De Benedictionibus Patriarcharum Libri Duo

THE TWO BOOKS OF TYRANNIUS RUFINUS OF AQUILEIA, PRESBYTER, ON THE BLESSINGS OF THE PATRIARCHS.

I directed my note to Rufinus the presbyter, companion of holy Melania on the spiritual way, truly holy, and piously learned, and for that reason joined to me in intimate affection. St. Paulinus, Epistle XXVIII, to Sulpicius Severus.

TO RUFINUS HIS BROTHER

PAULINUS sends greeting.

12. I. Even brief letters from your oneness of heart are a great refreshment to us, as in the scarcity of rivers a thirsty field is revived by dew. Wherefore we confess that we have been refreshed by a letter, though short, yet yours, brought by the boy, the common child of us both; but yet we are again distressed, because even now you have judged it best to seek Rome, in the heat of anxiety and with uncertainty of delays. May the Lord grant us to be gladdened by the Lord as soon as possible concerning our own course: so that, just as we suffer with the anxious, so we may rejoice together in gladness, and yet begin to hope for the fruit of your presence, if you begin to be certain concerning your own intention, or concerning the Lord's good pleasure toward you.

II. What you deign to urge upon me with that affection by which you love me as yourself—that I should take up the study of Greek literature more attentively—I gladly accept, but I am unable to fulfill it; unless perhaps the Lord assists my desires, so that I may enjoy your company for a longer time. For how shall I be able to make progress in a language I do not know, if the one from whom I might learn what I do not know is absent? For I believe that in the Translation of St. Clement, besides my other deficiencies of talent, you have considered above all this poverty of my ignorance—that in some places where I could not understand or express the words, having grasped the sense instead, or, to speak more truly, having formed a conjecture, I translated. Therefore I have all the more need of God's mercy, that he may grant me a fuller abundance of you, because it will be reckoned as riches to the poor man, even to gather with the eager mouth of a hungry heart the crumbs falling from the rich man's table.

It was wrongly added in Barraeus's edition, "Bishop of Nola"; for Paulinus had not yet obtained the dignity of bishop at that time, but was serving only in the rank of presbyter. In the year, I say, 398, in which he wrote this Letter to Rufinus. Therefore that learned editor of Paulinus himself, Brunius, is also mistaken in other respects, who makes it nearly a whole decade more recent, or thinks it was written around the year 408, having followed, as it seems, the reasonings of Tillemont. It is known why, after the arguments of Cl. Fontanus, which are to be read in the preceding Life of Rufinus, Book and Chapter II, we demonstrate this dating of his more fully. There is much less ground for it as well.

...unless perhaps we defend the genuineness of the Epistle itself against the suspicions of the learned men who accused it; for the matter itself cries out that nothing other than the ill will attached to the name of Rufinus, to whom it is inscribed, was the cause, so that he might not seem to be joined to that man by the friendship of Saint Paulinus.

III. In the time, indeed, when these writings were being written, there fell under my eyes, as it happened in the course of the reading I had undertaken, that passage from Genesis in which Judah is blessed by Jacob. And because the Lord had given this most opportune occasion, it pleased me to knock at the door of your heart after the time. Therefore, if you love me—nay, because you love me much—I ask that you write to me how you understand the blessing of the patriarchs itself. And if you yourself know anything in them that is difficult in sense and worthy of knowledge, I would have you make it known to me; especially, however, concerning that passage in which he says: Binding his foal to the vine, and the foal of his ass to the tendril (Gen. 49:11): who his foal is, or who the foal of the ass; and why the foal of the ass is bound to the vine, and the foal to the tendril?

ON THE BOOK OF THE BLESSINGS OF JUDAH BY RUFINUS, PRESBYTER OF AQUILEIA, TO PAULINUS THE PRESBYTER

I. The more I excuse myself to you and affirm that I am the less fit to answer those things which you inquire about, the more insistently you question me and seek out more difficult matters, and, as though having detected the fault of a slow ox, you goad with more stubborn goods the shoulders of one delaying and the back that gives way backwards. Hence you must consequently know this also at once, that even if, with at least lowered neck, we can move the burden which you place upon us, yet nowhere is there at hand for us the abundance, by the capacity of a richer speech, of pouring forth into broad and open fields and, spreading out into wide spaces, of surpassing them with swifter courses. Therefore let us be permitted, if perhaps we wish to come somewhat more slowly, to arrive at that place to which you call us with our steps.

II. You ask of us how that which is written in Genesis concerning the patriarch Judah is to be understood, namely that Israel his father, while he foretells to each of his sons the things which he foresaw would come to pass, says of this one among other things: Binding his foal to the vine, and the foal of his ass to the branch of the vine (Gen. 49:11), which you have written.

And to the colt of his she-ass, which in Greek stands thus: the Greeks call it a vine, not so much a shoot (as our copies have it) as those little tendrils, whether on the branches of a tree, or on stakes, or on whatever other supports it rests, which the farmers, I believe, call capreoli: by these fastenings it is kept safe and without danger of falling, while the shoot is either weighed down with fruit or stretched out by its wandering height. I think, therefore, that this same Greek word was placed in the Latin copies long ago, as certain other words also, and in the course of time was thought by ignorant scribes to be cilicium.

III. And in this matter, indeed, the translator's error is easily corrected, but it is not so easy to discover even the meaning of the understanding itself, unless mention is made of the whole chapter. But the treatment of this whole chapter would be found somewhat fuller and clearer if one began from the very beginning of the Blessings themselves. That certainly requires no little leisure and time, and, to speak more truthfully, it demands a mind illumined by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, as far as the mediocrity of our understanding can avail, or time permits, or those allow who urgently press for writings against Origen, as much as so great a matter could bear in such brevity, out of that love by which you bid us trust you in all things, without prejudice to those who can perceive something better, we express what seems to us for the present concerning this chapter.

IV. I know that very many interpret this chapter as referring to the Lord, asserting that none of the things said pertain to the patriarch Judah, since it is nowhere shown that he slept like a lion, nor that he rose up like a lion's cub, nor can it be proved in any way that the Gentiles hoped in him. But when it says: The prince shall not fail from Judah, nor the leader from his thigh, until he comes for whom it is reserved—namely, the kingdom—and in him the Gentiles shall hope: because until he comes for whom it is reserved, in whom the Gentiles shall hope, this is manifestly said of Christ, we are compelled without doubt to understand that he is other than Christ, he from whose seed the leader shall not fail until Christ comes. For it is not fitting that he be understood as Christ, he from whose seed the leader shall not fail until Christ comes—a leader who certainly failed at the coming of Christ. And this very thing was a sign that he had come for whom it is reserved, that is, Christ. Certain things are referred to Judah, as in very many other passages, and also in this chapter, for those who understand it thus, so that the exposition may be directed by an alternating sense, and the interruption of the historical understanding may disclose the mystery of the mystical meaning.

BOOK ONE. THE BLESSING OF JUDAH.

He says therefore: Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hands shall be upon the back of your enemies (Gen. 49:8). This can be referred either to Judah himself, or to those kings who appear to have been descended from him: who, administering the kingship of that nation, subdued the backs of their enemies. But it is also fittingly understood of Christ, who is deservedly praised by his brothers, that is, by the Apostles, whom he himself called brothers in the Gospels (Matt. 28). But his enemies, upon whose backs his hands are, are understood to be those whom the Father promises he will place beneath his feet, saying, Until I place your enemies beneath your feet (Ps. 109). They are therefore enemies as long as they are unbelieving and faithless, and for that reason they are struck on the back, who after they have been converted are made brothers, and praise him who, having called them into adoption by the Father, made them both co-heirs with himself and brothers. Well indeed did he say that the backs of enemies are struck by Christ: for all who worshiped idols were giving their backs to God, just as the Lord also reproaches through the prophet, saying: Because they turned their backs to me, and not their face (Jer. 2:27). These backs, therefore, he strikes, so that, once converted, they may at some point give their backs to idols and lift up their face to God, and do what is written in the following: And may the sons of your father adore you. For then, when they adore him, they have been made sons of the Father, and have received the spirit of adoption, in which they cry out, Abba, Father (Gal. 4).

For no one says Lord Jesus Christ except in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12). This statement is applied somewhat harshly to Judah, unless we say, by an abuse of language, that his sons were adored by his brothers, that is, by his other fellow tribesmen, as though they were kings.

Judah is a lion's cub; from the shoot, my son, you have gone up; he lay down and slept like a lion, and like a lion's cub: who will rouse him (Gen. 49:9)? In these little verses we are no longer confined but almost shut out; for if we expound "lion's cub" as Judah being so called for his prowess in war, how will it be expounded that "from the shoot, my son, you have gone up"? Now what is called "shoot" here in Greek is more correctly rendered as a sapling or branch, which is wont to sprout again from the root or from the very trunk of the tree. From what sapling, then, or from what branch will Judah be said to have gone up, or how did he lie down and sleep like a lion and like a lion's cub, so that it is asked who will rouse him? Unless perhaps someone, doing violence to the text, wishes to assert it thus: that Judah came forth from the shoot, that is, as we said above, from the sapling or branch, which signifies from the very strength and virtue of his father; and that he, through confidence in his virtue, lies down and rests like a lion and like a lion's cub; and that no one dared to rouse him, since, by reason of the greatness of his strength and the power of the blessed, no one would dare to rouse him for battle.

