St Luke Chapter XIII : Verses 1-9
Contents
- Luke xiii. Verses 1-9. Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text & Latin text (Vulgate)
- Douay-Rheims 1582 text
- Annotations based on the Great Commentary
Luke xii. Verses 1-9.
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| The tower fell in Siloe, and slew them. (verse 4) J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
Aderant autem quidam ipso in tempore, nuntiantes illi de Galilæis, quorum sanguinem Pilatus miscuit cum sacrificiis eorum.
2 And he answering, said to them: Think you that these Galileans were sinners above all the men of Galilee, because they suffered such things?
Et respondens dixit illis : Putatis quod hi Galilæi præ omnibus Galilæis peccatores fuerint, quia talia passi sunt?
3 No, I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish.
Non, dico vobis : sed nisi pœnitentiam habueritis, omnes similiter peribitis.
4 Or those eighteen upon whom the tower fell in Siloe, and slew them: think you, that they also were debtors above all the men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
Sicut illi decem et octo, supra quos cecidit turris in Siloe, et occidit eos : putatis quia et ipsi debitores fuerint praeter omnes homines habitantes in Jerusalem?
5 No, I say to you; but except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish.
Non, dico vobis : sed si pœnitentiam non egeritis, omnes similiter peribitis.
6 He spoke also this parable: A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none.
Dicebat autem et hanc similitudinem : Arborem fici habebat quidam plantatam in vinea sua, et venit quaerens fructum in illa, et non invenit.
7 And he said to the dresser of the vineyard: Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down therefore: why cumbereth it the ground?
Dixit autem ad cultorem vineæ : Ecce anni tres sunt ex quo venio quærens fructum in ficulnea hac, et non invenio : succide ergo illam : ut quid etiam terram occupat?
8 But he answering, said to him: Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it, and dung it.
At ille respondens, dicit illi : Domine dimitte illam et hoc anno, usque dum fodiam circa illam, et mittam stercora,
9 And if happily it bear fruit: but if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.
et siquidem fecerit fructum : sin autem, in futurum succides eam.
Douay-Rheims : 1582 text
1. AND there were certaine preſent at that very time telling him of the Galilæans, whose bloud Pilate mingled with their ſacrifices.
2. And he anſwering said to them: Thinke you that these Galilæans were ſinners more then al the Galilæans, that they ſuffred ſuch things?
3. No, I ſay to you: but vnles you haue pennance, you ſhal al likewiſe periſh.
4. As thoſe eighteene vpon whom the toure fel in Siloe, and ſlew them: thinke you that they also were debters aboue al the men that dwel in Hieruſalem?
5. No, I ſay to you: but if you haue not pennance you ſhal al likewiſe periſh.
6. And he ſaid this ſimilitude: A certaine man had a figtree planted in his vineyard, and he came ſeeking for fruit on it, and found not.
7. And he ſaid to the dreſſer of the vineyard, Loe it is three yeares ſince I come ſeeking for fruit vpon this figtree, and I find not. Cut it downe therfore; whereto doth it also occupie the ground?
8. But he anſwering ſaid to him: Lord, let it alone this yeare also, vntil I digge about it, and dung it.
9. And if happily it yeald fruit: but if not, hereafter thou ſhalt cut it downe.
Annotations
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| Mt Gerizim in Samaria |
It may be said, “Josephus asserts them to have been Samaritans; how then does Christ call them Galileans?” The answer is, “They were called Samaritans from their country and nation, but Galileans from their sect and heresy.” So says Baronius. To explain the matter, observe that Judas of Galilee, as St. Luke says, Acts v. 37, was the author of the sect of Galileans who rebelled against Cæsar, saying that it was not lawful for the Jews, who were a faithful people, and worshipped the true God, to be subject to Cæsar, a Gentile, and an idolater, and to give him tribute; for they ought to acknowledge and obey no other lord but God. So S. Cyril in the Catena, Theophylact, Euthymius, and Titus. Hence Pilate sent a force and destroyed them. This sect arose about the time of Christ. Hence Christ and the Apostles, being Galileans by nation, were accused of the same, and they therefore carefully taught in opposition that tribute ought to be given to kings and to Cæsar, even if Gentiles. Francis Lucas thinks that these Galileans were slain by Pilate in Jerusalem, when they were sacrificing in the Temple, because Pilate was Procurator of Judæa and not of Samaria. But Josephus plainly says that they were killed in Mount Gerizim, which is in Samaria. The Samaritans, moreover, were a schism from the Jews, and would not go into the Temple at Jerusalem, but built another in their own power on Mount Gerizim, as we find from S. John iv. 20. Pilate therefore attacked these Samaritans as rebels, and put them to death in Samaria, as open enemies to Cæsar.
When the slaughter of the Samaritans was frequently repeated, there were different opinions on the subject, many affirming that they were wicked men and hated by God; their sacrifices not only being rejected but also mixed with their blood. They related this to Christ and asked His opinion of the matter, but Christ made a wise use of this occasion, and drew from it an argument to rouse them to repentance, lest a similar vengeance should fall upon them. The preacher should follow this example, and when public slaughter, pest, famine, or wars befall, exhort his people to repentance, that they may escape such inflictions and, with them, the torments of Gehenna.
