Commentaria in Judices
To the first, then, I answer: For sacrifice there is mincha, that is, gift. Our Vulgate however renders sacrifice, because the Angel a little after would not take Gedeon’s gift to himself, but turned it into a sacrifice, which he offered to God: and because feasts are by catachresis often called thysia, that is, sacrifice and victim, as is plain Prov. 9:2; 1 Kings 25 in the Septuagint, Matt. 22:4. For thysia is derived from thyo, that is, I slay; whence the French tuer. The same I say to the second. I add, that for thyso, that is, I shall slay, in the Septuagint it seems we should read theso with theta, that is, I shall place; for so St. Augustine reads, Question 35. To the third the answer is plain from what has been said. Add that Gedeon did not know whether he who appeared was a priest who could sacrifice. Finally that Gedeon did not think of sacrifice is plain from the fact that he did not erect an altar, did not bring wood and fire, with which the victim might be burned; whence he made no mention of sacrifice to the Angel; much less did he foreknow that the Angel would draw fire with his rod, by which the flesh brought by him might be sacrificed. So Theodoret, Procopius, Cajetan, Arias, Serarius. Hear Procopius: “He calls that a sacrifice which was destined for the feast. For the victim was not boiled by the law. But he places it under the oak, imitating Abraham, and thinking that this one would consume the dishes.”
19. UNLEAVENED LOAVES,—not because it was the time of the Pasch, in which it was lawful for the Jews to eat only unleavened bread, but because Gedeon was in haste, and feared lest the Angel should go away on account of delay; wherefore, not having time to leaven the flour, he hastily baked unleavened loaves from it.
20. LAY THEM UPON THAT ROCK.—The Angel therefore appointed that rock for an altar, on which he purposed to sacrifice all these things to God by fire. This rock was a type of Christ, 1 Cor. 10:4, who is at once altar, priest and victim, which we offer to God in the Eucharist. Another sign Philo the Biblical relates, namely that the Angel commanded Gedeon to pour water upon the rock, and that Gedeon asked this sign from the Angel, and said: “Let the half be blood and the half fire; and Gedeon poured water upon the rock, and it came to pass, when he had poured it out, that half became flame, and half blood, and both were mingled, that is, fire and blood, and neither did the blood quench the fire, nor the fire burn up the blood.” Philo adds that by Gedeon were slain a hundred and twenty thousand of the Madianites, and the rest fled. But this Philo is of suspect credit.
21. HE PUT FORTH THE TIP OF THE ROD, etc. AND TOUCHED THE FLESH AND THE UNLEAVENED LOAVES, AND THERE AROSE A FIRE FROM THE ROCK, AND CONSUMED THE FLESH AND THE UNLEAVENED LOAVES.—Behold this is the sign which the Angel gave Gedeon asking, by which first he showed himself an Angel sent by God; second, that he does not eat food; third, that he sacrificed all these things brought by Gedeon and offered to him, to God by fire. He drew the fire, however, from the violent collision of the rock by the rod, with an iron point, as it seems, armed; as by striking flint against iron we draw fire from it, or in some like way applying active things to passive, in the way in which by the secret causes of nature he knew fire was to be produced. The Angel here therefore performed the office of priest, Gedeon of minister. So Theodoret, Abulensis, Lyranus, Dionysius and others.
Mystically, the flesh of the kid is guilt, the broth the allurements of desires. That the Angel stretched out his rod and touched the rock, from which fire came forth, shows that the flesh of Christ, filled with heavenly spirit and divine fire, would burn up all the sins of men. So St. Ambrose, preface in book I On the Holy Spirit, whom hear: “Already then it was declared in mystery that the Lord Jesus in his flesh crucified would abolish the sins of the whole world, not only the offences of deeds, but also the desires of souls; for the flesh of the kid refers to the guilt of the deed, the broth to the allurements of desires, as it is written: Because the people lusted with an exceeding lust, and said: Who shall give us flesh to eat? That the Angel, therefore, stretched out the rod and touched the rock, from which fire came forth, shows that the flesh of the Lord, filled with the divine spirit, would burn up all the sins of the human condition. Whence also the Lord says: I am come to cast fire on the earth.”
The same words appear verbatim in St. Augustine, serm. 108 On the Time. Wherefore from one to the other they have been transcribed. Hear also St. Gregory, book III of the Morals, chap. 16: “The Angel commands the kid to be slain, that is, every appetite of our flesh to be immolated, and the flesh to be laid upon the rock, and the broth of the flesh poured out over it. Whom else does the rock signify, but him of whom it is said through Paul: And the rock was Christ? We lay the flesh, then, upon the rock when we crucify our body in imitation of Christ. He also pours out the broth over it who, in the conversation of Christ, empties out of himself even carnal delights themselves. For as liquid broth from flesh is poured upon the rock, when the mind is emptied of the flow of carnal thoughts. Yet these the Angel soon touches with his rod, because the power of divine help never forsakes our intention. And from the rock fire goes forth, and consumes the broth and flesh, because the Spirit breathed upon us by the Redeemer so burns up our heart with the flame of compunction that it consumes all that is unlawful in it of deed and thought.”
AND THE ANGEL VANISHED OUT OF HIS SIGHT,—ascending into heaven, says Cajetan, whence he had come. Whence the Chaldee renders: He ascended from the region of his eyes. Hence also Gedeon knew that this was an Angel of God. Whence follows:
22. AND GEDEON SEEING THAT IT WAS THE ANGEL OF THE LORD, SAID: ALAS, MY LORD GOD (I must die), FOR I HAVE SEEN AN ANGEL OF THE LORD FACE TO FACE.
23. AND THE LORD SAID TO HIM (the Angel, ambassador of God): PEACE BE WITH THEE, FEAR NOT, THOU SHALT NOT DIE.—From this saying of Gedeon, and from that of Manue chap. 13, verse 22: “We shall surely die, because we have seen God,” it is clear that the common opinion of the people then was that he who had seen God or an Angel would die. Whence the Jews collect a rule: “Whoever has seen an Angel, death will straightway follow him.” This opinion seems to have arisen from the fact that Angels are most subtle spirits and familiar to God; wherefore when they appear to men, they seem to wish to lead them over with themselves from flesh to spirit to God, and at once to cite them to God the judge.
Add that Angels at times appear to the dying, to lead them to another life. Whence Jacob, having seen an Angel, wondering that he did not die, says: “I have seen the Lord face to face, and my soul has been saved,” Gen. 32:30. For so great is the light, glory and majesty of Angels that it seems to deprive a man of life. This opinion was increased by that oracle of God to Moses, Exod. 33:20: “Man shall not see me and live,” says St. Augustine here, Question 54. Likewise by the punishment of some who for crimes were slain by Angels, as the firstborn of the Egyptians were slain by them, Exod. 12, and the Sodomites, Gen. 19, Her and Onan, Gen. 38. So still about spirits and their apparitions many imagine and narrate many things which are vain and fabulous.
But that their fear was vain is clear from the visions of Angels granted to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Josue, Gedeon and others. For these saw Angels, and yet did not die. Whence this Angel says to Gedeon: “Fear not, thou shalt not die.” For although this Angel had already vanished from Gedeon’s sight, yet he formed this voice in the air near Gedeon’s ears, to take from him the fear of death, says Abulensis.
24. GEDEON BUILT THERE AN ALTAR TO THE LORD, AND CALLED IT THE LORD’S PEACE.—Because the Angel had said to him: “Peace be with thee, fear not, thou shalt not die.” He erected this altar, then, not for sacrificing; for it was forbidden to erect one outside the tabernacle or temple, Levit. 17:4, but as a monument of the safety and peace granted him by the Angel seen, and of the salvation and deliverance of Israel from the Madianites promised him by the same. Whence he called it: “The Lord’s peace.” A like altar was built by the Rubenites, Josue 22:10. So Abulensis; but better, Cajetan, Lyranus, Arias and Serarius think this altar the same as that which Gedeon built by God’s command, verse 26; and this is equally probable.
25. THE LORD SAID TO HIM: TAKE A BULLOCK OF THY FATHER’S, AND ANOTHER BULLOCK OF SEVEN YEARS OLD, AND THOU SHALT DESTROY THE ALTAR OF BAAL, etc.—In Chaldee, a bullock that has been fattened seven years. Whence Arias and the Rabbis, and Theodoret too, think that this bullock was dedicated to God for sacrifice, either by the city or by Gedeon’s father, from the beginning of the persecution of the Madianites, that when it ceased it might be offered to God in sacrifice, and therefore was fattened for as many years as the persecution had lasted, and would have had to be fattened for more if the persecution had lasted longer.