Letters & Polemics (CSEL) 15 part 30/37

The name too of the elder, who was called Er, is interpreted 'of skin'; with such tunics were the first men clothed, sent forth from paradise as the penalty of their condemnation. But the name of the next, who was called Onan, is interpreted 'their sorrow.' Whose? none other than of those to whom he profits nothing, though he has that whereby he might profit, and wastes it in the earth. Moreover the evil of a life taken away, which the skin signifies, is greater than of a life not helped, which their sorrow signifies. God nevertheless is said to have slain them both: whereby it is figured that He took away the kingdom from such men. But the third son of Judah, in that he is not joined to that woman, signifies the time from which kings began no longer to come to the people of the Jews from the tribe of Judah.

And therefore he was indeed a son of Judah, but Tamar did not receive him as husband, because it was the same tribe of Judah, yet no one from among that people any longer reigned. Whence also his name, that is Shelah, is interpreted 'his sending away.' To this signification, indeed, holy and righteous men do not pertain, who, although they lived at that time, yet belong to the New Testament, to which by prophesying they were knowingly useful, such as David was. At that time, indeed, when Judaea had already begun to have no kings from the tribe of Judah, Herod the Elder is not to be reckoned among its kings as a husband of Tamar; for he was a foreigner, nor did he cleave to her by that sacrament of the mystical anointing as by a conjugal covenant, but ruled as it were an outsider:

which power he had received from the Romans and from Caesar. So too his sons the tetrarchs, one of whom was Herod, called by his father's name, who agreed with Pilate in the Lord's passion. These foreigners, then, were so far not counted in that mystical kingdom of the Jews, that the Jews themselves publicly cried out, gnashing their teeth against Christ: 'We have no king but Caesar.' Nor was even this true except in that universal dominion of the Romans; for indeed Caesar was a king, though not properly of the Jews; but that they might deny Christ and flatter him, they therefore condemned themselves by such an utterance. At that time, then, when the kingdom had already failed from the tribe of Judah, Christ, our true Saviour and Lord, was to come, who would do no harm and profit much.

For so had it been prophesied: 'The prince shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until He come to whom it has been promised; and He Himself is the expectation of the nations.' Already at that time all the teaching authority also of the Jews, and the mystical anointing itself—whence they were called 'christs'—had failed, according to the prophecy of Daniel. Then came He for whom it was reserved, the expectation of the nations, and the Holy of Holies was anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows. For He was born in the time of Herod the Elder, but He suffered under the tetrarchy of the younger Herod.

Of Him, therefore, coming to the sheep which had perished of the house of Israel, Judah himself bore the figure, when he went to shear his sheep at Timnah, which is interpreted 'failing.' For already the prince had failed from Judah, and all the teaching authority and anointing of the Jews, so that He might come for whom it was reserved. And he went with his shepherd of Adullam, whose name was Hirah; and Adullamite is interpreted 'testimony in water.' With this testimony plainly the Lord came, having indeed a testimony greater than John's, yet for the sake of the weak sheep He used this testimony in water. For Hirah too, which was the name of that shepherd, is interpreted 'the vision of my brother.'

John indeed altogether saw his brother, a brother according to the seed of Abraham, according to the kinship of Mary His mother and Elizabeth his own mother, and the same as his Lord and his God, because, as he himself says, 'of His fullness he received.' He saw indeed, and therefore among those born of women none greater than he arose, because out of all who foretold Christ he himself saw what many righteous men and prophets desired to see and saw not; he saluted Him from the womb, he knew Him more perfectly by the dove, and therefore, as an Adullamite, he truly bore testimony in water. And the Lord came to shear the sheep, that is, to unburden them of laborious loads, so that of these the teeth of the Church, praised in the Song of Songs, might be as a flock of shorn ewes.

Now let Tamar change her garb; for Tamar is also interpreted 'one who changes.' But in her let the name of bitterness altogether remain—not of that bitterness in which she ministered gall to the Lord, but of that in which Peter wept bitterly; for Judah too in Latin is 'confession.' Let bitterness therefore be mingled with confession, that true penitence may be prefigured. By this penitence the Church, established among all nations, is made fruitful. For it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. For the harlot's garb itself is the confession of sins. For Tamar already bears the type of the Church called forth from the nations.