But a mystical interpretation will fit this passage much more suitably, in which Christ is designated not only as a lion but also as a lion's cub. The Physiologus writes this about the lion's cub: that when it is born, it sleeps for three days and three nights; then afterward, at the father's roaring or bellowing, as if the den were shaken, he rouses the sleeping cub. So this cub ascends from the shoot: for Christ was born of a Virgin, not from seed, but from a virgin without a man's intercourse and without natural seed. As a shoot, or a branch, in which both the truth of the flesh assumed from the Virgin is most manifestly declared in the sacred shoot, and it is exempted from the contagion of carnal and human seed. Reclining you slept as a lion, and as a lion's cub. He is shown openly to have reclined and slept, when he is about to speak of the passion of death. But let us see why he sleeps as a lion and as a lion's cub. Concerning the cub's sleep, indeed, it has already been said above, which is very fittingly adapted to Christ, who, buried for three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, fulfilled the sleep of death. But as a lion, I think it should be understood in this way: the death of Christ was the overthrow of the demons and a triumph, for all the prey that that contrary lion had seized, when man was laid low and cast down, this our Lion snatched away; finally, returning from the dead and ascending on high, he led captivity captive (Eph. 4:8).

In this way, then, even in His sleep He was a lion conquering all things and subduing them, and He destroyed him who held the power of death. And as a lion's cub, He is raised up on the third day. Who will raise Him up? The prophet's words rightly signify, as it were, the person of one asking who it is that raises Christ, since the Apostle indeed says: Because God raised Him from the dead. And, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who dwells in you. And again Christ Himself says in the Gospels, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up; but He was speaking this of the temple of His body. Yet because He Himself says that He raised up His temple, and God is said to have raised Him up, the Prophet, rightly astonished at the great unity and indistinction of the Father and the Son, says, Who will raise Him up?

The Prince shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thigh, until those things come which are stored up (and, as it is had in other copies, until He comes to whom it is reserved), and He Himself shall be the expectation of the nations. This passage is manifestly referred to Judah; for it is certain that until the Nativity of Christ the princes from the line of Judah did not fail, nor leaders from his thighs, until King Herod, who, according to the testimony of history which Josephus writes, is said to have been a foreigner and to have crept into the kingdom of the Jews through ambition.

As soon as this was done, and the ruler from the thighs of Judah failed, there came he to whom the kingdom was reserved, in whom, as the Gospel faith and the propagation of the Churches teaches, the Gentiles hope. But those things are said to be "reserved" which are to be brought forth at the opportune time, just as Christ is said to have come at the end of the ages, when the Apostle says, "Behold, now is the acceptable time" (2 Cor. 6)—namely, for conferring salvation on the Gentiles. If, however, anyone wishes to fit the course of both expositions to all things, he can perhaps extract the meaning that these things may also be understood of Christ in this way: that "the Prince shall not fail from Judah," that is, those who after His resurrection are ordained as princes of the Churches; and "the ruler from his thighs," the leaders also of the Christian people, from the thighs of Christ. In this way he will expound it: that the members of Christ are without doubt to be understood spiritually, which the Apostle calls the people of the faithful (1 Cor. 6). Therefore his thighs, understood spiritually, can also indicate those who, by reason of the firmness and constancy of their strength, seem to sustain and bear the whole body of the Church; or because the judgment of human seed is customarily spoken of figuratively under the name of thighs, and among us he who sows sows the word (Luke 8)—therefore these who exhibit the ministry of the word to the Church can be understood as leaders from the thighs of Christ.

Until he comes for whom these things are reserved: this can be understood to mean that even to the consummation of the age these leaders will not fail, until those things come which are reserved, which God has prepared for those who love him. And he himself will be the expectation of the nations—namely, on the day of judgment, when all nations and peoples will await Christ as judge in dread of heart and trembling of conscience.

Binding his foal to the vine, and the foal of his she-ass to the branch. This is said of Christ both properly and singularly; for he himself bound his foal to the vine, who said: I am the true vine. To this vine, then, he binds both his foal and the foal of his she-ass. His foal is the people from the Gentiles, upon whom no burden of the Law had ever yet been laid, and upon whom no one had sat before him, save he himself first. But the foal of his she-ass is those who, from the former people—which is now designated under the figure of a she-ass—were chosen for salvation, of whom the Prophet says: If the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved. The she-ass, then, being cast off—she who in her unbelief preferred to bear the burden of the Law—the foal born of her is chosen, that is, a new people is adopted from the old through faith, and is joined to the people from the Gentiles.

Christ is therefore called a vine in that respect in which he took up human nature, to which the Word of God ties his colt—that is, he joins his people and unites them to that manner of life which he himself carried out in the flesh—so that by imitation of him the colt that is tied to him may become with him both a son of God and a co-heir (Rom. 8). But the branch, whose meaning we explained at the beginning, we can understand in this way. The faith that is in Christ both holds the rule of the present life and provides the confidence of future hope. The vine, then, seems to show that the deeds of Christ as placed in the flesh are imitated by those who believe in him and cling to him; but the branch—that is, what is understood not so much as the branch itself as that by which the branch is joined to the tree and secured against falling (a support by which, kept safe, it despises and rejects winds and storms)—indicates the hope of future goods, because all the faithful await the consummation of salvation not only in the things they have done but also in the things they hope for and believe to be future; in this, as though bound and secured by hope to a kind of tree of patience, they endure the storms and gales of temptations.

As for interpreting this historically of Judah, I see no reason that could permit it, unless, paying attention to Jewish fables, we suppose it can be understood in this way: that the portion of the tribe of Judah, which it received as an inheritance in the land, was so filled with vineyards that, as though no growth of any other kind existed, such an abundance of vines appeared that not even the ability to tie an animal to a tree of another kind was granted. But these things, as we have said, will seem rather to be Jewish inventions; for us, however, the mystical interpretation, even if it alone stands, should be more pleasing.

He washed his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape (Gen. 49:11). These things too will seem to pertain only to the historical exposition: that a fertile field of vines and a hyperbolic abundance of wine are signified; but the mystical exposition produces a nobler meaning. For the robe of Christ, which is washed in wine, is rightly understood to be his Church, which he himself cleansed for himself by his own blood, not having spot or wrinkle (Eph. 5). For, says the Apostle, you were redeemed not with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of the Only-Begotten of God (1 Pet. 1). In the wine of this blood, therefore, that is, in the washing of regeneration, the Church is washed by Christ. For we are buried with him through baptism into death and his blood, that is, we are baptized into his death. But in the blood of the grape, how he washes his garment, must be considered. A garment seems to be a certain closer or more secret clothing to the body than a robe.

These, then, who had first been washed by the laver and had become his garment, after they came to the sacrament of the blood of the grape, are said to be partakers of it as of an inner mystery and a more secret robe. For the soul is washed even in the blood of the grape, when it begins to receive the meaning of this sacrament. For when the power of the blood, the power of the word of God, has been recognized and understood, the more capable the soul has become, the purer it is made, and it is washed daily for growth in knowledge; and joining itself to the Lord, it will become not only his garment but even one spirit with him. Contrary to this was that garment of the people of Israel, in which, to signify the shamelessness of the nation, he called it not so much a garment as a loincloth, which Jeremiah is commanded to wrap around his loins, and to take away again, and to hide in the Euphrates (Jer. 13).

His eyes, he says, are more gracious than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk (Gen. 49:12). Do you see how he cuts off and severs the historical understanding, especially toward the end? For if we should still wish to argue more contentiously, saying that Judah's eyes are gracious from wine because of the abundance of wine, as we said above, and the abundance of cups, what shall we answer concerning the white teeth and the quality of the milk that has been brought forward? In this matter one must not act shamelessly against the truth. But, shut off by the interruption of the historical understanding, let us return to the order of the spiritual exposition. His eyes, he says, are more gracious than wine.

Above we showed by apostolic authority that all the worthy among the faithful are called members of Christ, and are individually named as different members, in that each one discharges an office for the whole body of the Church. For there will be feet of Christ—those who run to make peace, who go forth to help those placed in necessity. There will be hands of Christ—those stretched out to mercy, which bring aid to the needy, which are extended as a support to the weak. So too there will be eyes of Christ—those who provide the light of knowledge to the whole body, as it is written in the Gospel: The lamp of your body is your eye (Matt. 6:22). These eyes, then, are gracious: for the word of wisdom is seasoned with salt, so as to give grace to its hearers. Therefore it is not for this alone that he is called gracious, because he ministers the word of knowledge, but because he has grace in himself and imparts it. For when these things are heard, he says, the wise man will be wiser (Prov. 5). His eyes, then, are gracious from wine, because there is nothing watery in the word of wisdom, nothing fluid, nothing cold; but it is wine that gladdens the heart of man, and that is poured into the wounds of him who fell among robbers. By it, surely, the wounds of sins in the hearers are not only soothed by the gentleness of oil, but also cleansed by the sharpness of wine. And who is it, says the Apostle, that gladdens me, except he who is grieved on my account? His teeth are white above milk.

We have already often spoken of the order and nature of the members of Christ, and to repeat the same things frequently in these places seems absurd. Therefore his teeth shall be whiter than milk—these are those who are able to chew and break down the strong and solid food of the word of God to the utmost fineness with their teeth, of whom the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Hebrews: But solid food is for the perfect, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil (Heb. 5:14). But of the imperfect Corinthians he says: I gave you milk to drink, not meat: for you were not yet able (1 Cor. 3:2). These things are said concerning those who are nourished on milk: their teeth are white, that is, those who cannot take perfect food and eat above those who, as little children, still need milk. Finally, also in the Law, those animals which chew the cud (Lev. 11) and bring the food they have taken back to their teeth, which, finely minced, they deliver for the sustenance of the body, are designated as clean animals. And most fittingly indeed he calls his teeth white. For all who are perfect, and who, expounding the foods of the Scriptures from worthy and fitting interpretations, minister to the body of the Church a subtle and minute understanding, which is called spiritual, ought to be white and pure, and free from every stain, lest it be said to them: You who teach others, do you not teach yourself? (Rom. 2).

But since divine Scripture ought to contain not only the knowledge of the sacraments, but also to shape the morals and conduct of those who learn it (for so also Wisdom speaks through Solomon: "Describe these things to yourself twice and three times in your heart" [Prov. 22], and the ark that was built by Noah is commanded to be made with two and three chambers [Gen. 6]), let us endeavor, after we have described these things in a twofold manner, as far as we have been able to understand, that is, according to history and according to mystical understanding, now, insofar as the place can receive it, to discuss the moral discourse as well, so that students of the Scriptures may be taught not only what has been done in others or by others, but also what they themselves ought to do within themselves. Judah is interpreted as confession: therefore he who either confesses his sins and does penance, or confesses Christ before men in persecution, will be praised by his brothers: for there is joy and gladness among the angels in heaven over one sinner who repents [Luke 15]. Therefore he is praised by them as by brothers (for they are sons of one Creator and Father, both men and angels). But he who confesses the Lord Jesus, because in the Spirit

He confesses to the Holy One, and his hands are made to be upon the backs of his enemies; for he who formerly presented his members to serve iniquity unto iniquity, now presenting them to serve righteousness unto sanctification, already harasses and beats the backs of his enemies as they flee from him—that is, of the demons. For thus he fights, not as one beating the air, but putting demons to flight; and he who, by reason of his great advances, already has, as it were, a share of God within himself, is even said to be adored by the sons of his father. By the sons of his father, in the moral sense, we can understand the sons of light, who rightly adore and venerate those who have advanced to the likeness of God by their knowledge and the merit of their works. For just as Christ is the light of the world, so too are his disciples the light of the world: but he by nature, they by grace. And Moses is said to be a god to Pharaoh. A lion's cub is Judah; from the shoot, my son, you have ascended. He is rightly called a lion's cub who has been crucified with Christ and has risen with him, as Paul also used to say—who also, by that same merit, is taken to be Judah; for he confessed his sin, saying, I am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. And again, what Christ is, he says that he himself is, when he says: I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.

He is therefore a lion's cub, who sleeps with Christ when he has died to sin, and has risen with Christ when he lives to God (Rom. 11). But from the shoot he is a son who ascends, without doubt the one who, though he was a wild olive, was grafted into the olive tree, and put away the wild and savage manners of the carnal nature, through the spirit of adoption an heir (Phil. 4), the true root of life remaining, and bringing forth very much fruit from his graftings. Reclining you have slept as a lion. He sleeps as a lion, for the wise man trusts as a lion (Prov. 28), especially since he could confidently say, I can do all things in him who strengthens me (Phil. 4). He is not roused by terrors, nor by threats, nor by any allurements, but his purpose will remain unmoved and his mind fixed. Nor can the Prince ever be lacking from Judah, and a leader from his thighs; for truly he will be able to exercise the principate over himself, and to be an approved leader, who first through confession and repentance, having cut off and subjected to himself all the carnal vices by which he was formerly driven, bears the principate over himself, nor permits anger, or ambition, or avarice, or lust to hold the principate in him. But a leader will be to him from the thighs of Judah, that is, of him who has been corrected and set right by confession, lest if the blind leads the blind (Matt. 15), that is, the mind still blinded by vices rules the body blind by nature, both fall into the pit.

Until those things come which are laid up for him, as he also said: That the sufferings of this present time are not worthy of the future glory which shall be revealed in us (Rom. 8). Or certainly, each one of the saints thus holds his principate for so long, and shall be the guide of his own life, until that comes, that God may be all in all; for this is laid up for the end. And he himself shall be the expectation of the nations. Since we have once undertaken to pursue the moral place, we ought also to seek these nations within ourselves, which have an expectation. From the confession of one so corrected and perfected, we can understand the nations within us as all the motions of our soul, which are stirred more fiercely in us according to the first age, and act, as it were, in a Gentile manner; for these there is every hope of correction, and expectation, if the sense, which is the prince and guide of man, having confessed Christ and been enlightened by him, governs the reins of its actions. Binding his colt to the vine. Let us understand here the colt as that very sense, for the renewal of life, which elsewhere is called an infant by the Lord, when he says: Unless you become as an infant, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 19). When therefore anyone joins himself to the Lord, and is made one spirit with him, he binds his colt to the vine, saying: But for me, to cleave to God is good (Ps. 72). And to the branch, the colt of his ass. This branch, that is.

Whom we have explained above, we can perceive the subtle and winding understanding of knowledge, whose foal of the ass—that is, the sensory and affective power of the soul—preserves the soul itself from falling. He will wash his garment in wine. Just as the flesh of the Word of God is the food of the perfect, so also his blood is the drink of the perfect. Therefore those who are cleansed and renewed through the Word of God from day to day, these are said to wash their garment in wine—that is, their visible acts—and their cloak in the blood of the grape—their interior thoughts—just as the Apostle also said: Purifying thoughts, and every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ (1 Cor. 10). Yet the glory and passion of martyrdom alone can also be understood, which the righteous man daily hopes for in the flesh, and his cloak only in blood. Nevertheless he receives the martyrdom of conscience, which he endures within himself without ceasing. Finally, also in what follows, he says that his eyes are pleasing from wine, and his teeth white above milk. Now there is no doubt that the praise of the eyes is brought forth from the power of looking ahead and seeing far, which certainly comes through the grace or the zeal of knowledge. For this reason also the teeth are white, which may bring forth the pure and immaculate and solid foods of the Word of God, and do not allow the soul to be nourished on the milk of little ones, but nourish it with solid and strong foods—that is, transferring it from moral matters to mystical and doctrinal ones—by which, illumined, with unveiled face, it may behold the glory of the Lord.

PAULINUS

To his brother RUFINUS, greeting.

The son of Cerealis has made it uncertain to me that he was going to set out to you at the time when he returns to Saint Peter [at Rome]; nevertheless, through him who is equally yours and ours, we judged that not to write to you would be as blameworthy for us as it would be sad for you. And so, preferring to grasp the loss of a little sheet of paper, if perhaps he had not seen you, rather than the loss of duty, as we believe, if he were to visit you, we have entrusted this letter, not to chance, but to faith. For we believe in the Lord that the way of our speech is to be directed to you, and that of our son, because for those who desire what is good, all things will proceed unto good: for he desires you as much as you ought to be desired by one who understands his own advantage from association with you. And therefore I presume, because according to his faith and piety his desire will be saved among good things, and he will reach you, and will remain with you, and the saving help for us before the Lord will be doubled in you, since both a son so good has come to you as a companion, a disciple and helper, and you, given by the Lord to him as a father and teacher of every good thing, will have added the strength of spiritual grace to the efficacious power of prayers. But for us, although out of love for you there is presumption, because when you return to the East, you will not allow him to depart from us unvisited; nevertheless there is fear concerning our sins, lest even though the daughter of Babylon is so near to us, she turn him away.

Therefore we entrust our desires and vows to the Lord, that he may deal with us not according to our merit but according to our desire, and direct your way to us in the way of his peace, since those who do not walk in it have been condemned to a reprobate mind, and do not deserve to desire you.

II. Indeed, by the importunity with which I have been accustomed to knock at your door even at midnight, and by fear of refusal, compelled to modesty and to moderation in asking, I now entrust this business concerning me to you: that the Blessings of the twelve Patriarchs, of which you have already published in written pages the beginning, the prophecy concerning the person of Judah, expounded to me in the threefold interpretation as commanded, you may deign to expound as distributed through the remaining sons, so that I too may become, through you, a partaker of the truth, and may have you as the author of great grace and praise, if to those who, on account of the work, have thought me above myself to be consulted, I answer with things divine and of your spirit rather than from my own sense.

