Chapter 14
14:1 Once again, setting out on a voyage and about to pass through savage waves, one calls upon a more fragile timber than the ship bearing him. 14:2 For the one was devised by desire for gain, and built by craftsmanship with wisdom; 14:3 but your providence, Father, steers the other, because you granted both a way in the sea and a safe path through the waves,
RABANUS. He likewise presents these things, just as the previous ones, as a reproach against idolaters, because it is the greatest folly that a man, created in the image of God, possessing a rational soul from Him, by which he was able to devise the art of how to have a way to travel on the waves, building a ship according to his skill in the craft, does not give honor to Him who gave him this knowledge, but rather invokes an idol which he himself has fashioned with similar skill but even greater vanity. For since he is greater and better by reason of nature than the insensible thing which he himself has shaped into some image, he ought not to have erred so that the greater worships the lesser, because the lesser ought to seek help from the greater, not the greater from the lesser. Moreover, by divine gift, just as the preparation of the ship, so also the course of sailing must be sought, because the Almighty Creator destroys whomever He abandons; but whoever is guided by Him exults in complete prosperity. But all heretics who, in their doctrines, establish various images of errors, are therefore engulfed in the waves of this world, because they have abandoned the ship of the Church and did not wish to have God as their guide. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
14:4 showing that you are able to save from all things, so that even without skill one may embark.
RABANUS. Therefore, according to the history, the power of the Lord was demonstrated when He made the people of Israel cross the Red Sea on dry foot; likewise, when they left the desert, He led them through the bed of the Jordan, with the waters divided on either side, so as to instill terror in the nations of the Canaanites to be exterminated. But according to the allegory, the Lord Himself prepares for His faithful a path of faith and constancy amid the waves of the world and the torments of persecutors, through which they can pass unharmed from every scandal, nor will they need human comfort there, where the power of the Most High shows the marvelous effects of His virtue. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
14:5 And because you do not wish the works of your wisdom to be idle, for this reason people trust their lives even to the smallest piece of wood, and, having crossed the surge on a vessel, were saved. 14:6 For even at the beginning, when the proud giants were perishing, the hope of the world, taking refuge on a vessel, left to an age a seed of birth, guided by your hand.
RABANUS. The wondrous Creator gave knowledge to His creature, so that in the present age he might be able to attend to his own necessity, and serve the will of his Lord. Therefore also from the beginning, when the human race began to serve idolatry, and all evils were fashioned upon the earth by proud giants, the almighty Judge commanded His faithful servant Noah to build an ark, through which he and his offspring might be saved, and the species of all living creatures might be preserved for the future restoration of the world. The mystery of this, indeed, the Apostle Peter shows in his Epistle, saying: Christ once died for our sins, the just for the unjust, that He might offer us to God; put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. In which also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who had once been disobedient, when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water; which now saves you also, baptism of a like figure (1 Peter 3:18-21). They say that the form of baptism is likened to the ark and the waters of the flood, and rightly so, because the very construction of the ark from smoothed wood signifies the building of the Church, which is made from the gathering of the souls of the faithful by the architects of the Word. And that, when the whole world perished, only a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water, signifies that, in comparison to the perishing Gentiles, Jews, heretics, and false believers, the number of the elect is much smaller. Therefore, concerning the narrow gate and the strait way which leads to life, it is said: And few there are who find it (Matt. 7:13-14). And again: Fear not, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32). Therefore, that the water of the flood did not save those outside the ark, but destroyed them, undoubtedly prefigured that every heretic, although having the sacrament of baptism, is not raised by the waters but is drowned by them into hell, while the ark is lifted up to heaven. Also, the very number eight of the souls who were saved through water signifies that the holy Church receives the washing of baptism as a sacrament of the Lord’s resurrection, so that just as He rose from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we, cleansed from sins by the water of regeneration, may walk in newness of life. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
14:7 For blessed is the wood through which righteousness comes; 14:8 but the handmade thing, accursed is it and the one who made it, because the one worked, but the perishable thing was called a god.
RABANUS. This comparison of the two trees is different, because one deserves blessing, while the other deserves a curse. For blessed is the wood of the cross, on which, through the blood of Christ, the world was restored, and the redemption of the human race was perfected. On the contrary, the idol is cursed, that is, the image and worship of false gods, whose destruction is certain, and eternal torment awaits its maker. For the Devil will rightly be punished for having persuaded and agreed to have divine honor offered to himself; and men who worshipped him as God will deservedly suffer torments, because they tried to venerate falsehood instead of truth, and the creature instead of the Creator. But since we often find in the Holy Scriptures that wood is set for man, according to the rule of figurative speech, blessed is the man who speaks words of truth and does works of righteousness. But the heretic who worships the inventions of his own error is cursed, and assigned to eternal destruction, he himself, indeed, and his work, that is, his doctrine, which he presumed to teach falsely as truth. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
14:9 For equally hateful to God are both the ungodly person and his ungodliness; 14:10 and indeed the thing done together with the doer will be punished.
RABANUS. Therefore, it is also said through Jeremiah: Every man has become foolish by his own knowledge, every maker of idols is confounded by his carved image, because his molten image is false, and there is no spirit in them; for their works are vain and worthy of ridicule; in the time of their visitation, they shall perish (Jer. 10:14-15). [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
JEROME. But perhaps you say: If God is my lover, why then do the lashes of my lover so grievously sadden me with severe wounds, and disturb me by hurting me? If He who loves me torments me with the embraces of scourges, then false love now exercises the parts of hatred: now it would be better for Him to hate, so that He would not torment. Rather, be careful that He does not hate; ask that He agrees to love. For love corrects, but hatred threatens punishment. Love is accustomed to bestow discipline, but hatred, when judgment dictates, recites the guilt. This hatred is propagated from God to man by the birth of the human race. And therefore, it is of man when God hates or is angry: He hates when He is offended, He is angry when, being offended, He is not entreated. For he who by hateful deeds makes himself hateful provokes the Lord to hatred of himself, and scorns to entreat the one he has offended. But God loves man as an artisan loves his work, but He hates evil deeds, by which the work is driven to ruin and forced into destruction. And He who hates evil deeds cannot love the doer of evil deeds: as the most holy Solomon declared: " The impious and his impiety are hateful to God " (Wis. 14:9). [Jerome of Stridon, Epistle 30, PL 211 30.0063C-30.0064A] died 420AD
14:11 Therefore there will also be an examination of the idols of the nations, because among God’s creatures they became an abomination, and a stumbling block to the souls of men and a snare for the feet of the foolish.
RABANUS. For the idols of the nations are not gods, and their inhabitants are, evidently, evil spirits, deserving of pardon, since men who were created in the image and honor of God were being led away from their Creator, and by casting them into the snare of their own error, were being overthrown. Likewise, if heretics persist in their wickedness, by which they lead men from truth into falsehood, and do not correct themselves and do penance, they will not escape the judgment of eternal fire. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
14:12 For the beginning of fornication is the invention of idols, and the discovery of them is the corruption of life. 14:13 For they were not from the beginning, nor will they be forever;
RABANUS. Although there are many kinds of fornication, the worst is that by which the soul fornicates, departing from God and worshipping idols. Similarly, that is also destructive which abandons the truth of divine doctrine and follows the falsehood of heretical opinion. For the Apostle Paul calls greed the service of idols (Eph. 5:5), from which it can be assumed that every evil desire may rightly be called fornication, when the soul, neglecting the higher law by which the lower is governed, is corrupted as if prostituted for a price to the base will of the natures. But all these things, just as they were not created from the beginning, so also they will not remain forever. For the Lord will destroy all deceitful lips, and will cut off all who speak lies (Ps. 12:3). Therefore, it is also said through Jeremiah: The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under these heavens. But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God and the eternal King (Jer. 10:10-11). Therefore idols first arose, the following sentence shows. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
14:14 for they entered the world through men’s vanity, and therefore their end was devised to be brief. 14:15 For a father, grieved by untimely mourning, made an image of the child quickly taken away, and then honored as a god the man who had died then, and handed down mysteries and rites to those under his control. 14:16 Then in time the godless custom, having gained strength, was kept as law, and carved images were worshiped at the commands of tyrants, 14:17 whom men, unable to honor in person because they lived far away, having reproduced the distant appearance, made a visible image of the honored king, so that by their zeal they might flatter the absent as though present. 14:18 And the ambition of the craftsman also urged on those who did not know, to intensify the religion; 14:19 for he, perhaps wishing to please the ruler, forced by his art the likeness into greater beauty; 14:20 and the crowd, drawn on by the attractiveness of the work, regarded as worship the man who had recently been honored. 14:21 And this became a snare for life, because men, enslaved either by misfortune or by tyranny, bestowed on stones and wood the incommunicable Name.
