Demonstration of the Gospel

Contents

Reading pages: 1.0.1–1.2.16 · 1.3.1–1.4.9 · 1.5.1–1.6.54 · 1.6.55–1.8.4 · 1.9.1–2.0.2 · 2.1.1–2.3.17 · 2.3.18–2.3.79 · 2.3.80–2.3.148 · 2.3.149–3.2.31 · 3.2.32–3.3.20 · 3.4.21–3.4.50 · 3.5.52–3.5.110 · 3.6.1–3.6.39 · 3.7.1–4.4.2 · 4.5.1–4.9.11 · 4.10.1–4.14.1 · 4.15.1–4.15.65 · 4.16.1–4.16.62 · 4.17.1–4.17.24 · 5.0.1–5.0.36 · 5.1.1–5.2.10 · 5.3.1–5.5.10 · 5.6.1–5.17.5 · 5.18.1–6.2.9 · 6.3.1–6.12.9 · 6.13.1–6.16.5 · 6.17.1–6.18.53 · 6.19.1–7.1.5 · 7.1.6–7.1.68 · 7.1.69–7.1.126 · 7.1.127–7.1.154 · 7.2.1–7.2.53 · 7.3.1–7.3.58 · 8.0.1–8.1.47 · 8.1.48–8.2.32 · 8.2.33–8.2.103 · 8.2.104–8.3.15 · 8.4.1–9.1.20 · 9.2.1–9.6.9 · 9.7.1–9.10.7 · 9.11.1–9.16.8 · 9.17.1–10.0.8 · 10.1.1–10.2.19 · 10.3.1–10.5.3 · 10.6.1–10.8.44 · 10.8.45–10.8.101 · 10.8.102–10.8.112

1. 1.0.1Eusebius dedicates the work to Bishop Theodotus and presents it as the sequel to his fifteen-book Preparation for the Gospel.
2. 1.0.2Eusebius will use Moses and the prophets as witnesses who foresaw by the Spirit what the gospel later accomplished.
3. 1.0.3The prophets foretold countless matters, concerning Israel, the nations, cities, and kingdoms.
4. 1.0.4Eusebius will not treat all prophecies now; the truth of those he presents will vouch for the rest.
5. 1.1.1Eusebius turns to the prophecies that bear on the gospel.
6. 1.1.2The prophets foretold Christ’s divinity, his teaching to all nations, his virgin birth, his birthplace Bethlehem, and the time of his coming.
7. 1.1.3The miracles and teaching of Jesus recorded in the Gospels are contained in the prophecies.
8. 1.1.4The prophets also announced the new way of piety, the call of disciples, and the new covenant.
9. 1.1.5They foretold his rejection, betrayal, trial, sufferings, and death, and his patient silence.
10. 1.1.6The same oracles foretold his resurrection, appearances, gift of the Spirit, ascension, enthronement, and second coming.
11. 1.1.7The prophets also lamented the ruin that would come upon the Jewish nation, which Eusebius sees fulfilled after the crucifixion.
12. 1.1.8The prophets also foretold good news: the knowledge of God for all nations, the spread of the gospel and churches, and the church’s survival of persecution.
13. 1.1.9The fulfillment of prophecy proves the prophets inspired and their teaching true, without rhetorical artifice.
14. 1.1.10Christians claim to believe on the basis of prophecy but often cannot demonstrate it; Eusebius will supply the proof.
15. 1.1.11Eusebius insists that his book is not against the Jews but confirms both the Christian case and the truth of the Jewish prophecies.
16. 1.1.12The work also answers pagan critics who say Christians offer no proof and demand faith alone.
17. 1.1.13The treatise will also refute heresies that reject the prophets, by showing the agreement of Old and New.
18. 1.1.14Eusebius will be concise, following the precept “sum up much in few words.”
19. 1.1.15Eusebius recalls that the Preparation answered the first charge, from pagans, that Christians abandoned their ancestral gods for Hebrew oracles.
20. 1.1.16The second charge, from the Jews, is that Christians use their scriptures without keeping their way of life.
21. 1.1.17The Preparation showed that Christians left paganism by reasoned judgment.
22. 1.1.18The Demonstration will answer the second charge, that of the Jews.
23. 1.1.19Eusebius begins by asking what kind of piety Christianity is.
24. 1.2.1Christianity is neither Hellenism nor Judaism but the ancient piety of the godly men before Moses.
25. 1.2.2Judaism is life under the law of Moses; Hellenism is the worship of many gods.
26. 1.2.3Moses records godly men before the law: Enoch, Noah, Shem, and Japheth.
27. 1.2.4Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Job cannot be called Jews, since the law of Moses did not yet exist.
28. 1.2.5The patriarchs were neither Jews nor Greeks.
29. 1.2.6Abraham left his father’s house and worshiped the one God.
30. 1.2.7Jacob put away foreign gods from his household.
31. 1.2.8The patriarchs followed a third form of piety.
32. 1.2.9This third order is ancient but has lately been proclaimed to all nations through Christ.
33. 1.2.10Christianity is the ancient piety of the patriarchs renewed by Christ, a middle way between Hellenism and Judaism.
34. 1.2.11God’s promise to Abraham foretold the blessing of all nations through Abraham’s kind of piety.
35. 1.2.12Eusebius quotes God’s promises to Abraham that all nations will be blessed in him.
36. 1.2.13Distant nations could not be blessed in Abraham by physical descent.
37. 1.2.14Pagan nations, sunk in incest, homosexual practice, human sacrifice, and idolatry, could not share Abraham’s blessing as they were.
38. 1.2.15The nations could be blessed only by turning, as Abraham did, from their former ways to the one God.
39. 1.2.16Since the law of Moses fitted only Jews living in Judea, another way was needed for all nations to share Abraham’s blessing.
40. 1.3.1The law required all males to appear three times a year at the place God would choose.
41. 1.3.2The three pilgrimages were fixed to one place and to Passover, Pentecost, and the Day of Atonement.
42. 1.3.3The pilgrimage laws could not be kept by distant Jews, much less by all nations.
43. 1.3.4The law of purification after childbirth required sacrifices in person.
44. 1.3.5The law of purification after childbirth requires offerings at the door of the tabernacle.
45. 1.3.6Contact with the dead required purification by the ashes of a heifer.
46. 1.3.7Eusebius quotes the law on uncleanness from a corpse.
47. 1.3.8Whoever is not purified after touching a corpse is cut off from Israel.
48. 1.3.9The law extends corpse uncleanness to houses, vessels, and those who touch the slain or a tomb.
49. 1.3.10The unpurified person is to be destroyed from the congregation.
50. 1.3.11Moses prescribes the red heifer whose ashes make the water of purification.
51. 1.3.12The law restricts sacrifices to the one place God chooses.
52. 1.3.13Burnt offerings may be offered only in the chosen place.
53. 1.3.14Tithes, firstlings, and vows must be eaten in the chosen place.
54. 1.3.15Holy things and vows must be brought to the chosen place.
55. 1.3.16The yearly tithe must be eaten in the chosen place.
56. 1.3.17Moses provides for those who live far from the chosen place.
57. 1.3.18Those far away may sell their tithe and spend the money at the chosen place.
58. 1.3.19Firstborn animals are to be eaten before God in the chosen place.
59. 1.3.20Passover must be kept in the chosen place.
60. 1.3.21The Passover may be sacrificed only at the chosen place.
61. 1.3.22Eusebius quotes the law of the feast of weeks.
62. 1.3.23The feast of weeks is to be celebrated in the chosen place.
63. 1.3.24The feast of tabernacles too is tied to the chosen place.
64. 1.3.25The law’s demands could not suit distant nations, especially since it curses all who fail to keep it.
65. 1.3.26The law also prescribes remedies for involuntary sins.
66. 1.3.27Eusebius quotes the law of the sin offering for an ordinary person.
67. 1.3.28Even involuntary sins required a journey to the chosen place.
68. 1.3.29The law itself addresses only “the people of the land.”
69. 1.3.30A witness who withholds testimony must also bring an offering to the chosen place.
70. 1.3.31The law of uncleanness from touching unclean things.
71. 1.3.32The defiled person too must bring a sin offering to the chosen place.
72. 1.3.33A rash oath also requires confession and an offering at the chosen place.
73. 1.3.34Trespass in holy things also requires an offering at the chosen place.
74. 1.3.35Sins of ignorance too require a ram brought to the priest.
75. 1.3.36The law on sins against a neighbor requires restitution with a fifth added.
76. 1.3.37After restitution the offender must still bring a ram to the chosen place.
77. 1.3.38Moses distinguished involuntary sins from deliberate ones, which he punished severely.
78. 1.3.39If involuntary sins required such remedies, deliberate ones were restrained all the more, under the law’s curse.
79. 1.3.40It is absurd to require the nations to travel from the ends of the earth to fulfill the law.
80. 1.3.41Christ after his resurrection commanded that all nations be taught his commandments.
81. 1.3.42Christ’s commandments, not Moses’, were to be taught to the nations, as the apostles recognized at the Jerusalem council.
82. 1.3.43Moses foretold another prophet like himself, whom Eusebius identifies as Christ, the lawgiver of the nations.
83. 1.3.44Balaam’s oracle foretells a man from Jacob’s seed who will rule many nations.
84. 1.3.45Jacob’s blessing of Judah foretells the tribe and the time of Christ’s coming.
85. 1.3.46Moses knew his law could not serve all nations and that another prophet was needed.
86. 1.3.47That prophet is the one from Judah who would rule the nations.
87. 1.4.1Christians have adopted the Hebrew Scriptures because they contain prophecies about the nations, such as David’s prayer for a lawgiver.
88. 1.4.2David calls the nations to sing a new song, which Eusebius takes as a sign of a new law.
89. 1.4.3The psalm proclaims the Lord’s reign among the nations.
90. 1.4.4Another psalm calls for a new song because God has revealed his salvation to the nations.
91. 1.4.5Jeremiah calls the new song a new covenant, unlike the covenant of Sinai.
92. 1.4.6The old covenant was given to raise up Israelites who had fallen into Egyptian idolatry; the law is not for the righteous.
93. 1.4.7Isaiah calls the new covenant a law going out from Zion to all nations.
94. 1.4.8The law from Zion is the gospel, which began in Jerusalem and spread to all nations.
95. 1.4.9Eusebius turns to the character of the new covenant.
96. 1.5.1Unlike the old covenant, the new had to be livable by all nations everywhere.
97. 1.5.2Christ’s law renews the piety of Abraham and his forefathers.
98. 1.5.3Christian life matches that of Abraham and the patriarchs.
99. 1.5.4The patriarchs abandoned idolatry and worshiped the one Most High God.
100. 1.5.5Abraham confessed the Most High Creator.
101. 1.5.6Melchizedek, priest of God Most High, blessed Abraham.
102. 1.5.7Enoch, Noah, and Job lived righteously before Moses; Job’s response to loss is quoted.
103. 1.5.8Job describes the Lord of all as Creator.
104. 1.5.9Christians share the patriarchs’ piety and therefore their blessing.
105. 1.5.10The patriarchs knew the Word of God and saw him in appearances.
106. 1.5.11Moses calls the one who appeared to the patriarchs both God and Angel of God, showing he was a second, distinct from the Father.
107. 1.5.12Eusebius quotes Jacob’s dream of the ladder.
108. 1.5.13The Lord at the top of the ladder speaks to Jacob.
109. 1.5.14Jacob set up the stone as a pillar.
110. 1.5.15The same God is later called the Angel of God.
111. 1.5.16The Angel says, “I am the God who appeared to you” at Bethel.
112. 1.5.17The same one appeared to Abraham as God and Lord and taught him about the Father.
113. 1.5.18The one who appeared to Job and was seen by him is the same.
114. 1.5.19Since the invisible Father cannot be seen, the one seen by the patriarchs was God the Word.
115. 1.5.20The patriarchs were called “christs” (anointed ones), just as believers are called Christians.
116. 1.5.21The psalm refers to the patriarchs, who thus shared the name of Christ.
117. 1.6.1The patriarchs lived the same virtuous piety that Christ proclaims, without the Mosaic law.
118. 1.6.2Melchizedek, uncircumcised and without the law, lived according to the gospel.
119. 1.6.3Melchizedek, greater than Abraham, and Noah were righteous without the law.
120. 1.6.4Noah knew nothing of Jewish customs yet was righteous.
121. 1.6.5Enoch lived in a Christian way; Abraham received circumcision only as a sign for his physical descendants.
122. 1.6.6Before circumcision Abraham already lived in a Christian way.
123. 1.6.7God told Isaac that Abraham kept his commandments before the law of Moses.
124. 1.6.8The commandments the patriarchs kept differed from Moses’ law, which was not given to the fathers.
125. 1.6.9Moses’ wording implies that the fathers had a different and better covenant.
126. 1.6.10Abraham was counted righteous through faith.
127. 1.6.11Circumcision came after Abraham’s righteousness; Joseph too lived freely in Egypt.
128. 1.6.12Moses himself grew up at the Egyptian court eating Egyptian food.
129. 1.6.13Job, who lived before Moses, was righteous without sabbath or law.
130. 1.6.14Job’s account of his care for the poor, the widow, and the orphan shows a life in harmony with the gospel.
131. 1.6.15Job practiced the gospel’s compassion toward the suffering.
132. 1.6.16Job shunned mockery and deceit, as the gospel teaches.
133. 1.6.17Moses forbids adultery; the gospel forbids even the desire.
134. 1.6.18Job guarded even his eyes from desire for another man’s wife, as the gospel requires.
135. 1.6.19Job explains why adulterous desire must be guarded against.
136. 1.6.20Job refused bribes.
137. 1.6.21Job treated his servants justly.
138. 1.6.22Job regarded his servants as his equals before God.
139. 1.6.23Job cared for widows, orphans, and the naked.
140. 1.6.24Job did not trust in riches.
141. 1.6.25Job notes the transience of all things.
142. 1.6.26Job loved his enemies before the gospel commanded it.
143. 1.6.27Job’s hospitality matches Christ’s words about welcoming the stranger.
144. 1.6.28Job confessed his faults openly, helped the poor, and forgave debts.
145. 1.6.29Job’s life typifies the virtue of the godly men before Moses.
146. 1.6.30The new covenant is the renewal of the most ancient piety; it is both old and new.
147. 1.6.31Meanwhile the law of Moses served as guardian and physician for Israel, giving a lower, imperfect way of life.
148. 1.6.32Moses drew Israel out of Egyptian idolatry to the Creator as a first step of piety.
149. 1.6.33Moses forbade murder, adultery, theft, perjury, homosexual acts, and incest.
150. 1.6.34Moses was the first to give a written, orderly constitution.
151. 1.6.35Moses gave a symbolic, bodily worship and confined it to one place, Jerusalem.
152. 1.6.36Since the fall of Jerusalem, Jews cannot perform the law’s sacrifices and rites.
153. 1.6.37Unable to keep the whole law, the Jews fall under its curse.
154. 1.6.38Moses confined his law to one place, foreseeing that it would give way to the new covenant.
155. 1.6.39With Christ’s coming and the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, the Mosaic order ended and the new teaching replaced it.
156. 1.6.40Christ taught that true worship is not bound to a place but is in spirit and truth.
157. 1.6.41After the temple’s fall, the ancient piety of the patriarchs and its blessing shone out to all nations.
158. 1.6.42The patriarchs worshiped in spirit and truth, and Zephaniah foretold that all nations would worship God from their own places.
159. 1.6.43Malachi foretold a pure sacrifice offered to God in every place among the nations.
160. 1.6.44The pure sacrifice is offered everywhere through prayer and pious deeds rather than blood.
161. 1.6.45Isaiah foretold an altar to the Lord in Egypt and a savior sent to the Egyptians.
162. 1.6.46Eusebius asks whether the prophets did not foretell the end of the Mosaic law.
163. 1.6.47Isaiah’s altar in Egypt contradicts Moses’ restriction to one place and points to a new man sent by God.
164. 1.6.48A new altar implies a new priesthood and thus a change of law.
165. 1.6.49The prophecy is fulfilled today as Egyptians and all former idolaters worship the God of the prophets.
166. 1.6.50Throughout the world, including Egypt, an altar of bloodless, rational sacrifices has been raised to the one Lord.
167. 1.6.51The present spread of the knowledge of God began with Christ’s coming.
168. 1.6.52The man sent to save Egypt is the one Moses foretold would rule many nations.
169. 1.6.53The prophecies were fulfilled only after the coming of Jesus.
170. 1.6.54Since Christ, Abraham’s way of piety is pursued among all peoples, even the most remote.
171. 1.6.55Former idolaters now call upon the God of Abraham since Christ’s coming.
172. 1.6.56Converted nations, once savage, now learn virtue and self-control in the churches, rich and poor, women, children, and slaves alike.
173. 1.6.57All nations now worship God at home in spirit and truth with bloodless worship.
174. 1.6.58The “old covenant” means the Mosaic covenant, not the patriarchs’ piety.
175. 1.6.59Jeremiah specifies that the old covenant is the one made at the exodus.
176. 1.6.60The prophecy distinguishes the new covenant from the Sinai covenant, not from Abraham’s piety.
177. 1.6.61The new covenant follows the patriarchs’ way, not Moses’.
178. 1.6.62There are three orders of religion: idolatry, Mosaic Judaism, and the gospel, which stands above both.
179. 1.6.63The gospel order has escaped both pagan superstition and the imperfect Mosaic worship, and proclaims a law for all nations.
180. 1.6.64Christ’s word calls all people to the higher piety of Abraham, beyond the Mosaic law given to one race.
181. 1.6.65The gospel frees worship from a single place.
182. 1.6.66The old law prescribed animal sacrifice; the gospel teaches worship of the mind and virtuous life.
183. 1.6.67Moses forbade murder and adultery; Christ forbids even anger and lustful looking.
184. 1.6.68Moses forbade false oaths; Christ forbids oaths altogether.
185. 1.6.69Moses allowed retaliation; Christ forbids it.
186. 1.6.70Yield even your cloak to one who sues you.
187. 1.6.71Christ commands love of enemies and prayer for persecutors.
188. 1.6.72Moses accommodated hardness of heart; Christ restores the ancient piety.
189. 1.6.73Moses promised a land; Christ offers the kingdom of heaven.
190. 1.6.74These teachings are what Christ commanded his disciples to proclaim to all nations.
191. 1.6.75Christ established a new way of life that people of every condition learn and practice.
192. 1.6.76Christ himself kept the law of Moses, so as not to seem hostile to it or give heretics a pretext.
193. 1.7.1Christ kept and fulfilled the Mosaic law before instituting the gospel law.
194. 1.7.2Had Christ broken the law, he could not have been believed to be the Christ foretold.
195. 1.7.3Christ gave a law fitted to all, since the Mosaic law was impossible for the nations.
196. 1.7.4The law’s requirements were impossible for distant nations.
197. 1.7.5Having fulfilled the law, Christ gave through his disciples precepts suited to all nations.
198. 1.7.6Christians do not keep Jewish observances but accept the Jewish prophecies; Christ fulfills the law in another way too.
199. 1.7.7Christ fulfills prophecies such as Moses’ promise of a prophet like himself.
200. 1.7.8The prophet “like Moses” must be a lawgiver equal to Moses.
201. 1.7.9The prophet like Moses must be a lawgiver.
202. 1.7.10No later prophet was like Moses, since none was a lawgiver.
203. 1.7.11Jesus is the awaited prophet-lawgiver like Moses.
204. 1.7.12Christ’s teaching shows him to be an all-wise and perfect lawgiver.
205. 1.7.13Jesus taught with authority, fulfilling Moses’ prophecy.
206. 1.7.14Christ ends the old law and founds the new, as the cornerstone foretold by Isaiah.
207. 1.7.15Christ the cornerstone joins the Mosaic and gospel buildings into one.
208. 1.7.16The psalm speaks of the rejected stone that became the head of the corner.
209. 1.7.17The rejected stone is Christ, rejected by the Jewish leaders but made head of the new covenant.
210. 1.7.18Christians accept Moses and the prophets but live according to the patriarchs’ way.
211. 1.7.19By following Christ, Christians prove Moses and the prophets truthful.
212. 1.7.20Moses warned that whoever did not heed the prophet would be destroyed, which Eusebius sees fulfilled in the Jews’ fate.
213. 1.7.21Rejecting Christ and unable to keep the law, the Jews fall under Moses’ curse.
214. 1.7.22Christians fulfill Moses’ command by listening to the prophet he foretold.
215. 1.7.23Christ wrote the laws of the new covenant not on stone but in his disciples’ souls, fulfilling Jeremiah.
216. 1.8.1The church has two ways of life; the first, above nature, renounces marriage, children, and property for God’s service alone.
217. 1.8.2Ascetics live as if in heaven and serve as priests for all through pure doctrine, soul, and virtue.
218. 1.8.3The second, more human Christian way includes marriage, children, work, and just military service, with set times for devotion.
219. 1.8.4This second grade of piety ensures that all can share in salvation.
220. 1.9.1If Christians share the patriarchs’ piety, why did the patriarchs value marriage and children while Christians often do not?
221. 1.9.2A second objection: the patriarchs offered animal sacrifices, which Christians reject.
222. 1.9.3The patriarchs lived at the beginning of human history; Christians live near its end.
223. 1.9.4Early humanity needed to multiply; now the end is near and the gospel proclaims a coming new age.
224. 1.9.5Second answer: the patriarchs could serve God undistracted with families, but today’s conditions distract.
225. 1.9.6Paul teaches that the shortness of the time and the cares of marriage are reasons to refrain from it.
226. 1.9.7Paul contrasts the undivided devotion of the unmarried woman with the cares of the married.
227. 1.9.8The difficulty of the times explains Christian abstinence from marriage; a third reason explains the patriarchs’ zeal for children.
228. 1.9.9The few godly men of old withdrew from a corrupt humanity.
229. 1.9.10They lived a separate, philosophical, God-fearing life.
230. 1.9.11The patriarchs had children to preserve and hand on their piety.
231. 1.9.12Prophets, apostles, and Christ himself descended from their line.
232. 1.9.13Bad descendants do not discredit the patriarchs, as some of Jesus’ disciples also fell away freely.
233. 1.9.14That reason no longer applies now that multitudes are coming to the faith; teachers must be free from worldly cares.
234. 1.9.15Teachers of the church abstain from marriage to devote themselves to spiritual children.
235. 1.9.16The patriarchs had children early and then ceased; Enoch pleased God after begetting Methuselah.
236. 1.9.17Noah, Isaac, and Joseph had few children and ceased thereafter.
237. 1.9.18Moses and Aaron had no children after God’s revelation.
238. 1.9.19Melchizedek, Joshua, and many prophets are recorded without children.
239. 1.9.20Eusebius refers to his other work on the patriarchs’ polygamy, and notes that the new covenant does not forbid children: a bishop is to be the husband of one wife.
240. 1.9.21Clergy should abstain from marital relations once ordained; for others marriage remains honorable.
241. 1.10.1Eusebius turns to the second question, why Christians do not offer animal sacrifice.
242. 1.10.2Greek tradition held that the first men offered only plants and that animal sacrifice was a later impiety equal to murder.
243. 1.10.3Scripture instead records animal sacrifice from the beginning.
244. 1.10.4God accepted Abel’s animal offering rather than Cain’s produce.
245. 1.10.5Noah and Abraham also offered animal sacrifices, the earliest form of worship in Scripture.
246. 1.10.6The patriarchs, inspired by God, saw that they owed a ransom for their sins.
247. 1.10.7They offered animals as substitutes for their own souls, knowing that an animal’s soul is its blood, not a rational soul.
248. 1.10.8Moses teaches that the life is in the blood, given for atonement.
249. 1.10.9The blood of sacrificed animals atones in place of the human soul.
250. 1.10.10The offerer lays hands on the victim’s head, as if offering it for his own head.
251. 1.10.11Animal souls are material, unlike human rational souls, so animal sacrifice was not murder.
252. 1.10.12Moses shows that plants and animals alike came from the earth.
253. 1.10.13Animals are of one nature with plants, so animal sacrifice is not wrong; Noah was allowed to eat meat.
254. 1.10.14Animal sacrifices were ransoms until the true victim came; they prefigured him and ceased when he arrived.
255. 1.10.15Christ is the foretold victim, led like a sheep to slaughter.
256. 1.10.16Isaiah describes the servant who bears our sins and heals us by his wounds.
257. 1.10.17Jeremiah foretold the innocent lamb, and John the Baptist identified Jesus as the Lamb of God.
258. 1.10.18Since Christ, the Lamb of God, is the true ransom, Christians celebrate daily the memorial of his body and blood and do not return to the old symbolic sacrifices.
259. 1.10.19Jewish believers are freed from the law’s curse, for the Lamb of God became sin and curse for all.
260. 1.10.20Paul teaches that Christ became a curse and was made sin for us.
261. 1.10.21The ancients rightly held to symbols in the absence of the reality, which they longed to see.
262. 1.10.22Christians, having the realities, no longer need the old types.
263. 1.10.23The pre-existent Word, high priest of all creation, offered the humanity like ours as the lamb, bearing our sins and the law’s curse.
264. 1.10.24Christ bore all the punishments due to us, crowned by the cross.
265. 1.10.25Christ offered himself to the Father for our salvation and gave us a memorial to offer continually instead of sacrifice.
266. 1.10.26David foretold the one rescued from the pit who sings a new song.
267. 1.10.27The psalm contrasts sacrifices with the body God prepared.
268. 1.10.28Christ’s incarnate body replaced the old sacrifices; Christians, receiving the memorial of his body and blood, sing of the table and cup.
269. 1.10.29The psalm signifies the mystical anointing and the Eucharist, through which Christians offer bloodless sacrifices through Christ the high priest.
270. 1.10.30Isaiah also foretold these wonders.
271. 1.10.31Isaiah foretells wine, gladness, and anointing for all nations.
272. 1.10.32The anointing explains the name “Christians,” and the wine points to the mystery of the new covenant celebrated everywhere.
273. 1.10.33The psalms proclaim the spiritual sacrifice of praise.
274. 1.10.34Prayer and a broken spirit are sacrifices to God.
275. 1.10.35The prophecy of a pure sacrifice among the nations is now fulfilled.
276. 1.10.36Christians offer the sacrifice of praise, the holy victim, and a contrite heart.
277. 1.10.37Christians offer incense through their prayers everywhere.
278. 1.10.38Christians sacrifice by celebrating the Eucharist, offering thanksgiving and hymns, and consecrating themselves wholly to God in purity and true doctrine.
279. 2.0.1Book 2 opens by answering the Jewish objection that the prophetic promises belong to Israel alone.
280. 2.0.2Eusebius grants that Christ was promised to Israel but denies that the nations are excluded.
281. 2.1.1Eusebius will set against Jewish proof-texts the many prophecies promising salvation to the nations through Christ.
282. 2.1.2Eusebius will show that the promises are equal for Jews and Greeks, and further that the prophets foretold Israel’s rejection, apart from a remnant, and the fall of Jerusalem.
283. 2.1.3Eusebius will later explain how the prophecies foretell both redemption and rejection for Israel.
284. 2.1.4Eusebius begins a numbered collection of prophecies about the nations, starting with Genesis.
285. 2.1.5God revealed to Abraham the hidden mystery of the blessing of all nations, now fulfilled through the gospel.
286. 2.1.6The blessing cannot refer to Jewish proselytes, since the nations could not keep the law.
287. 2.1.7The blessing belongs to those from all nations who come through Christ; next heading: Isaac’s seed.
288. 2.1.8God promised Isaac that all nations would be blessed in his seed.
289. 2.1.9In Christ, Isaac’s descendant, the nations are blessed; next heading: nations from Jacob.
290. 2.1.10God promised Jacob that gatherings of nations would come from him.
291. 2.1.11The many gatherings of nations from Jacob are the churches gathered by Christ; next heading: Deuteronomy.
292. 2.1.12Moses’ song calls the nations to rejoice with God’s people, and other Greek versions call the nations his people; next heading: a psalm.
293. 2.1.13The psalm foretells that all nations will turn and worship the Lord.
294. 2.1.14Future generations and peoples will hear of God’s righteousness; next heading: another psalm.
295. 2.1.15The psalm calls all nations to praise God the great King.
296. 2.1.16God reigns over the nations, whose rulers gather to the God of Abraham; next heading: Psalm 85.
297. 2.1.17All the nations will come and worship the one God; next heading: Psalm 95.
298. 2.1.18The psalm calls all the earth to sing a new song and proclaim God’s salvation among the nations.
299. 2.1.19The nations are called to glorify the Lord who reigns; next heading: Zechariah.
300. 2.1.20Zechariah foretells that the nations will go up yearly to worship and keep the feast of tabernacles.
301. 2.1.21Egypt and the nations that do not keep the feast will be punished.
302. 2.1.22Understood spiritually, Zechariah’s prophecy concerns the calling of the nations; next heading: Isaiah.
303. 2.1.23Isaiah foretells light for Galilee of the nations.
304. 2.1.24Isaiah calls the islands and nations to hear, and appoints the servant as a light to the nations.
305. 2.1.25Many more such promises exist; those given suffice.
306. 2.1.26Having shown that the nations share the promises, Eusebius turns to their cause.
307. 2.1.27The cause is Christ’s coming; Eusebius will list bare testimonies now and interpret them later.
308. 2.2.1Psalm 2 foretells the plot against Christ and his proclamation as Son of God.
309. 2.2.2God gives the nations to his Son as an inheritance; next heading: Psalm 71.
310. 2.2.3The psalm foretells a king whose rule extends over all nations.
311. 2.2.4All tribes are blessed in the king; next heading: Psalm 97, on God’s salvation, which is the Son’s name in Hebrew.
312. 2.2.5The psalm celebrates God’s salvation revealed to all the ends of the earth.
313. 2.2.6Creation rejoices as the Lord comes to judge; next heading: Genesis 49.
314. 2.2.7Jacob’s blessing foretells the one for whom the kingdom is reserved; next heading: Zephaniah.
315. 2.2.8Zephaniah foretells the end of idols and worship from every place; next heading: Zephaniah 3.
316. 2.2.9Zephaniah’s oracle of the day of resurrection, one language of worship, and sacrifices from Ethiopia; next heading: Zechariah.
317. 2.2.10Zechariah foretells the Lord dwelling in Zion and many nations becoming his people; next heading: Isaiah 11.
318. 2.2.11Isaiah foretells the root of Jesse, ruler and hope of the nations; next heading: Isaiah 42.
319. 2.2.12Isaiah’s servant brings judgment to the nations, who hope in his name.
320. 2.2.13The servant is given as a light to the nations; next heading: Isaiah.
321. 2.2.14The servant, called from the womb, speaks to the islands and nations.
322. 2.2.15The servant is a light to the nations; next heading: Isaiah 49:7.
323. 2.2.16Kings and rulers will worship the despised servant.
324. 2.2.17The servant is a covenant for the nations, freeing captives and leading them to pasture.
325. 2.2.18Peoples come from far off; the heavens rejoice; next heading: Isaiah 55.
326. 2.2.19God makes an everlasting covenant and gives a ruler to the nations, who will call on him.
327. 2.2.20Eusebius turns to his third point: prophecies of judgment on Israel at Christ’s coming.
328. 2.2.21Eusebius will cite prophecies of Israel’s rejection for unbelief; next heading: Jeremiah.
