Commentaria in II Machabaeorum
Tropologically, this fire represents the Holy Spirit, who in the form of fire sat upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, and gave them fiery minds and tongues, that they might set the whole world on fire with the fire of divine love; and so make men, like thick water cold and sluggish, fiery and flaming. So St. Ambrose, Book I De Officiis, 14: “That fire,” he says, “was a type of the Holy Spirit, who was to descend after the Lord’s ascension, and to remit the sins of all; who like fire inflames the faithful soul and mind.” See Ribera, Book V De Templo, chapter 17. See also what I have noted at length on this fire at Leviticus 9:23, where I enumerated 47 analogies of this fire and charity. Hear St. Chrysostom, Homily 14 on Hebrews: “Do we not wonder,” he says, “that the fire which once descended consumed all things? It can be that a fire also now descends, far more wonderful than that; and consumes all that is set before it, or rather does not consume, but lifts it up to heaven. For it does not reduce to ashes what is offered; but offers the gifts to God. Such were the prayers of Cornelius, Acts 10.”
23. JONATHAN BEGINNING,—This Jonathan was not the high priest, as some think, but a Levite and singer, indeed the prefect of the singers, whose turn it then was. So Lyranus and Serarius.
31. AND WHEN THE SACRIFICE WAS CONSUMED (namely burnt up by the fire which shone forth from the water of the stones) NEHEMIAS COMMANDED THE WATER THAT WAS LEFT TO BE POURED UPON THE GREATER STONES.
32. AND WHEN THIS WAS DONE, A FLAME WAS KINDLED FROM THEM: BUT IT WAS CONSUMED BY THE LIGHT THAT SHINED FROM THE ALTAR,—as if to say: The fire and the bright burning flame which had consumed the victims on the altar, leaping forth from it, consumed the flame kindled from the water on the greater stones, and that first, because the greater light of the altar overshadowed and consumed the lesser light of the stones; secondly, because this fire, by the law of Leviticus 6:12, ought to remain on the altar alone, as sacred fire proper to it for burning the victims; wherefore it could not remain in the stones, lest anyone should abuse it to superstition. Thirdly, to signify that this fire had come forth into light not by the power of the sun, but of God (whose symbol was the altar), using the sun as an instrument, and giving it greater power to produce fire from water. Fourthly, that this fire should kindle the stones, and implant in them a power, not physical but moral, to produce fire in necessity, as they produced it in the purification and dedication of the temple made by Judas Maccabeus. So Sanchez.
33. IT WAS TOLD THE KING OF PERSIA,—namely Darius Hystaspes, in whose sixth year these things happened, as I said; or, as others will have it, Artaxerxes Longimanus, grandson of Darius, whose cupbearer Nehemias was.
34. AND THE KING CONSIDERING.—Serarius thinks that for “considering” we should read enclosing or fencing in. For the Greek is periphraxas, that is, fencing round he made a temple for it, as if to say the king set up a temple for the fire, and surrounded it with a fence for reverence of the place.
MADE A TEMPLE FOR IT.—First, St. Ambrose, Book I De Officiis, 14, says the king built a temple in the place where the thick water had been found, afterwards turned into fire. For the Persians worshipped fire as a god, as Brisson testifies, Book II De regno Persarum. Secondly, Genebrard and others, whom Serarius cites and praises, Question 14, think that the king built in the same place some sacred building, such as was the probatic pool; for the Greek hieron signifies that that place, which before was profane, was made sacred, so that some veneration of God and religion of the divinity was now held in it: whence the king fenced it round, as the Greek has.
Thirdly, Lyranus explains, as if to say: King Darius ordered the temple of Jerusalem to be rebuilt. But this was already rebuilt: for in it the thick water was turned into fire. Fourthly, as if to say: King Artaxerxes made, that is splendidly adorned and magnificently enriched, the temple already built by Darius his grandfather. So Nabuchodonosor, says Daniel 4: “Is not this the great Babylon, which I have built to be the seat of the kingdom?” that is, I have enlarged, adorned, and established it as the royal seat of the Monarchy? For before him Babylon was built by Nemrod, Genesis 10. So Romulus is said to have built Rome, that is, to have adorned and enlarged it; for, as Virgil says: “Before Romulus was king Evander, founder of the Roman citadel.” So St. Thomas, Lyranus, Dionysius, Hugo and Sanchez. The first sense, that of St. Ambrose, is as it is the first to present itself, so the plainest. For the Persians built several temples to fire, which were thence called pyraea (whether, however, in the same place in which the water was found this temple was erected by the king, as St. Ambrose will have it, Sacred Scripture does not express). For fire, the noblest of the elements, was expressed by its splendour, heat, activity, etc., as a symbol of God and divinity, according to that: “Our God is a consuming fire,” Hebrews 12:29. See what is said there, and Exodus 3:2.
