Enchiridion Veteris Et Novi Testamenti

As the fifth century was ending. Amoenus. Handbook of the Old and New Testament. On the Old Testament. Adam and Eve. Eve was a dove, at first white, then made black, by the serpent’s evil persuasion with venom she stained the innocent one, and with foul spots, Adam. The victor serpent soon gives fig-leaf coverings to the naked. Abel and Cain. God, by a distant nod, values the sacred offerings of the two brothers, accepting the living, and rejecting the earthly: the rustic farmer, out of envy, lays low the shepherd; in Abel the form of the soul is expressed, our flesh in the offering of Cain. Noah’s Ark. As a messenger of the waning flood, the dove brings back to the ark in its beak a branch of green olive: for the raven, caught by its gluttony among foul corpses, had stuck fast; she brought back new joys of peace. Mamre’s Oak. This is the Lord’s lodging, where the leafy oak of Mamre sheltered the herdsman’s aged roof; in that hut Sarah laughed, rejoicing late in offspring for herself, and that her decrepit husband could thus believe himself capable.

MONUMENT OF SARAH. Abraham buys a field, in which to bury his wife's bones, because justice and faith dwell as strangers in the lands: this is that cave bought for thousands, the resting place of the saints where blessed ashes are laid. PHARAOH'S DREAM. Seven ears of grain and as many cows appear to Pharaoh in a dream; they portend, in different forms, a time of plenty and of famine to be purified through two seven-year periods; the patriarch solves this, with Christ as interpreter. JOSEPH RECOGNIZED BY HIS BROTHERS. Sold by his brothers' treachery, the boy himself in turn secretly orders a cup to be hidden in his brother's sack; and when Joseph holds the brothers as guilty of theft, the deceitful sale is revealed, they recognize their brother, and are vainly ashamed. THE FIRE IN THE BUSH. God, flashing with a fiery countenance, speaks from the bush to the young man, who happens then to be the master of the flock; he, commanded, takes the rod; the rod becomes a serpent; he loosens the bonds of his feet; he hastens to Pharaoh's citadel. THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE SEA. The just man undertakes the whole journey, even through the great sea; behold, the Red Sea splits open for the servants of God, while the same sea drowns the raging sinners; Pharaoh is overwhelmed; the free path lies open for Moses.

MOSES RECEIVES THE LAW. The mountain’s peak smokes with divine fires, upon which the page of the rocks, written with ten words, is given to Moses; he, having received the law, returns to his own people, but the form of the calf is their sole god, and the gold their god. MANNA AND QUAILS. The tents of the fathers grow white with angelic loaves; certain faith of the deed: a golden urn holds the preserved manna; another cloud comes to the ungrateful, and a swarm of quails, heaped up, satisfies the greedy for flesh. THE BRAZEN SERPENT IN THE DESERT. The dry path of the desert burned with black serpents, and already the venomous bites through livid wounds were seizing the people, but the prudent leader hung a polished bronze serpent on a cross, which tempers the poison of the snake. THE POOL OF THE DESERT OF AMABUS. A harsh pool, tasted by the thirsty people, held bitter waters with stagnant gall; holy Moses says: “Give wood, cast it into this pool; the bitter flavors will turn into sweet.” TWELVE SPRINGS AND SEVENTY PALM TREES. The men arrived, with Moses as leader, where six springs, and six others besides, watered with glassy dew seventy palm trees ten times over, which the mystic grove of Elim also painted with the apostolic number in books.

TWELVE STONES IN THE JORDAN. Into the backward-flowing stream of the Jordan it is borne, while the dry riverbed, to be trodden by God’s people, is left behind; twelve stones, which the fathers set in the river itself, as witnesses, in the form of the disciples. THE HOUSE OF RAHAB. Jericho fell; only the halls of Rahab stand, a harlot hostess of the holy ones—so great is the power of faith. Safe in her unharmed house, she offers a remarkable token, a scarlet cord, against the hostile fires, as a sign of blood. SAMSON’S LION. Samson, invincible in the strength of his hair, attacks a lion to break it; he kills the beast, but from the lion’s mouth honey flows, and from the jawbone of an ass a spring gushes forth of its own accord: folly overflows with waters, virtue with sweetness. SAMSON’S FOXES. Samson captures three hundred foxes, arms them with fire, ties torches behind their tails, sends them into the fields of the Philistines, and burns the crops; these cunning foxes now scatter the flames of heresies and vices into the fields. DAVID THE SHEPHERD. David was small, the youngest of his brothers, and under the care of Jesse he tended the flock, forming a lyre at his father’s sheepfold; from there he came to the delights of a king; soon he joins terrible wars, and with a whistling sling fells Goliath.

KING DAVID. The splendid insignia of King David shine forth: the scepter, the oil, the horn, the diadem, and the purple, and the altar. All these things are fitting for Christ: the cloak and the crown, the rod of power, the horn of the cross, the altar, the olive branch. THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE. Wisdom builds the temple through the service of Solomon; the queen of the South heaps up heavy gold. The time has come when Christ builds the temple of man beneath the heart, which the barbarian wealth of the worshipping Gaza enriches. THE SONS OF THE PROPHETS. While the sons of the prophets were cutting wood on the riverbank, the double-bladed axe fell, and the iron was submerged in the whirlpool; but soon the light wood, thrown into the pools, made the iron recoverable. THE CAPTIVITY OF ISRAEL. The Hebrew people, captured by frequent sin, had wept over the exile at the rivers of dread Babylon. Then, ordered to sing the ancestral songs, it refuses, and hangs bitter gallnuts on the branches of willows. THE HOUSE OF KING HEZEKIAH. This good Hezekiah merited to extend the prescribed day by fifteen years, and to stretch out the law of dying by as many steps as the evening had covered with water; the sun, turned toward its rising, taught the steps bathed in light.

OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. GABRIEL AND MARY. As God draws near, the high messenger Gabriel descends from the Father’s throne, and suddenly enters the virgin’s chamber: “The Holy Spirit,” he says, “will fill you, Mary; you will bear Christ, sacred virgin.” THE CITY OF BETHLEHEM. Holy Bethlehem is the head of the world, which brought forth Jesus, the beginning of the world, the head itself of beginnings; the city gave birth to the man Christ, who was Christ acting as God before the sun was made, before the morning star existed. THE GIFTS OF THE MAGI. Here the magi bring precious gifts to the Christ child at the virgin’s breast: myrrh, and frankincense, and gold. The mother marvels at such honors of her chaste womb, and that she has given birth to God, to a man, and to the highest king. THE ANGELS TO THE SHEPHERDS. The light of the angelic vision fills the watchful eyes of the shepherds, celebrating Christ born of a virgin. They find him covered with rags, lying in a manger, which was his cradle; they rejoice eagerly and adore the divine power. THE SLAUGHTER OF THE INFANTS IN BETHLEHEM.

The impious enemy Herod rages with countless slaughters of infants, seeking Christ among them. The cradles smoke with the milk-white blood of little ones, and the pious breasts of mothers are wet with warm wounds. CHRIST IS BAPTIZED IN THE JORDAN. He drenches the river, the Baptist fed on locusts and forest herbs, and clothed in a camel-hair garment; he had also baptized Christ, but the Spirit sent from heaven bears witness to the one baptized, who by his baptisms grants forgiveness of sins. THE PINNACLE OF THE TEMPLE. From the destruction of the old temple, the first stone remains standing, for it was built from that stone, and the angel remains until the end of the age, whom the builders despised; now it is the head of the temple, and the joining of the new stones. WINE MADE FROM WATER. They were celebrating the marriage covenant with a festive gathering; by chance the Galilean servants already lacked wine. Christ orders the water vessels to be quickly filled with water, and then the stream of old wine bursts forth. THE POOL OF SILOAM. A widespread medicine for diseases, which the breath of the mouth emits in various forms, hidden in reason, they call Siloam, where the Savior ordered the blind man's eyes, smeared with spittle, to be washed from the fountain.

THE SLAYING OF JOHN. The dancing girl demands the funereal reward of John’s head, which she carries back, severed by the lance, into the incestuous lap of her mother; the royal gift is borne by the female harpist, her hands spattered with the blood of the just. CHRIST WALKS UPON THE SEA. The Lord goes through the midst of the sea, and, treading the flowing waves with his heel, bids the unsteady boat descend for the disciple; but mortal trepidation sinks his feet, yet that one guides his hand and steadies his steps. THE DEMON CAST INTO THE SWINE. The demon had broken the iron bonds in the sepulchral prison: he bursts forth, and rolls himself at the feet of the one who eats; but the Lord claims the man for himself, and commands the enemy to madden the herds of swine and to be plunged through the straits. THE FIVE LOAVES AND TWO FISHES. God broke five loaves and two fishes, and with these he abundantly satisfied five thousand men; let the twelve baskets be filled with the tiniest crumb of a fragment, so great is the abundance of the eternal table. LAZARUS RAISED.

A place notable for its famous deed, Bethany, saw you, Lazarus, returned from the lower world. The tomb, rent and broken open with dew, appears, whence the rotting limbs of the buried man came back. THE FIELD OF BLOOD. The field of Acheldemach, sold as the price of a wicked crime, receives the buried corpse for burial. This is the price of Christ's blood; Judas, wretched, tightens the noose around his neck for so great a crime. THE HOUSE OF CAIAPHAS. The impious house of Caiaphas fell, struck by blasphemy, in which the sacred face of Christ was struck with a slap. This end awaits sinners, whose buried life will lie forever in ruinous tombs. THE COLUMN AT WHICH CHRIST WAS SCOURGED. Bound, the Lord stood in these buildings and, fastened to the columns, gave his back to serve the whips. The venerable column still stands, bears a temple, and teaches us to live immune from all whips. THE PASSION OF THE SAVIOR. Pierced through both sides, Christ pours forth liquid and blood; the blood is victory, the water is a bath. Then two discordant thieves hang on adjacent crosses: one denies God, the other bears the crown.

SEPULCHER OF CHRIST. Rock did not hold Christ, nor the barriers of the tomb; Death lies conquered beneath him, he trod down the abyss. He went at once to the shores above the peoples of the saints, and gave himself to be tested by many by touch and by eyes. MOUNT OF OLIVES. From the summit of the olive-bearing mount, Christ returned to the Father, marking the footprints of peace. From the eternal branches a rich moisture flows, which proves the gift of chrism infused into the lands. PASSION OF STEPHEN. Stephen first enters upon the reward of blood, battered by a shower of stones; yet that bloody man, Christ, between both outrages, purchased the bitter price of sorrow. Now act steadfastly, restore the honor of virtue, and recall yourself to yourself, lest trembling things break you with harm, lest glory perish, lest slippery prosperity destroy you; Use your custom, then become a teacher again, with the spirit of a strong athlete; error does not overwhelm the saints. This hand pursues the enemy more sharply with pain, and a fixed wound is accustomed to arm manly minds, and from a fresh wound virtue grows with shame, and victory is given to the wounded one by repeated wound. Thus the angel speaks with a brotherly address; such is God's care to tear Martin away from a fall. The innocent one did not further mingle with the synod, and from the losses of his virtue he prepared new gains.