Haggai 2

So the word of God comes to those who had begun to work in the house of the Lord Almighty, now in rest, that is, in the seventh month and in the most complete mystery of the Trinity, on the twenty-first of the month, and to Haggai, who was celebrating the feasts of God and had again prepared his hand for the word of the Lord, and he says to him: Speak to Zerubbabel of the tribe of Judah, and to Joshua the great priest, who for our sake deigned to become both man and priest, and to the remnant of the people; for in comparison with the whole world, the part of those who believed was small in the beginning.

In the seventh month, on the twenty-first of the month, the word of the Lord came in the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying: Speak to Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the great priest; and to the rest of the people, saying: Who is left among you that saw this house in its first glory? And how do you see it now? Is it not so, as if it were not, in your eyes? And now take courage, Zerubbabel, says the Lord, and take courage, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, great priest, and take courage, all people of the land, says the Lord of hosts, and do it. For I am with you, says the Lord of hosts. The word that I covenanted with you when you came out of the land of Egypt, and my spirit will be in your midst; do not fear. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet there is one little while, and I will shake heaven and earth, and the sea and the dry land, and I will move all nations. And the one desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. Mine is the silver, and mine is the gold, says the Lord of hosts. Great will be the glory of this latter house, more than of the first, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, says the Lord of hosts. In the same year, but in the seventh month, in which the solemnities of God fall, on the twenty-first day of the month, that is, when three weeks had been completed and rest had been made perfect in the mystery of the Trinity, the word of the Lord came for the third time in the hand of Haggai the prophet, who sweated in continual labor, so that the word of God might always have access in him. For, forgetting what was past and stretching forward into the future, he labored every day as if he had nothing of his previous works. So it is said to him: Speak to Zerubbabel, and to Joshua, and to the rest of the people, who saw the ancient house of God and are now present at its restoration: in comparison with the former, is not this one which is seen such that in a certain way it seems not to exist? But do not despair, and do not let your weary hands drop; but you too, Zerubbabel, and you, Joshua, and all you people, take courage, and do the work in my house. For I am with you, and my word, which I covenanted with you when you came out of the land of Egypt. And my spirit will not depart from you; do not fear: it is I who command, the Lord Almighty, for whom to have said is to have done. When I was giving the first covenant and was seen on Mount Sinai, I shook heaven and earth, and the Red Sea and the desert, to set up a covenant with you; but now I promise you that I will yet once more shake heaven and earth, and the sea and the dry land, so that, when they are shaken, all the nations may be moved, and there may come, according to the LXX, the things that are chosen of the Lord from all the nations; but according to the Hebrew, the one desired by all nations will come, our Lord and Savior. Then I will fill this house with a glory greater than the former's, and I will always add to you, says the Lord Almighty. And lest perhaps you think the guarantor weak, mine is the gold, and mine is the silver, and mine are all riches. I will give gold and silver for the adornment of the temple, so that the glory of this house may become greater than that of the former. And because what I promise seems difficult, and human unbelief always hesitates before greater promises, I who promise therefore say again: I am the Lord Almighty. Moreover, since I know that nothing serves so well for the building of a renowned house, one that is to surpass the former house, as peace, I pledge this too. For I will give peace in this place, says the Lord of hosts, so that the peace which surpasses all understanding may guard my house, and my place may be in peace. For the present I have drawn these lines of exposition παραφραστικῶς (by way of paraphrase), so that from them the prudent reader may ascend to a more sublime understanding, even while we are silent.

O friends and priests of God, you are clothed with holy robe and heavenly crown of glory, the inspired unction and the priestly raiment of the Holy Spirit. To you, of youthful pride of God's holy temple, honored by God with wisdom that is aged but revealed in choice deeds and works of a flourishing valor that is youthful, God himself, who encompasses the whole world, has given the distinguished honor of building his house on earth and of restoring it for Christ, his only-begotten and his firstborn word, and for his holy and sacred bride. One indeed might wish to call you a new Bezalel, the builder of a divine tabernacle, or a King Solomon, king of a new and far better Jerusalem, or even a new Zerubbabel, who bestowed far greater glory or even a new Zerubbabel on the temple of God.

Whoever scans all the books of the prophets, both of the twelve and of the others, will find many testimonies regarding the Holy Spirit. Haggai says, "For I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, and my spirit continues in your midst."

Nevertheless, because the former house has become as if it did not subsist, Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the priest are roused, so that the kingdom and the priesthood of Christ may be strengthened, and his people, which was once the people of the land, may do works in the house of the Lord and know that God is present to it.

In the next place, he was stripped of his former solid raiment and adorned with a garment down to the foot, and with a turban and a clean miter, that is, [with the garb] of the second advent; since he is demonstrated as having attained "glory and honor." [Since stripped] you will not be able to say that the man [there depicted] is the "son of Jehozadak," who was never clad in a sordid garment but was always adorned with the sacerdotal garment, nor ever deprived of the sacerdotal function.

Let it also do the word which the Lord covenanted with them when they were coming out of the land of Egypt. And would that we too may come out of Egypt, so that we may fulfil the word of the covenant which we have received. The Lord God also promises his spirit to those who do works in his house and fulfil the word they have received, saying: And my spirit will be in your midst. Behold the mystery of the Trinity: I am with you, and my Spirit, and the Word, in which I set the covenant when you came out of Egypt. But what he says, in your midst, is to be understood in the sense of what we read written in the Gospel: For he stands in your midst, whom you do not know, who will come after me.

Likewise here too when he says, "My spirit has taken a position in your midst," he means, my grace and my disposition toward you accompanies you, taking a position and providing you with its benefit. In other words, just as he speaks of a soul in reference to God, thus implying not some hypostasis [i.e., separate entity] but his attitude to something—as when he says, "My soul hates your new moons and sabbaths" to refer to the attitude by which he hated what was done by them in their depraved behavior—so too is his mention of the "spirit."

There have been two remarkable transformations of the human way of life in the course of the world's history. These are called two "covenants," and, so famous was the business involved, two "shakings of the earth." The first was the transition from idols to the law;13 the second, from the law to the gospel. The gospel also tells of the third shaking, the change from this present stage of things to what lies unmoved, unshaken, beyond. An identical feature occurs in both covenants. The feature? There was nothing sudden involved in the first movement to take their transformation in hand.

In truth he comes, who shakes the elements by his coming, in whose sight heaven and earth tremble. Hence the prophet says, "There is still a little while, and I will move not only the earth but also the sky." He will bring the whole human race to his examination; angels, archangels, thrones, principalities and dominations will obey him, for the punishment of evil and the recompense of the good. Consider, dearly beloved, what terror there will be on that day at the sight of so great a judge. There will be no relief from punishment then. What a shame we will feel in the sight of all human beings and angels because of our own guilt! How we will fear when we see him angry, whom the human mind cannot comprehend even when he is peaceful!

Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. [Haggai 2:6] And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.

These things, then, says the Lord of hosts to you who see that the former house is as if it were not. I moved heaven, when my voice was heard from heaven. I moved the earth, when I delivered the covenant to the former people, and at my coming gloom, whirlwind and darkness were seen. I moved the Red Sea, when I provided a way for the people passing over. I moved the dry land, either Egypt, emptied of the worship of God through the plagues, or the wilderness through which I led the people about for forty years. These I will move yet once more. This we see fulfilled in the coming of the Lord the Savior. For at the time of his passion, as the sun fled, heaven was moved, and darkness came over all the earth from the sixth hour until the ninth hour. The earth was moved, and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened; the sea was moved, when the dragon that was in it was slain; the dry land too was moved, the once fruitless wilderness of the nations.

Therefore, gather from this that the establishment of the earth is in the power of God, as it is written: "He looks at the earth, and it trembles." And elsewhere: "Yet once more I shake the earth." Therefore, it does not remain motionless in its balance, but it is frequently moved by the will and power of God, as even Job says: "For the Lord shakes it from its foundation; its pillars tremble." And elsewhere: "The naked underworld is in his sight, and there is no covering for death, extending the North for nothing, suspending the earth into nothingness, binding the water in his clouds... The pillars of the heavens tremble and quake at his reproof; by his power he stilled the sea, by his understanding he struck down Rahab." Therefore, it does not rely on its own foundations, nor does it persist stable on its own supports; but the Lord has established it and sustains it by the firmness of His will; for all the ends of the earth are in His hand. And this simplicity of faith surpasses all arguments.

There remain for discussion the three minor prophets who belong to the closing days of the captivity, namely, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. To begin with, Haggai has the following brief but clear prophecy of Christ and the church: "For thus says the Lord of hosts: yet one little while, and I will move the heaven and the earth, and the sea and the dry land. And I will move all the nations, and the desired of all nations shall come." It is obvious that this prediction is, in part, already fulfilled; the rest we may confidently expect at the end of the world. Surely God set the heavens rocking when angels and a star stood as witnesses to the birth of Christ; surely too he moved the earth when he performed the tremendous miracle of giving Christ a virgin birth. Surely he moved the sea and the dry land when he made Christ's name known throughout the whole world, on island and on mainland. For the rest, we ourselves are witnesses of the fact that all nations are being moved to accept the faith. The last part of the text, "and the desired of all nations shall come," refers to Christ's second coming. For before the whole world can await him and desire his coming, it just first believes in him and loves him.

And in this trembling of the universe all the nations too were shaken, because into all the earth has gone out the sound of the apostles of the Lord, and their words have penetrated to the ends of the world. And all the nations were moved for this reason, that from their movement the chosen things of the nations might come, and whatever is excellent anywhere. For example, the chosen things from Corinth, because there was much people of God in it; the chosen things from Macedonia, because the great Church of God gathered in Thessalonica had no need to be taught about love; the chosen things from Ephesus, so that they might know the secrets of God and mysteries revealed to none before. Why say more? All the nations were shaken to which the Savior had sent the apostles, saying: Go, teach all nations; and out of the many called, the few chosen built the Church of the firstborn. Hence the apostle Peter too: Greets you, he says, she who is elect in Babylon, and Mark my son; and John: The elder, he says, to the elect lady; and then he mentions the children of the elect lady. So when the nations had been shaken, which indeed we can also take as the opposing powers, unable to bear the splendor of the Lord, the chosen things of all the nations came, and the house of the Lord, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth, was filled with glory. This is according to the LXX. But in the Hebrew it stands better and more expressively, as we set it down above: And I will move all nations, and the one desired by all nations will come. For truly, after he came, the house of the Lord was filled with glory.

But this is not the fault of gold and silver. Let us suppose that someone of tender heart has found a treasure. The kindness of his heart works, does it not, so that hospitality is shown to strangers, the starving are fed, the naked clothed, the needy assisted, captives redeemed, churches are built, the weary are refreshed, the quarrelsome pacified, the shipwrecked set on their feet again, the sick cured—material resources distributed on earth, spiritual ones stored up in heaven? Who does all this? The good and kindhearted person. What does he do it with? Gold and silver. Whom is he serving when he does it? The one who says, "Mine is the gold and mine is the silver." Now, brothers, I think you can see what a great mistake it is, what lunacy indeed, to project onto the things which people misuse the offense of the people who misuse them. If gold and silver, after all, can be blamed simply because people warped by avarice and neglecting the commands of the Creator are carried away by an abominable kind of lust for these things that he brought into being, then let us blame every single creature of God, because, as the apostle says, some perverse people "worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever." Let us also blame this sun, which these same Manichaeans, as we all know, not understanding that it is a creature, never cease to worship and adore as though it were the Creator—or at least some sort of part of him.

Surely the glory of the house of the New Testament is greater than that of the old because it was built of better materials, namely, those living stones that are human beings renewed by faith and grace. Yet precisely because Solomon's temple was renovated—was made new—it was a prophetic symbol of the second Testament which is called the New. Accordingly we must understand the words God spoke by Haggai's mouth, "And I will give peace in that place," as referring to the place for which the temple stood. Since the restored temple signified the church, which Christ was to build, those words can mean only "I will give peace in that place [the church] which this place [the rebuilt temple] prefigures." (All symbols seem in some way to personify the realities of which they are symbols. So, St. Paul says, "The rock was Christ," because the rock in question symbolized Christ.) Not, however, until the house of the New Testament receives its final consecration will its greater glory in relation to the house of the Old Testament be made perfectly clear. This will take place at the second coming of him whom the Hebrew text calls "the desire of all nations." Obviously his first coming was not desired of all nations, for unbelievers did not even know whom they should desire to come. In the end too, as the Septuagint puts it with equal amount of prophetic meaning, "the chosen of the Lord shall come from all nations." Then, truly, only the chosen shall come, those of whom St. Paul says, even "as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world."

Riches, gold and silver, are not the devil's as some think, for "the whole world of riches is for the faithful man, but for the unfaithful not a farthing." But nothing is more faithless than the devil. God through the prophet says plainly, "Mine is the silver, and mine is the gold." Only use it well and there is nothing blameworthy in silver; but when you abuse a good thing and are then unwilling to blame your own conduct, you impiously put the blame on the Creator. One can even be blessed by money. "I was hungry, and you gave me to eat"4—undoubtedly by the use of money; "I was naked and you covered me"—assuredly by the use of money. Consider too that money can be a door to the heavenly kingdom. "Sell," he says, "what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven."

And as far as the Lord is distant from the servant, so much better is the house of the Lord, over which the Lord presides, than the former house, over which a servant presided. And as for what he says: Mine is the silver, and mine is the gold, says the Lord of hosts, I do not think that anyone supposes that he is speaking of the silver and gold that are possessed by the rich and by kings. For in this way not only silver and gold belong to God as Creator, but also the other metals, bronze, tin, lead, and iron, which tames all things. But I take the silver with which the house of God is adorned to be the utterances of the Scriptures, of which it is said: The utterances of the Lord are pure utterances; silver tried by fire, proved by the earth, purged sevenfold; and the gold to be what dwells in the hidden thought of the saints and in the secret place of the heart, and shines with the true light of God; which, it is clear, the Apostle also meant concerning the saints who build upon the foundation of Christ, gold, silver, precious stones, so that in the gold there is hidden thought, in the silver seemly speech, in the precious stone works pleasing to God. With these metals the Church of the Savior becomes more illustrious than the synagogue once was; with these living stones the house of Christ is built, and eternal peace is granted to it. Moreover, what follows in the Seventy: And peace of soul for acquisition to everyone who is created to raise up this temple, we have omitted as superfluous and scarcely coherent, since it is found neither among the Hebrews nor in any other translator.

It is to be noted, however, that in this place, On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month in the second year, it is not said, as it was above for the third time, The word of the Lord came in the hand of Haggai the prophet, but to Haggai the prophet. For there — because he was still making progress and had only clean works, but his heart had not yet received full wisdom, or because he still dwelt among those who said, The time has not yet come for the house of the Lord to be built — the word of the Lord came only in his works. Here, however, since the foundations of the temple have now been laid, and the people with its rulers has entered the house of God and is doing work befitting the temple of God, and has heard the mystery, I will move all the nations, and the one desired by all the nations shall come, and is full of prophecy, therefore the word of the Lord comes wholly to Haggai. Of the twenty-fourth day and the second year we have already spoken. The number of the ninth month, which is added here, is never read in a good sense. The people sacrifices the Passover and celebrates other festivals; every solemnity of theirs ends on the eighth day and does not reach the ninth. Those who prepare the Passover lamb begin to prepare it when the ninth day is past. The day of propitiation and expiation of the seventh month, too, is celebrated after the ninth day. And in Jeremiah, as will be plain to those who read, Jerusalem is besieged by the Babylonians in the ninth year. Since, therefore, the prophecy was to concern the uncleanness of the people, for that reason the ninth month is joined to the second year of Darius. Again, because room is given for repentance after the rebuke of uncleanness, the word of God comes to Haggai the prophet on the twenty-fourth day, so that, as if in the person of the Lord, he may put to the priests a question arising from the law; and it is said to him: Ask the priests the law, saying.