She sits in this garb at the gate of Enan or Enaim, which is interpreted 'fountains.' For she ran, like a hart, to reach the fountains of waters, to come to the seed of Abraham; there she is made fruitful by one who does not recognize her, because of her it was foretold: 'A people whom I knew not served Me.' She received in secret the ring, the necklace, and the staff: by the calling she is sealed, by justification she is adorned, by glorification she is exalted. 'For whom He predestined, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified.' But these things, as I said, are still in secret, where the conception too of holy fruitfulness takes place.

Now the promised kid is sent, as to a harlot—the kid being the reproach of sin—by the same Adullamite, as it were rebuking and saying: 'Generation of vipers.' But the reproach of sin does not find her whom the bitterness of confession has changed. Afterward, however, by the now public signs of the ring, the necklace, and the staff, she overcame the Jews who judged rashly, whose person Judah himself already bore, who to this day say that this is not the people of Christ nor that we have the seed of Abraham; but when the most certain documents of our calling, justification, and glorification are brought forth, they will without doubt be confounded and will confess that we, rather than they, have been justified.

I would examine and discuss these things more thoroughly and, as it were, member by member and joint by joint, so far as the Lord aided my purpose, were I not restrained from this more laborious diligence by the care of finishing this work, which is already more prolix than I would wish. Now with what brevity I can I will touch upon what David's sin signified in prophecy. For the names themselves, when interpreted, sufficiently show what this deed also prefigured. David is interpreted 'strong of hand' or 'desirable': and what stronger than that Lion of the tribe of Judah who overcame the world? And what more desirable than He of whom the prophet says: 'He shall come, the desired of all nations'?

Bathsheba is interpreted 'well of satiety' or 'seventh well'; and whichever of these interpretations of this name we take up toward what we intend to say, it fits well enough. For in the Song of Songs too that bride is the Church, which is called 'a well of living water.' And to this well the name of the sevenfold number is joined in signification of the Holy Spirit, on account of the reckoning of Pentecost, on which day the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, came. For that same feast day is composed of weeks, as the Scripture of Tobit too testifies. And to forty-nine, which is seven times seven, one is added, whereby unity is commended. In this reckoning lives that apostolic saying:

'Bearing with one another, being eager in love to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.' By the spiritual gift, then, that is, the sevenfold gift, the Church has become a well of satiety, because there has been made in her a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life, which whoever shall have, shall never thirst forever. But now, whoever her husband was, what else does he signify by the interpretation of this name than the devil? To him by a most wicked marriage were bound all those whom the grace of God sets free, that the Church without spot or wrinkle may be joined to her own Saviour.

For Uriah is interpreted 'my light is God's,' but the Hittite 'cut off,' either because he did not stand in the truth, but by the desert of pride was cut off from his own supernal light, which he had from God, or because, falling and losing his true powers, he nevertheless transfigures himself into an angel of light, still daring to say, 'My light is God's.' This David, then, sinned gravely and wickedly; which crime of his God also rebuked through the prophet by reproving, and he himself washed away by repenting.

Yet He who is desirable to all nations loved the Church washing herself upon the roof, that is, cleansing herself from the filth of the world and transcending and treading beneath her the house of clay by spiritual contemplation, and, having begun with her the acquaintance of a first meeting, He afterward slew the devil utterly separated from her, and joined her to Himself in a perpetual wedlock. Let us therefore hate sin, but not extinguish prophecy; let us love that David, as far as he is to be loved, who through mercy set us free from the devil; let us love also this David, who healed in himself so grievous a wound of iniquity by the humility of penitence. Now what shall I say of Solomon?

whom holy Scripture vehemently rebukes and condemns, and it makes no mention at all either of his penitence or of any indulgence of God toward him. Nor does it at all occur to me what good, at least in allegory, this lamentable submersion of his signifies, unless perhaps someone should say that the foreign women, with love of whom he had burned, signify the churches chosen from the nations. This might perhaps not absurdly be understood, if they for Solomon's sake had forsaken their gods and worshipped his God. But when he himself for their sake offended his God and worshipped their gods, there is nothing good we can conjecture therefrom. Yet I do not think it signifies nothing, but something evil, as we said of the wife and daughters of Lot.

