Bede

And they kept the feast of booths, etc. The Feast of Booths, which in the Gospel is called in Greek Skenopegia, that is, the pitching of booths, was a festival of seven days, beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, during which the Lord commanded all the people to make booths for themselves from leaves and branches of the most beautiful trees, and to leave their houses and stay in these booths for seven days, daily studying the decrees of the divine law, and offering burnt sacrifices to the Lord in fire. They were ordered to do all this in memory of the time when they had once come out of Egypt and dwelt in booths in the wilderness, with Moses preaching the law and the divine presence frequently appearing to them, looking forward for a long time to when they could enter the promised land, so that the grace of this great benefit would never fade from their minds. Therefore, those who had come up from Babylon to Jerusalem, with great devotion to carry out all the commands of the Lord, took care to celebrate this feast on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, performing every day of that week the things commanded by the law. All of which we ought to do spiritually with equal devotion. For we too have come out of Egyptian slavery through the blood of the Lamb, so that we might come to the promised land, having been baptized into the sacraments of the Lord’s passion, casting off the heavy yoke of trespasses, so that, having been adopted into the liberty of the glory of the children of God, we might be heirs of the heavenly kingdom. For we were dwelling in booths and tents, journeying for a long time through the desert, until we might come to our homeland, when in baptism renouncing not only Satan as the king of Egypt, that is, of darkness, but also all the pomps and works of this age, we promised to be like foreigners and pilgrims in this world, citizens of another life which we hoped for from the Lord. In memory of this hope and promise, we must dwell in booths in the seventh month, that is, being illuminated by the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is described as sevenfold, leaving this world with our whole mind as if it were alien and pressing on us, and fixing our intention on hastening to the unwithering joys of paradise; and we must do this for seven days, that is, during the whole time of the present life, which is circled by as many days, without ceasing, and every day of this week we must make a burnt offering and the work of the day in its day; a burnt offering, that is, a whole burnt sacrifice in things that properly pertain to divine service, such as prayers and fasts. And the work of the day in its day, in those things that pertain to the service of fraternal love; such as giving bread to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing to the cold, hospitality to the traveler, visitation to the sick, burial to the dead, teaching to the wandering, and comfort to the grieving. And it is well that he said they should make a burnt offering on each day according to the command of the law, and the work of the day in its day, he interposed, In order; because whatever is done in the service of divine or fraternal love out of order, loses the merit of its perfection. For "the honor of the king loves judgment" (Psalm 99); for whatever we do devoutly in honor of the highest king, it is necessary to distinguish with the discretion of judgment when or how much it should be done; lest if we do our proper work disorderly, we spoil the rule of its correctness. Paul implied these mystical feasts of booths, that is Skenopegia, when he was preaching and occupied in the work of tentmaking (Acts 28). For he was making tents, that is, booths, both to teach himself to be an inhabitant of the world and a pilgrim, and to teach those he instructed to be pilgrims in this life and hope for a future homeland. For we are accustomed to use booths and tents when traveling or making a journey; which the same Apostle testifies that the saints do in this life, when he says: "While we are in this body, we are pilgrims away from the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5). And to the Hebrews: "For we do not have here a lasting city, but we seek the future one" (Hebrews 13). Since he wanted those who perfectly alienate their minds from the world and faithfully confess themselves as citizens of the homeland which is above, to immediately open the entry to all virtues, it is rightly added:

And after these things, the daily burnt offering, etc. He calls it the daily burnt offering, which was offered in the morning and evening. Moreover, he calls the Kalends the beginnings of the months, that is, the rising of the new moon; from which the Hebrews always began their months, as they had no months except the lunar ones. Hence the Greeks, instead of Kalends, better call them "neomenias," which means "new moons." Now, if by the month, because of the thirty days by which they are completed, they designate the fullness of the works of light, when in faith in the Holy Trinity we fulfill the commandments of the Decalogue; what are the beginnings of the months, in which the moon, to shine again for us, is said to be newly lighted by the sun, except that they designate the beginnings of each good work, which through the grace of our Creator, we perceive as if by the presence of the Sun of Righteousness? Because of this symbolism of divine illumination, without which we can neither begin nor complete anything good, the Lord commanded all Kalends, that is, the beginnings of the months, to be celebrated and the ceremonies of sacrifices to be observed. This is why the Psalmist says: Blow the trumpet at the new moon, on our solemn feast day (Psalm 81). Which is openly to say: Rejoice, ye righteous, in the Lord, and in the word of doctrine sounding to your neighbors; as soon as you consider yourselves to be regarded by Him in order to do good deeds in the notable light of internal inspiration; by which you are called away from the desire of this world, and are more deeply dedicated to divine matters. Well then, it is said that after the feast of tabernacles was completed, the children of the exiles made the daily burnt offering, both on the Kalends and on all the Lord's consecrated solemnities, and in all where a gift was voluntarily offered to God. Because after the mind has once perfectly renounced this world, it must constantly devote itself entirely to the service of the divine will, which we have said the burnt offering was to designate; and this it should do both in the initiation of each good work and in the devout execution of those virtues which the Lord has commanded, as well as in those in which a pious mind, apart from general commands, delights to spontaneously serve the Lord. About which the Lord Himself, giving counsel rather than commanding, says: If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have (Matt. 19). And when He was disputing about taking a wife, He said not by commanding but by advising: He who can accept this, let him accept it (Matt. 19). But Paul too, boasting about these things which he offered to the Lord as a spontaneous gift, says: Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife (1 Cor. 9)? and so forth, in the same place.