2. And he answering, said to them: Think you, &c. They did think this, but wrongly, for God often corrects those who sin less heavily, to make them an example and a terror to others, and so incite them to penitence. So Bede, Titus, and others.
3. No, I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish. “Likewise”—that is, by a similar death, none excepted, says Maldonatus; and so Wisdom vi. 8: “For God will not except any man's person, neither will he stand in awe of any man's greatness: for he made the little and the great, and he hath equally care of all.” Secondly, and more simply, You shall equally perish, though by another kind of death, by an eternal instead of a temporal one, or even by a temporal. Thirdly, and properly, Jansenius says, “By a similar death; the destruction and vengeance of God.” For the Jews were besieged by Titus at the time of the Passover, when they were sacrificing; and, when the city was taken, many were slain in the temple, where they were sacrificing, and accustomed to sacrifice. So Euthymius, S. Thomas, Hugo, N. de Lyra, S. Cyril in the Catena.
Observe that Christ here teaches us, in like calamities, to give our minds to the thought of our sins, and to repentance, that we fall not into the like punishments of God.
Symbolically, Bede says that Pilate means, the mouth of the hammerer, (os malleatoris) that is, the Devil, who is always ready to destroy. “Blood”—that is, sin and concupiscence. The sacrifices are good actions which the Devil, either for the delight of the flesh, or from the ambition of human praise, or some other evil motive, pollutes.
4. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower fell in Siloe, There was a fountain, or rather pool, near Jerusalem of which Isaiah speaks, “Forasmuch as this people hath cast away the waters of Siloe, that go with silence,,” viii. 6. Near this fountain was a tower also called Siloë, from it, which in the time of Christ fell down, either from the force of the wind, or from lightning, or an earthquake, or some other like cause, and destroyed eighteen persons who were either in it, or standing near. This, if we only regard secondary causes, may have happened by chance; but if we consider the one primary one, that is, God, it was done by His appointed Providence, who determines to punish some and to terrify others. For with God nothing is fortuitous, but everything is certainly foreseen and prepared, that nothing in His Kingdom should, as Boethius says, be ascribed to chance or temerity. God, then, orders these events for the chastisement and correction of man, that others, seeing their neighbours killed by the fall of a tower or some other sudden accident, may fear lest something similar happen to themselves, and so may repent and reconcile themselves to God, lest they be overwhelmed by His judgments and condemned to Gehenna. This is what God said by the prophet Amos, “Shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it?” iii.6; and by Isaiah, “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil” xlv.7. The poets and philosophers saw the same through a shade:
—O qui res hominumque Deumque, Æternis regis imperiis, et fulmine terres.“O Thou who dost the affairs Of men and gods, by laws eternal rule, And by thy lightning fierce dost terrify.”
And Plutarch (In Moral.),
“As if a blind man should fall against a person, and call that person blind for not avoiding him, so we make Fortune blind, whereas we stumble against her from our own want of sight. For this very ‘Fortuna fortunans,’ which is, in truth, no other than God Himself, and the Providence of God is most keen of sight, and has many more eyes than Argus.”
Symbolically. “The tower,” says Bede, “is Christ, Siloë, that is, He who is sent by the Father into the world, and who crushes to powder all the wicked upon whom He falls, through the sentence of His condemnation.”
debtors above all the men that dwelt in Jerusalem? “Sinners”—the Arabic has culpabiles; the Chaldaic, charebim, i.e. debtors (for a debtor owes his soul, that is 10,000 talents, S. Matt, xviii. 24, to God). Christ shows clearly that these eighteen who were killed by the fall of the tower of Siloam, were sinners, though not, perhaps, the worst and greatest that were in Jerusalem.
5. No, I say to you; but except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish. “This shows,” says S. Chrysostom, “that these eighteen were appointed as an example and terror to the others; though each was punished for his own sins. This was made wholesome matter for others, that the fool might be made wiser by the event. For God does not punish all here, but He leaves a time for repentance. Again, he does not leave all for a future punishment, lest many should deny His Providence.”
6, 7.—He spoke also this parable: “cumbereth”—the Greek is κατάργει, that is, loads with a useless burthen, nay, renders the ground barren and fruitless, as well by its shade as by its roots, which keep the earth’s moisture from the other trees. The Syriac says, “keeps it idle;” for ἄργον, is idle, inert, devoid of strength.
In the letter the fig-tree represents the synagogue of the Jews, which God planted through Moses; to which Christ came by the Incarnation, to cultivate it by His preaching. Christ, therefore, is the keeper of the vine, that is, of the synagogue, to whom God said, “Cut it down, for now for three years in which Thou hast preached to it, I have looked for the fruit of faith and good works, and I find none, from the unbelief, perverseness, and malice of the Jews.” Christ intercedes for it, that the Father would allow Him to tend it by His preaching for one year more, or, at least, for half an one; and then, if it gave no fruit, it might be cut down. So it came to pass: for the Jews, in the fourth year of Christ’s preaching, at the Passover, adding sin to sin, and becoming more and more perverse, crucified Him; so that, a few years after, Titus was sent by God as His avenger, and took Jerusalem, and destroyed all Judæa. What remains are additions belonging to the finish of the parable, which it is unnecessary to apply to what is signified by it.
