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On the Ruin of Britain
St Gildas, tr. Williams, 1899
Now again, observe what Zachariah, son of Adda, the chosen prophet, has said, beginning …
Now again, observe what Zachariah, son of Adda, the chosen prophet1, has said, beginning his prophecy in this manner: Return unto me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord, and be not such as your fathers, whom the former prophets charged, saying, Thus saith the Lord Almighty: Return ye from your ways: and they did not observe so as to hearken unto me. Below also: And the angel said unto me, What seest thou? and I said, I see a flying scythe of twenty cubits in length. It is the curse which goeth forth over the face of the whole earth; since every thief shall from it be punished unto death, and I shall cast him forth saith the Lord Almighty; and it shall enter into the thief’s house, and into the house of swearing falsely in my name.
Notes
- filius Addo propheta electus. The post-exilian prophet Zechariah is, by Gildas, called “son of Addo,” whereas, according to the ordinary reading of the Vulgate, Addo must have been his grandfather. The question, as a point of history, does not concern us. But there is a reading of the Vulgate, filium Barachiae filium Addo, reproduced by Jerome in his Commentary, which is in evident agreement with the LXX: Ζαχαρίαν τὸν τοῦ Βαραχίου υἱὸν ᾿Αδδὼ τὸν προφήτην. Gildas is therefore correctly following the tradition contained in the codices of his time. The two, Haggai and Zechariah, go together in all lists of the twelve minor prophets, as in Gildas: unde recte juxta ordinem duodecim prophetarum, ille decimus et hic undecimus ponitur (Jer., Comm., i).
The epithet electus, which Gildas adds, instead of beatus, or sanctus, as in the case of the other prophets, may be explained by the distinguished position assigned to Zechariah, along with Haggai and Malachi, as members of the” Great Synagogue,“in Jewish tradition, traditions well-known to Latin writers.—Vide Smith, Dict. of Bible, under Zechariah.