Complete Works of Saint Jerome, Vol. VII

(Ver. 20.) "For they are dead who sought the life of the child." From this passage, we understand that not only Herod, but also the priests and scribes had contemplated the death of the Lord at that same time.

(Ver. 21.) "Who rising, took the child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel." He did not say, "he took his son and his wife," but "the child and his mother," as if he were a guardian, not a husband.

(Ver. 22.) "But hearing that Archelaus reigned in Judea, in the place of Herod his father, he was afraid to go thither: and being warned in sleep, he withdrew into the parts of Galilee." Many fall into error due to an ignorance of history, thinking that this is the same Herod by whom the Lord is mocked during His passion, and who is said to be dead here. Therefore, that Herod who later made friends with Pilate is the son of this Herod, and the brother of Archelaus; he is the same one whom Tiberius Caesar original: "Tiberius Cæsar" banished to Lyon Lugdunum a city of the Gauls, and whose brother Herod he made successor of the kingdom. Read the history of Josephus.

(Ver. 23.) "And coming he dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was said by the prophets, that he shall be called a Nazarene." If he had established a fixed example from the Scriptures, he would never have said, that which was said by the prophets; but simply, that which was said by the prophet. Now, however, calling them "prophets" in the plural, he shows that he did not take the words from the Scriptures, but the meaning. Nazaræus Nazarene is interpreted as "holy." And all Scripture commemorates that the Lord was to be holy. We can also say it otherwise, that it is written in the same words, according to the Hebrew truth in Isaiah: There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a Nazarene shall rise from his root (Isa. xi, 1, 4).

(Chap. III. — Ver. 2.) "Do penance: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." John the Baptist is the first to preach the kingdom of heaven, so that as the precursor of the Lord, he might be honored with this privilege.

(Ver. 3.) "For this is he that was spoken of by Isaias the prophet, saying: A voice of one crying in the desert, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths." He was preparing the souls of the believers, in whom the Lord was about to walk, so that He, being pure, might walk in very pure paths, saying: I will dwell in them, and walk among them: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (Lev. xxvi, 12; II Cor. vi, 16). Porphyry compares this passage to the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, in which it is written: The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaias the prophet: Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way (Mal. iii, 1). A voice

A of one crying in the desert, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths (Isa. xl, 3). Since the text is woven from the testimony of both Malachy and Isaiah, he asks how we can think the example was assumed from Isaiah alone. Men of the Church have answered him most fully. We, however, think the name of Isaiah was added by the fault of the scribes—which we can prove in other places as well—or certainly that one body was made from diverse testimonies of the Scriptures. Read original: "Lege" the thirteenth psalm, and you will find this same thing.

(Ver. 4.) "And John himself had his garment of camels' hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins." He says it was of hair, not of wool. One thing is the indication of an austere garment, another of softer luxury. But the leathern girdle, with which Elias was also girt, is an indication or "symbol" of mortification (IV Kings i, 8). Furthermore, what follows: "And his meat was locusts and wild honey." It is fitting for an inhabitant of the wilderness not to satisfy the delights of food, but the necessity of human flesh.

(Ver. 9.) "God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones." He calls the Gentiles stones, on account of the hardness of their heart. Read Ezechiel: I will take away, he says, the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh (Ezech. xxxvi, 26). In the stone, hardness is shown; in the flesh, softness. Or, he simply indicates the power of God, that He who made all things from nothing is also able to create a people from the hardest rocks. C

(Ver. 10, 11.) "For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you in water unto penance: but he that shall come after me, is mightier than I." The preaching of the evangelical word, which is a sword sharp on both sides, is called an axe, according to the prophet Jeremiah, who compares the word of the Lord to an axe cutting a rock (Jer. xlvi, 22).

"Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear." In another Gospel: Whose, he says, I am not worthy to unloose the latchet of his shoe (Luke iii, 16). Here humility is demonstrated, there the mystery that Christ is the bridegroom, and John does not deserve to unloose the bridegroom's latchet, lest his house be called, according to the law of Moses and the example of Ruth, the house of the unshod (Deut. xxv, 10, and Ruth iv, 8-11).

(Ver. 11, 12.) "He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire. Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his floor: and will gather the wheat into his barn: but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable."