Commentaria in Genesim
Rightly, says St. Chrysostom, Ambrose and Jerome, is Christ said to have bound the ass to himself, because he preached to the Jews by himself; but to have bound the colt to the vineyard, because he preached to the Gentiles through the Jews, namely the Apostles, and through them gathered the Gentiles to himself.
Note: For vine the Hebrew has sorek, which is the best and choicest kind of vine, as Symmachus renders it, bearing most beautiful and noble grapes, as St. Chrysostom and Cyril testify. The Septuagint render it helix, which St. Cyprian, epist.
; book XII Against Faustus, chap. 42, renders to the chosen, and refers it to the preaching of penance.
But I say: the Greek word is properly that slender shoot, or tendril of the vine, by which the vine binds itself to its stock, or stake, and winds about like a curl, that it may hold itself upright and firm.
HE SHALL WASH (Christ) IN WINE (of his blood, shed for men with supreme charity) HIS ROBE (that is, his flesh), most white and most innocent, that thereby, not only reddened but also whitened, that is, made purer, all the miseries of this mortality and vice washed away, it may rise glorious. So St. Ambrose from Tertullian, book On the Blessing of the Patriarchs, chap. 4. See Isaias 63, 1 ff.
AND IN THE BLOOD OF THE GRAPE HIS GARMENT.—“The blood of the grape” is the wine of Christ’s blood already spoken of. The “garment” of Christ is the Church, because Christ is clothed with the Church as with a mantle. Whence St. John, Apocalypse 1, saw Christ clothed with a garment reaching to the feet. For Christ washed the Church with his blood on the cross, and daily washes her as she is born in baptism, “cleansing her by the laver of water in the word of life.” St. Ambrose, in the place already cited: “A good robe,” he says, “is the flesh of Christ, which covered the sins of all, took up the faults of all, hid the errors of all. A good robe, which clothed all with a garment of gladness. He washed this robe in wine, when, as he was baptized in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit descended as a dove and remained upon him. Jesus washed his robe, therefore, not as his own, which it was not, but to wash away our filth, which it was. And in the blood of the grape his garment, that is his mantle, that is, in the passion of his body he washed the Gentiles with his blood. And well did he say grape, because like a grape he hung on the wood. He is the vine, he is the grape: the vine clinging to the wood; the grape, because the soldier’s lance opened the side and let out water and blood. Water for the washing, blood for the price. The water washes us, the blood redeemed us.”
VERSE 12. MORE BEAUTIFUL.—In Hebrew chachlili, that is, redder, more ardent, more radiant and shining are “thine eyes” (O Christ) than wine; because, washed through the passion, and through the most splendid glory of thy resurrection, which shines forth especially in the face, mouth, teeth and eyes, they gleam and radiate, and wonderfully gladden the eyes of all the Saints beholding, more than wine refreshes and gladdens the heart of man. So Diodorus, Cyril, Theodoret.
AND HIS TEETH WHITER THAN MILK.—By this whole phrase is signified the beauty of Christ, especially rising again. For this is chiefly seen in the cheeks, eyes and teeth.
Symbolically, however, by the eyes is signified the most acute and most effective knowledge and providence of Christ, by which he rules and guards the Church; by the teeth, white beyond milk, the sweetness, integrity, purity and splendour of the same doctrine and of the preaching of the Gospel.
Whence allegorically, the eyes of Christ are the Apostles and Prophets: these are more beautiful through the brightness of their wisdom, preaching, life, zeal and miracles, by which they illumined the whole world, than wine, that is, than the sharpness and harshness of the old law. So St. Ambrose, Augustine, Eucherius, Rupert. The teeth are the doctors and preachers, who like teeth chew beforehand and divide the food of doctrine and exhortation for the faithful, and bite off, cut away and cast out their vices. These are whiter than milk, that is, than the doctrine of the old law, which was as it were milk and food of little ones. So the Fathers cited.
Note: From the Hebrew it can be rendered with Vatablus: Red are his eyes from wine, and his teeth white from milk. For the zeal of Christ and of the Apostles is rightly compared to wine, on account of the ardour and fervour of spirit, by which, as if drunk with new wine, they were borne to preaching, to labours, to crosses and martyrdoms. Secondly, their sweetness, candour and innocence in speaking is rightly compared to milk.
But better, more significantly and more effectively our Vulgate and the Septuagint render: His eyes are redder than wine (than wine), and his teeth whiter than milk. For the Hebrew min signifies comparison and pre-eminence (1).
VERSE 13. ZABULON SHALL DWELL ON THE SEA-SHORE,—namely by the Mediterranean sea and the sea of Galilee, or
This being posited, that in these verses also the discourse is of Christ, and therefore that the things contained in them are figurative, it remains to ask what the signification of these figures is. I for my part judge that the first words, Binding his colt to the vineyard, and his ass, O my son, to the vine, are woven into one and the same sentence with the word veniet, and that by them the very coming of Christ is described (cf. Patrizi, op. cit. p. 118); that those, He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape, sound of Christ redeeming the human race with his blood (for what do wine and the blood of the grape signify but the blood of Christ himself, who is called a cluster, Canticles 1, 13, and was called a vine by Jacob in the former hemistich, and himself declared that he is the vine, John 15, 1, 5? And what rather would robe and garment signify than either the human nature, with which the divine Word is as it were clothed, or the Church and the nations that were to come together into her, as the holy Fathers interpret these things. Cf. Isaias 49, 18; 63, 1, 2; Apocalypse 19, 13); finally that by those last, His eyes are more beautiful than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk, the glory and splendour that was to come to Christ from his passion and his doctrine is touched upon. For if, as has already been said, the particle min is not comparative but causal in either clause, and you render the Hebrew thus, suffused in the eyes from wine, white in the teeth from milk, I should not find a fitting interpretation of these metaphors except the one I subjoin. Suffused in the eyes from wine is transferred from the effect of wine drunk freely, which Gesenius rightly warns is in this place to be taken in a good sense. Now that wine and the drinking of wine are transferred in the Scriptures to signify the blood and passion of Christ, we find both from this very prophecy of Jacob and from some sayings of Christ; wine makes a man more joyful and as it were happier, and this is betrayed chiefly in the eyes, so that metaphor seems to signify the joy and glory which Christ was to receive from his passion; he himself indeed so spoke: “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory?” Nor will he fear a bolder metaphor who recalls that of the Psalm: “And the Lord was awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man surfeited with That the discourse is likewise of the teaching of Christ all the Fathers agree, although they differ as to the circumstances of the whole matter.
the lake of Genesareth: for to this adjoins Capharnaum, a celebrated emporium; Bethsaida, Tiberias, and other cities that were in the lot of Zabulon.
AND IN THE HARBOUR OF SHIPS.—From the Hebrew you may render, he shall dwell in the port of ships. So Vatablus, as if to say: Zabulon shall have the best harbours, through which all merchandise shall be brought in, and so he shall grow rich (1).
REACHING AS FAR AS SIDON,—not immediately, but through the tribe of Aser, which lies between. Whence it is: His side is toward Sidon (3), or toward Sidon, supply looks and faces, as if to say: Zabulon faces and is contiguous to Sidon; Zabulon in Chanaan will be neighbour to the Sidonians, who were seafaring merchants; and therefore through them from Sidon he shall receive any merchandise and abundance of all things. So Andreas Masius on Josue, chapter 19.
Allegorically, Zabulon, that is, dwelling, is the Church, rich, quiet and given to the traffic of souls. For from Zabulon Christ and the Apostles went forth, preaching as far as Sidon, Tyre and other nations. So St. Ambrose, book On the Blessings of the Patriarchs, chap. 5.