Commentaria in Isaiam
Second, Eusebius Pamphilus wrote volumes Fourth, Apollinaris, even briefly, and as if at intervals.
Fifth, the martyr Victorinus, in Latin; but neither he nor the others hitherto reviewed now survive.
Sixth, before all these Cyril commented learnedly.
Seventh, St. Basil wrote on the first 16 chapters, and here and there inserts some excellent moral passages. Leo Castrius notes, page 68, that the Latin version of Cyril and Basil seems to have been sprinkled here and there by someone with Jewish traditions or fables, because these are lacking in the Greek copy.
Eighth, St. Chrysostom at the end of tome 1 has 8 homilies on Isaias, of which five are on chapter 6. Procopius of Gaza also wrote, after his manner, with vigor and learning. Among the Latins, St. Jerome holds the first place both in time and in learning, especially in tracking out the literal sense, and his very greatest praise stands in these Commentaries on Isaias and the other Prophets. St. Jerome is followed, as a kind of abbreviator, by Haymo, Bishop of Halberstadt, who explains Isaias and the Prophets briefly and clearly. After Haymo wrote Rupert, who deals chiefly with the allegory, and interprets almost everything of Christ; after his manner he is moral. After Rupert wrote Joachim, Abbot of Flora, who explains Isaias and Jeremias in a new and wonderful way, that is, prophetically. For he explains the prophecies concerning the ancient nations before Christ as concerning the faithful nations after Christ. So he acts the prophet as much as Isaias or Jeremias, and is often more obscure than they; for example, the burdens of Babylon, of the Philistines, and of other nations, of which Isaias treats in chapter 13 and following, he explains and adapts thus in general: “The burden of Babylon,” he says, “according to concord touches Rome, as Chaldea does Germany” (Why not rather Italy? For as Babylon was the metropolis of Chaldea, so Rome is of Italy). “The burden of the Philistines, according to concord, the Lombards and other Italians; the burden of Moab and the sons of Ammon, the Latin and Greek princes; the burden of the desert of the sea, the Africans and other Saracens; the burden of Duma or Idumea touches the Jewish merchants, the Wise, and Lawyers, and Greeks; the burden in Arabia, the Spaniards and Marchians; the burden of the valley of vision, the Regular Orders of whatever kind; the burden of Tyre, the Sicilians and the inhabitants of the kingdom subject to them; the burden of Egypt, the Jews, Danes and Franks; the burden of Damascus touches the Tuscans and Ligurians, who are to be poured out and ground to pieces by the sword of the word of the Lord, and by iron.” Writing similarly on chapter 4 of Jeremias, and on chapter 14 of the Apocalypse, he prophesies that there will be two Orders to reform the Church, and that they were foreshadowed by the raven and the dove which Noe sent out of the ark, Genesis 8. Indeed they say that by his command St. Dominic and St. Francis were painted with the stigmata and in their habits, above the doors of the old sacristy of St. Mark’s at Venice, which remain to this day, although it is established that Joachim preceded St. Dominic and St. Francis, but only by a little. For St. Dominic and St. Francis were already living then, who a little afterwards founded their Orders, as Fr. Possevinus notes in the Library, under the word Joachim. He prophesies many other things about the Emperor Frederick, Henry, and others, but often so obscurely and enigmatically that an Oedipus is needed; what is to be thought of these I shall say in the Preface to the Apocalypse, which I intend to publish after the Prophets. He himself seems to have wished to apply the prophecies of Holy Scripture to his own age and times, namely the 12th and 13th centuries after Christ (for he flourished in the year of the Lord 1190); but how aptly and truly, is not sufficiently clear; especially because he speaks indefinitely and in general terms, and does not mark any certain time at which what he prophesies is to be fulfilled. His prophecies are therefore of little use now, partly because general, partly because obscure, partly because past, partly because ambiguous. For he mostly prophesies by parables of the seven times of the Church, and of the burdens of the sixth time; and in this matter Peter Galatinus, Ubertinus de Casali, and similar writers on the Apocalypse seem to have followed him, adapting it to seven future states of the Church. Their foundation is that they hold that nothing in the Old Testament that is not likewise done, or to be done, in the New; on which matter Joachim wrote in his book On the Concord of the New and Old Testament. After Joachim wrote St. Thomas on Isaias and Jeremias: but Sixtus of Siena, Adam Sasbout, and our Delrio hold that this commentary is not by St. Thomas Aquinas, or at least that many things have been inserted in it; for in many places it Judaizes. As an example, take that in chapter 8: “Go to the prophetess,” that is, he says, go to your wife, O Isaias; which is a Jewish sense. Antonius of Siena, however, in the Library of the Order of Preachers, with others, contends that this work is by St. Thomas Aquinas, because it smacks of his doctrine and style; for after the manner of St. Thomas it often uses scholastic terms, and here and there mixes in scholastic questions. It is truer that these Commentaries are by Thomas, a Doctor not Angelic but English, who of the Order of Preachers flourished as a Professor of Scholastic Theology about the year of Christ 1400. For to the same author belong the Commentaries on Genesis, which are like these, and are falsely ascribed to St. Thomas Aquinas; for this author plainly seems to be later than R. Solomon and Lyranus, and to have received these Jewish traditions from them.
Of the more recent, many have written. Eminent are Francis Forerius of Lisbon, of the Order of St. Dominic, and preacher to the kings of Portugal, who searches out and brings forth hidden senses from the Hebrew text; likewise Adam Sasbout of the family of St. Francis, formerly Professor at Louvain, who weighs the letter learnedly and piously, and aptly for morals. Leo Castrius wrote a huge volume; he is wholly occupied in explaining the version of the Septuagint, and is most conversant with the Fathers, and a most bitter enemy of the Jews, against whom he twists almost all the sayings of Isaias. Vatablus illustrates in a brief scholium, as is his custom, his own version, that is, that of Leo the Hebrew of Zurich, made from the Hebrew. Hector Pintus also wrote in a rich style; and our Fr. Gaspar Sanchez wrote a volume on Isaias, learned as well as elegant, with a notable paraphrase of the individual chapters. Our Martin Delrio in his Adages explains accurately and learnedly many of the more obscure sayings and phrases of Isaias and of the other Prophets.
Of heretics there have written Oecolampadius, Zwingli, Luther, Calvin, Pellicanus, Musculus: Marlorat patched together his Catena, which I have read through entirely. It is indeed wearisome to read these men of evil doctrine, wordy gleaners of seed; but to establish the orthodox truth they must be read and refuted; and amid them, as Cicero said when reading Ennius, I am always “gathering jewels from the dunghill.” Why not also “a good ear of grain in a bad crop”?
Finally there exists at Rome, in the Vatican and Medicean Library, a Syriac version of the Bible; likewise an Arabic one by an anonymous author, both ancient. Of the Arabic there are two copies, one brought from Antioch, which they call the Antiochene; the other from Egypt, which they call the Alexandrian. Each was translated into Latin by the Most Reverend Lord Ser- Jerome Osorius published a paraphrase of Isaias. Finally Arias Montanus wrote fully and eloquently, though here he is briefer and more learned than elsewhere; likewise Didacus Alvarez, and Paulus a Palatio. gius Risius, a Maronite, Archbishop of Damascus, whose mother tongue is Arabic and to whom Syriac is familiar (for the people of Damascus and the Maronites use Syriac); likewise the Reverend Father John Baptist Ferrarius, of our Society, public professor of the Syriac language in the Roman College. I shall cite each at the more notable places, where they bring light or a new sense, abundantly. Let the reader credit and refer to those authors what is received from them.