Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they consoled him, and comforted him over all the trouble that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and everyone a ring of gold.
All Commentaries on Job 42:11 Go To Job 42
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
23. What is designated by the eating of bread but charity, and what by the moving of the head but admiration? But it is well subjoined, And comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. For to console the grief of one that had been smitten, is to rejoice with him on his pardon after he had been smitten. For the more a person is seen to rejoice on the restoration of his neighbour’s health, the more does he give proof that he had grieved at its loss.
And they gave him each one sheep, and one earring of gold.
24. Although all these things are truly stated according to the history, we are yet compelled by the very gifts which were offered to go back to the mystery of allegory. For we ought not to hear in a listless manner that they offered a sheep, and a single one, and a golden earring, and a single one. And if perhaps it is not wonderful in the mere letter why the sheep which was offered was one, yet it is very wonderful why the earring was one. But what reference has a sheep to an earring, or an earring to a sheep? We are compelled therefore, by the very definiteness [‘fine’] of the gifts, to examine in the mysteries of allegory the former statements also, which we have run through and treated superficially according to the mere history. Because therefore Christ and the Church, that is, the Head and the body, are one person, we have often said that blessed Job sometimes typifies the head, sometimes the body. Preserving then the truth of the history, let us understand that as performed under the type of the Church, which is written, The Lord added all that had been to Job twofold. For though Holy Church now loses many by the stroke of temptation, yet in the end of this world she receives those things that are her own, twofold, when, having received the Gentiles in full number, all Judaea also which shall then be found, agrees to run to her faith. For hence it is written, Until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in, and so all Israel should be saved. [Rom. 11, 25. 26.] Hence the Truth also says in the Gospel, Elias shall come, and he shall restore all things. [Matt. 17, 11] For now the Church has lost the Israelites, which she was unable to convert by preaching, but when, at that time, on the preaching of Elias, she gathers together as many as she shall have found, she receives as it were in fuller measure that which she has lost.
25. Or certainly, for Holy Church to rejoice over each of us at both the blessedness of our soul, and the incorruption of our body, is for her to receive double at her end. For hence is that which is said of the Elect by the Prophet, In their land they shall possess the double. [Is. 61, 7] Hence it is that the Apostle John says of the Saints who were seeking for the end of the world; While robes were given, unto every one of them one, and it was said unto them that they should rest yet a little season, until the number of their fellow-servants and of their brethren should be filled up. [Rev. 6, 11] For as we have said a great way above, [Pref. chap. 10] the Saints receive a single garment before the resurrection, because they enjoy the happiness of their souls alone; but in the end of the world they are about to have, each of them, two, because, together with blessedness of mind, they will possess also the glory of the flesh.
26. But these words which are subjoined attest that they rather announce the conversion of the Jewish people at the end of this world. For it is added; There came to him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all that knew him before, and did eat bread with him in his house. For then do His brethren and sisters come to Christ, when as many as shall have been found of the Jewish people are converted. For from that people He took the substance of His flesh. His brethren and sisters therefore then come to Him, when from that people which is united to Him by kindred, either those who are about to be strong, as brethren, or weak, as sisters, flock to Him with devout congratulation through the knowledge of the Faith. They then set forth in His house a banquet of most crowded festivity, when they no longer despise Him as a mere man, and, mindful of their relationship, rejoice together in cleaving to His Godhead. They then eat bread in His house, when they put aside the observance of the letter which is inferior, and feed, as it were, on the marrow of the grain of mystical teaching in Holy Church. But it is well subjoined; All who knew Him before. For they knew Him before, Whom they scorned in His Passion as if unknown to them. For no one who completely learned the Law was ignorant that Christ would be born. Whence even Herod