Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Vol. 11: Prolegomena (prefaces and canons)
A grave and immutable weight attends the words of the holy, and the fates follow their voice.
CANON XXX. To be noted are various phrases proper to the Hebrews and Prophets; as “as this day is,” that is, as today appears, is plain, is seen. So “all,” that is, many, most: whence soon they except some, as is plain Micheas 1:7, Osee 1:5. So “to command, to order, to bid,” are very general with the Hebrews: whence God is said to command the clouds, beasts, the sword, that is, by His command and imperium to call forth and produce them, or move them for the vengeance and chastisement of the impious. So they say, city or people “upon which thy name is invoked,” that is, which is called by thy name, namely city, temple, or people of God, devoted to God, worshipping God, not idols, as other nations. It is a hypallage, as is plain Ecclesiasticus 36:14; for where the Vulgate has: “Have mercy on thy people, upon whom thy name is invoked;” the Greek has: Have mercy on the people called by thy name. For as once wives were called by the names of their husbands, as from Caius was called Caia, from Julius Julia, from Titius Titia, from Tullius Tullia, from Solomon Sulamitis, as if you said Solomonia, Canticle 6:12, so the Church, as the spouse of God, received from Him her name, honor and glory; and protection and defence.
CANON XXXI. Names among the Hebrews are at times taken at once as proper and at once as appellative; because Scripture alludes to their etymology and signification, which suits and fits the present person. So Osee chapter 1, verse 6, he is bidden to call his daughter Lo Ruchama, that is, “Without mercy:” and to call his son, verse 9, Lo ammi, that is, “Not my people;” because these his children portended the repudiation and reprobation of the Jews. So Micheas, chapter 1, verse 10, says: “In the house of dust sprinkle yourselves with dust.” So Sophonias, chapter 2, verse 13, says: “And he will make the beautiful city a wilderness, and a place without way, and as a desert.” For “the beautiful city,” the Hebrew, Chaldee and Septuagint have Ninive, which in Hebrew signifies beautiful, and to this the Prophet alludes, as if to say: All Ninive’s beauty, comeliness and glory shall be taken from her, and herself turned into a wilderness and desert. So Esau says of his brother Jacob, Genesis 27:36: “Rightly is his name called Jacob,” that is, supplanter. “For he hath supplanted me this second time.”
And this is the cause why the interpreter at times puts for a proper name its interpretation, as he does in Osee, Sophonias, Micheas, in the places already cited. Hence St. Jerome (if he be the author) in the Traditions on the book of Paralipomenon, says: “Huge secrets of mysteries are often contained in the names themselves.” Wherefore all the names of the Hebrews are significative. Hence Isaias 10:21, in Hebrew it is: Call his name Shear-jashub; which our version turns: “Call his name, A remnant shall be converted” (for this is what shear jashub signifies), on account of the mystery which I shall explain there. So Psalm 75:3: “His place is made in Salem: and his abode in Sion,” our version, for “in Salem,” turns “in peace.”
CANON XXXII. The destruction of Babylon, Jerusalem and other cities the Prophets so describe as to say that the sun, moon, stars were then obscured, or fell from heaven, as is plain Isaias 13:9, Joel 3:15, Ezechiel 32:7. Not that they truly fell, but first, to signify the bitterness of the disaster and destruction, which was so great that to the Babylonians, Jerusalemites and others, stunned with excessive fear and anguish, the sun, moon and stars seemed to be darkened or to fall, so that it is a hyperbolic hypallage. The cause why it so seems to the sad and stricken is that to those who are sick in mind all things appear bitter and sad, because the mind conceives all things not as they are in themselves, but as it is itself affected, sick and afflicted. For what is received in something is received according to the mode of the receiver, says the Philosopher: for example, if a vessel is foul and you pour into it even the best wine, it becomes foul; so also it stands with the soul. Hence truly the Poet said: “Fear is the worst augur in doubtful things:” for it augurs all things worst. Wherefore truly Theodoret on Jeremias 4: “To the sad and afflicted,” he says, “light does not seem to be light, nor day to be day, nor sweet things to have sweetness; but all things are changed to them into the contrary. For the anxiety of grief so clouds the eyes that a serene sky seems overspread with darkness, firm mountains and hills to move.” For vehement grief and anxiety brings giddiness to the head, by which all things seem to them to turn and whirl; not that they whirl in themselves, but that the images and phantasms, from the disturbance of the spirits, turn and whirl in their head; which as they do not see, they think the things themselves whirl: just as those who sail, when they do not feel the ship and themselves with the ship moving and advancing, and yet in truth are moved, seem to themselves to see the trees and all that is on the shore move and advance.
