did Saul recognize [Samuel], and worship? Yet Saul did not see, but hearing from the woman what he wished, he recognized the figure of one of those who had ascended as Samuel, and he consulted that figure on bended knee. But for the demon, nothing is easier than to present the image of Samuel, which he knew. How then, one might ask, did he foretell the evils that were to befall Saul and Jonathan at the same time? He foretold the end of the war, that Saul A would be defeated, guessing this from the wrath of God against him. Just as a physician, who does not possess exact knowledge of his art, seeing a patient in a desperate state, might predict his death, yet be mistaken about the time; so too the demon, from the works of Saul, and from the very crime of consulting the Pythoness, knowing the wrath of God, foretells at once the defeat and the death, though he errs regarding the day of death.
ON THE PSALMS
(From Gallandius)B The argument of Hippolytus, Bishop of Rome, prefixed to the exposition of the Psalms.
The book of Psalms contains a new doctrine after the law of Moses. For this is the second doctrinal book after the writing of Moses. After the death of Moses and Joshua, and after the judges, David arose, who was held worthy to be called even the father of the Savior; he was the first to hand down to the Hebrews a new method of composing hymns, by which he abolished the things ordained by Moses concerning sacrifices, and introduced a new hymn and a mode of worshiping God with jubilation, and taught many other things that transcend the law of Moses throughout his work.
On Psalm II
From the second dialogue of Theodoret, which is titled [i]Asynchytos[/i] (The Unconfused), p. 167.C The exposition of Saint Hippolytus, bishop, on the second Psalm.
He who came into the world was manifested as both God and man; and it is easy to recognize his human nature, when he hungers and grows weary, and thirsts, and in fear flees, and praying suffers distress, and sleeps on a pillow; and when he asks for the cup of passion to be taken away, and in his struggle sweats, and is strengthened by an angel, and is betrayed by Judas, and treated with contumely by Caiaphas, and despised by Herod, and scourged by Pilate, and mocked by the soldiers, and by the Jews...
is nailed to the wood, and crying to the Father commends his spirit, and bowing his head expires, and his side is pierced with a lance, and wound in a linen cloth he is placed in a tomb, and on the third day he is raised by the Father. But his divine nature is not obscurely seen, when he is adored by angels, and looked upon by shepherds, and awaited by Simeon, and adorned by the testimony of Anna, and sought by the Magi, and indicated by a star, and makes wine from water at the marriage feast, and rebukes the sea agitated by the force of the winds, and walks upon the sea, and restores sight to the man blind from birth, and raises Lazarus on the fourth day, and performs various powers, and forgives sins, and gives the power to forgive to his disciples.
In Psalm XXII
BIdem Theodoretus dialogue primo. Saint Hippolytus, bishop and martyr, in the exposition of the Psalm, "The Lord is my shepherd." The Ark fashioned of incorruptible woods was the Savior himself. For by this was signified that his tabernacle perceived no decay or corruption, that is, producing no putrefaction of sin. For the sinner utters this confession: "My wounds have decayed and are putrefied because of my foolishness." But the Lord was without sin, and was covered as if with the purest gold, being made from woods immune to putrefaction according to humanity—that is, from the Virgin and the Holy Spirit within, and from the Word of God outside.
In Psalm XXIII
CIdem ibid. The same in the exposition of the Psalm XXIII. He comes to the celestial gates, with angels accompanying him, and the gates of the heavens were closed. For he had not yet ascended into heaven, but then for the first time appeared to the celestial powers flesh ascending. It is said, therefore, to the powers by the angels who were the precursors of the Savior and Lord: "Lift up your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates, and the King of glory shall enter in."
In Psalm CIX
DIdem Theodoretus dialogue secundo. The same in the discourse on the great canticle. He who rescued lost man, fashioned from the earth and held in the bonds of death, from the lowest hell, and coming from above raised to the heights the one lying upon the ground, having become the evangelist of the dead, and the redeemer of souls, and the resurrection of those buried; this one brought aid to the conquered man, having been made like to him, the first-born Word, visiting the first-formed Adam in the virgin
the spiritual one seeking out the earthy in the womb, and always living, [visiting] him who died through disobedience; the heavenly [One] calling the earthly to things above; the noble [One] desiring to grant freedom to the slave through His own obedience; Who turned the man who was decaying into dust and had become food for the serpent, into adamant, and having declared this [man] to be Lord, hanging upon the wood, against the one who had conquered, and thus is found to be conqueror through the wood. A
Of the same, from the same discourse: For those who do not recognize the Son of God now in the flesh, will recognize Him as Judge when He arrives in glory, Whom they now treat insolently in a body without glory.
Of the same, from the same discourse: For the apostles, having come to the monument on the third day, did not find the body of Jesus, in the same way that the children of Israel, ascending the mountain, sought the burial place of Moses and did not find it. B
On Psalm LXXVII
45: He sent among them the dog-fly, and it devoured them; and the frog, and it destroyed them. 46: And He gave their fruits to the mildew, and their labors to the locust. 47: He slew their vine with hail, and their sycamores with frost.
Just as, through an intemperate diet, a certain destructive and bilious humor collects in the vital parts, which a physician, by his art, draws out through vomiting—he himself, of course, is not the cause for such a morbid humor being produced in the body, which intemperance of food has produced, though medical art has brought it to light: so too, even if it is said that the painful retribution by which those who are perverse of their own will are punished comes from God, it would be reasonable for us to trace back the origins and causes of receiving such evils to ourselves. For to him who has lived without sin, there is no darkness, no worm, no Gehenna, no fire, nor any other of the things and punishments that are to be feared; C just as even the Egyptian plagues were not a detriment to the Hebrews: not those tiny gnats inflicting pain with invisible bites, not the dog-fly clinging with a biting, sharp sting, not the storms rushing down from above with stones of hail, not the countryside consumed by locusts, not the air covered in darkness, and other things of this kind. But it is within the power of God to cultivate the true vine and to destroy the Egyptian, while also sparing those who are about to eat the grape of gall and drink the incurable poison of asps.* The Egyptian fig tree is likewise uprooted, but not that one which Zacchaeus climbed, that he might be able to see my Lord. And the fruits of the Egyptians are corrupted, which are the works of the flesh; but not the fruit of the Spirit, D love, joy, peace.**
* Deut. XXXII, 33. ** Gal. V, 22.
48. A *And He gave up their cattle to the hail, and their possessions to the fire.* B Symmachus renders it: *Who gave up their cattle to famine, and their possessions to the birds.* For when they had experienced massive devastation, they provided food for carnivorous birds. But according to the Seventy, it does not say this—that the cattle were destroyed by hail separately, and the fire consumed the other property individually—but that hail, descending miraculously with fire, first of all struck down the vine and the sycamores, as they were utterly unable to withstand the first assault. Then, all the cattle that were grazing in the fields, and afterwards every herb and every plant, were consumed by the fire that was in the hail; and the phenomenon was a wonder, with the fire running through the water and being interwoven with it. For he says the fire was running through the hail; and there was hail and fire flaming within the hail. By "possessions," or wealth, David calls the cattle and the fruit of the trees. B It must be noted that, even if the hail is recorded to have destroyed every herb and every tree, nevertheless some things remained, which the locust, coming upon them after the fire-entwined hail, ate; regarding which it is said that it devoured every herb and all the fruit of the trees, which the hail had left behind. According to the allegorical interpretation, there are certain cattle of Christ, and certain cattle of the Egyptians. However, things that were once someone else's property can become His, just as Laban's cattle became Jacob's, and conversely, because Jacob gave to Esau whatever he disapproved of. Be careful, therefore, lest, being found in the sheepfold of Jesus when gifts are sent to Esau, you are chosen, and as a reprobate and unworthy of the spiritual Jacob, you are sent off to Esau. The cattle of Christ are the simpler ones, whom God saves, according to that text: *You will save both men and cattle, O Lord.* The cattle of the Egyptians are those who, deprived of reason, adhere to the impious doctrine of atheism, and who are so struck by the hail. C And the Egyptians, indeed, have everything they possess delivered to the fire, but Abraham gave his possessions to Isaac.
49. *He sent upon them the anger of His fury, anger, and wrath, and tribulation, a mission through evil angels.* D He called the bitter punishments anger, wrath, and tribulation; for God is without passion. And by "anger" you shall understand the lesser punishments; by "wrath," the greater ones; and by "tribulation," the greatest. As for the "evil angels"—those who are the administrators of wrath—they are neither evil by nature nor by choice, but because they serve in carrying out such things, and inflict hardships and pains, they are called "evil" in relation to the disposition of those who suffer, just as the day of judgment is called a "wicked day," because it is full of constraints and pains for the sinners. Such also is the passage in Isaiah: *I...*