THAT HE MIGHT PROVE WHAT WAS DONE,—To praise, celebrate, and adorn with a temple, for perpetual memory of the thing, this miracle of fire born from water.
36. AND NEHEMIAS CALLED THIS THING NEPHTHAR, WHICH IS INTERPRETED PURIFICATION,—from the root Puthar, which in Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Persian and Arabic signifies to free, to send forth, to dismiss, and is attributed to a captive who is dismissed free and clean from the squalor and filth of prison, just as here the temple profaned by the Chaldeans, squalid and turned to filth and ashes, was purified, sanctified, and consecrated to God by Nehemias through the dedication and the descent of the sacred fire from heaven. Hence Phatir in Arabic is called pure and unleavened bread; and the Chaldee, Exodus 23:15, calls the feast of Unleavened Bread chagga de pattiraia.
Naphtha alludes to Nephthar, which is a kind of “bitumen,” says Pliny, Book II, chapter 105; “this liquid has a great kinship with fires, and they leap straight into it from wherever seen,” just as here the fires leaped into the thick water for the purification and sanctification of the temple. Moreover, among the ancients lustration and purification were made by sulphur and fire. Whence Pliny, Book XXXV, chapter 15: “Sulphur,” he says, “has its place in religious rites for purifying houses by fumigation.” They thought, namely, that in that sulphurous and bituminous fire there was something heavenly and divine, because the thunderbolts and lightnings which were sacred among them had the smell of sulphur, and their very light was sulphurous, as is written in the same place by Pliny. Hence also the Greeks call sulphur theion, and the Romans carefully attended to places struck by lightning, and, altars being raised and sheep of two years sacrificed, named them bidentalia. So Gyraldus, syntagma 17, and from him Serarius. Lastly the Syriac text in this place has thus: Those who are of the house of Nehemias called it (the place) Genephar, which is interpreted cleanness (or purification); but it is called by many Nephri. The Arabic thus: Those of Nehemias called this place Techeptha, which is interpreted purity. But it is called by most Nephi (the Syriac) Nephti, from the root nuph, which signifies many things, namely to wash, to sprinkle, to shake, to sift: whence nophet is honeycomb and naphat is region, province. Nephi, then, is a place cleansed, lifted up, honoured, consecrated and enlarged. For aphti in Syriac signifies to enlarge. It narrates that Jeremias, in the Babylonian captivity, hid the ark, the tabernacle and the altar of incense on Mount Nebo. Thence, verse 20, the author of this second book prefaces that he will briefly relate the deeds of Antiochus Epiphanes and Eupator, and of Judas Maccabeus and his brethren, written at length by Jason and others.
1. It is found also in the descriptions of Jeremias the prophet, that he commanded them that were carried away to take of the fire, as it hath been signified, and how he gave charge to them that were carried away. 2. And he gave them a law that they should not forget the commandments of the Lord, and that they should not err in their minds, seeing the idols of gold and silver, and the ornaments of them. 3. And with other such speeches, he exhorted them that they would not remove the law from their heart. 4. It was also contained in the same writing, how the prophet, being warned by God, commanded that the tabernacle and the ark should accompany him, till he came forth to the mountain where Moses went up, and saw the inheritance of God. 5. And when Jeremias came thither he found a hollow cave: and he carried in thither the tabernacle, and the ark, and the altar of incense, and so stopped the door. 6. Then some of them that followed him came up to mark the place; but they could not find it. 7. And when Jeremias perceived it, he blamed them, saying: The place shall be unknown, till God gather together the congregation of the people, and receive them to mercy.