Book Two

Translated from the Greek of the First1KGreek digital edition (tlg2018.tlg023, after Gaisford 1842) by Claude (Fable 5), 2026-07-12. No complete English translation of this work has previously existed. Bracketed scripture references are the edition's; [...] marks manuscript lacunae; renderings a specialist should check are flagged in the numbered footnotes. Working translation, not a critical edition. Book 1 (the historical books) precedes this file.

Section 0 — Proem to Book 2

Having circumscribed the testimonies concerning our Savior from the historical scriptures, next after those — in this second arrangement of the Extracts — we shall add, culled like blossoms, those from the books in verse¹, since in their times these precede the remaining prophecies. And first let us examine those from the book of Psalms.

Section 1 — Psalm 1: "Blessed is THE man"

Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and has not stood in the way of sinners, and has not sat upon the seat of the pestilent; but his will is in the law of the Lord, and in his law shall he meditate day and night [Ps 1:1–2]. And whom could anyone show to have driven to so extraordinary² a virtue as in no manner whatever to have fallen into any sin at all? — which is what seems to me to be signified by he has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and he has not stood in the way of sinners, and he has not sat upon the seat of the pestilent: by which I consider is indicated the utter tastelessness-of-sin³ of the man being blessed. For not only not to have walked in such things — not to have advanced in them, as by walking — but not even to have sat down in them, nor indeed to have set foot on them at all in the first place, nor stood in them: how is this not a wonderful and rare thing? And the praises of the man indicated present themselves to the mind the more forcibly for being spoken extensively⁴: for he neither walked, it says, nor stood, nor sat in such forms of evil — whereby is displayed the blessed one's virtuous condition, constant and through all things. Many a man one might see who by attention and discipline has succeeded; yet not one such as the Psalm depicts. And if one should contemplate how great a thing it is to prosper in all things and to be given good passage by God, stumbling in nothing, never falling away from the mark of virtue — so that on this account it is said in the Psalm, and all things whatsoever he does shall prosper — and if one should further consider what it is for a man's own will to be blended in full agreement with the law of the Lord, and to meditate on it not only through the whole day but also through the night, gazing into it with the wakeful eyes of the understanding, and to act according to it not only in the works and words of the day but even in the thoughts and imaginations of sleep — he will know the greatness of having accomplished these things with the divine Spirit bearing witness. But if what has been said confessedly overshoots the whole of human nature, it would fit one man alone: Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, born of the seed of David according to the flesh — to whom alone witness is borne by the divine Spirit in Isaiah, that he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth [Isa 53:9]. And the admissibility of this interpretation is supported by the reading according to the Hebrew, which runs, with strict care: Blessed is THE man — with the article added. And it was fitting that David, designated the father of our Savior according to flesh, having received the promise that the Christ would be born of his seed, should dedicate to him the firstfruits of his own prophecy. And whoever desires to discern with exactness how what is said in the Psalm refers to the Savior will learn it by consulting the commentaries devoted to him⁵.

Section 2 — Psalm 2: the raging nations and the begotten King

Why did the nations rage, and the peoples meditate empty things? The kings of the earth stood by, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed [Ps 2:1–2]. That this prophecy also has been fulfilled, those testified who heard Peter and John recounting the marvels that had befallen them, in the Acts of the Apostles: for giving thanks at the wonders they heard, they brought in the words set out above, saying: For of a truth they were gathered together in this city against your holy servant whom you anointed — both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the nations and the peoples of Israel [Acts 4:27]. And not only those who at that season plotted against our Savior were gathered against him, but also the kings and rulers in succession from then till now, and whole nations and peoples, by blaspheming him and plotting against his teaching. And one must be persuaded that not only the visible kings and rulers among men have plotted against him, but much more the intelligible and invisible rulers of this age, who were at work then and are at work even now, [stirring] the nations, and the peoples of the circumcision who meditated the law of God emptily and in vain — taking counsel not only against the Christ of God but, through him, against the Father who sent him. Concerning all of whom the Psalm adds: He who dwells in the heavens shall laugh them to scorn, and the Lord shall mock them. Then shall he speak to them in his wrath, and in his fury he shall trouble them. Next after which the Christ himself, teaching us the economy that came to pass concerning him after the passion, says: But I was established king by him upon Zion his holy mountain, declaring the ordinance of the Lord.

One must not, however, according to the groveling suppositions of the Jews, imagine the kingdom of Christ to be like the kingdoms of men, to be established upon a bodily mount Zion; to him who asked him whether he was a king, he answered saying: My kingdom is not of this world [John 18:36]; whence also he promised the kingdom of heaven to those who believed in him; and that Zion is a heavenly mountain not the apostle alone has taught, but very many other prophecies besides. Micah, at any rate, having foretold that on account of the impieties of the former people Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become as a fruit-watcher's hut, and the mountain of the house as a grove of the forest [Mic 3:12], next adds concerning another Zion and Jerusalem in like manner: And it shall be in the last days, the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, and peoples shall come to it, and many nations shall go, for out of Zion shall go forth a law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem [Mic 4:1–2]. Of this mountain, then, it is said here too by the Christ: I was established king by him upon Zion his holy mountain. And by whom he was established is plain: by the Father, who said to him, You are my son; today I have begotten you, and, Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession. And that the prophecy is true and the promise without falsehood may be discerned from those who in so short a time, out of every nation, have come over to the piety toward God that is through our Savior. Or let those who shamelessly dare to look this evidence⁶ in the face and deny it say to whom they could fit the prophecy, if they will not allow that it stands thus. For David the king — of whom some have supposed these things to be said — they could never show to have suffered any such things, with rulers and kings, nations and peoples, plotting against him. And when, or upon what exploits, did the Lord say to David, You are my son, today I have begotten you? And how could Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession be said to him, whose kingdom was plainly bounded by Israel alone and the borders of Judaea? And why they will not admit the Christ who has come, let them answer. Is it because he suffered? Then they must needs await another who will suffer nothing of what this one suffered — and how then would the prophecies be fulfilled which foretell that the Christ of God shall suffer very many things, in many other places and not least in the Psalm in hand? And ought one to suppose that without divine aid⁷ this man sowed the teaching concerning the God of all throughout the inhabited world? Is it even conceivable that a human impulse, the bare enterprise of some ordinary man, could so prevail and have such power as, by his teaching alone, without deity working with him, to dispose the souls of hearers of every kind toward the God of all — to sow these things long ago, and still now to persuade men to abandon ancestral customs and a lawless, savage, licentious life, and to attend to godliness alone, and to prefer it not only above their present substance but even above life itself, which all men long for? I do not think anyone willing to judge with even moderate fairness could fail to confess that such things have come to pass through our Savior with a divine and more-than-human power working together with him. By which both the deity of the Lord who became man is demonstrated, and the proofs stand plainly forth that he has received from the Father the nations for his inheritance, and the ends of the earth for his possession, in accordance with the prophecy in hand. But to expound the whole of the Psalm is not for the present occasion — above all since it has already received a most complete exposition⁸.

Section 3 — Psalm 3: the sleep and waking

The third Psalm too is readily taken of the Christ, teaching — in sequence with those before it — the matters of the plot against him, through Lord, why are they multiplied that afflict me? [Ps 3:1], and the matters of his resurrection, which are disclosed through I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord will uphold me [Ps 3:5]. And every verse of the Psalm would fit the Christ, given its proper exegesis. And there is reason in the third Psalm's being appointed to prophesy the resurrection of the Lord, in sequence with the prophecies before it: for the first, as we have rendered it, teaches his blameless life and citizenship without sin; the second, the matters of the passion; and so the third, next after these, prophesies the matters of his resurrection.

Section 4 — Psalm 8: "For the winepresses" — a little lower than the angels

Of the eighth Psalm, the first part — from O Lord our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth [Ps 8:1] — appears to be prophesied concerning the calling from among the nations; wherefore it is also superscribed For the winepresses: the winepresses being understood as the churches throughout the inhabited world, in which the rational grape-clusters of the true vine — the Christ — and of his branches, as it were, the holy apostles, being pressed, yield the intelligent wine of their teachings, maker of all gladness. For otherwise it is impossible to fit what is said in the Psalm to bodily winepresses, since the wording contains no sense at all of that kind — as elsewhere it does, whether concerning the vine brought over out of Egypt, or the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth, or the like. But the part from What is man, that you are mindful of him? or the son of man, that you visit him? You made him a little lower than the angels; with glory and honor you crowned him, and the rest, has been taken up of our Savior and Lord Jesus in the epistle to the Hebrews, where to you subjected all things beneath his feet is added: But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him; but we behold Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death [Heb 2:8–9]. And one might say that not only because of the suffering of death, but because of the very incarnation itself⁹, he was made a little lower than the angels: when, being in the form of God, he counted it not a thing to be seized to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave [Phil 2:6–7], and lowered himself so far that, instead of the glory in the form of God, it was said of him: we saw him, and he had no form nor beauty; but his form was without honor, failing beyond the sons of men [Isa 53:2–3]. In return for which the Father, requiting him, crowned him with glory and honor, having highly exalted him and graced him with the name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things heavenly and earthly and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father [Phil 2:9–11]. And he set him over the works of his hands — which itself would fit the person of our Savior on account of the God-Word in him, and no longer any ordinary man, if indeed it is the custom of the sacred words to number the heavens too among the works of God, according to: and the heavens are the works of your hands [Ps 102:25]. Besides this: he subjected all things under his feet: sheep and all oxen, and further the beasts of the field, the birds of heaven, and the fishes of the sea [Ps 8:6–8] — by which there seems to be indicated, rather allegorically, the subjection under the yoke and slavery of the Word of the souls that are more irrational and, in their manner, like beasts-of-burden, of second rank¹⁰ — or even of the opposing powers.

Section 5 — Psalm 9: "A victory-song concerning the death of the Son"

The superscription of the ninth Psalm runs thus: Unto the end, concerning the hidden things: a Psalm of David [Ps 9]. In place of which Symmachus has rendered: "A victory-song concerning the death of the Son. An ode of David." And indeed the Hebrew appears rather to carry this sense, running: lamanasse almuth ben masmora David¹¹. And it is well to press those of the circumcision who use it with the difficulty: concerning what death, or concerning whose son, was the Psalm spoken by David? To us it appears plainly to be prophesied of the passion of the Savior; and this the Seventy also, having perceived it, intimated more secretly. Aquila too, himself indicating some great deed of valor accomplished at the Savior's passion, rendered it: To the victory-maker, concerning the youthfulness¹² of the son: a melody of David. And whoever attends closely could fit all the sayings of the Psalm to the Christ, who names himself poor and needy, and prophesies concerning his resurrection from the dead in: Have mercy on me, O Lord; behold my humiliation from my enemies — you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may declare all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion — and what Zion is, we showed a little above. And certain things in it are prophesied of the nations who would be saved through him, as of the poor and needy — among which stands: Appoint, O Lord, a lawgiver over them: let the nations know that they are men [Ps 9:20]. Where it is worth pausing: the nations do not lie under the law of Moses; and this saying must be pressed upon those of the circumcision who reproach believers from the nations for not living by the law of Moses; and it must be shown that the prophetic word knows there is to be another lawgiver for the nations besides Moses, saying as in prayer, Appoint, O Lord, a lawgiver over them — plainly, over the nations; for it adds to this, let the nations know that they are men, as if it said: let the nations receive knowledge and understanding of their own rational essence, through the lawgiver who is to be appointed over them. And this would be the Christ, who legislated the covenant common to us all, by saying: It was said to the ancients thus-and-so, but I say this [Matt 5]; who also, by a divine and ineffable power, has had strength to make his laws prevail — not over one nation or two, nor over some part of the whole world, nor for some little time; but, as may be gathered from the working itself, perpetually and over all the nations. And if anyone will not allow that this is so, let him show what other man he could name, besides our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, appointed by the God of all as lawgiver for the nations in accordance with the prophecy in hand, who has become teacher to all mankind of the piety toward the Maker of all.

Section 6 — Psalm 11: "Now will I arise"

Since in the eleventh Psalm the Lord says: Because of the wretchedness of the poor and the groaning of the needy, now will I arise, says the Lord; I will place him in salvation; I will speak boldly in him [Ps 11:5] — we examine whether this too would fit the person of Christ, teaching the matters of his resurrection from the dead, carrying a sense such as this: For the sake of the nations that have come to be in the wretchedness of evil — named "poor" by way of reproach, because deprived of the wealth that is according to God — having emptied myself, and having taken up the contest on their behalf even unto death, now will I arise; and indeed, having received from the Father the authority over all things, all who have believed in me I will set into salvation; and I will speak with boldness in him — whether in the Father, or in that which has been wrought by me, for salvation, of such great deeds of valor. Such would be the sense of the saying. As for the first words of the Psalm, containing Save me, O God, for the holy man has failed, and the rest — they disclose what sort of season it was in which he suffered: for the holy man had failed then, and truths were minished from among the sons of men; each spoke vain things to his neighbor; and all that follows was fulfilled at that time.

