Prophetic Extracts 4.22–4.26

“I made the earth and man upon it; I with my hand made firm the heaven; I commanded all the stars. I raised him up as king with righteousness, and all his ways are straight; he will build my city and turn back the captivity of my people, not with gifts nor with ransoms, said the Lord Sabaoth. Thus says the Lord Sabaoth: Egypt has toiled, and the merchandise of the Ethiopians, and the Sabeans, tall men, will cross over to you and be your servants, and follow behind you in fetters, and cross over to you and bow down to you, and pray in you; for God is in you, and there is no God besides you; for you are God, and we did not know it, the God of Israel, the Saviour. All who oppose you shall be ashamed and confounded, and shall go in shame.” The Father raised Christ from the dead so that he might be king with righteousness, reigning on Zion, his heavenly holy mountain; and he raised him for this reason, because all his ways, it says, have been straight, having nothing crooked or twisted; “for he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.” He also built the city of God, both his holy church on earth and the heavenly Jerusalem, turning back the captivity of his people, which once came about under the spiritual Nebuchadnezzar and the evil powers under him. And he turned back the captivity mentioned, not by giving ransoms to the captors, nor by persuading them with gifts, but by making war against them and subduing them through a contest, so that, glorying in the achievement, he said, “I have conquered the world.” The multitudes who through him have run back from their former error to knowing the true God bear witness to this. Or let those of the circumcision say to whom they would fit the prophecy in hand, which clearly confesses the one prophesied to be God. For “these and those,” it says, “will be your servants, and follow behind you, and bow down to you, and pray in you; for God is in you, and there is no other besides you; for you are God, and we did not know it, the God of Israel, the Saviour.” For clearly here the word, addressing the one to whom it was said, “for God is in you,” says to him, “and there is no other besides you; for you are God, and we did not know it.” These words are heard as spoken in the person of those who have come to know the Christ of God made man, in whom God the Father dwelt, according to “I am in the Father, and the Father in me.” For this reason “There is no God besides you” would fit him alone, since the divinity of the Word alone is united and blended with the Father's kingship, and for this reason one glory and one rule of both is conceived. In “Egypt has toiled, and the merchandise of the Ethiopians, and the Sabeans, tall men, will cross over to you,” I think is shown a contest of certain spiritual opposing powers who took up the struggle against Christ and became subject to him; or of souls of this kind, who at first resisted the Word but later took up service under him for their own benefit. About these, I think, is said also, “They will be your servants, and follow behind you bound in fetters, and pray in you”; while “All who oppose you shall be ashamed and confounded, and shall go in shame” is prophesied about those who did not repent but remained enemies and foes, and were in no way willing to take upon themselves the yoke of the word of Christ. So much for the clarification concerning Christ. It would be fitting to set the passage not only before those of the circumcision, but also before those who have supposed that the Saviour was a mere man: the Ebionites, or the followers of Artemon and Paul of Samosata. For through these words too the divinity of Christ is clearly demonstrated to those who are reluctant to accept it.

“Hear me, Jacob, and Israel whom I call: I am the first, and I am for ever. And my hand founded the earth, and my right hand made firm the heaven; I will call them together, and they shall stand and be gathered and hear. Who announced these things to them? ※ The Lord, loving you, I have done your will on Babylon, to take away the offspring of the Chaldeans. I have spoken, and I have called; I have brought him and prospered his way. Draw near to me and hear these things: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret; when it happened, I was there; and now the Lord, the Lord, has sent me, and his Spirit.” Since it is one person who says these things in the passage, who else could be the Lord who made the heaven and fixed it, and made firm the earth, who says, “I am the first, and I am for ever,” and adds in what follows, according to all who have translated the divine Scripture, “And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit,” but the sacred Word of God, who after the unbegotten beginning is called the first God of all generated things? About him it is also written elsewhere, “He sent his word and healed them”; for he is the one through whom all things came into being, those in the heavens and those on earth, whether visible or invisible; whom the Lord God the Father sent, and with him the Holy Spirit, to carry out the things for human salvation. The text would be fitting against the Jews, teaching that the Lord who created all things is other than the God of the universe, by whom he confesses he has been sent, saying, “And now the Lord has sent me.” He would be the one to whom, in the making of the world, the Father, commanding, says, “Let there be light,” and “Let there be” this and that; and “Let us make man according to our image.” (In this way) it is also written in the Psalms, “For he spoke, and they came into being; he commanded, and they were created.” For it is evident that one who commands something and speaks commands and orders another than himself. To examine each phrase of the passage, however, does not belong to the present treatise.

“Hear me, you islands, and attend, you nations. After a long time it will stand, says the Lord. From my mother's womb he called my name; and he made my mouth like a sharp sword, and hid me under the shelter of his hand; and he said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel, and in you I will be glorified.’ And I said, ‘I have toiled in vain; I have given my strength for nothing and to no purpose; therefore my judgment is with the Lord, and my toil before my God.’ And now thus says the Lord, who formed me from the womb as his own servant, to gather Jacob and Israel to him: I shall be gathered and glorified before the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And he said, ‘It is a great thing for you to be called my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to turn back the dispersion of Israel; behold, I have made you a covenant of a race, a light of nations, that you may be for salvation to the end of the earth.’ Thus says the Lord who rescued you, the God of Israel: Sanctify him who despises his own life, who is abhorred by the nations, the servants of the rulers; kings shall see him, and rulers shall rise, and they shall bow down to him for the Lord's sake, for the Holy One of Israel is faithful, and I have chosen you. Thus says the Lord: In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you; and I formed you and gave you as a covenant of nations, to establish the earth and to inherit deserts, saying to those in bonds, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be uncovered’; and in all the ways they shall feed, and in all the paths shall be their pasture; they shall not hunger nor thirst, nor shall the scorching heat strike them, nor the sun; but he who has mercy on them will comfort them and lead them through springs of water; and I will make every mountain a way and every path a pasture for them.” Those of the circumcision would likely think that what is in the prophecy is said about themselves, since it is said, “And he said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel, and in you I will be glorified.’” But besides the fact that the words do not fit them, it is clearly shown from what follows that what is said is prophesied about another Israel. For it is written: “And now thus says the Lord, who formed me from the womb as his own servant, to gather Jacob and Israel to him”; and again, “He said to me, ‘It is a great thing for you to be called my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to turn back the dispersion of Israel.’” And also “Behold, I have made you a light of nations, that you may be for salvation to the end of the earth” shows the one about whom the word speaks to be someone marvellous and wonderful. And who would he be but our Lord Jesus Christ, who already before, in the passages above, was called Jacob and Israel, through “Jacob my servant, I will help him; Israel my chosen, my soul has accepted him”? For he is the only one who truly sees God the Father: named Israel, which is interpreted “seeing God,” according to the concept of his divinity; and Jacob, which is “supplanter,” in that, having become man, he fought down all the opposing powers. See whether the passages do not agree with one another, the one in hand and the one in which it was said, “Jacob my servant,” referred to Christ. For as there “Jacob my servant” is said, so here “It is a great thing for you to be called my servant”; and as there “Israel my chosen” is said, so here “for the Holy One of Israel is faithful, and I have chosen you.” And again, there it is said, “I have given you as a covenant of a race, as a light of nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out of bonds those who are bound, and out of the prison house those who sit in darkness”; and in the passage in hand, “Behold, I have made you a light of nations, to establish the earth and to inherit the inheritance of the desert, saying to those in bonds, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be uncovered.’” That what is in the prophecies set out fits no one else but our Saviour alone will be clear to those who attend to the multitude of nations who have hoped in him and through him in the God of the universe, for whom he was made a light by the Father. It says, “to establish the earth,” that is, to bring the soul that was long in