Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Vol. 11: Prolegomena (prefaces and canons)
The second, that the reader measure not this commentary by the sight of one or another place, but look through and consider the whole and perfect work (such as Apelles rightly wished to be looked at only by the unskilled), and see how the last answer to the first, the middle to the first and the last, how Daniel and Ezechiel agree with Isaias and Jeremias. For so he will be able to judge whether this four-horse chariot advances with equal, even and harmonious pace. This is the form of our work, that it will please more when inspected than when glanced at: “For what pleases quickly pleases not long.” Plato in Stobaeus, Ethical Eclogues: “He compared most writings to the gardens of Adonis, which, born suddenly in one day, perish most swiftly.” I hope this will not befall this work of ours, laboured and sown over many years, which will gain strength rather from time, and “will grow by hidden age like a tree,” so that in future ages it may bear sturdier, better and riper fruits in the minds of readers. “Famous deeds of genius, like the soul, are immortal,” says Sallust in the Jugurtha. Therefore I have imitated silkworms, which first eat day and night, and by eating grow great and fat; then begin to spin the silk and make the cocoon, while from the same mouth and belly by constantly spinning and weaving they bring out as much as they have eaten: namely what I have gathered through many years by reading, meditating, teaching, and stored in my mind, I here unroll and bring forth, and communicate to others. I have followed also the counsel: “If thou art wise, thou wilt show thyself a shell, not a channel. Fill thyself first, and so take care to pour out. The very fountain of life first filled the inner parts, and so overflowing in many mercies visited the earth and inebriated it.”
Furthermore I find here two opposite kinds of interpreters. One Jewish, namely of those who take everything said by the Prophets of Juda, Jerusalem, Sion, Babylon, the Chaldeans, Moab, Edom and the like, plainly and grossly as they sound. The other allegorical, of those who on the contrary take all these things as concerning the Church, Christ, the calling of the Gentiles, the new law, spiritual goods. There are therefore third interpreters, who more safely go as a middle between these, and now join themselves to these, now to those. The authors of the first kind are the Rabbis, champions of Judaism and enemies of Christ and Christianity, whom too incautiously Hugh, Lyranus, the commentary ascribed to St. Thomas, and some other orthodox writers sometimes follow. For these twist to Cyrus and the synagogue of the Jews the clearest prophecies of Christ and the Church. Take as an example what Isaias, chapter 8, writes and prophesies of the prophetess conceiving and bringing forth a son, whose name is “Make haste to take away the spoils, make haste to take the prey,” concerning the Blessed Virgin bearing Christ: they refer it to the wife of Isaias or of Achaz king of Juda, and her son. Some others have gone so far that they would have that of chapter 7: “Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, etc.,” said literally in like manner of the wife of Isaias, whereas the whole Church and St. Matthew, chapter 1:22, plainly teach that it is to be understood of the Virgin Mother of God alone. That of Isaias chapter 60, verse 1: “Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, etc. And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thy eyes round about, and see: all these are gathered together, they are come to thee, etc.,” they interpret literally of earthly Jerusalem flourishing again, allegorically only of the Christian Church. That of Zacharias 9:11: “Thou also by the blood of thy testament hast sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water,” they expound as the liberation, allegorically only, of the fathers from limbo through Christ’s descent; and many such, which will occur here and there in the course of the work. Not a few interpreters and doctors are indignant at these, and sharply rebuke them, nor without reason. For what is this other than to depress, cast away and enervate the illustrious and sublime prophecies? than, if not to crush, at least to refract and weaken the clear oracles of Christ and Christianity, or even to twist them? than to foster the blindness of the Jews and furnish them arms with which to attack Christians? For grant that they themselves confess that these predictions pertain at least allegorically to Christ and the Church: yet they snatch from Christians the letter and literal sense, which is the basis and foundation of holy Scripture; which being snatched away, how easily will the Jews elude the allegorical! For they will utterly deny that that sense belongs to holy Scripture, and will say it is an invention of the human brain, and forged by Christians.
Those who are at the other extreme take what is said here and there of Sennacherib, Nabuchodonosor, Ezechias, Sedecias, etc., literally, as said historically, to be meant of the devil, of Christ, of the Apostles. So Leo Castrius twists the whole of Isaias to Christ, that he may wrest him, as great as he is, from the Jews. These also, though less dangerous, yet indulge their feeling beyond reason, and therefore wander from the truth and the true sense.
