Allegoriae Quaedam Sacrae Scripturae

Of the Holy Isidore, Bishop of Seville, Certain Allegories of Sacred Scripture Preface. Isidore to his holy and most reverend brother Orosius. I have briefly gathered and condensed certain very well-known names from the law and the Gospels, which are veiled figuratively under allegory and require some interpretation, so that I might render them plain and open to readers. These, because they are unexplained, a brief subject matter for discussion compelled me to annotate, and it allowed me neither to produce a book of moderate length nor to explain the mysteries of the figures most fully. Indeed, the sense was such that from the statements which are set down, both the preceding and the following may be understood. And so we offer these matters to your learning to be examined and approved, so that you may diligently see to the correction of whatever depends unlearnedly on the reason of words and meanings. For I, my dearest friend, will consider myself excusable in the censure of this work, because I have not kept these things to my own judgment, but have entrusted them to your judgment to be corrected.

FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT Adam (Genesis 1) bore the figure of Christ; for just as he was formed on the sixth day in the image of God, so in the sixth age of the world the Son of God put on the form of flesh, that is, he took on the form of a servant, in order to refashion man into the likeness of God. Eve (ibid.) designates the Church, made through the mystery of the font, which flowed from the side of Christ dying on the cross, just as Eve came from the rib of the sleeping man. Abel, a keeper of sheep (Genesis 4), held the type of Christ, who is the true and good shepherd, as he himself says: I am the good shepherd, who lays down my life for my sheep, the future ruler of the faithful peoples. Cain, his brother (ibid.), the elder in age, who killed the same Abel in the field, signifies the earlier people who killed Christ at the place of Calvary. Enoch, the son of Cain (ibid.), in whose name his father founded a city, signifies the impious who are founded only in this life.

Seth (Ibid.), which is interpreted as resurrection, demonstrates Christ Jesus, in whom is the true resurrection and the life of the faithful. Enos, his son (Ibid.), who invoked the name of the Lord in hope, declares the Church living in hope until it attains the blessedness of promised felicity. Lamech held the figure of this world, whose sin Christ absolved through the shedding of his blood after seventy-seven generations of the world, according to what the evangelist Luke described (Luke III). Henoch (Gen. v), who was the seventh from Adam and was translated, signifies the seventh rest of the future resurrection, when the saints will be translated into the life of perpetual immortality. Noah, who is interpreted as rest, bears the likeness of the Lord, in whose Church all who are saved from the destruction of this world rest, as in the ark. Sem, moreover, held the type of the prophets and apostles, who are born from his stock.

Japheth prefigured the people of the Gentiles, who dwell among the churches of the Israelites. Cham signifies the Jews, who mock Christ incarnate and dead. Chanaan, his son, who is condemned by a curse for his father’s transgression (Gen. 9), indicates the posterity of the Jews, who in the Lord’s Passion received a sentence of condemnation, with the Jews crying out: “His blood upon us, and upon our sons.” Nemrod the giant expressed the type of the devil, who with proud desire sought the summit of divine majesty, saying: “I shall ascend above the height of the clouds, and I shall be like the Most High.” Heber, in whose house the original language remained while the other tongues were divided, intimates our Redeemer, in whose Church the unity of faith persists without schism. Melchisedech (Gen. 14), who offered a sacrifice to the Lord from the fruits of the earth, prefigured the kingdom of Christ, who is the true king of justice, and the priesthood, whose sacrament of body and blood, that is, the offering of bread and wine, is offered throughout the whole world.

Abraham bore the type of God the Father, who gave his beloved son to be sacrificed for the salvation of the world. The three angels coming to him (Gen. 18) historically insinuate the divine Trinity. Moreover, the two wives whom Abraham had (Gen. 16, 22), that is, a free woman and a handmaid, the Apostle designates as the two Testaments (Gal. 4). Isaac and Ishmael signify the two peoples proceeding from each Testament. The boy Abraham designates the image of the ancient law, through whom the Church, the bride, was prophetically prepared for our Lord Jesus Christ. Esau, hairy and red (Gen. 25), is the people of the Jews, bloody in their impious persecution against Christ and the prophets, and, by the indication of his hairy skin, horrible in the covering of their sins. Jacob, however (ibid.), demonstrates Christ, or the people of the Gentiles, who by the blessing of God the Father was preferred to the prior people of the Jews. Laban had the type of the law and of the devil, from whose household Christ took for himself two wives, namely the people of the circumcision and of the Gentiles.

Lia held the figure of the Synagogue, which, with the weak eyes of the heart, could not contemplate the sacraments of God. Rachel, however, clear in appearance, held the type of the Church, which, with the keenness of contemplation, discerns the mysteries of Christ. The man who entered into a struggle with Jacob prefigured Christ's contest with the people of Israel; for just as Jacob limped in the contest, so the Jews limped in faith during the Lord's passion. Lot (Gen. 19) held the type of the saints who, at the end of the age, will be freed from the fire of the impious. Lot's wife (ibid.) held the type of those who, called by the grace of God, afterwards look back. Consequently, Lot himself bore the person of the law, from which those who use it with a carnal understanding beget works of infidelity. His two daughters (Gen. 19) signify Samaria and Jerusalem, which fornicate in the law through the adultery of illicit doctrine. Ruben (Gen. 31), the firstborn, is interpreted as "son of vision"; he prefigured the people who violated the bed of God the Father, when they fixed to the gibbet of the cross the flesh which Christ had betrothed to himself.

