Cassiodorus

In his own words on 1 Samuel

• 1 Samuel 4:19-20

  "Their priests fell by the sword and their widows were not mourned." We read that during the captivity the sons of the priest Eli were put to the sword by the foreigners. The wife of one of them thus widowed suddenly gave birth and prematurely died. So it happened that his widow went wholly unmourned, since they were all preoccupied by the widespread deaths. We must believe that this fate befell many widows among the people, since divine authority has cited a plurality of widows, and we know that no detail recorded is useless.

  EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 77.64

• 1 Samuel 6:4-5

  We read in the first book of Kings [Samuel] that because of the damage done to the consecrated ark the foreigners were smitten on their hinder parts, so that they even suffered the dreadful fate of being gnawed alive by mice. This remains a perennial reproach on them, because no other was punished in this way. Similarly he afflicts sinners in the afterlife … they are so devoured by mice when the devil's hostile troop surrounds them.

  EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 77.66

• 1 Samuel 15:23

  This is the greatest fault under which humanity labors, that after sinning they take refuge in excuses rather than prostrate themselves with repentant confession. Clearly such wickedness is to be reckoned amongst the worst sins, for its true source also seems to occasion slower progress by the sinner towards repentance. As the first book of Kings [Samuel] has it: "It is like the sin of witchcraft to rebel, and like the crime of idolatry to refuse to obey."

  EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 140.4

• 1 Samuel 16:13

  So clearly holy David was filled with heavenly inspiration, and not through human actions, the birth of twins, angels, visions, a dream, a cloud and a voice from heaven, or any other way of that kind. As the first book of Kings [Samuel] says of him: "And the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward." The Lord himself too says in the Gospel: "If David in the spirit calls him Lord, how do you say he is his son?" By these words we realize that the psalms were clearly expressions of prophecy through the holy Spirit.

  EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS, PREFACE 1

• 1 Samuel 16:23

  The discipline of music incorporates great power and knowledge which brings delight; teachers of secular literature, through the generosity of God who grants all that is useful, have made it possible through theoretical texts to ascertain what was earlier regarded as hidden from view in the nature of the world. The first division of this discipline, then, is into harmonics, rhythmics and metrics. The second division, that of musical instruments, is between percussion, strings and wind. The third division is into six harmonies, the fourth into fifteen tones. In this way the virtue of this most beautiful discipline is unfolded by such distinctions drawn by people of old. We read in secular works that many miracles were brought forth by these measures. But we need say nothing of this fabulous material; we read that by means of David's tuneful harp the demon was expelled from Saul. The divine reading attests that the walls of Jericho at once collapsed at the din of trumpets. So there is no doubt that sounds of music, at the Lord's command or with his permission, have unleashed great forces.

  EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 80.4

• 1 Samuel 18:10

  It was also through a wicked angel that the transgressor was tempted in the account of the book of Kings [Samuel], where it says "The evil spirit from God came upon Saul." Just men, too, like Job and the apostle Paul and others of that kind were tried by the devil. It is clear that all created things are subject to the discretion or command of the Creator.

  EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 77.49

• 1 Samuel 19:11-12

  "Then Saul sent and watched his house to kill him." This too is fittingly associated with the Lord's passion, for house indicates the tomb where he rested in a three-day death. The Jews' leaders sent men to guard it, to destroy so to say the fame of his name, so that by some trick it should not be claimed that he rose again, an eventuality which Christ had been heard earlier proclaiming. It was better that his enemies should of their own accord desire to condemn this, for it allowed the whole world to acknowledge the fact more certainly. The evidence which the unwilling witness offers is beyond doubt; it cannot be called partisan when confirmed by the guilty person.

  EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 58.1

• 1 Samuel 21:13

  When Saul was pursuing David, David fled to king Achish, and since through the motive of jealousy he was suspected there, he carefully changed his countenance, covering his face with spittle so that he would be thought to be diabolically possessed and thus released unharmed as an object of pity. But these and other deeds were accomplished by David as evidence of a great mystery, for he showed that the spittle, which represented the holy Scriptures, was running down his beard, that is, had great strength. The significance of these things led to the substitution of the name of Abimelech, meaning "kingdom of my father," for Achish, to whom David had fled. Clearly this incident aptly refers to the Lord Christ, through whom the glorious Father with most holy devotion undertook service to the world. The expression "who dismissed him" refers to king Abimelech; "and he went his way" means that David departed to another region because, as we have said, he had begun to be suspected.

  EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 33 (34).1

• 1 Samuel 22:18-19

  When David was fleeing from Saul, he came to the priest Abimelech. He was received by him and obtained the loaves of proposition and the sword with which he had slain Goliath. The loaves of proposition denoted his role as priest, the consecrated sword his future rank as most powerful king. The Edomite Doeg happened to be there in charge of the mules and reported everything to King Saul. Then Saul was angry and caused Abimelech and the other priests of the same city to be slain by Doeg. This Doeg through whom such events occurred was called the Edomite from the name of his land. The names combined, according to the authority of the fathers, mean "earthquakes." Such meaning attached to the names is rightly related to the acts of antichrist, for Doeg the Edomite was the foe of David, just as antichrist will be the enemy of Christ. Doeg destroyed priests; antichrist will make martyrs. Doeg through the meaning of his name denotes earthquakes; antichrist will disturb the whole world when with sacrilegious presumption he will constrain it to worship his name. So antichrist is rightly understood by the name of Doeg the Edomite, since he is seen to be similar to him in these striking parallels.

  EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 51.1-2

• 1 Samuel 24:3

  David, as we have said, took on the character of the Lord Savior, and so what was to take place at the Lord's passion is now recounted of him. David was not to be effaced from the kingdom allotted to him, just as the inscription of the Lord's title could not be changed. The psalmist added, "When he fled from Saul into the cave." This incident seems to be very similar in the cases of both David and the Lord. Just as David in fleeing from Saul hid in a cave, so the Lord Savior's divinity is known to have been hidden within the temple of his body from the unfaithful Jews. In this way the individual events concerning David and Christ are shared by them in this respect.

  EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 56.1

• 1 Samuel 24:14

  The Creator compares himself to the lowest of his creatures so that you may regard nothing as despicable which is known to have been fashioned by his agency. As Scripture has it, "God made all things very good." Thus David too followed his Teacher and compared himself with the humblest flea; for the real power of religion is that the more an individual humbles himself after the model of the Creator, the more splendidly he is exalted to glory.

  EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 21.7

• 1 Samuel 27:1-3

  "When the Philistines held him in Gath"; this is recounted in the text of the book of Kings [Samuel]. David was terrorized by attacks of Saul and thought that he would be hidden in the city of Gath among the Philistines. But we have said that all this is to be explained as mystical allegory. Gath denotes "winepress," the squeezing which every Christian endures, but then he makes the harvest most abundant when he has been pressed by the rods of afflictions. So the church reasonably and appropriately speaks in this heading. Though weighed down by the persecutions of the Philistines, that is, by outsiders, [the church] pours forth the deserving merits of its saints with abundant freedom as though they were liquid nectar.

  EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 55.1