Barak, Samson and Jephthah and David and Samuel and the prophets, time would fail me—who through faith conquered kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises.' The other is that, where these things are narrated of him—that he vowed such a vow and fulfilled it—Scripture premised, saying: 'And the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah; and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed the watch-tower of Gilead, and from the watch-tower of Gilead to beyond the children of Ammon. And Jephthah vowed a vow to the Lord,' and the rest pertaining to this very vow. So that all the things which were done thereafter may seem to be understood as works of the Spirit of the Lord, who came upon him. These testimonies compel us rather to inquire why it was done than easily to disapprove what was done.
But first, that which I mentioned from the epistle which is to the Hebrews: among those praiseworthy men who are there recounted, there is not only Jephthah but also Gideon, of whom Scripture likewise says: 'And the Spirit of the Lord strengthened Gideon.' And yet his deed—that from that gold of the spoil he wrought an ephod, and all Israel went a-whoring after it, and it became a stumbling-block to the house of Gideon—we not only cannot praise, but even, because Scripture has here most openly judged it, we in no way doubt to reprove; nor yet does any injury arise from this to the Spirit of the Lord, who strengthened him, so that he overcame the enemies of His people with such great ease.
Why then is he mentioned among those who through faith conquered kingdoms, working righteousness, unless because holy Scripture, whose faith and righteousness it truthfully praises, is not hereby hindered from truthfully noting also their sins, if it knows of any and judges it fitting? For even in that which the same Gideon did—asking a sign, as he himself spoke, he tempted with the fleece—I do not know whether he did not transgress the precept whereby it is written: 'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.' Yet even in his tempting the Lord showed what He wished to foretell: namely, by the fleece being wetted and all the ground round about being dry, to figure first the people of Israel, where the saints were with heavenly grace, as with spiritual rain;
and afterward, the ground being wetted while the fleece was dry, to figure the Church spread throughout the whole world, having the heavenly grace not in the fleece as under a covering, but in the open, while that former people was, as it were, alienated and dried up from the dew of that same grace. Nor yet did he vainly, among the faithful and those working righteousness, on account of a good and faithful life—in which he is to be believed to have died—merit such a testimony in the epistle to the Hebrews. But whether, because after it was said, 'the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah,' these things followed—that he vowed that vow and conquered the enemies and rendered what he had vowed—all things are to be attributed to the Spirit of the Lord, so that this sacrifice too may be reckoned as though the Lord had commanded it to be done, as He did to Abraham:
I would not easily say, since certainly from Gideon this difference can be adduced: that after the sin which he committed, when he made the ephod, after which the whole people went a-whoring, no prosperity of his is recorded. But after Jephthah vowed his vow, that notable victory of his ensued, for the obtaining of which he had vowed, and which being obtained he paid what he had vowed. Yet again it must be considered that Gideon, even if not after he made the ephod, nevertheless after he tempted the Lord—which certainly is a sin—by the great slaughter and overthrow of the enemies acquired salvation for the people. For thus it is written: 'And Gideon said to the Lord: Let not thine indignation be angry against me.'
'And I will speak yet once more, and I will make trial yet once more with the fleece.' For indeed he feared the wrath of God, because he knew that in putting God to the test he was sinning, a thing which God most plainly forbids in His law. Yet upon this sin of his there followed both the evidence of a marvellous sign and the great prosperity of victory and the deliverance of the people. For God had already resolved to come to the aid of the afflicted people; and He made use of the mind of this leader, whom He had taken up for this work, a mind not only faithful and devout but also somewhat failing and erring, both to foretell the things He willed and to bring to pass the things He had spoken.
For not only through these men, who, even if they sinned, are nevertheless numbered among the just, but also through Saul himself, who was rejected in every way, did God grant many things to His people; upon Saul too the Spirit of God rushed and he prophesied — not when he acted justly, but when he raged against the holy and innocent David. For the Spirit of the Lord works both through the good and through the wicked, both through those who know and through those who know not, whatever He knows and has determined must be done: He who even through Caiaphas, the Lord's most bitter persecutor, not knowing what he said, brought forth a notable prophecy, that it was expedient that Christ should die for the nation.
For who was it that acted, if not the Spirit of the Lord taking care to foretell things to come, so that into the mind of the judge Gideon — who wished to test the Lord and did not believe that which had already been spoken to him by the Lord's own hand concerning the salvation of the people — there should come this above all: that the fleece should first be soaked and afterward dry, and the threshing-floor first dry and then wet? So that, insofar as he fell short of faith, it should be reckoned to his weakness and fault; but insofar as God used even such a disposition of his mind for that which had to be signified to the human race, it should be understood as pertaining to His mercy and marvellous providence.
