Commentaria in Judices
Symbolically, St. Methodius, in his treatise On Chastity, in Photius’ Library, p. 345, takes the fig as the law of the state of innocence in paradise: for there Adam ate of the fig, who ruined us all; the vine as the law of nature under Noe: for he found the vine and wine; the olive as the law of Moses and the Prophets, for these were anointed with oil; the bramble as the law of Christ: for this pricks like a bramble, because it is the law of mortification, chastity and the cross (hence Gretser, Bellonius and others of the first rank think that the thorns with which Christ was crowned were of bramble, in the treatise On the Cross), which alone could heal the wounds of our concupiscence, and threatens eternal fire to those who will not be healed, because they will not come to the cross. Hence St. Methodius in the same place holds that Elias, fleeing Jezabel, rested “under the bramble,” for which we have “under a juniper tree,” 3 Kings xix, 4. Thus, then, he explains this apologue symbolically, as if to say: After the fig, that is the law of nature in paradise, and the vine, that is the law of nature given to Noe after the flood, and the olive, that is the law of Moses, could not heal the festering wounds of human nature, “God sent as a fourth the bramble (that is the cross), and chastity, to rule over them; and when pleasures were overcome, threatened also for the time to come that unless all obeyed it and came to it sincerely, all would be consumed in the flames of hell.” These things are ingeniously said, but less suited to this place according to the letter. For the bramble here denotes the tyrant Abimelech, and therefore cannot aptly represent Christ, and Christ’s cross and chastity, but rather Antichrist. Our Gretser, however, book I On the Cross, chap. xi, holds that the kingdom of Israel is said here to have been offered to the bramble in order to signify that Christ, king of the Jews, was to be crowned with bramble, under which the faithful rest peacefully, and find quiet there in the midst of thorns: “This diadem of bramble,” says Clement of Alexandria, “is hostile to those who lie in wait, and keeps them off; but to those who dwell together in the Church it is friendly, and hedges them round and protects them. This crown is the flower of those who have believed in him who was glorified; but it makes bloody and chastises those who have not believed. For according to the wish of the bramble, fire goes out from the bramble, that is from Christ crowned, which consumes all the cedars of Libanus, and will then most of all consume them when they hear that word: Go into everlasting fire.” Of the thorns of the Lord’s crown Gregory of Tours relates this: “They say that the very thorns of the crown appear as if green, which, however, if they seem to have withered in their leaves, yet revive daily by divine power.” Thus far Gretser.
Tropologically, the Gloss: By the olive, fig and vine are signified three kinds of men who shun the dignity of rule. The first are the devout, who seek to be occupied in prayer and divine service, from whom the care of ruling draws them away, because it causes distraction of mind; and these are signified by the olive. Ps. li, 10: “But I, as a fruitful olive tree in the house of God.” The second are men zealous in sacred Scripture, of which it is said, Ecclus. xxiv, 27: “My spirit is sweet above honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb.” And therefore the zealous in it shun being separated from its sweetness by the care of ruling, and these are signified by the fig tree, which answered: “Can I leave my sweetness?” etc. The third are truly humble men, who do not reckon themselves worthy of promotion to rule others, wherefore they shun it as much as they can, and these are signified by the vine; which, although it cannot support itself but is propped by another, yet produces from itself the best fruit: so the truly humble man seeks to be ruled and sustained by another, and bears the best fruit, saying: “Can I leave my wine, that cheereth God and men, and go to be promoted among the trees?” etc. For the fruit of humility is very pleasing to God and to men: on account of which the blessed Virgin Mary was chosen, for her humility, to conceive the Son of God, as she herself says, Luke i, 48: “He hath regarded the humility of his handmaid,” etc. Thus far the Gloss.
Again St. Clement, book VIII of the Apostolic Constitutions, chap. xlvi, applies the apologue of the bramble to Bishops who turn their minds from spiritual matters to the care of secular ones. Hear him: “The trees went to anoint a king over them, etc. So far the parable; which plainly suits Bishops: for these are they who, leaving the sweet, life-giving and enlightening word of God, allow themselves to be transferred to the thorn-brakes of lawsuits or secular affairs, that they may reign in their judgments, being made from trees of fig, olive and vine trees of bramble, that is, unfruitful and thorny: or rather it must be said, grafting the bramble into the tree of fig, olive and vine: not understanding that when they wish to do both, they must plainly abandon one of them, and that the chief one, as the holy Apostles taught, when they say in the Acts of the Apostles: It is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.”
