All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
12. "Thou hast put," he says, "all things in subjection under His feet." When he says, "all things," he excepts nothing. And that he might not be allowed to understand it otherwise, the Apostle enjoins it to be believed thus, when he says, "He being excepted which put all things under Him." And to the Hebrews he uses this very testimony from this Psalm, when he would have it to be understood that all things are in such sort put under our Lord Jesus Christ, as that nothing should be excepted. And yet he does not seem, as it were, to subjoin any great thing, when he says, "All sheep and oxen, yea, moreover, the beasts of the field, birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, which walk through the paths of the sea" (ver. 7). For, leaving the heavenly excellencies and powers, and all the hosts of Angels, leaving even man himself, he seems to have put under Him the beasts merely; unless by sheep and oxen we understand holy souls, either yielding the fruit of innocence, or even working that ...
All sheep. St. Paul did not judge it necessary to specify these things, as they are included in the word all. (Berthier) These tame cattle designate the believing Jews; beasts, the Gentile converts; birds, the proud; fishes, the voluptuous. (St. Athanasius)
The birds may also be put for men of genius, who dive into the secrets of theology; and fishes, for anxious world lings. (Hesychius)
Sts. Augustine and Jerome understand that people who labour not for their salvation, or who are attached to the earth, men who rise up against God, or never elevate their thoughts to heaven, are emblematically specified by these creatures.