S. Ambrose observes, that the fig-tree is an apt symbol of the Synagogue: first, because it was a tree with abundance of leaves, but which disappointed its owner in his hope of fruit. Secondly, while the doctors of the Synagogue were fruitless of good works and boasted only of words like redundant leaves, the vain shadow of the law flourished exuberantly, but the false hope of the expected produce deceived the prayers of the people.
Secondly, as the fig puts out a green, that is an immature, fig (grossum) instead of blossoms, which soon falls, and then produces a savoury and solid fruit, so the Synagogue firstly put forth the Jews, like green and evanescent fruit, and then, through Christ, gave Christians, like mature and savoury figs. So Pliny, vii. 7, “Figs are produced late, if the green fruit, when exceeding the size of a bean, are taken away, for then are produced figs that ripen later.”
Tropologically. The fig is any individual person, especially a believer; the gardener is Christ, the Apostles, and the like; the Lord is God the Father, or the Holy Trinity. Our own Salmeron (tom. vii., tract 21), gives various reasons and analogies, why the faithful are compared to a fig. 1. The fig produces sweet fruit, which seems to be purses of honey and sugar, and the righteous produce the like. 2. As the fig tree increases little in height but is always short, so the righteous cast themselves down, and humble themselves. 3. The fig, instead of blossoms, gives fruit, and that twice; namely, the early ripe in the summer, and in the autumn the later—for the fig bears twice a year, as the righteous is ever plentifully bringing forth the fruit of good works. 4. As the fig makes a shade with its ample leaves, so the righteous defends and protects others by his charity. 5. The fig is never grafted into another tree, because of its exceeding sweetness, which cannot leave it. So the righteous rests in no man, but in God alone and his own conscience. 6. The fig tree, if stripped of its bark, gives no fruit, but withers away; and the righteous, unless protected by the bark of honest conversation, modesty, and outward decency, will bring no fruit with his neighbours. 7. The fig has medical properties, and heals diseases, as Isaiah healed Hezekiah by means of a fig (Isa. xxxviii. 21). Pliny also says that the fig alone, of trees, has medical virtues. So the righteous, because he is perfect and mature in virtue, ministers to the infirmities of others, by teaching, advising, and living holily. He adds that lopping and pruning it remedies its too great luxuriousness; as the righteous by circumcising and cutting off the desire of honour above, and the appetites of the senses below, by meditations on death and burial, is rendered fruitful in virtue and good works, and converts many of his neighbours to God.
Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. This alludes to the nature of the fig tree, which sometimes gives fruit in its third year. If not then, it commonly does not give it at all.
Symbolically, these three years, according to Euthymius, signify the three policies or political status of the Jews, under the Judges, Kings, and the High Priests, namely the Maccabees. St. Ambrose says
“He came to Abraham, He came to Moses, He came to Mary; that is, He came in circumcision, He came in the Law, He came in the body. We acknowledge His Advent from His benefits to us. In the first, Purification; in the second, Sanctification; in the third, Justification—Circumcision purified, the Law sanctified, Grace justified—one in all, and all in one; no one can be cleansed but one who fears God: no one deserves to receive the Law but one who is purified from sin: no one comes to Grace but he who knows the Law.”
So also St. Cyril:
“God sought the nature of the human race before the Law, under the Law, and under Grace by waiting, admonishing, visiting; but some are not corrected by the natural law, nor taught by precept, nor converted by miracle.”
Tropologically, these three years, says Theophylact, are the three ages of man—childhood; full manhood; and old age. For every one ought at all times to bring forth the fruits of virtue to God, as is fitting and proportionate to every age. God, who would have no age of man idle, requires these of every one.
8. But he answering, said to him: He, namely, the dresser of the Vine, Christ and the Apostles, answering said to him. Christ and the Apostles, says the Interlineator, knowing that some of the Jews could be saved, pray God to delay the avenging of the Lord’s cross, that is, the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus.
and dung it. This is, as S. Ambrose says, the feeling of humility, and S. Augustine (De Verb. Dom.): “Dung is filth, but it causes fruitfulness. The filth of the vine-dresser is the grief of the sinner.” And S. Gregory, “Dung is the sins of the flesh, from which the mind is roused to good works.”
9. And if happily it bear fruit: Understand, “It shall be well, it shall be safe, and it shall be saved.” It is an aposiopesis [A rhetorical artifice, in which the speaker comes to a sudden halt] The Arabic adds, “For it has brought forth fruit.” The Synagogue formerly gave fruit under Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and others.
but if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. As God cut down the Jews by the Romans.
Mystically, S. Augustine (De Verb. Dom.) says: “He who intercedes is all holy; who, within the Church, prays for those who are without.” To dig about the conscience is to teach humility and patience, and to engraft on the mind the consideration of heaven and heavenly things, lest, as S. Ambrose says, the heap overwhelm the root of earthly wisdom and of earthly desires and hide it from view.
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SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.
The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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