Commentaria in Genesim
From this second title it is plain that this blessing properly and precisely regards the tribe of Judah, so that Judah here embraces only those born of Judah, not the Levites and others mingled with Judah; and this is confirmed, first, by the fact that Jacob here assigns to each son and tribe its own blessing: as therefore under Levi he does not include the Jews, so under Judah he does not include the Levites, and consequently not the Maccabees. Secondly, by the fact that St. Paul, Hebrews 7, 14, expressly asserts that Christ sprang from Judah, not from Levi, and from this proves that Christ could not be an Aaronic and Levitical priest, but was a new priest according to the order of Melchisedech. For this argument of his would not conclude if Levites were comprehended under Judah: for someone would answer him that Christ, though sprung from Judah, might yet also have been born of Levi, and so be made an Aaronic priest, since the Levites were reckoned and called Judah, or Jews, as mingled with Judah and the Jews. Under Judah, therefore, here only the descendants of Judah naturally born of him are understood. The sense of this place, therefore, is as if to say: The kingdom of the Jews, from the time it first began to have kings from the tribe of Judah, shall never fall into the power of kings who are not Jews; but the tribe of Judah shall always retain its right and the crown of the kingdom, to create for itself kings or leaders, until the promised Messiah come. That this in fact so happened is evident; for the sceptre departed from Judah in the time of Augustus Caesar: for then the Roman senate, and Caesar himself, took the kingdom of the Jews away from Hyrcanus and Antigonus, son of Aristobulus, who were its lawful heirs, being born of the Maccabees, or Asmoneans; and this, against the will of the people, he transferred by force to a foreigner, namely Herod the Ascalonite, whom he created king of the Jews, and then was born Christ, in the 35th year of Herod, which was 2695 years after this prophecy; for Jacob said this in the 147th year of his age, in which he also died, which was the year of the world 1255. But Christ was born in the year of the world 3950; therefore from the death of Jacob to the birth of Christ 2695 years elapsed.
From this passage, therefore, we convince the Jews and demonstrate to them that the Messiah has already come, and was born in the time of Herod: for then the sceptre failed from Judah; and consequently that our Christ is the Messiah foretold and promised here by Jacob.
Objection. You will say: Christ was born in the 35th year of the reign of Herod; therefore for 35 years before Christ the sceptre had already failed from Judah; therefore it was false to say: The sceptre shall not be taken away from Judah until Christ come.
I reply that so small an interval of 35 years, in so great a series of times, is here reckoned as nothing; for it suffices for the truth of this prophecy that under the same King Herod, in whom the sceptre failed from Judah, Christ was born. For until does not signify precisely a determined year, month or day of Christ’s coming; but only loosely signifies that about that same time, namely under the same king in whom the sceptre of Judah should fail, Christ was to be born.
Second objection. You will say secondly: In the time of the Babylonian captivity, and consequently long before Christ, the sceptre failed from Judah (1).
I reply that this is false; for then the king of the Jews was Joachin, who, though captive, remained the lawful king of his people: indeed Evilmerodach raised him in captivity to the throne of the kingdom, as is plain from 4 Kings, last chapter. And after the captivity, soon Zorobabel, grandson of Joachin, and other leaders from the people of Judah, ruled until the Maccabees.
Third objection. You will say thirdly: Before Herod, Pompey subdued the Jews; therefore then the sceptre failed from Judah. I reply: Pompey only made Judea tributary to the Romans, and that not of himself, but called in by Hyrcanus, whom his brother Aristobulus had ejected from the kingdom. Pompey therefore took Aristobulus and Jerusalem: but he restored to the Jews not a foreign but a lawful prince, namely Hyrcanus; whence it is plain that the sceptre did not then fail from Judah.
Anagogically: the sceptre of Christ shall not be taken from his Pontiff until he himself come in his second advent, to bless and glorify us. So Pererius, from St. Ambrose and Origen.
AND A LEADER.—In Hebrew it is mechokec, that is, lawgiver, namely a leader or prince, whose office it is to enact laws and by them to rule the people. The Jews ignorantly and deceitfully render mechokec as scribe. Jacob here calls, after the sceptre, that is after the kings, a leader, that is leaders, because after the kings of Judah, who failed in the Babylonian captivity, there succeeded leaders and princes in Judah, namely Zorobabel and the Maccabees.
FROM HIS THIGH.—Thigh by metonymy signifies the genital parts, which are between the thighs and between the feet, as the Hebrew has it.
You will say: The Maccabees, who were leaders of the Jews, did not come out of the thigh of Judah, but of Levi. I have already replied that by Judah here is understood the whole tribe of Judah with the Levites and others grafted into it and co-opted into it. For Judah here signifies the whole Jewish people, which embraces all who are from Judah, and the few from Benjamin and Levi returning with Judah from the captivity and united to them: but the Maccabees were born of the Jewish people; therefore also of Judah: for after the captivity all, of whatever tribe they were, were reckoned and called sons of Judah, or Jews.
Secondly, more aptly and genuinely, according to the second title assigned a little before, Pererius replies that until he come does not refer precisely to leader from the thigh, but only to shall not be taken away from Judah, of which the phrase from the thigh would be a kind of appendix and amplification, as if to say: Until the Messiah come, the sceptre shall not fail from Judah, and meanwhile there shall be many leaders proceeding from the very thigh of Judah. We saw a similar phrase in chapter 15, verse 13. For Jacob seems to add these words to note that Christ the leader would be born from the very thigh of Judah, of whom in the following verse (2).
First, the Septuagint, reading for Silo Shelo (as if one letter were put for the affix of the other: for these quiescent letters are sometimes interchanged), render, until he come (namely Christ) for whom it is reserved, namely the sceptre and kingdom of Judah, as St. Ignatius, Irenaeus, Jerome and Ambrose read and understand; or until the things reserved for him come, namely ample kingdoms, trophies and gifts of the Messiah, which have been laid up and reserved for Judah until the time of the Messiah, as St. Cyprian, St. Augustine and Chrysostom read and understand. For to Christ alone, and consequently to Judah, are reserved: first, the kingdom of Judah and Jacob; second, the right of saving Israel; third, all the promises made also to David; fourth, all treasures of grace and glory; fifth, the faith and obedience of all nations; sixth, the judgment of the living and the dead.
Secondly, Leo Castrius, book III Apology, reads for Silo, with other points, Shailach, that is, gift, or the promised, and thinks the Septuagint so read, as if to say: Until the gift promised to that sceptre of Judah come: that is, until the Messiah promised to Judah come, who shall arise from him and shall extend the sceptre of Judah through all nations.
Thirdly, Rabbi David Kimchi thinks Silo signifies his son, namely Judah’s, and rather God’s: for it signifies son; as if Silo were he to whom God the Father says: “You are my Son, this day have I begotten you.” Fourthly, Galatinus and Hamer read for Silo Shela, that is, he whose, namely the woman’s and virgin’s, he is the son, lacking a father: so that