Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Vol. 11: Prolegomena (prefaces and canons)
CANON VI. Whatever promises of such greater things made to Sion or Jerusalem we read, we ought to refer not generally to all the Jews, but only to those who were chosen out of Israel for Apostles and believed in Christ, and understand them specially of these. So St. Jerome on chapter 59 of Isaias, at the end of the Prophet. Here note that the Prophets speak of Sion and Jerusalem, both properly so called, that is, the Jewish city, and mystical, that is, the Church, as if of one and the same, and rise from the earthly to this one; as Isaias 2:3, and chapter 60, verse 4, and chapter 61, verse 1, and often elsewhere; both because the old Church of the Jews and the new Church of the Christians is one and the same; and because the new began in Jerusalem, and was substituted there for the old falling away, and finally because Jerusalem, first Jewish, afterward through the preaching of the Apostles was made Christian. For so Rome is the same, once Gentile, now Christian. So the same are called Gentiles, once idolaters, now faithful.
CANON VII. The Prophets by Sion and Jerusalem understand now the Jews remaining in Judaism and incredulous toward Christ; now the Jews converted to Christ; and pass at once from these to those, and the contrary; for the prophetic rapture suffers, nay requires, this. An example is Isaias 51, verses 17 and 21. So St. John in the Gospel by the Jews understands now only the princes, Scribes and Pharisees, rivals of Christ; now only the people and the crowd following Christ; and therefore introduces the Jews now adverse to Christ, now favoring; now rebukes them, now praises, as is plain chapter 7, verse 11.
CANON VIII. The Prophets are wont to compare the felicity of spiritual goods and the grace of the Gospel of Christ with the earthly abundance of the old law and of former times, and to signify the one by the other, so that they say that God through Christ will give abundance of oil and wine, and plenty of cattle and pastures, gold and silver, houses and palaces; by which they understand not these material things themselves, but spiritual goods and charisms, and they do this both because those were a type of these, and because the Jews to whom the Prophets spoke scarcely knew or esteemed other goods. This is plain Joel 2:23, Isaias 35:1 and following, Jeremias 31:38 and elsewhere.
CANON IX. These prophecies and promises begin to be fulfilled in the present Church, but will be perfectly fulfilled in the heavenly Church. Again, they pertain only to the genuine sons of the Church, who live holily by her faith and laws, but not to the degenerate, namely the impious, disobedient and wicked, who dishonor and corrupt the holy faith by evil morals. So Isaias, chapter 2, verse 4, says that the faithful, in the time of Christ, will beat their swords into ploughshares, and shall not be exercised any more for battle. The same he says chapter 11, verse 6. Which is clear to pertain to good and holy Christians only; for among the proud and impious we see quarrels and wars, and them like wolves and leopards raging against the innocent and the poor. In like manner the prophecies of the conversion of the Jews to Christ began to be fulfilled in the time of Christ and the Apostles, and daily go on being fulfilled; but will be perfectly fulfilled at the end of the world, when all Israel shall be saved, Rom. 11:26.
CANON X. The Prophets speak of the economy of Christ, and of the salvation procured by Christ, as of a sharp contest; whence they introduce Christ as an armed soldier, fighting, conquering and triumphing, and say that He has trodden down the world, slain enemies, etc., both because a type of Christ was David the warrior and victor; and because the Jews expected such a Messias, who by war should vindicate them and deliver them from enemies; and finally because Christ waged a keen war, nay a duel, against His enemies and ours. By these phrases therefore they signify, first, that Christ fought with the devil and sin, and either put them to flight or slew them. Second, that He will overthrow the unbelievers, impious and reprobate, His enemies, both in this life and most of all on the day of judgment, and will punish them with eternal death, as is plain from Isaias 63:3, as St. Jerome explains there. Third, that Christ, when He subjects impious nations to His faith, will slay in them impiety and vices, of which more in Canon 41.
CANON XI. By the familiar names of barbarous nations, which were neighboring and hostile to the people of God, that is, the Jews, namely the Philistines, Arabs, Egyptians, Moab, Ammon, Idumeans, they signify by synecdoche all the impious nations to be subdued by Christ, and that the whole world is to be converted to Him. So St. Jerome on chapter 60 of Isaias. So also elsewhere from one person or nation they understand all other like ones. So St. Augustine, book 4 On Christian Doctrine, chapter 7, at the end.
CANON XII. The Prophets are wont first to terrify their hearers, then to console those whom they have terrified, and contrariwise to strike with threats the slothful and hardened. For this is the office of a good preacher. “It is the custom of the Holy Scriptures,” says St. Jerome, book 6 on Isaias at the end, “after they have lifted up with joyful spirit the despair of the human mind, again to deter by threat the careless and those unwilling to do penance, lest God’s goodness harden our heart.” Moreover, they are wont to join cheerful things to adverse, so that, when they have foretold impending punishments to the people, they at once show God as it were appeased, and even promise the benefits of God, as of one contending and avenging misdeeds by His benefits, by which He consoles those afflicted by past punishments. For the human heart is so placed in the midst of hope and fear that it is neither puffed up by too great joy, nor swallowed up by too great fear or sadness, and despairs.
Moreover these benefits are for the most part not temporal, nor to be taken as such; but spiritual, and to be fulfilled in the time of the Gospel: for this they mean when they say: “In that time, in those days.” For all future time was one and the same to them, and it seemed to them modest and little in respect of the prophetic light, by which they beheld the immense foreknowledge and eternity of God. For, as the Psalmist says: “A thousand years in thy sight are as yesterday which is past.” Examples are Jeremias 31, Daniel 9, Osee 13.
CANON XIII. The Hebrews often change tenses, so as to take the past for the future or present; again the future for the past, as when they narrate a thing done. This is plain Habacuc chapter 3, verses 7, 9, 11. It is however peculiar to the Prophets to use past tenses for future, and to foretell and narrate future things as already done, and that on account of the certainty of prophecy, namely to signify that they will be so certainly that it is as if they were already done. Moreover this enallage of tenses has most place when a like tense has gone before, e.g. when a past has preceded, and futures follow with the copula “and:” for this copula, since it couples the tenses, signifies that the future things are to be expounded and connected in the same past tense. Conversely if a future has preceded and past tenses follow with the copula “and,” these are to be expounded by the future. The same is the reason if a present has preceded, and futures or pasts follow: for then they must be turned by the present. See Pagninus, book 2 of the Institutions, chapter 12. Examples are everywhere at hand. See Psalms 105 and 106, where very often the future which is in the Hebrew our Version turns by the past, because a past preceded, as verse 19: “They made a calf.” And Psalm 106, verse 14: “He brought them out;” verse 18 “They abominated”—in all which places there are futures in the Hebrew.
Again it is usual in the Scriptures that one tense, whatever it be, is used for the difference of all tenses, when it is signified “Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners.” “Hath not walked,” that is, doth not walk, hath not walked, nor will walk: “hath not stood,” that is, doth not stand, hath not stood, will not stand. So John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word: was,” that is, always was, from eternity was. It is peculiar however to the Hebrews to signify by the future the nature of a thing, its custom, habit, persevering, as Ecclesiastes chapter 8, verse 17: “The more he shall labour,” laboureth, that is, is wont to labour. Isaias 6: “With two they flew,” in Hebrew they will fly, that is, were wont to fly. So we explain a difficult place Isaias 24:22, where of the damned he says: “And after many days they shall be visited;” for “they shall be visited” does not signify liberation and consolation, as Origen would have it, but continuation of punishment, and persevering in torment. For the sense is, as if to say: Whatever duration you conceive in mind to be run after the day of judgment, or run, still their visitation, that is, punishment and torment, will remain.