Cassiodorus — Commentary on Scripture

Isaiah 1:19

There is also the Pelagians’ second wickedness, for they so attribute free will to their human powers that they believe that they can devise or enact some good of their own accord without God’s grace.… You interpret these and similar passages most perversely, believing that people take the first step of their good intentions of their own accord and subsequently obtain the help of the Godhead, so that (to express the matter sacrilegiously) we are the cause of his kindness and he is not the cause of his own.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 50:7

Isaiah 2:7-8

Vanity is the general term for vices, but vain in the particular sense means that which is found alien to God. Just as trusting in the Godhead is fruitful constancy, so deviating from him is the vanity that perishes.… So those who burned with the most base love of idols are convicted, and the phrase is to be pronounced as a rebuke, as if the words were, “Why do you love the vanity by which you perish?” We ought to love things that are beneficial, not harmful, for it is better to curse the things that cause the punishment of lasting damnation to afflict us.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 4:3

Isaiah 5:4-6

Just as clouds when they rumble and clash (so the physicists tell us) send forth darts of lightning, so the words of the prophets shone out as signs of truth. In fact you often find the prophets in the divine Scriptures compared with clouds; for example, “And I will command the clouds not to rain upon it.”

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 96:4

Isaiah 5:4-6

The noise of the waters is great when sweet psalmody is offered, when guilt is removed by groans and tears, when thanks are rendered for a gift received. The different prayers of people resound in sacred churches like the crashing of the sea. He beautifully appends why the noise of the waters is great: it was because the clouds sent forth a sound. We have often said that clouds signify preachers, of whom Scripture says, “I will command my clouds not to pour rain on that land.” They uttered that great sound when they made known the precepts of the Lord throughout the whole world.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 76:18

Isaiah 6:5

By “mouth” [or lips] is meant the hidden region of the heart, from which God’s praise is efficaciously sung. So he rightly proclaims after the forgiveness of his sin that his lips will be opened and that his mouth can announce the praise of the Lord.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 5:17

Isaiah 6:5

We must especially follow the commandments, and signing our lips with the seal of the cross we must pray to the Lord that he may cleanse our mouths, which are disfigured with human foulness.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 141:8

Isaiah 9:6

We often find the Lord Christ described as a child because of the purity of his innocence. The simplicity of youth bestows on a child the blessing of aversion from vices and from the malice of the world. As Christ himself attested, “Of such is the kingdom of heaven.” “Child” is used in the text: “Behold my child whom I have chosen, my beloved in which my soul delights,” and in another passage: “A child is born to us, and a son bestowed on us.”

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 68:18

Isaiah 9:6

In the holy Scripture Christ is often called a child because of his innocence of mind. As Isaiah says, “For a child has been born to us, and a son has been given to us.”

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 85:16

Isaiah 11:2-3

As we said earlier, the seven-formed Spirit has been denoted here, as you easily infer by calculation and recognize by his activity. But we must regard this Holy Spirit as one and the same as him whose virtues are known by Isaiah’s witness to be the same seven which we have mentioned: the Spirit of wisdom, of understanding, of counsel, of courage, of knowledge, of piety, of fear of the Lord; and he distributes these to each as he wills. It should not trouble you that everywhere Isaiah ascribes the words to the voice of the Holy Spirit, for clearly “voice” is associated with the whole Trinity. We read of the Father’s voice when he says, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” and again of the Son’s voice in the words “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Likewise in the Acts of the Apostles we read of the Holy Spirit: “Separate for me Paul and Barnabas, for the work to which I have called them.”

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 28:9

Isaiah 12:3

We say that God is … a fountain because he fills the thirsty and empty.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 35:10

Isaiah 14:13-14

The devil regarded himself as great when he said, “I will set my throne at the north, and I will be like the Most High.” Even today proud people count themselves greater than all others. But no one can be truly called great except God alone, for nothing can be remotely compared with his power; he is subject to no change but continues always in the glory of his nature.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 85:10

Isaiah 14:13-14

And again: “I shall set my seat to the north, and I will be like the Most High.” So he is rightly termed a calumniator, for while performing cruel deeds he always lays accusations against the devoted. Scripture elsewhere says of him, “He shall humble the oppressor, and he shall continue with the sun.” So they most justly ask that the humble be not betrayed to the proud, the ingenuous to the liar, the pious to the ungrateful, for the persons whom those persecutors cannot seduce they treat with more savage violence.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 118:122

Isaiah 26:11

A fire went before the Lord’s coming when the hearts of the unfaithful seethed at the preaching of the prophets so that they were fired with the heat of anger, and they debated the murder of those preachers. So this is the fire that shall go before him, but it devoured instead those who stirred it. As the prophet Isaiah said, “And now fire will devour your enemies.” Next comes, “And shall burn his enemies round about.” “Shall burn,” as we have stated, refers to the indignation and sudden mental heat that the enemies of the holy church experienced at that time. “Round about” we must interpret as “on all sides,” for as the preachers were few, a countless crowd of enemies hemmed them in.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 96:3

Isaiah 26:12

“All have fallen.” Anyone who refuses to seek out a strong foundation necessarily falls. “Together they became useless,” namely, with regard to the work for which they were created. “There is none who does good.” There was no one who would do good, because the Jews broke the commandments and the Gentiles spurned the law of nature. When anyone from either party did good, therefore, he knew that he was indebted to grace, not to nature, as the prophet said in reference to the Lord: “in the presence of whom no one is innocent.” Isaiah also says in his canticle: “O Lord our God, you will give us peace, for you have accomplished all of our works in us.”

EXPOSITION OF ROMANS 3

Isaiah 26:12

So they are truly wise who entrust themselves to the power and dispensation of the Godhead; him alone they seek, and the outcome is all that is good for them. This is the message of the prophet Isaiah: “Lord our God, give us your peace; for you have bestowed all things on us.” Next comes: “And he gave ear to me.” Note that this utterance to the Lord, so short but magnificent in its devotion, sought that he should deign to give ear; what is there that he has failed to give us when out of pity he has granted such a request? For his gaze on us spells deliverance and a bestowal of gifts so great that even the greedy suppliant ceases to beg for them.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 76:2

Isaiah 29:13

Though we never withdraw ourselves from the Lord since he is wholly everywhere, we nonetheless become distant when we are displaced through the nature of our deeds.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 94:1

Isaiah 29:13

If the fear of God is not mingled with love, he is not sought in the heart’s entirety. It is certain that it is the keenest of sins for a person to say that he confesses to him with his tongue, while his heart deep down is at odds with him; does God not know all that goes on within us?… He does not hear merely what the tongue proclaims, as a human person does. It is the person who faithfully believes his testimonies who truly loves him. Fides (faith) gets its name from words uttered (quod fiant dicta). The Lord himself offers a testimony like this verse when he says, “This people glorifies me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 77:37

Isaiah 29:13

The habit of sinners is … after they have achieved the aspiration of their most wicked plans, they then give thanks to the Godhead since they have attained their wish. But they in their utter wretchedness do not realize that he originates only successful aspirations that are holy. “They shall bless” not with their hearts but their mouths, the source of hypocritical utterances for the most part. As Isaiah says, “This people glorify me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 48:14

Isaiah 38:5

The number seven, as has often been said, denotes the week occasioned by the sabbath of the Old Testament. The number eight signifies the Lord’s day, on which he clearly rose again, and this is relevant to the New [Testament]. When joined together, they are seen to make up the number fifteen.… Some commentators think that the fifteen additional years accorded to King Hezekiah are related to this parallel, so that the number fifteen is shown to have signified the course of his perfect life.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 119

Isaiah 43:25

Though this type of argument seems without resort and bereft of human force in court trials here on earth, before God it is invested with invincible protection. Only confession of faith can acquit the person whom no arguments defend. Such a course is permitted to those who truly repent, who in seeking pardon for themselves strive instead to condemn their own actions. This is what Isaiah too advises: “Speak first of your iniquities that you may be justified.”

EXPOSITION OF PSALM 6:2