Theological Themes:
Divine Permission vs. Causation: God permits error and suffering but does not directly cause sin or deception.
Twofold Nature of the Soul: Denis distinguishes the sensitive appetite (which shrinks from pain) from the rational will (which accepts suffering for God).
Hyperbolic Lament: Jeremiah's curses are not literal imprecations but expressions of profound spiritual anguish, ordered to divine glory.
Patience and Fortitude: True virtue consists not in the absence of suffering, but in the rational acceptance of it for a higher good.
Eschatological Hope: The present life's miseries are bearable only in light of eternal beatitude.
Scholarly Method:
Denis the Carthusian exemplifies late medieval scholastic exegesis: systematic resolution of difficulties, engagement with patristic authorities (Jerome, Gregory the Great), integration of Aristotelian psychology (sensitive vs. rational soul), and a hermeneutic that harmonizes literal, allegorical, and moral senses. His commentary on Jeremiah 20 is both theologically rigorous and pastorally consoling, ordered toward the spiritual edification of religious and lay readers alike. The translation was done by Qwen.
Denis the Carthusian's Commentary on Jeremiah 20
The Prophet's Disputation Against the Adversaries of Truth
Introduction: The Persecution of Jeremiah
Henceforth is described the disputation of Jeremiah against the adversaries of truth.
"And Pashhur the son of Immer, the priest, who was appointed chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these words." (v. 1)
These words concern the destruction of Jerusalem, written in the preceding chapter.
"And Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks." (v. 2)
That is, either he struck him himself, or through one of his ministers—just as in the Acts we read that Ananias, the chief of the priests, ordered Paul's mouth to be struck (Acts 23:2).
"In the stocks" (in nervum): That is, in the pillory (cippum).
"Which was in the upper gate of Benjamin": Indeed, there was a double gate there, namely an upper and a lower one.
"In the house of the Lord": That is, within their precincts which pertained to the temple.
"And when the morning came, Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks." (v. 3)
That is, on the following day, he had him led out by his ministers.
From the preceding, the patience of Jeremiah is shown: though beaten for the sake of justice, he bore it equanimously and remained silent.
Moreover, from what follows, his fortitude is also intimated.
Verse 3: The Prophecy of a New Name
"And Jeremiah said to him: 'The Lord has not called your name Pashhur, but Terror on every side.'"
Explanation of the Name Change:
A name is said to be "called" when the thing declared by the name comes to pass or is effected. From the opposition, many have thought that the name Pashhur also expresses a happy and noble condition from which he is to be cast down, so that his punishment may be a horror and terror to all.
"Pashhur" is interpreted as "blackness of mouth" (oris nigredo). Through the mouth, the authority of commanding is designated; through blackness, the abuse of power. Since, therefore, he was soon to lose power and authority through his abuse, he is no longer called by God "Pashhur" but "Terror on every side."
The Reason for the New Name is Added:
"For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends, and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it." (v. 4)
That is, I will fill you and yours with such fear and anguish that you will merit to be named "on every side," because miseries will press upon you from every direction, and you will look about hither and thither for refuge.
"And they shall fall by the sword of their enemies": That is, your friends will be slain by the Chaldeans.
"And your eyes shall see this": So that you may be afflicted not only in your own person but also in the persons of the friends whom you have seduced.
"And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall lead them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them with the sword."
"All Judah": That is, the whole people of the Jews. Absolutely speaking, all are said to be given, though some escaped (as will be made clear below); but so few escaped that, compared to the others, they seemed as none.
"And I will give all the substance of this city, and all its labor, and all its precious things, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, and they shall plunder them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon." (v. 5)
"All its labor": Understand that which is acquired by labor—riches obtained through toil (Vatablus, Mariana, Malvenda).
"And you, Pashhur, and all the inhabitants of your house, shall go into captivity; and you shall come to Babylon, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied a lie." (v. 6)
Those friends of Pashhur, namely, who were not slain in the land. He calls their prophecy a "lie" because they declared that the city would not be taken by the Chaldeans.
Verses 7-13: Jeremiah's Prayer and Lament
Moreover, Jeremiah directs his sermon to God, humbly confessing his afflictions to Him and confidently complaining—not as though desiring vengeance, but earnestly seeking divine consolation.
"You have enticed me, O Lord, and I was enticed; You were stronger than I, and You have prevailed." (v. 7)
St. Jerome explains this passage thus:
The prophet says he was "enticed" by the Lord because, at the beginning of his illumination, hearing from God: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you" (Jer 1:5), and again: "Behold, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant" (Jer 1:10), he supposed that he would say nothing against the Jews, but against the diverse nations round about. Whence he willingly undertook the office of prophesying.
But now he testifies that the contrary has happened: so that, announcing the captivity of Jerusalem, he endured persecutions and anguish.
But since God is Truth itself, how does it pertain to Him to "entice" anyone?
Response: Directly and of Himself, effectively, God deceives no one nor causes anyone to err; but permissively only, according to that word of Ezekiel: "If the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet" (Ezek 14:9)—which is expounded of those who have erred with culpable error.
Now, Jeremiah's aforementioned error—whereby he supposed he would say nothing against the Jews—had not the character of sin, nor was it culpable, but a certain defect of fuller knowledge.
Moreover, there is a certain good and fruitful "enticement," as it were passive:
Active enticement is praiseworthy when someone industriously, through words or deeds—not false nor unjust, but prudently proposed—induces another to that to which he would not be induced so readily if the other manifested to him with his whole mind what he has in view.
Passive enticement is fruitful when someone is led through such a process to good things, with the actual or virtual estimation that the other would not lead him to such things.
Thus, according to Jerome, it seems to have happened to Jeremiah: for because in the beginning, when the Lord began to speak to him, he was still a youth, the Lord did not immediately reveal to him in what manner he would have to speak against the Jews and suffer from them.
Others say that Jeremiah utters these words according to the lower part of the soul and the sensitive or sensual appetite, by which he naturally shrank from and abhorred such great persecutions, although according to the higher portion of the soul he accepted them for God's sake—just as Christ prayed that the cup of passion might be taken away from Him (Matthew 26:39).
Whence they explain the text thus: "You have enticed me, O Lord, and I was enticed"—that is, by this, that You destined me to prophesy, I have fallen into such great penal evils that according to the sensitive part I abhor them beyond measure.
But it does not appear that on account of this horror he would assert himself to have been "enticed," unless perhaps insofar as this horror was for him an occasion of uttering these words. Therefore, the first exposition is more apt: so that Jeremiah says he was, as it were, circumvented by God, who announced and promised to him great and prosperous things, and now assigns and exercises him with so many adversities.
"I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me."
That is, incessantly I am mocked by the Jews as though I were mad or fantastical. Whence the Lord says to Ezekiel: "I have made you a portent to the house of Israel" (Ezekiel 12:6).
"All these": Namely, those who are of Pashhur the pontiff's party, "mock me"—showing derision and mental contempt with external sign, such as wrinkling of the nose.
"For since I began to speak, I cried out, crying out: 'Violence and destruction!' For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and a derision all the day." (v. 8)
That is, for many days now I have announced the destruction of Jerusalem, "crying out 'violence'"—that is, the cruelty of the Chaldeans, or the iniquity of the Jews by which they have deserved to be laid waste—"and 'destruction' I proclaim"—that is, I incessantly foretell the oppression of the Jews.
"And the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and a derision all the day": That is, because those things which I have spoken divinely have not immediately been fulfilled, nor are they yet fulfilled, they reckon me a liar and a seducer.
"And I said: I will not remember Him, nor will I speak anymore in His name." (v. 9)
That is, I will no longer revolve the words of the Lord in my mind, nor henceforth will I prophesy to the people in the name of the Lord.
This the prophet utters, suffering something human—namely, according to the impulse of the lower part, not according to deliberate reason. Whence, according to Jerome, he "thought this foolishly, touched with shame."
"And it became in my heart like a fire blazing, shut up in my bones; and I grew weary, unable to bear it."
That is, the word of God, conceived within my mind, vehemently enkindled and struck me; it strove to burst forth—that is, God inflamed me to speak, so that it dominated nature, and for that which by my own weakness I abhorred, by divine aid I burned and was greatly affected.
As is had concerning Joseph in the Psalm: "The word of the Lord inflamed him" (cf. Psalm 104:19).
"Shut up in my bones": That is, violently constricted within me, like water which is prohibited from ascending. The fervor and affection of the higher part of the soul redounds to the sensitive part and the body.
"And I grew weary": That is, spiritually I was, as it were, dissolved by the heat of the infused word, unable to bear so great an impulse of the Holy Spirit but that I should follow Him, being unable to resist the divine inspiration.
