Prudentius — Commentary on Scripture

Luke 1:30-33

A heavenly fire engenders him, not flesh
Nor blood of father, nor impure desire.
By power of God a spotless maid conceives,
As in her virgin womb the Spirit breathes.
The mystery of this birth confirms our faith
That Christ is God: a maiden by the Spirit
Is wed, unstained by love; her purity
Remains intact; with child within, untouched
Without, bright in her chaste fertility,
Mother yet virgin, mother that knew not man.
Why, doubter, do you shake your silly head?
An angel makes this known with holy lips.
Will you not hearken to angelic words?
The Virgin blest, the shining messenger
Believed, and by her faith she Christ conceived.
Christ comes to men of faith and spurns the heart
Irresolute in trust and reverence.
The Virgin’s instant faith attracted
Christ into her womb and hid him there till birth.

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST 566-84

Luke 1:34-35

When God’s coming draws near, the angel Gabriel advances
From the Father’s high throne and enters the house of the Virgin.
“Mary,” he says, “the Holy Spirit will render you fruitful,
And you shall give birth to the Christ, O glorious Virgin.”

SCENES FROM SACRED HISTORY 25

Luke 1:34-35

He had to be redeemed: my Spirit came down
And impregnated flesh made from the dust
With the divine nature; God has assumed
Humanity, joining it with divinity,
And kindled in men’s hearts new love of me.

AGAINST SYMMACHUS 2.265-69

Luke 1:42

Believe what says the angel who was sent
From the Father’s throne, or if your stolid ear
Catch not the voice from heaven, be wise and hear
The cry of aged woman, now with child.
O wondrous faith! The babe in senile womb
Greets through his mother’s lips the Virgin’s Son,
Our Lord; the child unborn makes known the cry
Of the Child bestowed on us, for speechless yet,
He caused that mouth to herald Christ as God.

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST 585-93

Luke 3:3-6

As messenger of God, who was about to come,
He faithfully observed this law, constructing well,
That every hill might low become and tough ways plain,
Lest when the truth should glide from heaven down to earth
It then would find a barrier to its swift approach.

HYMNS FOR EVERY DAY 7.51-55

Luke 3:23-38

What do you say about the sacred words of Luke
When he the genealogy repeats,
The fleshly line retracing through old sires?
Up generations seventy-two
Christ mounts—so many teachers into the world
He sent—and by the steps down to his birth
Goes back to Adam, head of earthly flesh.
The Father then receives his Son and us,
And Adam son of God becomes through Christ.
Nothing now remains but that you deem this race
Unreal, Levi, Judah, Simeon,
King David, other mighty kings, unreal,
The virgin’s swelling womb itself grown big
With lying vapor, flimsy clouds and mist.
That airy blood dissolves, the bones grow soft
And melt, the trembling muscles disappear.
That every deed the idle wind dispels,
The breezes scatter, all an empty tale.

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST 1001-18

Luke 4:9-12

Still the pinnacle stands, outlasting the temple’s destruction,
For the corner raised up from that stone which the builders rejected
Will remain throughout all ages forever and ever.
Now it is head of the temple and holds the new stones together.

SCENES FROM SACRED HISTORY 31

Luke 8:28-31

In his sepulchral prison the savage demon had broken
Fetters of iron that bound him; he darts forth and kneels before Jesus.
But the Lord sets the man free and orders the devil to madden
Herds of the swine and to plunge with them into the depths of the vast sea.

SCENES FROM SACRED HISTORY 36

Luke 8:43-48

Then a woman, weak and timid, touched his sacred garment’s hem:
Instant was his blessed healing, and the pallor left her cheek,
As the hemorrhage she had suffered
Through so many years was stopped.

HYMN FOR EVERY DAY 9.33-44

Luke 9:17

God has broken five loaves and two fishes and fed the five thousand
With these foods that satisfy to the fullest their hunger.
Then twice six baskets are filled with the fragments that are left over:
Such is the bounty dispensed from the heavenly table forever.

SCENES FROM SACRED HISTORY 37

Luke 9:17

“Place,” he said, “in these twelve baskets all the fragments that remain.”
Thousands at that feast reclining, with abundance had been fed
On the five loaves they had eaten and two fishes multiplied.
You, our bread, our true refection, never-failing sweetness are.
He can nevermore know hunger, who is at your banquet fed,
Nourishing not our fleshly nature, but imparting lasting life.

HYMNS FOR EVERY DAY 9.58-63

Luke 15:3-10

When one ailing sheep lags behind the others
And loses itself in the sylvan mazes,
Tearing its white fleece on the thorns and briers,
Sharp in the brambles,
Unwearied the Shepherd, that lost one seeking,
Drives away the wolves and on his strong shoulders
Brings it home again to the fold’s safekeeping,
Healed and unsullied.
He brings it back to the green fields and meadows,
Where no thorn bush waves with its cruel prickles,
Where no shaggy thistle arms trembling branches
With its tough briars.
But where palm trees grow in the open woodland,
Where the lush grass bends its green leaves, and laurels
Shade the glassy streamlet of living water
Ceaselessly flowing.

HYMN FOR EVERY DAY 8.33-45

Luke 16:23-26

But until the perishable body
You will raise up, O God, and refashion,
What mansion of rest is made ready
For the soul that is pure and unsullied?
It shall rest in the patriarch’s bosom
As did Lazarus, hedged round with flowers,
Whom Dives beheld from a distance
While he burned in the fires everlasting.

HYMN FOR EVERY DAY 10.149-56

Luke 22:31-34

The Savior once to Peter showed
What hidden power this bird may have,
And warned that ere the cock would crow
Himself three times must be denied.
For evil deeds are ever done
Before that herald of the dawn
Enlightens humankind and brings
An end to error and to sin.
Forthwith he wept his bitter fall
Whose lying lips denied the Christ,
The while his heart was innocent,
And steadfast faith his soul preserved.
And never more such word he spoke,
By slip of tongue or conscious fault,
For mindful of the crowing cock,
The just man ceased from ways of sin.
Hence all now hold in firm belief
That in the stillness of the night
When loudly crows the joyful cock
Our Lord came back from hell’s dim shore.

HYMN FOR EVERY DAY 1.49-68

Luke 23:40-42

Water and blood flow out from the pierced sides of the Savior.
Blood indicates the victory, and water stands for baptism.
The two robbers on crosses on each side dispute with each other.
One denies Christ is God, but the other wins heavenly glory.

SCENES FROM SACRED HISTORY 42

Luke 23:43

We believe in thy words, O Redeemer,
Which, when triumphing over death’s darkness,
Thou didst speak to thy robber companion,
Bidding him in thy footprints to follow.
Lo, now to the faithful is opened
The bright road to paradise leading;
Man again is permitted to enter
The garden he lost to the Serpent.
To that sacred abode, O great Leader,
Take, we pray thee, the soul of thy servant;
Let it rest in its native country,
Which it left, as an exile to wander.

HYMN FOR EVERY DAY 10.157-68