Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, you are gone up: he stooped down, he crouched as a lion, and as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?
All Commentaries on Genesis 49:9 Go To Genesis 49
Rufinus of Aquileia
AD 411
“Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the shoot, my son, you have gone up.” With good reason the one who was crucified and resurrected with Christ is called “young lion,” as Paul, who was rightly considered to be a Judah, said when he confessed his sin: “For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” And Paul asserts that the essence of Christ [lit. “what Christ is”] is in himself when he proclaims, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Therefore a young lion is either the one who sleeps with Christ, because he died for sins, or the one who is resurrected with Christ, because he lives for God. And the son has sprouted from the shoot. Without doubt the reference here is to the one who, being a wild olive tree, was grafted onto the good olive tree. He rejected the vulgar and gross morals of the carnal nature, remaining in Christ, the true vine, through the spirit of adoption, thereby producing much fruit from his precepts. And since he is so, reclining, he sleeps like a lion. The wise man has the confidence of the lion, especially when he can assuredly assert, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” No fear, no threat, no temptation can awaken him; his decisions are firm, and his mind is stable.