From the first day of the seventh month they began the burnt offering, etc. It has often been said that the seventh month designates the sevenfold illumination of spiritual grace. Hence it is well said now: Because from the first day of the seventh month they began to offer a burnt offering to the Lord, since indeed from the very beginning of divine inspiration, it is necessary that the human conscience be transformed, and disregarding lower pleasures, it must burn with thoughts only of the Lord's matters. From the first day of the seventh month, that is, from the first illustration of heavenly grace, they were offering the burnt offerings of virtues to the Lord, who, with the Holy Spirit coming upon them in fiery tongues, immediately, as if changed from what they had been, began to burn with new flames of intimate love, and to proclaim the great works of God with the tongues of all nations; and they are so dedicated to this burnt offering, or rather they themselves are made a burnt offering, that it would be easier to be killed by those who thought oppositely than to be turned from their intention. Hence deservedly the same seventh month is called the new year among the Hebrews; indicating to us by its name that through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the faithful are given the power to fulfill the new commandment of mutual love, and to resound the new song of heavenly praise in the building of the house of the Lord. About whose observance of this month the Lord thus mystically commanded: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you will have a sabbath memorial, with trumpets sounding, and it will be called holy; you will not do any servile work on it, and you will offer a burnt offering to the Lord (Leviticus 23). Indeed, a sabbath memorial, that is, the first day of this month will be a rest, when the mind inflamed divinely, abstains from temporal allurements and strives to contemplate the will of God. The priests blow trumpets when the faithful strive to preach to the neighbors that fervor of internal sweetness which they have begun. No servile work is done on such a sabbath when the mind, as much as it can in this life, keeps itself free from every pleasure and contagion of sin to please God; for servile work is sin. Because whoever commits sin is the servant of sin (John 8). And therefore rightly a burnt offering is offered to the Lord on the same sabbath, because indeed he is truly rendered free from the service of sin whose whole heart is inflamed with the fire of love. However, it must be noted, according to the letter, that in the seventh month, the people having been gathered in Jerusalem and everyone there gathered, Joshua and Zerubbabel with their brothers are said to have built an altar, and from the first day of that same seventh month to have offered a burnt offering to the Lord. From which it is inferred that this altar was made with rather quick work from unpolished stones and not as formerly made of wood and covered with bronze plates. For otherwise, even with the crowd of builders in full force, it could not have been completed and prepared for offering a burnt offering on the same day on which it was begun. For it is also proven in the book of Maccabees that it was made of stones, where it is mentioned to have been profaned by the Gentiles and after six years to have been renewed by Judas Maccabeus (1 Maccabees 4). And, it says, they took whole stones according to the law, and built a new altar according to the one that had been before. It should also be noted that the beginning of the fifth age of the world, just as the four preceding ones, is consecrated by burnt offerings offered to the Lord. For in the first age, blessed protomartyr Abel, first of all the elect, offered burnt offerings to God from the firstlings of his flock and of their fat, dedicating the entrance of the nascent world, both with the offerings of the firstlings of beasts and ultimately with his own blood. The beginning of the second age was consecrated by Noah, offering burnt offerings to God from all clean beings contained in the ark. The third age was consecrated by Melchizedek, priest of the Most High God, and by Abraham the patriarch, this one with bread and wine, the other with his own son offered to God, consecrating its very beginning by erecting an altar and calling upon His name when he came into the Promised Land. King David consecrated the fourth age to the Lord by building an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite and offering burnt offerings to God, by which he sought to appease His wrath, which he had incurred by numbering the people (2 Samuel 24). In that place also, it is said that Abraham once offered his son; and later, with the temple built by Solomon, the altar of burnt offerings is established there. The beginning of the fifth age is now consecrated by Joshua, the son of Jozadak, the great priest, and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, by building an altar in the same place and offering burnt offerings to God as soon as they returned to Jerusalem after a long captivity was broken, and thereafter they took care to placate the Lord daily with constant burnt offerings. All these occurrences prefigured Him who was to come in the sixth age in the flesh and was to redeem the whole world with the offering of the same of His flesh and blood. Therefore, after building the altar and offering burnt offerings to God, the Scripture continues, saying:

