Commentaria in Exodum
Moreover it is certain that before the infant has wholly come forth the sex can be discerned in it, since physicians teach that it can be conjectured long before by certain signs, e.g. if in the womb the movements of the foetus are many and strong, it is a sign that it is a male; again, if the mother be well coloured; if the infant lie on the right side, because that part is warmer and stronger on account of its nearness to the liver, etc. So Galen and Hippocrates.
See by what degrees the king’s impiety grows: he wished first to hinder conception by the labour and oppression of the parents; secondly, he tries to crush the birth; thirdly, verse 22, he plots to drown the offspring when born.
So tropologically the demon is wont, first, to turn aside a heroic work that it may not be done; secondly, if he cannot do this, he strives to spoil it when it is done; thirdly, if he cannot do even this, he busies himself to pervert it after it is done.
IF IT BE A MAN CHILD, KILL IT.—The midwife can do this easily and secretly. For, as Aristotle says, book 7 of the History of Animals, chap. 10: “Skilful midwives press back the blood into the womb of the child: whereupon at once the infant, which was already failing, is revived and restored to life. Their office is to bind and cut the infant’s navel-string, and to act at once ingeniously against whatever happens,” and to meet evils: if she neglect these or do them ill, she will kill the infant. You will ask: Why did Pharao command the males of the Hebrews to be killed, but the females to be kept? I answer first, because he feared from the males that they might one day join his enemies, verse 10. Secondly, because the Hebrew females, being unwarlike, were also beautiful: he therefore wished to abuse them for lust. Thirdly, he wished them kept for service to his wives, and to be handmaids of the Egyptians. Fourthly, the Hebrew women excelled in wool-working, weaving, dyeing and other arts, and therefore were very useful to the Egyptians, who by their disposition are intent on gain, which Plato ascribes to the climate of the place. Hear him in Caelius Rhodiginus, book 18, chap. 18: “Among the opinions of Plato this is observed, that from various regions or aspects of the heavens diverse tempers of character are engendered. By this argument, in the region of Greece men seem much more apt for acquiring learning than anywhere else. But those who incline toward Phoenicia or Egypt are believed marvellously sagacious in heaping up money, being by nature made chiefly for it. Prone to fury and anger, however, are all those who are found nurtured in the wars of barbarians. And those who inhabit the parts of the world scorched by the sun degenerate into timidity and a more effeminate nature. For the inmost heat slips away, the passages of the body being relaxed and in a manner gaping through the intemperance of the nearby star. The proof is the blackening skin, the abundance of the heat implanted within being drawn outward. But those who inhabit the cold and stiff regions of the world excel far too much in boldness, the outer parts of their bodies being white. But the middle regions, tempered on one side by heat, on the other by cold, produce both more prudent and wiser minds, and especially minds born and made for empires, of which kind Vitruvius thinks the situation of Italy to be.” Fifthly, because, as Euripides says, the sons that are males are the pillars of houses: for the male multiplies, propagates and strengthens his family and nation.
Tropologically, females are the works of the flesh, males are the works of mind and spirit. Again, females are soft, weak and imperfect souls; males are endowed with strength, generosity and perfection. “By woman,” says St. Jerome on chap. 11 of Ecclesiastes, “the frailer sex and matter is signified: of the Saints scarcely any are narrated to have begotten daughters except rarely; and Salphaad alone, who died in his sins, begot all daughters. Jacob among 12 sons was the father of one daughter, namely Dina, and on her account was in danger.” See also St. Ambrose, On Cain and Abel, chap. 10. “Virtue,” says Cicero, Tusc. 2, “is named from man (vir). But the proper office of man is chiefly fortitude, whose two greatest functions are contempt of death and of pain.” And Lactantius, On the Work of God, chap. 12: “Man (vir),” he says, “is so called because there is greater strength (vis) in him than in the woman, and hence virtue took its name.”
he says, “is to love what ought to be loved. To love that is prudence: to be turned from it by no troubles is fortitude; by no allurements, temperance; by no pride, justice.” Hence Ovid:
Virtue presses on to the steep.
The descent to Avernus is easy, but to recall the step and escape to the upper air, this is the task, this the labour: few whom kindly Jupiter loved, or burning virtue raised to the sky, sons of the gods, have been able.
Aristotle, in the hymn In Praise of Virtue: “O virtue,” he says, “arduous and laborious to the human race, fairest discovery of life! for thy beauty, O maiden, even to die is held desirable in Greece, and to endure violent and untiring labours. Such an immortal fruit thou implantest in the breast, better than gold. For thy sake Hercules, son of Jove, and the sons of Leda endured many things, declaring by their deeds what they could do.” And Socrates: “A statue,” he says, “stands on its base, and the student of virtues ought to be immovable in a good purpose.” And Pliny, book 36, chap. 9: “As huge obelisks,” he says, “are set up with great trouble on account of their weight, but once placed endure through endless ages, so also does virtue.” Pharao therefore, that is the devil, say Origen, Cyril, Augustine, Rupert, tries to overthrow chiefly the males, that is, heroes and the perfect, by two midwives, that is by flesh and the world, namely by the pleasures of the flesh and by worldly wealth and honours; to overcome which we must fear God, and by the fear of God pierce our flesh. The Egyptian women need the help of midwives, because the imperfect are moved to works of virtue either by hope of honour and gain or by fear of loss and disgrace: the Hebrew women do not need these, that is the perfect, because they are driven by the strength of the Holy Ghost to all good and holy things, however arduous, from the pure love of God and zeal to please him alone.
17. THEY FEARED GOD.—The Hebrew is, they feared Elohim, that is God the judge, governing all things, punishing, rewarding; for this is Elohim, and therefore to be supremely feared and worshipped.
19. FOR THEY THEMSELVES ARE SKILFUL IN THE OFFICE OF A MIDWIFE.—The Hebrew is chajoth, which signifies lively or life-giving, and in a threefold sense: First, as if they said: Because they are of lively and sagacious wit, and, as the Chaldee renders, because they are wise, and therefore of themselves and by their own skill have knowledge of midwifery, as our version renders. Secondly, because they are lively and vigorous, and therefore before the midwife comes to them they bring forth the offspring, and a lively and strong one. So Vatablus. Whence the Jerusalem Targum renders, since they give life themselves before the midwife comes to them; they pray before their heavenly Father, and he hears them, and so they bring forth. Thirdly, because they are life-givers, that is midwives: for it is their office to help women in labour, that the infant may receive life, and so in Hebrew phrase they are said to give life to the infant. Some Rabbis render coarsely: They are like beasts (for the Hebrew chajoth also signifies these), which when they bring forth need no midwives. Doubtless the midwives could give this coarse answer, as it were natural to them, to the coarse Egyptians. For so the coarse common people, naturally hostile to the Jews, would say: “Jewish women bring forth like animals and mares.”
BEFORE WE COME TO THEM, THEY ARE DELIVERED.—They lie; for they themselves saved the males of the Hebrews, as is said in verse 17. Rupert holds that this lie of theirs was lawful, both because it proceeded from charity and because God rewarded it by building them houses. So Cassian, Conf. 17, from chap. 17 to 25, teaches that it is lawful to lie sometimes for the sake of avoiding evil or of acquiring gain, e.g. to acquire humility. Bede teaches the same, on 1 Kings 21, and Clement, book 7 of the Stromata, and Origenes, book 4 Against Celsus, who seem to have drawn this error from the school of Plato, whose opinion this is, book 3 On the Republic: “A lie, though a bad thing, must nevertheless sometimes be used, like hellebore and medicine; therefore both the rulers of cities, and any others to whom this is conceded, ought sometimes to lie, whether against enemies or for country and citizens; but from others who do not know how to use a lie, every lie must be taken away.” The same seems to be the opinion of St. Jerome, on chap. 2 to the Galatians; but these two are piously to be excused, in that by a lie they understand simulation or dissimulation. For it is now certain, and of faith, that every lie is a sin and unlawful; this is plain from Prov. 12:22: “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.” Nay, Holy Scripture often signifies by a lie all impiety and transgression, as Jer. 7, 6 and 10; Osee 7:4. As on the contrary by truth it signifies every office and debt of virtue, verses 30, 86, 160. Secondly, because this opinion was defined by Innocent III, tit. On Usury, chap. “Super eo.” The reason is that a lie is intrinsically evil, both because it is repugnant to truth, or rather to veracity; and because it is in itself base for a man to deceive and to speak against his own mind. See St. Augustine, book On Lying and book Against Lying, whom all theologians constantly follow.