Voices and influences
Cassiodorus
A Roman statesman serving Gothic kings who retired to found a monastery where monks copied books — and saved much of antiquity by it.
Summary
This site quotes Cassiodorus 28 times across 5 books, and lists 0 works.
- Lived died 585.
- Quoted here most in Psalms: 22 of 28.
Cassiodorus
- Lived
- died 585
- Tradition
- Patristic
5 of 28 quotations
Own words
Quoted at 50 words or fewer, because Cassiodorus's works are in copyright.
Though hyssop is a tiny plant, its roots are said to penetrate the heart of rocks. It is also known to be good for a person's internal wounds. In Leviticus it was dipped in sacrificial blood and sprinkled seven times on the body of a …
EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 50:9, 585
Leviticus 14:7 Seven times he shall sprinkle the one to be cleansed of the skin disease. Then he shall pronounce him clean and release the live bird into the open field. BSB
"When the Philistines held him in Gath"; this is recounted in the text of the book of Kings [Samuel]. David was terrorized by attacks of Saul and thought that he would be hidden in the city of Gath among the Philistines. But we have said …
EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS 55.1, 585
1 Samuel 27:1–3 David, however, said to himself, “One of these days now I will be swept away by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will stop searching for me all over Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.” So David set out with his six hundred men and went to Achish son of Maoch, the king of Gath. David and his men settled in Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives: Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal. BSB
When the prophet was discussing the end of the world, through the illumination of his heart he foresaw the coming of the Antichrist. Terrified by the magnitude of the danger, he shouted out with a loud voice, "Arise, O Lord, let not humankind prevail." For …
EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 9:20, 585
Psalms 9:19 Rise up, O LORD, do not let man prevail; let the nations be judged in Your presence. BSB
In earlier times, the persecution of the church was merely violent, when Christians were being pressed by pagans through proscriptions, torture and beatings to sacrifice to idols. A second type of persecution is through deceit, which is currently being carried out by heretics and false …
EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 10:29-30, 585
Psalms 10:9 He lies in wait like a lion in a thicket; he lurks to seize the oppressed; he catches the lowly in his net. BSB
"I will arise" is a metaphor to indicate that the one who is not familiar with the human need to lie down out of weakness does in fact rise up. But he says I will arise, I will appear and be manifest in the Son. …
EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 12:6, 585
Psalms 12:5 “For the cause of the oppressed and for the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will bring safety to him who yearns.” BSB
Influence, on the record
This site quotes Cassiodorus 28 times across 5 books.
This site’s own count of what it does with the voice
The life, in order
The life told as one accountfrom this site's record
Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator was born about 485 at Scylacium in Calabria, in the toe of Italy, to a family that had served the state for generations. He served it too, and at the highest level: quaestor, consul in 514, master of the offices, and finally praetorian prefect under the Ostrogothic kings who ruled Italy after the Western Empire fell. He spent his career as a Roman civil servant working for Gothic masters, and his Variae — the collected official letters he drafted for Theodoric and his successors — is the single best source we have for how Italy was actually governed in that strange overlap. With Pope Agapetus he tried to found a Christian school of higher learning at Rome, on the model of the schools at Alexandria and Nisibis. Justinian's war to reconquer Italy destroyed the plan along with much else. Rome was besieged and sacked repeatedly; the aqueducts were cut; the old order was ending and everyone could see it. So Cassiodorus, in his late sixties, retired to his family estate on the Ionian coast and did something else. He founded a monastery there called Vivarium, after the fishponds on the property, and gave it a library and a scriptorium. Then he wrote the Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning, a curriculum for his monks: read the Scriptures first, with these commentators; then learn grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy, because you cannot read Scripture well without them. And he wrote something no one had said quite that way before — that copying manuscripts is itself holy work. He devoted a chapter to the scribe, praised the man who preaches with his fingers, gave rules for correcting texts, and even discussed bookbinding and lamps for working after dark. He had Greek works translated into Latin at Vivarium by Epiphanius Scholasticus and others. That single conviction, taken up by Benedictine houses across Europe, is a large part of the reason classical and Christian literature survived the following centuries at all. Vivarium itself did not last long after his death, but the idea did. He also wrote a full commentary on the Psalms and, at ninety-three, a treatise on spelling for his copyists. He died around 585, aged about a hundred. Sources: Cassiodorus, Institutiones divinarum et saecularium litterarum; Cassiodorus, Variae; James J. O'Donnell, Cassiodorus (1979); The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), s.v. "Cassiodorus".
28 quotations across 5 books
Where this voice is quoted
Rise up, O LORD, do not let man prevail; let the nations be judged in Your presence.
“When the prophet was discussing the end of the world, through the illumination of his heart he foresaw the coming of the Antichrist. Terrified by the magnitude of the danger, he shouted out with a loud voice, "Arise, O Lord, let not humankind prevail."”
He lies in wait like a lion in a thicket; he lurks to seize the oppressed; he catches the lowly in his net.
“In earlier times, the persecution of the church was merely violent, when Christians were being pressed by pagans through proscriptions, torture and beatings to sacrifice to idols.”
“For the cause of the oppressed and for the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will bring safety to him who yearns.”
“"I will arise" is a metaphor to indicate that the one who is not familiar with the human need to lie down out of weakness does in fact rise up. But he says I will arise, I will appear and be manifest in the Son.”
You will place them in a fiery furnace at the time of Your appearing. In His wrath the LORD will engulf them, and the fire will consume them.
“An oven is a round structure made of bronze for baking bread.… Sinners are rightly compared with it, since at the coming judgment they will be tormented both with mental grief and with punitive pain, because with a stubborn mind they have lived in opposition…”
I can count all my bones; they stare and gloat over me.
“They did not appear to have done something in passing or by chance. Instead, he says that they "looked carefully and stared," and their stony hearts were not softened by miracles.”
in You, my God, I trust. Do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me.
“Enemies laugh when they see that the trust of just people has not been fulfilled.… Laughter is most often a quality of someone of good will, but laughing at someone is always the mark of an enemy.”
He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way.
“By using the term meek he excludes the proud and exalted.… "The mild" are just the opposite of the proud, who kick against the easy yoke and light burden with a freedom that does harm to them; God will teach those who do without grumbling…”
His soul will dwell in prosperity, and his descendants will inherit the land.
“When the just have been stripped of their bodies, the perfect blessedness that is promised to the saints at the resurrection is not immediately granted; but it says that the soul is able "to dwell in good things," since even if those rewards have still…”
Vindicate me, O LORD! For I have walked with integrity; I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.
“The petition for judgment does indeed appear to be dangerous, but a separation from evil people is recognized to be an appropriate request from one who is well deserving.”
O LORD, I love the house where You dwell, the place where Your glory resides.
“What he calls "the glory of your house" is not the beauty of walls or the most expensive table settings, but the most blessed quality of those actions in which the entire church rejoices: namely, the joyful singing of psalms, the holiness of prayers, the…”
But I will walk with integrity; redeem me and be merciful to me.
“"Redeem me," means, make me free through the precious blood of your first advent by which the world was delivered when it was being held subject to sins.”
Among all my enemies I am a disgrace, and among my neighbors even more. I am dreaded by my friends— they flee when they see me on the street.
“Christ the Lord, though innocent and undefiled, was being considered a disgrace among those who were desecrating themselves with wicked sin.… A disgrace indicates a terribly heinous act, what the evil Jews were convinced had been committed by our Lord Savior when they said: "This…”
Blessed is the man whose iniquity the LORD does not count against him, in whose spirit there is no deceit.
“Although he is a sinner, he does not proclaim that he is entirely holy; sin is a sickness by which humanity is grievously afflicted, but instead he acknowledges his transgressions and constantly perseveres in humble satisfaction.”
I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will give you counsel and watch over you.
“You see here that sinners do not possess understanding except when the gracious Lord grants it to the converted, for understanding implies doing the right thing and directing one's prayers to the Lord's commands.”
to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.
“These are the two prayers of the most faithful Christian: to be rescued from eternal death at the coming judgment and to spend time here with spiritual nourishment.”
Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield.
“When the psalmist says "he waits," he indicates the endurance of the Christian … since it is endurance that makes the martyrs glorious, that watches over the good things of our faith, that conquers everything that stands against us, not by fighting against God's will…”
Contend with my opponents, O LORD; fight against those who fight against me.
“This statement, as has been noted, refers to the devil and his followers.… For when he gives the command, "pray for your enemies," this statement does not apply to people.”
The LORD helps and delivers them; He rescues and saves them from the wicked, because they take refuge in Him.
“Free to Hope. Cassiodorus: He also adds the reason for the liberation: it is because "they have hoped in him"—not because they have not sinned, but because they have placed their hope in the Lord's compassion.”
In Your justice, rescue and deliver me; incline Your ear and save me. Be my rock of refuge, where I can always go.
“"Deliver me in your righteousness and rescue me; incline your ear to me and deliver me." When he says "in your righteousness," he seeks divine mercy. In other words it pertains to his righteousness to spare a suppliant.”
My mouth will declare Your righteousness and Your salvation all day long, though I cannot know their full measure.
“Then follows the clause "because I have not known business transactions." That part of the verse is recognized to create a problem unless it is well investigated.”
Yet God is my King from ancient times, working salvation on the earth.
“"But God is our king before the ages; he has worked salvation in the midst of the earth." That understanding of Asaph, which the superscription was predicting and foretelling in the spirit of prophecy that the Savior the Lord would come, pertains to the second…”
May they be like grass on the rooftops, which withers before it can grow,
“"Let them be like the grass on buildings, which dries up before it is plucked up." Abandoned buildings usually produce frail grass on their peaks. Before it can be gathered, it dries up and goes to ruin because it never flourished with a solid root.”