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 5:2
That you may guard your thoughts, etc. Thoughts, by which you rightly believe; lips, by which you profess the faith itself in simple words, and usual, as well as ecclesiastical ones. But, according to the letter: He who adheres to a harlot defiles even his lips, either by kissing or speaking foul things.
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Proverbs 5:3
And her throat is smoother than oil. The Catholic faith is consecrated by the oil of the Holy Spirit, by which they who prefer their own sense to the faith of the Fathers show their throat smoother. It is evident concerning the harlot, because she seeks both the sweetness of speech and the beauty of body to capture the wretched.
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Proverbs 5:3
For the lips of a harlot are like a honeycomb distilling. For in the mouth of heretics, the sweetness of eloquence not only resounds to sufficiency, but to superfluity; and for this reason, because falsehood is discerned to be aptly spoken, it is deemed truth by the foolish.
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Proverbs 5:4
But her end is bitter, etc. The drink of wormwood becomes bitter within the bowels, outwardly the members are wounded by the sword. Therefore, to show the wicked in the final retribution, both internally to be filled, and externally surrounded by perpetual punishments, he assures that they will be tormented by the bitterness of wormwood, and slaughtered by the sword. And why the same sword is called two-edged, the Lord opens when he says: But fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10).
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Proverbs 5:6
Her ways are unstable, etc. The ways of heretical deception are unstable, because some deny Christ to be God, others to be man; some deny he took flesh, others a soul; some that he was born of a virgin; some that the Holy Spirit, others that the Father is God, some prohibit confessing pardon to the repentant. And this pestilence spreads itself into such countless paths, that they cannot wholly be traced. But Catholic truth is not unstable and untraceable, because it is one and the same, known to all, throughout the world, to the faithful.
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Proverbs 5:8
Keep your way far from her, etc. And the apostle says, Flee fornication (1 Corinthians 6). Because indeed the first remedy of this vice is to be far from those whose presence either allures or cooperates in the vice. But it also benefits weak listeners to be entirely separated from the hearing of heretics.
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Proverbs 5:9
Do not give your honor to others, etc. Do not subject the honor by which you were created in the image of God to the wills of unclean spirits, nor waste the granted time of living according to the will of the cruel adversary. For whoever succumbs to any crime, is surely enslaved to the dominion of malignant spirits.
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Proverbs 5:10
Lest strangers be filled with your strength, etc. Lest you assist the deeds of demons, if you lend either the ingenuity of your mind or the strengths of your body to perform crimes; and you multiply the household of strangers, that is, the number of the lost, by adding yourself. And beautifully he said: Let your labors be in the house of a stranger, because there are those who, according to the prophet, labor to act wickedly. And would that it were hidden how much labor heretics have undergone against the Church.
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Proverbs 5:11
And you moan at the last, etc. To be prefixed from above, Lest perhaps. And the sense is: Therefore keep yourself chaste, lest you be forced to groan in punishments, when not only the carnal allurements pass away, but also with the body itself being left, the soul, which acted through the body, is compelled to render all things. Indeed, it often happens in this life that those who dissipated their possessions living luxuriously in youth, fall into poverty in old age. And as the heat of the flesh cools, and the flower of youth withers, they see others using their own goods, which they sold to lust, and, groaning with late repentance, say what follows:
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Proverbs 5:12
Why did I hate instruction? etc. He calls the instruction of ecclesiastical faith; the reproaches by which heretics are rebuked, why they withdrew from the Church, he refers to them. It is evident concerning fornicators.
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Proverbs 5:14
I was almost in all evil, etc. The Church and the Synagogue are Greek names, and they signify the same thing in Latin, that is, an assembly of many together. But if they are distinguished more subtly, the Church is interpreted as a calling together, the Synagogue as a gathering together. And indeed the old people of God were called by both names. Now, however, for the sake of distinction, that one is called the Synagogue, ours is called the Church, rightfully indeed because of the greater faith and knowledge, because even irrational creatures can be gathered. Finally, God said, Let the waters be gathered into one gathering. Only the rational and sensible can be called together. But these names sometimes signify the gathering of the wicked. Hence that, "Fire burned their assembly" (Psalm 105); and, "I hated the assembly of evildoers" (Psalm 26). Therefore, what the late penitent, contemptuous of wisdom, says, "I was almost in all evil, in the midst of the congregation and assembly," seems to refer to someone sadly recognizing the magnitude of his own damnation, because he was involved…
I was almost in all evil, etc. The Church and the Synagogue are Greek names, and they signify the same thing in Latin, that is, an assembly of many together. But if they are distinguished more subtly, the Church is interpreted as a calling together, the Synagogue as a gathering together. And indeed the old people of God were called by both names. Now, however, for the sake of distinction, that one is called the Synagogue, ours is called the Church, rightfully indeed because of the greater faith and knowledge, because even irrational creatures can be gathered. Finally, God said, Let the waters be gathered into one gathering. Only the rational and sensible can be called together. But these names sometimes signify the gathering of the wicked. Hence that, "Fire burned their assembly" (Psalm 105); and, "I hated the assembly of evildoers" (Psalm 26). Therefore, what the late penitent, contemptuous of wisdom, says, "I was almost in all evil, in the midst of the congregation and assembly," seems to refer to someone sadly recognizing the magnitude of his own damnation, because he was involved in almost every sin, worthy of undergoing such torments. This adds to the heap of his miseries, that he was not merely the last of sinners, but rather in the midst and almost the leader. Or indeed, placed bodily in the midst of holy assemblies, he did not fear to lead a different life from them. And this is particularly felt about heretics because they could not be recalled from error by the sayings and examples of either the ancient fathers or the new ones. -
Proverbs 5:15
"Drink water from your own cistern," etc. Use your own wife's desire and cherish her with devoted services.
