Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
See here how God punishes the whole Commonwealth for the sin of one citizen, as He punished the whole camp of Josue, chap. 7, for the theft of one Achan. Whence in the little book of the orthodox Archimandrites, Syntax of Constantinople, in Baronius, vol. 7, year 536, it is read: “They communicate with the anathema, having an anathema in their midst, as the ancient Scripture shows us in Achan and Jonathan, who knowingly and unknowingly fell into the anathema,” etc. For, as St. Ambrose says in the place cited: “The fault of one brings cowardice upon all; by the offence of one weakness is begotten in the ranks.” So St. Gregory, Angelomus and others.
38. BRING HITHER ALL THE CORNERS OF THE PEOPLE.—“Corners,” that is, the prefects of the villages or streets: so the Swiss call their districts Cantons, that is, corners. For “what the corners are in a house, that the princes are in a people,” says Vatablus, “because as a house rests on its corners, so a people rests on its princes.” Therefore as the Greeks call the parts of a city pagi, and the Latins vici, so the Hebrews call them corners: and as by the Greeks the prefects of the pagi were called pagarchs, so among the Hebrews, those who presided over corners, that is, vici, were also called Corners: it is similar in Judges 20, 2.
39. AS THE LORD LIVETH, THE SAVIOUR OF ISRAEL: FOR IF IT BE DONE BY JONATHAN MY SON (this silence of an angry God) HE SHALL DIE WITHOUT RETRACTATION.—So the Roman text, although St. Gregory reads: “he shall die without retractation.” In Hebrew it is, dying he shall die, that is, he shall certainly and infallibly die. In Chaldee, killing he shall be killed, that is, he shall surely be killed without remission. St. Chrysostom, in the homily 14 cited, blames this oath of Saul as rash and parricidal, and therefore suggested by the devil, since it impelled him to the slaughter of so great and so innocent a son. “And the father,” he says, “became the executioner of his son, and before the examination pronounced the sentence of condemnation.” He adds that Saul by this rash decree of a fast was the cause of many perjuries. “Come then,” he says, “let us count the perjuries committed. First the oath of Saul was violated by his son; then again a second and a third by Saul himself, concerning the slaughter of his son. And the people seemed to have truly sworn: but if one examine the matter diligently, these also all became liable to the guilt of perjury. For they compelled the father of Jonathan to forswear himself, by not giving up the son to the father: you see how many men, both willing and unwilling, one oath made liable to perjury, how many evils it contrived, how many slaughters it wrought.”
But St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, Abulensis, Cajetan, Salianus, Serarius and others praise this oath of Saul as religious, and compare it to the sacrifice of Abraham, who was willing to immolate his son Isaac. For it proceeded from a great zeal and desire of appeasing an offended God.
It was nevertheless incautious. For first, Jonathan, eating honey against his father’s ordinance, had committed no fault, because he was ignorant of the ordinance. Therefore he could not justly be put to death, as being free from fault and innocent. Nor did the silence of God argue that there was fault in Jonathan, but it happened for other causes, which I have recounted. Secondly, even if Jonathan had known his father’s ordinance, yet his transgression was light and slight; as being the taste of a little honey in grave or extreme necessity of hunger, and that without grave scandal: wherefore he did not deserve death for this tasting. Thirdly, even if we granted that Jonathan sinned mortally in this eating, yet it was still better to spare the sinner than to punish and kill him as guilty. For Jonathan was a most valiant soldier, who had been in great part the cause of the victory. He was the king’s son, to succeed him in the kingdom. He was of royal disposition and manners; wherefore his life was far more useful, and almost necessary, to all Israel, than his death for establishing military discipline. Whence this oath of Saul about killing him did not bind, because it tended to the worse part, and to the grave harm and damage of the whole kingdom. Wherefore the people rightly contradicted King Saul, and did not permit Jonathan to be killed, and Saul at length assented to them.
41. GIVE HOLINESS,—that is, reveal to us the holy truth, namely that the fault is in a certain person of the people. For this whole verse the Hebrew has only: O Lord God of Israel, give Tummim; that is, by Urim and Thummim, point out to us the hidden culprit. The Septuagint and Complutensian, give manifestations; the Chaldee, make the lot for truth, that is, make the lot fall upon the sinner; Vatablus, give perfection, that is, the true and perfect lot. The Septuagint, however, and the Roman text have all that the Vulgate edition has here; but these seem to be heaped together from various translations of the same thing, as Cardinal Carafa, Francis Lucas in his Notes, and Serarius here observe. You will ask, why is truth called “holiness”? I answer, because holiness, as St. Dionysius says, is the very purity of truth. Now truth is most pure and most sincere, and purity and sincerity itself. Whence of the First Wisdom or eternal truth it is said, Wisdom 7, 26: “She is the brightness of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror,” etc.
Secondly, because the knowledge of future contingent things and of secrets (which was here sought by Saul) is so sublime that it transcends the understanding of men and Angels, and is proper to God alone, who is the Holy of Holies. “Shew the things that are to come hereafter, and we shall know that you are gods.” Thirdly, because the oracle of truth was here sought by Saul from a sacred person; namely from the High Priest clothed with the sacred vestments, in which were the Urim and Thummim, that is, illuminations and perfections, or as our Version has it, Exodus 28, 30: “Doctrine and truth.” Truth, therefore, was here sought from holiness, that is, from God most holy, through His holy High Priest: rightly, then, it is called holiness, as if to say: Give, O Lord, Tummim, that is, through the sacred High Priest, and through the sacred Ephod and Thummim, give a holy oracle of holy truth. Fourthly, because the truth of the author who had committed the crime was here sought, that satisfaction might be made to God offended by his chastisement and just vengeance; and so the holiness of God, as injured outwardly, might be restored. For the truth of justice was here sought, and justice is holiness. The sense, therefore, is, as if to say, “Give holiness,” that is, point out to us, O Lord, the culprit who offended Thee; that we may justly chastise and amend him, and so by a holy vengeance satisfy Thy offended holiness. Hence it is plain that to point out the culprit to the Superior, that he may correct him, is an act of holiness, that is, of justice and charity. Whence in some Religious Orders it is ordained that the Religious report the faults and lapses of their companions to the Superior, that he may amend them. For this is an act of holiness, namely of fraternal, nay paternal correction. For three holy works are done in it: first, satisfaction is made to God offended, which is an act of penance and of vindictive justice; secondly, the lapse is corrected and sanctified, which is an act of charity; thirdly, scandal is removed, and care is taken that the fault creep not to others, namely that they follow and imitate the vice which they see tolerated, not punished, by the superior; which is an act of justice and charity alike.
Symbolically, God, who is the first and highest holiness, is likewise the first and highest truth. And the Son of God, by the force of His origin and generation, is the Word, that is, the true notion and understanding of the Father. Whence in St. John He is often called truth, as in chap. 1:
“That was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.” And: “For the law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
Ethically, virtue and holiness itself is prudence itself and practical truth. For what else are the virtues but lights of truth? For that is honourable and holy which is practically true: that is, which is conformable to truth and the eternal law, which is in the mind; and which right reason itself dictates to be truly to be done. Hence St. John in his Gospel, chap. 8, says of the devil: “he stood not in the truth,” that is, in holiness. And everywhere he himself, as also St. Paul, and David in the Psalms, bids us do “the truth,” that is, works of virtue and holiness.
Again, what is truth but true faith, hope and charity? and what are these three but holiness itself?
Finally, Christ said to Pilate that He came into this world to teach “the truth,” namely of faith and of morals, that is, true faith and holiness, Matthew 27. Truth, therefore, is holiness itself. Whence he who confesses the truth is said to sanctify and glorify God. So Josue, chap. 7, verse 19, said to Achan: “Give glory to the Lord,” that is, confess thy theft, and that God is true, who by the lot pointed thee out as guilty of the theft; that to Him the holiness, praise and honour of truth may be rendered by all.