Simeon designates the scribes of the Jews, who in their fury slew the prophets, and in their grief dug under with the piercings of nails Christ, the most firm wall, in which believers are fortified with steadfast strength. Levi is both the author and the figure of the high priests who crucified Christ. Judas signifies Christ, who, in the chamber of the tomb, like a lion, secure, with the sleep of the body and the conquered power of death, rose again after three days. Issachar held the type of the Church, which placed its shoulder to bear the burden of the cross. Zabulon signifies the same Church, which, dwelling beside the waves of this life, bears all the temptations and storms of the age. Nephthalim expresses all the holy preachers, who, like a deer leaping, raise themselves to the heights, and confer the utterances of doctrine to all believers. Dan signifies the Antichrist, who, in the path of this life, strives to supplant the hoofs of the horse, that is, the ends of the age, with the bite of pestilential preaching, so as to cast out those who are exalted in the delights and riches of this world.

Gad demonstrates Christ, who in his second coming, girded with the strength of a judge, declares that he will do battle against the Antichrist. Aser demonstrates the same Lord Jesus Christ, whose bread is rich in the mouth of the faithful. Joseph (Gen. 37), who was sold by his brothers and exalted in Egypt, signifies our Redeemer, handed over by the Jewish people into the hands of his persecutors and now raised up among the Gentiles. Benjamin presented the image of the apostle Paul, because he was both the last and the least of all the apostles by election, and he descended from his tribe: he is a ravenous wolf, a persecutor tearing apart by morning, a teacher feeding by evening. Manasses bore the figure of the former people. Ephraim, however, bore that of the Gentiles, who by the blessing of the patriarch was set over the greater people of the Jews. Thamar (Gen. 38) bears the image of the Church, which merited the conception of holy abundance from Christ through the ring of faith and the rod of the cross.

The two twins in Tamar's womb (Gen. 38) prefigured two peoples, of whom the one born later, who put his hand out of the womb first, because the people of the Gentiles was indeed shown first through the prophets, but was revealed later; for this reason the midwife bound his hand with scarlet, because that same people was marked with the sign of Christ's blood on the cross. Dinah, Jacob's daughter (Gen. 34), signifies the Synagogue, or the soul: whom Shechem, the prince of the land, finding her occupied with the external cares of the world, oppresses, that is, the devil corrupts her with the vice of carnal lust. Bilhah, Jacob's concubine (Gen. 35), whom Reuben defiled by the crime of incest, signifies the law of the Old Testament, which the people of Israel stained by transgressing. Job, in his deeds and words, expresses the person of the Redeemer. His wife (Job 2), who provokes him to curse, designates the perversity of the fleshly-minded. Job's three friends held the type of the heretics, who under the appearance of consoling carry on the business of seducing.

Eliud indeed shows a proud and arrogant teacher, who harshly inflicts his rebuke on the faithful, Holy Mother Church. Pharaoh had the form of the devil, who tried to destroy the people of God in the captivity of this world and to burden them with the earthly works of vices. Pharaoh's daughter (Exod. 2), who gathered up the exposed Moses at the bank of the river, is the Church of the Gentiles, who found Christ at the river of the saving bath. Moses (Exod. 13) bore the type of Christ, who snatched the people of God from the yoke of diabolical servitude and condemned the devil himself to eternal punishment. Aaron the priest, who purified the people with the blood of victims, signifies Christ, who washed away the sins of the world with the sacrifice of his own blood. Mary, the sister of Moses (Num. 12), presented the appearance of the Synagogue, which was leprous on account of its slander and murmuring against Christ. The Ethiopian wife of Moses (Exod. 2) figured the Church from the Gentiles joined to Christ, on account of which the slandering Synagogue, through the contagion of diabolical leprosy, is covered over against Christ.

Amalek designates the figure of the devil, who, when he confronts the people of God, is overcome by the sign of the cross. Sihon also, king of the Amorites, which is translated into Latin as "temptation of the eyes," signifies the same devil, who by the lie of deception transfigures himself into an angel of light. He is Og, king of Bashan, who is interpreted as "conclusion," who strives to block the way of our journey with the difficulty of vices, so that the passage to the promised kingdom of eternal life may not lie open to us. The seventy-two elders, upon whom the Spirit of God fell, show the seventy-two languages of the nations spread throughout this world, from which many believers received the grace of the Holy Spirit. Dathan and Abiram, and the others who, separating themselves from Moses and Aaron, attempted to usurp the sacrifice (Num. 16), designate the wickedness of heretics, and the destruction of those who divide themselves from the priests of Christ and from the fellowship of the Church, and who take up profane sacrifices.

Balaam, who, falling, had his eyes open (Num. 22–24), held the type of those who have knowledge of God through faith, but, darkened by evil works, fall. Phinehas, who killed Zimri and the harlot together while they were engaged in adultery (Num. 25), held the figure of holy teachers, who strike Jews and heretics with the spiritual sword as they rush together in the embrace of false doctrine. He who, gathering wood on the Sabbath, is ordered to be stoned, signifies him whom Christ will find with sin on the day of judgment. The twelve spies held the image of the scribes and Pharisees, who turned the Israelite people away so that they would not trust that they could obtain the grace of the divine promise through Christ. The two porters, who carried a cluster of grapes from the land of promise on a pole on their shoulders (Num. 13), expressed the significance of two peoples, of whom the former, the Jewish, walking with his back turned, gives his back to Christ; the latter, the Christian, looks at and follows the Christ whom he carries.

