1 Kings 13

1 Kings 13:4

Ambrose of Milan: But when in the temple of our God, that wicked king Jeroboam took away the gifts that his father had laid up and offered them to idols on the holy altar, did not his right hand, which he stretched, wither, and his idols, which he called on, were not able to help him? Then, turning to the Lord, he asked for pardon, and at once his hand, which had withered by sacrilege, was healed by true religion. So complete an example was there set forth in one person, both of divine mercy and wrath, when he who was sacrificing suddenly lost his right hand but when penitent received forgiveness. — Concerning Virginity 2.5.38

1 Kings 13:11

Ishodad of Merv: Some authors assert that [the old prophet] was not an impostor but invited [the true prophet] to eat out of human sympathy in order to refresh and thank him for admonishing Jeroboam. And that is why God did not harm him as a consequence of this. According to others, he was a false prophet because, if he had been a true prophet, as others maintained, he would have not seduced a true prophet, and his children would not have served in a house of idols; therefore it was in order to seduce him that he went to meet the prophet. — BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 Kings 13:11

1 Kings 13:18

Richard Challoner: An angel spoke to me: This old man of Bethel was indeed a prophet, but he sinned in thus deceiving the man of God; the more because he pretended a revelation for what he did.

1 Kings 13:19

Tertullian: For even if God does prefer the works of righteousness, still, these works are not without sacrifice, which represents a soul afflicted with fasts. He, at all events, is the God to whom neither a people incontinent of appetite nor a priest nor a prophet was pleasing. To this day the “monuments of concupiscence” remain, where the people, greedy of “flesh”—until, by devouring without digesting the quails, they brought on cholera—were buried. Eli breaks his neck before the temple doors, his sons fall in battle, his daughter-in-law expires in childbirth. For such was the blow that had been deserved at the hand of God by the shameless house, the defrauder of the fleshy sacrifices. Sameas, a man of God, after prophesying the issue of the idolatry introduced by king Jeroboam (the drying up and immediate restoration of that king’s hand; after the rending in two of the sacrificial altar), being on account of these signs invited [home] by the king by way of reward, plainly declined [for he had been prohibited by God] to touch food at all in that place. However, having presently afterwards rashly taken food from another old man who deceitfully professed himself a prophet, he was deprived of burial in his fathers’ sepulchers, in accordance with the word of God then and there uttered over the table. For he was felled by the rushing of a lion on him along the way and was buried among strangers; and thus he paid the penalty of his breach of fast. These will be warnings both to people and to bishops, even spiritual ones, in case they may ever have been guilty of not controlling their appetite. — ON FASTING 16

1 Kings 13:22

Augustine of Hippo: Yet from that love of the human heart, because of which “no one ever hated his own flesh,” if people believe that anything would be lacking to their bodies after death that in their own people or country the solemnity of burial demands, they become sad …, and before death they fear for their bodies that which has no effect on them after death. Thus we read in the book of Kings that God through a prophet threatens another prophet who transgressed his word, that his body should not be returned to the sepulcher of his ancestors. Scripture records it in these words: “Thus says the Lord: Because you have not been obedient to the Lord and have not kept the commandment that the Lord your God commanded you, and [you] have returned and eaten bread and drunk water in the place where he commanded you that you should not eat bread or drink water, your dead shall not be brought in the sepulcher of your ancestors.” If we consider the extent of this punishment according to the Evangelist, where we learn that after the body has been slain there is no occasion to fear that the lifeless members will suffer, it should not be called punishment. But, if we consider it in relation to the love of a person for his own flesh, then he might have been frightened and saddened while living at what he was not to feel when dead. This, then, was the nature of the punishment: The soul grieved that something would happen to its body, although, when it did happen, the soul did not grieve. Only to this extent did the Lord wish to punish his servant, for it was not from his own obstinacy that he refused to carry out the command, but, because of the deceit of another person who was deceiving him, he thought he obeyed when he did not obey. — On the Care of the Dead 7.9