BOOK II. ON THE BLESSINGS OF THE PATRIARCHS, BY RUFINUS OF AQUILEIA, PRESBYTER, TO PAULINUS THE PRESBYTER. Preface.

RUFINUS TO HIS BROTHER PAULINUS, GREETING.

I had not yet seen our common son Cerealis, but he, knowing what grief it would inflict on me if he delayed to deliver your letter, sent it on to me beforehand. When I read it, and (as is my custom) grew more and more in longing for you, I found at the end that you command that very thing from which I have often excused myself before you—namely, that you should not ask me to respond in writing about any interpretations of the Scriptures. And so that you might all the more cease from asking, I gave you, once and again, a sign of my ignorance and unlearned speech.

II. But because even so you do not grow weary of commanding, I have now, as best I could, added to what I had previously answered you concerning the blessing of Judah, regarding the remaining eleven Patriarchs, judging that I have done the will of that father to whom, when he commanded me to go into the vineyard, I said, I will not go, and afterward went. If indeed there is any rashness in the deed—that, though we are less fit, we have touched on such great matters—with your pardon I would say it will most justly be reckoned to you, who out of excessive love have measured the knowledge in us, as also the other virtues, sufficiently

you do not see that they are brief. But because I wrote this back to you from the days of Lent, while stationed in the monastery at Pinetum, I could not hide my trifles even from the brethren who were present; but they too, thinking it something great because it can please you, nevertheless extorted from me that I should write these things out for them. Thus, when you demand your own food, you serve it to others as well. Farewell in peace, most loving brother, truest worshipper of God, and an Israelite in whom there is no guile; and remember me, man of God full of grace.

BOOK TWO.

ON THE BLESSINGS OF THE REMAINING ELEVEN PATRIARCHS.

First it must be known that in each several place where Scripture makes mention of the twelve Patriarchs, there is much diversity in the very writing down of the order. One order is written in their nativity itself (Gen. 35); another when they enter the land of Egypt together with their father Israel and the offspring of their posterity (Gen. 46); another now, when they receive the blessings of their departing parent (Gen. 49); another when the tribes, having gone out of Egypt, are recorded as doing something either in the desert (Exod. 14 and following) or, having entered the land of promise, are set on Mount Garizin and on Mount Gebal for blessings and curses (Deut. 27). Another also when they receive by lot the division of the land of inheritance (Joshua.

15.), and to such an extent is this order varied, that sometimes certain of them are found not even written in the number, which certainly is varied not without some reason, and there exist probable causes by which in that place one is preferred, but in another another is set before. But concerning these things, what is now proposed by you to us [Fr. Pauline] is not to explain, except only those things, as God shall grant, which are contained in the blessings which they receive from their father at the time of his death: which blessings, indeed, perhaps for this reason alone can be called blessings, because it is said at the end: And their father spoke these things to them, and blessed them, each one according to his blessing he blessed them (Gen. 49:28). But in the beginnings, where the father calls them together, he does not call them as if to a blessing, but it is written thus: But Jacob called his sons, and said: Gather yourselves together that I may announce to you what shall come upon you in the last days (Ibid. 2); which certainly signifies rather a prophecy, through which what will happen to them is foretold. But in the very bodily sequence of words, neither are they blessings only, nor is it only a foretelling of future things, by which either death, or their purpose, or even certain deeds done by them are notably reproved.

This matter supplies us with a threefold material for explanation, as we have done in other cases, so that the blessings may keep the place of History; prophecy, however, the mystical and dogmatic; and the correction and reproof of morals may direct the moral style.

THE BLESSING OF REUBEN.

Reuben (he says) my firstborn: you are my strength, and the beginning of my children, hard in conversation, and hard, reckless: you have brought insults, like water do not seethe. For you went up to your father's bed, then you defiled his couch, where you went up (Gen. 49:3-4). The story of the incest escapes no one—how Reuben burned with the flame of lust for his father's concubine, and defiled his father's bed (Gen. 34). But since in the beginning he seems to ascribe something of praise to him, saying, You are my strength, therefore, so that he may be more gravely marked in his crime—he who, though he was considered his father's strength and the beginning of his children, did not know how to preserve reverence for his father; such is also that which is said through the Prophet: I planted you as a fruitful vine, wholly fertile; how have you been turned into the bitterness of a foreign vine (Jer. 2)?

According to the mystical understanding, however, it seems to me that Reuben can bear the person of the earlier people of the Jews, who is both the firstborn and the beginning of the sons, just as the Prophet also says: Israel is my firstborn (Exod. 4). For to those first ones the oracles of God were given. But that that people was hard and reckless, the Scriptures declare; for the Prophet says of them: Everything that this people speaks is hard (Isa. 8). And again elsewhere he says of them: You are always stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart (Acts 7). But he inflicted injuries on God the Father, when he turned his back to him, and not his face (Jer. 2). Moreover, he defiled the bed of his concubine, which he ascended, that is, the law of the Old Testament, which he often stained by transgressing it. But that the law of the Old Testament is set forth in the person of the concubine, Paul taught, saying: Abraham had two sons, one from the slave woman, and one from the free woman; but these are the Testaments (Gal. 4), in which Agar, who was a concubine, is set forth as a type of the Old Testament. For there was one perfect dove and mother, who, a chaste virgin, a queen to the king her bridegroom, is the Church joined to Christ through the Gospel.

But the moral sense of this passage will also be treated by us as follows. Reuben is interpreted as “of the elders,” the son who is seen, that is, the visible and carnal man—he, I believe, of whom the Apostle says, “The first man is of the earth, earthy” (1 Cor. 15). And elsewhere: “For though our outward man is corrupted, yet the inward man is renewed” (ibid. 4). This same man who is seen he calls the outer man. And again he says: “For that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural” (ibid.). Therefore every man, while he lives carnally in this world and is moved according to the flesh—and the first carnal motion is in the desire of lust, to which the time of early youth has already yielded obedience—makes a man hard and reckless at once, and lascivious, one who even ascends his father’s bed and defiles his father’s couch, that is, who transgresses even the precepts and admonitions of the natural law which is within us (which is now called his father’s throne). For there is within us a certain natural law which convicts each one who sins and suggests to him that what he does wrong is evil. Therefore he defiles the bed of this law and stains the seat of its secret, who is carried headlong and unbridled toward vices.

THE BLESSING OF SIMEON AND LEVI.

Simeon and Levi are brothers; they accomplished the iniquity of their own will. Let not my soul enter into their council, and let not my inward parts be invited into their counsel (Gen. 49:5-6). As far as the historical sense is concerned, he seems to blame that deed of theirs which they committed, in that they slaughtered by deceit and circumvention Hamor's son Shechem, who after the defilement of their sister had wished to be joined to the family of Israel, and they killed his entire people, when their father Israel also said to them: "Because you have made me hateful in this world" (Gen. 34). Therefore he calls down a curse upon their fury with its recklessness, and declares that they are to be divided among the peoples of Israel, inasmuch as from them were to come the Levites and priests, who had no portion in the land of promise.

But the spiritual explanation of these things seems to me such that certain things can be applied to this: that Simeon and Levi can bear the persons of the scribes and Pharisees of the Jewish people, of whom it is written: "Because the scribe and the Pharisee took counsel to seize Jesus by deceit" (Matt. 26). Concerning this counsel the holy man, who saw God in his mind, now says: "Let not my soul enter into their council"; and into their counsel, in which, with false witnesses brought forward, they condemned Jesus, he says, "let not my inward parts be invited." Does he not seem to you to say this: "I am clean from the blood of this just man" (Matt. 27); "I am clean from the sentence which you decree against the innocent"?

Because in their anger, he says, they killed men. I ask which men they killed, since it is certain that before the passion of the Lord no one of the believers was punished—unless perhaps someone attributes to them even the blood of the prophets. For the Lord says to them, "That from the blood of Abel the just even to the blood of Zechariah, all the blood of the just that has been shed shall be required of that generation." But let us see whether perhaps they also killed those men whom they persuaded to cry out, "His blood be upon us and upon our children." And in their desire they hamstrung the bull. That a bull is called the Son of God, we read in the figures of the Scriptures—in the Gospel, surely, where it is written twice under the person of the elder son speaking to his father: "I have always been with you, and I have never transgressed your commandment, and you never gave me a kid that I might feast with my friends; but when this your younger son came, who squandered all his substance, you killed for him this fatted calf." Therefore the bull, or the calf, the scribes and Pharisees are said to have hamstrung by their counsel, whose anger is cursed because it is reckless, and their wrath because it is hardened. I will divide them in Jacob, and I will scatter them in Israel. We must consider whether perhaps this division mentioned here is such as that which is also spoken of in the Gospel: "Because when the lord of that servant comes, he will divide him, and will place his portion with the unbelievers.

Or certainly, as I have heard a certain one of the holy fathers discoursing, because it is called both division and dispersion, for the reason that some of them believed in the Lord, and others remained in unbelief. Those who are separated from them and come to the faith are called divided; and dispersed are those whose fatherland and temple having been overthrown, the unbelieving race of the Jews is scattered throughout the world.