For there appears in the person of this Solomon both a wondrous excellence and a wondrous subversion. What therefore existed in him at different times—first the good and afterward the evil—this is shown in the Church, in this present world, together at one and the same time. For by his good I think the good of the Church were signified, but by his evil the evil of the Church, as it were in the unity of one threshing-floor, as in that one man—the good in the grains, the evil in the chaff—so that in the unity of one crop the good are in the wheat, the evil in the tares.

If indeed from this, when the things written of him are more diligently treated, something more probable can shine forth—whether to me or to those more learned and better than I—yet now we have not dismissed the matter in such a way that it should impede our purpose, hastening on to other things, as though the connection were broken and cut off. But concerning the prophet Hosea there is no need for me to say what that command or deed signifies, which the Lord said to Hosea: 'Go and take to yourself a wife of fornication and make children of fornication,' since Scripture itself sufficiently shows this, whence and why it was said. For it follows: 'because the land, committing fornication, shall commit fornication away from the Lord. And he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived and bore him a son.'

And the Lord said to him: 'Call his name Jezreel, for yet a little while, and I will visit the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Judah, and I will make to cease and turn away the kingdom of the house of Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.' And she conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him: 'Call her name Without-mercy, for I will no more have mercy upon Israel, but I will surely forget them; but on the house of Judah I will have mercy, and I will save them in the Lord their God, and I will not save them by bow nor by sword nor by battle nor by horses nor by horsemen.' And she weaned her who was Without-mercy, and conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said to him:

'Call his name Not-my-people, for you are not my people, and I will not be your God. And the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which is without measure and shall not be numbered; and it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there it shall be said to them, Children of the living God. And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together and shall set for themselves one head and shall come up out of the land, for great is the day of Jezreel. Say to your brethren, My people, and to your sister, She-who-has-obtained-mercy.' Since therefore the Lord Himself through the same Scripture evidently opens the figure of this command and deed, and since the apostolic letters attest that this prophecy was fulfilled in the preaching of the New Testament:

who is there that would dare to say that it was not commanded and done on account of that for which He who commanded it Himself explains, in the holy writings, that He commanded it and made the prophet do it? For the apostle Paul says: 'That He might make known the riches of His glory upon the vessels of mercy, which He prepared unto glory; whom also He called, namely us, not only from among the Jews, but also from among the nations. As also Hosea says: I will call Not-my-people my people, and Not-beloved beloved; and it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they shall be called children of the living God.' This, therefore, prophesied concerning the nations, Paul shows. Whence Peter too, writing to the nations, though the prophet himself is not named, yet inserts his prophecy in his own words, saying:

'But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of acquisition, that you may declare the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light: who once were not a people, but now are the people of God; who once had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.' Hence it evidently appears that what was said through the prophet—'And the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which is without measure and shall not be numbered,' and what was consequently added, 'And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there it shall be said to them, Children of the living God'—was not said at all of that Israel which is according to the flesh, but of that of which the apostle says to the nations:

'You then are Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise.' But since from that Judaea also many believed and are yet to believe—for from there were the apostles, from there the many thousands who were joined to the apostles in Jerusalem, from there the churches of which he says to the Galatians: 'But I was unknown by face to the churches of Judaea which are in Christ'—whence also he interprets the Lord, called in the Psalms the corner-stone, in this way.

in that He joined in Himself the two walls, namely of the circumcision and of the uncircumcision, that He might create in Himself the two into one new man, making peace, and might reconcile both in one body to God, through the cross slaying the enmities in Himself, and coming might preach peace to those who were far off and to those who were near—that is, to the nations far off and to the Jews near; for He Himself is our peace, who made both one—rightly this prophet too, putting the children of Judah for the Jews and the children of Israel for the nations, says: 'And they shall be gathered together, the children of Judah and the children of Israel alike, and shall set for themselves one head and shall come up out of the land.' To this prophecy, then, so manifestly

declared by the very outcome of events, whoever contradicts it, contradicts most shamelessly not only the prophetic but also the apostolic writings, and not only writings of any sort, but even things fulfilled and flooded with clearest light. The deed of Judah, then, perhaps required a more diligent attention, that this harlot—who signifies the Church gathered from the prostitution of the superstitions of the Gentiles, in the garb of that woman who was called Tamar—might be recognized; but here, since Scripture itself lays itself open and is illuminated by the consonant letters of the apostles, why do we further delay here, and not now see what remains concerning Moses the servant of God, what those things too signify which Faustus has objected?

