Although the lives of the holy fathers of the Old Testament were, as it were, prophetic, some among them nevertheless shone through the prophetic spirit, announcing and leaving in writing many mysteries of Christ and the Church and matters pertaining to good morals.
After Moses, who existed before the time of the judges and was simply the greatest of the prophets according to Thomas in the Summa, the prophets shone forth most especially and abundantly in the age of the kings. The first, and in a certain respect the greatest, namely with regard to the mysteries of Christ, was David, king of Israel. His Psalter is the sum of theology concerning the mysteries of faith and moral teaching.
According to Augustine, David composed all one hundred and fifty psalms, although Nicholas of Lyra and certain others assert that not all were composed by him but some by others according to their titles. Some verses from the Psalms that express the articles of faith quite openly will be set forth here.
Concerning the article of Christ’s humanity with respect to His Incarnation and Nativity, David says in Psalm 71, “He shall descend like rain upon the fleece,” and so forth. Here he seems to touch upon what was given to Gideon as a sign of victory: dew descended from heaven upon a fleece placed on the threshing floor while the floor remained dry, and a basin was filled from the dew wrung out of the fleece. This signified that the dew of the divine Word, descending into the Virgin’s womb and joining itself to the fleece of our mortality, left the ark of the virginal body immaculate.
When this fleece, namely His body, was compressed upon the cross, the Church’s basin was filled from the dew of His grace. In the following verses of that Psalm, David shows Christ’s universal dominion, namely over all who are converted to the faith. The first of these were the Magi, kings of Tarshish, who came from the East and offered gifts to Him at His birth.
Concerning the article of His Passion, who speaks more openly than David himself when, in the person of Christ upon the cross, he says in Psalm 21, “God, my God, look upon me. Why have You forsaken me, far from my salvation, the words of my offenses?” He calls the sins of the human race, for which He suffered and which made Him far from bodily salvation, His own offenses. And below: “They have pierced my hands and my feet,” namely with nails upon the cross, where, when His limbs were violently stretched, men numbered all His bones, something not read of anyone else.
Concerning His descent into hell he says in Psalm 15, “My flesh shall rest in hope,” namely of the Resurrection, “because You will not leave my soul in hell,” namely the soul descending there, “nor will You allow Your holy one,” namely My body, “to see corruption.”
Concerning the Resurrection, according to Augustine in The City of God, he says in Christ’s person in Psalm 3, “I slept,” namely by taking the sleep of death upon the cross, when, inclining His head like one sleeping, He gave up His spirit. “And I was in a deep sleep,” namely by undergoing the great sleep of forty hours, during which He remained dead. “And I arose,” not indeed through the proper power of the humanity that had fallen in death, but through the power of His divinity. He expresses this by adding, “Because the Lord received me.”
Concerning the Ascension he speaks to Christ Himself, saying in Psalm 77, “You have ascended on high,” namely to the highest heaven. “You have taken captivity,” namely the multitude of fathers who were held captive by the devil in limbo. “You have given gifts to men,” according to another translation, namely by abundantly pouring the gifts of the Holy Spirit into the disciples.
Concerning His coming to judgment, in Psalm 109, after indicating Christ’s sitting at the Father’s right hand by saying, “The Lord,” namely the Father, “said to my Lord,” namely Christ, “Sit at My right hand,” he intimates Christ’s eternal generation from the Father when he says, “With You is the beginning,” and so forth; “from the womb,” namely the mind of the Father hidden from us, “I begot You.” He also describes Christ’s priesthood, by which He offers us to God, when he says, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
At last he indicates Christ’s future judgment, saying, “He shall judge among the nations.” Christ Himself will fill the ruins of all the angels from among His elect, to whom He will say, “Come, blessed of My Father; receive the kingdom,” and so forth. “He shall crush the heads,” that is, the minds and bodies of the wicked, namely the reprobate, to whom He will say, “Go, accursed, into eternal fire.” He will do this “in the land,” namely the infernal land.
