Bonaventure

In his own words on 1 Kings

• 1 Kings 3:9

  The same is seen also in the example of Solomon who asked, not for gold and silver, but for an understanding heart: and so it was given to him. Hence James: "If any of you is wanting in wisdom, let him ask it of God, who gives abundantly to all men, and does not reproach; and it will be given to him. But let him ask with faith, without hesitation." For one who hesitates is not disciplined.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 2

• 1 Kings 4:33

  All men want to be wise and knowing. Yet, soon it happens that the woman deceives the man. But wisdom is the higher, being noble, while knowing is the lower: yet she seems beautiful to man, and he seeks to be joined to her, and his spirit tends to the things that can be known and experienced, and he wills to know them, and to experience the things he knows, and consequently to be united to them. And in this way he is weakened like Solomon who sought to know all things, "and he treated about trees from the cedar that is in Libanus, unto hyssop." And he forgets about the most important, and thus turns to the vain. Therefore passing from knowing to wisdom is not assured: a means must be placed in between, that is, holiness.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 19

• 1 Kings 6:36

  There is yet another distinction based upon the elevation and the different levels of ecclesiastics. Now, it is fitting that this distinction be ordained "with three rows of polished stones." Indeed, among the levels, some are cleansing, others enlightening, and others again uniting.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 22

• 1 Kings 8:27

  Likewise, Third Kings, chapter eight: If heaven and the heavens of heavens cannot contain you, how much more this house which I have built? If therefore the being of God can be contained by nothing and circumscribed by nothing, it must be acknowledged that it has entirely the character of the infinite.

  Quaestiones Disputatae, De Mysterio Trinitatis, Question 4

• 1 Kings 10:1

  For the beauty of Wisdom is wondrous, and no one looks upon her without admiration and ecstasy, as it is said of Esther and of Solomon, for "all the earth desired to see Solomon's face"; and the Queen of Sheba "came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon"; and when she saw "the order of his ministers, and their apparel, and the cupbearers, and the holocausts, which he offered in the house of the Lord: she had no longer any spirit in her."

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 2

• 1 Kings 10:5

  For the beauty of Wisdom is wondrous, and no one looks upon her without admiration and ecstasy, as it is said of Esther and of Solomon, for "all the earth desired to see Solomon's face"; and the Queen of Sheba "came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon"; and when she saw "the order of his ministers, and their apparel, and the cupbearers, and the holocausts, which he offered in the house of the Lord: she had no longer any spirit in her."

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 2

• 1 Kings 10:19

  There are seven orders arranged by degrees up to the priesthood, in which is the standing of the orders, because it belongs to the priesthood to consecrate the Sacrament of the body of Christ, in which is the fullness of all graces; whence the other six are as it were subordinate and like certain steps by which one ascends to the throne of Solomon; and they are six on account of the perfection of the number, because six is the first perfect number, and because the perfection and sufficiency of the office of ministering so requires. For it is necessary that some minister as if from a more remote position, some from a nearer, and some from the nearest, so that nothing is lacking in the ordered ministry.

  Breviloquium, Part 6

• 1 Kings 10:19

  The seventh and last column of wisdom is simplicity in intention. Concerning this it is said that "King Solomon made a great throne of ivory," and he made in it "six steps." The other columns are round about, but this one is the most principal and at the summit. The Apostle speaks saying: "Seek the things that are above;" and in Ecclesiastes: "What has the wise man more than the fool, and what has the poor man, except to go thither where life is?" Surely, where Christ is, and when Christ shall appear, life shall appear.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 9

• 1 Kings 10:19

  Just as God completed the whole world in six days and rested on the seventh, so the lesser world may be led in most orderly fashion through six stages of successive illuminations to the repose of contemplation. As a figure of this, one ascended by six steps to the throne of Solomon; the Seraphim that Isaiah saw had six wings; after six days the Lord called Moses from the midst of the cloud, and Christ after six days, as is said in Matthew, led the disciples up the mountain and was transfigured before them.

  Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Chapter 1

• 1 Kings 10:19

  These six considerations having therefore been traversed, as if they were the six steps of the throne of the true Solomon, by which one arrives at peace, where the true peaceful one rests in a peaceful mind as in an interior Jerusalem; and as if also the six wings of the Cherub, by which the mind of the true contemplative, filled with the illumination of supernal wisdom, may be borne upward; and as if also the first six days, in which the mind must be exercised, so that it may at last arrive at the sabbath of rest; after our mind has contemplated God outside itself through vestiges and in the vestiges, within itself through the image and in the image, above itself through the similitude of the divine light shining upon us and in that light itself, insofar as is possible according to the state of wayfaring and the exercise of our mind; when at last in the sixth step it has arrived at this point, that it contemplates in the first and highest principle and the mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ, those things whose likenesses can in no way be found in creatures, and which exceed all keenness of the human intellect: it remains that, in contemplating these things, it should transcend and pass beyond not only this sensible world, but also itself; in which passing over, Christ is the way and the door, Christ is the ladder and the vehicle, as it were the mercy seat placed upon the ark of God and the mystery hidden from the ages.

  Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Chapter 7

• 1 Kings 10:24

  For the beauty of Wisdom is wondrous, and no one looks upon her without admiration and ecstasy, as it is said of Esther and of Solomon, for "all the earth desired to see Solomon's face"; and the Queen of Sheba "came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon"; and when she saw "the order of his ministers, and their apparel, and the cupbearers, and the holocausts, which he offered in the house of the Lord: she had no longer any spirit in her."

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 2

• 1 Kings 19:11

  He affirms that this ascent comes about through the power and the strongest motion of the Holy Spirit, as it is said of Elias: "A great and strong wind overthrowing the mountains, and breaking the rocks in pieces." It is not for us to have this fire within our power; but if God gives it from above, it is the priest's duty to nourish it and to throw wood on it by means of prayer.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 2

• 1 Kings 21:20

  The second flow from the light of faith is the zeal of truth, so that a man be aroused with indignation against anything evil or false and be immediately attracted to anything good. Let him despise every wickedness, like Elias, who foretold about Achab and Jezabel that hounds would devour them. Achab said: "Hast thou found me thy enemy?" And Elias replied: "I have found thee because thou art sold, to do evil in the sight of the Lord," as if he were saying, "Anyone who is against God is against me."

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 9