For in that, defending his brother, he slew the Egyptian, it very readily occurs to anyone that the devil—injurious to us in this pilgrimage—is slain by the Lord Christ who defends us. But in that he buried the slain in the sand, it is manifest that his now dead presence lies hidden in those who have no stable foundation. Whence the Lord builds His Church upon the rock, and compares those who hear His word and do it to a prudent man who builds his house upon the rock, lest it yield to temptations and fall; but those who hear and do not, He compares to a foolish man building upon the sand, whose house, when tempted, comes to a great ruin.

But in that he despoiled the Egyptians by the command of the Lord his God—of one who commands nothing but most justly—what it prefigured, I recall that I have already set down, in certain books which I entitled 'On Christian Doctrine,' as far as then occurred to me: that by the gold and silver and raiment of the Egyptians certain teachings were signified, which are learned in the very custom of the nations with no unprofitable study. But whether it signify this or that—that from those very nations precious souls, as it were vessels of gold and silver, together with their bodies (which the garments signify), join themselves to the people of God, that they may together be set free from this world as from Egypt:

whether therefore this or that or something else were here figured, it is nevertheless certain to those who read these writings devoutly that those commands, deeds, and things written down were not in vain nor without a foretelling of things to come. Now further, concerning the wars which were waged through Moses, it is too long to treat of all. Let it therefore suffice that, concerning that war waged with Amalek, I have already, above in this very work in which I answer Faustus, expounded—as far as seemed sufficient for the undertaken task—what it set forth of prophecy, what mystery it contained. Now let us look at that in which either the enemies of these writings or those destitute of all letters are wont to charge Moses with the vice of cruelty:

which indeed Faustus did not expressly set down, when he said that he both commanded and did many cruel things. But because I know what they are especially and invidiously wont to boast of, I have therefore myself mentioned this and defended it above, lest anyone think there was any crime in that deed—whether those very Manichees who would be corrected, or any other of the unlearned or impious. But now it must be inquired what prophetic significance it also had, that he commanded many of those who in his absence had fashioned for themselves an idol to be slain, without any distinction of any kinship. It is easy to understand that the slaying of those men signifies the slaying of such vices as those by which they slid down to that same idolatry.

For the psalm bids us rage against such vices, when it says: 'Be angry and sin not.' The apostle bids us rage against such vices, when he says: 'Mortify your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, luxury, evil concupiscence, and avarice, which is the service of idols.' But what he did first—that he burned the calf itself with fire, ground it small, scattered it into water, and gave it to the people to drink—demands a greater attention for searching out its significance.

For if he broke the tables which he had received, written by the finger of God, that is, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, because he judged those to whom he was to read them unworthy; if finally, that the calf might be utterly abolished among them, he burned it, ground it, scattered it in water, and submerged it—why did he also give this to the people to drink? Whom would this deed not stir up to inquire into and understand the prophetic significance? Let it therefore now occur to attentive minds that the body of the devil, as it were, is in the calf—that is, men in all the nations, for whom the head, that is, the author, of these sacrileges is the devil—golden for this reason, because the rites of idolatry seem to be instituted as if by wise men. Of whom the apostle says:

'Because, though they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened; professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things.' From this so-called wisdom is that golden calf, such figments as even the very chief men of the Egyptians and, as it were, learned men were wont to adore. By this calf, then, is signified the whole body, that is, the whole society of the Gentiles given over to idolatry. This sacrilegious society the Lord Christ burns with that fire of which He says in the Gospel:

'I came to send fire on the earth,' so that, since there is none who can hide himself from its heat, while the nations believe in Him, the diabolical form in them may be dissolved by the fire of His power. Then the whole of that body is broken to pieces, that is, torn apart from that fusion of evil conspiracy, it is humbled by the word of truth, and, broken small, is put into water, so that the Israelites, that is, the preachers of the Gospel, may transfer them, out of baptism, into their own members, that is, into the body of the Lord. To which Israelites it was said to Peter concerning these very nations: 'Kill and eat.' If 'kill and eat,' why not also 'grind and drink'? Thus that calf, by the fire of zeal and the edge of the word and the water of baptism, was rather absorbed by those whom it was endeavouring to swallow up.