329. 2.3.1Israel refused God’s way, so the nations heard; next heading: Jeremiah 16.
330. 2.3.2Nations will come from the ends of the earth confessing the falsehood of their idols.
331. 2.3.3Judah’s sin is engraved on its heart; it will be plundered and lose its inheritance.
332. 2.3.4Judah will be enslaved in a foreign land; next heading: Amos.
333. 2.3.5Amos foretells Israel sifted among the nations and David’s fallen tent raised up.
334. 2.3.6The rebuilt tent of David will draw the rest of mankind and all nations; next heading: Micah.
335. 2.3.7Micah accuses Jerusalem’s leaders, priests, and prophets of corruption.
336. 2.3.8Zion will be plowed, but in the last days all nations will stream to the Lord’s mountain; next heading: Zechariah.
337. 2.3.9Zechariah foretells the gentle king riding a colt, who brings peace to the nations.
338. 2.3.10Malachi foretells the rejection of Israel’s sacrifices and a pure offering among the nations; next heading: Isaiah.
339. 2.3.11Isaiah laments Zion’s desolation and unfaithfulness.
340. 2.3.12The unfaithful will wither and burn.
341. 2.3.13Isaiah foretells all nations coming to the Lord’s house; next heading: Isaiah 17.
342. 2.3.14Only a small remnant will be left, like gleanings.
343. 2.3.15People will turn from idols to their Maker, while the cities are abandoned.
344. 2.3.16Israel’s cities will be desolate for forsaking God; next heading: Isaiah 25.
345. 2.3.17Isaiah praises God for overthrowing the city of the ungodly and helping the poor.
346. 2.3.18God will prepare a feast for all nations and wipe away every tear; next heading: Isaiah 43.
347. 2.3.19God promises new things: water in the desert for his chosen people.
348. 2.3.20God rebukes Israel for its sins and empty worship.
349. 2.3.21God calls the ends of the earth to turn and be saved; every knee will bow; next heading: Isaiah 50.
350. 2.3.22God asks where Israel’s bill of divorce is; she was sent away for her sins.
351. 2.3.23Those who walk by their own fire will lie down in grief.
352. 2.3.24A law and light will go out from God to the nations; next heading: Isaiah 59.
353. 2.3.25Israel’s sins separate it from God.
354. 2.3.26Their speech is lawless and their judgment false.
355. 2.3.27Their works are vain and violent; they do not know peace.
356. 2.3.28They grope in darkness at noon.
357. 2.3.29Isaiah foretells that east and west will fear God’s name; Eusebius concludes that the Jews have no advantage over the nations.
358. 2.3.30If the Jews claim Abraham’s blessing by descent, the nations have been promised an equal blessing.
359. 2.3.31God’s kingdom extends over all nations, not Israel alone.
360. 2.3.32The nations too are called to bring offerings and enter God’s courts.
361. 2.3.33Isaiah’s prophecy of an altar in Egypt shows worship outside Jerusalem.
362. 2.3.34All nations, even Egypt, are called to keep the spiritual feast of tabernacles in the true Jerusalem.
363. 2.3.35Once Israel was the Lord’s portion; now the nations are given to Christ as his inheritance.
364. 2.3.36God’s “salvation” made known to the nations is the name of Jesus.
365. 2.3.37Simeon, holding Jesus, called him God’s salvation for the nations, as the psalm foretold.
366. 2.3.38All nations will worship God from their own places and offer bloodless sacrifices even from Ethiopia.
367. 2.3.39Being God’s people, once Israel’s privilege, is promised to the nations at the Lord’s coming.
368. 2.3.40The root of Jesse, admitted to be the Christ, rises to rule the nations, who hope in him.
369. 2.3.41The servant brings judgment and salvation to all nations.
370. 2.3.42Christ is the Father’s covenant and witness to the nations, who will call on him.
371. 2.3.43The prophecies silence the claim that the promises are for Israel alone; only a remnant of Israel believed.
372. 2.3.44Paul, citing Isaiah, teaches that only a remnant of Israel will be saved.
373. 2.3.45Paul insists God has not rejected his people.
374. 2.3.46As in Elijah’s day, a remnant chosen by grace remains.
375. 2.3.47The apostles and Jewish believers are the remnant and seed foretold by Isaiah.
376. 2.3.48Eusebius will show from the prophets that salvation was promised only to a remnant of Israel; next heading: Isaiah 1.
377. 2.3.49Isaiah foretells the desolation of the land, with only a seed left.
378. 2.3.50Isaiah opens with a vision against Judea and Jerusalem and rebukes Israel’s ignorance of God.
379. 2.3.51Isaiah laments the sinful nation.
380. 2.3.52Isaiah spoke of desolation that had not yet happened in his day.
381. 2.3.53Since Christ’s coming, Isaiah’s prophecy of desolation has been fulfilled in the fall of the temple and the land.
382. 2.3.54The apostles and Jewish believers are the seed that spread through the world and grew into the churches.
383. 2.3.55Paul interprets the remnant prophecy in Romans.
384. 2.3.56Paul again affirms a remnant chosen by grace.
385. 2.3.57Isaiah goes on to reject the Mosaic worship and to foretell the new covenant of the washing of regeneration.
386. 2.3.58Isaiah rejects the sacrifices and calls for a washing, which Eusebius reads as baptism.
387. 2.3.59Their hands are full of blood.
388. 2.3.60Isaiah foretells a plot to bind the righteous one.
389. 2.3.61The righteous one plotted against is Christ; next heading: Isaiah 4.
390. 2.3.62Isaiah promises glory for the remnant of Israel written for life.
391. 2.3.63The remnant are those written for life and called holy; the day in question will become clear.
392. 2.3.64Isaiah’s first vision ends with the burning of the lawless.
393. 2.3.65Isaiah begins a new oracle “concerning” (or “on behalf of”) Judea and Jerusalem.
394. 2.3.66The following oracle has nothing favorable for Israel but foretells a new mountain and house of God for all.
395. 2.3.67Isaiah foretells the nations streaming to the mountain of the Lord.
396. 2.3.68God has forsaken his people for their divinations.
397. 2.3.69Israel worshiped idols and must hide from the Lord when he arises.
398. 2.3.70Eusebius reads the Lord’s “arising” as the time of the land’s ruin.
399. 2.3.71On the day of the Lord the proud are humbled and idols are hidden away.
400. 2.3.72After Christ’s coming, people cast away their idols.
401. 2.3.73This applies to all mankind because of the calling of the nations.
402. 2.3.74God will take away from Judea its provisions and all its leaders.
403. 2.3.75The oracle said to be “on behalf of” Judea is in fact against it, unless it has a hidden sense.
404. 2.3.76Threats of loss and ruin cannot be “on behalf of” Judea.
405. 2.3.77When the nation falls away, a tested remnant will be written with God and called holy.
406. 2.3.78The remnant are the apostles and Jewish believers.
407. 2.3.79The remnant from Jerusalem explains why the prophecy is said to be “on behalf of” Judea and Jerusalem.
408. 2.3.80The apostles’ worldwide preaching fulfills the prophecy of the remnant’s glory; Aquila and Theodotion read “power and glory.”
409. 2.3.81Isaiah’s commission foretells Israel’s hardening and desolation, with the remnant multiplied.
410. 2.3.82The remnant multiplied are the Jewish disciples, whose fruit is the churches of the nations.
411. 2.3.83Isaiah had already foretold the desolation of the land.
412. 2.3.84The desolation came after Jesus foretold it, when the Romans besieged Jerusalem.
413. 2.3.85The cause of desolation was their failure to perceive Christ; a small remnant was preserved and multiplied.
414. 2.3.86Isaiah’s “tenth” and later plunder refer to the sieges under Vespasian and Hadrian, after which Jews were barred from Jerusalem.
415. 2.3.87Isaiah foretells the remnant eating butter and honey.
416. 2.3.88The “day” of Isaiah 7 is the time of the virgin birth and Christ’s coming.
417. 2.3.89Isaiah’s flies, bees, and razor are enemy powers that strip the nation of its glory.
418. 2.3.90The man who rears a heifer and two sheep is the believing remnant, understood mystically of the apostles.
419. 2.3.91The two sheep are catechumens and the baptized; the heifer is the church’s presiding clergy.
420. 2.3.92Scripture compares ordinary believers to sheep and church leaders to oxen.
421. 2.3.93Paul applies the law about oxen to ministers of the gospel.
422. 2.3.94Since the passage must be read spiritually, its sequel must be read so too.
423. 2.3.95Isaiah foretells a small remnant, written by a child, that will trust in God alone.
424. 2.3.96Only a remnant of Israel’s multitude will be saved.
425. 2.3.97The few who escape the burning of Jerusalem are “a number.”
426. 2.3.98The countable remnant are the Jewish believers, written down by the child Christ foretold by Isaiah.
427. 2.3.99The remnant written by the child are those written for life.
428. 2.3.100The remnant will trust in God rather than in their oppressors.
429. 2.3.101The apostles, trusting God rather than rulers, went to all nations.
430. 2.3.102Trusting God in truth, the apostles left their country and accomplished their mission.
431. 2.3.103The remnant, trusting God, was saved while the nation became like sand, not stars.
432. 2.3.104Abraham’s descendants were promised as stars (the godly) and sand (the earthbound).
433. 2.3.105When Israel became like sand, only the remnant was saved.
434. 2.3.106The “word cut short” is the concise gospel that replaced the Mosaic symbols.
435. 2.3.107Isaiah foretells the root of Jesse ruling the nations and God gathering the remnant.
436. 2.3.108The notable “day” in these prophecies is the coming of God, when only a remnant is saved.
437. 2.3.109This passage foretells both Christ’s birth from David’s line and Israel’s fall.
438. 2.3.110Lebanon’s fall means Jerusalem’s; then the rod from Jesse’s root appears.
439. 2.3.111The peaceful animals of Isaiah 11 signify savage nations becoming gentle and pious.
440. 2.3.112The whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.
441. 2.3.113The root of Jesse will rule the nations.
442. 2.3.114Isaiah returns to Jewish believers so as not to exclude them from hope.
443. 2.3.115Isaiah then promises that God will seek the remnant of his people; Aquila’s rendering is cited.
444. 2.3.116The enemies named are spiritual powers that once held Israel captive to vice.
445. 2.3.117The remnant, preserved from spiritual captivity, becomes the Lord’s possession.
446. 2.3.118The Lord “adds” the mysteries of the new covenant, revealed to the remnant.
447. 2.3.119Aquila and Theodotion read “to acquire the remnant”; the remnant lifts a sign to the nations.
448. 2.3.120Through the apostles the Lord gathers the dispersed to Christ.
449. 2.3.121Spiritual character marks the true Israel; wickedness makes the fleshly Israel “Sodom and Gomorrah.”
450. 2.3.122The remnant proclaimed Christ to the nations and gathered one people for God.
451. 2.3.123The apostles, from different tribes, are united by one Spirit and put away tribal jealousy.
452. 2.3.124United, the apostles went through lands and islands, winning souls for Christ.
453. 2.3.125The reader should interpret the rest spiritually; Eusebius must move on.
454. 2.3.126Isaiah foretells judgment on the world, with the remnant more precious than gold.
455. 2.3.127The remnant are few, like a fleeing gazelle.
456. 2.3.128Only a few will be saved; the promises are not for the whole nation indiscriminately.
457. 2.3.129Isaiah foretells the failing of Jacob’s glory, with only a few left like gleanings, who will trust in their Maker.
458. 2.3.130Israel’s glory falls; a few believers are left; all mankind turns from idols.
459. 2.3.131Isaiah calls those left and grieving to hear God’s word.
460. 2.3.132Only the grieving remnant is called to hear God’s secrets.
461. 2.3.133Isaiah foretells that few will be left; these are the remnant chosen by grace.
462. 2.3.134Only the remnant will rejoice amid the desolation.
463. 2.3.135Ephraim’s proud crown will fall, and the Lord will be the crown of the remnant.
464. 2.3.136The Lord crowns only the remnant; the rest are the crown of insolence.
465. 2.3.137The remnant from Jerusalem will take root and bear seed.
466. 2.3.138The apostles rooted their teaching throughout the earth and directed its fruit to heaven.
467. 2.3.139God chose the remnant and the nations to provoke the unbelieving to jealousy.
468. 2.3.140God will spare a seed from Jacob and Judah like a grape in a cluster.
469. 2.3.141God’s chosen will dwell in peace, but those who serve Fortune and the demon will fall by the sword.
470. 2.3.142Those who refused God’s call will fall.
471. 2.3.143The promises belong to the chosen seed, not to the whole nation; many are called, few chosen.
472. 2.3.144The new name promised to God’s servants is “Christians”; next heading: Micah.
473. 2.3.145Micah foretells God receiving the remnant of Israel.
474. 2.3.146Micah calls the remnant a “drop,” as Isaiah called it a seed.
475. 2.3.147The apostles are the “drop” from which believers throughout the world were gathered.
476. 2.3.148Micah foretells the eternal ruler born in Bethlehem.
477. 2.3.149The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations like dew and like a lion.
478. 2.3.150Micah’s prophecy foretells Christ’s birth in Bethlehem, pre-existence, virgin birth, and the apostles’ preaching.
479. 2.3.151At Christ’s birth only the remnant of Israel is saved, to become like dew to the nations.
480. 2.3.152Aquila and Theodotion’s renderings of Micah 5:7 are compared.
481. 2.3.153The apostles hoped not in man but in their Lord, the Word of God.
482. 2.3.154The remnant as a lion signifies the boldness of the apostolic preaching.
483. 2.3.155The apostles won the nations for Christ, whose word has triumphed over all its enemies.
484. 2.3.156Christ’s hand prevails over all who persecute his church; next heading: Zephaniah.
485. 2.3.157Zephaniah foretells one worship for the peoples and a meek, humble remnant.
486. 2.3.158The remnant of Israel will be righteous and secure.
487. 2.3.159The meek remnant are Jewish believers in Christ; next heading: Zechariah.
488. 2.3.160Zechariah foretells the capture of Jerusalem, with a remnant spared.
489. 2.3.161Zechariah, writing after the exile, foretold the Roman siege; the spared remnant are the apostles; next heading: Jeremiah.
490. 2.3.162Jeremiah foretells a few gathered to Zion, new shepherds, and the end of the ark of the covenant.
491. 2.3.163The few chosen from Israel became shepherds of the believing nations.
492. 2.3.164The ark will be forgotten because a new covenant replaces Mosaic worship; next heading: Jeremiah 5.
493. 2.3.165Jeremiah condemns Israel’s idolatry and adultery and foretells punishment, sparing the Lord’s “supports.”
494. 2.3.166The “supports” spared are the believing remnant; next heading: Ezekiel.
495. 2.3.167Ezekiel foretells that survivors among the nations will remember God.
496. 2.3.168Ezekiel’s survivors are the apostolic remnant; next heading: Ezekiel 11.
497. 2.3.169God will scatter Israel but be a little sanctuary for them.
498. 2.3.170The “little sanctuary” is another name for the remnant; next heading: Ezekiel 12.
499. 2.3.171God will scatter Israel but leave a few to confess their sins among the nations.
500. 2.3.172Even after four judgments, some will escape; next heading: Ezekiel 14.
501. 2.3.173The same meaning; next heading: Ezekiel 20.
502. 2.3.174God will bring a numbered few into his covenant and purge the rebels.
503. 2.3.175Eusebius concludes that the promises belong to a remnant, not to all Jews, and no more to them than to believing Gentiles.
504. 2.3.176The collection refutes the claim that Christ comes only for the Jews.
505. 2.3.177Book 1 explained why Christians do not keep Jewish law and the antiquity of the gospel life.
506. 2.3.178Eusebius announces the next subject: the mystery of Christ, his divinity, the timing of his coming, and his incarnation.
507. 3.0.1Book 3 begins the main subject after the preliminary questions of Books 1–2.
508. 3.0.2Eusebius will treat Christ’s human dispensation and divinity from the prophets, beginning with how they spoke of the gospel.
509. 3.1.1Isaiah’s prophecy of the Spirit-anointed preacher was fulfilled by Jesus in the synagogue.
510. 3.1.2Jesus preached good news to the poor and freedom to those bound by evil.
511. 3.1.3Christ gave sight to the blind; Isaiah also foretold the apostles as bearers of good news.
512. 3.1.4The apostles’ feet were beautiful as they spread the gospel worldwide by God’s power.
513. 3.1.5Isaiah calls the bearer of good news to announce God’s coming as a shepherd.
514. 3.1.6The prophets attest the gospel, its origin in Christ, its preaching by apostles, and its divine power.
515. 3.1.7Eusebius will now present selected prophecies of Christ and their fulfillment.
516. 3.2.1Moses foretells another prophet, since his own law served only Israel and God intended to provide for all nations.
517. 3.2.2God promises Moses a prophet like him with God’s word in his mouth.
518. 3.2.3Moses repeats the promise of a prophet like himself.
519. 3.2.4No later prophet was a lawgiver like Moses; all pointed back to him.
520. 3.2.5Only Jesus Christ is the prophet like Moses.
521. 3.2.6As Moses first led Israel from idolatry to monotheism and gave its law, so Christ, far better, did this for all nations.
522. 3.2.7Christ taught the nations what Moses taught Israel and is the lawgiver foretold for the nations.
523. 3.2.8Both Moses and Christ confirmed their teaching with miracles.
524. 3.2.9Moses freed Israel from Egypt; Christ freed mankind from demonic idolatry.
525. 3.2.10Moses promised the holy land; Christ promised a heavenly land, the kingdom of heaven.
526. 3.2.11Christ performed deeds like Moses’, but with greater power.
527. 3.2.12Moses fasted forty days.
528. 3.2.13Christ also fasted forty days; Moses fed the people with bread from heaven.
529. 3.2.14The manna in the desert parallels Christ’s feeding of the multitudes.
530. 3.2.15Moses led Israel through the sea.
531. 3.2.16Christ walked on the sea.
532. 3.2.17Christ enabled Peter to walk on the water.
533. 3.2.18Moses made the waves stand still.
534. 3.2.19Christ calmed the sea; Moses’ face shone after meeting God.
535. 3.2.20Christ’s transfiguration surpasses Moses’ shining face; Moses healed Miriam’s leprosy.
536. 3.2.21Moses prayed for Miriam’s healing.
537. 3.2.22Christ healed a leper by his word; Moses received the law written by God’s finger.
538. 3.2.23The “finger of God” appears in both Moses’ and Christ’s works.
539. 3.2.24Moses renamed Joshua and appointed seventy elders; Christ renamed Simon Peter.
540. 3.2.25Christ sent seventy disciples and twelve apostles, as Moses sent seventy elders and twelve spies.
541. 3.2.26Christ intensifies each commandment of the law.
542. 3.2.27Moses’ unknown death and burial parallel the hidden change of Christ into divinity after his resurrection.
543. 3.2.28Since only Christ matches Moses, the prophecy of a prophet like Moses refers to him alone.
544. 3.2.29Moses repeats the promise to the people.
545. 3.2.30Scripture says no prophet like Moses arose after him.
546. 3.2.31The Spirit through Moses foretold Christ; another prophecy follows.
547. 3.2.32Balaam’s oracle foretold a man from Israel who would rule nations, as Christ is now confessed Lord everywhere.
548. 3.2.33Only Christ has ruled many nations; Moses also fixed the time of his coming in Genesis 49:10.
549. 3.2.34Jewish rulers would continue until the Expected One came.
550. 3.2.35“Judah” here means the whole Jewish nation.
551. 3.2.36At Christ’s coming Jewish rule ended and he became the hope of the nations.
552. 3.2.37At Christ’s coming, under Augustus and Herod, native Jewish rule ended.
553. 3.2.38Christ is now the hope of believers from all nations.
554. 3.2.39Isaiah, like Moses, foretells the shoot from Jesse’s root on whom the Spirit rests.
555. 3.2.40Isaiah’s peaceable animals signify savage nations tamed by Christ’s teaching.
556. 3.2.41Isaiah explains that the one from Jesse will rule the nations.
557. 3.2.42The beasts are the nations, ruled by Christ from Jesse’s line.
558. 3.2.43Isaiah’s words correspond to Moses’ prophecies.
559. 3.2.44Isaiah again foretells the servant in whose name the nations hope.
560. 3.2.45The nations’ hope is repeated; God promised David a descendant who would call him Father.
561. 3.2.46The psalm foretells his universal reign, and Micah his birthplace, Bethlehem.
562. 3.2.47Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem is attested by the cave shown to visitors.
563. 3.2.48Isaiah foretells the wonder of Christ’s birth, first in riddles.
564. 3.2.49Aquila and Theodotion’s renderings of Isaiah 53:2 are cited.
565. 3.2.50The nursing child is Christ’s birth; the untrodden ground is the virgin who bore him.
566. 3.2.51Isaiah states the virgin birth plainly in the Emmanuel prophecy.
567. 3.2.52The prophets did not describe the Messiah as a powerful ruler.
568. 3.2.53Isaiah foretold the Messiah’s humble, suffering appearance.
569. 3.2.54The prophets also foretold Christ’s death.
570. 3.2.55Isaiah foretells the servant bearing our sins and healing us by his wounds.
571. 3.2.56The servant goes silently to slaughter like a lamb.
572. 3.2.57The sinless Christ took on the sins of men and suffered for them.
573. 3.2.58Christ suffered for our sins; the prophet also blames his death on the people’s iniquities.
574. 3.2.59The prophet foretells the punishment that followed Christ’s death.
575. 3.2.60Isaiah goes on to foretell Christ’s restoration after death.
576. 3.2.61After death God cleanses the servant, and those who offer for sin see his seed.
577. 3.2.62Only the penitent see Christ’s “long-lived seed,” his risen life or his enduring word.
578. 3.2.63God willed to relieve the servant and show him light, and so he did.
579. 3.2.64Having restored the servant, God gives him many as inheritance.
580. 3.2.65The inheritance agrees with Psalm 2, where the nations are given to the Son.
581. 3.2.66The “spoils” are souls rescued from hostile powers and given to the disciples.
582. 3.2.67Isaiah and the psalmist speak of the apostles rejoicing as they divide spoils.
583. 3.2.68Christ inherits many because he was given up to death for their sins.
584. 3.2.69The Father rewarded the Son’s obedience unto death with his inheritance.
585. 3.2.70Isaiah 53 implies the resurrection, which David also foretold.
586. 3.2.71More psalms foretell the resurrection.
587. 3.2.72Isaiah’s prophecy concludes with good news for the church of the nations.
588. 3.2.73Isaiah calls the barren one to rejoice, for her children, the nations, will be many.
589. 3.2.74The prophecy describes the worldwide church of the nations.
590. 3.2.75Eusebius defers further discussion of the passage.
591. 3.2.76The prophets foretold Christ’s coming, lineage, birthplace, time, birth, death, resurrection, and rule.
592. 3.2.77All these prophecies are fulfilled in Christ alone.
593. 3.2.78Eusebius will now answer unbelievers who call Jesus a sorcerer, first treating him as a man and then showing his divine power.
594. 3.3.1Can one who taught chastity, generosity, and devotion to Scripture be a deceiver?
595. 3.3.2Jesus’ teaching on truthfulness and his way of life show him to be divine, not a deceiver.
596. 3.3.3Jesus alone renewed the patriarchs’ way of life and spread it worldwide.
597. 3.3.4Eusebius turns from ethics to doctrine.
598. 3.3.5Jesus taught devotion to the one Creator God.
599. 3.3.6Monotheism is not Jesus’ invention but the ancient Hebrew faith, praised even in a pagan oracle.
600. 3.3.7Jesus spread the Hebrews’ monotheism to countless barbarians and Greeks, proving him a teacher of piety.
601. 3.3.8Jesus rejected animal sacrifice and taught that keeping his commandments and becoming like God is the true sacrifice.
602. 3.3.9Greek philosophers after Christ also rejected material sacrifice, as Porphyry shows.
603. 3.3.10Porphyry teaches that the supreme God is worshiped by silence, pure thought, and a passionless life, not material offerings.
604. 3.3.11Apollonius of Tyana taught that the First God should be worshiped not with sacrifice but with the silent word of the mind.
605. 3.3.12Since Greek philosophers agree, Jesus who taught true worship cannot be a deceiver; ancient Hebrew sacrifice was treated in Book 1.
606. 3.3.13Christ taught that the world was created and that its Maker alone is to be worshiped.
607. 3.3.14Creation and the world’s future renewal are Hebrew doctrines shared by leading philosophers.
608. 3.3.15Plato too held the heavens destructible by nature, preserved only by God’s will.
609. 3.3.16Christ taught the soul’s immortality and dignity, wiser than philosophers who equated human and animal souls.
610. 3.3.17Christ’s teaching on judgment and reward urges people to virtue, not deception.
611. 3.3.18Christ taught about angels, to be honored in due measure while worship belongs to God alone.
612. 3.3.19Christ taught about hostile demons in the air, to be shunned though they claim divine honors.
613. 3.3.20Jesus’ teaching refutes the charge of deception; next his more divine works.
614. 3.4.21Jesus healed lepers, cast out demons, and cured the sick.
615. 3.4.22Jesus healed a paralytic by his word.
616. 3.4.23Jesus healed the blind and the woman who touched his garment.
617. 3.4.24Jesus healed the official’s son and raised the synagogue ruler’s daughter.
618. 3.4.25Jesus raised Lazarus, walked on the sea, and calmed the storm.
619. 3.4.26The feeding of the five thousand astonishes; Jesus’ death too was unlike others’.
620. 3.4.27Jesus did not die like others; he gave up his spirit freely to the Father.
621. 3.4.28After his burial Jesus took back his body on the third day.
622. 3.4.29The risen Jesus appeared bodily to his disciples, ascended, and sent them to teach all nations.
623. 3.4.30These wonders prove Christ’s divinity and have been accepted with tested judgment.
624. 3.4.31Christ’s wonders are confirmed by continuing signs and by reasoning against those who deny them or call them sorcery.
625. 3.4.32Those who deny the miracles must explain the relation of teacher and disciples.
626. 3.4.33Jesus taught his disciples a philosophical life of poverty and trust in providence, surpassing the law.
627. 3.4.34Jesus raised his disciples above the law’s prohibitions to inner freedom from passion, chastity, generosity, and forbearance.
628. 3.4.35Jesus taught truthfulness without oaths.
629. 3.4.36Why suspect such disciples of inventing their teacher’s deeds?
630. 3.4.37Twelve and seventy disciples of holy life could not all have lied in agreement.
631. 3.4.38Suppose, for argument, that Jesus taught wickedness and his disciples invented his miracles to glorify themselves.
632. 3.4.39Wicked men could not agree unanimously unto death for a discredited, crucified teacher.
633. 3.4.40The disciples fled at his arrest but after his death chose to die rather than deny him.
634. 3.4.41Why would they die for a teacher who had given them nothing good?
635. 3.4.42Wicked men would never choose to die for another, least of all for a known impostor.
636. 3.4.43Base men would not endure every torture for a deceiver’s sake.
637. 3.4.44Unlearned, Syriac-speaking men could not have spread through the world by their own power.
638. 3.4.45The apostles’ mission to Rome, Persia, Armenia, Parthia, Scythia, India, and Britain was beyond human power.
639. 3.4.46How could they agree on invented miracles and a resurrection they claimed to have seen?
640. 3.4.47Did they conspire to invent what never happened?
641. 3.4.48Eusebius imagines the disciples’ supposed conspiracy speech, admitting their master was a fraud.
642. 3.4.49The imagined conspirators agree to invent miracles.
643. 3.4.50The imagined conspirators resolve to lie about the resurrection and suffer for nothing.
644. 3.5.52The imagined conspirators agree to lie for no one’s benefit.
645. 3.5.53The imagined conspirators plan to spread their lie to the whole world.
646. 3.5.54They plan to attack the gods of Rome, Greece, and Egypt.
647. 3.5.55They plan to overthrow the gods by the power of their crucified teacher.
648. 3.5.56The mock speech ironically promises only tortures and death as reward.
649. 3.5.57The mock speech exposes the absurdity of suffering for a known lie.
650. 3.5.58The conspirators ironically resolve to die for a falsehood.
651. 3.5.59The mock conspirators agree to invent miracles and bear the consequences.
652. 3.5.60It is implausible that simple men would invent a story and die for it, knowing the danger.
653. 3.5.61Acts records that the apostles were imprisoned, warned, and scourged.
654. 3.5.62Peter defied the authorities; Stephen was stoned and persecution followed.
655. 3.5.63Herod killed James and imprisoned Peter, yet the disciples kept preaching.
656. 3.5.64James the Just was stoned for confessing Christ as Son of God.
657. 3.5.65Peter, Paul, and John suffered, yet the others only grew bolder.
658. 3.5.66None broke the supposed conspiracy; even Judas took his own life.
659. 3.5.67Unlearned men succeeded in a worldwide mission, and none gave a conflicting account.
660. 3.5.68The agreement of so many witnesses, confirmed by suffering and by God, establishes the truth.
661. 3.5.69Eusebius concedes the absurd hypothesis only for argument; it is like accusing Moses of irony.
662. 3.5.70The same method would slander Moses and the Greek philosophers.
663. 3.5.71Such reasoning would discredit all history.
664. 3.5.72Twisting Jesus’ teaching into its opposite is madness.
665. 3.5.73The hypothesis was granted only to expose its incoherence.
666. 3.5.74The disciples, though unlearned, embraced an ascetic life of fasting, prayer, and purity.
667. 3.5.75The apostles renounced even their lawful wives for the sake of spiritual offspring.
668. 3.5.76The apostles lived in poverty, as Peter’s words to the lame man show.
669. 3.5.77Jesus foretold his disciples’ sufferings honestly, and they followed him anyway.
670. 3.5.78Jesus’ prediction is fulfilled today in persecution for his name.
671. 3.5.79Christians are punished for the name alone, while those who deny it go free.
672. 3.5.80Enough has been said of the apostles’ character; one more point follows.
673. 3.5.81Only Matthew himself records that he had been a tax collector.
674. 3.5.82Matthew names himself as the tax collector called by Jesus.
675. 3.5.83In his list of apostles Matthew calls himself “the tax collector.”
676. 3.5.84Matthew humbly calls himself a tax collector and places himself after his partner.
677. 3.5.85Luke, unlike Matthew, lists Matthew before Thomas and omits “tax collector.”
678. 3.5.86The same order is found in the other gospel list.
679. 3.5.87Luke honored Matthew; John, like Matthew, was modest.
680. 3.5.88John modestly calls himself only “the elder” or “the disciple Jesus loved”; Peter wrote no gospel.
681. 3.5.89Mark, recording Peter’s preaching, omits Jesus’ praise of Peter after his confession.
682. 3.5.90Matthew records Jesus’ praise of Peter, which Peter modestly left out of his own preaching.
683. 3.5.91Mark’s account omits the praise, since Peter did not relate it.
684. 3.5.92Peter kept silent about his praise but made his denial known to all.
685. 3.5.93Mark records Peter’s denials in detail.
686. 3.5.94Peter denies Jesus a third time with oaths.
687. 3.5.95By publishing their own failings, the apostles proved their truthfulness.
688. 3.5.96Rejecting the apostles’ testimony alone, while believing other historians, is plain envy.
