The Perils Of Affection

Neque enim frustra et illud quod Apostolus ait: Adam enim primus formatus est, deinde Eva: et Adam non est seductus, mulier autem seducta in praevaricatione facta est; id est, ut per illam etiam vir praevaricaretur. Nam et ipsum dicit praevaricatorem, ubi ait: In similitudinem praevaricationis Adae, qui est forma futuri. Seductum tamen negat. Nam et interrogatus non ait: Mulier quam dedisti mecum, seduxit me, et manducavi; sed, ipsa mihi, inquit, dedit a ligno, et manducavi. Illa vero: Serpens, inquit, seduxit me. Ita Salomon vir tantae sapientiae, numquidnam credendum est quod in simulacrorum cultu credidit esse aliquid utilitatis? Sed mulierum amori ad hoc malum trahenti resistere non valuit, faciens quod sciebat non esse faciendum, ne suas, quibus deperibat atque defluebat, mortiferas delicias contristaret. Ita et Adam, posteaquam de ligno prohibito seducta mulier manducavit, eique dedit ut simul ederent, noluit eam contristare, quam credebat posse sine suo solatio contabescere, si ab eius alienaretur animo, et omnino illa interire discordia. Non quidem carnis victus concupiscentia, quam nondum senserat in resistente lege membrorum legi mentis suae; sed amicali quadam benevolentia, qua plerumque fit ut offendatur Deus, ne homo ex amico fiat inimicus: quod eum facere non debuisse, divinae sententiae iustus exitus indicavit. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, De Genesi Ad Litteram, Liber XI, Cap XLII Migne PL 34 453-454

It is not in vain that the Apostle said, 'Adam was fashioned first, then Eve, and Adam was not seduced but the woman seduced sinned,' 1 that is, by her the man was a sinner. For he calls him a sinner, when he says, 'a likeness of the sinner Adam, who is the type of the one to come.' 2 He does not say seduced. For being asked Adam does not say, 'The woman which you gave me, she seduced me, and I ate,' but 'She gave to me from the tree and I ate.' She, however, does say, 'The serpent seduced me.' 3 Thus Solomon who was a man of such wisdom that surely no one believes that he thought there to be any benefit in the cult of idols, but for love of women he could not resist being drawn into this evil, doing what he knew he should not do, thus he fell into ruin and diminished, lest he grieve them in their death bearing pleasures. 4 So even Adam, after the seduced woman ate from the forbidden tree and gave to him that he likewise eat, was unwilling to grieve her, which he thought he would be able to do without the result of the distress if from his soul she were alienated and utterly she enter into disharmony. For certainly he was not overthrown by the lust of the flesh, since he did not yet feel in the law of his members resistance to the law of his mind, 5 but on account of a certain friendly benevolence, that makes many offend God lest they make a man who was friend an enemy, which he should not have done, the just expulsion of the the Divine judgement was imposed. Saint Augustine of Hippo, On Genesis to the Letter, Book 11, Chap 42 1 1 Tim 2 13-14 2 Rom 5.14 3 Gen 3.12-13  4 cf 3 Kings 11.4  5 Rom 7.23

Wisdom's Call

Τὴν μὲν τοῦ νότου βασίλισσαν ἀκοὴ σοφίας ἐκ τῶν περάτων τῆς γῆς ἐκτεῖναι πρὸς Σολομῶντα παρώτρυνε. Σὲ δὲ Κύριος καθ' ἡμέραν ἐβοῶν, νῆψαι καὶ βλέψαι πρὸς τὸ συμφέρον οὐκ ἔπεισε. Πρόσεχε τοίνυν μὴ ὑπ' ἐκείνης κριθῇς ὅτι τὴν μὲν φῆμαι καὶ λόγοι ἐπτέρωσαν· σὲ δὲ καὶ ὄψις καὶ πρᾶξις τῶν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐνεργειῶν οὐδαμῶς ἐβελτίωσαν. Ἅγιος Ἰσίδωρος Του Πηλουσιώτου, Βιβλίον Πρῶτον, ΡΞϚ', Μαρτιανῳ

The Queen of the south hearing of wisdom from the ends of the earth exerted herself to reach Solomon. 1 And the Lord everyday is crying out to you to be sober and look to your advancement, but He has not persuaded you. Take care then less you are condemned, for words and speeches have flown forth and you for sight and deeds of Christ have not exerted yourself to what is better.  Saint Isidore of Pelusium, Book 1, Letter 166, To Martianus 1 3 Kings 10.1

