My Mouth Like a Sharp Sword: The Word That Leapt Down and the Sword from the Mouth of Christ
Old Testament: Isaias 49:2
And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword: in the shadow of his hand he hath protected me, and hath made me as a chosen arrow: in his quiver he hath hidden me.
Old Testament, also: Wisdom 18:14-16
For while all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of her course, Thy almighty word leapt down from heaven from thy royal throne, as a fierce conqueror into the midst of the land of destruction. With a sharp sword carrying thy unfeigned commandment, and he stood and filled all things with death, and standing on the earth reached even to heaven.
New Testament: Hebrews 4:12; Apocalypse 1:16; Apocalypse 19:13
For the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two edged sword; and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. ... And he had in his right hand seven stars. And from his mouth came out a sharp two edged sword: and his face was as the sun shineth in his power. ... And he was clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood; and his name is called, THE WORD OF GOD.
The connection
The Servant in Isaias speaks of his own mouth: "he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword: in the shadow of his hand he hath protected me, and hath made me as a chosen arrow: in his quiver he hath hidden me" (Isaias 49:2). The sword is in the mouth, and it is hidden, kept in the Father's hand until its hour. Wisdom tells how it came out. On the night of the Passover, "while all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of her course, Thy almighty word leapt down from heaven from thy royal throne ... With a sharp sword" (Wisdom 18:14-16). The Church sings those words in the Christmas season, of the Word who came down at midnight. The New Testament names the sword. "The word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two edged sword ... and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). John sees the risen Christ among the candlesticks, "and from his mouth came out a sharp two edged sword" (Apocalypse 1:16), and at the end the rider whose "name is called, THE WORD OF GOD" (19:13). The sword hidden in the Servant's mouth, which leapt down in the silence, is the Word Himself. Origen joins Isaias to Hebrews in so many words: "The mouth of the Son of God is a sharp sword, for 'The word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword'." St Victorinus of Pettau reads the two edges as the two Testaments: "it is He Himself who has both now declared the word of the Gospel, and previously by Moses declared the knowledge of the law". The Catechism teaches the same unity: through all the words of Scripture God speaks one single Word, His Son (CCC 102).
Moral sense
The word that pierces is the word that heals. It lays open "the thoughts and intents of the heart", and Hebrews goes straight on: "Let us go therefore with confidence to the throne of grace: that we may obtain mercy" (Hebrews 4:16). Origen hears the chosen arrow of Isaias the same way, asking whether anyone could "find the dart that wounded so many souls for the love of God, in any but Him". To the church of Pergamus the sword comes first as a call to penance: "do penance: if not, I will come to thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth" (Apocalypse 2:16). The sword that reaches the heart in Scripture and in confession is the one that will judge at the end. It is better to be cut by it now.
Anagogical sense
The Word leapt down once in silence, at midnight, and lay hidden in a manger as the arrow was hidden in the quiver. The rider of the Apocalypse comes openly, "clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood", and "out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp two edged sword" (Apocalypse 19:13, 15). The first coming was the sword in the scabbard; the second is the sword drawn. Then nothing will be hidden, for "all things are naked and open to his eyes" (Hebrews 4:13).
The Fathers
Origen, Commentary on John I.36: "The mouth of the Son of God is a sharp sword, for 'The word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.'" St Victorinus of Pettau, Commentary on the Apocalypse, on 1:16: "By the twice-sharpened sword going forth out of His mouth is shown, that it is He Himself who has both now declared the word of the Gospel, and previously by Moses declared the knowledge of the law to the whole world." St John Chrysostom, on Hebrews 4:12: "He, the Word of God, wrought the former things also".
Warrant
Patristic. Origen quotes Isaias 49:2 and says, "The mouth of the Son of God is a sharp sword," citing Hebrews 4:12 (Commentary on John I.36); St Victorinus of Pettau reads the two-edged sword of Apocalypse 1:16 as the one Word speaking the Law and the Gospel (Commentary on the Apocalypse, on 1:16). Wisdom 18:14-16 joins by its own words, the almighty word with a sharp sword, and by the Church's use of it at Christmas; no Father in the site's corpora makes that link, and it is the entry's own. Checked in the Greek: the Septuagint of Isaias 49:2 has to stoma mou hos machairan oxeian, my mouth as a sharp sword; Hebrews 4:12 has machairan distomon, a two-mouthed sword; Apocalypse 1:16 has ek tou stomatos autou rhomphaia distomos oxeia, out of His mouth a sharp two-mouthed sword. Wisdom 18:15-16 has ho pantodynamos sou logos ... xiphos oxy, thy almighty word ... a sharp sword, and Apocalypse 19:13 names the rider ho logos tou theou, the Word of God. The entry sits beside The Sword That Turns, Then Speaks, which follows the sword at Eden's gate; this one follows the sword in the mouth. Dunk found it from Hebrews 4:12 and the two-edged sword of the Apocalypse.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 102.
The verses
Isaias 49:2 · Wisdom 18:14 · Wisdom 18:15 · Wisdom 18:16 · Hebrews 4:12 · Apocalypse 1:16 · Apocalypse 19:13