As for the articles of the divinity, concerning the unity of the divine essence the Lord says in Psalm 80, “If you hear Me, there shall be no new god in you, nor shall you worship a foreign god. For I am the Lord your God,” namely the one God.
Concerning the Trinity of Persons in the unity of essence, he says in Psalm 66, “May God,” namely the Father, “bless us; our God,” namely the Son, who is ours through the humanity He assumed, “may He bless us,” namely the Holy Spirit. He would not have named God three times without purpose unless he wished to signify the Trinity of Persons. Lest anyone believe from each divine Person’s being called God that three gods exist, he therefore adds in the singular, to show the unity of divinity and essence, “and may all the ends of the earth fear Him,” not them. God’s blessing is the conferral of good upon both body and soul, and therefore he asks twice for a blessing.
Concerning the Persons’ own names, with respect to the Father he says of Christ in Psalm 88, “He shall call upon Me: You are My Father.” With respect to the Son, in Psalm 2 he says, “The Lord,” namely the Father, “said to Me: You are My Son; today,” that is, eternally, “I have begotten You,” for in eternity all things are present. With respect to the Holy Spirit, Psalm 103 says, “Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created.”
Concerning the article of the creation of things, Psalm 101 says, “In the beginning, O Lord, You founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of Your hands. They shall perish,” not indeed with respect to their substance, but with respect to their present form. “But You remain,” namely immutable.
With respect to the article of the conferral of grace by which the Church is justified, he says in Psalm 84, “God, turning,” namely toward us, “You will give us life,” namely through Your grace. Hence another translation reads, “You will justify us, and Your people,” namely the Church, “will rejoice in You.” Psalm 28 also indicates the Church’s seven sacraments, through which the Church is justified by grace, in the seven voices noted there. He sang of the Word’s Incarnation and the gathering of the Church from various peoples in Psalm 44, as Augustine explains in The City of God. Finally, concerning the conferral of final glory, he says in Psalm 83, “The Lord will give grace and glory.”
After David, his son Solomon shone with the prophetic spirit in three books undoubtedly produced by him: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. They belong to the canon of Scripture and are therefore authentic even according to the Hebrews. Although their teaching is especially moral, it nevertheless belongs to prophecy because it was revealed by the Holy Spirit, not discovered or acquired.
The first of them, Proverbs, pertains to the formation of morals and the eradication of vices and is therefore adapted to beginners. The second, Ecclesiastes, leads to contempt for the world and shows vanity in all lower things; it is suited to those making progress. The third looks more to the perfect, because it treats the fervent love of God for the soul and conversely.
Nevertheless, mysteries pertaining to Christ and the Church are also indicated in them. In particular, the final chapter of Proverbs, describing the strong woman and her qualities, signifies the Church and Christ, her husband or bridegroom. Chapter 9 of Ecclesiastes signifies Christ’s Incarnation in the poor wise man who frees a city besieged by a great king, namely the devil. The whole Song of Songs is expounded concerning Christ and the Church.
Although some say that the book entitled Wisdom was also produced by Solomon, others deny this. Hence, according to Jerome, it is not among the Hebrews’ authentic books. The Jews themselves affirm that it was composed by a certain Greek named Solon. It contains many moral teachings and speaks with considerable eloquence. From chapter 6 through chapter 8 inclusive it wonderfully exalts Wisdom and describes her virtues or effects, which are understood either of the Son of God, who is the Wisdom of God the Father, or of the wisdom infused into us through saving grace.
Chapter 2 especially treats the counsel the Jews formed to kill Christ, where they conclude by saying, “Let us condemn Him to a most shameful death.” Augustine notes this in The City of God.
The book called Ecclesiasticus, as everyone holds, was produced by a certain man named Jesus son of Sirach, who lived in the time of Simeon, son of Onias, after the Jewish people’s return from Babylon. Although it is full of moral wisdom and therefore received by the Church for reading, it is nevertheless not authentic for proving matters that enter into disputes about the faith. Hence its first chapter says, “The fountain of wisdom is the Word of God on high.”