Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 2370
The church is compared to the Moon and the clerical ranks - bishops, presbyters, deacons, and other clerics to stars each shining with different light to preach the Lord. Arnobius the Younger, Commentary on the Psalms, written in Rome, mid-5th c.
Commentary to Psalm 135
 
[...]
 
Confitere ergo hunc esse deum tuum, qui fecit caelos in intellectu nostro, ut ipsorum nobis solus pulchrescat adspectus; qui fundauit terram super aquas, ut corpus nostrum unda sacri baptismatis abluatur: qui fecit luminaria duo magna solus, unum in die noui testamenti, quod sicut sol radiat in lumine agentibus, aliud in nocte Iudaica conuersantibus. In Nouo enim aperte quod legitur sicut in die in ipsa littera perlustratur a Christo, qui est sol uerus iustitiae. In Veteri autem sub litterae tegmine, quasi in nocte positum, a luna id est ab ecclesia manifestatur. Ipsa est enim luna, quae crescit in sanctis, decrescit in peccatoribus suis, lucet in tenebris ignorantiae positis, habet et stellas in gradibus suis. Aliter enim lucet in episcopo, aliter in presbytero, aliter in diacono, et in ceteris clericis, in quibus praedicatur dominus, qui percussit Aegyptum cum primitiuis eorum, terram scilicet superstitionibus plenam cum daemoniis, qui in ea degunt, qui ideo primogeniti dicuntur, quia nullus uetustior aut prior in peccato daemoniis.
 
(ed. Daur 1990)
Commentary to Psalm 135
 
[...]
 
Confess, then, that it is your God who made heavens in our intellect so that their image seem to us more and more beatiful; who founded the earth on the waters so that our body may be washed with the waves of the holy baptism; who alone created two large lamps, one in the day of the New Testament which shines as the sun for those who walk in brightness, another in the night for those who live according to the Jewish way. In the New Testament that what is read is made clear, as if during the day, by Christ, the true sun of justice. In the Old, though, under the cover of the letter, as if during the night, [what is read] is made manifest by the Moon that is by the church. For it is the Moon which waxes in the saints, wanes in its sinners, shines for those who stay in the darkness of ignorance, and it has stars in its ranks. It shines differently in a bishop, differently in a presbyter, differently in a deacon and in other clerics by whom the Lord who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, that is the land full of superstitions with the demons living there who are called "fistborn" because there is no one is older or earlier in sins than the demons.
 
(trans. M. Szada)

Place of event:

Region
  • Rome
City
  • Rome

About the source:

Author: Arnobius the Younger
Title: Commentary on the Psalms, Commentarii in Psalmos
Origin: Rome (Rome)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
The author named Arnobius (usually called Arnobius the Younger to distinguish him from the third-century author Arnobius of Sicca) is known only from the works attributed to him in the manuscript tradition: the so-called Praedestinatus, the Commentarii in Psalmos, and several others smaller works (e.g. Liber ad Gregoriam, a consolation to a woman in difficult marriage). From the evidence of these works we can say that their author was a monk who lived in Rome in the mid-fifth century. Praedestinatus was surely written during the pontificate of Sixtus III, ca 435 (but there are some who doubt attribution to Arnobius, see note in Clavis Patrum Latinorum 243). His most famous work is the Conflictus cum Serapione on the Christological positions held by the churches of Rome and Alexandria. This works assumes the positions promulgated at the Council of Chalcedon so it was written after 451.
 
Arnobius`s authorship of the Commentaries to the Psalms is not questioned in the scholarship but we cannot date it more precisely than roughly to the mid-fifth century.
Edition:
 Arnobii Iunioris Commentarii in Psalmos, ed. Klaus-D. Daur, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 25, Turnhout 1990
Bibliography:
S. Leanza, "L’esegesi di Arnobio il giovane al libro dei Salmi”, Vetera Christianorum 8 (1971), 223–39.
B. Studer, "Arnobius the Younger" in: Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity, ed. A. Di Berardino, Downers Grove 2014, vol. 1, 250-251
 

Categories:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
    Theoretical considerations - On priesthood
      Theoretical considerations - On church hierarchy
        Pastoral activity - Preaching
          Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2370, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2370