tumult and instability to its natural steadiness and composure; and also “to inherit the inheritance of the desert,” meaning the church from the nations, which, being desert before his coming, he received as an inheritance from the one who said to him, “Ask of me, and I will give you nations for your inheritance.” According to the prophecy about him, he told those in bonds to come out: literally, as in the case of Lazarus, who was bound with grave-bands and four days in the tomb, whom he released free to go, saying, “Lazarus, come out”; and in part in a spiritual sense, in the case of the daughter of Abraham whom Satan had bound for eighteen years, whom he also freed from her infirmity and sent away whole; and generally, when he granted to all who were bound fast by the cords of their own sins forgiveness of their former sins, since he alone (has) authority to forgive sins; and still now through his teaching he bids them come out of their former bonds, saying to each, “See, you have become well; sin no more.” Besides this, still now he commands those who are still buried in ignorance and wickedness to be uncovered, since he is the Word of God, who tests hearts and kidneys and discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart. That we may run through as concisely as possible, fitting the earlier parts too to what is said about Christ, we shall take them up from the beginning and set out our understanding of them. Having spoken clearly to the people of the circumcision in many places, when he also calls by name either Jacob or Israel, here he does not direct the prophecy to them, but summons islands and nations to hear what is to be said. And here is the Lord's promise, spoken about the calling of the nations formerly wholly unbelieving and alien to the worship of God; among whom, in part, are understood also what are called islands: souls that long ago were, in a way, submerged under the waves of life and flooded by the most briny currents of vice. Let us consider, then, what the Lord teaches these about himself. “From my mother's womb,” he says, “he called my name”; this clearly concerns Christ, for the words are his, as we have learned from the Scripture of the Gospel. For when Joseph did not know about Mary's conception, Gabriel, the minister of the Father's will, stood by him and said in a dream, among other things, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people.” And it adds in the prophecy, “And he made my mouth like a sharp sword”; and again, “He made me like a chosen arrow.” For the word of God is active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, as the inspired apostle taught. “You are my servant, Israel, and in you I will be glorified” would most fittingly be said to him alone, who became obedient to the Father even to death. And “And I said, ‘I have toiled in vain,’” and what follows, might be said by the Saviour because of the scarcity of those who live according to his Gospel. And since he came only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, it is rightly said that he came primarily to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to turn back the dispersion of Israel; and consequently, because not all of them received him, it adds as to him, “Behold, I have made you a light of nations, that you may be for salvation to the end of the earth.” After this the Lord God and Father, who rescued him from all who gathered against him, commands us to sanctify him, saying, “Sanctify him who despises his own life.” For he truly despised his own life, emptying himself and becoming a curse for us; and taking up our sins, he despised shame even to death, the death of the cross. After this it says, “him who is abhorred by the nations, the servants of the rulers”; and it is clear how those enslaved to the rulers of this age not only abhorred him at the time of his passion, saying, “He is grievous to us even to behold,” but abhor him still now, trying to overturn his teaching. The Lord commands that this one be sanctified, signifying beforehand his glorious coming. That the word, foretelling the calling of the nations, adds the next prophecy, from “I gave you as a covenant of nations,” and what follows: to examine this further, being more spiritual and given only in the spiritual sense, does not belong to the present treatise.