Whence another translation has: "O most sweet illuminations and affections!" Indeed, divine illuminations and affections not a little weaken and afflict corporeal nature, so that man is not able to bear the exuberance of illumination and inflammation of the Holy Spirit—according to that word of Daniel: "I, Daniel, languished and was sick for days after the vision" (Daniel 8:27).
Moreover, that Jeremiah was thus conquered by the Holy Spirit to utter what he abhorred, the following words testify.
"For I heard the reproach of many, and terror on every side: 'Denounce him, and let us denounce him!'—from all my familiar friends, who watched my side: 'Perhaps he may be deceived, and we may prevail against him, and obtain revenge on him.'" (v. 10)
That is, I heard the insults of many Jews injuring me, and terrifying words "on every side"—that is, from every direction against me.
And what those words were is added:
"Persecute, and let us persecute him!" For thus the adversaries of Jeremiah said, mutually exhorting one another to his persecution: one part saying to another, "Persecute him!" and all concordantly conversing, "Let us persecute him!"
"I heard this from all the men who were my friends": That is, who before my prophecies were my friends, or who still feigned themselves peaceful toward me.
"And watching my side": That is, applying themselves familiarly to me, though deceitfully. Or: "Watching my side"—that is, observing me on every side and lying in wait for me everywhere.
Who said among themselves:
"If perhaps he may be deceived"—that is, if by some way, either through simulation or through intimidation, we may deceive him—"and we may prevail against him"—that is, we may so accuse him that he cannot excuse himself—"and obtain revenge on him"—that is, we may cause him to be adjudged to death, and thus, as it were according to law, we may kill him.
This they said, although Jeremiah, according to truth, had done them no wrong; but they, having become proud and irrational, reckoned that injury had been inflicted on them by him because he reproved them so strenuously and asserted that they would soon be punished with so many penalties.
Verses 11-13: Confidence in Divine Assistance
Henceforth Jeremiah, speaking according to reason divinely illuminated, consoles himself.
"But the Lord is with me as a mighty warrior; therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail." (v. 11)
That is, fighting powerfully for me and casting down adversaries—concerning whom Moses says: "The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is His name" (Exodus 15:3).
"Therefore my persecutors shall fall": Because they will be slain by the Chaldeans, and by their very impiety they will fall spiritually—according to that word of Proverbs: "In his wickedness the wicked man shall fall" (Proverbs 24:16).
"And they shall be weak": Because they will not be able to resist adversaries.
"And they shall be greatly ashamed": Both in the present before the Chaldeans and on the day of judgment.
"They shall be greatly ashamed, for they have not understood, with an everlasting disgrace that shall never be forgotten."
That is, they have not considered that the perpetual ignominy which they incur in the hearts of the just and wise—who persecute God's ministers and saints—is eternal damnation.
"And You, O Lord of hosts, who test the just, who see the reins and the heart: let me see Your vengeance on them, for to You I have revealed my cause." (v. 12)
"Who test the just": That is, the approver of justice and the examiner and prover of the just.
For just as God alone beholds the inner things of the heart, so alone does He prove justice. Concerning whom it is said in the Psalm: "You who sit upon the throne, who judge justice" (Psalm 9:4).
Moreover, God is the prover of the just because through adversities He exercises and proves them. Whence through Zechariah He speaks: "I will bring them through the fire, and I will refine them as silver is refined, and I will try them as gold is tried" (Zechariah 13:9).
"Who see the reins and the heart": That is, You know the intellective and sensitive part of the soul—concerning which the Psalmist says: "My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God" (Psalm 83:3), and again: "Try my reins and my heart" (Psalm 25:2).
"Let me see Your vengeance on them": He prays this with zeal for equity, not with impatience. Therefore he says: "Your vengeance, not mine"—so that the honor of divine majesty may be satisfied, nor may anything be detracted from the wisdom of God which leaves nothing inordinate; and so that the impious may be corrected in the present for their own utility.
*"For to You I have revealed my cause"**: That is, I have committed to You, who judge infallibly, the decision of my affair which I have with persecutors—according to that word of the Apostle to the Romans: "We know that the judgment of God is according to truth" (Romans 2:2). For He Himself says: "Vengeance is mine, and I will repay" (Romans 12:19; Deuteronomy 32:35).
"Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord; for He has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of the evildoers." (v. 13)
That is, giving thanks to the Lord, extolling His goodness, equity, virtue, and works.
"Because He has delivered the soul of the poor": That is, of Jeremiah, humble and needy, "from the hand of the wicked"—that is, of the unbelieving Jews.
Jeremiah invites all that they may give thanks to God, because He has already snatched him in return, and afterward will snatch him repeatedly from the punishments of his persecutors, according as God revealed to him.
Moreover, the most pious God is especially the helper of the poor and the terrible avenger of their injuries—according to that word in the Psalm: "To You the poor is left" (Psalm 9:14), and again: "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him" (Psalm 33:6).
Concerning whom the most blessed Isaiah, giving thanks to God most high and blessed, says: "I will exalt You, O Lord, and I will give glory to Your name, because You have become the strength of the poor and needy in his tribulation" (cf. Isaiah 25:4).
Verses 14-18: The Lament Over His Birth
Now what follows requires the greater exposition, insofar as at first hearing it sounds more wondrous.
"Cursed be the day on which I was born; the day on which my mother bore me, let it not be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying: 'A male child has been born to you,' and gladdened him with great joy." (vv. 14-15)
Similar to this is what is written in Job:
"Job opened his mouth and cursed his day, and said: 'Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, "A man child is conceived." Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above...'" (Job 3:1-4).
And further: "Why did I not die from the womb? Why did I not perish when I came out of the belly?" (Job 3:11).
These and other words of Job, Blessed Gregory says, cannot be taken literally:
First, because they seem to be the words of a man utterly impatient and despairing.
Second, because they sound irrationally and contain an impossibility.
For how could the day of nativity, long since elapsed, perish or be turned into darkness, since the same cannot be—especially since it is of the genus of successive things?
Hence, according to Gregory, holy Job speaks parabolically and enigmatically. Whence in the fourth book of the Moralia, Gregory says:
"For what ought to be understood by the 'day of nativity' except all this time of mortality, which, as long as it retains us in the corruption of this our mortality, the unchangeableness of eternity appears to us? He, therefore, who faithfully sees the day of eternity, with difficulty endures the day of his own. What is it, therefore, to curse the day of nativity, except openly to say: 'Let the day of mutability perish, and let the light of eternity break forth'?"
Moreover, if the words of Job cannot stand literally, therefore neither can Jeremiah's—indeed, Jeremiah's words less than Job's. For Job cursed only the day and night; Jeremiah also curses a man who is capable of beatitude, and, as it appears, without cause.
For what sin did that man commit by announcing Jeremiah's nativity to his father?
Moreover, what sounds more wondrous, he added:
"Let that man be like the cities which the Lord overthrew, and repented not... who did not kill me from the womb, so that my mother might be my grave, and her womb always pregnant. Why did I come forth from the womb, to see labor and sorrow, and that my days might be consumed in confusion?" (vv. 16-18)
What, at first hearing, sounds more wondrous? For who could kill an infant without mortal sin? And why is someone cursed because he omitted what he could not perpetrate without most grievous crime?
Finally, what is this patience—to prefer not to have been born than to sustain the evils of this age?
Resolution of the Difficulty: Three Explanations
Therefore, for the explanation of these words, first let us see what holy Jerome writes concerning this passage.
He says: "We adapt the words of Job to this testimony of Jeremiah—namely, that it is better not to be than to live in punishments; according to that which is written in Job: 'Why is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul?' (Job 3:20). And in the Gospel: 'It had been good for that man if he had not been born' (Matthew 26:24). Not that there is anyone who has not been born, but that it is better not to be than to be ill. Whence also Jacob, because he had lived in labor and anguish, called his days few and evil (Genesis 47:9)."
But to these words it could be objected that, since penal evils—namely, the tribulations of present life—cooperate with the elect for the greatest goods, namely, for the increase of grace in the way and for the increase of glory in the homeland, and also for the cleansing of past sins, it is not, absolutely speaking, better not to be than to be in the punishments of present life or even of purgatory.
Moreover, since patience is a moral virtue moderating and restraining the passion of sadness, it pertains to a virtuous man rather to rejoice about adversities than to be immoderately saddened by them—especially since Solomon says: "Nothing shall hurt the just man" (Proverbs 12:21, paraphrase).
Just as James says: "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations" (James 1:2). And Christ in the Gospel: "Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven" (Luke 6:23).
