Moralia in Job 1424

About to expound the prophet, the holy Doctor prefaces some remarks on the times and modes of prophecy. 1. About to speak, by the inspiration of Almighty God, concerning the prophet Ezechiel, I ought first to open up the times and modes of prophecy, so that while its approach is shown, its power may be the better known. The times of prophecy are three, namely the past, the present, and the future. But it must be known that in two of these times prophecy loses its etymology. For since prophecy is so called because it foretells things to come, when it speaks of the past or the present, it loses the meaning of its own name, since it does not bring forth what is to come, but either recalls things that have passed, or the things that are.

Yet we shall speak the more truly of these three times of prophecy if we show them from the testimonies of Sacred Scripture. Prophecy concerning the future: Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son (Isaiah 7:14). Prophecy concerning the past: In the beginning God created heaven and earth (Genesis 1:1). For man spoke of that time in which there was no man. There is prophecy concerning the present, when Paul the apostle says: But if all prophesy, and there come in one that is unbelieving or unlearned, he is convinced by all, he is judged by all; for the secrets of his heart are made manifest, and so, falling down on his face, he will adore God, declaring that God is indeed among you (1 Corinthians 14:24). When therefore it is said:

The secrets of his heart are made manifest, it is surely shown that by this mode of prophecy the spirit does not foretell what is to come, but shows what is. But in what way is that called the spirit of prophecy, which indicates nothing future, but narrates the present? In this matter it must be observed that it is rightly called prophecy, not because it foretells things to come, but because it brings forth hidden things. For just as times withdraw any thing whatever from our eyes into the future, so cause withdraws it from our eyes in the present. For a thing to come is hidden in future time, but present thought is concealed in the hidden heart.

There is also present prophecy when any thing whatever is covered not by the mind, but by an absent place, yet is laid bare through the spirit. And there the mind of the one prophesying becomes present, where by bodily presence it is not. For Giezi had withdrawn far from the prophet when he was receiving the gifts of Naaman the Syrian, to whom nevertheless that same Prophet says: Was not my heart present when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you (4 Kings 5:26)? 2. It must also be known that the times of prophecy accord with one another for proof, so that sometimes past things are proved from future ones, and sometimes future things from past ones. For Moses had said: In the beginning God created heaven and earth (Genesis 1:1).

But who would believe that he spoke truly concerning the past, if he had not also said something concerning the future? For at the very end of the book, in whose beginning he had said those things about the past, he mingled some prophecy about things to come through the mouth of Jacob, saying: The sceptre shall not be taken away from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until he come who is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of the nations (Genesis 49:10). He also, through himself, prophesied of the same one who was to be sent, to the very people whom he was leading, saying: The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet from among your brethren; him you shall hear as myself. And it shall be, whoever will not hear that Prophet shall be cut off from among his people (Deuteronomy 18:15).

Why then did he mingle things to come with past things, unless that, while those things are commanded which he foretold concerning the future, he might also show that he had spoken truly concerning the past? 3. Since therefore we have taught how past things are proved from the prophecy of future things, it now remains that we further show from the sacred oracles how, in the very spirit of prophecy, future things are proved from past ones. Assuredly the Babylonian king, when he had seen a dream (Daniel 2:2), sent to the magi and the soothsayers, and summoned together all the wise men of Babylon, and sought from them not only the interpretation of the dream, but also the dream itself, that from the past he might gather whether he could hold anything certain in their responses concerning the future.

When they could by no means tell it, Daniel was brought forward, who, being questioned about the interpretation of the dream and its narration, answered not only that which he was asked, but repeated the very origin of the dream, saying: You, O king, began to think in your bed what should come to pass hereafter (Daniel 2:29). And a little after: You, O king, saw, and behold, as it were a single great statue (Daniel 2:31), and so forth. And as soon as he had told the order of this dream, he disclosed whatever was to come from the same. Let us therefore weigh the order of the prophecy. From the thoughts he came to the dream; from the dream he passed on to future things.

He therefore who brought forth, so to speak, the very root of the dream, assuredly proved from past things how true were the things he was saying about the future. But the prophet of present time needs neither the attestation of the past nor of the future, because when a hidden thing is uncovered through the words of prophecy, the very thing that is shown attests to its truth. 4. Therefore, since we have treated of the times of prophecy, it remains that we discourse somewhat about its modes and qualities. For the spirit of prophecy touches the prophet's mind neither always nor in the same way. For sometimes the spirit of prophecy touches the mind of the one prophesying from the present, and in no way touches it from the future; sometimes it touches from the future, and does not touch from the present.

Sometimes indeed it touches from the present and from the future; but sometimes the mind of the one prophesying is touched from the past, and from the present, and from the future alike. Sometimes the spirit of prophecy touches from the past, and does not touch from the future; but sometimes it touches from the future, and does not touch from the past. Sometimes indeed in the present it touches in part, and in part does not touch; sometimes in the future it touches in part, and in part does not touch. But let us show these very things, if we can, in the order in which they have been set forth, from the testimonies of Sacred Scripture. 5. For the spirit of prophecy touches the mind of the one prophesying from the present, and does not touch from the future, as when John the Baptist, seeing the Lord coming, says: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins

of the world (John 1:29). But when he was now about to die, he sent his disciples and inquired, saying: Are you he who is to come, or do we look for another (Matthew 11:3)? In which words it is shown that he knew indeed that the Redeemer had come upon earth, but doubted whether he would descend by his own self to open the barriers of hell. For he had been touched by the spirit of prophecy from the present, who, seeing the humanity of the Mediator and understanding his divinity, confessed the Lamb who should take away the sins of the world; but he had not been touched from the future, because he knew not of his coming into hell. 6.

But sometimes the spirit of prophecy touches the mind of the one prophesying from the future, and does not touch from the present, as the history of the book of Genesis openly attests, when Isaac sent his son Esau to hunt (Genesis 27:3ff.), for whom Rebecca substituted his younger son to be blessed, who, clothed in the skins of kids, feigned his brother's body to his father's touch. And to that younger son, as though to the elder, the father gave the blessing, and announced the things that were to be for him far in the future; but who it was that stood before him he could not know. The spirit of prophecy therefore touched the mind of the one prophesying from the future, and did not touch from the present, when the father, with dim eyes, both foretold things to come and knew not his present son. 7.

Sometimes it touches the mind of the one prophesying from the present and from the future alike, which we are plainly taught from the same book of Genesis (Genesis 48). For in it it is written that when Jacob was now drawing near to the end of his life, and made his two sons of Joseph to stand by, that from his blessing they might obtain the things that were to be long afterward, he placed the elder at his right hand, but the younger at his left. And when he, with eyes dimmed by old age, could by no means discern by human sight which of his grandsons was the elder and which the younger, crossing his arms he laid his right hand upon the younger, his left upon the elder. And when his son wished to correct this, saying:

It is not so fitting, father, for this is the firstborn, he heard: I know, my son, I know: and this one indeed shall be among peoples, and shall be multiplied, but his younger brother shall be greater than he (Genesis 48:18-19). The spirit of prophecy therefore touched the mind of the one prophesying from the present and from the future alike, while Jacob both announced things to come, and by the spirit discerned, set before him, those whom he could not see with bodily eyes. Thus the spirit of prophecy had touched the mind of the prophet Ahijah from the present and from the future, when, with dim eyes, he both recognized her who feigned herself to be another, that she was the wife of Jeroboam, and disclosed whatever was to be for her, saying: Come in, wife of Jeroboam; why do you feign yourself to be another?

But I am sent to you a stern messenger. Go and tell Jeroboam: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Because you have wrought evil above all who were before you, and have made for yourself strange and molten gods, that you might provoke me to anger, and have cast me behind your back, therefore behold, I will bring evils upon the house of Jeroboam (3 Kings 14:6ff.). For the mind of the one prophesying had been touched from the present and from the future alike, who could both detect her as she came in, and announce to her things to come. 8.

But sometimes the mind of the one prophesying is touched from the past and from the present and from the future alike, as when Elizabeth, beholding Mary come to her, knew that she bore the incarnate Word in her womb, and called her already the mother of her Lord, saying: Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me (Luke 1:43)? Concerning whose conception it is also said by an angel to Joseph: For that which is born in her is of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20). And this same Elizabeth said: Blessed are you who have believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to you by the Lord (Luke 1:45). For by saying, Blessed are you who have believed, she plainly indicates that she recognized by the spirit the words of the angel which had been spoken to Mary; and by adding:

Those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to you by the Lord—she foresaw the things that would also follow for her in the future. Simultaneously therefore she was touched concerning the past and the present and the future through the spirit of prophecy, who both knew that Mary had believed the promises of the angel, and, naming her mother, understood that she bore the Redeemer of the human race in her womb; and while she foretold that all things would be accomplished, she also beheld what would follow concerning the future. 9. But sometimes the spirit of prophecy touches the mind from the past, and does not touch from the future, as is openly shown to us in Paul the apostle, who says to the disciples: I make known to you, brethren, the Gospel which was preached by me, that it is not according to man;

for neither did I receive it from man, nor did I learn it, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:11-12). Whence also he says to other disciples: According to revelation the mystery was made known to me (Ephesians 3:3). Yet this same one, though he had come to know through revelation the very Gospel, when he was going up to Jerusalem to preach, said: Behold, I, bound in the spirit, go to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there (Acts 20:22). For this is the mystery of the Gospel: that the Only-begotten of the Father was made incarnate and became perfect man, who, crucified, dead, and buried, rose on the third day; and on the fortieth day ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father.

He therefore who recognized the Gospel through revelation was touched by the spirit of prophecy concerning the past; but because he knew not what he was to suffer for that same Gospel, he was without doubt not touched concerning the future. For thus he says: Save that the Holy Spirit in every city attests to me, saying: That bonds and tribulations await me at Jerusalem (Acts 20:23), plainly showing that the things which were to be for him had been revealed to others concerning him, but not to him concerning himself, as is said of him through Agabus: The man whose this girdle is, thus shall he be bound at Jerusalem (Acts 21:11). 10. But sometimes the spirit of prophecy touches from the future, and does not touch from the past;

as is written concerning the deed of Elisha, that when one of the sons of the prophets was cutting timber, the iron of his axe fell into the water, and he cried out: Alas! alas! my lord, for this very thing I had borrowed. But the man of God said: Where did it fall? And he showed him the place. Then he cut off a piece of wood, and cast it in there, and the iron floated (4 Kings 6:5-6). In which deed of the prophet we recognize that he who asks where it had fallen knew what he was going to do; but nevertheless, since he asks, it is plain that he did not know where the iron had fallen. The spirit of prophecy therefore had touched the mind of Elisha from the future, but did not touch from the past, who both was able to know that the iron sunk in the depths he would recall to the surface;

but where it had fallen he knew not at all. 11. But sometimes the spirit of prophecy in the present touches in part, and in part does not touch. Which the history of the apostle Peter attests, when the soldiers sent to him by Cornelius were announced to him through the spirit; for it is written: And the spirit said to him: Behold, three men seek you. And he went down to them, and inquiring said: What is the cause for which you have come (Acts 10:20-21)? In whose words it is shown that he had not heard through the spirit the very cause which he was inquiring of the soldiers. In the present therefore the spirit had touched Peter's mind in part, and in part had not touched, who both said that soldiers were present, and was silent as to the cause for which they had come. 12.

Sometimes the spirit of prophecy in the future touches in part, and in part does not touch; as when the sons of the prophets say to Elisha about the taking away of Elijah: Do you not know that this day the Lord will take away your master from you (4 Kings 2:5)? Yet when he had been taken away, they scattered themselves in various directions, and sought him in the crags and valleys. In the future therefore the spirit of prophecy had touched their mind in part, and in part did not touch, when they sought as though to be found him whom they knew was to be taken away. In part therefore they were touched, and in part not touched, because they both knew that he could be taken away, and knew not that he could not be found.

That same Elisha too was touched by the spirit of prophecy concerning the future in part, and in part not touched, when he said to the king of Israel: Strike the ground with an arrow. And when he had struck three times and stopped, the man of God was angry against him, and said: If you had struck five or six or seven times, you would have struck Syria even to its consuming; but now you shall strike it three times (4 Kings 13:18-19). He therefore who knew that he would strike Syria as many times as he had struck the ground;

but when he said to him, Strike the ground, he knew not how many times he was to strike it (indeed, because he was indignant that the ground had been struck only three times), it is assuredly plain that concerning the future he had been touched in part, and in part not touched, who foretold that Syria would be struck, but wished the ground to be struck more. Thus Samuel, when he was being sent by the Lord to anoint David, answered: How shall I go? For Saul will hear of it, and will kill me (1 Kings 16:2). And he both anointed David, and yet was not killed by Saul. In part therefore the prophet's mind had been touched concerning the future, and in part not touched, who both knew that David was to be anointed unto the kingdom, and knew not that he would not be killed by Saul. 13.