But the moral trope can perhaps be preserved thus. That the soul's power is threefold has seemed to many wise men, that is, that there are three species of its motion: through anger, through desire, through reason, nor, as I think, can any other motion of the soul be found besides these. For everything to which it leans or by which it is moved is either of anger, or of desire, or of reason, and therefore the state of the whole human life seems to me to be shadowed forth in these three sons of Jacob, and through them this threefold motion of the soul to be designated, in which Reuben preserves the first species of concupiscence, in which he is marked with a stain as poured out. The second species, of anger or fury, Simeon holds, which itself is also shown by the reproach of his fury. The third form of the rational motion Levi holds, to whom indeed the keeping of the law was also committed. These three species, then, every soul that comes into this world seems to me to exercise culpably in its first motions, until, weighed down by the vices of sins and weary with satiety of evils, it can arrive at the place of repentance.

After this comes Judas, who purges sins by confession, because Judas in the Hebrew tongue is interpreted as confession, which is said to free from death. But concerning Judas, I believe what we have already said earlier, as best we could, is sufficient; and if it pleases, these things can either be joined to those or preferred to them.

THE BLESSING OF ZABULON.

i. Zabulon shall dwell by the sea, and he himself is the approach of ships, and he extends as far as Sidon (Gen. 49:13). The history designates the portion and lot of the future inheritance. But as for what pertains to the mystery, we read in the Gospel that some of the Apostles were taken from these regions, and that in those very places the Lord taught frequently, as it is written: The land of Zabulon and the land of Nephthalim, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sat in darkness saw a great light (Isaiah 9; Matthew 4). But what he said, And he extends as far as Sidon: Sidon is interpreted as hunter, or huntress. But the hunters, whom else shall we think are to be laudably understood in this place, except the Apostles of the Lord, concerning whom the prophet foretold, Because I will send many hunters, and they shall hunt them on every mountain (Jeremiah 16)?

But if in this case too a moral point is required, Zebulun is interpreted as nocturnal flux. It can therefore seem to follow that after the soul which sat in darkness has seen the light of the Lord, and has been turned to repentance by confession, all those things which it had done in the death of ignorance are taken away from it and flow away; and after confession has gone before in Judah, conversion will follow in this case too, when everything that belonged to night and darkness has already flowed away, in which it tries to strip off the old man and lay aside the things of night, so that it may walk honestly as in the day (Rom. 13:13). But this, that it casts itself out as far as Sidon, that is, as far as the hunters, perhaps declares that he too is now trying to be one of those to whom it is said: Catch for me the little foxes that destroy my vineyards (Song 2:15). Therefore he stretches himself out as far as the hunters, so that he may himself learn to hunt, if ever some wild beasts or crafty foxes—that is, either savage demons or harmful thoughts—creep into his heart and wish to destroy the vineyard of the Lord of hosts: so that he may seize them, made a praiseworthy hunter of prudent thoughts.

THE BLESSING OF ISSACHAR.

Issachar desired what is good, and he will rest in the midst of the lots, and he saw rest, that it is good, and the land, that it is rich. Here too the order of the history is fittingly preserved, in that he dwelt in the midst of the lots, that is, in the divisions of the land which was distributed to them by Joshua the son of Nun (Josh. 19). For the fourth lot from among the latter seven tribes is recorded in the book of Joshua the son of Nun to have come out for him, because the two half-tribes, that is, of Judah and Ephraim, and the half-tribe of Manasseh had received the earlier ones. But Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh had their possession beyond the Jordan. Issachar is therefore in the middle, because he is fourth of the seven: a tiller of rich and fertile soil, willingly devoting his labor to the fat land. And let these things be said so far as concerns the history.

But Issachar, because it is interpreted as "reward," can preserve the figure of those who say: For if I preach willingly, I have a reward (1 Cor. 9). And of whom it is said: Behold, the Lord's children, the reward, the fruit of the womb (Ps. 126). For the reward of the Son of God, in that he deigned to enter the womb of the Virgin, is rightly thought to be the Apostles; for they are the ones who desired what is good, of whose souls it is said in the Song of Songs: The young maidens have loved you (Cant. 1); and who say to Jesus: We will run after you in the fragrance of your ointments (Ibid.).

Resting in the midst of the lots, that is, in the midst of the good land, the land flowing with milk and honey: they rest in the midst of it. What land was this that was flowing with milk and honey but Jesus, upon whose breast not only John but in John all the disciples reclined, and they became farmers? That these were farmers, and that they cultivated our land, which they saw to be rich and good, and which the Son of Man had come to sow, and his seed fell upon good ground, which brought forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, some a hundredfold. All Scripture testifies to this, and especially the Apostle Paul, who says: For the administration is God's, the cultivation is God's. And again the same says: The farmer who labors ought first to receive of the fruits. And again he says of himself: Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? But perhaps you say: And how is it true that the apostles saw rest, as is said here, And seeing rest, that it is good, when it is agreed that the apostles never had rest, but were in labors and persecutions, as the Apostle Paul indicates he was throughout the whole time of his life?

Let us therefore see whether this is not what the present discourse signifies when it says, "And seeing the rest, that it is good," because those who consider the rest to come, and the blessedness of the kingdom of heaven, and behold the glory of all things that have been promised, have willingly submitted their shoulders to labor; for looking to those good things that are to come, they patiently endured present evils, just as the Apostle Paul also says of Moses, that despising the treasures of the Egyptians, he chose rather to bear the reproach of Christ: "For he looked," he says, "to the recompense" (Heb. 11:23).

But since we have undertaken to build the ark of divine Scripture, not only two-storied but three-storied (as the Lord said to Noah in Gen. 6), let us now see how the cloud of Issachar also builds a third nest. In the passages above we took him to be the man who, wandering through the threefold motion of the soul (as is the sickness of the whole soul)—anger and fury—we distinguished that this could be signified by the lust of Reuben, by the anger of Simeon, and by the prudence of Levi not rightly directed; but this man we have already shown repenting in Judah, and in Zebulun largely converted, while in Issachar, which is interpreted as "wages," we now see him even awaiting the wage of good work, because he not only cast away evil but also desired good, and even rests in the midst of the lots.

But the one who is in the middle is the one who, according to the admonition of Wisdom, does not turn aside either to the right or to the left—for this is to hold the line straight and to walk in the way of virtue—and in him the lots can also be understood in this way. A lot is so called because by it an hereditary portion is assigned to each one, not as though it were seen to consist in some chance event, as the nations think, but as that which is determined by the judgment and dispensation of God. Therefore in this moral exposition the lots are to be understood by us as the commandments of God, through which the heavenly inheritance is obtained. So this man, who has already been converted and even hopes for the reward of his works, rests always in the midst of the lots, that is, in the midst of the commandments of God, seeing that the rest is good and that the land is rich. After he has driven out and shut out the battle of thoughts that was within him, while in him the flesh lusted against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, his spirit rested in God; and then he saw that the rest was good, when Jesus could already say to him, "Come aside a little, and rest." But he also saw the land, that it is good. When did he see the good land? When he cleansed his flesh from vices and lusts, then he saw that it was a good and rich land without doubt, which brings forth the fruits of righteousness in good works. For seeing this, he put his shoulder under the burden to labor, and became a man of agriculture.

That man is to be reckoned the farmer of his own land who ceaselessly cuts and furrows the fields of his soul and the fallow ground of his heart with the plough of God's word and the share of the Scriptures, who waters the plantings of faith and love and hope and righteousness from the springs of Israel, and who grasps every discipline of farming in the countryside of his own soul.

THE BLESSING OF DAN.

Dan shall judge his people as if one tribe in Israel. And let Dan be a serpent in the way, lying in wait upon the path, biting the horse's heel, and the rider shall fall backward. Awaiting salvation from the Lord. The history of this passage, insofar as it falls within the small measure of my understanding, is not easily found clearly expressed in the holy Scriptures—either how Dan judged his people as one tribe, or how he lay in wait in the way. Lest perhaps we bring forward something that seems to have too little support from the Scriptures, the things that are written seem to me rather to be fitted to a spiritual understanding. Unless perhaps in those wars which are recorded as written either by Joshua or in the book of Judges, these things that are written are to be compared with certain deeds done there. Yet, inquiring more carefully, although we have not yet found what would satisfy our intention, still we set forth the things that are held in the opinion of some.

Some say that by these words Antichrist is foretold as one to come from this tribe; others suspect that these things were written of Judas the betrayer, and wish the rider and the horse to designate the Lord after he had taken flesh. But such an interpretation seems to me scarcely able to be explained: for if they wish to place the Godhead in the horse, it could certainly not be bitten by the serpent; if in the rider, that he falls backward and awaits salvation from the Lord, the Godhead of the Word will not be fittingly said. Hence I think that Dan is perhaps more rightly transferred to that one who is awaited as judge of the living and the dead: because Dan is interpreted as judgment, or judge. Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ, who says, I came into this world for judgment (John 9), and again, The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son (ibid. 5), he himself will judge his people as one tribe, for there will no longer be a division of tribes, no diversity, but as he himself said: There will be one flock and one shepherd (ibid. 10).

But what seems to deter some in this place is the word that follows, saying, Let Dan become a serpent in the way; and because a serpent is frequently placed in Scripture in the person of the devil, they think this cannot apply to the Lord. But if we return to the Scriptures, just as we find the devil called a lion, who goes about seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5), and the bulls called opposing powers, as it is written, Fat bulls have surrounded me (Psalm 21), and again a lion is said to be the Lord also, as Judas, expounded to us a little earlier, taught: we find that the Lord himself is also called a bull—that one who was slain for the salvation and return of the penitent son (Luke 15). But there are also many other similar things in the Scriptures, which are drawn now to a good sense, now to a bad one; so too a serpent is sometimes found written even in the person of the Lord, as he himself says of himself in the Gospels: For as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up (John 3). But also the Apostle, when he commands us to be wise as serpents, did he not adapt the name of serpent to a good sense? Therefore in this place too it can be said of the Lord himself: Let Dan become a serpent in the way, lying in wait upon the path: that is, he who judges hearts and knows what is hidden within; seeing in the way—that is, in the course of this life—that riders ride along the road not rightly.

But the horses of the soul, placed in bodies, can be understood as where it says: All who mounted horses have fallen asleep (Ps. 75), that is, all who are in bodies have sinned, as the Apostle also declared. Therefore this serpent, lying in wait by the way, bites the heel of these horses, or of these horsemen; and it bites the heel when it wastes the body with sicknesses or any other torments, so as to check the swift course of those who sin. For when the body is afflicted and the flesh consumed, then the horseman falls backward, that is, the soul that was running badly and hurrying to destruction falls backward and is recalled to patience, so that, hindered from its evil course, it may be turned back and come to be behind him who says, Come after me (Mark 1). I think something of this sort also happened to the Apostle Peter, when, as the Lord said, Because the Son of man must be crucified and die (Matt. 16), he said, Be merciful to yourself, Lord; this shall not be to you (Luke 18); in which, since out of excessive love through ignorance he was not riding rightly, in the end he is, as it were, bitten by the serpent by the Lord, in that it is said to him: Go behind me, Satan; you are a stumbling block to me, because you do not savor the things of God but the things of men (Mark 8). And so Peter, recalled backward, awaits salvation from the Lord through the cross and resurrection, which at that time, riding and running too fervently, he did not know in his future ignorance.

These things have moved me in this passage, yet I do not exclude the opinion of those who have been able to approve what they think by the authority of the Scriptures.

But so that not even that third passage may pass us by, he whom we have already long since said to have advanced in Isachar, and to rest in the commandments, and to have become a farmer of his own soul, can now be seen to advance also in this passage in Dan, so as to receive understanding of discerning and judging his own people, that is, the thoughts of his heart, as one tribe in Israel, that is, to call all things back into unity and concord, so that there be in him no dissension of thoughts or counsels. The same man also becomes a serpent according to the Lord's precept, which we mentioned a little earlier: Be wise as serpents (Matt. 10); yet he sits by the path, and never departs from the footpath. For the footpath is understood as a narrower way, which shows that he does not walk along that broad and spacious way which leads to death, but along the narrow and strait way which leads to life (Matt. 7). But he bites the horse's heel, doing that which the Apostle Paul says: Because I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway (1 Cor. 9). This he does so that the horse may fall backward. For such a man always fears elations and heights, and wishes his soul to fall from a bad height to a good humility, so that he may learn from Jesus, because he is humble and meek of heart (Matt. 11).

For it is characteristic of those who are making progress to fear elation. Hence even so great and such an Apostle as Paul said, Lest I be exalted, there was given to my flesh a thorn, an angel of Satan, to buffet me (1 Cor. 12). Thus therefore he calls the soul back from the height, and having been brought back behind to the humility of Christ, it awaits salvation from the Lord.

THE BLESSING OF GAD.

Pirateriuma shall tempt him, but he shall tempt them after their feet. By the historical sense indeed we do not easily find anything of this sort recorded in the Scriptures, unless perhaps someone wishes to wrest it out and say that this tribe, beyond the Jordan, obtained its inheritance in the bread of Arabia, and that because wars of robbers frequently arise there, and they come together in constant clashes with one another, these contests of theirs among themselves, after the manner of pirates, are designated in these words.

But truer is the spiritual understanding, which can indicate that struggle of our Lord and Savior which he had against the devil while placed in the flesh. For the dwelling of this tribe is near the desert; but Gad now is interpreted as temptations. Therefore that

understood, that the Lord Jesus Christ was led into the wilderness by the Spirit, so that He might be tempted by the devil (Matt. 4). But see how great are the mysteries contained in the words of the Patriarch. Gad, he says, a band of raiders shall raid him. Let us suppose, as we said, that the person of the Lord is in Gad: a band of raiders shall raid him. Now a "band of raiders" is said to be a certain cohort and conspiracy of raiders. For it is certain that the devil, when he came to tempt the Lord, did not come without his ministers and attendants; because just as the angels were present with the Lord, watching His struggle (those of whom the Gospel says after the temptation (Ibid.), "And the angels came and ministered to Him"), so also the devil had his own angels present with him, with whom hell was prepared for him, as the Lord says: "Go into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels" (Ibid. 25). But also the saints, when they struggle in the contest, are said to have been made a spectacle to this world and to angels and to men (1 Cor. 4). Therefore the conspiracy of the tempters was tempting the Lord, when it said to Him: "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread" (Matt. 4). By these things, then, the devil was tempting the Lord. But let us see what this is that he says: "But he himself shall raid them at their heels." How was the Lord raiding those who were raiding Him? If in the first temptation the Savior had declared to the devil that He was the Son of God, it is certain that he would not have dared to approach for a second temptation; but now see how He who is tempted Himself tempts the one who tempts.

For the Lord was in the wilderness forty days and forty nights, and afterward He hungered. For if He had not hungered, the tempter would not have recognized the Son of God; but now He hungers, so that by this very fact that the Lord shows in Himself the frailty of the flesh, he who tempts may himself be tempted, and may come again to tempt Him as a man. So then the tempters come to the Lord. But He will tempt them in turn after the feet, that is, by the very footsteps by which the devil had approached to tempt Him, He will tempt him.

And so the moral passage is expounded by a similar interpretation: for that man of ours, confessing his error and repenting, is restored and turned back through understanding, and has advanced a little, so that after his advancement he comes to this, that he be tempted by the enemy, and that the virtue of his soul and the constancy of his purpose be proved: for thus the Scripture says, He who has not been tempted is not approved (Eccl. 34). Nor will anyone at any time attain to perfection at all unless he has first given proof of himself in his temptations.

THE BLESSING OF ASHER.

Asher, his bread shall be fat: and he himself shall give food to princes. I believe that the defenders of the letter understand in these words that his region and the inheritance of his land was rich and fat, so that it even ministered to royal uses. But some of our own also think that this was said with reference to Anna the prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, from the tribe of Asher, who is first mentioned along with Simeon in the Gospels as prophesying concerning the Lord (Luke 2), and who by the faith of her prophecy gave, as it were, food to the princes, that is, to the Apostles and the rest of the believers—the things that had been prophesied concerning Him.

But since Asher is interpreted as "blessed," of that man whom we lead back from error through repentance, gradually through each individual step, up to the increase of blessedness, after his conversion, after spiritual understanding, after the victory over temptations, his bread is said to be fat. For he eats that bread which came down from heaven (John 1), and gives life to this world, and that bread is fat.

What is said, "fat bread," we can understand in this way. Those who understand nothing more in Christ than Christ Jesus, this one crucified, themselves indeed eat the bread from heaven, but dry and meager; but those who are worthy that the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of Christ be revealed to them (Col. 2) are those for whom the bread is fat, as it was for Paul, who said: I know both how to abound and how to hunger; I have been instructed in all things and in all things (Phil. 4). For if our Lord and Savior, when he deigns to assume the figure of a bull, is called a fat and fatted bull to be slaughtered for the repentant son (Luke 15), why should not those who attain to blessedness be said in the same way to be fat bread? But such a one, for whom the bread is already fat, will also give food to princes. What food? Without doubt the food of the word of God; and he will give food not to any poor people whatsoever, or to those receiving it, but he will give it to princes: for he too will speak wisdom among the perfect (1 Cor. 2).

THE BLESSING OF NAPHTALI.

A spreading tree from the shoot (or, as our copies have it, a spreading vine), bringing forth beauty in its fruits. The history indicates that Gad first received the earlier portion of the inheritance in the richness of the plains, and after him Naphtali possessed fields fertile with thickets and wooded with trees.

In the mystical exposition, however, we have already said, both in the passages above when we were discussing Zebulun and also concerning the name of Naphtali, what seemed to us fitting—as it were, together with that name in the Gospels: namely, that as it were the root and origin of the blessed Apostles came forth from these places and this region, and that the peoples of those who sat in darkness saw a great light. But also the princes of Zebulun and the princes of Naphtali, who are proclaimed through David, are certainly referred to the person of the Apostles.