the king, when alarmed by the coming of the Magi, endeavoured to enquire diligently of the priests and riders, where they knew Christ would be born; to whom they immediately answered; In Bethlehem of Judah. [Matt. 2, 5] They therefore knew Him before, Whom they knew not, when they despised Him at the time of His Passion. And both their former knowledge and their subsequent ignorance is well and briefly signified by the dimness of Isaac. For when he was blessing Jacob, he both foresaw what would afterwards happen, and knew not who was standing before him. [Gen. 27, 1] Thus in truth was the people of the Israelites, which received the mysteries of prophecy, but yet had eyes which were dim in contemplation, because it saw not Him when present, of Whom it foresaw so many things in the time to come. For it was unable to see Him when standing in its presence, the might of Whose coming it had long before announced. But, behold! they come at the end of the world, and recognise Him Whom they knew before. Behold! they eat bread in His house, because they feed on the grain of sacred doctrine in Holy Church, and shake off all the insensibility of their former torpor. Whence it is subjoined; And they moved the head over him. For what is understood by the head but the ruling power [‘principale’] of the mind? As is said by the Psalmist; Thou hast made fat my head with oil. [Ps. 23, 5] As if it were plainly said, Thou hast watered with the unction of charity my mind which is dried up in its thoughts. The head therefore is moved, when the mind, smitten with dread of truth, is roused from its insensibility. Let the kinsmen [‘parentes’] then come to the banquet, and having shaken off their drowsiness, let them move their head; that is, let those who are connected with our Redeemer in the flesh, enjoy at last the refreshment of the word by faith, and lose the hardness of their former insensibility. Whence it is well said by Habakkuk; His feet stood, and the earth is moved. [Hab. 3, 6] For the earth is doubtless moved when the Lord stands, because when He imprints on our heart the footsteps of His fear, every earthly thought in us trembles. In this place, therefore, to move the head, is to shake off the immoveableness of the mind, and to approach to the knowledge of the faith by the steps of belief.
27. But because Holy Church suffers now from the estrangement of the Hebrews, and then is relieved by their conversion, it is rightly subjoined; And comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. They, namely, console Christ, they console the Church, who repent of the error of their former unbelief, and abandon the depravity of life by which they had opposed the teachers of the truth. Is it not a weighty sorrow to preach fruitlessly to hard hearts, to endure labour in setting forth the truth, but to find no fruit of our labour from the conversion of our hearers? But the subsequent progress of their hearers is on the other hand a great consolation to preachers. For the conversion of a learner [‘proficientis’] is a consolation to his teacher. And it is to be observed that they would not console him when exposed to the scourge, but that they come to console him after the scourge; doubtless because the Hebrews, despising at the time of His Passion the preaching of the faith, disdained to believe Him to be God, Whom they had proved to be a man by His death. Whence the Lord says by the Psalmist, I looked for one to lament with Me, and there was none; I sought for one to comfort Me, and I found none. [Ps. 69, 20] For He found no one to comfort Him in His Passion, because in His contempt of death He endured even His very enemies, for whom He came to death. After his scourging, then, his neighbours come to console him; because the Lord now also suffers in His members, but in the last times all the Israelites flock together to the faith, on hearing the preaching of Elias, and return to the protection of Him from Whom they had fled; and then is celebrated that splendid banquet by the manifold assemblage of the people. At that time Job is shewn, as it were, to be in health after his scourging, when, to those who are converted and believe, the Lord is by the certainty of faith known to live, after His passion and resurrection, immortal in the heavens. At that time Job is as it were seen to be rewarded, when in the power of His Majesty He is believed to be God, as He is, and those who before resisted Him are seen to be subjected to the faith. Let the believing Hebrews therefore assemble together at the end of the world, and offer, as if to Job in health, the vows of their oblations to the Redeemer of mankind in the power of His Godhead. Whence it is also well subjoined; And they gave him each one sheep, and one earring of gold. What is designated by a ‘sheep’ but innocence, what by an ‘earring’ but obedience? For by a sheep is expressed an innocent mind, but by an earring, hearing adorned with the grace of humility.
28. But because a fit opportunity has offered itself for setting forth the virtue of obedience, let us examine into it with somewhat more attention and care, and point out how great is its merit. For obedience is the sole virtue which implants other virtues in the mind, and keeps them safe when planted. Whence also the first man received a precept to keep, to which if he had willed obediently to submit himself, he would attain without labour to eternal blessedness. Hence Samuel says; For obedience is better than victims, and to hearken rather than to offer the fat of rams, because to rebel is as the sin of witchcraft, and to refuse to obey as the sin of idolatry. [1 Sam. 15, 22. 23.] For obedience is justly preferred to victims, because by victims the flesh of another, but by obedience our own will, is offered up; a person therefore appeases God the more quickly, the more he represses before His eyes the pride of his own will, and immolates himself with the sword of the commandment. And on the other hand, disobedience is said to be the sin of witchcraft, in order that it might be pointed out how great a virtue is obedience. It is shewn therefore the better from its opposite what is thought in its praise. For if to rebel is as the sin of witchcraft, and to refuse to obey as the guilt of idolatry, it is the sole virtue which possesses the merit of faith, without which a person is convicted of being an unbeliever, though he seem to be a believer [‘fidelia’]. Hence it is said by Solomon in speaking of obedience; An obedient man speaketh of victories. [Prov. 21, 28] For an obedient man in truth speaketh of victories, because, when we humbly submit ourselves to the voice of another, we overcome ourselves in our heart. Hence the Truth says in the Gospel; Him that cometh to Me I will not cast out, for I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. [John 6, 37. 38.] For what? if He were doing His own will, would He have rejected those who come to Him? But who can be ignorant that the will of the Son differs not from the will of the Father? But since the first man went forth from the joy of Paradise, because he wished to do his own will; the second Man coming for the redemption of men, when He shews that He does the will of the Father, and not His own will, taught us to remain firm within. When therefore He does not His own will, but that of the Father, He casts not out those that come unto Him, because, while by His own example He brings us under the rule of obedience, He closes against us the way of escape. Hence again He says; I can of Mine own Self do nothing; but as I hear I judge. [John 5, 30] For obedience is enjoined on us to be observed even to death. But if He judges as He hears, He obeys also at that time when He comes as Judge. Lest then obedience to the end of our life should appear wearisome to us, our Redeemer points out that He practises it, even when He comes as a Judge. What wonder then if man who is a sinner subjects himself to obedience in the short period of the present life, when the Mediator between God and men does not abandon it, even when He recompenses the obedient.
29. But it should be known, that a sin ought never to be committed, through obedience, but that sometimes a good deed which is being performed ought, through obedience, to be given up. For the tree in Paradise was not evil, which God commanded man not to touch. But in order that man, who was rightly created, might increase the better by the merit of obedience, it was right that He should prohibit him even what was good; in order that his conduct might be more truly virtue, the more humbly he shewed that he was subject to his Maker, by forbearing what was good. But it should be observed that it is there said, Eat ye of every tree of paradise, but touch ye not of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. [Gen. 2, 16. 17.] For it is necessary that he who forbids those under him one good thing, should concede many, lest the mind of the person who obeys should perish utterly, if it is famished from having been entirely shut out from all good things. But the Lord granted all other trees of Paradise for food, when He prohibited them from one, in order that He might restrain His creature, whose advancement He desired, and not its destruction, the more easily from one, the greater liberty He gave for the rest.
30. But because sometimes worldly advantages, and sometimes worldly losses, are enjoined on us, it should he especially understood that sometimes if obedience has something of its own, it is none at all, but sometimes if it has not something of its own, it is a very paltry obedience. For when success in this world is enjoined, when a higher rank is commanded to be taken, he who obeys these commands makes void for himself the virtue of his obedience, if he is eager for these things with longing of his own. For he guides not himself by the rule of obedience, who in attaining to the good things of this life gives way to his own natural desire of ambition. Again, when contempt for the world is enjoined, when the endurance of reproaches and insults is commanded us, unless the mind desires these things of itself, it diminishes the merit of its obedience, because it descends reluctantly and against its will to those things which are despised in this life. For obedience incurs loss, when its own consent does not in a measure accompany a mind in submitting to the reproaches of this world. Obedience then ought both in adversity to have something of its own, and again in prosperity to have nothing at all of its own; in order that in adversity it may be more glorious, the more it is united even in desire to the Divine ordinance, and may be more sincere in prosperity, the more entirely it is separated in desire from that present glory, which it obtains from God.
31. But we shew more clearly this value of virtue if we mention the doings of two men of the heavenly country. For Moses, when he was feeding sheep in the desert, was called by the Lord speaking to him in the fire by means of an Angel, to take the lead in the deliverance of all the multitude of the Israelites. But because he was humble in his own mind, he trembled at once at the glory of such authority which had been offered to him, and immediately had recourse to his weakness as a defence, saying, I beseech Thee, O Lord, I am not eloquent: from yesterday and the day before, since Thou hast begun to speak unto Thy servant, I am of a more hesitating and slower tongue. [Exod. 4, 10] And, having put himself aside, he asks for another, saying; Send whom Thou wilt send. [ib. 13] Behold, he is speaking with the Maker of his tongue, and that he may not undertake the power of such great authority, he alleges that he has no tongue. Paul had also been admonished by God that he ought to go up to Jerusalem, as he himself says to the Galatians; Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem, taking with me Barnabas and Titus; but I went up by revelation. [Gal. 2, 1] And when he had found on his journey the Prophet Agabus, he heard from him what adversity awaited him in Jerusalem. For it is written that this Agabus placed Paul’s girdle on his own feet, and said; So shall they bind at Jerusalem the man whose girdle this is. [Acts 21, 11] Paul immediately answered; I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of Jesus; [ib. 13]] neither do I count my life more precious than myself. [Acts 20, 24] Going up then to Jerusalem by the command of revelation, he knows his sufferings, and yet he willingly seeks them, he hears of things to fear, but yet he more ardently pants after them. Moses therefore has nothing of his own to lead him on to prosperity, because he strives in his prayers not to be set over the people of Israel. But Paul is even by his own wish led on to suffering, because he gains a knowledge of the evils that threaten him, but yet in his devotion of spirit he is eager for sharper sufferings. The one wished, though God commanded him, to decline the glory of present power; the other when God had provided severity and hardships, yet studied to prepare himself for severer sufferings. We are taught then by the stubborn virtue of both these leaders going before, that if we truly endeavour to lay hold on the reward of obedience, we must contend for the prosperity of this world only by command, but that we must fight against its trials with devotion.
32. But it must be observed, that in this place a sheep is offered with an earring, and an earring with a sheep; doubtless because the ornament of obedience is always connected with innocent minds, as the Lord witnesses, Who says; My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. [John 10, 29] No one therefore offered blessed Job an earring without a sheep, no one a sheep without an earring; because, in truth, he who is not innocent obeys not his Redeemer, and he cannot be innocent who despises obedience. But since this very obedience must be maintained not with servile fear, but with the affection of love, not with dread of punishment, but with love of justice, all who come to the feast are said to have offered a ‘golden’ earring, in order, namely, that in that obedience which is displayed, charity should shine forth so as to surpass all virtues, as gold the other metals.
33. But because there can be no innocence, no true obedience, in the manifold divisions of heretics, let those who come to the knowledge of the faith offer a lamb, but only one; and an earring, but only one. That is, let them come so minded as to abide innocent and obedient in the unity of Holy Church. For that which is ‘one’ cannot be divided by numbers, because also this very ‘one’ of which we are speaking, is not a number. Let them offer therefore a sheep, but only one; let them offer an earring, but only one. That is, coming to Holy Church with innocence and obedience, let them offer such a mind as the schisms of sects cannot divide.
34. Let us open the eyes of faith, and contemplate that last banquet of Holy Church at the reception of the people of Israel. To which banquet that mighty Elias who is coming is engaged as the inviter of the guests. Then do neighbours, then do friends, come with gifts to Him, Whom they despised but a little before when exposed to the scourge. For as the day of judgment draws near, either by the words of His forerunner, or by certain signs which burst forth, does the might of the approaching Lord shine out in a measure before them. And while they hasten to prevent His wrath, they forward the time of their own conversion. But when converted they come with gifts, because by offering their virtuous deeds, they then reverence Him, Whom but a little before they derided in His Passion. Doubtless by this their oblation fulfilling that which we behold already made good in great measure, and which we believe is still to be made good in its fulness; The daughters of Tyre shall adore Him with gifts. [Ps. 45, 12] For then do the daughters of Tyre more fully adore Him with gifts, when the minds of the Israelites, which are now overcome by the desires of this world, bring to Him, Whom they proudly denied, when known at last, the offerings of their confession. And although at these very times, at which Antichrist draws near, the conduct of the faithful seems to be to a certain extent less virtuous, although in the contest with that ruined man, mighty fear constrains the hearts even of the strong; yet not only do all the faithful, strengthened by the preaching of Elias, remain in the firmness of Holy Church, but, as we said before, many also of the unbelievers are converted to the knowledge of the faith. So that the remnants of the nation of Israel, which had before been utterly rejected, crowd together to the bosom of the Church their Mother with the most pious devotion.