It must also be known that some prophets are touched from near at hand, but not at all from afar off; others indeed from afar off, and are not touched from near at hand; while others are touched by the spirit of prophecy both from afar off and from near at hand. For some are touched from near at hand, and not from afar off, as Samuel knew that the she-asses had been lost, and announced that they had been found, and foretold that Saul would be king (1 Kings 9:15,20); he also announces that David would succeed in his kingdom, but does not foretell that he would be the father of the eternal King (1 Kings 16:12). But some are touched from afar off, and not touched from near at hand, as that same David knew that the Only-begotten of God was to be incarnate, saying of Judea:

A man was made in her, and the Most High himself founded her (Psalm 86:5). And he understands that this one would ascend to the heavens and would sit at the Father's right hand, saying: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand (Psalm 109:1). And yet he did not at all foresee many things which were done near at hand. For, to speak of a few out of many, he did not perceive the servant Miphibosheth lying to him against his own master (2 Kings 16:3-4); and, making a promise to Amasa, he says: May God do so to me, and add so, if you shall not be master of the soldiery before me at all times in place of Joab (2 Kings 19:13).

namely, being ignorant of what would follow — that this same Amasa would not only fail to receive the command of the army in Joab's place, but would also, through Joab, shortly afterward end his life. And when he wished to build a temple for God, not knowing what would follow close at hand, he consulted another prophet. Some, however, are touched both from afar and near at hand, as Isaiah foretells things far in the future, saying: 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.' Of whom again he says: 'A little child is born to us, and a son is given to us;'

and the government is laid upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God, Mighty, Father of the world to come, Prince of peace. His empire shall be multiplied, and of peace there shall be no end. This same prophet, touched by the spirit of prophecy concerning King Hezekiah in a matter close at hand, foretold that he would rise up from his sickness, and announced how many years he would live after his infirmity. But sometimes the spirit of prophecy is lacking to the prophets, and is not always ready in their minds, so that when they do not have it, they may recognize that they have it as a gift when they do have it. Hence Elisha, when he forbade the Shunammite woman to be torn away from his feet by his servant Gehazi, said:

'Let her alone, for her soul is in bitterness, and the Lord has hidden it from me, and has not shown it to me.' Likewise, when Jehoshaphat inquired of him concerning the future, and the spirit of prophecy was lacking to him, he ordered a harpist to be brought, that the spirit of prophecy might descend upon him through the praise of the psalmody, and fill his mind concerning things to come. For when the voice of psalmody is carried on through the intention of the heart, by it a way is prepared to the heart for the almighty Lord, so that he may pour into the intent mind either the mysteries of prophecy or the grace of compunction. Hence it is written: 'The sacrifice of praise shall honour me, and there is the way by which I will show him the salvation of God.'

For what in Latin is called 'salutare' (salvation) is in Hebrew called Jesus. Therefore in the sacrifice of praise a way is made for the manifestation of Jesus, for while through the psalmody we are poured out in compunction, a way is made for us in the heart, by which we come at last to Jesus, just as he himself speaks of his own manifestation, saying: 'He who loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.' Hence too it is written: 'Sing to the Lord, sing a psalm to his name, make a way for him who ascends above the sunset; the Lord is his name.' For he himself ascends above the sunset who, by rising again, trampled upon death. When we sing to him, we make a way for him to come to our heart, and to kindle us with the grace of his love.

But that the spirit of prophecy is not always present to the prophets, the man of God also shows who, sent against Samaria, announced the evils that were to come upon it; yet who, forbidden by the Lord to eat on the way, was deceived by the persuasion of a false prophet. A deceitful speech would not have deceived him, if he had had the spirit of prophecy present. It is also to be known that sometimes the holy prophets, when they are consulted, out of their great practice of prophesying, utter certain things from their own spirit, and suppose that they are saying these things from the spirit of prophecy; but because they are holy, being more quickly corrected through the Holy Spirit, they hear from him what is true, and reprove themselves because they have spoken falsely.

