Commentaria in II Regum (II Samuelis)
3. AND NATHAN SAID TO THE KING: GO, DO ALL THAT IS IN THY HEART.—Nathan was a prophet familiar to David, and of his counsels, as St. Epiphanius, Isidore and Dorotheus attest in the Lives of the Prophets; but because here he did not consult God, he was not enlightened by God, but erred; yet being at once admonished by God he corrected the error. So prophets sometimes speak from the instinct not of God but of their own judgment and spirit; nay, because of the practice of prophecy they think they speak from the Spirit of God when they speak from their own; and then they can err, and sometimes do err, as Theodoret teaches here, and St. Gregory, homily 1, art. 5. Angelomus gives the reason, saying: “Which almighty God ordains from the great dispensation of his goodness, because, while he sometimes gives the spirit to prophets and sometimes withdraws it, he both lifts the minds of those prophesying to a height and keeps them in humility ... and turns aside knowledge and life more truly. The eye which dust weighs down never rightly considers the speck in the member; and hands that hold mud are not able to wipe off the filth cast upon them.” In like manner God forbade by a vision Geiza, duke of Hungary, who was the father of St. Stephen, first king of the Hungarians, when he wished to build a temple: “For thou hast hands, he said, defiled with blood, but thy son Stephen shall do it, and shall for reward be crowned the first king of the Hungarians.” The same was confirmed by St. Stephen the Protomartyr, appearing to Geiza, and bidding him give his own name to his son, and call him Stephen after himself. This was the holy king who converted the Hungarians to Christ.
Hence the Roman Pontiff, sending the crown and royal insignia: “I, he said, am the Apostolic; but Stephen is the Apostle of Hungary.” So the Life of St. Stephen in Surius, for the 20th of August.
Anagogically, there is signified the Church triumphant in heaven, to be gloriously built by Christ the Peaceful, in the supreme peace and security of all the Blessed, in union and concord, as also in purity, innocence
7. DID I EVER SPEAK A WORD, &c., SAYING: WHY HAVE YOU NOT BUILT ME A HOUSE OF CEDAR?—God would not have the temple built by Josue, Gedeon or any other Judge, because all, being engaged in wars, shed much blood, and were men of blood; that, receiving the spirit, they may find what they are from God, and again, not having the spirit of prophecy, may know what they are of themselves. So Angelomus.
10. AND I WILL MAKE A PLACE FOR MY PEOPLE ISRAEL,—“I
5. SHALT THOU BUILD ME A HOUSE?—God approved and praised David’s wish and vow to build the temple as to the thing itself, as religious and pious and holy, but not as to the person. For he would not have it built by David but by Solomon. The reason is assigned in 1 Paralipomenon chap. 22, verse 8, namely that David, continually at wars, had shed much blood: wherefore it was unseemly that David, with hands stained with the blood of so many men, should build a house or temple for God, the most pure, most gentle, most holy and most merciful. This very thing therefore he willed to be done by Solomon, who, enjoying peace, was a peaceful king, and therefore a type of Christ, who came into the world wholly meek and kind, to build up the Church of the faithful for God and to govern it in peace, according to that: “His place is made in peace.” So Eucherius, Rupert and Prosper, On the Promises, part 2, chap. 27.
Tropologically, says Angelomus from St. Gregory, book VII of the Morals, chap. 16, it is signified that “he who is a man of blood, that is, who still dwells on carnal acts, ought not to build a temple for God, that is, the holy Church, by the office of preaching; or also morally it is hinted that he ought to be clean in himself from vices who undertakes to correct others; let him not think on earthly things, that he may not succumb to the lowest desires, so that he may foresee more keenly what others must flee, the more he himself has by experience ...” a stable and happy place; that is, that the Israelites may no more wander, be led away captive, or live a wretched life, as they have done hitherto, harassed by the Philistines and other nations. Hence, explaining, he adds:
rooted by the labour of ... I will establish Israel in Judea, that it may rest there firmly and happily, and live in wealth and cheerfulness.
AND SHALL DWELL THEREIN [Vulgate: under it]—that is, in it, namely in its own place, as under a shelter, that covered on every side by it, it may remain stable and secure.
11. AND THE LORD FORETELLETH TO THEE, THAT THE LORD WILL MAKE THEE A HOUSE—“a house,” that is, offspring and royal family; for that is called a house by antonomasia. Cajetan understands by “house” the Messias, or Christ, as though God here promised David that Christ would be born of him. This is true, but not in the literal sense, as Abulensis will have it, but in the allegorical, which nevertheless God seems here to have revealed and disclosed to David together with the literal, as will appear from what follows.
12. AND WHEN THY DAYS SHALL BE FULFILLED, &c., I WILL RAISE UP THY SEED AFTER THEE—that is, I will raise up Solomon to the kingdom to reign after thee; for although Solomon was anointed king by the command of David while still living, yet he did not fully reign while David lived, but was anointed to this end, that he might reign after him, and succeed him in the kingdom when dead.
13. HE SHALL BUILD A HOUSE TO MY NAME,—Solomon, namely, as is clear from 2 Paralipomenon chap. 6, verse 10. Yet David gave Solomon a most perfect plan of the whole temple received from God, and also a very great quantity of gold and silver for building the temple, as is clear from 3 Kings chap. 7, verse 51 [sic] and following, and 1 Paralipomenon chap. 22, verse 8 and following, and 2 Paralipomenon chap. 31 [sic], verse 7.
Allegorically Solomon, that is Christ, built the Church, as the everlasting kingdom and throne of God, and God is his true and proper father, as follows. Hence Angelomus, Eucherius, Rupert think that these things are said of Solomon by hyperbole, but properly and fully of Christ. For his throne is absolutely everlasting, whereas Solomon’s throne was everlasting only relatively, namely with respect to his own nation, because it lasted as long as the commonwealth and kingdom of Israel lasted.
14. I WILL BE TO HIM A FATHER, AND HE SHALL BE TO ME A SON.—Thou wilt ask of whom God here speaks literally, of Solomon or of Christ? First, some think that some of the things said here apply literally to Christ, some to Solomon. So Theodoret and Procopius. Second, others attribute everything literally to Christ; for he alone is the true Son of God, and his kingdom eternal. So Angelomus and the Gloss. Third, Lyranus and Abulensis take these things literally of both Christ and Solomon.
Fourth, the Hebrews and many of the Latins interpret literally of Solomon, allegorically of Christ. This opinion is truer, as is clear from book I of Paralipomenon chap. 22, verse 9, where all these things are expressly attributed to Solomon: “Solomon, he says, thy son shall build my house; for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be a father to him, and I will establish his kingdom for ever.” And it is clear, because God speaks of him who after David was to build the temple, which David wished to build, but was forbidden by God. Now this was none other than Solomon. But because Solomon was a type of Christ, who was to build the new Church of God, which was far better than the temple, and the Prophet foresaw this in the spirit and directed the edge of his mind and spirit to it, hence these things are said of Christ in an allegorical but more excellent sense: whence some things said here apply to Solomon only thinly and in a beginning, but fully and perfectly to Christ, such as: I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son; and: I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. It is therefore of faith that this place is understood of Christ. For St. Paul explains it of him, Hebrews chap. 1, verse 5, where I have explained it at length. Hence St. Augustine, book XVII of the City of God, chaps. 8 and 9, asserts that here some things are said of Solomon as a private person, some as he was a type of Christ. See here how tenderly and ardently God loved Solomon, that he should adopt him before all others as his son, and wish to be his father, and exercise paternal offices towards him.