“Thus says the Lord: What is this bill of divorce of your mother, with which I sent her away? Or to which creditor have I sold you? Behold, for your sins you were sold, and for your lawless deeds I sent your mother away. Why was it that I came, and there was no man? I called, and there was no one to listen. Is my hand not strong to rescue? Or is it not strong to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke I will make the sea desolate, and I will make rivers deserts, and their fish shall dry up because there is no water, and they shall die of thirst. I will clothe the heaven with darkness and make its covering like sackcloth. The Lord, the Lord, gives me a tongue of instruction, to know when I must speak a word; he has set it for me early in the morning; he has given me an ear to hear; and the instruction of the Lord opens my ears; and I do not disobey nor contradict. I gave my back to scourges and my cheeks to blows, and I did not turn away my face from the shame of spittings. And the Lord, the Lord, became my helper; therefore I was not ashamed, but I set my face like a (solid) rock, and I knew that I would not be put to shame, for he who justified me draws near. Who is the one who contends with me? Let him draw near. Behold, the Lord, the Lord, helps me; who will harm me? Behold, all of you will grow old like a garment, and a moth will devour you. Who among you fears the Lord? Let him listen to the voice of his servant. You who walk in darkness and have no light, trust in the name of the Lord and lean upon God. Behold, all of you kindle fire and strengthen a flame; walk in the light of your fire and in the flame that you kindled. Because of me these things happened to you; you shall lie down in sorrow.” The divinity of the Word is clearly demonstrated through the words set out too: both that he pre-existed the incarnation, and that, having become man, he was to suffer what is recorded in the Gospels. For who else could the one be who says, “Is my hand not strong,” and what follows, as far as “I will clothe the heaven with darkness and make its covering like sackcloth,” but the Word of God? Having said such great things, he adds, “The Lord gives me a tongue of instruction, to know when I must speak a word”; and again he adds the rest, saying, “And I do not disobey nor contradict. I have given my back to scourges and my cheeks to blows,” and so on, as far as “for he who justified me draws near.” For we say that the Word suffered in a manner of power, suffering together with the human whom he took up. We do not know, then, whether anyone will be able to give an account of the prophecy set out who does not accept that there is a second subsistence of God the Word after the first and unbegotten, the Father and God of the universe. But we, rightly persuaded, hold that this is clearly God the Word, who here too says, among other things, “I will clothe the heaven with darkness,” and adds, in the person of the human he took up, “The Lord gives me a tongue of instruction, to know when I must speak a word.” To whom else besides the human of our Saviour would it be fitting to say, “Who is the one who contends with me? Let him stand against me”? Or about whom would the words from “Who among you fears the Lord? Let him listen to the voice of his servant” be said, but about Christ alone, who, according to the Scriptures, despised shame, emptied himself, and humbled himself even to scourges? This was when, according to the prophecy about him set out, Pilate had him scourged and handed him over to be crucified; and he endured blows and spittings when the high priest, tearing his clothes at his words, declared that he had blasphemed; for then they spat in his face and struck him with their fists, and others slapped him, saying, “Prophesy to us, Christ, who is it that struck you?” The things at the beginning of the chapter seem to be said about the synagogue of the Jews; for “behold,” it says, “for your sins you were sold, and for your lawless deeds I sent your mother away.” For he came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and found no man among them; he called them first, but the people did not listen. Therefore it says, “Why was it that I came, and there was no man? I called, and there was no one to listen.” The things at the end of the passage, in sequence, after their casting off, refer to the calling of the nations, from “Who among you fears the Lord? Let him listen to the voice of his servant.” For we truly were those who walked in darkness, and before our Saviour's coming we had no light; but now, through God's grace, we trust in the name of the Lord and lean upon God. To those who did not believe in Christ, to whom it was said above, “Behold, all of you will grow old like a garment, and a moth will devour you,” the word adds, saying, “Behold, all of you kindle fire,” and what follows; among which clearly “Because of me these things happened to you” is spoken in the person of Christ, reproaching them and convicting the lawlessness committed by the Jewish people against him.

“Thus says the Lord: Because of you my name is continually blasphemed among the nations. Therefore my people shall know my name; therefore in that day, because I am he who speaks, I am present, like springtime on the mountains, like the feet of one who brings good news of a report of peace, like one who brings good news of good things; for I will make your salvation heard, saying, ‘Zion, your God shall reign.’” This prophecy too would most reasonably fit the Saviour, “Because I am he who speaks, I am present” having been fulfilled at his sojourn. The words beginning “Because of you my name is continually blasphemed among the nations” are said to the face of the former people; while those beginning “Therefore my people shall know my name in that day” might be understood of the nations that have believed in him. He, then, is the one who formerly spoke to humans, sometimes through angels and sometimes through prophets; and the lover of learning will discover by searching what sense it has that he came again to them and himself proclaimed salvation to all.