Joshua, son of Nun, expressed the image of the Savior, who led us into the land of promise and placed us in the kingdom of heavenly glory. Rahab the harlot held the figure of the Church, which is saved from the destruction of the world by the scarlet cord, that is, by the sign of the Lord's passion. The two spies sent by Joshua into Jericho, whom Rahab received (Joshua 2), are understood as the two Testaments sent into the world, which the Church gathered from the Gentiles received. Achan, who coveted the anathema from Jericho, signifies the wicked and sinful man who, after faith, seeks worldly customs or the allurements of the world. Gideon, who went to battle with three hundred men (Judges 7), bore the type of Christ, who won victory over the world by the sign of the cross. For the number three hundred is contained in the letter Tau, by which the form of the cross is shown. Sisera was a type of the devil. Jael, however, who pierced his temples with a peg and a mallet, expressed the type of the Church, which destroyed the dominion of the devil by the standard of the cross.

Deborah herself, bearing the type of the same Church, proclaims the song of heavenly glory when Sisara is defeated. Jephthah, who sacrificed his daughter for the victory obtained (Judges 11), showed the figure of the Redeemer, who, triumphing over the world, offered his own flesh as a sacrifice. Samson figured the death and victory of our Savior, either because he drew the nations from the jaws of the devil, like a honeycomb from the mouth of a slain lion, or because after death he gained many, and dying he destroyed more than when living. Delilah, who shaved Samson's head (Judges 16), signifies the Synagogue, which crucified Christ at the place of Calvary. Ruth, a foreigner, who married an Israelite man, shows the Church coming from the Gentiles to Christ. Boaz, however, expressed Christ, the true spouse of the Church. Hannah, who was barren and afterward became fruitful (1 Samuel 1), signifies the Church of Christ, which was formerly barren among the Gentiles, but now flourishes abundantly throughout the whole earth with the offspring of numerous fecundity.

The rejected priest Heli (1 Samuel) prefigured the rejection of the priesthood of the Old Testament. Samuel, however, who succeeded the rejected Heli in the priestly ministry (ibid.), announced the succession of the new priesthood, the old priesthood having been cast aside. The two sons of Heli, priests who were slain when the ark was captured by the Gentiles (1 Samuel 4), signify that the posterity of the former priesthood was extinguished, and that the law of the Testament was transferred to the worship of the Gentiles. Saul suggests the promise, or the rejection, or the emulation of the same Jewish people, who, with unjust hatred of envy, attempted to kill David, that is, Christ. David expressed the image of the Son of God and our Savior, either because he endured unjust persecution by the persecution of the Jews, or because Christ assumed flesh from his line. Uriah the Hittite had the type of the devil, with whose marriage the Church was formerly joined, before Christ desired her, as she was washing herself from the filth of the world and purifying herself through the water of the bath.

Solomon prefigures the figure of Christ, who built a house for God in heavenly Jerusalem, not of wood and stone, but of all the saints. The Queen of Sheba, who came to hear the wisdom of Solomon (1 Kings 10; 2 Chronicles 9), is understood as the Church, which is gathered from the farthest ends of the earth to hear the word of God. Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, and Jeroboam, a servant, by whom Israel was divided into two parts, signify that division made at the Lord's coming, in which the part of believers from among the Jews reigns with Christ, who is born from the line of David; the other part, however, followed the Antichrist, to whose cult of nefarious servitude they were bound by error. Goliath (1 Samuel 17) designates the devil, whose pride of elevation the humility of Christ laid low. Elijah demonstrates Christ, because just as he was borne aloft to the heights in a fiery chariot, so Christ was taken up into heaven by the ministries of angels.

The widow to whom Elijah is sent to be fed (1 Kings 17) is the Church, to whom Christ is read to have come through faith, whose flour and oil are blessed and do not fail, that is, the grace of the body of Christ and the anointing of chrism, which are daily expended throughout the whole world and are never diminished. Elisha prefigured the same Redeemer Lord, who, descending from the height of the mountain, that is, the sublimity of the heavens, humbled himself from the form of God to the form of man, and joined his own members to dead members, and healed our mortality with the medicine of his own body. The boys who, insulting Elisha, cried out: "Go up, baldhead, go up, baldhead," and perished, attacked by a bear (2 Kings 2), indicate the people of the Jews, who with childish folly mocked Christ crucified at the place of Calvary, and, captured by two bears, that is, Titus and Vespasian, perished. Elisha's boy, sent with a staff to revive the woman's son (2 Kings 4), shows the type of the ancient law, which, transmitted to the human race, accomplished nothing except that in the rod it displayed only the authority of severity.

The Shunammite’s dead son (ibid.) holds the figure of the human race, over whom Christ, yawning seven times, spiritually breathes the Spirit of sevenfold grace, through whom he revives from the death of sin. The seven thousand men, of whom it was said to Elijah that they did not bow the knee before Baal, signify the number of the saints, who, filled with the Spirit of sevenfold grace, renounced the devil. Naaman the Syrian signifies the people from the Gentiles, polluted by the stains of their offenses, and purified by Christ through the sacrament of baptism. King Uzziah, who, on account of the merit of his crimes, is drenched with the contagion of leprosy on his forehead (2 Chronicles 26), indicates the kingdom of the Jews, who bear the disgrace and evil of perfidy on their forehead, where they ought to have borne the sign of the cross. King Hezekiah, to whom fifteen years are added to his life for his good work (2 Kings 20; 2 Chronicles 32; Isaiah 39; Sirach 48), signifies all the saints, to whom the five books of the Law together with the ten words of the Decalogue are given for acquiring eternal life, so that through the fulfillment of the Law and the precepts they may attain the fullness of the heavenly kingdom.

