Jerome
Patristic
c. A.D. 347–420
“(Verse 3) And a reaching out likeness of a hand seized me by the lock of my head. LXX: And the likeness of a hand extended and took hold of me by the fringe of my crown. And this likeness of a hand, the hand itself does not extend, for there is nothing corporeal in God. And the hand appears as a member of the human body and familiar, it does not frighten the one who is being assumed and grasped. For if it had touched the prophet in the likeness of a serpent or any other beast, the dissimilarity of the limbs would have frightened the one assumed. And a part of the hair is included, because the human nature cannot bear the apprehension of the whole head. For a headband, the Seventy translated κράσπεδον, which means fringe: one of which is usually taken in the hair, the other in the clothes. And the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the sky. At first, he is grasped by the hand in a likeness; then he is lifted up by the spirit, which does not immediately raise him to the sky, but between the earth and the sky, so that, leaving the earthly things for a while, he hurries to the sky. And we can also say this, that because of good works, the prophet is grasped by the hand of God in a likeness, and because of knowledge of spiritual things, he is lifted up by the spirit.”