Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
13. AND HE CHANGED HIS COUNTENANCE BEFORE THEM.—For “his countenance” the Hebrew has ta‘amo, that is, his taste, that is, his sense, namely his mind: that is, David, who before was sensible, feigned himself mad. So Vatablus. Secondly, Pagninus renders it, his speech, as though to say: David changed his speech, especially as to pronunciation and accent; and, not to seem a Jew, he used another dialect and pronunciation. So Serarius. Thirdly and fully, “taste,” that is, the expression of his mouth and face: for by the mouth and face the taste both of body and of mind is shown; namely what a man tastes; what pleases him, what delights him, or what displeases him and saddens him. David therefore changed his taste, that is, the expression of his mouth and countenance, by distorting, contracting and widening it, and by transforming mouth, eyes, nostrils and lips into various shapes and gestures, as fools do when something pleases or displeases them.
Allegorically Angelomus: “David,” he says, “that is Christ, changed his mouth, when he instituted in the new law another law, another testament, other precepts and Sacraments than those of the old law; especially the Eucharist: for he changed the sacrifices of oxen and bulls into the Eucharistic sacrifice of his body and blood.” So also St. Augustine on the title of Psalm 33, who adds: “Christ seemed to the Jews to be mad, when he said: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. Whence they said: This saying is hard, and who can hear it?” John 6.
AND SLIPPED DOWN BETWEEN THEIR HANDS.—In Hebrew vayiththolel, which Pagninus renders, he played the madman; Vatablus, he feigned himself a fool; the Chaldee, and he became stupefied in their hand; namely David, by tossing his arms, spreading his legs, staggering and falling to the ground, feigned himself mad or epileptic.
Allegorically, Christ fell down in the hands of the Jews, when he was crucified by them. So St. Thomas, 2–2, Question 111, art. 1, reply 2. The Septuagint render it “he raved in their hands,” that is, he played the madman and feigned himself mad in his own hands; for “madness” is an error and raving of the mind, as Galen and Suidas attest, who also calls the demoniac by this name; so that David here represents Christ, who was held by the Jews as mad and possessed by a demon, and by Herod was clothed in a white garment as a fool. Whence St. Augustine on Psalm 33, which is about this matter: “The Psalm,” he says, “shows a sound and sober drunkenness.” The same, however, in the same place renders it: He was carried in his own hands, and applies this to Christ, who at the last supper, instituting the Eucharist, bore it carrying it in his hands; for the word is properly used of dishes, when they are carried into the dining-room and to the table. “Christ was carried,” says St. Augustine, “in his own hands, when, eating, he said of his own body: This is my body. For he carried that body in his hands.”
AND HE STUMBLED AGAINST THE DOORS OF THE GATE.—In Hebrew vayetaw, which the Chaldee renders, drawing a line upon the empty gate, as though to say: He was borne in a straight line against the doors, and butted like rams; or he formed lines on the door. Pagninus, he marked on the doors of the gate; Vatablus, he scraped with his nails on the leaves of the gates, or he painted or wrote on the doors of the gate, as fools are wont to paint with their fingers on doors and to draw various lines.
St. Augustine, however, on the title of Psalm 33, from Whether the feigning was a sin. Answer: Abulensis and others judge, more mildly and more truly, that David did not sin, both because he seems to have been moved to this the Septuagint read, he beat the drum at the gates of the city, that is, he so often and strongly struck against the doors that he seemed to beat a drum, or he painted drums and other playthings on the door.
Allegorically St. Augustine, explaining the same of Christ crucified: “He was moved,” he says, “that is, he had compassion and pity for us from on high; and since he who is crucified is stretched on wood; and in order that a drum may be made, flesh, that is, hide, is stretched on wood; it is said: And he beat the drum, that is, he was crucified, he was stretched on wood. He was moved, that is, he had affection toward us, to lay down his life for his sheep. He beat the drum: how? at the gate of the city. The gate for us is what is opened that we may believe in God. We had shut the gates against Christ and had opened them to the devil, against eternal life; we had a closed heart, and he, the Lord our God, because we men had a heart closed against eternal life and could not see the Word that the Angels see, opened the hearts of mortals by the cross, that is, he beat the drum at the gate of the city.”
Hence the Hebrew vayetaw can be rendered, he drew the letter tau, that is, he formed the figure of a cross; for the letter tau presents this. Finally, for vayetaw the Septuagint seem to have read vayetof, that is, he beat the drum; for toph is a drum, so called from the sound of the drum by onomatopoeia.
AND HIS SPITTLE RAN DOWN UPON HIS BEARD,—as happens in epileptics, madmen, the stupid and fools.
Allegorically St. Augustine explains this of Christ on the title of Psalm 33, at the end: “What are they?” he says. “For spittle runs down in infants. Were not the words, Eat my flesh and drink my blood, as it were infantile words? But these infantile words concealed his power. For power is understood in the beard. The spittle, therefore, running down upon his beard, what is it but weak words concealing his power?” So also Bede, Eucherius, Angelomus and Rabanus, who in their manner follow St. Augustine.
You will ask whether David sinned by feigning himself a fool.
Some affirm it: the reason is that, as St. Thomas teaches, 2–2, Question 111, article 1, reply 2, feigning is a lie not of word but of deed; but a lie is a sin. Whence St. Thomas, in the same place, reply 2, excuses David only on the ground that this feigning was figurative; for he was a figure of Christ, who, being God, as it were pretended to be another when he assumed our flesh and underwent in it so many labours and sorrows and the cross itself.
by God: whence also a little later, departing from Achis, by God’s instinct he composed the elegant Psalm 33: “I will bless the Lord at all times”; and again because David, striking against the doors and doing other mad things, did not by that very act say that he was a fool, but only that he was pretending it because of the imminent danger; and this was true. Moreover, to pretend thus is not a lie but merely silence of the truth, or dissimulation, by which a person, for a just cause, puts on another character, other gestures and manners, to hide the truth in order to escape danger. So Samuel pretended that he was going to sacrifice, in order to anoint David king, chapter 16:2. So Josue, chapter 8:5, pretended to flee in fear from the citizens of Hai, to draw them out of the city and slay them. So Gedeon, Judges 7:20, with three hundred men, by the smashing of pitchers and the flashing of lamps, pretended to have a great number of soldiers, to throw into confusion the countless Madianites. The Gentiles thought and did the same. Whence Horace, Odes book 4, ode 12: “Mingle,” he says, “brief folly with your counsels. It is sweet to play the fool at the right time.” And Cato:
Be foolish when the time or the matter requires; to pretend folly at the right time is the highest prudence.
And Ausonius, book 2 of the Distichs. So Solon, one of the seven wise men of the Greeks and lawgiver of the Athenians, pretended to be mad, in order to persuade the Athenians to recover the island of Salamis. For it was a capital offence to speak of that matter. So Plutarch in Solon. Finally St. Simeon, surnamed “Salus,” that is, the fool; St. Francis (who called himself the fool of the world); and many other Saints pretended to be fools, both for remarkable humility and to teach contempt of honour and the world, and that the wisdom of the world is mere folly. Whence St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 4: “We,” he says, “are fools for Christ’s sake.” And our St. Ignatius: “Be, be mad to the world, that thou mayest be wise to the Lord,” because “that which is the foolish thing of God is wiser than men,” 1 Corinthians 1:25. See what I said there.
15. HAVE WE NEED OF MADMEN?—because, as everywhere there is no lack of those sick in body, so neither of those sick in mind: especially since sickness of mind and raving depend on sickness of the body and the brain; which, if it is injured, diminished or distorted in the least, produces epilepsies, frenzies, ravings, furies, etc. The Rabbis fable that the wife and daughter of King Achis suffered from raving.