Bible Verses and Early Church Commentary | Historical Christian Faith

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Zechariah 5:1

“They sank in the depth like a stone.” Why “did they sink in the depth like a stone”? Because they were not the kind of “stones which sons of Abraham could be raised up” but the kind which love the depth and desire the liquid element, that is, who seize the bitter and fluid desire of present things. Whence it is said of these: “They sank like lead in very deep water.” They are serious sinners. For iniquity is also shown “to sit upon a talent of lead,” as Zechariah the prophet says: “I saw a woman sitting upon a talent of lead, and I said, ‘Who is this?’ And he answered, ‘Iniquity.’ ” Hence it is, therefore, that the unjust “sank in the depth, like lead in very deep water.”

Source: HOMILIES ON EXODUS 6:4

[AD 420] Jerome on Zechariah 5:1-4

(Chapter 5, verses 1 onwards) Then I turned and lifted up my eyes, and behold, a flying scroll! And he said to me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits.” Then he said to me, “This is the curse that is going out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side. I will raise up, says the Lord of hosts, and it will come to the house of the thief and to the house of the one who swears falsely in my name, and it will remain in the midst of his house and consume it and its wood and its stones. LXX: And I turned and lifted up my eyes and saw a flying sickle. And he said to me, What do you see? And I said, I see a flying sickle, twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide. And he said to me: This is the curse that goes out over the face of all the land: because every thief will be punished from this until death, and every perjurer will be crucified from this until death. And I will bring it, says the Lord Almighty, and it will go into the house of the thief, and the house of the one who swears falsely in my name, and it will rest in the midst of his house, and it will consume him, and his wood, and his stones. Turning, the prophet said, to another vision, and lifting my eyes from joyful and fortunate things to sadder things, I see a flying scroll that is called Megella in Hebrew, and it is translated as διφθέρα by Aquila and Theodotion, and as κεφαλὶς by Symmachus, meaning, chapter, according to what we read in the psalm: In the chapter of the book it is written about me (Ps. XIX, 8); or according to the Seventy, δρέπανον πετόμενον, meaning, a flying sickle. For all the things that he had seen above, the construction of the temple, the coming of the Lord Savior, the liberation of the people from Babylon, had been proclaimed. Therefore, so that his heart would not be lifted up with the Apostle (to whom the angel of Satan had been given to buffet him), he also sees the things that are sad, so that whatever had increased in arrogance from the revelation of good things, may decrease from the threat of sad things. Moreover, a flying scroll is shown, in which all sins are written down, so that each person may receive according to their works, whether good or evil, as Daniel says: Thrones were set up, and books were opened. But if we take the sickle, as the LXX translated it, let us take the example from the Apocalypse of John, in which it is written: And the angel answered, and said to him who sat on the horse: Send forth thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of thy vineyard, for the grapes thereof are ripe (Apoc. XIV, 18). For sickle, in Deuteronomy we read arrows and sword: I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh (Deut. XXXII, 42). And because God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;). The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished And in Jeremiah we read: How long will you cut with the sword, or the sword of the Lord? How long will you not rest? Return to your sheath (Jer. XLVII, 6). This sword is not only called a sickle, which cuts hay, straw, and thorns; but it is also called an axe of trees, which will cut down those who have not made themselves worthy of the fruits of penance. And about whom John the Baptist proclaimed: Behold, the axe is laid to the roots of the trees: every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire (Matt. III, 10). This volume, in which the sins of everyone are described, or rather, the sickle that cuts down the sins of all, is sent into the vineyard of Sodom, of which it is written: Our enemies are foolish; for their vineyard is the vineyard of Sodom, and their offspring is from Gomorrah: Their grapes are grapes of gall, and their clusters are bitter. The fury of dragons is their wine, and the incurable madness of asps. (Deuteronomy XXXII, 31 ff.) This sickle measures twenty cubits in length and ten in width, in a number joined together that is sad for the afflicted. For the Lord corrects in order to improve. In the twentieth, which is made up of two decades, harsh and difficult things are announced: in the tenth, that is, one decade, better and prosperous things are revealed: for Israel is taught through all kinds of scourges and punishments. At the same time, let us warn those who think small crimes like theft and perjury, that the curse which is written in the book and (by Al. a) with a sickle, be brought upon the house of the thief and perjurer, and let it remain in it, and consume all its wood and stones. But if there is such a threat of punishment for what is considered lesser offenses (such as theft and perjury), what shall we say about fornication, adultery, homicide, sacrilege, and all other crimes numbered among the works of the flesh by the Apostle (Galatians 5)? It has been said that the length of twenty cubits and the width of ten cubits correspond to the age of our Lord and Savior, that is, the number thirty. This is not for the Father to judge anyone, but all judgment has been given to the Son, and he will judge the world (John 5).

Source: Commentary on Zechariah

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Zechariah 5:1

As to the suggestion you made in your letter that we should examine together the nature of an oath extorted by force, I beg of you, do not let our discussion turn crystal-clear matters into murky ones. If a servant of God were threatened with certain death, so that he should swear to do something forbidden and wicked, he still ought rather to die than to swear, so as not to commit a crime in fulfilling his oath. But in this case, … it was only the persistent shouting of the people that was forcing the man not to any crime but to what could be lawfully done, if it were done. And … the only thing to fear was that a few violent men, mingled with a crowd of mostly good ones, might seize the occasion to start a riot, under pretence of virtuous indignation, and might break out into some accursed disturbance to satisfy their passion for robbery. And when even this fear was unfounded, who would think that perjury could be committed even to avoid certain death, much less loss or some kind of physical injury? That individual called Regulus2 had never heard what the holy Scriptures say about the wrongfulness of a false oath. He had learned nothing about the sickle of Zechariah, and obviously he had not sworn to the Carthaginians by the sacraments of Christ but by the filthiness of demons. Yet he did not so fear certain torture and a horrible sort of death as to take his oath under compulsion, but he went to meet them to avoid perjuring himself, because he had sworn on oath of his own free will.

Source: LETTER 125

[AD 1781] Richard Challoner on Zechariah 5:1

A volume: That is, a parchment, according to the form of the ancient books, which, from being rolled up, were called volumes.

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Zechariah 5:5

“For now,” he says, “the axe is laid at the root of the trees.” There is nothing more terrible than this turn of his discourse. For it is no longer “a flying sickle,” or “the taking down of a hedge,” or “the treading under foot of a vineyard,” but an axe exceedingly sharp, and what is worse, it is even at the roots. For inasmuch as they continually disbelieved the prophets and used to say, “Where is the Day of the Lord?” and “Let the counsel of the holy one of Israel come, that way we may know it,” by reason that it was many years before what they said came to pass; to lead them off from this encouragement also, he sets the terrors close to them. And this he declared by saying “now,” and by his putting it to “the root,” “for the space between is nothing now,” he says, “but it is laid to the very root.” And he said not “to the branches” or “to the fruits” but “to the root.” Signifying that if they were negligent, they would have incurable horrors to endure, and not have so much as hope of remedy. It being no servant who is now come, as those before him were, but the very Lord of all, bringing on them his fierce and most effectual vengeance.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 3:7.4

