Fathers

Loading…

What the Fathers say

Ecclesiastes 9:12

Western Saints

Jerome

" For man does not even know his time, like fish caught in a fatal net, like birds seized in a snare, so are men caught in the moment of disaster when it falls upon them suddenly. "I have already said above, that while men are yet unknowing, either disaster or death befalls them. More precisely we should look at this as allegory, that the realm of the sky is similar to a net cast into the sea; and on the other hand heretics have nets, in which they capture fish, leading to their death. …

Commentary on Ecclesiastes ↗

Bonaventure

"Man does not know his end," etc. Here is touched upon the deficiency of governance with respect to the termination of death, because it is determined for no one, neither when nor how he must die. And it seems that such or such a death happens by chance. …

Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 9 ↗