1 Kings 13:24

Augustine of Hippo: It is not to be imagined that one has been so annihilated by the teeth of a beast that his soul has then been snatched away to infernal punishment, since the same lion who killed his very body guarded it. Even the beast of burden on which the man had been riding was unhurt and with great courage stood in the presence of the wild beast at the destruction of his master. By this miraculous sign it is made clear that the man of God was corrected temporarily even at the point of death rather than that he was punished after death. On this subject the apostle Paul, when he had made mention of certain unpleasant infirmities and death experienced by many, said, “But if we judged ourselves, we should not thus be judged by the Lord. But when we are judged, we are being chastised by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.” — On the Care of the Dead 7.9

Gregory the Dialogist: Seeing we find it written, that what death soever the just man dieth, that his justice shall not be taken from him: what hurt cometh to God’s elect servants (walking no question the way to everlasting life), if for a little while they have some pitiful end? and perhaps it proceedeth from some small sin of theirs, which by such kind of death God’s pleasure is that it should be purged. And hereof it cometh that reprobates receive superiority and power over others, who at their death be so much the more punished, for that they used their cruel authority against God’s servants: as the foresaid wicked and wretched man, whom God suffered not to triumph over that venerable Deacon, though he permitted him to kill his body: which thing to be true we learn also out of holy scriptures. For that man of God which was sent against Samaria, because contrary to God’s commandment he did eat in his journey, was slain by a lion; and yet in the same place we read, that the lion stood by the man’s ass, and did not touch his dead body. By which we perceive that his sin of disobedience was by that his death pardoned: because the same lion that feared not to kill him, presumed not yet to touch his dead carcass: for licence he had for the one, but no leave was granted for the other, because he that was culpable in his life, having his sin of disobedience now punished, was just by his death; and therefore the lion that before slew the body of a sinner, preserved afterward the corpse of a just man. — Dialogues, Book 4, Chapter 24

Ishodad of Merv: Through the words “a lion killed him” [the Scripture] shows that [the lion] strangled and killed him according to God’s command. And through the sentence “it did not eat him,” it shows that [the animal] was not urged by hunger but acted in compliance with God’s order. And this was done in order that Jeroboam and his priests might understand that, if this had happened to the prophet just because he had eaten, something extremely more serious would happen to those who made offerings to the idols. — BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 Kings 13:24-28

John Cassian: We know that even saintly men have been given over in the flesh to Satan and to great afflictions for some very slight faults, since the divine mercy will not tolerate the very least spot or stain to be found in them on the day of judgment, and purges away in this world every spot of their filth, as the prophet, or rather God himself says, in order that he may commit them to eternity as gold or silver refined and needing no penal purification. “And,” he says,“I will clean purge away your dross, and I will take away all your sin; and after this you will be called the city of the just, a faithful city.” And again: “Just as silver and gold are tried in the furnace, so the Lord chooses hearts.” 18 And again: “The fire tries gold and silver, but man is tried in the furnace of humiliation.” And this also: “For the Lord chastens those whom he loves, and he disciplines every son whom he receives.” We see a clear instance of this in the case of the prophet and man of God in the third book of Kings who was immediately destroyed by a lion for a single disobedience, in which he was implicated not of set purpose nor by the fault of his own will but by the enticement of another. As the Scripture says of him: “It is the man of God, who disobeyed the word of the Lord, and the Lord delivered him to the lion, and it killed him according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke.” The punishment for his present offense and his careless error—together with the reward for his righteousness—for which the Lord gave over his prophet in this world to the destroyer appeared in the moderation and abstinence of the beast of prey, when that most savage creature did not dare even to taste the carcass that was given over to him. — CONFERENCE 7.25-26

Richard Challoner: Killed him: Thus the Lord often punishes his servants here, that he may spare them hereafter. For the generality of divines are of opinion, that the sin of this prophet, considered with all its circumstances, was not mortal.

1 Kings 13:28

John Cassian: Moreover, we know that even holy men have been given over bodily to Satan or to great sufferings on account of some slight sins. For the divine clemency does not permit the least blemish or stain to be found in them on the day of judgment. According to the words of the prophet, which are in fact God’s, he purges away all the dross of their uncleanness in the present so that he may bring them to eternity like fire-tried gold or silver, in need of no penal cleansing. “And I will,” he says, “utterly purge away your dross, and I will remove all your alloy. And after this you shall be called the city of the righteous, the faithful city.” And again: “Just as silver and gold are tried in a furnace, so the Lord chooses hearts.” And again: “Fire tries gold and silver, but a man is tried in the furnace of humiliation.” And this also: “The Lord chastises the one whom he loves, and he scourges every son whom he receives.” In the Third Book of Kings we see this clearly exemplified in the case of that prophet and man of God who was immediately destroyed by a lion because of a single sin of disobedience that he contracted not even out of the workings or the viciousness of his own will but through another’s deceptive behavior. Scripture says of him, “That is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the Lord, and the Lord delivered him over to a lion, and it destroyed him, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke.” When this happened, the very sparingness and abstinence of the predator (for the voracious beast did not dare to eat anything at all of the corpse that had fallen to him) appeared as not only the punishment for his present offense and heedless error but also as the deserts of his righteousness, on account of which the Lord delivered over his prophet for a time to the tormenter. - “Conference 7.25.2-26.1”

1 Kings 13:31

Augustine of Hippo: Well did the man who had deceived the man of God bury him with honor in his own tomb and give orders that he himself should be buried next to his bones, hoping thus to spare his own bones. He knew that the time would come according to the prophecy of that man of God when Josiah, king of the Jews, would dig up in the land the bones of many dead and with them defile the sacrilegious altars that had been set up for graven images. He spared that tomb where the prophet lay who more than three hundred years before had predicted these things. And because of him the burying place of the man who deceived him was not violated. By that love because of which no one ever hated his own flesh, he provided for his own corpse, while he had slain his soul by deceit. From this fact, then, because each one naturally loves his own flesh, it was punishment for him to learn that he would not be in the tomb of his fathers. So he took care that his bones be spared by burying them next to him whose tomb no one would violate. — On the Care of the Dead 7.9

Ephrem the Syrian: While this old man insists in saying to his sons that he wants them to bury him, their father, in the grave of the prophet Shemaiah and hopes that his bones will find peace, he represents the allegorical type of an ancient Adam who exhorts and even urges his sons to lower him into baptism, which is the grave of the Emmanuel. Through him all those who have been buried with him through baptism certainly hope for peace and life. On the other hand, when this same old man lies and deceives the other prophet, he represents the Jewish people, about whom we read in the psalm: “But they flattered him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues.” — ON THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS 13:20

1 Kings 13:33

Apostolic Constitutions: For you know undoubtedly that those that are by us named bishops, and presbyters, and deacons, were made by prayer, and by the laying on of hands; and that by the difference of their names is showed the difference of their employments. For not every one that will is ordained, as the case was in that spurious and counterfeit priesthood of the calves under Jeroboam; [1 Kings 13:33] but he only who is called of God. For if there were no rule or distinction of orders, it would suffice to perform all the offices under one name. But being taught by the Lord the series of things, we distributed the functions of the high-priesthood to the bishops, those of the priesthood to the presbyters, and the ministration under them both to the deacons; that the divine worship might be performed in purity. For it is not lawful for a deacon to offer the sacrifice, or to baptize, or to give either the greater or the lesser blessing. Nor may a presbyter perform ordination; for it is not agreeable to holiness to have this order perverted. For “God is not the God of confusion,” [1 Corinthians 14:33] that the subordinate persons should tyrannically assume to themselves the functions belonging to their superiors, forming a new scheme of laws to their own mischief, not knowing that “it is hard for them to kick against the pricks;” [Acts 26:14] for such as these do not fight against us, or against the bishops, but against the universal Bishop and the High Priest of the Father, Jesus Christ our Lord. High priests, priests, and Levites were ordained by Moses, the most beloved of God. — Apostolic Constitutions (Book VIII), Section 5, XLVI