King Josiah, who celebrated the Passover and cast out many idols from the temple of the Lord (4 Kings 23; 2 Chronicles 35), signifies Christ, who underwent the Passion for us, and, casting down all the abominable things of the Gentiles from the temples of our body, consumed and shattered them with the fire of his power, and cast them into the torrent of this age. Zedekiah, whose eyes the king of Babylon tore out at Riblah (4 Kings 25), signifies the rich and sinners of this world; for Riblah is translated into Latin as “many things,” and therefore he signifies those who are so entangled in the many actions and affections of this world that, captured by the devil, they lose the eyes of understanding. Isaiah expressed the form of the evangelists and apostles, who proclaimed all the sacraments of Christ not as future, but as present. Jeremiah, however, in his words and sufferings, prefigured the death and Passion of the Lord and Savior.

Ezekiel bore the image of Christ, who, placed in an earthly pilgrimage, urges the people with salutary precepts. Daniel, who maintained a celibate life, had a likeness through his continence to those who are in holy leisure and do not abuse earthly resources. Hosea shows the figure of Christ, who took up the Church into his body from the fornication of the nations. Joel, who is interpreted as "beginning," indicates typologically those who begin to know the mystery of the door of faith and of divine knowledge. Amos, a shepherd and rustic, is a type of Christ, who, transferred from the pastoral office of flocks—that is, from the governance of the Hebrews—now feeds other flocks among the Gentiles. Obadiah, who fed a hundred prophets in Samaria (3 Kings 18), signifies all preachers of the faith, who in this world refresh all believers with the nourishment of the sacred Scriptures. Jonah (Jonah 2) figured the death of Christ, who rested for three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, as if in the belly of the whale.

Habakkuk, a strong wrestler, is the faithful people, who, placed on high, contemplates the Lord on the cross, saying: The horns are in his hands, there the strength of his glory is confirmed. Zephaniah, who is interpreted as a watchman, or the hidden of the Lord, signifies those who through the secret of contemplation attain to perfect merit. Haggai and Zechariah bore the figure of the saints, who declare to us in the life of this pilgrimage the time of future liberation. Malachi, who is interpreted as the angel of the Lord, held the type of our Savior, who is called the Angel of great counsel. Joshua, the high priest, bore the figure of Christ, through whom the entrance to the heavenly Jerusalem lies open to us from the pilgrimage of this world. Zerubbabel, the priest (II Esdras 2 and following), is a type of the Lord Savior, who led the people back from captivity and built a temple for the Lord from living stones.

Judith and Esther bear the type of the Church; they punish the enemies of the faith and rescue the people of God from destruction. Tobias held the image of the ancient law, whose eyes the Jewish swallows blind, while they, misunderstanding the sacraments of the light, blind them. Tobias, his son, had the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, as if hidden and blinded by the darkness of the figure, illuminates the law with the clarity of his own power. The three youths (Dan. III) prefigured the figure of the saints, who offered their bodies in persecution for the name of Christ. Susanna (Dan. XIII) has the figure of the Church, whom false Jewish witnesses accuse as an adulteress of the law. Nebuchadnezzar the king (IV Reg. XXV) is a type of the devil, who, having conquered the multitude of heretics by the captivity of error, led them from Jerusalem, that is, from the Church, into Babylon, that is, into the confusion of ignorance. The chief of the cooks, who overthrew the walls of Jerusalem, signifies this: that all who serve the desire of the belly destroy the virtues of the soul.

The seven Maccabees, who under Antiochus suffered the most bitter torments and were most gloriously crowned (2 Maccabees 7), signify the sevenfold Church, which endured a great slaughter of martyrs at the hands of the enemies of Christ and received the crown of heavenly glory. FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT. The four evangelists figuratively express Jesus Christ under the faces of four animals. For Matthew, announcing our same Redeemer born and having suffered, compares him to the likeness of a man. Mark, having begun from the wilderness, puts on the figure of a lion and proclaims Christ the unconquered king and his power. Luke also, through the mystic face of a calf, preaches Christ sacrificed for us. John, however, through the figure of an eagle, demonstrates that the same Lord, after the resurrection of the flesh, flew up into heaven. Peter bears the person of the Church, which has the power of forgiving sins and of bringing men back from the underworld to the heavenly realms (Matthew 16).

The Apostles also all bear the type of the whole Church, because they likewise received a similar power in the remission of sins, having indeed also the form of the patriarchs, who through the word of preaching throughout the whole world spiritually begot peoples for God. The seventy-two disciples signify the illumination of the whole world through the Gospel of the Trinity. For we traverse the whole world in twenty-four hours, which number, tripled on account of that same Trinity, is brought down to seventy-two. Moreover, they are sent two by two, on account of preaching the love of God and of neighbor, or the twin Testaments of the mysteries. Joseph typified the form of Christ, who was appointed to the guardianship of holy Church, which has no spot or wrinkle. Mary, moreover, signifies the Church, which, though betrothed to Christ, conceived us from the Holy Spirit as a virgin, and also gives birth as a virgin (Matthew 1). Zacharias the priest, who, at the angel’s command, became mute (Luke 1), shows the silence of the law and the prophets at the coming of Christ.

John held the form of the Law, who announced Christ and preached the remission of sins through the grace of the laver. The Magi prefigured the peoples of the nations, who would come to know the light of faith, judging Christ by the gifts of the sacraments: through the incense, that He is God; through the myrrh, that He is a man who suffered and was buried; through the gold, that He is the king of all ages (Matthew 2). Herod, who inflicted death upon the infants (Matthew 2), expressed the form of the devil, or of the nations, who, desiring to extinguish the name of Christ from the world, raged in the slaughter of the martyrs. The many in the Gospel signify those who do not confess the faith of Christ. The blind signify those who do not at all understand the faith which they believe. The deaf prefigure those who do not exhibit obedience to the precepts. The lame demonstrate those who neglect to fulfill the salutary precepts. A prudent man, who built his house upon a rock, signifies a faithful teacher, who establishes the foundation of his teaching and his life in Christ.

The one, however, who built his house upon sand designates the heretic, who builds a false doctrine so as to cause a great ruin. The leper, whom Christ first cured as he descended from the mountain (Matthew 8), indicates the human race stained by the contagion of sin. This the Redeemer, when he descended from the height of the heavens as if from a mountain, drew away from the varied worship of demons and restored into the unity of faith. The centurion (ibid.) signifies the faith of the gentiles, who, seeking the salvation of her son sick unto death, humbly said: "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, I who have persecuted your Church." But the centurion's boy and the daughter of the Canaanite woman, whom Christ saves without coming to them (Matthew 15), show the same gentiles, whom the Lord visited not by bodily presence but saved through the faith of the word. The Canaanite woman herself (ibid.) bears the figure of the Church from the gentiles, which, like a dog, sought crumbs from the table of the masters, that is, to be nourished by the teachings of the apostles and prophets.

Peter’s mother-in-law, lying sick with a fever (Matthew 8), signifies the Synagogue, inflamed with the heat of carnal desires, whose daughter is that part of the believers which was given to Peter to govern. The rejected scribe, who followed the Lord for the sake of gain (ibid.), signifies those who seek the faith of Christ not for the Lord’s sake, but for worldly profit. The demoniac whom the Lord cured in the region of the Gerasenes from a legion of demons (ibid.), signifies the Gentile people subject to the cults of many demons. The fleeing swineherds, who announce to the city what has happened (ibid.), signify the princes of the impious, who, while they flee from the faith of Christ, nevertheless marvel at and proclaim his wonders in astonishment. The paralytic, lying on his bed (Matthew 9), is the soul dissolved by vices in its own body; when it has been healed by the grace of Christ through the remission of sins, it immediately rises, having recovered its former strength, and carries the bed of the flesh, in which it formerly lay weak, back to the house of the virtues, so that it may confine itself within the secrets of its own conscience and no longer wander, dissolved by external pleasures.

The daughter of the archisynagogus, to whom the Lord was going to heal her, yet before he came to her, a woman suffering from a flow of blood touched him from behind (ibid.), had the figure of the Church coming from the Gentiles, which, after the preaching, after the passion, and after the ascension of Christ believed, as if it touched the Lord from behind, and deserved to receive salvation before the Synagogue. 161. The two blind men sitting by the road (ibid.) signify both peoples of the Jews and the Gentiles, approaching Christ through faith, who said: I am the way, the truth, and the life. The man possessed by a demon, blind and mute, who is recorded as cured by the Saviour (ibid.), indicates those who are converted from the idolatry of the Gentiles to the Lord’s faith, for whom, however, after the worship of demons is expelled from the heart, when they have first perceived the light, then their tongue is loosened to praise God, so that they confess him whom they previously denied.

A man having a withered hand (Matt. 12) signifies the Synagogue, or a soul unfruitful in works of mercy, to whom, when it is said, "Stretch out your hand," it admonishes that alms should always be extended to the poor. A man from whom an unclean spirit departs, and then again seizes him (ibid.), signifies the people of the Jews, and a penitent man, whose mind the pleasure of the flesh more sharply seizes through subsequent negligence, joined with seven other spirits of vices, that is, wrath, avarice, envy, and gluttony of the belly, vainglory, fornication, and pride. The father of the family, bringing forth new and old things from his treasury (Matt. 13), is Christ, bringing forth from his impenetrable wisdom the twin Testaments, namely the Old, in which earthly happiness is promised, and the New, through which the kingdom of heaven is hoped for. The man who sowed a mustard seed in his field (Luke 13) is Christ, who sowed faith in the world, in which the birds of the sky, that is, spiritual souls, rest.

A woman who hides leaven in three measures (ibid.) signifies the wisdom of spiritual doctrine, burning with love of the Trinity. A man who finds a hidden treasure in a field (Matt. 13) is one who, in this world, having sold everything, acquires Christ and eternal life. Five thousand men who were fed with five loaves and two fish (John 6) are the peoples of the Church, who through the five bodily senses are refreshed by Christ with the food of spiritual law, and are satiated by the twofold Testament, as by twin fish. Four thousand men who are fed with seven other loaves (Mark 8) are the same Church of the Gentiles, which is spread throughout the four parts of the world and is refreshed by the abundance of sevenfold grace. The man who often fell now into fire, now into water (Matt. 17) signifies the world. Fire, moreover, shows burning desire; water, the pleasure of the flesh, in which, always seized, he is precipitated by daily lapse.

Moses and Elijah, who appeared with the Lord on the mountain (ibid.; Luke IX; Mark IX), are understood as the Law and the Prophets, by whose words the passion, resurrection, and glory of the Lord are declared. A man having a hundred sheep, who, leaving them behind, seeks the lost sheep, and having found it carries it back on his shoulders (Luke 15), expressed the figure of Christ, who, leaving behind the thousands of angels in heaven, found the sheep that had perished in Adam, sought among the Gentiles, as a good shepherd, and carried it back on the shoulders of his cross to Paradise. The woman who finds the lost drachma is the Church, which, when it finds the soul snatched away and lost by the snares of the devil through penance, brings joy to both angels and men. The debtor of ten thousand talents (Matt. 18) signifies men who are indebted to God through the transgression of the ten commandments; but just as the bonds of sin are loosened for us by the Lord when we ask, so each of us should forgive by the example of the Lord, lest, while we do not grant the smallest debts to those sinning against us, we be compelled to pay off our greater debts with the usury of punishments.

The rich man, who is compared to a camel (Matt. XIX; Mark X), indicates the character of the Jews, who boast of the power of the law, although because of the earthly things they cultivate, they do not possess the kingdom of heaven, where the people of the gentiles, twisted by crimes and burdened by the loads of sins, enter more easily through the eye of a needle, as if through the narrows of passion, of pains and labors. The head of the household who hires workers for the vineyard and promises a denarius (Matt. XX) is Christ, who calls all to the cultivation of faith, promising them the reward of perfect blessedness. The workers hired at the first hour are those who attained the cultivation of faith from the beginnings of infancy. Those, however, at the third hour are those who approached the faith from adolescence. Those indeed hired at the sixth hour are those who believed in the age of youth. Those, however, who approached at the ninth hour are those who, already declining from youth into old age, received grace.

Those who came at the very last hour (ibid.) are those who, already decrepit and at the very end of their life, were called and came to Christ. Yet they receive an equal reward of blessedness as the earlier ones, Christ preserving justice in those who labored in the first hour of their life, and extending mercy in these who labored for a single hour of life. The two sons sent to work the vineyard (Matt. XXI) represent a type of the two peoples. For the first one sent is called the Gentile people, through natural understanding to the cultivation of the divine work, who nevertheless was at first stubborn and refused to go. But with the Lord's coming, the subsequent obedience cleanses the earlier stubbornness. The second one sent, the Jewish people through knowledge of the law, replied: "Everything the Lord says, we will do"; but he is condemned for this reason, because he not only transgressed the profession of the law, but also laid parricidal hands upon the Lord of the vineyard himself.

The man who planted the vineyard (Matt. 21; Luke 20) is God, who founded Jerusalem, in which he built the tower and the winepress, that is, the temple and the altar, and often surrounded it, that is, fortified it with the protection of angels. The farmers to whom he leases the vineyard (ibid.) are the people of Israel, who possessed Jerusalem under divine worship. The servants who were sent at the time of the harvest and were killed by the farmers (ibid.) are understood to be the prophets, whose blood was shed by the Jews, while they sought from them the fruit of justice and the law. The son sent last, whom the farmers cast out of the vineyard and killed (ibid.), is Christ, whom the Jews crucified, casting him out beyond the gates of Jerusalem. The farmers whom the owner of the vineyard destroys (ibid.) are understood to be the Jewish peoples, who once, as it seems, were scattered and destroyed. Those farmers to whom the vineyard is ordered to be transferred signify the apostles, or the successors of the apostles.

The king who made a wedding for his son (Matt. 22) is understood as God the Father, who joined the virgin flesh to Christ from the virgin. The servants, however, who were sent to call the invited guests, are the apostles and the prophets, who called the Jews through the law and the Gospel; but they, weighed down sometimes by earthly pleasures, sometimes by the burden of the flesh and the law, scorned the solemnity of the Lord’s advent, from which they judged themselves unworthy of eternal life, whereas the Gentiles are shown to have entered. The angry king, who sent his armies and destroyed the murderers and burned their city (ibid.), is God the Father, who roused Vespasian, Caesar of the Romans, who laid waste the people with the sword and utterly overthrew the city of Jerusalem with all its inhabitants, so that it could no longer wage war. But the man not having a wedding garment at the banquet, who, while the king was speaking, fell silent; whom he orders to be taken away by servants and cast into the outer darkness (ibid.), is he who indeed rests in faith with the others; but if he is found on the day of judgment to have a polluted garment of flesh, he is immediately ordered to be taken by angels and plunged into Gehenna of eternal fire.

Two debtors, one of whom owed a money-lender five hundred denarii and the other fifty (Luke 7), signify both peoples, namely the Jews and the Gentiles, of whom the one who owed fifty denarii had the type of the Jews; the one who owed five hundred expressed the figure of the Gentiles, who, from the beginning of the world always existing as a debtor, did not pay the bond of sin through penance. When Christ therefore arrived, he finally believed and received a more abundant fruit of mercy, whence, because more was granted to him by Christ, he loves Christ more, as it is written: “To whom more is forgiven, he loves more.” The seven brothers who married one woman and died without children (Mark 12) are understood as unfaithful men, who through the seven ages of the world consumed their whole life on this earth without the fruit of righteousness. The two in the bed (Matt. 24) signify those who, removed from the crowds, seem in a certain way to be at leisure in the life.

Two mill-women (ibid.) are understood to be those who are occupied with the business of temporal things. Two men in a field (ibid.) are those who work in the ministry of the Church, as in the Lord’s field; of these, when night comes—that is, the adversity of the age—some remain in faith and are taken up to life, while others depart and are left behind for punishment. The five wise virgins (Matt. 25) are understood to be all holy souls; because they admit no corruption of the heart through the five senses of the body, they are counted by the number five. The five foolish virgins, however, who have no oil in their vessels (ibid.), are those souls who indeed have bodily integrity but do not preserve within their conscience the testimony of good works, while they boast outwardly before men and not in their heart before God. And therefore, because they do not carry the splendor of the mind in the vessels of their breasts, when the Lord comes they are shut out from the joy of his kingdom.

