4 Kings 5:15
And returning to the man of God with all his train, he came, and stood before him, and said: In truth, I know there is no other God in all the earth, but only in Israel: I beseech thee therefore take a blessing of thy servant.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Reversusque ad virum Dei cum universo comitatu suo, venit, et stetit coram eo, et ait : Vere scio quod non sit alius deus in universa terra, nisi tantum in Israël. Obsecro itaque ut accipias benedictionem a servo tuo.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἐπέστρεψεν πρὸς Ἐλεισαῖε αὐτὸς καὶ πᾶσα ἡ παρεμβολὴ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἦλθεν καὶ ἔστη καὶ εἶπεν Ἰδοὺ ἔγνωκα ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν θεὸς ἐν πάσῃ τῇ γῇ ὅτι ἀλλ᾽ ἢ ἐν τῷ Ἰσραήλ· καὶ νῦν λάβε τὴν εὐλογίαν παρὰ τοῦ δούλου σου.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיָּשָׁב֩ אֶל אִ֨ישׁ הָאֱלֹהִ֜ים ה֣וּא וְכָֽל מַחֲנֵ֗הוּ וַיָּבֹא֮ וַיַּעֲמֹ֣ד לְפָנָיו֒ וַיֹּ֗אמֶר הִנֵּה נָ֤א יָדַ֨עְתִּי֙ כִּ֣י אֵ֤ין אֱלֹהִים֙ בְּכָל הָאָ֔רֶץ כִּ֖י אִם בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וְעַתָּ֛ה קַח נָ֥א בְרָכָ֖ה מֵאֵ֥ת עַבְדֶּֽךָ
Haydock's commentary
A blessing. A present, (Challoner) accompanied with wishes of happiness, on both sides. We have seen that the prophets generally received such presents. But Eliseus acts with more reserve in regard of this stranger, as St. Paul did towards the new converts; though he received some sustenance from those, who would be less in danger of suspecting that he was actuated by selfish views in preaching the gospel, 2 Corinthians x. 7., and xii. 14., and Matthew x. 8. (Calmet)
They abstained from every appearance of evil, (Haydock) though they might lawfully have accepted such presents. Eliseus wished to convince Naaman that God's grace was not to be purchased, and to leave a lesson of moderation to future teachers. (Menochius)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Athanasius Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.), Texts Explained; Seventhly, John xiv. 10. Introduction. The doctrine of the coinherence. The Father and the Son Each whole and perfect God. They are in Each Other, because their Essence is One and the Same. They are Each Perfect and have One Essence, because the Second Person is the Son of the First. Asterius's evasive explanation of the text under review; refuted. Since the Son has all that the Father has, He is His Image; and the Father is the One God, because the Son is in the Father
2. But now let us see what Asterius the Sophist says, the retained pleader for the heresy. In imitation then of the Jews so far, he writes as follows; ‘It is very plain that He has said, that He is in the Father and the Father again in Him, for this reason, that neither the word on which He was discoursing is, as He says, His own, but the Father’s, nor the works belong to Him, but to the Father who gave Him the power.’ Now this, if uttered at random by a little child, had been excused from his age; but when one who bears the title of Sophist, and professes universal knowledge, is the writer, what a serious condemnation does he deserve! And does he not shew himself a stranger to the Apostle, as being puffed up with persuasive words of wisdom, and thinking thereby to succeed in deceiving, not understanding himself what he says nor whereof he affirms? For what the Son has said as proper and …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).