Section 7 — Psalm 15: "You will not abandon my soul to Hades"

I foresaw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand, that I be not shaken. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh also shall dwell in hope: for you will not abandon my soul to Hades, neither will you give your holy one to see corruption. You made known to me the ways of life; you will fill me with gladness with your face [Ps 15:8–11]. That these words too are referred to the person of Christ, Peter testifies in the Acts of the Apostles, where he says: Jesus the Nazarene, a man demonstrated to us from God by powers and wonders and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know — him, delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you, by the hand of lawless men, nailed up and killed; whom God raised, having loosed the birth-pangs of death, inasmuch as it was not possible that he be held by it. For David says: I foresaw the Lord always before me... [Acts 2:22–25]. Then, after some intervening words, he adds, verbatim: Men, brothers, it is permitted to speak with boldness to you concerning the patriarch David: that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is among us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn to him with an oath that of the fruit of his loins one should sit upon his throne, foreseeing it he spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ: that neither was he abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption [Acts 2:29–31]. Peter, then, having rendered the interpretation of the prophecy upon the Savior, it will be open to anyone who makes the search of these things no by-work either to fit the whole wording of the Psalm to him, consistently with what Peter took from it, or to consult what others have written upon the Psalm; for our aim does not permit us to say more upon the passages than has been said.

Section 8 — Psalm 16: "You tried me with fire, and no injustice was found in me"

And what is said in the sixteenth Psalm — You proved my heart; you visited it by night; you tried me with fire, and injustice was not found in me [Ps 16:3] — we have noted as being from the voice of Christ, since it does not otherwise befit human nature to make this claim; and all the words in the Psalm, for one who looks into them with exactness, can be referred to the Savior.

Section 9 — Psalm 17: head of nations whom he had not known

Since those of the circumcision will suppose the seventeenth Psalm to be spoken of none other than David — its superscription seeming to indicate as much — we shall press them hard, unable as they are to maintain, on that reading: You shall deliver me from the contradictions of the people; you shall set me at the head of nations: a people whom I knew not served me; at the hearing of the ear it obeyed me. Strange sons lied to me; strange sons waxed old [Ps 17:43–45]. Of what nations could they show David set at the head? Or what is this people which he had not known before, and which nevertheless served him, obeying him at the hearing of the ear? And who are the "strange sons" said to have lied to him, and to have waxed old and gone lame out of their paths? But for us, nothing whatever of what is said in the Psalm will stumble¹³, taking this prophecy as from the person of the Christ, appointed head of the church from the nations, and beholding it plainly fulfilled. For we were — truly we were — alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise [Eph 2:12], and therefore not worthy of the knowledge of the word of God; but now, having known God — rather, having been known by him [Gal 4:9] — we who once were far off have become near [Eph 2:13], and we served him who of old knew us not, and at the hearing of the ear we obeyed him, having received the word of his new covenant which he covenanted with us. And wonderfully, after a people whom I knew not served me — our calling — he sets out the matters of the former synagogue through strange sons lied to me, equivalent in force to: Sons I begot and raised up, but they set me at nought [Isa 1:2]. These also waxed old, having gone lame out of their own paths and not received the Christ of God — who, rejected by them, was appointed by the Father head of the nations that served and obeyed him at the hearing of the ear, according to the prophecy that says elsewhere: The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner [Ps 117:22]. And I think the matters of his deity, and of his descent to men, are disclosed in the first parts of the Psalm — things spoken too secretly to deserve an exegesis done by the way and at a run — such as the words from: And he bowed the heavens and came down, and thick darkness was under his feet; and he mounted upon Cherubim and flew; he flew upon the wings of winds — and all that, in like manner to these, is referred to the Word of God.

Section 10 — Psalm 18: the bridegroom-giant

There are no speeches nor words whose voices are not heard: their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their sayings to the ends of the world [Ps 18:3–4]. We inquire whose sound it is that has gone out into all the earth, and whose sayings to the ends of the world — such that no words or speeches are left among any people where their voices have not been heard. And none could be shown other than the holy apostles, in whom the prophecy has been fulfilled — their teaching concerning the Christ having become famed through all that is under heaven, when, dwelling yet in this life, with the divine power working with them, they proclaimed throughout the whole world the faith in the Christ of God. Concerning whom, after this prediction of his apostles' proclamation, the word next teaches that in the sun he set his tabernacle: the "sun" being understood as the deity, in which he set his own abode and, as it were, his tenting; or else the body he took from the virgin, which was as it were the tabernacle of the divine power that abode in him. And he, as a bridegroom going forth from his bridal chamber, rejoiced as a giant to run his course: for like a bridegroom — for the sake of his bride the church — rising up from the Father's bosom, and like some brave and mighty giant having fought through the contest set before him, having conquered and overthrown the adversaries, he rejoiced, receiving his consort and bride. And his going forth was from the height of heaven, and his return¹⁴ unto the height thereof — since no other has ascended into heaven but he who came down from heaven, the Son of man [John 3:13]; and again, he who descended is the same who also ascended far above all the heavens [Eph 4:10], according to the holy apostle. Moreover, there is none who shall be hidden from his heat — of which he himself said: I came to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! [Luke 12:49]. And one may easily work out for himself what belongs to this passage on the analogy of these things.

Section 11 — Psalm 19

What is said in the nineteenth Psalm — Now I know that the Lord has saved his Anointed [Ps 19:6] — displays, somehow¹⁵, the salvation of our Savior Jesus Christ out of death; for to him is said also, We will rejoice in your salvation [19:5]; and all that belongs to the passage could be fitted to him, given its proper exegesis.

Section 12 — Psalm 20: "He asked life of you"

O Lord, in your power the king shall be glad [Ps 20:1], and what follows, one might say could be referred to David. But he asked life of you, and you gave him length of days unto the age, and unto the age of the age, no longer fits David, since both his death is on record and the span of his life, which was bounded by no great number of years. The king, then, would be the Christ, appointed by the Father to reign upon Zion, the heavenly mountain; who also asked life of the Father — not for himself, for he himself was the Life — but for all who should believe in him; and he granted it to him: that all who believed in him should be able to pass over from death into the life eternal, and into the length of the days that are with God, which are unto the age and unto the age of the age. And the rest of what is said in the Psalm concerning the glory of the king — no small things — would fit the Christ rather than David, given the clarification it deserves.

Section 13 — Psalm 21: "My God, my God" — the cross written out in advance

It is plainly acknowledged among all who have believed on Christ with sound mind that the opening of the Psalm in hand — running thus: O God, my God, attend to me: why have you forsaken me? [Ps 21:1] — was spoken by him at the season of the passion; for this the cry upon the cross also disclosed: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. But before we begin to transfer the prophecy in the Psalm to him, we shall put the question to those who boast in circumcision: who might the speaker of the things in the Psalm be? For he appears to be no ordinary person who says, among the rest, this: You are he who drew me out of the womb; my hope from my mother's breasts; upon you was I cast from the womb; from my mother's belly you are my God — and who adds, I will declare your name to my brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will hymn you; and again: He has not turned his face from me; and when I cried to him, he heard me. From you is my praise; in the great assembly I will confess you; my vows I will pay before those who fear him. And with these, let them say to which of the holy men they can fit the other things in the Psalm. For who has there been of such a kind as the word sketched in advance: All who beheld me sneered at me? Of whom did they speak with their lips and wag the head, saying: He hoped in the Lord — let him deliver him, let him save him, for he desires him? Whom did many bullocks — and of what a nature! — dogs and fat bulls encircle, and open their mouth against him, as a ravening and roaring lion? And besides these, whom did the synagogue of the wicked hem in — and hem in so far as even to dig his hands and feet, and count all his bones, and divide his garments among themselves, casting a lot upon his clothing? For such things the person in the Psalm says; who also, after suffering so much, adds: I will declare your name to my brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will hymn you. Let them resolve these things, and with them expound the rest of the Psalm — above all the words from All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before him, down to the generation that comes shall be announced to the Lord, and they shall announce his righteousness to a people that shall be born, whom the Lord made. Let them produce this generation, not yet existing then, prophesied to arrive in a time to come; and the people, not formerly in being, foreseen to be born in the after-times; and let them say what they can say about the church established out of all the nations through Jesus Christ our Savior. In the face of such multitudes as have come to know the God of all through the Christ, would they not have to confess the fulfillment of all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and of all the families of the nations shall worship before him? Surely it is time for those willing to judge fairly to confess that the prophecy has been fulfilled in no other than solely our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ — at whose coming the turning of the nations began, the prophesied generation having arrived, and the people that was to be born being foreshown not only here but also in the hundred-and-first Psalm, through: Let this be written for another generation, and a people that is being created shall praise the Lord [Ps 101:19]. And this is the people of which it was said in the seventeenth also: a people whom I knew not served me; at the hearing of the ear it obeyed me.

This, then, is our Savior and Lord: who took flesh, and for its sake was styled a worm¹⁶; who became a sight of men and a thing despised of the people; at whom all who beheld him sneered — above all at the season of the passion, when, the things in the prophecy reaching their fulfillment, the passers-by blasphemed him and sneered, saying: He saved others; let him save himself. Then too they spoke with their lips and wagged their heads against him, saying in the very words: He hoped in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him save him, for he desires him — for that these very things were said over him at the passion stands written in the gospels. To him, then, and to him alone, it belongs to say to the Father: You are he who drew me out of the womb; my hope from my mother's breasts; upon you was I cast from the womb; from my mother's belly you are my God. Furthermore, the word instructs us that certain evil and bestial powers also worked the plot against him — on account of which he said, many bullocks encircled me; fat bulls hemmed me in; while of the synagogue of the circumcision gathered against him¹⁷ he says: many dogs surrounded me; a synagogue of the wicked hemmed me in. These also dug — not only his hands but his feet as well; or, according to Aquila, they disfigured¹⁸ — for he rendered it, they disfigured my hands and my feet; which was truly accomplished when, hanging him upon the scaffold, they pierced both his hands and his feet with nails. And it is well, should anyone demand demonstration from scripture that the Christ was foretold to endure the very cross, to cite — with the other passages that establish it — this they dug, and still more Aquila's they disfigured my hands and my feet. To which is next added: they divided my garments among themselves, and upon my clothing they cast a lot — which Aquila rendered thus: they shall part my garment among themselves, and upon my vesture shall they cast a lot; and Symmachus: they distributed my garments among themselves, and for my raiment they drew lots. This too was fulfilled at the very passion, when those who crucified him took his garments and made four parts, to each soldier a part; and the tunic — now it was seamless, woven from the top throughout; they said therefore to one another: Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be [John 19:23–24]; to which the evangelist adds: that the scripture might be fulfilled: They divided my garments among themselves, and upon my clothing they cast a lot. So far the prophecy. Concerning him the Hebrew carries, as it were, hosanna¹⁹; in accordance with which there is brought in, in the Psalm just as in the gospels, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord [Ps 117:26, as at Matt 21:9] — which seems to me to disclose something like this: Save now! — blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, that is, of the Father and God of all.

Section 14 — Psalms 131, 141, 143: the oath to David; the righteous wait; bow the heavens

The Lord swore truth to David, and will not annul it: Of the fruit of your belly I will set upon your throne [Ps 131:11]. And again: There will I make a horn spring up for David; I have prepared a lamp for my Anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, but upon him shall my sanctification flower [131:17–18]. Here too a promise concerning the Christ is plainly given by God to David with an oath — that he was to be born of his seed and to hold his throne. The matter of this passage would need much examination, since the Christ does not appear to have sat bodily upon the throne of David and his kingdom; which questions we shall defer, it being no part of the present treatise to wear out our leisure, beside the aim proposed, on the exposition of the Psalm. Yet in fairness one must not, on the strength of a single scripture — if it cannot be fitted to the Christ in the bodily sense — strike away the things said plainly of him in so many places. Following the true account, and standing by the divine scripture itself, it is proper to observe that it prophesies at one time that he will come poor and cheap and without honor, having neither form nor beauty; at another time it calls him an honored king. Of these things, some could be fulfilled even bodily; others only according to the spiritual sense of the scripture; and some, again, must be expected to be fulfilled at his second coming. And yet our Lord was styled King of the Jews even at his first coming — not by chance did Pilate command to be inscribed upon his cross, in Greek and Roman and Hebrew letters: This is the King of the Jews.

And what is said in the hundred-forty-first Psalm — the righteous shall wait for me, until you recompense me [Ps 141:7] — appears to be spoken from the person of the Savior: for whom else shall the righteous await, until God recompense him, but him? — since, as it is said somewhere concerning the righteous of old, that though they received witness, they did not obtain the promises, God having provided some better thing concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect [Heb 11:39–40]. And that the saying looks to him is plain also from the fact that the matters of his passion are signified beforehand in the Psalm, in accord with the other prophecies. For it is written: I will pour out my supplication before him; my affliction I will declare before him. When my spirit was failing from me, you knew my paths: in this way wherein I walked they hid a snare for me; and again: deliver me from those who pursue me, for they have grown stronger than I. Next after these, praying also concerning his resurrection from the dead, he says: Bring my soul out of prison, that I may confess your name; to which he adds: the righteous shall wait for me, until you recompense me. All those righteous ones, then, waited for the Christ until the Father should recompense him — in return for his emptying himself and becoming obedient to him even unto death [Phil 2:8]. And what should he recompense him but the nations for his inheritance, and the ends of the earth for his possession [Ps 2:8]? — that when the fullness of the nations has come in, then all Israel also may be saved. And the whole of the Psalm would fit the Christ, containing the matters of his incarnation, in which he was plotted against.

In the Psalm at hand [143] it is said: Lord, bow the heavens and come down [Ps 143:5]; and in the seventeenth: and he bowed the heavens and came down [Ps 17:10]. We noted the saying there, and here, doing the same, we have taken these words to be spoken concerning the Word of God. For having bowed the heavens — by emptying himself of the heavenly glory in the form of God — he came down to the lower parts of the earth, for the economy he undertook for the salvation of men. Whence, before the saying set out, the word cries in wonder: Lord, what is man, that you were made known to him? or the son of man, that you take account of him? [Ps 143:3]. For to this end the Word of God, having bowed the so-called heavens, came down: that, made man, he might be known to the race of men, to whom before he was unknown; and he did not disdain, nor count as nothing, him who had become son of man — that is, every rational soul made after the image of God. And the rest of the Psalm you may understand, taking it spiritually.

Section 15 — Psalm 147: "His word runs swiftly"

And the saying, He who sends his utterance to the earth — swiftly shall his word run [Ps 147:4], it seemed good to note as well, since here too the scripture teaches that the Word of God is a subsistent thing²⁰, being other than the Father who sends him. And observe how there follows: swiftly shall his word run — which may itself be seen fulfilled after the coming of Christ, his teaching having run through in a very short time, and in not many years having taken hold unto all the earth, even to the ends of the inhabited world.

Section 16 — Psalm 148: "He spoke, and they came to be"

And what is said here — Let them praise the name of the Lord; for he spoke, and they came to be; he commanded, and they were created [Ps 148:5] — we have gathered among the testimonies concerning the God-Word who was in the beginning with God, having learned that the Word of God is also styled his Name, according to one of the designations of the conceptions concerning him. After first saying, Praise the Lord — this and that in order — the Spirit bids praise, along with the Father, his Name, adding that he spoke, and they came to be; he commanded, and they were created. The one commanding and enjoining, then, would be the God and Father of all; the one ministering, the Word of God, serving the paternal will unto the fashioning of things begotten. And it must be observed that in the thirty-second Psalm the very words occur: he spoke, and they came to be; he commanded, and they were created [Ps 32:9] — but there they are said concerning the earth and the dwellers in the world, while here they concern the things in the heavens, the angels and powers called "in the highest," and further sun and moon and stars and all that is listed with them — the divine scripture teaching us in these things that through the Word, according to the holy apostle, were created all things, both the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities: all things have been created through him and in him [Col 1:16]; and without him came to be not even one thing.

So much, then, from the Psalms. Our account having received a measured and sufficient compass, we shall make, from another beginning, the extracts from the remaining books in verse, and next those from the prophets.

END OF BOOK 2 — 17 sections complete. Book 3 follows.