RABANUS. However, Firmianus Lactantius, in the first book he wrote on the false religion of the gods, presents similar things regarding this passage, saying: It is not obscure by what reasoning men began to be called gods, for it was because of the depravity of men who lived a rural life without any ruler. There is no doubt that in those times they began to praise a man who was king, and his whole people, with the highest praises, so that they even called them gods, whether they truly believed this because of the miracle of virtue, being still rude and simple, or, as often happens, out of flattery for present power, or because of the benefits by which they were brought to civilization. Then, when these kings were dear to them, they also arranged their lives accordingly, and after their death left behind a great longing for themselves. Therefore, men fashioned images of them, so that they might have some consolation from the contemplation of their likenesses, and, going further out of love, they began to honor the memory of the deceased, so that they might seem both to repay gratitude to those who had deserved well, and to attract their successors to the desire of ruling well. Cicero teaches this about the nature of the gods, saying: But the common custom of men has taken up the practice that those who excel in benefits, men, are raised to heaven by fame and will. Therefore Hercules, later Castor, therefore Pollux, later Aesculapius, therefore Liber. And in another place: And in most cities it can be understood that, for the sake of sharpening virtue, or because they would more willingly face danger for the sake of the republic, the memory of the best and bravest men was consecrated in honor of the immortal gods. By this reasoning, of course, the Romans consecrated their Caesars, and the Moors their kings; therefore, little by little, religions began to exist, while those first who knew them in that rite filled their children and grandchildren, and then all their descendants; and yet these greatest kings, because of the fame of their name, were worshipped in all provinces. But privately, each people venerated with the highest reverence the founders of their race or city, or men notable for their bravery, or women remarkable for their chastity, as the Egyptians did Isis, the Carthaginians Urania, the Romans Quirinus, Samos Juno, Naxos Liber, the Moors Juba, the Latins Faunus; likewise, Paphos Venus, Delos Apollo, the Macedonians Scabrius, the Athenians Minerva, Lemnos Vulcan; therefore, throughout peoples and regions, various sacred rites were undertaken, while men desired to show gratitude to their rulers. And why they should bestow other honors on those who lack life, I cannot find: therefore, the devotion of those who succeeded contributed greatly to the error, who, so that they might seem born of divine stock, bestowed divine honors on their parents, and ordered them to be bestowed. Therefore, he says, the incommunicable name was placed upon stones and wood: because the incomprehensible name of the living and omnipotent God, who alone is, they wickedly ascribed to images treacherously composed of insensible and fragile matter, and, together with false religion, shamelessly destroyed themselves with all vices. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
14:22 Then it was not enough to stray concerning the knowledge of God, but, living also in a great war of ignorance, they call so many evils peace. 14:23 For either they hold murders of children as rites, or secret mysteries, or mad revels from alien customs, 14:24 and no longer keep lives or marriages pure; one destroys another by ambush or grieves him by adulterating him. 14:25 And blood and murder, theft and deceit, corruption, unfaithfulness, turmoil, perjury, confusion over good things hold all men in common, 14:26 forgetfulness of grace, defilement of souls, change of birth, disorder of marriages, adultery and wantonness.