Times and Seasons

Quam accurate Sancta Scriptura facta describat. Intueri libet quomodo sacra eloquia in exordiis narrationum qualitates exprimant, terminosque causarum. Aliquando namque a positione loci, aliquando a positione corporis, aliquando a qualitate aeris, aliquando a qualitate temporis signant, quid de ventura actione subjiciant. A positione quippe locorum Divina Scriptura exprimit subsequentium merita finesque causarum, sicut de Israel dicit quia verba Dei in monte audire non potuit, sed praecepta in campestribus accepit: subsequentem nimirum infirmitatem populi indicans, qui ascendere ad summa non valuit, sed semetipsum in infimis neglecte vivendo laxavit. A positione corporis futura denuntiat, sicut in apostolorum Actibus Stephanus Jesum, qui a dextris virtutis Dei sedet, stantem se vidisse manifestat. Stare quippe adjuvantis est. Et recte stare cernitur, qui in bello certaminis opitulatur. A qualitate aeris res subsequens demonstratur, sicut evangelista, cum praedicante Domino, nullos tunc ex Judaea credituros diceret, praemisit dicens: Hiems autem erat. Scriptum namque est: Quoniam abundabit iniquitas, refrigescet charitas multorum. Idcirco ergo hiemis curavit tempus exprimere, ut inesse auditorum cordibus malitiae frigus indicaret. Hinc est quod de negaturo Petro praemittitur: Quia frigus erat, et stans ad prunas calefaciebat se. Jam namque intus a charitatis calore torpuerat, et ad amorem praesentis vitae, quasi ad persecutorum prunas infirmitate aestuante recalebat. A qualitate quoque temporis finis exprimitur actionis, sicut non rediturus ad veniam, ad traditionis perfidiam nocte Judas exiisse perhibetur, cum egrediente illo, ab evangelista dicitur: Erat autem nox. Hinc enim et iniquo diviti dicitur: Hac nocte repetent animam tuam abs te. Anima quippe, quae ad tenebras ducitur, non in die repeti, sed in nocte memoratur. Hinc est quod Salomon, qui sapientiam non perseveraturus accepit, in somnis hanc et nocte accepisse describitur. Hinc est quod angeli ad Abraham meridie veniunt; punituri autem Sodomam, ad eam vespere venisse memorantur. Sanctus Gregorius Magnus, Moralia, sive Expositio in Job, Liber II

How carefully Sacred Scripture describes incidents. One should look closely at how the sacred eloquence in the beginning of its narrations details the qualities and limits of the issues. For at one time by location, at another by the position of the body, at another by the quality of the air, at another by the the time, it foreshadows what is to come. So then by location Divine Scripture sets forth the merits and ends of the events to follow, as where it says of Israel that they were not able to hear the words of God on the mountain but received the commandments on the plain, doubtless indicating the subsequent weakness of the people who could not ascend to the heights but who enervated themselves by careless living in lowest things. By the posture of the body it announces the future, as where in the Acts of the Apostles Stephen discloses that he saw Jesus who is placed at the right hand of the Power of God, in a standing posture,1 for standing is the posture of one in the act of rendering aid, and rightly is He discerned standing who gives aid in the struggle of the battle.  By the quality of the air the subsequent event is shown, as when the Evangelist said that none out of Judea were at that time to prove believers in our Lord's teaching, he prefaced it by saying, 'And it was winter.' For it is written, 'Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold.'  Therefore he took care to remark that it was the winter season in order to indicate that the frost of wickedness was in the hearts of the hearers. Thus it is that it is said before Peter denied the Lord that it was cold and Peter stood warming himself at the coals, for now inwardly the warmth of charity lessened but the love of this present life was warming, as though his weakness were heated by the coals of the persecutors. By the time also is the end of the act is set forth, as is said of Judas, who was never to be restored by pardon, that he went out at night to the treachery of his betrayal, where on his exit, the Evangelist says: 'And it was night.' And again it is declared to the iniquitous rich man: 'This night your soul be taken from you.' The soul which is taken to darkness is not demanded in the day but in the night.  Hence it is that Solomon, who received wisdom but was not to retain it, is said to have received it in dreams and in the night.  Hence it is that the Angels come to Abraham at midday, but when the go to punish Sodom they are recorded to have arrived at evening. Saint Gregory the Great, Commentary on Job, Book II  1 Acts 7.55