A man setting out on a journey, who entrusted his goods to his servants (ibid.), is Christ, who after his resurrection, returning to the heavens, handed over the grace of the Gospel to the Gospel’s stewards to be lent out at interest. But the first servant, in the five talents given to him, received the five books of the Law, which he amplified by the doctrine and work of the Ten Commandments. Another, with the two talents he used, earned the two Testaments, and by piously dispensing them in a moral and mystical sense, he doubled them. The third, under the figure of a single talent, obscured the gift of grace received in earthly pleasures, and therefore was cast into hell, because he produced no fruit from it. Others understood in the first servant the senses of the heart and body received, in the second understanding and work, in the third reason. The young son of a widow, whom the Lord raised from the dead outside the city gates (Luke 7), signifies one who openly commits some deadly crime; and who sometimes, upon hearing the word of God, rises from the death of sin, and through penance begins to live in Christ; and is given back to his widowed mother, that is, the Church.

A man who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers (Luke 10) represents Adam in his kind, who, while descending from the heavenly paradise into the world, fell among the angels of darkness. The Samaritan who came down and healed his wounds (ibid.) is Christ, our guardian, who came down from heaven and healed the human race from the wounds of sins. The innkeeper (ibid.) is the apostles, or their successors, who refresh our weakness with the preaching of the Gospel. Martha, who received Christ into her house and served him there (ibid.), signifies the Church, in this life receiving Christ in her heart and laboring in the work of righteousness. Mary, her sister, who sat at the feet of Christ and listened to the word (ibid.), shows the same Church, in the future age ceasing from all work and resting in the sole contemplation of the wisdom of Christ.

A man who at midnight asked a friend for three loaves (Luke 11) expresses the likeness of anyone who, in the midst of tribulation, beseeches the Lord to give him knowledge of the Trinity. A rich man whose field produced abundant fruits (Luke 12) signifies a man given over to luxuries and overflowing with sins, whom the Lord rebukes as he immoderately desires to sin more and more, saying: "Fool, this night they take your soul from you; what you have prepared, whose will it be?" Those five in one house—that is, father, mother, son, daughter, daughter-in-law—of whom two are divided into three, and three into two (Ibid.), signify the human race separated from one another by faith and religion, partly in the division of schism, which the two signify, partly in the number of the Trinity, which the three demonstrate. For the son is divided against his father, that is, the people coming from the Gentiles against the devil, with whom he had previously been allied. The daughter is also divided against her mother, that is, the people from the Jews who believe against the impious Synagogue. The daughter-in-law is also divided against her mother-in-law, that is, the Church from the Gentiles against the mother of her spouse, the Synagogue, from whom Christ had been begotten according to the flesh. These men are separated from one another, some seeking earthly glory, others heavenly glory.

The eighteen Galileans upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them (Luke 13) signifies the destruction of the Jewish people. For eighteen among the Greeks is expressed by the letters iota, t, and eta, by which figures the name Jesus is written, in whom they, refusing to believe, were equally laid low with their city by the Romans. The man who planted a fig tree in his vineyard is Christ, who established the Synagogue among the Jewish people. When the Lord ordered it to be cut down as useless, a trench of humility is made for it by the apostolic farmers, manure is applied, that is, confession of sins; and finally, by believing, it will be changed for the better and will yield abundant fruits of justice. The woman who had an infirmity for eighteen years and was cured by the Lord (Luke 13) is a type of the Church, which at the end of time obtained the salvation of faith. For this world is completed in six ages, whose time, however, has a threefold division: one before the Law, another under the Law, a third under Grace. Therefore six times three makes eighteen, by which number this time of our salvation is signified, when, freed from the bonds of Satan by which we were bent, we receive the gift of salvation and the hope of heavenly contemplation.

The man with dropsy whom the Lord cured (Luke 14) demonstrates those whom an overflowing flux of carnal pleasures weighs down. The man having two sons (Luke 15) is God, having two peoples, of whom the elder held the figure of the Jews, who remained in the worship of God; the other, the younger, of the Gentiles, who, having deserted the founder, became a slave of idols, whom God the Father mercifully received returning through the poverty of faith, and for his conversion sacrifices the only Son under the type of a calf; he also bestows the ring of faith, and clothes him with the stole of immortality, although the Jewish brother is tormented by the envy of spite, yet for his salvation the symphony of angels stirs up joy. The wasteful steward, whom the master ordered to be removed from his stewardship, and who, committing fraud against his master, released part of the debts to the debtors so that he might have something to live on in the future (Luke 16), this comparison is set forth as an example for us; for if he deserved to be praised by his master because, committing fraud against him, he provided for himself in the future from others' goods, how much more can we please Christ if we show mercy to the needy from our own goods, from whom we may be received into eternal dwellings.

The rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen (ibid.) signifies the pride of the Jews, once flourishing with the splendor of empire or the excellence of honor. The ulcerous beggar (ibid.) demonstrates the Gentile people, humiliated by the confessions of sins. The five brothers of that rich man who was tortured among the dead (ibid.) are understood to be the Jews, who are placed under the five books. The ten lepers who are cleansed by the Lord (Luke 17) signify heretics, who in the variety of colors have the diversity of schisms, and who are therefore sent to the priests so that, with every variety of errors wiped away, they may receive the sacrament of unity. The unjust judge, who did not fear the Lord, yet assiduously heard the pleading widow (Luke 18), is a similitude by which it is shown how great a hope he ought to have who incessantly beseeches the Lord, since even before the ears of an unjust judge the frequent insistence of a pleading widow prevailed. The widow herself can signify the Church, by her perseverance seeking vengeance against her enemies, the devil, or heretics.

