Book Three

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 lacunae; renderings a specialist should check are flagged in the numbered footnotes. Books 1 (historical books) and 2 (Psalms) precede.

Section 0 — Proem: the mutual proof of prophecy and fulfillment

After the extracts from the Psalms, let us gather in this third treatise of the Prophetic Extracts concerning the Christ — being the eighth book of the General Elementary Introduction — those from the remaining books in verse and the prophecies that follow; noting first this: that neither can the words of the prophets be verified unless faith in our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ is taken up along with them, nor can the matters of our faith in the Christ be more rationally established except as the prophets of old accredit the demonstrations concerning him. Whence one might justly censure both the Jews, who have not received the Christ, and the heretics who annul the prophecies, as overturning themselves into incoherence: for the former, receiving the prophecies as of God, convict them of falsehood by leaving them unfulfilled — being unable to receive the outcomes of the prophecies accomplished in the Christ; while the latter, confessing the Christ, cultivate a faith in him unsupported and undemonstrated, declining to use the marvelous prophets of God who testified of him in advance. We, for our part, accrediting the prophecies through the coming of the Christ, and that coming through the prophecies, present the bright and solid substance of the truth by demonstrations that cannot be refuted. So much by way of proem; let us go to the matter proposed.

Section 1 — From Proverbs: Wisdom's self-portrait (Proverbs 8)

The whole book of Proverbs appears to be spoken from the person of Wisdom — here laying down the moral life, there impersonating the words of others; at times propounding riddles, at times teaching certain things about herself, and instructing us in the matters of her own divine dignity. Of these we shall gather those from which we learn that Wisdom is a divine living being¹, altogether virtuous in nature — being the same as the second cause of all things after the first God, the God-Word who was in the beginning with God, and as the providence of God that directs and administers the universe and reaches even to the affairs on earth; who also has been created² before all essence and subsistence, being the beginning of the ways of the whole fashioning of things. The sayings, as from Wisdom herself, run in this manner: I, Wisdom, have pitched my tent with counsel and knowledge, and I have called upon understanding. The fear of the Lord hates evil — insolence and arrogance and the ways of the wicked; and I have hated the perverted ways of the bad. Mine is counsel and safety; I am understanding, and mine is strength. Through me kings reign, and potentates write righteousness. Through me great men are magnified. I love those who love me³, and those who seek me shall find grace. Riches and glory are mine, and the possession of many things, and righteousness. Better to harvest me than gold and much precious stone; and my produce is better than choice silver. In the ways of righteousness I walk about, and in the midst of the paths of justice I turn, that I may divide substance to those who love me and fill their treasuries with good things. If I declare to you the things that happen daily, I will remember to number the things from of old. The Lord created me the beginning of his ways, for his works; before the age he founded me, in the beginning, before he made the earth, and before he made the deeps, before the springs of the waters came forth, before the mountains were settled; before all hills, he begets me. The Lord made countries and uninhabited places, and the inhabited heights of what is under heaven. When he was preparing the heaven, I was present with him; when he was marking off his own throne upon the winds; when he made strong the clouds above, and when he set secure the springs of what is under heaven, when he set for the sea its bound — and the waters shall not pass his mouth — when he made strong the foundations of the earth, I was beside him, fitting things together⁴. I was she in whom he rejoiced daily, and I was glad before his face at every season; when he rejoiced at having completed the world, and rejoiced in the sons of men [Prov 8:12–31].

These things, then, Wisdom teaches concerning herself; and who she is, the holy apostle instructs, saying: Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God [1 Cor 1:24]; and again, who became wisdom for us from God [1 Cor 1:30]. The Christ, then, is the speaker of the foregoing: the Wisdom and Word of God, through whom all things have come to be — for in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; all things came to be through him [John 1:1, 3]; and, in him were created all things, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, whether visible or invisible [Col 1:16], according to the apostle. And in the same manner as, by one conception, he is styled Word of God, and by another Life, and again Truth, and True Light, and all the rest that the divine scriptures call him — in just that manner he has also been named Wisdom, being the Father's minister unto the providence and administration of the whole.

Section 2 — Proverbs 16:15: "In the light of the king's son is life"

In the light of the king's son is life; and those accepted by him are as a late cloud [Prov 16:15]. And in the light of what other king's son is there life, than in the Word of God, who is Son of the God who is King of all? For he himself is the true light, which enlightens every man coming into the world [John 1:9]; in which light is life, according to the word of the gospel that says: in him was life, and the life was the light of men [John 1:4]. And his accepted ones — whom we take to be his apostles and disciples — became as a late cloud, at the last of the days and at the consummation of the age, watering the once desert and waterless land — that is, the church of the nations — with the spiritual rain⁵ of the godly teaching.

Section 3 — Proverbs 30 (the words of Agur): "Who has ascended into heaven and come down?"

Thus says the man to those who believe God — and I cease: For I am the most foolish of all men, and the prudence of men is not in me; but God has taught me wisdom, and I know the knowledge of the holy ones. Who has ascended into heaven and come down? Who has gathered the winds in his bosom? Who has wrapped up the water in a garment? Who has taken hold of the ends of the earth? What is his name — or what is the name of his children? [Prov 30:1–4]. And who else could be the man who says these things, but our Lord who became man — whether on account of our follies, which he took upon himself, or on account of the foolishness of the proclamation [1 Cor 1:21], which is wiser and stronger than the wisdom of men? Here he says, I am the most foolish of all men; and in the sixty-eighth Psalm, You know my foolishness [Ps 68:5]. And he says that the prudence of men is not in me, as one glorying, as over a feat of valor, in having had none of the "prudence" of those men who have been compared to the senseless beasts and made like them; or of those whose wisdom God made foolish, who mind nothing more than the things on the earth, all that is native to flesh and matter — whence they have even been attested to be prudent in their own generation, in that they seek and think only earthly things, still⁶ bent from youth toward the wicked. Human prudence, then, there was none at all in the aforesaid man — plainly because his was divine, beyond man; wherefore he adds: God has taught me wisdom, and I know the knowledge of the holy ones. Then, in the manner of a question, he says: Who has ascended into heaven and come down? — as if rousing us to search out him who teaches such things of himself; concerning whom the sequel also is spoken, needing its own leisure. The divine apostle, teaching us about him, says: He who descended into the lower parts of the earth is the same who also ascended far above the heavens [Eph 4:9–10] — placing his having come down first, then bringing him back up, he says he ascended, and thereafter came down⁷ — since after the resurrection from the dead he said to Mary, Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father [John 20:17], and after this he was seen by the disciples for forty days, eating with them: having ascended, plainly, to the Father, and come down again for the economy he was completing. Wherefore also it is said: Having ascended on high, he led captivity captive; he gave gifts among men [Ps 67:19, as at Eph 4:8]. And what are these but the gifts of grace through the Holy Spirit, which he brought down from heaven? — for which reason, here too, Aquila's rendering says: Who has ascended into heaven and brought down? And he also took hold of the ends of the earth, so that his sound went out into all the earth, and his words to the ends of the world [Ps 18:4]. And he to whom a word of knowledge has been given will know how the rest of this passage should be understood. But it urges us to seek what is his name, and what the name of his children. To this we shall answer, having learned from the working itself: his name is Jesus, which is interpreted salvation of God — the name his kin according to the flesh laid upon him at the oracle of Gabriel, the angel supplying also the reason of such an appellation: for he shall save his people from their sins [Matt 1:21]. And the name of his children — to whom he said, Little children, yet a little while I am with you [John 13:33] — and of their successors in all the churches, his sons and grandsons and descendants: what else could it be but the blessed name Christian?

Section 4 — From Ecclesiastes: the poor and wise child

Better a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king, who knows not how to take heed any longer. For out of the house of prisoners he shall come forth to reign, for even in his own kingdom he was born⁸ poor. I saw all the living who walk under the sun, with the second youth who shall rise up in his place. There is no end to all the people, to all who were before them; and the last shall not rejoice in him; for this also is vanity and choice of spirit⁹ [Eccl 4:13–16]. Since the Christ, being the wisdom of God [1 Cor 1:24], became poor for our sakes, being rich, I think it is of him that better a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king is said — the latter being, I take it, the devil, grown old in evil days: who is indeed king of those over whom he reigns through the sin he works in them, yet a fool, because deprived of the virtuous prudence that is according to God. But the good and wise child aforesaid, having come forth out of the house of prisoners — whether this earthly region, or the places in Hades — at his resurrection from the dead, was established king by the Father upon Zion, the heavenly mountain of God; and in his very kingdom he became poor: not counting it a thing to be seized to be equal with God [Phil 2:6], but humbling himself and stepping down beneath the highest glory, for the sake of those unable to contain the wealth of his wisdom. And the second youth who is said to rise up in his place I take to be the antichrist — with whom the word says it saw all the living who walk under the sun; and who would these be, but all who court the vanity of vanities said to be under the sun?

Section 5 — Ecclesiastes 9: the little city and the poor wise man

And this too I saw — wisdom under the sun, and it was great to me: a little city, and few men in it; and a great king comes against it, and encircles it, and builds great siegeworks against it; and he finds in it a poor and wise man, and he saves the city by his wisdom; and no man remembered that poor man. And I said: Wisdom is better than power; and the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not listened to [Eccl 9:13–16]. Since here also the one waging the war is called a king, while he who saves the city besieged by him is a poor and wise man — and since in the passage before this it was said, better a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king, where we took the foolish king to be the devil and the poor and wise one to be the Word of God, who for our sakes emptied himself and became poor — for this reason we noted the present passage too, judging that the warlike king here depicted is none other than the foolish king spoken of there; and likewise that he who here saves the besieged city by his own wisdom is the poor and wise man of that place, whom we said to be the Christ. He it is who ransomed the little city — that is, this earthly region, the smallest of things in comparison with the whole cosmos — and those in it, few as they are, set against the whole multitude of rational beings among all the nations, as a drop from a bucket: besieged as they were by the kingdom of the devil, who encircled the earthly place and those in it on every side, building against it his great siegeworks — the principalities and the authorities and the world-rulers of this darkness and the spiritual forces of wickedness [Eph 6:12]. Him none other pulled down but the poor and wise man alone, our Savior and Lord, who emptied himself and for our sakes became poor in the wealth of his own mercy; and having pulled him down, he saved by his wisdom the little city — on another reading, most likely the church, and those in it, being few: since narrow and afflicted is the way that leads unto life, and few are they who travel it [Matt 7:14]. And they who behold so great an economy say: Wisdom is better than power — power, plainly, that of the enemies. Moreover, no man, it says, remembered that poor man: for it was God who remembered him through the prophets, proclaiming beforehand the matters of his sojourn among men; while of those energized by the wisdom of the rulers of this age, not one ever remembered him — since they were not even capable of knowing the mystery hidden before the ages of the economy of the Word of God's becoming man. Besides this it is said that the wisdom of the poor man is despised: for God was well pleased through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who believe. And his words, it says, are not listened to: for it is not for all to hear the words of the Savior, but only for those who have ears to hear; for the gospel of Christ is veiled — yet not to his disciples: it is veiled among those who are perishing.

Section 6 — The Song of Songs

The whole book has for its theme the love of a bride toward a bridegroom — she confessing herself wounded with love for him, and he in turn confessing that she alone, out of many, is his perfect dove, beyond those called queens and concubines and maidens. Now those of the circumcision, persuaded that this scripture too is one of the twenty-two God-breathed writings accredited among them, could hardly, I think, produce anything in it worthy of divine inspiration, imagining nothing more in the passages than the surface reading. But he who is able to lift the veil that lies upon this scripture also, and to turn to the Lord — and the Lord is the Spirit — and with unveiled face to behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord even in these things, will contemplate in it the mysteries of the spiritual bride — plainly, the church of Christ — and what is said of the perfect bridegroom of such a bride, and of the difference between his queens and concubines and maidens, and all the other more secret lessons hidden away in the book; which indeed have already received the fullest clarification, in the commentaries of that most industrious exegete of the divine scriptures¹⁰ [Origen].

Section 7 — From Job: he who walks on the sea and masters the great sea-beast

It is Job who says concerning the Lord, with other things: He who speaks to the sun, and it rises not, and seals up against the stars; who alone stretched out the heaven, and walks upon the sea as on a floor [Job 9:7–8]; and again: he who is to master the great sea-beast [Job 3:8]. Since, then, it belongs not to a lofty conception of the God of all to suppose that he who fills the universe walks upon a sea capable of containing his greatness¹¹, it remains to understand these things of the Word: by whose power Joshua¹² — being his type — spoke to the sun, and it stood still over Gibeon; and at the season of his passion, as by some divine command, the sun darkened over all the earth. He it is who stretched out the heaven, and who also walked upon the sea as on a floor, when, having become man, he performed his marvels, as is recorded in the gospels. And if one refers this passage as a whole to the Word of God, it would follow to take of him not only the sayings we have set out, but everything said by Job in the pericope: for the great sea-beast, too, he alone mastered — having loosed the birth-pangs of death and brought to nothing that truly great dragon, the devil, who of old in his strength swallowed down the souls of men after the manner of the sea-beast that swallowed Jonah; but mastered at last by him who wrestled him down, he brought up again those whom of old he had swallowed, like the monster that gave back Jonah safe — there being fulfilled in this the prophecy that says: Death, having prevailed, swallowed up; and again God took away every tear from every face [Isa 25:8]; which we say on account of our Savior and Lord, who mastered the great sea-beast here spoken of.

Section 8 — From Job: "The gates of death open to you in fear; the doorkeepers of Hades cowered"

The Lord, in his oracle to Job, going through the works of his own providence and economy, says: Did you take earth, clay, and form a living creature, and set it with power of speech upon the earth? And did you remove light from the ungodly, and crush the arms of the proud? Did you come to the spring¹³ of the sea, and walk in the footprints of the deep? And do the gates of death open to you in fear — and did the doorkeepers of Hades cower at the sight of you? [Job 38:14–17]. These things the Lord says to Job concerning himself, as of one beside whom no other is able to work things so great. For who is it who took earth and formed a living creature, but God, who took dust from the earth and formed the man? And at the same time we are taught from this that he who formed the man is the very one who also went down into the lower parts of the earth, and into what is called its heart — which I here take to be named the spring of the sea — and, further, he who walked in the footprints of the sea; to whom alone, with fear, the gates of death were opened, inasmuch as it was not possible for him to be held by it; whom also the doorkeepers of Hades saw and cowered, beholding the victory, and the sting, and the birth-pangs of death being destroyed through him. And perhaps to these doorkeepers of the gates of death here spoken of it was said by certain divine powers, at the season of the passion and of our Savior's descent into Hades: Lift up your gates, you rulers, and be lifted up, you everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall come in [Ps 23:7]. And the gates are called everlasting, as I take it, because from everlasting they had been opened to none other than to him alone, who ransomed and made alive those long ago swallowed by death. Of him it is said here, the gates of death open to you in fear, and the doorkeepers of Hades cowered at the sight of you; and in the hundred-and-sixth Psalm: for he shattered the gates of bronze — no other gates, I think, than death's — and broke the bars of iron [Ps 106:16]: plainly, the bars of the gates aforesaid. These things, then, we have taken of the Christ, as fitting none other: for he it is to whom the Father has given all judgment, so that it is his to remove light from the ungodly and to crush the arms of the proud. But if anyone should imagine these things to be said of the God of all, let him consider whether it is pious to say of him who declares, Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord — whose throne is heaven and the earth the footstool of his feet — that this God who encompasses all things walked in the footprints of the sea, or even to conceive it; and what would be wonderful, or worthy of the unbegotten nature, in declaring, as some great thing, that the gates of death were opened to him? Would it befit the God of all to relate of himself, as something great and marvelous, that the doorkeepers¹⁴ saw him and cowered? I think these things are not said of him; but they can be fitted, piously and without strain, to the Word of God, our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ: who became man, and endured death, and rose from the dead with divine power and the authority given him from the Father.

Section 9 — From Job: the dragon "prepared for me"

Again the Lord, in the oracle to Job, discoursing about the dragon, says: Do you not fear, because he has been prepared for me? [Job 41:2¹⁵] — the dragon being none other than the devil. Consider then whether it is worthy to suppose the God of all says this; it would fit rather our Lord and Savior, for whom alone has been prepared the devil — conquered by no other, and grown, one may almost say, stronger than all — whom the Word of God alone, mightier than all things, mastered, according to: he who is to master the great sea-beast; and having mastered him, he bids his own disciples take courage, saying: Take courage: I have conquered the world [John 16:33]. So much for the books in verse after the Psalms; it remains to gather the extracts from the prophetic writings, and first those from the Twelve.

Section 10 — From Hosea: "I am as a panther to Ephraim"

For I am as a panther to Ephraim, and as a lion to the house of Judah [Hos 5:14]. Since in another place of the same prophet the Lord says of himself, and I will be as a panther [Hos 13:7], it is necessary to see what is related about the animal; and these things may be set out from the first book of the Physica of Didymus¹⁶: "The panther is not only shapely of body, as it were star-spangled, but, being by nature sweet-breathed, it surpasses even the aromatics of India in fragrance. So long as it is not hungry it stays in its den, keeping house, as it were; but when it desires to take food, it comes forth and walks alone; and the other beasts, captured by the fragrance about its body, follow it as if charmed; and it, glancing sidelong with its eyes, looks about for the beast that suits it to be taken, and springing upon it, holds it." Such is the nature of the animal; and how these things might be transferred to the power of the divine Word and the fragrance that breathes from it, would be long to expound now. And the saying should be set against those of the circumcision who, by way of a certain slander and reviling, assert that our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ was born of a panther¹⁷ — a thing which perhaps they have received from some tradition disclosing something rather mystical, without striking upon its meaning, because they fail to attend to the wording of the prophecy before us, in which the Lord himself names himself a panther.

Section 11 — From Hosea: "Out of Egypt I called my son"

And destruction shall rise up in your people, and all your walled places shall be gone: as the ruler Salaman¹⁸ from the house of Jeroboam, in days of war they dashed the mother upon the children — so shall they do to you, O house of Israel, from the face of your wickednesses [Hos 10:14–15]. Because Israel is an infant, and I loved him, and out of Egypt I called back his children. As I called them back, so they departed from before my face [Hos 11:1–2]. In place of and out of Egypt I called back his children, Aquila, keeping close to the Hebrew, rendered: Out of Egypt I called my son. And we noted the saying of necessity, since Matthew sets out the prophecy verbatim, saying with great exactness that it was fulfilled in our Savior: Joseph, receiving the oracle, took Mary and her son, and returned out of Egypt into the land of Israel [Matt 2:19–21]. Observe, then, whether also according to Aquila — who rendered, At dawn the king of Israel was silenced; because Israel is a child, and I loved him, and from Egypt I called my son — there is not plainly disclosed the casting-away of the kingdom of Israel, which, having stood until the appearing of our Savior, was from that time cast off and silenced; so that for this reason it is said, at dawn the king of Israel was silenced — the prophecy naming "dawn" the appearing, and the then first rising of the divine word upon all men. And the king of Israel was silenced can also be prophesied of Herod, on account of the mockery he suffered from the magi at the birth of our Savior. And these things came to pass through the Father's love toward his own child, our Lord Jesus Christ — who here too, as in other prophecies, is addressed as "Israel"; whom in due season he arranged should depart into Egypt together with Joseph and his mother, at the time when need called for the king plotting against him — Herod, plainly — to be silenced; and again, when Herod had died, he calls him back, in accordance with the prophecy in hand. But if anyone would refer this to the Jewish people, claiming that these things are said of the people of Israel of the circumcision, let him attend to the sequence of the discourse. For the prophet says these things having first said, as to Jerusalem herself: and destruction shall rise up in your people, and all your walled places shall be gone; and what such a ruler suffered in the war that came upon him, in which they dashed the mother upon the children — "the like also will I do to you yourselves for your wickednesses, O house of Israel" — who indeed were cast off together with their king, and have suffered all these things. "Because," it says, "Israel is a child, and I loved him, and from Egypt I called my son." What sequence the wording would then have, let him who wishes demonstrate! No: just as in countless other prophecies the Christ is addressed as Jacob and Israel, so also now. Since this one, it says, having become obedient to me, took the form of a slave and became a child beloved to me, accomplishing all my counsel — therefore him I called back from the intelligible Egypt, into which he descended when he became man, as a true and beloved son; but you, to whom the word is addressed, together with your kingdom, I will hand over to ruin and destruction. So the prophecy; and it is quite plain how, from the times of our Savior, Jerusalem was besieged and pulled down, and the kingdom of the Jews that had stood until then was cast off utterly — so that with the rest this prophecy also has been fulfilled.

Section 12 — Hosea 11:9: "I am God, and not man... I will go after the Lord"

I will not abandon Ephraim to be wiped out; because I am God, and not man — holy in you; and I will not enter into a city. I will go after the Lord [Hos 11:9–10]. The same one who said, because I am God, adds, I will go after the Lord. And who else would be a God who goes after the Lord, but the Word of God, following the will of the Father? — who also teaches us not to suppose that on account of the incarnation he became some mere man, comparable to one of the righteous and holy men of old. And he says he will not enter into a city, disclosing that he did not follow the common and human way of civic life — the very thing he trains his disciples to do, saying: Go not into the way of the nations, and enter not into a city of the Samaritans [Matt 10:5].

Section 13 — From Amos (nothing clear in Joel): "as God overthrew Sodom"

Of Joel, nothing plain. From Amos: I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you became as a firebrand plucked from the fire — and not even so did you return to me, says the Lord [Amos 4:11]. Here too the Lord himself speaks as concerning another: as GOD overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah [cf. Gen 19:24]; and in Genesis the divine scripture kept the two persons distinct, saying: And the LORD rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD. From which the orthodoxy of the church's faith concerning Father and Son stands plainly forth.

Section 14 — Amos 4:12–13: "announcing to men his Christ"

Prepare to call upon your God, O Israel. For behold: he who makes the thunder firm, and creates wind¹⁹, and announces to men his Christ; who makes dawn and mist, and treads upon the high places of the earth — the Lord God Almighty is his name [Amos 4:12–13]. Through these words the matters of the Christ's sojourn among men are plainly prophesied; at leisure, each expression would receive more exact clarification.

Section 15 — Obadiah: the Lord God heard a report from the Lord

The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord God to Idumaea: I heard a report from the Lord, and he sent out a summons²⁰ unto the nations [Obad 1]. Since here too the Lord God heard a report from the Lord, we have with good reason noted the place.

Section 16 — Jonah: the sign of the prophet

A particular prophecy concerning the Christ in his own right we did not find in this book; but since, to the generation that demanded a sign of the Savior, he said none should be given it but the sign of Jonah the prophet, adding, for as Jonah was in the belly of the sea-beast three days and three nights, so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights [Matt 12:39–40] — for this cause we have of necessity noted this scripture also among the testimonies concerning the Christ.

Section 17 — Micah 1:3: the Lord comes forth from his place

For behold, the LORD, the Lord²¹ comes forth from his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth; and the mountains shall be shaken beneath him, and the valleys shall melt as wax before fire [Mic 1:3–4]. These things we have taken to be said concerning the second coming of the Christ.

Section 18 — Micah 3–4: Zion plowed as a field; the new mountain of the Lord

Hear this, you leaders of the house of Jacob, and you remnant of the house of Israel — who abominate judgment and pervert all that is upright, who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with unrighteousness. Her leaders judged for gifts, and her priests answered for hire, and her prophets divined for silver — and they leaned upon the Lord, saying: Is not the Lord among us? No evils shall come upon us. Therefore, on your account, Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be as a fruit-watcher's hut, and the mountain of the house as a grove of the forest. And it shall be at the last of the days, the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, established upon the tops of the mountains, and shall be lifted high above the hills; and peoples shall come to it, and many nations shall go to it and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and they shall show us his way, and we shall walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth a law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and he shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke a strong people even afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plows and their spears into sickles; and nation shall no more lift sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more [Mic 3:9–4:3].

The word, having said that on account of the impieties of the Jewish people mount Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem, formerly reckoned the holy city, shall be as a fruit-watcher's hut, next prophesies concerning another mountain of the Lord — which at the season of the prophecy subsisted indeed, but was not manifest to ordinary men — as one to be revealed at the last of the days and lifted high above the hills and the mountains. And to this new mountain the word foretells there shall come, no longer that Israel, but peoples and many nations, saying: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord — and not only to the mountain of the Lord, but to the house of the God of Jacob, which is plainly other than the one in Jerusalem; for that one, he had said a little before, would be made desolate as a fruit-watcher's hut. And consistently with Zion and Jerusalem being laid waste and others appearing in their stead, it is said that another law, besides the one given through Moses from mount Horeb, shall go forth from the new mountain — itself also named Zion, with the same name as the former; and further, that along with the new law a word of the Lord shall come forth from the new Jerusalem, which above he called the house of the God of Jacob. This word, going forth to all the nations, was foretold to judge among many peoples and to rebuke a strong people — and so greatly to profit, by its judgment and rebuke, those who would be rebuked, that, changing from their former [warlike] state, [they would take on] the calm and peaceable [life...]. So the prophecy. And one may observe [that it was fulfilled²²] at the coming of our Savior, on account of those who built [Zion] with the blood of the prophets and of the Christ himself and of [his apost]les, whom the [people] of the Jews slew in Jerusalem itself [...]; for which cause mount Zion [was plowed] as never at any other time [...and] Jerusalem was besieged; and after their desolation, the [heavenly city²³] and the heavenly mount Zion of God — of which those former things were shadow and types and patterns — has been made manifest to all who through Christ have come to the [living²⁴] God.

Section 19 — Micah 5:2: Bethlehem — "and his goings forth are from the beginning, from days of eternity"

And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephrathah, are least, to be among the thousands of Judah; out of you shall come forth for me a leader, to be a ruler in Israel; and his goings forth are from the beginning, from days of eternity [Mic 5:2]. Through these words proofs concerning the Christ are presented: one against the error of Marcion and the rest of the heretics [...]; the other against those of Artemon and the Samosatene²⁵ [Paul of Samosata], and all the Ebionites who have supposed that he did not pre-exist the incarnation. For those who do not confess him [to be²⁶] God the prophetic word plainly convicts, [testifying²⁷] that his goings forth are from the beginning and from days of e[ternity...]; while for those who have gone astray with Marcion and the remaining [here]sies, and do not confess his [fleshly²⁸] birth, nor that he was known by the [prophets] of the Creator²⁹, one must cite the prophesied [place] of his birth [...which] is plainly to this day [attested] even by the local inhabitants [themselves³⁰] — as by tradition of the place in Bethlehem where [he] was born — and witnessed by the holy evangelists themselves. And the saying must be pressed also upon the Jews, [challenging them³¹] to show who it might be that was prophesied — being, on their reading, unfulfilled [...] — it being plain that [on that supposition] the divine prediction is convicted even of falsehood. And indeed the saving, evangelical word of the Christ has been established ruler of the intelligible Israel — properly, of the Jew in secret, and of every virtuous and clear-sighted soul, "Israel" being understood [as "seeing God"³²].

Section 20 — Zephaniah (nothing clear in Nahum or Habakkuk): "the day of my resurrection"

Of Nahum, nothing plain; of Habakkuk likewise. From Zephaniah: Therefore wait for me, says the Lord, unto the day of my resurrection for a testimony; because my judgment is unto the synagogues³³ of nations, to receive kings [Zeph 3:8 LXX]. Through these words I think the resurrection of the Christ from the dead is disclosed; upon its coming to pass, it is prophesied that the synagogues³⁴ of the church from the nations would everywhere be established; and perhaps also [...] of his second coming, and of the universal [judgment³⁵] of all, the passage might be taken.

Section 21 — Zechariah (nothing clear in Haggai): "the Lord Almighty has sent me"

Of Haggai, nothing plain. From Zechariah: ...[the Lord] Almighty: After glory he has sent me against the [nations that plun]dered you [Zech 2:8]; then shortly after he adds: [and you shall kn]ow that the Lord Almighty has sent me. The one who says [he has sent³⁶] me is the Lord Almighty; and likewise the send[er, being o³⁷]ther than the one sent, is named Lord Alm[ighty...]. With good reason, then, we have [noted³⁸] the saying among the testimonies concerning Father and Son: that the [Word] of God is also Lord Almighty³⁹, just as he gave oracles as God through the prophets.

Section 22 — Zechariah 2:10–11: "I come, and I will tent in the midst of you"

[Rejoice] and be glad, daughter of Zion: for behold, I come, and [I will] tent in the midst of you, says the Lord. And [many nations] shall flee for refuge to the Lord in that day, and they shall be [to him for a] people, and they shall tent in the midst of you; and you shall know [that the Lord] Almighty has sent me to you [Zech 2:10–11]. And who [else would be] the one who says these things and confesses himself sent by the Almighty, but the Word of God, sent by the Father for the salvation of the race of men? — who [addresses⁴⁰] the foregoing to the heavenly Zion (whose pattern the mountain on earth was), and directs it also to the church from the nations, an[nounc⁴¹]ing to her the calling of those who through him would be saved and reigned over by him in her.

Section 23 — Zechariah 3 and 6: Jesus the great priest, and the man named Rising

And [he showed me] Jesus⁴² the great priest, standing before the fa[ce] of the Lord, and the devil stood at his right hand, to oppose him [Zech 3:1]. And after a little: And he said to those standing before his fa[ce]: Take the filthy garments off him. And he said: Behold, I have taken away your lawlessnesses; and clothe him in [a long robe⁴³], and set a clean turban upon his head. And again a little after, it is said to him: Hear now, [Jesus the p]riest, the great one, you and your neighbors who sit before your face — for they are men who watch for wonders⁴⁴ — for behold, I bring my servant, the Rising⁴⁵ [Anatolē — "Dayspring," "Branch"; Zech 3:8]. And again, after other things: And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Take the things from the captivity, from the rulers [Zech 6:9–10]; and shortly: And you shall take silver, and make crowns, and set them upon the head of Jesus son of Josedek, the great priest, and you shall say to him: Thus says the Lord Almighty: Behold a man — Rising is his name — and from beneath him shall he rise, and he shall build the house of the Lord; and he shall receive virtue⁴⁶, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and the priest shall be at his right hand, and a peaceable counsel shall be between them both. And the crown shall be for those who wait [Zech 6:11–14].

Since the marvelous apostle named our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ a great high priest, having passed through the heavens [Heb 4:14], he who in the prophecy is honored with the very same appellation and the very same dignity would with good reason be referred to him [...]. This one, then, the Lord showed to the prophet clothed in filthy [garments], intimating our Savior's descent to our captivity — in which [he came⁴⁷] to proclaim release to the captives — since, taking our sins upon himself, he wore the filthy garments that were ours; and these the Father commands him, having stripped off, to take up the divine vestments of the Godhead, worthy of the high-priesthood in heaven. And though these things happened also historically, in a typical manner, as is likely, concerning the Jesus [Joshua] of that time, the word — beginning afresh — says to the man Jesus himself and to the wonder-watchers with him (so, I take it, are named those counted worthy of the spiritual [vision⁴⁸]): behold, I bring my [servant], the Rising. And going on below, having set the crowns upon the head of this same Jesus, he adds: Thus says the Lord Almighty: Behold a man, Rising is his name; and from ben[eath him] shall he rise, and he shall build the house of the Lord... — and this would be referred to the Christ, given the exposition it deserves. Moreover, it is well to set this before those of the circumcision [...]: since they could not show any prophet at all raised up from the [times of the] Persian kingdom and the times of this prophecy [onward...] — let alone John and our Lord Jesus Christ — let them say who it is that is prophesied! And if they should say these things refer to Jesus [Joshua] son of Josedek, it must be shown them that what is said in no way fits him. For when was his name called Rising? And why should he be counted worthy of that title? And how will he shall sit and rule upon his throne fit him — and above all, the priest shall be at his right hand? For if he himself was the great priest, who would be the priest at his right hand, being another priest beside him? Plainly the word teaches that the one called Rising is other than that man: for to that same [Jesus] and those about him it says: Hear now, Jesus the great priest, you and your neighbors: behold, I bring my servant, the Rising. If then these things are said to him, what room remains to suppose that behold a man, Rising is his name is said of him? Clearly two persons are presented through these words: one to whom the divine speaks, and another of whom it prophesies — and this latter would beyond dispute be brought up to the Christ, the true son of [Josedek⁴⁹, which] is interpreted Iao is righteousness⁵⁰; and this would be the Father [...] who sets the crowns of victory upon the Christ [...] and calls [him Rising⁵¹] on account of his teaching which rose upon mankind [...], and [names] his firstborn Word the first and great high pr[iest] — being God and Lord of [all thing⁵²]s, but priest of the first and unbegotten Godhead; and he says he is [...] of the man he assumed, who is styled great priest [...] through his union with the only-begotten of God. Though the passage needs much exegesis, this much suffices for the present purpose.

Section 24 — Zechariah 9:9: the King on the colt

Rejoice [greatly], daughter of Zion; proclaim, daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your Ki[ng] comes to you, just and saving; he is meek, and mou[nted upon] a beast of burden and a young colt. And he shall destroy chariots out of Ephraim and horse out of Jerusalem, and the bow of war shall be destroyed, and multitude and peace out of the nations; and he shall rule from sea [to sea], and from rivers to the outlets of the earth [Zech 9:9–10]. The daughter of Zion, whom the word bids rejoice, is every soul that attains⁵³ to the intelligible and heavenly Zion; or the church from the nations, established even on earth through Christ. And likewise again the daughter of Jerusalem is she who bears kinship to the heavenly Jerusalem — such as was Paul's, when he says: but the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother [Gal 4:26]. To such souls, then, the word proclaims beforehand that the Christ of God will come, mounted on a beast of burden and a young colt — the human nature which he assumed at his coming being so understood; with which he destroyed every warlike power from every soul that is of the church and able to bear holy fruits — "Ephraim" being taken over into "fruit-bearing," and "Jerusalem," in the Greek tongue, into "vision of peace"; and having destroyed the wicked demons that formerly lorded it over humanity, he brought under the godly yoke of his teaching countless multitudes out of all the nations formerly subject to them. So much for the deeper sense. And expressly too the Christ, having become man and fulfilling bodily the prophecies about himself, set the seal of fulfillment on this one also, when, according to the evangelist, he said to his disciples: Go into the village over against you, and you shall find an ass tied, and a colt; loose her and bring them; and if anyone says anything to you, you shall say: the Lord has need of them — and they, departing, did as he commanded them [Matt 21:2–6]. This being so, the words should be set before those who imagine that what is proposed will come to pass at the Christ's coming only bodily and Judaically; and it must be shown how, at the coming of our Savior, there was fulfilled bodily as well, with the rest, the prophecy that says: and he shall destroy chariots out of Ephraim and horse out of Jerusalem. For the divine and heavenly power of the Christ, by ineffable working, after the plot [against] him, destroyed Jerusalem herself together with her [army⁵⁴...], with whatever warlike power was in her; [and] the people in her, often named Ephraim [...], multiplying horse in Jerusalem and chariots [...] for their battle-arrays in the wars [...] — all of which the coming of our Savior manifestly destroyed [...]; and when those had been destroyed at the saving coming, a [great] multitude out of all the nations received the [peace⁵⁵] in their souls, God beginning his reign and dominion [...] over the whole world, according to the [...] prophecy of the divine word.

Section 25 — Zechariah 10:12: "I will strengthen them in the Lord their God"

And I will strengthen them in the Lord their God, and in [his] name shall they boast, says the Lord [Zech 10:12]. Again the Lord — the Word of God — promises to strengthen the worthy in the Lord their God, disclosing his own God and Father. Let this saying too, then, be noted among those concerning Father and Son.

Section 26 — Zechariah 11: the thirty pieces of silver and the furnace

And the Canaanites shall know the sheep that are kept for me, for it is the word of the Lord. And I will say to them: If it is good in your sight, give me my wage, or refuse. And they weighed out my wage — thirty silver pieces. And I⁵⁶ cast them into the house of the Lord, into the furnace [the LXX's χωνευτήριον — the foundry; where the Hebrew reads "potter"]. And I cast away the second staff [...], to scatter the covenant between Judah and between Israel [Zech 11:11–14].

And what indeed of the things that came together upon our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was not foreknown and foretold by the holy prophets of God? [...] his birth of a virgin, and the [time⁵⁷] of the birth, and the root out of which he was begotten according to flesh; and the marvels he wrought at his coming were counted worthy of scripture by the divine Spirit through the prophets of old; and above all they disclosed beforehand his death, and the very form of it, not omitting [...] even the scourgings he endured, and the spittings, the blows and the insults; nay, they pointed out the man who betrayed him to the plotters — one of his own disciples. By name⁵⁸, indeed, the divine Spirit gibbeted him through Jeremiah, saying: The sin of Judah⁵⁹ is written with an iron pen, on a nail of adamant [Jer 17:1] — this you would find in the Hebrew itself and the other translators, beyond the Seventy; and in various Psalms you may learn what is disclosed concerning him. And now, no less, through the wording before us the divine scripture prophesies plainly even the number of the silver which Judas took when he betrayed the Teacher to the plotters.

The passage would be spoken from the person of the Christ; and those who plotted against him — whom elsewhere the word of prophecy calls rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah [Isa 1:10] — it here names Canaanites, for their likeness to the Canaanites. Having said, and the Canaanites shall know, the prophecy adds, teaching us whom it means: the sheep that are kept for me. And what were these sheep, formerly kept for the Lord, but the people of the circumcision? — whom now naming Canaanites, the word brings in, as from the person of the Christ: and I will say to them the things written; which he would say to those who plotted against him: asking of them, as it were, his wages for the benefits he had done them — that is, faith in him and the life that answers to it; for so I hear give me my wage. But they — according to what is said of them elsewhere by him, In return for my love they slandered me, but I prayed; and they set against me evils in return for good things, and hatred in return for my love [Ps 108:4–5] — weighed out thirty silver pieces and gave them to the betrayer: as though, by their most impious judgment, valuing him at so much. But since the fire shall test what sort each man's work is, for this reason the Lord commands they be cast into the furnace — that is, into the fire of judgment and of chastisement. And whom, but those who plotted against him? And consider, he says, whether it is proved⁶⁰ — namely, the thing done by them against him; and he says they shall be tested in the fire, in the same manner as the Lord himself was tested, through his coming in flesh and his passion on their behalf; for indeed he became man in the first place, and suffered, for the salvation of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Next after this, signifying their casting-away after the passion of our Savior, the word says: and I cast away the second staff; and teaching what this is, it brings in the cord — that of which it is said, Israel is the cord of his inheritance [Deut 32:9]. This it presents more plainly still by adding: to scatter the former covenant of God, the one between Judah and between Israel; and it is plainly shown that from the times of our Savior these things have been taken away, the whole worship according to the law having been pulled down from that time to this day.

Section 27 — Zechariah 13:7: "Sword, be roused against my shepherd"

O sword, be roused against my shepherd, and against the man his fellow-citizen, says the Lord Almighty: strike the shepherd, and let the sheep be scattered; and I will turn my hand upon the shepherds [Zech 13:7]. Since the evangelist, taking from this place the words Strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered [Matt 26:31], taught that it received its fulfillment at the season of the saving passion — when the disciples, forsaking him, were scattered — for this cause we too have noted the saying; and since it needs much examination, we shall defer it to a suitable season.

Section 28 — Zechariah 14: the Lord goes forth with all his holy ones

And the Lord shall go forth and array himself against those nations, as in a day of war; and the Lord my God shall come, and all the holy ones with him [Zech 14:3, 5]. These things too, suspecting them to be said of the second coming of the Christ, we have noted.

Section 29 — Malachi 1:10–11: the pure sacrifice among the nations

My will is not in you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will not accept sacrifice from your hands. For from the risings of the sun even to its settings my name has been glorified among the nations; and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice: for great is my name among the nations, says the Lord Almighty; but you profane it [Mal 1:10–12]. Just as the Word of God is named in the divine scriptures the hand, and right hand, and arm, and power of the God of all, so the same is also styled the Name of God. That this divine Name, then, has been glorified among the nations from the risings of the sun to its settings is plain to everyone, from those everywhere who take their title from the appellation of Christ — who also in every place offer to God the spiritual incense, and the pure, bloodless, rational sacrifice of prayers, through the true High Priest. And while these worship in this manner, God declares he will turn away from the bodily sacrifices of the former people; and indeed it is plain that after the coming of the Christ the prophecy has received its fulfillment on both counts: in the casting-away of the former people — sacrifice and libation being at once removed from them, according to Daniel — and in the turning of the nations to the God of all.

Section 30 — Malachi 2:5–7: "he is the angel of the Lord Almighty"

The covenant of life and of peace was with him; and I gave it to him, that with fear he should fear me, and be awed before the face of my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found on his lips; walking in peace, he set straight his way with me, and turned many back from unrighteousness. For the lips of a priest shall guard knowledge, and they shall seek the law from his mouth: for he is the angel of the Lord Almighty [Mal 2:5–7]. These things also we have set out, taking them to accord with the testimonies concerning the Christ. For the covenant of life and of peace was with him; and the spirit of fear, with the rest, rested upon him — according to what is said in Isaiah, and the spirit of the fear of God shall fill him [Isa 11:3]; and the law of truth — not the typical law — was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found on his lips, for according to Isaiah he did no sin, neither was guile found in his lips; and as being with the paternal power, walking in peace he set his way straight with him, leading many of those who of old knew not God to conversion. And from him — as being High Priest, and guarding the knowledge concerning all things — they sought and shall seek the divine law, all those to whom belongs the science concerning him⁶¹; for he is the Angel of Great Counsel, ministering and announcing to every creature the will of the Father.

Section 31 — Malachi 3:1–3: the Lord and the angel of the covenant; the refiner's fire

Behold, I send out my angel, and he shall survey a way before my face; and suddenly there shall come into his own temple the Lord whom you seek, and the angel of the covenant whom you desire — behold, he comes, says the Lord Almighty. And who shall endure the day of his entering in? or who shall stand at his appearing? For he enters like the fire of a smelting-furnace, and like the fullers' herb; and he shall sit refining and purifying, as it were silver and gold [Mal 3:1–3]. The matters of the second coming of the Christ are prophesied through these words also: when, sent out [by⁶²] the God and Father of all, the Christ of God himself — here called the angel of the covenant — shall survey a way before the face of the Father: that is, shall make ready beforehand and prepare the souls of men for the kingdom of the Father; and when he has fitted out the spiritual temple — that is, the church — from rational and living stones, the Lord himself, the God-Word, together with the very angel of the covenant⁶³, shall come into the temple just disclosed. Then, as announcing his second coming, the word says, as to sinners: behold, the Lord Almighty comes; and who shall endure the day of his entering in? or who shall stand at his appearing? — and the rest; to which careful attention must be paid, as spoken by the Almighty Lord himself as concerning another. And those of the circumcision must be pressed⁶⁴, whether they can name the Lord here disclosed and the angel of the covenant with him, of whom the Lord Almighty declares, behold, he comes, and the rest — by which, on our reading, the second coming of the Christ is announced: who, being Word of God, at his arrival shall enter into the soul of each, judging each concerning the things he has done in life, washing out and, in the manner of gold, smelting with fire, and purifying the governing mind of all. For the Father has given all judgment to the Son, according to the word that says in the Psalms as well: O God, give your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the king's son — to judge your people in righteousness and your poor in judgment [Ps 71:1–2]; where the king is the deity, the God-Word himself, so proclaimed; and the man he assumed, the king's son.

Section 32 — Malachi 4:2: the sun of righteousness

And to those who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, and healing is in his wings [Mal 4:2]. The sun of righteousness is the true light, which enlightens every man coming into the world [John 1:9]; who is said to rise only for those who fear the name of his Father: for against those who are not such he threatens to set, according to the word spoken in one of the prophets: and the sun shall set upon the prophets who lead my people astray [Mic 3:5–6]. So much from the Twelve Prophets. But since it lies before us to comprise the extracts from Isaiah, because of their multitude, in a treatise of their own, come, let us pass on and examine those from the remaining great prophets.

Section 33 — Jeremiah 11:19: "Come, let us put wood into his bread"

Lord, make known to me, and I shall know: then I saw their practices. I, like an innocent lamb led to be sacrificed, did not know; against me they reasoned, saying: Come, let us put wood into his bread, and let us rub him out from the land of the living, and his name shall be remembered no more [Jer 11:18–19]. Our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, according to the prophecy in Isaiah, was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb voiceless before its shearer [Isa 53:7]; and according to the prophecy in hand: like an innocent lamb led to be sacrificed, I did not know. And his passion upon the cross can be disclosed through Come, let us put wood into his bread, and let us rub him out from the land of the living, and his name shall be remembered no more — words spoken from the person of those who plotted against him. For if his body was bread, as he himself teaches, saying to the disciples, Take, eat: this is my body [Matt 26:26] — and this it was that was exposed upon the wood, at the cross — then of him it would fittingly be said: Come, let us put wood into his bread. And if the passage holds a deeper contemplation besides, what has been said takes nothing away from it.

Section 34 — Jeremiah 12:7: "I gave my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies"

I have forsaken my house; I have let go my inheritance; I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies. My inheritance became to me as a lion in a forest; she gave out her voice against me; therefore I hated her. Is my inheritance to me a hyena's cave, or a cave round about her? Go, gather all the beasts of the field, and let them come to devour her. Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard; they have defiled my portion; they have made my desirable portion a trackless wilderness; it became an obliteration of destruction. Because of me the whole land has been utterly obliterated, because there is no man who lays it to heart [Jer 12:7–11]. This too appears to be the voice of our Lord and Savior: concerning the temple in Jerusalem, I have forsaken my house; and concerning the former synagogue — which once was his portion and the cord of his inheritance — I have let go my inheritance; according to: How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left to you desolate [Luke 13:34–35]. And he who said, No one takes my soul from me; I have authority to lay it down [John 10:18], says also: I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies. To him the former inheritance became as a lion in a forest, and gave out her voice against him, when, having handed him over to Pilate, they stood accusing him and all but roaring: Away, away — crucify him! Therefore he says, I hated her — for her works worthy of hatred, and because she displayed toward him nothing worthy of love. And what follows — above all, because of me the whole land has been utterly obliterated — appears to disclose the complete capture and captivity of the former people that came to pass, because of the Savior, after his passion, and the final desolation of Jerusalem.

Section 35 — Jeremiah 16–17: the nations renounce the idols; the sin of Judah in iron

O Lord, my strength and my help and my refuge in the day of evils: to you the nations shall come from the end of the earth, and shall say: How false were the idols our fathers acquired, and there is no profit in them! Shall a man make gods for himself — and they are no gods? Therefore, behold, I will show them at this time my hand, and I will make known to them my power, and they shall know that I am the Lord. ※ The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, on a nail of adamant, engraved upon the breast of their heart [Jer 16:19–17:1]. Having prophesied concerning those who through Christ have come to know the God of all, the word next brings in the matter of the sin of the Jewish people against the Savior, signifying that it shall be inexpungeable, in the words cited with the asterisks⁶⁵ — which one may also fit to the traitor Judas⁶⁶, as one foreknown and proclaimed beforehand by name by the divine Spirit.

Section 36 — Jeremiah 30 and 33: the righteous Rising for David; throne and priesthood that never fail

Behold, days come, says the Lord, and I will raise up for David a righteous Rising; and a king shall reign and understand, and shall execute judgment and righteousness upon the earth. In his days Judah too shall be saved, and Israel shall tent in confidence; and this is the name by which the Lord shall call them: "Josedek among the prophets."⁶⁷ In that day, said the Lord, I will shatter the yoke from their neck, and I will burst their bonds; and they shall no longer work for strangers, but shall work for the Lord their God; and I will raise up David their king for them [Jer 23:5–6 with 30:8–9]. Things closely resembling these are said in another place of the same prophet, thus: Behold, days come, says the Lord, and I will raise up for you my good word, which I spoke upon the house of Jerusalem and upon the house of Judah; in those days and at that season I will make rise for David a righteous Rising [Jer 33:14–15]. To which he next adds: Thus says the Lord: There shall not be cut off from David a man sitting upon the throne of the house of Israel; and for the priests the Levites, there shall not be cut off a man from before my face, offering whole burnt-offerings and sacrificing sacrifice and making oblation all the days [33:17–18]. And again: Thus says the Lord: If you can scatter my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night, so that there be not day and night in their season, then also my covenant with David my servant shall be scattered, so that he have no son reigning upon his throne — and with the Levites the priests who minister to me. As the host of heaven shall not be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites who minister to me [33:20–22]. And again shortly after: Thus says the Lord: If I have not established my covenant of day and night, the ordinances of heaven and earth, then the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, will I reject, so as not to take from his seed a ruler [33:25–26].

And who would be the Rising to be raised up by the Lord for David? The divine Word, of whom it is said elsewhere too: Behold a man, Rising is his name — who is prophesied to reign, and to understand, and to execute judgment and righteousness upon the earth. He it is who shall make light rise upon the souls that sit in darkness, according to his heavenly kingdom; and when, according to the apostle, the fullness of the nations has come in [Rom 11:25], all the true Israel, with the spiritual Judah, shall be saved — whom the Lord shall call by name⁶⁸, whom he shall judge worthy, in the "Josedekim,"⁶⁹ which is interpreted the righteous of God. And in that day, after God has freed the aforesaid from the captivity under the devil — so that they serve no longer him, but only the Lord their God — God promises to raise up for them David as king: none other than our Savior, born of the seed of David, whom the scriptures variously address by this name also. In the prophecy, then, "David" designates the man understood in our Savior; and the "righteous Rising," the deity working in him — named elsewhere the sun of righteousness; since also the true light, which enlightens every man coming into the world [John 1:9], is nothing other than it. To God, then, he says there shall never fail a man leading and presiding over his church, which is the spiritual house of Israel; nor does the word prophesy that the priests of God in the deeper sense shall cease — they who offer up the spiritual incense, and the fragrant, bloodless, pure sacrifice of good works and words. For if we do not take these things thus, it is time to convict the prophecies of falsehood — since neither the throne of David in the bodily sense, nor the typical priestly liturgy, stands any longer: the kings of David's seed having ceased from the very times of Jeremiah, and the Levitical and priestly liturgy not long after the coming of our Savior — since which, to this day, they may not even set foot in Jerusalem. And if those of the circumcision should claim, on account of the patriarch⁷⁰ they speak of, that the seed of David has not failed — they must be refuted, being unable to show him sitting on the throne of David, and reigning upon his throne, and ruling Israel; for the prophecy says these things shall never cease — which manifestly have ceased from the times of the captivity, since when not a single man of the seed of David can be shown to have reigned over Israel. And what would they say of the priesthood, plainly pulled down at the present season, which the prophecy foretells shall never be destroyed?

Section 37 — Jeremiah 31:31–34: the new covenant

Behold, days come, says the Lord, and I will covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah a new covenant — not according to the covenant which I covenanted with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not abide in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant which I will covenant with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: giving my laws into their understanding, I will also write them upon their hearts; and I will be to them for God, and they shall be to me for a people. And they shall not teach each his neighbor and each his brother, saying: Know the Lord — for all shall know me, from the small of them to the great of them, says the Lord; for I will be merciful to their unrighteousnesses, and their sins I will remember no more [Jer 31:31–34]. Plainly the Lord foretells that in the days to come he will covenant a new covenant — new, in having nothing like the old one, which we have learned was given through Moses in the wilderness. What would those of the circumcision say to this — attempting to stare down⁷¹ the prophecies in broad daylight, and choosing rather to exhibit them as unfulfilled than to obey the truth by receiving the new covenant of the gospels of our Savior? — at whose arrival the first has grown old, having begun to reach its end from the moment the Christ came and fulfilled the law and the prophecies concerning himself. Days, then, shall come, in which the Lord says he will covenant the new covenant — that is, the one written in the books of the gospels. And next the same Lord adds that after those days he will write his own laws in the very understandings of those who receive the new covenant, so that they shall be a people to God and he to them a God — coming to know the Lord in no way by human teaching, but being as it were self-taught, or rather God-taught; which very thing one may observe fulfilled at the present season. And one may see how the new covenant and the laws of the Lord stand written upon the understandings and hearts of those who through Christ have believed in God, if one considers among us the multitude of men — utter laymen — who display so virtuous and philosophic a manner of life as is not quickly to be found among those trained in letters, who pride themselves on the study of the scriptures.

Section 38 — Lamentations 4:20: "The Spirit of our face, Christ the Lord, was taken"

The Spirit of our face, Christ the Lord, was taken in their corruptions — of whom we said: In his shadow we shall live among the nations [Lam 4:20]. Here too the divine Spirit, naming the Christ outright, foretold the plot of the Jews against him, through he was taken in their corruptions; and the prophets foresaw in the Spirit that they themselves would live under his shelter and shadow — and live among the nations, the nations that were going to believe in the Christ, and through him to receive the writings of the prophets.

Section 39 — Baruch 3:29–38: "Afterward he was seen on earth, and conversed with men"

Who has gone up into heaven and taken her, and brought her down from the clouds? Who has crossed beyond the sea and found her, and shall bring her for choice gold? There is none who knows her way, nor any who conceives her path. But he who knows all things knows her; he found her out by his understanding — he who furnished the earth for everlasting time, and filled it with four-footed beasts; who sends out the light, and it goes; he called it, and it obeyed him with trembling; and the stars shone in their watches and were glad; he called them, and they said: Here we are — they shone with gladness for him who made them. This is our God; no other shall be reckoned beside him. He found out every way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob his servant and to Israel beloved by him. Afterward he was seen upon the earth, and conversed among men [Bar 3:29–38].

Who has gone up into heaven, it says, and taken her and brought her down, and the rest; and we are taught by the holy apostle that the Jesus Christ who descended is the same who also ascended far above all the heavens [Eph 4:10]; who also, having received the gift of the Holy Spirit, brought it down and poured it out upon the souls of those who received it — whence it is said in the Psalms as well: Having ascended on high, you led captivity captive; you received gifts among men [Ps 67:18]. Next, in the scripture before us, the word says: This is our God; no other shall be reckoned beside him. And who is this, but he who went up into heaven and came down? For to the question who has gone up into heaven? the answer rendered is: This is our God; no other shall be reckoned beside him — and what is said next shows it more plainly still: Afterward he was seen upon the earth, and conversed among men. Beside this one, then — plainly the Word of God — none other of those who have received the appellation of God by acquisition⁷² shall be reckoned. And "afterward," it says, "he was seen upon the earth" — plainly, after having given through law and prophets the whole way of the promise⁷³; for he found out, it says, every way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob his servant and to Israel beloved by him; then, after this, he was seen upon the earth, and conversed among men.

Section 40 — Ezekiel 34: the one shepherd, David

Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I judge between strong sheep and weak sheep. With your sides and your shoulders you shoved, and with your horns you gored; everything that was failing you squeezed out. And I will save my sheep, and they shall no more be for plunder; and I will judge between ram and ram. And I will raise up for them another shepherd, and he shall shepherd them — my servant David; and he shall be their shepherd, and I will be to them for God, and David a ruler in the midst of them: I the Lord have spoken. And I will covenant with David a new covenant⁷⁴, a covenant of peace [Ezek 34:20–25]. Since elsewhere too we render the prophesied "David" as none other than our Savior, born of the seed of David, for this reason we have marked the pericope here as well. For who else would be the one who is to shepherd the Lord's sheep after they have been judged by him, but the only good shepherd — who did not look away while the rational sheep of his own flock were being shoved about and destroyed by the opposing powers, but laid down his own soul for their salvation? Over them his God and Father promises to establish him ruler after the season of judgment, covenanting with him a covenant of peace — when, his enemies having been subjected to him, last of all shall be brought to nothing even death itself, the present adversary of the Word and the Wisdom and the Life.

Section 41 — Ezekiel 37: one nation, one shepherd, forever

Thus says the Lord: Behold, I take the whole house of Israel from the midst of the nations where they went in, and I will gather them into the land of Israel, and I will make them into a nation⁷⁵ in my land and on the mountains of Israel; and one ruler shall be over them; and they shall no more be two nations, neither shall they be divided any more into two kingdoms, that they may no longer be defiled in their idols; and I will deliver them from all their lawlessnesses in which they sinned, and I will cleanse them; and they shall be to me for a people, and I the Lord will be to them for God. And my servant David shall be ruler in the midst of them — one shepherd of them all... and David my servant shall be their ruler unto the age. And I will covenant with them a covenant of peace, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will set my holy things in the midst of them unto the age; and my tenting shall be among them; and they shall be to me for a people, and I will be to them for God. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them, when my holy things are in the midst of them unto the age [Ezek 37:21–28].

After the gathering-together of the dispersion of the spiritual and true Israel, and after the finding of the lost sheep of the house of Israel — the fullness of the nations having entered in first — then the Lord promises that he himself will be God to the people that shall be his, and that he will set his servant David as ruler in their midst, to shepherd them and rule them not for some little and brief time, but unto the age. Let those of the circumcision suppose, if they will, that the word promises them that man, the son of Jesse — again fantasizing a bodily kingdom for him, and gaping after the promises of God in corruptible, earthly pledges unworthy of God. We, persuaded that what is said neither suits divine promises nor can be referred to David himself, take the prophecies of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, born of his seed according to the flesh — judging that the things carried in the sacred scriptures as from David's person fit him rather than that David: such as, The Lord said to me: You are my son; today I have begotten you [Ps 2:7]; and you shall set me at the head of nations [Ps 17:43], said in the seventeenth Psalm, where again as from his person it is said, a people whom I knew not served me; at the hearing of the ear it obeyed me. And of whom else is it fitting to suppose God says, He shall call upon me: You are my Father, and, And I will make him firstborn — but of our Savior, his only-begotten child? For what did David achieve, beyond the rest of the prophets and righteous men, that these things should be said of him alone, and that he should be prophesied to rise again as king and shepherd of God's sheep? Seeing all this, and attending to Isaiah's prophecy — which after David's death proclaims, among the other things concerning the Christ: There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall come up out of the root; and the Spirit of God shall rest upon him [Isa 11:1–2], and what follows — we are persuaded with good reason that what is prophesied here as of "David" is said of the same one. For only the Christ of God — styled also David by transfer of the appellation — has been shown forth the good shepherd, having become captain and savior of God's flock and church; who is prophesied to be established by the Father as king over all the intelligible Israel, after the Lord has turned back the captivity of his people.

Section 42 — Daniel 2: the stone cut without hands

Daniel it is who says: And in the times of those kings the God of heaven shall raise up another kingdom, which shall be unto the ages and shall not be corrupted; and this kingdom shall not leave another nation⁷⁶; and it shall strike and obliterate the kingdoms, and itself shall stand unto the age — even as you saw a stone cut from a mountain without hands, and it crushed the potsherd, the iron, and the bronze, and the silver, and the gold [Dan 2:44–45]. These things too disclose the kingdom of the Christ that shall come to pass at the consummation of the ages: for the stone cut from a mountain without hands would be a symbol of the Word of God, who in other prophecies also is addressed as a stone — as in, Behold, I lay in Zion a cornerstone, chosen, precious [Isa 28:16]; and, the stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner [Ps 117:22]. Of him, then, the present word says that, having pulled down and crushed the kingdoms of the world, and the principalities and the authorities and the world-rulers, he shall hold the kingdom of the saints unto the age.

Section 43 — Daniel 3: the fourth in the furnace, "like a son of God"

King Nebuchadnezzar, having cast Hananiah and his companions into the furnace of fire, when he learned that they were in no way harmed by the fire — becoming an eyewitness of the marvel — is recorded to have said to his own friends: Did we not cast three men into the midst of the fire? And when they agreed: Behold, he says, I see four men loosed and walking in the fire, and there is no corruption in them; and the appearance of the fourth is a likeness of a son of God [Dan 3:24–25]. And in the same way the Hebrew also carries a likeness of a son of God, and the rest of the translators have rendered likewise⁷⁷. For this reason, then, we have noted the place: since from here also the appellation Son of God is signified.

Section 44 — Daniel 7: one like a son of man on the clouds

In the visions Daniel says: I beheld in a vision of the night, and behold, upon the clouds of heaven one like a son of man coming; and he came as far as the Ancient of Days, and was brought before him; and to him was given the authority and the honor and the kingdom; and all the peoples, tribes, tongues shall serve him: his authority is an everlasting authority, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom shall not be corrupted [Dan 7:13–14]. This accords with the same Daniel's prophecy foretelling the kingdom of the Christ under the figure of the stone cut from a mountain without hands. For who else is the one coming as a son of man upon the clouds, and arriving as far as the Ancient of Days, but our Lord Jesus Christ — who for our sakes took the form of a slave and became son of man, who said: I came forth from the Father, and I go to God? [John 16:28]. Who also, his own disciples being present and watching, was lifted up, and a cloud received him [Acts 1:9] — when, as they gazed into heaven, behold, two men appearing in shining garments taught them the matters of his second coming, foretelling that he would arrive again in a cloud. To the Christ alone, then, was given by the Father the authority and the honor and the kingdom, so that all the nations serve him, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Section 45 — Daniel 9: Gabriel and the seventy weeks

When Daniel had prayed concerning the captivity of the whole people in Babylon and the desolation of Jerusalem, the archangel Gabriel, appearing, signifies to him at once the conclusion of the seventy-year captivity and the renewal of Jerusalem; and the span from the renewal to the coming of the Christ; and the second capture of the city that would come to pass after these things; and, upon all, the enslavement of the whole nation, accomplished after the coming of the Christ. His words run in this manner: Daniel, now have I come forth to impart understanding to you. At the beginning of your supplication a word went forth, and I have come to announce it to you, for you are a man of desires. Consider the word, and understand in the vision. Seventy weeks have been cut short upon your people and upon the holy city, for sin to be consummated, and to seal up sins, and to wipe away the lawlessnesses, and to make atonement for unrighteousnesses, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal vision and prophet, and to anoint the holy of holies. And you shall know and understand: from the going forth of the word to answer and to build Jerusalem, until Christ the ruler⁷⁸, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; and it⁷⁹ shall return, and street and wall shall be built, and the seasons shall be emptied out. And after the sixty-two weeks the anointing⁸⁰ shall be destroyed, and there is no judgment in it⁸¹; and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary together with the ruler who is coming; and they shall be cut off as by a flood, and unto the end of the war, cut short, in obliterations⁸². And one week shall confirm a covenant with many; and in the half of the week sacrifice and libation shall be taken away, and upon the temple an abomination of the desolations; and until the consummation of the season a consummation shall be given upon the desolation [Dan 9:22–27]. Of those who have applied themselves to the weeks here set out, we know only Africanus to have contemplated them with the greatest exactness and more successfully than the rest; and it seems to me necessary first to bring his exposition of the passage before us, and then so to examine whether we ourselves too may be able to contribute something to the account. He writes, then, in the fifth book of his Chronographies, in these very words:

(Africanus's computation, and Eusebius's own reckoning, follow in the final section.)

Section 46 — Africanus on the seventy weeks; and Eusebius's own reckoning

[Africanus, Chronographies, book 5 — quoted verbatim:] "The pericope, running somewhat thus, signifies many marvelous things; but now we shall make our account of what is needed concerning the times and the matters that bear on them. That these things are spoken of the coming of the Christ, who was to appear after seventy weeks, is plain: for in the Savior's time, or from him, the transgressions grow old⁸³ and sins are brought to an end through forgiveness; and lawlessnesses, with unrighteousnesses, are wiped away by atonement; and an everlasting righteousness is proclaimed, beyond that of the law; and visions and prophecies [are] until John; and the holy of holies is anointed — for before the Savior's coming these things were only awaited, not in being. The angel lays it down that the numbers — that is, the seventy weeks, which are 490 years — begin from the going forth of the word to answer and to build Jerusalem. This came to pass in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes king of the Persians: for Nehemiah his cupbearer made petition, and obtained the answer that Jerusalem be rebuilt, and a word went out commanding it; for until that time the city lay desolate. For when Cyrus, after the seventy years of the captivity, sent down of their own free will all who wished, those who went down with Jesus [Joshua] the great priest and Zerubbabel — and after them those with Ezra — were at first prevented from building the temple, and from throwing a wall around the city, on the plea that this had not been commanded. So it remained until Nehemiah, and the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes — the hundred and fifteenth year of the Persian dominion, and the hundred and eighty-fifth from the capture of Jerusalem. And then king Artaxerxes commanded the city to be built, and Nehemiah, sent down, presided over the work; and the building was of street and wall⁸⁴, as had been prophesied. And from that point seventy weeks, counted for us, are completed at the Christ. For if we begin the numbering from any other point than this, neither will the times concur and very many absurdities will meet us: if from Cyrus and the first sending-down we make the beginning of the count of the seventy weeks, a hundred years and more will be over; a longer time still, if from the day the angel prophesied to Daniel; and far longer, if from the beginning of the captivity. For we find the kingdom of the Persians circumscribed in 230 years, and that of the Macedonians stretching to 300⁸⁵, and from there to the sixteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, 60 years⁸⁶. But from Artaxerxes the seventy weeks are completed at the time of Christ, according to the numberings of the Jews. For from Nehemiah, who was sent by Artaxerxes to repeople Jerusalem in the hundred and fifteenth year of the Persian kingdom, the twentieth year of Artaxerxes himself, and the fourth year of the eighty-third Olympiad, up to this time — which was the second year of the two hundred and second Olympiad, the sixteenth year of the rule of Tiberius Caesar — there are gathered 475 years; which make 490 Hebrew years, their years being numbered by the lunar month of, to speak roughly, twenty-nine and a half days — the solar circuit being 365¼ days, exceeding the lunar twelve-month by eleven days and a quarter. For this reason both Greeks and Jews insert three intercalary months every eight years: for eight times eleven-and-a-quarter makes a three-month. So the 475 years make 59 eight-year periods and three months; and with the three-month intercalation per eight years, there arise fifteen years, a few days short: and these, added to the 475 years, complete the seventy weeks."

So much has the man made evident⁸⁷ upon this passage. [Eusebius resumes in his own voice:] Come, let us also, after the interpretation rendered, see whether it is possible to approach the passage in another way — so that we may not seem, by filching away the times from Cyrus to Artaxerxes, to force the account; and so as also to present the reason for the division of the seven weeks from the sixty-two, which the divine word has surely made with some good sense and deepest understanding, saying: and you shall know and understand: from the going forth of the word to answer and to build Jerusalem, until Christ the ruler, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; and it shall return, and street and wall shall be built. See, then, whether our exposition does not come unforced if we count the times from Cyrus himself, in whose reign Daniel prophesies. For he first brought forth the answer for the raising-up of Jerusalem, according to the scripture in Ezra, which runs thus: And in the first year of Cyrus king of the Persians, that the word of the Lord from the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of the Persians, and he proclaimed a voice in all his kingdom, and that in writing, saying: Thus said Cyrus king of the Persians: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me, and he has visited upon me to build him a house in Jerusalem which is in Judaea. Who is there among you of all his people? — his God shall be with him, and he shall go up to Jerusalem... [Ezra 1:1–3]; to which is added: And king Cyrus brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem... and he numbered them to Sanabassar⁸⁸ the ruler of Judah. Upon this the scripture relates how those who first went up laid down the foundations of the temple, and how they were hindered from their zeal in the time between, up to the seventh week of years: for forty and six years are bounded from Cyrus to the sixth year of Darius, in which the building of the temple reached its completion — whence, taking their start, they said to our Savior: Forty and six years was this temple in building, and will you raise it up in three days? [John 2:20]. And with reason the word marked off the first seven weeks from the rest, wishing to display the time between the first laying of the temple's foundations and its crowning completion. For Cyrus, having reigned thirty-one years, hands the rule to Cambyses his son; and after his nine years, Darius, taking the kingdom, again after Cyrus commands by his edict that Jerusalem be built; and in the sixth year of his rule — which was the forty-sixth from Cyrus — the building is fulfilled. (According to Josephus, however, forty and nine⁸⁹ years are gathered exactly from Cyrus to Darius's ninth year, in which, in the eleventh book of the Archaeology, he says the end was set to the temple's building... to which he adds: and they settled in Jerusalem, using an aristocratic⁹⁰ constitution with oligarchy; for the priests presided over affairs, until it fell to the descendants of Asamonaeus to reign [Ant. 11].) These, then, are the seven weeks carried in the prophecy, bounded at the aforesaid year of Darius, and the cause of their being marked off from the rest is plain.

Let us see also to what times the remaining sixty-two are bounded. The ninth year of Darius stands, by the history of the chronographers among the Greeks, at the sixty-seventh Olympiad; from this to the hundred-and-sixteenth Olympiad — in which Seleucus, after the death of Alexander, mastered all Syria and Babylonia — there are 200 years; from there to the death of Simon, high priest of the Jews, the first book of the so-called Maccabees indicates that 177 years⁹¹ of the Syrian era elapsed, bounding its history at that point. And from there again, Josephus, marking the successions of the priests most exactly, says that after the aforementioned Simon, John also called Hyrcanus led the people twenty-nine years; that Aristobulus succeeded him, who also reigned one year; after him Alexander, twenty-seven years; after whom his wife Alexandra — down to whom all the years from the ninth of Darius gather to 434: which is precisely what comes of the sixty-two weeks — in which the anointed rulers (and these would be the high priests), beginning from Cyrus, presided over the nation's affairs. For it is plain, from the sacred scripture and no less from the words of Josephus set out above, that after the return from Babylon — from Jesus the great priest himself onward — they had leaders and rulers in succession, down to those whom Josephus names the children of Asamonaeus, whom the scripture named Maccabees: of whom the first to hold the high-priesthood was Judas called Maccabaeus, who also led the people, having routed the generals of Antiochus; after whom Jonathan his brother takes up together the high-priesthood and the leadership of the people; and again his brother Simon, high priest; after whom Hyrcanus; after whom Judas, also called Aristobulus, succeeds — and first set the diadem upon the high-priesthood and kingship together; after whom Alexander, taking high-priesthood and kingship at once, dies leaving a woman as successor — at which point the rulers-from-priests, addressed as "anointed ones," within the weeks summed in Daniel, come to an end. So that the oracle until an anointed ruler declares there would be just so many weeks — as if it had said more plainly: sixty-nine weeks of years shall pass, that is, 483 years, in which an anointed one, a high priest ruling by succession, shall preside over the people's affairs. And it is clear to everyone from what we have set out that just this number of years is presented from Cyrus to the death of Alexander, the last high priest to lead them; after whom a woman — the only one ever to that time — takes up the kingship of the nation; under whom the Jews' leadership, and the high-priesthood that had proceeded steadily from their ancestors, are together thrown into confusion. For she, taking the rule, gives the high-priesthood to Hyrcanus her son, and herself, having held the kingdom nine years, dies. After her Aristobulus — a second of that name — having quarreled greatly with his brother, strips him of the high-priesthood, and himself, after the third year, falls from both it and the kingdom: for Pompey, general of the Romans, coming upon him forthwith, besieges Jerusalem by main force, and defiles the holy things, advancing even to the inner shrines of the temple; and he sends Aristobulus in bonds to Rome, together with his children. After him, Hyrcanus too having been led captive by the Parthians, Herod — the first of foreign stock — is entrusted by the senate of Rome with the kingship over the Jews: as Josephus hands down, an Idumaean on his father's side and Arabian on his mother's; but as Africanus, whom we mentioned a little above [says], those who write exactly of him say that Antipater (Herod's father) was son of a certain Herod of Ascalon, one of the temple-slaves attached to the shrine of Apollo. When the rule of the Jews had come round to such a man, the prediction of Jacob carried in Moses was fulfilled — with the other prophets — which said: A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until he come for whom it is stored up; and he is the expectation of nations [Gen 49:10]. And it is quite plain, from the histories and from what we have set out, that down to Herod — under whom the Christ was born — the rule of men of the Hebrews themselves, leading the whole nation in succession, had not failed; and with Herod, the first of foreign race to reign over them, at once the coming of the Christ is fulfilled, and the foretold expectation of the nations began to be accomplished in deed, through the teaching of our Savior that ran to every nation. Then also was sealed the prediction in Daniel that follows the weeks we have treated: and after the sixty-two weeks the anointing shall be destroyed, and there is no judgment in it; and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary together with the ruler who is coming; and they shall be cut off as by a flood, and unto the end of the war, cut short, in obliterations.

In what manner the prophecy of the weeks — the first seven, and the sixty-two upon them — in which, by the succession of the race, an anointed one and high priest led the people throughout (wherefore the oracle said until an anointed ruler), received its fulfillment at the times of Herod, has been shown as we were able. And how, upon this, after the completion of the aforesaid time of the weeks, the anointing was destroyed because there was no judgment in it — the oracle intimating that the chrism of the high-priesthood would be brought to its end at the time disclosed with just judgment — will be plain to those who attend to the ordinance of the law (in which it is commanded that those [who receive the office] by the succession of the race [hold] the high-priesthood for life, unto death itself) [...and⁹⁸ to the practice of the Herodian and Roman appointees, who bought and changed the office year by year, contrary to that judgment]. And [the prophecy] leaves no time nor deed in between — for no interval of time is carried in it dividing and disjoining the connected history of those weeks; but upon the one week that follows there is a long and clearly-fenced separation⁹². For after the sixty-two weeks, it says first, the anointing shall be destroyed, and there is no judgment in it — and in what manner this reached fulfillment in Herod's times is plain; then it says, and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary together with the ruler who is coming. And who shall destroy, but the destroyer of souls, the devil? And who is the coming ruler, but Herod, the first from the nations to rule them, and those after him who down to now have held the dominion over the Jews? For just as the prophecy called their former leaders, the high priests, an anointed ruler, enigmatically, in the same manner it addressed those from the nations who ruled them after those had ceased as the coming ruler — saying, and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary together with the coming ruler; which Aquila rendered more plainly, making it: and the people of a coming ruler shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And it is quite plain how the people and army of the rulers-from-the-nations who took over the dominion against the Jews after the anointed rulers — using the laws of the nations — destroyed both the city and the sanctuary; while, in the deeper sense, the ruler and corrupter of souls, together with the ruler come according to the prophecy, worked every corruption, first upon the people itself and the citizens dwelling in the city, and then upon the temple too, and the worship of old performed in it. And a divine oracle, signifying somewhere the cause of the Christ's coming that followed immediately, says: The Lord peeped down⁹³ from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there were any that understands or seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; there is none that does kindness, no, not one [Ps 13:2–3]. Then, as of men so corrupted, the word, teaching in advance what shall overtake them, says: and they shall be cut off in the flood — and cut off to such a point, unto the end of the war, cut short, in obliterations. And while these things are being accomplished and wrought: and one week shall confirm a covenant for many. This would be the week of the saving proclamation, in which our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ confirmed the tradition of the new covenant among the many who were made his disciples: now before the passion, being with them and living with them; now also after the ascension⁹⁴, for forty days appearing to them and eating with them, and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God — wherefore also he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem [Acts 1:3–4]. And in the half of this week — through the plot he suffered from the Jews — the sequel of the divine prediction was fulfilled: for he preached about three and a half years, as stands forth also from the scripture of the gospels; wherefore it is said, and in the half of the week sacrifice and libation shall be taken away. And it is plain how, together with the passion, sacrifice and libation were taken from them in power: when, according to the scripture of the gospels, the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom [Matt 27:51]; and according to the history of Josephus: "At the very Pentecost, the priests, entering the temple by night, as their custom was for the liturgies, said that they first perceived a movement and a din, and after that a massed voice: Let us remove hence" [Josephus, B.J. 6.5.3]. These things, delivered verbatim in his histories, with others like them, Josephus would contribute to our demonstration that the matters of the people's bodily worship were, in power, dissolved and pulled down after the saving passion. And I know also another interpretation rendered of the week that confirms the covenant for many: taking this as a week in tens⁹⁵, the account presented the whole time of the apostles as stretching to seventy years, in which the proclamation of the new covenant, preached no longer to one but to many nations, was confirmed unto the whole world — for it is shown from the histories that John, the disciple of the Lord, survived seventy years after his ascension⁹⁶, the report being that he remained until the reign of Trajan. And on this exposition it is plain how in the half of this week-in-tens sacrifice and libation were taken away, and the so-called abomination of desolation stood in the holy place: for the span from our Savior's resurrection to the final siege under Vespasian stretches to thirty-five years — which would be the half of the week so rendered; when also the ancient holy temple, having suffered utter destruction by fire and razing, received the seal [of the prophecy]: sacrifice and libation shall be taken away, and upon the temple an abomination of the desolations — which abomination of desolation the oracle declares shall remain until the consummation of the age⁹⁷, saying: and until the consummation of the season, a consummation shall be given upon the desolation. But these things we have set out, cutting the exposition short; and it is now time to pass on to Isaiah, who alone of all the old scripture remains to us.

END OF BOOK 3 — 47 sections complete. Book 4 (Isaiah) follows.