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Cassiodorus

Late Patristic · AD 500–800 · 444 passages across 36 books

Commentary

121–140 of 444
Daniel 12:1

And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

The devil is also called a prince, as in the Gospel passage, “Behold, the prince of this world comes, and in me he will not find anything.” Likewise a good angel is called a prince, as we read in Daniel: “Michael your prince.” So they are saying that the hope of humankind must rest in neither wicked nor good angels but in the Lord alone. Even if we love the good angels for the devotion they bestow on us, we praise the Lord’s blessing that they manifest.

EXPOSITIONS OF THE PSALMS 117:9

Deuteronomy 6:10-19

And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,

As the law teaches, “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and your whole soul.” But the person who puts his entire hope in the Lord also praises with his whole heart. He does not put his trust in the transient consolations of the world, once he has trained himself on the Lord with total purity of mind.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 85:12

Ephesians 1:1

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:

Paul frequently declares that he was directly called as an apostle by the will of the Lord, so as to circumvent those who desired this honor with human presumptions. He writes to the saints and the faithful at Ephesus, adding his blessing as with the love of a father.

SUMMARY OF EPHESIANS 1.1.1

Exodus 1:5 · 3 passages

And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.

Joseph means “increase”; the interpretation of this name is testimony to the Hebrew people who came out of the land of Egypt in increased numbers.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 80:6

Scripture often substitutes “souls” for men, as in Exodus: “There went down to Egypt seventy-five souls.” The whole man is to be understood from his better part.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 33.23

The expression “their souls” must be interpreted as meaning the men whom he is known to have slain in that calamity. The words of Exodus attest that the soul stands for the whole person, as we have said: “So all the souls that came out of Jacob’s thigh were seventy.” This expression is the result of the figure of synecdoche, which signifies the whole from the part.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 77.50

Exodus 3:14 · 2 passages

And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

So in Genesis [sic] he bade Moses say of himself, “Go and say to the children of Israel, I am who I am. He who is has sent me to you.” So he wanted his eternity to be denoted by the present tense. This use of present time (“today”) is acknowledged to be peculiar to the divine Scriptures in the sense of perpetuity.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 2:8

The phrase “I am” belongs to the divinity. It does not change with time but is always there and remains eternal. So the reply to Moses was “I am who I am” and again “He who is has sent me.” But we must first investigate why God alone claims this term which denotes essence for himself. When it was spoken, there were angels, heavenly creatures and all earthly creatures as were decreed to exist. But because he is the only uncreated and eternal nature which did not begin in time and subsists as one divinity in three persons, God alone is rightly said to be, for he needs no one for his existence but ever abides by the strength of his own power. In it there is another mystery: a single syllable, sum (“I am”), is embraced by three letters, so we are taught that the holy Trinity is one God.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 49:7

Exodus 4:6-7

And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.

Just as Moses was allowed to perform miracles with a rod, so he was ordered to thrust his hand into his bosom, and when it was brought out again it was found to be leprous; then he was ordered to insert it again, and it was at once healed. This indicates that the Jewish people was to become impure by abandoning the Lord Christ but that it would recover its former health by returning to him.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 73:11

Exodus 6:3

And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.

The God of gods is the Lord Christ; with the Father and Holy Spirit he is truly called God of gods, though the title is not wholly appropriate to the Godhead because the human tongue cannot, as we have already said, indicate the height of the Godhead beyond this. Deus (“God”) in the Greek language means “fear,” and since he alone is to be feared the word attained the role of a title. We read in Exodus: “My name Adonai I did not show them.” From this we are to realize that the name is secret and is known to have been revealed not even to chosen ministers. So he spoke through prophets, through apostles and more powerfully through his own mouth.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 49:1

Exodus 7:20

And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.

Just as we read in the Gospel that water was turned into wine, which denoted that people were changed for the better, so here its transformation into blood announces that sinners interpret the causes of spiritual things in a bodily sense. Blood is introduced here to denote the flesh, and undoubtedly the Jewish people took this materialistic view. He further says that both their rivers and their rain showers were turned into blood, so that in their preoccupation with the thoughts of the flesh they did not understand the heavenly preaching in a spiritual sense. The literal sense of this and of what follows is clear, for the words of the divine history show that these events occurred in Egypt.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 77.44

Exodus 11:4

And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt:

The words “I rose at midnight” are not without value. They knew that at that hour the firstborn of the Egyptians were smitten, that at that time the bonds of Peter, Paul and Silas who lay in prison were loosed, that the bridegroom would also come at midnight.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 118.62

Exodus 13:18

But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.

Just as the Jews were saved and extricated through the waters of the Red Sea, so we are delivered from the land of Egypt, that is, from the sins of the flesh, and reborn through regeneration by the sacred water. The very name of the Red Sea is not superfluous. Just as it is known as Red, so the baptismal water can be labeled red, for it came forth mixed with blood from the Lord Savior’s side.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 80.6

Exodus 14:15

And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward:

The heart reveals its silent longing, to which the Godhead listens more than to the most thundering voices of nations. He said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me?” although we do not read that Moses had said anything. So the faithful man said that his heart was speaking to the Lord, since he seemed to offer his thoughts by this means.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 26.8

Exodus 16:4

Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.

These incidents are quite well known from our reading of Exodus, for quails rained down like the heaviest shower, and the Jews received manna to get their fill. But to demonstrate that this was a prefiguration, he spoke not of manna but of the bread of heaven, so that the Lord Savior’s coming could be visualized in this blessing, for he is “the living bread which came down from heaven.” The meaning of manna, as was stated at Psalm 77, is “What is this?” He disposed of the problem surrounding the name, and with the statement “He filled them with the bread of heaven,” he explained the answer to the question about manna, for the Lord of heaven is indicated by the phrase, and the nature of manna is clearly acknowledged.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 104.40

Exodus 20:26

Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.

Unity knows no number, equality allows no scale. As Scripture says, “You shall not go up by steps to my altar.”

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 116:2

Exodus 32:9

And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

So these sinners undergo a contrary experience: their necks which they fatally raised against the Lord are subjected to his sweet yoke with the humility which brings salvation. We recall that this often befell persecutors, so that having earlier maintained their idols by the most sacrilegious compulsion, they became proclaimers of our most holy religion.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 128:4

Exodus 32:12

Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.

By his very love and charm he begs the Lord to temper his justice with a little gentleness, so that he can be prevailed upon by those sinners with whom he was known to be justly angry. But we must notice that he did not say, “Change your ways wholly” but “Change your ways a little,” for this is more profitable to us when some lash of tribulation afflicts us. Often when admonished we can gain pardon for our sins by a most wholesome conversion.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 89:13

Exodus 32:32

Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.

What a holy man, most worthy of all praise! When he came down from Mt. Sinai to the camp and saw the people exultantly and sacrilegiously posturing before the idol, he was roused to anger, broke the tablets in front of them and ordered one or other of them to be slain by the sword. But when comprehensive disaster loomed, he prayed that he himself should be destroyed rather than that the entire nation should perish. Both attitudes were devoted and splendid. Moses was right to converse with the divine clemency, for he loved to carry out its decrees. At the same time that power is revealed by which we often escape the punishment of deserved death through the prayers of the saints. Not that anyone can change the Lord’s dispositions, but [we] must realize that the outcome is foreknown by him.

EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 105:23

Ezekiel 3:3

And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.

Honey can be understood as the explicit teaching of wisdom, whereas the comb can represent that known to be stored in the depth, as it were, of the cells. Undoubtedly both are found in the divine Scriptures. They added “to my mouth,” for they were indeed proclaiming with their mouths the wisdom that they had swallowed with their throats. The prophet Ezekiel speaks in the same way of the Lord.

EXPOSITIONS OF THE PSALMS 108:103

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