RABANUS. For they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds and quadrupeds and serpents, and they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever; although they called themselves wise, they became fools: for they were given over to a reprobate mind, so that they dishonored their bodies among themselves, and those who refused to enter into a covenant with God through right faith and good works, being placed under the worship of the Devil, could in no way have true peace among themselves. Therefore they sacrificed their own children, as the pagans themselves did in the rites of Saturn, who sacrificed to Saturn out of hatred for Jupiter, and extinguished tender and innocent souls, which is the age most sweet to parents, without any regard for virtue. Others, indeed, offered human blood to the virtue they called Bellona; for the priests themselves sacrificed not with another’s blood, but with their own, striking themselves with drawn swords. About this, Quintilian rightly says: “If God requires this, He is angry.” Others, performing obscure rites, held vigils full of madness, as they were accustomed to do in the rites of Egyptian Isis and Eleusinian Ceres; for just as Osiris was sought there with the lamentation of his mother, so here Proserpina, abducted for the incestuous marriage of her uncle, was sought. Because Ceres is said to have searched for her in Sicily with torches lit from the summit of Etna, therefore her rites are celebrated with the tossing of burning torches. Likewise, in the rites of Father Liber, vigils full of madness were held; also in the festival of the Great Mother, where, following the example of their gods, who spent the night in feasting and games during her festival, these people consumed the whole night in useless play. Neither life nor marriage was kept pure by the pagans themselves, because they thought they could please their gods through lust and impurities of life; for all things were confused where reason and true religion held no place, but the more wicked someone was, the more he thought he pleased his god. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
14:27 For the worship of nameless idols is the beginning and cause and end of every evil;
RABANUS. There is no greater madness than to abandon the living God and serve dead idols, and therefore the cause and beginning of all evil is the worship of idols, because after the human mind turns away from its creator, it becomes entangled in the errors of all crimes. For the beginning of all sin is pride (Eccles. 10:13). Likewise, the end, that is, the completion or fullness of all evil, is the same idolatry; for nothing is lacking in any wickedness to him who worships the Devil as divine power; therefore, everything is reckoned to him as evil and sin. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
14:28 for either they party madly, or prophesy lies, or live unjustly, or swear falsely without delay; 14:29 for trusting in soulless idols, and having sworn wickedly, they do not expect to be wronged.
RABANUS. Their whole life is established in errors; if they rejoice, either at festivals or in their games, they act madly, while they either commit murders or defile themselves obscenely with lust; while they prophesy, they deceive and lead their listeners astray; while they live unjustly, they are dead in soul; if they swear falsely, they are quickly led to hell; when they swear by idols, they pollute the name of God, who commands in the law, saying: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain (Ex. 20:7). And again: By the name, he says, of foreign gods you shall not swear, but by the name of the Lord your God (Ex. 23:13). But when they think they can mock God, they cast themselves into eternal death. Allegorically, however, heretics, worshipping the images of their errors, are themselves the cause of their own destruction, whose doctrine is false, life unjust, joy insane, and death abominable. For when they swear unjustly by an idol and do not hope in the true God, despising justice, they will receive the just punishment of their deeds. This is also consequently implied. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
14:30 But both righteous judgments will overtake them, because they thought wrongly about God by paying heed to idols, and swore unjustly, despising holiness in deceit; 14:31 for it is not the power of those by whom they swear, but the punishment of sinners that always pursues the transgression of the unjust.
RABANUS. By the just judgment of God, those who are condemned and repent too late recognize what, while living before, they refused to believe; therefore also the Psalmist bears witness, saying: The Lord will be known by executing judgments; the sinner is caught in the works of his own hands. The sinners shall be turned into Hades, all the nations that forget God (Ps. 9:16-18). [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD