Fathers

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What the Fathers say

1 Kings 1:3

Western Saints

Jerome

Once David had been a man of war, but at seventy, age had chilled him so that nothing would make him warm. A girl is accordingly sought from the coasts of Israel—Abishag the Shunammite—to sleep with the king and warm his aged frame. Does it not seem to you—if you keep to the letter that kills—like some farcical story or some broad jest from an Atellan play? A chilly old man is wrapped up in blankets and only grows warm in a girl's embrace. …

Letter 52 (To Nepotian) 2-3 ↗