Cornelius a Lapide

Verse 16. The beams of our houses are cedar, our panelled ceilings are cypress.

The Septuagint: the beams of our houses are cedar, our panelled ceilings are cypress, as if to say: Our house is beautiful and excellent, being framed with cedars and panelled with cypresses. For "cypress" the Chaldean, Vatablus, and the Hebraizers translate "firs." The cedar, says Vatablus, which does not feel decay, and the fir, which resists weight, signify the word of God. But the Hebrew word for fir is ברוש berose; here, however, it is ברותים berotim, which is not found elsewhere; and this is translated, both by the Septuagint and by our translator, as "cypress," and these are certainly more to be trusted than the more recent ones. For "panelled ceilings," in Greek it is πατνώματα, that is, "lacus," or panelled and coffered ceilings; whence panelled dining-rooms are so called, which Servius calls "the sky of the framings." The Belgians and the French say "lambris" and "lambrissé," that is, "panelled" and "a panelled thing." Whence Seneca, book XIV, epistle 91, writes that the luxury of the ancients made the panelled ceilings of dining-rooms revolving, and joined them so that presently one appearance would succeed another, and the ceilings would change as often as the courses were changed, as happens from time to time on stages and in comedies. So too "laquear," says Sipontinus, following Servius, is a diminutive from "lacus"; for "lacus" is a flat beam in buildings, from which "lacunar" is formed, and by antistichon, "laquear"; and panelled ceilings used to be carved and gilded by the wealthy, as we see done at Rome in the Temple of the Blessed Virgin across the Tiber, and elsewhere. Although, therefore, some take "laquearia" to mean the huge beams which join one wall to another, and "tigna" the cross-timbers which are inserted transversely into these beams, to which the rafters are fastened, and which Vitruvius calls "metopae," nevertheless the contrary is truer, namely that by "tigna" here are meant the beams and the whole flooring, and by "laquearia" the vaultings of the boards by which the beams and rafters are adorned, so that the flooring becomes as it were a sky: for these are called "lacunaria," because through the cross-timbers, or the intervals of the beams into which they are inserted, they present a certain appearance of hollows.

According to the letter, grammatically, it alludes to the house of God, or the temple built by Solomon out of cedar and cypress wood, 3 Kings VII, 3 and 4, which represented the basilicas and temples of Christians, to be built out of the same and similar excellent trees. Whence the Chaldean translates: Solomon the prophet said: How beautiful is the house of the Sanctuary of the Lord, which has been built by my hands out of beams of cedar! But more beautiful is the house of the sanctuary which is to be built in the days of the king Messiah, whose beams will be of cedars that are in the paradise of delight, and whose rafters will be of firs, and junipers, and pines.

The First, Adequate Sense: Concerning Christ and the Church.

You will ask what the Church's cedar beams and cypress panelled ceilings are.

First, William Parvus judges these to be the body and members of Christ, which was a house, indeed the temple of the divinity: for although this was in itself corruptible, yet it was cedar and cypress, that is, incorruptible, or unable to decay, by the hypostatic union with the Word, according to that: "My flesh shall rest in hope, and you will not give your Holy One to see corruption," Psalm XV, 10.

Second, Theodoret, and from him Gislerius — just as by the little bed he understands faith, so fittingly by the beams and panelled ceilings, that is, by the house, he understands sacred Scripture: for in it are contained the dogmas of the faith like beams, say the three Fathers in Theodoret, and the precepts like panelled ceilings mutually joined and inserted to one another; and these are at the top of the house, because sacred Scripture was dictated from heaven, as the word of God, and therefore it is incorruptible and eternal like cedar and cypress, and it confers eternal life on its followers, namely eternal houses in the heavens, 2 Corinthians V, 1. Hear Theodoret: "Cedar excels in incorruption, cypress in fragrance. But both can be found in divine Scripture, which indeed is to us not only a bed, but also a house and a table and food; nor does it only suggest sweetness of fragrance, but also promises incorruption, and truth, and immortality."