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Proverbs 5:16
"Let them be yours alone," etc. Retain in your own power alone with whom you join your children in marriage, and let neither fornicators nor prostitutes be partakers with your offspring.
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Proverbs 5:16
"Let your fountains be dispersed abroad," etc. Give your son and daughter in marriage to others, and do this openly with many witnesses.
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Proverbs 5:18
"Let your fountain be blessed," etc. Maintain such temperance with the woman you married in your youth, even in old age, that by faithful chastity you may rightly gain a blessing in your offspring. "A loving doe, a graceful fawn." Let her always be your beloved spouse, who, like a doe that avoids serpents, shuns harlots and drives them away from her home. Let a son be born from her, and he himself be a very strict lover of chastity.
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Proverbs 5:19
"Let her breasts satisfy you at all times," etc. He does not teach that one should always be occupied with conjugal work, but advises not to marry another while the first wife is alive, or ever associate with a prostitute. Otherwise, what he says, "Drink water from your own cistern and flowing water from your own well," teaches that one should beware of heretics and attend to the custody of the Scriptures and reading. Keep the knowledge, he says, that you preach to others, and the watering of your speech pours out. "Let your fountains be dispersed abroad, and divide your waters in the streets." When you have kept it yourself, then also preach to others, and in the great multitude of listeners, dispense divine words according to each one's quality. "Let them be yours alone." We divide the waters in the streets and yet possess them alone, when we also broadly spread the preaching outwardly, and yet by it we do not aim to achieve human praises. "And let strangers not share with you." Unclean spirits become the teacher's partners if they corrupt his mind with pride while he preaches, or…
"Let her breasts satisfy you at all times," etc. He does not teach that one should always be occupied with conjugal work, but advises not to marry another while the first wife is alive, or ever associate with a prostitute. Otherwise, what he says, "Drink water from your own cistern and flowing water from your own well," teaches that one should beware of heretics and attend to the custody of the Scriptures and reading. Keep the knowledge, he says, that you preach to others, and the watering of your speech pours out. "Let your fountains be dispersed abroad, and divide your waters in the streets." When you have kept it yourself, then also preach to others, and in the great multitude of listeners, dispense divine words according to each one's quality. "Let them be yours alone." We divide the waters in the streets and yet possess them alone, when we also broadly spread the preaching outwardly, and yet by it we do not aim to achieve human praises. "And let strangers not share with you." Unclean spirits become the teacher's partners if they corrupt his mind with pride while he preaches, or with heresy, or any other vice. But alone he possesses the waters when faithfully connected with the Church's members, he keeps himself free from the company of strangers. "Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth." Let your doctrine be, and whoever is born from it, in the blessing of the Church, and rejoice with her to whom you have been joined from youth, that is, from the first time of believing. "A loving doe, a graceful fawn; let her breasts satisfy you at all times, and always be enraptured with her love." The most beloved or most pleasing deer, as some manuscripts have it, is the holy Church, which is accustomed to hate and crush the serpent-like doctrine. The most pleasing young stag is the people, delightful by the variety of its virtues, and always kindled by the emulation of the same pure faith. We are intoxicated by its breasts, when we are instructed by the pages of both Testaments against the deceptions of heretics. To always delight in its peace and love is a great occasion for exercising virtues. -
Proverbs 5:20
Why are you led astray, my son, by a foreign woman? etc. And it should be understood of both the prostitute and heresy.
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Proverbs 5:21
The Lord looks upon the ways of man, etc. Let adulterers not think they are covered by the darkness of night against the wall, nor heretics that their schemes can be hidden, because the darkness will not be obscured from the Lord, and night will be illuminated like day.
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Proverbs 5:22
The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, etc. There is a difference between a sinner and a wicked person, because a sinner is called anyone who falls into either small or great crimes; but a wicked person is one who either never accepts the faith or, by the enormity of his crimes, becomes anathema from the faith he once received, like heretics or Catholics involved in public scandals, who are bound by the chains of their sins and perish with the incessant increase of their depravity. For one who makes a rope, always by twisting and entangling thread upon thread, increases it. Such is the strength of evil deeds, such are the books of heretics, in which they bind wrong with wrong, doing nothing other in writing than tightening the bonds.
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Proverbs 5:23
He will die because he lacked discipline, etc. Because he had disputed much about adulterers or heretics, as is his custom, he shows in the close of his narrative what the end of such people is; that is, they tend towards eternal death, who have hated the discipline of life. He calls it the multitude of folly, when heretics consider themselves wiser than the holy Fathers, or when the wicked, doing the works of darkness, either think the Lord does not see these things or believe they can easily endure His wrath.