{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4140","native_reference":{"book_number":250,"chapter_from":4,"chapter_to":4,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":9,"verse_to":9},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Jerome</b>: \"Two are<br/>better than one, for they get a greater return for their labour. For should they fall, one can raise the<br/>other; but woe to him who is alone when he falls and there is no one to raise<br/>him! Also, if two sleep together they keep warm, but how can one be warm<br/>alone? Where one can be overpowered, two<br/>can resist attack; A three-ply cord is not easily severed!\" <br/>After the misfortunes of loneliness in which he has been seized, and he<br/>who torments himself in acquiring wealth without a definite heir, now the<br/>subject of companionship is treated. And<br/>it asks what good ther is in a tent of friends and what comfort there is in<br/>company, since one man's distress or domestic strife is lifted by another's<br/>help, (any man who has a faithful friend will sleep better all that night, than<br/>he who sleeps only with his wealth which he has amassed. And if a stronger enemy rises up against one<br/>man, the weakness of one is sustained by the comfort of friends. And just as two differ from one if they are<br/>joined in love, so the tent of three is stronger. For even true charity, which has been<br/>violated by no envy increases as much in number as it grows in strength. And this idea is conveyed in relatively few<br/>words. But since previously we have<br/>placed the discussion of the intelligence of certain men before Christ, those<br/>things which are still left must be discussed by the same order. It is better for two to be equal, than<br/>one. For it is better for a man who<br/>lives alone to have Christ, than alone to leave himself vulnerable to<br/>ill-intentioned plots. Since the reward<br/>of the tent is shown at once in the very usefulness of society. For if one man fell, Christ would raise up<br/>his partner. Woe indeed to him who<br/>collapses, he will not have Christ rising up in him. For if one sleeps, that is, if he had been<br/>dissolved by death and had Christ with him, he will revive more quickly having<br/>been made warm and given life once again. <br/>And if the devil, being stronger in his attack, should attack a man, the<br/>man will stand, and Christ will stand in place of this man, in place of his<br/>companion. Not because virtue is weak<br/>(the virtue of Christ alone) against the devil, but because the decision of man<br/>is left free and for us, who are dependent, but virtue itself will become<br/>stronger through fighting. And even if<br/>the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit should come, that friendship is<br/>not broken easily. But although it is<br/>not broken easily, it will be broken nonetheless at some point. And the cord from the apostle to Judas was<br/>threefold: but after the breaking of the bread Satan entered him and that cord<br/>was broken. More precisely what he says<br/>above is, \"and even if two are sleeping, then they will be warm: and how<br/>will one keep warm on his own?\" We<br/>can take an example from Elisha, because he is in a pact with a lad, and slept<br/>with him and warmed his body, and in this way revived the recovering boy. [Cfr IV Reg. 4, 32-36.] Unless therefore Christ sleeps with us and rests<br/>in death, we are not able to receive the heart of eternal life.<br/><i>— Commentary on Ecclesiastes</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"04e5ac2037d08a36fb41eb4075186340b8a638b8e22ea3c2b86814a4745d979f","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4140,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"eaebf5dd2035049e820933f303b5103321543b3f225fb436b054c70cae9c4025","translator":null,"work":null}