Commentaria in IV Regum
Chapter 5. Synopsis of the Chapter
Eliseus frees Naaman from leprosy.
1. Naaman, general of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable: for by him the Lord gave deliverance to Syria: and he was a valiant man, and rich, but a leper. 2. Now there had gone out robbers from Syria, and had led away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid, and she waited upon Naaman’s wife. 3. And she said to her mistress: I wish my master had been with the prophet that is in Samaria: he would certainly have healed him of the leprosy which he hath. 4. Then Naaman went in to his lord, and told him, saying: Thus and thus said the girl from the land of Israel. 5. And the king of Syria said to him: Go, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment, 6. And brought the letter to the king of Israel, in these words: When thou shalt receive this letter, know that I have sent to thee Naaman my servant, that thou mayst cure him of his leprosy. 7. And when the king of Israel had read the letter, he rent his garments, and said: Am I God, to be able to kill and give life, that this man hath sent to me to heal a man of his leprosy? mark, and see how he seeketh occasions against me. 8. And when Eliseus the man of God had heard this, that the king of Israel had rent his garments, he sent to him, saying: Why hast thou rent thy garments? let him come to me, and let him know that there is a prophet in Israel.
9. So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Eliseus: 10. And Eliseus sent a messenger to him, saying: Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and thy flesh shall recover health, and thou shalt be clean. 11. Naaman was angry, and went away, saying: I thought he would have come out to me, and standing, would have invoked the name of the Lord his God, and touched with his hand the place of the leprosy, and healed me. 12. Are not Abana, and Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, that I may wash in them, and be made clean? So as he turned and was going away with indignation, 13. His servants came to him, and said to him: Father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, surely thou shouldst have done it; how much rather what he now hath said to thee: Wash, and thou shalt be clean? 14. Then he went down, and washed in the Jordan seven times, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored, like the flesh of a little child: and he was made clean. 15. And returning to the man of God with all his train, he came and stood before him, and said: In truth, I know that there is no other God, in all the earth, but only in Israel: I beseech thee therefore take a blessing of thy servant. 16. But he answered: As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And when he pressed him, he still refused.
17. And Naaman said: As thou wilt: but I beseech thee, grant to me thy servant, to take from hence two mules’ burden of earth: for thy servant will not henceforth offer holocaust or victim to other gods, but to the Lord. 18. There is only one thing for which thou shalt entreat the Lord for thy servant: when my master goeth into the temple of Remmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand: if I bow down in the temple of Remmon, when he boweth down in the same place, that the Lord pardon me, thy servant, for this thing. 19. And he said to him: Go in peace. So he departed from him in the spring time of the earth. 20. And Giezi the servant of the man of God said: My master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving of him that which he brought: as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take something of him. 21. And Giezi followed after Naaman: and when he saw him running after him, he leaped down from his chariot to meet him, and said: Is all well? 22. And he said: Well: my master hath sent me to thee, saying: Just now there are come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets: give them a talent of silver, and two changes of garments. 23. And Naaman said: It is better that thou take two talents. And he forced him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, and two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants, and they carried them before him.
24. And when he was come now to the evening, he took them from their hands, and laid them up in the house, and sent the men away, and they departed. 25. But he went in, and stood before his master. And Eliseus said: Whence comest thou, Giezi? He answered: Thy servant went no whither. 26. But he said: Was not my heart present, when the man turned back from his chariot to meet thee? Now therefore thou hast received money, and received garments, to buy oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and servants and handmaids: 27. But the leprosy of Naaman shall stick to thee, and to thy seed for ever. And he went out from him a leper as white as snow.
2. THERE HAD GONE OUT ROBBERS FROM SYRIA,—that is, soldiers to plunder the hostile land of Israel: for soldiers were once so called “robbers,” for the reasons which I gave above; now they are often not only so called, but are in fact robbers.
AND HAD LED AWAY CAPTIVE A LITTLE MAID,—through whom God healed Naaman, the prince of Syria, both in body and in mind, that he might become faithful and a worshipper of God. So under Constantine the Emperor a Christian woman, a captive, by her assiduous prayers, fasts and exercises of piety, brought the Iberians to the faith of Christ, as Nicephorus testifies, book VIII, chapter xxxiv.
5. AND TEN CHANGES OF RAIMENT,—that he might offer them to Eliseus, who might use them when he wished to change his daily garment. He means the more elegant and costly garments which we use in public and on solemn days, says Vatablus.
6. THAT THOU MAYST CURE HIM OF HIS LEPROSY,—that thou mayst have him freed from leprosy by the prophet whom I hear to be a wonder-worker with thee. For the king did not know Eliseus, and therefore writes not to him but to the king of Israel, known to him, that he might see to it that Naaman be healed through Eliseus.
7. AM I GOD?—The king of Israel takes the words of the king of Syria roughly: for he did not know what the girl had said to the king of Syria about Eliseus, and that the king sought to have Naaman healed of leprosy not by him, but through Eliseus. Whence he suspected that the king was plotting against him, and meditating war, and was pretending this as an occasion of war.
10. AND ELISEUS SENT A MESSENGER TO HIM.—Why did Eliseus himself not go to Naaman, to receive him honourably as a prince? Theodoret and Procopius first answer that Eliseus was so zealous for the law that he would not endure even the sight of an unclean man, much less his touch, that we might understand how we ought to shun the manners and company of those whom the leprosy of infidelity and heresy, graver crimes, defiles.
Second, Eliseus wished to live withdrawn from courtiers, to be free for God alone as a religious, and therefore to make little of the presence of princes, their servants, horses and pomp, which the world admires. He did not therefore do it from pride, as one who “permitted himself not only to be looked at but even to be held by a woman,” chapter iv, says St. Gregory, Morals VII, chapter xv, who also near the beginning of the chapter, proclaiming the loftiness of spirit in Eliseus and like saints, says: “All things that stand out outwardly lie in contempt before their hidden gaze. For, rapt inwardly above themselves, they fix their mind on another, and whatever they suffer in this life they behold as things gliding far beneath and alien to them; and, so to speak, while they strive to be out of the flesh in mind, they almost do not know the very things they endure. In their eyes certainly nothing that is eminent temporally is high. For, as if seated on the summit of a great mountain, they fully despise the joys of the present life: and, transcending themselves by spiritual loftiness, they see inwardly beneath them whatever swells outwardly with carnal glory. Whence they spare no powers set against the truth: but those whom they see lifted up by pride they press down by the authority of the spirit.”
So St. Anthony, saluted by Constantine the Great by letters, scarcely wished to answer; yet he answered, almost compelled by his disciples, and gave him counsels of salvation, as St. Athanasius testifies.
Third, Eliseus wished to increase the greatness of the miracle and of the coming health, by performing it through a servant as go-between, says Abulensis; and that not by touch, but by the word alone, says the author of the Wonders of Holy Scripture, book II, chapter xxvi.
11. I THOUGHT HE WOULD HAVE COME OUT TO ME, AND STANDING WOULD HAVE INVOKED THE NAME OF THE LORD HIS GOD, AND TOUCHED WITH HIS HAND THE PLACE OF THE LEPROSY, AND HEALED ME.—Naaman speaks from the feeling of proud Gentile princes, who by their own judgment prescribe to themselves the manner of working a miracle; but God, wishing to humble them, prescribes another manner, that they may learn to submit themselves and their judgment to God, and to receive a law from God, not to give it, and to obey Him simply in all things.
12. ARE NOT ABANA AND PHARPHAR, RIVERS OF DAMASCUS, BETTER?—Hear Benjamin in his Itinerary: “The city of Damascus itself is very great and most beautiful, girt with walls; and the whole region is most richly furnished with gardens and paradises, extending fifteen miles on each side. Nowhere else in the whole fruitful earth is a city seen like this, which two rivers, flowing down from Mount Hermon, bless, the Amana and the Pharphar: for the city is situated under Mount Hermon, the Amana flows through the city itself, whose waters are conducted by pipes into all the houses of the great, and also into the markets and streets; and the region itself is thronged with the trade of all lands. The Pharphar, however, flowing past the city, waters all the gardens and paradises.”
