Commentaria in Isaiam
Allegorically, St. Basil: Judea, he says, has a horn, that is, defensive arms against enemies, namely the cross of Christ; hence Habacuc says, chapter 3:4: “Horns are in his hands.” This horn is called the son of oil, that is, oily, abounding in oil and full of it: so one is called a son of iniquity, that is, full of iniquity, most wicked. Or rather a son of oil, that is, fat, that is, fertile, as though born of oil. Hence the Septuagint and the Chaldee translate, on a horn in a fat place, as if to say: This vineyard was planted in a high place, on a mountain not barren but fertile, whose soil is rich and fruitful and gives abundant produce. Again, the horn signifies strength; the oil, abundance, as if to say: I, God, have raised Israel and Judea to a powerful and strong kingdom, and at the same time a rich one: for it flows with milk and honey, so as to seem to be the horn of Amalthea. So St. Jerome. Hence Symmachus translates, on a horn in the midst of olive trees; the Arabic and Syriac, a vineyard cultivated and fat. Some, therefore, think Judea is called a son of oil because of the abundance of olives, as I said. R. Joseph thinks it is so called because of the king and priest who were in it, and were anointed with oil. Hence in Zacharias 4 it is said: “These are the two sons of oil, that stand before the Lord of the whole earth,” where by the sons of oil are understood the prince and the priest, that is Zorobabel, and Jesus the son of Josedec. Again, H. Pintus holds that Jerusalem is called a fat and oily mountain, because there Christ taught, and from there the Gospel went forth, by which the world was made fat, which before was dry and lean. Second, Sanchez: Oil, because it softens, soothes, fosters and tickles the senses, is taken for delights, indulgence and blandishments; and so the people was strong like a horn, by God and through God, and at the same time was to him a son of oil, that is a son of love and delights, to whom God showed his lavish liberality, and poured out not only the necessaries for food and life, but pleasures and delights.
Mystically, H. Pintus: Judea, he says, is called a son of oil because, as oil in a lamp is the matter of fire and splendour, so the Hebrews gave to many nations a clear light of the knowledge of God. It is also the most fertile of lands; hence the Pentapolis, which was part of it, is called “the paradise of God,” Genesis 13:10. Hence, too, there is a common tradition of the Fathers that the skull of Adam was buried on Mount Calvary, where Christ was crucified, and that from this it received the name of Calvary.
Allegorically, the vineyard, that is the Church, was made for Christ on a horn, a son of oil, that is, into a powerful inheritance and kingdom, and a fertile and merciful one alike; for oil is the symbol of both. For Christ, who was to us a son of oil, that is, supremely merciful, willed the Church also to be a son, or rather a daughter, of oil, so that the government of the Church should be kind, gentle and gracious, whereas the kingdom of the Synagogue had been threatening and terrible. For this reason, a little before the birth of Christ, at Rome in the Trastevere region, from a tavern a fountain of oil (which was like the horn of the son of oil) willed to spring, which flowed a whole day without interruption: to portend that Christ, soon to be born, as soon as he set foot on earth, would at once display the right foot, the foot of mercy, and with it open the fountain of his clemency and mercy, from which every kind of benefit would flow continually into the Church. Witnesses of this fountain are Eusebius in his Chronicle, Orosius, book 6, chap. 19, and others. The place is now turned into a church of the Blessed Virgin, in which the very place of the fountain of oil was shown to me, on the inside of which these ancient verses are inscribed:
Hence oil flowed, when Christ shone forth from the Virgin; here is granted whatever pardon is asked.
For formerly in that place was the seat of the Penitentiary.
2. And he fenced it in, and picked the stones out of it, and so on.—Verse 2; for stones are wont to be gathered and removed from stony ground, that vines may be planted in it. Christ used this parable almost word for word, Matthew 21, as Isaias said before, verse 4. Both Isaias, as he himself explains, verse 7, and Christ understand by the vineyard the Church, or Synagogue, as does the Psalmist, Psalm 79:9: “A vineyard thou hast brought out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the Gentiles” from Chanaan, and there “thou plantedst it.” The hedge, the winepress, the tower, the clearing of stones, and so on, signify in general that God cultivated the Church in all things, and provided for it all that was necessary. In particular and distinctly, however, the hedge was, first, the wall of Jerusalem, says St. Jerome; second, and more aptly, the hedge was the law and the precepts, which were given to the people as a hedge, to fortify them and to keep them in duty and piety. So the Author of the Unfinished Work, Theophylact and Euthymius on Matthew 21, and Irenaeus, book 4, chap. 70. Third, again, the hedge was the guard of God and of the Angels, say St. Jerome and Origen, who in homily 19 on Jeremias says: “The guard of God was the hedge of the vineyard, the tower the temple, the winepress the place of libations.” This is what Zacharias says, chapter 2: “Jerusalem shall be inhabited without walls,” that is the Synagogue and the Church; for “I will be to it,” saith the Lord, “a wall of fire round about.” So it is said in Isaias 26:1: “Sion the city of our strength, a saviour; wall and bulwark shall be set therein.” Again, Psalm 33:8: “The angel of the Lord shall encamp (in Hebrew chone, that is, shall pitch camp) round about them that fear him: and shall deliver them.” Finally Zacharias 9: “I will compass my house with them that serve me in war, going and returning”; where in Hebrew is chaniti, that is, “I will encamp about my house with the soldier passing by,” namely through Angels. Fourth, H. Pintus takes by the hedge holy men, who are for the people a wall before God, and when they are taken away the people are trampled, as when Lot went out of Sodom it was burnt, and when the Hebrews went out of Egypt it perished. The “winepress” is the altar, on which the blood of the victims was pressed out, say Origen, St. Jerome, Bede, Euthymius and Theophylact on Matthew 21. Mystically, the winepress is the cross of Christ, by whose press martyrs, virgins and all followers of Christ are pressed: and from it the wine of joy is pressed out. The “stones” which he took out of the vineyard are idols, sins, and all impediments of divine worship and religion. The “tower,” first, may be taken for royal dignity; second, for holy Scripture, says H. Pintus: for to it, as to a tower and citadel, we ought to flee in our temptations and dangers, and as from a tower we see far-off things, so from the law and the Prophets they foresaw Christ who would come after so many ages. Note: In vineyards towers are wont to be raised, both that the vinedressers may retire into them, and that the grapes and the instruments of the vineyards may be safely kept there, and chiefly for watch, so that in them, as in watch-towers, keepers may keep watch and look around lest thieves or beasts invade and ravage the vineyard. Such towers I have seen in wine-bearing places, as near Rome and in Germany, especially near Wurzburg: for there vineyards abound; so that grave men, even princes, there assured me that in the city of Wurzburg there is more wine than water. Hence there I saw huge casks of wine, each of which held more than a hundred vessels of wine, or amae, and had doors through which the vinedressers entered the casks (just as Diogenes into his) to put them in order and clean them. Wherefore, third, you may more aptly take by the tower the teacher, and the pastors and watchmen of the people, or the temple of Jerusalem, and the worship and religion of God, as the Chaldee here explains, and Origen, St. Jerome, Bede, Euthymius and Theophylact above: for from the temple, as from a tower and citadel, God was an aid and refuge to the labouring people.
And he planted it with the choice vine.—For “choice” the Hebrew is sorek: which the Hebrews say is the best kind of vine, which has no, that is few and small, stones; perhaps it is called sorek from the region of Sorek, abounding in noble vines; where Samson saw and loved Dalila, Judges 16:4. So Sanchez.
Such a choice vineyard of God was the Synagogue in the time of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, who were most holy, and rendered grapes and fruits of holy works to God.