Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Vol. 11: Prolegomena (prefaces and canons)
Similarly St. John in the Apocalypse, although he received greater and clearer revelations than other Prophets, as being a Prophet of the New Testament, and the last among the hagiographers, and that disciple whom Jesus loved; yet whether he understood all the symbols which he saw is doubtful; for example, whether he understood, in chapter 4, precisely and clearly what the twenty-four ancients signified, and the four living creatures, of which the first was like a lion, the second like a calf, the third like a man, the fourth like an eagle. Again, in chapter 6, the four horses and riders, namely the white, the red, the black and the pale. Further, in chapter 8, the plagues of the seven Angels. And in chapter 9, what the locusts signify, having on their heads crowns of gold, faces of men, hair of women, teeth of lions, breastplates of iron, tails of scorpions. And in chapter 10, the seven thunders. And in chapter 11, what the division of the temple, of the altar, etc., signifies. Chapter 12, the woman clothed with the sun, having the moon under her feet and twelve stars on her head, bringing forth a man child; and the battle of Michael with the dragon, etc. Chapter 13, the beast having seven heads, ten horns, and his number 666. Chapter 15, the sea of glass mingled with fire. Chapter 16, what the seven vials signify, and the seven plagues of the Angels. Chapters 17 and 18, the mystery of Babylon. Whether, I say, St. John clearly understood these and the like things, is not established. For he explains none of them, which is the reason why the Apocalypse is so obscure, and why interpreters both conjecture and differ in explaining it. Wherefore St. Jerome in the Helmeted Prologue writes of the Apocalypse that it “has as many mysteries as words,” all of which it is not credible that John understood, nor any mortal.
Finally, that the Prophets did not understand all their oracles is taught by St. Ambrose, book 1 On the ... , chapter 8, Cyril (or rather Clichtoveus, Doctor of Paris: for he supplied the eight middle books of St. Cyril on John which were lost), book 8 on John, chapter 3, and St. Augustine, book 7 On the City of God, chapter 33. “The Prophets,” he says, “understood some things, and some they did not understand.” And St. Thomas, II-II, Question 173, art. 4. Moreover when the Prophets saw their visions and did not understand them, they were not perfect and properly so-called prophets, but imperfect, half and incipient ones, as Caiphas was, when unknowingly he foretold the death of Christ, and those who dream dreams and do not understand them, Genesis 41, Daniel 1. So St. Augustine, book 12 On Genesis according to the letter, chapter 9: “He is not a Prophet,” he says, “who sees signs unless he understands them: therefore the Prophets were called Seers, because vision belongs more to the spirit than to the body.” He teaches the same in his book Against Adimantus, chapter 27. And St. Gregory, book 11 of the Morals, chapter 12: “When anything,” he says, “is either shown or heard, if it is not given to the understanding, he is not a Prophet.” The same is held by St. Basil in the preface to Isaias, Origen, book 3 On First Principles, chapter 3, St. Chrysostom, homily 29 on 1 Corinthians. Where against the Montanists they teach that the Prophets were not driven by enthusiasm nor rapt out of themselves (as are the possessed and the Prophets of the Gentiles), but were masters of themselves and of their minds, and understood what they foretold, according to that of 1 Corinthians 14: “The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.”
III. THE THIRD QUESTION. What was the cause, the argument and the offices of the Prophets? I answer. The cause of sending Isaias and the other Prophets was various and manifold, but chiefly that which the Prophets often touch upon, especially Osee, and which 3 Kings 12 plainly relates: namely, that when Jeroboam, by the will of God and by the just punishment and vengeance upon Solomon and Roboam, had, by monstrous crime, cut off the ten tribes from the two and from the royal stock of David, fearing lest, if the people should go up as was customary to the true temple of God at Jerusalem, they might by degrees return to the former unity of the nation, kingdom and royal line, he forged the Egyptian idol Apis, which the Hebrews had worshipped both in Egypt and in the desert: two golden calves, I say, one of which he placed in Dan and the other in Bethel, at the two boundaries of his kingdom. He was the author and leader of idolatry, from which, as from a Lerna, all kinds of vices afterwards flowed, all which, together with their mother, the ten tribes sowed abroad among the two neighboring tribes with equal impiety. When this mother was cut away, like a hydra it broke out in other and other heads. Against these God sends these His Prophets as antagonists: that they may take away idolatry, call the people back to the ancestral religion: if they obey not, that they may announce the Assyrian, and still more the Babylonian, captivity, and sound the trumpet for the Babylonians against the Jews. And this is what St. Chrysostom says on Isaias, chapter 8: “Prophecy is a medicine made by the mercy of God, instructing offenders by foreknowledge of punishments, that by repentance they might escape the experience of them.”
Here observe that all these Prophets rarely prophesy and preach to the ten tribes, but often and everywhere to the two, namely Juda and Benjamin. The cause was that the ten tribes, given over by impious kings to the golden calves and as it were enslaved to them, were incorrigible: whence also a little after, namely in the 6th year of Ezechias, Salmanasar, having taken Samaria, led them away into Assyria.
And hence the manifold argument of the Prophets and their varied method and manner of speaking is clear. For first, they reprove sins, both of idolatry and of pride, avarice, gluttony, injustice, etc., and call the Jews to penance, threaten punishments, press upon the obstinacy of the Jews, and threaten them with God’s repudiation and reprobation, and finally foretell it as certain. Second, they soften the threats, and console the afflicted with the hope of pardon and the promise of a future good, the Messias, I mean. Third, they simply announce future things, both to the Jews and to other nations: this they do everywhere and often. Fourth, they pray for the people, and offer prayers to God. Fifth, they teach what is to be done or omitted, by instructing, commanding, forbidding, both by mouth and words, and by work and deeds.
Hence again it follows that the Prophets had chiefly three duties, offices and functions. The first, to teach the people, both what to believe and what to do; both matters of faith, and the way of virtue and of salvation: for the Prophets were most learned Theologians, instructed not by man but by God, “taught of God.” Wherefore St. Chrysostom, homily 40 on Matthew chapter 6: “As clouds carry rain,” he says, “so the Prophets and Apostles receive words from God, and pour them out upon the rational earth.” The same in the preface on Isaias, homily 1: “The Prophets,” he says, “are painters of virtue and of vice: they describe the sinner, the just man, the penitent, the one standing, rising, stumbling.” For this reason Ecclesiasticus, chapter 39, verse 4, painting the wise man and theologian, with a pious prayer demands his untiring study of the prophets: “The wise man,” he says, “will seek out the wisdom of all the ancients, and will be occupied in the prophets. He will keep the sayings of renowned men, and will enter withal into the subtilties of parables. He will search out the hidden meanings of proverbs, and will be conversant in the secrets of parables. He will serve among great men, and appear before the governor. He will pass into strange countries: for he shall try good and evil among men. He will give his heart to resort early to the Lord that made him, and he will pray in the sight of the Most High. He will open his mouth in prayer, and will make supplication for his sins. For if it shall please the great Lord, he will fill him with the spirit of understanding: and he will pour forth the words of his wisdom as showers, and in his prayer will confess to the Lord. He shall direct his counsel, and his knowledge, and in his secrets shall he meditate. He shall show forth the discipline of his doctrine, and shall glory in the law of the covenant of the Lord.” This is what St. Basil, embracing it in three words, persuaded and ordained for the Theologian: “Let reading follow prayer, and prayer reading; let prayer or reading be constant to thee: now speak with God, now let God speak with thee:” for in prayer we speak to God, in reading God speaks to us: reading teaches, prayer obtains the understanding of reading, its savor and fruit. To pass over others, let St. Jerome stand for all, who in his preface on Isaias writes this of him: “Whatever belongs to the sacred Scriptures, whatever Logic, Physics, Ethics, whatever the human tongue can utter and the sense of mortals receive, is contained in this volume.”