TRV
Aurelius Prudentius Clemens
Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500 · 10 passages across 6 books
Commentary
And, behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD spake unto David my father, saying, Thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build an house unto my name.
O leaders, that which Solomon achieved,
The peaceful scion and the unarmed heir
Of a warlike realm, whose father’s weary hand
Was sullied by the ardent blood of kings.
The blood effaced, a temple is upraised
And golden altar, house sublime of Christ.
Jerusalem then by its temple crowned,
Received its God, now that the wandering ark
On the marble altar found repose.
In our camp let a sacred temple rise,
that God may in its sanctuary dwell.
What profits it to have repelled the hosts
Of earthborn vices, if the Son of man
From heaven descending, enter the body cleansed,
But unadorned and not a temple fair?
Thus far we have engaged in fierce conflict
Now let white-vestured Peace perform its tasks,
And youth unarmed build up a sacred house. - "The Spiritual Combat 804-22"
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man:
Left dry when waters backward flowed,
He raised and firmly set in place,
The type of Christ’s apostles twelve.
- "Hymns for Every Day 177.180"
But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.
Our hand’s control, when conquering Achan fell.
Renowned for bloodshed, proud of leveling walls,
He fell a victim to the enemy’s gold
When from the dust he gleaned the stuff accursed
And snatched the mournful plunder from the ruins.
His tribe did not avail, nor his descent
From Judah, founder of the race of Christ
And patriarch blessed in his noble scion.
Let those who imitate his race accept
A similar form of death and punishment.
- "The Spiritual Combat 536.46"
And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.
When he killed the wild beast, from its mouth there flowed streams of honey,
And from an ass’s jawbone comes forth a fountain of water
Folly with water overflows and virtue with sweetness.
Samson catches three hundred foxes and arms them with firebrands,
Which he ties to their tails, and he lets them go into the cornfields
Of the Philistines to burn their crops: thus the fox of false doctrine
Cunningly scatters the flames of heresy over our vineyards.
- "Scenes from Sacred History 17.18"
When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not.
And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,
And they did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets.
When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: