITORES JUSTA DECERNUNT. PER ME PRINCIPES IMPERANT, ET POTENTES DECERNUNT JUSTITIAM — Sapientia hic sibi arrogat jus super regna et imperia, super reges, principes et omnes magistratus, idque derivat ex eo quod ipsa eis det sapientiam et prudentiam, qua juste regnant. Per sapientiam ergo reges et principes regnant: primo, quia omnes suam potestatem et auctoritatem accipiunt a prima et increata sapientia, id est a Deo. Secundo, quia sapientia illuminat et dirigit reges ad regaliter, id est sapienter, juste et sancte, non tyrannice regnandum. Unde ex hac Salomonis gnoma S. Thomas docet omnem legem regum et principum derivari a lege aeterna Dei. Tertio, quia sapientes solent eligi et evehi ad clavum reipublicae: sapientia enim hic designat non tantum Ethicam, sed et Politicam et artem gubernandi. Tropologice, auctor Catenae Graec. ait: Reges sunt sancti, qui per sapientiam regnant super pravas animorum suorum affectiones et perturbationes. Allegorice, per sapientiam incarnatam, id est per Christum, etiam ut hominem, reges et principes exercent auctoritatem. Christus enim Dominus, non tantum ut Deus, sed et ut homo, absolutum et directum habuit et habet dominium, non tantum super Ecclesiam, sed super omnia regna, imperia et totum mundum. A Christo hoc regendi et imperandi jus participatum est B. Virgini ut ejus matri. Mater enim regis regina esse debet. Narses, celebris Imperatoris Justiniani dux bellicus, qui ferocissimos Gothos penitus profligavit, omnes victorias suas B. Virgini adscrixit. Christiani sub ductu Virginis Terram Sanctam infidelibus eripuerunt. Anno 1571, sub Pio V, insignis victoria navalis parta est de Turcis ope Virginis, quae titulo S. Mariae de Victoria colitur.
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EGO DILIGENTES ME DILIGO: ET QUI MANE VIGILANT AD ME, INVENIENT ME — Sapientia promisit sequacibus suis multa et magna, imo regna et imperia, desideriumque sui accendit; nunc modum ostendit, quo obtineatur, scilicet per amorem. «Qui mane vigilant ad me» — id est mature, tempestive, scilicet a prima aetate, ab infantia, a teneris annis — «invenient me.» Si haec verba accipiantur de sapientia increata vel incarnata, id est de Deo aut de Christo, patet quod ipsa diligat diligentes se. Salomoni consonat illud Christi, Joan. xiv: «Qui diligit me, diligetur a Patre meo; et ego diligam eum, et manifestabo ei meipsum.» Mystice, B. Virgo diligit diligentes se, sed longe majori amore: primo, quia charitas ejus ardentissima est; secundo, quia mater est Christi, ideoque summe diligit eos quos Christus summe dilexit; tertio, quia unus et idem habitus charitatis diligit Deum et proximum; quarto, quia Christus matrem Dei Ecclesiae et fidelibus praefecit.
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MECUM SUNT DIVITIAE, ET GLORIA, OPES SUPERBAE, ET JUSTITIA — Sapientia vers. 16 dixit regna, principatus et gubernationem mundi esse sua; nunc pariter dicit divitias, gloriam et justitiam esse suas. Quod sapientia paret gloriam et opes stabiles et durabiles, patet experientia, qua videmus homines prudentes et diligentes in suis negotiis prospere succedere et opes cumulare. Christus promisit spirituales divitias et aeternam gloriam in coelo, quamquam non raro addat etiam terrenam gloriam et divitias. Exemplum est ipse auctor Salomon, qui per sapientiam factus est omnium regum maximus, opulentissimus, gloriosissimus et justissimus. Nota: Gloria inseparabilis est comes et pedissequa sapientiae, id est virtutis. Gloria enim, ait Cicero, «est illustris et pervagata magnorum vel in suos vel in patriam meritorum fama.» Mystice, gloria inter creaturas puras est quasi propria dos B. Virginis, quia ipsa, sicut plena est gratia, ita plena est gloria.
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MELIOR EST ENIM FRUCTUS MEUS AURO, ET LAPIDE PRETIOSO, ET GENIMINA MEA ARGENTO ELECTO — Sensus est: Ne ex eo quod dixi — «Mecum sunt divitiae et gloria» — putes haec tantum mea esse ad dandum cui velim, et non redundare in sequaces meos, scias me libere et abundanter haec bona omnia communicare diligentibus et quaerentibus me. Fructus enim meus melior est auro. Mystice, fructus B. Virginis est Christus, omni auro et lapide pretioso pretiosior. Unde Elisabeth de Eo dixit, imo Spiritus Sanctus dictavit: «Benedictus fructus ventris tui.»
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IN VIIS JUSTITIAE AMBULO, IN MEDIO SEMITARUM JUDICII, UT DITEM DILIGENTES ME, ET THESAUROS EORUM REPLEAM — Posterius hemistichium explicat prius, uti solet. Igitur «In viis justitiae ambulo» idem est quod «in medio semitarum judicii.» Sensus est: Ego sapientia versor in viis, id est in actionibus justis, puta honestis, probis et sanctis, quae in medio consistunt inter duo extrema excessus et defectus, ut ditem diligentes me veris et solidis bonis, et thesauros eorum repleam spiritualibus et aeternis divitiis. Hebraice: ut haereditate possidere faciam diligentes me יש ies, id est ens, sive id quod est, scilicet solidam et permanentem substantiam; quia quidquid praeter sapientiam et virtutem est, non est vera res, sed tantum apparens et phantasma.
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DOMINUS POSSEDIT ME IN INITIO VIARUM SUARUM, ANTEQUAM QUIDQUAM FACERET A PRINCIPIO — Pro «possedit me,» Hebraice est kanani, id est possedit vel acquisivit me; hic vero melius vertas possedit me, quia sapientia semper fuit cum Deo, et Deus semper eam possedit. Quaeris: Quaenam sapientia hic intelligatur? Rabbini inepte intelligunt legem Mosis. Respondeo autem: Primo, cum Tertulliano: Intelligitur sapientia increata essentialis, quae toti Sanctissimae Trinitati communis est. Secundo, accipi potest de sapientia increata notionali sive personali, puta de Filio Dei, qui est genita Sapientia et Verbum Patris. S. Epiphanius, haeresi 73, contra Semi-Arianos: «Cum sapientia dixit: Creavit me initium viarum suarum, non de creatione cogita, sed de aeterna generatione Filii ex Patre.» Dices: Quomodo de Filio Dei dici potest: «Dominus creavit me»? Ariani ex hoc concludebant Filium Dei non esse Deum sed creaturam. Respondent SS. Basilius, Epiphanius et Hieronymus: primo, Septuaginta ektise non tantum significare «creavit,» sed et «fundavit, fecit, operatus est.» Secundo, Hebraeum kanani proprie significare «possedit me,» non «creavit me.» Tertio, haec verba referri posse ad naturam humanam Christi, quae re vera creata fuit. Quarto, Hebraeum resit significare non tantum «initium,» sed et «principatum» et primatum. Unde S. Cyrillus, S. Athanasius et alii sapienter observant non dici absolute: «Dominus creavit me initium,» sed «initium viarum suarum,» id est, Christus est principium et exemplar omnium operum Dei. Quinto, multi Patres censent hic notari generationem Filii Dei, non divinam et aeternam, sed humanam et temporalem, puta Incarnationem. S. Epiphanius, haeresi 69: «Dominus creavit me, id est, aedificavit me in utero Mariae, initium viarum suarum ad opera sua.» Tertio, sapientia hic accipi potest creata et participata: hanc enim Deus ab aeterno possedit, quia ab aeterno eam voluit et decrevit creaturis communicare. Quarto, sapientia incarnata, puta Christus homo, hic intelligi potest. Hunc enim Deus creavit et produxit in tempore juxta decretum suum, ut initium et principium omnium operum suorum. Mystice, Dominus creavit et possedit B. Virginem, ut matrem Christi, ut initium viarum suarum, id est operum suorum; ipsa enim fuit primum et praecellentissimum omnium operum Dei. B. Virgo ergo ab aeterno praedestinata est ut sit initium, id est prima, princeps et domina omnium operum Dei.
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AB AETERNO ORDINATA SUM, ET EX ANTIQUIS ANTEQUAM TERRA FIERET — Hebraeum nasach proprie significat effundere, profundere, libare: in libatione enim oleum vel vinum super victimam effundebatur. Igitur «ordinata sum» significat: primo, sapientiam a Deo ordinatam et constitutam esse ut principem omnium rerum creandarum. Secundo, effusam, id est communicatam et diffusam, a Deo omnibus creaturis. Tertio, consecratam et libatam, id est Dei servitio et gloriae dedicatam. Multi accipiunt «ordinata sum» pro «praedestinata sum,» et explicant: Ab aeterno praedestinata sum. Septuaginta vertunt: «Fundata sum»; quod enim ordinatum est, etiam fundatum et firmiter stabilitum est. Mystice, haec omnia applica B. Virgini. Ipsa enim ab aeterno ordinata est, quia magnificum est opus et divina fabrica, ab aeterno in mente et praedestinatione Dei fundata. Ipsa fuit ordinatissima, ideoque sanctissima in omnibus cogitationibus, verbis et actionibus suis. Vocatur «castrorum acies ordinata,» Cant. vi, 9, quia ipsa ordinat aciem Sanctorum ad vincendum daemonem, mundum et carnem.
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24. NONDUM ERANT ABYSSI, ET EGO JAM CONCEPTA (Pagninus et Tigurina, formata) ERAM (Septuaginta, antequam abyssos faceret; Arabicus, antequam abyssos faceret. Abyssos intellige immensas voragines et profunditates aquarum creatas initio mundi, de quibus dixi Genes. I, 2). NECDUM FONTES AQUARUM ERUPERANT. — Hebraice, in non fontes graves, vel gravidi aquis; Pagninus, adhuc non erant fontes aggravati aquis; fontes enim videntur quasi gravidi et prægnantes aquis, ut eas parturiant et effundant. Septuaginta, priusquam procederent (Arabicus, emitterentur) fontes aquarum; Chaldæus, antequam essent fontes moles aquarum; Vatablus, necdum fontes aquis redundabant. 25. NECDUM MONTES GRAVI MOLE CONSTITERANT. — Hebraice, antequam montes essent immersi, demersi, infixi; Pagninus, fundati; Tigurina, antequam montes mergerentur, scilicet aquis primigeniæ abyssi, Genes. I, 2. Aut potius, terræ immergerentur et infigerentur, inquit Vatablus. Radices enim montium videntur terræ immersæ et infixæ, perinde ac fundamenta domorum et templorum terræ immerguntur, id est profunde eidem infiguntur, in eaque fundantur et solidantur. ANTE COLLES EGO PARTURIEBAR. — Hebraice est חוללתי cholalti, quod Noster vertit, concepta eram; Vatablus, formata sum; Aquila et Theodotion, Ὠδίνων, per partum erupi; Symmachus, quasi obstetricis opera conformata sum; Septuaginta, ante omnes colles gignit me; S. Cyprianus, genuit me. Sic et S. Augustinus, lib. De Trinitate, cap. XII: «Ante omnes, inquit, colles genuit me,» id est, «ante omnes altitudines creaturarum.» Explicat τὸ quod dixit vers. 22: «Dominus possedit me in initio viarum suarum, etc. Ab æterno ordinata sum,» dicendo quod ante abyssos, ante fontes, montes et colles, id est ante creationem mundi ab æterno a Deo concepta et formata sit. Est miosis; minus enim dicit, sed plus significat: significat enim sapientiam ita fuisse in mente Dei ab æterno, ut illi ideam dederit abyssorum, fontium, montium, collium, omniumque rerum in tempore creandarum, atque in tempore creationem Dei direxerit ad illa sapienter creanda et efformanda. Ideo enim dicit: «Necdum erant abyssi, fontes et montes,» quia scilicet hi per sapientiam creati sunt, et sine ea creari non poterant. Sapientia hic intelligitur essentialis, communis toti S. Trinitati. Hæc enim in mente Dei concepta fuit ab æterno, et per hanc in tempore Deus creavit omnia. Potest et accipi notionalis, puta Verbum sive Filius Dei; hic enim genitus est a Patre, ac per eum pariter facta sunt sæcula, Hebr. I, 2. Ita de æterna Filii generatione hunc locum accipiunt S. Cyrillus, S. Hilarius, S. Epiphanius, S. Fulgentius et alii scribentes contra Arianos, quos citavi vers. 22, ut sensus sit, q. d. «Necdum erant abyssi, et ego jam concepta eram,» puta a Patre per intellectum, et quia conceptio illa perfectissima semper atque integra fuit, utpote indivisibilis, et tota simul subjungit: «Ante omnes colles parturiebar.» Est enim conceptio in eadem natura divina, ideoque generatio et partus, ait D. Thomas, I part. Quæst. XXVII, art. 1, ad 2. Unde Mercurius Trismegistus loquens de divina Verbi generatione: «Intelligentia illa Deus, inquit, cum maris ac feminæ vim haberet, et vita et lumen esset, genuit Verbum, alteram scilicet mentem opificem,» etc. Et Poetæ finxerunt Minervam deam sapientiæ ex cerebro Jovis natam, ut significarent sapientiam et Verbum genitum a solo Patre, esse ideam ejus primariam, ad quam ipse omnia architectatus est. Denique posset hic accipi sapientia incarnata, puta Christus homo, sed tunc concepta eram et parturiebar accipiendum est non realiter, sed mentaliter, sive in mente et prædestinatione Dei. Ita Hugo. Verbum parturiebar significat primo, sapientiam quasi ab æterno stimulasse Deum ad pariendum et creandum res in tempore. Sic enim mulier cum parturit, stimulatur ad enitendum fætum. Secundo, sapientiam ejusque opera esse res arduas et operosas, quæ in se requirant parturitionem, id est longam meditationem, molitionem et operationem, licet Deo sint plana et facilia ob infinitam ejus potentiam, qua in momento solo jussu nutuque creavit cœlum et terram. Atque hæ de causa Deus rerum creationem molitus est perfecitque per sex primos mundi dies, ut significaret quam molitio hæc in se esset ardua et difficilis, licet sibi utpote omnipotenti esset facillima. Tertio, τὸ parturiebar significat mentem Dei sapientia quasi gravidam et prægnantem ab æterno, in tempore eam peperisse, cum scilicet ejus opera, puta cœlum et terram creavit et quasi peperit. Quarto, τὸ parturiebar idem est quod pariebar et partu enixa eram, gignebar et genita eram. Utrumque enim significat Hebræum cholalti, quod est temporis præteriti. Significat ergo in Deo idem esse gignere et genuisse, gigni et genitum esse. Unde Filius in eodem instanti æternitatis semper et gignitur et genitus est, semper nascitur et natus est. In divinis enim et æternis idem est fieri et factum esse; æternitas enim est quasi punctum indivisibile, semper durans unum idemque, ac proinde sine ulla sui mutatione coexistit tempore præterito, præsenti et futuro. Quia enim hæc successive coexistunt eidem instanti æternitatis semper manenti et constanti, hinc juxta illa dicitur Pater genuisse, gignere et geniturus semper Filium, cum proprie duntaxat semper gignat Filium, ac semper Filius ab eo sit genitus. Ita clare docet S. Hilarius, lib. VII De Trinit. post medium, clarius S. Augustinus in Psalm. II, clarissime Origenes hom. 6 in Jerem.: «Filius, ait, continuo esse suum accipit et manat a Patre, sicut splendor a sole.» Unde tropologice addit: «Nos eosdem, qui fratres sumus Christi, semper a Deo generari per singulos intellectus, per singula opera et verba sancta, si semen, id est gratiam, ejus suscipiamus, eique cooperemur.» Hinc S. Thomas, lib. IV Contra Gentes, cap. XI, docet in partu corporali, eo quod fiat cum motu et successione, primo, esse conceptionem; secundo, parturitionem; tertio, partum; quarto, præsentiam rei partæ ipsi parienti: at in Deo qui caret motu et successione, partum ab æterno fuisse plenum atque perfectum, ideoque simul fuisse Verbi conceptionem, parturitionem, partum et præsentiam Patri parienti, hoc est gignenti; atque ut hoc significaret Salomon, cum