The vision of that dream was this: Onias, he who had been high priest, a noble and good man, modest in bearing, yet gentle in manner and well-spoken, and trained from a child in all points of virtue, with outstretched hands invoking blessings on the whole body of the Jews.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 12. Onias III. who had been slain ( Calmet.) at Daphne. Calmet. 4:34. Bible.—The Jewish and Christian Churches never doubted that the saints interceded in the other world for the living, in whose concerns they take part. Calmet.—Prot. evade this text by denying the canonicity of the book. Yet the same is proved Genesis 48. Exodus 32. Jeremiah 15. Lu. 16. Revelation 5:6. 8 and 2 Peter 1 and we have a right to produce the authority of this book, as Origen, (18 in Jo.) Saint Bernard (76 in Cant. & ser. 3. Nat. and so forth) have done. Onias and Jeremias, in limbo, interested themselves for the faithful on earth, and no doubt the saints in glory will do as much. Worthington.