[AD 420] Jerome on Zechariah 5:5-8

(Verse 5 seq.) And an angel came out who spoke to me, and said to me: Lift up your eyes and see what is coming. And I said: What is it? And he said: This is a departing vessel; and he said: This is their eye in all the land. And behold, a weight of lead was being carried, and behold, a woman sitting in the middle of the vessel. And he said: This is wickedness, and he threw her into the middle of the vessel, and he put a lead mass in her mouth. LXX: And the angel who spoke with me came out and said to me: Lift up your eyes and see what is coming out. And I said, What is it? And he said, This is the measure that is coming out. And he said, This is their iniquity in all the land. And behold, a talent of lead was lifted up: and behold, a woman was sitting inside the measure, and he said, This is wickedness, and he threw her into the midst of the measure, and he threw a lead stone into her mouth. The amphora, or measure, was being carried out and was seen in the air. And so that we would not doubt by what proper term it is called, the angel himself, who showed the amphora, or measure, gives it a name and says, according to the Septuagint, 'This is their wickedness in all the earth'; according to the Hebrews, 'This is the eye, that is, the manifestation of all sins.' And behold, a woman was sitting in the middle of the amphora, or measure, which is called 'Epha' by the Hebrews, and it is often translated by the Seventy as 'οἴφι'; and this very woman was called wickedness. When she saw these things, behold, a talent of lead, that is, a mass the size of a stone, was being carried either by its own force or by the command of the Lord, or it was being carried by another whose name remains unspoken. But this angel who was speaking through the prophet, and coming out of him, showed all these things, seized the woman who was called impiety, and threw her headlong into the middle of the amphora, which was previously being carried freely, and sitting on top of the amphora, he appeared to everyone. Acne forte rursum elevaret caput, et sua iniquitate et impietate gauderet, talentum plumbi in modum gravissimi lapidis mittit in os amphorae: ut impietatem in medio opprimat atque concludat, ne quoquo modo possit erumpere. Haec quasi umbras quasdam et lineas futurae imaginis duximus, ut quod reliquum est suis coloribus impleamus. Angelus qui loquebatur in propheta, egressus de eo, et quasi cominus loquens, praecipit illi ut levet oculos suos, et videat peccata populi Israel in mensuram coacervata perfectam, et impleta delicta cunctorum: et hanc esse oculum eorum, quod Hebraice dicitur Enam (), et scribitur per Ain, Jod, Nun, Mem: Sive iniquitatem eorum; quae si per Vau litteram scripta esset, recte legeretur Onam (), ut LXX putaverunt: et hic error in editione Vulgata frequenter inolevit, ut quia Vau et Jod litterae eadem forma, sed mensura diversae sunt, altera legatur pro altera. This amphora or measure, their eye is in the whole earth, that is, a display of sins, so that the vices of those scattered and hidden might be gathered together and exposed to the eyes of all, to show what kind of people Israel was and how it had been in its land. And behold, a talent of lead was carried. For the talent of lead, we read in the following passage a lead stone. Chachar is called a talent (); Aben a stone. He is, therefore, the lead stone, which we, expressing it more clearly, have interpreted as the mass or sphere of lead, from which the heaviest weight of sins is signified. And above this measure and vessel of all sins, impiety sat in the middle, which we can also call by another name, idolatry, and denial of God. Hence, the Savior said to the Jews: 'Fill up the measure of your fathers' (Matthew 23:32). This wickedness, which sat upon the sins of Israel and boasted in its own wickedness, is later cast into the midst of Babylon and pressed down by the bad of captivity. Or according to Theodotion, it throws itself and hides in the midst of a jar, and places upon itself the heaviest weight of lead, so that it may have its mouth sealed shut and cannot boast any longer. Or surely it is oppressed by the angel of God, so that what previously rejoiced in wickedness may be silenced in eternal silence. But the following reading teaches to what place and by whom it is brought to a close.

Source: Commentary on Zechariah

[AD 1781] Richard Challoner on Zechariah 5:6

This is their eye: This is what they fix their eye upon: or this is a resemblance and figure of them, viz., of sinners.

[AD 395] Gregory of Nyssa on Zechariah 5:7

For virtue is something light and exhilarating. All who live according to it “fly along the clouds,” according to Isaiah, and “like doves” with their young, but sin is heavy, seated, as one of the prophets says, upon a “talent of lead.” If such an interpretation of Scripture appears to anyone to be forced and unfitting, because he does not think the miracle of the sea16 was written as an aid to us, let him listen to the apostle saying that he wrote symbolically, both for the people of his own time and “for our correction.”

Source: On Virginity 18

[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Zechariah 5:7

Each one will have the weight of his good deeds hung in the balance, and for a few moments of a good work or a degenerate deed the scale often inclines to this side or that. If evil inclines the scale, alas for me; if good, pardon is ready at hand. No one is free from sin, but when good deeds prevail, the weight of sins is lessened; they are cast into the shadow and covered up. So, in the day of judgment, our works will either succor us or plunge us into the depths, like people weighted down with a millstone. Iniquity is heavy, supported, as it were, on a talent of lead; avarice is hard to carry; so too all pride and appearance of fraud. Urge the people of the Lord to hope more in the Lord, therefore, to abound in the riches of simplicity, in which they may walk without a snare, without hindrance.

Source: LETTER 15

[AD 420] Jerome on Zechariah 5:9-11

(Verse 9 and following) And I lifted up my eyes, and I saw, and behold, two women coming forth, and a spirit was on their wings, and they had wings like the wings of a kite, and they lifted up an amphora between the earth and the sky. And I said to the angel who spoke to me: Where are these taking the amphora? And he said to me: To build a house for it in the land of Shinar, and it will be established and placed there upon its base. LXX: And I lifted up my eyes, and I saw, and behold, two women coming forth, and a spirit was on their wings, and they themselves had wings like the wings of a hoopoe. And they raised the measure between the earth and the sky. And I said to the angel who spoke in me: Where do they bring this measure? And he said to me: To build a house for him in the land of Babylon, and prepare it, and place it there on its foundation. Two women coming out, the Jews imagine the kingdom of the Medes and Macedonians, both of whom have afflicted the people of Babylon, and there their wickedness has established its seat. However, they craft this in such a way that what is said of themselves may not be understood as being about themselves. For indeed, the two women who depart, there is no doubt that they are to be received by the twelve tribes from the land of Judea: of whom one was taken captive by the Assyrians, the other by the Chaldeans. And in their wings was the spirit, that is, the power of the devil, of whom it is written in Ecclesiastes: If the spirit of the one who has power ascends over you, do not abandon your place (Eccl. X, 4). And in the Gospel, we read about an unclean spirit who, after being cast out from his home, wanders through desolate and dry places, and then comes back to his former home with seven other even more wicked spirits (Luke XI). Therefore, these women, carried away by this spirit as if by a gust of wind, were being borne swiftly, and they had wings; according to the Hebrew word 'Asida' (which Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion translated as 'herodion'), only the LXX translated it as 'hoopoe.' The Hebrews consider 'Asida' to be the kite, a very rapacious bird that always attacks domestic birds; as for 'herodion', those who have written about the nature of birds assume three types: one white, another starry; the third black, which is both the most savage and bloodthirsty, and is fierce and unwilling to mate, to the point that blood bursts from their eyes. But the hoopoe, which we have taken from the similarity of the Greek name (for they themselves call it 'popam' from the fact that it examines human excrement), is said to be the most filthy bird, always dwelling in tombs, always in human dung: finally it is said to build its nest out of it, and to feed its young with decaying worms from the filth. Whatever you want to understand about this bird, it is fitting for those women of Judaea and Israel who, because of their sins of prostitution, were handed over to the power of demons and led into captivity by them. And they brought a jar or measure, in which impiety was enclosed, with a mass of lead placed on top so that it could not escape, and the heaviest weight of all sins between earth and heaven. The prophet, understanding this, did not ask (for it was clear to his prophetic spirit) who these women were, nor what they represented, about which he had been previously instructed; but rather to what do they portend. Finally, it follows: I said to the angel who was speaking with me: To what place are these women carrying the jar? He replied: 'To build a house for him in the land of Shinar.' For this reason, the Seventy translated it as 'in the land of Babylon.' Shinar is indeed the plain of the Chaldeans, where those who had moved their feet from the East and were unable to stand in the service of God, built a tower of pride (Gen. 11). Therefore, the city itself is called Babylon, which means confusion, because there the languages of all were confused and mixed. Therefore impiety is attributed to these women in Babylon, so that there his house may be built, and established, and placed upon its foundation, and find eternal rest. Truly, in Babylon there is a seat of impiety, according to both history and mystical understanding. If you are willing to consider two women, the peoples of heretics and Jews (both of whom turn away from the face of God, and are carried by an uncertain spirit, and have wings like eagles, herons, and hoopoes, while always seeking riches like partridges, not with judgement, and hastening to plunder the Church, and delighting in disputes and quarrels, and leading to destruction those whom they deceive, and rolling in the mire of perpetual lust and filthiness), these women relieve the weight of the most serious impiety, and build their house in confusion, and serve the Babylonian king, so that the peoples of heretics and Jews may dwell there, where idolatry resides, serving wood and stone.

Source: Commentary on Zechariah

[AD 1781] Richard Challoner on Zechariah 5:11

The land of Sennaar: Where Babel or Babylon was built, Gen. 11., where note, that Babylon in holy writ is often taken for the city of the devil: that is, for the whole congregation of the wicked: as Jerusalem is taken for the city and people of God.