But if anyone says that Gideon did and said all these things knowingly, by prophetic revelation, in order that such signs might be shown through him, and that he did not fall short of faith nor fail to believe what the Lord had already promised him, but that by a prophetic action he wished to make trial by means of the fleece, and that thus his testing was blameless, like the guile of Jacob; and that when he said to the Lord, 'Let not thy indignation be kindled against me,' he did not say it because he feared His wrath, but because he trusted that He would not be angry when he did those things which, as a prophet, he perceived must be done at the dictation of His Spirit — let him say so, as it seems good to him, provided only that, whatever that deed of the ephod (which Scripture itself blamed) may signify, he does not presume to excuse it from being a sin.
For that too — that the three hundred men, corresponding by their very number to the sign of the cross, took earthen pitchers and enclosed burning torches in them, and that, when these pitchers were suddenly broken, the lights flashing in great number terrified so vast a multitude of the enemy — Gideon seems to have done as of his own choice; for Scripture does not say that the Lord admonished him to do this. And yet who, save the Lord, inspired his mind and counsel to perform so great a sign? — He who prefigured that His saints would hold the treasure of the Gospel's light in earthen vessels, as the Apostle says: 'But we have this treasure in earthen vessels';
in whom, in the passion of martyrdom, as in little vessels broken, the greater brightness of their glory flashed forth, which by the unexpected splendour of Christ overcame the impious enemies of the Gospel's preaching. Whether therefore through those who knew or through those who knew not, the Spirit of the Lord in prophetic times wrought the prefiguring and foretelling of things to come, it is not on that account to be said that their sins were not sins, because God, who knows how to use even our evils for good, made use even of their very sins to signify the things He willed. Accordingly, if for this reason it was no sin either to vow or to render up any human slaughter whatever, or even a parricidal sacrifice, because it signified something great and spiritual —
then God forbade such things in vain and testified in vain that He hated them, since even those things which He commanded to be done are surely referred to some signification of spiritual and great realities. Why then would He forbid those things, since they could no less lawfully be done, for the sake of that same signification of those same realities, for the sake of which these other things were being done lawfully? Unless it be because things signifying nothing such as it is fitting to believe about human sacrifices did not please God, when a man is not slain for the sake of righteousness by his enemies — because he wished to live rightly or refused to sin — but a man is offered up by a man as a chosen victim, after the manner of a beast. What then?
If, someone says, since the victims of cattle, by the very fact that they had become customary — although these too were referred by those who rightly understood to the signification of spiritual things — nevertheless made men less intent upon seeking out the great sacrament of Christ and the Church, therefore God, wishing by a notable and unexpected thing to rouse as it were the sleeping minds of men all the more (in that He had forbidden such sacrifices to be offered to Him), took care that something of this kind should be offered to Him, so that the very astonishment might beget a great question, and the great question might raise up the zeal of a devout mind to search out a great mystery, and the mind of man, devoutly searching, might lift up the depth of prophecy — the Lord Christ Himself — like a fish on a hook, out of the deep of the Scriptures:
To this reasoning and consideration we do not object. But it is one question concerning the mind of the one who vows, and another concerning the providence of God who makes the best use of his mind, whatever it may be. Wherefore, if the Spirit of the Lord, which came upon Jephthah, altogether commanded him to make this vow — which indeed Scripture did not disclose — yet, if He commanded it, whose commands it is not lawful to despise, then not only is it not to be blamed for folly, but obedience is even to be praised. For this — even if a man should slay himself, which it is certainly wicked to do by human will and counsel — must assuredly be understood to be done obediently rather than criminally, if it is commanded from heaven: on which question we have disputed sufficiently in the first book of The City of God.
But if Jephthah, following human error, thought that a human sacrifice must be vowed, his sin indeed was justly punished in his only daughter — which he himself too seems sufficiently to show by his own words, where he says, 'Alas, my daughter, thou hast hindered me; thou art become a stumbling-block in my eyes,' rending also his garments — yet even here his error has some praiseworthiness of faith, whereby he feared God, so as to render what he had vowed, and did not decline the sentence of the divine judgment upon himself, whether hoping that God would forbid it, as He did with Abraham, or resolving rather to do His will, understood even though He did not forbid, than to despise it.
