{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4205","native_reference":{"book_number":250,"chapter_from":9,"chapter_to":9,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":5,"verse_to":5},"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>: \"For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at<br/>all; there is no more reward for them, their memory is forgotten. Their love, their hate, their jealousy have<br/>already perished- nor will they ever again have a share in whatever is done<br/>beneath the sun. \"Since he has said above that the heart of<br/>man is filled with wickedness and impudence, and after all things, his life<br/>comes to an end in death, then now he completes this by saying that he has<br/>discovered that while men live, they are able to become righteous, but after<br/>death are given no opportunity to do good work. <br/>For the sinner who lives can be better than the dead and righteous man,<br/>if he wishes to convert to his virtues. <br/>Or indeed as for him, who threw himself into wickedness, power, and<br/>impudence, then died: any poorest beggar is better than him. Why? Because<br/>the living can carry out good work in the fear of death, but the dead can do<br/>nothing to add to that which they took away from their life when they<br/>died. And all things are forgotten, just<br/>as it is written in the Psalm: \"I have been given to forget, though dead<br/>from my heart\" [Ps. 30,13.]. But even their enjoyment, hatred and<br/>jealousy, and all that they were able to hold in their time, comes to an end<br/>with their death; nor can they do anything now in their righteousness or sin,<br/>or add to their virtues, or to their vices. <br/>Certain men though can argue against this explanation, asserting that we<br/>can even grow after death, and equally decrease, and quoting that verse which<br/>says, \"and they will not share yet in all that is done under the<br/>sun\", and they understand it in this way, so that they say that they have<br/>no communion in this world, and under this sun that we can see. But they say that they do have it in another<br/>world, about which the Saviour says,<br/>\"I am not of this world\" [Ioh. 8, 23.],<br/>and under the sun of justice, but I have not excluded this theory, which<br/>contends that after we leave this earth, we are able to offend reasoning<br/>creatures, and deserve what we get. My<br/>Hebrew tutor thought differently of the verse, which says, \"a living dog<br/>is better than a dead lion\". He explained<br/>it in this way according to the beliefs of his people: an unlearned man is more<br/>useful, he who still lives and can teach, than a trained teacher who is now<br/>dead. Because of the text he understands<br/>it to mean any one dog is better than many teachers, and the lion is Moses, or<br/>any other prophet. But because I don't<br/>like this explanation I prefer a better one; and Chananaea to whom it is said:<br/>\"your faith saves you\" [Matth. 9, 23.],<br/>we say he is a dog according to the Gospel. <br/>But a dead lion, for the people of circumcision is just the same as for<br/>Balaam, the prophet, who says, \"behold the people shall rise up as a great<br/>lion, and shall lift up himself as a young lion\" [Num. 23,24.]. Therefore we are a living dog amongst the<br/>other nations; but the Jewish people which has been left by God, is a dead<br/>lion. And that living dog is seen as<br/>better in God's eyes than a dead lion. <br/>For we who are living know the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The dead though can know nothing, or await<br/>any recompense and profit, since their memory is complete. They don't remember what they ought to know,<br/>and God does not remember them. <br/>Enjoyment too, for which they often loved God, will die, and hatred as<br/>well, about which they say boldly, \"surely I hate those who hate You, O<br/>Lord, and am I not grieved with those that rise up against You?\" [Ps. 138, 21.]. And there does not exist their jealousy,<br/>similar to the Phinees, and the knees of Matathia trembled. [Cfr. I Mach. 2, 24-6.54.] But it is very clear that a part of them is<br/>not in that world, for they are not able to say, \"my part is the<br/>Lord\". [Ps. 72, 26.]<br/><i>— Commentary on Ecclesiastes</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"5a65e70725769242f06b061e1301f633b18428a4cd8786e5b0e2de7dfa2c4eba","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4205,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"d7741d415d402ff598ae5dda1ff2f51b30ceee794cfecdcdb5aa93dcfd7701dc","translator":null,"work":null}