9. WHICH (the olive) ANSWERED: CAN I FORSAKE MY FATNESS, WHEREWITH BOTH GODS AND MEN ARE HONOURED?—For oil is to men food, medicine, light; and to God it was daily kindled in the seven lamps of the candlestick, Exod. xxv. Moreover oil was a libation in the sacrifice of mincha, that is, of flour and meal, Levit. ii. With oil also priests, Pontiffs and the vessels of the tabernacle were anointed.
10. THE FIG TREE.—The fig does not blossom, nor does it display itself with any showy luxury of ornaments, but bears a most sweet fruit. Hence it represents those who say little, but do much and great things, according to that saying of Pythagoras: “Promise not great things, but do them.”
13. CAN I FORSAKE MY WINE, WHICH CHEERETH GOD AND MEN?—Namely because it is a most excellent thing, says Valesius, On St. Philotheus, chap. xxvii. For God, Gen. chap. i, creating all things, saw that they were good, but some of them best, as is wine, which cheers both him and men: for the better each thing is in itself, the more God is delighted in regarding it: wine therefore, which is the best, wonderfully cheers both God and men. This is truer in the consecrated wine of the Eucharist, which Joatham did not know, who perhaps also thought that God was corporeal, and truly delighted in wine, as the Gentiles thought that the gods fed on nectar and ambrosia. For wine cheers God, because wine was the libation which was poured out with the victim, that is, poured out to God at the horn of the altar. For the sacrifice was as it were a banquet, at which God feasted with men. Hence in it there was flour in place of bread, meats in place of dishes, salt for seasoning, wine in place of drink, oil for anointing. Moreover wine, says Valesius, cheers, because it passes most quickly into the vital spirits, and quickly enough into warm blood; for things that nourish quickly give alacrity by that easy renewal of the spirits, and recall from faintness and swooning, and so exhilarate; but they do not give so much strength to bear labours, because they are easily dissipated. Wherefore wine makes a man forget griefs and troubles, so that he lays aside all cares. See what I said on Ecclus. xxxi, on the words: “Wine was created for cheerfulness, and not for drunkenness.” For this cheerfulness is produced by the swift renewal, as I said, of the vital spirits, through the want of which the melancholy suffer, and hence are sad. Again, wine warms, relaxes and pours out the heart, and therefore cheers: for joy is the relaxation and diffusion of the heart, which heat produces; but sadness is its contraction and torpor, which cold causes. Wherefore wine has an unspeakable sympathy with the heart.
Moreover, in this apologue the palm, cedar, laurel, oak, cypress, etc., could have been proposed for the kingdom of the trees. But Joatham preferred to propose the olive, fig and vine, because these are more in the use of men, and are common among many nations, such as the Syrians, Indians and Italians, and bear fruits common to all, at hand and most useful.
14. TO THE BRAMBLE.—“The bramble,” says St. Jerome on Aggeus chap. ii, “is a thorny shrub, a small tree interwoven with thorns and hooks, which holds whatever it touches and wounds what it holds, and delights in the blood of the wounded.” Isidore, book XVII; Origen, chap. vii: “The bramble,” he says, “is a kind of briar, which they commonly call the bear’s thorn, exceedingly rough and thorny.”
LET FIRE COME OUT OF THE BRAMBLE.—For the bramble easily catches fire, says Abulensis. Not from the shaking, striking and rubbing of its branches together, as happens when flint is struck against iron; but from straw or similar material lying under it, which, easily kindled by the burning sun or by someone setting fire, catches fire and sets the bramble alight with it.
This fire denotes discord: for this, blazing up between the tyrant and his subjects, consumes both in the burning of war as in a conflagration. So the Arian Emperor Valens was burned by the Goths whom he had made Arians: “By the just judgment of God,” says Peter Damian, book II, epist. 3, “he was consumed by the flame of vengeance by those whom he himself had struck with the fire of perfidy. For so, according to the sentence of Scripture: Fire came out of the bramble, and devoured the cedar of Libanus.”
Damian then adds an allegory, and asserts that Gedeon is a type of Christ the Saviour: “By his many wives must be understood the different nations that have cleaved to him by faith; by the seventy sons, the peoples of as many tongues; by the concubine the Synagogue; by Abimelech, Antichrist, who shall be the son of the Synagogue. Hence also in the Apocalypse it is said to those who shall believe: They who say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. And as he slew seventy brothers, so this one will persecute all nations that do not consent to him.”