City of God 17.3–17.4

Chapter 3. On the threefold meanings of the prophets, which refer now to the earthly, now to the heavenly Jerusalem, and now to both.

Therefore, just as those divine oracles to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and whatever other prophetic signs or sayings occur in the earlier sacred writings, so also the other prophecies from this time of the kings pertain partly to the nation of Abraham's flesh, and partly to that seed of his in which all nations are blessed, co-heirs of Christ through the new covenant, to possess eternal life and the kingdom of heaven: partly, then, to the slave woman who bears children for slavery, that is, the earthly Jerusalem, which is in slavery with her children, and partly to the free city of God, that is, the true Jerusalem eternal in heaven, whose children, men living according to God, are on pilgrimage on earth; but there are some things among them which are understood to pertain to both, to the slave woman properly, to the free woman figuratively. So the utterances of the prophets are found to be threefold: some look to the earthly Jerusalem, some to the heavenly, some to both.

I see that I must prove what I say by examples. The prophet Nathan was sent to rebuke King David for a grave sin and to foretell to him the evils that followed. Who would doubt that these and similar things, whether public, that is, for the safety or benefit of the people, or private, when each obtained divine words about his own affairs by which something future was known for the use of temporal life, pertained to the earthly city? But where we read: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant which I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: putting my laws into their mind, and I will write them on their hearts; and I will look upon them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people”: there without doubt the Jerusalem above is prophesied, whose reward is God himself, and to have him and to be his is the highest and whole good there. But to both pertains this very thing, that Jerusalem is called the city of God and that the house of God is prophesied to be in it; and that prophecy seems to be fulfilled when King Solomon builds that most famous temple. For these things both happened historically in the earthly Jerusalem and were figures of the heavenly Jerusalem. This kind of prophecy, as it were compounded and mixed from both, is very powerful in the old canonical books which contain narratives of events, and it has greatly exercised and still exercises the minds of those who search the sacred writings, so that what is read as foretold and fulfilled historically in the seed of Abraham according to the flesh is also examined for what it signifies allegorically as to be fulfilled in the seed of Abraham according to faith; so much so that some have thought there is nothing in those books, either foretold and brought about, or brought about though not foretold, which does not suggest something to be referred by figurative meaning to the city of God above and its children, pilgrims in this life. But if this is so, the utterances of the prophets, or rather of all those Scriptures which are counted under the name of the Old Testament, will be not threefold but twofold. For there will be nothing there that pertains only to the earthly Jerusalem, if whatever is said and fulfilled there about it or because of it signifies something which is also to be referred by allegorical prefiguring to the heavenly Jerusalem; there will be only two kinds, one pertaining to the free Jerusalem, the other to both. But to me, just as those seem to err greatly who think that no events in that kind of writing signify anything other than that they happened as they did, so those seem to be very bold who contend that absolutely everything there is wrapped up in allegorical meanings. That is why I said they were threefold, not twofold. This is what I think; yet I do not blame those who have been able to carve out a sense of spiritual understanding from any event there, provided, of course, that the truth of the history is first preserved. For the rest, when things are said in such a way that they cannot fit events done or to be done by human or divine agency, what believer would doubt that they were not said idly? Who would not refer them to a spiritual understanding, if he could, or confess that they should be so referred by one who can?

Chapter 4. On the prefigured change of the kingdom and priesthood of Israel, and on what Hannah, the mother of Samuel, prophesied, bearing the person of the Church.