Hence, therefore, St. Thomas, expounding Job, as it were resolving and perfecting Jerome's exposition, says:
"Something is sorrowful and fugitive when considered in itself, which nevertheless is acceptable and lovable when referred to an end—just as bitter medicine, and being cut and burned. But to refer something to an end belongs not to the sensitive part but to reason. Whence if someone were to speak about bitter potion, cutting, or burning according to the sensitive part, he would say it is hard and to be fled; but if according to reason, he would say it is good and to be desired.
Similarly, being and living itself, although according to the sensitive part it is lovable and delightful, if nevertheless it is attended with various afflictions, is rendered sorrowful and hateful—and this according to the sensitive portion of the soul, but not according to reason, whose part it is to bear all things equanimously for God's honor and for love of future felicity.
The blessed man, therefore, wishing simply to enunciate the disposition of his sensitive part abhorring the miseries in which he was, cursed the beginning of his life and its continuation—although according to reason, through the virtue of patience, he accepted those miseries. Just as Christ in Matthew said: 'My soul is sorrowful even unto death' (Matthew 26:38), and 'Let this cup pass from me' (Matthew 26:39), wishing to express the disposition of his soul according to the sensitive part of it."
In the same way, it must now be said concerning Jeremiah: that he utters all the words here posited to insinuate the greatness of his affliction, and how much the sensitive part abhorred those infestations.
Lyra also follows this exposition of Thomas in this place, although on Job he notes it as insufficient. For in this passage, "the words of Jeremiah are not of an impatient man, but of one expressing the horror of sensuality with respect to imminent evil, which nevertheless according to reason he bore patiently."
And the sense will be:
"Cursed be the day on which I was born": That is, if I were to curse the day of my birth according to the horror of sensuality, just as those who destroy themselves on account of adversities or imminent evils.
In like manner he added: "Cursed be the man who announced to my father..." and "Cursed be he who did not kill me from the womb": He shows that he repents of evils, not because he does not bear them, but because he abhors them according to sensuality.
"So that my mother might be my grave": That is, that I might never go forth from it.
"And her womb always pregnant": That is, so I might be perpetually conceived through the maternal womb, that I might never proceed to birth.
"Let that man be like the cities which the Lord overthrew, and repented not": That is, let him perish irreparably, just as Sodom and Gomorrah, concerning whose subversion God repented.
"Let him hear a cry in the morning, and an alarm at noon": That is, in the present, with continual terrors, howling, and tumult.
"This is how greatly I am pressed by calamities": That if I were to follow sensuality and consider the evils by which I am surrounded according to themselves, I would curse these things in the aforementioned manner.
In like manner must be understood what is added:
"Why did I come forth from the womb, to see labor and sorrow, and that my days might be consumed in confusion?"
That is, that I might feel and painfully experience labor and sorrow, and that the time of my life might be spent in the aforementioned mockeries, derisions, and confusions inflicted on me by my adversaries.
By which words the Prophet reveals how great evils he sustained.
According to this mode also Solomon says in Ecclesiastes:
"I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter... Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive. Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 4:1-3).
Additional Explanations
Moreover, some assert that Jeremiah uttered these words from a sudden disturbance of mind; nevertheless, he wrote them from deliberation, so that we might not despair if, in turn, we have lapsed into grievous disturbance or irrepressible speech.
Finally, it appears to me that this whole passage can be expounded by way of hyperbolic speech, by which something is said by way of excess—not because the speaker so asserts or intends as his words at first hearing sound, but because he cannot otherwise so conveniently express the greatness of the thing or of his affection.
As is read in John: "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written" (John 21:25).
For the more deeply men of virtue ponder the evils of present life—both vicious and penal—and the more they weigh the peace and glory of future life, the more they are enkindled with desire for that future life and the more they are wearied of this present age.
Moreover, it can be moved concerning the aforementioned this question: For, as the Apostle testifies, "Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning" (Romans 15:4). How, therefore, did holy men utter these maledictory words, in which we seem rather to be scandalized than taught?
And it must be responded that undoubtedly from the aforementioned words we can take most wholesome documents:
First, how great things the elect of God endured in this age.
Second, that the future life is to be desired, in which so many calamities occur and so many sins defile.
Third, that to virtuous men that exuberant consolation of the Holy Spirit is not always equally present, but often dispensatively is withdrawn.
CONTINUE
Comments
Post a Comment