ON ST. MICAIAH THE ELDER, PROPHET.
This Saint confused with another; who he is and why he is given on this day; what the Calendars say of him; his prophecies.
CommentaryMicaiah the elder, prophet (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. P.
St. Micaiah the elder That there were two prophets named Micah, the one the elder, the other the younger, and that both have been unskilfully confused, you will find in our work, volume 1 of January, at the XV day, page 995, when treatment was made there of the younger, who holds the sixth place among the twelve minor Prophets. The name of St. Micah the prophet on this XIV day of August I find in the Slavo-Russian, the Arabic-Egyptian, and the Sirletian Menology, and elsewhere in our Greek transcripts, and also in the great printed Menæa; but let us recall to memory the censure which in our work at the place just cited is branded upon those Menæa in these words: The Menæa of the Greeks have him (understand the younger) on the XIV of August, but confuse him with the other, and therefore write that he prophesied for very many years; yet (what may seem ridiculous) that he was killed by Joram. "Micah, they say, was the son of Joram, born at Borath *, of the tribe of Ephraim, and prophesied eighty-four years: he preceded the birth of Christ by six hundred and six years: and he did many things to Ahab king of Judah, by whose son Joram he was taken out of the way, being hanged, because he reproved his impiety and that of his Forefathers. And, dying at Morath, he was buried alone in his own land near the cemetery of Enacim: his sepulchre is known." But the Menology sets the birthday of Micah, one of the XII minor prophets, on the XIV of August; but that of the other, of the tribe of Ephraim, on the V of January. So there, long since, our Bolland. But those things which have been said of his origin from the tribe of Ephraim, and of his burial, Calmet contradicts in the preface to Micah at the place presently to be cited: but we here treat chiefly of the two Prophets confused into one, so far as is sufficient for our present purpose.
[2] There is therefore thrust in a great and gross hallucination of time in the eulogy cited, unskilfully confused in the Greek Menæa with his younger namesake. since the younger namesake prophesied fully 150 years after the death of the elder Micah, as Bolland observes in the same place, and concerning whom our Salian in volume 4 of the Annals of the Old Testament, at the year of the world 3290, before Christ 763, page 390, says: This cannot be doubtful, that this Micah is another than he of whom treatment was made at the end of the third book of Kings. For that one prophesied under king Ahab, and foretold to him his death: but this one under Jotham. But Ahab died more than a hundred and forty years before the reign of Jotham. Sixtus of Siena therefore is deceived when he says that this our prophet died a hundred years before Hosea, whereas nevertheless each prophet testifies that he prophesied in the time of Hezekiah. But neither the names nor the fatherland nor the tribes of the two Micahs are the same, as Jerome and Ribera teach. From these things therefore the distinction of the one Micah the prophet from the other of the same name is rendered sufficiently and abundantly clear; concerning which Augustine Calmet also treats in the literal Commentary on all the books of the Old Testament, in the volume which is on the XII minor Prophets, page 321; where he sets down two prophets named Micah, one namely of the tribe of Judah, the other the son of Imlah, of whom the latter prophesied under Ahab, yet with no writing of his transmitted to us; but the former under the kings of Judah Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. But this matter Tostatus treats sufficiently at length on chapter 18 of the 2nd book of Chronicles, where in question 23 he inquires who that Micah is of whom there the discourse is. Micah the Morasthite therefore must be distinguished from Micaiah the son of Imlah.
[3] Which is also done in the Menology In volume 1 of January, in the Passed-over at the V day of that month, page 235, St. Micaiah the son of Imlah, prophet and martyr, is assigned from the Menology of the Greeks, but is deferred to this XIV day of August. That therefore I might discharge the pledge long since given by Bolland, I judged that he must be inserted into our Acts on this day. The Sirletian Menology records these things there at the said V day of January: Of the holy prophet Micah of the tribe of Ephraim. But at the XXI day of April there is marked in the same place a commemoration of the prophet Micah — of this one or of the other? In the Menology written by the order of the emperor Basil, and published in Latin in Ughelli, volume 6 of Italia sacra, on the V day of January it is also reported quite indefinitely, when it is said thus: On the Nones of January, the commemoration of the holy prophet Micah. But distinctly — or let us rather say confusedly — the eulogy which there immediately follows indicates him, expressed in these words: Micah the Jewish prophet, of the family of Ephraim, when he rather vehemently rebuked the impiety of king Ahab, because, the divine laws and ancestral institutions being overthrown, he pursued the sorceries of demons, alienated the king from himself, who, although most angry with the Saint, yet, fearing the divine judgment and the singular probity of the man, abstained from slaying him; but when Ahab was dead, and he had offended Joram the son rather vehemently for the same cause, by his order he was cast down from a sheer rock and died: whose body, wrapped up by his kinsmen, was indeed buried in his native soil, but near the common sepulchre.
[4] of the emperor Basil. We give the elder here, and why. This small eulogy is of the same bran as that above from the Menæa, and full of confusion of things. For, first, if Micah was a Jew, that is, if we wish to speak properly, of the stock of Judah, how is it added that he was of the family or tribe of Ephraim? For those two tribes dwelt in wholly different places: concerning which Adrichomius may be seen in the Theatre of the Holy Land. Secondly, of the confusion of the one with the other from Joram we have treated above. Thirdly, accordingly Ahab is here also very ill connected with Joram his son, under whom Micah is thrust in as having died. Fourthly, neither does the kind of death cohere with the Menæa, in which he is said to have been hanged. Fifthly, of the sepulchre, which here is nevertheless reported otherwise than in the Menæa, we made brief mention above. Since therefore Bolland recited this announcement, St. Micaiah the son of Imlah, prophet and martyr, from the Menology of the Greeks (I could wish he had added its name or some other mark), as was indicated before, and promised that he was to be given on this day, we shall try to draw out his deeds from elsewhere, with Salian as guide and forerunner, who treated these matters professedly, and has been alleged by us above.
[5] His deeds At the year of the world 3134, therefore, after he had treated of the victory which God promised to Ahab, at numbers 14 and 15 he says: He sent a prophet … But what prophet? Certainly not Elijah; but some more obscure one, for he would have been called by his proper name. Abulensis judges that he was Micaiah the son of Imlah … and says that many are of that opinion, among whom the author of the Scholastic History with Lyranus, and the Hebrews in the Seder Olam. But at the year 3135 the Prophet again promises victory to Ahab, on which occasion the praised author of the Annals recounts the frequent prophecies of Micaiah at number 6: But meanwhile the Lord sends a prophet to Ahab, who should make him more certain of the imminent victory … But who this unnamed man of God was is not established from Scripture. The Hebrews in the Seder Olam, chapter 20, affirm that this was Micaiah the son of Imlah, who prophesied five times before Ahab, as may be read there in detail. At the same year, number 15, it is narrated that a certain prophet bade himself be struck, from book 3 of Kings, chapter 20, verse 35 and following: Then a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his companion in the word of the Lord: Strike me. But he would not strike. To whom he said: Because you would not hear the voice of the Lord, behold, you shall depart from me, and a lion shall strike you. And when he had gone a little from him, a lion found him and struck him, etc. This prophet, as Salian observes in the same place, Josephus and other Hebrews will have to be Micaiah the son of Imlah, as I reported a little before at number 6. Then from number 16 the same founder of the Annals writes to what use the striking of the Prophet was, and why likewise God willed it, etc., which may be read in the same place.
[6] But at number 19 and following he treats of the striking of the Prophet, and prophecies who, unknown, addresses the king with a parable; and moreover of the sentence of Ahab against the keeper in the parable; likewise of the outcome of the same not plainly answering to the matter; and besides, of the same applied to the king, etc. Finally, on those words of book 3 of Kings, chapter 20, at the end, The king of Israel therefore returned to his house, scorning to hear, and came furious into Samaria, he observes these things: He was certainly confounded, who, while he judges another, himself perceived that he had condemned himself by his own mouth, and had cut his own throat with his own sword. Changed from himself and sad, since in the midst of the gladness of victory and of various congratulations he received the mournful message of his own death and of the disaster of his people. Indignant and furious at so great a freedom of the Prophet in speaking, which is the exposition of Josephus (of the Jewish Antiquities), book 8, chapter 8: The king, he says, offended by the freedom of the Prophet, orders him to be cast into prison, and, greatly saddened by that prediction, betook himself home. Josephus nevertheless must be corrected concerning that prison of the Prophet, which he added of his own, resting on this conjecture, that three years afterwards this same Prophet was ordered by Ahab, as he was setting out to Ramoth Gilead, to be cast into prison and to be ill treated.
