TRV
Bede
Late Patristic · AD 500–800
6,271 passages across 45 books of the Bible · Who was this?
On Proverbs
20 of 653-
Proverbs 1:33
And he will enjoy abundance, etc. Now the abundance of good works, with the fear taken away even of those who kill the body, then the abundance of joys in reward. For how great indeed will the abundance of all good things be there, where the glory of Him, from whom all good things come, may be beheld, with all fear of anything adverse completely taken away!
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Proverbs 1:33
But he who will listen to me, etc. It can be understood both in this life and in the future, because he who serves the Lord perfectly, is not frightened by any adversities, indeed rejoices in adversities, and in the very death rejoices as if entering life, and always bears a heart quiet from superfluous thoughts and the tumult of temptations, with the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which the rest of the seventh day signified mystically in the law. But even when he has passed from this world, not only without the terror of evils, but also in great joy of the hoped-for resurrection, he will rest, like Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham.
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Proverbs 2:1
My son, if you accept my words, etc. He who stores up God's commandments within himself is he who, listening, carefully hides them in his heart, as the one who says: I have hidden your words in my heart, so that I might not sin against you. For it is greatly to be cared for that these should not be taken from us by demons, like the seed, as in the parable of the Gospel, cast by the wayside, which birds take away.
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Proverbs 2:2
Incline your heart to understand prudence. To incline is indeed to humble the heart to understand prudence and to cleanse the heart, to make it worthy to receive the mysteries of truth. Therefore, the same Wisdom, speaking to the Father, says: You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to little children (Matt. XI; Luke X); that is, you have hidden them from the proud, and revealed them to the humble.
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Proverbs 2:2
That your ear may listen to wisdom. For he is proven not to listen to wisdom with his ear, who, receiving the words of God only through the hearing of the body, does not retain them in memory to perform them. Therefore, if you receive God's commandments with a fixed love for learning and keeping them, first hold to the path of humility. For this is what is subsequently added,
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Proverbs 2:3
For if you call out for wisdom, etc. We ought to call upon, that is, to invoke through prayer, none but God. When therefore he teaches that wisdom is to be invoked, he shows beyond doubt, that not just any wisdom, that is, knowledge of heavenly or earthly things, but the very knowledge of the Divine is to be gained by us. For in the perception of this wisdom, the highest perception of blessedness is found, as attested by herself, who, praying to the Father for us, says: And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (John XVII). It should be noted, however, that he advises both to call upon wisdom and to incline our heart to understanding prudence, because it is certainly necessary both to implore divine help in all things, and with the Lord's help, to do the good we are able. For without him we can do nothing, nor again without our effort, however small, should we believe we are to be saved by him.
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Proverbs 2:4
If you seek it like silver, etc. If with so much care you seek wisdom as the covetous seek silver, or certainly if you seek that same wisdom as anxiously as if you were to acquire through it infinite and ineffable riches, you will receive the rewards which are subsequently explained. He who digs for treasures casts out earth, makes a deep pit, diligently persists in laboring until he reaches the treasures he seeks. And he who desires to find the treasures of wisdom should cleanse himself of any earthly matters he finds in himself, cut off carnal enticements, make a pit of humility in himself, and not cease from acting until he knows himself to have found the way of truth.
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Proverbs 2:5
Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, etc. If you seek with a careful heart, you will come to the experience of the loving fear of the Lord, which is not only the beginning but the perfection of heavenly wisdom in this life alone. And thus perfect love does not cast it out (I John IV), but makes it endure forever. And you will find the knowledge of his divinity, which makes perpetually blessed.
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Proverbs 2:6
For the Lord gives wisdom. This verse refers to what was said above: For if you call out for wisdom, and so on, until it says: And you will find the knowledge of God. For wisdom, that is, the Lord, is to be invoked to receive wisdom, because wisdom cannot be possessed by us ourselves, but is given by the Lord. Let Pelagius be silent, refuted by the Apostle who says: For what do you have that you did not receive? (1 Cor. IV). And James the Apostle: If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God (James I).
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Proverbs 2:6
And from his mouth comes wisdom and understanding. In this verse, that ineffable and coeternal wisdom born of God the Father may be understood, of which it is elsewhere said: I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, the firstborn (Eccli. XXIV). The mouth of the Lord can also be understood in his saints, whence it is often said in the prophets, Because the mouth of the Lord has spoken; And from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding, which unless he himself sanctifies the human mouth, unless he graciously makes it his own, no one can speak perfect wisdom.
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Proverbs 2:7
He will guard the salvation of the upright, etc. Virtues are related to each other, righteousness and simplicity, nor can they be separated from each other. Hence, wisdom does not seek one of them without the other; but in whomsoever both are found, these it guards and protects. Finally, of the blessed Job it is said that he was a simple and upright man (Job I): simple, namely, by the innocence of meekness; upright, by the caution of discretion. Simple, because he desired to harm no one, but indeed to benefit all; upright, because he permitted himself to be corrupted by no one.
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Proverbs 2:8
Keeping the paths of justice, etc. The ways of the saints, the general precepts of God; the paths of righteousness, the stricter rules of the heavenly life, which are accessible only to the perfect, it says; wisdom keeps both as to help the upright and the simple in whatever grade of virtues they stand.
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Proverbs 2:11
Counsel will guard you, etc. The evil way, the works of iniquity; the man speaking perversely, he calls the teachers of iniquitous behavior. The evil way, onto which they call those who say, Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood. The perverse speaker, he signifies as the author of this persuasion.
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Proverbs 2:13
Who leave the straight path, etc. Beautifully he has opposed dark ways to the straight path, because indeed the journey of right action is performed in light and leads to the joys of the supreme light. As the Lord says: Everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, so that his deeds may not be exposed (John III). And such a one meets his end in outer darkness.
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Proverbs 2:14
Who rejoice when they have done evil, etc. Therefore, they who do evil rejoice because they walk in dark ways and do not know where they are going. For if they saw that they were heading toward punishments, they would certainly restrain their step and correct their harmful joy with wholesome weeping.
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Proverbs 2:16
To deliver you from the strange woman, etc. This verse depends on what was said earlier, where it was said, Prudence will watch over you. And the meaning is, Prudence will watch over you, to deliver you from the strange woman. Therefore, because previously Solomon admonished his hearer, whom he strives to teach wisdom, not to join thieves or run with them if he sees a thief, but to walk uprightly and simply, he now advises not to share their portion with adulterers. Of whom what was said before, To deliver you from the evil way and from the man who speaks perversely, can also be specifically understood; for what speech is more perverse than to persuade to debauchery? This chapter begins from the place where it says: My son, if you receive my words and hide my commandments with you. However, through the strange woman, the depravity of heretics, alien to the members of Christ and the Church, can be understood, which usually deceives the hearts of the innocent by the softness of persuasion and the blandishments of the tongue. From whence the Psalmist: They have sharpened their tongues l…
To deliver you from the strange woman, etc. This verse depends on what was said earlier, where it was said, Prudence will watch over you. And the meaning is, Prudence will watch over you, to deliver you from the strange woman. Therefore, because previously Solomon admonished his hearer, whom he strives to teach wisdom, not to join thieves or run with them if he sees a thief, but to walk uprightly and simply, he now advises not to share their portion with adulterers. Of whom what was said before, To deliver you from the evil way and from the man who speaks perversely, can also be specifically understood; for what speech is more perverse than to persuade to debauchery? This chapter begins from the place where it says: My son, if you receive my words and hide my commandments with you. However, through the strange woman, the depravity of heretics, alien to the members of Christ and the Church, can be understood, which usually deceives the hearts of the innocent by the softness of persuasion and the blandishments of the tongue. From whence the Psalmist: They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; the poison of asps is under their lips. -
Proverbs 2:17
And leaves the guide of her youth, etc. It is clear about the adulteress because she first leaves her husband and forgets the covenant of her God, evidently that which she made with her husband, with the Lord as witness, at the time of marriage, that they would keep the faith of chastity with each other. It is also clear about the heretical mind, because it leaves the teacher from whom it learned the faith of the Church; and forgets the covenant of its God, that is, of the Lord's own faith, which is contained in the creed, which it promised to keep on the day of baptism.
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Proverbs 2:18
For her house is inclined to death, etc. Every behavior of the adulteress leads to destruction, and although she seems sweet and gentle, she will feel no less vengeance at the end than those who serve with open impiety by robbery. The house of the adulteress, her very flesh, in which she is laid under degradation and lust, can be understood, which at the last time of judgment, will rise not to life, but to eternal death. But also the house of heretics, because it is built upon sand, even when it seems to stand, leans towards ruin, and by its own growth as by certain paths, it tends to the company of the impious, that is, it extends to the torments of evil spirits.
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Proverbs 2:19
All who go to her do not return, etc. To her, to death he says, not to the woman. For it is possible for him who is mixed with an adulteress, with the help of the Lord, to return and earn life again by repenting; it is possible for him who is stained with heresy, by coming to one's senses, to return to salvation. But he who is once snatched away by eternal death will never return to the way by which he seeks the life of the blessed. This is said specifically against the Origenists, who promise to heretics, prostitutes, and all the crowds of the wicked, and even to the devil himself and his angels, forgiveness of sins, life, and the kingdom in the heavens after countless times of the filled universal judgment; misunderstanding that passage of Isaiah: And they will be shut up there in prison, and after many days they will be visited (Isaiah 24). As if, after many times of the finished judgment, the impious would be loosed and saved, whereas he rather grants them no salvation, but signifies that those who die at this time due to the enormity of their crimes, deserve to be confined in th…
All who go to her do not return, etc. To her, to death he says, not to the woman. For it is possible for him who is mixed with an adulteress, with the help of the Lord, to return and earn life again by repenting; it is possible for him who is stained with heresy, by coming to one's senses, to return to salvation. But he who is once snatched away by eternal death will never return to the way by which he seeks the life of the blessed. This is said specifically against the Origenists, who promise to heretics, prostitutes, and all the crowds of the wicked, and even to the devil himself and his angels, forgiveness of sins, life, and the kingdom in the heavens after countless times of the filled universal judgment; misunderstanding that passage of Isaiah: And they will be shut up there in prison, and after many days they will be visited (Isaiah 24). As if, after many times of the finished judgment, the impious would be loosed and saved, whereas he rather grants them no salvation, but signifies that those who die at this time due to the enormity of their crimes, deserve to be confined in the prison of punishments, will be visited only for a short time at the time of resurrection, so that, having received their bodies, they will be condemned more severely in judgment, and immediately after the judgment will be shut up forever in more cruel punishments. Although it can also be rightly taken this way, All who go to her, that is, to the prostitute, or to her house, do not return, because, as far as nature is concerned, corrupted by their perverse will, it does not have a return by itself; but through the grace of God, by which it is helped and renewed, so that it may take hold of the paths of life. For by this saying the weight of iniquity is designated, so that when someone returns, he does not attribute it to himself, but to the grace of God, not from works, lest he should boast. -
Proverbs 2:20
To walk in the good way, etc. The good way, he calls the unity of true faith, about which the Lord says, I am the way (John XIV); and again: No one can come to the Father, except through me (Ibid.). But the paths of the righteous, he names the various examples of the saints. This verse depends on what was said above: Prudence will preserve you; as also that, To be delivered from the strange woman.