Furthermore, the temple of God was not yet founded. The foundation of the temple of God typifies those who have recently converted to the faith, preparing a place and dwelling for the Lord in their heart and body, as the Apostle says: "Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you?" (1 Corinthians 6). And again: "that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith" (1 Corinthians 6). Thus, those who had been liberated from captivity and came to Jerusalem intended to build the temple, which they later indeed accomplished; but first, by building the altar, they commended themselves to the Lord through daily burnt offerings, so that they might thereby become more purified and worthy to approach the building of the temple. Similarly, in spiritual edification, it is always necessary that anyone who has decided to teach others should first teach himself; whoever intends to instruct his neighbor in the fear or love of God should first make himself worthy of the teacher's office by serving God more devotedly, so that he does not hear from the Apostle: "You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach not to steal, do you steal?" (Romans 2). Hence, the Apostle says about himself: "I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, so that after preaching to others, I myself should not become disqualified" (1 Corinthians 9). For this reason, it is fitting that the sons of the dispersion are found to have offered no other sacrifices or victims than burnt offerings, that is, entirely consumed offerings, to God: for it is necessary that anyone who, by living well and even abstaining from lawful things, gives himself wholly to his Creator, who, by teaching, wishes to restrain others from unlawful acts, should, by the merit of good action, obtain abundant divine assistance in preaching, and also more effectively urge his listeners to follow what he teaches by his example of good deeds. It can also be mystically interpreted that, having built the altar, they offer burnt offerings to God, but do not yet build the temple, those who recently converted to the Lord, as soon as they recognized His faith, burn with such love for Him wholeheartedly that they may already be counted among the perfect, even if they have not yet received the time or ability to accomplish and perfect the good things they desire to do. Blessed Abraham offered this kind of burnt offering to the Lord, even if the temple was not yet built, when he was already perfect in faith and before he carried out the acts of faith, as Scripture says: "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness" (Genesis 19). When therefore he added the fullness of good works to his perfect faith, offering Isaac his son on the altar, as if the temple had also been built, he offered more perfect burnt offerings to God; for indeed, each act or step of pious devotion is like an order of polished stones with which we construct in our heart a beloved house and dwelling place for God. However, how the sons of the dispersion, after building the altar and offering burnt offerings to God, came to build the temple is subsequently shown.

However, they gave money to the stonecutters and the builders, etc. The stonecutters are hewers of stones. Hence it is written in the book of Chronicles: And David commanded that all proselytes from the land of Israel be assembled, and appointed some of them as stonecutters to cut stones (II Chron. XXXII). Builders are those who make cement for binding stones from gypsum or lime. Hence another translation for stonecutters and builders is hewers of stones and craftsmen. Therefore, note the pious ingenuity of the people, that sparing no expense, from what was necessary for them, and from what they lived on, they either bought materials for the building of the temple or hired workers. Joppa, however, is a maritime city of Palestine, about forty miles from Jerusalem. But Sidon and Tyre were the most noble cities of Phoenicia, having Mount Lebanon nearby. Hence, the children of the exile, obtaining their aid, asked for cedar wood to be cut for them from Lebanon and transported by rafts through the sea to Joppa, from where they could again carry it by land to Jerusalem for the work of the temple, which is established to have been done in the same order at the first construction of the temple. And because Solomon, with royal power, obtained whatever he desired from his friend King Hiram without any labor. But now exiles, returning home after many years, since they did not have the power of the kingdom, obtained all that the desired work required by means of payment. In a spiritual sense, the stonecutters in the building of the house of God are those who, by teaching or reproving, shape the hearts of their neighbors; whom, when they teach to stand steadfast among the partakers of the same grace, they fit them as hewing stones to be neatly joined. For as a square, whichever way you turn it, it will stand. And the mind of the elect, while it remains unmoved among all the adversities or prosperities of the world, demonstrates that it possesses the form of invincible virtue. In this sense, it is also described that Noah's ark was made of squared timbers (Gen. VI). For the same Church, which the temple made of stone signifies, also the ark made of timbers represented. The same was also shown by the tabernacle composed of boards and curtains (Exod. XXXVI). Builders, however, are in the house of the Lord, the same holy preachers who, while they bind those whom they instruct with good works in the bond of charity to each other, they join with the infusion of cement, saying: Be prudent and watchful in prayers, above all having unfailing mutual charity among yourselves (I Pet. IV). And the apostle Paul, commanding us to have the bowels of mercy, kindness, humility, modesty, patience, and the like, immediately added: But above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfection (Col. III). But also the Sidonians and Tyrians, who cut the cedar wood from Lebanon for the temple structure, figuratively denote the same holy preachers, who cut down the men once elevated and shining in the glory of this world with the axe of God's word from the state of their former conversation so that, having them prostrated salutarily, and as if dried out from the corruptive moisture of innate senses, they correct them from all vice's tortuosity and raise them loftily for the ornament or defense of the holy Church. Concerning this, it is said in the Psalm titled, At the completion of the tabernacle: The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars (Ps. XXVIII). For the voice of the Lord breaks the cedars that the tabernacle may be completed when the hearts of the proud are humbled by divine inspiration, so that, with them also corrected, the number of the holy Church may be perfected. Hence, the Sidonians are interpreted as hunters, the Tyrians as constrained. For the holy preachers are hunters, capturing the wandering and errant senses of the wicked with the nets of faith to subjugate them to Christ, as He says: Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men (Matt. IV). They are also constrained because they have tribulation in the world, yet confident because the Lord has overcome the world (John XVI). Therefore, stonecutters and builders, preparing stones and cement; Sidonians and Tyrians, bringing cedar wood from Lebanon to the temple work, suggest holy preachers, who instruct the minds of their listeners to the fellowship of the Church by teaching. The princes of the fathers, namely Joshua and Zerubbabel and their brothers, give money to the same stonecutters and builders so that they might be more eager to work when those who have preceded the teachers of the word in time, merit, and learning, by Christ's authority either propose examples of their virtues or grant the pages of the divine scriptures, whose exhortations or promises fortify, so that they may not weary in the heavenly labor. They also give to the Sidonians and Tyrians food, drink, and oil, that they might bring the cedar wood from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa when they recommend spiritual gifts, among the greatest of which is charity, to be emulated by the same teachers to make them capable of preaching (II Cor. XII). Or certainly when our Lord, whom we also taught to be designated by Joshua and Zerubbabel, distributes spiritual gifts to the ministers of His word, by which illuminated inwardly, they may become stronger to combat by preaching the pride of the arrogant and the foolish wisdom. For it does not need to be taught how food, drink, and oil signify the internal nourishment of our mind, who says well that of the Psalmist singing to the Lord: You have prepared a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me. You have anointed my head with oil, and my cup inebriating, how splendid it is (Ps. XXII). Therefore, money is given to the stonecutters and builders, food, drink, and oil are given to the hewers of wood, so that they might prepare materials for the building of the house of the Lord when the abundance of virtues is divinely bestowed on the preachers of truth, by which assisted, they may suffice to correct the perverse hearts and fit them for the reception of heavenly goods. They bring the cut wood to the sea, not to be submerged in it, but to be carried through it to Joppa, which means beauty; when the same teachers announce to their listeners called to faith, the temptations of the world will occur to them but can be overcome by faith, so that first, either the waves of vices or of wicked men must be endured and thus they may reach the most beautiful fortifications and port of virtues. We can also understand that the wood intended for the temple building is carried through the sea to Joppa so that we renounce the devil, who is called by the prophet the dragon, king of all that are in the waters, that is, of the wicked, whose conversation is not in heaven but in the perturbations of the fluctuating sea of the world. We renounce all his pomps and works, and then we come to the beauty of the faith, by which we confess the Holy Trinity, one and true God, the dispensation of the Lord’s incarnation, the unity of the holy Church, the remission of sins, and the resurrection of the flesh. Therefore, rightly in this city Peter raised Tabitha, a woman devout to God, from the dead (Acts IX); because certainly in the perfection of this faith, and generally the whole Church is raised from the death of sins through baptism; and when after baptism we again fall into the death of sin, we must revive through that same faith by repenting and be returned through the reconciliation of the priests of the Church again to the assembly of the faithful.

In the second year of their coming, etc. He says they came to the temple of God, not because they found it already built, since it was foretold that it had not yet been founded; but it is said that they came to the temple of God, to the place of the temple of God, to the work they desired to rebuild as a temple. Modern Jews are mistaken, who are accustomed to say that the walls of the temple were never overthrown, but only the roof by the Chaldeans; since Ezra clearly writes that the children of the captivity made the temple from its foundations. However, when it is said above that they came to Jerusalem in the seventh month, and here it is added that in the second year of their coming, in the second month, they began the work of the temple; it is clear indeed that in seven months they prepared stones, cement, wood, and other necessary works; and at the beginning of the eighth month they began to apply themselves eagerly to the desired work. For six months were of the first year and the seventh of the following; which, indeed, anyone learned can easily find was done in a great mystery. For the seven pertain to the sabbath, in which the Lord either rested from all His works after creating the world or rested in the tomb after redeeming the world through His passion. The eight pertain to the first of the sabbath, in which He Himself rose from the dead. The seven refer to our hope of a sabbath after death. The eight look forward to the joy of our eternal blessedness after the resurrection. Therefore, because the work of all the elect, who are the temple and house of God, is begun and perfected by the grace of the Holy Spirit and is carried out with every regard and intention of future rest and immortality; it is rightly considered that those who search out the temple, having offered holocausts to God from the seventh month, began to prepare the expenses for building, and, with the preparations made in seven months, commenced the work itself in the eighth. Neither is any other number found at all in the preparation of such a great work than that which symbolically denotes either the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit, by which we are assisted while working, or the rest of souls, or the resurrection of bodies, which we, hoping well, work for. Moreover, what the time of forty-six years signifies, in which the temple was built, as also the scripture of the Gospel testifies, is explained in its own place. However, the great devotion of that entire people is shown to us as well to be diligently imitated, since not only the elders, namely Zerubbabel and Joshua, and the remaining priests and Levites, but also all who came from captivity to Jerusalem from the greatest to the least, appointed Levites to hasten the work of the Lord. For they rejoiced to have returned from Babylonian captivity to Jerusalem; and as much as they had loathed the idols and wickedness of the proud city they had escaped, they desired to see the beauty of the city consecrated to the Lord, to which they had merited to come. As much as they abominated the temples of idols, among which they had long been present, they desired the temple of their Creator, which they mourned to be destroyed and from which they had been exiled as captives for so long, to be quickly restored. In the same order, even now, not only bishops and priests but also the congregation of the faithful, that is, the house of God, should diligently teach and appoint those teachers who diligently fulfill the holy work of the Word by counseling. Also, the people themselves, called from the captivity of vices to the vision of true peace, should demand the ministry of the Word from those who know how to impart it. These ministers of the word, that is, Levites, are said to be appointed from twenty years old and above; because it is fitting that those who are presented to preach the word of God to the people should not only show the example of the law by work in action but also keep it undefiled in the purity and integrity of heart before their Creator. Nor should there be any doubt that the state of the Church will take prosperous progress where both the prelates rightly keep their grade by regularly appointing teachers of truth to the people who will instruct them, and the people compel the appointed teachers, by diligently listening and obeying their teachings, not to cease from speaking. But alas, alas! the negligence of our times offends both the greater and the lesser, hindering them, the former from preaching the word, the latter from hearing it, and both from doing it, because we consider less diligently either how great the bitterness of the demonic captivity from which we are rescued is, or how great the solemnity to which we are called, the heavenly Jerusalem, the mother of us all, of which we have already received a pledge in the present Church. Let us, however, consider the excellent works of the Fathers, that we may the more be confounded by our own smallness in action. It follows:

And Joshua stood and his sons, etc. In this place, Joshua does not refer to the son of Josedek, the high priest, but to one of the Levites, of whom it had been foretold that they would be appointed from twenty years old and above to attend to the work of the Lord, among whom were also Kadmiel and the sons of Henadad, who were recorded as having taken heed of the same work, along with their sons and brothers; indeed, earlier in the catalogue of the people of Israel, these, after the priests, are the first Levites mentioned by name. "The Levites," he says, "the sons of Joshua, and Kadmiel of the sons of Hodaviah, seventy-four" (Ezra 2). From both passages it can be gathered that they were chiefs and patriarchs of the Levites of that time. Here, the sons of Judah are rightly interspersed among the Levites, who together took care in restoring the temple of the Lord; and these, on account of the same agreement in piety, are remembered as having stood as one. For this is the order of virtue previously mentioned, always to be imitated by us, that each person in their own way may build up the holy Church, all the ranks dedicated to God, and the devotion of the entire people. And it is to be noted and more frequently remembered how much good was bestowed upon the people by the evil of captivity; from which being freed, they are all shown to have given such great attention to heavenly services as never before. But even today, it has benefited many who had lived negligently in the peace of the Church to suddenly err and fall into some sins, while after their fall, being lifted up by penance, they began to serve the Lord more diligently; and those who seemed sluggish and slothful in standing innocent, when reminded by their accidental fall, girded themselves more vigorously for their own protection against all the snares of the ancient enemy; so that those who had previously offended by neglecting their own life, afterwards even cared for the safety of their brothers along with their own rise. Therefore, all the people returning from Babylon to Jerusalem took care for restoring the temple, but especially the Levites and the sons of Judah, namely because of the priestly and royal dignity of the holy Church. For the royal and especially the priestly tribe builds the temple; because undoubtedly all those who form the hearts of the faithful, either by teaching or by good living, belong to the body of the eternal king and priest, that is, our Lord and Savior. Hence, even the leaders of the work, Jesus from the priestly tribe and Zerubbabel from the royal tribe, took their origin from both tribes.

So, with the foundation of the temple of the Lord laid by the masons, etc., great devotion of all persons is shown. With the foundation of the temple of the Lord laid, both priests and Levites and all the people, according to their respective statuses, praised the mercy of the Lord. The priests, indeed, adorned with holy garments as they were accustomed while the temple still stood, sounding the trumpets and stirring the hearts of the people to the sweetness of the heavenly praise; the Levites, strumming well on cymbals, singing hymns to the Lord; and the people, exhibiting their hearts' affection in common clamor in praising the Lord. The Levites also praised the Lord by the hand of David, either on the instruments which he made or the psalms which he established, or because David, in the placing of the ark, appointed Asaph and his brethren to give thanks to the Lord, as the words of the days testify, concerning whom it is again said: "Because his sons were under his hand, prophesying according to the king." (1 Chronicles VI). Rightly, also in this place, when the sons of Asaph praised and gave thanks to the Lord by the hand of David, that is, they are to be understood to have done this according to his arrangement. According to the mystical sense, indeed, with the temple of the Lord founded by masons, the priests stand in their attire with trumpets, when converted sinners from the error of sins, and with faith and love of Christ established in their hearts, all who hear the masters of the churches rejoice. They themselves, moreover, decorating themselves more diligently with good works, sound the trumpets of saving doctrine, so that both by the example of virtues and by the exhortation of sermons, they might aid the good beginnings of those who either recently by repenting have come to the grace of Christ or have recently taught others to turn to the grace of Christ. The Levites also stand to praise God with cymbals when even ministers of the second order serve their Creator with pious deeds for the instruction of neophytes, and this in the mutual sweetness of charity. For cymbals, which strike each other to sound, most fittingly express the works of charity, with which the holy ones excite each other to the praise of their author. They also praise Him through the hand of David, the King of Israel, when they diligently consider and strive as much as they can to imitate the works that the Lord and Savior carried out in the flesh.

Many also of the priests and Levites, etc., who had seen the first temple founded, and this temple before their eyes, were emitting voices partly of weeping, partly of joy. Joy indeed, because the temple of the Lord, which had been destroyed, had now begun to be restored. Weeping, however, because they were grieving, seeing how much the wall that had begun at that time differed from the most magnificent power of Solomon, by which the first temple was founded. They rejoiced greatly because, having been freed from captivity, they had received the ability to rebuild the temple. But they wept with a loud voice, because they knew that the first temple had been destroyed due to their own crimes, whose greatness nor glory they were able to match at all. For the prophet was saying: "Great will be the glory of this last house of the Lord, more than the first" (Haggai 2), because it pertains to a greater matter, not to the magnitude or ornament of the house; because it was a greater miracle and a more evident display of divine power that a few remnants of captives, even with enemies resisting, were able to complete such a work, than that the most opulent king, having no adversary at all, indeed having the most powerful and wealthy king of Tyre as a helper, did this with the most learned craftsmen as he desired. Also, the glory of that last house will be greater than the first; because in the former house, the devotees of the Old Testament proclaimed to the people the writings of the law and the prophets. In the second, however, Christ and the apostles evangelized the grace of the New Testament and the entrance of the heavenly kingdom. But even in the rebuilding of the spiritual temple, both weeping and joy are born among the leaders. For the holy teachers rejoice in the salvation of the penitent; they mourn because they have ever committed sins to be repented of, and have not always persisted in the will of their Creator. Those who have risen from the death of the soul through repentance rejoice in their salvation; they mourn having ever lost the life of the soul through sin. The neophytes also rejoice that they have been gathered by the grace of their Redeemer; they grieve that they, along with all humankind, perished in the first parent and, as if the temple of God was corrupted by enemies, were transferred to Babylon, that is, the confusion of the present exile, in the state of the immortal body and soul. But because, as the progress of the good increases, so does the envy of the wicked, and there will never be a lack of temptations from the depraved during the growth of the pious, who either by feigning good or openly inflicting evil, try to harm the saints, it is rightly added:

The enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard, etc. The history is known; because it speaks of the Samaritans, the enemies of Judah and Benjamin, whom the king of Assyria transported into their cities and lands from various nations of the ten tribes in captivity. These, after receiving the law of God, partially observed it, while still serving the same idols as before. These people, regarding the true worshipers of God with disdain, promised them help with the work, intending to bring about harm once accepted into partnership. It is clear to anyone that such people figuratively represent false brethren, that is, heretics and bad Catholics. They are enemies of Judah, that is, of confession and praise, which the Church offers to the Lord in the present through true faith and worthy works of faith. They are also enemies of Benjamin, that is, the sons of the right hand, while they segregate those who listen to them from the faithful people’s lot, who are to receive blessing and the eternal kingdom at the right hand of the Judge in the future. Such people say to Zerubbabel and the elders, “Let us build with you, for we seek your God like you do,” as heretics desire the same authority of preaching to be granted to them among Catholics, promising to hold and love the same true faith and actions as them, so that, having gained the power to teach amidst the good seed, from which the Apostle Paul derived the name to be called a ‘seed-speaker,’ that is, a seed-sower, they may intersperse the tares of secret doctrine. Some did this at the Council of Nicaea, who subscribed to the true faith among Catholic fathers with a non-Catholic mind; so that being more familiarly mixed with the faithful, they might more freely build a place for receiving the Arian perfidy. Likewise, Pelagius in the Palestinian Council anathematized his own heresy, by which he most fiercely attacked the grace of God, in confession and writing, not from the heart, lest he be anathematized himself by Catholic priests, and thus lose the place of teaching in the Church and the ability to sow his error. “Behold,” they say, “We offered sacrifices from the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought us here.” You offered sacrifices, but unclean ones because you did not renounce idols. For what fellowship has righteousness with iniquity? Or what communion has light with darkness? What agreement has Christ with Belial? (II Cor. VI). For you have entered the land of the sons of Israel, not introduced by Joshua, not subjected to the rule of Jerusalem, but brought into their land by a perfidious king, an enemy of the people of God, not to serve the Lord in this, but the same adversarial king. Thus, heretics and false Catholics, when they attack the peace of the Church, either by living perversely or also by teaching, are wholly alien to the kingdom of Jerusalem and belong to the lost lot of the Gentiles, whose sins they do not abandon; indeed, to speak more openly, such people, not led by the Lord Jesus but by the devil, of whose figure Esarhaddon king of Assyria held, enter into the borders of the holy Church. For what but the instigation of the devil leads someone to receive the sacraments of the Church, not so that they may sanctify themselves to God for healing, but so that consecrated to God, they may corrupt others out of familiarity, to be condemned more fiercely? Simon the Magician acted this way (Acts VIII), who received baptism in the Church, not out of zeal for his salvation but to know the Church's affairs more surely from proximity; which he demonstrated by his end, for he most severely troubled the Church not as a false brother but as an open enemy. It follows:

Thus, it happened that the people of the land hindered them. He rightly calls those who disrupted the workers of the truth and tried to hinder the work of the Church the people of the land. But the people of Judah, that is, those confessing and glorifying Him who with a whole heart sought to build for the Lord God, sought to convert all minds and mouths they could to doing His will, to seeking His glory. How often have heretics not only in individual cities but also in entire provinces, either by perverse teaching or by hostile violence, impeded the doctrine of true confession, let us not know. For instance, let us remain silent about the teacher of the nations, who, bound for two years in Caesarea due to the persecution by the Jews (Acts 23), had his tongue restrained from the duty of building the house of God. Behold, through the snares of subsequent heretics, blessed Athanasius was exiled from his homeland for many years, Ambrose was besieged in his city, Hilary was relegated to exile, Eusebius suffered martyrdom; many bishops in Africa, having had their tongues cut out, were ejected from their province, others were tormented or killed by various punishments, the house of God, which they had built, was handed over to be profaned by the people of the land, that is, by men seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ; until, at the divinely appointed time, there should again be a supply of wise architects to rebuild that house after the captivity; that is, until the Catholic Fathers were given the ability to restore the Church after the heresies had been discovered and overcome.

But they hired counselors against them, etc. The distinction of the words is noteworthy; because they indeed hired counselors against the builders of the temple with a price given, in order that their plan might be destroyed; yet he does not say that their plan was destroyed, nor that they ceased from their work, until the letter of accusation was written to Artaxerxes, and by his command, as the Scripture says, with arm and strength. For it follows there: Then the work of the house of God in Jerusalem was stopped, and it did not continue until the second year of Darius, king of Persia (I Esdr. IV). Whence it is gathered, that indeed during the whole time of Cyrus, they pursued the work, although more slowly than justly, but upon his death, not being hindered by wicked counsel, they were openly repelled from working. For the enemies did not dare, while Cyrus was still living, who had ordered that work to be done, to openly oppose, although covertly suggesting or counseling, to go against his decrees. The allegorical sense, however, is readily apparent: because heretics, as the opportunity of the time permits, now pursue the Church with the counsel of wicked doctrines, now with the more bitter fight of swords, and sometimes even do not fear to harass it with the support of gentile rulers. For they impede the hands of the people of Judah, when they delay the Church in its weaker members from the works of pious profession. They strive to destroy the plan of working when they also endeavor to divert their spirits from the very intention of good action. They accuse them to kings, when they also seek the protections of earthly rulers against the Church. How much this harms the faith became as clear as light during the time of the Arian perfidy.

In the year of the reign of Ahasuerus... they wrote an accusation, etc. Josephus (Antiquities XI, 2, 3) believes that this Artaxerxes, who received the letter of accusation from the Samaritans and forbade the construction of Jerusalem and the temple, was Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, who, after his father ruled for thirty years, reigned himself for eight years; and after him, the Magi ruled for one year, then Darius, the son of Hystaspes, succeeded to the throne. In his second year, the angel permitted the temple to be built, saying through Zechariah the prophet, interceding for the people: Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry? This is the seventieth year (Zech. I). As for Ahasuerus, to whom it is said the letter of accusation was equally sent, it is perhaps silent on whether he replied or responded because either he died in the same year he began to reign, leaving the rule and these matters to Artaxerxes; or he was indeed contemporary with Artaxerxes but, being of lesser power, allowed him to handle and decide these things more.

This is a copy of the letter, etc. Artaxerxes, who is persuaded, and who, being persuaded, commanded that Jerusalem should not be built, holds the figure either of some pagan ruler, certainly an enemy and persecutor of the Church, or of the ancient enemy of all good things, and adversary of the Jews, who accused the ecclesiastical men before the king: the Samaritans, who accused, always represent heretics. Hence, they call Jerusalem, with suitable expression, a rebellious and wicked city. For such do the heretics judge the Catholic unity which they attack. In truth, however, it is rebellious and constructs its walls and walls of the right faith with the stones of celestial testimonies against the weapons of attacking errors, of which Isaiah says: "And salvation will occupy our walls, and praise your gates" (Isaiah 60). But it should not be called wicked, except only by those who are completely averse from the best opinion. Among which it should be noted that from that time, the people of God began to be counted by the name of the Jews, because those who first ascended from captivity and restored the walls of the city of Jerusalem and the work of the temple, and possessed the province emptied of inhabitants, having again defeated the enemies who held the neighboring places, were chiefly from the tribe of Judah.

Now, therefore, let it be known to the king, etc., thanks be to God, that the enemies of the city of the Lord, which is the Church, confess the truth about that city; for if it were built after captivity and its walls made of living stones, that is, holy souls, raised against the arrogance of this world, the citizens of that city, that is, the people of the elect, will not give further tribute of hateful servitude by sinning to malignant spirits. Rather, the building of piety will harm the princes of the power of this air, as more of those who, through the washing of regeneration, are taken away daily from the kingdom of the devil, having been born into the service of that kingdom due to the guilt of the first transgression; who, by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, no longer pay unjust tribute to the enemy, but justly offer proper tribute of due servitude to their Creator, and return to the giver of gifts, from whom they received, by living well and giving thanks, the annual dues of their firstfruits and tithes, which are done through the beginning and perfection of good works.

We announce to the king, that if that city is built, etc. He names the Euphrates river, within which is Syria. Which rightly indicates the stream of holy baptism, either because it is one of the four rivers which, rising from one source in paradise, irrigate the whole world; indeed in the figure of the four evangelists, who, inspired by the one source of life, that is, the Lord Savior, proclaim with a harmonious voice to all nations the washing of salvation; or because Euphrates is interpreted as fruitful; which name most aptly fits that sacrament by which the world, washed and sanctified, customarily brings forth the fruit of souls thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold to God. Therefore, the king of the Persians, who are interpreted as tempters, seeks possession beyond the river, when the ancient enemy, by stirring up the incursions of temptations, tries to break into the boundaries of the Church, and to subjugate to himself even those who are redeemed by the sacred font. The Samaritans help him, as heretics who attack the Church fight for the kingdom of the devil, and as if they are said to be grieving: Because if that city is built, and its walls restored, through true faith and the religious works of the righteous, he will not be able to have possession and place beyond the river, that is, in the hearts of those who are already reborn to God through baptism. They are also understood who do not understand the true faith, that one and the same mind cannot be possessed by light and darkness, iniquity and justice, Christ and Belial.

The Jews said, “This temple was built in forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” They answered as they understood. But lest we too should perceive our Lord’s spiritual word in a carnal way, the Evangelist subsequently explained what temple it was of which he was speaking. As for their stating that the temple was built in forty-six years, they meant not its first but its second building. For Solomon, the first [builder], finished the temple very rapidly within seven years, during a time of great peace in his kingdom. It was destroyed by the Chaldeans, but after seventy years it began to be rebuilt, at the bidding of Cyrus the Persian, when the captivity was lightened. But the descendants of those who were deported were unable to finish the work that they were doing under the rulers Zerubbabel and Jeshua before forty-six years had passed, on account of the resistance of the neighboring nations.This number [forty-six] of years is also most apt for the perfecting of our Lord’s physical body. Writers on natural history tell us that the form of the human body is completed within this number of days. During the first six days after conception it has a likeness to milk; during the following nine days it is changed into blood; next, in twelve days, it becomes solid; during the remaining eighteen days it is formed into the perfect features of all its members; and after this, during the time remaining until birth, it increases in size. Six plus nine plus twelve plus eighteen makes forty-five. If to this we add one, that is, the day on which the body, divided into its separate members, begins to grow, we find the same number of days in the building up of our Lord’s body as there were years in the construction of the temple.