[7] The sacred Text has the narration of the deed in book 2 of Chronicles, chapter 18, from the sacred Scriptures from which I excerpt these things: And Ahab king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat king of Judah: Come with me to Ramoth Gilead … and he said
Jehoshaphat to the king of Israel: Consult, I beseech you, at present the word of the Lord. The king of Israel therefore gathered four hundred men of the prophets, and said to them: Ought we to go to Ramoth Gilead to make war, or to be quiet? But they said: Go up, and God will deliver it into the king's hand. And Jehoshaphat said: Is there not here a prophet of the Lord, that we may inquire also of him? And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat: There is one man, of whom we can seek the will of the Lord: but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good to me, but evil at all times: and he is Micaiah the son of Imlah … The king of Israel therefore called one of the eunuchs, and said to him: Call quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah … But the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah said to him: Behold, the words of all the prophets with one mouth announce good to the king: I beseech you therefore that your word also dissent not from them, and that you speak prosperous things. To whom Micaiah answered: The Lord lives, that whatsoever my God shall say to me, this will I speak. He came therefore to the king. To whom the king said: Micaiah, ought we to go to Ramoth Gilead to make war, or to be quiet? To whom he answered: Go up, for all things shall turn out prosperously, and the enemies shall be delivered into your hands. And the king said: Again and again I adjure you that you speak to me nothing but what is true, in the name of the Lord.
[8] are drawn out But he said: I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep without a shepherd: and the Lord said: These have no masters: let every one return to his own house in peace. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat: Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy me anything good, but the things that are evil? But he said: Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven sitting by him on the right hand and on the left. And the Lord said: Who shall deceive Ahab king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And when one said in this manner, and another in that, there came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord, and said: I will deceive him. To whom the Lord said: Wherein will you deceive him? But he answered: I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said: You shall deceive, and shall prevail: go forth and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord has given a lying spirit in the mouth of all your prophets, and the Lord has spoken evil of you. And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah drew near and struck Micaiah's cheek, and said: By what way did the spirit of the Lord pass from me, that he should speak to you? And Micaiah said: You yourself shall see in that day, when you shall enter chamber from chamber to hide yourself.
[9] and are weighed from elsewhere. And the king of Israel commanded, saying: Take Micaiah, and lead him to Amon the prince of the city, and to Joash the son of Amelech. And you shall say: Thus says the king: Put this man in prison, and give him a little bread and a little water, until I return in peace. And Micaiah said: If you shall return in peace, the Lord has not spoken in me. And he said: Hear, all you peoples. There follows then in the sacred Text how Ahab, according to the prophecy of Micaiah, was slain in the war. Salian ties the deed to the year of the world 3138, and among other things explains these sacred words uttered by Micaiah, which have some difficulty, namely: Go up, and go prosperously, and the Lord will deliver it into the hands of the king, as spoken by him ironically; as may be seen in the same place at number 12. Then these words: I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said … go forth and do so, he expounds against Calvin, who impiously wrests them so as to teach that God most good and great is the author of sin, inasmuch as he commands an evil spirit to deceive Ahab: whereas this command is a mere permission, nor was any command needed; which things you will find more fully in the same place at number 16. Most well known is that saying of Christ the Lord to Judas, John, chapter 13, verse 27: What you do, do quickly. Finally at number 32 Salian advises that it is also to be understood that the pseudo-prophets, when the disaster came, were sought out for death, especially Zedekiah their chief, studiously seeking hiding places, as Micaiah had foretold to him: but that Micaiah himself, as a truthful prophet, being loosed from his chains, was in glory. Further, who and of what sort Imlah, the father of Micaiah, was, of whom we made mention above, we have not hitherto discovered. And these indeed are the things concerning that prophet Micaiah which have come to our knowledge; but the rest which pertain to him are hitherto unascertained by us; nor do we know where, when, or by what death he ended his life, although above at number 3 he is called a martyr.
Annotata* read Morasthi
ON ST. DEMETRIUS, MARTYR,
IN AFRICA.
From the Martyrologies.
CommentaryDemetrius, Martyr, in Africa (S.)
J. B. S.
The Lucca codices in Florentinius announce thus on this day: In Africa, of St. Demetrius with his companions; contrary to the other codices, the Corbie one and that of the Queen of Sweden, which write simply: In Africa, the birthday of St. Demetrius; in which manner the Epternach one also reads, but with the position changed: In Syria, of Demetrius. Florentinius adds Notker, Bellinus, and Maurolycus, from whom also the companions are absent, as also from so many Usuardine copies which are recited in our edition. Let today's Roman one suffice: In Africa, of St. Demetrius the martyr. The Saint was also marked by Peter de Natalibus, book 11, number 215, with the title of confessor added, in these words: Demetrius the confessor in Africa fell asleep on the XIX of the Kalends of September. I could wish he had added from what source he drew these things; but neither he nor any other, so far as I know, has published anything concerning the Acts or deeds of this St. Demetrius.