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 1–3 precede this file.
Section 0 — Proem: why the prophets deserve belief
Attempting now to cull the Prophetic Extracts from Isaiah — the only ones remaining to us — we shall first treat briefly, against those disposed to disbelief about the prophecies, a few points in presentation of the prophets' truthfulness. And first I shall set down a consideration well observed by those before us. They seem to me to have said rightly that to those under the law of Moses the law itself testifies that the nations among whom they would live shall listen to omens and divinations; but to you, it says, the Lord your God has not given so [Deut 18:14]; and further, the divine word, barring them from augury and from all the officious divination that works through demons, adds: A prophet from among your brothers shall the Lord your God raise up for you. If, then, these things stood written for them but never came to pass in fact — if no prophet-men were present among them — could they have gone on believing the law, and the word that promised these things while lying so openly and manifestly? Is it not obvious that, led by that very appetite for foreknowledge of the future, they would have despised their own institutions as holding nothing true or divine — there being no prophets among them — and gone over as deserters to the oracles and seats of divination of the nations? But in fact they plainly received not only Moses but many after him as prophets of God — plainly for no other reason than that they had taken proof of the divinity in them. For these men foretold to them not only what would come to be long ages afterward, but also predicted everyday matters of common life: about asses that were lost; about the dangerously sick, whether they would live or not; about plenty about to come to the people; and about countless other things carried in their histories. If this were not so, let someone answer: on what account did they hold them for prophets and so name them? Why did they count their words worthy of writing? What was the cause for which they handed their scriptures down to their own children after them as divine? For that men who had seen nothing divine or marvelous in these figures should idly and vainly have formed such convictions about them is of all things the least credible.
And if one should run back in thought to those times, what would he make of it — seeing men rustic and plain in appearance, goatherds and shepherds, coming forward into the midst of the whole nation and speaking as from the person of God, crying aloud Thus says the Lord, haranguing kings and all the people with unshakable bearing; displaying a wisdom beyond man, which is carried in their prophecies to this day; philosophizing countless other secret things through riddles and parables; delivering to the people, in the Hebrew tongue, teaching both moral and doctrinal; and, beyond all this, exhibiting a life answering to their words, conversing with all men without flattery, refuting the impious to their face — so as even to be plotted against by them unto death — standing by the true word with strong and noble bearing? Laying these things fair-mindedly to mind, how could one fail to confess that all this came to pass around them by divine inspiration in very truth? Wherefore it was natural both that they were marveled at then by the thoughtful, and that their words were kept on record by the sacred scribes, and that to this day, among the whole nation, they are believed to have been prophets of God. And this our own treatment concerning the Christ presents most vividly of all: in which we demonstrate that the whole economy concerning him, and the matters of his teaching, and of the calling that came through him out of all the nations, were exactly foreknown, and foretold ever so many years beforehand by those inspired men — whose sacred books the Jews, more credible witnesses in this than ourselves, cherish and produce with every mark of reverent honor. These things being usefully premised, we must proceed to the subject.
Section 1 — Isaiah 2: the mountain of the Lord and the law out of Zion
The word that came to Isaiah son of Amos concerning Judaea and concerning Jerusalem: It shall be in the last days that the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, and the house of God upon the tops of the mountains; and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all the nations shall come to it. And many nations shall go and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will announce to us his way, and we will walk in it: for out of Zion shall go forth a law, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem. And he shall judge between the nations, and rebuke much people; and they shall beat their swords into plows and their spears into sickles; and nation shall not take sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more [Isa 2:1–4].
Let those who boast in circumcision show us what law this is, and of what sort, and to whom it was to be given — the law prophesied to go forth out of Zion: for out of Zion, it says, shall go forth a law — plainly another law than the one given in the wilderness through Moses. And what is the word of the Lord which, according to the prophecy, no longer abides in Jerusalem, but from Zion itself removes to all the nations, and is to judge among them and rebuke much people — when, deepest peace having come to the nations judged by the word of the Lord, those counted worthy of that peace, converting their former implements of war, shall turn their mind to the husbandry of their own souls? For them [the circumcision], I do not know what answer there is to this. But for us, who have believed with sound mind in Jesus the Christ of God, it is easy to smooth out the whole prophecy and to display it as truly divine and marvelous — believing as we do that what was prophesied has reached its fulfillment, and not falling away from the truth by postponing the outcomes of the prophecies to unbounded times. For we say that at the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ, even bodily1, the law of the new covenant, the law according to the gospel, went forth out of Zion and from there was proclaimed to all nations; when also the saving Word himself — the "word of the Lord" — going forth from Jerusalem, where he had stayed and taught (according to: behold, your house is left to you desolate), poured out his own grace upon all the nations [cf. Acts 10:45]; which nations, being judged by him and rebuked for their own former sins, coming to consciousness and repentance, have ceased from busying themselves with the wars of the passions and pass their life in deepest peace of soul, tending the tillage and fruit-bearing of their own understanding. And whether one wishes to take these things according to the letter, the sense renders soundly; or according to the deeper meaning, far more easily — indeed one must be persuaded that it is principally and rather in this latter way that the passage is fulfilled.
Moreover, from what has been said, the opening of the pericope in hand can also be made plain: in the last days — that is, now, at the consummation of the ages — the spiritual mountain of God has become manifest: that is, the divine and heavenly Word; and his house, the church, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and for this reason said to be above the mountains. And these things became manifest after the casting-away of the people of the circumcision, and after the kingdom of heaven was taken from them — when the earlier voices of the prophecy set out above received their fulfillment, in which it is said: The daughter of Zion shall be left as a tent in a vineyard, and as a fruit-watcher's hut in a cucumber-field, and as a besieged city [Isa 1:8]; and when this was fulfilled: Hear the words of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; attend to the law of God, you people of Gomorrah. What is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? says the Lord... — to which he adds: your new moons and your feasts my soul hates; you have become a surfeit to me; I will no more forgive your sins. When you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn my eyes away from you; and if you multiply supplication, I will not hearken to you: for your hands are full of blood [Isa 1:10–15]. And observe how the word, in directing all this, charges them here neither with idolatry nor any other sin, nor with many bloods2, but with the shedding of one exceptional blood — plainly, the Christ's — for which the word expressly convicts the people, saying: for your hands are full of blood; for which cause there follows: How has the faithful city Zion become a harlot — she that was full of judgment, in whom righteousness lodged — but now, murderers! [Isa 1:21]. After all of which, the word, ending, again forewarns their casting-away: For they shall be as a terebinth that has shed its leaves, and as a garden that has no water. And their strength shall be as a stalk of tow, and their works as sparks; and the lawless and the sinners shall be burned together, and there shall be none to quench [Isa 1:30–31]. Having declared beforehand so much and such things against them, the prophecy next brings in the pericope we have just set out, in which it is said: It shall be in the last days that the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest — plainly intimating, after their wholesale and complete casting-away and desolation, the economies of the new covenant, in which the mountain of the Lord has become manifest to all the nations. And what mountain, but the God-Word who was in the beginning with God — our Savior and Lord himself, as we have rendered before; of whom it is said in the Psalms too: the mountain of God, a rich mountain... the mountain in which God was well pleased to dwell [Ps 67:15–16]. And with this mountain the house of God also became manifest: and the house of God would be the church, propped upon the summits of the mountains — the apostolic and prophetic words. And when these became manifest, upon this very mountain — that is, the divine Word — it is plainly not Israel that has possessed him3, nor the house of Jacob so often spoken of, but simply all the nations. And it is clear how and in what manner, these things having been accomplished through the appearing of our Savior — the mountain we have rendered and the house disclosed having become manifest — we of the nations, having through faith in Christ the Son of God come to the God of all, of old ignorant of all this but now by divine grace recognizing it, have come to mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; and, taught by the Word of God who went forth — or rather came down — from the heavenly Jerusalem that the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother [Gal 4:26], we rouse one another and press on, through teaching and exhortation, toward that heavenly house of God and toward Zion, the heavenly mountain of the Lord, saying: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will announce to us his way, and we will walk in it. And these things being accomplished, and by God's grace become manifest to us all, yet another prophecy has received its end — in which the saving Word himself bears clearer witness to the pericope of Isaiah in hand, saying: I became manifest to those who asked not for me; I was found by those who sought me not: I said, Behold, here I am, to a nation that did not call upon my name [Isa 65:1]. And if one will not take the passage so, what mountain, or what house of God, could he otherwise point to, of which the prophecy — as of things not then bodily manifest — signifies what was set out above? These things can also be fitted, in another way, to the second coming of the Christ, as things then rather than now to be fulfilled completely. And it should be known that almost the same words are carried also in the prophecy of Micah.
Section 2 — Isaiah 3: "Let us bind the just one"
Behold now, the Master, the Lord4 of Sabaoth, shall take away from Judaea and from Jerusalem mighty man and mighty woman, strength of bread and strength of water, giant and strong man, and man of war, and judge, and prophet, and diviner5, and elder, and captain of fifty, and wondrous counselor, and wise master-builder, and understanding hearer. And I will set young men as their rulers, and mockers shall lord it over them [Isa 3:1–4], and what follows; to which God adds: I will not be leader6 of this people; for Jerusalem is let go, and Judaea has fallen together, and their tongues are joined with lawlessness, being disobedient in the things toward the Lord. Wherefore now their glory has been humbled, and the shame of their face has risen up against them; and their sin, as of Sodom, they have announced and displayed. Woe to their soul! For they have counseled an evil counsel against themselves, saying: Let us bind the just one, for he is troublesome to us — therefore they shall eat the fruits of their works [Isa 3:7–10]. And the so-called Wisdom of Solomon carries things closely resembling what is said here of the just one: Let us lie in ambush for the just one, for he is troublesome to us and opposes our words [Wis 2:12] — and there, from the whole context, these things plainly appear spoken of the Christ. Here too, therefore, it is prophesied of those who plotted against him — and counseled their evil counsel against themselves rather than against him; wherefore the word fittingly brings in the lament over themselves: woe to their soul! — and sets forth the punishment awaiting them: therefore they shall eat the fruits of their works; for whatever they sowed against the Christ, such shall they also reap at the judgment-seat of God. And already, even in this present life, see whether the passage of the prophecy set before us was not fulfilled upon them after the plot against the Christ — behold, the Master, the Lord of Sabaoth, shall take away from Judaea and from Jerusalem mighty man and mighty woman. For truly the divine and heavenly grace that of old dwelt as citizen among them has been taken from them; and there is no longer to be found among them either prophet or diviner. And where is their man of war, or the judge, the wondrous counselor, or the understanding hearer? And if they seem to partake of the spiritual bread in reading the sacred words of God, yet see whether the power and the strength stored in the divine letters has not been taken from them. And plainly, upon this, Jerusalem too is let go, and all the rest has been fulfilled upon them — on account of that one sin against the Christ: for woe, says the word, to their soul; and it adds the cause of the lament: because they have counseled an evil counsel against themselves, saying: Let us bind the just one, for he is troublesome to us.
Section 3 — Isaiah 3:12–14: the Lord comes to judgment with the elders of the people
O my people, those who call you happy lead you astray, and disturb the path of your feet. But now the Lord shall take his stand for judgment, and shall set his people to stand. The Lord himself shall come to judgment with the elders of the people and with its rulers [Isa 3:12–14]. It does not seem that now the Lord shall take his stand for judgment can be referred to the God of all — least of all, the Lord himself shall come to judgment with the elders of the people and with its rulers; it would be fitting that these things be prophesied of the God-Word, himself also styled Lord. For indeed he, the Word of God proclaimed to all under heaven, shall stand in judgment with all, allowing not one of the impious room for excuse, since his teaching has run into the hearing of all. And Jesus Christ shall come to judgment above all with the elders of the people and with its rulers, seeing it was they who gathered against him and framed the plot — who also, calling the people they ruled happy, led it astray: calling the evil good, and declaring the good words of our Savior to be evil.
Section 4 — Isaiah 7: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive"
And the Lord added to speak to Ahaz, saying: Ask for yourself a sign from the Lord your God, in the depth or in the height. And Ahaz said: I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. And he said: Hear now, house of David: is it a small thing for you to give contest7 to men — and how do you give contest to the Lord? Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb and shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel; butter and honey shall he eat; before he knows or prefers evil, he shall choose the good; for before the child knows good or evil, he refuses wickedness, to choose the good [Isa 7:10–16].
Let those of the circumcision who do not receive the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ say who the virgin is who, according to the prophecy, shall conceive and bear the son named Emmanuel. And if they should claim that not virgin (parthenos) but young woman (neanis) stands written according to the Hebrew, it must be said, first, that those who first translated the scripture — by a divine economy — were no ordinary men: being seventy in number, chosen for excellence from all the people, who had given no small proof of their wisdom in their own times. And further: what marvelous sign would the word be promising — solemnly attesting that something wondrous would be given by the Lord himself to the house of David — if the word concerned a mere young woman? And nothing hinders us, even if the Hebrew carries neanis as they say, from holding that what is said is disclosed of a virgin: for in Leviticus8 you would find her who is confessedly a virgin, betrothed to a man but violated by another, named neanis by the scripture. And thus it would be worthy of the occasion that to the house of David, for their unbelief, a sign should be given from the Lord: that, against all expectation, a virgin should bear — for which cause also the one to be born is proclaimed as someone wondrous: seeing that from childhood, and so to speak from his very birth, he is prophesied to refuse wickedness and choose the good. And his name has been wondrously proclaimed in advance: Emmanuel, which is God with us — which we too would say, we who confess him and are conscious of his inspired and ineffable coming to all men through his power. And again, he may be called Emmanuel — the with-us God — in that the Father and God of all is beyond not only mortal nature but all rational nature whatsoever; while the Son is fittingly named the God with us, on account of his sojourn even down to us. And since I remember hearing one of the circumcision say that these things were prophesied to Ahaz concerning Hezekiah, his son who reigned after him, it must be observed that before Ahaz became king — and before this very prophecy was spoken to him — Hezekiah is shown to have been born long since: for he succeeded Ahaz, who reigned sixteen years, being twenty-five years old when he began to reign — so that his birth precedes his father's accession by nine years. But it was to Ahaz already reigning that the present prophecy was spoken, concerning the disclosed marvelous and most wondrous birth of the Christ. And what sense each expression carries, the lover of learning will know by consulting the exegetical works of that marvelous man9 upon the passage.
Section 5 — Isaiah 8: the prophetess, and "Speedily spoil, swiftly plunder"
And the Lord said to me: Take for yourself a roll of a great new [scroll], and write in it with a man's pen: To make plunder of spoils speedily — for it is at hand; and make for me witnesses faithful men, Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Barachiah. And I went in to the prophetess, and she conceived in the womb and bore a son. And the Lord said to me: Call his name Speedily- spoil, Swiftly-plunder; for before the child knows how to call father or mother, he shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria before the king of the Assyrians [Isa 8:1–4].
For the recording of the marvel that was to be accomplished, the prophet is commanded to take a roll of a great new [scroll], unwritten — by which I consider is disclosed the gospel of the new covenant. And also to make faithful men witnesses for the Lord: of whom the one is said to be a priest, and the other, I think, was a prophet — the scripture of Chronicles mentions him at any rate — and these too I take to be a symbol of the prophets who bore witness to the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ, and of the priests established of old as his type. After this it is said: and I went in to the prophetess, and she conceived in the womb and bore a son, and the rest. Now it would be utterly unseemly, and foreign to prophetic dignity and purity, to suppose off-hand that the prophet, in the very act of being borne by God, approached a woman — herself also a prophetess — before the witnesses just named, for the sake of shameful intercourse; and what plausibility would dare10 [claim] that upon his approach she both conceived and bore a son? Rather, I hold that this prophecy too keeps the sense of the one set out before, in which it was said: behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb. For there it was foretold that the virgin shall conceive and bear a son; here, the very manner in which the prophecy received its fulfillment is disclosed: she conceived in the womb, it says, and bore a son. Who then would the speaker of I went in to the prophetess be, but the Holy Spirit speaking in the prophet — concerning whom it was said to Mary: The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you [Luke 1:35]? Wherefore she too may not unfittingly be called a prophetess, who, having conceived from the Holy Spirit, bore him who there is surnamed Emmanuel, but here is addressed otherwise: call, it says, the name of the child that is born: Speedily-spoil, Swiftly-plunder. For truly this one spoiled and plundered, by ineffable and divine power, the opposing invisible and spiritual powers — so as to say: I have conquered the world [John 16:33]; from whom having taken spoils and plunder — the souls long tyrannized by them — so as to proclaim release to the captives [Luke 4:18], he confesses that he received from the Father the nations for his inheritance (which might readily be called spoils) and the ends of the earth for his possession (which would fittingly be called plunder). Moreover: before the child knows how to call father or mother, he shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria before the king of the Assyrians — which things too, in the deeper sense alone, I think are said either of certain wicked powers, which the divine power of our Savior pulled down at his very birth; or of the difference among the souls that have believed in him: of whom those converted from idolatry to the gospel life would likely be the so-called power of Damascus, and those of the circumcision who received the Christ of God, the so-named spoils of Samaria — which souls, having taken as spoils and plunder from the intelligible enemies, over against the intelligible king of the Assyrians — that is, the devil — he armed, and made ready to war against him. And these things he who wishes may learn with exactness from the commentaries of the holy man11 upon the passage. But if those of the circumcision should demand these things in a more bodily sense, they must be cross-examined: whether they can themselves show, bodily, in what manner Isaiah, before the aforesaid witnesses, approached the prophetess for carnal union; and who such a prophetess was; and how she instantly conceived and forthwith bore; and what child this was, born, whom the Lord commands Isaiah to call by the name Speedily-spoil, Swiftly-plunder; and what reason so great a name has; and how it is possible, on the surface sense, to conceive of any child whatsoever bodily receiving the so-named power of Damascus and the so-called spoils of Samaria before the king of the Assyrians — and doing these things before knowing how to call father or mother. And besides, if they should contradict what we have rendered above, let them show how the Christ they await, when he arrives, shall take bodily, according to the prophecy, the power of Damascus — and what spoils of Samaria, or before what Assyrians — none of these things being any longer in operation in the present times.
Section 6 — Isaiah 8:18: "Behold, I and the children God has given me"
Behold, I and the children whom God has given me; and there shall be signs and wonders in the house of Israel from the Lord God of Sabaoth, who dwells in mount Zion [Isa 8:18]. And the words Behold, I and the children whom God has given me have been well taken up in the epistle to the Hebrews as from the person of the Savior, concerning the apostles and those who after them have believed in him [Heb 2:13]; and here there follows, and there shall be signs and wonders in the house of Israel — and it is plain how, at the season of the Savior's coming, there were signs and wonders in the house of Israel such as had never before been accomplished.
Section 7 — Isaiah 9: the child with the government on his shoulder
And they shall wish they had been burned with fire: for a child has been born to us; a son has been given to us, whose government came upon his shoulder; and his name is called Angel of Great Counsel — for I will bring peace upon the rulers, and health to him12. Great is his government, and of his peace there is no boundary: upon the throne of David and his kingdom, to set it upright, and to uphold it in judgment and in righteousness, from now and unto the age. The zeal of the Lord of Sabaoth shall do these things [Isa 9:5–7]. I think the child here spoken of is none other than the one prophesied above, who would be born of the virgin — the same whom, a little before, the prophetess was said to bear; but there his name was Emmanuel, and next it was Speedily-spoil, Swiftly-plunder. Here the very same, according to the version of the Seventy, is styled Angel of Great Counsel; but according to Aquila, and the Hebrew itself, his name is Wonderful Counselor, Strong, Mighty, Father — further, Ruler of Peace; and according to Symmachus, the name of the child shall be called: Marvel13, Counselor, Strong, Mighty, Father of the age, Ruler of Peace. Let those of the circumcision, then, be required to produce what child they have to whom such things might be fitted: for on our reading these are conceptions14 of the divine power of the Christ — into whom they that did not believe shall wish they had been burned with fire, rather than to have seen their own casting-away and the salvation of the nations, which the zeal of the Lord of Sabaoth is said to accomplish; with which set beside it what is spoken in Moses somewhat thus: They provoked me to jealousy with their idols; and I will provoke them to jealousy with what is no nation; with a nation void of understanding I will anger them [Deut 32:21]. But it belongs neither to the present occasion nor to our aim to clarify every phrase of the prophecy — how, for instance, it is said, upon the throne of David and his kingdom, to set it upright — at which those of the circumcision would likely stumble, because our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ did not sit bodily upon the throne and kingdom of David; wherefore, referring the studious to the commentaries on the passage, we shall carry through what we have proposed.
Section 8 — Isaiah 10:33–11:10: the rod from the root of Jesse, and the peaceable kingdom
Behold now, the Master, the Lord of Sabaoth, shall throw into confusion the glorious ones with might, and the lofty in insolence shall be crushed, and they shall be humbled; and the lofty shall fall by the sword, and Lebanon shall fall with the lofty ones. And 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 — a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and strength, a spirit of knowledge and godliness shall fill him; a spirit of the fear of God. He shall not judge according to appearance, nor rebuke according to report; but he shall judge the lowly with judgment, and rebuke the lowly of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the word of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the impious. And he shall have his loins girded with righteousness, and his sides clothed with truth. And wolf shall graze with lamb, and leopard shall rest with kid; and calf and bull and lion shall graze together, and their young shall be together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and an infant child shall lay his hand upon the hole of asps and upon the nest of the offspring of asps, and they shall not hurt, nor shall they be able to destroy anyone, upon my holy mountain: for the whole earth has been filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as much water covers the seas. And it shall be in that day: the root of Jesse, even he who rises to rule nations — upon him shall nations hope; and his rest shall be honor [Isa 10:33–11:10].
Not even those of the circumcision have supposed the one prophesied here to be any other than the Christ — except that, resting on the bare surface reading of the prophecy and imagining the passage in a more bodily fashion, they do not confess the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We, persuaded that everything in the prophecy is worthy of God, have believed these things to be said concerning the conversions of men, who through the appearing of our Savior have been changed from the depth of evil to gentleness — seeing even now how, and in what manner, in the churches throughout the world, after the coming of Jesus Christ who blossomed from the root of Jesse, the many have been refashioned, and have changed their very nature from the bestial life: being formerly wolves, in just that manner15, and leopards, and lions, and whatever other beasts and creeping things the prophecy lists, according to the analogy of the varied vice and wickedness in each; who, converted and as it were remolded, have driven so far into gentleness as to graze together — eating the same food of the sacred words of God — with the righteous men of God, gentlest in their ways, whom for such innocence of soul the divine word likened to the tame and gentlest animals, and to the children here recorded. And if anyone remains hard to persuade toward this, let him say whether it is possible otherwise, on the surface sense, to save the wording. For why — or how — shall Lebanon fall with the lofty ones? And let him not allegorize the rod, nor the flower out of it, but show how a bodily rod is said to be going to come forth from the root of Jesse, and what sort of flower shall come up from it. But if these things force even the very stubborn to ascend to the deeper sense, see whether the rest too are not well presented by us as fulfilled, in the deeper sense, at the coming of our Savior — things which came to pass in accordance with the prophecy after the Lord of Sabaoth threw into confusion the once-glorious men of the former people, whom, exalted in their insolence against our Savior, it prophesies would be crushed and humbled and would fall; and with them, says the word, Lebanon also shall fall. For it is the word's custom so to name Jerusalem, and the worship of old performed bodily in her — as is plain from Ezekiel, where it stands written in this manner: The great eagle, the great-winged, long in his stretch, full of talons, who has the intent16 to enter into Lebanon — and he took the choice parts of the cedar [Ezek 17:3]; for the prophetic word itself, resolving the parable, plainly teaches that Lebanon is Jerusalem, saying: Son of man, say now to the embittering house: Do you not know what these things were? Say: Whenever the king of Babylon comes against Jerusalem, he shall take her king and her rulers [Ezek 17:12]. It is quite plain, then, how this Lebanon too, with those lofty in insolence, has fallen at the coming of our Savior, born of the root of Jesse — upon whom rested the perfection of the gifts of the Holy Spirit; who also shall come hereafter, at his second and glorious coming, not judging according to appearance — for God does not take17 the face of man [Gal 2:6] — nor rebuking according to report — for he is the one who searches hearts and reins [Rev 2:23], and pierces even to the dividing of soul and spirit [Heb 4:12]. And at his first coming, which has already come to pass, the earth was truly filled with the knowledge of the Lord — none before knowing him except only those of the circumcision; but the prophecy shall be brought to fulfillment still more fully then, when, the fullness of the nations having entered in, with the remaining nations all Israel also shall be saved; and the Christ, risen from the dead, was established by God to rule nations, according to: and it shall be: the root of Jesse, even he who rises to rule nations — upon him shall nations hope. Observe, then, that here Israel is not named at all, nor Jacob, nor Judah, but the nations are plainly prophesied to hope upon him who rises from the root of Jesse — the wording here according with what is said in Moses: 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 — not of Israel, but of the nations [Gen 49:10]. And whose rest has come to be in the supreme honor with God, but his who heard the Father say to him: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet [Ps 109:1]?
Section 9 — Isaiah 16:5: the throne set upright with mercy in the tent of David
And a throne shall be set upright with mercy, and one shall sit upon it18 with truth in the tent of David, judging and seeking out judgment, and hastening righteousness [Isa 16:5]. These things too are prophesied of the second coming of the Christ: when the Word of God — the kingdom over all things having been set upright for him with mercy and love of man — shall sit judging with truth in the tent of David: by which I take to be styled the church of the saints and firstborn enrolled in heaven, and all the holy ones who have come to be under the portion of the Word of God.
Section 10 — Isaiah 19:1: the Lord on a light cloud comes into Egypt
Behold, the Lord sits upon a light cloud, and shall come into Egypt; and the handmade things of Egypt shall be shaken from before his face, and their heart shall be worsted within them [Isa 19:1]. To take what is set out here of the unbegotten nature of the God of all — as though he were to ride some cloud and sojourn in bodily Egypt — I hold to be neither plausible nor pious. Wherefore the prophecy must be received of the Word of God; and it has already been manifestly fulfilled at his first coming, in which, upon a light cloud — the flesh constituted for him of the Holy Spirit — he came into this life, figuratively named Egypt; and into bodily Egypt itself as well, to which, while still a child, he was carried by his mother and Joseph. And then, by certain ineffable principles19, the demons that formerly dwelt and worked in the handmade carvings everywhere were shaken and moved, thrown into secret turmoil20 at his coming — which is disclosed by the prophecy that says, and the handmade things of Egypt shall be shaken. And these things shall be fulfilled also at his second and glorious kingdom from heaven, at which it is likely that Egypt itself21 shall be shaken, and the handmade things of Egypt, as rendered, shall then be yet more convulsed — whose very heart, they say, shall be worsted within them, the divine Word then subduing to himself and humbling every high thing that now lifts itself up against the knowledge of God. And all the rest of the prophecy will be rendered only by figurative reading22.
Section 11 — Isaiah 19:19–21: an altar to the Lord in Egypt; the man sent to save
In that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the country of the Egyptians, and a pillar at its border to the Lord; and it shall be for a sign forever: the Lord in the country of Egypt. For they shall cry out to the Lord because of those who afflict them, and he shall send them a man who shall save them — judging, he shall save them; and the Lord shall be known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and they shall make sacrifices and offering, and shall vow vows to God [Isa 19:19–21]. And who else would be the man sent by the Lord, who saved the Egyptians through judging, but the Christ of God, who took the form of a slave and was found in fashion as a man [Phil 2:7–8]? "Egypt" being understood figuratively as the life of men, the "Egyptians" would be the superstitious, those prepossessed23 by material things; whom the God of all, taking pity on them as afflicted by the demons that tyrannized them, sent the aforesaid man, who saved them with a salvation befitting God — so that those of old barred by the law from the assembly of the Lord, through the appearing granted them, came to know the Lord, the Lord himself making himself known to them. And it is plain how, in the country of the Egyptians so disclosed, an altar was established to the Lord, made up of the congregations everywhere celebrated24 for prayers and the worship of God. And one who presses the letter of there shall be an altar to the Lord in the country of the Egyptians might say: if indeed the altar is a place of victims — of irrational animals slaughtered on God's account — then most justly a greater and truer altar has come to be for God through Christ in the whole earthly region, figuratively styled Egypt, by reason of the martyrs everywhere offered up to God as victims and, as it were, sacrifices on behalf of the race of men — and in the bodily country of the Egyptians itself, where so many and so great martyrs glorified God with their own blood. But if those of the circumcision remain unpersuaded by what has been rendered, let them say themselves when, and where, and by whom an altar was established to the Lord in Egypt; and who the man is who saved the Egyptians; and in what manner, and when, the Lord became known to the Egyptians, so that, departing from their former error, they took up the knowledge of him — for that is what "coming to know the Lord" is. And all the sequel of the prophecy hangs upon a deeper sense, which it is not the present occasion to unfold.
Section 12 — Isaiah 26:16–17: "so were we to your Beloved"
Lord, in affliction I remembered you; with small affliction your chastening was upon us. And as the travailing woman draws near to give birth, and cries out in her travail, so were we to your Beloved [Isa 26:16–17]. A superscription is carried in the Psalms, For the Beloved [Ps 44]; and again it is said, the King of the powers of the Beloved [Ps 67:12]; and in those places the one called the Beloved of God is shown to be none other than the Christ. For this cause we have noted the Beloved in the passage at hand also — taking him to be that very one whom the voice from heaven plainly proclaimed, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased [Matt 3:17].
Section 13 — Isaiah 28: the covenant with death, and the cornerstone in Zion
Hear the words of the Lord, afflicted men, and rulers of this people in Jerusalem. Because you said: We have made a covenant with Hades, and compacts with death — a rushing storm, if it pass by, shall not come upon us; we have made falsehood our hope, and by falsehood we shall be sheltered — therefore thus says the Lord, the LORD: Behold, I cast into the foundations of Zion a stone of great price, chosen, a cornerstone, honorable, for her foundations; and he who believes on it25 shall by no means be put to shame. And I will set judgment for hope, and my mercy for weights26 [Isa 28:14–17]. And how is it not truly silly and altogether laughable — the supposition of those who gape after some bodily stone, one of those reckoned precious and costly, to be cast by the Lord himself into the foundations of bodily Zion: a stone on which, the prophecy says, he who believes shall by no means be put to shame? Shaking off, then, the foolish and Judaic expositions, and the old-wives' myths the apostle named [1 Tim 4:7], let us receive the God-breathed prophecies in a manner worthy of God. He says, then: therefore, behold, I cast into the foundations of Zion a stone. Therefore — on account of what? — but because the rulers of the former people had made compacts with death; because they had forsaken the covenant of God, and in its place made a covenant with Hades, supposing on this account that they would suffer no evil; and further because they had set their hope upon falsehood, thinking to be sheltered by the lie. It is for these things — those men having fallen from hope in God — that he promises to set the precious stone for those who believe. And to those who had said, we have made a covenant with Hades and compacts with death... we have made falsehood our hope, the word, going on below, says: You who have trusted vainly in a lie: the storm shall by no means pass you by, without also27 taking away your covenant of death; and your hope toward Hades shall by no means stand: a rushing storm, if it come, you shall be to it a thing trampled [Isa 28:17–18] — and it is plain how, at the coming of our Savior, this was fulfilled upon that people. It follows, then, that we hold the stone here disclosed — chosen, being wondrous and marvelous, so that those who believe on it shall not be put to shame — to be none other than the sacred Word of God, on whom, as on a firm foundation, the spiritual and heavenly Zion has been built, which is nothing other than the church of God: for other foundation can no one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ [1 Cor 3:11]. Of this one it is said in the Psalms too: The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner [Ps 117:22] — and he has been named cornerstone; and Daniel interprets this stone of the kingdom of the Christ, where he says: and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain, and struck28 — or filled — the whole earth [Dan 2:35]. Those, then, who were building the building according to the letter of the law rejected this stone; but he, none the less for being rejected by them, has been shown forth head of the corner of the church from the nations, according to what is said somewhere: You shall set me at the head of nations [Ps 17:43]. On this stone, therefore, he who believes shall not be put to shame — this prophecy also concerning him proving true.
Section 14 — Isaiah 30:27: "the Name of the Lord comes"
Behold, the Name of the Lord comes after much time — burning wrath; with glory the utterance of his lips, an utterance full of wrath; and the wrath of his anger shall devour like fire [Isa 30:27]. And what would the Name of the Lord here spoken of be, but the God-Word, through whom all things have come to be? I consider, then, that this prophecy too intimates the matters of his second and glorious coming.
Section 15 — Isaiah 31:9: "a righteous king shall reign"
Thus says the Lord: Blessed is he who has seed in Zion, and kinsmen in Jerusalem: for behold, a righteous king shall reign, and rulers shall rule with judgment [Isa 31:9–32:1]. The Christ of God — who said, But I was established king by him — is disclosed through these words also; and the rulers under him would be either the apostles, and those who rule the churches with the judgment of God, or the divine angels, overseers of men's salvation. And because of this one reigning over Zion and Jerusalem, blessed is he who has seed in Zion, and kinsmen in Jerusalem — which must be taken in a manner worthy of the apostolic spirit, which teaches us the matters of the Jerusalem above, and of Zion the heavenly mountain.
Section 16 — Isaiah 35: the desert shall blossom; the eyes of the blind opened
Be glad, thirsty desert; let the desert rejoice, and blossom as a lily; and the deserts of the Jordan shall blossom out and rejoice; and the glory of Lebanon has been given to it, and the honor of Carmel; and my people shall see the glory of the Lord, and the height of God. Be strong, slackened hands and palsied knees; take comfort, you faint-hearted in mind; be strong, fear not: behold, our God renders judgment, and will render it; he himself shall come and save us. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then shall the lame leap as a hart, and the tongue of stammerers shall be plain: for water has burst forth in the desert, and a ravine in thirsty land; and the waterless land shall become marsh-meadows, and in the thirsty land shall be a spring of waters [Isa 35:1–7]. It foretells that at the coming of God the marvelous healings shall come to pass. Plainly, then, here too the Christ of God has been honored with the appellation of God — at whose coming the aforesaid cures were accomplished bodily upon the sufferers, and are wrought still more marvelously even now through faith in him, the whole race of men, simply, being delivered from the passions of the soul. And water burst forth in the desert at the coming of Christ, and a ravine in thirsty land — the drinkable and life-giving word gushing up in the land formerly desert and thirsty: the church of the nations, in which, waterless and parched before, there suddenly rained up29 a spring of the water of the words of Jesus, living water springing up unto eternal life [John 4:14]. Watered by this spring, the once-desert is said to blossom as a lily, and is bidden be glad and rejoice; and the cause of the gladness and rejoicing is added: since, it says, the glory of Lebanon has been given to her — that is, of Jerusalem, of which it was said in the earlier prophecies that Lebanon too shall fall with the lofty ones; and when it fell, the glory formerly residing in it was given to the desert now evangelized — that is, to the church of the nations — together with the former honor of the so-called Carmel, plainly, of the former people. And these things have manifestly reached their fulfillment in deeds after the coming of the Christ, in accordance both with the prophecy in hand and with the utterance of our Savior himself: the kingdom of God shall be taken away, and given to a nation bearing its fruits [Matt 21:43].
Section 17 — Isaiah 40:3: the voice crying in the desert
A voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight his paths. Every ravine shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be humbled; and all the crooked places shall become a straight way, and the rough land plains; and the glory of the Lord shall be seen, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God, for the Lord has spoken [Isa 40:3–5]. John, the forerunner of our Savior, said to those who asked him who he might be: I am the voice of one crying in the desert, and the rest. For this reason, then, we have set the chapter among the testimonies concerning the Christ — considering John also to be a symbol of the apostolic proclamation; for such is the voice crying in the desert: a voice indistinct30, and unarticulated to those just receiving their first elements; and this voice, having come to be in the ancient desert — the church of the nations — bids prepare the way of the Lord, and the rest; which he who cares for the knowledge of these things will find out, searching at leisure.
Section 18 — Isaiah 40:9–11: "Behold your God... as a shepherd he shall shepherd his flock"
Go up upon a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem. Lift it up, fear not. Say to the cities of Judah: Behold your God; behold, the LORD, the Lord comes with strength, and his arm with lordship; behold, his reward is with him, and the work before him. As a shepherd he shall shepherd his flock, and with his arm he shall gather lambs, and shall comfort those great with young [Isa 40:9–11]. These things too we consider to be said of the coming of the Word of God — and perhaps rather of the second, in which he is prophesied to come as a just judge, having with him the reward that distributes to each according to his deeds. The rest, however, the present occasion does not require us to expound; wherefore we shall turn to another pericope.
Section 19 — Isaiah 41:2–7: "Who raised up righteousness from the east?"
Who raised up righteousness from the east? He called her to his feet31, and she shall go. He shall set her before nations, and shall astonish kings; and he shall give their swords to the earth, and their bows as brushwood thrust out; and he shall pursue them; the way of his feet shall pass in peace... Who has worked and done these things? He who calls her from the beginning of generations has called her: I, God, am first, and unto the things to come, I AM. The nations saw and feared; the ends of the earth were astounded; they drew near and came together, each judging32 to help his neighbor and his brother; and he shall say: The carpenter has grown strong, and the smith striking with the hammer, driving it on; at one time he will say: The joint is good; they have strengthened them with nails; they shall set them down, and they shall not be moved [Isa 41:2–7].
Righteousness raised up from the east — who could she be, taken as a circumscribed essence, having her own hypostasis, but the Christ of God, of whom the apostle says: who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption [1 Cor 1:30]? Him the economy of the incarnation raised up out of the Father's bosom — the "east" and dayspring of all intelligible light — or the Father himself [raised him], who set him before the nations: that their former kings — the invisible powers, being wicked — might be astounded at the marvel of the economy, beholding so great a Son of God having neither form nor beauty; and that, after such astonishment, their swords might be given to the earth, and their bows as brushwood thrust out, so that they should hold no weapons of war nor fiery darts, with which they formerly warred down the souls subject to them. After this it says, and he shall pursue them — that so, when at the end of all they have been driven out, the way of his feet may pass in peace. And who has worked and done these things? We understand in reply: the kindness and love-of-man of the God of all, who calls her — righteousness, plainly, being none other than his Wisdom — whom the nations beheld, and feared God, they who before were in the fearlessness33 of God; who also, called from the heights and from the ends of the world, drew near to God — those once far off having come near to the kingdom of heaven; wherefore they were astounded at the marvel of the salvation, and teaching one another, brother helping brother, they confess their former error about the idols, saying just this: "So it was a carpenter, and a smith, who by hammer and nails and human contrivance raised and strengthened the things we formerly reckoned gods; and they were, after all, nothing but lifeless carvings, admitting no motion of their own; and as lies our fathers acquired idols, and there was no profit in them." And that these things were accomplished thus at the coming of our Savior, the testimony of deeds establishes better than words.
Section 20 — Isaiah 42:1–7: "Behold my servant" — and a text-critical note
Jacob my servant — I will uphold him; Israel my chosen — my soul has accepted him. I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the nations. He shall not cry out, nor lift up34, nor shall his voice be heard outside. A bruised reed he shall not break, and smoking flax he shall not quench; but he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall shine out, and shall not be shattered, until he set judgment upon the earth; and upon his name shall nations hope. Thus says the Lord God, who made the heaven and pitched it, who made firm the earth and the things in it, and gives breath to the people upon it, and spirit to those who tread it: I the Lord God called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand and strengthen you; and I gave you for a covenant of a race, for a light of nations: to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out from bonds those who are bound, and from the prison-house those who sit in darkness [Isa 42:1–7].
That the words from Jacob my servant — I will uphold him are not prophesied of the Jewish people will be plain to those willing to examine each phrase of the passage; and it is clear also from the exactness of the Hebrew: for neither the name Jacob nor Israel is carried in it — wherefore they stand obelized35 in the accurate copies of the Seventy — inasmuch as no other of the righteous, save our Savior Jesus Christ — and certainly not the very son of Isaac who was addressed as Jacob and Israel — was such that the words before us could be fitted to him; no one, I think, doubts it. For even should one fit I have put my Spirit upon him to others, what could he say to he shall bring forth judgment to the nations, and the sequel — above all to and upon his name shall nations hope? And how could it even be plausible to fit to the Jewish people, or to Isaac's own Jacob, or to any other of the righteous: I gave you for a covenant of a race, for a light of nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out from bonds those who are bound, and from the prison-house those who sit in darkness? So much by way of difficulties for those of the circumcision. And plainly the gospel teaches us that this prophecy too was fulfilled in our Savior Jesus, when the Pharisees, going out, took counsel against him, how they might destroy him; but Jesus, knowing it, withdrew from there, and many followed him, and he healed them all, and charged them not to make him known [Matt 12:14–16] — for to this the gospel adds: that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, saying: Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased; I will put my Spirit upon him, and the rest, just as it is catalogued in the prophecy. He, then, would be the one styled also "Jacob," being the only-begotten Servant36 of God — as it is said elsewhere: It is a great thing for you to be called my servant, to establish the tribes of Jacob and to turn back the dispersions of Israel [Isa 49:6]. He, therefore, having heard from the Father, with the rest, I gave you for a covenant of a race, for a light of nations, brought forth judgment to the nations, so that with judged reasoning37 they order their lives by the sacred gospel. And it is plain how the nations that have believed in him have hoped upon his name; and how he has been shown forth a light of nations, so that by the light of his word the eyes of the understanding were opened in those formerly filled with darkness38; and he brought out from bonds those formerly bound tight with the cords of their own sins, and from the prison-house of the devil those who, through ignorance of the God of all, sat in darkness. It lies open to the studious to examine each phrase of the prophecy, and, on the analogy of what we have said, to transfer to the Christ of God whatever falls under it.
Section 21 — Isaiah 43:10: "my witnesses — and the servant whom I have chosen"
Be witnesses to me, and I am witness, says the Lord God, and the servant whom I have chosen [Isa 43:10]. And who would be the servant whom the Lord God chose — whom he even enrolls with himself as a witness-to-be39 of those bearing him witness — but the one of whom it was said in the chapter before this, Jacob my servant, I will uphold him, and the rest? — words plainly demonstrated to have been prophesied of our Savior and Lord Jesus.
Section 22 — Isaiah 45: "God is in you, and there is no God besides you"
I made the earth, and man upon it; I with my hand made firm the heaven; I commanded all the stars. I raised him up a king with righteousness, and all his ways are straight: he shall build my city, and shall turn back the captivity of my people — not with gifts nor with ransoms, said the Lord of Sabaoth. Thus says the Lord of Sabaoth: Egypt has labored, and the merchandise of the Ethiopians; and the Sabaeans, men of stature, shall cross over to you, and shall be your slaves, and shall follow behind you in handcuffs; and they shall cross over to you and bow down to you, and shall pray in you: for God is in you, and there is no God besides you. For you are God, and we did not know it — God of Israel, Savior. All who oppose you shall be ashamed and confounded, and shall walk in shame [Isa 45:12–16].
The Father raised the Christ from the dead, that he might be a king with righteousness, reigning upon Zion his holy heavenly mountain; and he raised him to this because all his ways, it says, were straight, having nothing crooked nor knotted — for he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth [Isa 53:9]. He also built the city of God — his holy church on earth, and the heavenly Jerusalem — having turned back the captivity of his people, the captivity that once was under the intelligible Nebuchadnezzar and the wicked powers under him; and he turned back that captivity giving no ransoms to the captors, nor persuading them with gifts, but marching against them and mastering them through struggle — so that, glorying in the exploit, he said: I have conquered the world [John 16:33]. Witness to this the multitudes of those who through him have run back from their former error to know the true God — or let those of the circumcision say to whom they could fit the prophecy in hand, which plainly confesses the one prophesied to be God: for they shall be your slaves, it says, and shall follow behind you and bow down to you, and shall pray in you: for God is in you, and there is no God besides you; for you are God, and we did not know it — God of Israel, Savior. For plainly, to the very one to whom it was said God is in you, the word, addressing him, says: and there is none besides you; for you are God, and we did not know it — words heard as spoken from the person of those who have recognized the Christ of God become man; in whom the Father dwelt, according to: I am in the Father, and the Father in me [John 14:11]; wherefore to him alone would fit there is no God besides you, the deity of the Word alone being united and blended with the paternal kingship, and for this reason one glory and one rule being conceived of them both. And in Egypt has labored, and the merchandise of the Ethiopians, and the Sabaeans, men of stature, shall cross over to you, I consider there to be disclosed certain opposing intelligible powers that raised a contest against the Christ and were made subject to him; or souls of such a kind as at first strained against the Word, but at last received slavery under him, to their own benefit — of these, I think, is said they shall be your slaves, and shall follow behind you bound in handcuffs, and shall pray in you; while all who oppose you shall be ashamed and confounded, and shall walk in shame is prophesied of those who did not repent, but remained enemies and foes, in no way willing to take upon themselves the yoke of the word of Christ. So much toward the clarification of the Christ. And it would be fitting to set this pericope not only before those of the circumcision, but also before those who have supposed the Savior to have been a mere man — the Ebionites, or the followers of Artemon and Paul of Samosata: for through these words too the deity of the Christ is demonstrated to those hard to persuade concerning him.
Section 23 — Isaiah 48:12–16: "And now the Lord has sent me, and his Spirit"
Hear me, Jacob, and Israel whom I call: I am first, and I am unto the age. And my hand founded the earth, and my right hand made firm the heaven. I will call them, and they shall stand together, and shall be gathered, and shall hear. Who announced these things to them? ※ The Lord who loves you — I have done your will upon Babylon, to take away the seed of the Chaldaeans. I spoke, and I called; I brought him, and prospered his way. Draw near to me, and hear these things: not from the beginning have I spoken in secret; when it came to be, there was I. And now the Lord, the LORD has sent me, and his Spirit [Isa 48:12–16]. The person speaking in this pericope being one — who else could he be, the Lord who made the heaven and pitched it and made firm the earth, who says I am first, and I am unto the age, and then brings in, in the sequel — according to all the translators of the divine scripture — and now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit: who but the sacred Word of God, who after the unbegotten beginning is named first God of all things begotten? — of whom it is written elsewhere too: he sent his Word and healed them; for he it is through whom all things came to be, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, visible and invisible; whom the Lord God the Father sent, and with him the Holy Spirit, to administer the things that concern the salvation of men. And the saying would be apt against the Jews, teaching that the Lord who crafted all things is other than the God of all, by whom he confesses himself sent, saying: and now the Lord has sent me. And he it is to whom the Father, commanding at the world-making, says: Let there be light, and let there be this and that; and: Let us make man according to our image — for so also in the Psalms it stands written: for he spoke, and they came to be; he commanded, and they were created; and it is quite plain that he who commands something, and speaks, commands and enjoins one other than himself. To examine each phrase of the pericope, however, is not the business of the present treatise.
Section 24 — Isaiah 49:1–10: the Servant named Israel, light of the nations
Listen to me, islands, and give heed, nations: After much time it shall stand, says the Lord. From my mother's womb he called my name; and he made my mouth as a sharp sword, and under the shelter of his hand he hid me; and he said to me, You are my slave, Israel, and in you I shall be glorified. And I said, Vainly have I labored; for what is futile and for nothing have I given my strength; therefore my judgment is with the Lord, and my toil before my God. And now thus says the Lord, who formed me from the womb as a slave for himself, to gather Jacob to him and Israel — I shall be gathered and glorified before the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And he said: It is a great thing for you to be called my servant, to establish the tribes of Jacob and to turn back the dispersions of Israel; behold, I have set you for a covenant of a race40, for a light of nations, that you should be for salvation to the end of the earth. Thus says the Lord who rescued you, the God of Israel: Sanctify him who despises his own soul, who is abhorred by the nations, the slaves of the rulers: kings shall see him, and rulers shall rise up, and shall bow down to him, for the Lord's sake; because the Holy One of Israel is faithful, and I chose you. Thus says the Lord: In an acceptable time I heard you, and in a day of salvation I helped you, and I formed you, and gave you for a covenant of nations, to establish the land and to inherit desolate places, saying to those in bonds, Come out! and to those in darkness, Be uncovered! And in all the ways they shall be pastured, and in all the paths is their pasture. They shall not hunger, nor thirst, neither shall burning heat strike them, nor the sun; but he who has mercy on them shall comfort them, and through springs of waters he shall lead them; and I will make every mountain a way, and every path a pasture for them [Isa 49:1–10].
It is likely that those of the circumcision suppose the things in the prophecy to be spoken about themselves, since it has been said, and he said to me, You are my slave, Israel, and in you I shall be glorified; but besides the words not fitting them, it is clearly demonstrated from what follows as well that the things spoken are prophesied of another Israel: for it stands written, and now thus says the Lord, who formed me from the womb as a slave for himself, to gather Jacob and Israel to him; and again, he said to me: It is a great thing for you to be called my servant, to establish the tribes of Jacob and to turn back the dispersions of Israel — [the one addressed gathers Jacob, and so cannot be the nation itself]. But also the words behold, I have set you for a light of nations, that you should be for salvation to the end of the earth hint at someone paradoxical and marvelous as the subject of the discourse. And who could this be but our Lord Jesus Christ — he who already earlier, in the passages above, was styled Jacob and Israel through Jacob my servant, I will uphold him; Israel my chosen one, my soul has accepted him? For he is the only one who in truth sees God the Father: named Israel — which is interpreted seeing God — according to the conception of his deity; and Jacob — which is supplanter — inasmuch as, having become man, he wrestled down all the opposing powers. And see whether the two pericopes do not sing in concord with each other, the one in hand and the one in which Jacob my servant was said with reference to the Christ: for as there Jacob my servant was said, so here it is a great thing for you to be called my servant; and as there Israel my chosen one was spoken, so here because the Holy One of Israel is faithful, and I chose you. And yet again, there it was said, I gave you for a covenant of a race, for a light of nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out from bonds those who are bound, and from the prison house those sitting in darkness; while in the one at hand, behold, I have set you for a light of nations, to establish the land and to inherit an inheritance of desert, saying to those in bonds, Come out, and to those in darkness, Be uncovered.
That the things in the prophecies set before us fit no one else but our Savior alone will be plain to those who fix their attention on the multitude of the nations that have hoped in him, and through him in the God of all — the nations for whom he was set by the Father as a light. And it says to establish the land: that is, to lead the soul, which of old was in tumults and instabilities, into its natural steadiness and composure41. But also to inherit an inheritance of desert — indicating the church from the nations, which, being a desert before his coming, he has received as an inheritance from him who said to him, Ask of me, and I will give you nations for your inheritance. And he, according to the prophecy about him, has told those in bonds to come out: in the obvious sense, as in the case of Lazarus — whom, bound in grave-bands and lying the fourth day in a tomb, he said Lazarus, come out here [John 11:43] and let him go free; and in the sense that touches the understanding42, in the case of the daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound eighteen years — her too he freed of her infirmity and released whole; and universally, when to all who were cinched tight in the cords of their own sins he furnished remission of former transgressions, as being alone (in possession of) authority to forgive sins. And to these even now, through his teaching, he gives command to come out of their former bonds, saying over each one, See, you have become whole: sin no more [John 5:14]. Besides this, even now he commands those still buried under ignorance and wickedness to be uncovered — being as he is the Word of God, searching hearts and reins, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
But that we may run through as briefly as possible, fitting also the things before these to what is said concerning the Christ, we shall take it up from the beginning and set out our surmise of them. Though in many places he plainly addresses the people of the circumcision — where he even calls upon them by name, whether as Jacob or as Israel — in the present case he does not direct the prophecy to them, but summons islands and nations to the hearing of the things about to be said; and here indeed the promise of the Lord is spoken concerning the calling of the nations formerly altogether unbelieving and estranged from godliness — under which, in part, are also understood the so-called islands: souls which long ago, in a certain manner, were flooded beneath the sea-storms of this life and the brackish currents of vice.
What, then, the Lord himself teaches these nations about himself must be attended to. From my mother's womb, he says, he called my name — which plainly holds of the Christ, for the words are his, as we have learned from the writing of the gospel: for when Joseph was ignorant concerning Mary's conceiving, Gabriel, standing by him — being a minister of the paternal will — said to him in a dream, among other things, and she shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people [Matt 1:21]. And he adds in the prophecy, saying, and he made my mouth as a sharp sword; and again, he made me as a chosen arrow: for the Word of God is living and active, and sharper beyond every two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit [Heb 4:12], as the inspired apostle taught. And most justly would it be said to him alone — who became obedient to the Father even unto death — You are my slave, Israel, and in you I shall be glorified; while and I said, Vainly have I labored, and what follows, would be spoken by the Savior on account of the rarity of those who live according to his gospel. And since he came not except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, it is well said that he sojourned here in the first instance to establish the tribes of Jacob and to turn back the dispersion of Israel; and in consequence — because not all of that people received him — there is brought in, as addressed to him, behold, I have set you for a light of nations, that you should be for salvation to the end of the earth.
And after these things the Lord God and Father — who rescued him from all who gathered together against him — commands us to sanctify him, saying, Sanctify him who despises his own soul: for he truly despised his own soul, having emptied himself and become a curse for us [Gal 3:13], and having taken up our sins, having despised shame even unto death — even the death of the cross [Heb 12:2; Phil 2:8]. After this it says, him who is abhorred by the nations, the slaves of the rulers; and it is quite plain how those enslaved to the rulers of this age not only abhorred him at the season of his passion, saying he is grievous to us even to behold [Wis 2:14–15], but abhor him even now, attempting to overturn his teaching. Him, therefore, the Lord commands us to sanctify, signifying beforehand his glorious coming. And that the discourse, prophesying of the calling from the nations, brings in the prophecy that follows — from I gave you for a covenant of nations onward — these things, being more spiritual and yielded up to the understanding alone, it is not the business of the present treatise to examine at greater length.
Section 25 — Isaiah 50:1–11: "My back I gave to scourges"
Thus says the Lord: Of what sort is this bill of divorce of your mother, with which I sent her away? Or to what creditor have I sold you? Behold, by your sins you were sold, and for your lawlessnesses I sent your mother away. Because I came, and there was no man; [I called,] and there was none who obeyed. Is my hand not strong to rescue? Or is it not strong to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke I will make the sea desolate, and make rivers deserts, and their fish shall be dried up for lack of water, and shall die of thirst. I will clothe the heaven with darkness, and make its covering as sackcloth. The Lord, the LORD gives me a tongue of instruction, to know in what season a word must be spoken; he appointed me early, morning by morning43; he added to me an ear to hear, and the instruction of the Lord opens my ears; and I do not disobey, nor contradict. My back I gave to scourges, and my cheeks to blows, and my face I did not turn away from the shame of spittings; and the Lord, the LORD became my helper; therefore I was not put to shame, but I set my face as a solid rock, and I knew that I shall not be ashamed, because he who justified me draws near. Who is he that is judged with me? Let him draw near. Behold, the Lord, the LORD helps me: who shall harm me? Behold, all of you shall grow old as a garment, and a moth shall devour you. Who among you fears the Lord? Let him hearken to the voice of his servant. You who walk in darkness, and have no light: trust in the name of the Lord, and lean upon God. Behold, all of you kindle a fire and strengthen a flame: walk by the light of your fire, and by the flame which you kindled. Because of me these things came to be for you; in grief you shall lie down [Isa 50:1–11].
Plainly the deity of the Word is demonstrated through the passage before us as well — both that he existed before the inhomination, and that, having become man, he was going to suffer these very things which stand recorded also in the gospels. For who else could he be who declares Is my hand not strong? and the rest, as far as I will clothe the heaven with darkness, and make its covering as sackcloth, but the Word of God? He then, the very one who spoke things of such magnitude, brings in, saying, The Lord gives me a tongue of instruction, to know in what season a word must be spoken; and again adds the remainder, declaring, But I do not disobey, nor contradict; my back I have given to scourges, and my cheeks to blows, and the rest as far as because he who justified me draws near. For we say that the Word "suffered" in power44, suffering along with the man whom he had taken up.
We do not know, then, whether anyone will be able to render an account of the prophecy before us who does not admit that there exists a certain second hypostasis of the Word of God, after the first and unbegotten — the Father and God of all. We at any rate, being rightly persuaded, hold that this is manifestly the God-Word: he who here declares, among the rest, I will clothe the heaven with darkness, and then brings in — from the person of the man he had assumed — the Lord gives me a tongue of instruction, to know in what season a word must be spoken. And to whom else, besides the man of our Savior, would it be fitting to say Who is he that is judged with me? Let him stand against me? Or of whom would the words be spoken that run from Who among you fears the Lord? Let him hearken to the voice of his servant, but of the Christ alone — who according to the scriptures despised shame, emptied himself, and humbled himself even to scourges: when, in accord with the prophecy before us concerning him, Pilate, having flogged him, delivered him to be crucified; and then too he endured blows and spittings, when the high priest, rending his garments at his words, pronounced that he had blasphemed — for then they spat in his face and buffeted him, and others struck him with blows, saying, Prophesy to us, Christ: who is it that struck you? [Matt 26:68].
The words at the beginning of the chapter, however, seem to be spoken about the synagogue of the Jews: for behold, it says, by your sins you were sold, and for your lawlessnesses I sent your mother away. For he came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel [Matt 15:24], and found no man among them; nay, he even called them first — but the people was not obeying. Wherefore it says, because I came, and there was no man; I called, and there was none who obeyed. And the words at the end of the pericope, following in sequence after the casting-away of those men, refer to the calling from the nations — from Who among you fears the Lord? Let him hearken to the voice of his servant. For we truly were the ones walking in darkness, and there was no light for us before the coming of our Savior; but now, through the grace of God, we have trusted in the name of the Lord, and we lean upon God. But to those who did not believe in the Christ — to whom also above it was said, behold, all of you shall grow old as a garment, and a moth shall devour you — the discourse brings in the declaration, behold, all of you kindle a fire, and the rest; in which plainly the words because of me these things came to be for you are spoken from the person of the Christ, reproaching them and convicting the lawlessness committed against him by the people of the Jews.
Section 26 — Isaiah 52:5–7: "I am he, the very one speaking: I am present"
Thus says the Lord: Because of you my name is continually blasphemed among the nations; therefore my people shall know my name; therefore, in that day, that I am he, the very one speaking: I am present — as a season45 upon the mountains, as the feet of one bringing good tidings of a report of peace, as one bringing good tidings of good things; for I will make your salvation heard, saying: Zion, your God shall reign [Isa 52:5–7].
This prophecy too would most reasonably fit the Savior, since at his sojourn was fulfilled the saying that I am he, the very one speaking: I am present. The words from because of you my name is continually blasphemed among the nations are said to the face of the former people; while the words from therefore my people shall know my name in that day would be understood of the nations that have believed in him. He himself, then, is the one who even before conversed with men — now through angels, now also through prophets; and moreover, coming again to those same men, he proclaimed salvation to all through himself. What sense this carries, the lover of learning will know by searching it out.
Section 27 — Isaiah 52:10–54:1: the whole Suffering Servant song
And the Lord shall reveal his holy arm before all the nations, and all the nations, the ends of the earth, shall see the salvation that is from God. Depart, depart, come out from there, and touch no unclean thing; come out from the midst of her, and be separated, you who bear the vessels of the Lord: for you shall not come out with tumult, neither shall you go by flight; for the Lord shall go before you, and he who gathers you is the God of Israel. Behold, my servant shall understand, and shall be exalted, and shall be lifted very high. Even as many shall be astonished at you — so shall your form be without glory from men, and your glory from the men46 — so shall many nations marvel at him, and kings shall shut their mouth: for those to whom it was not announced concerning him shall see, and those who have not heard shall understand [Isa 52:10–15]. Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? We announced him as a child before him, as a root in a thirsty land: he has no form nor glory; and we saw him, and he had no form nor beauty; but his form was without honor, failing beyond the sons of men. A man being in calamity, and knowing how to bear sickness — for his face is turned away; he was dishonored, and not reckoned. This one bears our sins, and suffers pain for us; and we reckoned him to be in toil, and in ill-treatment, and in calamity. But he was wounded because of our sins, and was made sick because of our lawlessnesses; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; by his bruise we were healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; each man has gone astray in his way; and the Lord delivered him up for our sins; and he, because of his ill-treatment, opens not his mouth. As a sheep he was led to slaughter, and as a lamb voiceless before its shearer, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away; and his generation — who shall declare it? For his life is taken up from the earth; because of the lawlessnesses of my people he was led to death. And I will give the wicked in exchange for his burial, and the rich in exchange for his death; because he did no lawlessness, neither was deceit found in his mouth. And the Lord wills to cleanse him of the blow. If you give an offering for sin, your soul shall see a long-lived seed; and the Lord wills to take away from the toil of his soul, to show him light, and to form him with understanding; to justify a just one serving many well; and he himself shall bear their sins. Therefore he shall inherit many, and shall divide the spoils of the strong; because his soul was delivered up to death, and he was reckoned among the lawless; and he himself bore the sins of many, and was delivered up because of their lawlessnesses [Isa 53:1–12]. Rejoice, barren one who does not bear; break forth and shout and be glad, you who are not in travail: for many are the children of the desolate one, rather than of her who has the husband [Isa 54:1].
And when else, if not at the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ, did the Father and God of all reveal before the nations his great arm — which is no other than his Word? And the nations, having seen the salvation given them by God, are commanded to depart from their former error, and no longer to touch the unclean things — the shameful and defiled affairs in which they formerly wallowed, wrapped round in them. And since it is no ordinary thing to mark oneself off from one's former, father-handed-down way of life and from the common society of men, for this cause the Lord himself promises to journey with, and to gather, those who bear his vessels — meaning, plainly, the sacred teachings and the divine oracles. And again, upon this: just as in the prophecies above the Christ was variously named servant of God, so it is said here also; and it is prophesied that he shall understand and be exalted and be exceedingly glorified — his human aspect being in view, of which these things are said. And truly many were astonished and utterly perplexed at him, having supposed him a man like themselves; and they were astonished indeed, seeing him clothed in no worldly eminence or glory — when, having laid aside the form of God, having emptied himself and taken up the form of a slave, he wrought paradoxes worthy of astonishment and amazement, so that those beholding them said, struck with wonder: Is not this the son of Joseph? Are not his mother and his brothers here with us? [John 6:42; Matt 13:55]. And to this day very many are astonished and perplexed at him, seeing his teaching to have run through — and still now to be running through — the whole inhabited world, and observing the unbending and immovable disposition of those who have believed in him. Yet marveling at these things they do not comprehend the divine power by which he worked, and even now has been able to work, things of such magnitude. And kings truly did shut and compress their mouth at him — whether those gathered together at his passion (of whom it was said, the kings of the earth stood by, and the rulers were gathered together against him [Ps 2:2]), or the rulers of the nations in their several seasons: they shut their own mouth in that they often attempted to hinder his word and teaching, and he nonetheless prevailed and shone out, being glorified and raised on high — so as to make himself manifest not only to those who had received the prophecies about him from their fathers, but — the most paradoxical thing of all — to those to whom nothing about him had ever yet been announced: that is, to us the nations, who, having heard nothing at all from our ancestors nor learned beforehand of his coming, understood him when he came, and welcomed the prophecies concerning him.
Foreseeing these things in the Spirit, the prophet cries out in wonder, saying, Lord, who has believed our report? — which is not the same as "no one has believed our report": for plainly many multitudes from the nations, and some even of those of the circumcision, have believed the report concerning the Christ. And the arm of the Lord, it says — that is, the pre-existing Word of God — to whom has it been revealed? The passage itself teaches at the head of the prophecy, saying, and the Lord shall reveal his holy arm before all the nations. Next after this is said, we announced him before him as a child, as a root in a thirsty land: he has no form nor glory; and we saw him, and he had no form nor beauty, and what follows — which things too have been fulfilled: when, having emptied himself of the form of God, he did not even choose the comely and seemly presentation47 that men count fair, nor indeed did he pass through his human life with glory in men's eyes or with the trappings of any worldly eminence, but taking the form of a slave and a servant he humbled himself and became truly man, being in calamity, and knowing how to bear sickness; and the glorious and godlike face of his deity was turned away and hidden — for which cause he was also dishonored among those who perceived only his human aspect, among whom he was reckoned not merely not as Son of God, but not even as an ordinary just man.
But those who by the Spirit had perceived these very things say — as if narrating, and teaching the cause of such an economy — this one bears our sins, and suffers pain for us: for they saw, as prophets do, in what manner he would become the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world [John 1:29]. To this is added, but we reckoned him to be in toil and in calamity and in ill-treatment; but he was wounded because of our lawlessnesses: for he was wounded even in intention48 when they took up stones to cast at him; and he was made sick, it says, because of our sins — for more than Paul did Christ grow weak with the weak, and he would have said, Who is weak, and I am not weak? [2 Cor 11:29]. All these things the prophet confesses that the one of whom the discourse speaks will suffer on account of both himself and the whole people: for he was wounded, it says, because of our lawlessnesses, and was made sick because of our sins; and counting himself in with the rest he adds, saying, by his bruise we were healed. And seeing clearly the error that would come upon the whole people of the circumcision with regard to him, and that there is no man who shall not sin — though he seem the most just of all — he says further: all we like sheep have gone astray; each man has gone astray in his way; and the Lord delivered him up for our sins, and what follows upon these — things which are shown to have reached their fulfillment indisputably in our Savior Jesus alone.
Whence it is worth marveling at the hardness of those of the former people who will not receive him, on the pretext of the things they themselves displayed against him — over which it is their custom to laugh and pull him to pieces, as though what he suffered were unworthy of God's care for him — when the prophet, in addition to what has been said, cries aloud concerning him both that as a sheep he was led to slaughter, and as a lamb voiceless before its shearer, so he opens not his mouth, and that his life is taken up from the earth. And who would not be astounded at what is brought in upon all that has been recounted, hearing the prophet say, because of the lawlessnesses of my people he was led to death? Or what quibble could they invent against these things — they who hearing indeed heard the voice of the Christ and did not understand, who looked with their own eyes upon his coming and did not see? For what other one of the just could they produce who was led to death because of their sins? Or who has ever been such as to bear the sins of the whole people and of the prophets themselves, and to suffer pain for them, so that by his bruise all of them are healed — confessing and declaring, this one bears our sins, and suffers pain for us, and by his bruise we were healed? And who, allotted human nature, could prove such that neither in word nor in deed had anything been sinned by him — so that the divine scripture speaks truly of him, that he did no lawlessness, neither deceit in his mouth? And on what charge does the passage foretell that the one borne witness to in these things shall be led as a sheep to slaughter, and shall be condemned to death because of the lawlessnesses of the people? And let them say, too, whether the Christ whom they expect to come will assuredly suffer all these things which the prophecies divine concerning him — or whether nothing of the kind will befall that one. But if, because of what happened to our Savior, they stumble at faith in him, they would not say49 such things of the one they await. It is time, then, on their showing, to declare the divine utterances unfulfilled and manifestly false — but not on ours: we to whom the things concerning him were neither announced from our fathers nor handed down, yet who beheld him nonetheless and received him, according to what is said elsewhere: a people whom I knew not served me; at the hearing of the ear it obeyed me. And through the whole of the prophecy the things concerning him are conveyed more broadly and more far-shiningly; and the destruction that overtook those who plotted against him is disclosed through and I will give the wicked in exchange for his burial, and the rich in exchange for his death; because he did no lawlessness, neither deceit in his mouth — for it says: him, being such a one, they killed; for this cause they shall suffer things like these. Next after this, again, the church from the nations receives the good tidings, compared with — and preferred before — the former people, through rejoice, barren one who does not bear; break forth and shout, you who are not in travail: for many are the children of the desolate one, rather than of her who has the husband. And since the matters of this place need much searching and examination, whoever cares for the Savior's command that says, Search the scriptures, in which you think you have eternal life — and it is they that testify concerning me [John 5:39], by searching what is in them the more diligently, shall know.
Section 28 — Isaiah 55:2–5: "the sure holy things of David" — a covenant for the nations
Hear me, and you shall eat good things, and your soul shall delight itself in good things. Give heed with your ears, and follow my ways; hearken to me, and your soul shall live in good things; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, the sure holy things of David. Behold, I have given him as a testimony among the nations, a ruler and commander among the nations. Behold, nations that do not know you shall call upon you, and peoples that are not acquainted with you shall flee to you for refuge, for the sake of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, because he has glorified you [Isa 55:2–5].
He understands what is here said who receives the discourse as spiritual food — divine and heavenly delight — and further, a life not the indifferent life of the flesh, but the everlasting life of the soul. He promises besides to make with these same persons an everlasting covenant, which, it says, shall contain the sure holy things of David. What then could this be — a certain new and everlasting covenant, prophesied as going to be given, after the temporary one through Moses, to those to whom the word speaks — but the new writing of the sacred gospels, containing the holy things of David on account of Jesus the Christ of God, born of his seed? And God says he has given this one as a testimony not to Israel but to the nations, to rule these and to command these — not the former people of the circumcision. And these nations, formerly in no way acquainted with him, when they came to know him to be Son of God, called upon him as Savior and God; nay, we who had never yet recognized him fled to him for refuge, escaping our former error and our slavery under the opposing operations. And these things, says the prophecy, shall come to be for the sake of the Lord his God, because he has glorified him; and it is plain how the Father glorified him, according to the voice borne to him from heaven: I have both glorified, and will glorify again [John 12:28]. And see whether the words spoken here — nations that do not know you shall call upon you, and peoples that have not known you shall flee to you for refuge — are not akin to those in the chapter before this, where it was said that those to whom it was not announced concerning him shall see, and those who have not heard shall understand. Like these also are the words in the seventeenth Psalm, from the person of the Christ: a people whom I knew not served me; at the hearing of the ear it obeyed me [Ps 17:43 LXX].
We, then, believing the prophecies true, are persuaded that they have been fulfilled at the coming of our Savior — conscious as we are of how we ourselves, being of old wandering nations, driven by harsh demons through every idolatry, neither acquainted with the only true God nor giving ear to any prophetic voice, have come through the teaching of our Savior Jesus to the knowledge of the God of all, and have believed the God-breathed scriptures, and have welcomed the Word of God who was prophesied — though before, we did not know him at all. Having received such benefits through the teaching of our Savior, how should we not justly receive him and honor him as divine50 — being as he is Son of God, and our own Savior?
Section 29 — Isaiah 57:1–4: "See how the just one is taken away"
See how the just one is taken away, and no one receives it to heart; and just men are taken away, and no one considers: for from the face of injustice the just one has been taken away. His burial shall be in peace; he has been taken from the midst. But you — draw near here, you lawless sons, seed of adulterers and of a harlot. In what have you delighted yourselves? And against whom have you opened your mouth? And against whom have you let loose your tongue? Are you not children of destruction, a lawless seed? [Isa 57:1–4].
The Christ of God alone, in truth and beyond all who have ever been styled just, has been shown to be such; wherefore he alone, in the proper sense, would be styled the Just One, so that the prophecy speaks of him: see how the just one is taken away. And from what he is taken away it adds in the words, for from the face of injustice the just one has been taken away; and who it is that takes him away, one may hear from himself, saying: No one takes my life from me; I have authority to lay it down, and again I have authority to take it [John 10:18]. Then it says, his burial shall be in peace — where it must be noted that the prophetic scripture signifies not only the matters of his death, but also those of his burial; whence also the sacred apostle, writing to the Corinthians, says: For I delivered to you first of all what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried [1 Cor 15:3]. According to what scriptures, if not those declaring because of the lawlessnesses of my people he was led to death, and his burial shall be in peace? And not only is the aforesaid Just One taken away from the midst of injustice, but just men also, it says, are taken away — and these would be the sacred apostles of the Christ, and his marvelous martyrs, themselves styled just by participation in his justice. And while these things were being accomplished, no one, it says, saw, and no one considered — of those, plainly, whose heart had been made gross and who had shut their eyes so as not to see; to whom the sequel of the prophecy is spoken, from but you — draw near here, you lawless sons, seed of adulterers and of a harlot.
Section 30 — Isaiah 59:19–21: the everlasting gospel that shall not fail
And those from the west shall fear the name of the Lord, and those from the rising of the sun his glorious name: for wrath shall come from the Lord as a violent river; it shall come with fury. And the deliverer shall come for Zion's sake, and shall turn away ungodlinesses from Jacob, said the Lord. And this shall be my covenant with them: my Spirit, which is upon you, and the words which I have given into your mouth, shall not fail from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed, said the Lord, from now and unto the age [Isa 59:19–21].
Again through these words the passage prophesies the calling of the church constituted from the nations through our Savior. For who else would those be who are called from the west — or through whom did the nations of every kind come to fear the name of the Lord, the nations which through the teaching of Jesus abandoned their former error of the darkness of ignorance and have fled for refuge to the God of all? And who is the one prophesied as coming from Zion, to deliver and to turn Jacob back from his former ungodliness, but he who came to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel that had fallen into ungodliness — with whom, it says, the Spirit of God in Christ shall covenant the words of everlasting life, which the Father has given into the mouth of the Son; words which, it says, shall fail neither from his mouth nor from the mouth of his seed, from now and unto everlasting time? And these would be the words of the gospel of the new covenant, which — though so many plotted against them of old, and even now are plotting — have not failed, nor indeed shall they fail, from the mouth of the church constituted from the rational and intelligible seed of the Christ: for the Lord has said it, and has declared that he will not blot them out from now and unto the age. Wherefore also, according to John, the gospel of the Christ is seen to be an everlasting gospel [Rev 14:6].
Section 31 — Isaiah 61:1–3: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me" — the Nazareth text
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because of which he anointed me; ※ the Lord has sent me to bring good tidings to the poor, to heal the broken in heart, to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to call an acceptable year of the Lord and a day of recompense ※ for our God; to comfort all who mourn; that there be given to those who mourn in Zion glory instead of ashes, an anointing of gladness to those who mourn, a garment of glory instead of a spirit of listlessness; and they shall be called generations of justice, a planting of the Lord for glory [Isa 61:1–3].
Jesus the Christ of God, who came forth from the root of Jesse, upon whom the seven Spirits of God have rested, having loved justice and hated lawlessness, was anointed by God his Father with what is called the spiritual oil of exultation. And he it was who once, during the time in which he had become man, took the book of Isaiah into his hands, read the very pericope before us, closed the book [Luke 4:20], and said: Today this scripture has been fulfilled. For he truly was the one sent from the Father to bring the good tidings of the kingdom of the heavens to the poor in spirit — to whom he also declared, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens [Matt 5:3] — and to heal the broken in heart, of whom it is said, a broken and humbled heart God will not despise [Ps 50:17 LXX]. Besides this, he came to proclaim remission of sins to those who long ago had become captives of the intelligible Nebuchadnezzar; wherefore also he said with confidence to the paralytic, Child, your sins are forgiven you [Matt 9:2]. But also to those injured in the eyes of the understanding — blinded by the intelligible Philistines51 and Babylonians, in the manner of Samson and of Zedekiah — he came to furnish recovery of sight; and among those healed by him, in part, were also the bodily blind, whom he made to see again when they believed in him and cried out with a shout, Have mercy on us, Son of David [Matt 20:31]. And he it is who called the acceptable year of the Lord, which he proclaimed after John's confinement in the prison; and who taught the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the things concerning our judgment, in which to each of the things done will be rendered the justice it deserves. Besides these things, he came to comfort those who mourn the mourning that is praiseworthy according to God; to whom he has also promised a beatitude, saying, Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted [Matt 5:4]. And he came, upon these things, also that glory might be given to those who mourn in Zion. And who would these be, but those who seek their own fatherland, and forever rekindle the memory of the heavenly city? — such as was that man who, knowing himself a sojourner and pilgrim upon the earth, wailed his "woe is me," that my sojourning has been prolonged [Ps 119:5 LXX]; and further, those weeping by the rivers of Babylon when they remembered Zion. To these, then, the Christ of God, fulfilling the comfort he promised to those who mourn, will render glory when they are released from their mourning; and instead of the ashes with which they dusted themselves52, having mourned throughout this present life, he will furnish an anointing of gladness, anointing them too with the oil of exultation, that they may become partakers of his anointing and his kingdom — so that they too may say, for we have become partakers of the Christ [Heb 3:14]. Still besides these things the Christ is prophesied as going to give to those who mourn in Zion #a garment of glory instead of the spirit of listlessness#53 — since they grew listless at the affairs of this life, as men ill-pleased with the doings of humankind; and mourning on this account most of all: not only because they behold the promises of God from afar, but also because, through fellow-feeling and love of men, they suffer with and grieve with the ailing members of their own body, all but crying out in the disposition of the apostle: Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn? [2 Cor 11:29].
Section 32 — Isaiah 61:10–11: the Bridegroom's soul exults
Let my soul exult in the Lord: for he has clothed me with a garment of salvation and a tunic of gladness; he has put a headband on me as on a bridegroom, and adorned me with ornament as a bride; and as earth increasing its flower, and as a garden makes its seeds spring up, so shall the Lord, the LORD make justice spring up, and exultation before all the nations [Isa 61:10–11].
The soul of our Lord Jesus Christ — concerning which he said, my soul is exceeding sorrowful [Matt 26:38], and, now my soul is troubled [John 12:27] — exults and rejoices in none of the things that have come to be, but in the Father and Lord alone: for he clothed it with the garment of deity, and with the tunic of true and perfect gladness. Moreover, he was himself the bridegroom of the bride without spot or wrinkle, the church — as on a bridegroom he put the headband on him; and she the bride of the deity that is above all blame54, whom as a bride he adorned with the ornament befitting the Spirit of the Lord. And further, he tilled her as fruitful and good earth, and again as a garden increasing and flourishing with the shoots within it — with which also the great paradise of God is said to be planted. And these things shall be, it says, since the Lord, being just, and being God not of Jews only but also of nations, has made his own justice spring up — that is, his Christ — before all the nations that believe through him.
Section 33 — Isaiah 62:10–63:3: "Who is this who comes from Edom, his garments red from Bosor?"
Lift up a signal to the nations. For behold, the Lord has made it heard unto the end of the earth: say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your Savior has arrived, having his own reward with him, and his work before his face; and he shall call it a holy people, redeemed by the Lord; and you shall be called a city sought out, and not forsaken [Isa 62:10–12]. Who is this who has arrived from Edom, the redness of his garments from Bosor? — so beautiful in his robe, in force with strength? "I speak justice and judgment of salvation." Why are your garments red, and your clothes as from a trodden winepress? "Full of her that is trodden down55; and of the nations there is no man with me, and I trod them down in my fury" [Isa 63:1–3].
Again here the prophecy gives command to take a signal concerning the church from the nations, promising that the Lord will make something heard as far as the end of the earth — which has reached its fulfillment at the coming of our Savior Jesus, the sound of his apostles having gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the inhabited world. Next it is said, say to the daughters of Zion (plainly, to the churches from the nations: for these would be daughters of the heavenly Zion, which is our mother according to the apostle [Gal 4:26]): behold, your Savior arrives, having his own reward, and what follows — through which is disclosed the second coming of the Christ, when he shall come as judge, to render to each the wages of his present labors, and to each the recompense of the evil things he has now wrought. Next upon these things the passage says, as if putting a question: Who is this who arrives from Edom — which is interpreted earthy — the redness of his garments from Bosor? — so beautiful in his robe? And this it seems to have said in sheer wonder: that even after the inhomination, and the self-emptying, and the sojourn on earth — even after the passion, and the descent to the dead — the beauty of the Savior remained fair and radiant, confounded in nothing, having taken on no filth nor stain nor spot from the material and bodily condition of earthy and human affairs; and further, in amazement also at his strength, he having wrestled down the whole army of the devil. It brings in, so beautiful in his robe, in force with strength? — to which inquiry the Savior answers, teaching who indeed he is, and says: I speak justice and judgment of salvation. And again the passage says to him, as on account of the passion: Why are your garments red?, and the rest. For as Lamb of God, having taken up into himself the sins of the world, he was clothed in garments made red from our sins; so that for this cause also in Zechariah the prophet it is said, and Jesus56 was clothed in filthy garments [Zech 3:3–4] — and these were the clothes woven of our transgressions, on account of which it was said a little before, this one bears our sins, and suffers pain for us: for he himself did no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth [1 Pet 2:22]. And again the Savior, answering the question whence his garments became red, teaches, saying: from the nations — which nations, no man cooperating with him, he alone subdued, having trodden down the whole opposing power of the wicked spirits at war with him.
Section 34 — Isaiah 63:11: the great Shepherd brought up from the earth
And the Lord remembered the days of old — he who brought up from the earth the great shepherd of the sheep, he who put the Holy Spirit among them [Isa 63:11].
And who else could he be, the one brought up from the earth by the Lord, the shepherd of God's sheep, but our Savior, who came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel? For he is the good shepherd, who laid down his life for the sheep — whom the Father, having brought up from the earth, highly exalted, granting him the name that is above every name.
Section 35 — Isaiah 64:10–65:2: found by those who did not seek — and the close of the whole work
The city of your Holy One became a desert, Zion became as a desert, Jerusalem a curse; the house, our holy thing, and the glory which our fathers blessed, became burnt with fire, and all our glorious things collapsed together; and over all these things you held back, Lord, and kept silence, and humbled us exceedingly [Isa 64:10–12]. I became manifest to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. I said, Behold, here I am, to a nation that did not call upon my name. But toward you I stretched out my hands the whole day, toward a people disobeying and contradicting, who walked not in a true way, but after their own sins [Isa 65:1–2].
Here too, the casting-away of Israel having first been prophesied, the election of the nations that came to pass through the Christ is signified next. For the prophet having sent up a prayer from the person of the people, the Word answers, convicting the hardness and disobedience of the former people, and setting forth his own love of mankind: How, he says, do you speak these things, as though I were slow to save you? — why, even to those who did not ask for me, nor sought me, I presented myself openly. And it is quite plain how the Word of God, formerly unknown to the nations, at the consummation of the ages — by the goodness and philanthropy of the Father and God of all — became manifest to them, though because of the error they held concerning idols they had never once asked him about the things they needed; and he was found by us who did not seek him — nay, who had not even called upon his name — having become man, he answered, all but crying aloud: Behold, I am present. These things, then, the passage plainly prophesies concerning the calling of the nations; and next in turn, most piercingly, it adds to the address concerning the Jews, saying: but toward you I stretched out my hands, toward a people disobeying and contradicting. And indeed through these words the very figure of his passion on the cross may also be signified.
So much, then, from Isaiah. And now, having circumscribed in four books the subject of the Eclogae, within this ninth treatise of the General Elementary Introduction, in the tenth we shall attempt to furnish another approach, suited to those whose reasoning has been damaged by the godless heresies.
END OF BOOK 4 — 36 sections complete.
END OF THE ECLOGAE PROPHETICAE. All four books translated: Book 1 (historical books, 25 sections), Book 2 (Psalms, 17 sections), Book 3 (poetic books and prophets, 47 sections), Book 4 (Isaiah, 36 sections).
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