A middle way, therefore, must be entered here by sincere interpreters, to track skilfully from the circumstances what suits historically the Synagogue, what the Church; what Cyrus, what Christ; what the Jews, what Christians: which, because it is intricate and hard to trace, for this reason I shall give some canons to explain and trace it, and assign the cause.
I conclude: what St. Jerome, what St. Augustine, what St. Thomas and other doctors of holy Scripture and of the Church openly confess, that heavenly light is needed here, is certain. “For no prophecy of Scripture is made by private interpretation,” says St. Peter, 2 epistle 1:20, that God Himself may illumine for us His words so obscure and involved, that He Himself may shine on our understanding, direct our judgment, strengthen our memory. Let us therefore invoke our Isaias, Jeremias, Ezechiel and Daniel, that they may communicate to us their light of prophecy, make us Prophets, doctors, heralds, sowers of eternity, that with Isaias some Seraph may fly to us, and with a burning coal touch, purge and open the mouth of one about to prophesy. With Jeremias let us cry out: “Ah, ah, ah, Lord God, behold I cannot speak, for I am a child.” With Ezechiel let us fall prone to the earth from the face of the Cherubim, and ask the spirit to raise us up, and open our mouth. With Daniel let us keep the word of God in the heart, and be astonished at the vision, because an interpreter is lacking, and demand from the angel the interpretation sent down.
Surely I should be ungrateful and unjust to God, if I were to ascribe these twenty years of my labors, such as they are, to my own talent, study or toil (to which, however, by God’s grace I have never been wanting), rather than to the divine beneficence and liberality, and undeservedly to my own help and illumination. How often have I shuddered at this sea, despaired of the harbor, distrusted my strength, and said: Who shall enter into the powers of the Lord? who shall search the secrets of the Most High, that he may know the mind of the Lord? who shall open the book sealed, and written within and without? Not I, because I know all in me to be small, and Thou, O Lord, knowest better, who knowest me thoroughly in truth; and yet it is not permitted me to be silent, because Thou biddest me speak. Give what Thou commandest, Thou who makest the tongues of infants eloquent, and command what Thou wilt. I am less than all Thy mercies and the truth which Thou hast fulfilled to Thy servant. To Thee be glory, to us confusion and thanksgiving. With my staff I have passed over, not the Jordan, but the Ocean, and behold I return with two, nay three companies of codices of both Testaments. Thou alone knowest, and hast directed the way of the eagle in the heaven, the way of the serpent upon the earth, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man in youth. Give me therefore wisdom, the assistant at Thy seats, and cast me not off from among Thy children: for I am Thy servant, and the son of Thy handmaid, a weak man, and of short time, and falling short of the understanding of judgment and laws. Send her out of Thy holy heaven, and from the seat of Thy majesty, that she may be with me and may labor with me. For who shall know Thy thought, except Thou give wisdom, and send Thy Holy Spirit from above? Confirm, and perfect, O Lord, what Thou hast wrought in us, that Thou mayest disclose to us the secrets of the Prophets, Thou who alone hast the key of David, who shuttest and no man openeth, who openest and no man shutteth: that I may set this crown-piece to the triple crown on Thy sacred books, and offer it to Thee, O most holy Trinity, to Thy glory, my consolation, and the instruction and fruit of those whom through these writings of mine it shall please Thee to teach. Grant me therefore to love Thee as much as to know Thee, and that others through us may know and love Thee. Grant moreover, that when it shall seem good to Thee to dismiss Thy servant in peace from this wretched pilgrimage, my eyes may see Thy salvation, foreseen and foretold in these our Prophets, which they now see before them, and enjoy face to face: and that I may be the least of those who, having instructed many unto justice, now shine as stars for all eternities: and with Daniel, Isaias, Jeremias and Ezechiel, standing before Thy throne, offering with their crowns this crown-piece also (for it is Thine, not mine), I may sing in eternal hymns to Thee sitting on the throne, and to the Lamb: “Benediction, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, honor, and power, and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen.”