Patristic Comments on the Third Monastic Reading

 READING FROM THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON [4:7-15]

But though the righteous be prevented with death, yet shall he be in rest. For honorable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years. But wisdom is the gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age. He pleased God, and was loved of him: so that living among sinners he was translated. Yea, speedily was he taken away, lest that wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul. For the bewitching of naughtiness doth obscure things that are honest; and the wandering of concupiscence doth undermine the simple mind. He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time: for his soul pleased the Lord: therefore hasted he to take him away from among the wicked. This the. people saw, and understood it not, neither laid they up this in their minds, That his grace and mercy is with his saints, and that he hath respect unto his chosen.

Gray Hairs Are Not Wisdom

A commonly heard translation, presented above is, “wisdom is the gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age”. That leads to multiple interpretations, and could be reworded to clarify the meaning: “but a man’s ‘gray hairs’ is his understanding, and his ‘old age’ is a spotless life.” As seen in the following references, “gray hairs are not wisdom”, but wisdom is what becomes the honorary gray hairs of those who have not yet obtained the age, but already have the wisdom.

Jerome uses this idea in reverse to say that though he may have gray hairs, that does not mean he is wise:

For what is there in me or what qualities do I possess that I should merit praise from a man of learning? That I small and lowly as I am, should be eulogized by lips which have pleaded on behalf of our most religious sovereign? Do not, my dearest brother, estimate my worth by the number of my years. Gray hairs are not wisdom; it is wisdom which is as good as gray hairs. At least that is what Solomon says: “wisdom is the gray hair unto men.”

St. Gregory Nazianzen speaks in the same way, when he says, “Who possessed such a degree of the prudence of old age, even before his hair was gray? Since it is by this that Solomon defines old age.”

St. John Cassian not only uses this passage from Wisdom of Solomon in the same way, but he explains more of what it is that develops this type of wisdom:

Just as all young men are not alike in fervour of spirit nor equally instructed in learning and good morals, so too we cannot find that all old men are equally perfect and excellent. For the true riches of old men are not to be measured by grey hairs but by their diligence in youth and the rewards of their past labours. ‘For,’ says one, ‘the things that thou hast not gathered in thy youth, how shalt thou find them in thy old age?’ ‘For venerable old age is not that of long time, nor counted by the number of years: but the understanding of a man is grey hairs, and a spotless life is old age.’ and therefore we are not to follow in the steps or embrace the traditions and advice of every old man whose head is covered with grey hairs, and whose age is his sole claim to respect, but only of those whom we find to have distinguished themselves in youth and in an approved and praiseworthy manner, and to have been trained up not on self-assurance but on the traditions of the Elders.”

And that last bit is definitely worth reading again, especially in these days of having to figure out what voices to follow and where true authority lay:

and therefore we are not to follow in the steps or embrace the traditions and advice of every old man whose head is covered with grey hairs, and whose age is his sole claim to respect, but only of those whom we find to have distinguished themselves in youth and in an approved and praiseworthy manner, and to have been trained up not on self-assurance but on the traditions of the Elders.

Consolation after the Death of a Loved One

These Old Testament lessons were most often quoted by the Fathers in letters of consolation to the loved ones of those who had departed this life. As such, these usages of this passage from Wisdom of Solomon are not directly tied to monasticism, but they are very clearly tied to the living martyrdom to which monastics, and indeed all Christians, are called.

Jerome refers to this passage in several letters about a man named Nepotian. Nepotian had left the military, given away all his wealth except a tunic, and though burning for monasticism, stayed with his uncle, a bishop. In this bishop uncle, Nepotian “both found a monk to imitate and a bishop to revere.” Eventually made a clergyman, he complained that “the burden laid upon him was too heavy for him and that his youth unfitted him for the priesthood. But the more he struggled against it, the more he drew to himself the hearts of all: his refusal did but prove him worthy of an office which he was reluctant to assume, and all the more worthy because he declared himself unworthy. We too in our day have our Timothy; we too have seen that wisdom which is as good as gray hairs; our Moses has chosen an elder who he has known to be an elder indeed.

Speaking again of Nepotian, but this time to Nepotian's widow, Jerome quotes, “Therefore ‘speedily was he taken away lest that wickedness should alter his understanding...for his soul pleased the Lord.’”

He goes on to quote “If thou wilt be perfect go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come and follow me.” These verses are often understood in the context of a monastic calling, for the Lord had already stated what was necessary, but when pressed, extended his “if thou wilt be perfect” calling. In a different letter, Jerome praises a man who, since he was married and had little children, could not give away everything, but instead, made to himself friends of the mammon of unrigheousness that they might receive him into everlasting habitations. Of this man, he goes on to extol his chaste life in the world:

I will pass on now to his other virtues each one of which is to be found but in few men. Who ever entered the furnace of the King of Babylon without being burned? Was there ever a young man whose garment his Egyptian mistress did not seize? Was there ever a eunuch’s wife contented with a childless marriage bed? Is there any man who is not appalled by the struggle of which the apostle says: ‘I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members?’ ...What widow was not supported by his help? What ward did not find in him a father? … For ‘wisdom is the grey hair unto men.’ ‘In a short time he’ has ‘fulfiled a long time.’”

Again, in another letter, this time to Jerome’s own friend, a bishop, he praises Nepotian yet again.

The apostle forbids me for he speaks of dead Christians as ‘them which are asleep.’  So too in the gospel the Lord says, ‘the damsel is not dead but sleepeth,’ and Lazarus when he is raised from the dead is said to have been asleep. No, I will be glad and rejoice that ‘speedily he was taken away lest that wickedness should alter his understanding’ for ‘his soul pleased the Lord.’

Jerome repeats this idea in a different letter, consoling a mother after the loss of her daughter less than three months after her daughter’s conversion:

But why should that be hard to bear which we must one day ourselves endure? And why do we grieve for the dead? We are not born to live forever. … Perhaps he is taken away, ‘lest that wickedness should alter his understanding...for his soul pleased the Lord: therefore hasted he to take him away from the people’--lest in life’s long journey he should lose his way in some trackless maze.

And later:

...implore you, while you regret in your Lucinius a true brother, to rejoice as well that he now reigns with Christ. For, as it is written in the book of Wisdom, he was ‘taken away lest that wickedness should alter his understanding...for his soul pleased the Lord...and he...in a short time fulfilled a long time.’ We may with more right weep for ourselves that we stand daily in conflict with our sins, that we are stained with vices, that we receive wounds, and that we must give account for every idle word.

St. Augustine uses “hasted to take them away before deceit beguile his soul” in reference to infants, discussing the death of infants before and after Baptism. And in another place, he speaks again of infants, “lest wickedness should alter his understanding.”

St. Ambrose of Milan speaks of the death of his own brother, Satyrus, with a viewpoint that is rarely heard in today’s world:

He had no need of being raised again for time, for whom the raising again for eternity is waiting. For why should he fall back into this wretched and miserable state of corruption, and return to this mournful life, for whose rescue from such imminent evils and threatening dangers we ought rather to rejoice? For if no one mourns for Enoch, who was translated when the world was at peace and wars were not raging, but the people rather congratulated him, as Scripture says concerning him: “He was taken away, lest that wickedness should alter his understanding,” with how much greater justice must this now be said, when to the dangers of the world is added the uncertainty of life. He was taken away that he might not fall into the hands of the barbarians; he was taken away that he might not see the ruin of the whole earth, the end of the world, the burial of his relatives, the death of fellow-citizens; lest, lastly which is more bitter than any death, he should see the pollution of the holy virgins and widows.

In one last instance, Jerome uses these verses partially in consolation, and partially as a charge for the surviving widow. As such, it has more of a monastic undertone. This widow once wanted to remarry, but “eventually abandoned her intention and devoted herself to the care of her young children and her aged father”:

Blaesilla too I pass over who following her husband—your brother—to the grave, fulfilled in a short time of life a long time of virtue. Would that men would imitate the laudable examples of women, and that wrinkled old age would pay at last what youth gladly offers at first! In saying this I am putting my hand into the fire deliberately and with my eyes open.

And as a final exhortation to this widow: “That I may not exceed the limits of a letter, I will only give you this one last piece of advice. Think every day that you must die, and you will then never think of marrying again.”

Bibliography

Just in case you want to look up any of those references, here is a list of where I found them:

• Jerome, Letter 58 (NPNF2, VI, 58:1, p119).
• St. Gregory Nazianzen, The Panegyric on St. Basil (NPNF2, VII, Gregory:XLIII:23, p403).
• St. John Cassian, Second Conference of Abbot Moses in The Conferences (NPNF2, Vol. 11, II:XIII, p313).
• Jerome, Letter 60 (NPNF2, VI, 60:10, p124, 126).
• Jerome, Letter 79 (NPNF2, VI, 79:2, p164, 165).
• Jerome, Letter 39 (NPNF2, VI, 39:3, p50).
• Jerome, Letter 75 (NPNF2, VI, 75:2, p155).
• Augustin, On the Soul and Its Origin (NPNF1, 5, p337).
• Augustin, On Grace and Free Will (NPNF1, 5, p337).
• St. Ambrose, On the Decease of Satyrus (NPNF2, X, Book I:30, p166).
• NPNF editors' writing in an intro to Jerome’s letter, Letter 54 (NPNF2, VI, 54:2, p103).
• Jerome, Letter 54 (NPNF2, VI, 54:2, p103, 109).