On the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Haggai the prophet, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests the law, saying: If a man carries sanctified flesh in the border of his garment, and with its edge touches bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any food, shall it be sanctified? And the priests answered and said: No. And Haggai said: If one polluted in soul touches any of all these, shall it be defiled? And the priests answered and said: It shall be defiled. And Haggai answered and said: So is this people, and so is this nation, before my face, says the Lord; and so every work of their hands, and all that they have offered there, shall be defiled. LXX: On the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, in the second year under Darius, the word of the Lord came to Haggai the prophet, saying: Thus says the Lord Almighty: Ask the priests the law, saying: If a man takes holy flesh in the edge of his garment, and the edge of his garment touches bread, or cooked food, or wine, or oil, or any food, will it be sanctified? And the priests answered and said: No. And Haggai said: If one unclean in soul touches any of all these, will it be defiled? And the priests answered and said: It will be defiled. And Haggai answered and said: So is this people, and so is this nation before me, says the Lord, and so are all the works of their hands. And whoever draws near there will be defiled; because of their morning gifts they will grieve before the face of their wickednesses, and you scent those who reprove in the gates. We have set down the edition of the Seventy translators as well for this reason, that they seemed to disagree in certain words. And this which is said, Because of their morning gifts, they will grieve before the face of their wickednesses, and you scent those who reprove in the gates, is found neither in the Hebrew nor among the other translators.

He writes to Timothy, who had been trained in the holy writings from a child, exhorting him to study them diligently and not to neglect the gift that was given him with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. To Titus he gives commandment that among a bishop's other virtues (which he briefly describes) he should be careful to seek a knowledge of the Scriptures: "A bishop," he says, must hold fast "the faithful word as he has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." In fact, lack of education in a clergyman prevents him from doing well to anyone but himself, and much as the virtue of his life may build up Christ's church, he does it an injury as great by failing to resist those who are trying to pull it down. The prophet Haggai says—or rather the Lord says it by the mouth of Haggai—"ask now the priests concerning the law." For such is the important function of the priesthood to give answers to those who question them concerning the law.

And at the same time consider that it is the office of priests to answer one who asks about the law. If he is a priest, let him know the law of the Lord; if he does not know the law, he himself proves that he is not the Lord's priest. For it belongs to the priest to know the law and, when questioned, to answer concerning the law. This indeed we read in Deuteronomy too: that if anywhere in the cities of Israel a question should arise between blood and blood, between judgment and judgment, leprosy and leprosy, dispute and dispute, they are to go to the priests and Levites, and to the high priest who shall have been appointed in those days, and ask of him the law of the Lord; and when these have answered, they are to do what they are commanded. But if they do not do it, they are to be cut off from their people. And lest perhaps these precepts should seem to be in the old Instrument alone, the Apostle too speaks to Timothy, saying that a bishop ought to be not only irreproachable, and the husband of one wife, and wise, and chaste, and well-ordered, and hospitable, but also a teacher. And lest he should seem to have said this by chance, the same caution is observed also to Titus concerning the ordaining of presbyters, whom he wishes to be understood as bishops too: For this reason I left you in Crete, that you might set right what remained and ordain presbyters throughout the cities, as I instructed you: if anyone is irreproachable, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not under accusation of dissipation or insubordinate. For a bishop must be irreproachable, as the steward of God, not insolent, not irascible, not given to wine, not a striker, not greedy for base gain, but hospitable, chaste, kind, just, holy, continent, holding in his teaching to the faithful word, that he may be able to console in sound teaching and to refute those who contradict. For there are many who are also not subject, vain talkers and seducers, especially those who are of the circumcision, on whom silence must be imposed. I have set these things down at some length so that we may know, from the Old as well as from the New Testament, that it is the office of priests to know the law of God and to answer whatever they are asked; and that simplicity and abstinence in food are not enough in a teacher unless he can also instruct others in what he himself does. Certainly, since I think they will reply that this belongs to those who prepare themselves for teaching from their youth, but that often, by the judgment of the Lord and the vote of the peoples, simple men are chosen for the priesthood: let them at least have this, that after they have been ordained priests they learn the law of God, so that they may teach what they have learned, and increase their knowledge rather than their wealth; and let them not blush to learn from laymen who know the things that belong to the office of priests; and let them spend nights and days in the study of the Scriptures rather than in accounts and reckoning.

Knowing, then, what sanctified flesh is, and one unclean in soul, let us see what the prophet asks. If any man: here it is not said of the high priest, or of a priest, or of a Levite, but of any man whatever; where no person is specified, all are freely permitted to touch the flesh. If, he says, he carries sanctified flesh and has tied it in the edge of his garment, and the edge of the garment itself touches bread, or any other cooked food, or wine, or oil, or anything besides these on which a man can feed, can the bread or pottage, or wine, or oil or any food be sanctified by the touch of the garment in which the holy flesh is tied? And the priests answered and said: It cannot; that is, none of the things you ask about will be sanctified, but each will remain as it was.