13. FATHER, IF THE PROPHET HAD BID THEE DO SOME GREAT THING, SURELY THOU SHOULDST HAVE DONE IT; HOW MUCH RATHER WHAT (that) HE NOW HATH SAID TO THEE: WASH, AND THOU SHALT BE CLEAN?—Naaman was kind to his servants like a father, so that he was called “father” by them, and loved as a father, who therefore kindly suggested to him a saving counsel, which he calmly heard and accepted. So also Eliseus called Elias his master father, saying: “My father, the chariot of Israel and the driver thereof.” So even now the Hollanders, kind by nature, call their masters and lords Baer, that is, father.
14. THEN HE WENT DOWN, AND WASHED SEVEN TIMES IN THE JORDAN.
Why seven times? That the number seven, which is reckoned the number of totality, might show that all capital sins, which are counted as seven, and for all time, which revolves in the seven days of the week, are to be wholly rooted out of souls. Tertullian, book IV Against Marcion, chapter ix, says of the nations: “Who bristle with the seven stains of capital crimes. Wherefore he washed seven times in the Jordan, as for each several title; and at the same time that he might sing the expiation of the whole week, because the force and fulness of a single bath was reserved for Christ alone, who was to make on earth, as a compendious word, so also a bath.”
Second, seven times, to signify the perfect cleansing and health of body and soul: for that health consists of four elements, and is produced by their just temperament; but this cleansing is accomplished in baptism with the name of the Holy Trinity invoked. So Theodoret and Procopius.
Third, the sevenfold washing foreshadows the seven Sacraments of the Church of Christ, by which the leprosy of every sin is wiped away; these are therefore as it were seven baptisms and washings of the soul.
AND HE WAS MADE CLEAN.—Behold the fruit of simple obedience. So Constantine the Great was cleansed of leprosy by the water of baptism conferred by St. Sylvester, not by the force of the water, nor even precisely by the force of baptism (for the effect of baptism is to wash away the sins of the soul, not the leprosy of the body), but because this water “was an instrument of the divine will and of prophetic command,” as St. Ambrose says.
Allegorically, the washing of Naaman in the Jordan signifies first baptism, which washes the leprosy of the soul. For this was as it were consecrated to that end in the Jordan, when Christ was baptized in it. Second, penance; for Jordan in Hebrew is the same as “river of judgment,” which is accomplished in the Sacrament of penance. So Angelomus, Prosper and others. Hear St. Ambrose, book IV, chapter iv on Luke: “Learn that spiritual Sacraments are signified. A remedy of the body is asked, of the mind it is gained. The flesh is washed, the affection is cleansed. For I see that the leprosy not more of the body than of the mind was cleansed: since after baptism, the filth of his old error being wiped away, he denies that he will offer to alien gods the victims which he had promised to the Lord.”
15. I BESEECH THEE THEREFORE TAKE A BLESSING OF THY SERVANT,—namely the gifts which I have brought thee, verse 5. For these are called “a blessing” by the Hebrews, because they are signs of love and good will. Add: this “blessing” is real, and the same as “benefaction.” So the blessing of God is effective, and the same as doing good.
16. AS THE LORD LIVETH, BEFORE WHOM I STAND, I WILL NOT RECEIVE ANY,—as if to say: Though I and my disciples be in the utmost want and poverty, yet I swear that I will not accept thy gifts, to show that this miracle is not mine, but God’s; and to demonstrate that I have wrought it purely from the love of God, not for gifts; and that thou mayest learn that the servants of God seek not the gifts of men, but of God.