A Literary Inheritance

Quod autem quaeris in calce epsitolae tuae, cur in opusculis nostris saecularium litterarum interdum ponamus exempla, et candorem Ecclesiae, Ethnicorum sordibus polluamus; breviter responsum habeto. Nunquam hoc quaeres, nisi te totum Tullius possideret; si Scripturas sanctas legeres, si Interpretes earum, omissio Volcatio, evolveres. Quis enim nesciat et in Moyse et in Prophetarum voluminibus quaedam assumpat de Gentilium libris, et Salomonem Philosophis Tyri et nonnulla proposuisse, et aliqua repondisse? Unde in exordio Proverbiorum commonet, ut intelligamus sermones prudentiae, versutiasque verborum, parabolas, et obscurum sermonem, dicta sapientum, et aenigmata, quae proprie dialecticorum et philosophorum sunt. Sed et Paulus Apostolus Epimenidis Poetae abusus versiculo est, scribens ad Titum: Cretenses semper mendacos, malae bestiae, ventres pigria. Cujus heroici hemistichium postea Callimachus usurpavit. Nec mirum si apud Latinos metrum non servet ad verbum expressa translatio, cum Homerus eadem linguam versus in prosam, vix cohaereat. In alia quoque Epistola, Menandri ponit senarium: Corrumpunt mores bonos confabulationes pessimae. Et apud Athenienses in Martis curia disputans, Aratum testem vocat. Ipsius enim et genus sumus, quod Graece dicitur: τοῦ γάρ και γένος ἐσμεν; et est clausula versus heroici. Ac ne parum hoc esset, ductor Christiani exercitus, et orator invictus pro Christo causam agens, etiam inscriptionem fortuitam, arte torquet in argumentum fidei. Didicerat enim a vero David, extorquere de manibus hostium gladium, et Goliae superbissimi caput proprio mucrone truncare. Legerat in Deuteromonio Domini voce praeceptum, mulieris captivae radendum caput, supercilia, omnes pilos, et ungues corporis amputandus, et sic eam habendem in coniugio. Quid ergo mirum, si et ego sapientiam saecularem propter eloquii venustatem, et membrorum pulchritudinem, de ancilla atque captiva Israelitidem facere capio? et si quidquid in ea mortuum est, idololatriae, voluptatis, erroris, libidinum, vel praecidio, vel rado; et mixtus purissimo corpori vernaculos ex ea genero Domino Sabaoth. Labor meus in familiam Christi proficit; stuprum in alienam, auget numerum conservorum. Sanctus Hieronymus, Epistola LXX, Ad Magnum Oratorem Urbis Romae Source: Migne PL 22 665-666

To what you ask at the end of your letter, that is, why it is that in my little works I sometimes place excerpts from secular literature and pollute the whiteness of the Church with the filth of the heathen, let me briefly respond. You would never have asked had not Cicero completely possessed you, if you had read the Scriptures, and turning to the interpreters of them, had ignored Volcatius. Who does not know that both in Moses and in the Prophets there are certain things taken from Gentile books, and that Solomon not only proposed questions to the philosophers of Tyre but even answered them? At the beginning of Proverbs he exhorts us to understand prudent speech and shrewd words, parables and obscure discourse, the words of the wise and their mysteries, all of which are proper to the dialecticians and the philosophers. And the Apostle Paul, writing to Titus, makes use of a line of the poet Epimenides: 'The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, sluggish in their bellies.'1 A Hemistych of which line was afterwards employed by Callimachus. It is no surprise that a literal rendering of the words into Latin should fail to preserve the metre, since Homer translated into the same tongue is barely coherent even in prose. In another letter Paul includes a line of Menander: 'Evil communications corrupt good manners.' 2 And when disputing with the Athenians on the Areopagus he calls as witness Aratus: 'For we are also his offspring' 1 which in Greek is τοῦ γάρ και γένος ἐσμεν, the close of a heroic verse. And as if this were not enough, that leader of the Christian army, that unconquered orator for the cause of Christ, skilfully turns a chance inscription into an argument of the faith. Indeed he had learned from the true David to wrest the sword of the enemy out of his hand and with that very same blade to cut off the head of the proud Goliath. He had read in Deuteronomy the precept given by the voice of the Lord that when a captive woman had had her head, her eyebrows and all her hair shaved, and her nails pared, she might then be taken in marriage. Is it then to be wondered if I, on account of the charm of the eloquence of the wisdom of the world, desire to make it a captive and a handmaid of Israel? And if whatever in her is dead, such as idolatry, pleasure, error, or lust, has been cut away or shaved off, and having mingled with this handmaid of purest body, I beget by her a generation for the Lord of Sabaoth? My labour profits Christ's family; by breeding with a foreigner the number of my fellow servants is increased. Saint Jerome, from Letter 70, To Magnus an Orator of Rome 1 Titus 1.12 2 1 Cor 15.33 3 Acts 17.28