When the course of the city of God came to the times of the kings, when David, Saul being rejected, first obtained the kingdom in such a way that his descendants thereafter reigned in the earthly Jerusalem in a long succession, it gave a figure, signifying and foretelling by what was done, something which must not be passed over in silence, concerning the change of things to come as regards the two covenants, the old and the new, where the priesthood and the kingdom were changed by the new and everlasting priest who is also king, Christ Jesus. For both Samuel, put in place of the rejected priest Eli in God's ministry and performing at once the office of priest and of judge, and David, established in the kingdom when Saul was cast off, figured what I am speaking of. And Samuel's mother herself, Hannah, who was at first barren and afterwards rejoiced in fruitfulness, seems to prophesy nothing else when, exulting, she pours out her thanks to the Lord, as she gave back to God the same boy, born and weaned, with the same godliness with which she had vowed him. For she says: “My heart is made firm in the Lord, my horn is exalted in my God. My mouth is enlarged over my enemies, I have rejoiced in your salvation. For there is none holy as the Lord, and none righteous as our God; there is none holy besides you. Do not boast, and do not speak lofty things, and let no arrogance come out of your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and a God who prepares his own devices. He has made the bow of the mighty weak, and the weak are girded with strength. Those full of bread have been diminished, and the hungry have passed over the earth. For the barren has borne seven, and she who had many children has become weak. The Lord kills and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and brings back. The Lord makes poor and makes rich, he humbles and exalts. He raises the poor from the earth and lifts the needy from the dunghill, to set him with the mighty of the people, and giving them the seat of glory as an inheritance; giving the vow to him who vows; and he has blessed the years of the righteous, for not by strength is a man mighty. The Lord will make his adversary weak, the Lord who is holy. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in his might, and let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, to understand and know the Lord and to do judgment and righteousness in the midst of the earth. The Lord has ascended into the heavens and thundered; he will judge the ends of the earth, for he is righteous; and he gives strength to our kings, and will exalt the horn of his anointed.” Are these words really to be thought those of one little woman giving thanks for a son born to her? Is the mind of men so turned away from the light of truth as not to perceive that the sayings this woman poured out go beyond a woman's measure? Moreover, whoever is fittingly moved by the things themselves, which have already begun to be fulfilled even in this earthly pilgrimage, does he not attend, look, and recognize that through this woman, whose very name, Hannah, means “his grace,” the Christian religion itself, the city of God itself, whose king and founder is Christ, and finally the grace of God itself, spoke thus in the prophetic Spirit; the grace from which the proud are estranged so that they fall, and with which the humble are filled so that they rise, which is what this hymn has chiefly sounded forth? Unless perhaps someone is going to say that this woman prophesied nothing, but only praised God with exultant proclamation for the son she obtained by prayer. What, then, is the meaning of her words: “He has made the bow of the mighty weak, and the weak are girded with strength; those full of bread have been diminished, and the hungry have passed over the earth; for the barren has borne seven, and she who had many children has become weak”? Had she herself borne seven, though she had been barren? She had one when she said these things; and not even afterwards did she bear seven, or six, of whom Samuel himself would be the seventh, but three sons and two daughters. Then, since no one yet reigned among that people, from where did she say what she put at the end, “He gives strength to our kings, and will exalt the horn of his anointed”, if she was not prophesying?

Let the Church of Christ, then, the city of the great king, full of grace, fruitful in offspring, say what she recognizes was prophesied of her so long before through the mouth of this godly mother: “My heart is made firm in the Lord, my horn is exalted in my God.” Truly is the heart made firm and the horn truly exalted, because not in herself but in the Lord her God. “My mouth is enlarged over my enemies”; because even in the straits of afflictions the word of God is not bound, not even in heralds who are bound. “I have rejoiced,” she says, “in your salvation.” This is Christ Jesus, whom Simeon, as we read in the Gospel, embracing him as a little one and recognizing him as great, addresses: “Now, Lord, you let your servant depart in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation.” Let the Church say, then: “I have rejoiced in your salvation; for there is none holy as the Lord, and none righteous as our God”; as holy and sanctifying, righteous and justifying. “There is none holy besides you”, because no one becomes holy except from you. Then follows: “Do not boast, and do not speak lofty things, and let no arrogance come out of your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge.” He knows you, even where no one knows; for “whoever thinks he is something when he is nothing deceives himself.” These things are said to the adversaries of the city of God who belong to Babylon, presuming on their own strength, glorying in themselves, not in the Lord; among whom are also the carnal Israelites, the earth-born citizens of the earthly Jerusalem, who, as the apostle says, “being ignorant of the righteousness of God” (that is, the righteousness which God, who alone is righteous and justifying, gives to man) “and seeking to establish their own” (that is, as though obtained by themselves for themselves, not imparted by him), “did not submit to the righteousness of God”; certainly because, being proud, they think they can please God by what is their own, not by what is God's, who is a God of knowledge and therefore also the judge of consciences, there seeing the thoughts of men, that they are vain, if they are men's and not from him. “And preparing,” she says, “his own devices.” What devices do we suppose, but that the proud should fall and the humble rise? For she goes on to set out these devices, saying: “The bow of the mighty has been made weak, and the weak are girded with strength.” The bow is made weak, that is, the aim of those who seem to themselves so mighty that without God's gift and help they can fulfil the divine commandments by human sufficiency; and those are girded with strength whose inner voice is: “Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak.” “Those full of bread,” she says, “have been diminished, and the hungry have passed over the earth.” Who are to be understood as full of bread, but those same ones who are as it were mighty, that is, the Israelites, to whom the oracles of God were entrusted? But among that people the children of the slave woman have been diminished (by which word, not very good Latin, it is nevertheless well expressed that from greater they became lesser), because even in those loaves, that is, the divine oracles, which the Israelites alone of all nations then received, they savor earthly things. But the nations, to whom that law had not been given, after they came to those oracles through the new covenant, by hungering greatly passed over the earth, because in them they savored not earthly but heavenly things.

