約伯倫理 第 67 章

Verse 3. — And his possession was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels. 21. By the sheep the innocent, by the camels the vicious Gentiles and the Samaritans are shadowed forth. — Because the faithful hearers are gathered from a varied manner of life, that which is first said universally, the daughters being mentioned, is afterwards subjoined distinctly by the naming of animals. For what does he express in the seven thousand sheep, save the perfect innocence of certain persons, who come to the perfection of grace from the pastures of the law? But what in the three thousand camels, save the twisted viciousness of the Gentiles coming to the fulness of the faith is designated?

But in holy Scripture sometimes by the name of camel the Lord Himself, sometimes the Gentile people, is expressed. For by the name of camel the Lord is designated, as by the same Lord it is said to the opposing Jews: 'Straining out a gnat, but swallowing a camel' (Matt. xxiii, 24). For the gnat wounds by buzzing, but the camel of its own accord bends down to take up burdens. The Jews, therefore, strained out the gnat, because they asked that the seditious robber be released; but they swallowed the camel, because they endeavoured by crying out to destroy Him who had of His own accord come down to take up the burdens of our mortality. Again, by the name of camel the Gentile world is designated. Whence also Rebecca, coming to Isaac (Gen. xxiv, 61),

is led on the back of a camel; because the Church hastening to Christ out of the Gentile world is found in the twisted and vicious ways of the old life. She, when Isaac was seen, descended; because, the Lord being known, the Gentile world forsook its vices, and from the elation of loftiness sought the depths of humility. And, being made ashamed, she is veiled with a mantle, because in His presence she is confounded on account of her past life. Whence also by the Apostle it is said to those same Gentiles: 'What fruit, then, had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?' (Rom. vi, 21).

Since, therefore, by the sheep we understand the Hebrews coming from the pastures of the law to the faith, nothing hinders that by the camels — twisted in their manners, and laden with the worship of idols — we should perceive the peoples of the Gentiles. For because out of themselves they invented for themselves gods whom they might worship, it was as though out of themselves a burden had grown up on their back for them to carry. 22. It can also be that by the camels, because they are common animals, the life of the Samaritans is signified. For camels chew the cud, but in no wise divide the hoof. The Samaritans too, as it were, chew the cud, because in part they receive the words of the law; and as it were divide not the hoof, because in part they despise it.

They also bear a heavy burden on the back of the mind, because in everything that they do, they labour without hope of eternity. For they know not the faith of the resurrection. And what can be heavier and more burdensome, than to endure the affliction of a passing world, and in no wise to hope for the joys of recompense unto the relief of the mind? But because the Lord, appearing in the flesh, both filled the peoples of the Hebrews with the grace of perfection, and led certain of the Samaritans to the knowledge of the faith by showing forth wondrous works; it is rightly said of the shadow, which expressed the truth, that he possessed both seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels. There follows: