Annotatio CCLVII

”Thy eyes are clean, that thou mayest not behold evil.” — Habakkuk 1:13

Jerome, on the first chapter of the prophet Habakkuk, seems to affirm that God does not have a singular providence of irrational [creatures], and a peculiar and certain knowledge of each particular little animal, but bears the care of them only in general, and in the species.¹ For thus he speaks: “In the other animals we can indeed understand the general disposition and order of God, and the courses of things: for example, in what manner the multitude of fishes is born, and lives in the waters; in what manner reptiles [and] quadrupeds arise on the earth, and by what foods they are nourished. But it is absurd to draw down the majesty of God to this — that he should know, through single moments, how many gnats are born, [and] how many die; what is the multitude of bugs, and fleas, and flies on the earth; how many fishes swim in the water; and which of the smaller ought to fall as prey to the greater. Let us not be such foolish flatterers of God that, while we draw down his providence even to the lowest things, we be injurious to ourselves — saying that the providence of rational and of irrational [creatures] is the same.”

But that this was not Jerome’s [true] mind, the same [author’s] explanation on Matthew chapter 10 shows,² where, expounding that, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall upon the ground without your Father?” he says: “The sense is: If small and vile animals do not fall without God [as] author, and in all things there is always providence, and [those things] which are to perish among these do not perish without the will of God — you, who are eternal, ought not to fear that you live without the providence of God.” And a little after: “When it is said, ‘Fear not therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows’ — more manifestly the sense of our exposition is expressed, that we ought not to fear: because, if without God’s knowledge small animals do not die, how much more [shall not] man? But as to what he says, ‘The very hairs of your head are all numbered’ — it shows the immense providence of God toward men, and signifies [his] ineffable affection: that nothing of ours lies hidden from God; even small and trifling things do not flee his knowledge.”

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Peter of Poitiers, bishop, in the first book of the Sentences, distinction 39, demonstrates that Jerome’s sayings are to be interpreted in a twofold manner. First, that he understand [Jerome to mean] that God does not so — alternately, particularly, and through the diverse moments of times — foresee all the least things, as [if], through various moments, some of them fail, [and] some begin; but by a single, indivisible, and sempiternal gaze knows all things at once and singly, however small — knows the number of gnats, and fleas, and flies, both being born and perishing, at each single moment. Secondly, that he wish it to be understood that God does not have the knowledge and providence of men and of brutes in the same and equal manner:³ for to men he has given both precepts, and Angels for [their] custody; but to brutes [he administers] only those things which are of the body.