As for the third explanation, the interpretation of the name Naphtali is precisely this, which his father now expresses in blessing him: that is, either a spreading tree or a vine. Therefore that man of ours, who a little earlier was fed on rich bread and gave food from it to the princes (which bread strengthens the heart of man), now consequently Christ, the true vine, has brought forth for him a beautiful fruit—so that, namely, the heart which he had strengthened with bread he now gladdens with wine; and in both of these he seems to me already to have advanced so far that he even receives the sacraments of the priesthood.

If, however, we prefer to understand it as a tree rather than a spreading vine, which brings forth beauty in its fruits, what other tree will there be that brings forth beauty in its fruits than the wisdom of God, of which Solomon says, She is a tree of life to those who embrace her (Prov. 3)?

THE BLESSING OF JOSEPH.

Joseph is a son increased: a son increased. In the blessing of Joseph, even the very first appearance of the letter blossoms; for with good reason is he called an increased son, whom the Lord, for the sake of preserving his family, had exalted even to the second rank of the kingdom. Understand him, then, as increased in wisdom, counsel, constancy, chastity, honor, royal power, virtue, and—what is the summit of all virtues—piety; in all these Joseph is rightly said to be increased and enlarged. But when he said, My son is envied, he seems to have expressed it not as one who envies, but as one who has suffered envy: that is, whose glory is so great that it deserves envy. This, then, is what he says: My younger son is envied; return to me—my son not so much by birth as by merits. Indeed, it seems to me not idly placed that the Patriarch, repeating it a third time, names Joseph as son, saying: Joseph is an increased son, and an increased son. My son is envied, and my younger son. What does it mean that Joseph alone among all his brothers is called son a third time? For my part, according to the smallness of my understanding, I take it to mean that Joseph was born to him as a son once (Gen.

…then, when he was reborn from Rachel after the despair of conceiving offspring. Secondly, a son is born to him, as it were, a second time, when after the persuasion of death he is announced to be alive. Thirdly, a son is made for him, when by teaching, instruction, and all those virtues by which he himself saw God, instructing and training him, he had begotten him as a son even in the spirit. Otherwise it will not fit him that he is called the younger son, since he has Benjamin later than himself, unless he is understood as younger in his father's instructions. Return to me, he says. That is, turn your minds to me, so that you may carefully note and inscribe in your heart the things that are said: you, son Joseph, against whom those who took counsel cursed, and the lords of the bows intended ambushes against you. For this too is reported by sacred Scripture, that his brothers had a plan at that time to kill him, but Judah intervened and restrained the murderous plan. But what he said, They cursed, is that which they said: Behold, the dreamer comes. But the lords of the bows he designates as warlike men; but that the arms were loosened and the bows broken designates the attempt frustrated by the hand of the mighty Jacob, that is, of the God of Jacob. Thence he who strengthened Israel is from the God of your father, and my God helped you. Thence help came to you, whence also Israel your father was strengthened, thence undoubtedly, when he wrestled in the way…

And God helped him, and Israel gave him his name. Therefore my God himself also blessed you with the blessing of heaven from above, and with the blessing of the earth. The blessing of heaven designates wisdom; that of the earth, kingship and power. On account of the blessing of the breasts and the womb, the blessing of your father and your mother. He himself explained what the blessing of the breasts and the womb is, naming the mother, because he obtained not only paternal but also maternal blessings. This blessing of father and mother, he says, prevailed. In the blessings of the enduring mountains, and in the blessings of the eternal hills. Perhaps this may be seen as said for the immobility of the grace that will endure in him, compared to the enduring mountains and eternal hills, that is, to things immovable and abiding. These blessings, he says, will be eternal. Upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of those among his brothers whom he ruled. At the end of the passage he seems to have conferred the blessings upon the whole number of brothers, so that the blessings are principally upon the head of Joseph, but through Joseph himself they also come upon those over whom he was leader and teacher.

We have understood these things according to the letter; but if we wish to search out something in this passage even more deeply, Joseph can perhaps also be referred to the person of the Lord, so that just as Joseph, after he was thought to be dead, is found not only alive but even established in a kingdom, and by this is said to be "made fruitful," so also the Lord and Savior, who was thought by the Jews to be dead, is found both living and reigning in the hearts of the faithful. Therefore our Savior too was "made fruitful" even after death. For before he died, Judaea alone was the place where God was known, and his name was great in Israel alone; but after he died from weakness and rose from the dead by power, the sacrifice is offered to his name in all the earth. But the son of God is also said to be "zealous"; for who has borne such zeal? Concerning whom it is also written, "For Pilate knew that the Jews had handed him over out of envy." The younger son according to the flesh is himself the last Adam. But that which in the historical exposition we marked as the third use of the title "son," we find repeated much more clearly in this exposition. For there is a Son before the ages, of whom it was said by the Father, "For from the womb before the morning star I begot you." And again a Son, when he was born of Mary, and it is said through the angel: "That which is born of you, the holy one, shall be called the Son of God.

He becomes the third son when the firstborn rises from the dead, to whom indeed the Father's voice fittingly applies, saying, My younger son, return to me: after he rose from the dead, he ascended victorious into heaven even to me, from whom he set out. Against him, it says, they took counsel and cursed (Matt. 26): for the council of the Scribes and Pharisees had begun, that they might seize Jesus by deceit; and they cursed then without doubt, when they said, You are a Samaritan, you have a demon (John 8). They aimed the arrows of their plots at the Lord, and they were broken by the power of their bow, and the sinews of the arms of their hands were dissolved. Those who plot against the Lord with arrows are understood to be those who came to him with deceitful propositions, to catch him in his words, and said to him: Tell us, is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not (Matt. 22)? Bringing forth these words, then, like arrows from the bow of their mouth, they aimed at Jesus, so that if he had said that it was not lawful to give tribute to Caesar, he would be made guilty before Caesar; but if he had said it should be given, he would seem to break the law. But when he, as the very wisdom of God, having looked at the inscription on the denarius, answered: Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's, the sinews of their arms were dissolved by the hand of the mighty Jacob.

That contest of his can also be understood as the one he had in the desert, when he was tempted by the devil, who aimed at him the arrows of evil suggestions; driving these back by his answers, he broke the arms and the sinews of those who shot them. Hence: Who strengthened Israel by the God of your father, and helped you. For the Savior, after the manner of men, is said to be helped by God; and indeed it is also written in the Gospel: When he was in agony in prayer, an angel, it says, came and strengthened him (Luke 22). The exposition in this place may perhaps seem too harsh, in that I was designating as spoken in the person of the Father to the Son the things I set down above. But here it is written: And my God helped you, and blessed you: how does this fit the person of the Father? But let us see whether, just as nothing is disturbed if the Father speaks of the Son on the ground that the Son is wisdom, because he is my wisdom; and on the ground that the Son is power, it is not absurd if the Father speaks of him, because he is my power; and on the ground that the Son is truth, it is not discordant if the Father says, he is my truth; so too, through the fact that the Son is God, it does not seem absurd if he says, he is my God: just as that is not called absurd either, that the Son says of the Father: Because I go to my God and to your God. And he blessed you, it says, with the blessing of heaven from above, and with the blessing of the earth that has all things (Job 14).

That the blessing of heaven belongs to Christ will not seem incongruous, in accordance with what is said: "Because the second man is from heaven, heavenly" (1 Cor 15). But as for the earth—what he said, that the blessing of the earth is "having all things because of the blessing of the breasts and the womb"—seems to me quite wondrous and great: how that earth, which was blessed in the Son of God, has all things. I think this is to be understood in this way: each one receives the grace of the Spirit according to the measure of his faith. For to one, according to the measure of faith, is given the word of understanding, to another the word of wisdom, to another prophecy, to another discernment of spirits, to another kinds of tongues (Ibid. 12). These you will find distributed to individuals singly, or sometimes two or three together; but in that earth, that is, in that flesh which was blessed in Jesus, not only were all these things present, but they dwelt fully and substantially, as the Apostle also says: "In whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col 2). "Because of the blessing of the breasts and the womb." This too is reported in the Gospel that a certain woman cried out, doubtless mindful of these things, and said: "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked" (Lk 11). That phrase, he says, "Because of the blessing of your father and your mother": of the heavenly Father, who gave the blessing, and of the virgin mother, who received it. "He prevailed in the blessings of the everlasting mountains.

This blessing, he says, which was given to you from the highest heaven and the earth, prevailed over the blessings of the enduring mountains and the blessings of the eternal hills. What are the enduring mountains? Surely those to whom Jesus says, "You are the ones who have remained with me in my temptations" (Luke 22). Rightly, then, are the Apostles called enduring mountains, because they remained to the end, and they themselves will be saved. But what do we understand the eternal hills to be, other than those who are brought to the second rank of the Apostles' merit, and who attain eternal life? For far more truly will these be believed to be eternal than the mountains and hills that perish together with the world. But all these blessings will be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of those brothers over whom he presided. Fittingly all these blessings are said to be placed upon the head of Christ, from whose head they come even to the crown of those over whom he presides. Nor is there any other reason that he received all these blessings when born in the flesh, except that he might in turn pour them out upon believers, as it were diffused into himself through a kind of channel from the Father; and having become the mediator of God and men, the human nature might receive, through his mediation, the blessings which it could already receive in view of its infirmity, with him dispensing and pouring them out beforehand, as he himself also said: "Because I sanctify myself for them" (John 17).