Although here too it may with reason be asked whether it is more truly understood that God did not will this to be done, and that He would rather have been obeyed in this — namely, if it were not done — since He had shown that He did not will it both in the case of Abraham's son and in the lawful prohibition. Nevertheless, if for this reason Jephthah had not done it, he would have seemed rather to have spared himself in his only child than to have followed the will of God. Rather, therefore, he understood, in the fact that his daughter met him, that God was an avenger, and he faithfully submitted himself to a just penalty, fearing a fiercer vengeance, as it were, for shrinking back. For he believed that the soul even of a good and virgin daughter would be well received, because she had not vowed herself to be sacrificed, but had not resisted her father's vow and will, and had followed the judgment of God.
For death, just as it is neither to be inflicted upon oneself of one's own accord, nor upon anyone else of one's own accord, so, when God commands, it is not to be refused; by His appointment it must be undergone at whatever time; nor does anyone who declines to suffer it labour that it may be altogether avoided, but only that it may be deferred. Now let us seek — as much as God helps — and briefly set forth what the Spirit of the Lord prefigured in this deed done, whether through Jephthah unknowing or knowing, whether through his imprudence or his obedience, whether through his offence or his faith. For this passage of the holy Scriptures admonishes us and in a manner urges us to think of a certain man mighty in valour. For such is Jephthah called, whose name is interpreted 'Opening';
but the Lord Christ, as the Gospel indicates, opened the understanding of His disciples, that they might understand the Scriptures. This Jephthah his brethren rejected and drove out from their father's house, casting up against him that he was the son of a harlot, as though they themselves were born of a lawful wife. This also the chief priests and scribes and Pharisees did against the Lord, who seemed to glory in the observance of the law — as though He dissolved the law and therefore were, as it were, not a legitimate son. And although He had indeed taken a body of the holy Virgin, which is known to the faithful, yet His mother, so far as pertains to the nation, may even be called that Jewish synagogue.
Let whoever wishes turn over the prophetic books and see how often and with what severity of word and indignation of the Lord that nation, like an unchaste woman, is reproved for its fornications. Whence there is also that most recent instance in this book, both when, after the ephod which Gideon made, all Israel is read to have gone a-whoring, and that they went after the gods of the nations by which they were surrounded. Whence the divine wrath was stirred up against them, so that for eighteen years they were ground down by the sons of Ammon. But were not those priests and scribes and Pharisees also born of that same nation of Israel — those whom we have said were prefigured in these men, who persecuted and drove out Jephthah, as those others did the Lord Christ, as though not a legitimate son?
But in this the likeness is shadowed forth: that these men, as I said, being as it were observers of the law, deemed themselves to have rightly cast out one who seemed to act contrary to the precepts of the law — as legitimate sons casting out one not legitimate. For according to this that people was said to fornicate, in that, not keeping the precepts of the law, it did not show fidelity, as to a husband. Now thus it is written of Jephthah: 'And the sons of the wife grew up and cast out Jephthah.' The word which is set down, 'grew up,' signifies figuratively 'prevailed': which was fulfilled in the Jews, who prevailed over the weakness of Christ, because He so willed, that He might bear from them, by suffering, the things He had to bear — as, signifying this same thing, Jacob prevailed over the angel, with whom he wrestled that he might portend this very thing.
They said therefore to Jephthah: 'Thou shalt not inherit in the house of our father, because thou art the son of a harlot woman' — as though they were saying what the Gospel relates: 'This man is not from God, who thus looseth the sabbath'; while they, as though boasting themselves legitimate sons, said to the Lord: 'We are not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.' And Jephthah fled from the face of his brethren and dwelt in the land of Tob. He fled, because he hid how great he was; he fled, because he lay hidden from them in their raging — for had they known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory; he fled, because they saw the weakness of the dying, but did not see the power of the rising. And he dwelt in a good land, or, to speak more expressly, the best.
For what in Greek is called 'agathon,' this in Latin is called 'the best'; and this is what 'Tob' is interpreted. Here, it seems to me, His resurrection from the dead is to be understood. For what land is more 'best' than the earthly body clothed with the excellence of immortality and incorruption? But as for what is said of Jephthah — that, after he had fled from the face of his brethren and dwelt in the land of Tob, there were gathered to him robber men, and they went about with him — although even before His passion it was cast up against the Lord that He ate with publicans and sinners, when He answered that the healthy have no need of a physician but the sick; and He was reckoned among the wicked, when He was crucified among robbers and translated one of them from the cross into paradise:
nevertheless, after He rose again and began to be, according to what we set forth above, in the land of Tob, there were gathered to Him wicked men on account of the remission of sins, who walked with Him, because they lived according to His precepts. Nor does this cease to be done even now, and thereafter, so long as the wicked flee to Him, that He may justify the ungodly who turn to Him, and that the unjust may learn His ways. Now that — the fact that those who had cast out Jephthah (he was also a Gileadite) turned to him and sought him out, through whom they might be delivered from their enemies — with how clear a prefiguring does it signify that those who cast out Christ, being turned again to Him, find salvation in Him!
whether those be understood whom the Apostle Peter, when he had reproved them for that very crime, as is read in the Acts of the Apostles, and had exhorted them to turn to Him whom they had persecuted, were pricked in their heart, and desired salvation from Him whom they had estranged from themselves — for what is it to be delivered from enemies but from sins? For thus he said to them: 'Do penance, and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ; and your sins shall be forgiven you' — or whether that rather be signified which is hoped for at the end, the calling of the nation of Israel. For indeed this itself seems more to appear in that which is said: 'And it came to pass after days,' which surely signifies after a time;
and through this it intimates that not that is to be understood which is at the recent passion of the Lord, but that which is to be afterward. To this also seems to pertain the fact that the elders of Gilead came to Jephthah, so that by the aged years the later and last times are to be taken. Now Gilead is interpreted 'Casting away' or 'Revelation.' Each of these fits this matter aptly enough, because first they cast away the Lord Christ, and to them afterward He shall be revealed.
But as for the fact that Jephthah was sought as leader against the sons of Ammon, upon whose being conquered they might be delivered — they who under him as leader desired to war against them — since Ammon is interpreted 'Son of my people' or 'People of sorrow,' assuredly either those enemies are signified who, out of that very nation, were foretold to persevere in unbelief, or altogether all who are predestined to Gehenna, where there shall be for them weeping and gnashing of teeth, as for a people of sorrow. Although a people of sorrow may also not inaptly be understood as the devil and his angels, either because they procure eternal misery for those whom they deceive, or because they themselves too are appointed to eternal misery.
Elegantly indeed, to express the prophecy much more evidently, Jephthah answered the elders of Gilead: 'Did you not hate me and cast me out of my father's house and send me away from you? And what is it that you have come, now that you are in tribulation?' Something of this kind was figured in Joseph, whom his brethren, selling him, cast out, and when they were afflicted with famine, they turned to his help and mercy. But here the signification of things to come shines forth much more fully, in that not those very brethren who cast out Jephthah came to him, but the elders of Gilead, on behalf of that whole people, supplicating him. Just as the same nation is called Israel, whether in those who then were and rejected Christ, or in those who afterward returned to His help.
For to the people, hostile whether in its ancestors or in its posterity — a people drawing out and preserving its long hatreds, and at length converted in those who are then to be converted — it is said: 'Did you not hate me and cast me out of my father's house?' For this seemed good to those who persecuted, that they cast Christ out of the house of David, in which of His kingdom there shall be no end. And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah: 'Not so; now have we come to thee' — as though the Jews, converted to Christ, were saying: 'Then we came that we might persecute; now we come that we may follow.' They profess also that He shall be to them a head against their enemies. He answers that, if He shall conquer their enemies, He shall be to them a prince — which Gideon refused, since the Israelites had not willed it.
For he answered them: 'The Lord shall be your prince.' For a king is signified by the name of prince: which that nation did not yet have in the time of the judges. But they began to have Saul, and thereafter his other successors, who are read of in the books of Kings. For in Deuteronomy, when it is enjoined upon them what manner of king they ought to have, if this should please them, there he is not called king, but prince. But because this Jephthah figured Him who is the true King — which was also written in the title that was affixed to His cross, which Pilate dared not delete or amend — therefore it is to be believed that it was said: 'I will be to you a prince.' But they had said:
'Thou shalt be to us a head,' since the head of the man is Christ, and He Himself is the head of the body, the Church. Finally, after Jephthah had delivered them from all their enemies, he was not made king over them, that we might understand that what was said pertained rather to the prophecy concerning Christ than properly to Jephthah himself, of whom Scripture thus concludes the narration: 'And Jephthah judged Israel six years; and Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in his city, Gilead.' He judged Israel therefore like the other judges; he did not there reign as a prince, like those who are contained in the volumes of Kings.