But what is it that Haggai, in the person of the Lord, asks the priests? If a man carries sanctified flesh in the border or in the edge of his garment, and with its edge touches bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any food, shall it be sanctified? Before we treat of the question, we ought meanwhile to know, according to the letter, what sanctified flesh is and what one unclean in soul is. As for the victim that was sacrificed on the altar, its flesh was holy, and among these sanctified meats themselves there was much diversity. For some the priests ate in the inner sanctuary of the temple, some their kinsfolk ate at home, some those of the priests who were held to be blemished, some Israelites who had no uncleanness. The full account of this diversity is given in Leviticus. But one was called unclean in soul who had touched the body of a dead man. Here it is to be observed that as long as the soul is in the body the human body is not unclean, but as soon as the spirit that quickens the limbs has withdrawn, what is earthly becomes unclean, as is written in the same Leviticus: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and you shall say to them: They shall not be defiled by souls among their nation, but by kinsfolk who are near to them: over a mother, and over a father, and over sons and daughters, and over a brother and his sister, a virgin, who is near to him and has not been given to a husband; over these he shall not be defiled, and he shall not be polluted suddenly among his people to his defilement. Consider that these priests are commanded not to go in to any dead person whatever, except to those kinsfolk and near relations of whom it was said above. But the great priest, that is, the high priest, had something more than the other priests: neither filial devotion nor affection could bend him to become unclean in the cases named above. For the Scripture says: And he shall not go in to any soul that is dead: over his father, nor over his mother, and he shall not be defiled.

But according to ἀναγωγὴν (anagogy), the man of the Church who has sacrificed the lamb without blemish and a year old, and has put on Christ, if he takes some of its flesh and ties it in the edge of his garment, and that edge touches the bread of the Scriptures, which strengthens the hearts of believers; or cooked food, the apostolic epistles, which, as it were, cut up the meats of the old law and cook them through and offer them seasoned for eating; or wine, which gladdens the heart of man; or oil, by which the face of the hearer is made cheerful; or any food: the milk on which the Corinthians are nourished, and the herbs on which the weak feed, and other things like these; those to whom they are given will not at once eat them as sanctified. For it is not from their being spoken but from their being received that they sanctify the hearers, because many are hearers of the law and not doers. But I think also that all these things I have named are by no means conveyed sanctified to those who eat from the touch of the garment for this reason: that they are touched only by the edge of the cloak, and the sanctified meats do not know, inwardly, moisture, blood, veins and sinews. As, therefore, the edge of the Lord's garment and a light touch do not sanctify, except him who has eaten the flesh of the Lamb and drunk his blood, so, on the contrary, one unclean in soul, all perverse doctrines, must needs make unclean whatever they touch. For they have in their mysteries bread, and wine, and oil, and every food; but their mysteries are like the bread of mourning: all who touch them will be defiled. They too read the Scriptures, and, as it were, from the testimonies of the Scriptures they mix the dough for bread and bake it all night in the oven; but when it has been given to eat, it provokes those who eat it to madness. They have pottage and cooked food, attempting, according to the sense of their perversity, to weave every mystical thing out of the Scriptures, and, as it were, to cook and season the flesh of the lamb; but that cooked food is perdition. They have wine too, but not from the vine of Sorek, the one the Lord planted in Jeremiah, choice and wholly true, but from the vine of Sodom. They have oil also, which they forcibly press out of the testimonies of the Old and the New Scripture, and which they promise to deceived and weary minds as if for refreshment; but the holy man abhors it and says: But let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head. They have also diverse foods, namely the manifold and diverse treatises of various ὑποθέσεων (of arguments), which, because those who wrote them are unclean and they were uttered from an unclean mouth, everyone who touches will become unclean and will be drawn into their error. Hence Haggai answered, who knows the differences between the solemnities, and for that reason received the name of festive. So is this people and so is this nation, that is, of the Jews, and of the Gentiles, and of all heretics, in my sight, says the Lord. Everything they do, whatever they offer me, whether vows for welfare, or peace offerings, or offerings for sin, or for trespass, or as a holocaust, or alms, or fasts, or abstinence in diet and chastity of body, will be defiled in my sight. For although the things offered by such people seem holy in their appearance, yet because they have been touched by one who is polluted in soul, all of them will be polluted.

Again another question is put to the priests, since, that is, they had answered the former one well, and a sort of likeness of the problem is fitted to it, in which an unskilled man could easily slip. For suppose someone does not know the law: just as he answered concerning the sanctified flesh that bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any food is not sanctified, so in this case too he will answer alike and say: One polluted in soul does not defile the things that holy flesh could not sanctify. He asks, therefore, and says: If he who is polluted in soul, that is, who has been made unclean by contact with the dead, touches any of all these, namely bread or pottage, or wine, or oil, or the other foods, will the things he has touched be polluted by contact with them? And the priests answered, whose chief was Joshua son of Jehozadak, whence they also knew the law, and they said that by the touch of him who is unclean all things touched by him are polluted.

And Haggai answered and said, passing over in silence the earlier point, that sanctified flesh cannot sanctify the other foods, and weaving the occasion of his discourse from the second question alone: So is this people, and so is this nation before my face, says the Lord. He who is unclean in soul and has touched a carcass, everything he touches and whatever he offers to me will be unclean. What he says according to the letter is of this kind: O people, who, with only the altar built and my house in ruins, offer me sacrifices on the altar and think that you are sanctified by its victims and its flesh, know that you are not so much sanctified by the sacrifices, which, with the temple in ruins, can be of no profit to you, as that all your works and everything you do are defiled, from the fact that you are negligent and have striven to build your own house rather than mine. What is offered on the altar is indeed holy; but you are not so much sanctified by the sacrifices as you are polluted by the fact that you dwell in valleys and are present among dead works. This according to the history, although we have drawn in it the lines of a spiritual understanding.

Moreover, according to tropology, it is said also to us who now believe in Jesus Christ, if indeed we believe and show its truth by the work of faith, that we should return in mind to that time when we were Gentiles, daily serving vices, and had not built in ourselves a temple to God. And as an architect and most skilled mason joins stone to stone, and cements the lower to the upper with lime and plaster, so also the architect — whom the Apostle too says he is, As a wise architect I have laid the foundation, and whom the Lord threatens that he will take away from Jerusalem — knows how to join works to works and little by little to build up the temple of God. And the foundation of this temple is laid: Jesus, upon whom let each one see what he builds. One builds gold, silver, precious stones; another wood, hay, stubble. And to the three goods three evils are opposed on the contrary side. These are the stones of which the Lord promises that he will build Jerusalem: Behold, I will prepare for you the carbuncle as your stone, and your foundations sapphire, and I will make your bulwarks jasper, and your gates of crystal stone, and your wall of choice stones. For it must not be thought, according to Jewish fables and foolish fictions, that God will build Jerusalem of gold and gems, and not of living stones, which now roll upon the earth, and which, according to the natures of the stones, are either fiery with faith, like the carbuncle; or wholly heavenly and brought up into the throne of God, like the sapphire; or shining with innocence and the simplicity of good works, like crystal. It is said to us, therefore, that we should consider what we suffered in the past before we built the temple of God in ourselves.

And now set your hearts from this day and upward, before stone was laid upon stone in the temple of the Lord. When you came to a heap of twenty bushels, and they became ten, and you went in to the winepress to press out fifty jars, and they became twenty. I struck you with burning wind, and with blight and hail all the works of your hands, and there was none among you who would return to me, says the Lord. LXX: And now set upon your hearts from this day and upward, before stone was laid upon stone in the temple of the Lord, you who were, when you put twenty measures of barley into the cypsele, and they became ten measures of barley; and you went in to the winepress to draw fifty amphoras, and they became twenty. I struck you with barrenness, and with corruption of the air, and with hail, all the works of your hands; and you did not return to me, says the Lord. Although everything you offered me on the altar was defiled because you had not built the temple — for without the building of the temple every gift is polluted — yet now I exhort you, O people, to turn back in thought to the past and to consider what has happened; that is, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius, embrace in your mind whatever was done before, and for what causes you have endured such great things, so that when prosperity comes to you hereafter you may know for what cause it has come. So, before you began to build the temple and to lay stone upon stone, when you came to the heap and thought that you had twenty bushels, could you not barely gather half? Or, according to the LXX: When you put twenty bushels of barley into the vessel that is called a cypsele, and supposed that, although you were putting in barley, the food of beasts, you were at least secure of those twenty bushels, did you not afterwards, returning to the vessel, find barely ten bushels? When you came to the winepress, too, and saw the grapes, and your eyes promised you fifty amphoras, you could press out, I do not say half, but barely twenty amphoras. And I did these things, striking you with burning wind, and corruption of the air, and dying crops, and empty husks of the ears and clusters of the vines, so that by the weight of evils I might rouse you to the knowledge of me; and even so there was none who would return to me.

The Hebrew explained the whole tenor of this passage, from what is written, And now set your hearts from this day and upward, up to the place where he says, The vine and the fig and the pomegranate, and the olive tree has not flowered: from this day I will bless, in this way: Certainly the foundations of the temple have now been laid; from this day, therefore, on which you laid the foundations — although in the past I punished you with barrenness, and famine, and hail, and drought, and there was none of you who returned to me through these plagues — set your hearts toward the future and onward, and see that all things flow for you on a prosperous course. And this will come about because you have begun to build my temple, and do not, putting your trust in the altar alone, despise the building of my house. According to this sense we can say briefly that some offer gifts to God in vain, and think that the Lord can be appeased by alms and oblations, when they themselves have not built in themselves a temple for the Holy Spirit. For alms, and the gifts that are offered on the altar, are of profit when one has built himself up as a temple of God, and after the building of the temple has offered gifts on the altar.

When you came, he says, to a heap of twenty bushels, and they became ten: Or, according to the LXX: When you put twenty bushels of barley into the cypsele, and they became ten bushels of barley. For whatever virtues and good works we seemed to have before Christ was not wheat but barley; and that very barley did not, according to our hope and prayers, yield a hundredfold harvest, as we read of Isaac, but we could barely find in it half of our labor, and it was said to us: Have you suffered so many things without cause? But also, when we went in to the winepress and reckoned on fifty amphoras of wine — a number which, when seven weeks are completed, the unity of the Godhead closes — and thought that we had wine, which gladdens the heart of man, the holy number thirty was taken away from us — the number at which the Lord is baptized, and Ezekiel sees his vision at the beginning of his prophecy, and, according to the Hebrew, the priests came to the ministry of God — and twenty were left. This number Esau loves; hence Jacob too, knowing that he delighted in this number, sends certain animals as a gift, twenty and twenty. And at the same time observe that Jacob himself, though holy — yet at the time when he was not with his father Isaac, that is, laughter, and his mother Rebekah, that is, patience, but had the Assyrians as neighbors and dwelt in Mesopotamia, with rivers girding him on this side and on that — served for the space of twenty years the most cruel and most avaricious Laban. Nor let it trouble anyone if we say that some, before faith in Christ and the building of his temple, can receive half of their labor, although among unbelievers there is no fruit of good works. For he does not store up twenty and find twenty, but when he has stored up twenty he finds ten, that is, half of his labor. Jews and heathens and the philosophers of this world, and the others who boast of wisdom, receive the fruit and the glory of their way of life and their labor in the present time only, and all their hope and reward of the world to come is taken away. And this is done so that they may not, utterly despairing, despise repentance, but may at some time be converted and lay stone upon stone and build the temple of God. But if they remain in unbelief, they will lose even that half which they seemed to have.

For there follows: I struck you with burning wind and with blight and hail all the works of your hands. And whatever is struck by blight and hail and burning wind is reduced to dust and ashes, and nothing is found in it that serves for use or for food. All these things indeed the Lord did, because there was not found among them one who would return to him. But if they return and build the temple of the Lord, from the day on which they begin to build they will have what the word of the prophecy goes on to add.

The ninth month is the one we call November or December. For Nisan is the first month among the Hebrews, which is called the month of new things, at the time when they keep the Passover, that is, at the first beginning of spring; following the course of the moon it often occupies some part of the month of March, and sometimes it begins in April. So if we understand Nisan as April, the ninth month by the reckoning of the Hebrews will be December. So it is the tenth month, at the time when the seeds lie hidden in the earth and future fruitfulness cannot be guessed.

That the ninth month is not taken in a good sense, both the fourth book of Kingdoms (2 Kings) and the history of Jeremiah relate, in which Jerusalem is said to have been besieged. Yet since the foundations of the temple are laid at the end of the ninth month, we can understand this: that the building of the temple of the Lord is not begun unless evil works come to an end. Hence also on the twenty-fourth day of the same month the foundation of the temple is laid; in this number there are a double δωδεκὰς (dodecad), and three ὀγδοάδες (ogdoads), and four ἑξάδες (hexads), of which we have already discussed more fully above.

Set your hearts from this day and into the future, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day on which the foundations of the temple of the Lord were laid, set upon your heart. Is the seed already in the sprout, and have the fig and the vine and the pomegranate and the olive tree still not flowered? From this day I will bless. LXX: Set your hearts from this day and into the future, from the four and twentieth of the ninth month, and from the day on which the foundations of the temple of the Lord were laid, set in your hearts. If the threshing floor will any longer be known upon the earth, and if still the vine and the fig and the pomegranate, and the olive trees that do not bear fruit? From this day I will bless. I have set forth to you, he says, what you endured before you began to build my temple; now I will set forth what prosperity is to come to you, because you have begun to build my temple. From the twenty-fourth day, therefore, of the ninth month, in which the foundations of the temple were laid, consider how great an abundance of things there will be.

I was inflicting various forms of correction on you—sterility, wind, blight, hail—but in your insensitivity you were unaware of the correction. Be mindful of this, then, and take note of the great prosperity you will enjoy after the commencement of the rebuilding, such being the abundance of necessities I shall provide you, with the result that in the future even the actual measures will have no use on the threshing floor. I shall also supply you with soft fruits as a blessing and provide the crop of the fruit trees.

Is the seed, he says, already in the sprout? This is better said in Hebrew, in the husk, so as to signify the sheath of the grain. Have the vine and the fig, and the pomegranate and the olive tree given their flower? So that from the flower the fruit too may be understood. Certainly not; for in the month of December, as we have said, there are no signs of the crops to come. So that you may not say, then, that I conjecture this by shrewd reasoning and surmise the future fruitfulness from the flowers of the trees and the blades of the crops: behold, there are no signs, and yet, because you have begun to build my temple, I foretell to you a fruitfulness of all crops at my blessing. This we have said according to the Hebrew. But according to the Seventy the sense is far different, and this too we must first explain according to the letter, so that afterwards the course of tropology we have begun may be treated. Set your hearts from this day on which the temple was founded, toward the future, and you will see that the harvests will be so great, and so much grain carried in from all the fields, that the threshing floor will not know its own crops; or that there will not be separate threshing floors for each man, but, because of the abundance, threshing floor will be joined to threshing floor, and the division between threshing floors will not be known upon the earth. The vine also and the fig and the pomegranate and the olive tree, which before, through your fault, did not bring forth fruit, because you had not yet begun to build me a temple, will be bowed down with such an abundance of grapes and fruits that manifest fruitfulness will point to a manifest blessing.

Whoever, therefore, has dedicated himself to the worship of God, and has despised the ῥάθυμον, that is, the negligent patron, who in the volume of Ezra, according to the Seventy translators, forbids the temple of God to be built, he does not know the measure of his crops and of his reward. Or certainly, on account of what is said, If the threshing floor will still be known upon the earth, he who has sown in the spirit and from the spirit has reaped eternal life will by no means store up treasure for himself on earth, but all his works and the rewards of his works will be gathered in the heavens. The vine also, that is, the word of God, whose husbandman in each one is the Father; and the fig, the sweetest gifts of the Holy Spirit; and the pomegranate, the doctrines of the Church and the knowledge of the Scriptures, which is compared to the cheeks of the bride in the Song of Songs; and the olive trees will give refreshment and illumination of heart to him who has begun to build the temple of God. That the vine and the fig and the olive — I put off the pomegranate for a little — refer to the person of the Savior, and of God the Father, and of the Holy Spirit, is read more fully in the book of Judges, where the unfruitful trees go to set a king over themselves, and say in turn to the vine and to the fig and to the olive that they should reign over them, and the vine as well as the fig and the olive refuse such rule and do not deign to reign over unfruitful trees. Then they come to the tree that is king of their barrenness, that is, to the bramble, a thorny shrub and a little tree woven of briars and hooks, which holds whatever it has touched, and wounds what it has held, and delights in the blood of the wounded; and besides sends forth fire from itself and consumes the trees it rules. We refer the bramble to the devil, and according to the nature of the shrub we shall interpret his nature. Moreover, the vine and the fig and the olive will be there where the pomegranate is; and this tree, because of the very great multitude of its seeds, and the kind of geometrical arrangement made by its interwoven membranes, and its little dwellings, separate indeed yet all enclosed by one rind, is always set in the Scriptures for the person of the Church.

It is to be noted, moreover, that on the same day, that is, on the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, with the number of the month passed over in silence because the prophecy concerned the coming of Christ and his kingdom, the word of our Lord comes a second time to Haggai: not in his hand, as before, nor to Haggai the prophet, as in the fourth vision, but simply to Haggai, that is, to one celebrating the feasts of the Lord. For he was to announce and to behold him not as one who would come at some time, but as one coming. And as Abraham saw the day of Christ and rejoiced, and John pointed out the Lamb of God with his finger, so he too, seeing the kingdom of the Son of God, was to have within himself all the solemnities.

And the word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying: Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying: I will move heaven and earth alike, and I will overturn the throne of kingdoms, and I will crush the strength of the kingdom of the nations; and I will overturn the chariot and its rider; and the horses and their riders shall go down, each man by the sword of his brother. On that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, my servant, says the Lord, and I will set you as a signet, because I have chosen you, says the Lord of hosts. In the LXX there is added: The sea and the dry land, and it lacks: I will crush the strength of the kingdom of the nations, which will be recognized more fully from reading their text.

On this passage most interpreters hold differing opinions: for some suppose that it is said of his first coming; others, of the second, when he is to come in his majesty. We accept both, because he both reigned then, when he came, and is to reign hereafter. Yet if we wish to take it of the end of the world, we shall say what the Apostle says to the Corinthians: To destroy every principality and every power and virtue, that God may be all in all. And because what is said is mystical and pertains to the end of things, the prophet is therefore commanded to speak to Zerubbabel alone, whom we have shown to have come forth as a type of Christ because of the assumption of a body from the seed of David. To him, therefore, are told the things that are to come at the end: that the form of this world passes away, and a new heaven and a new earth come to be, and the Lord shakes heaven and earth, and destroys every principality, and power, and virtue, and scatters the seats of kings, or, as it stands in the Hebrew, of kingdoms, and slays every opposing strength, so that the destruction of their kingdom may profit even those who had reigned before and had held the nations under their sway, and that, with all zeal for warfare scattered, peace may follow.

For this is what he says: And I will overturn the chariot, or chariots, and their riders, and the horses and their riders shall go down. And that you may know that what we have said is signified in the overturning of the chariots and of the horsemen falling headlong, see how it is said of Christ in Zechariah that a gentle king comes, mounting upon a yoke-beast and a young colt of an ass, and destroys the chariots out of Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, so that there may be one flock and one shepherd, and both hosts, from the nations as well as from the Jews, may be held under a peaceable shepherd. But so that these things which are perverse may be destroyed, each one with the sword — which I take to be the sharpest word of doctrine, cutting away whatever is perverse — will rise up against his brother, cutting off everything opposed.

Wherefore to Him alone is it mystically said, "I will take thee, O Zerubbabel, and will make thee as a signet, for I have chosen thee." When our mind shall have become peaceful so that it may be said to her, "Return, return, O Shulamite," which signifies 'peaceful,' or, to use your own name, Irenice, then shall she receive Christ like a signet on herself, that is, the Image of God, that she may be according to that Image, for "as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." And it behoves us "to bear the image of the heavenly," that is, peace. And that we may know the truth of this, it is said in the Canticles to the soul now fully perfect, that which may the Lord Jesus say to you also, "Set me as a seal upon thine arm;" that peace may shine in your heart and Christ in your works, and that wisdom and righteousness and redemption may be formed in you.

This Haggai was also privileged to utter predictions concerning the Lord Christ, as, under the person of Zerubabel, he says things which are applicable to the Lord Christ: And I will make thee as a signet, because I have chosen thee, saith the Lord God.

"The Jews sent to John and said to him, 'Who are you?' He confessed and said, 'I am not the Messiah.' They said to him, 'Are you Elijah?' He said, 'No.' " But our Lord called him Elijah, as Scripture attests. However, when they interrogated him, he said, "I am not Elijah." But Scripture does not say that John came in the body of Elijah but "in the spirit and the power of Elijah." Elijah, who was taken up into the heavens, did not return to them, just as it was not David who later became king but Zerubbabel. The Pharisees, however, did not ask John, "Have you come in the spirit of Elijah?" but "Are you Elijah himself?" That is why he said to them, "No." Why should he have needed to be Elijah himself, if the actions of Elijah were to be found present in John? Elisha intervened and stood between John and Elijah, lest John be judged by them, since Elijah was taken up in a sacred chariot, whereas [John's] head was carried away on a dish by a corrupt young girl.

But the end of all these things is the best. For after the destruction of the thrones, and the strengths of those who reign, and of the chariots and the horses and the horsemen, on that day, says the Lord Almighty: I will take you, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, my servant. Now he is called servant because of the human body, since then the Son himself also will be subjected to him who subjected all things to himself, and among all things subjected he too will be seen subjected. But when this has been fulfilled, God will set him as a signet in his hand: For him God the Father has sealed; and he is the image of the invisible God and the form of his substance, so that whoever has believed in God may be sealed with him as with a ring.