Foolish Feasting

Baltassar rex fecit grande convivium optimatibus suis mille: et unusquisque secundum suam bibebat ætatem. Præcepit ergo jam temulentus ut afferrentur vasa aurea et argentea, quæ asportaverat Nabuchodonosor pater ejus de templo, quod fuit in Ierusalem, ut biberent in eis rex, et optimates ejus, uxoresque ejus, et concubinæ. Bibebant vinum, et laudabant deos suos aureos, et argenteos, et aereos, ferreos, ligneosque et lapideos. Quanta stultitia! in aureis vasis bibentes, deos ligneos laudabant et lapideos. Quamdiu vasa fuerunt in idolio Babylonis, non est iratus Dominus: videbantur enim rem Dei secundum pravam quidem opinionem, tamen divino cultui consecrasse: postquam autem humanis usibus divina contaminant, statim poena sequitur post sacrilegium. Laudant autem deos suos, insultantes Deo Judaeorum; quod illis victoriam tribuentibus, bibebant in vasis ejus. Juxta tropologiam, hoc dicendum est: quod omnes haeretici, et doctrina contraria veritati, quae assumit verba prophetarum; et testimoniis divinae Scripturae abutitur ad sensum suum; et dat bibere his quos decipit, et cum quibus fornicata est: tollat vasa templi Dei, et inebrietur in eis: et non Deum cujus vasa sunt, sed deos laudet aureos et argenteos, et aeneos, et ferreos, ligneosque et lapideos. Aurei mihi videntur hi qui saeculari ratione compositi sunt. Argentei, qui habent eloquii venustatem, et rhetorica arte constructi sunt. Qui autem inferunt fabulas poetarum, et vetustis utuntur traditionibus, habentes inter se multam vel elegantiae vel stultitiae differentiam, isti vocantur aenei et ferrei. Qui autem penitus inepta proponunt, lignei appellantur et lapidei. Quos omnes in duas partes Deuteronomium dividit, scribens: Maledictus qui facit sculptile, et conflatile, opus manuum artificis, et ponit illud in abscondito. Abscondunt enim omnes haeretici, et operiunt mendaciorum suorum dogmata, ut sagittent in obscuro rectos corde. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Daniel, Caput V Source: Migne PL 25.519b-d

King Baltassar made a great feast for a thousand of his best men, and each one drank according to his rank. Then being drunk, he commanded that the vessels of gold and silver which had been taken by his father Nebuchadnezzar from the temple of Jerusalem be brought so that the king might drink from them, and his best men, and his wives and concubines. They drank wine and praised their gods of gold and silver and iron and wood and stone. 1 How great their foolishess, drinking from gold vessels and praising their gods of wood and stone. While the vases were in the idol temple of Babylon, the Lord was not angered, for according to depraved opinion they seemed to be something belonging to God, and still consecrated to the Divine cult, but after they had defiled Divine things with human use, punishment immediately followed sacrilege. Then praising their gods, they insulted the God of the Jews, because with victory given to them, they drank from His vessels. According to the tropological understanding this must be said: that all heretics, and all teaching that opposes truth, which takes up the words of the prophets and twists the Divine testimonies of Scripture to their own sense, and gives this to drink to those whom they deceive, and fornicates with them, this is to take the vessels from the temple of God and use them for drunkeness. And they do not praise God whose vessels they are, but gods of gold and silver and bronze and iron and wood and stone. The golden ones seem to me to be those put together by the reasoning of the world, the silver ones are those who have the charms of eloquence and are fashioned by the art of rhetoric. But they who bring forth the fables of poets and make use of ancient traditions, they have among themselves a great difference, for they do this either skilfully or poorly, and these are called the gods of bronze and iron. But those who propose things utterly ineptly, these are the gods of wood and stone. Whom all Deuteronomy divides into two parts, saying: 'Cursed is he who makes a statue and molten thing, the work of an artisan's hands, and he sets it somewhere in secret.' 2 For all heretics are hidden away, and they veil the teachings of their lies, that they might shoot from concealment at the righteous in heart. 3 Saint Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, Chapter 5 1 Dan 5.1-4 2 Deut 27.15 3 Ps 10.3