dixisset: «Ante omnes colles parturiebar,» ne quis parturitionem præcessisse partum existimaret, illico subjunxisse: «Quando præparabat cœlos, aderam,» q. d. Ab æterno parturiebar, sed plene et perfecte, ut eodem instanti perfecte existerem essemque præsens Patri gignenti, cum eo moliens cœlos totumque universum. Mystice hæc adaptes B. Virgini. Unde Ecclesia hæc pro Epistola legit in sacrificio Missæ Conceptionis et Nativitatis ejusdem. Conceptio enim et Nativitas Deiparæ fuit principium operum Dei circa redemptionem hominum, in quo magnum pietatis Sacramentum, puta incarnatio Verbi mox peragenda et celebranda erat. Ipsa enim est thalamus et thronus veri Salomonis nostri, in quo Deus suam omnipotentiam et magnificentiam ostendere voluit: «Et magnum magni Numinis illud opus.» Quare fecit B. Virginem in sui conceptu et ortu nobiliorem et pulchriorem omnibus Angelis, etiam Seraphinis, imo fecit eam ideam perfectionis, virtutis et sanctitatis, ut ipsa esset exemplar decoris et gratiæ tam Angelorum quam hominum, quin et creaturarum omnium; imo fecit, ut ipsa esset imago divinitatis, in qua Deus præ cæteris puris creaturis suam sapientiam, amorem, virtutes et decus omne, quod fas erat, exprimeret et mundo repræsentaret. Ipsa ergo est oceanus pulchritudinis, fons paradisi, templum et sacrarium Dei, «abyssus humilitatis, gratiæ et sapientiæ,» uti eam vocant S. Ildephonsus et S. Bernardus, imo «abyssus miraculorum,» ait Damascenus, orat. 1 De Nativit. Ipsa pariter præ omnibus collibus fuit mons in vertice montium, quia «ut ad conceptionem Verbi pertingeret, meritorum verticem super omnes Angelorum choros usque ad solium Deitatis erexit,» ait S. Gregorius in lib. I Reg. cap. I. Idcirco ante colles et montes ab æterno concepta fuit in mente et prædestinatione Dei, quæ ex tunc illam parturiit quasi gestiens illam eniti et parere, ideoque tempore a se decreto illam enisa est et peperit. B. Virgo enim ab æterno prædestinata fuit a Deo, non tantum ut esset sancta, sed ut esset mater Sanctorum, imo idea sanctitatis, ut scilicet juxta eam reliquos sanctos Apostolos, Martyres, Virgines, Confessores efformaret. Habet enim ipsa puriorem virginitatem quam habeant cæteræ virgines; majorem scientiam quam habeant Doctores; fortiorem patientiam quam Martyres; clarius lumen propheticum quam Prophetæ; ardentiorem zelum quam Apostoli; denique sanctitatem quamcumque majorem quam habuerit ullus Sanctorum. «Tot tibi sunt dotes, Virgo, quot sidera cœlo.» «Cæteris, inquit S. Ildefonsus et S. Bernardus, datur gratia per partes, Mariæ vero tota gratiarum plenitudo.» Cum ergo Virginis conceptionem et nativitatem celebramus, nostram quoque celebramus: nam in ipsa quasi in matre filii nos concepti et nati sumus. Porro concepta est B. Virgo quindecim annis ante partum et nativitatem Christi; Christum enim peperit anno ætatis 15. Quare cum Christus natus sit anno Augusti Cæsaris 42, si retro 15 annos Virginis computes, incides in annum Augusti 27; illo ergo anno concepta fuit B. Virgo, quo et Augustus Cæsar, uti narrat Josephus, lib. I Belli, cap. XV et XVI, Dei instinctu, licet arcani nescius, præter morem in Syriam profectus, ut provinciam lustraret, Herodem regem Judææ magnis honoribus affecit, et novis provinciis præficiens exaltavit: Herodes vero in gratiarum actionem urbem magnificam exædificavit, quam a Cæsare Cæsaream appellavit, quin et juxta fontes Jordanis insigne templum ex marmore candido Cæsari exstruxit. Nimirum quia in Syria et Judæa tunc concipiebatur Virgo, quæ fonte purior et marmore candidior erat Dei templum ac viva possessio, cui proinde Augustus veniendo in Syriam, honorem detulit, et dominatum ac imperium quasi resignavit.
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ADHUC TERRAM NON FECERAT, ET FLUMINA, ET CARDINES ORBIS TERRAE — Hebraice: «Adhuc terram non fecerat, et vicos (sive quae foris sunt), et caput pulveris orbis.» Hebraei censent tria elementa hic indicari: per «terram» globum terrae; per «quae foris sunt» aerem; per «caput pulveris terrae» ignem. Noster Vulgatus aptissime accipit chutsot, id est «vicos» vel «quae foris sunt,» pro «fluminibus,» quia flumina sunt quasi viae planae in terra, quae semper eodem aequabili cursu et placido tenore fluunt. Non enim potest de vicis urbium hic agi, cum initio mundi nullae fuissent urbes. Per «cardines orbis» Noster apte vertit quod Hebraeus vocat «caput pulveris terrae.» Cardines enim continent friabilem et solutum terrae pulverem ne dispergatur. Melius accipias cum nostro Salazar de centro terrae: ad hoc enim, quasi ad caput, omnes lineae a circumferentia terrae per medium ejus reducuntur. Centrum proprie continet et coercet pulverem terrae, ne dilabatur, juxta Job xxxviii, 4: «Ubi eras quando ponebam fundamenta terrae?» Commemorat montes, colles, flumina, abyssum et fontes, quia haec omnia stabilia sunt. Unde fontes perennes dicuntur, quia perenni fluore aeternitatem repraesentant, q. d. Sapientia stabilior, antiquior et aeternior est quam montes, mare et fontes.
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QUANDO PRAEPARABAT COELOS, ADERAM: QUANDO CERTA LEGE, ET GYRO VALLABAT ABYSSOS — Septuaginta: «Quando praeparabat coelum, simul aderam cum Illo.» Hebraice: «In praeparando Ipsum coelos, ibi ego; in inscribendo circulum super faciem abyssi.» Varii interpretes varie explicant «abyssos.» Primo, aliqui accipiunt de centro terrae. Secundo, Cajetanus accipit de ipsis coelis. Tertio, alii accipiunt de maribus. Quarto, Jansenius accipit de aere et omnibus elementis sub sphaeris coelestibus.
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QUANDO AETHERA FIRMABAT SURSUM, ET LIBRABAT FONTES AQUARUM: QUANDO CIRCUMDABAT MARI TERMINUM SUUM, ET LEGEM PONEBAT AQUIS, NE TRANSIRENT FINES SUOS: QUANDO APPENDEBAT FUNDAMENTA TERRAE — Sapientia pergit enumerare opera creationis, quibus aderat et quae cum Deo condidit. Antiquitatem suam et dignitatem stabilit, ostendendo se praecessisse et praefuisse omni creationi — coelis, fontibus, maribus, et ipsis fundamentis terrae.
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CUM EO ERAM CUNCTA COMPONENS: ET DELECTABAR PER SINGULOS DIES, LUDENS CORAM EO OMNI TEMPORE, LUDENS IN ORBE TERRARUM: ET DELICIAE MEAE, ESSE CUM FILIIS HOMINUM — Sapientia aderat Deo non tantum ut spectatrix, sed ut cooperatrix activa, cuncta cum ordine, pulchritudine et harmonia componens et disponens. Vox «ludens» significat facilitatem et delectationem qua sapientia operatur: quod enim aliis laboriosum et difficile videtur, sapientiae est ludus et delectatio. Et speciales ejus deliciae erant esse cum filiis hominum — id est, se communicare hominibus, apud eos habitare, eorum mentes illuminare, eorumque actiones dirigere. Hic versus pulcherrime impletur in Incarnatione Verbi, per quam aeterna Dei Sapientia humanam naturam assumpsit, et inter homines habitavit, delectata esse cum filiis hominum modo intimo — fiendo unus ex eis.
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NUNC ERGO, FILII, AUDITE ME: BEATI QUI CUSTODIUNT VIAS MEAS. AUDITE DISCIPLINAM, ET ESTOTE SAPIENTES, ET NOLITE ABJICERE EAM. BEATUS HOMO QUI AUDIT ME, ET QUI VIGILAT AD FORES MEAS QUOTIDIE. QUI ME INVENERIT, INVENIET VITAM, ET HAURIET SALUTEM A DOMINO: QUI AUTEM IN ME PECCAVERIT, LAEDET ANIMAM SUAM. OMNES, QUI ME ODERUNT, DILIGUNT MORTEM — Sapientia concludit solemni exhortatione et duplici pronunciato: benedictione super eos qui audiunt et sequuntur eam, et maledictione super eos qui respuunt et oderunt eam. «Beatus homo qui audit me» — non tantum auribus corporis, sed auribus cordis, id est, qui obedit et exercet quae sapientia docet. «Et qui vigilat ad fores meas quotidie» — id est, qui diligenter et perseveranter quaerit sapientiam, non occasionaliter et tepide, sed quotidie, constanti vigilantia et avido desiderio, expectans ad ipsa ostia domus sapientiae, sicut fidelis servus expectat ad ostium domini sui. «Qui me invenerit, inveniet vitam» — tum temporalem, longam et felicem, tum aeternam, beatam et gloriosam. «Et hauriet salutem a Domino» — quia sapientia ducit ad Deum, qui est fons omnis salutis et beatitudinis. «Qui autem in me peccaverit, laedet animam suam» — quia peccando contra sapientiam, id est contra virtutem et Deum, homo non laedit sapientiam vel Deum, qui impassibiles et immutabiles sunt, sed laedit tantum seipsum, vulnerando et destruendo animam suam. «Omnes, qui me oderunt, diligunt mortem» — quia odisse sapientiam est amare stultitiam, vitium et peccatum, quae sunt mors spiritualis; et mors spiritualis ducit ad mortem aeternam in inferno. Haec est terribilissima omnium admonitio: quod qui rejiciunt sapientiam non tantum passive mortem patiuntur, sed active eam eligunt et amant, amplectentes id ipsum quod eos destruit. Mystice, haec verba competunt B. Virgini, Sedi Sapientiae. Qui eam invenerit, inveniet vitam, quia ipsa omnes sibi devotos ducit ad Filium suum, qui est «Via, et Veritas, et Vita,» Joan. xiv, 6. Et qui in eam peccaverit, id est, qui ejus venerationem et invocationem neglexerit, se privat potentissimo patrocinio apud Deum, itaque laedit animam suam.
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Il legislatore civile può innanzi tutto emanare l. obbliganti in coscienza; poiché ogni autorità viene da Dio e viene esercitata nel nome di Dio. Classico è in merito il passo di s. Paolo (Rom. 13, 1-7); preceduto da Prov. 8,15 segg.; Sap. 6, 2-5; confermato da Pt. 2, 13 segg., dalla dottrina della Chiesa (cf. Leone XIII, Immortale Dei, 1° nov. 1885; Libertas, 20 giugno 1888; Inter gravissimas, 16 febbr. …
8:17
… Theol., 2ᵃ-2ᵃᶜ, q. 23, a. 1) mediante l'elargizione, da parte di Dio, della grazia santificante, cui corrisponde, da parte dell'uomo, l'atto di carità verso Dio (Prov. 8, 17; I Io. 4, 7 e 16). Come in ogni amicizia, nell'a. di b. si ha una mutua comunione di beni (Io. 15, 14), una intimità di presenza (Io. 14, 23), una vita unificata nella partecipazione …
… Dice Iddio: «Amo quelli che mi amano e quelli che mi cercano con premura mi trovano» (Prov. 8, 17). E Gesù: «Chi ritiene e osserva i miei comandamenti, questi mi ama. E chi ama me, sarà amato da mio Padre, ed io lo amerò e gli manifesterò me stesso» (Io. 14, 21). Nel definire …
… Essa è inoltre dimostrata da quei testi della S. Scrittura sia del Vecchio sia del Nuovo Testamento (Prov. 8, 17; Lc. 10, 27-28; Io. 14, 21-23; I Pt. 4, 8; I Io. 4-7) in cui è detto che all'amor di Dio, dal quale appunto procede la c., è unita l'amicizia del Signore, la remissione dei …
8:22
… G. ne canta la gloria, nello stile dei Profeti e dei Salmi (9, 6 = Is. 13, 13; 9, 8 = Am. 4, 13...), nella creazione (9, 4-13) e nei capovolgimenti che opera nella società (12, 13-25; cf. Ps. 106 [107], 40). Creatore e sovrano di tutte le cose (28, 24-27; 38, 4-7; cf. Prov. 8, 22-31), Dio le conserva e le governa (12, 13; cf. 3, 4; 31, 2). Inaccessibile ai nostri sguardi (23, 8 sg.), non è possibile conoscerne la natura (11, 8 sg.). È circondato dagli angeli (1, …
… delle Tre Persone, e afferma, mediante il ricorso ai testi delle Scritture e alla fede, la divinità e la consustanzialità del Figlio, in opposizione alle vedute di Eunomio; nella quarta dà la giusta interpretazione dei testi biblici, prima di tutti di Prov. 8, 22, di cui si valevano gli ariani; nella quinta afferma, contro le obiezioni dei pneumatomachi o macedoniani - che si facevano forti dell'assenza di ogni accenno in proposito nelle Scritture …
gure della verginità di M. I testi sulla Sapienza (Prov. 8, 22-31; Eccli. 34, 5-31) e il salmo 44 (ebr. 45) alimentano notevolmente la liturgia, senza parlare degli spunti e applicazioni mariane offerte dalle nobili figure di donne come Sara, Debora, …
MELEZIO (MELIZIO) DI ANTIOCHIA, SANTO
… pretesti di irregolarità canoniche nella condotta di M. La tradizione ortodossa ha visto una professione di fede nicena e la vera causa dell'esilio nel discorso tenuto da M. davanti all'Imperatore sul testo allora tanto discusso nelle lotte ariane di Prov. 8, 22, discorso conservato da Epifanio (Haer., 73, 29-33: PG 42, 457-65). Comunque Costanzo fece sostituire M. con un amico di Ario, Euzio.
… semplice personificazione poetica di questo attributo essenziale di Dio. Il medesimo concetto riappare in Bar. 3, 9-4, 4, che vi aggiunge l'idea che la Legge mosaica costituisce una sua manifestazione più evidente per gli uomini (ibid. 3, 37). In Prov. 8, 22-36 è molto più accentuata la personificazione della s., descritta come l'idea che guidò Dio nella sua opera; pur insistendo sulla s. quale attributo divino, l'agiografo la presenta come …
… Vi si trovano però tracce d'una distinzione di termini nella Divinità, specialmente nei Libri Sapienziali; la Sapienza Divina vi è descritta come assistente e cooperatrice di Dio (Prov. 8, 22); in Eccl. 24, 5: « Io sono uscita dalla bocca dell'Altissimo prima d'ogni creatura » e in Sap. 7, 25 si dice: « Candore della Luce eterna..., specchio immacolato della maestà …
… connette o perfino s'identifica con la T. (Eccl. 19, 16; 24, 22; 32, 15; 33, 2; 34, 8; 39, 8). In seguito l'identificazione si accentua e la T. riveste gli attributi divini, compare al lato del Creatore, primogenita di Dio e preesistente (le si applica Prov. 8, 22): Iubil. 3, 10; Test. …
8:27
… 8, 22-36 è molto più accentuata la personificazione della s., descritta come l'idea che guidò Dio nella sua opera; pur insistendo sulla s. quale attributo divino, l'agiografo la presenta come qualche cosa di distinto, rivestita di propria personalità (ibid. 8, 27-31). In Eccl. 24, 1-47 gli stessi concetti sono dati sotto forma alquanto diversa: la s. è qualche cosa di eterno ed intrinsecamente divino; e la sua personificazione è accentuata ancora …
8:34
… La beatitudine è effetto della sapienza (Prov. 3, 13; 8, 34; A. Robert, in Revue biblique, 43 [1934], p. 61 sg.).
8:35
… dimentichi di Dio, i peccatori (ibid. 9, 18; 21, 16), gli spregiatori della Legge (Eccl. 41, 11). Appare sempre più come « stipendio » del peccato (cf. Rom. 2, 7; 5, 12, 21; 6, 23), in opposizione alla « vita » riservata ai buoni (Prov. 3, 18; 8, 35; 9, 6; 12, 2; 16, 21); alla f. che è sotto si oppone « la via della vita » che conduce in alto (Prov. 15, 24). Anche dopo l'esilio, coesiste la doppia concezione, in parte compenetrantesi, …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · Douay-Rheims originale (Douai 1609-10), trascrizione 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')). Pubblico dominio.