689. 3.5.97Would inventors of a glorious story also have invented his humiliating sufferings?
690. 3.5.98One cannot believe the disciples about the sufferings and doubt them about the glories.
691. 3.5.99Saying they both lied and told the truth is self-contradictory.
692. 3.5.100Inventors would never have recorded Jesus’ distress, the disciples’ flight, or Peter’s denial.
693. 3.5.101Their candor in painful matters proves their truthfulness in glorious ones.
694. 3.5.102Liars would have invented punishments for his betrayers.
695. 3.5.103Liars would have claimed Jesus escaped suffering; the evangelists did not.
696. 3.5.104The apostles’ testimony suffices, but Josephus too mentions Jesus in Antiquities 18.
697. 3.5.105Eusebius quotes Josephus’s passage on Jesus, the “Testimonium Flavianum.”
698. 3.5.106Josephus reports the resurrection appearances and the continuing Christian community.
699. 3.5.107Josephus confirms that Jesus won many Jews and Greeks, showing extraordinary power.
700. 3.5.108Acts and history attest many Jewish believers and a great Jewish church in Jerusalem until Hadrian.
701. 3.5.109The first bishops of Jerusalem were Jews; the slander against the disciples is refuted.
702. 3.5.110Eusebius turns to those who grant the miracles but ascribe them to sorcery.
703. 3.6.1A teacher of such virtue cannot have been a sorcerer, since sorcerers act for base gain.
704. 3.6.2Jesus taught poverty; his disciples would not have obeyed or recorded it had he sought money.
705. 3.6.3The disciples would have left a hypocritical teacher.
706. 3.6.4Unlike sorcerers who seduce women, Jesus forbade even lustful looking.
707. 3.6.5Jesus’ austere conduct and his teaching on eunuchs for the kingdom show his chastity.
708. 3.6.6Jesus shunned fame, told the healed to keep silent, and withdrew to lonely places.
709. 3.6.7Jesus sought neither glory, money, nor pleasure, and his followers practice no sorcery.
710. 3.6.8Since his followers live philosophically, Jesus must be the foremost philosopher.
711. 3.6.9Jesus worked by divine power and reverence for the Father; his followers reject amulets, spells, and magic cures.
712. 3.6.10Christians do not use amulets or charms.
713. 3.6.11A teacher is judged by his pupils.
714. 3.6.12As pupils reflect their teacher’s art, a sorcerer’s pupils would be sorcerers.
715. 3.6.13No Christian has been found a sorcerer, even under torture.
716. 3.6.14Christians were released once they sacrificed, proving no charge of sorcery existed.
717. 3.6.15Acts records that former sorcerers burned their magic books.
718. 3.6.16Acts 19:19 on the burning of magic books.
719. 3.6.17The apostles’ preaching moved hearers to confess their secret sins.
720. 3.6.18Their converts were sincere and open about their conversion.
721. 3.6.19Converts who burned magic books cannot be suspected of sorcery, much less their teacher.
722. 3.6.20Countless disciples who live lifelong continence testify to Jesus’ teaching.
723. 3.6.21Countless women worldwide live consecrated virginity for God.
724. 3.6.22The Greeks praise isolated examples like Democritus and Crates.
725. 3.6.23Countless followers of Jesus, not just one or two, have sold their goods for the poor, as Eusebius has seen himself.
726. 3.6.24Through Jesus multitudes, Greek and barbarian, know the one Creator whom Plato said could not be declared to all.
727. 3.6.25What Plato thought impossible, Jesus' disciples accomplished, so that multitudes of every class now know and worship the one Creator.
728. 3.6.26If Jesus invented his wonders with no teacher, he must be divine, since no one learns even the alphabet without a teacher.
729. 3.6.27No craft is self-taught; to claim Jesus' wonders were self-taught is to confess him divine.
730. 3.6.28Eusebius answers the charge that Jesus learned magic from Egyptian teachers by asking where these greater teachers are.
731. 3.6.29No sorcerer ever had such disciples, laws, or healings as Jesus.
732. 3.6.30No other teacher's eyewitnesses sealed their testimony with torture and death as Jesus' disciples did.
733. 3.6.31No sorcerer ever founded a new nation under his name or established laws against idolatry that prevailed, as Jesus did.
734. 3.6.32Christ's single command to make disciples of all nations was fulfilled at once, spreading laws against idolatry and savagery.
735. 3.6.33Since no earlier sorcerer did anything similar, Jesus must be a divine nature who did what none had done.
736. 3.6.34Sorcery needs sacrifices to demons, but Christians would rather die than sacrifice to demons.
737. 3.6.35Christians drive out demons by the name of Jesus and prayer, and are their enemies, not their servants.
738. 3.6.36Jesus could not have served demons, since to this day they flee in terror at his name.
739. 3.6.37Demons feared Jesus, and a sorcerer, being wicked, could never teach piety, self-control, and judgment as Jesus did.
740. 3.6.38Since Jesus' whole life called on God and taught virtue, his wonders must be by divine power, not sorcery.
741. 3.6.39Eusebius turns to the pagan oracles quoted by Porphyry, the Christians' enemy, as witnesses to Jesus' piety.
742. 3.7.1Eusebius quotes Porphyry's oracle of Hecate calling Christ most pious and his soul immortal in heaven.
743. 3.7.2Porphyry concludes that Christ was pious and went to heaven, and should not be blasphemed.
744. 3.7.3Even Porphyry's oracles acknowledge Jesus as pious and heavenly, not a sorcerer.
745. 3.7.4Jesus worked his wonders by divine power, as Scripture testifies that the Word of God dwelt in flesh.
746. 3.7.5Jesus' use of humble fishermen to accomplish an indescribable work shows his divine power.
747. 3.7.6Jesus chose the humblest men to carry his universal teaching, which seems at first most unreasonable.
748. 3.7.7Uneducated fishermen could not teach crowds except by divine power, as Jesus' call showed.
749. 3.7.8Jesus filled the disciples with divine power, made them fishers of souls, and sent them to all nations.
750. 3.7.9No king or philosopher ever dreamed of a mission to all nations, but Jesus commanded it to humble disciples.
751. 3.7.10Eusebius imagines the disciples objecting that they, speaking only Syriac, cannot preach to Romans, Egyptians, and Greeks.
752. 3.7.11The imagined disciples ask how they can persuade the barbarian nations to leave their ancestral gods.
753. 3.7.12Jesus answered the disciples' difficulty by adding that they would make disciples “in my name.”
754. 3.7.13The power of Jesus' name, which Paul says is above every name, is why he sent the disciples out “in my name.”
755. 3.7.14Jesus foretold the worldwide preaching of the gospel, and the disciples believed him because of his works.
756. 3.7.15The disciples obeyed, and soon the gospel was preached everywhere and the writings about Jesus translated into many languages.
757. 3.7.16Eusebius asks how uneducated disciples could have preached publicly and persuaded anyone.
758. 3.7.17Even speaking one on one, the disciples faced a hard task if they did not hide the shameful death of the one they proclaimed.
759. 3.7.18Even preaching only Jesus' miracles and teachings, foreign strangers would have found it hard to persuade anyone.
760. 3.7.19Preaching both a divine Word and a crucified man would have seemed self-contradictory to hearers.
761. 3.7.20Who would believe humble men proclaiming a risen crucified man as the only Son of God and calling for rejection of ancestral gods?
762. 3.7.21Judged on its own terms, Eusebius says, the message had no persuasive power at all.
763. 3.7.22The founding of great churches everywhere by humble disciples shows a superhuman power was at work.
764. 3.7.23Jesus promised to be with the disciples, breathed the Spirit into them, and gave them power to heal.
765. 3.7.24The book of Acts shows the apostles astonishing onlookers with wonders done in Jesus' name.
766. 3.7.25The apostles' wonders made people eager to learn about Jesus, and they believed even before being taught.
767. 3.7.26People were so struck by the apostles' miracles that some took them for Hermes and Zeus.
768. 3.7.27The apostles proved the resurrection not by words alone but by works showing that Jesus lives.
769. 3.7.28Seeing such works, hearers readily accepted that Jesus was God and the preexistent Son.
770. 3.7.29This explains how the disciples won their first hearers and founded schools of true worship everywhere.
771. 3.7.30It is remarkable that the world's nations came under Roman rule precisely from the time of Jesus.
772. 3.7.31Christ's coming coincided with Augustus's sole rule and the end of the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt.
773. 3.7.32From that time the Jews and many other peoples became subject to Rome.
774. 3.7.33God arranged the unified Roman empire so the apostles could travel safely and hostile locals were restrained.
775. 3.7.34Without Rome's restraint, pagans would have waged constant war and persecution against Christ's teaching.
776. 3.7.35God used fear of imperial authority to restrain the enemies of his word so that it might grow.
777. 3.7.36God sometimes allowed rulers to persecute, to display the martyrs and to show that the church's growth was God's doing.
778. 3.7.37In persecutions the martyrs became famous and the persecutors suffered divine punishment and confessed their guilt.
779. 3.7.38The remaining Christians, tested briefly, regained their freedom, and the gospel shone brighter amid its enemies.
780. 3.7.39Christians also defeat invisible demonic powers by purity, prayer, and Christ's name, showing his divine power.
781. 3.7.40Having finished the defense of Jesus' works, Eusebius turns to the deeper theology of the divine Word.
782. 4.1.1Eusebius turns from the incarnation (Book 3) to the deeper theology of Christ.
783. 4.1.2Knowledge of the supreme God is common to all, but the doctrine of Christ belongs to Jews and Christians, and the Jews miss his divinity and the time of his coming.
784. 4.1.3Christians hold that Christ has come once and will come again; his story has a recent part and an eternal part.
785. 4.1.4God, wishing to share his goodness with a free rational creation, foresaw that it would need a head and appointed one ruler over all creation.
786. 4.1.5The prophets teach that there is one God, beyond every name, the source and cause of all things.
787. 4.1.6God’s good will is the only cause of everything that exists.
788. 4.1.7God’s own will and power, not nonbeing, are the source from which all things exist.
789. 4.1.8The eternal God freely gives all creatures their being, powers, and forms.
790. 4.2.1God first begets his firstborn Wisdom, the foundation, guardian, and pilot of all creation.
791. 4.2.2The Son is “begotten God” as the unique image of the Father, the living instrument through whom God orders and binds together all things.
792. 4.3.1Because the Father is one, the Son must be one, not many.
793. 4.3.2One light has one radiance.
794. 4.3.3The Son is to the Father as the single ray is to light, as Wisdom 7:26 says.
795. 4.3.4Hebrews calls the Son the Father’s radiance, but unlike a ray of light the Son has his own distinct existence.
796. 4.3.5Unlike radiance, which exists simultaneously with light, the Father exists before the Son as the only unbegotten one.
797. 4.3.6The Father is first and the cause; the Son is second, receiving his being and nature from the Father.
798. 4.3.7The Son exists by the Father’s will, as a second light like him in all things.
799. 4.3.8As the image of the one light, the Son must be one in number as well as like the Father in substance.
800. 4.3.9Like a single fragrance from one source, the Son of the one Father is one.
801. 4.3.10Any second Son would be inferior, and the Son is the pure emanation of God’s glory.
802. 4.3.11A fragrance spreads without diminishing its source.
803. 4.3.12The fragrance has its own existence and resembles its source, though such examples remain earthly.
804. 4.3.13The Son was not made at some point in time but was begotten ineffably before all ages from the Father’s will and power, without division of the Father’s substance.
805. 4.4.1The one Son had to exist before creation to preside, under the Father, over the one world.
806. 4.4.2The Son is the Father’s living instrument for every work of creation, providence, and salvation.
807. 4.5.1There is one creative power, the Word who was with God in the beginning.
808. 4.5.2The Word, through whom all things are made continually, must be worshiped.
809. 4.5.3Everything in creation, from life to order and quality, is held together by the one Word.
810. 4.5.4As one power made all the parts of a body, one divine power made every part of the world.
811. 4.5.5One Wisdom, the Word of God, made all the elements.
812. 4.5.6The harmony of the elements, and the earth held above the waters, testify to one creator Word.
813. 4.5.7Water kept in its bounds also points to the one Word.
814. 4.5.8Fire’s measured service and the ordered cycles of the heavens show one Word of God, not chance.
815. 4.5.9One human soul masters many arts without being many souls.
816. 4.5.10A clay figure with many parts has one maker.
817. 4.5.11As one sunlight has many effects, one power of God produces the whole varied universe, so there is no need for many gods.
818. 4.5.12Like fire with its many effects, the one Word gives light, life, and form to every part of creation.
819. 4.5.13The Father, above even the creator Word, begot the Son first and placed in him the principles of all creation.
820. 4.5.14One heaven and one sun illustrate the unity of the ruling power.
821. 4.5.15Complaining that there is only one Son is as absurd as complaining that there is only one sun.
822. 4.6.1As one sun lights the visible world, the one Word lights the spiritual world, preserving the image’s likeness to the one Father.
823. 4.6.2Created beings, weak and changeable, could not bear direct contact with the Father’s transcendent Godhead.
824. 4.6.3So the Father placed his Son as a mediating power between himself and creation, as sunlight is softened for weak eyes.
825. 4.6.4If the sun came down to earth, its full light would destroy everything.
826. 4.6.5The sun’s unmediated light would harm rather than help, because of the weakness of those who receive it.
827. 4.6.6Only the Son shares in the Father’s being; through him all creation is sustained, and humanity especially is cared for as made in his image.
828. 4.6.7The Word made rational beings in his image and gave man rule over creation and freedom of choice.
829. 4.6.8Man misused his freedom and fell into brutish wickedness.
830. 4.6.9God set angels as shepherds over humanity, with his Word over all.
831. 4.6.10The Word’s own portion is the heavenly powers and the God-loving souls called Jacob and Israel.
832. 4.7.1Moses taught that the Most High divided the nations among the angels and took Jacob as the Lord’s portion.
833. 4.7.2In Deuteronomy the Most High is the Father and the Lord is his Word, Christ, to whom the God-fearing are allotted while the nations are given to angels.
834. 4.7.3“Jacob” means the one still struggling for virtue and “Israel” the one who has won; the names refer to the godly of old, not to the Jewish people as a whole.
835. 4.7.4The Word led his people to worship the unbegotten Father alone.
836. 4.8.1The angels of the nations directed weaker peoples to the heavenly bodies.
837. 4.8.2The heavenly bodies lead the eye upward to their maker, as Paul says in Romans 1:20.
838. 4.8.3Moses forbade Israel to worship the heavenly bodies, saying God had allotted them to the nations.
839. 4.8.4Because invisible demons could be mistaken for good spirits, it was safer for the nations to honor the visible heavens.
840. 4.8.5The visible heavens were given to the nations as a safeguard and a mirror of the invisible God.
841. 4.9.1The fallen spirits and their ruler, envious of human salvation, plotted against all nations and against God’s own people.
842. 4.9.2Isaiah records the boast of the great demon that he would remove the boundaries of the nations and seize the world.
843. 4.9.3The boast is the devil’s threat to overturn the order God gave the nations.
844. 4.9.4Isaiah’s oracle on the fall of the Morning Star shows the devil’s pride.
845. 4.9.5The devil found humans easy prey because of their free inclination to evil.
846. 4.9.6Through pleasure and shameful myths the devil corrupted the cities.
847. 4.9.7The devil carried out his threat and held the whole world in subjection.
848. 4.9.8Under demonic rule humanity fell into violence and unnatural vice, justifying it by the example of its gods.
849. 4.9.9Humanity sank into idolatry, as Romans 1 describes.
850. 4.9.10Pagan sources, cited in the Preparation for the Gospel, confirm that the earliest humans worshiped only the heavenly bodies, not idols or demons.
851. 4.9.11Idolatry and demon worship were later innovations, the work of the devil seeking to be like the Most High.
852. 4.10.1The angels of the nations could not prevent humanity’s freely chosen fall, and a deep sickness of evil gripped the world.
853. 4.10.2Some nations practiced cannibalism, incest, and the killing of the old.
854. 4.10.3The demons also drove humanity to human sacrifice.
855. 4.10.4Since the angels could not help, the Word first sent faint rays of his light through Moses and the prophets and their laws.
856. 4.10.5Through Moses the Word forbade Israel to follow the practices of Egypt and Canaan.
857. 4.10.6Leviticus forbids unlawful unions and says the nations were driven out for such defilement.
858. 4.10.7Deuteronomy forbids child sacrifice, divination, and sorcery as abominations of the nations.
859. 4.10.8The Mosaic law was an elementary introduction to piety, taught through symbols and bodily rites such as circumcision.
860. 4.10.9When neither Moses nor the prophets could cure humanity, the Savior himself came, as the Father had promised in Psalm 2.
861. 4.10.10Christ took all nations, not only Israel, under his rule and offered them forgiveness and knowledge of the Father.
862. 4.10.11Christ said he came as a physician to call sinners to repentance.
863. 4.10.12The angels of the nations recognized Christ as their Lord and served him, as the Gospels record.
864. 4.10.13Christ defeated the demons by divine power, and they confessed him as Son of God.
865. 4.10.14Christ healed body and soul, freed people from idolatry and vice, opened heaven to the nations, and even raised the dead.
866. 4.10.15Christ went even to the realm of the dead to be Lord of the dead; with the Father he is called Word, Wisdom, Power, King, God, and Lord.
867. 4.10.16Christ’s titles, Sun of righteousness, light, creator, mediator, high priest, and Christ, correspond to his different works.
868. 4.10.17He is Angel of great counsel and commander of the Lord’s host among angels, and shepherd, savior, and physician among humans.
869. 4.10.18The Word took a human body so that people could see him, hear his teaching, and witness his miracles.
870. 4.10.19The Word, called Son of Man and Jesus (“savior”), lived a human life without ceasing to be God.
871. 4.10.20At his birth Christ was born like us yet as God, from a virgin, without sexual union.
872. 4.11.1Throughout his life Christ showed both his human suffering and his divinity, and his death matched his birth.
873. 4.12.1Christ’s love led him into death to recall the souls of the dead.
874. 4.12.2In death Christ acted as both man and God, to destroy the devil’s power over death.
875. 4.12.3Christ gave up his spirit freely, pursued death, broke the gates of the underworld, and led the dead back to life.
876. 4.12.4At Christ’s resurrection many saints rose with him, fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy that death would be swallowed up.
877. 4.12.5The prophets present the victorious Christ taunting death and freeing its captives.
878. 4.12.6Christ died first to be Lord of the dead and the living, second to take away our sins as a sacrifice and a curse for us.
879. 4.12.7Third, Christ died as a sacrifice for the world; fourth, to overthrow the demons.
880. 4.12.8Fifth, his death and resurrection gave his disciples visible proof of life after death and courage to preach.
881. 4.12.9Christ empowered his apostles to preach to all nations the one God, the flight of demons, forgiveness, and one hope of salvation.
882. 4.13.1The Word’s birth, body, sufferings, and death do not harm his divine nature, just as sunlight is not defiled by what it touches.
883. 4.13.2Even apart from the incarnation, the Word pervades all matter, giving it life, form, and motion.
884. 4.13.3As the Word touches all matter without harm, so he came among men, first to a few prophets and at last to all, as physician of sinners.
885. 4.13.4Christ called all to himself, healed through his human body as a musician plays a lyre, and taught by example the ancient piety of the patriarchs.
886. 4.13.5Through his assumed humanity Christ made his divinity perceptible to human senses.
887. 4.13.6During the incarnation the Word remained unchanged, present everywhere and with the Father, giving to his humanity without receiving its weakness.
888. 4.13.7As a musician is not hurt when his lyre is struck, the Word was not harmed by the sufferings of his body.
889. 4.13.8Light illumines dirty things without being dirtied, though both belong to the bodily world.
890. 4.13.9Whatever the Word touches receives life and light, and sickness flees from it.
891. 4.13.10The Word’s touch raised the dead and clothed the mortal with immortality.
892. 4.14.1In the resurrection the humanity was taken up into the Word’s divinity as the firstfruits of our hope of immortality.
893. 4.15.1The Word became man to restore humanity to the knowledge and friendship of the Father.
894. 4.15.2Eusebius will prove his account of Christ from the prophets, beginning with the names Jesus and Christ.
895. 4.15.3Eusebius will first explain what the name Christ means.
896. 4.15.4A surface explanation: Moses ordered priests anointed with perfumed oil because good smells repel evil powers.
897. 4.15.5The same explanation accounts for the daily incense.
898. 4.15.6On this view the sacred oil and the title “christ” were given to high priests, prophets, and kings.
899. 4.15.7Such explanations miss Moses’ deeper meaning.
900. 4.15.8Moses did not value perfume for its own sake, knowing that all matter is transient.
901. 4.15.9Perfumed bodies may hide foul souls, while the godly exhale the better fragrance of virtue.
902. 4.15.10Moses used perfumes only as bodily images of divine realities for those who needed them.
903. 4.15.11God told Moses to make everything according to the heavenly pattern, so the anointing was a type of higher things.
904. 4.15.12The true fragrance is God himself, the Most High, the source of all being and good.
905. 4.15.13Scripture calls the Father’s divine power “oil,” and so names the one who shares it “Christ,” the Anointed.
906. 4.15.14“Oil” here means olive oil, which brightens, soothes, and gladdens, not “pity.”
907. 4.15.15The Word alone is anointed with the whole of the Father’s divinity, as Psalm 45 says, and so is Christ and God from God.
908. 4.15.16Oil signifies God’s simplicity, compound ointment his many attributes; both anoint the true high priest.
909. 4.15.17Moses, having seen heavenly realities, was told to establish symbols of them on earth as preparation.
910. 4.15.18By anointing the priest Moses taught that all creatures need the fragrance of the higher power.
911. 4.15.19Only the Son reaches the Father directly; others receive good only through the Son, and the anointing symbolized the Spirit.
912. 4.15.20Priests, prophets, and kings were to share the one Spirit on behalf of the whole nation.
913. 4.15.21Eusebius will show that people filled with the Spirit were called “christs” without earthly oil.
914. 4.15.22In Psalm 105 David calls the patriarchs “christs,” though they lived before Moses, because they had the Spirit.
915. 4.15.23Psalm 105 begins its account of the patriarchs.
916. 4.15.24The psalm ends by calling the patriarchs God’s “christs” and prophets.
917. 4.15.25Moses records God’s rebuke of Pharaoh for Sarah’s sake.
918. 4.15.26God also rebuked Abimelech for Sarah’s sake.
919. 4.15.27God calls Abraham a prophet.
920. 4.15.28The patriarchs were called christs without oil; Isaiah too prophesies a Christ anointed by God to free captives and heal the blind.
921. 4.15.29Isaiah’s Christ is anointed by the Father’s divinity, not by human hands.
922. 4.15.30Isaiah 61:1 speaks in the person of the Anointed.
923. 4.15.31Isaiah, like David, speaks of the coming Christ as anointed by the Father’s power, using the prophetic past tense and first person.
924. 4.15.32True christs are anointed by God with the Spirit.
925. 4.15.33Psalm 110 shows the Christ as David’s Lord, enthroned with God, begotten before the morning star, and an eternal priest.
926. 4.15.34David, though king, called the Christ his Lord.
927. 4.15.35Since Hebrew priests were anointed and called christs, the eternal priest of Psalm 110 is also a Christ.
928. 4.15.36An eternal priesthood cannot belong to a mere mortal.
929. 4.15.37The priest sworn in for ever is more than human.
930. 4.15.38Melchizedek was priest of God Most High without Mosaic anointing and was greater than Abraham.
931. 4.15.39Like Melchizedek, the priest of Psalm 110 is not anointed with oil; he is greater than all, enthroned with God, and eternal priest of the Father.
932. 4.15.40Hebrews explains that Christ’s priesthood, sworn by oath, is permanent because he lives for ever.
933. 4.15.41Scripture shows a divine power that serves God as priest, anointed with divine power rather than oil.
934. 4.15.42Psalm 110 shows the Christ as eternal priest, Son of the Most High, and co-regent.
935. 4.15.43Isaiah’s Christ is anointed by the Father with the Spirit and sent as redeemer.
936. 4.15.44Moses’ anointed priest was a symbol of the true Christ he had seen in the Spirit.
937. 4.15.45Moses himself says he built the earthly worship after a heavenly pattern.
938. 4.15.46Moses’ high priest was likewise a copy of the heavenly Christ and high priest.
939. 4.15.47The true Christ is the Son of God, greater than all creatures, human or spiritual.
940. 4.15.48Psalm 45, “concerning the beloved,” calls one and the same person God, King, and Christ.
941. 4.15.49The psalm addresses the anointed king as God.
942. 4.15.50The psalm’s heading points to the beloved and to those who will be changed.
943. 4.15.51“Those who shall be changed” are converts; the beloved is the Word, whom the psalm calls a “good word,” as John 1:1 confirms.
944. 4.15.52Spoken by the Father, the verse points to the Son’s generation, which involves no bodily emission or division.
945. 4.15.53Terms like “womb” and “heart” for the Son’s generation are figurative; the generation itself is beyond telling.
946. 4.15.54Read allegorically, the verse speaks of the first Word’s coming into being as the good offspring of the good Father.
947. 4.15.55The beloved of Psalm 45 is anointed by God himself.
948. 4.15.56The anointed beloved bears two names, Christ and Beloved.
949. 4.15.57Eusebius repeats Psalm 45:6–7.
950. 4.15.58The psalm addresses the anointed one as God, as Aquila’s literal translation of the Hebrew makes clearer.
951. 4.15.59Aquila shows that the psalm calls both the anointed and the anointer God, the Father being the greater and God even of the Son.
952. 4.15.60Eusebius appeals to the Hebrew word elohim, which he takes as a vocative.
953. 4.15.61Eusebius claims the Hebrew distinguishes a vocative “O God” from a nominative “your God.”
954. 4.15.62The psalm addresses God, anointed by God above all others called christs.
955. 4.15.63The psalm shows God himself anointed as Christ, unlike any human anointing.
956. 4.15.64The beloved, anointed, eternal priest is the firstborn Word of God.
957. 4.15.65Eusebius turns to prophecies that name the Christ explicitly.
958. 4.16.1Psalm 2 names the Christ, plotted against by kings and rulers.
959. 4.16.2Psalm 2 continues with the Lord’s decree to his Son.
960. 4.16.3The plot against Christ and the calling of the nations are fulfilled in Jesus, who is still opposed by rulers.
961. 4.16.4If the Jews apply the psalm to a future Messiah, they must accept that he too will be persecuted, which they deny.
962. 4.16.5No Israelite king fits the psalm; only Jesus, still opposed by rulers, is the Son to whom the nations are given.
963. 4.16.6The spread of the apostles’ preaching to the ends of the earth fulfilled the promise.
964. 4.16.7Psalm 2, Proverbs 8, and Psalm 110 together speak of the Son’s generation.
965. 4.16.8Psalm 2 marks Christ by opposition and by the submission of the nations; the next heading introduces Psalm 20.
966. 4.16.9Psalm 20 names the Christ whom the Lord saves.
967. 4.16.10Psalm 20 is the prayer of the saints for Christ, who prays and fights for us.
968. 4.16.11Christ as high priest offered himself as a burnt offering, so the psalm prays that God remember his sacrifice.
969. 4.16.12We pray that Christ’s saving purposes be fulfilled.
970. 4.16.13“Your salvation” in the psalm is Christ’s resurrection, which raises the fallen.
971. 4.16.14We know that God saved his Christ once we grasp the resurrection; the next heading introduces Psalm 28.
972. 4.16.15Psalm 28 is Christ’s prayer at the time of his passion.
973. 4.16.16The psalm ends by foretelling Christ’s resurrection, “my flesh has flourished again.”
974. 4.16.17All Christ’s saving works were done by the Father’s power; the next heading introduces Psalm 84.
975. 4.16.18Psalm 84 asks God to look on the face of his Christ.
976. 4.16.19Those who know Christ as the divine Word marvel that he took the humble form foretold in Isaiah 53.
977. 4.16.20The psalmists long to see Christ’s face and the day of his resurrection, the one true Lord’s day, better than all the Mosaic feasts.
978. 4.16.21The courts of the Lord are the churches of Christ everywhere; the next heading introduces Psalm 89, which names the rejected Christ.
979. 4.16.22Psalm 89 names the Christ and his sufferings; Eusebius promises a full treatment later.
980. 4.16.23The “ransom” reproached is the church, mocked for Christ’s cross; the next heading introduces Psalm 132.
981. 4.16.24Psalm 132 promises a horn for David and a lamp for the Christ.
982. 4.16.25The horn is David’s descendant, and the lamp is prophecy, which preceded the sunlike Christ.
983. 4.16.26David was the lamp; “there” refers to the Christ’s birthplace.
984. 4.16.27David vowed not to rest until he found a place for the Lord, and the Spirit revealed Bethlehem.
985. 4.16.28Psalm 132 names Ephrathah, that is, Bethlehem, as the place.
986. 4.16.29The lamp may also be the body Christ took at Bethlehem; the next heading introduces Amos.
987. 4.16.30Amos foretells God announcing his Christ and laments the fall of Israel.
988. 4.16.31Thunder is the gospel, the wind is the Spirit given to the apostles, and dawn and mist are the light received or refused at Christ’s coming.
989. 4.16.32The lament for Israel was fulfilled after the rejection of Jesus.
990. 4.16.33Eusebius takes Amos’s lament as a lasting sentence on Jerusalem and the Jewish community.
991. 4.16.34Christ turned to the nations after lamenting over Jerusalem; the next heading introduces Habakkuk 3:13.
992. 4.16.35Aquila’s translation of Habakkuk 3:13 reads “with your Christ,” singular.
993. 4.16.36In the Septuagint the “christs” are believers anointed in Christ; the next heading introduces Lamentations 4:20.
994. 4.16.37The prophets foresaw that their words would live among the nations and that the Christ would be seized.
995. 4.16.38The seizure of the Christ fits his first coming, not his glorious second coming, which the Jews confuse with it.
996. 4.16.39The prophecies of glory and of humiliation cannot refer to the same coming.
997. 4.16.40The humble prophecies were fulfilled at Christ’s first coming; the glorious ones await his second.
998. 4.16.41The conversion of the nations proves the first coming; the next heading introduces 1 Samuel 2:10.
999. 4.16.421 Samuel 2:10 foretells Christ’s ascension, preaching, and judgment; “our kings” are the apostles.
1000. 4.16.43The exalted horn is Christ’s kingdom; the next heading introduces 1 Samuel 2 on the faithful priest.
1001. 4.16.44God promises Eli a faithful priest who will walk before his Christ.
1002. 4.16.45The promised priest from another family will serve before God’s Christ, as the versions of Aquila and Symmachus confirm.
1003. 4.16.46The faithful priest is everyone who serves Christ in the church throughout the world, whose spiritual worship replaces the animal sacrifices God rejected.
1004. 4.16.47Since most of these prophecies speak of suffering, Eusebius returns to Psalm 45 on the Christ’s divinity.
1005. 4.16.48The anointed is himself God, anointed by the greater God, his Father.
1006. 4.16.49The one anointed by God is both God and Christ, as Isaiah 61 also shows.
1007. 4.16.50Human priests were anointed with oil, the prophesied one with divine power.
1008. 4.16.51Jesus read Isaiah 61 in the synagogue and declared it fulfilled in himself.
1009. 4.16.52Luke records Jesus declaring Isaiah’s prophecy fulfilled.
1010. 4.16.53Moses, having seen the true Christ in the Spirit, gave Aaron the title “christ” as his image.
1011. 4.16.54Paul and Hebrews call the Mosaic law a shadow of heavenly realities.
1012. 4.16.55The Mosaic high priest was a symbol of the true Christ, to whom God says, “Sit at my right hand.”
1013. 4.16.56Psalm 110 shows the true Christ as Son begotten before creation and eternal high priest.
1014. 4.16.57Aaron played the type briefly and died; the true Christ, never anointed with oil, has filled the world with Christians named after him.
1015. 4.16.58Aaron was anointed late, after purification, by Moses, and is known only from Moses’ writings.
1016. 4.16.59The true Christ, unchanging and eternal, was anointed by God with the unbegotten divinity itself.
1017. 4.16.60Song of Songs 1:3, “your name is ointment poured out,” seals the argument about the name Christ.
1018. 4.16.61Solomon, speaking of Christ as bridegroom and the church as bride, says the bridegroom’s name is ointment poured out.
1019. 4.16.62“Christ” means one on whom ointment is poured; Eusebius turns next to the name Jesus.
1020. 4.17.1Moses first gave the name Jesus (Joshua) to his successor.
1021. 4.17.2Moses, attentive to the meaning of names, records Abraham’s renaming as a reward for virtue.
1022. 4.17.3Moses, who renamed Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob, was the first to give anyone the name Jesus, changing Joshua’s birth name.
1023. 4.17.4Joshua’s new name signified that after the Mosaic law ended, Jesus Christ alone would lead a better way of life.
1024. 4.17.5Moses gave Aaron the title Christ and Joshua the name Jesus, the two names of the Savior.
1025. 4.17.6Moses’ writings bear both names of the Savior; the next heading introduces Exodus 23:20–21, the angel who bears God’s name.
1026. 4.17.7Since Joshua led the people into the land, the Lord’s own name, Jesus, was put on him.
1027. 4.17.8Joshua could be called an angel, as John the Baptist was; the next heading introduces the high priest Joshua in Zechariah.
1028. 4.17.9Zechariah sees the high priest Jesus (Joshua) accused by the devil, cleansed, and reclothed.
1029. 4.17.10God announces to Joshua that he will bring his servant, the Dawn.
1030. 4.17.11Zechariah is told to crown Joshua and announce a man named Dawn who will build the Lord’s house.
1031. 4.17.12The high priest Joshua, bearing Jesus’ name and leading the return from Babylon, is an image of Christ.
1032. 4.17.13Aaron (called Christ) and Joshua the priest (called Jesus) together symbolize Jesus Christ.
1033. 4.17.14Aaron leading Israel out of Egypt prefigures Christ freeing the nations from idolatry.
1034. 4.17.15Joshua leading the return from Babylon prefigures Jesus leading believers from the captivity of this life to the heavenly Jerusalem.
1035. 4.17.16Joshua’s filthy garments signify Christ taking our sins and shame upon himself.
1036. 4.17.17Isaiah 53 and John the Baptist show Christ bearing our sins.
1037. 4.17.18Paul’s teaching that Christ became sin and a curse for us is what Joshua’s filthy garments foretold.
1038. 4.17.19At his ascension Christ was reclothed in divine glory; the devil opposed him then and opposes his church now.
1039. 4.17.20The devil opposed Christ at the temptation and again at the passion.
1040. 4.17.21Having defeated the devil, Christ built the house of God from believers as living stones, fulfilling Zechariah 6.
1041. 4.17.22Zechariah speaks of the Dawn as both a future figure and the present Joshua, so Joshua is an image of the coming Christ.
1042. 4.17.23Jesus (Joshua) means “salvation of God” in Hebrew, so “salvation of God” in the Greek Bible refers to Jesus.
1043. 4.17.24Eusebius closes his discussion of the names and turns to fuller proofs.
1044. 5.0.1Book 5 opens: Christ is to be understood both as the eternal Son and Word, “second cause of the universe,” and as the Word who appears to men.
1045. 5.0.2Before proving Christ’s divinity from the prophets, Eusebius will examine how Hebrew prophets were inspired.
1046. 5.0.3Pagans claim that their oracles are as much gifts of God as the Hebrew prophets.
1047. 5.0.4They argue that God, who cares for all equally, would give all nations prophecy.
1048. 5.0.5They claim augury, dreams, and other signs are God’s gifts equal to Hebrew prophecy.
1049. 5.0.6Eusebius replies that the oracles are the work of evil demons, as the Preparation proved from human sacrifice and false prophecies.
1050. 5.0.7The demons’ delight in shameful myths about themselves proved them unclean.
1051. 5.0.8The oracles fell silent from the time of Christ’s coming.
1052. 5.0.9As the gospel spread, oracles ceased and deaths of demons were reported.
1053. 5.0.10Demonic oracles cannot be compared with God’s prophets; they honored boxers and demanded human sacrifice.
1054. 5.0.11Gods who demanded human sacrifice showed themselves bloodthirsty; they gave no universal prophecy, law, or philosophy.
1055. 5.0.12If the gods had legislated, human laws would not conflict.
1056. 5.0.13Human lawgivers like Solon and Draco would have been unnecessary if the gods had given laws.
1057. 5.0.14If the gods gave national laws, they sanctioned cannibalism, incest, and other unnatural practices, proving them evil demons.
1058. 5.0.15The Greek gods and seers gave nothing to benefit the soul.
1059. 5.0.16If the gods taught truly, Greek philosophers would not have sought wisdom abroad or split into rival schools.
1060. 5.0.17The demons’ oracles dealt only with trivial matters and never objected to the shameful myths told about them.
1061. 5.0.18Human sacrifice is the clearest proof of the demons’ cruelty.
1062. 5.0.19The Greek writers themselves attest the demons’ delight in human sacrifice.
1063. 5.0.20Unlike the oracles, Moses taught true doctrine about God and the “second cause,” gave examples of virtue, divine law, true worship, and prophecy.
1064. 5.0.21The prophets sometimes answered small questions, but their main work concerned great matters.
1065. 5.0.22Hebrew prophecy concerned the salvation of all humanity, not everyday trivia, which it touched only incidentally.
1066. 5.0.23Moses and the prophets taught worship of the Creator, theology of the second cause, and foretold that God, the second Lord, would come to spread the patriarchs’ piety to all nations.
1067. 5.0.24The Spirit inspired the prophets to teach the theology of Father and Son, true piety, and the coming Savior who would bring that piety to all nations.
1068. 5.0.25With one voice the prophets taught purity, rejection of idolatry and human sacrifice, worship of the Creator, and the coming of Christ.
1069. 5.0.26Demonic possession darkened the mind and left its victim senseless, which is why pagan divination was likened to madness.
1070. 5.0.27The Holy Spirit enlightened the prophets’ minds, keeping them sober and aware.
1071. 5.0.28Prophets are so called because the Spirit reveals the future to them.
1072. 5.0.29It is more fitting that God’s Spirit inspires purified souls than that he speaks through birds, entrails, and reptiles.
1073. 5.0.30The Spirit dwells only in virtuous souls like the Hebrew prophets, for purposes that benefit the whole world.
1074. 5.0.31Prophets answered ordinary questions only so that Israel would not turn to pagan oracles.
1075. 5.0.32Having shown the prophets’ divine inspiration, Eusebius will confirm the Gospels’ theology of Christ from them.
1076. 5.0.33John’s Gospel calls Christ the Word, God, light, and Lord.
1077. 5.0.34Paul’s Christology in Colossians agrees with John’s; Eusebius will show the same teaching in the Hebrew Scriptures.
1078. 5.0.35Eusebius will rely chiefly on the Septuagint, the church’s version.
1079. 5.0.36He will also use the later Greek versions favored by Jews when helpful.
1080. 5.1.1Proverbs 8 begins: Wisdom speaks of her counsel and her rule over kings.
1081. 5.1.2Wisdom says the Lord created her as the beginning of his ways before the world.
1082. 5.1.3Wisdom was begotten before the hills and was with God, rejoicing, when he made the world.
1083. 5.1.4The Son, who has many names, is here called Wisdom.
1084. 5.1.5Through Solomon the Son speaks of himself as Wisdom.
1085. 5.1.6Proverbs 8 shows that Wisdom governs the world and is begotten, not identical with the unbegotten Father.
1086. 5.1.7Paul’s “firstborn of all creation” corresponds to Wisdom’s “the Lord created me.”
1087. 5.1.8Wisdom is the Son, begotten in an ineffable way without emission or division.
1088. 5.1.9The Son’s generation cannot be compared to animal birth or described as a division of substance.
1089. 5.1.10The divine nature is simple and indivisible and contains nothing that could be put forth from it.
1090. 5.1.11Things can be in another as accident, as a child in the womb, or as a part in a whole.
1091. 5.1.12None of these models may be applied to God and the Son’s generation.
1092. 5.1.13The Son was not an eternal part of the Father later separated from him; that would imply change and two unbegotten beings.
1093. 5.1.14Such bodily ideas are impious; the Son’s generation is beyond telling.
1094. 5.1.15Nor may one say the Son came from nothing like other creatures; his generation differs from creation through him.
1095. 5.1.16Scripture calls the Son both “created” as firstborn of creation and “begotten.”
1096. 5.1.17We should confess the Son as the eternal creative Word, with the Father, begotten as his co-worker in creation.
1097. 5.1.18The Son’s generation is beyond thought; if one must use images, he is like fragrance from ointment or radiance from light, always with the Father, though the images fall short.
1098. 5.1.19The images fail: radiance cannot exist apart from light, and fragrance is bodily, while the Son subsists in his own right as begotten.
1099. 5.1.20The Son was not divided from the Father’s substance, nor is he without beginning like the Father, who as Father precedes the Son.
1100. 5.1.21The Son is the living image of God, wholly form, made like the Father in his very being.
1101. 5.1.22All that is true of the Son exceeds human speech, and Scripture speaks accommodatingly.
1102. 5.1.23As Paul calls believers the fragrance of Christ and the Song calls the bridegroom ointment poured out, all creation shares in the Word proportionately.
1103. 5.1.24The Father is the source of all good, and the Son, in second place, is the fragrance of his substance, as Wisdom 7 says.
1104. 5.1.25The Son’s generation is beyond the reach even of heavenly powers, as Jesus taught.
1105. 5.1.26Since only Father and Son know each other, Proverbs 8 must be read as a mystery.
1106. 5.1.27Wisdom was present with the Father at creation and always rejoiced before him.
1107. 5.1.28The mountains and depths of Proverbs 8 are either the physical world or spiritual powers, before all of which Wisdom, Christ, existed.
1108. 5.2.1The text resumes in the discussion of Psalm 45: the divine King is anointed by the supreme God and so is Christ.
1109. 5.2.2The anointing of Psalm 45 was not the Mosaic oil.
1110. 5.2.3He alone is both God and Christ, anointed by the Creator with divine joy.
1111. 5.2.4He alone is Christ properly; his companions are believers who share in him.
1112. 5.2.5Eusebius asks who the enemies of the divine King are and how he won peoples by truth, not arms.
1113. 5.2.6The psalm fits Jesus, who conquered the demons and won the nations, anointed with the Spirit, not with oil.
1114. 5.2.7Only Jesus is called Christ throughout the world, and his followers bear his name; the anointing was treated in Book 4.
1115. 5.2.8Grace poured on Christ’s lips spread his teaching quickly, so that he is honored everywhere as King, God, and Christ.
1116. 5.2.9Christ’s enemies are all who fight his word, human or spiritual, whom he continually overcomes.
1117. 5.2.10The queen of Psalm 45, who leaves her father’s house for the King, is the church of the nations.
1118. 5.3.1Psalm 110:1–4 in full.
1119. 5.3.2Psalm 110 calls the Son Lord, enthroned with the Father, his Son, and eternal priest.
1120. 5.3.3The Holy Spirit in the prophet calls the Son its own Lord, second after the Father, whom the Hebrews named with the unpronounced four-letter name.
1121. 5.3.4Jesus himself used Psalm 110 to show that the Christ is David’s Lord, and, Eusebius adds, Lord of the prophetic Spirit.
1122. 5.3.5If the Holy Spirit calls the Son Lord, all rational powers and all creation must do so, since all things were created in him.
1123. 5.3.6Only the Son, like the Father, may sit at the right hand of the almighty kingdom.
1124. 5.3.7The same person is enthroned, begotten before the morning star, and sworn in as eternal priest.
1125. 5.3.8Only Wisdom of Proverbs 8, begotten before creation, can be the eternal priest of Psalm 110.
1126. 5.3.9Psalm 110 enthrones the second Lord, and Psalm 45 calls him God with an eternal throne.
1127. 5.3.10Psalms 110 and 45 agree on the scepter and the enemies of the divine King.
1128. 5.3.11The churches flourishing amid enemies everywhere fulfill “rule in the midst of your enemies.”
1129. 5.3.12Psalm 45’s anointing implies priesthood, which Psalm 110 declares eternal, beyond any human.
1130. 5.3.13Unlike the Aaronic priests, anointed by men, mortal, serving Israel alone, and sometimes unworthy like Eli, Christ is priest after Melchizedek.
1131. 5.3.14The Levitical priest came only from Aaron’s line and offered animals; Melchizedek, king of righteousness and peace, had no recorded genealogy.
1132. 5.3.15Melchizedek was not chosen by men, not anointed, not circumcised, did not offer animal sacrifice, yet blessed Abraham.
1133. 5.3.16Christ did not become a priest; “you are a priest for ever” shows that he always is one.
1134. 5.3.17For all these reasons Christ is priest after Melchizedek, not after Aaron.
1135. 5.3.18Christ still exercises his Melchizedek priesthood through his ministers.
1136. 5.3.19As Melchizedek blessed Abraham with bread and wine, Christ and the church’s priests celebrate the mysteries of his body and blood with bread and wine.
1137. 5.3.20God confirmed Christ’s priesthood with an oath.
1138. 5.3.21Hebrews explains the significance of God’s oath.
1139. 5.3.22Hebrews contrasts the many mortal priests with Christ’s permanent priesthood.
1140. 5.3.23Hebrews sums up: our high priest sits at God’s right hand and serves in the true sanctuary.
1141. 5.3.24Psalm 110 hints at the passion: “He will drink from the brook.”
1142. 5.3.25The brook is the time of trial, and the drink is the cup of Christ’s passion.
1143. 5.3.26Having drunk the cup of death, Christ was exalted above every power, and he now rules his believers in the midst of his enemies.
1144. 5.4.1Isaiah 45 announces a righteous king who will build God’s city and free the captives.
1145. 5.4.2Isaiah foretells a savior-king whom the nations will worship as God because the greater God, the Father, dwells in him.
1146. 5.4.3Isaiah 45:14–16: the nations will worship the one in whom God is.
1147. 5.4.4The passage clearly presents a Savior who is God and another God dwelling in him.
1148. 5.4.5Where the Septuagint has “we did not know it,” Aquila has “a mighty God who hides himself.”
1149. 5.4.6Theodotion calls the Christ a hidden God; he is God because the Father dwells in him, as Colossians says.
1150. 5.4.7Eusebius compares the readings of Theodotion, Aquila, and Symmachus on Isaiah 45:14–15.
1151. 5.4.8These readings show why Christ is God.
1152. 5.4.9The Father alone is God in the proper sense; the Son, the second, is God by participation, having his being and divinity from the Father who dwells in him.
1153. 5.4.10As honoring a king’s image honors the one king, so the Son, the natural image of the invisible God, is honored as God after the Father.
1154. 5.4.11The Son is God by nature, not by adoption, yet he is not the first God but the only-begotten Son, and so God.
1155. 5.4.12The Son is God because he is the only natural Son and the perfect image of God’s divinity.
1156. 5.4.13As the Father’s perfect image, the Son received from him the name of God along with his other titles.
1157. 5.4.14The Father gives and the Son receives: there is one God, unbegotten, seen in the Son as in a mirror, while the Son holds the second rank.
1158. 5.4.15Isaiah teaches that the Son is worshiped as God because the Father dwells in him.
1159. 5.4.16The other versions read “the labor of Egypt,” meaning the barbarian nations once enslaved to demons.
1160. 5.4.17Egypt, thought the first source of idolatry, is named first among the nations to submit to Christ.
1161. 5.4.18This is fulfilled in the worship of Christ by all nations.
1162. 5.4.19Psalm 72 also foretells the Ethiopians worshiping Christ; the next heading introduces Psalm 33 on the creating Word.
1163. 5.5.1Psalms 33, 107, and 147 speak of God’s Word creating, healing, and running over the earth.
1164. 5.5.2Psalm 33 agrees with John 1: the Word through whom all was made is God.
1165. 5.5.3The psalm shows the Word as distinct from the Father, creating at the greater one’s command.
1166. 5.5.4Speaking and commanding imply another person; and at the incarnation the nations came to fear the Lord Jesus instead of demons.
1167. 5.5.5The world trembled at Christ’s name, as the psalm foretold.
1168. 5.5.6Psalm 148 likewise says all creation came to be at God’s command.
1169. 5.5.7The one who received God’s command to create was the Word, in whom God placed the principles of all things.
1170. 5.5.8God’s Word is not like human speech made of syllables; they share only a name.
1171. 5.5.9A human word is only an activity of the mind with no existence of its own.
1172. 5.5.10God’s Word subsists in his own right, like the Father in all things, and holds the ideas of all creation.
1173. 5.6.1Isaiah 48: the one who is first, who founded earth and heaven, says, “The Lord has sent me, and his Spirit.”
1174. 5.6.2The creator who speaks confesses he was sent by “the Lord, the Lord,” that is, the Father.
1175. 5.6.3The Son is “first” among begotten things; the Father is above “first.”
1176. 5.6.4The Father is not first of begotten things but above them; the Word is first of all begotten beings.
1177. 5.6.5The one commanded to create is the one who founded earth and heaven and was sent by the greater Lord.
1178. 5.6.6The speaker is the Word, who, though Lord himself, piously calls his greater Father “Lord, Lord.”
1179. 5.6.7The Father is Lord of all, including the Son, while the Son is rightly called second Lord; the next heading introduces Genesis 1:26.
1180. 5.7.1Genesis records God saying, “Let us make.”
1181. 5.7.2Genesis 1:27 shows that the one addressed was God, not an angel; the next heading introduces Genesis 19.
1182. 5.8.1Genesis 19:24: “the Lord rained … from the Lord.”
1183. 5.8.2Genesis 19 shows two Lords; the Father is Lord and God even of the Son, while the Son, the second Lord, is master of those below him.
1184. 5.8.3The Son is not Lord of the Father, but the Father is God of the Son, so theology rests on one principle and one God; the next heading introduces the appearances to Abraham.
1185. 5.9.1Genesis records the Lord appearing to Abraham.
1186. 5.9.2God appeared to Abraham at Mamre as three men.
1187. 5.9.3The Lord decides not to hide his plans from Abraham.
1188. 5.9.4The Lord speaks of “the Lord” as if of another.
1189. 5.9.5The Lord at Mamre speaks of another Lord, his Father; Abraham intercedes with him as judge of all the earth.
1190. 5.9.6The one addressed as judge of all the earth was not an angel but God and Lord, appearing with two angels.
1191. 5.9.7The one who appeared at Mamre was not the Father but the Word; the site and its terebinth are still honored.
1192. 5.9.8A painting at Mamre shows the three guests with the greater one in the middle, the Savior; the next heading introduces Jacob.
1193. 5.10.1Jacob’s dream at Bethel: the Lord stands above the ladder.
1194. 5.10.2The Lord promises Jacob descendants and protection.
1195. 5.10.3Jacob sets up a pillar and names the place House of God.
1196. 5.10.4Later Jacob calls the God of Bethel “the angel of God.”
1197. 5.10.5The God of Bethel was God and Lord, but the second after the Father, who serves as his messenger.
1198. 5.10.6The same one is called angel, God, and Lord, as Isaiah 9 calls him Angel of great counsel and mighty God.
1199. 5.11.1Jacob wrestles with a man, is renamed Israel, and says he has seen God face to face.
1200. 5.11.2Jacob saw God face to face, which Moses was told was impossible; so he saw not the invisible Father but the Word.
1201. 5.11.3He was not an angel: Scripture gives him the divine four-letter name and distinguishes him from the angels who went to Sodom.
1202. 5.11.4When Jacob met angels, he called the place Camps.
1203. 5.11.5Jacob and Scripture carefully distinguish angels from God himself.
1204. 5.11.6At the Red Sea Scripture distinguishes the angel from the Lord.
1205. 5.11.7The Lord appeared to Israel in the pillar of fire and cloud.
1206. 5.11.8Scripture names angels as angels; the one called Lord and God to Jacob was also called angel of God, so he is not the first cause.
1207. 5.11.9So there is a God and Lord after the Father: the Word, above the angels but less than the first cause.
1208. 5.12.1God tells Jacob to build an altar to “the God who appeared to you.”
1209. 5.12.2The unseen Father tells Jacob to honor “the God who appeared,” the Word; the next heading introduces Exodus 3 and 6.
1210. 5.13.1The burning bush: an angel appears, and the Lord says, “I am he who is.”
1211. 5.13.2God tells Moses he appeared to the patriarchs but did not reveal his name to them.
1212. 5.13.3As God spoke through human prophets, so here the Father speaks to Moses through the angel.
1213. 5.13.4God showed Moses only an angel and his name, but appeared to the patriarchs, through the Word.
1214. 5.13.5Aquila renders Exodus 6:3, “I was seen … in God Almighty.”
1215. 5.13.6Aquila’s wording shows that the Father appeared to the patriarchs through the Son, “God Almighty,” as Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”
1216. 5.13.7God appeared to save through the Son’s human form, and to punish Egypt through an angel in fire; the bush signifies Egypt’s wickedness and the fire its punishment.
1217. 5.14.1God came to Israel in the pillar of cloud and fire.
1218. 5.14.2The pillar of cloud spoke with Moses at the tent, and the people worshiped.
1219. 5.14.3The one who spoke from the cloud was the Word, who appeared as cloud because the people could not bear his human form.
1220. 5.14.4Only the perfect could foresee his incarnation; to the people he appeared veiled in fire and cloud.
1221. 5.15.1God promises Moses that his angel, bearing his name, will lead the people.
1222. 5.15.2The one sending the angel is God, the one seen by the patriarchs and called angel of God: the Word; the next heading introduces the Ten Commandments.
1223. 5.16.1The Decalogue opens with “I am the Lord your God.”
1224. 5.16.2In the Decalogue the Lord who speaks refers to “the name of the Lord your God,” the second Lord speaking of the Father.
1225. 5.16.3Scripture often has God and Lord speak of another God and Lord.
1226. 5.17.1The Lord passes by Moses and proclaims, “Lord, Lord, God compassionate and merciful.”
1227. 5.17.2The Lord who came down called on another Lord, the Father; it was the Lord himself, not Moses, as he had announced.
1228. 5.17.3The narrative confirms that the Lord came down and called on the name of the Lord.
1229. 5.17.4Moses later quotes these words as spoken by the Lord, confirming that the Lord proclaimed the greater Lord.
1230. 5.17.5The Lord calls the Father “true,” as Jesus called him “the only true God”; the next heading introduces Numbers.
1231. 5.18.1Numbers says the Lord is seen eye to eye among Israel.
1232. 5.18.2Exodus 24 says the elders saw the God of Israel, as Aquila and Symmachus render more directly.
1233. 5.18.3The God seen by Israel was not the invisible Father but the Word who wrestled with Jacob; the next heading introduces Joshua 5.
1234. 5.19.1Joshua meets the commander of the Lord’s host at Jericho.
1235. 5.19.2The same command was given to Moses at the bush.
1236. 5.19.3The same God spoke to Moses and Joshua; the commander over all heavenly hosts can only be the Word.
1237. 5.19.4The Word appeared in different forms suited to each: peaceful to Abraham, a wrestler to Jacob, cloud and fire to Moses.
1238. 5.19.5To Joshua, about to fight, he appeared with a drawn sword as commander of the Lord’s host; the next heading introduces Job.
1239. 5.20.1The Lord speaks to Job from the whirlwind about creation.
1240. 5.20.2God asks whether Job ordained the morning light.
1241. 5.20.3God asks Job about the making of man and the gates of death.
1242. 5.20.4Job answers that now his eye has seen the Lord.
1243. 5.20.5The speech in Job belongs to the creator Word, and its lines about the gates of death foretell Christ’s descent to Hades.
1244. 5.20.6Job testifies that he saw the Lord who spoke to him.
1245. 5.20.7Job could not have seen the invisible Father, so the one he saw was the Word, who also speaks of the devil as a dragon.
1246. 5.20.8The Lord who masters the dragon is the Savior, who conquered the devil and death.
1247. 5.20.9Job’s trial was a partial contest, the greater one reserved for Christ’s death; the next heading introduces Psalm 91.
1248. 5.21.1Psalm 91 speaks of one whose refuge is the Most High.
1249. 5.21.2The devil quoted this psalm to Jesus; it addresses the Lord whose refuge is the Most High, his greater Father.
1250. 5.21.3No divine punishment will touch Christ’s body, his “dwelling”; the next heading introduces Hosea.
1251. 5.22.1In Hosea the Word says, “I am God, and not a man,” answering those who call him only a holy man.
1252. 5.22.2The speaker walks after the Lord, his Father, and refuses ordinary city life, as Jesus told his disciples; the next heading introduces Amos.
1253. 5.23.1In Amos the Lord speaks of God overthrowing Sodom, implying another divine person.
1254. 5.23.2Genesis 19 shows two Lords; Amos’s past tenses are prophetic futures.
1255. 5.23.3Eusebius applies Amos’s threat to the destruction of Jerusalem after the rejection of Jesus; the next heading introduces Obadiah.
1256. 5.24.1In Obadiah the Lord hears a report from the Lord about the nations; the next heading introduces Zechariah.
1257. 5.25.1In Zechariah the Lord Almighty says the Lord Almighty sent him, so there are two.
1258. 5.26.1Zechariah foretells the Lord coming to dwell in Zion and nations turning to the Lord.
1259. 5.26.2The Lord will come and the nations will flee to the greater Lord, his God, and become God’s people in the church, the daughter of Zion.
1260. 5.26.3The Word dwells in the church, as Christ promised to be with his disciples always.
1261. 5.26.4Christ’s presence in the church brings knowledge of the Father who sent him.
1262. 5.26.5The Lord again speaks of another Lord in whom people will boast.
1263. 5.27.1Zechariah 3: “The Lord rebuke you.”
1264. 5.27.2The Lord invokes another Lord, proving two Lords: the Father and the Son who rules all creation; the next heading introduces Malachi.
1265. 5.28.1Malachi 3 promises the Lord and the angel of the covenant.
1266. 5.28.2God Almighty speaks of another Lord, the Word, who is also angel of the covenant.
1267. 5.28.3The angel and the Lord are the same, and his coming in glory is the second coming.
1268. 5.29.1The Word, called by many names, is the sun of righteousness, rising for those who fear God.
1269. 5.29.2The spiritual sun rises only for the God-fearing and sets on false prophets; the next heading introduces Jeremiah.
1270. 5.30.1Jeremiah foresees the nations abandoning their idols and coming to the Lord.
1271. 5.30.2The Lord prays to the Father, and the conversion of the nations he foretold followed Christ’s coming.
1272. 5.30.3Having shown from thirty prophecies that the Word is a second God after the Father, Eusebius turns to prophecies of his coming among men.
1273. 6.0.1Book 6 opens: since Book 5 showed a second divine being after the one God, prophecies of God coming among men must refer to the Word.
1274. 6.0.2Eusebius will show prophecies of the Lord’s descent and ascent, some veiled and some plain.
1275. 6.0.3Some prophecies are veiled because the Jews would have destroyed writings that openly foretold their rejection.
1276. 6.0.4The plain prophecies announce the calling of all nations.
1277. 6.1.1Psalm 18 describes God bowing the heavens and coming down.
1278. 6.1.2God bowing the heavens is Christ’s self-emptying; mounting the cherubim is his return to glory.
1279. 6.1.3The darkness is the hidden dispensation of the incarnation, and the tent around him is the catholic church.
1280. 6.1.4The end of Psalm 18 foretells the rejection of the former people and the calling of the nations; the next heading introduces Psalm 47.
1281. 6.2.1Psalm 47 calls the nations to praise God who went up with a shout.
1282. 6.2.2God’s ascent implies a prior descent, followed by the joyful calling of the nations.
1283. 6.2.3The nations subjected “to us” are those who submit to the prophets’ and apostles’ words.
1284. 6.2.4His inheritance is the nations, promised in Psalm 2.
1285. 6.2.5Christ subjected the nations to the apostles’ teaching and then ascended with a shout.
1286. 6.2.6Paul explains the ascent as following a descent; the shout is the angels’ praise, and the trumpet the gospel.
1287. 6.2.7The trumpet signifies the gospel’s loud proclamation calling all the earth to praise God as King.
1288. 6.2.8God, not the demons, now reigns over the nations, and the Word sits on the throne given him by the Father.
1289. 6.2.9The rulers of the peoples gathered with Abraham’s God are the church’s leaders from the nations; the next heading introduces Psalm 50.
1290. 6.3.1Psalm 50 says God will come openly and call the whole earth.
1291. 6.3.2God rejects animal sacrifices and asks for a sacrifice of praise.
1292. 6.3.3The God who comes openly is the Word; his coming brings the calling of the nations and the end of Mosaic sacrifices.
1293. 6.3.4Since Christ, all nations are called and Jewish worship has ceased; the psalm may also refer to the second coming. The next heading introduces Psalm 84.
1294. 6.4.1Psalm 84: the God of gods will be seen in Zion.
1295. 6.4.2The God of gods will be seen through the face of his Christ; the next heading introduces Psalm 96.
1296. 6.5.1Psalm 96 calls all the earth to sing a new song and declare God’s glory among the nations.
1297. 6.5.2Psalm 96 calls the nations to honor the Lord as king.
1298. 6.5.3The psalm ends with the Lord coming to judge the earth.
1299. 6.5.4The coming Lord brings a new song, the new covenant, for all the earth.
1300. 6.5.5The coming Lord is the Word, who calls all people equally to salvation; the next heading introduces Psalm 98.
1301. 6.6.1Psalm 98 celebrates the Lord’s salvation revealed to all nations.
1302. 6.6.2Since Christ came, the new covenant is sung everywhere, and his resurrection has shown that God is God of the nations too.
1303. 6.6.3One God justifies Jew and Gentile by faith; the psalm may also refer to the second coming. The next heading introduces Psalm 107.
1304. 6.7.1Psalm 107: the Lord broke the gates of bronze and sent his Word to heal.
1305. 6.7.2The psalm describes God turning fruitful land into desert and desert into springs.
1306. 6.7.3“He sent his Word and healed them” announces the Word’s coming as Savior.
1307. 6.7.4The psalm hints at Christ’s descent to the dead, breaking the gates of death to save those there.
1308. 6.7.5The fruitful land turned to desert is Jerusalem after it rejected Christ.
1309. 6.7.6Jerusalem became barren after Christ, while the desert made fruitful is the soul or the Gentile church.
1310. 6.7.7Only the wise will understand the transformation of the desert; the next heading introduces Psalm 118.
1311. 6.8.1The psalms call the nations to praise and bless the one who comes in the Lord’s name.
1312. 6.8.2The crowds at Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem shouted the words of Psalm 118; “hosanna” means “save now.”
1313. 6.8.3The one who comes in the Lord’s name is God the Word, sent by the Father; the next heading introduces Psalm 144.
1314. 6.9.1Psalm 144 marvels that God made himself known to man and prays that he bow the heavens and come down.
1315. 6.9.2Psalm 144 prays for what Psalm 18 describes as done.
1316. 6.9.3The Word’s “descent” and “ascent” are figurative, not movements in space.
1317. 6.9.4The “new song” is the new covenant Christ gave the nations.
1318. 6.9.5Smoking mountains mean the destruction of idolatry, once practiced on high places; the next heading introduces Psalm 147.
1319. 6.10.1Psalm 147 distinguishes God who sends from the Word who is sent.
1320. 6.10.2The rapid spread of the gospel fulfills “his Word will run swiftly”; the next heading introduces 2 Samuel.
1321. 6.11.1David’s song in 2 Samuel 22 describes God bowing the heavens and coming down.
1322. 6.11.2The song ends with the speaker made head of the nations.
1323. 6.11.3The God who came down rode on his assumed humanity as on cherubim; the song foretells the Jews’ opposition and the nations’ obedience. The next heading introduces 1 Kings.
1324. 6.12.1Solomon asks whether God will truly dwell with men on earth.
1325. 6.12.2God promised David a descendant who would be Son of God with an eternal throne.
1326. 6.12.3Nathan promises David a son whom God will call his own Son.
1327. 6.12.4Psalm 89 calls David’s heir God’s firstborn with an eternal throne.
1328. 6.12.5God swore to establish David’s seed and throne for ever.
1329. 6.12.6God’s oath to David is unbreakable.
1330. 6.12.7Psalm 132 recalls God’s oath to David about the fruit of his body.
1331. 6.12.8The psalm names the Christ as David’s descendant.
1332. 6.12.9Solomon saw that the promises to David exceeded any man and prayed for the coming of God to dwell with men; the next heading introduces Micah.
1333. 6.13.1Micah foretells the Lord coming down from his place to the heights of the earth because of Israel’s sin.
1334. 6.13.2The Lord who comes down is the Word, whose place is his heavenly throne at the Father’s right hand.
1335. 6.13.3Micah prophesies the Word’s descent to earth.
1336. 6.13.4Literally, the heights are Jerusalem and Zion, destroyed after Christ’s coming.
1337. 6.13.5Figuratively, the shaken mountains are Israel’s rulers and priesthood, and the melting valleys the mourning synagogues.
1338. 6.13.6Spiritually, the Word comes upon the “high places,” minds raised up to God.
1339. 6.13.7The mountains beneath him may be those of Christ’s temptation.
1340. 6.13.8The mountains may also be idolatry and the demonic powers behind it, overthrown by Christ’s teaching.
1341. 6.13.9The melting valleys are the demons, burned by Christ’s fire and driven from the possessed.
1342. 6.13.10Christ punished the demons especially for corrupting God’s ancient people; that is why he came down.
1343. 6.13.11Micah gives the reasons for the Word’s descent: Israel’s sin and its punishment, and the calling of the nations.
1344. 6.13.12Micah names Samaria and Jerusalem as the sin of Israel and Judah.
1345. 6.13.13Micah foretells disaster at Jerusalem’s gates.
1346. 6.13.14Micah foretells the mourning of Jerusalem and Zion ploughed like a field.
1347. 6.13.15The shaken mountains are Zion and the temple mount, desolated after the crime against Christ.
1348. 6.13.16These prophecies were fulfilled after Christ’s coming.
1349. 6.13.17Eusebius has himself seen Zion ploughed by Romans and Jerusalem desolate, as Micah foretold.
1350. 6.13.18The Word came to shake the hostile powers, drive out the demons, and free the nations to know God.
1351. 6.13.19Micah foretells the nations streaming to the mountain of the Lord.
1352. 6.13.20Micah’s opening summons to all peoples shows the Lord’s coming was for all nations.
1353. 6.13.21Micah hints at the Lord’s passion and names Bethlehem as the birthplace of the eternal ruler.
1354. 6.13.22Only Jesus, born at Bethlehem, fits the ruler whose origins are from eternity.
1355. 6.13.23Jesus from Bethlehem became leader of the spiritual Israel, and his eternal origins show he is more than human.
1356. 6.13.24Micah 6 questions the value of burnt offerings, pointing to the end of the old worship.
1357. 6.13.25God answers that he requires justice, mercy, and faithfulness, not sacrifices.
1358. 6.13.26Micah’s prophecy combines judgment on the Jews with a new law for the nations, fulfilled after Christ; the next heading introduces Habakkuk.
1359. 6.14.1Habakkuk is told that the one who comes will come and not delay.
1360. 6.14.2The coming one is the Lord who appears as light at the end of the ages, as Zechariah also says.
1361. 6.14.3Zechariah says there will be light at evening; Aquila and Hebrews also quote Habakkuk’s promise of the coming one.
1362. 6.14.4Hebrews clarifies Habakkuk’s transposed wording.
1363. 6.14.5Read in order, Habakkuk seems to say God is displeased with the coming one, which is absurd; Hebrews reorders it.
1364. 6.14.6Hebrews places “the righteous shall live by faith” before “if he shrinks back,” keeping the sense.
1365. 6.14.7The prophecy urges patience for the late coming and promises life to those who believe, while God is displeased with those who shrink back.
1366. 6.14.8Eusebius adopts the same reordering.
1367. 6.14.9Aquila’s version supports the same sense; the next heading introduces Habakkuk 3.
1368. 6.15.1Habakkuk’s prayer: God will come from Teman and be known in the midst of two lives.
1369. 6.15.2Habakkuk, foreseeing the second Lord’s incarnation, miracles, and sufferings, was afraid and amazed.
1370. 6.15.3“Two lives” comes from the word for “life,” not “living creature.”
1371. 6.15.4Christ is known between two lives, divine and human, in the Septuagint; Aquila reads differently.
1372. 6.15.5Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus all read “give life,” not “living creatures.”
1373. 6.15.6Eusebius departs from earlier interpreters, reading the two lives as Christ’s divine and human lives.
1374. 6.15.7The prophet was troubled at foreseeing the passion, yet at that very time the Lord remembered mercy.
1375. 6.15.8Christ’s passion brought mercy to the world; “Teman” means “consummation,” so God came at the end of the age.
1376. 6.15.9The verse may also refer to the second coming from the south of heaven.
1377. 6.15.10Theodotion reads “from the south”; the shaded mountain recalls Zechariah’s rider among the shaded mountains.
1378. 6.15.11The rider in Zechariah is the Holy One of Habakkuk; the shaded mountains are paradise or the heavenly Jerusalem.
1379. 6.15.12Zechariah’s rider on a red horse shows the incarnate Christ; Habakkuk calls him God and Holy One.
1380. 6.15.13God comes from divine regions, and his excellence covers heaven and his praise fills the earth.
1381. 6.15.14The verses describe Christ’s heavenly kingdom, the spread of his teaching, and his power over hostile spirits.
1382. 6.15.15The word going before him is the gospel spreading everywhere; the second coming will fulfill the rest. The next heading introduces Zechariah.
1383. 6.16.1Zechariah 2: the Lord Almighty has sent me to the nations.
1384. 6.16.2Both the sender and the one sent are called Lord Almighty.
1385. 6.16.3The one sent “after glory” is the pre-existent Word, who through his Jewish disciples won over the nations that had once enslaved Israel.
1386. 6.16.4The nations who led Israel into idolatry will themselves be won from idolatry by Israel’s apostles.
1387. 6.16.5The plundering nations may be hostile spiritual powers; the Word cares for souls as for the apple of his eye.
1388. 6.17.1Zechariah 2:10–11: the Lord comes to dwell in Zion and nations join him.
1389. 6.17.2The prophecy shows that the second cause would live among men, and why: to gather the nations.
1390. 6.17.3The daughter of Zion is the church, daughter of the heavenly Jerusalem.
1391. 6.17.4The church may be called Zion’s daughter because it was born from Israel through the apostles, while the mother was put away, as the prophets said.
1392. 6.17.5The Gentile church, as daughter through the apostles, receives the good news of the Lord’s coming.
1393. 6.18.1Zechariah 14 foretells the capture of Jerusalem and the Lord fighting among the nations.
1394. 6.18.2The Lord’s feet stand on the Mount of Olives, which splits in two.
1395. 6.18.3Living water flows from Jerusalem, and the Lord becomes king over all the earth.
1396. 6.18.4Zechariah, writing after the return from Babylon, foretells the later Roman siege of Jerusalem, which followed the crime against Christ.
1397. 6.18.5The prophecy shows Christ’s coming, his passion, the siege and capture of Jerusalem, and the calling of the nations.
1398. 6.18.6“The days of the Lord” are Christ’s coming, when the nations receive his light and the unbelieving nation suffers.
1399. 6.18.7The opening verses describe the capture of Jerusalem.
1400. 6.18.8After the siege comes the Lord’s universal reign.
1401. 6.18.9From Pilate to the Roman siege, the Jews suffered what Zechariah foretold, as Josephus records.
1402. 6.18.10Half the city fell under Titus, and the rest under Hadrian, after which Jews were barred from Jerusalem.
1403. 6.18.11The prophecy cannot be explained by the time of Antiochus Epiphanes.
1404. 6.18.12Literally, Jerusalem and the Mosaic worship were destroyed; spiritually, those who rejected Christ remained captive.
1405. 6.18.13A remnant of Jews believed in Christ, as Paul says.
1406. 6.18.14The believing remnant escaped both the spiritual captivity and the literal siege, being scattered among the nations.
1407. 6.18.15The prophecy foretold the survival of the remnant.
1408. 6.18.16Eusebius reads the Lord as fighting on the side of the besiegers of Jerusalem.
1409. 6.18.17The Lord standing on the Mount of Olives means his establishment in the church.
1410. 6.18.18As Israel was God’s vineyard, the Gentile church is his olive grove, grafted onto the apostolic root.
1411. 6.18.19God abandoned the fruitless vineyard of Israel and planted a new olive grove, the church, whose members are like fruitful olive trees.
1412. 6.18.20The Mount of Olives stands in place of the destroyed Jerusalem, so the Lord’s feet stand there, not on the city.
1413. 6.18.21The Lord’s feet move from the ruined city to the Mount of Olives, as Ezekiel also saw.
1414. 6.18.22Ezekiel saw God’s glory leave the city and rest on the mountain opposite.
1415. 6.18.23Christian pilgrims now flock to the Mount of Olives, where Christ taught about the end and ascended, as Acts records.
1416. 6.18.24Acts records the angels’ promise that Jesus will return as he ascended.
1417. 6.18.25Acts records that the disciples returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, opposite the city.
1418. 6.18.26Spiritually, the Mount of Olives opposite and east of Jerusalem is Christ's church, lit by the Sun of righteousness.
1419. 6.18.27The splitting of the Mount of Olives can signify the church's spread to east, west, south, and north.
1420. 6.18.28The mountain's division can also figure the church's schisms, heresies, and moral failings, split into two better and two worse parts.
1421. 6.18.29East and south may signify two orders of advancing Christians: those perfected in knowledge and those excelling in life.
1422. 6.18.30The sea and north parts signify evil, since evil comes from the north and the dragon dwells in the sea.
1423. 6.18.31The two evil parts are those who fall away by sinful conduct and those who fall from orthodox knowledge.
1424. 6.18.32Zechariah's blocked valley is the old Jewish worship at Jerusalem, which the prophecy says will be shut off.
1425. 6.18.33Symmachus's version shows the ravine is blocked by drawing near the Mount of Olives, which the Septuagint calls Asael.
1426. 6.18.34Asael means “the making of God,” so the old ravine will be shut off by drawing near to Christ's church.
1427. 6.18.35Eusebius found no record of such an earthquake in Uzziah's reign in the books of Kings.
1428. 6.18.36Uzziah was struck with leprosy for offering sacrifice himself, and Josephus adds further details.
1429. 6.18.37Josephus says an earthquake split the temple, struck Uzziah with leprosy, and moved half a mountain, blocking the roads.
1430. 6.18.38Amos too dates his prophecy two years before an earthquake in Uzziah's days.
1431. 6.18.39Eusebius thinks Amos's vision of the Lord striking the altar describes that earthquake.
1432. 6.18.40Amos's earthquake foretells the fall of Jerusalem's worship after the Jews rejected Christ, the true high priest.
1433. 6.18.41The torn temple veil and the earthquake at the Passion, then the temple's fall, fulfilled Amos's vision.
1434. 6.18.42The valley's blocking was fulfilled literally in the Roman siege and spiritually in the end of the Mosaic worship; then Zechariah foretells the Lord's coming.
1435. 6.18.43The “holy ones” may be the apostles or the angels; then Zechariah speaks of a day without light, with cold and frost.
1436. 6.18.44Symmachus's version points to the Passion: darkness from the sixth hour, and the cold night of Jesus' trial.
1437. 6.18.45Mark and John record the fire and the cold on the night of Jesus' trial.
1438. 6.18.46The day was neither day nor night: darkness from the sixth to ninth hour, then light again toward evening.
1439. 6.18.47Spiritually, darkness and cold fell on the Jewish nation, while the light of Christ rose for those in darkness.
1440. 6.18.48The living water from Jerusalem is Christ's saving teaching, as he told the Samaritan woman.
1441. 6.18.49The water flowing to the first and last seas is the gospel filling the whole world, as Christ promised.
1442. 6.18.50After the saving stream went out from Jerusalem to all nations, the Lord would become king.
1443. 6.18.51The Lord will reign over all the earth, not only Jerusalem, as the Psalms also foretell.
1444. 6.18.52The whole prophecy of Zechariah 14, from the siege to the Lord's universal reign, has been fulfilled.
1445. 6.18.53The spread of the Christian name over the world fulfills the prophecy that his name will encircle the earth.
1446. 6.19.1Baruch asks who has found Wisdom, answering that only God who made all things knows her.
1447. 6.19.2Baruch says God gave wisdom to Israel and afterward appeared on earth and lived among men, which Eusebius takes as plain prophecy.
1448. 6.20.1Isaiah's oracle on Egypt: the Lord comes on a light cloud, Egypt's idols shake, and strife and harsh rulers follow.
1449. 6.20.2Isaiah foretells that the Word of God, the second after God, will come to Egypt visibly, on a “light thickness.”
1450. 6.20.3Eusebius challenges the Jews to say when and how the Lord came to Egypt after Isaiah's time.
1451. 6.20.4Let the Jews explain what the “light thickness” is and why the Lord needs it to visit Egypt.
1452. 6.20.5Eusebius asks when the prophecy's details (shaken idols, civil strife, silent oracles, harsh rulers) were ever fulfilled apart from Christ.
1453. 6.20.6The “light cloud” is Christ's body taken from the Virgin and the Holy Spirit, in which he came to Egypt.
1454. 6.20.7The prophecy was literally fulfilled when Joseph fled with the child Jesus to Egypt.
1455. 6.20.8In his flesh from the Virgin, thick as matter yet light as formed by the Spirit, the Word visited Egypt.
1456. 6.20.9Christ came to Egypt first because idolatry began there and the Egyptians were the most superstitious of peoples.
1457. 6.20.10The prophecy says the Lord would come to Egypt, not that Egyptians would become Jewish proselytes at Jerusalem.
1458. 6.20.11When Christ came to Egypt, the demons in its idols were shaken and overcome by his invisible power.
1459. 6.20.12Later, when the gospel was openly preached in Egypt, Christ's power worked through the apostles to turn people from demons to God.
1460. 6.20.13Conversion to Christ set Egyptians against Egyptians and brother against brother, as Isaiah foretold.
1461. 6.20.14Jesus himself foretold that family members would betray one another to death.
1462. 6.20.15Jesus said he came to bring division, even within households.
1463. 6.20.16Jesus' words match Isaiah's, and the law of the new covenant rose against the law of idolatry, city against city.
1464. 6.20.17The idolaters' plots against Christ's teaching are still being frustrated by God, as Isaiah foretold.
1465. 6.20.18The pagans consult oracles and demons against the Christians, but in vain.
1466. 6.20.19Those who turn to false gods get no help, and God hands them to harsh rulers when they persecute the church.
1467. 6.20.20Egypt lost its independence to Rome under Augustus, at Christ's birth, fulfilling the prophecy of harsh lords.
1468. 6.20.21Aquila's and Symmachus's “strong king” means the Roman empire, which restrains the enemies of the church.
1469. 6.20.22The rest of Isaiah 19 is too obscure for now and is left for the later discussion of the promises.
1470. 6.21.1Isaiah foretells the desert blossoming and God coming to save, opening blind eyes and healing the lame.
1471. 6.21.2Isaiah's promised healings of the blind, deaf, and lame were fulfilled by Christ's coming.
1472. 6.21.3Through the disciples, too, countless sick people were healed, as prophecy and Gospels attest.
1473. 6.21.4The desert is the church of the nations, once without God, to which Lebanon's glory is promised.
1474. 6.21.5Lebanon stands for Jerusalem, whose glory passes to the church of the nations; Aquila's version mentions Carmel and Sharon.
1475. 6.21.6The other translators show that Carmel and Sharon, foreign lands, will receive the knowledge of God.
1476. 6.21.7Spiritually, Christ's teaching still heals the blind, deaf, and lame of soul, freeing them from idolatry and passions.
1477. 6.22.1In Isaiah the Lord who speaks says he has been sent by the Lord, showing one Lord sent and another sending.
1478. 6.23.1Isaiah: the Lord asks where Israel's bill of divorce is, saying they were sent away for their sins because no one answered when he came.
1479. 6.23.2The same prophecy has the speaker give his back to scourges and his face to spitting.
1480. 6.23.3The Lord blames the Jewish people's rejection on their own refusal to receive him, not on any divorce from his side.
1481. 6.23.4The prophecy is aimed at the Jewish people and foretells the scourging at the Passion.
1482. 6.24.1Isaiah foretells the Lord's presence, the herald of good news to Zion, and his holy arm revealed to all nations.
1483. 6.24.2The same Lord who rebuked the Jewish people in Isaiah 50 tells them in Isaiah 52 that his name is blasphemed because of them.
1484. 6.24.3The Lord has another people who will know his name, and he who spoke in the prophets will come in person.
1485. 6.24.4Aquila and Symmachus render Isaiah 52:7–8 more clearly: “How beautiful are the feet of one bringing good news.”
1486. 6.24.5The watchmen are the apostles, and Zion and Jerusalem are the heavenly city, as Paul says.
1487. 6.24.6Zion also means the worldwide church, and Jerusalem the godly commonwealth once among the Jews, now renewed through Christ.
1488. 6.24.7Every holy soul can be called Zion (“watchtower”) and Jerusalem (“vision of peace”).
1489. 6.24.8The revealed arm of God is Christ, the Word and Wisdom, made known to all nations.
1490. 6.24.9The arm that saved Israel from Egypt is revealed to all nations, and “salvation” in Hebrew is the name Jesus.
1491. 6.25.1Isaiah foretells the Lord coming like fire to gather all nations and send the saved to declare his glory.
1492. 6.25.2Christ came as fire, and his chariots are the angels and apostles through whom he traversed the world.
1493. 6.25.3Literally, the fire and chariots fit the Roman siege, the burning of the temple, and the call of the nations that followed.
1494. 6.25.4The gathering of all nations in Christ's name, and the sign of the cross used as a seal, fulfill Isaiah's prophecy.
1495. 6.25.5The prophecies are partly fulfilled at Christ's first coming and will be completed at his second; next comes the manner of his first coming.
1496. 7.0.1Eusebius introduces Book 7: after showing that God would come among men, he now examines the manner of his coming.
1497. 7.0.2The book will ask how, where, and from what family God's coming was foretold, beginning with Isaiah.
1498. 7.1.1Chapter heading: Isaiah foretells Jewish unbelief and the sign of the virgin bearing God.
1499. 7.1.2John opens his Gospel by joining Christ's divinity to his incarnation.
1500. 7.1.3Isaiah, before foretelling the virgin birth, sees the Lord enthroned among the seraphim.
1501. 7.1.4Isaiah is sent to tell the people they will hear and see without understanding.
1502. 7.1.5The Lord Isaiah saw is the same divine Word who appeared to the patriarchs.
1503. 7.1.6The throne in Isaiah's vision is the throne of the Son in Psalms 45 and 110.
1504. 7.1.7John applies Isaiah's vision explicitly to Christ.
1505. 7.1.8The seraphim's cry foretells that the whole earth will come to know and praise Christ.
1506. 7.1.9The seraphim may be angels or else prophets and apostles, since the name is interpreted “beginning of their mouth.”
1507. 7.1.10The wings that cover face and feet signify the hidden beginning and end of the Word's mystery; the middle, his dispensation, is revealed.
1508. 7.1.11The seraphim may also be angelic powers, since the name also means “burnings.”
1509. 7.1.12The seraphim declare that the earth, not only heaven, will be filled with Christ's glory through his descent.
1510. 7.1.13“Lord Sabaoth” means Lord of the powers; Psalm 24 gives Christ the same title at his ascension.
1511. 7.1.14Both Isaiah and Psalm 24 foretell that the whole earth will be filled with Christ's glory.
1512. 7.1.15Isaiah foretells that, though the earth is filled with his glory, the Jewish nation will not receive him.
1513. 7.1.16The prophecy foretells Jewish refusal to recognize or understand Christ.
1514. 7.1.17John 12:37–41 records the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy of unbelief.
1515. 7.1.18John's application settles that Isaiah's vision was of Christ and that the unbelief foretold is that of his hearers.
1516. 7.1.19Isaiah's account of the enemies of Ahaz symbolizes demonic foes, who could be defeated only by the Word's incarnation from a virgin.
1517. 7.1.20Since death entered through a man, victory over death had to come through a man.
1518. 7.1.21Victory over the enemies had to be won through a sinless flesh.
1519. 7.1.22The Word took a body because human senses can perceive only bodies and spoken sounds.
1520. 7.1.23God the Word took a human rational nature so that through it he might reveal saving truth to eyewitnesses.
1521. 7.1.24In the incarnation the Word was not bound by the body or limited in his divine presence.
1522. 7.1.25The incorporeal Word gave of his own to the flesh but took no defilement from it.
1523. 7.1.26The impassible Word, like sunlight on corpses, was untouched by the flesh and made it holy; Isaiah prefaces the virgin birth with a call to faith.
1524. 7.1.27Isaiah 7:9–16: the sign of the virgin who will bear Emmanuel.
1525. 7.1.28Understanding the prophecy requires faith; Jews who did not believe still do not understand it.
1526. 7.1.29Unbelief is the cause of failure to understand the prophecies.
1527. 7.1.30Against the reading “young woman,” an ordinary birth would be no sign, and the child is called God with us.
1528. 7.1.31An ordinary birth would cost God no struggle; the Septuagint reading is quoted.
1529. 7.1.32Aquila's version, used by the Jews, also speaks of wearying God and of Emmanuel.
1530. 7.1.33Symmachus, said to be an Ebionite, renders the verse in the same way.
1531. 7.1.34The struggle meant is the toil the people caused the prophets, and now even God.
1532. 7.1.35Isaiah calls the wearied one “my God,” distinguishing him from the God over all whom the Jews already worshiped.
1533. 7.1.36The struggle is God's entry into human birth; and Moses himself calls a virgin a “young woman.”
1534. 7.1.37Emmanuel shows more than human power, choosing the good as a child.
1535. 7.1.38The child is wholly free of evil and bears a more than human name.
1536. 7.1.39The sign's “depth and height” signify the incarnation and death, and the resurrection or pre-existence.
1537. 7.1.40Emmanuel is the divine Lord seen by Abraham, not Hezekiah as some Jews claim.
1538. 7.1.41Hezekiah was born before the prophecy, so it fits only Christ.
1539. 7.1.42Literally, the two kings were those of Damascus and Samaria allied against Judah.
1540. 7.1.43The prophecy foretells both the immediate retreat of the two kings and the final end of their kingdoms at Emmanuel's birth.
1541. 7.1.44The reader is asked when the kingdoms of Damascus and the Jews came to an end.
1542. 7.1.45Since neither Damascus nor Judea has a king now, the prophecy is fulfilled and Emmanuel has come.
1543. 7.1.46Symmachus and Aquila render Isaiah 7:16.
1544. 7.1.47Theodotion's rendering of Isaiah 7:16.
1545. 7.1.48When the two kingdoms ended, the virgin birth foretold with them must also have happened.
1546. 7.1.49Damascus kept its kings until Christ's time (Aretas), and the Jews had irregular kings (the Herods).
1547. 7.1.50After Christ's coming, Roman rule ended the local kingdoms and fulfilled the prophecy.
1548. 7.1.51Spiritually, the two kings are the two forms of impiety—false belief and corrupt morals—that flee when Christ reigns in the soul.
1549. 7.1.52The king of Damascus symbolizes idolatry; the king of Israel, apostasy from God's law.
1550. 7.1.53The following verses (flies, bees, shaving, a heifer and two sheep) show the passage must be read figuratively.
1551. 7.1.54Matthew's account of Jesus' conception confirms how Scripture foretold his birth.
1552. 7.1.55Matthew applies Isaiah 7:14 to Jesus' birth.
1553. 7.1.56The outcome confirms the prophecy; Eusebius turns to what was to happen in Emmanuel's day.
1554. 7.1.57Isaiah 7:18–20: flies from Egypt, bees from Assyria, and the great razor.
1555. 7.1.58Isaiah 7:21–22: the one left in the land will live on milk, butter, and honey.
1556. 7.1.59Isaiah 7:23–25: the vineyards become thorns, but the plowed mountain becomes pasture.
1557. 7.1.60Eusebius begins to interpret the flies and bees of Isaiah 7:18.
1558. 7.1.61The flies signify idolaters or unclean powers; the bee a warlike, organized force.
1559. 7.1.62Flies and bees stand for foreign armies that would occupy Judea after the rejection of Christ.
1560. 7.1.63Christ's prophecy that Jerusalem would be trodden down was fulfilled by the Romans.
1561. 7.1.64The razor means stripping the Jewish nation of its glory through the ruling power.
1562. 7.1.65“Assyrians” signifies the ruling empire of each age, now Rome.
1563. 7.1.66Through Roman power God removed the glory and strength of the Jewish nation.
1564. 7.1.67Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus show that the king of Assyria is the instrument, not the victim, of the shaving.
1565. 7.1.68Many prophecies about “Assyrians” fit only the dominant empire of a given age.
1566. 7.1.69Since even the Persians are called Assyrians, the term here can mean Rome.
1567. 7.1.70Eusebius limits the Assyria–Rome equation to certain prophecies bound up with Christ.
1568. 7.1.71The prophets did not name Rome because the gospel and the Scriptures were to spread under Roman rule.
1569. 7.1.72Scripture veils Rome in riddles, as in Daniel, to avoid offending the rulers.
1570. 7.1.73Roman power would destroy the Jewish nation's glory after Christ's birth.
1571. 7.1.74Eusebius turns to the heifer and two sheep of Isaiah 7:21–22.
1572. 7.1.75The heifer and two sheep may mean poverty, or figuratively the church's three orders: leaders, the faithful, and catechumens.
1573. 7.1.76The heifer may also be the church's leaders, whose elementary teaching nourishes many.
1574. 7.1.77Isaiah 7:23–24 foretells that the land's vineyards will become thorns and be entered by enemies.
1575. 7.1.78At Christ's coming, hostile powers from Egypt and Assyria would come upon the Jewish land.
1576. 7.1.79Hostile powers settle in Jewish souls and land alike, and Roman power strips away their glory.
1577. 7.1.80Spiritually, they will be reduced to milk, with no solid food, and their vineyard laid waste.
1578. 7.1.81Like the vineyard of Isaiah 5, Israel produced thorns and was handed over to enemies.
1579. 7.1.82Because they became thorns, their enemies enter armed; the prophecy is veiled.
1580. 7.1.83The ruin of the Jews was veiled so that they would preserve the Scriptures for the gentiles.
1581. 7.1.84Open prophecies of Jewish ruin would have led the Jews to destroy them.
1582. 7.1.85The remnant who rears the heifer and sheep is the apostolic band.
1583. 7.1.86The plowed mountain is the church, the city set on a hill.
1584. 7.1.87The church, once waste, becomes pasture for sheep and oxen.
1585. 7.1.88The church, once barren, now feeds the simple and is tilled by the mature, the “oxen” of Paul.
1586. 7.1.89The same prophecy joins the virgin birth, the ruin of the Jewish land, and the flourishing of the church.
1587. 7.1.90The reversal of Jews and gentiles, foretold for Emmanuel's time, was fulfilled only after Christ came.
1588. 7.1.91If all these fulfillments had not followed Jesus' coming, he would not be the one foretold.
1589. 7.1.92The visible fulfillments, beginning with Jewish unbelief, should persuade one of the virgin birth.
1590. 7.1.93The siege of Jerusalem, the sanctuary's ruin, foreign occupation, and the gentiles' conversion are all visible fulfillments.
1591. 7.1.94The wonderful fulfillment makes the miraculous birth credible; Eusebius turns to Isaiah 8.
1592. 7.1.95Isaiah 8:1–4: the prophetess bears a son named “Plunder quickly, spoil swiftly.”
1593. 7.1.96The prophetess of Isaiah 8 is the virgin of Isaiah 7.
1594. 7.1.97The one who “went in to the prophetess” is the Holy Spirit, fulfilled at the Annunciation.
1595. 7.1.98Gabriel explains that the Holy Spirit will come upon Mary.
1596. 7.1.99Both prophecies link the child's birth with the defeat of Damascus and Samaria.
1597. 7.1.100Literally, the kings of Damascus and Samaria besieged Judah under Ahaz, and God told him not to fear.
1598. 7.1.101The two kings' kingdoms would end at Emmanuel's birth.
1599. 7.1.102History shows both kingdoms lasted until Christ and then ended under Rome.
1600. 7.1.103Spiritually, the two kings are demonic forces of idolatry and moral corruption, driven out when Emmanuel reigns in the soul.
1601. 7.1.104Taking the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria means Christ's defeat of invisible enemies.
1602. 7.1.105Literally too, the kingdoms of Damascus and Samaria ended with Christ's coming.
1603. 7.1.106Some identify the power of Damascus with the magi; more broadly it means all converts from idolatry.
1604. 7.1.107The spoils of Samaria are the Jewish-born apostles, won from Christ's opponents.
1605. 7.1.108The “king of Assyria” in Isaiah 8:4 may again signify Rome.
1606. 7.1.109The child would accomplish these victories by divine power while still an infant.
1607. 7.1.110The “new volume” signifies the new covenant; the priest and prophet as witnesses stand for the law and the prophets.
1608. 7.1.111The names Uriah (“light of God”) and Zechariah son of Barachiah (“remembrance of God,” “son of blessing”) signify faithful witnesses.
1609. 7.1.112Eusebius challenges Jewish interpreters to identify another Emmanuel and explain the prophetess's son.
1610. 7.1.113Christians show the prophecy fulfilled in Christ, literally and figuratively.
1611. 7.1.114Isaiah 8:5–9: rejecting the gentle waters of Siloam, the people will be flooded by the king of Assyria.
1612. 7.1.115The water of Siloam, meaning “sent,” signifies the gospel.
1613. 7.1.116The one sent is the Word, whom Genesis 49:10 also calls “Shiloh.”
1614. 7.1.117Rezin ruled Damascus, the son of Remaliah the apostate Israelites in Samaria.
1615. 7.1.118Those who rejected Christ, the gentle Siloam, were handed over to the flood of the ruling power, Rome.
1616. 7.1.119The Roman army's conquest of Judea fulfilled Isaiah 8:7–8.
1617. 7.1.120They suffered because Emmanuel was with the gentiles, not with them.
1618. 7.1.121Prophecies must be read sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively.
1619. 7.1.122The same method is to be applied to the rest of the prophecy.
1620. 7.1.123A future literal fulfillment is impossible, since Samaria, Damascus, and Assyria no longer exist.
1621. 7.1.124No son of Isaiah ever literally fulfilled the prophecy.
1622. 7.1.125The prophecy was fulfilled only in Jesus' coming.
1623. 7.1.126The new volume is the New Testament; Christ took his Jewish disciples as spoils and armed them against the ruler of this age.
1624. 7.1.127Those who refused Christ's teaching were handed over to the ruling power.
1625. 7.1.128Since then the Jews have had neither ruler nor prophet.
1626. 7.1.129The Jews' disasters and the gentiles' salvation both follow from Emmanuel's coming.
1627. 7.1.130The believing gentiles are the nations “defeated” by the truth and obedient to Emmanuel.
1628. 7.1.131Isaiah 8:9–11 warns the disobedient nations that their plans against God-with-us will fail.
1629. 7.1.132Persecutions of the church have always failed because God is with it.
1630. 7.1.133Isaiah 9:1–2: a great light for Galilee of the nations.
1631. 7.1.134Isaiah 9:5–7: the child born to us, Angel of great counsel, on David's throne.
1632. 7.1.135The child is prophesied three times: Emmanuel, the prophetess's son, and the Angel of great counsel.
1633. 7.1.136Aquila's rendering of Isaiah 9:6–7.
1634. 7.1.137Symmachus's rendering of Isaiah 9:6–7.
1635. 7.1.138The titles fit the Word, already shown to be God, Lord, Angel of the Father, and Commander of the Lord's host.
1636. 7.1.139All the versions give the child titles no mere human could bear.
1637. 7.1.140At his birth those who envy the nations' salvation will wish they had been burned.
1638. 7.1.141Those who took the garments are the crucifiers of Psalm 22, who will regret their impiety at the judgment.
1639. 7.1.142The titles surpass human nature; the restoring of David's kingdom is explained next.
1640. 7.1.143Psalm 89 records God's promises of an eternal throne to David.
1641. 7.1.144Despite the oath to David, the opposite happened because of his successors' sins.
1642. 7.1.145David's line ceased to reign after Jeconiah and the Babylonian conquest.
1643. 7.1.146Psalm 89 itself foretells the failure of David's kingdom and the deferral of the Christ.
1644. 7.1.147No descendant of David sat on the throne from the exile until Christ.
1645. 7.1.148Through Christ, born of David's line, David's throne is restored forever.
1646. 7.1.149Gabriel's words to Mary confirm that Jesus receives David's throne.
1647. 7.1.150The psalmist laments the deferral of the Christ as the cause of the throne's fall.
1648. 7.1.151The psalmist's plea for David's mercies is answered in the birth of the Angel of great counsel.
1649. 7.1.152The “us” are the believers of Galilee and the apostles called from Zebulun and Naphtali.
1650. 7.1.153The “zeal of the Lord” is the jealousy of Deuteronomy 32:21, turning God to the gentiles.
1651. 7.1.154Having shown the manner of his coming, Eusebius turns to the place and lineage of his birth.
1652. 7.2.1Micah 5:2–5: a ruler whose origins are from eternity will come forth from Bethlehem.
1653. 7.2.2Micah names Bethlehem as the birthplace of one whose origin is eternal, which fits only Emmanuel.
1654. 7.2.3Only David and Jesus are famous as coming from Bethlehem.
1655. 7.2.4Micah's prophecy cannot refer to David, and so is fulfilled in Jesus, the pre-existent Word.
1656. 7.2.5Luke's account of the census that brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem.
1657. 7.2.6Jesus is laid in a manger, and an angel appears to the shepherds.
1658. 7.2.7The angel announces the birth of the Savior in David's city.
1659. 7.2.8The heavenly host praises God, and the shepherds decide to go to Bethlehem.
1660. 7.2.9The shepherds find the child and report what they were told.
1661. 7.2.10Matthew's account of the magi's arrival in Jerusalem.
1662. 7.2.11The scribes cite Micah's prophecy of Bethlehem to Herod.
1663. 7.2.12Herod sends the magi, and the star leads them to the child.
1664. 7.2.13The magi worship the child and depart by another way.
1665. 7.2.14The Gospel accounts show Jesus is the one Micah foretold.
1666. 7.2.15Local tradition in Bethlehem still shows the cave of the Nativity.
1667. 7.2.16“Her who gives birth” is the virgin; the returning brothers are the apostles, whom Christ himself shepherds and whose voice reaches the whole earth.
1668. 7.2.17Christ himself shepherds the worldwide flock and protects it.
1669. 7.2.18Micah had earlier foretold the Lord's descent from heaven.
1670. 7.2.19The Lord came down not only because of Israel's sin but also to call all nations.
1671. 7.2.20The ruler from Bethlehem will reign to the ends of the earth.
1672. 7.2.21The promised peace came to the earth after Christ's coming.
1673. 7.2.22The Augustan peace, which ended the old divided rule, coincided with Christ's coming as Micah foretold.
1674. 7.2.23Psalm 72 also foretells peace in Christ's days; he shepherds only after his birth in Bethlehem.
1675. 7.2.24“Israel” in Scripture means all who live pleasing to God, as sinful Israelites are called Canaanites or Sodomites.
1676. 7.2.25Literally, Christ shepherded the many Jews who believed in him.
1677. 7.2.26Eusebius quotes the next part of Micah (the Assyrian, seven shepherds and eight bites) but defers its explanation.
1678. 7.2.27The seven shepherds and eight bites may be later uprisings against Assyria, but Eusebius leaves the question aside and turns to Psalm 132.
1679. 7.2.28Psalm 132:1–7: David's vow to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob, heard of in Ephrathah.
1680. 7.2.29Psalm 132:10–11: God's oath to set David's offspring on his throne.
1681. 7.2.30Psalm 132:17–18: a horn for David and a lamp for God's Christ.
1682. 7.2.31Psalm 132 too points to Bethlehem, which David learned through prayer.
1683. 7.2.32David vows not to rest until God reveals to him where Christ will be born.
1684. 7.2.33David's prayer is soon answered by a revelation of the Spirit.
1685. 7.2.34David is told that God's dwelling will be at Bethlehem.
1686. 7.2.35Genesis identifies Ephrathah with Bethlehem.
1687. 7.2.36The “tent of the God of Jacob” is Christ's body, in which the Word who appeared to Jacob dwelt.
1688. 7.2.37David is shown Bethlehem and calls for worship where the Lord's feet stood.
1689. 7.2.38Psalm 132 and Micah agree in naming Bethlehem as the birthplace of the eternal Lord.
1690. 7.2.39Only Christ came gloriously from Bethlehem after the prophecy, being both of David's seed and born there.
1691. 7.2.40Psalm 132 names the Christ explicitly, confirming that it speaks of Jesus.
1692. 7.2.41“There” is Bethlehem, where Christ, David's horn, rose.
1693. 7.2.42Christ's lamp is his human body, through which his divine light shone.
1694. 7.2.43Bethlehem, still shown near Jerusalem, is attested as the birthplace of Jesus alone.
1695. 7.2.44Bethlehem means “house of bread,” fitting Christ, the bread from heaven.
1696. 7.2.45As David's town, Bethlehem fits the birth of David's son.
1697. 7.2.46The title “Nazorean” is linked to the Hebrew nazir used of the high priest's anointing in Leviticus.
1698. 7.2.47The versions of Leviticus 21:12 render nezer as holy, separation, or untouchable.
1699. 7.2.48“Nazirite” means holy, separated, or untouchable, from the priests' nezer oil.
1700. 7.2.49Christ is holy by nature, and was called Nazorean from Nazareth, where he grew up.
1701. 7.2.50Matthew records the fulfillment: Jesus was called a Nazorean.
1702. 7.2.51Christ received the fitting name Nazirite from Nazareth rather than from priestly oil.
1703. 7.2.52Eusebius turns to Christ's descent, beginning with Matthew's genealogy.
1704. 7.2.53Paul too affirms Christ's descent from David, which the prophecies confirm.
1705. 7.3.1Nathan's oracle promises David an heir whose throne will last forever and who will be God's son.
1706. 7.3.2Psalm 89 calls David's heir God's firstborn.
1707. 7.3.3Psalm 89: God's oath to establish David's seed forever.
1708. 7.3.4Psalm 89: David's throne will endure like the sun and moon.
1709. 7.3.5Psalms 89 and 132 repeat the promise of David's lasting seed.
1710. 7.3.6Can the promise of an eternal throne apply to Solomon?
1711. 7.3.7Solomon reigned forty years, and his line under five hundred.
1712. 7.3.8Neither the eternal throne nor divine sonship fits Solomon.
1713. 7.3.9Scripture accuses Solomon of marrying many foreign wives against God's command.
1714. 7.3.10Solomon turned to idols and did evil before the Lord.
1715. 7.3.11An idolater like Solomon cannot be God's firstborn son; nor does the promise fit David himself.
1716. 7.3.12Only Jesus, son of David, has an unending, worldwide kingdom.
1717. 7.3.13God's oath “by his holy one” is an oath by the Word, who assumed and deified the man from David's seed.
1718. 7.3.14The son of David and the firstborn Son of God are one and the same.
1719. 7.3.15Gabriel's words to Mary confirm the promise to David.
1720. 7.3.16Zechariah's hymn celebrates the horn of salvation in David's house.
1721. 7.3.17Gabriel and Zechariah confirm Jesus' Davidic descent and eternal throne.
1722. 7.3.18Eusebius refers readers to his Questions on the genealogy for Joseph's genealogy and Mary's Davidic descent, then quotes Psalm 72.
1723. 7.3.19Psalm 72:5–8: the king will endure and rule from sea to sea.
1724. 7.3.20Psalm 72:16–17: all nations will be blessed in the king.
1725. 7.3.21Psalm 72's first verse refers to Solomon; the rest to Christ, his descendant.
1726. 7.3.22The psalm's universal and eternal claims cannot refer to Solomon or Rehoboam.
1727. 7.3.23“The king's son” is not Rehoboam or his successors but Christ, descendant of Solomon and David.
1728. 7.3.24Only Christ, the pre-existent Word, fits the psalm: his reign endures, he came down like dew, and righteousness lasts until the end.
1729. 7.3.25Christ's rule spreads worldwide, beginning “from the river”: baptism or the Jordan.
1730. 7.3.26Lebanon signifies Jerusalem; the church, Christ's fruit, is exalted above it.
1731. 7.3.27Psalm 72 fits Christ alone, not Solomon or his successors.
1732. 7.3.28Isaiah 11:1–4: a rod from the root of Jesse, filled with the Spirit.
1733. 7.3.29Isaiah 11:5–10: peace among beasts and the root of Jesse ruling the nations.
1734. 7.3.30Long after David and Solomon, Isaiah foretells one from Jesse's root.
1735. 7.3.31Isaiah's later prophecy shows the promised heir is not Solomon.
1736. 7.3.32The promise that the nations will hope in him points to Christ.
1737. 7.3.33After his resurrection Christ, “he who rises,” rules all nations, who hope in him.
1738. 7.3.34The tamed beasts signify savage people transformed by Christ's teaching.
1739. 7.3.35The root, rod, flower, and girdle are also figurative.
1740. 7.3.36Since the rest is figurative, the animals must be too.
1741. 7.3.37Jeremiah foretells a righteous “dawn” raised up for David and the breaking of the yoke.
1742. 7.3.38Jeremiah calls the coming king a “righteous dawn,” linked to Malachi's Sun of righteousness, a title of the Word.
1743. 7.3.39The dawn is a wise and just king, even named David.
1744. 7.3.40The same one is called the dawn raised for David and David himself.
1745. 7.3.41Zechariah too calls him Dawn; no such figure arose among the Jews after these prophets.
1746. 7.3.42The high priest Joshua son of Jozadak does not fit, being neither Davidic nor a king.
1747. 7.3.43Only Christ, the light of the world and of the nations, fits the prophecy.
1748. 7.3.44Christ alone, the true “David,” proclaimed righteousness to the whole earth.
1749. 7.3.45The Judah and Israel saved are the Jewish believers and all who are Jews inwardly.
1750. 7.3.46Inward Jews, called through Christ, will receive a new name.
1751. 7.3.47Eusebius suggests the name Iosedekeim, “the righteous of God,” is formed from Jesus' name and designates Christians.
1752. 7.3.48The new people are named Iosedekeim before God and his prophets.
1753. 7.3.49Iosedekeim means “the righteous of God.”
1754. 7.3.50God promises to break the demons' yoke so that the saved serve him alone.
1755. 7.3.51Psalm 2 likewise speaks of bursting bonds and casting off the yoke.
1756. 7.3.52Christ's Davidic descent is established; his descent from Judah follows, and Genesis confirms it.
1757. 7.3.53Jacob's blessing of Judah (Genesis 49:8–10).
1758. 7.3.54Judah's blessing, set beside the other prophecies, points by a common sign to the same Christ.
1759. 7.3.55All three prophecies share the sign of the nations' hope.
1760. 7.3.56Jewish rule ended with Christ's coming, and the nations' expectation fulfilled Jacob's prophecy.
1761. 7.3.57Christ is shown to be of the tribe of Judah.
1762. 7.3.58Matthew's genealogy confirms descent from Judah; Eusebius turns next to the times of fulfillment.
1763. 8.0.1Book 8 opens: having shown how and where Christ would come, Eusebius turns to the time of his coming.
1764. 8.0.2The end of Israel's kingship, prophecy, and high priesthood marks the time of Christ's coming.
1765. 8.0.3Further signs: the end of Mosaic worship and the temple, universal peace, and the turn from idols to the one God.
1766. 8.0.4All these signs, absent in the prophets' day, were foretold for Christ's coming.
1767. 8.0.5Eusebius will briefly restate why Christ came so late in history.
1768. 8.0.6Primitive humanity lived like beasts, without law, learning, or virtue.
1769. 8.0.7People knew by nature that a divine power exists but could not grasp the transcendent God.
1770. 8.0.8Humanity fell into idolatry, deifying dead rulers and their vices, as Romans 1 describes.
1771. 8.0.9Primitive humanity was unfit for Christ's teaching, so divine justice pruned it by floods, fires, and wars.
1772. 8.0.10God spoke to the few God-beloved among the Hebrews and gave them the introductory law of Moses.
1773. 8.0.11When humanity had been civilized by the law and the prophets, the Word appeared to offer salvation to all nations.
1774. 8.0.12Eusebius turns to the specific signs of the time of Christ's coming.
1775. 8.0.13Matthew dates Jesus' birth to the reign of Herod.
1776. 8.0.14Luke dates Jesus' ministry; Eusebius sets Jacob's prophecy beside it.
1777. 8.1.1Jacob summons his sons to hear what will befall them in the last days.
1778. 8.1.2Jacob's blessing of Judah, the fourth son (Genesis 49:8–10).
1779. 8.1.3“The things laid up” are God's promises to Abraham that all nations would be blessed.
1780. 8.1.4The same promise of blessing for the nations was repeated to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
1781. 8.1.5God promised Jacob that nations and kings would come from him.
1782. 8.1.6Jacob excludes his first three sons, because of their sins, from carrying the promises.
1783. 8.1.7Through Judah came the kings, and from Judah would come the one who brings blessing to all nations.
1784. 8.1.8Judah received the royal promise and preeminence among the tribes.
1785. 8.1.9In the wilderness camp, Judah's tribe was placed first.
1786. 8.1.10Judah's leader offered first at the dedication of the tabernacle.
1787. 8.1.11Judah received its portion of the land first.
1788. 8.1.12After Joshua's death God appointed Judah to lead Israel in battle.
1789. 8.1.13Judges records Judah's leading role in the conquest.
1790. 8.1.14Judah led Israel through the judges, the Davidic kings, and Zerubbabel after the exile.
1791. 8.1.15Chronicles begins its genealogies with Judah; the tribe's leadership is presumed afterward, though records fail.
1792. 8.1.16Judah's rule lasted until Augustus, when the nation fell under Rome and the foreigner Herod.
1793. 8.1.17The prophets' books are dated by Judah's kings, e.g. Isaiah.
1794. 8.1.18Other prophets are dated likewise, until Judah's rulers failed at Christ's coming.
1795. 8.1.19After the Jewish rulers ceased, Roman emperors and Herod ruled the Jews.
1796. 8.1.20Eusebius begins interpreting the blessing of Judah.
1797. 8.1.21Jacob's own introduction shows the blessing concerns the distant future.
1798. 8.1.22The blessing concerns the last days and does not fit Judah himself.
1799. 8.1.23Judah himself was never praised or bowed to by his brothers.
1800. 8.1.24The promise that rule will not fail from Judah until the nations' expectation comes marks the time of Christ.
1801. 8.1.25Theodotion agrees with the Septuagint; Aquila renders “scepter” and “gathering of the peoples.”
1802. 8.1.26Many rulers of Israel were not descendants of Judah, so the prophecy is not about him personally.
1803. 8.1.27Eusebius lists Israel's leaders from Moses to Eli, most not from Judah.
1804. 8.1.28The judges and Saul came from tribes other than Judah.
1805. 8.1.29Rulers from Judah held power over all Israel only briefly, and mostly over only part of it.
1806. 8.1.30After Solomon, David's line ruled only a few tribes until the exile.
1807. 8.1.31The northern tribes were ruled by kings not from Judah, beginning with Jeroboam.
1808. 8.1.32After the exile high priests, not Judahites, ruled; so the prophecy concerns the tribe as a whole.
1809. 8.1.33The tribe of Judah, which gave its name to Judea and the Jews, led the whole nation.
1810. 8.1.34Symmachus and Aquila also say Judah's scepter and authority remain until the one for whom it is laid up comes.
1811. 8.1.35The whole nation is named after Judah because of the prophecy.
1812. 8.1.36Though Reuben, Levi, Joseph, or Benjamin had stronger claims, land and people bear Judah's name, as prophesied.
1813. 8.1.37The prophecy refers to the tribe of Judah's general preeminence.
1814. 8.1.38As all Roman rulers are called Roman whatever their origin, so all Israel's rulers bore Judah's name.
1815. 8.1.39Judah's lead in battle and its royal dignity explain “hands on the enemies' back” and “lion's whelp.”
1816. 8.1.40Jacob adds, “From a shoot, my son, you went up.”
1817. 8.1.41The lion image shows Judah's boldness; “who will rouse him?” hints at a wonderful one who would displace it.
1818. 8.1.42The one who displaces Judah is the expectation of the nations, who appears when its rule ends.
1819. 8.1.43At Christ's birth Jewish self-rule ended, and Rome made the foreigner Herod king.
1820. 8.1.44Herod's father Antipater was from Ascalon, of a temple-servant family; his mother was Arab.
1821. 8.1.45Herod killed Hyrcanus, the last high-priestly ruler; Christ's birth in his reign fulfilled Jacob's prophecy.
1822. 8.1.46Luke and Matthew date Christ by foreign rulers, marking the end of Jewish rule.
1823. 8.1.47Matthew's mention of Herod and the magi shows both foreign rule and the calling of the nations.
1824. 8.1.48Jacob's “last days” are the last period of the Jewish nation, when foreigners ruled and gentiles worshiped Christ.
1825. 8.1.49What befell them: the end of Judah's rule and the beginning of Christ's reign over the nations.
1826. 8.1.50Since Christ appeared the Jews have been subject to Rome, and Christ has been proclaimed to all nations.
1827. 8.1.51Jerusalem, the temple, and Jewish rule ceased at Christ's coming, when the nations' hope was revealed.
1828. 8.1.52Read of Christ, the blessing of Judah fits, since Scripture calls Christ by many names, even Jacob.
1829. 8.1.53Scripture also calls Christ Solomon, as in Psalm 72.
1830. 8.1.54Psalm 72's universal dominion fits Christ alone.
1831. 8.1.55Psalm 89 calls Christ David, since its promises fit him alone.
1832. 8.1.56Among his many names, Christ can be called Judah.
1833. 8.1.57Christ sprang from Judah, so the promises to Judah belong to him.
1834. 8.1.58Christ was praised and worshiped by his disciples, whom he called brothers.
1835. 8.1.59The disciples first praised Christ as a prophet, then, seeing his victory, worshiped him as God.
1836. 8.1.60Christ's hands were on his enemies' backs in his miracles, on the cross, and in his descent to the dead, where the powers fled.
1837. 8.1.61Christ still routs those who persecute his church.
1838. 8.1.62Angels, apostles, and gentile believers worship Christ as God, fulfilling “your father's sons shall bow down to you.”
1839. 8.1.63“Lion's whelp” refers to Christ's royal descent.
1840. 8.1.64“From a shoot” refers to Christ's descent from Jacob as Son of Man, though first he is God the Word.
1841. 8.1.65“You slept” signifies Christ's death, which Scripture often calls sleep.
1842. 8.1.66“Who shall rouse him?” expresses wonder at the resurrection.
1843. 8.1.67The Father raised Christ; Aquila renders the verse “from the capture you went up.”
1844. 8.1.68Symmachus's “from the prey of beasts you went up” presents Christ's escape from Hades.
1845. 8.1.69Crouching signifies Christ's death, being established that he was not held by death; until then the Jewish nation stood.
1846. 8.1.70All that was laid up for Judah was fulfilled in Christ's coming, death, resurrection, and worship.
1847. 8.1.71Since then the Jews have been ruled by gentiles, and the gentiles have received Christ.
1848. 8.1.72Genesis 49:11–12: the foal bound to the vine and the robe washed in wine.
1849. 8.1.73The foal is the apostles, the vine is Christ’s divine power, and the tendril is his teaching, to which the new people from the nations is tied.
1850. 8.1.74The prophecy of the tied foal was also fulfilled literally when Jesus sent for the donkey and colt.
1851. 8.1.75The prophet foresaw that the Messiah would ride not in royal state but on a donkey like a poor man.
1852. 8.1.76Zechariah’s prophecy of the king on a colt agrees with Genesis, and the washing of the robe in wine hints at the passion that cleanses believers.
1853. 8.1.77The wine, symbol of Christ’s blood, cleanses the baptized so that they put off the old self and put on the new.
1854. 8.1.78The joyful eyes and white teeth of Genesis 49:12 signify the gladness of the eucharistic wine and the purity of the mystical food.
1855. 8.1.79Christ handed on to his disciples the symbols of his dispensation, commanding them to make the image of his body.
1856. 8.1.80Because Christ replaced animal sacrifices with bread as the symbol of his body, the prophecy speaks of the whiteness of the food.
1857. 8.1.81Eusebius defers fuller discussion and turns to show from Daniel that the time of Christ’s coming was foretold.
1858. 8.2.1Daniel 9:20–22: while Daniel prays, Gabriel comes to give him understanding.
1859. 8.2.2Daniel 9:23: Gabriel tells Daniel he is greatly desired and bids him understand the vision.
1860. 8.2.3Daniel 9:24: seventy weeks are decreed to end sin and to anoint a most holy one.
1861. 8.2.4Daniel 9:25–27: the weeks until Christ the ruler, the cutting off of the anointing, and the desolation of city and temple.
1862. 8.2.5Eusebius summarizes Gabriel’s message: Jerusalem would be renewed, then after a fixed time destroyed for good, and a new covenant would replace the Mosaic worship.
1863. 8.2.6Gabriel admits that he speaks to Daniel in veiled, oracular terms.
1864. 8.2.7Gabriel calls his words a vision because they need deeper understanding.
1865. 8.2.8With a prayer for understanding, Eusebius begins to expound Daniel 9:24.
1866. 8.2.9The seventy weeks are 490 years, the time allotted to the Jewish nation.
1867. 8.2.10Gabriel says “your people,” not God’s people, as God once said to Moses after the golden calf.
1868. 8.2.11The Hebrew and the translators Aquila and Symmachus attach “your” to the city as well as the people.
1869. 8.2.12Accurate Septuagint copies add “your” under an asterisk.
1870. 8.2.13Where Daniel spoke of God’s people and city, Gabriel speaks of Daniel’s, and Eusebius cites Daniel’s prayer to show the contrast.
1871. 8.2.14Further lines from Daniel’s prayer call the people, sanctuary, and city God’s own.
1872. 8.2.15Daniel, out of love for his people, called city, sanctuary, and people God’s.
1873. 8.2.16Gabriel’s change of wording implies that people, city, and sanctuary were unworthy of God’s name.
1874. 8.2.17The 490 years run from the rebuilding of Jerusalem under Darius to Augustus and Herod, when Christ was born.
1875. 8.2.18Eusebius quotes Daniel 9:24 again and gives Aquila’s rendering of its opening clauses.
1876. 8.2.19Christ’s word “Fill up the measure of your fathers” shows that the plot against him completed the nation’s sin.
1877. 8.2.20As the Amorites were destroyed only when their sins were full, so the former people were borne with until they filled up the measure of their fathers.
1878. 8.2.21By laying hands on the Son of God they completed their sin, as Aquila and the Septuagint render Daniel.
1879. 8.2.22Because Christ came also for the rising of many, Daniel adds the wiping out of sins.
1880. 8.2.23Since animal blood could not take away sin, humanity needed a living propitiation, the Lamb of God.
1881. 8.2.24Christ’s coming completes the sin of those who rejected him and brings cleansing and propitiation to believers.
1882. 8.2.25Aquila’s version likewise speaks of atonement for past lawlessness; Daniel next speaks of everlasting righteousness.
1883. 8.2.26The Word is everlasting righteousness and by his coming brought righteousness to Jews and nations alike.
1884. 8.2.27Peter’s words at Cornelius’s house show that righteousness is open to every nation.
1885. 8.2.28Paul and the Psalms both connect Christ’s coming with the revelation of righteousness.
1886. 8.2.29Unlike the Mosaic law, given to one nation for a time, the righteousness proclaimed by Christ is for all and everlasting.
1887. 8.2.30Aquila’s “to fulfil vision and prophet” is more exact, for Christ came to unseal and open the prophecies, not to close them.
1888. 8.2.31Revelation’s lion of Judah opens the seals, that is, the obscurities of the prophets of which Isaiah spoke.
1889. 8.2.32Christ came to open the prophecies, which is why Aquila’s rendering is preferable.
1890. 8.2.33Christ fulfilled the law and the prophets, which remained incomplete until his coming.
1891. 8.2.34In the Septuagint’s sense, “sealing vision and prophet” means that prophecy ceased among the Jewish nation after John.
1892. 8.2.35The anointing of high priests continued until Christ’s time and then ceased, as the prophecy said.
1893. 8.2.36Jacob’s prophecy to Judah foretold the end of the Jewish rulers.
1894. 8.2.37Genesis foretold the end of the rulers, and Daniel the end of the prophets and priests, both at Christ’s coming.
1895. 8.2.38Aquila’s rendering might suggest the Jewish high priest, holy above the other priests.
1896. 8.2.39The high-priestly succession led the people until Christ’s time, then fell into confusion and ended.
1897. 8.2.40Since Scripture never calls the high priest “holy of holies,” the title belongs properly to the only-begotten Word.
1898. 8.2.41Only the beloved Son, King of kings, is properly Holy of holies, anointed beyond his companions as the Psalm says.
1899. 8.2.42Anointed with the Spirit and with divinity, Christ alone is holy of holies and high priest of high priests.
1900. 8.2.43All was fulfilled in Christ’s time, and the angel then explains in detail where the seventy weeks begin.
1901. 8.2.44Eusebius quotes Daniel 9:25 and proposes to give an earlier writer’s interpretation.
1902. 8.2.45Eusebius will quote the earlier writer’s own words, giving him credit.
1903. 8.2.46Eusebius begins quoting Julius Africanus’s Chronography, book 5, on Daniel’s weeks.
1904. 8.2.47Africanus: the blessings of Daniel 9:24 came with Christ and were only awaited before him.
1905. 8.2.48Africanus: the 490 years begin with Artaxerxes’ decree in his twentieth year, granted to Nehemiah.
1906. 8.2.49Africanus: the returned exiles under Joshua, Zerubbabel, and Ezra were hindered from rebuilding because no command had been given.
1907. 8.2.50Africanus: the city stayed desolate until Artaxerxes sent Nehemiah; from that decree the seventy weeks end with Christ.
1908. 8.2.51Africanus: any other starting point, such as Cyrus or the captivity, leaves the years far in excess.
1909. 8.2.52Africanus: Persian rule lasted 230 years, Macedonian 300, and sixty more to Tiberius’s sixteenth year.
1910. 8.2.53Africanus: from Artaxerxes’ twentieth year to Tiberius’s sixteenth are 475 solar years, which equal 490 lunar Hebrew years.
1911. 8.2.54Africanus: adding the intercalary months over 475 years gives about fifteen more years, completing the seventy weeks.
1912. 8.2.55Eusebius begins his own explanation, noting that Daniel deliberately divides the weeks into seven, sixty-two, and one.
1913. 8.2.56Daniel names seven and sixty-two weeks and, after other matter, a last single week.
1914. 8.2.57The division of the weeks is divinely inspired, not arbitrary.
1915. 8.2.58On another interpretation, the “anointed ruler” is the line of high priests who led the people after the return from exile.
1916. 8.2.59The high priests alone governed the nation from Joshua son of Jozadak until Christ.
1917. 8.2.60The sixty-nine weeks (483 years) run from Cyrus to Pompey’s capture of Jerusalem, the span of the high priests’ rule.
1918. 8.2.61At Pompey’s conquest the hereditary high-priestly rule ended, which Daniel calls the anointed ruler.
1919. 8.2.62The high-priestly list begins with Joshua son of Jozadak, whose temple-building was halted; the first seven weeks passed while it stood unfinished.
1920. 8.2.63The first seven weeks run from Cyrus to the completion of the temple.
1921. 8.2.64The Jews’ “forty-six years” for the temple’s building counts from Cyrus to Darius’s sixth year.
1922. 8.2.65Adding Josephus’s three years gives forty-nine years for the first seven weeks; the list of high priests continues from Joshua to Jaddua.
1923. 8.2.66The book of Ezra–Nehemiah gives the succession of high priests from Joshua to Jaddua.
1924. 8.2.67Under the high priest Jaddua, Alexander the Great founded Alexandria and worshipped at Jerusalem.
1925. 8.2.68Alexander died in the 114th Olympiad, 236 years after Cyrus’s accession.
1926. 8.2.69Onias succeeded as high priest; under him Seleucus took the crown of Asia, 248 years after Cyrus.
1927. 8.2.70The Maccabean era begins here; under the high priest Eleazar the Seventy translated the Scriptures at Alexandria.
1928. 8.2.71The succession continues through Onias, Simon (in whose time Jesus son of Sirach wrote), and another Onias, under whom Antiochus forced Hellenization.
1929. 8.2.72Judas Maccabeus, Jonathan, and Simon followed; 1 Maccabees ends with Simon’s death in the 177th Seleucid year.
1930. 8.2.73From Cyrus to Simon’s death are 425 years; then Jonathan (historically John Hyrcanus) held the high priesthood, and Aristobulus first added the royal crown.
1931. 8.2.74With Alexander Jannaeus, king and high priest, the high-priestly rule totals 482 years from Cyrus.
1932. 8.2.75After Alexander, rule passed to a woman, his sons quarrelled, and Pompey took Jerusalem and entered the sanctuary.
1933. 8.2.76Pompey’s capture of Jerusalem fell in the 179th Olympiad, 495 years after Cyrus.
1934. 8.2.77Pompey sent Aristobulus to Rome, gave the high priesthood to Hyrcanus, and made the nation tributary.
1935. 8.2.78Herod, a foreigner, was made king by the Roman senate and destroyed the lawful high-priestly order.
1936. 8.2.79Herod appointed high priests from outside the line and for short terms; so the seven weeks run from Cyrus to Darius, and the sixty-two from Darius to Pompey.
1937. 8.2.80On a third reckoning, the 483 years from Darius and the completed temple reach Augustus and Herod, when Christ was born.
1938. 8.2.81Zechariah dates the end of the seventy years of desolation to Darius’s second year.
1939. 8.2.82Zechariah speaks of the seventieth year of desolation, the same seventy years Daniel understood from Jeremiah.
1940. 8.2.83The count begins from the word to build Jerusalem; Cyrus gave the first such answer, but the work was hindered.
1941. 8.2.84The prophecy’s fulfilment begins with Darius’s order and the completed temple.
1942. 8.2.85The seventy weeks must begin in Darius’s second year, in the 66th Olympiad.
1943. 8.2.86Counting 483 years from Darius’s second year brings us to Herod and Augustus, when Christ was born.
1944. 8.2.87From the 66th to the 186th Olympiad are 484 years, reaching Augustus and Herod and the birth of Christ; the rest of the oracle follows, with the last week set apart.
1945. 8.2.88Herod ended the hereditary high priesthood, giving the office to obscure men.
1946. 8.2.89Daniel foretold the destruction of the anointing after the sixty-nine weeks.
1947. 8.2.90Aquila and Symmachus render “an anointed one will be cut off,” confirming Eusebius’s explanation.
1948. 8.2.91The anointed one cut off is Hyrcanus, the last hereditary priestly ruler, killed by Herod.
1949. 8.2.92With Hyrcanus the hereditary succession and the lawful anointing ended, fulfilling “no judgment in it.”
1950. 8.2.93Josephus records that Herod appointed obscure men as high priests, except Aristobulus, his wife’s brother.
1951. 8.2.94Josephus: Herod had Aristobulus drowned, and he, Archelaus, and the Romans appointed high priests at will.
1952. 8.2.95Josephus: Herod, Archelaus, and then the Romans kept the high priest’s robe under their control.
1953. 8.2.96Josephus’s account shows the fulfilment of Daniel 9:26.
1954. 8.2.97The arbitrary appointments of high priests after Herod show what “no judgment in it” means.
1955. 8.2.98Against the law’s lifelong, hereditary priesthood, Herod and the Romans sold the high priesthood yearly to obscure men.
1956. 8.2.99Luke’s dating by two high priests, Annas and Caiaphas, reflects the disorder of the office.
1957. 8.2.100Josephus records Valerius Gratus replacing high priests year by year until Caiaphas.
1958. 8.2.101The proof of Daniel 9:26 is indisputable; “the ruler who is coming” refers to Herod and the foreign rulers after him.
1959. 8.2.102The coming ruler is Herod and his successors, through whom the devil destroyed the city and sanctuary.
1960. 8.2.103The whole nation was corrupted, and Aquila’s version, “a people of a coming ruler,” agrees.
1961. 8.2.104Alternatively, the coming ruler and his people are the Roman commander and armies who destroyed Jerusalem and the temple.
1962. 8.2.105After the plot against Christ, the Romans cut them off as in a flood, as Josephus’s histories record.
1963. 8.2.106After the events of the sixty-nine weeks, the prophecy turns to the new covenant.
1964. 8.2.107Daniel 9:27: the last week confirms a covenant, and in its middle sacrifice ceases.
1965. 8.2.108Christ’s ministry lasted three and a half years, half a week; the whole week is his time with the apostles before and after the resurrection.
1966. 8.2.109Before his passion Christ taught and healed openly for three and a half years.
1967. 8.2.110After the resurrection Christ was with the apostles, Eusebius suggests, for another three and a half years, completing the week in which he confirmed the new covenant.
1968. 8.2.111The covenant was confirmed for the disciples and Hebrew believers, and in the middle of the week sacrifice ceased.
1969. 8.2.112At Christ’s death the temple veil was torn, and the divine power that had guarded the place left it desolate.
1970. 8.2.113Until the passion God’s power watched over the temple, as Christ’s attendance at its feasts shows.
1971. 8.2.114Anna and Simeon still prophesied in the temple at Christ’s birth.
1972. 8.2.115Christ’s command to the leper and his cleansing of the temple show that he still held the temple to be holy.
1973. 8.2.116Christ declared the temple desolate; at his death the veil was torn and the lawful sacrifice ended.
1974. 8.2.117The later temple service, though continued, no longer pleased God.
1975. 8.2.118As the lawful priesthood ended with Hyrcanus, so the lawful sacrifice ended with Christ’s own sacrifice, handed on in the new covenant’s mysteries.
1976. 8.2.119The new covenant was confirmed at the Last Supper, when the old was taken away, as the torn veil showed.
1977. 8.2.120Later sacrifices at the temple were profane and unholy.
1978. 8.2.121Josephus reports a voice in the temple at Pentecost saying, “Let us depart from here.”
1979. 8.2.122Josephus records Pilate bringing Caesar’s images into Jerusalem by night, causing uproar.
1980. 8.2.123Philo likewise says Pilate set up imperial standards and began the Jews’ troubles.
1981. 8.2.124Troubles continued until the final siege, when those who conspired against Christ perished and the abomination of desolation stood in the temple.
1982. 8.2.125The desolation will likely last until the end of the age, as Daniel says.
1983. 8.2.126Christ confirmed Daniel’s prophecy of the abomination of desolation.
1984. 8.2.127Those of the circumcision who reject this interpretation make the prophecy false, though its fulfilment is visible, including the desolation of the holy place.
1985. 8.2.128Those who reject the evident fulfilment are blinded in mind.
1986. 8.2.129Isaiah’s prophecy of hardened hearts is fulfilled in them.
1987. 8.2.130Since the nations were promised understanding, Eusebius has given his own and Africanus’s explanations; next comes Micah.
1988. 8.3.1Micah 1:2–5: the Lord comes down from his place, and the mountains shake because of Israel’s sin.
1989. 8.3.2Micah 3:9–10: the rulers who pervert justice and build Zion with blood.
1990. 8.3.3Micah 3:11–12: because of corrupt rulers, priests, and prophets, Zion will be ploughed like a field.
1991. 8.3.4Micah 4:1–3: in the last days the nations will come to the Lord’s mountain, and the law will go out from Zion.
1992. 8.3.5Micah 4:3–4: swords into ploughs, and every man at rest under his vine and fig tree.
1993. 8.3.6Since Christ’s appearing, Zion, Jerusalem, and the temple have been shaken and removed, as Micah foretold.
1994. 8.3.7The “valleys” are the souls of the circumcision, which melt in grief at the ruin of their holy places.
1995. 8.3.8The sin that brought ruin was building Zion with blood, above all the cry “His blood be on us and on our children.”
1996. 8.3.9The ploughing of Zion was fulfilled only after the crime against Christ.
1997. 8.3.10Eusebius has himself seen Mount Zion ploughed and sown by Romans, and Jerusalem become a heap of stones.
1998. 8.3.11Aquila’s “Jerusalem will be quarried” is fulfilled as the city’s residents still take its stones for building.
1999. 8.3.12Temple stones now serve idol precincts and theatres, while the new law of Christ has gone out from Zion.
2000. 8.3.13Countless nations have abandoned their gods and call on the God over all.
2001. 8.3.14The Roman peace fulfils Micah’s vision of nations no longer at war and each at rest under his vine.
2002. 8.3.15The unique fulfilment under Roman rule since Christ proves the foretold time of his coming; next comes Zechariah.
2003. 8.4.1Zechariah 2:10–11: the Lord will come to dwell in Zion, and many nations will take refuge in him.
2004. 8.4.2Zechariah 9:9–10: the gentle king on a colt removes chariot and bow and rules from sea to sea.
2005. 8.4.3Zechariah foretells Jerusalem’s final desolation, first in riddles: Lebanon’s cedars burn and shepherds mourn.
2006. 8.4.4Zechariah 12:2–3: openly, Jerusalem will be besieged and trampled by all nations.
2007. 8.4.5Zechariah 12:10–14: they will look on him whom they pierced and mourn tribe by tribe.
2008. 8.4.6Zechariah 14:1–4: all nations will take Jerusalem, and the Lord will stand on the Mount of Olives.
2009. 8.4.7Zechariah 14:9–10: the Lord will be one and his name one over the whole earth.
2010. 8.4.8Zechariah 14:16–19: the surviving nations will go up yearly to worship the King and keep Tabernacles.
2011. 8.4.9Zechariah prophesied under Darius; from then to Augustus are Daniel’s 483 years.
2012. 8.4.10Nothing in Zechariah’s prophecy was fulfilled in the Macedonian period.
2013. 8.4.11No king came on a colt and ended Judah’s military and royal power in Persian or Macedonian times.
2014. 8.4.12The prophecy foretells the end of Jewish kingship and then peace for the nations.
2015. 8.4.13Aquila’s “he will speak peace to the nations” was fulfilled literally from the reign of Augustus.
2016. 8.4.14No Jewish king before Rome ruled from sea to sea, as Aquila’s version of Zechariah says.
2017. 8.4.15Psalm 72 likewise speaks of peace and rule from sea to sea for Solomon’s son, the Christ.
2018. 8.4.16Eusebius challenges opponents to find another fulfilment, or another second burning of Jerusalem after the Babylonians.
2019. 8.4.17In Zechariah’s riddle, “Lebanon” means the temple, whose burning is foretold.
2020. 8.4.18Jewish interpreters also take Lebanon as the temple, and Isaiah links Lebanon’s fall with the rise of the root of Jesse.
2021. 8.4.19Isaiah joins Lebanon’s fall to Christ’s birth, and Ezekiel calls Jerusalem Lebanon.
2022. 8.4.20Ezekiel spoke of the Babylonian siege; Zechariah of a second burning, which never happened under the Macedonians.
2023. 8.4.21The second burning came under Titus and Vespasian, and Zechariah’s riddle calls the rulers to lament it.
2024. 8.4.22Jerusalem was besieged and its holy place is still trampled by the nations, as Zechariah said.
2025. 8.4.23Since Christ’s coming the Jewish tribes have suffered loss of city, temple, and land, and still mourn.
2026. 8.4.24Only in Roman times were Jerusalem’s sack, the Lord’s feet on the Mount of Olives, and his universal kingship fulfilled.
2027. 8.4.25Christ stood on the Mount of Olives, and the nations, even Egypt, now keep the true feast of Tabernacles in the churches.
2028. 8.4.26Christ’s churches are tabernacles far better than those of Moses, where all nations keep the feast.
2029. 8.4.27Since all of Zechariah’s signs are visibly fulfilled, the prophesied king, Christ, must have come; next comes Isaiah.
2030. 8.5.1Isaiah 19:1–3: the Lord comes to Egypt on a light cloud, and its idols and people are shaken.
2031. 8.5.2Isaiah 19:19–21: an altar to the Lord in Egypt, and the Egyptians will know and worship him.
2032. 8.5.3If Egypt had not turned from its idols to the God of the prophets, amid division and failing oracles, the prophecy would be unfulfilled.
2033. 8.5.4Egypt’s visible conversion proves the Lord’s coming there, on a “light cloud” that signifies his coming in the flesh.
2034. 8.5.5Isaiah calls the one sent to Egypt a man and savior, which makes plain the time of the Lord’s coming.
2035. 8.5.6Eusebius closes the discussion of the time of Christ’s coming and turns to prophecies of the events of his life.
2036. 9.0.1Having treated Christ’s divinity and the manner, name, and time of his coming, Eusebius turns to prophecies of the events of the incarnation.
2037. 9.0.2The fulfilments will be confirmed from the Gospels, beginning with the new star at Christ’s birth foretold by Moses.
2038. 9.1.1Numbers 24:15–19: Balaam foretells a star out of Jacob and a man out of Israel who will crush Moab.
2039. 9.1.2Balaam’s successors, who kept his prophecy, saw a strange star over Judea and came to inquire about the king.
2040. 9.1.3Matthew records the magi following the star to Bethlehem and worshipping the child.
2041. 9.1.4The prophecy links the star with the crushing of Moab and the inheriting of Israel’s enemies.
2042. 9.1.5The leaders of Moab are the demons worshipped by the Moabites, such as Baal-peor, to whom Israel once fell.
2043. 9.1.6Because Israel had fallen to Moab’s gods, Balaam foretells a reversal: a star and a man who crush Moab’s leaders.
2044. 9.1.7When the demons are crushed, the nations long enslaved to error will become the inheritance of the one foretold.
2045. 9.1.8The former enemies become Christ’s inheritance, as Psalm 2 promises, while the opposite is foretold for Israel.
2046. 9.1.9Israel “acted in strength” in committing the greatest impiety, and so one will rise from among them.
2047. 9.1.10The one raised up is the Word, who destroyed the city’s survivors; the nations became his lot while Jerusalem suffered.
2048. 9.1.11The new star signified a new light for the whole world, Christ, whose image it bore.
2049. 9.1.12Scripture teaches mystical truths while its literal sense also holds, so the star prophecy was fulfilled literally.
2050. 9.1.13Strange stars such as comets are said to appear at great events and for famous men.
2051. 9.1.14Nothing was greater than the spiritual light of Christ, which the star signified.
2052. 9.1.15Balaam’s prophecy names both a star, the divine Word, and a man, the same Christ, who is elsewhere called Rising and Sun of Righteousness.
2053. 9.1.16“Rise” marks both Christ’s coming into the world and his resurrection after the passion; his light rose from Jacob but shone on the nations.
2054. 9.1.17Other prophecies too make Christ a light to the nations, and Balaam says a man from Israel’s seed will rule many nations.
2055. 9.1.18Ruling the nations, Christ overthrew the demonic powers figuratively named Moab, Seth, Edom, and Esau.
2056. 9.1.19Aquila and Symmachus render Balaam’s obscure words more clearly: “I see him, but not near.”
2057. 9.1.20Balaam’s prophecy was fulfilled about two thousand years later at Christ’s coming; next comes Isaiah.
2058. 9.2.1Isaiah foretells the Lord’s coming to Egypt, the first home of polytheism and demon worship.
2059. 9.2.2Egypt, whose Pharaoh said he did not know the Lord, is foretold to come to know him, showing Christ’s power.
2060. 9.2.3As Edom and Esau became Christ’s inheritance, so Egypt is foretold to belong to the Lord instead of its idols.
2061. 9.2.4The visible conversion of Egyptians, even to martyrdom, proves that the Lord has come to Egypt.
2062. 9.2.5Figuratively, Egypt is the whole world, the light cloud is Christ’s human nature, and the idols are those of all nations.
2063. 9.2.6The prophecy was also fulfilled literally when the child Jesus was taken to Egypt, shaking its demons; next comes Numbers.
2064. 9.3.1Numbers 24:3–9: Balaam foresees a man from Israel’s seed ruling many nations, led by God out of Egypt.
2065. 9.3.2Isaiah foretold Christ’s journey to Egypt, and Numbers his return: “God led him out of Egypt.”
2066. 9.3.3Only Christ, from Israel’s seed, has ruled many nations, fulfilling Balaam’s prophecy.
2067. 9.3.4No other Hebrew ruled many nations, but Christ’s divine power, through his human nature, still does.
2068. 9.3.5The exalted kingdom of Gog, which grew with Christ’s power, is said to be the Roman Empire.
2069. 9.3.6Ezekiel’s Gog, ruler of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, signifies Rome; Christ, led out of Egypt, has the unicorn’s glory because the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him.
2070. 9.3.7The unicorn’s one horn is the Father; with spiritual arrows the Word drove out the devil and still refines the nations for the narrow way.
2071. 9.3.8Christ rests like an unassailable lion; those who bless him are blessed and multiply, while those who curse him have drawn a curse on themselves.
2072. 9.3.9Their kingdom and sanctuary lie desolate; Balaam’s prophecy should be compared with Jacob’s to Judah.
2073. 9.3.10Balaam’s “a man from his seed” matches Jacob’s “from a shoot, my son, you went up.”
2074. 9.3.11Balaam’s rule over nations and victory over enemies match Jacob’s “expectation of nations” and “hands on the enemies’ back.”
2075. 9.3.12The lion images of both prophecies agree, giving the proof two witnesses.
2076. 9.3.13What was proved of Jacob’s prophecy applies equally to Balaam’s; next comes Hosea.
2077. 9.4.1Hosea 10:14–11:1: destruction for Israel and its king, and God’s call out of Egypt.
2078. 9.4.2Aquila’s “Out of Egypt I called my son” matches Matthew’s use of Hosea; the flight to Egypt had good reason.
2079. 9.4.3Christ did not stop Herod by a miracle because it was not yet time to display his divine power.
2080. 9.4.4It fitted Christ’s gentle, forbearing life to begin his miracles only at the right time.
2081. 9.4.5As an adult too Christ withdrew from the wicked and avoided praise, so his flight as a child is fitting.
2082. 9.4.6Those who apply the prophecy to the people should note its context: the destruction of Jerusalem’s strongholds.
2083. 9.4.7The punishment is on the Israelites, cast away with their king, by whom Herod is hinted.
2084. 9.4.8Hosea cannot blame and praise the same people at once; “Israel” here, as elsewhere, is Christ.
2085. 9.4.9God called his obedient Son back from Egypt, meaning the earthly world or Egypt itself, while ruin overtakes the addressees and their kingdom.
2086. 9.4.10After Christ’s time the siege of Jerusalem ended Jewish self-rule.
2087. 9.4.11This is the third prophecy of Egypt; if Hosea is disputed, Matthew may have drawn on Numbers’ “God led him out of Egypt.” Next comes Isaiah.
2088. 9.5.1Isaiah 40:3–5: a voice in the wilderness prepares the Lord’s way, and all flesh will see God’s salvation.
2089. 9.5.2Luke records John’s preaching in the wilderness as the fulfilment of Isaiah 40.
2090. 9.5.3John’s voice called the crowds a brood of vipers and straightened crooked souls by calling for fruits of repentance.
2091. 9.5.4John prepared the people to see God’s salvation, Christ, who would baptize with the Spirit and fire.
2092. 9.5.5John called Jesus the Lamb of God, and Simeon called him God’s salvation and a light to the nations.
2093. 9.5.6Isaiah’s “all flesh” means all nations.
2094. 9.5.7The prophecy was literally fulfilled; why John preached in the wilderness remains to be asked.
2095. 9.5.8The wilderness signifies the end of Jerusalem’s sacrificial worship and the forgiveness given by baptism in the church of the nations.
2096. 9.5.9“All flesh” means every people, Greek and barbarian, and this has been fulfilled.
2097. 9.5.10John worked no miracles; the crowds were struck by his strange, solitary way of life.
2098. 9.5.11John lived in the wilderness from childhood, dressed in camel’s hair and eating locusts and wild honey.
2099. 9.5.12John’s ascetic appearance made people think him an angel, the messenger of Malachi quoted by Mark.
2100. 9.5.13Christ said John came neither eating nor drinking, and was said to have a demon.
2101. 9.5.14Unbelievers slandered John, while those who saw his virtue took him for an angel and came to his cleansing.
2102. 9.5.15Josephus records that Herod killed John the Baptist, a good man who called the Jews to virtue and baptism.
2103. 9.6.1Isaiah 35:1–2: the thirsty wilderness of the Jordan will blossom and receive the glory of Lebanon.
2104. 9.6.2Isaiah 35:3–6: God will come and save, and the blind, deaf, lame, and mute will be healed.
2105. 9.6.3Christ’s miracles after John’s preaching fulfilled Isaiah 35, which names specifically the wilderness of the Jordan.
2106. 9.6.4John lived and baptized in the Jordan wilderness, as Mark records.
2107. 9.6.5The wilderness is the church of the nations, and the river a figure of spiritual cleansing that gladdens God’s city.
2108. 9.6.6The river is the Spirit that waters God’s city and now flows into the church of the nations; to it are given the glory of Lebanon and Carmel.
2109. 9.6.7The glory of Lebanon, the Mosaic sacrifices, passed from Jerusalem to the Jordan wilderness with John.
2110. 9.6.8The honour of the law passed to the wilderness, where forgiveness of sins was preached.
2111. 9.6.9Christ’s baptism revealed his glory, and every true candidate for baptism who receives the teaching of his divinity will see it; next comes Psalm 90.
2112. 9.7.1Psalm 91:1–4 (LXX 90): the one who dwells in the help of the Most High is rescued from the hunters’ snare.
2113. 9.7.2Psalm 91:4–10 (LXX 90): no terror, arrow, or demon will harm the one who takes refuge in the Most High.
2114. 9.7.3Psalm 91:11–13 (LXX 90): angels will guard him, and he will trample the asp and the dragon.
2115. 9.7.4The Psalm speaks of Christ as man, who took refuge in the Father when tempted in the wilderness among wild beasts.
2116. 9.7.5The wild beasts are those of the Psalm, and he is also rescued from a troubling word.
2117. 9.7.6The troubling word is the tempter’s speech in the Gospel.
2118. 9.7.7Christ was tempted so that, before healing humanity, he might openly defeat the devil and all demonic powers, who therefore recognized him.
2119. 9.7.8The Psalm’s night terrors and day arrows correspond to the forty days and nights of Christ’s temptation.
2120. 9.7.9The Psalm’s night and noonday dangers are the powers that tempted Christ by night and by day.
2121. 9.7.10The thousand at his side and ten thousand at his right are the evil powers of the temptation; “left” is avoided because nothing sinister was in him.
2122. 9.7.11These things happen around Christ because he, the Psalmist’s hope, made the Most High his refuge.
2123. 9.7.12The Psalm distinguishes the Lord, Christ, from his Father, God Most High.
2124. 9.7.13Because Christ took the Father as refuge, the Psalm promises him protection and the angels’ care.
2125. 9.7.14The Tetragrammaton here refers to the Word, who, the Psalm implies, knows God Most High as greater than himself.
2126. 9.7.15The Psalm’s opening likewise describes Christ taking refuge in the Most High.
2127. 9.7.16With the Father’s help Christ need fear none of the dangers the Psalm lists.
2128. 9.7.17The “scourges” are demonic afflictions, which cannot approach Christ’s dwelling, his body.
2129. 9.7.18Christ drove out demons by a word; David’s vow to find a dwelling for the Lord refers to this dwelling, his body.
2130. 9.7.19The Psalm’s promises of protection are said of Christ’s human dwelling.
2131. 9.7.20These promises fit Christ’s flesh, not God as such; Aquila’s version begins “you have made the Most High your dwelling.”
2132. 9.7.21Aquila’s and Symmachus’s renderings of Psalm 91:9–11.
2133. 9.7.22Symmachus’s version confirms that the Lord is addressed as distinct from a greater one who commands the angels.
2134. 9.7.23The devil quoted this Psalm in tempting Christ, who answered from Deuteronomy.
2135. 9.7.24The Psalm names the wild beasts of the temptation: asp, basilisk, lion, and dragon.
2136. 9.7.25Christ alone tramples the devil and his chief powers; to his disciples he gives authority over lesser ones, not letting them be tempted beyond their strength. Next comes Isaiah.
2137. 9.8.1Isaiah 9:1–6 (Septuagint): Galilee of the nations sees a great light, and a child is born, the Angel of Great Counsel.
2138. 9.8.2Matthew records Christ’s move to Capernaum in Zebulun and Naphtali as fulfilling Isaiah.
2139. 9.8.3Matthew 4:18–19: Jesus calls Peter and Andrew.
2140. 9.8.4Matthew 4:20–22: Jesus calls James and John.
2141. 9.8.5Matthew 4:23–25: Jesus teaches and heals throughout Galilee.
2142. 9.8.6Christ worked mostly in Galilee of the nations to begin the calling of all nations, and called his disciples from there.
2143. 9.8.7Matthew, Philip, Peter, and Andrew came from Galilee, where at Cana Christ worked his first sign.
2144. 9.8.8“Drink this first” may foretell Christ’s first miracle, the wine at Cana.
2145. 9.8.9The wine at Cana symbolizes the spiritual drink of the new covenant, which Galilee would be first to receive.
2146. 9.8.10The dawn of the saving light is the cause of Galilee’s joy, like joy at harvest.
2147. 9.8.11Christ fulfilled this by calling the apostles from Galilee and showing them his works.
2148. 9.8.12The harvest is the gathering of the nations, of which Christ spoke in John 4.
2149. 9.8.13The apostles divided the nations and despoiled their demonic rulers; they also rejoiced at being freed from the yoke of the law.
2150. 9.8.14The rod of the exactors is also removed; Isaiah elsewhere names these exactors.
2151. 9.8.15The former exactors will be made to repay to the last penny and burned with fire.
2152. 9.8.16The child born to “us” is Christ, the great light of Galilee, whose titles belong to him alone; next comes Psalm 67.
2153. 9.9.1Psalm 68:24–27 (LXX 67): God’s procession, with the rulers of Zebulun and Naphtali.
2154. 9.9.2The rulers of Naphtali are the apostles; the Psalm foretells the Word’s coming in the flesh.
2155. 9.9.3The prophets were forerunners who sang of Christ’s coming.
2156. 9.9.4The springs of Israel are the Scriptures given to Israel, from which the churches must be watered.
2157. 9.9.5The young women with timbrels are souls who lived by the bodily worship of the law; next comes Isaiah.
2158. 9.10.1Isaiah 61:1–2: the Spirit-anointed one proclaims good news to the poor and release to captives.
2159. 9.10.2At Nazareth Jesus read Isaiah 61 in the synagogue.
2160. 9.10.3Luke 4:20–21: Jesus declares that the Scripture is fulfilled today.
2161. 9.10.4Christ was anointed not with oil by men but with the Father’s Spirit, sharing the unbegotten Godhead and so called God and Lord.
2162. 9.10.5The Beatitudes show Christ bringing good news to the poor, as Isaiah foretold.
2163. 9.10.6Christ gave sight to the bodily blind and to the spiritually blind.
2164. 9.10.7Christ proclaimed release to captives of the demonic powers; next comes Deuteronomy.
2165. 9.11.1Deuteronomy 18:15–19: God will raise up a prophet like Moses, and whoever does not listen will be called to account.
2166. 9.11.2No prophet like Moses, a lawgiver, arose in Israel except Christ.
2167. 9.11.3The promise is of one prophet, lawgiver and teacher, which only Christ has been.
2168. 9.11.4Moses legislated for one nation; Christ, heir of the nations, gave a law suited to all humanity.
2169. 9.11.5Christ legislated with divine authority in the Sermon on the Mount, astonishing his hearers.
2170. 9.11.6Christ’s teaching was treated at the start of the work; now the reason for the promise of a prophet is considered.
2171. 9.11.7Too weak to bear God’s direct appearing, the people asked Moses to speak; so God promised a prophet like him.
2172. 9.11.8Human weakness is why God would appear as a prophet.
2173. 9.11.9Awaiting the prophet like Moses, the Jews asked John if he were the prophet; he said no, for he was sent before him.
2174. 9.11.10As the prophet promised to Israel, Christ first sent himself and his apostles to the lost sheep of Israel.
2175. 9.11.11Because Israel refused him, Christ said the kingdom would be taken from them and given to another nation.
2176. 9.11.12After Israel’s refusal the gospel went to the nations, who received Christ as lawgiver, fulfilling Psalm 9.
2177. 9.11.13The Jewish nation, rejecting the prophet, was punished as Deuteronomy warned.
2178. 9.11.14All righteous blood, above all Christ’s, has been avenged on that people; next comes Job.
2179. 9.12.1Job 9:7–8: God, who stretched out the heavens, walks on the sea as on dry ground.
2180. 9.12.2Only Christ, the Word incarnate, walked on the sea, as Matthew 14 records.
2181. 9.12.3The saying cannot fittingly refer to the Father himself.
2182. 9.12.4Walking on the sea befits the incarnate Son, not the Father who fills all things; it also symbolizes his victory over the dragon in the spiritual sea.
2183. 9.12.5God’s words to Job about walking the abyss and the gates of death point to Christ; his walking on the sea symbolized deeper mysteries. Next comes Isaiah.
2184. 9.13.1Isaiah 35:3–6: God will come and save, and the blind, deaf, lame, and mute will be healed.
2185. 9.13.2The Gospels show the fulfilment in Christ’s healing of the paralytic and many others.
2186. 9.13.3Christ still heals countless souls by his teaching, and Isaiah here rightly calls him God.
2187. 9.13.4Christ’s healings are works of God alone, testified by those who preached him everywhere.
2188. 9.13.5The witnesses’ endurance of torture and death proves their testimony true.
2189. 9.13.6Isaiah’s call to slack hands is addressed to the apostles, roused from the long course of Mosaic worship to run the gospel race.
2190. 9.13.7The apostles are to encourage others and not fear the opponents of the gospel.
2191. 9.13.8Christ, God and the Word, not a prophet like Moses, both worked wonders and gave the apostles strength.
2192. 9.13.9The strongest proof of Christ’s divine power is its continuing work in converting and healing souls throughout the world.
2193. 9.13.10Having received judgment from the Father, Christ punished those who rejected him and saved all who came to him.
2194. 9.13.11Isaiah 61 calls the time of Christ’s coming a day of recompense.
2195. 9.13.12The recompense fell on the generation that sinned against Christ, in the final siege of Jerusalem.
2196. 9.13.13Isaiah names both the judgment on his rejecters and the saving judgment on those healed and saved.
2197. 9.13.14Isaiah 42:1 promises that Christ will bring judgment to the nations.
2198. 9.13.15The new covenant’s word from Zion judges the nations; Christ calls by divine judgment and teaches us to act with judgment. Next, more from Isaiah.
2199. 9.14.1Isaiah 8:16–20 (Septuagint): the prophet and the children God gave him will be signs in Israel; one should not consult the dead.
2200. 9.14.2Hebrews applies Isaiah’s “I and the children” to Christ, who shared flesh and blood to destroy the power of death.
2201. 9.14.3The children are the apostles, marked with Christ’s seal and no longer learning the law of Moses.
2202. 9.14.4Symmachus renders Isaiah 8:16–17 more clearly than the Septuagint.
2203. 9.14.5Aquila agrees; the apostles are to seal the law and be signs and wonders in Israel.
