Homily 17

1.1. We have in hand now the third prophecy from those things which the word of God brought forth through Balaam. Let us discuss some things concerning it as well, as the Lord grants.

1. Tertiam nunc prophetiam ex his, quae sermo Dei per Balaam protulit, habemus in manibus, ut etiam de ipsa, prout Dominus dederit,

Now indeed this wretched Balak was thinking that the divine Balaam lacked the circumstance of location, rather than the will, to speak curses. So he reckoned that it would be advantageous to change location. He said: “Come, and I will lead you to another location, if it pleases God, and you will curse them from there. And Balak took Balaam to the top of Mount Fogor,¹ which extends to the desert.”²

aliqua disseramus.Etenim infelix iste Balach putans quod Balaam divino ad maledicendum loci opportunitas magis defuerit quam voluntas, utilius esse ratus, si mutaret locum: “veni” inquit “et educam te in locum alium, si placet Deo, et maledices eum inde. Et assumpsit Balach ipsum Balaam in verticem montis Fogor, qui tendit in desertum”.

Now God puts those whom he calls on the top of Mount Sinai;³ but this Balak, who is opposed to God, “puts Balaam on the top of Mount Fogor.” Fogor translates as “delight”; thus Balak puts people on the top of delight and libidinous desire, For he is a lover of pleasure more than of God, and on that account he puts them on the summit and top of pleasure, in order to exclude them from God. For Balak translates as “excluding” and “devouring.” After all this is why Fogor “extends” even “to the desert,” that is, to affairs that are void of and deserted by God.

Eos quidem, quos Deus vocat, imponit eos in verticem montis Sina: hic autem ‘Balach’, qui Deo contrarius est, ‘imponit Balaam in verticem montis Fogor’. ‘Fogor’ autem interpretatur delectatio; in verticem ergo delectationis et libidinis imponit homines iste Balach. Amator enim est voluptatis magis quam Dei et idcirco imponit eos in summitatem et verticem voluptatis, ut excludat eos a Deo;

1,2, “And Balaam said to Balak: Construct for me here seven altars, and prepare⁴ for me seven calves and seven rams, And Balak did as Balaam told him, and he offered a calf and a ram on [every] altar:”⁵ The apostle’s judgment is clear when he says: “For the things the pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God,”⁶ Moreover, the prophet speaks similarly: “They have sacrificed to demons and not to God,”⁷ Yet, since even the law of God gives commands concerning sacrifices and hands down to the sons of Israel sacrificial rites, perhaps we should ask why these things are commanded to be offered even to God, which apparently have been consecrated to demons. Well, there will indeed be a simple and quick response. We have shown elsewhere⁸ that a certificate of divorce was to be given,⁹ not by the will of God, who was unwilling that what he had joined together should be separated,¹⁰ but Moses wrote these things on his own “in view of the hardness of heart”¹¹ of the Jews, Likewise, in this connection, it seems possible that God, as he says through another prophet, “does not eat the flesh of bulls nor does he drink the blood of goats”¹²—and again, as it is written elsewhere: “I did not command you about sacrifices and victims on the day when I led you from the land of Egypt”¹³—but Moses commanded these things to them “in view of the hardness of their heart,” as a bad custom to which they had been introduced in Egypt, He did this so that those who were unable to keep themselves from sacrificing at the least might sacrifice to God, and not to demons,

excludens enim et devoratio interpretatur Balach. Ideo denique et in eremum tendit Fogor, id est ad ea, quae erema sunt et deserta Deo negotia. “Et dixit Balaam ad Balach: construe mihi hic septem aras, et fac mihi hic septem vitulos et septem arietes. Et fecit Balach, sicut dixit ei Balaam, et obtulit vitulum et arietem super aram”. Aperta quidem Apostoli sententia est, dicentis: “quae enim sacrificant gentes, daemoniis et non Deo sacrificant”; sed et propheta similiter dicit: “sacrificaverunt daemoniis et non Deo”. Tamen quoniam et lex Dei de sacrificiis praecipit et ritum sacrificandi tradit filiis Istrahel, requiratur fortassis, cur haec, cum ‘daemoniis’ dicata videantur, etiam Deo iubeantur offerri. Et erit quidem simplex et cita responsio, ut quemadmodum in aliis ostendimus quod ‘libellum repudii dari’ non Dei voluntatis fuit, ‘qui, quod coniunxerat, noluit separari’, sed Moyses haec proprie ‘ad duritiam cordis’ Iudaeorum scripsit, ita etiam et de hoc videri posse quia Deus, sicut per alium prophetam dicit, ‘non manducat carnes taurorum nec hircorum sanguinem potat’ - et item ut alibi scriptum est: “quia non mandavi tibi de sacrificiis et victimis in die, qua eduxi te de terra Aegypti” -, sed Moyses haec ‘ad duritiam cordis’ eorum pro consuetudine pessima, qua imbuti fuerant in Aegypto, mandaverit iis, ut, qui abstinere se non possent ab immolando, Deo saltem et non daemoniis immolarent.

1.3. Yet one should consider whether there might be a more hidden and secret reason for sacrificing to God. I mean, consider whether it is possible that sacrifices that are offered to God may result in the destruction of those sacrifices that are immolated to demons, And thus, since through the latter sacrifices, souls are wounded, through the former they are healed, It is just as they affirm who have expertise in medicine. For they maintain that the venom of snakes is driven out by medicine that is made no less from the snakes. So then, the poison of the sacrifices of demons is driven away by sacrifices offered to God, just as also the death of Jesus does not allow the death of sin “to exercise dominion over believers.”¹⁴ And indeed, as long as time permitted, sacrifices were confronted with sacrifices; but when the perfect sacrifice came, even the “spotless lamb” who “took away the sin of the whole world,”¹⁵ those sacrifices that were being offered one by one to God already seemed superfluous, since the whole cult of demons has been driven out by this one sacrifice,

Videndum tamen est, ne forte sit et aliqua sacrificandi Deo occultior ac secretior ratio. Ne forte, inquam, sacrificia quae Deo offeruntur, ad destructionem fiant eorum sacrificiorum, quae daemonibus immolantur, ut, quia per illa vulnerantur animae, per ista sanentur. Sicut et hi confirmant, qui medicinae peritiam gerunt; serpentum namque venena depelli medicamentis nihilominus confectis ex serpentibus perhibent. Ita ergo et sacrificiorum daemonicorum virus per sacrificia Deo oblata depellitur, ‘sicut et mors Iesu mortem peccati credentibus non sinit dominari’. Et quidem, donec tempus patiebatur, sacrificia sacrificiis opponebantur; ubi vero venit perfecta hostia et ‘agnus immaculatus’, qui ‘totius mundi tolleret peccatum’, sacrificia illa, quae singillatim offerebantur Deo, iam superflua visa sunt, cum una hostia omnis daemonum cultura depulsa sit.

But this Balaam, whether in accordance with the intention of his heart, which he had not reformed, or in accordance with that figure by which we said that he represents the character of the teachers and the Pharisees of the unbelieving people, still repeats the offering of victims and still commands sacrifices to be made. For those whose heart does not receive faith in Christ put all their hope in them.

Verum Balaam iste, sive secundum cordis sui propositum, quod non emendaverat, sive secundum illam figuram, qua diximus eum personam tenere doctorum ac Pharisaeorum plebis incredulae, instaurat adhuc hostias et praeparari sacrificia iubet. In his enim omnem spem gerunt hi, quorum cor non recipit fidem Christi.

2.1. But what comes next? It says: “And Balaam, seeing that it is good in the sight of the Lord to bless Israel, did not go out according to his custom to meet the auspices, but turned his face toward the desert. And Balaam, lifting up his eyes, observes that Israel had set up their camps by tribes; and the Spirit of God came on [p.103] him, And he took up his parable and spoke.”¹⁶

2. Sed quid sequitur? “Et videns” inquit “Balaam quia bonum est in conspectu Domini benedicere Istrahel, non abiit ex more in occursum auspiciis, sed convertit faciem suam in desertum. Et elevans Balaam oculos suos intuetur Istrahel castra constituisse per tribus; et factus est super eum spiritus Dei. Et adsumpta parabola sua ait”.

Perhaps someone is asking how it is that Balaam “sees that it is good in the sight of the Lord to bless Israel,” And it will be thought that he came to understand this from the sacrifices that he had offered, For when he sees that none of the demons are present, that no contrary power dares to attend their own victims, that all the servants of wickedness had been shut out, of whom he was accustomed to take advantage in his cursing, on that basis he was able to understand that “it is good in the sight of the Lord to bless Israel,”

Requiratur fortasse, unde ‘vidit balaam quia bonum est in conspectu Domini benedicere Istrahel’ et putabitur ex sacrificiis intellexisse, quae immolaverat. Ubi enim vidit nullum adesse daemonum, nullam contrariam potestatem victimis suis adsistere audentem, exclusos esse omnes malitiae ministros, quibus uti ad maledicendum solebat, potuit ex his intellexisse ‘quia bonum esset in conspectu domini benedicere Istrahel’.

2.2, However, I prefer to understand the following here, that those people who are now a vain people, and those teachers who detain that people in vanity by not believing in Christ, will one day see, namely, “in the last days,”¹⁷ “when the fullness of the Gentiles enter,” and “all Israel” begins to come to the faith of Christ,¹⁸ I mean, at that time those who now “have eyes but do not see,”¹⁹ shall see, For they will lift up their eyes to the higher spiritual meanings, and they will see and understand that “it is good in the sight of the Lord to bless” spiritual “Israel.” For they will see Israel arranged by tribes, homes and families, and ready to attain to the glory of the resurrection, “each in his own order.”²⁰ And having “taken up their parable,” they will understand what is written in parables. These are things that they neither see nor understand at the present time, because a veil has been placed “over their heart,”²¹

Ego tamen illud magis intelligo, quod populus ille, qui nunc vanus est, et illi doctores, qui Christo non credentes in vanitate populum detinent, aliquando visuri sunt, id est ‘in novissimis diebus’, ‘cum plenitudo gentium introierit’ et ‘omnis Istrahel’ venire coeperit ad fidem Christi. Illi, inquam, qui nunc ‘oculos habentes non vident’, tunc videbunt. Elevabunt enim oculos suos ad altiores et spiritales sensus et videbunt et intelligent quia ‘bonum est in conspectu Domini benedicere’ spiritalem ‘Istrahel’, videbunt enim eum dispositum per tribus et per domos et per familias et ‘unumquemque in suo ordine’ resurrectionis gloriam adepturum, et ‘adsumpta parabola sua’ intelligent, quae in parabolis scripta sunt, quae nunc propter ‘velamen’, quod ‘positum est super cor eorum’, neque vident neque intelligunt.

Finally, it says, “He did not go out according to his custom to meet the auspices.”²² For by considering the will of God, he will not be carried off by his own usual custom, by foolish and worthless interpretations, to speechless animals and beasts, as those do who infer auspices by means of such things. Instead, he himself will likewise recognize that “God does not care about oxen.”²³ In a similar way God does not care about sheep or birds and other animals, but one should interpret whatever is written about them as having been written for the sake of human beings.²⁴

Denique “non abiit” inquit “ex more in occursum auspiciis”; non enim more sibi solito, stultis et inanibus sensibus rapietur in animalibus mutis et pecudibus Dei considerans voluntatem, sicut hi, qui ex istis talibus auspicia colligunt, sed agnoscet etiam ipse quia neque ‘de bobus cura est Deo’, similiter neque de ovibus neque de avibus aliis que animalibus, sed si qua de his scripta sunt, propter homines intelliget scripta.

3.1. But let us now see what Balaam utters in the third prophecy. It says: “Balaam son of Beor says, the man who sees truly has spoken, one who hears the words of the Strong One has spoken, one who saw a vision of God in a dream; his, eyes have been opened.”²⁵ It is indeed astonishing how Balaam is considered to be worthy of such great praise. The one who “took up his parable” will pronounce these things concerning himself. For how is it that Balaam is “a man truly seeing,” who strove after divination and auguries, who was even zealous for magic, as we have shown above? This is very astonishing, unless perhaps such great praises as these should be thought to have been recorded about him in view of what was said above, that “the Spirit of God came on him,”²⁶ and “the word of God was put in his mouth,”²⁷ For neither Moses nor any other of the prophets will easily be found to have been exalted by such great praises.

3. Sed videamus iam, quae sint, quae in tertia prophetia proloquatur Balaam. “Dixit” inquit “Balaam filius Beor, dixit homo vere videns, dixit audiens verba fortis, qui visum Dei vidit in somnis, revelati oculi eius”. Mirum profecto est, quomodo tantae laudis dignus habeatur Balaam, qui ‘accepta parabola sua’ haec de semet ipso pronuntiet. Quomodo enim ‘homo vere videns’ Balaam sit, qui divinationi et auguriis operam dederit, qui etiam magicae studuerit, sicut supra ostendimus, valde mirum est, nisi forte pro eo, quod supra dictum est, quia ‘spiritus Dei factus fuerit in ipso’ et quia ‘verbum Dei positum sit in ore eius’, haec de eo putentur tam magna conscripta esse praeconia. Nec Moyses enim nec alius quis prophetarum facile invenietur tantis laudibus elevatus.

3.2. This is why these things seem to me to agree more with that people at the time when they have already been “converted to the Lord, and lay aside the veil that was over their heart. But the Lord is the Spirit.”²⁸ After all, that is why it says: “His eyes have been opened.”²⁹ It is as if those eyes that were closed up to this point will now be opened through the Spirit of God, “who came on him”³° when the veil was removed.

Unde magis mihi videntur haec illi populo convenire eo tempore, quo iam ‘conversus ad Dominum deposuit velamen, quod erat super cor suum’. “Dominus autem spiritus est”. Idcirco denique dicit: “revelati oculi eius”, quasi qui nunc usque clausi fuerint et nunc per ‘spiritum Dei, qui super eum factus est’, ablato velamine revelentur.

So now is the time when “he truly sees and he truly hears the words of the Strong One, and he sees the vision of God in a dream,”³¹ that is to say, he will see the fulfillment of the times that were indicated in the dreams of the prophet Danie1,³² He sees those visions that were granted to Daniel in dreams, that is, he [p.104] will understand and recognize them “with his eyes opened.”³³ For he will become like those who said: “But we all with unveiled faces look on the glory of the Lord, having been transformed by the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.’³⁴

Nunc ergo est, quando ‘vere videt et vere audit verba fortis et visum Dei videt in somnis’, id est ea, quae in somnis Daniel prophetae tempora designata sunt, videbit impleta; et ‘visiones’ illas, quae ‘in somnis’ ad illum delatae sunt, ‘videt’, hoc est intelliget et agnoscet, ‘oculis revelatis’.Efficietur enim similis his, qui dicebant: “nos autem omnes revelata facie gloriam Domini speculamur, eadem imagine transformati a gloria in gloriam, tamquam Domini spiritu”.

3.3. However, I would like to ask which eyes these are that are said to be “opened.’³⁵ Could they perhaps be the ones that in other passages of Scripture are called “the eyes of the earth,” as we read in some copies? Could they be what Paul calls “the mind of the flesh,” when he says of someone: “Puffed up in vain with the mind of his flesh”?³⁶ Concerning these eyes, I believe, the serpent as well said to Eve that the Lord knew that “on whatever day you should eat of it, your eyes will be opened”;³⁷ and a little later it says: “and they ate, and the eyes of both of them were opened.’³⁸ For unless there were different kinds of eyes, some being those that are opened by transgression, others being those by which Adam and Eve saw before the former will be opened, Scripture assuredly would never have said to those who had been exposed by transgression, when their eyes were not yet opened: “And the woman saw that the tree was good for eating and pleasing to the eyes for seeing and beautiful to behold, and taking from the tree she ate; and she gave to her husband who was with her, and they ate. And the eyes of both of them were opened.”³⁹ For how is it, if the eyes of both of them had not yet been opened, that the woman “saw that the tree was good for eating and that it was pleasing to the eyes to see? Likewise, with what eyes is it also said to have been “beautiful to behold”?

Velim tamen requirere, qui sunt isti ‘oculi’ eius, qui ‘revelati’ dicuntur; ne forte ipsi sint, qui in aliis Scripturae locis, ut in quibusdam exemplaribus legimus, ‘oculi terrae’ appellantur, et ille, quem Paulus ‘sensum carnis’ dicit, cum ait de quodam: “frustra inflatus a sensu carnis suae”. De istis credo oculis etiam ‘serpens dixerit’ ad Evam quia “sciebat Dominus quod in quacumque die manducaveritis ex eo, aperientur oculi vestri”, et paulo post: “et manducaverunt” inquit “et aperti sunt oculi amborum”. Nisi enim essent oculorum differentiae et alii essent, qui per praevaricationem aperiuntur, et alii, quibus videbant Adam et Eva, antequam isti aperirentur, numquam utique Scriptura nondum apertis oculis eorum, illis, qui ex praevaricatione patefacti sunt, diceret: “et vidit mulier quia bonum est lignum ad manducandum et gratum oculis ad videndum et speciosum est ad considerandum, et accipiens de ligno manducavit; et dedit viro suo se cum, et manducaverunt. Et aperti sunt oculi amborum”. Quomodo enim, si nondum aperti fuerant ‘oculi amborum’, “vidit mulier quia bonum esset lignum ad manducandum, et quia gratum esset oculis ad videndum”? quibus etiam oculis ‘et speciosum’ fuisse dicitur ‘ad considerandum’.

3.4. But when I hear the voice of my Lord Jesus Christ and understand the power of his goodness, I then turn carefully to what he says: “For judgment I have come into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”⁴° For in sinners, the better set of eyes do not see, but those ones do that are called “the mind of the flesh”⁴¹ and which were opened by the counsel of the serpent. Thus the great work⁴² of our Lord and Savior is that those ones “become blind” who do not see what the good is with the better eyes, but instead who view what is evil with those eyes that were opened by the counsel of the serpent; and those people who had been blinded in the eyes that the persuasion of the serpent opened may see the good things of the Lord through those eyes which Jesus our Savior came to open. For unless the sight of evil things is first closed off, the viewing of good things will not be opened up. In this sense, then, I interpret that statement of the good God, where he said: “Who made the seeing and the blind?”⁴³ This refers to those who saw in accordance with Christ, but blind in accordance with the counsel of the serpent.

Sed ego audiens vocem Domini mei Iesu Christi et virtutem bonitatis eius intelligens ita adverto illud, quod dicit: “in iudicium ego veni in hunc mundum, ut non videntes videant et videntes caeci fiant”, quod in peccatoribus non vident illi oculi, qui meliores sunt, sed hi, qui ‘sensus carnis’ appellantur et qui consilio serpentis aperti sunt. Opus ergo magnificum Salvatoris nostri Domini est, ut hi, qui non vident melioribus oculis, quae bona sunt, sed illis, qui consilio serpentis patefacti sunt, qua mala sunt intuentur, ‘caeci fiant’, et qui caecati fuerint illis oculis, quos persuasio serpentis aperuit, videant bona Domini his oculis, quos Iesus Salvator noster venit aperire. Nisi enim prius malorum visus claudatur, bonorum non patebit intuitus.Sic ergo etiam illud boni Dei dictum accipio, quod dixit: “quis fecit videntem et caecum?”, ‘videntem’ quidem secundum Christum, ‘caecum’ vero secundum consilium serpentis.

3.5. We have reminded you of these things in order that it might become clearer what are the eyes that are closed, and what are the eyes that will be opened; at the same time, in order that what is written in the prophet may be understood from these things: “Seeing you will see and you will not see,”⁴⁴ that we might know by what eyes they see and by which ones those seeing do not see. So it appears that this Ba-laam, in view of the fact that “his eyes had been opened,”⁴⁵ is speaking about himself when he says, `A man truly seeing,” and “the one hearing the words of the Strong One has spoken.’⁴⁶ For by the same arrangement by which some eyes are closed and others are opened, likewise some ears are understood as needing to be closed, and others as needing to be opened. But if someone wants to take these statements also in accordance with history, he can say that in the fact that “Balaam saw that it is good in the sight of the Lord to bless Israel,”⁴⁷ his eyes are shown [p.105] to have been opened and that he had become “a man truly seeing.” For he saw true things that were coming concerning Israel or concerning Jacob. He will also say that he “heard the words of the Strong One” in that, when God came to him and spoke to him in dreams: “Take care⁴⁸ to speak the word that I put into your mouth”;⁴⁹ and this will be the “vision of God that he saw in his dreams.” He will assert that it is by these things that “his eyes were opened,” and he was able to see what he saw. These things concern what Balaam has seemed to prophesy about himself in his preamble,

Haec autem commonuimus, ut evidentius elucesceret, qui sunt oculi, qui claudantur, et qui sunt oculi, qui revelentur; simul ut et illud ex his intelligatur, quod in propheta scriptum est: “videntes videbitis et non videbitis”, ut sciamus, quibus oculis vident et quibus ‘videntes non vident’. Apparet ergo et hunc Balaam pro eo, quod ‘revelati fuerant oculi eius’, dicere de semet ipso: “homo vere videns” et dicere: “dixit audiens verba fortis”. Eodem enim ordine quo alii oculi clauduntur et alii aperiuntur, etiam aures aliae claudendae et aliae aperiendae intelliguntur. Verum si quis haec etiam secundum historiam velit dicta suscipere, potest dicere quia in eo, quod ‘vidit Balaam quia bonum est in conspectu Domini benedicere Istrahel’, ostenduntur ‘revelati oculi eius’ et factus esse ‘homo vere videns’; ‘vera’ enim ‘vidit’, quae futura erant de Istrahel vel Iacob. ‘Audisse’ quoque eum ‘verba fortis’ dicet in eo, cum venit ad eum Deus et dixit ei in somnis: “verbum quod dedero in ore tuo, hoc observa ut loquaris”; et hoc erit ‘visum Dei, quod vidit in somnis’ et per haec ‘revelatos esse oculos eius’ asseret, et quia potuit videre, quae vidit. Haec quidem de his, quae in praefatione sua Balaam in semet ipsum visus est prophetare.

4.1

4.1, Well, let us now see what he says in what follows, He says: “How good are your houses, Jacob, your tabernacles, Israel! [They are] as shady groves, as [those] on the rivers of paradise, and as the tabernacles that the Lord set up, as cedars by the waters.”⁵⁰ With regard to the houses of Jacob that he calls “good,” I do not think that he is praising their earthly residences; for no such thing is recorded to have existed among them that was exceptional beyond the other nations. But let us see whether perhaps this may refer to the fact that the people had been divided up by tribes, and each tribe was divided up by clans. And again, the clans were grouped by relatives, and the relatives by the houses of their families. Then again the houses of families were counted by the number of names, individually, that is, “every male twenty years and older who was able to advance to war.”⁵¹ Perhaps Balaam beheld these houses in the Spirit and he praises and extols them.

4. Nunc iam videamus, quae sunt, quae in consequentibus dicit: “quam bonae” inquit “domus tuae Iacob, tabernacula tua Istrahel! Ut nemora umbrantia, ut paradisi super flumina, et sicut tabernacula, quae fixit Dominus, sicut cedri iuxta aquas”.

‘Bonas’ quas dicit ‘domus Iacob’, non puto quod domicilia eorum terrena collaudet; neque enim tale aliquid fuisse apud eos praeter gentes ceteras memoratur. Sed videamus, ne forte, quoniam populus ‘per tribus’ erat divisus et unaquaeque tribus ‘per plebes’ et iterum plebes ‘per cognationes’ partiebantur et cognationes ‘per domos familiarum’ et rursum domus familiarum ‘per numerum nominum’ et ‘per capita’ numerabantur, hoc est ‘omnis, qui erat a viginti annis et supra, masculus, qui procedere poterat ad bellum’, has ‘domos’ Balaam in spiritu contuens magnificet et extollat.

But the meaning that needs to be contemplated does not lie in these considerations of the letter alone, for indeed, what Balaam says, “he speaks, having taken up his parable.’⁵² So let us also listen to what is said in parables,⁵³ For if you consider these divisions and arrangements [ordinesj of peoples that will be accomplished at the resurrection of the people of the true Israel, when “each will rise in his own order [ordine]”;⁵⁴ if you are able to view those tribes and clans and relatives, in which the relationship is not so much of flesh and blood as of mind and spirit, then you will understand “how good are the houses of Jacob and how good are the tabernacles of Israel.”

Sed non in his solius litterae contuenda sententia est, quoniam quidem, quae loquitur Balaam, ‘adsumpta parabola sua loquitur’. ‘In parabolis’ ergo et nos, quod dicitur, audiamus. Si enim consideres divisiones illas et ordines populorum, qui in resurrectione habebuntur in populo veri Istrahel, quando ‘unusquisque resurget in suo ordine’, si potes intueri ‘tribus’ illas et ‘plebes’ et ‘cognationes’, in quibus non tam carnis et sanguinis est cognatio quam mentis et animi, tunc intelliges, ‘quam bonae sint domus Iacob et quam bona tabernacula Istrahel’.

4.2. Now if you also inquire about the difference between “houses” and “tabernacles” and between `Jacob” and “Israel,”⁵⁵ a certain distinction ought to be equally maintained, such as the following. A house is a thing that has foundations, it is stable and fenced’off by definite end points. Tabernacles, on the other hand, serve as shelter for those who are always on the way, always moving, and who have not found the end point of their journey. Therefore, Jacob represents those who are perfect in their deeds and work; but Israel stands for those who are zealous in their pursuit of wisdom and knowledge,⁵⁶

Quod si et differentiam domorum et tabernaculorum requiras et Iacob atque Istrahel diversitatem, etiam de hoc talis quaedam habenda distinctio est. Domus res est fundata ac stabilis et certis terminis saepta, tabernacula vero sunt habitacula quaedam eorum, qui semper in via sunt et semper ambulant nec itineris sui terminum reppererunt. Igitur Iacob habendus est in eorum personis, qui in actibus et opere perfecti sunt; Istrahel vero illi intelligendi sunt, qui studium erga sapientiam ac scientiam gerunt.

Since, therefore, training in works and deeds will one day conclude in a definite end point—for the perfection of works is not without an end—when anyone fulfills all that he was supposed to do and reaches the end of the perfection of works, that very perfection of works will be called his “good house.’⁵⁷ But there is no end for those who are energetic in their pursuit of wisdom and knowledge—for what limit will there be to God’s wisdom? For the more one approaches it, the more he will find greater depths, and the more one has investigated, the more he will discover ineffable and incomprehensible things. Indeed God’s wisdom is “incomprehensible and beyond reckoning.”S⁸ On that account, for those who undertake the journey of God’s wisdom, he does not praise their houses—for they have not reached the end—but he expresses admiration of the tabernacles in which they are always on the move and making progress. And the more progress they make, the [p.106] more the road to be traveled is lengthened for them and extends into the measureless. And for this reason, beholding through the Spirit these stages of their progress, he names these things the “tabernacles of Israel.”

Quia ergo operum gestorum que exercitia certo fine clauduntur - neque enim sine fine est operum perfectio - ubi adimpleverit quis omnia, quae facere debuit, et ad finem perfectionis operum venerit, perfectio ipsa operum ‘bona domus’ eius esse dicetur. Eorum vero, qui sapientiae et scientiae operam navant, quoniam finis nullus est - quis enim terminus Dei sapientiae erit? ubi quanto amplius quis accesserit, tanto profundiora inveniet, et quanto quis scrutatus fuerit, tanto ea ineffabilia et incomprehensibilia deprehendet; incomprehensibilis enim et inaestimabilis est Dei sapientia -, idcirco eorum, qui iter sapientiae Dei incedunt, non domos laudat - non enim pervenerunt ad finem -, sed ‘tabernacula’ miratur, in quibus semper ambulant et semper proficiunt, et quanto magis proficiunt, tanto iis proficiendi via augetur et in immensum tenditur, et ideo istos ipsos profectus eorum per spiritum contuens ‘tabernacula’ ea nominat ‘Istrahel’.

4.3. And truly, if someone has made some progress in knowledge and has acquired some experience in such matters, he really knows that when he has come to some idea and recognition of spiritual mysteries, his soul tarries there, as it were, in a kind of tabernacle. But when, on the basis of these things it has discovered, it again fathoms other things and advances to other understandings, it picks up its tabernacle from there, so to speak, and heads for the higher things.⁵⁹ And there it establishes a seat for its mind, fixed in the stability of the meanings.

Et vere si quis scientiae cepit aliquos profectus et experimenti aliquid in talibus sumpsit, scit profecto quod, ubi ad aliquam ventum fuerit theoriam et agnitionem mysteriorum spiritalium, ibi anima quasi in quodam tabernaculo demoratur. Cum vero ex his, quae repperit, alia rursus rimatur et ad alios proficit intellectus, inde quasi elevato tabernaculo tendit ad superiora et ibi collocat animi sedem sensuum stabilitate confixam,

And once again from there, on the basis of these things, it finds other spiritual meanings, which doubtless are logical inferences that have come to light by the previously apprehended meanings. And in this way, always “striving for what is ahead,”⁶⁰ the soul seems to advance by means of tabernacles, as it were. For there is never a time when the soul that has been set on fire by the spark of knowledge can sink into leisure and take a rest, but it is always summoned from the good to the better, and again from the better to the superior.

et inde iterum ex ipsis alios invenit spiritales sensus, quos priorum sine dubio sensuum consequentia patefecerit, et ita semper ‘se ad priora extendens’ tabernaculis quibusdam videtur incedere. Numquam est enim, quando anima scientiae igniculo succensa otiari possit et quiescere, sed semper a bonis ad meliora et iterum ad superiora a melioribus provocatur.

4.4. Thus Balaam has very pleasingly and beautifully described this journey to the wisdom of God, when he says: “As shady groves and as [those] on the rivers of paradise, and as the tabernacles that the Lord set up, as cedars by the waters.”⁶¹ For those who enter this road, enter through “shady groves”; for the groves are shady for them, the whole assembly of the just and the choir of the holy prophets. For under the shade of the meanings that they find in those writings, their souls are cooled, and by walking in their teachings through the darkness⁶² of the groves, so to speak, they are delighted. They even find “paradises on the rivers,” which are similar to and related to that paradise in which is “the tree of life:”⁶³ In fact, we can interpret the rivers as referring either to the Gospels and apostolic Scriptures, or even to the help that angels and heavenly powers give to souls of this sort.⁶⁴ For these souls are irrigated and flooded by them and nourished in all knowledge and recognition of heavenly things. Granted that both our Savior is a river “who makes glad the city of God,”⁶⁵ and the Holy Spirit is not only himself a river, but he is even given to those in whom “rivers proceed from their belly,”⁶⁶ and God the Father says: “They have abandoned me, the spring of living water,”⁶⁷ that is to say, it is from that spring that these rivers proceed.⁶⁸

Hoc ergo sapientiae Dei iter grate satis et cum multo decore descripsit dicens: “ut nemora umbrantia et ut paradisi super flumina, et sicut tabernacula, quae fixit Dominus, sicut cedri iuxta aquas”. Qui enim incedunt hanc viam, per ‘nemora umbrantia’ incedunt; ‘nemora’ enim sunt iis ‘umbrantia’ omnis iustorum coetus et sanctorum prophetarum chorus. Sub umbra enim sensuum, quos apud illos scriptos inveniunt, refrigerantur animae ipsorum et in doctrinis eorum quasi incedentes per opaca nemorum delectantur. Inveniunt isti etiam ‘paradisos super flumina’ similes et cognatos illi paradiso, in quo ‘lignum vitae’ est. Flumina vero possumus vel scripturas evangelicas atque apostolicas accipere vel etiam angelorum et coelestium virtutum erga huiusmodi animas adiutoria; rigantur enim ab illis et inundantur atque ad omnem scientiam et agnitionem rerum coelestium nutriuntur; quamvis et Salvator noster fluvius sit, qui ‘laetificat civitatem Dei’; et Spiritus sanctus non solum ipse fluvius sit, sed et his, quibus datus fuerit, ‘flumina de ventre eorum procedant’, et Deus pater dicat: “me dereliquerunt fontem aquae vivae”, ex quo scilicet fonte ‘flumina’ ista procedunt’.

4.5, And so, when they have been flooded by these rivers, the tabernacles of Israel become tabernacles “like those that the Lord set up.”⁶⁹ But the attentive hearer might be troubled by the present words which mention two kinds of tabernacles. For it says: “How good are your houses, Jacob, your tabernacles, Israel! They are like shady groves, and like [those] on the rivers of paradise.”⁷⁰ And he again compares the tabernacles with tabernacles and says: “And they are like the tabernacles that the Lord set up.”⁷¹ So, in addition to what we just proposed, another explanation can be received. Thus we could say that Jacob’s house is the law, and the tabernacles of Israel are the prophets. For he does not praise Jacob himself, but his houses, nor does he praise Israel itself, but its tabernacles. And he praises these things at that time “when his eyes have been opened.”⁷² For as long as “a veil was placed over the reading”⁷³ of the law and the prophets, they do not seem to be good tabernacles or praiseworthy houses. But when “the veil is removed,” and one begins to understand that the law, as well as the prophets, “is [p.107] spiritual,”⁷⁴ at that time Jacob’s houses become good and admirable; and at that time Israel’s tabernacles will be worthy of admiration, when you have removed the “letter that kills” and begin to perceive from these things “the life-giving Spirit.”⁷⁵

His igitur inundata fluminibus ‘tabernacula Istrahel’ fiunt tabernacula, ‘sicut’ sunt illa, ‘quae fixit Dominus’. Sed intentum fortassis movere poterit auditorem quod duas quasdam species tabernaculorum praesens sermo commemorat. Ait enim: “quam bonae domus tuae Iacob, tabernacula tua Istrahel! Ut nemora umbrantia, et ut paradisi super flumina”, et rursum tabernacula tabernaculis comparat et dicit: “et sicut tabernacula, quae fixit Dominus”. Potest ergo et alia post illas, quas supra protulimus, recipi expositio, ut dicamus ‘domus Iacob’ esse legem et ‘tabernacula Istrahel’ prophetas. Potest ergo et alia post illas, quas supra protulimus, recipi expositio, ut dicamus ‘domus Iacob’ esse legem et ‘tabernacula Istrahel’ prophetas. Non enim ipsum Iacob, sed ‘domus’ eius laudat, nec ipsum Istrahel, sed ‘tabernacula’ eius et tunc ea laudat, cum ‘revelati sunt oculi eius’. Quamdiu enim ‘velamen positum est super lectionem’ legis et prophetarum, non videntur bona tabernacula nec laudabiles domus. Ubi autem ‘ablatum fuerit velamen’ et intelligi coeperit ‘lex’ quia ‘spiritalis est et prophetae, tunc ‘bonae’ et mirabiles ‘domus Iacob’; et tunc admiranda erunt ‘tabernacula Istrahel’, cum amota ‘littera, quae occidit’, ‘vivificantem’ ex iis percipere ‘spiritum’ coeperis.

4.6. It can still be understood in another way. He seems to be giving equal praise to the bodies together with the souls of this people who believe and have been perfected, whom Christ has gathered from the nations, The phrase “Jacob’s house” would refer to their bodies, just as it is read in a certain little book⁷⁶ that Israel is Jacob’s house, that is, his body is called Jacob and his soul is called Israel, So likewise also the bodies of the perfect may be called praiseworthy houses. For Jacob is a praiseworthy body, when it is made beautiful by continence and chastity, and sometimes even by martyrdom. In fact the tabernacles can be applied to perfect souls for whom even the name of Israel is befitting, which derives from “seeing God.”

Potest adhuc et alio modo intelligi, ut populi credentis et perfecti huius, qui a Christo ex gentibus congregatus est, corpora simul laudari videantur et animae, et ‘Iacob’ quidem ‘domus’ de corporibus dicatur, sicut et in libello quodam legitur quia Iacob domus sit Istrahel, hoc est corpus eius Iacob dicatur et anima Istrahel. Similiter ergo et perfectorum quorumque corpora laudabiles domus esse dicantur. Iacob est enim corpus laudabile, cum continentia et castitate, nonnumquam autem etiam cum martyrio decoratur. ‘Tabernacula’ vero ad animas perfectas referri possunt, quibus et nomen a videndo Deum convenit ‘Istrahel’.

4.7. But it says that these tabernacles are “like shady groves, and like [those] on the rivers of paradise, and like the tabernacles which the Lord set up.”⁷⁷ Thus he is showing that there are other tabernacles that the Lord has set up to which the tabernacles of Israel are similar, It is befitting that I transcend this world to see what are the tabernacles that the Lord has set up. Doubtless they are the ones that he showed to Moses, when he built the tabernacle in the desert, saying to him: “Behold,” he says, “you will make everything according to the type that was shown to you on the mountain:”⁷⁸ So, in imitation of those tabernacles that the Lord set up, Israel should make tabernacles, and each of us should get ready to construct his own tabernacle. This is why it does not seem accidental to me that, on the one hand, Peter, Andrew and the sons of Zebedee were found to be fishermen by trade,⁷⁹ whereas Paul was by trade a “maker of tabernacles.”S⁰ And since they, when called, are converted from the trade of catching fish into becoming fishers of men, when the Lord says: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men,”⁸¹ there is no doubt but that Paul too, since he himself was also “called an apostle”⁸² through my Lord Jesus Christ, was changed by a similar transformation of his trade. Thus, just as they went from being fishers of fish to fishers of men, so also he was transformed from making earthly tabernacles to constructing heavenly tabernacles.

Ista autem “tabernacula” sunt, inquit “sicut nemora umbrantia, et sicut paradisi super flumina, et sicut tabernacula, quae fixit Dominus”. Alia ergo tabernacula ostendit esse, ‘quae fixit Dominus’, quibus sint similia ‘tabernacula Istrahel’. Extra hunc mundum me progredi convenit, ut videam, quae sint ‘tabernacula, quae fixit Dominus’. Illa nimirum sunt, quae ostendit Moysi, cum tabernaculum construeret in deserto, dicens ad eum: “vide” inquit “facies omnia secundum typum, qui ostensus est tibi in monte”. Ad imitationem ergo istorum tabernaculorum, ‘quae fixit Dominus’, Istrahel debet facere tabernacula et unusquisque nostrum expedire et fabricari tabernaculum suum. Unde mihi videtur non fortuitu contigisse, ut ‘Petrus’ quidem et ‘Andreas’ et ‘filii Zebedaei’ arte ‘piscatores’ invenirentur, Paulus vero ‘arte faber tabernaculorum’. Et quia illi vocati ab arte capiendorum piscium mutantur et fiunt ‘piscatores hominum’, dicente Domino: “venite post me, et faciam vos piscatores hominum”, non dubium quin et Paulus, quia et ipse per Dominum meum Iesum Christum vocatus Apostolus est, simili artis quae transformatione mutatus sit, ut, sicut illi ex piscatoribus piscium ‘piscatores hominum’ facti sunt, ita et iste a faciendis tabernaculis terrenis ad coelestia tabernacula construenda translatus sit.

For he built heavenly tabernacles while teaching everyone the way of salvation, showing them the journey of the blessed mansions in heaven. Paul also makes tabernacles when, by building churches “from Jerusalem in a circuit to Illyricum,” he “fulfills the gospel of God “⁸³ And so he too makes tabernacles in the likeness of the heavenly tabernacles, “which God showed Moses on the mountain:”⁸⁴

Construit enim coelestia tabernacula docens unumquemque viam salutis et beatarum in coelestibus mansionum iter ostendens. Facit tabernacula Paulus et cum ‘ab Hierusalem in circuitu usque ad Illyricum replet Evangelium Dei’ ecclesias construendo; et hoc modo facit et ipse tabernacula ad similitudinem tabernaculorum coelestium, ‘quae ostendit Deus in monte Moysi’.

4.8, Moreover, each of us, if only we have come out of Egypt and dwell in the desert, should dwell in a tabernacle and celebrate a feast day in tabernacles. For just as there was a commemoration of the departure from Egypt by means of the Passover and unleavened bread, ⁸⁵ so also there was a memory of the commemoration in the desert by means of the tabernacles; for our fathers dwelled in tabernacles in the desert.

Sed et unusquisque nostrum, si qui tamen exivit de Aegypto et habitat in deserto, in tabernaculo debet habitare et diem festum in tabernaculis agere. Sicut enim commemoratio fit egressionis ex Aegypto per ‘pascha’ et ‘azyma’, ita et commorationis in deserto fit memoria per tabernacula; in tabernaculis enim habitaverunt patres nostri in deserto.

But what should these tabernacles be made of except the words of the law and the prophets, the words of the Psalms and all that is contained in the law? For when the soul makes progress from what is written, and always “forgetting the things that are behind, it stretches itself forth to what is ahead,”⁸⁶ and moving forward from the lower place,⁸⁷ it grows and advances to what is higher, by an increase in the [p.108] virtues, And by that very change of stages, it will deservedly be said to dwell in tabernacles. But consider if these “tabernacles that the Lord has set up” ⁸⁸ are not also those that the Savior mentions in the Gospel when he says: “Make for yourselves friends from the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when you are in need, they may receive you into eternal tabernacles.”⁸⁹ But they are said to be “set up”⁹⁰ by God insofar as they are not “carried around by every wind of doctrine.”⁹¹

Unde autem fieri oportet ista tabernacula, nisi ex verbis legis et prophetarum, ex sermonibus Psalmorum et omnium, quae continentur in lege? Cum enim ex his, quae scripta sunt, proficit anima et semper ea quidem, ‘quae retro sunt, obliviscens ad ea, quae in ante sunt, se extendit’ et de loco inferiore progrediens crescit et proficit ad superiora, ex augmento virtutum et ex ipsa immutatione profectuum in tabernaculis merito dicetur habitare. Vide autem, si non sunt ‘tabernacula, quae fixit Deus’, etiam illa, quae Salvator commemorat in evangelio dicens: “facite vobis amicos de mammona iniquitatis, ut, cum defeceritis, recipiant vos in aeterna tabernacula”. ‘Fixa’ autem dicuntur ‘a Deo’, quasi quae non ‘circumferantur omni vento doctrinae’.

4.9. But these tabernacles are also “like the cedars near the waters.”⁹² Here he is not speaking of those cedars in which blameworthy pride is rebuked,⁹³ but the cedars of God which sustain “the branches of that vine that was transferred from Egypt,” and in which that fruit rests “whose shade covered the mountains.”⁹⁴ If you have understood how much rest the journey of wisdom has, how much grace, how much sweetness, do not hesitate, do not be negligent, but undertake this journey, and do not shrink back from the solitude of the desert. For to you who dwell in tabernacles of this sort there will come even heavenly manna, and “you will eat the bread of angels.”⁹⁵ Only begin, and as we have said, do not let the solitude of the desert frighten you. Even angels will come quickly into your company,⁹⁶ which I think are indicated under the form of cedars,

Sunt autem adhuc tabernacula ista et “sicut cedri iuxta aquas”. ‘Cedros’ hic non illas dicit, in quibus culpabilis notatur elatio, sed ‘cedros Dei’, quae suscipiunt ‘vitis’ illius, ‘quae ex Aegypto translata est, palmites’, et in quibus requiescit fructus ille, ‘cuius umbra operuit montes’. Si intellexisti, quantam requiem habeat iter sapientiae, quantum gratiae quantum que dulcedinis, noli dissimulare, noli negligere, sed aggredere hoc iter nec eremi solitudinem perhorrescas. Habitanti enim tibi in huiusmodi tabernaculis occurret et manna coeleste et ‘angelorum panem manducabis’. Incipe tantum nec te perterreat, ut diximus, solitudo deserti. Cito in consortium tuum etiam angeli venient, quos sub specie cedrorum arbitror indicatos.

5.1. But now let us see what he prophesies about Christ as well, For it is of him that he says: “A man will come forth from his seed, and he will rule over many nations; and his kingdom will be exalted over Gog, and his kingdom will increase. God led him from Egypt, his glory is as that of a unicorn.”⁹⁷ Therefore it is Christ who came forth from the seed of Israel according to the flesh 9⁸ There is no need to explain how he rules over the nations, especially for the one who reads what the Father said to him: “Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession.”⁹⁹ But what is the meaning of these words: “His kingdom will be exalted over Gοg”^?loo Gog translates as “over the roofs,” and it is recorded in that passage not, as it is thought, as the name of some nation, but, as in some other passages, the very Hebrew word has been left untranslated, and for this reason it seems to have been spoken as if it referred to some nation. Consequently, the meaning of the statement is this: “and his kingdom will be exalted over the roofs, and his kingdom will increase.”

5. Sed nunc videamus, quid etiam de Christo prophetet.Ipse est enim, de quo dicit: “exibit homo de semine eius, et dominabitur gentibus multis; et exaltabitur Gog regnum eius, et crescet regnum eius. Deus deduxit eum ex Aegypto, sicut gloria unicornis ei”. Christus ergo est, qui ‘exiit de semine Istrahel’ secundum carnem, qui quomodo ‘gentibus dominetur’, expositione non indiget, maxime qui legat dictum ei a patre: “pete a me, et dabo tibi gentes haereditatem tuam, et possessionem tuam terminos terrae”. Quid est autem, quod ait: “exaltabitur Gog regnum eius”? Gog super tecta interpretatur et in loco isto non pro gentis alicuius nomine, ut putatur, positum est, sed, ut in aliis nonnullis, ipse sermo Hebraeus non interpretatus relictus est, et ob hoc quasi de gente aliqua dictum videtur. Est ergo sermonis consequentia talis: et ‘exaltabitur super tecta regnum eius, et crescet regnum eius’.

5,2. Now “to be exalted over the roofs” is spoken about the perfection of believers, but “to increase” refers to the multitudes. Thus, in those who are perfect, the kingdom of Christ is exalted “over the roofs,” that is, even over those who are in the upper regions and who dwell higher up. For there are perhaps some even in the heavens, beyond whom they advance further, and those who are in the kingdom of Christ are exalted more highly. And therefore, I think, even the Savior himself said: “Let not the one who is on the roof descend to take anything from his house,”¹⁰¹ He was warning that those who have come to the highest perfection should not again descend to the lowly and base things of this world, which are presently called a “house,” Moreover, the words: “What you have heard in the ears, proclaim it over the roofs,”¹⁰² no less has this in view. In this way, then, “his kingdom is exalted over Gig, and his kingdom increases;”¹⁰³ For it increases when the churches are multiplied and the number of believers grows, and the kingdom of Christ increases to such an extent “until the Father places all his enemies under his feet”; and he “destroys the last enemy, death,”¹⁰⁴

‘Exaltari’ autem ‘super tecta’ de perfectione credentium dicitur, crescere autem ad multitudines refertur. In his ergo, qui perfecti sunt, ‘super tecta exaltatur’ regnum Christi, id est super eos etiam, qui in supernis sunt et in superioribus habitant. Sunt enim fortassis aliqui etiam in coelestibus, a quibus plus proficiant et altius exaltentur hi, qui in regno Christi sunt.Et ideo, credo, etiam ipse Salvator dicebat: “qui in tecto est, non descendat tollere aliquid de domo”, monens, ut hi, qui ad excelsam perfectionem venerunt, non iterum ad mundi huius, qui nunc ‘domus’ appellatur, humilia et abiecta descendant. Sed et illud, quod ait: “quod audistis in aures, praedicate super tecta”, ad hoc nihilominus respicit. Sic ergo ‘exaltatur super Gog regnum eius, et crescit regnum eius’. ‘Crescit’ enim, dum multiplicantur ecclesiae et fidelium numerus augetur et in tantum ‘crescit’ regnum Christi, ‘usque quo ponat pater omnes inimicos eius sub pedibus eius’, sed et ‘novissimum inimicum destruat mortem’.

6.1. After this it is written, still concerning [p.109] Christ, that “God led him out of Egypt.”¹⁰⁵ This seems to have been fulfilled at that time when, after the death of Herod, he is called back from Egypt. The Gospel indicates this when it says: “Out of Egypt I have called my son,”¹⁰⁶ To some these words seem to have been taken from this passage [in Numbers] and were inserted in the Gospels, but to others they seem to come from the prophet Hosea.¹⁰⁷ However, it can also be understood as an allegory, that after he went to the Egypt of this world, the Father led him and took him to himself, so that he could make a way for those who were to ascend to God from the Egypt of this world.¹⁰⁸

6. Post haec scriptum est adhuc de Christo quia: “Deus deduxit eum ex Aegypto”, quod in eo completum videtur, ubi post mortem Herodis revocatur de Aegypto, et designat evangelium dicens: “ex Aegypto vocavi filium meum”. Qui sermo quibusdam ex hoc loco assumptus videtur et evangeliis insertus, aliis autem de Osee propheta. Potest tamen et secundum allegoriam intelligi quia, posteaquam venit ad Aegyptum mundi huius, ‘deduxit eum’ pater et assumpsit ad semet ipsum, ut viam faceret his, qui de Aegypto mundi huius adscensuri erant ad Deum.

“And his glory is like that of a unicorn,”¹⁰⁹ Indeed, by deposing all the kingdoms of the demons, Christ founded his own unique fun um] kingdom, as it were with the glory of a true uni-corn. For we have shown that a horn [cornu] is often the name given to a kingdom. It says, still speaking of the same thing: “He consumes the nations of his enemies, and will suck the marrow of their fat,”¹¹⁰ He himself consumes the nations, it says, which his enemies were possessing. And when the power of the enemy was destroyed, he will suck the marrow of their fat, when he thins out every fatty and carnal meaning from these and converts it into a spiritual understanding. Now the fact that the Scriptures consider “fat” to be a blameworthy condition will be indicated by what it is written: “The heart of this people has become fat,”¹¹¹ and elsewhere: “He was sated and grew fat, and the beloved one became recalcitrant,”¹¹²

“Et gloria unicornis ei”. Omnia enim daemonum regna deiciens Christus unum suum regnum, tamquam veri ‘unicornis’, fundavit in gloria. Cornu enim pro regno saepe docuimus nominari. “Edet” inquit, de eodem adhuc dicens, “gentes inimicorum suorum, et crassitudines eorum emedullabit”. ‘Gentes’ ait, quas ‘inimici sui’ possidebant, ipse ‘edet’ destructa virtute inimici et ‘crassitudines eorum emedullabit’, cum omnem de his sensum crassum et carnalem extenuat et convertit ad intelligentiam spiritalem. Quod autem crassitudo culpabiliter in scripturis habeatur, indicio erit illud, quod scriptum est: “incrassatum est cor populi huius”, et alibi: “satiatus est, et incrassatus est, et recalcitravit dilectus”.

6.2. Thus he consumes nations and has as food those who believe in him.¹¹³ This is what he himself says in the Gospel: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me.”“¹¹⁴ His will, assuredly, was that the nations be converted to the faith. But if, as we have taught above, fat is considered blameworthy, then thin, as the contrary, should be considered praiseworthy. For also “the spirit of wisdom,” who is called intelligible, holy, only-begotten and manifold, is likewise declared to be thin [subtilis].¹¹⁵

‘Edet’ ergo ‘gentes’ et cibum habet eos, ‘qui credunt in eum’, sicut et ipse dicit in evangelio: “meus cibus est, ut faciam voluntatem eius, qui me misit”. Cuius utique voluntas haec erat, ut gentes converterentur ad fidem. Quod si, ut superius docuimus, crassitudo culpabilis habetur, e contrario subtilitas laudabilis habenda est, quia et ‘spiritus sapientiae’, qui ‘intelligibilis’ et ‘sanctus’ et ‘unigenitus’ et ‘multiplex’ dicitur, similiter et ‘subtilis’ esse perhibetur.

“And with his darts he will pierce the en-emy.”¹¹⁶ His darts are his words by which he either conquered the devil, or by which even now he overcomes and transfixes all his enemies and those contradicting him. For all who sin are his enemy, so long as they are sinning. But if one should listen to the words of God, and by recognizing one’s sins should be transfixed and pierced by these darts and converted to repentance, the one pierced through by the words of truth will likewise be said to have been transfixed by his darts.

“Et iaculis suis sagittabit inimicum”. ‘Iacula’ eius verba eius sunt, quibus vel diabolum vicit vel omnes inimicos et contradicentes sibi etiam nunc superat et configit; omnis enim qui peccat, inimicus eius est, dum peccat. Si autem audiat verba Dei et agnoscens peccata sua configatur ex iis et compungatur atque ad poenitentiam convertatur, veritatis sermone terebratus etiam ipse dicetur ‘iaculis’ eius esse confixus.

6.3. But after this Balaam also refers to the dispensation of his passion and says: “Lying down, he rested like a lion and like the whelp of a lion; who will rouse him? “¹¹⁷ He rested like a lion when he was put on the cross and “stripped the principalities and powers, triumphing over them by the wood of the cross,”¹¹⁸ but as the whelp of a lion, when he rises again from the sleep of death. Now the fact that he is compared simultaneously to a lion and to the whelp of a lion can further be understood as said for the following reason: that in those who are perfect, the name lion is given, but in those who are raw recruits and only starting out, whelp of a lion is named. Now as for these words: “Who will rouse him?” this is said because sometimes he is said to have been raised by the Father, sometimes he even claims that he himself “raises the temple of his own body” after three days.¹¹⁹ Rightly, therefore, he indicates here the disposition of one who is, so to speak, asking a question.

Sed post haec etiam de ipsa passionis dispensatione commemorat et dicit: “recumbens requievit ut leo et ut catulus leonis; quis excitabit eum?” ‘Requievit ut leo’, cum in cruce positus ‘principatus et potestates exuit, et triumphavit eas in ligno crucis’; ‘ut catulus’ autem ‘leonis’, cum resurgit a somno mortis. Quod autem ‘leoni’ simul et ‘catulo leonis’ comparatur, potest adhuc et propter hoc intelligi, ut in his, qui perfecti sunt, ‘leo’, in his vero, qui incipientes sunt et rudes, ‘catulus leonis’ nominetur. Quod vero ait: “quis suscitabit eum?”, idcirco, quia nunc a patre dicitur suscitatus, nunc etiam ipse ‘templum’ corporis sui ‘post triduum’ suscitare se dicit; et merito in hoc quasi percontantis designatur affectus.

6.4. “Those who bless you have been blessed, and those who curse you have been cursed,”¹²⁰ It is certain that those who bless Christ are [p.110] blessed and have been received into the communion of the Father's blessing; but those who curse him are cursed. For if you consider that people who curse Christ, one even finds it to be a lamentably cursed people. For what else could come to pass for those who curse Wisdom, who curse Truth, who curse Life,¹²¹ except that they lie there banished and exiled from all these good things? For Christ is all these things; and the one who curses Christ, by cursing all these things, as it were, has been condemned by an eternal curse.

“Qui benedicunt tibi, benedicti sunt, et qui maledicunt tibi, maledicti sunt”. Certum est quod ‘benedicentes’ Christo ‘benedicti sunt’ et in communionem paternae benedictionis assumpti; ‘qui’ autem ‘maledicunt’ ei, ‘maledicti sunt’. Si enim ad populum istum respicias, qui maledicit Christo, etiam lacrimabiliter invenitur esse maledictus. Quid enim evenire aliud possit his, qui maledicunt sapientiae, qui maledicunt veritati, qui maledicunt vitae, nisi ut ab his omnibus bonis extorres et exules iaceant?

6.5. Nevertheless, I think that it is not merely the one who brings forth words of cursing against him who curses Christ, but also the one who, with the name of Christian, acts evilly and behaves basely, and by means of his shameful words and actions causes “his name to be blasphemed among the nations”;¹²² just as, on the contrary, that one should not be considered to bless who blesses the Lord with words alone, but who causes everyone to bless the name of the Lord by means of his actions, life and character.

Haec enim omnia Christus est; et qui maledicit Christo, tamquam his omnibus maledicens perpetua maledictione damnatus est. Ego tamen puto quod non ille solum maledicat Christo, qui sermonem adversum eum maledicum profert, sed et ille, qui sub nomine Christiani male agit et turpiter conversatur et inhonestis vel verbis vel actibus suis facit ‘nomen eius blasphemari inter gentes’, sicut e contrario non ille, qui sermonibus solis Dominum benedicit, ipse benedicere putandus est, sed qui actibus et vita et moribus suis facit ab omnibus nomen Domini benedici.

And what Balaam indicates by his third prophecy will be fulfilled more in this way, that “those who bless” Christ “will be blessed, and those who curse him will be cursed,”¹²³ For these reasons, let us by all means be on guard against blaspheming the name of Christ through our deeds and actions. Instead let us act in a way that we deserve to be sharers of his blessings. “To him be the blessing and glory in the ages of ages.”¹²⁴ Amen.

Et in istis magis complebitur, quod tertia prophetia Balaam designat, quia ‘benedicentes’ Christo ‘benedicentur et maledicentes ei maledicti erunt’. Propter quod omnimodis caveamus, ne per opera et actus nostros Christi ‘nomen blasphemetur’, sed magis id agamus, ut de benedictionibus eius participes esse mereamur. Ipsi ‘benedictio et gloria in saecula saeculorum’. Amen.