Commentaria in Exodum
Aelian, book 17, chap. 37, writes that a farmer about to draw water saw an eagle fighting with a serpent, and made it victor by cutting the serpent in two with a sickle, and presently drew water, from which, as being infected with the serpent’s venom, his companions drinking died shortly after; and when he himself was preparing to drink of it, the eagle flew up, overturned the cup, poured out the water, and so freed him from poison and death.
The same, book 12, chap. 21, relates that Gilgamus king of Babylon, when he was a boy, being thrown headlong by order of his grandfather, was caught by an eagle flying beneath, which took the boy on its back when freed, and laid him gently down in a certain garden. “If this seems a fable to anyone,” he says, “I confess that I too do not approve it. Yet I hear that Achaemenes the Persian also, from whom the noble race of the Persians descended, was reared by an eagle.”
These are profane; hear the sacred. For God has often wonderfully helped the Saints by eagles.
That St. Medard, when he was a boy exposed in the field to the rain, was kept unharmed by an eagle spreading its wings and body over him, his Life has.
The body of St. Benedict, slain by robbers and thrown into the water, was pointed out by an eagle.
The body of St. Stanislaus Bishop of Cracow, slain by king Boleslaus, four eagles defended from dogs and wild beasts for two whole days, until the priests gathered the scattered limbs, which are said to have suddenly grown together.
The Venerable Bede relates of St. Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, that an eagle miraculously took a fish from the river, and brought it to St. Cuthbert, lest he should perish of hunger.
Tropologically, the Saints, especially the illustrious, dwell in heaven like eagles, and there God takes them to himself as his familiars and courtiers. Whence St. Gregory, book 31 of the Morals, chap. 34, explaining that of Job 39: “Shall the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?” compares St. Paul and the Saints to the eagle. “Let us see,” he says, “the eagle building its nest in steep places, who says: Our conversation is in heaven. And again: Who hath raised us up together, and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places. He has his nest in steep places, because he indeed fixes his purpose in the heights, will not cast his mind down to the lowest, will not through the abjection of human conversation dwell in the lowest. Paul was then perhaps held in prison, why would he testify that he sat with Christ in the heavenly places: but he was there where he had now fixed his burning mind; not there where the still sluggish flesh necessarily held him.” Then in what follows he shows this height of mind set in heaven to be a sign of divine predestination and election to glory. For this is what Isaias says, chap. 58, verse 14: “Then shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift thee up above the high places of the earth, and will feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob.”
Rightly therefore St. Augustine, sermon 2 On All Saints, thus spurs on the faithful: “Let us gladly and promptly contend for this palm in heaven, let us all run in the contest of justice with God and Christ looking on; and we who have begun to be greater than the age and the world, let us be retarded in our course by no desire of the world. If the last day find us unencumbered, if swift, if running in this contest of the work, the Lord will nowhere fail to be our rewarder to the prize for our merits.”
For this cause the Gentiles at the funeral of an Emperor let an eagle go from the pyre, to bear the soul of the deceased to heaven. Hear Spartian at the funeral and apotheosis of the Emperor Hadrian: “From the summit, the fire being applied, an eagle is let go to ascend into heaven, which is believed to carry the very soul of the prince to heaven.” The same of Augustus Dio testifies, in his funeral, book 56. The coins testify also, which on one side have the effigy of the Divine Emperor, on the other an eagle, with these words: “Consecratio S.C.” Nay princes after death were feigned and painted as sitting on an eagle and borne by it. Hear Artemidorus in his Dream-interpretations, book 2, chap. 20: “To be carried by an eagle predicts death to kings and wealthy men. For it is an ancient custom to feign and paint these dead as sitting on eagles.” So four eagles brought the Emperor Severus signs of death, by which he seemed to himself, in a night vision, to be carried off to heaven. On a coin whose inscription is “Divus Pert. Pius pater,” an eagle sits upon a globe, as if to signify that he is raised above heaven. Finally an epigram on the tomb of Plato depicts an eagle, as if in its form the soul of Plato flew away to heaven; for thus it reads:
Why, eagle, dost thou fly to this tomb? say, hast thou perchance seen from the stars some god dwelling here?