Now indeed, as for the fact that, after the same Jephthah had been appointed leader over them, he first sent messengers to the enemy bearing words of peace, that shows what the Apostle says, in whom Christ was speaking: 'If it be possible, as much as is in you, having peace with all men.' But to treat of all the very words which Jephthah sent would be too long for us who are hastening; yet they seem to me to be understood thus, so far as pertains to the signification of things to come, that in them may be discerned the doctrine of Christ admonishing us how we ought to walk — that is, to live — among those who are not called according to His purpose: for the Lord knoweth who are His. Now indeed, as for the fact that, when he was about to make war on the enemy, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him,
there is signified the Holy Spirit imparted to the members of Christ. But as for the fact that he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and passed by the watchtower of Gilead, and from the watchtower of Gilead over against the sons of Ammon, there are signified the members of Christ advancing to win the victory over their enemies. For Gilead is interpreted 'Casting away,' Manasseh 'Necessity.' Those casting away — that is, despising — must therefore be passed over by those advancing, and necessity too must be passed over, lest perchance, when he who advances has passed over, the despisers should yield to those who terrify; the watchtower of Gilead too must be passed over, since Gilead is also interpreted 'Revelation.' Now a watchtower is a height for looking out or looking down, that is, for looking from above.
The watchtower of Gilead therefore seems to me fittingly to signify the pride of revelation: whence the Apostle says, 'and lest I be exalted by the greatness of the revelations.' Therefore this too must be passed over, that is, one must not abide in it, because of the danger of falling. When these things have been passed through, the enemies are easily overcome: which he signifies by saying, 'and from the watchtower of Gilead over against the sons of Ammon,' of which enemies it has already been spoken above. And Jephthah vowed a vow and said: 'If Thou wilt indeed deliver the sons of Ammon into my hand, then it shall be that whosoever cometh forth from the doors of my house to meet me, on my returning in peace from the sons of Ammon, he shall be the Lord's, and I will offer him up as a burnt offering.'
Whomever Jephthah may have thought of in this place according to human reasoning, he does not seem to have thought of his only daughter; otherwise he would not have said, when he saw her come to meet him, 'Alas, my daughter, thou hast hindered me; thou art become a stumbling-block in my eyes.' For 'thou hast hindered me' is so said as though he indicated that he was hindered in this — that he might fulfil what he had thought of. But whom could he think of as first meeting him, who had no other children? Or did he think of his wife? And God willed both that this should come to pass, and that He should not leave it unpunished, lest anyone thereafter should dare it, and that by His great providence He might, even from this very thing which befell, figure the sacrament of the Church. From both, therefore, the prophecy was fitted together:
both from that which he thought of in vowing, and from that which befell him against his will. For if he thought of his wife — the wife of Christ is the Church; therefore 'a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament,' says the Apostle, 'but I speak in Christ and in the Church.' But because the wife of this Jephthah could not be a virgin, in that his daughter rather met him and did not remain unavenged, both the forbidden sacrifice of the presumption of the one vowing, and the virginity of the Church, were figured. Nor is it foreign to the truth that by the name of daughter the same Church is signified; for whose type else did that woman also bear, to whom, when she had been healed after touching His hem, the Lord said, 'Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole;
go in peace'? And certainly — a thing about which no one doubts — He Himself called His disciples the sons of the bridegroom, most plainly indicating Himself to be the bridegroom: 'The sons of the bridegroom cannot fast,' He says, 'so long as the bridegroom is with them. But days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast.' The Church therefore shall be the burnt offering — she whom the blessed Apostle calls a chaste virgin — when, in the resurrection of the dead, there shall come to pass in the whole what is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory'; then shall He deliver up the kingdom to God and the Father, which kingdom is the Church herself, whose figure that man who vowed was bearing. But because it shall come to pass then, when the sixth age of the world shall have been completed, therefore a respite of sixty days from her virginity was requested.
For the Church is gathered out of all the ages; of which the first is from Adam to the flood, the second from the flood — that is, from Noah — to Abraham, the third from Abraham to David, the fourth from David to the transmigration into Babylon, the fifth from that transmigration to the birth from the Virgin, the sixth from thence to the end of this world. Through these six ages, as through sixty days, the holy virgin Church bewailed her virginal things: because, although virginal, yet they had been sins to be bewailed; on account of which that whole virgin, spread throughout the whole world, says daily: 'And forgive us our debts.' But she preferred to call those same sixty days two months, as I judge, on account of two men: