Commentaria in Exodum
Sixthly, the candlestick placed in the Holy Place was set obliquely, so that the lamps looked toward the south and east. So Josephus.
Seventhly, in the tabernacle there was only one candlestick; but in the temple of Solomon there were ten candlesticks, five on the right and five on the left, as appears 3 Kings 7:49. Hence the text of Josephus, book 8 Antiq. chap. 2, is to be corrected, where he says there were ten thousand candlesticks in the temple: it should be corrected to ten candlesticks.
Symbolically, this candlestick was an image of the heavenly sphere of the seven lights, or seven planets. For the tabernacle bore the type of the world, and the Holy of Holies of the empyrean heaven of the Blessed. So Philo and Josephus.
Allegorically, the candlestick is Christ, or rather the Church, Apocal. chap. 1, last verse, which is the light and the teaching of truth. First and most aptly, the candlestick is the faith and doctrine of the Church shining forth to the whole world and enlightening it. Secondly, its seven lamps are all the doctors, who shine through all the night of the present age by life and doctrine: all these were made of a talent of gold, which weight is full and perfect, because their doctrine and life is perfect in wisdom and charity. Thirdly, the cups signify thirst for God and divine things, the bowls contempt of earthly things (for a sphere or globe touches the earth only at a point), the lilies signify the beauty of the virtues and the odour of a good life, which three things teachers ought to have. So Virgil said that a good man is like a round sphere, that in the corners no filth may lodge, when he says of him:
This man, having the likeness of the world, wholly smooth and round, lest any stain from without settle in the byways.
All these were made of gold, because the virtues just mentioned ought to flow from charity. Again the candlestick is of beaten work, not cast, because teachers must be beaten and polished by many temptations and persecutions before they reach the summit of virtue, to shine before others. Fourthly, this candlestick lit the table, the altar and the whole Holy Place by night, because the faith and doctrine of the Church ought to enlighten and direct the prayers, works of mercy and all holy works of the faithful in this life; for in heaven there will be no need of it: there all shall be taught of God and God-taught. Fifthly, the snuffers are disputations and explanations, by which errors are removed, and light is restored to the truth. Sixthly, in the tabernacle there was one candlestick, in the temple ten, because the light of doctrine and the knowledge of divine mysteries is greater in the Church than it was in the Synagogue: in the temple five candlesticks were on the right, and five on the left; because the Church, in prosperity as in adversity, is always full of light, and is neither lifted up by successes nor cast down by persecutions. So from St. Gregory, hom. 6 on Ezech., and Bede, Ribera, book 2 On the Temple, chap. 13.
Morally, therefore, teachers and doctrine are the light and candlesticks of the Church. Let this be their first law: “Let the teacher,” says St. Bernard, “be a basin, not a channel,” that is, let him first receive knowledge and be filled with it, that being full he may then pour it out upon others, let him teach himself before others.
Second, whatever thou teachest, be brief; that docile minds may quickly take in what is said, and faithfully retain it.
Third, let him imbue not only the understanding but the affection, “for the teaching of the Spirit does not sharpen curiosity, but kindles charity,” says St. Bernard.
Fourth, let him teach first by deed, then by word. For so Jesus began first to do, then to teach. “Doctrine,” says St. Gregory, “is taught with full authority when it is acted before it is spoken; for doctrine loses confidence when conscience hinders the tongue.” And St. Chrysostom, hom. 23 on Matt.: “If thou livest well, and teachest well, thou shalt be judge of all; if thou livest ill, and teachest well, only of thyself: for by teaching well thou instructest the people, but by living ill thou teachest God how He ought to condemn thee;” for, as the same says, serm. On Compunction: “Great is the condemnation of him who composes his speech, but neglects his life.”
Fifth, let him so teach that he delight, and so flow into the mind of the hearer:
He has won every point who has mixed the useful with the sweet.
Sixth, “what thou knowest, impart without arrogance to him who asks; what thou knowest not, without concealment to the ignorant: ask to have it imparted to thyself,” says Seneca, book 4 On Virtues.
Wouldst thou examples and sayings of the wise? Thales, being asked “who was happy?” said: “He who is healthy in body, and learned in mind.” So Laertius, book 1.
Socrates, being asked “what was the most beautiful animal?” said: “Man, adorned with learning.” Demades said that the learned differ from the unlearned as much as gods from men. Socrates, seeing a rich man who was unlearned, said: “Behold a golden slave.” And seeing another like him: “This,” he said, “is a horse adorned with silver.” Democritus said that learning is more precious than gold. Aristotle, being asked “wherein the learned differ from the unlearned?” said: “As the living from the dead.” The same: “Sight,” he said, “receives light from the air, but the soul from studies and teachers.” Glycon said, “learning is the sacred asylum of all men.” Cleanthes said, “untaught men differ from beasts in form alone.”
The Emperor Theodosius, when entrusting his sons to Arsenius for instruction, said: “If they show themselves such as to frame their manners to discipline and the laws of God, I will hand over the empire to them; if not, it will be more profitable that they live as private men than rule without learning and with danger.”
Charles IV, once entering the school of Prague, when he had listened for four hours to the masters of the liberal arts disputing, and his purple-clad attendants took it ill and said the hour of supper was at hand: “I have no time,” he said, “for this is my supper;” Aeneas Sylvius is witness, book 4 Comment. on the deeds of Alphonsus.
Alphonsus, king of Aragon, declared that he would rather lose all things than his studies and books, and that from books he had learned arms and the law of arms. The same called a rich man who was unlearned “a golden fleece.”
Diogenes, taken by robbers, and asked who he was and what he knew, answered: “I am a philosopher, and I know how to rule men.” The same said that learning brings sobriety to the young, solace to the old, riches to the poor, ornament to the rich: because it of its own accord restrains youth from intemperance, mitigates the discomforts of old age with honourable solace, is a provision for the way to the poor, and adorns the fortunes of the rich; Laertius is witness, book 3, chap. 31.
Dionysius the younger, driven from his kingdom, and asked what the study of Plato and philosophy had profited him, said: “That I may bear with an even mind so great a change of fortune;” Plutarch is witness.
Illustrious, however, was St. Cyprian, who wished to continue in teaching and preaching until death and to die in it, and even to martyrdom taught his people, and exhorted them to every virtue: Pontius is witness in his Life.
The monk Zeugmatius, though blind, nevertheless went about diligently, teaching, rebuking and strengthening each one, says Theodoret, book 4, chap. 26.
Like him in abundance and ease of teaching was Asclepius the African, bishop, about the year of the Lord 440, under Theodosius the younger, as Gennadius testifies in his Catalogue.
33. THREE CUPS AS IT WERE NUTS TO EVERY BRANCH.—He calls “cups” the parts of the candlestick projecting like nuts, or, as the Hebrew has it, like almonds (for the almond is a kind of nut), as to the curve of the sides. Josephus, in place of nuts and cups, has pomegranates: “It was,” he says, “distinguished with little balls, lilies and pomegranates.” But Villalpando translates this otherwise from the Greek text of Josephus thus: it was distinguished with little balls and cytini, that is, flowers of pomegranates, which is a species of lily; for this the bursting calyxes of pomegranates express. Alcazar, however, on Apoc. chap. 1, verse 11, thinks that besides lilies there were also cytini on the candlestick. For these are the chief flowers which are celebrated in the Canticle, and these aptly figure the purple Martyrs, who wonderfully adorned the Church, and were signs and heralds of her fruitfulness. For the candlestick was like a precious and very fruitful tree, as I shall presently say.
AND A BOWL WITHAL, AND A LILY.—For bowl the Hebrew has caphtorim, that is, apples, little globes or balls like apples. Whence it seems that in this candlestick there was some likeness of a tree, inasmuch as it spread arms and branches on either side, and was laden with flowers and fruits. Hence, secondly, although Villalpando and others generally separate the cups from the balls and lilies, yet what Alcazar teaches is very probable, that these three were joined, so that the apples, with the lilies and cytini, were inserted into the cups or calyxes, as acorns are inserted in their cups. For such cups, full of apples and lilies, were more beautiful on the candlestick, as on a tree; and this the word withal signifies, as if to say, Single balls and lilies shall be with single cups, in which they shall be inserted. But because the contrary opinion is the common one, I shall explain what follows according to it.