CHAPTER 9

From Psalm lxvii. 

Of the Calling of the Apostles. (441) 

[Passage quoted, Ps. Ixvii. 24-27.]

I THINK that here none but the Apostles can be meant by the rulers of Nephthali. For thence our Lord and Saviour called them according to the quotation from Matthew. The Scripture is prophesying the Coming of the Word of God to men, and His Incarnate sojourn here, (c) when it says, "Thy goings, O God, have been seen," and that which follows. And the prophets of old were like heralds of His Epiphany, and arrived before Him with proclamation and chant, with music of psaltery and choir and all kinds of spiritual instruments, in the midst of damsels playing on timbrels." For the inspired prophets going in every way into the midst of the Jewish synagogues, heralded the coming of the Christ, and by the Holy Spirit (d) addressed the Apostles of our Saviour saying, "Praise the Lord God in the congregations from the fountains of Israel." And the "fountains of Israel" must be the words delivered to Israel. "For they first trusted the oracles of God," whence it will be necessary for us to draw and water the churches of Christ. By "maidens playing on timbrels" he suggested the souls that lived of old by the more external Law of Moses, calling them "maidens" because of their youth and imperfectly developed minds, and "timbrel-players "because of their devotion to external worship.