St. Hilarion did the same. Hear what St. Jerome writes in his Life of Orion, delivered by him from a legion of demons: “Being cured,” he says, “he came with his wife and children to the monastery, bringing very many gifts, as if to give thanks. To whom the saint said: Hast thou not read what Giezi, what Simon suffered; of whom one received a price, the other offered it: the one to sell, the other to buy the grace of the Holy Spirit? And when Orion, weeping, said: Take it, distribute it, thou who goest about the cities and knowest the poor; I who have left my own things, why should I seek another’s?”
Perfect holiness therefore refuses gifts of any kind and any amount, as Abraham did, Genesis xiv, 22; of whom St. Ambrose, book I On Abraham, chapter iii: “How great it is,” he says, “that of the spoil of victory he would touch nothing; nor take what was offered? For the receiving of a reward diminishes the fruit of triumph, and eats away the grace of a benefit. It makes much difference whether thou hast fought for money or for glory.”
Hence he deserved to hear from God: “I am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great,” Genesis xv, 1. Where St. Ambrose, cited: “Since he sought no reward from man for himself, he received it from God.” Hence Eliseus here was a type of Christ commanding the Apostles: “Freely have you received, freely give,” says St. Augustine, sermon 208 On the Seasons.
17. I BESEECH THEE, GRANT TO ME THY SERVANT, TO TAKE TWO MULES’ BURDEN OF EARTH—of Israel. “Mules,” burdones, as the Chaldee, Septuagint, Vatablus, Pagninus and others translate. For in Hebrew pered is a mule, and perhaps burdo is so called from pered, the letter P being changed into the neighbouring labial B. Mention is made of “burdones” in the Digest, book XXXII, title 49, where Accursius wrongly understands staves, which in French are called bourdons. Whence Cujas, book XI of Observations, chapter xvi, asserts that burdones are mules, which are called manni and burici, begotten of an ass and a mare, or a horse and a she-ass; and therefore in Hebrew they are called peradim, that is, divided, separated, because they are divided and diverse in species from their parents: for parad is to divide, to separate. The sense is, as if to say: Grant that I may take from thy land as much as two burdones, that is mules, can carry, that from it, as from holy earth, I may raise in my country an altar to the God of Israel, whom alone I acknowledge, venerate and love as the true God from this miracle of my healing. Whence it is likely that Naaman built a temple or shrine around the altar, and in it worshipped God with all his family, and led many others to worship Him there. Naaman could have raised an altar from the earth of Syria, yet he wished for the Israelite earth, because, as Theodoret warns, Question XIX, and Abulensis, Question XXII, he believed it holy, which God had chosen before others, in which He had placed His people and His temple, which was renowned for the dwellings and virtues of so many most holy men.
Note this place for the veneration of relics of the Saints, for Eliseus, the prophet of God, approved the vow of Naaman:
FOR THY SERVANT WILL NOT HENCEFORTH OFFER HOLOCAUST OR VICTIM TO OTHER GODS BUT (only) TO THE LORD.—Jehovah, who is the true and only God of Moses and of Israel. To this, behold, the holiness and contempt of gifts of Eliseus led Naaman. Whence, says Mendoza on book I of Kings xii, 4, he judged that land holier in which covetousness of gifts is buried than that in which the leprosy of bodies is expiated. For that reason to Eliseus healing leprosy he offered gold, as to a physician: to him refusing gold he offered prayers, as to God: and not by his own authority, but having first obtained his leave, did he dare to carry away a portion of the earth.
18. AND THERE IS ONLY ONE THING FOR WHICH THOU SHALT ENTREAT THE LORD FOR THY SERVANT: WHEN MY MASTER (the king of Syria) GOETH INTO THE TEMPLE OF REMMON TO WORSHIP THERE, AND HE LEANETH ON MY HAND; IF I BOW DOWN IN THE TEMPLE OF REMMON, WHEN HE BOWETH DOWN IN THE SAME PLACE, THAT THE LORD PARDON ME, THY SERVANT, FOR THIS THING.