Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Job 15:14

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

Ver. 14. What is man, that he should be clean? MORAL INTERPRETATION For hereby alone that he is called 'man' he is described as earthly and weak; for man is so named ['homo' from 'humus,' as Hebrew 'Adam'] from the earth. And how is it possible for him to be free from stain, who being made of earth of his own will fell into infirmity? where it is added; And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? For the first piece of unrighteousness the woman proffered to the man in Paradise. …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XII ↗

Thomas Aquinas

After Eliphaz had censured Job for his provoking God to argue which he thought pertained to presumption of wisdom, he now censures him for presumption of justice because he had said, "If I am judged, I know I would be found just." (13:18) Eliphaz attacks this statement first because of the frailty of the human condition in which man avoids sin with difficulty and so he says, "What is man that he should be without stain." Man even does good with difficulty and so he continues, "and be born just from his mother's womb?" For, as …

Commentary on Job ↗