But now that man, who in the third place has been restored for us through spiritual steps and has ascended, increased up to Joseph—who through progress in faith and through the gifts of the Holy Spirit shone so greatly that he grew even to the point of envy—with what flowers of the things said by us shall he be crowned, for whom, having fought so good a fight, finished the course, kept the faith, God the just judge prepares the crown of righteousness laid up (2 Tim. 4)? Concerning him, then, the father says: Joseph is a son increased, a son increased. And who has been so increased as this one, who after these things and after his falls was restored and reinstated through the individual steps of the virtues, so that he reached the highest palm? But because he ascended little by little, therefore he is said to be increased in each one. For first of all he began to be increased through confession in Judah, and again when he cast off the nocturnal works of darkness, he was increased in Zebulun; and again in Issachar he was increased, when the reward of his work was augmented. He was increased in Dan, when he preferred right judgment to his own depraved thoughts. He was increased also in Gad, when, having been tested, he prevailed. He was increased in Asher, when he came to blessedness. Worthily, therefore, even now the son of Joseph is called increased, who already obtains the goods of the age to come. But also what is said, the son of Zelatus, means this: that he is to be imitated by the good, but pursued by the wicked with envy and calumnies.

But the Apostle also designates both this honor and evil zeal, when he says of the evil zeal of the Jews, "They are zealous for you, but not well" (Gal. 4). And of good zeal he says of himself, "I am zealous for you with the zeal of God" (1 Cor. 11). But he is called the younger son—and why should he not be called the younger, who has put off the old man with his deeds, who has risen with Christ, and walks in newness of life? But he too is to be named a son in the third place: for his first birth was according to the flesh; the second from conversion, or through baptism; the third is also this, which is itself called regeneration, that is, the resurrection from the dead: for already he seems to me to be set as a son such as the blessed shall be. Therefore it is said to him next by the father, "Return to me." For after the resurrection all who have been set before by God return: but the judgment also of Holy Scripture is, "Praise no one before death" (Eccl. 11). And therefore it seems to me rather that this great blessedness belongs to none but him who has already risen from death after death. But what he says, "Against whom, taking counsel, they cursed": they do not curse, but they were cursing, when you in this world, placed in the flesh, were being tried. And they were aiming the ambushes of their bows (Ps. 10). Those, surely, who sit in ambush, that they may shoot in darkness at the upright in heart. But they were crushed with the power of their bow, with the power of Jacob.

He crushes the bows of the enemies—the one who not only receives no arrow of the devil into himself, but also defends others from his darts and wounds. And the sinews of the arms of their hands are dissolved, through the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, since the one who was mighty in Jacob and helped him in the struggle, who strengthened Israel so as to make him see God with the mind, also helped this one and blessed him with the blessing of heaven from above, and with the blessing of the earth that has all things. For he has received not only, as one meek, the inheritance of the earth, but also, as one poor in spirit, he obtains the kingdoms of heaven. But that earth which has all things is Christ, which the righteous one receives as an inheritance, and says to the Lord: My portion in the land of the living. But what is the cause for which he merited to obtain these things? Because of the blessing, he says, of the breasts and of the womb. Of which womb is the blessing, or of whose breasts? Perhaps of that womb which Paul indicates, saying: My little children, for whom I am again in labor. Hence it is evident that the apostolic womb is that which not only gives birth to sons, but also, if perhaps they have turned aside from the truth, takes them up again and gives birth to them a second time. From this womb, therefore, every righteous one is either born, or, if he is already perfect, he both begets sons and nonetheless sucks the apostolic breasts, or even offers them to those who suck, concerning which the Apostle was saying: I gave you milk to drink, not solid food.

and he added, so that he might express the apostolic breasts more distinctly: But I was among you as a nurse cherishes her children (1 Thess. 2). Therefore the perfection of blessing comes to each righteous man because of the womb and the apostolic breasts. And because of the blessing, he says, of your father and your mother. The Father of the perfect is Christ, as he himself also said: Little children, yet a little while with you (John 13); and the mother is the Church. Which blessing prevailed in the blessings of the everlasting mountains and eternal hills, that is, of those who pursue knowledge and works sublime and lofty. These blessings, he says, will be on the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of those brothers whom he led. Not only, he says, is the head of the righteous man, which is Christ, blessed, but also the crown of those whom he led: for those who conduct themselves rightly and establish themselves flourishingly also benefit the faithful, as the Apostle said: By doing these things, you will save both yourself and those who hear you (1 Tim. 4).

BLESSING OF BENJAMIN

Benjamin, a ravenous wolf, in the morning he will eat, and in the evening he will divide the food. I would like the advocates of this historical narrative to tell me what in Benjamin himself was characteristic of a ravenous wolf, or how in the morning and in the evening he divides food. But in these matters even the Jews themselves, thick of heart, shrink from the violence of the letter, and some refer what has been written to the gluttony of the altar, as though stationed in Benjamin's portion—namely, that the things which are offered in the morning are divided by the priests in the evening. Others, by other and various accounts—fabulous, to be sure—nevertheless admit that by these things the literal sequence cannot stand.

In the Church, however, among very many this opinion is held, that what has been written may be seen to refer to the Apostle Paul. This indeed we neither shrink from nor reject, but we try to do as it is written: The wise man, hearing a word, will praise it and add to it. And so we also, to those things which have been rightly said of Paul by those before us and which we do not deny, add these as well. Benjamin, it says, is interpreted as son of pain: by the lot of inheritance he received that place in which the earthly Jerusalem, having the type and form of that heavenly Jerusalem, was established. When, therefore, to be made manifest | Ant.

of the heavenly Jerusalem, and of the church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, the time has come, this Jerusalem which has now been cast off and rejected because of unbelief, together with her children, having endured for a long time the famine of the word of God and a spiritual thirst, when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, according to the Apostle's promise. Then all Israel will be saved, which is now designated under the person of Benjamin. Therefore Benjamin, the last son, obtains the last blessing, because he too is to be saved last. And he is called a ravenous wolf; he is called a wolf because of greed: for he comes with much famine of the word of God and hunger. Ravenous, because he too violently seizes the kingdom of God. In the morning he will eat: I think that morning is still that time to be remembered in which he received the law; for then a certain illumination of knowledge was first given to the world, from which the beginning of the day of knowledge must be believed to have begun. He eats, therefore, still in the morning the food which he had received in the morning: he eats still, and meditates, following the law of righteousness, and has not yet arrived at the law. In the evening he divides the food. This evening is that final time in which he is converted, just as for us that time of our conversion is called evening, in which we now are. Then, therefore, he divides the food: for then he understands that in the law the letter must be divided from the spirit, and then he knows that the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

Therefore, since he has now been enlightened by the grace of the Lord and begins in the law to separate and distinguish spiritual things from bodily things, it is for this reason that he is said to divide the prey toward evening, which, meditating in the law all day long, he did not do before.

The third sense is almost beyond us in this place, because that man of ours, who was created according to God, who first in Reuben, Simeon, and Levi wandered through the threefold motions of the soul; who in Judah, once his error was recognized, confesses and repents; who in Zebulun strips off the old man with his deeds; who in Issachar also awaits the reward of good works; in Dan receives the grace of judging and separating good from evil, and of discerning thoughts and spirits; who in Gad is even found approved in temptations; in Asher also divides food for the princes, that is, sets the delicacies of wisdom before each of the prefects; in Naphtali has already received the sacraments either of the vine or of the tree; in Joseph, arriving at perfection and the highest point, already holds the glory of the world to come and of the resurrection—what then remains for him in Benjamin, and after he has, like a hungry and ravenous wolf, seized the kingdom of heaven and invaded those things which he had read in the Law and the Prophets and the Gospels, of which he had knowledge in part here (for even the Apostle Paul says that he has it in part), and, placed in the world as in the morning, was eating, since he would live not on bread alone but also on every word of God—these things he, placed there in the kingdom, now beholds all things not through a mirror in an enigma but face to face, and divides and discerns, and there at last understands those things which were written in the Holy Scriptures for the present state of life, which the glory

For it recognizes more fully by its own skill which things they prefigured concerning the kingdom to come; which things were spoken on account of the inner man and which on account of the outer man; which things in these very matters that we are now examining step by step preserve the truth of history; which things contain only a sacrament; and which things ought to be expounded according to the ethnic and moral interpretation of Scripture. But if we, poor in knowledge and still placed in the flesh, have been able to explain these things less worthily, you will grant pardon; for it is your excessive charity that makes us dare to come forth in public with our own ignorance. And if I did not obey you in this, it would be a very great fault on my part.