Third, others generally, more fittingly and genuinely, understand by the beams of the houses, that is, of the particular churches, the clergy, the prelates and doctors of them, who by their writings and teachings defend the house of God from heretics, as if from poisonous serpents, and from the corruptions of the word of God. They are of cedar, because their works are upright, their mind constant, their life incorrupt, their morals unable to decay, their name of good repute, their teaching puts demons to flight, and preserves souls from the decay of vices. The panelled ceilings are the just and pious subjects, who abstain from mortal faults: these hang from those beams, and, like a certain vault of heaven adorned with twinkling stars, they themselves shine cypress-like, incorrupt in their manner of living, neither returning to the vomit of sin like a dog, nor yielding to the decay of the old man.

So St. Gregory, Theodoret, Aponius, Bede, Haymo, Anselm, and St. Ambrose, sermon 4 on Psalm CXVIII. Whence St. Bernard, sermon 46, judges that by this verse all the states of the Church are denoted, namely of the monks in the flowering little bed, of the prelates and princes in the cedar beams, of the clergy and the faithful people in the cypress panelled ceilings.

To this Origen adds, homily 3 of the four, who by the beams understands the bishops, by the cypresses the priests: "And beams," he says, "are called cedars, in which there is both a more robust strength and a sweetness of fragrance, by which it designates the bishop as solid in works, and fragrant in the grace of doctrine. But likewise he also called the panelled ceilings cypresses, so that by this he might designate that the presbyters ought to be full of the virtue of incorruption, and of the knowledge of Christ's fragrance." And St. Gregory: "The cedar," he says, "which represses and puts to flight serpents, signifies the more sublime saints, the cypress the simpler ones." Whence presently, understanding by the beams the preachers, by the panelled ceilings the peoples: "The beams," he says, "sustain the roof, but the panelled ceilings fill and adorn the house. So in the holy Church good preachers carry the divine Scripture in heart and mouth, which they preach to the faithful as if spreading out a roof, so that, while the Church is instructed by heavenly preaching, it may receive a defense, by which it may be protected from the rains of temptations. But cedar and cypress are held to be beams that cannot decay. By these all the elect are well figured, because while they pursue temporal things with no desire, they become eternal, in that they are fixed in mind on eternal things." Bede adds that the panelled ceilings are fastened to the beams, and hang from them: "Because it is necessary," he says, "that whoever in the holy Church desires to shine, exalted in virtues, should cling with the whole mind to the sayings and examples of the highest Fathers, by which they may be suspended from the ambition of earthly things."

To this also Philo of Carpathus adds, who by the cedar beams understands the prophets of the Church; by the cypress panelled ceilings, the apostles: "Because," he says, "just as the delight and adornment of a house are its panelled ceilings, so of the Church are the apostles." Hear St. Bernard, sermon 46: "Further," he says, "understand the popular houses to be the assemblies of Christians, whom those who are placed in a position of sublimity — the princes, that is, of Christians of both orders — bind together strongly, like beams binding walls, by just laws imposed, lest each one, living by his own law or will, should fall apart from one another like leaning walls and thrust-out rubble-walls, and so the whole structure of the building, collapsing, be scattered. But the panelled ceilings, which hang firmly from the beams, and notably adorn houses, I think well designate the gentle and disciplined morals of a well-instituted clergy, and their duly administered offices. For how shall the ranks of the clergy and their administrations stand, if they are not sustained by the benefit and generosity of the princes, as by beams, and protected by their power?" Then he assigns the reason why the beams are of cedar, but the panelled ceilings of cypress: "And the cedar indeed, since it is a wood that cannot decay, and moreover is fragrant, and of lofty height, sufficiently indicates what sort of men ought to be taken up in place of beams. Therefore it is necessary that those who are ordained over others be strong and constant, and also long-suffering in hope, and lifting up the summit of the mind to the things above, who, scattering everywhere the good fragrance of their faith and manner of life, may say with the Apostle: For we are the good fragrance of Christ to God in every place, 2 Corinthians II, 15. The cypress likewise, a wood equally of good fragrance and likewise unable to decay, shows that anyone of the clergy also ought to be of incorrupt life and faith, so that he may deservedly be reckoned to the beauty of the house and the adornment of the panelled ceilings. For it is written: Holiness becomes your house, O Lord, unto length of days," Psalm XCII, 5.

Finally, Honorius of Autun: "Houses," he says, "built by craftsmen with cedar and cypress beams, are the cloisters instructed by the holy Fathers with rules and honest institutes. The cedar beams are the provosts, the abbots redolent of holiness, who fortify others by word and example, and extinguish the worms of crimes by mortifying themselves. But the cypress panelled ceilings are the monks and all religious, whose examples of holiness adorn the temple of God, and who by praying carry the burdens of others. And just as the cypress, once cut, does not grow green again, whence it also used to be carried before the bier of the dead: so they themselves never return to worldly things, and always look, as it were, upon death as present, and desire to be built together into the dwelling-place of God by their vows and manner of life." Thus Honorius.

The Second, Partial Sense: Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul.

First, the cedar beams of the soul are the solid virtues, namely the four cardinal ones, that is, prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, says Honorius; likewise a constant purity and chastity of mind, says Nyssen. For eternity commends the cedar as unable to decay, as Pliny testifies. The cypress panelled ceilings are the external adornments of the virtues, such as modesty, bashfulness, silence, and every exterior composure and adornment of morals, according to that of the Apostle: "Let all things be done honestly, and according to order," 1 Corinthians XIV, 40; and: "We provide for good things, not only before God, but also before men," 2 Corinthians VIII, 21. But most of all, by the cedar beams and the cypress panelled ceilings, as being unable to decay, is noted the virtue of constancy in hard and adverse things, and consequently of fortitude, patience, and perseverance, by which we are hardened as it were like beams, and sustain all the burdens and weights imposed upon us. Whence Bede on the cypress: "In this," he says, "that it is suited to healing the sufferings of bodies, that it does not lay aside the beauty of its foliage by any impulse of the winds, it expresses constancy, and the action of those who adorn the Church with the ornaments of the higher virtues." And St. Ambrose, sermon 4 on Psalm CXVIII: "The soul," he says, "does not know how to be corrupted, which flourishes vigorous in its members, and always sustains, with patient magnanimity, the heights of justice and of the other virtues, and therefore does not decay, nor fail; because there is in it nothing cracked or slack, nothing shifting, nothing slippery, which could flow out of it by any fault of speech."

Second, the cedar beams, says Hailgrinus and from him Delrio, are the virtues and graces, without which there is no salvation; and these, being deep-rooted through humility, grow immensely in their branches, and are unacquainted with decay, like the cedar. The panelled ceilings are the distributions of those administrations and graces which are for the adornment of the soul, although they are not necessary for the salvation of individuals, such as prophecies, kinds of tongues, works of power, healings, discernment of spirits, and the like, which, if they do not cling firmly to the beams, easily collapse like loosened panelled ceilings; and they are cypress, because although these graces ought, in their lower part, by which they are shown to neighbors, to be diffused and spread out, yet they must always tend upward into a cone, and tend toward that one thing, and be narrowed together like the cypress; which is truly one, just as also the one thing truly necessary for us. Further, just as the cypress is immune from decay, because, as Vitruvius says, book II, chapter XIX, there is in it a certain bitter taste, which defends it from decay, and drives away the little worms that generate it: so likewise the cause of virtue and constancy is penance, austerity, and mortification, which does not allow the soul to slip down into the concupiscences (for these are the decay and rot of the soul). Hence Dioscorides writes similar things about the cedar, book I, chapter LXXXVIII, namely that by a similar bitterness it defends itself from decay, and corpses from wasting away, and that therefore it is called by some "the life of the dead." To this applies the saying: "Where there is rigor, there is vigor."

Third, the beams are the grace of God, and its various kinds and modes; the panelled ceilings are our actions, by which, cooperating with the grace of God, we adorn it, as it were, with these same actions; and it, in turn, far more adorns and gilds the works themselves, because it renders them supernatural, divine, pleasing to God, and meritorious of eternal reward.

Fourth, the beams of the soul are its very powers and faculties: for out of these, as out of beams, it is, as it were, framed and joined together; the panelled ceilings are the virtues of the powers of the soul, which adorn and strengthen them, so that from them there may rise up the house of the spiritual soul, in which Christ the bridegroom may rest as in his own bridal chamber. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 46, who thus urges and persuades the soul: "For the temple of God is holy, which you are," 1 Corinthians III, 17. Take care, therefore, brothers, for this spiritual building which you are, lest perhaps, when it has begun to advance to higher things, it waver and collapse, if it is not underpinned and bound together with strong timbers: take care, I say, to give to it beams that cannot decay and cannot be moved, namely the chaste fear of the Lord, that which endures for ever and ever: patience, of which it is written: Because the patience of the poor shall not perish forever, Psalm IX, 19: long-suffering also, which, remaining unbending under any weight of the structure, is extended into the infinite ages of the blessed life, the Savior saying in the Gospel: He who shall have persevered to the end, he shall be saved, Matthew X, 22. But above all, charity, which never fails, for strong as death is love, he says, harsh as hell is jealousy, Canticles VIII, 6. Take care, then, to lay beneath these beams and bind to them other beams, equally precious and beautiful, whichever of these may be at hand, for the work of the panelled ceilings, for the adornment of the house: namely, the word of wisdom or of knowledge, prophecy, the grace of healings, the interpretation of speeches, and other such things, which are known indeed to be fitting for adornment, rather than necessary for salvation." Here, by the beams, he understands the virtues necessary for salvation, by the panelled ceilings the non-necessary ones, and he asserts that out of both, the house of the mind is to be built for each person.

Anagogically, in heaven, both the soul and the body, with all their powers, senses, and members, will be cedar and cypress, that is, incorruptible, eternal, fragrant, glorious.

The Third, Principal Sense: Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin.

The Blessed Virgin was as it were a house, a temple, and a cedar and cypress heaven, in which the Word dwelt. Hear Alan: "These houses are understood as the body of Christ, and the body of the Virgin; the beams of the houses are the substance of the bodies, which are called cedar, that is, unable to decay. For the cedar is unable to decay; for just as we believe that the body of Christ was not dissolved by decay: whence it is read, Psalm XV, 10: 'You will not give your Holy One to see corruption': so it is probable that the body of Mary is a stranger to the corruption of decay. Whence St. Augustine, in the sermon On the Assumption of the Virgin: 'Not only,' he says, 'the flesh which Christ assumed, but also the flesh from which he assumed it, do we believe to have been taken up into heaven.' Whence also in the published prayer it is read: 'Yet she could not be held down by the bonds of death,' etc. And unless she had risen again, why is it said of her: 'Mary has been taken up into heaven'?" "Our panelled ceilings of cypress." The panelled ceilings which cling to the beams signify the infirmities of the bodies, which clung to the bodies of Christ and the Virgin, which are elegantly called cypress, because cypress is customarily applied to bodies that are being burned, and a wondrous fragrance is given off by them. So the infirmities which pertain to death, both in the Virgin and in Christ, through the patient sufferings which they had in their infirmities, give off a more wondrous fragrance. Thus Alan. See what I said about the cedar and the cypress, Ecclesiasticus XXIV, 17, on those words: "As a cedar I have been exalted in Lebanon, and as a cypress on Mount Sion."