Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Jerome on Revelation 3 :7 in Epistle 121

 

My son Apodemius has attested to the meaning of his own name by his long voyage in coming to us. From the ocean’s shore and the far reaches of Gaul, passing Rome on his way, he sought out Bethlehem to find in it heavenly bread. And having gorged himself, he belched in the Lord and said: “My heart has belched a good word; I speak my works to the king.” On a small sheet of paper he brought me very advanced questions, which he said came from you and were to be delivered to me. Upon reading them, I understood that the zeal of the Queen of Sheba was fulfilled in you. She came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. I am surely no Solomon, who excelled in wisdom all men before and after him. But you deserve to be called the queen of Sheba in whose mortal body sin does not reign, you who have turned to the Lord with all your mind and will hear from him: “Turn, turn, O Shunamite.” For in our language “Sheba” means “turn.” At the same time, I have noted that your brief questions, which are posed solely from the Gospel and from the Apostle, make clear that you either do not sufficiently read or do not sufficiently understand the Old Scripture, which is wrapped in such great obscurities and figures of future things that the whole thing requires interpretation. And the eastern gate, from which the true light arises and by which the high priest enters and exists, is always shut and opens to Christ alone, who “has the key of David who opens and no one shuts; he closes and no one opens.” Thus, when he unbolts it, you may enter his chamber and say: “The king has led me into his chamber.” (Jerome, Epistle 121, in St. Jerome: Exegetical Epistles, 2 vols. [trans. Thomas P. Scheck; The Fathers of the Church 148; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2024], 2:173-74, emphasis in bold added)