And as if the cause of this were being asked, she says: “For the barren has borne seven, and she who had many children has become weak.” Here the whole of what was being prophesied shone out for those who recognize the number seven, by which the perfection of the universal Church is signified. For this reason the apostle John too writes to seven churches, showing in this way that he is writing to the fullness of the one Church; and in the Proverbs of Solomon, Wisdom, prefiguring this beforehand, “built herself a house and set up seven pillars.” For the city of God was barren in all nations before this offspring which we see was born. We see too that the earthly Jerusalem, which had many children, is now made weak; for whatever children of the free woman were in her were her strength; but now, since the letter is there and the Spirit is not, having lost her strength she has become weak. “The Lord kills and makes alive”: he has killed her who had many children, and made alive this barren one, who has borne seven. Though it may more fittingly be understood that he makes alive the same ones whom he has killed. For she as it were repeats this by adding: “He brings down to the grave and brings back.” For those to whom the apostle says, “If you have died with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God”, are certainly killed by the Lord for their salvation; to whom he adds, “Set your minds on the things that are above, not on those on the earth”, so that they themselves are those who hungering have passed over the earth. “For you have died,” he says: see how God kills for salvation; then follows, “and your life is hidden with Christ in God”: see how God makes the same ones alive. But did he bring down the same ones to the grave and bring them back? Without dispute among believers we see both of these fulfilled rather in him, our head, with whom the apostle said our life is hidden in God. For “when he did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all”, in this way he certainly killed him; and because he raised him from the dead, he made the same one alive again. And because his voice is recognized in the prophecy, “You will not abandon my soul in hell”, he brought down the same one to the grave and brought him back. By this poverty of his we have been made rich. For “the Lord makes poor and makes rich.” To know what this means, let us hear what follows: “He humbles and exalts”; certainly he humbles the proud and exalts the humble. For what we read elsewhere, “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble”, is the whole content of the speech of her whose name means “his grace.”

Now what is added, “He raises the poor from the earth”, I understand of no one better than of him who became poor for our sake though he was rich, so that by his poverty, as was said a little before, we might be made rich. For he raised him from the earth so quickly that his flesh did not see corruption. Nor will I take from him what is added: “And he lifts the needy from the dunghill.” For the needy is the same as the poor; and the dunghill from which he was lifted is most rightly understood as the persecuting Jews, among whom the apostle, when he had said that he had persecuted the Church, says: “What was gain to me I have counted loss for Christ; and not only loss, but I have counted them as dung, that I may gain Christ.” So that poor one was raised from the earth above all the rich, and that needy one was lifted from that dunghill above all the wealthy, “to sit with the mighty of the people”, to whom he says, “You will sit upon twelve thrones”; “and giving them the seat of glory as an inheritance.” For those mighty ones had said: “Behold, we have left everything and followed you.” This vow they had vowed most mightily. But from where did they get this, except from him of whom it is immediately said here, “Giving the vow to him who vows”? Otherwise they would be among those mighty ones whose bow was made weak. “Giving,” she says, “the vow to him who vows.” For no one would vow anything right to the Lord unless he received from him what he vowed. There follows: “And he has blessed the years of the righteous”, so that he may live without end with him to whom it was said, “And your years will not fail.” For there the years stand, but here they pass, or rather perish; for before they come they are not, and when they have come they will not be, because they come with their own end. Of these two, “giving the vow to him who vows” and “he has blessed the years of the righteous”, one is what we do and the other what we receive. But this second is not received from God's bounty unless the first is accomplished with him as helper: “For not by strength is a man mighty. The Lord will make his adversary weak”; that is, the one who envies and resists the man who vows, so that he may not be able to fulfil what he vowed. From the ambiguity of the Greek it can also be understood as “his own adversary.” For when the Lord has begun to possess us, the adversary who was ours certainly becomes his, and will be conquered by us, but not by our strength, “for not by strength is a man mighty.” “The Lord,” then, “will make his adversary weak, the Lord who is holy”, so that he may be conquered by the saints, whom the Lord, the holy one of holy ones, makes holy. And so “let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in his might, and let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, to understand and know the Lord and to do judgment and righteousness in the midst of the earth.” He understands and knows the Lord in no small part who understands and knows that even this is given him by the Lord, that he should understand and know the Lord. “For what do you have,” says the apostle, “that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you glory as if you had not received it?” That is, as if what you glory in were from yourself. He does judgment and righteousness who lives rightly. And he lives rightly who obeys God's commandment; and “the end of the commandment,” that is, that to which the commandment is referred, “is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a faith unfeigned.” Moreover, this love, as the apostle John testifies, is from God. To do judgment and righteousness, then, is from God.

But what is “in the midst of the earth”? For are those who live at the ends of the earth not bound to do judgment and righteousness? Who would say that? Why, then, is “in the midst of the earth” added? If it were not added, and only “to do judgment and righteousness” were said, this commandment would rather pertain to both kinds of men, the inland and those by the sea. But lest anyone should think that after the end of the life lived in this body there remains a time for doing the judgment and righteousness which he did not do while he was in the flesh, and that in this way the divine judgment could be escaped, “in the midst of the earth” seems to me to have been said of the time when each one lives in the body. For in this life each carries his own earth about with him, which at a man's death the common earth receives, certainly to give it back when he rises. So “in the midst of the earth,” that is, while our soul is shut up in this earthly body, judgment and righteousness are to be done, to profit us hereafter, “when each receives according to what he has done through the body, whether good or bad.” For there the apostle said “through the body” meaning through the time during which he lived in the body. For if anyone blasphemes with a malicious mind and an ungodly thought, but does not carry it out with any members of his body, he will not therefore be guiltless because he did not do it by a movement of the body, since he did it during that time in which he also bore the body. In this way we can also fittingly understand what we read in the psalm: “But God our king before the ages has worked salvation in the midst of the earth”; so that the Lord Jesus is taken as our God, who is before the ages, because the ages were made through him, who worked our salvation in the midst of the earth when the Word was made flesh and dwelt in an earthly body.

Then, after it had been prophesied in these words of Hannah how he who glories ought to glory, not certainly in himself but in the Lord, because of the retribution that will come on the day of judgment, she says: “The Lord has ascended into the heavens and thundered; he will judge the ends of the earth, for he is righteous.” She has kept exactly the order of the confession of the faithful. For the Lord Christ ascended into heaven, and from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. For who has ascended, as the apostle says, but he who also descended into the lower parts of the earth? “He who descended is the same one who also ascended above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.” So he thundered through his clouds, which he filled with the Holy Spirit when he had ascended. Concerning these he threatened the slave woman Jerusalem, that is, the ungrateful vineyard, in the prophet Isaiah, that they should not rain rain upon it. And “he will judge the ends of the earth” is said as if it were said, “even the ends of the earth.” For he will not fail to judge the other parts, since he will without doubt judge all men. But the ends of the earth are better understood as the last end of man; since those things will not be judged which are changed for better or worse in the middle period, but the end in which he who is to be judged is found. That is why it is said: “He who perseveres to the end will be saved.” He, then, who perseveringly does judgment and righteousness in the midst of the earth will not be condemned when the ends of the earth are judged. “And he gives,” she says, “strength to our kings”, so that he does not condemn them in judging. He gives them strength by which as kings they may rule the flesh and conquer the world in him who shed his blood for them. “And he will exalt the horn of his anointed.” How will Christ exalt the horn of his anointed? For he of whom it was said above, “The Lord has ascended into the heavens”, and who was understood as the Lord Christ, is himself the one who, as is said here, “will exalt the horn of his anointed.” Who, then, is the anointed of the Anointed? Or will he exalt the horn of each of his faithful, as she herself says at the beginning of this hymn, “My horn is exalted in my God”? For we can rightly call all who are anointed with his chrism “anointed ones” (christs); yet the whole body with its head is one Christ. These things Hannah prophesied, the mother of Samuel, a holy and much praised man; in whom indeed the change of the old priesthood was then figured and is now fulfilled, when she who had many children was made weak, so that the barren one who has borne seven might have the new priesthood in Christ.