ON THE HOLY PROPHETS JOEL AND EZRA
IN PALESTINE.
A collection concerning their cult from the Martyrologies: eulogies from Equilinus.
Joel, prophet of the Old Testament, in Palestine (S.)
Ezra, prophet of the Old Testament, in Palestine (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
I noted long ago, in the Observations on Usuard, that the very source, the Little Roman, from which many Saints of the Old Covenant made their way into our Fasti, marked the prophet Joel in two different places: They were first brought into the sacred Fasti by the Little Roman. first indeed on the VI of this month, "of the prophets Isaiah and Joel"; but here, "of the prophets Ezra and Joel"; and I indicated that this too was done repeatedly by Ado, and that Usuard corrected it better, so that Joel appears on this day alone, joined to Ezra in the whole progeny of Usuard and in many later writers, whom to review one by one I judge altogether superfluous. Nor is it much to be regarded if perhaps they are placed differently by some, since on the first day of July, in the case of Aaron the priest, Mary his sister, and others, I have sufficiently shown by what occasion or origin many abolished Fathers of the Testament passed successively into our Martyrologies, on days chosen almost at will. Of Hosea and Haggai I treated on the IV of this month. Here that same method will be kept by me, namely that, some cult in the Fasti of the Catholic Church being premised, I may then subjoin some eulogy, such as the praised Bishop Equilinus again supplies me at the places cited. Nor is any help to be sought from the Greeks or other Orientals, since from the said first day of July it is sufficiently clear that no light at all is to be hoped for from their Menaea or Menologies. And concerning Ezra there is everywhere silence: the commemoration of Joel is made in the Menology on the XIX of October, on which day in the Greco-Muscovite Ephemerides he is adorned with this little verse:
Ἔννεα καὶ δεκάτῃ μόρος ἀμφεκάλυψεν Ι Ω Η Λ.
Death on the nineteenth took Joel from the world.
[2] Therefore, that I may dispatch in a few words those things which contribute nothing at all to ecclesiastical history, take first from Equilinus the eulogy of Joel, The eulogy of Joel from Equilinus: whether he himself drew it accurately enough from the Authors cited by him I do not too scrupulously examine. It is of this kind, book 6, chapter 89: Joel the prophet, of the tribe of Reuben, son of Pethuel, born in the field of Bethhoron, prophesied at the same time and under the same kings as did Hosea; namely in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah: and just as that prophet, under the name of Ephraim, directs his prophecy to the ten tribes, often mentioning either Samaria or Israel, so in this prophet we must understand everything that is said to be directed to the tribe of Judah: for he described the land of the two tribes as to be laid waste by the caterpillar, the cankerworm, the locust, and the mildew. And after the overthrow of the former people, he foretold the future outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the servants of God and the handmaids; which came to pass on the day of Pentecost in the upper room of Sion. And he died in peace at Bethhoron, and was buried on the third day before the Ides of July. This prophet is reckoned among the number of the twelve prophets called the Minor, who are enrolled in the catalogue of the holy Fathers, in the 49th chapter of Ecclesiasticus. Thus Josephus and Jerome, and from the Scholastic History. So much for Joel; whose body, Joannes Cotovicus of Utrecht relates in his Jerusalem Itinerary, published at Antwerp in 1619, page 13, is laid at Zara (which the Venetians call Zaram), the metropolis of Dalmatia, in the cathedral church beneath the high altar.
[3] Of Ezra, Equilinus treats a little more fully in chapter 92, in these words: likewise of Ezra, Ezra, priest of Aaron's line, of the tribe of Levi, is reckoned, both by Josephus and by blessed Jerome, in the number of the holy Fathers of ancient time: whose distinguished works are recalled in his books. He flourished under Artaxerxes, king of the Persians; who in Chaldea restored the Law of Moses, burned by the Chaldeans, which he had learned by heart. He also devised new forms of letters, which should be easier for writing and pronouncing; and for this he was called the swift Scribe. He added also certain things of his own in the Old Testament, such as the titles of the Psalms, and many things that are read in the Pentateuch. So too it must be understood that he himself removed certain superfluous things. They relate also that he handed down to the Jews a certain manner of writing from right to left, whereas before they used to write after the manner of ploughing, whence writing is wont to be called "exaratio" (a ploughing-out). For they wrote from the left corner to the right, and returning from the right they wrote toward the left. But Ezra found grace in the eyes of Artaxerxes, king of the Persians, and obtained from him leave to go up to Jerusalem, that he might instruct his people in the Law which he had restored. Therefore the king delivered to him a letter to his princes beyond the river, that they should furnish Ezra with what was needful: and he released the ministers of the temple from all toll and tribute. He gave Ezra power also to remove and appoint judges beyond the river according to his wisdom, and to punish the contumacious; and there were with him one thousand seven hundred men, and they came into Jerusalem in the fifth month: and they kept silence for three days; but on the fourth day they offered what they had brought with them in the house of the Lord.
[4] Then Ezra adjured the priests, princes, comprising his chief deeds; and Levites, that they should put away all the foreign women, and those who had been born of them, for many had joined themselves to the daughters of foreigners. Now Ezra was most learned in the divine Law and an illustrious teacher of all the Jews who had returned from the captivity, as Josephus says. And on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, which are celebrated in the seventh month, Ezra read before all the people the book of the Law of the Lord beside the water-gate, from morning until midday. But on the second day, according to the precept of the Law, taking up branches of trees, they celebrated the feast of Tabernacles for seven days. And on the eighth day they made a solemn assembly, as regards the oil and the loaves of proposition, and the wood for the sacrifices. After this, according to the Law, they separated the foreign women from the Church, and on the morrow they fasted for purification, according to what Ezra had commanded them. They assembled eight times to hear the Law, namely four times by day and four times by night: and when the reading was ended, the people prostrated themselves to pray, and prayers were made over them, and finally the blessing of the priest. And Ezra corrected the people, and instructed them in the Law of the Lord all the days of his life, and diligently ministered the priestly office, and the people were obedient to him in all things: and Ezra died in a venerable old age, and was buried in Jerusalem on the third day before the Ides of July. Some of the Jews suppose him to have been Malachi, but wrongly: for Malachi was born in Judea after the return from the captivity, as Jerome says. These things from the book of Ezra, and from the sayings of Josephus, Jerome, and the Scholastic History, and also from the chronicle of William.
[5] which are more fully set forth in Holy Scripture. These things, after our manner, in a few words, but abundantly, I think, for understanding what pertains to the cult in the Catholic Church, whether of the prophets or of other Saints of the Old Covenant. A fuller knowledge of the deeds of Ezra, of which we have given some summary, must be sought from those very books which are received among the Canonical under his name. Of the first he himself is the writer, of the other Nehemiah, whom, together with Zerubbabel and Jeshua or Joshua, son of Josedech, the praised Equilinus reckoned in the same book. That he reached a great age is shown by the long series of years arranged by the interpreters, and especially by our Salian, to whom we refer the reader, that concerning the favors granted to him by Artaxerxes, the expulsion of the foreign women, the Law restored by him among his people with great zeal, and other matters bearing on right Chronology, and finally the whole course of his illustrious life, he may be instructed: for us, to say it again, those things especially have been set at the front which serve to clear away and illustrate ecclesiastical matters, with which the history of the Old Testament has nothing in common, except in that part where the origin and increase of the cult of the Saints thence received must be explained by us; which here we deem to have been sufficiently accomplished.