2204. 9.14.6Christ bids believers from the nations not to consult demonic oracles, since they have received a saving law; next, more from Isaiah.
2205. 9.15.1Isaiah 42:1–7 (Septuagint): God’s servant brings judgment to the nations, gently, and is a light to them.
2206. 9.15.2Matthew cites this prophecy when Jesus withdrew from the Pharisees’ plot and told those he healed not to make him known.
2207. 9.15.3Matthew quotes Isaiah 42 as fulfilled in Christ’s quiet withdrawal and reticence.
2208. 9.15.4Matthew’s quotation omits the names Jacob and Israel.
2209. 9.15.5The names are obelized in the Septuagint and absent from the Hebrew and other translators.
2210. 9.15.6Following the Hebrew, Matthew omits the names, and the prophecy fits Christ alone, who bound up the crushed reed.
2211. 9.15.7Christ neither crushed the repentant nor forcibly quenched the wicked, reserving their punishment for the final judgment.
2212. 9.15.8The nations hope in Christ’s name, calling themselves Christians after him.
2213. 9.15.9Christ is the light of the nations, opening blind eyes and freeing the captives of sin.
2214. 9.15.10Close study shows every detail fulfilled in Christ; next, more from Isaiah.
2215. 9.16.1Isaiah 6: the vision of the Lord enthroned, and the commission to a people who hear but do not understand.
2216. 9.16.2John says unbelief in Christ fulfilled Isaiah 53:1 and 6:10.
2217. 9.16.3John adds that Isaiah saw Christ’s glory; Matthew records Christ explaining his parables by Isaiah 6.
2218. 9.16.4John shows that Isaiah’s vision of the Lord enthroned was a vision of Christ’s glory.
2219. 9.16.5The continuing unbelief of the circumcision fulfils the prophecy; they saw Christ’s wonders without understanding.
2220. 9.16.6They heard Christ’s words of life without understanding, fulfilling the prophecy.
2221. 9.16.7They fail to see that Christ has done among all nations what Moses and the prophets could not do even in Israel: end idolatry.
2222. 9.16.8Reading the prophecies, they hear without understanding, fulfilling Isaiah still; next comes Zechariah.
2223. 9.17.1Zechariah 9:9–10: the gentle king comes on a colt and brings peace to the nations.
2224. 9.17.2Only Christ fulfilled Zechariah’s prophecy of the king, when he sent for the donkey and colt.
2225. 9.17.3The disciples fetch the donkey and colt as Christ commanded.
2226. 9.17.4Riding on a donkey signifies Christ’s humble first coming; Daniel describes his glorious second coming with the clouds.
2227. 9.17.5Daniel 7:13–14: the Son of Man receives an everlasting kingdom.
2228. 9.17.6The gentle rider on a donkey marks the humble first coming; the clouds of heaven and eternal kingdom mark the divine second coming.
2229. 9.17.7Those who expect one coming must explain how the Messiah can both ride a donkey and come on the clouds at once.
2230. 9.17.8Comparing the prophecies shows some refer to the first coming and others to the second.
2231. 9.17.9At the first coming Christ’s power secretly ended Jerusalem’s military might and kingdom.
2232. 9.17.10Zechariah calls the Jewish people Ephraim to spare the more honoured names Israel and Judah.
2233. 9.17.11After the exile “Ephraim” means Jerusalem’s people, whose armed power Christ’s coming destroyed.
2234. 9.17.12The daughter of Zion is the church of the nations, born from Christ and his apostles as from the Jewish synagogue.
2235. 9.17.13The rest of the prophecy was also fulfilled at Christ’s coming.
2236. 9.17.14Since Christ came, cities and nations no longer war with one another as before.
2237. 9.17.15An abundance of peace has come, and Christ’s gospel rules from sea to sea.
2238. 9.17.16Aquila’s rendering of Zechariah agrees with Psalm 72, about the king’s son from Solomon’s seed.
2239. 9.17.17Psalm 72 and Isaiah 2 likewise foretell universal peace.
2240. 9.17.18Micah and others agree; from Augustus and Christ’s appearing, the Roman monarchy ended the divisions of nations and the foretold peace began.
2241. 9.17.19The peace has only begun and will be complete when the fullness of the nations comes in; next comes Psalm 117.
2242. 9.18.1Psalm 118:22–27 (LXX 117): the rejected stone, the day the Lord has made, and “Blessed is he who comes.”
2243. 9.18.2At Christ’s entry into Jerusalem the crowds cried, “Hosanna to the Son of David.”
2244. 9.18.3Matthew 21:10–11: the city asks who he is, and the crowds call him the prophet from Nazareth.
2245. 9.18.4Since “Hosanna” and “Blessed is he who comes” are from this Psalm and applied to Christ, the rest of the Psalm refers to him as well.
2246. 9.18.5Christ is “he who comes” in the Father’s name, and the Lord God who has appeared to us.
2247. 9.18.6Christ is the stone rejected by the builders of the old people and made head of the corner of the church from the nations.
2248. 9.18.7Christ’s appearing is the day the Lord has made; next come the prophecies of the passion.
2249. 10.0.1Book 10 turns to prophecies of Christ’s departure from life.
2250. 10.0.2Eusebius will first treat those who plotted Christ’s death, keeping in mind the distinction between his divinity and humanity.
2251. 10.0.3Christ is both the divine Word and high priest and the Lamb, his human body offered as firstfruits; through it he met human nature, which could not otherwise perceive him.
2252. 10.0.4The humbler sayings refer to the Lamb, Christ’s human nature, as John the Baptist and Isaiah describe him.
2253. 10.0.5The Lamb, taken up by the great high priest for the whole human flock, had to be offered to God.
2254. 10.0.6Paul: death and resurrection, condemnation and justification come through one man.
2255. 10.0.7Christ taught his disciples his divinity but called himself a man to outsiders; now Eusebius turns to the human sufferings of the Lamb.
2256. 10.0.8Eusebius begins the oracles about Judas’s plot and the passion.
2257. 10.1.1Psalm 41:1–6 (LXX 40): the blessing of one who considers the poor, and the enemies who wish his death.
2258. 10.1.2Psalm 41:7–12 (LXX 40): enemies plot, and a trusted friend who ate his bread turns against him; God raises him up.
2259. 10.1.3Against those who deny that the Psalms prophesy, Eusebius cites two Psalms of Asaph from David’s time.
2260. 10.1.4Asaph, a temple singer in David’s time according to Chronicles, spoke his Psalms by the Spirit.
2261. 10.1.5Asaph’s Psalms foretold the siege of Jerusalem about five hundred years in advance.
2262. 10.1.6Psalm 74:1–4 (LXX 73): lament over the enemy’s ravaging of God’s sanctuary on Zion.
2263. 10.1.7Psalm 74:4–7 (LXX 73): the enemy hacked down the doors and burned the sanctuary.
2264. 10.1.8Psalm 79:1–2 (LXX 78): the nations have defiled the temple and left the dead unburied.
2265. 10.1.9Psalm 74 was spoken before Solomon’s temple existed and fulfilled at the Babylonian and Roman sieges.
2266. 10.1.10Psalm 79 was fulfilled under Antiochus Epiphanes, who defiled the temple and killed Jews faithful to their law.
2267. 10.1.111 Maccabees confirms that Psalm 79 refers to the Maccabean period.
2268. 10.1.121 Maccabees 7:15–17 cites Asaph’s Psalm as fulfilled when sixty were killed in one day.
2269. 10.1.13As Asaph’s Psalms were fulfilled, so Psalm 41 (LXX 40) foretells the plot against Christ, the poor one who became poor for us.
2270. 10.1.14John records Jesus applying Psalm 41:9 to Judas after the foot-washing.
2271. 10.1.15The Scripture Jesus cited is this Psalm, spoken throughout in his person.
2272. 10.1.16Symmachus’s version of Psalm 41:4–7, “even if I have sinned against you.”
2273. 10.1.17Symmachus’s version of Psalm 41:8–12.
2274. 10.1.18Symmachus reads “even if I have sinned”; Christ speaks so because he makes our sins his own.
2275. 10.1.19Isaiah 53 says the Lord handed him over for our sins and he bears them.
2276. 10.1.20Christ became a curse and sin for us, and in the likeness of sinful flesh condemned sin; so he speaks these words.
2277. 10.1.21Christ, innocent himself, takes our sins as his own because we are his body.
2278. 10.1.22As head of the body, Christ by sympathy takes on the sufferings and sicknesses of his members.
2279. 10.1.23The Lamb bore the punishment we owed, became a curse and ransom for us, and so, united with us, speaks our confession as his own.
2280. 10.1.24His enemies, human and demonic, thought that killing him would extinguish his name.
2281. 10.1.25The Psalm exposes the enemies who wished his name to perish and who came to trap him.
2282. 10.1.26The Psalm then points to Judas, who after his bargain came only to spy for an opportunity.
2283. 10.1.27Matthew and Mark record Judas’s bargain with the chief priests.
2284. 10.1.28Mark and Luke complete the account of Judas’s betrayal agreement.
2285. 10.1.29The Psalm foretells Judas’s spying and plotting.
2286. 10.1.30Judas alone came in as a disciple to spy, hiding his plot.
2287. 10.1.31Going out, Judas conspired with the rulers and whispered with them about the money.
2288. 10.1.32The “lawless word” is the money agreement, or their belief that he would perish in death.
2289. 10.1.33They thought he would not rise; the Psalm then speaks specifically of the disciple who ate his bread and betrayed him.
2290. 10.1.34Judas, who shared his master’s table and teaching, is the worst of all for repaying good with evil.
2291. 10.1.35Against his enemies’ hopes, Christ prays for resurrection: “Raise me up, and I will repay them.”
2292. 10.1.36After the resurrection, death was shamed and, as Josephus shows, disasters overtook the nation and its rulers.
2293. 10.1.37The resurrection showed that the Father delighted in Christ, as the Psalm says.
2294. 10.1.38Christ boldly claims innocence, though he earlier said “I have sinned against you.”
2295. 10.1.39“I have sinned” refers to our sins, which Christ took upon himself, as Symmachus’s rendering shows.
2296. 10.1.40Christ’s innocence shows his pure nature and secures his eternal life after the resurrection; next comes Psalm 54.
2297. 10.2.1Psalm 55:1–5 (LXX 54): a prayer in distress, with fear of death and darkness.
2298. 10.2.2Psalm 55:9–14 (LXX 54): lawlessness in the city, and betrayal not by an enemy but by a close companion.
2299. 10.2.3The companion who betrays in Psalm 55 matches the friend who ate his bread in Psalm 41: Judas.
2300. 10.2.4Judas, once one of the apostles, is called a companion of like soul.
2301. 10.2.5Judas shared in Christ’s secret teaching and spiritual food with the disciples.
2302. 10.2.6Christ explained everything privately to the disciples, Judas among them.
2303. 10.2.7Aquila and Symmachus stress the intimacy that made Judas’s betrayal worse than an enemy’s.
2304. 10.2.8The Psalm foretells Christ’s deliverance from death.
2305. 10.2.9The prayer refers to the time before Christ’s death, when Judas plotted.
2306. 10.2.10Grieving over Judas and his nation, Christ calls his unprofitable teaching of them “idle talk.”
2307. 10.2.11The enemies are the Jewish rulers, or the invisible powers working through them.
2308. 10.2.12Christ’s sorrow in Gethsemane matches the Psalm’s fear and darkness, signifying the assaults of hostile powers.
2309. 10.2.13As Scripture names spirits of immorality and error, so a spirit of death produces fear.
2310. 10.2.14Such spirits of fear assail martyrs, and still more Christ, who died for all.
2311. 10.2.15Like a noble athlete, Christ, who is life, cast off the fear of death by the spirit of courage.
2312. 10.2.16The Spirit of strength rested on Christ and his light scattered darkness; Psalm 22 likewise describes beasts surrounding him.
2313. 10.2.17Psalm 22:16, 20–21 (LXX 21): dogs, lion, and unicorns surround the sufferer.
2314. 10.2.18The beasts are evil powers that surrounded Christ in his passion but could not harm him.
2315. 10.2.19If this part of the Psalm is not about Christ, the reader must reconcile it; the Psalm goes on to speak of lawlessness in Jerusalem. Next comes Psalm 108.
2316. 10.3.1Psalm 109:1–8 (LXX 108): the betrayed one prays against the deceitful accuser; “let another take his office.”
2317. 10.3.2Peter, in Acts 1, applies the Psalm to Judas.
2318. 10.3.3Acts 1:18–20: Judas’s death, the Field of Blood, and the Psalm verses Peter applies to him.
2319. 10.3.4Matthias replaced Judas as the Psalm required; the speaker of the Psalm is Christ, praying at his passion.
2320. 10.3.5“Do not pass over my praise” asks that the teaching of the new covenant endure for ever.
2321. 10.3.6The deceitful mouth is Judas’s, who bargained with the chief priests.
2322. 10.3.7At the Passover supper Jesus announced that one of the twelve would betray him.
2323. 10.3.8Judas’s deceitful mouth asked “Is it I?” and gave the plotters the sign of the kiss.
2324. 10.3.9Judas betrayed Christ with a kiss, as the Psalm foretold of him and the other plotters.
2325. 10.3.10Matthew 26:47: Judas arrives with an armed crowd.
2326. 10.3.11Christ says his arrest fulfils the prophets; the Psalm adds, “In return for loving me they slandered me, but I prayed.”
2327. 10.3.12While Christ prayed in Gethsemane, Judas and the rulers returned evil for his many benefits.
2328. 10.3.13Because they returned evil for good, the Psalm pronounces judgment on the betrayer.
2329. 10.3.14Peter applied the Psalm to Judas; and the Jewish nation has since been set under foreign, idolatrous rulers.
2330. 10.3.15Their days after the plot against Christ were few; then Jerusalem fell and the people of Christ took their office.
2331. 10.3.16The rest of the Psalm applies to Judas and those like him; his “mother” is the synagogue.
2332. 10.3.17As in Psalm 41, Christ is called poor and needy here.
2333. 10.3.18The curses fall on Judas because he persecuted the poor and needy one to death and loved cursing.
2334. 10.3.19Christ again calls himself poor and needy, weak from fasting and a reproach.
2335. 10.3.20The passers-by wagged their heads at the cross; since his enemies still curse him, the Psalm adds, “They will curse, but you will bless.”
2336. 10.3.21Psalm 109:28–31 (LXX 108): the adversaries are shamed, and the poor one praises God who stood at his right hand.
2337. 10.3.22Those who curse Christ still suffer, while Christ praises the Father among the nations with the Father at his right hand.
2338. 10.3.23The Psalm teaches Christ’s deliverance after death.
2339. 10.3.24Having foretold his death, the Psalm hints at his salvation after it; next comes Zechariah.
2340. 10.4.1Zechariah 11:7–14 (Septuagint): the shepherd’s two rods, his wages of thirty pieces of silver thrown into the house of the Lord, and the broken covenant.
2341. 10.4.2Luke and Mark record the chief priests’ promise of money to Judas.
2342. 10.4.3Matthew alone gives the sum, matching Zechariah.
2343. 10.4.4Matthew’s thirty coins agree with the Lord’s words in Zechariah.
2344. 10.4.5Symmachus and Aquila render the thirty pieces similarly; the Lord then commands them thrown into the furnace.
2345. 10.4.6Aquila’s version shows that the Lord calls the thirty pieces his own price.
2346. 10.4.7The Lord, after all his benefits, asks for his “wages,” that is, the fruits of godliness and faith.
2347. 10.4.8Instead of fruits they weighed out thirty pieces; so he bids the silver be tested in the furnace.
2348. 10.4.9The furnace is the house of the Lord, as the Septuagint’s wording shows.
2349. 10.4.10Aquila has the silver thrown to the potter in the house of the Lord.
2350. 10.4.11Zechariah’s silver thrown into the Lord’s house was perhaps fulfilled when Judas threw the silver into the temple.
2351. 10.4.12Matthew 27:6–10: the priests buy the potter’s field, fulfilling what Matthew attributes to Jeremiah.
2352. 10.4.13Since the words are not in Jeremiah, Eusebius suggests either tampering with Jeremiah or a copyist’s error in Matthew, writing Jeremiah for Zechariah.
2353. 10.4.14Both prophecy and Gospel say the silver was thrown into the temple.
2354. 10.4.15The silver profaned the temple; the house of God is a furnace that refines or exposes souls.
2355. 10.4.16The Word dwells as a potter in God’s house; but the blood money profaned it, and the second rod was cast away.
2356. 10.4.17The second rod, the Portion, is the whole Jewish nation, cast away from God’s oversight.
2357. 10.4.18The first rod, Beauty, is Jerusalem, the Mosaic worship, and the old covenant.
2358. 10.4.19The first rod is God’s covenant, the second the Portion; both are to be cast away.
2359. 10.4.20Aquila and Symmachus call the first rod “Comeliness”; the law and covenant were the nation’s beauty.
2360. 10.4.21Jerusalem’s worship was the nation’s adornment, and Moses calls Israel the Lord’s “portion.”
2361. 10.4.22Both rods, the old covenant and the nation, would be broken once they priced the Lord at thirty pieces.
2362. 10.4.23The three shepherds removed in one month are the king, the high priest, and the prophet.
2363. 10.4.24In Christ’s time king, high priest, and prophet all failed together, fulfilling the removal of the three shepherds.
2364. 10.4.25The other translators render the shepherd’s grief, and its cause: their souls howled against him.
2365. 10.4.26Symmachus’s rendering, and a parallel in Jeremiah 12, where God’s inheritance roars against him.
2366. 10.4.27So the shepherd abandons the flock and casts away the fair rod.
2367. 10.4.28Aquila’s “cut off Comeliness” means the Mosaic worship, the first to be broken.
2368. 10.4.29After the blood money entered the temple, the second rod, the nation, was cast away.
2369. 10.4.30The Canaanites, not Israel, will recognize the fulfilment.
2370. 10.4.31The Canaanites are the Gentile believers who understood the prophecy, unlike those who boast of Abraham’s seed. Next comes Jeremiah.
2371. 10.5.1Jeremiah 17:1–4: the sin of Judah is engraved with an iron pen, and the people will be dispossessed.
2372. 10.5.2The passage, missing from the Septuagint but in the Hebrew and marked by asterisks, names Judas and shows his sin indelible.
2373. 10.5.3The passage may also refer to the whole nation’s destruction; now Eusebius turns to prophecies of the passion, beginning with Amos.
2374. 10.6.1Amos 8:7–9: the Lord swears against Jacob’s pride; the sun will set at noon.
2375. 10.6.2Amos 8:10–12: feasts turned to mourning, and a famine of hearing the word of the Lord.
2376. 10.6.3Amos foretells that the pride against Christ will not be forgotten and that the Roman wrath would sweep them away like a river, with no restoration.
2377. 10.6.4Going down like the Nile means the Jewish nation’s privileges will sink to the level of the other nations.
2378. 10.6.5Amos’s noonday darkness was fulfilled at the crucifixion, from the sixth to the ninth hour.
2379. 10.6.6Amos continues: feasts turned to mourning and a famine of the word.
2380. 10.6.7These prophecies were fulfilled after the plot against Christ.
2381. 10.6.8Since Titus and Vespasian, the Jews cannot keep their feasts in Jerusalem, and a famine of God’s word has overtaken them. Next comes Zechariah.
2382. 10.7.1Zechariah 14:5–9 (Septuagint): a day without light, cold and frost, living water from Jerusalem, and the Lord king over all.
2383. 10.7.2The holy ones who come with the Lord are the apostles or the angels who served Christ.
2384. 10.7.3The darkness at the crucifixion fulfilled Zechariah’s day without light.
2385. 10.7.4The prophecy describes the crucifixion day: night at midday, then light again, then the usual night.
2386. 10.7.5The day was neither day nor night; and the cold foretold is confirmed by Peter warming himself at the fire.
2387. 10.7.6John records that it was cold and a fire was lit.
2388. 10.7.7Spiritually, the nation chose darkness and grew cold toward God, while the living water of the gospel went out from Jerusalem to all nations.
2389. 10.7.8Christ offered living water; those who drink it renounce the demons and confess the one Lord, whose name encircles the earth.
2390. 10.7.9The name of Christians, from Christ, has encircled the earth as foretold; next comes Psalm 21.
2391. 10.8.1Psalm 22:1–8 (LXX 21): “My God, why have you forsaken me?” and the mockery of the sufferer.
2392. 10.8.2Psalm 22:9–11 (LXX 21): God has been his hope from the womb; do not stand far off.
2393. 10.8.3Psalm 22:12–16 (LXX 21): bulls, lions, and dogs surround him; he is poured out and brought to the dust of death.
2394. 10.8.4Psalm 22:16–21 (LXX 21): they pierced his hands and feet and cast lots for his clothing; he prays for rescue.
2395. 10.8.5Psalm 22:22–25 (LXX 21): he will declare God’s name to his brothers, for God heard the poor one’s cry.
2396. 10.8.6Psalm 22:26 (LXX 21): the poor will eat and be satisfied.
2397. 10.8.7Psalm 22:26–31 (LXX 21): the ends of the earth will turn to the Lord, and future generations will declare his righteousness.
2398. 10.8.8Christ’s cry from the cross quotes the opening of this Psalm in Hebrew.
2399. 10.8.9The Psalm’s Hebrew opening matches Christ’s cry exactly; Aquila renders it “My strong one.”
2400. 10.8.10The Psalm fits Christ alone, as the dividing of his garments shows.
2401. 10.8.11The piercing of hands and feet foretells the crucifixion; let anyone who applies the Psalm to another show how it fits.
2402. 10.8.12No one else from birth had such knowledge of God and hope in him as the Psalm describes.
2403. 10.8.13A series of questions shows that the Psalm’s sufferings, death, and worldwide sequel fit no ordinary person.
2404. 10.8.14Only Christ fits the Psalm, and Mark too records him speaking its words from the cross.
2405. 10.8.15Eusebius begins with the Psalm’s title in its various renderings.
2406. 10.8.16The passion was completed about the ninth hour, toward evening.
2407. 10.8.17The resurrection, the Father’s “help,” took place at dawn.
2408. 10.8.18Luke records the women coming at early dawn to find the tomb empty.
2409. 10.8.19Mark and John likewise place the discovery of the empty tomb at dawn.
2410. 10.8.20Matthew also places the visit at the dawn of the first day.
2411. 10.8.21The angel rolled away the stone at dawn, showing the “help at dawn” of the Psalm’s title.
2412. 10.8.22The title names the resurrection because the whole passion was directed to that end.
2413. 10.8.23Christ in the Psalm foretells his abandonment, mockery, death, piercing, and the division of his garments.
2414. 10.8.24After the sufferings, the Psalm turns to praise: God heard the poor one’s cry.
2415. 10.8.25Being “heard” means his prayer for rescue from death was granted.
2416. 10.8.26God’s hearing him means the resurrection, the “help at dawn” named in the title.
2417. 10.8.27Eusebius turns to the Hebrew words of Christ’s cry and the divine name Elohim.
2418. 10.8.28Elohim is God’s usual name in Scripture; other Hebrew names include Shaddai, Iao, and El.
2419. 10.8.29The Psalm and Christ use “Eli,” from El, not Elohim.
2420. 10.8.30Aquila renders “Eli” as “my strong one,” so Christ calls the Father his strength.
2421. 10.8.31Christ was crucified in weakness because his “strong one” had left him, as Paul says.
2422. 10.8.32It befitted the Lamb to ascribe his strength to the Father, as in Psalm 18.
2423. 10.8.33The Father left him so that he might die on the cross as ransom and cleansing for the world.
2424. 10.8.34Understanding the Father’s purpose, Christ willingly humbled himself to death, becoming a curse and sin for us.
2425. 10.8.35Christ was crucified bearing our sins as our substitute, as Isaiah 53 says.
2426. 10.8.36Handed over by the Father, Christ went like a sheep to slaughter, as Paul says.
2427. 10.8.37The Father forsook him to redeem humanity by his blood from slavery to the demons.
2428. 10.8.38The Father also left him so that Christ’s own love might appear in laying down his life freely.
2429. 10.8.39Psalm 22:1b in the Septuagint and in Aquila, Symmachus, and the fifth version.
2430. 10.8.40The other versions lack “transgressions,” so it may be a copyist’s error, or Christ speaks of our sins as his own.
2431. 10.8.41Christ marvels that the Father does not hear, but the Father reserved his hearing for the right time.
2432. 10.8.42The right time was the dawn of the resurrection, the acceptable time and day of salvation.
2433. 10.8.43Alternatively, Christ, always heard by the Father, trusts he will be heard now, as at Lazarus’s tomb.
2434. 10.8.44The words should be read as a question expecting the answer that God will hear.
2435. 10.8.45Later verses show he was heard, confirming the reading as a question.
2436. 10.8.46Christ speaks not in folly but in confidence, since God dwells among and hears all his holy ones.
2437. 10.8.47The fathers hoped in God and were saved.
2438. 10.8.48If the saints were heard, how much more the beloved Son; his question is humble, not foolish.
2439. 10.8.49In humility Christ calls himself a worm, having descended to death and the corruption from which worms come.
2440. 10.8.50At the crucifixion he became a reproach and was mocked as the Psalm foretold.
2441. 10.8.51Matthew records the passers-by mocking Christ on the cross.
2442. 10.8.52Matthew and Luke record the chief priests and rulers mocking him.
2443. 10.8.53Mark records the same mockery.
2444. 10.8.54The Gospel mockery matches the Psalm exactly.
2445. 10.8.55Christ is still a reproach to unbelievers and despised by his own people, as Paul says of Christ crucified.
2446. 10.8.56Knowing his incarnation was a humbling like death, Christ recalls his birth when speaking of his death.
2447. 10.8.57As the Father protected Christ at his conception and birth, hiding them from hostile powers, so he consoles him now.
2448. 10.8.58The power that overshadowed Christ’s conception and brought him to birth will draw him up from death.
2449. 10.8.59Christ trusted the Father even as a nursing infant, for though his body was human he was not bound like other infants.
2450. 10.8.60Even in the womb the Word saw the Father, and John leapt in Elizabeth’s womb at his presence.
2451. 10.8.61Remembering the Father’s care, Christ, willingly obedient, endures the mockery of the cross.
2452. 10.8.62Christ entreats the Father who cared for him from birth not to stand far off.
2453. 10.8.63The affliction near at hand is not the cross but death, the descent into Hades, and the hostile powers there.
2454. 10.8.64Christ descended to free the souls in Hades, breaking its gates; many saints rose and entered the holy city with him.
2455. 10.8.65The hostile powers grieved him; all this is said in the person of the Lamb, born of Mary.
2456. 10.8.66Passion fits the one who was born, since only what is born can die.
2457. 10.8.67Christ speaks these words as man, not as the bodiless Word and God.
2458. 10.8.68Facing all the demonic powers without any helper, since even good angels dared not enter the realm of death, Christ says “there is no one to help.”
2459. 10.8.69Only Christ could enter death without fear; its gatekeepers cowered and the devil entreated him, as Job shows.
2460. 10.8.70Even the Father, the only possible helper, left him, so that his own choice and victory might shine out.
2461. 10.8.71The Father helped at Christ’s conception and birth, but left him alone in the contest with death, hence the cry of abandonment.
2462. 10.8.72The cry shows Christ as an athlete facing many foes, with the Father as judge of the contest, whom he calls to stand by him.
2463. 10.8.73On the cross Christ saw the demonic powers of air, earth, and underworld gathering around his body like beasts, and describes them in the Psalm.
2464. 10.8.74The powers thought Christ’s soul was ordinary and opened their mouths to swallow it like others.
2465. 10.8.75“Poured out like water” was fulfilled literally when water and blood flowed from Christ’s side.
2466. 10.8.76The Psalm’s images also describe the complete death of his body.
2467. 10.8.77These images describe a corpse, and he foresaw his burial in the dust of death as near.
2468. 10.8.78The dogs and gathering of evildoers are the soldiers who mocked him and those of the circumcision who rose against him.
2469. 10.8.79The soldiers’ mockery, the nailing, and the division of his clothes fulfilled the Psalm.
2470. 10.8.80John records the soldiers dividing the garments and casting lots for the tunic, fulfilling the Psalm.
2471. 10.8.81Matthew likewise records the casting of lots for his garments.
2472. 10.8.82The dogs and evildoers are the Jewish rulers who stirred the crowd to call his blood upon themselves.
2473. 10.8.83Isaiah calls Israel’s leaders dumb dogs; instead of guarding the flock they barked at the chief shepherd.
2474. 10.8.84All who still blaspheme Christ or crucify him afresh share the guilt of his first enemies.
2475. 10.8.85Those who harm the church, Christ’s body, harm his hands, feet, and bones.
2476. 10.8.86In persecutions Christ can say of his members, “They dug my hands and feet.”
2477. 10.8.87Heretics divide Christ’s garments by corrupting Scripture and teaching falsely about him; then he prays for help.
2478. 10.8.88Left alone to fight death, Christ prays for the Father’s help, which would come through the resurrection.
2479. 10.8.89The “support” is the resurrection at dawn, for which he prays to be rescued from sword, dog, lion, and unicorns.
2480. 10.8.90The sword and dog are powers of the underworld that assailed Christ’s soul.
2481. 10.8.91The lion is death itself, which sought to swallow Christ’s soul as it had swallowed others.
2482. 10.8.92Other hostile powers are the unicorns; Christ, whose one horn is the Father, prays to be rescued from them.
2483. 10.8.93Having humbled himself even to Hades and its powers, Christ prays for the Father’s help.
2484. 10.8.94The Father answers at once; Christ then begins the victory hymn: “I will tell your name to my brothers.”
2485. 10.8.95He first proclaims the good news to his disciples, whom he calls brothers.
2486. 10.8.96The risen Christ tells the women to announce to his “brothers,” fulfilling the Psalm.
2487. 10.8.97In John the risen Jesus also calls the disciples his brothers.
2488. 10.8.98Christ declares the Father’s name first to the apostles, then to the worldwide church.
2489. 10.8.99As a teacher among disciples, Christ sings the Father’s praise in the church so that it may worship God alone.
2490. 10.8.100Christ commands the church to praise the Father.
2491. 10.8.101The Psalm shows he was heard and released from the evils described.
2492. 10.8.102Since God heard his prayer for rescue, he was released from all those powers.
2493. 10.8.103Rescued from death, Christ was with his disciples and praised the Father; he again calls himself poor.
2494. 10.8.104“My praise in the great assembly” refers to the worldwide church that praises Christ by the Father’s will.
2495. 10.8.105The great assembly is the church of all nations, far surpassing the synagogue.
2496. 10.8.106The vows he pays are his promises to declare the Father’s name in the assembly.
2497. 10.8.107Psalm 22:26–28 (LXX 21): the poor will eat, and all nations will turn to the Lord.
2498. 10.8.108These verses foretell the calling of the nations after the resurrection, now visibly fulfilled.
2499. 10.8.109The poor who eat are Christians fed by the Word with spiritual bread for eternal life.
2500. 10.8.110The Psalm’s ending foretells the new people from the nations formed through Christ.
2501. 10.8.111The new people and coming generation are the church of the nations, as Isaiah marvelled at a nation born in a day.
2502. 10.8.112Eusebius has treated the Psalm briefly and urges readers, as Christ bids, to search the Scriptures more deeply.