The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maiden.
Read Chapter 30
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
An eagle and a ship and a serpent are not of one family and nature but of a distinguishable and different substance, and yet they are three. On the testimony of Scripture, therefore, [the Arians] learn that their arguments are against themselves. Therefore, in saying that the substance of the Father and of the Son is diverse and their Godhead distinguishable, [the Arians] themselves assert there are two gods. But we, when we confess the Father and the Son, in declaring them still to be of one Godhead, say that there are not two gods but one God. And this we establish by the Word of the Lord. –.
With regard to history, it is as written thus. But because this speaks in parables, “the way of the eagle in the heavens” is discovered only with difficulty, referring as it does to the subtlety of the enemy whereby great effort is required to detect his flight around the hearts of heavenly people. The same is true for “the way of the serpent upon the earth,” that is, the cunning of the venomous enemy with which he does not cease to plot against those whom he perceives to be founded upon the rock of faith. Likewise for “the way of the ship in the middle of the sea,” that is, the way of iniquity whereby he moves with such subtlety through the bitter waves of this world, agitated by the winds of unclean spirits, that his journey can be hardly detected or not at all. For the prophet testifies that the eagle signifies this malignant adversary, saying, “Our persecutors were faster than the eagles of heaven,” that is, the people who pursued us were so fierce that they appeared to be even mor...
Youth. Hebrew, "a virgin. "The "conception of a mighty man (the Messias; Haydock) in a virgin "is fitly compared to the flight of an eagle in the air, which leaves no trace behind, and is the most difficult to comprehend. See Jeremias xxxi. 22.; Univ. Hist. iii. p. 144, note. Isaiah vii. 14.; Parkhurst in alm. (Haydock)
Some of the Jews have admitted this explanation. (Cornelius a Lap ide)
Others understand that the marks of virginity are equivocal; (Bossuet) or, if we stick to the Vulgate and Septuagint, the difference betwixt a child and a young man is extremely great, and almost incomprehensible. (Calmet)
Young people who follow their carnal appetite, can no more give an account of their actions than of the course of an eagle (Worthington)
His wanderings are manifold. The Hebrew seems to contain a prophecy of Christ's conception.
As a serpent cannot mark its track upon a rock, so the devil could not find sin in the body of Christ. For the Lord says, “Behold, the prince of the world comes and will find nothing in me.” For as a ship, sailing in the sea, leaves no traces of its way behind it, so neither does the church, which is situated in the world as in a sea, leave her hope upon the earth, because she has her life reserved in heaven; and as it holds her way here only for a short time, it is not possible to trace out her course.… “There are three things which I cannot understand, and the fourth I know not: the tracks of an eagle flying,” that is, Christ’s ascension; “and the ways of a serpent upon a rock,” that is, that the devil did not find a trace of sin in the body of Christ; “and the ways of a ship crossing the sea,” that is, the ways of the church, which is in this life as in a sea and which is directed by its hope in Christ through the cross; “and the ways of a man in youth”—the ways of him, namely, who ...
For as a serpent cannot mark its track upon a rock, so the devil could not find sin in the body of Christ. For the Lord says, “Behold, the prince of this world cometh, and will find nothing in me.”(John xiv. 30.)—For as a ship, sailing in the sea, leaves no traces of her way behind her, so neither does the Church, which is situate in the world as in a sea, leave her hope upon the earth, because she has her life reserved in heaven; and as she holds her way here only for a short time, it is not possible to trace out her course.—As the Church does not leave her hope behind in the world, her hope in the incarnation of Christ which bears us all good, she did not leave the track of death in Hades.—Of whom but of Him who is born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin?—who, in renewing the perfect man in the world, works miracles, beginning from the baptism of John, as the Evangelist also testifies: And Jesus was then beginning to be about thirty years of age. This, then, was the youthful and bloom...
For as a serpent cannot mark its track upon a rock, so the devil could not find sin in the body of Christ. For the Lord says, “Behold, the prince of this world cometh, and will find nothing in me.” —For as a ship, sailing in the sea, leaves no traces of her way behind her, so neither does the Church, which is situate in the world as in a sea, leave her hope upon the earth, because she has her life reserved in heaven; and as she holds her way here only for a short time, it is not possible to trace out her course.—As the Church does not leave her hope behind in the world, her hope in the incarnation of Christ which bears us all good, she did not leave the track of death in Hades.—Of whom but of Him who is born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin?—who, in renewing the perfect man in the world, works miracles, beginning from the baptism of John, as the Evangelist also testifies: And Jesus was then beginning to be about thirty years of age. This, then, was the youthful and blooming period of ...