If, therefore, even those passages of the Scriptures over which the heretics slanderously cavil, when they are searched out and in a certain manner interrogated, answer that the more obscure they appear, the more wondrous the treasures of mysteries lie hidden within them, how much more ought the blaspheming mouths of the impious to fall utterly silent, when they are stopped up by the most manifest truth, against which, their breath choked, they find nothing to mutter, and the wretches would rather have their throats blocked by its plain disclosure than have their breast filled with its sweetness! All these things, then, resound of Christ;

that Head which has now ascended into heaven, and this His body which labours upon the earth until the end—these the whole intention of those who wrote the truly sacred letters brought forth; nor is anything narrated in the connected text of the prophetic books to be believed which does not signify something of things to come, except those things which are set down for this purpose, that from them, in a certain manner, may be bound together those things which foretell that King and His people, whether by proper or by figurative expressions or realities. For just as in lyres and other such musical instruments not indeed all the parts that are touched give back some tuneful sound, but only the strings, and yet the rest in the whole body of the lyre are constructed for this reason,

namely that there might be a place where the strings could be fastened, whence and whither they might be stretched by the craftsman who was to tune and strike them for the sweetness of the melody: so in these prophetic narratives, which are selected by the prophetic spirit from the deeds of men, either they already resound something by their signification of things to come, or, if they signify nothing of the kind, they are interposed for this purpose, that there might be something whence those significant portions, as it were the sounding ones, may be connected. But if the heretics are unwilling to accept these allegorical narratives of past deeds as they are expounded by us, or even contend that these signify nothing except what they properly sound forth, one must not wrestle with men who say:

"What you say tastes good to your palate does not taste good to mine"—provided nevertheless that those things which are divinely enjoined are either believed or understood as forming morals and piety, or as signifying something figuratively, or rather both than neither; provided nevertheless that even those things which are understood to be said or done figuratively are referred to those same good morals and to piety.

And by reason of this, even if to the Manichaeans or to any others our understanding, or reasoning, or opinion concerning these figures of past deeds is displeasing, let this suffice: that our fathers, to whom God bears witness of a good life and of obedience in His precepts, are defended by that rule of truth which can displease none but depraved and distorted hearts; and that that Scripture, to which the perversity of that error is hostile, in whatever deeds of men it has either praised or censured or merely narrated and set before us for judgement, itself remains blameless and venerable.

But what more useful or wholesome provision and foresight could have been made for those who read or hear those sacred writings with piety, than that not only should praiseworthy men be set before them for imitation and reprehensible men for avoidance, but also certain declinings of the good and their lapses into evil—whether thence again corrected they return to the way, or remain irrecoverable—and again certain changes of the wicked and their coming forth into good—whether about to persevere or to relapse again into their former state: so that neither may the just be lifted up into pride by a false security, nor the wicked be hardened by despair against the remedy?

But those things which pertain neither to imitation nor to avoidance in the deeds of men, and yet are found in Holy Scripture, are either set there for that connection whereby, from such occasions, one may come to necessary matters; or by that very fact, that they seem superfluous, they sufficiently admonish that one ought to seek in them the oracle of some mystical signification.

For we are not speaking of those books in which no, or few and not many, most manifest things foretold by the prophetic spirit—now indeed already fulfilled in the very events—attest their divine authority by the most faithful and most illustrious light of truth, so that anyone who thinks that those men spoke anything superfluously or as it were foolishly is utterly out of his senses, since he sees not only all things of men and of their talents subject to them, but even reads this foretold by them and knows it accomplished. Is then, if anyone reading of the deed of David—of which he repented, the Lord reproving and threatening—should thence furnish himself kindling for sinning, that Scripture to be blamed?