Second, because the destruction of Babylon, Jerusalem, Samaria, etc., was a type of the destruction of the world, in which truly the sun and moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall fall from heaven, Matthew 24:29. So these phrases are properly and fully verified not so much in the type as in the antitype, which the allegory regards.
CANON XXXIII. Scripture or the Interpreter is wont to put for the genus a certain species, for the species an individual or example, whether for clearness or for amplification. So Aggeus 2:17, “twenty measures and flagons” translates, where in the Hebrew there is only twenty; for measure is understood, namely measures in corn, flagons in wine. So any sin is named from those sins hurtful to the human race, the first and gravest of which is homicide. So any calamity is called pestilence or sword, as I said Canon 26. So any virtue and holiness is called now “justice,” now “mercy,” as Psalm 111:9: “He hath distributed, he hath given to the poor: his justice (that is, alms) remaineth for ever and ever.” So again all the just and holy are called in Hebrew chasidim, that is, pious, merciful: because, as St. Augustine teaches and Leo Castrius adds, piety and mercy are the proper virtue and sign of the Saints.
CANON XXXIV. Scripture is wont to promise certain things which are to be fulfilled not in him to whom they are promised, but in his posterity. So, Genesis 13:15, God promises Abraham the land of Chanaan, which however not he himself, but his posterity occupied after 400 years under Josue. So to Zorobabel, Aggeus 2, an eternal kingdom to be born. So that of Noe cursing his son Cham, father of Chanaan: “Cursed be Chanaan, a servant of his,” Genesis 9:26, in his posterity, namely in the Chananeans, who served under Josue, was fulfilled. So that of Isaac to Jacob, Genesis 27:29: “Be thou lord of thy brethren,” not in Esau, who did not serve, but rather ruled over Jacob, but in the Idumeans his posterity, who in the time of David, subdued by them, served the Hebrews, took effect. So St. Chrysostom. And proper names are often taken patronymically for sons and posterity, as Isaac is Isacides, David Davidides, namely Christ born of the stock of Isaac and David. So “Israel” are called the Israelites, that is, descendants of Israel, or Jacob.
CANON XXXV. Scripture can have various versions and canonical senses, even literal ones. Hence St. Jerome in the preface on Isaias says that it has at times various readings even in the original Hebrew, intended by the Holy Spirit, as I explained more fully in Canon 8 on St. Paul. Note: It is difficult, nay impossible, at times to reconcile the version of the Septuagint with ours, or with the Hebrew; whether because they read otherwise in the Hebrew, or because their codices are corrupt, or because, the Holy Spirit suggesting something else, they were carried to another: for their interpretation is looser and freer, and at times richer than the text.
CANON XXXVI. Nabuchodonosor, the Chaldeans, Assyrians and other tyrants are called servants, soldiers and priests consecrated and sent by God to the vengeance of crimes and the impious, that they should despoil, subdue and cut down the Jews, Idumeans, Moabites, Egyptians and other nations: not that they did this by God’s command and revelation, as Abulensis would have it on Isaias chapter 5:26 and chapter 10:5, but because God gave them arms, wealth, strength, spirits, prosperous successes and victory, which however they wickedly and unjustly abused against the Jews and other nations; but God permitted this their abuse, and used it that the Jews and Gentiles might be justly punished. So St. Augustine, book On Grace and Free Will, chapters 20 and 21, where he teaches that God used them, who knew not and intended something else, namely empire and spoils, for His vengeance.