Nay, I am the divine soul of the departed Plato, who dwell on Olympus, but the Attic land holds my earthborn body.
5. IF THEREFORE YOU WILL HEAR MY VOICE, AND KEEP MY COVENANT, YOU SHALL BE MY PECULIAR POSSESSION,—as if to say: Though you are a little flock, a little nation, yet you shall be my whole flock, that is, all my substance, all my wealth; for anciently the whole substance of the ancients lay in cattle, and hence peculium was named: peculium therefore is a peculiar and proper inheritance. For this is what is said Deut. 32:9: “The Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob the lot of his inheritance,” that is, his hereditary portion: for anciently they were wont to divide and measure inheritances among heirs with cords.
For “peculiar possession” the Hebrew is segulla, that is, a part or portion chosen and beloved, such as a treasure is, as if to say: Though the whole world be mine, and all peoples, yet you shall be dear and precious to me like a jewel or treasure; whence the Septuagint, and from them St. Peter and Paul, render, you shall be to me laos periousios, that is, a peculiar people, choice and eminent; whence Symmachus also renders, you shall be to me laos exairetos, that is, a people selected, excellent, distinguished. Lyranus renders, you shall be to me lovable, that is, you shall be so friends to me as if you were my very lovableness. See what was said on Titus 2.
FOR ALL THE EARTH IS MINE.—Since the whole earth is mine by right of creation and conservation, I can and will choose you out of it to be my peculiar possession: so that the whole earth be my inheritance, but you be my peculium, my segulla.
6. AND YOU SHALL BE TO ME A PRIESTLY KINGDOM.—The Hebrew: a kingdom of priests, that is, priestly; for the Hebrews use a substantive genitive for an adjectival epithet, as if to say: You shall be my kingdom, not lay and profane, but sacred and addicted to my worship and sacrifices. The Septuagint invert the words: You shall be to me a royal priesthood; whom St. Peter follows, 1 epist. chap. 2, verse 9; but the sense is the same: for both dignities, which in a republic are the highest, namely of kingdom and priesthood, God here gives to the Hebrews above the other nations. The Chaldee renders, you shall be to me kings and priests, as if to say: Not each of you, but some deputed from you will be kings, through whom you shall reign, and some will be priests, through whom you shall offer sacrifices to God. It can however be taken secondly of each individually, as though God promised this not to the republic alone, but to each in particular, as if to say: Each of you shall be as kings, because you shall rule over the Chanaanites and other nations, as Pyrrhus’s ambassador said that he had seen at Rome as many kings as senators. You shall be also priests, because among other nations you alone shall be addicted to my worship and my ceremonies. Moreover I take kingdom and kings both actively and passively, as if to say: You shall be kings, yet so that I reign in you.
Mystically, all good and holy Christians are kings, says St. Gregory, Morals, book 26, chap. 26: “For ruling over all the motions of the flesh, they are kings; and they are priests also,”
Some here ask why Moses promises the Jews a priestly kingdom, while St. Peter, on the contrary, 1 epist. chap. 2, verse 9, promises Christians a royal priesthood? And they answer first, because the royal dignity, which was perfect among the Jews, is made more imperfect among Christians: but the priesthood, which was imperfect among them, among Christians has come to be most perfect, and to take precedence of kingdoms and kings. Secondly, because the law of Moses was a law of justice, according to that: “I am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,” Deut. 5:9. But the law of Christ is a law of mercy. Royal authority guards justice: for this reason it bears the sword; but the priestly guards mercy. For such a high priest, as St. Paul says, Hebrews 7, it became us to have, who could have compassion on them that are ignorant and that err, and be touched with our infirmities. Fittingly therefore in the time of justice, namely in the old law, the royal authority was pre-eminent: but in the time of mercy the priestly dignity has become more excellent, because from the royal power justice, from the priestly piety and mercy is to be expected. So Ascanius Martinengus on Genesis, vol. 1.