The Pharisee praying in the temple (ibid.) is the Jewish people, who exalt their own merits on the basis of the justifications of the Law. The publican, however (ibid.), is the Gentile people, who, placed far from God, confesses his sins; one of them, by being proud, departed humiliated; the other, by confessing, deserved to be exalted, having drawn near to God. The blind man sitting by the road (ibid.) demonstrates the Gentile people, who, through the grace of Christ, merited the light of faith. Zacchaeus (Luke 19) is the Gentile people, small in the grace of merits, who nevertheless, raised up from earthly deeds, contemplates the mystery of Christ through the wood of the Lord’s cross. The nobleman who went to a far-off region to take a kingdom for himself (ibid.) is our Redeemer, who came to the ends of the earth to take a kingdom among the peoples of the Gentiles. The citizens who did not want him to reign (ibid.) are understood to be the Jews, who spurned Christ as king.

A servant who, receiving one mina, acquired ten (ibid.) signifies the teachers who, having received the grace of the Gospel, have made good use of the ten precepts of the Decalogue in their preaching, and by teaching have gained many in the faith; for this reason, when the Lord comes, they will be praised, because they have made a profit. But he who acquired five from one (ibid.) shows those who, keeping the commandment of God, attain the knowledge of the law written in the five books of Moses, and by teaching it, they lend it out for the necessary use of salvation. But he who kept the same mina in a napkin (ibid.) shows one who has treated the gift of grace entrusted to him in a delicate and idle manner, whence he rightly loses the grace conferred, because through negligence he despised preaching, so that what he labored for might be increased for him. The widow who cast two mites into the treasury (Luke 21:2) demonstrates the faithful soul of one who preserves in the treasury of his heart the fruits of the love of God and of neighbor.

The Bridegroom (John 2) is Christ; his wedding is celebrated with the Church, in whose union water is changed into wine, because believers pass through the grace of the font to the crown of the passion. The Steward (ibid.) is understood as Moses, who marvels that a better and holier people is gathered by Jesus into the Gospel than that former one led out of Egypt; for the wine that has run out shows that the grace of the Holy Spirit has been removed from the Jews and distributed through the apostles among the Gentiles. The Samaritan Woman (John 4) is mystically understood as the Synagogue, subject to the five books of the law, as if to five husbands, according to the sense of the flesh, whom the Lord mercifully urges to draw living water, that is, to receive the grace of the font, or the secret understanding of the law. The adulterous woman, who is offered by the Jews to the Lord to be stoned (John 8), is the Church from the Gentiles, which, having previously abandoned God, had fornicated among idols; the zealous Synagogue wanted her to be killed, and Christ saves her by remission of the offense, nor does he allow her to perish, he who knows how to grant pardon to those who sin.

Simon the Leper (Matt. 26) is the Gentile people, who were commanded by the Redeemer. The woman who anointed the Lord’s head with ointment (ibid.) is the Church, who refers the fruit of her work and the fragrance of her faith to the praise of God and the glory of Christ. That angel at whose descent the water was stirred, surrounded by five porticoes (John 5), is Christ, at whose coming the Jewish people, enclosed by the five books, were disturbed: for when the angel descended, the water was stirred, and the sick man was healed; when Christ descended from heaven, that same people was stirred up at his passion, and the world was healed. The blind man from birth, whom the Lord, after anointing his eyes, sent to the pool of Siloam to be washed (John 9), signifies the human race from birth, that is, from the first man, corrupted by the darkness of errors, whose eyes the Lord anointed with spittle and mud, because the Word became flesh. And he ordered the eyes to be washed in the pool, so that, baptized in Christ, he might receive the law of faith and believe in him who appeared humble in the world.

Lazarus, whom the Lord raised, stinking and four days dead, from the tomb (John 11), signifies the world, which the most grievous habit of sin had corrupted, yet which is revived on the fourth day of death. For the first day of death is the offspring of death drawn from Adam; the second day of death is the transgression of the natural law; the third day of death is the violation of the given law; the fourth day of death is the contempt for evangelical preaching, on which day the Lord, looking upon his work, deigned to revive it mercifully. The servant of the chief priest, whose right ear is cut off (Matt. 26), is the Israelite people, made a servant on account of unbelief. This one loses the right ear, while he passes over to the left through the literal understanding, to whom the Lord, in those to whom they give credence, restores the hearing of faith and makes him obedient to the evangelical mandate. The chief priest, who tore his garment at the Lord’s passion (ibid.), indicates the Hebrew people stripped of the priesthood and emptied of the torn kingdom.

Barabbas, who is released to the Jews (Matthew 27), signifies the Antichrist, whom those erring ones deserved to receive in place of Christ. Herod and Pilate, who, though they were at odds, are joined in friendship at the Lord’s passion (Luke 23), indicate that both peoples, of the circumcision and of the Gentiles, were first divided, yet through the Lord’s passion they were united in faith. Simon of Cyrene, upon whom they placed the cross to be carried (ibid.), is understood as the people of the Gentiles, who, a stranger to the law, becomes obedient to the Gospel, himself the bearer of Christ’s cross and made the carrier of the faith. The two thieves (ibid.) represent the people of the Jews and of the Gentiles: one, unbelieving, blasphemes Christ hanging on the cross; the other, faithful, rebukes the blaspheming Jews. The four soldiers, who made four parts for themselves from Jesus’ garments (Psalm 118:162), prefigured the four parts of the world, which divided among themselves the words of Christ, as it is written: “I will rejoice over your words, as one who finds much spoil.

The women who announce the Lord’s resurrection to the apostles are understood as the Law and the Prophets, which, like forerunners, proclaimed the glory of Christ’s resurrection before it was revealed. The seven disciples with whom the Lord is described as having dined after His resurrection indicate the seventh day after the future resurrection, through which all the saints will be filled by Christ with the refreshment of eternal blessedness—to which fullness may Christ lead us. Amen.