Who does not know that Nathan the prophet was a holy man? He both openly reproved King David for his sin, and announced to him the things that were to come upon him for that same sin. Yet when this same David, because he wished to build a temple for God, consulted him, Nathan immediately answered: 'All that is in your heart, go and do, for the Lord is with you.' Concerning which it is at once added there: 'And it came to pass in that night, and behold, the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying: Go and speak to my servant David. Thus says the Lord God: Shall you build me a house to dwell in? For I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt until this day.' And a little after:

'When your days are fulfilled, and you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, which shall come forth from your loins, and I will establish his kingdom; he shall build a house for my name.' Behold, Nathan the prophet, who had earlier said to the king, 'Go and do it,' afterward, being taught by the spirit of prophecy, announced that this could not be done, and contradicted the king's plans with his own words, because he perceived that what he had said from his own spirit had been false. In this matter there is this difference between true and false prophets: that true prophets, if they sometimes say anything from their own spirit, being instructed by the Holy Spirit, more quickly correct it from the minds of their hearers.

But false prophets both announce false things, and, being alien to the Holy Spirit, persist in their falsehood. Therefore, having considered the times and modes of prophecy, it is fitting to observe how almighty God dispenses the tempering of his wrath for the advancement of men. For the people of Israel had sinned against their Creator, and therefore served in captivity under the king of Babylon; yet with them the prophet Ezekiel was sent into captivity, whom divine grace had made so pleasing to itself, that through him it might foretell whatever was to come, and might deign to console the mind of the afflicted people.

Let us consider therefore, if we can, how great is the dispensation of the supreme loving-kindness: that the Lord was so angry with his people, yet was not altogether angry. For if he had not been angry, he would by no means have handed the people over into captivity; and if he had been altogether angry, he would not have sent his elect into captivity along with them. But divine mercy acts thus, so that out of one and the same thing from which he gives a scourge to the carnal, he may from it grant to the spiritual an increase of virtue. And while he purges the former through tribulation, he rouses the latter through fellowship with the afflicted to earn greater things. And so he is angry with the unjust, yet in such a way that he consoles their hearts through the company of the just; lest, if he altogether abandoned them, no one after his sins should return to pardon.

Therefore in holding he repels, and in repelling he holds, when along with those whom he judges he sends into tribulation those whom he loves. Who is able to weigh the bowels of such great loving-kindness? For the Lord neither abandons the people's sins without punishment, and yet does not utterly cast off the offending people. Thus when Moses had sent twelve spies to the land of promise, of whom ten afterward caused despair to the people, the same people, kindled in the wrath of murmuring, complained that they had been seduced by the Lord, so that their corpses should lie in the desert; against whom almighty God, being angry, said that none of them should enter into the land of promise:

smitten with compunction by that terror, they recognized that they had acted wickedly, afflicted themselves with tears, and, girded with arms, forthwith began to go up against the enemies, so that after their tears they might enter the land of promise. To whom the Lord says through Moses: 'Say to them, Do not go up, nor fight; for I am not with you, lest you fall before your enemies.' In this matter it must be weighed: if he was not with them, why did he forbid them to go up lest they fall? But if he was with them, what does it mean that he says, 'For I am not with you'? But by a wondrous dispensation of discipline and mercy, he both was with them and was not with them. He was not with them, so that they might conquer; yet he was with them, lest they should perish at the hands of the enemies.

O unspeakable bowels of loving-kindness! He pursues sins, and yet protects sinners. He shows himself angry, and yet defends them from their enemies. Thus very often a mother is angry with her little son when he offends, reproves, chides, beats him; but if she sees him going headlong, where he is rushing into the peril of death, she stretches out her hand and holds him back; and she who thus in anger had beaten him as if she did not love him, thus in loving holds him back as if in anger she had not beaten him. Speaking of these things in the preface alone, we have exercised our little ship as it were within the harbour, so that, in searching out the mysteries of prophecy, we may, as into the immensity of the deep, spread our sails afterward.

Yet this we presume not in our own strength, but in him who makes the tongues of infants eloquent, for the Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world, and that which contains all things has knowledge of the voice. For almighty God is the Word of the almighty Father, and we who desire to speak of him shall by no means be dumb in him. The almighty Word will give useful words — he who, incarnate for us, lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, throughout all ages of ages. Amen.