CHAPTER 4
Lecture 8
24b For these are the two testaments. The one from mount Sinai, engendering unto bondage, which is Hagar.
25 For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia, which hath affinity to that Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
26 But that Jerusalem which is above is free; which is our mother.
27 For it is written: Rejoice thou barren, that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her that hath a husband.
Above, the Apostle spoke of the mystical sense; here he discloses the mystery:
First, as to the mothers;
Secondly, as to the sons (v. 28).
By the two mothers he understands the two testaments. Therefore,
First, he states the thing signified;
Secondly, he explains it (v. 24): The one from mount Sinai.
He says therefore, These , i.e., the two wives, the bondwoman and the free woman, are the two testaments , the Old and the New: “I will make with the house of Israel a new covenant” (behold, the New Testament), “not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers” (behold the Old Testament) (Jer 31:31). For the free woman signifies the New Testament and the bondwoman the Old.
To understand what a testament is, we should consider that a testament is a pact or agreement dealing with matters which are confirmed by witnesses. Hence in Scripture in many places in lieu of testament is put pact or agreement. Now, whenever a pact or agreement is struck, a promise is made. Therefore, according to the diversity of promises there is a diversity of testaments. But two things have been promised to us: temporal things in the Old Law, and eternal things in the New: “Rejoice and be glad because your reward is great in heaven” (Mt 5:12). Hence these two promises are the two testaments. Hence the Apostle, when he says, The one from mount Sinai, engendering unto bondage, explains them.
First, as to the Old;
Secondly, as to the New (v. 26).
To understand this text, it must be noted with respect to the first that a citizen of a city is called its son, and the city itself his mother: “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me” (Lk 23:28); “The noble sons of Sion” (Lam 4:2). Therefore, by the fact that certain ones become citizens of a city, they are made its sons. Now there is a twofold city of God: the one of earth, called the earthly Jerusalem, and the other of Heaven, called the heavenly Jerusalem. Furthermore, men were made citizens of the earthly city through the Old Testament, but of the heavenly through the New. Therefore as to this he does two things:
First, he expounds the mystery;
Secondly, he accounts for the mystical explanation (v. 25).
He says therefore first: I say that it signifies the two Testaments, namely, the Old and the New. And with respect to this he says: The one from mount Sinai, engendering unto bondage. Wherein is mentioned first of all the place in which it was given, namely, on Mount Sinai, as is recorded in Exodus (Ch. 20). According to a Gloss the mystical rendition of this is that Sinai is interpreted “Commandment.” Hence in Ephesians (Ch. 2) the Old Law is called by the Apostle the law of the Commandments. Now a mountain signifies pride: “Before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains” (Jer. 13:16). Hence by this mountain on which the Law was given a twofold pride of the Jews is signified: one by which they were arrogant against God: I know thy obstinacy and thy most stiff neck” (Deut 31:27); the other by which they boasted at the expense of other nations, thus perverting what is said in Psalm (147:20): “He hath not done in like manner to every nation; and his judgments he hath not made manifest to them.”
Secondly, he explains the end for which it was given, namely, not to make them free, but to make them children of a bondwoman, engendering unto bondage, which is Hagar , i.e., which is signified by Hagar, who engenders unto bondage, namely, the Old Testament. And this it does with respect to three things; namely, feeling, understanding and fruit. As to understanding, indeed, according to knowledge: because in man is a twofold knowledge. One is free, when he knows the truth of things according to themselves; the other is servile, i.e., veiled under figures, as was the knowledge of the Old Testament. As to feeling, the New Law engenders the feeling of love, which pertains to freedom: for one who loves is moved by his own initiative. The Old, on the other hand, engenders the feeling of fear in which is servitude; for one who fears is moved not by his own initiative but by that of another: “You have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear; but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons” (Rom 8:15). But as to the fruit, the New Law begets sons to whom is owed the inheritance, whereas to those whom the Old Law engenders are owed small presents as to servants: “The servant abideth not in the house forever; but the son abideth forever” (Jn 8:35).
Then he gives the explanation of the mystery when he says: Sinai is a mountain in Arabia, which hath affinity to that Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children . But here a difficulty arises: for since Sinai is almost twenty days journey from Jerusalem, it seems false that Sinai has affinity to [borders on] Jerusalem, as the Apostle says here. To this a Gloss responds in a mystical manner that Sinai is in Arabia, which stands for the abjection or affliction under which the Old Testament was given, because the men under it were oppressed by carnal observances after the manner of slaves and foreigners: “This is a yoke which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear” (Acts 15:10). This mountain neighbors on Jerusalem not by a spatial continuity but by a likeness to that Jerusalem which now is , i.e., to the Jewish people, because just as they love earthly things and for the sake of temporal things are under the bondage of sin, so that mountain engendered unto bondage.
But this does not seem to be the Apostle’s intention. For he wants to bring out that from the very place of bondage the Old Testament, which was given on Mount Sinai, engenders unto bondage, because it was given on Sinai not as a place where the children of Israel were to remain, but as a stage in their journey to the promised land. For Jerusalem, too, engenders sons unto bondage. Hence it is with respect to this that Mount Sinai is continuous with her. And this is what he says: which hath affinity to that (i.e., by being part of the continuous route followed by those going to Jerusalem) Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children, i.e., the bondage of legal observances (from which Christ redeemed us) and of various sins—“He that commits sins is the servant of sin” (Jn 8:34)—and, literally, from bondage under the Romans who were their masters.
Then when he says, But that Jerusalem which is above is free , he discloses the mystery of the free woman.
First, he discloses the mystery;
Secondly, he refers to a prophecy (v. 27).
The first can be understood in two ways, accordingly as we understand this mother to be the one by whom we are engendered, which is the Church Militant, or the mother whose sons we become, which is the Church Triumphant: “He hath regenerated us unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3). Hence we are so generated in the present Church Militant as to arrive at the Triumphant. Therefore in explaining it thus, our mother is described by four things: by her sublimity, when he says, above ; secondly, by name, when he says, Jerusalem ; thirdly by her freedom, when he says, is free , fourthly, by her fecundity when he says, our mother.
She is sublime on account of the face to face vision of God and the perfect enjoyment of God; and this, as to the Church Triumphant: “Then shalt thou see, and abound, and thy heart shall wonder and be enlarged” (Is 60:5); “Mind the things that are above” (Col 3:2). Again she is sublime through faith and hope as to the Church Militant: “Our conversation is in heaven” (Phil 3:20); “Who is this that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights?” (Cant 8:5). Further, she is a peacemaker, because she is Jerusalem, i.e., vision of peace. This belongs to the Church Triumphant as having perfect peace: “Who hath placed peace in thy borders” (Ps 147:14); “My people shall sit in the beauty of peace” (Is 32:18). Likewise it pertains to the Church Militant which possesses the peace of resting in Christ: “In me you shall have peace” (Jn 16:33). Furthermore, she is free: “Because the creature also itself shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption” (Rom 8:21). And this both as to the Church Triumphant and the Church Militant according to Apoc (21:2): 1 saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.” Finally, she is fruitful, because she is our mother: Militant as engendering; Triumphant as the one whose sons we become: “Shall Sion say: This man and that man is born of her” (Ps 86:5); “Thy sons shall come from afar, and thy daughters shall rise up at thy side” (Is 60:4).
For it is written, namely in Isaiah (54:1) according to the Septuagint. Here is mentioned the prophecy through which is proved, first of all, that the mother referred to is free, and secondly, that she is fruitful. With respect to the first, it should be noted that in a fertile woman there is first sorrow in giving birth, but this is followed by joy in beholding the child: “A woman when she is in labor hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she hath brought forth the child, she remembereth no more her anguish for joy that a man is born into the world” (Jn 16:21). But a barren woman neither suffers the pangs of birth nor has joy in a child. Again there is a difference between bearing and travailing. For the latter refers to the effort to bear, whereas the former refers to the releasing of the foetus now formed. Therefore the fertile woman experiences pain in travail but joy in bearing; the sterile woman, on the other hand, experiences neither the pain of travail nor the joy of bearing.
But these are the two things which the prophet announces to the barren woman: Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not: break forth and cry, thou that travailest not. Herein he speaks of Jerusalem, which he calls free and is signified by the barren Sara. For the Church was barren, namely, the Church Militant, of the Gentiles before their conversion when they offered their sons not to God but to the devil. Hence it is said to Babylon: “Barrenness and widowhood will come upon thee, because of the multitude of thy sorceries” (Is 47:9). The Church Triumphant, too, was barren before the passion of Christ, because to her were born no sons who entered into glory, save in hope. For a mighty engine of war blocked the entrance to Paradise, so that no one might enter. To this barren one he says: Rejoice thou that bearest not. As if to say: The barren, as has been said, are sorrowful, not because they bear, but because they bear not: “As Anna had her heart full of grief, she prayed to the Lord, shedding many tears” (I Kg. 1:10). But you shall rejoice in the great number of your children: “Then shall thy heart wonder and be enlarged,” i.e., you will show the joy in your soul outwardly (Is 60:5). For there are two things in childbirth: the pain from the rupturing of the membrane enclosing the child in the womb, and the crying from pain. Hence he says, thou that travailest not, i.e., the Church Militant, that makes no effort to bear through desire, and the Church Triumphant, that does not cry for travail; or because the time for having sons has not yet come, break forth, i.e., show outwardly the joy you have within and cry with sounds of praise: “Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet” (Is 58:1). These two things, namely, to cry and to break forth, pertain to freedom.—Thus the freedom of the mother is made manifest.
He follows with the fruitfulness: for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her that hath a husband. But since it was said above that the free Church is signified by Sara, there seems to be some doubt whether Sara was desolate. I answer that she was made desolate by Abraham, as it is said here, not by a divorce but with respect to the work of the flesh. For Abraham resorted to the work of the flesh not for the pleasure but to obtain a child. Therefore when he learned that Sara was barren, he abandoned her; not by forsaking the marriage bed, but by not resorting to her from precisely the time that Sara introduced the bondwoman to him. By this we are given to understand that the Church of the Gentiles was left desolate by Christ, because Christ had not yet come; and that the Church Triumphant was desolate of men, for whom no means of entry was open. Of this desolate woman, i.e., the Church of the Gentiles, there are many children, i.e., more than of her , namely, the synagogue, that hath a husband, namely, Moses: “The barren hath borne many: and she that had many children is weakened” (I Kg. 2:5). And this is due to the coming of the spouse, namely, Christ, by Whom she had been left desolate not by want of love, but because the bearing of children had been delayed.