Prophecy and fulfilment in the early church

Prophecies of the Old Testament and their fulfilment in Christ and the church; the argument from prophecy. Part of Scripture and canon.

1 Clement 12.8Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Rahab had faith and prophecy.
Epistle of Barnabas 5.12Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Zechariah foretold that the shepherd would be struck.
First Apology 31Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · The Hebrew prophets foretold Christ's birth, miracles, death, resurrection, and the mission to the Gentiles; the Scriptures were translated into Greek for Ptolemy.
First Apology 32Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Moses' prophecy of Judah's ruler and the foal bound to the vine, and Isaiah's star and flower from Jesse, point to Christ.
First Apology 33Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Isaiah foretold the virgin birth; the power of God, the Word, overshadowed the virgin without intercourse.
First Apology 34Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Micah foretold his birth in Bethlehem, as the census under Quirinius shows.
First Apology 35Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Isaiah and the Psalms foretold Christ's crucifixion; Zechariah his entry into Jerusalem.
First Apology 36Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · The divine Word speaks through the prophets in different persons: as God, as Christ, or as the people.
First Apology 37Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Examples of prophecy spoken in the person of the Father.
First Apology 38Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Examples of prophecy spoken in the person of Christ, fulfilled in his passion and resurrection.
First Apology 40Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Psalm 19 foretells the apostles' preaching; Psalms 1 and 2 teach how to live and foretell the conspiracy against Christ, God's Son.
First Apology 41Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · A psalm foretells that the Lord will reign from the tree of the cross.
First Apology 42Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Prophecy speaks of certain future events as already past; only Christ, crucified and risen, fulfilled David's words.
First Apology 45Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Psalm 110 foretells Christ's ascension and the preaching of the apostles from Jerusalem.
First Apology 48Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Isaiah foretold Christ's healings and his death along with those who hope in him.
First Apology 50Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Isaiah's suffering Servant (Isa 52–53) foretold Christ's passion; after his resurrection the apostles understood and preached.
First Apology 51Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Isaiah foretold that the sufferer's generation is beyond telling; Psalm 24 his ascension; Daniel his coming on the clouds.
First Apology 53Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Fulfilled prophecies, above all the conversion of the Gentiles, prove Christ's claims.
First Apology 54Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · The demons, hearing the prophecies of Christ without understanding them, invented Dionysus, Bellerophon, Perseus, Heracles, and Asclepius as imitations.
Sibylline Oracles 8.251ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl says that Moses with outstretched arms prefigured Christ, the rod of David and the chosen stone, who came in lowliness to renew the man God formed.
Dialogue with Trypho 7.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The old man points Justin to the prophets, older than the philosophers, who spoke the truth by the Holy Spirit.
Dialogue with Trypho 7.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The prophets' writings still exist; fulfilled prophecy proves them true.
Dialogue with Trypho 7.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The prophets proclaimed the Father and his Son Christ; the old man urges Justin to pray for understanding.
Dialogue with Trypho 51.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Trypho calls the prophecies ambiguous; Justin answers that prophecy ceased after John.
Dialogue with Trypho 51.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christ's own predictions of his passion, return, and the rise of heresies have been fulfilled.
Dialogue with Trypho 97.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Moses' hands raised until evening prefigure Christ on the cross until evening; Psalm 3 foretells the resurrection.
Dialogue with Trypho 97.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Psalm 22 (LXX 21) foretold the piercing of hands and feet and the dividing of garments.
Diatessaron, section 3Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 16Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 39Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 51Tatian · ca. 160-180
Martyrdom of Justin, Chariton and Companions (Acts of Justin, recension B) 2Anonymous · ca. 165 · Justin states the Christian belief in one Creator and in Christ foretold by the prophets.
To Autolycus 1.14Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Theophilus himself was converted by reading the prophets; he urges Autolycus to believe and escape the eternal punishment the prophets foretold.
To Autolycus 2.9Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · The Hebrew prophets, inspired by the Holy Spirit, spoke in agreement about the past, present, and future; their fulfilled prophecies guarantee the rest.
To Autolycus 3.11Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · God sent the prophets to call Israel to repentance; Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah show that God desires the sinner's return, not his death.
To Autolycus 3.17Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Since the pagan poets themselves claimed divine teaching, much more should the Christians trust the Spirit-inspired prophets, whose predictions have been fulfilled, also on chronology.
A Plea for the Christians 9Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · The prophets, speaking by the Spirit like a flute played by a musician, confirm that God is one.
Against Heresies 3.12.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · At the healing of the lame man, Peter proclaimed that the God of Abraham glorified his Son Jesus and fulfilled the prophets.
Against Heresies 3.16.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Paul, Mark, the prophets, and the angel all proclaim one Jesus Christ, Son of God and son of David.
Against Heresies 3.20.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The prophets foretold that the Lord himself, neither a mere man nor a fleshless angel, would come in the flesh from Bethlehem to save.
Against Heresies 3.21.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The same Spirit spoke through the prophets, the Septuagint translators and the apostles; Isaiah 7 shows Emmanuel to be both God and man, born of a virgin.
Against Heresies 4.20.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · God, invisible in his greatness, is seen through his love: prophetically through the Spirit, adoptively through the Son, and paternally in the kingdom; to see God is life.
Against Heresies 4.20.8Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The prophets saw God and foretold Christ by visions, words, and actions; Moses showed God as fire to transgressors and as merciful to those who fear him.
Against Heresies 4.20.10Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The prophets saw not God’s face but figures of his dispensations: Elijah’s gentle breeze foretold Christ’s gentle coming, and Ezekiel saw only the likeness of God’s glory.
Against Heresies 4.20.12Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The prophets foretold Christ by actions: Hosea’s marriage, Moses’ Ethiopian wife, and Rahab, figures of the Church gathered from sinners and gentiles.
Against Heresies 4.23.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The patriarchs and prophets sowed what the apostles reaped; Joseph was persuaded by Isaiah’s prophecy, and Christ showed himself foretold by Isaiah.
Against Heresies 4.26.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Christ is the treasure hidden in the Scriptures, which remain riddles until his cross explains them; read by Christians, the law is a treasure, but to the Jews it is like a fable.
Against Heresies 4.33.6Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The spiritual man will judge false prophets who prophesy for glory or gain.
Against Heresies 4.33.10Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The prophets, as members of Christ, each foreshadowed part of his work and suffered persecution, as will all on whom the Spirit rests.
Against Heresies 4.33.11Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The prophets each foretold part of Christ’s work: his glory, his second coming and judgment, his kingdom, his birth from the virgin as Emmanuel, his coming in Judea and Bethlehem, and his healings.
Against Heresies 4.33.14Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The prophets’ promises of a new covenant, a new heart, and rivers in the desert announced the freedom of the new covenant and the gift of the Spirit.
Against Heresies 4.34.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The prophets foretold the whole life of Christ, and what was new in his coming was that he brought himself, as a king fulfils what his heralds announced.
Against Heresies 4.34.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The prophecies cannot have been about anyone else, because the signs of the passion and resurrection were fulfilled in no one but the Lord.
Against Heresies 4.34.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The new covenant is not the rebuilding of the temple under Zerubbabel but the word of God that went out from Jerusalem and turned swords into ploughshares, fulfilled in Christ.
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 30Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 48Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 49Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 50Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 56Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 57Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 59Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 61Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 62Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 63Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 66Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 68Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 86Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
39Anonymous · ca. 180–185 · Scripture foretold the binding of the righteous.
40Anonymous · ca. 180–185 · Plato also foretold the suffering of the righteous man.
Hortatory Address to the Greeks 8Anonymous · 2nd–3rd century (disputed) · The Hebrew prophets, older than the Greek teachers, received their knowledge from God and taught in perfect agreement.
Hortatory Address to the Greeks 38Anonymous · 2nd–3rd century (disputed) · The Sibyl foretold Christ, the Word who restored the ancient religion; true knowledge of God comes only from the prophets.
Miscellanies 1.21.125Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks, fulfilled from the Babylonian captivity, is quoted in full.
Miscellanies 1.21.126Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement interprets the seventy weeks: the temple rebuilt in seven weeks, Christ anointed within the sixty-two, and the last week ending with Nero and the destruction of Jerusalem under Vespasian.
Miscellanies 1.21.135Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Greek seers foretold by observation or demonic influence, but the Hebrew prophets spoke by God's power; Clement lists them from Adam to Malachi.
Miscellanies 1.21.136Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · There were thirty-five prophets and five prophetesses, and in the New Testament John, Anna, Simeon, and Zechariah; the Greek chronology from Moses is then summarized.
Octavius 34.5Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · The philosophers' ideas echo the prophets, from whom they borrowed a distorted shadow of truth.
Apology 18Tertullian · ca. 197 · God has also revealed himself through the prophets, whose writings were translated into Greek for Ptolemy Philadelphus and are read openly by the Jews every Sabbath.
Apology 19Tertullian · ca. 197 · The Scriptures are older than all pagan literature and religion, since Moses lived long before Danaus, the Trojan war, and Homer.
Apology 20Tertullian · ca. 197 · The fulfillment of prophecy in present events proves the Scriptures divine and grounds Christian confidence about the future.
Against the Jews 5Tertullian · ca. 197–207 · Cain's and Abel's offerings prefigure the earthly sacrifices of Israel and the spiritual sacrifices of the church; the prophets foretell that pure sacrifices of praise will be offered to God in every place.
Against the Jews 7Tertullian · ca. 197–207 · The prophesied Christ has already come, for Isaiah's promise that the nations would hear him is fulfilled: his name is believed and reigns among all peoples, far beyond the reach of any earthly empire.
Against the Jews 8Tertullian · ca. 197–207 · From Daniel's seventy weeks and a list of rulers the author calculates that Christ was born, suffered, and Jerusalem was destroyed at the times foretold, so that prophecy is now sealed.
Against the Jews 9Tertullian · ca. 197–207 · The author argues that Isaiah's prophecies of Emmanuel, of the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, of the name Jesus, of the rod from Jesse, and of Christ's preaching and miracles were fulfilled in Jesus, read figuratively rather than as warfare.
Against the Jews 10Tertullian · ca. 197–207 · Against the objection that one hanged on a tree is cursed, the author argues that Christ's crucifixion was foretold and prefigured in Isaac, Joseph, Moses' outstretched hands, the bronze serpent, the Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Amos.
Against the Jews 11Tertullian · ca. 197–207 · Citing Ezekiel's vision of the sign Tau, Moses' warning of a life “hanging on a tree,” and Daniel's seventy weeks, the author argues that Christ's coming and suffering have sealed and fulfilled prophecy.
Against the Jews 13Tertullian · ca. 197–207 · The author argues that the destruction of Jerusalem, the loss of anointing and temple, the prophecies of the cross (the tree, Isaac, Elisha's axe-head), the resurrection on the third day, and the dispersion of the Jews show that the Christ foretold has already come.
Against the Jews 14Tertullian · ca. 197–207 · The author explains Jewish unbelief by Christ's two comings, the first in humility and the second in glory, prefigured in Zechariah's high priest Jesus and the two goats of the Day of Atonement, and concludes that the prophecies have been fulfilled in Christ.
Acts of Thomas 59Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · The people believe and give money for the widows, whom Thomas provides for through his deacons, and he proves from the prophets that Jesus is the Christ.
On Christ and Antichrist 2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The prophets, moved by the Word like instruments by a plectrum, foretold the future, and the author only sets out what they wrote.
On Christ and Antichrist 12Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Christ's eyes are the prophets, who foresaw his sufferings and rejoiced.
Pistis Sophia 18Anonymous · 3rd century
On Mount Sinai and Mount Zion 9Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Mount Zion is the cross, Christ's royal throne: Pilate's title proclaimed him king, Psalm 24's innocent one ascends it, and from his pierced side the law of Christians and the church came forth.
2.6Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 2:24–43: Daniel is brought before the king, gives God the glory for revealing the mystery, and recounts the dream of the great image and its interpretation.
Commentary on Daniel 2.11Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Hippolytus urges careful reading of the prophecy and goes through the parts of the image and the kingdoms they signify, from the golden head to the stone.
Commentary on Daniel 3.12Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Nebuchadnezzar's two dreams and Daniel's vision of the four beasts agree, and as past prophecies have come true, so will those still to be fulfilled.
4 (continued)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 7:2–4: the beasts are the world's kingdoms; the winged lioness is Babylon, and its plucked wings and human heart are Nebuchadnezzar's fall and restoration.
4.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 7:5–6: the bear is Persia, its three ribs the Medes, Assyrians and Babylonians; the four-headed leopard is Alexander's Greek kingdom, divided among four successors.
Commentary on Daniel 4.25Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The lemma of Daniel 8:1–14: the vision of the ram and the he-goat, the little horn that desolates the sanctuary, and the 1,300 days.
Commentary on Daniel 4.26Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The ram is Darius, the he-goat Alexander, the four horns his successors, and the little horn Antiochus Epiphanes, who profaned the temple for 1,300 days until Judas Maccabaeus restored it.
Commentary on Daniel 4.27-28Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Gabriel's interpretation of the vision (Dan 8:15–27) confirms the reading of the beasts; Hippolytus then turns to the seventy weeks, beginning with Daniel's prayer of confession (Dan 9:1–7).
Commentary on Daniel 4.30Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 9:23–25: angels are swift as birds; the first seven of the seventy weeks (49 years) end with the return from exile under Joshua son of Jozadak, the 'anointed prince', a type of Christ the true King and Priest.
Commentary on Daniel 4.41-44Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 11:2–34: the Persian kings, Alexander and his successors, and Antiochus Epiphanes, whose persecution and the revolt of Mattathias and Judas Maccabaeus are told from 1 Maccabees.
Commentary on Daniel 4.45Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 11:6–8 and 44: the conflicts of the Ptolemies and Antiochus, Antiochus's campaigns against Judas Maccabaeus through Nicanor and Lysias, his death, and the peace forced on Lysias by Philip's seizure of Antioch.
4.45 (continued)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 11:17–27: Alexander Balas, his marriage to Cleopatra daughter of Ptolemy, Ptolemy's treachery in giving her to Demetrius, the deaths of Alexander and Ptolemy, read as fulfilment of Daniel's 'lies at one table'.
Against Marcion 3.2Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · A son should be acknowledged by his father and a messenger by his sender beforehand; nothing from God is sudden, so Marcion's unannounced Christ is suspect.
Against Marcion 3.3Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Miracles alone cannot prove Marcion's Christ, since Christ himself warned that false Christs would work signs, and the Creator's works came first.
Against Marcion 3.5Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Before arguing from the Old Testament, Tertullian sets two rules: prophecy often speaks of the future as past, and often speaks figuratively, as Paul himself shows.
Against Marcion 3.6Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The Jews' rejection of Jesus does not prove he was a stranger to their God, for the Creator's prophets foretold that they would fail to recognize their own Christ.
Against Marcion 3.7Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The prophets foretold two comings of Christ, one in humility and one in glory; the Jews looked only for the glorious one and so missed the first.
Against Marcion 3.12Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ fulfills the name Emmanuel in its meaning, “God with us,” which is what Christians, even Marcionites, confess him to be.
Against Marcion 3.13Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Isaiah's warlike words about the infant Christ are figurative: the magi's gold was the power of Damascus, the converted magi the spoils of idolatrous Samaria, and Herod the king of Assyria.
Against Marcion 3.14Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The sword of Psalm 45 is the Word of God, as John and Paul show; Christ's weapons and spoils are figurative, so the prophecies do not describe a literal warrior.
Against Marcion 3.17Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's lowly appearance, his fullness of the Spirit, his meekness, and his work of preaching and healing all match Isaiah's prophecies of the Creator's Christ.
Against Marcion 3.19Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Further prophecies of the cross: the Lord reigning from the tree, government on his shoulder, wood cast into his bread, pierced hands and feet, and Isaiah's words on his death, burial, and resurrection.
Against Marcion 3.20Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The conversion of the nations, foretold in the Psalms, Isaiah, and Nathan's oracle, is fulfilled in Christ, the son of David through Mary, not in David or Solomon.
Against Marcion 3.21Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The calling of all nations, not merely of proselytes, was foretold for the last days, when the law would go out from Zion and swords be beaten into ploughshares; this is fulfilled in Christ.
Against Marcion 4.6Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Tertullian sets his test: whatever in Marcion's own gospel shows Christ fulfilling the Creator's law, prophecies, and character proves Christ is the Creator's.
Against Marcion 4.13Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's preaching on the mountain, his night of prayer, the choice of twelve apostles, the renaming of Peter, and the crowds from Tyre all correspond to the Creator's prophecies and figures.
Against Marcion 4.14Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The Beatitudes on the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and the persecuted echo the Creator's constant care for the lowly in the Psalms and Isaiah, and fulfill Isaiah 61, so they belong to the Creator's Christ.
Against Marcion 4.22Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The Transfiguration, where Christ appears in glory with Moses and Elijah and the Father's voice commands “hear him,” shows that Christ is the one foretold by the Creator's law and prophets, not their destroyer.
Against Marcion 5.9Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Those who denied the resurrection denied the resurrection of the body, which the very words “dead” and “rise again” require; and Christ, who reigns until his enemies are subdued, is the Christ of Psalms 110 and 72, not Hezekiah or Solomon.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 20Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The prophets did not speak only in figures: Christ's birth, passion, and miracles, and the fates of nations, were foretold plainly and fulfilled literally.
On First Principles 2.4.1Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Against those who distinguish the Father of Christ from the God of the law, Origen shows from the Gospels that Jesus' Father is the Creator who spoke through Moses and the prophets.
On First Principles 4.1.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The prophecy that rule would not fail from Judah until the expected one came is fulfilled, since kingship, temple and priesthood have ceased and the nations believe through Christ.
On First Principles 4.1.5Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The Psalms, Isaiah, Micah, Daniel and Job foretold Christ's grace, birth and victory; the spread of the Gospel by the apostles shows a power beyond human strength.
On First Principles 4.1.6Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The fulfilment of prophecy in Christ proved that the prophets and the law of Moses were divinely inspired, and his coming removed the veil from the letter of the law.
On First Principles 4.3.9Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Prophecies about Egypt, Babylon, Tyre and Sidon, such as those on Pharaoh, the prince of Tyre and Lucifer, do not fit earthly kingdoms, so they refer to places and souls near the heavenly Jerusalem, from which some fall into captivity.
Fragments on Genesis, column 55Origen · ca. 220-254 · Fatalism makes prayer pointless; the one who foretells an event, like a prophetic book about Judas, is not its cause.
Fragments on Genesis, column 57Origen · ca. 220-254 · God's foreknowledge is shown from Susanna, the prophecy naming Josiah long before his birth, and Isaiah's prophecy naming Cyrus.
Fragments on Genesis, column 59Origen · ca. 220-254 · Further proofs of foreknowledge: Cyrus, Daniel's image and vision of the goat and ram, the prophecies about Christ, and Jesus' prediction of Jerusalem's fall.
PG 12:1071Origen · ca. 220-254 · Psalm 71 (LXX) can refer only to Christ; Origen discusses the meaning of “diapsalma” and argues that not every psalm entitled “psalm” was sung to the psaltery (Psalms 50 and 3 LXX).
PG 12:1103 (Ps 2 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · On the divine names: Adonai, Iah, and the unpronounced four-letter name written in the old Hebrew script, rendered “Lord” in Greek; and on the Septuagint’s use of the past tense for prophecies about Christ.
Fragment 49Julius Africanus · after 221 · Long excerpts from Africanus's Chronography: the history of Herod, Antony and Augustus to the fall of Alexandria; the three kings omitted from Matthew's genealogy; the darkness at the crucifixion, which Thallus wrongly called an eclipse; and the seventy weeks of Daniel, counted from Artaxerxes' twentieth year to Tiberius's sixteenth.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.30.5Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · All Jews await the Christ foretold by the prophets, but because they failed to recognize him and killed him, they still expect him.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.33.11Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Word, the Father's first-born, governs all things; righteous friends of God became prophets foretelling the future.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.33.12Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The prophets spoke to all generations, recalling the past, rousing the present, and foretelling the future.
Commentary on John 2.199Origen · ca. 230–248 · Some heretics reject the prophets' testimony, saying the Son of God needs no witnesses.
Commentary on John 2.200Origen · ca. 230–248 · The heretics argue that Christ, greater than Moses and the prophets, needed no prophetic witness.
Commentary on John 2.203Origen · ca. 230–248 · Many come to faith by seeing how the prophets foretold Christ's birth, teaching, miracles, death, and resurrection.
Commentary on John 2.204Origen · ca. 230–248 · Miracles persuaded their witnesses, but prophecy fulfilled now convinces later generations and supports the miracles.
Commentary on John 2.208Origen · ca. 230–248 · Denying that the prophets testified to Christ robs them of their greatest grace.
Commentary on John 6.15Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ taught the prophets and Abraham too; they also received from his fullness, passing from types to truth.
Commentary on John 6.16Origen · ca. 230–248 · Only some prophets longed to see what the apostles saw; the perfected prophets had already seen it spiritually.
Commentary on John 6.21Origen · ca. 230–248 · The prophets, being wise, understood their own prophecies.
Commentary on John 6.25Origen · ca. 230–248 · Since the mystery was revealed to the apostles through the prophets' writings, the prophets knew it too.
Commentary on John 6.26Origen · ca. 230–248 · Something is “revealed” either when it is understood or when it is fulfilled.
Commentary on John 6.28Origen · ca. 230–248 · The apostles did not understand more than the prophets, but they saw the prophecies fulfilled.
Commentary on John 6.29Origen · ca. 230–248 · The prophets longed to see the incarnation as an apostle might long to see the second coming, without knowing less than those who see it.
Commentary on John 6.30Origen · ca. 230–248 · Seeing the fulfillment does not make the apostles wiser than the fathers and prophets.
Commentary on John 10.155Origen · ca. 230–248 · Matthew says this fulfilled Zechariah's prophecy.
Commentary on John 10.161Origen · ca. 230–248 · Literalists must also explain the rest of Zechariah's prophecy, which Jesus did not literally fulfill.
Commentary on John 10.163Origen · ca. 230–248 · Jewish critics rightly ask how Jesus literally fulfilled the rest of Zechariah 9.
Commentary on John 13.107Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ fulfills the law and prophets, which shows how salvation is from the Jews.
Commentary on John 13.154Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Samaritans, accepting only the Pentateuch, would expect the Messiah from texts like Jacob's blessing of Judah.
Commentary on John 13.155Origen · ca. 230–248 · They may also hope from Balaam's prophecies.
Commentary on John 13.157Origen · ca. 230–248 · Balaam foretells a star from Jacob and a man from Israel.
Commentary on John 13.158Origen · ca. 230–248 · Moses' blessing of Judah might also be read as messianic by the Samaritans.
Commentary on John 13.159Origen · ca. 230–248 · Samaritans, who claim Joseph as patriarch, may read the blessings of Joseph messianically.
Commentary on John 13.160Origen · ca. 230–248 · Jesus says Moses wrote about him.
Commentary on John 28.98Origen · ca. 230–248 · Caiaphas prophesied but was not a prophet.
Commentary on John 28.99Origen · ca. 230–248 · Balaam likewise prophesied but was a diviner, not a prophet.
Commentary on John 28.100Origen · ca. 230–248 · Every prophet prophesies, but not everyone who prophesies is a prophet.
Commentary on John 28.140Origen · ca. 230–248 · Since Caiaphas was not holy, he did not prophesy by the Holy Spirit.
Commentary on John 28.146Origen · ca. 230–248 · These examples show that sinners can prophesy, and raise the question from which power.
Commentary on John 28.172Origen · ca. 230–248 · Caiaphas spoke without grasping the prophetic meaning of his words.
Commentary on John 28.175Origen · ca. 230–248 · Circumstance can cause prophecy: Caiaphas prophesied because he was high priest that year.
Commentary on John 32.169Origen · ca. 230–248 · John 13:19 refers back to the prophecy of the betrayer; but why should disciples need to be told this in order to believe?
Homily on Luke 32Origen · ca. 233–250 · Christ returns “in the power of the Spirit” after defeating the tempter; in the Nazareth synagogue he reads Isaiah’s prophecy of himself, whose poor and captives are the nations, and the hearers are urged to fix the eyes of their souls on him.
On the Witch of Endor 6Origen · ca. 240 · Christ, greater than all prophets, himself went down to Hades to conquer death, as the Psalms and Acts say; so it is not absurd that the prophets, including Samuel, went there before him as physicians to proclaim his coming.
On the Witch of Endor 9Origen · ca. 240 · Samuel kept his prophetic gift after death and used it for the souls in Hades, who needed to hear of Christ's coming; before Christ no one, not even Abraham, could pass the flaming sword to paradise, so the saints waited for him who is the way.
Homilies on Ezekiel 6.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · Ezekiel’s fearless denunciation of Jerusalem shows that the prophets spoke freely, not in a frenzy, choosing to obey God whatever the danger.
Homilies on Ezekiel 6.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · God left it to the prophets’ free will whether to speak, as Jonah’s refusal shows; they faced persecution if they spoke and God’s displeasure if they lied.
Homilies on Judges 4.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Sisera, "vision of a horse," is the natural man who persecutes the spiritual until the soul cries to the Lord and prophecy, figured by Deborah, arises.
Homilies on Judges 5.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Deborah, the only judge called a prophet, shows that purity of mind, not sex, merits the grace of prophecy, and as "bee" she figures prophecy's honey.
Homilies on Judges 5.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Prophecy sits under the palm, between Ramah ("heights") and Bethel ("house of God"), because it lifts its disciples to heavenly things.
Homilies on Judges 8.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Gideon's fleece wrung into a basin on the threshing floor foreshadows Christ washing his disciples' feet; the preacher too draws the water of Scripture to wash his hearers' feet.
Homilies on Numbers 6.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The Spirit rested on the seventy elders and the prophets only for a time and left them in sin, but he remained permanently on Christ alone, who committed no sin.
Homilies on Numbers 14.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Allegorically, Balaam stands for the scribes and Pharisees, and his ass for simple believers whom Christ's disciples set free; even a false teacher may prophesy, so love outranks prophecy.
Homilies on Numbers 15.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · At his hearers' request Origen turns to Balaam's prophecy and asks why Scripture both blames and praises him; he then notes how rarely Scripture says the Spirit “came upon” a prophet, and reads Balaam's coming from Mesopotamia and the eastern mountains as coming from the rivers of Babylon and the false light of the devil.
Homilies on Jeremiah 10.4Origen · ca. 240 · The men of Anathoth (“Hearkening”) who sought Jeremiah's life stand for those who rejected Christ; their punishment is a famine of God's word, as prophecy and true teaching passed from them to the church.
Homilies on Jeremiah 14.5Origen · ca. 240 · Unlike Isaiah, who prophesied after being cleansed of sin, Jeremiah was a prophet from birth; “mother” may be Wisdom, who bears the prophets; and “disputed with by all the earth” fits Christ better than Jeremiah.
Lines 49–72Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · God, who gave the law through Moses, foretold Christ's incarnation through many prophets, and the poet, no appointed teacher, opens the prophecies to those still adrift.
Lines 261–284Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The prophets foretold Christ's crucifixion (David, Solomon, Jeremiah, Moses); the one God came as the Son and was born in the flesh.
Lines 333–356Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Isaiah foretold Christ's humiliation and suffering, Malachi the pure offering of the Gentiles to his name.
Lines 405–428Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Isaiah foretold the virgin birth and the passion; David, the nails, the vinegar and the lots; Amos, the darkness at the crucifixion; and the prophets, Israel's refusal and the hearing of the Gentiles.
On the Trinity 9Novatian · ca. 240–250 · The rule of truth also requires faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Creator, whom the Old Testament promised in many prophecies of his birth, miracles, passion, resurrection, and reign.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 3.201Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · Christ was first known to the Church by his voice in the prophets; he leaps on the mountains (prophets, apostles) and, for the struggling soul, opens hard passages of Scripture.
Letter to Africanus 12Origen · ca. 240–245 · Origen answers that prophets received revelation in several ways, as Jacob did by dreams, visions, and inspiration.
Letter to Africanus 17Origen · ca. 240–245 · Origen answers that prophets often repeat one another’s words, as Isaiah and Micah, or Chronicles and the Psalms, show.
To Vigilius, on Jewish Unbelief 4Anonymous · 3rd century (disputed) · The prophets foretold Christ's coming so plainly that unbelievers have no excuse, yet Israel did not recognize him.
On the Computation of Easter 13Anonymous · 243 · The author reckons the seventy years of captivity through the Babylonian kings to Cyrus and quotes Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks.
On the Computation of Easter 15Anonymous · 243 · The first seven weeks (49 years) cover the rebuilding of Jerusalem and of the temple, which was later destroyed under Vespasian; the shortened war is the reign of the Antichrist.
Against Celsus 1.2Origen · ca. 248 · Christianity's Jewish origins are "barbarian," but its truth rests on a divine demonstration of the Spirit (prophecy) and of power (miracles still seen).
Against Celsus 1.34Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus ignored Isaiah's prophecy that a virgin would bear Emmanuel; Origen quotes it and defends the translation "virgin" against the rendering "young woman."
Against Celsus 1.35Origen · ca. 248 · From Isaiah's own words: a birth to a young wife would be no sign; the sign fits a virgin birth, given to the house of David and fulfilled in Christ, who descended and ascended.
Against Celsus 1.36Origen · ca. 248 · God gave Israel prophets, even for small matters, so that they would not turn to pagan divination, which the law forbade.
Against Celsus 1.49Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus ignores the many prophecies of Christ and has his Jew speak of one prophet in Jerusalem announcing a "son of God," which no Jew would say.
Against Celsus 1.50Origen · ca. 248 · The prophets foretold Christ's birthplace, sufferings, resurrection, and miracles, not merely that a judge would come; Origen will cite some of these prophecies.
Against Celsus 1.51Origen · ca. 248 · Micah foretold Bethlehem as the Messiah's birthplace, the cave of the nativity is still shown there, and the Jewish teachers knew the prophecy until they suppressed it after Christ came.
Against Celsus 1.53Origen · ca. 248 · Jacob's prophecy that rule would not leave Judah until the one came who is the nations' expectation is fulfilled in Christ, in whom the nations now hope.
Against Celsus 1.54Origen · ca. 248 · Against Celsus's mockery of Christ's suffering, Origen quotes Isaiah's prophecy of the Servant who would suffer and die for others' sins.
Against Celsus 1.55Origen · ca. 248 · In debate with Jewish scholars who applied Isaiah's Servant to the people of Israel, Origen argued that the Servant who dies for "my people" must be someone else—Jesus Christ.
Against Celsus 2.11Origen · ca. 248 · Only one disciple, Judas, betrayed Jesus, and even he was not wholly lost to Jesus' teaching, as his repentance shows; the betrayal was prophesied in the Psalms.
Against Celsus 2.13Origen · ca. 248 · Jesus foretold that his followers would be brought before rulers for his name alone—as Christians uniquely are—that the gospel would reach the whole world, and that Jerusalem would be besieged, all of which came true.
Against Celsus 2.19Origen · ca. 248 · Origen rejects Celsus's argument that the betrayal and denial could not have been foretold, since a prediction is shown true by its fulfilment.
Against Celsus 2.28Origen · ca. 248 · Origen criticizes Celsus for dismissing the argument from prophecy without examining a single prophecy, and for putting into a Jew's mouth what no Jew would say.
Against Celsus 2.44Origen · ca. 248 · Origen rejects Celsus's comparison of Jesus with condemned sorcerers and robbers: Jesus was indeed crucified among robbers, as foretold, and his martyrs share his unjust condemnation.
Against Celsus 2.48Origen · ca. 248 · Origen defends Jesus' healings and raisings of the dead as foretold by Isaiah and credibly reported, and says the disciples do greater works in healing souls.
Against Celsus 2.75Origen · ca. 248 · Origen argues that the Jews' rejection of Jesus matches their ancestors' unbelief in the wilderness, fulfilling Jesus' words and the prophecy of Deuteronomy about “your life hanging before your eyes.”
Against Celsus 3.2Origen · ca. 248 · Origen argues that the Jewish prophecies of Christ are no trifle, and that a nation taught to reject pagan oracles must have had genuine prophets to keep it from turning to them.
Against Celsus 3.4Origen · ca. 248 · Origen insists that the debate over the meaning of the prophecies is serious, since both Jews and Christians rightly accept that the prophets spoke from God.
Against Celsus 4.1Origen · ca. 248 · Origen opens Book 4 with a prayer, asking for words like Jeremiah's to uproot Celsus's errors and to build up the truth, and turns to Celsus's attack on the prophecies of Christ.
Against Celsus 4.2Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus mocks both Christians and Jews for expecting a divine judge to come to earth, but he never engages the actual prophecies about Christ; and Jews do not say the coming Messiah is God.
Against Celsus 4.21Origen · ca. 248 · Moses' account of the tower of Babel and of Sodom is far older than the Greek myths of the Aloadae and Phaethon that Celsus says he copied; the prophets, proved true about the past, are to be trusted about the purifying fire to come.
Against Celsus 4.52Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus singles out the simple Dialogue of Jason and Papiscus as contemptible, and offers his own view that God made only immortal things and that human bodies do not differ from those of bats or frogs; Origen invites readers to judge the dialogue themselves.
Against Celsus 6.5Origen · ca. 248 · The Bible spoke of God's light kindled in the soul long before Plato, and unlike Plato's words its plain speech has actually made readers devout.
Against Celsus 6.75Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus says a divine being would have looked impressive, whereas Jesus was said to be small and ugly; Origen notes Isaiah says he had no beauty, but a Psalm speaks of his beauty too.
Against Celsus 6.76Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus accepts Isaiah's prophecy of Jesus' plain appearance but ignores the Transfiguration and the Psalm on his beauty, and in accepting the prophecy he concedes that Jesus fulfilled it.
Against Celsus 7.2Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus claims that Christians who keep the God of the Jews can only fall back on prophecy, and Origen turns to defend the prophets.
Against Celsus 7.7Origen · ca. 248 · The Hebrew prophets were chosen for their courageous, self-denying lives, suffering for the truth, and their prophecies of Christ come from God's Spirit, unlike the demonic oracles.
Against Celsus 7.8Origen · ca. 248 · The Hebrew prophets spoke long before Christ, no true prophets have arisen among the Jews since, and the Holy Spirit's signs, abundant in the apostolic age, remain now among a few purified Christians.
Against Celsus 7.10Origen · ca. 248 · The prophets spoke plainly what was needed for moral reform, and veiled their deeper teaching in riddles and parables for diligent seekers; Celsus calls them madmen because he did not understand them.
Against Celsus 7.11Origen · ca. 248 · Origen has explained the obscure prophecies in his commentaries; the prophets can be understood by those wise in Christ, and Celsus's claim to have heard and exposed such prophets himself is unsupported.
Against Celsus 7.14Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus says fulfilled prophecy proves nothing if what is foretold is unworthy of God; Origen replies that he should instead have tried to show that the prophecies were not in fact fulfilled in Jesus.
Against Celsus 7.15Origen · ca. 248 · Using a Stoic form of argument, Origen shows that Celsus's hypothesis contradicts itself: true prophets could not have foretold that the supreme God himself would be enslaved, fall sick, or die.
Against Celsus 7.16Origen · ca. 248 · The prophets foretold the death of a man, not of God; what died was the man Jesus, not the divine Word, who is the Life and the Resurrection and cannot die.
Against Celsus 8.48Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus says the mystery priests threaten eternal punishment just as Christians do; Origen replies that the true teaching is the one that actually leads people to live righteously, and that the prophets' foreknowledge proves God's Spirit was in them.
Against Celsus 8.72Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus thinks it impossible for all peoples to agree under one law; Origen answers that the Word will one day heal every rational soul and destroy wickedness, as Zephaniah foretells one tongue and one yoke, perhaps after this bodily life.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 40Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Origen interprets Daniel's seventy weeks, reckoning a week as seventy years, of the period from Christ's coming to the destruction of Jerusalem, which will remain desolate until the end; he denies that earthly Jerusalem will be rebuilt except for Antichrist.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 41Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · On the literal sense, Christ's warnings about flight, the great tribulation, and false christs are fulfilled in the Roman siege of Jerusalem.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 104Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Many prophecies, especially the psalm about Judas, were fulfilled in the arrest; the disciples fled because they did not yet have the Spirit of power and love.
Commentary on Matthew 16.14Origen · ca. 246–248 · The blind man in Luke follows Jesus glorifying God; then Origen turns to the entry into Jerusalem, asking why the evangelists record the ass and the colt, quoting Zech 9:9–12, and noting how Matthew and John alter the prophecy’s wording.
Commentary on Matthew 16.16Origen · ca. 246–248 · The ass and colt, once ridden by Christ into Jerusalem, are sent back transformed to a higher work; Zechariah’s prophecy of peace explains Zion’s joy; and Origen compares five Greek versions of Zech 9:9 (meek, hearkening, poor).
Commentary on Matthew 17.12Origen · ca. 246–248 · Christ, the stone rejected by the builders, became the head of the corner uniting the two Testaments; the kingdom was only “let out” to Israel but is “given” to the nation that bears its fruit.
Commentary on Romans 1.4Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · The Gospel promised by the prophets may be distinguished from the 'eternal Gospel' of Revelation, which Christ may have proclaimed to angels and heavenly orders; the prophets abound in promises of the Gospel.
To Quirinus 1.21Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · From the blessings of Abraham, Jacob, Ephraim, and Judah through the prophets to Paul, Scripture foretells that the nations would believe in Christ.
To Quirinus 2.29Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · The prophets, the royal Psalms, the magi, and Jesus' words to Pilate show that Christ is the eternal King.
On the Lapsed 7Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · The persecution had been foretold in Scripture, yet most of the brothers fell at once, voluntarily denying the faith that the prophets, apostles, and Christ had warned them to keep.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 4.5Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The eyes of the living creatures are spiritual foresight, and their twenty-four wings the Old Testament books that give the Gospel credibility; heretics and Jews each keep only half.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 21.3Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · Isaiah, the Psalms, and Daniel's stone that becomes a mountain foretell the everlasting kingdom of the saints.
Church History 1.2.23Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Once the nations had been tamed, the Word appeared as a man at the start of the Roman Empire, fulfilling the prophecies of his birth, works, death, resurrection, and ascension.
Church History 1.2.25Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Daniel saw one like a son of man receive an everlasting kingdom.
Church History 1.2.26Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Daniel's vision refers to Christ, the Word, called Son of Man because he became man.
Church History 1.4.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Isaiah foresaw a nation born in one day and a new name for God's servants.
Church History 1.6.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · When Herod, a foreigner, became king of the Jews, Jacob's prophecy that the ruler would not depart from Judah until the Christ came was fulfilled.
Church History 1.6.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Daniel's seventy weeks foretold the end of the Jewish anointing, fulfilled at Christ's coming.
Church History 3.7.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · These events in Vespasian's second year fulfilled Christ's tearful predictions.
Church History 3.7.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Comparing Christ's words with Josephus shows his foreknowledge to be truly divine.
Church History 3.8.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Josephus reports an oracle that a ruler of the world would come from Judea, which he applied to Vespasian.
Church History 5.8.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus defends the Septuagint's “virgin” in Isaiah 7:14 against the “young woman” of Theodotion and Aquila, whom the Ebionites follow.
Church History 5.17.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The false prophet speaks in an ecstasy that begins in wilful ignorance and ends in madness.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 50Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Archelaus interprets the veil as the prophecy of Gen 49:10 and Deut 18:15, fulfilled in Christ, and then lists parallels between Moses and Jesus; the letter to Diodorus closes.
Homilies 2.10Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter argues that fulfilled predictions prove the Prophet's foreknowledge, so he must be believed above all.
Homilies 3.11Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Truth comes only from the true Prophet, whose foreknowledge, unlike that of physicians and diviners, needs no external means.
Homilies 3.12Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · The true Prophet’s innate foreknowledge reaches to the coming age and speaks plainly, unlike divination.
Homilies 3.13Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · The true Prophet always knows all things; intermittent inspiration belongs to frenzied pagan seers.
Homilies 3.15Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Jesus prophesied plainly, as in his prediction of the destruction of the Temple, now fulfilled before the hearers’ eyes.
Homilies 3.49Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · The key passage is Jacob’s prophecy of the ruler from Judah; Jesus, who fulfilled it, teaches which Scriptures are true.
Recognitions 5.10Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The true Prophet who appeared in Judea is proved by his miracles, his knowledge of hearts, and the fulfillment of the law's prophecies and types in him.
Recognitions 5.11Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The prophecy that the nations would await the Messiah is all the more remarkable because the Jews, who expected him, failed through envy to recognize him when he came.
Recognitions 5.12Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · By God's providence the nations, who never heard of the Messiah, now seek him, fulfilling prophecy, while those who knew of him did not recognize him.
Recognitions 10.51Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Philosophers speculate about invisible, past, and future things that only prophetic foreknowledge can reveal; Peter preaches only what the true Prophet has handed down, and offers proofs of his foreknowledge.
Prophetic Extracts 1.1Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius explains that this collection of Old Testament prophecies about Christ follows his earlier demonstrations, likens it to the bee's gathering, and sets out the distinction between texts about the pre-existent Word and texts about Christ's two comings.
Prophetic Extracts 1.6Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius suggests that Isaac's blessing of Jacob, which does not fit Jacob himself, may refer to Christ.
Prophetic Extracts 1.8Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius applies Jacob's blessing of Judah to Christ: the lion's whelp, the end of Jewish rulers with Herod, and the church's leaders, who will not fail even in the present persecution.
Prophetic Extracts 1.13Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius applies Balaam's oracle of the man from Israel's offspring to Christ, his worldwide rule, the return from Egypt, his victory over the devil, and the curse that fell on those who cried “Crucify him.”
Prophetic Extracts 1.14Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads Balaam's star out of Jacob as the incarnate Word, who rose from Israel, shone on the nations, and took them from the hostile powers.
Prophetic Extracts 1.15Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius identifies the prophet like Moses as Jesus, lawgiver of the new covenant, and sees the promised vengeance in the fate of the generation that rejected him.
Prophetic Extracts 1.18Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads Hannah's song as foretelling the ascension of the Word, the Gospel's spread, the judgment, and the exaltation of his anointed.
Prophetic Extracts 1.20Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius argues that Nathan's oracle of an eternal throne for David's offspring cannot fit David or Solomon and is fulfilled in Christ, while its threatened rods refer to the persecutions of Christ's people.
Prophetic Extracts 2.2Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius applies Psalm 2 to the plots against Christ, his heavenly kingship on the spiritual Zion, and the spread of the faith to all nations, arguing it cannot fit David.
Prophetic Extracts 2.7Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius cites Peter's Pentecost sermon to show that Psalm 16's “you will not abandon my soul to Hades” speaks of Christ's resurrection.
Prophetic Extracts 2.9Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius argues that the seventeenth psalm's “head of nations” and “a people whom I did not know” cannot fit David and are fulfilled in Christ, head of the Gentile church.
Prophetic Extracts 2.13Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius applies the psalm beginning “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” point by point to the crucifixion and to the church of the nations, citing Aquila and Symmachus, and closes with a note on “hosanna.”
Prophetic Extracts 2.14Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius takes God's oath to set David's offspring on his throne as a promise about Christ, distinguishing literal, spiritual, and second-coming fulfilments.
Prophetic Extracts 3.0Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Opening the third book of the Extracts (the eighth of the General Elementary Introduction), Eusebius argues that the prophecies and faith in Christ confirm each other, against both Jews and heretics who reject the prophets.
Prophetic Extracts 3.11Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads Hosea's “out of Egypt I called my son,” with Aquila's version, as fulfilled in Christ's return from Egypt and the end of the Jewish kingdom.
Prophetic Extracts 3.18Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius contrasts Micah's ploughed Zion with the new mountain of the Lord to which the nations come, the church, whose new law brings peace; the end of the section is damaged.
Prophetic Extracts 3.23Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius applies Zechariah's visions of Jesus the high priest, his filthy garments, and the man called Dayspring to Christ the great high priest, arguing they cannot fit Joshua son of Jehozadak; the section is damaged.
Prophetic Extracts 3.24Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads Zechariah's meek king on a colt both spiritually, as Christ coming to faithful souls, and literally, as the entry into Jerusalem, and sees the destruction of chariots in the fall of Jerusalem; the end is damaged.
Prophetic Extracts 3.36Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads Jeremiah's righteous Dayspring for David, and the promises of an unfailing Davidic king and priesthood, as fulfilled spiritually in Christ and the church's leaders and priests, since the literal throne and priesthood have ceased.
Prophetic Extracts 3.41Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius applies Ezekiel's promise of one shepherd, “David my servant,” ruling for ever over a reunited people to Christ and the spiritual Israel, not to a restored earthly kingdom.
Prophetic Extracts 3.45Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius quotes Gabriel's prophecy of the seventy weeks and introduces Julius Africanus's explanation of it from his Chronographies.
Prophetic Extracts 3.46Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius quotes Julius Africanus's calculation of Daniel's seventy weeks from Artaxerxes' twentieth year to Christ, then offers his own reckoning from Cyrus through the high priests to Herod, using Josephus, and explains the final week as Christ's ministry and its aftermath.
Prophetic Extracts 4.0Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Introducing the extracts from Isaiah, Eusebius argues that the prophets were truly inspired, since Israel accepted them as prophets because of their fulfilled predictions, wisdom, boldness, and lives.
Prophetic Extracts 4.1Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius applies Isaiah's mountain of the Lord and the law going forth from Zion to Christ, the new covenant, and the church of the nations, contrasting it with the rejection of Jerusalem in Isaiah 1.
Prophetic Extracts 4.4Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius defends the reading “the virgin shall conceive” in Isaiah 7:14 by the authority of the Seventy and by the sign's marvellousness, and refutes the Jewish view that it referred to Hezekiah.
Prophetic Extracts 4.7Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius identifies the child of Isaiah 9 with the virgin's son, comparing the Septuagint's “Angel of Great Counsel” with Aquila's and Symmachus's renderings of the titles.
Prophetic Extracts 4.8Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads Isaiah's shoot from the root of Jesse, and the peace among wild beasts, as Christ and the taming of human natures in the churches, with Lebanon's fall as Jerusalem's.
Prophetic Extracts 4.20Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius argues, from Matthew and the Hebrew text, that Isaiah's servant who brings justice to the nations is Christ, not the Jewish people or the patriarch Jacob.
Prophetic Extracts 4.27Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius applies the fourth Servant Song (Isa 52:13–53:12) point by point to Christ's humiliation, passion, and atoning death for the people's sins, against those who reject him because he suffered, and reads “Rejoice, barren one” as the Gentile church.
Prophetic Extracts 4.28Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads Isaiah's everlasting covenant of “the sure holy things of David” as the Gospel given through Christ to the nations who did not know him.
Divine Institutes 1.4.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The many prophets, filled with one Spirit, all proclaim one God.
Divine Institutes 1.4.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Fulfilled and harmonious prophecies show the prophets were not mad.
Divine Institutes 1.4.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Even prophets who were princes or kings, free of any suspicion of greed, proclaimed one God.
Divine Institutes 4.5.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · One must know the prophets' dates to see their predictions fulfilled.
Divine Institutes 4.5.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Zechariah, the last prophet, dates from Darius, so the prophets are older than Greek writers.
Divine Institutes 5.3.18Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Christ is believed to be God because prophecy was fulfilled in him.
Divine Institutes 5.3.19Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Without prophecy his miracles might have seemed magic.
Divine Institutes 5.3.21Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Christ's divinity rests on the prophets' prior testimony.
Apology for Origen 5.1Pamphilus of Caesarea · ca. 308–310 (Rufinus's Latin about 397) · Origen's argument from fulfilled prophecy (the end of Judah's rulers, the calling of the Gentiles, the spread of the gospel) closes Pamphilus's proof of his faith in the Trinity; Pamphilus then begins to list the charges against him.
Preparation for the Gospel 1.1.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Hebrew prophets foretold that all nations would turn to the Lord and abandon their gods.
Preparation for the Gospel 1.1.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Christ's teaching has fulfilled the ancient oracles about the knowledge of God among all nations.
Preparation for the Gospel 1.3.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Christ foretold the worldwide preaching of the gospel and the indestructible church, and the fulfillment silences his critics.
Preparation for the Gospel 1.3.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The fulfillment shows that the prediction came from God's power, not human nature.
Preparation for the Gospel 1.3.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Christ's many fulfilled predictions prove the truth of Christian belief about him.
Preparation for the Gospel 1.3.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Hebrew prophets foretold Christ's coming, his teaching, the Jews' rejection of him, and the fall of Jerusalem and the dispersion.
Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · A prophecy about Judas does not cause Judas's betrayal.
Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Scripture, including Susanna, shows God's foreknowledge.
Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.21Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The prophecy naming Josiah long beforehand shows God's foreknowledge.
Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.22Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Isaiah's naming of Cyrus long beforehand shows God's foreknowledge.
Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.25Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Daniel's vision of the ram and goat foretells Alexander and his successors.
Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.26Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Prophecies about Christ's birth, upbringing, and betrayal show God's foreknowledge.
Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.27Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Christ foretold Jerusalem's destruction.
Preparation for the Gospel 9.3.21Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Many Essenes are skilled in prophecy.
Preparation for the Gospel 9.39.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Jeremiah foretells captivity; the king tries to burn him.
Preparation for the Gospel 9.41.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Possessed, Nebuchadnezzar prophesies Babylon's fall.
Preparation for the Gospel 9.41.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The prophecy of the Persian mule.
Preparation for the Gospel 9.41.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Eusebius links Abydenus's account to Daniel 4.
Preparation for the Gospel 10.10.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Babylonian exile lasted seventy years, as Jeremiah foretold.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.7.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The prophets spoke of the future, the cosmos, animals, and plants.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 39.1Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · The prophets foretold these things.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 39.2Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · A text ascribed to Solomon foretells the virgin birth.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 39.3Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Isaiah foretold the virgin birth of Emmanuel, God with us.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 39.4Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Isaiah foretold that he would be God.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 39.5Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · A prophecy says God himself would be seen on earth among people.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 39.6Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · The prophets also foretold that he would be a man.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 41.1Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Isaiah foretold his scourging, the spitting, and his silence.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 41.2Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · The Psalms foretold the scourging and the gall and vinegar.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 41.3Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · The Psalm foretold the piercing of his hands and feet and the lots cast for his clothes.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 41.4Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Moses foretold the one hanging on the cross.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 41.5Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Zechariah foretold the piercing and Amos the darkening of the sun.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 41.6Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Jeremiah foretold that the sun would set at noon over Jerusalem.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 41.7Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · The Roman conquest of Judaea under Vespasian fulfilled these prophecies.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 41.8Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · A text ascribed to Solomon foretold Israel's ruin for persecuting its king.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 42.4Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Daniel foresaw the Son of Man coming on the clouds to receive an eternal kingdom.
Demonstration of the Gospel, Book 1, preface 2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Eusebius will use Moses and the prophets as witnesses who foresaw by the Spirit what the gospel later accomplished.
Demonstration of the Gospel, Book 1, preface 3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The prophets foretold countless matters, concerning Israel, the nations, cities, and kingdoms.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.1.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The prophets foretold Christ’s divinity, his teaching to all nations, his virgin birth, his birthplace Bethlehem, and the time of his coming.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.1.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The miracles and teaching of Jesus recorded in the Gospels are contained in the prophecies.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.1.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The prophets also announced the new way of piety, the call of disciples, and the new covenant.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.1.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · They foretold his rejection, betrayal, trial, sufferings, and death, and his patient silence.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.1.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The same oracles foretold his resurrection, appearances, gift of the Spirit, ascension, enthronement, and second coming.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.1.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The prophets also lamented the ruin that would come upon the Jewish nation, which Eusebius sees fulfilled after the crucifixion.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.1.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The fulfillment of prophecy proves the prophets inspired and their teaching true, without rhetorical artifice.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.2.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · God’s promise to Abraham foretold the blessing of all nations through Abraham’s kind of piety.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.3.43Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Moses foretold another prophet like himself, whom Eusebius identifies as Christ, the lawgiver of the nations.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.3.44Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Balaam’s oracle foretells a man from Jacob’s seed who will rule many nations.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.3.45Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Jacob’s blessing of Judah foretells the tribe and the time of Christ’s coming.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.4.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christians have adopted the Hebrew Scriptures because they contain prophecies about the nations, such as David’s prayer for a lawgiver.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.6.43Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Malachi foretold a pure sacrifice offered to God in every place among the nations.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.7.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ fulfills prophecies such as Moses’ promise of a prophet like himself.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.7.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The prophet “like Moses” must be a lawgiver equal to Moses.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.7.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ ends the old law and founds the new, as the cornerstone foretold by Isaiah.
Demonstration of the Gospel 2.3.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Malachi foretells the rejection of Israel’s sacrifices and a pure offering among the nations; next heading: Isaiah.
Demonstration of the Gospel 2.3.84Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The desolation came after Jesus foretold it, when the Romans besieged Jerusalem.
Demonstration of the Gospel, Book 3, preface 2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Eusebius will treat Christ’s human dispensation and divinity from the prophets, beginning with how they spoke of the gospel.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.1.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Isaiah’s prophecy of the Spirit-anointed preacher was fulfilled by Jesus in the synagogue.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.1.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Eusebius will now present selected prophecies of Christ and their fulfillment.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.2.28Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Since only Christ matches Moses, the prophecy of a prophet like Moses refers to him alone.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.2.33Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Only Christ has ruled many nations; Moses also fixed the time of his coming in Genesis 49:10.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.2.36Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · At Christ’s coming Jewish rule ended and he became the hope of the nations.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.2.76Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The prophets foretold Christ’s coming, lineage, birthplace, time, birth, death, resurrection, and rule.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.16.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · No Israelite king fits the psalm; only Jesus, still opposed by rulers, is the Son to whom the nations are given.
Demonstration of the Gospel, Book 5, preface 2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Before proving Christ’s divinity from the prophets, Eusebius will examine how Hebrew prophets were inspired.
Demonstration of the Gospel, Book 5, preface 21Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The prophets sometimes answered small questions, but their main work concerned great matters.
Demonstration of the Gospel, Book 5, preface 22Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Hebrew prophecy concerned the salvation of all humanity, not everyday trivia, which it touched only incidentally.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.1.24Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The promise that rule will not fail from Judah until the nations' expectation comes marks the time of Christ.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.1.74Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The prophecy of the tied foal was also fulfilled literally when Jesus sent for the donkey and colt.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.1.75Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The prophet foresaw that the Messiah would ride not in royal state but on a donkey like a poor man.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.2.30Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Aquila’s “to fulfil vision and prophet” is more exact, for Christ came to unseal and open the prophecies, not to close them.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.2.32Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ came to open the prophecies, which is why Aquila’s rendering is preferable.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.2.34Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · In the Septuagint’s sense, “sealing vision and prophet” means that prophecy ceased among the Jewish nation after John.
Demonstration of the Gospel 10.7.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The darkness at the crucifixion fulfilled Zechariah’s day without light.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 18.3Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Inspired, the Sibyl foretold Christ's coming in an acrostic poem spelling 'Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour, Cross,' beginning with the signs of the judgment.
On the Incarnation 33.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · The Jews' own Scriptures refute them, foretelling the virgin birth in Isaiah 7:14.
On the Incarnation 33.4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Balaam's oracles in Numbers and Isaiah 8:4 foretell the coming of a man from Israel.
On the Incarnation 33.5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Isaiah 19:1 and Hosea 11:1 show that the one who comes is the Lord.
On the Incarnation 34.1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Scripture plainly foretells Christ's death, its purpose, and the plot against him.
On the Incarnation 34.2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Isaiah 53 foretells the Word's suffering for our sins, his dishonor for our honor.
On the Incarnation 34.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Isaiah 53:8–10 shows that the sufferer is no ordinary man, since his generation cannot be told.
On the Incarnation 35.1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Scripture also foretells the cross.
On the Incarnation 35.6Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Isaiah 11:10 foretells the nations' hope in the root of Jesse.
On the Incarnation 35.7Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · No patriarch or prophet was born of a virgin, so the prophecy points to Christ alone.
On the Incarnation 38.1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Isaiah 65:1–2 speaks of one made manifest to those who did not seek him and stretching out his hands.
On the Incarnation 38.2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Only the bodiless Word, appearing in a body and stretching out his hands on the cross, fits Isaiah 65.
On the Incarnation 38.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Isaiah 35 foretells God's coming with healing of the blind, deaf, lame, and mute.
On the Incarnation 38.4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Isaiah's signs mark the time of God's coming, and they never happened in Israel before Christ.
On the Incarnation 39.2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Daniel's seventy weeks mark the time of Christ's coming.
On the Incarnation 39.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Daniel's prophecy names the anointed Holy of holies, after whose coming Jerusalem and prophecy end.
On the Incarnation 39.4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Earlier anointed kings did not end prophecy or Jerusalem, and prophecy continued even in the exile.
On the Incarnation 40.1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · The end of Jerusalem and of prophecy shows that the Holy of holies has come.
On the Incarnation 40.2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Prophecy and Jerusalem served until the truth they foreshadowed arrived.
On the Incarnation 40.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Genesis 49:10 foretells that Judah's rule lasts until the expected one of the nations comes.
On the Incarnation 40.4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · With no king, prophet, or temple left, and the nations turning to Israel's God through Christ, denial of his coming is perverse.
On the Incarnation 52.1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Christ has brought the peace foretold in Isaiah 2:4.
On the Witch of Endor 8Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Eustathius argues from the prophets of Baal, of whom Scripture says simply “they prophesied”, that the narrator's plain words do not vouch for the truth of what false prophets and mediums do.
On the Witch of Endor 12Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Eustathius shows that the apparition's prophecy only repeated what Samuel had told Saul after the war with Amalek, as fortune-tellers impress clients by reciting the past, and that only the words about “tomorrow” were its own.
On the Witch of Endor 13Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Eustathius argues that the apparition's own predictions were false, since Saul did not die the next day and died with three sons, not only Jonathan, and that whatever it said truly about war it knew as the devil, the author of all wars.
On the Witch of Endor 24Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Eustathius ridicules Origen for denying a demon power to prophesy while granting it power to bring up souls and angels, notes that even Caiaphas prophesied unwittingly, and cites the laws of Deuteronomy and Leviticus condemning mediums, reading in Deut 13:3 the Father and the Son.
Theophany 4.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 4.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 4.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 4.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 4.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 4.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 4.17Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 4.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 4.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 4.21Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 4.23Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 4.26Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 5.44Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Letter to Marcellinus 5Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · The Psalms foretell the coming of God the Word, begotten of the Father, through whom all things were made.
Letter to Marcellinus 6Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · The Psalms foretell Christ the anointed King, his becoming man, and his birth from a virgin of David's line.
Letter to Marcellinus 7Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · The Psalms foretell Christ's sufferings—the plot of the rulers, the piercing of hands and feet, the dividing of his garments—borne for our sake.
Letter to Marcellinus 26Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · The psalms most fully about Christ: his generation, cross, betrayal, kingdom and judgment, resurrection, ascension, and the benefits of his passion.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 16.7Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · The simultaneous end of idolatry and of national wars fulfilled the prophecies of universal peace; and no one but Christ, after his death, ever made his name known in every tongue, as he foretold.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 17.7Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · No other sage was foretold, as Christ was, by Hebrew prophets who described his birthplace, time, life and works.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 17.8Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Christ foretold both the destruction of Jerusalem's temple, which followed swiftly, and the indestructibility of his church.
Demonstration 1.6Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 1.8Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 1.10Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 2.5Aphrahat · 337-345 · The promise waited 1,794 years for Christ's coming, which ended the law's observances while fulfilling the law and the prophets.
Demonstration 5.5Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 5.11Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 5.14Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 5.20Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 16.1Aphrahat · 337-345 · The patriarchs and prophets foretold that the nations would be called to God's inheritance; Christ fulfilled Isaiah's vision by bringing them peace and true worship.
Demonstration 17.10Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 19.6Aphrahat · 337-345 · God delivered Israel twice, from Egypt and from Babylon; the restoration prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah were fulfilled in the return under Zerubbabel, not in a future gathering.
Demonstration 19.8Aphrahat · 337-345 · Daniel, knowing Jeremiah's prophecy of seventy years against the false prophets' promise of two, prayed his great confession for the return from Babylon.
Demonstration 19.9Aphrahat · 337-345 · Gabriel answers Daniel's prayer with the prophecy of the seventy weeks, ending in the coming and killing of the Christ and the desolation of Jerusalem.
Demonstration 19.10Aphrahat · 337-345 · Gabriel's word meant first the return from Babylon, then, because Daniel was beloved, what would happen to the people at the end of days, the seventy weeks.
Demonstration 19.11Aphrahat · 337-345 · Aphrahat interprets the seventy weeks: forty-nine years of rebuilding (Zechariah's lampstand with forty-nine spouts) and 434 years to Christ's death, after which Jerusalem's desolation is final.
Demonstration 19.13Aphrahat · 337-345 · Aphrahat dates Daniel's visions to the reigns of Darius the Mede and Cyrus, fulfilling Daniel's reading of the writing on the wall, and concludes that Jerusalem's later desolation is permanent.
Demonstration 21.6Aphrahat · 337-345
On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.20.75Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The prophets call the Son Spirit of God, as Isaiah and Lamentations show.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 1.20.87Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The prophets knew the Son under veiled titles; the full proclamation was kept for the church.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.17.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Ezekiel's prophecy of God seeking and saving his sheep confirms the account.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.17.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Daniel foretells the Son of Man receiving an eternal kingdom from the Ancient of Days.
Catechetical Lecture 12.11Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Solomon, David and Zechariah foretold the quiet coming of the King, his entry into Jerusalem on a colt, and his standing on the Mount of Olives.
Catechetical Lecture 12.19Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Daniel's seventy weeks, reckoned in Olympiads, fix the time of Christ's coming under Herod; Micah, the Psalms and Habakkuk name the place, Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem.
Catechetical Lecture 12.22Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Isaiah's sign cannot refer to Hezekiah, who by the chronology of Kings was already born before the prophecy; it speaks of a future virgin birth.
Catechetical Lecture 13.7Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Jews' unbelief was foretold; Cyril promises scriptural testimonies for every detail of the passion and begins with the betrayal of Judas, foretold in the Psalms.
Catechetical Lecture 13.19Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The garden, the tree and the evening of the passion answer to paradise lost; Jeremiah and Moses foretold the wood of the cross and the Life that hung on it.
Catechetical Lecture 13.20Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The bronze serpent, Noah's ark, Moses' rod and the wood that sweetened the waters of Marah all prefigure the saving cross.
Catechetical Lecture 16.18Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Isaiah, enlightened by the Spirit, foresaw the present desolation of Zion, now turned into cucumber fields.
Long recension, Magnesians 9Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius teaches that the prophets awaited Christ and urges the Magnesians to keep the Sabbath spiritually rather than in the Jewish manner.
Long recension, Philadelphians 9Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Christ the high priest and Word is the door through which patriarchs, prophets, apostles and church enter; the Gospel fulfils the prophets.
On the Trinity 4.38Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · In Isaiah 45 God addresses the king he raised up as God; the Magi with their gifts fulfil the prophecy of Egypt's toil and the Sabaeans' merchandise.
On the Trinity 5.27Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Isaiah 65 foretells a time when “the true God” will be blessed; the new phrase anticipates the denial of the incarnate Son's true divinity.
On the Trinity 5.31Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The context of Isaiah 65, God appearing to those who did not seek him and stretching out his hands to a rebellious people, shows that the true God spoken of is Christ.
On the Trinity 5.38Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Isaiah's “God is in you, and there is no God besides you” confirms the undivided divinity of the Father and the Son.
Letters to Serapion 1.31Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The Triad has one activity: the Father works through the Word in the Spirit, so that the prophets, the apostles, and Paul spoke in the Spirit with Christ speaking in them.
On the Holy Spirit 29Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The prophets spoke by the Holy Spirit; what Isaiah says the Lord spoke, Paul says the Holy Spirit spoke, so the Spirit is Lord and God.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.1.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · All of Scripture foretells Christ's coming in words, deeds, and examples.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.10.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Like Lamech, Caiaphas prophesied unknowingly about the death of Christ.
Treatise on the Mysteries 2.9.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Rahab receiving the spies signifies the church receiving the law and prophets, which confess God and foretell his incarnation.
Tractates on the Psalms 0.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Moses could have named Samuel in Psalm 98 (99) by prophecy, just as Josiah was named before his birth; the tradition goes back to Ezra.
Tractates on the Psalms 0.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalms are to be read with reference to Christ's coming, passion, kingdom, and our resurrection; prophecy is sealed to worldly wisdom, and those who deny Christ have taken away the key of knowledge.
Tractates on the Psalms 0.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christ holds the key of David and alone opens the sealed book; the seven seals are the mysteries of his body, passion, death, resurrection, glory, kingdom, and judgment, which the psalms prophesy.
Tractates on the Psalms 68.19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The table of Scripture, which reveals Christ throughout the law and prophets, becomes a snare to those who crucified him, darkening their eyes and burdening them with the law.
Tractates on the Psalms 124.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalm cannot refer to earthly Jerusalem, which killed the prophets and the Lord and was destroyed and left desolate; its meaning must be sought elsewhere.
Tractates on the Psalms 131.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · This psalm concerns the Son of God's incarnation; the Jews refer it to David, though the prophets long after David promised a future 'David'.
Tractates on the Psalms 131.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The promised 'David' is Christ, shepherd, king, righteous judge, and light, who took David's name with his flesh; the psalm fits him, not Jesse's son.
Tractates on the Psalms 131.19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The oath of Psalm 89, with its firstborn who calls God Father and whose throne endures for ever, belongs to Christ, not to the son of Jesse.
Tractates on the Psalms 138.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · All prophecy comes from the Spirit, and Christ himself taught that the psalms speak of him; so this psalm is referred to Christ.
Tractates on the Psalms 138.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · 'From afar' means long before: God foreknew Christ's humble and patient thoughts, as Isaiah's servant prophecy shows.
Tractates on the Psalms 138.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The Father 'searched out' Christ's path by foretelling the details of the passion through the prophets; in Christ, the truth, there was no deceit.
Tractates on the Psalms 139.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christ, willing what the Father wills, prays that his desire, the passion with all its prophesied details, be fulfilled exactly and not forestalled by the sinner.
Against the Manichees, Greek continuation of book 3, Lagarde p. 84Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · Christ calls the Father righteous; Valentinus, Marcion and Mani attack the Law in three ways, but a Law that foretold Christ must come from one who knew God’s counsel.
Against the Manichees, Greek continuation of book 3, Lagarde p. 85Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · If evil knew God’s plans to write the Law, God would be mocked; in fact the Law and Prophets foretold Christ’s birth, life, death, descent, resurrection and ascension.
Against the Manichees, Greek continuation of book 3, Lagarde p. 86Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · The Law foretold Christ’s enthronement, sonship and prophetic office; its commandments against immorality, idolatry and covetousness cannot come from an evil principle.
Commentary on Ephesians 3.5Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · The mystery hidden from earlier generations has been revealed to Paul, the same as to the other apostles, and was known to the prophets only in the Spirit, as they spoke it without themselves knowing it.
Tractates 2.7.3Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno argues against placing time between Father and Son and gives prophecies of the incarnation, the virgin birth and the forerunner.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 12:28Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Apostles, who are the bishops, head the church; prophets interpret Scripture or foretell; teachers instruct as in the synagogue; other gifts are distributed so that none has all.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 14:21Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Isaiah's 'other tongues' refers to the new covenant's teaching, or to Christ's parables, which unbelieving Jews still refused.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:4Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ's burial and third-day resurrection fulfil Isa 53 and Hos 6, the latter spoken in the people's name because all rise in him.
Commentary on Romans 1:2Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · On Rom 1:2–4 Ambrosiaster explains that the gospel was promised in the prophets and that the eternal Son, born of David’s seed by the Virgin, was shown to be Son of God in power by the resurrection.
Commentary on Romans 3:31Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Faith establishes the law by showing that what it foretold has come; the law itself foretold its own end, as Daniel, Jeremiah and the Lord show.
Commentary on Romans 9:33Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ is the stone of stumbling in Zion, the stone of Daniel cut without hands, that is, born of a virgin; the Jews stumbled at his body and would not see God at work in it.
Commentary on Romans 15:7Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Believers should receive one another as Christ received them; Christ served the circumcised to fulfil God’s promises to the fathers, preaching circumcision of the heart.
On the Destruction of Jerusalem 1.0Anonymous · ca. 370 · The author explains that he continues Scripture's history of the Jews beyond the books of Kingdoms and Maccabees, correcting Josephus's unbelief and asking whether the rule of Judah failed before Christ.
On the Destruction of Jerusalem 5.31Anonymous · ca. 370 · Titus, through Josephus, offers John safety if he will spare the temple; John refuses, and Josephus warns him that Daniel's prophecy of desolation is being fulfilled.
On the Destruction of Jerusalem 5.44Anonymous · ca. 370 · The author lists the portents that foretold the fall of Jerusalem, including the comet, the opening of the temple gate, the voice saying “Let us go hence,” and Jesus son of Ananias crying woe on the city, and he applies the prophecy of a world ruler to Christ.
Question 44, section 13Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The law belongs to all who will, and Jesus fulfilled every sign it foretold: birth from a virgin in Bethlehem of David’s line, the new covenant, the passion, and resurrection on the third day.
Question 44, section 14Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Daniel’s seventy weeks (490 years) from Darius were fulfilled in Christ’s birth and passion and Jerusalem’s fall under Vespasian, as Tertullian also reckoned.
Letter 20.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains that the crowd took the cry from Ps 118, a well-known messianic psalm, and why Luke omits the untranslatable word.
Letter 53.8Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome surveys the books of the Old Testament one by one, pointing to the spiritual meanings hidden in each.
Letter 57.8Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome compares Matthew's quotations of Isaiah 7:14 and Micah 5:2 with the Septuagint and the Hebrew to show that the evangelist quotes by sense.
Letter 108.10Jerome · ca. 370–419 · At Bethlehem Paula visited Rachel's tomb and the cave of the Nativity, where she saw with the eyes of faith the events of Christ's birth and poured out a prayer weaving together the prophecies of Bethlehem, and then visited the shepherds' Tower of Eder.
Ancoratus 30.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · David calls the Son Lord, before the incarnation.
Ancoratus 30.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Isaiah's Emmanuel prophecy did not yet require “my God.”
Ancoratus 30.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Micah's prophecy of the eternal ruler.
Ancoratus 115.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · They did not understand Micah's prophecy.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.18.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They reject the prophets after Moses.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.18.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ is the true prophet; the others are prophets of understanding only.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.20.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ is not a mere man, as Isaiah's sign shows.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.31.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Each word of Isa 8:1 is read of the virgin birth.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.31.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Hezekiah was already born when Isaiah prophesied.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.31.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The prophecy cannot refer to Hezekiah.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.22.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The prophets' words came variously from the seed, the Mother and the Demiurge.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.22.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They divide the prophecies among three sources.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.2.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · True prophecy is fulfilled.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.3.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · True prophets prophesied with sound minds according to the measure of faith.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.3.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Biblical prophets spoke with sound minds.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.6.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Adam's prophecy about marriage came from a sound mind, not from ecstasy.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.7.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The prophets' ecstasy was wonder, not loss of reason.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.8.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Agabus prophesied Paul's arrest with a symbolic act.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.8.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Antioch prophets' prediction of famine came true.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.8.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul prophesied about the last days.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.5.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Matthew cites Isaiah's prophecy of the virgin birth.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.22.21Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ came when rule from Judah had ceased, fulfilling Jacob's prophecy.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.24.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius sees a prophecy fulfilled in the date.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.19.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · The crucifixion fulfilled Psalm 2.
On the Christian Faith 1.15Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose explains Acts 2:36 and Prov 8:22 (“The Lord created me”) as said of Christ’s humanity, prophesied as though already done, and reads Wisdom’s banquet in Prov 9 as fulfilled in the Gospel.
On the Christian Faith 2.16Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose sends Gratian to war against the Goths, reading Ezekiel’s prophecy of Gog as a promise of victory, and prays that Christ will grant the catholic emperor triumph after the disasters he attributes to the Arian faithlessness of the Danube provinces.
Eleven Tractates 1.32Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · Even Balaam, an idolater, prophesied Christ, and Scripture keeps his words; testimony to Christ is accepted from whatever source.
Eleven Tractates 1.39Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · Prophecy was not closed at a fixed limit; Scripture itself (Luke, Tobit, Jude citing Enoch) shows prophets beyond the canonical books.
Eleven Tractates 3.58Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · Tobit calls Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob prophets, though no prophetic books of theirs stand in the canon.
Eleven Tractates 3.69Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · Following the Bereans who checked the Scriptures, Priscillian reads prophecies cited by Scripture, delighting that Christ was foretold by all.
Eleven Tractates 3.71Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · Pagans trust their augurs; Christians must not quench prophecy, for Christ was foretold by all the patriarchs from Adam on.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 37.6Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The readings show prophecy fulfilled in the passion.
Second Apology of David 22Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · Psalm 72, titled “for Solomon,” cannot refer to the warlike, short-lived Solomon but to Christ, the true Prince of Peace ruling all nations.
Second Apology of David 25Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · Psalm 110 cannot refer to Solomon: David calls the one at God’s right hand his Lord, begotten before the morning star, an eternal priest of Melchizedek’s order.
Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 10Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Theophilus argues from the three visitors at Mamre and several psalms, and from the passage of Baruch he ascribes to Jeremiah, that Christ is God beside the Father.
Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 20Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Theophilus argues from Nathan’s oracle, Psalms 2, 45, 107, 33 and 147, Isaiah, John’s prologue, Sirach and Proverbs that Christ is the Word begotten from the Father’s heart.
Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 22Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Theophilus argues that Christ is God’s wisdom and power, that Daniel’s seventy weeks and Isaiah 45 point to him, and that Isaiah 7:14 foretells his virgin birth.
Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 23Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Simon proposes that Isaiah’s virgin is the daughter of Zion who mocked the Assyrians.
Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 24Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Theophilus replies that the daughter of Zion bore no son who ate butter and honey or took the spoils of Samaria.
Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 32Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Theophilus cites a prophecy he ascribes to Baruch on Christ’s birth and passion, and Micah on Bethlehem.
Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 42Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Theophilus answers that the curse falls on sinners, while the sinless Christ suffered as the prophets foretold, citing many passages on the cross, and reads the grape cluster of Numbers as Christ on the tree.
Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 49Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Theophilus answers that Solomon’s limited and sinful reign cannot fulfil the psalm’s everlasting, worldwide kingdom.
Exposition of Psalm 118 13.19.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Ps 9 foretells a lawgiver for the nations: the Gospel and the calling of the gentiles.
Letter 49.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from Scripture that the church is spread through all nations and that the Catholics, unlike the Donatists, are in communion with the churches founded by the apostles.
Letter 102.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Christ himself explained Jonah's three days as a sign of his death and resurrection, after which the message reached the Gentiles as Jonah's reached Nineveh.
Letter 102.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Psalm 22's prophecy of the mocked worm and of the nations' conversion is fulfilled; other details of Jonah may be variously explained, but the three days must be read as Christ taught.
Letter 105.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The same Scriptures that reveal Christ reveal a worldwide church, as a series of paired texts from Genesis and the Psalms shows.
Letter 105.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Daniel's stone, Zephaniah, Habakkuk and Isaiah 53–54 likewise reveal both Christ and the worldwide church.
Letter 111.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says the calamities were foretold, and answers pagan complaints that Christianity brought them with the parable of the servant who knew his master's will.
Letter 137.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The order of history from Abraham through Israel's story, foretelling Christ in all its promises and rites, should move the mind to believe.
Letter 137.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The coming of Christ, Pentecost, the spread of the church through persecution, the fall of the temple, the dispersion of the Jews carrying the Scriptures, and the rise of heresies all fulfil prophecy.
Letter 138.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The change from Old to New Testament sacraments shows no change in God; it was foretold by the Psalms and by Jeremiah's promise of a new covenant.
Letter 149.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine reads Psalm 59:11 ('Do not kill them … scatter them') as foretelling the preservation and dispersion of the Jews, who keep the Scriptures as witnesses to the prophecies of Christ.
Letter 197.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sends Hesychius Jerome's expositions of the prophecies, holding that Daniel's weeks refer to past events and that the time of Christ's return cannot be calculated.
Letter 197.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that he wrote because of someone who referred Daniel's weeks to Christ's second coming, and he prefers cautious ignorance to false knowledge.
Letter 198.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Hesychius questions whether Daniel's weeks were fulfilled at Christ's birth and passion, since Christ himself spoke of the abomination of desolation as still to come.
Letter 199.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks Hesychius to show how the visions of Daniel 7 reveal the time of Christ's coming, if he can.
Letter 199.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that the shortening of the days cannot mean that Daniel's numbered weeks would be falsified, since the prophecy itself would then be untrue.
Letter 199.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine reasons that if Daniel's weeks referred to the second coming, one could confidently say it would come within seventy to a hundred years, since shortening could only make the time less.
Letter 199.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that most expositors have shown Daniel's weeks fulfilled at Christ's first coming, especially in the anointing and slaying of the Messiah.
Letter 199.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine shows from Luke's parallel that the warning to pregnant and nursing women, ambiguous in Matthew and Mark, refers to the destruction of Jerusalem.
Letter 199.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine compares the three Gospel accounts to show that Luke places the abomination of desolation at the Roman siege of Jerusalem.
Letter 199.47Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from God's promise to Abraham and from the Psalms that the Church must spread to every nation and island, including those beyond Roman rule.
Letter 232.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from fulfilled prophecy: the dispersion of the Jews, the spread of the gospel, heresies and schisms, and the fall of idolatry and conversion of the emperors.
Letter 258.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges Marcianus to enroll for baptism, citing Terence and Virgil's Fourth Eclogue, which he says may echo a Sibylline prophecy of Christ.
Homilies on Matthew 2.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Joseph's Davidic genealogy proves Mary's, because the law forbade marrying outside one's tribe and family and Joseph was righteous; women's genealogies were not customary; Chrysostom summarizes and urges hearers to meditate on what they hear.
Homilies on Matthew 5.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Matthew's 'all this took place' marks the fulfillment of Isa 7:14; the angel refers Joseph to Isaiah; 'Emmanuel' names what the event revealed, as Isa 8:3 and 1:26 show; against Jewish objections, the Septuagint's 'virgin' is more credible than later translations' 'young woman'.
Homilies on Matthew 7.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Homily 7 opens with Matt 2:4–5: the Jews and the magi teach each other; the scribes omit the end of Micah's prophecy to flatter Herod; the forty days in Bethlehem and the events Luke records left the Jews without excuse, before Christ was revealed again at the Jordan.
Homilies on Matthew 7.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Micah's prophecy fits Christ, not Zerubbabel; early testimonies speak of his benefits, later ones of his divinity; Herod's secret inquiry was folly; the star appeared long before the birth and hid so that the magi would ask the Jews.
Homilies on Matthew 8.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · God's deceiving of Herod, like his despoiling of Egypt, displays his power; the flight to Egypt fulfills Hos 11:1, signals the conversion of Egypt and Babylon, and teaches that spiritual service brings trials; God alternates joys and dangers; prophecy often finds fulfillment in later persons.
Homilies on Matthew 9.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Archelaus's reign explains the move to Nazareth; Chrysostom harmonizes Matthew with Luke (the return to Nazareth after the purification came before the flight); 'he shall be called a Nazarene' comes from lost prophetic books; Christ's lowly origins rebuke human pride.
Homilies on Matthew 10.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · John came from the wilderness as Isaiah foretold, preparing the way rather than giving remission; Luke's fuller quotation of Isa 40 figures the humbling of the proud, the ease of grace, and salvation for all flesh; Matthew adds the detail of John's dress.
Homilies on Matthew 14.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ withdraws to Galilee after John’s arrest, teaching us not to rush into danger, fulfils Isaiah’s prophecy of light for Galilee of the Gentiles, and begins preaching only after John has borne his witness.
Homilies on Matthew 16.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ left the boldest statements about his divinity and creative work to his disciples out of condescension to his hearers, and he fulfilled the prophets by his deeds and the law by keeping it and by enabling believers to fulfil it through faith.
Homilies on Matthew 36.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · John sent his jealous disciples to learn from Christ’s works who he was; Chrysostom rejects the view that John did not know of the passion or of a preaching in Hades, insists that there is no repentance after death, and warns his hearers who partake of the mysteries unworthily.
Homilies on Matthew 37.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ is not a mere man as John is; John is the Elijah who was to come, and the parable of the children in the marketplace shows that John’s austerity and Christ’s eating with sinners were two ways toward the same end.
Homilies on Matthew 40.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Pharisees’ envy drives them to plot against Christ, who withdraws in meekness as Isaiah foretold; when he heals the blind and dumb demoniac they call it the work of Beelzebul, and Chrysostom begins a moral discourse on envy, the worst of vices.
Homilies on Matthew 66.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The two blind men near Jericho persevere against rebuke and are healed; Christ then sends for the donkey and colt, fulfilling Zechariah and entering Jerusalem openly now that the Passion is near.
Homilies on Matthew 66.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The owners’ yielding of the donkey and Christ’s humble mount foreshadow the call of the Gentiles and teach simplicity of life; turning to his hearers, Chrysostom rebukes their stinginess toward Christ in the poor and shows that Antioch’s rich could easily feed all its poor.
Homilies on Matthew 68.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom harmonizes Matthew and Luke on who pronounced the verdict, explains the rejected stone as Christ rejected by Israel’s teachers, the two destructions of falling on it and being crushed, and the leaders’ blindness from love of power and glory.
Homilies on Matthew 69.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom compares the parable of the marriage feast with that of the tenants: it shows God inviting the Jews even after the Son’s death, their excuses and murders, the destruction of Jerusalem under Vespasian and Titus, and the call of the Gentiles, the Jews having been addressed first.
Homilies on Matthew 84.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Peter’s sword-stroke, rebuked and undone by a miracle of healing, shows the disciples’ zeal and Christ’s gentleness; he had let them carry swords only as a sign of the coming betrayal, and he declines the legions of angels so that the Scriptures may be fulfilled, speaking in lowly terms to suit their fear.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.8.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · David alone was openly promised that Christ would come from his seed.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.8.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The psalms foretell Christ's birth, passion, resurrection, ascension and session.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 39.5.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The prophets’ inspired “madness”, like Isaiah walking naked and barefoot, is a true madness.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.15.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The psalm’s “When will he die, and his name perish?” was fulfilled in the hostility of Christ’s enemies.
Tractates on Matthew 6.1Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains how Christ, the author of the Law, fulfilled it by completing its prophecies and figures and confirming its precepts, and sees the cross in the iota and stroke.
Sermon 2.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The story of Isaac and the ram foreshadows Christ, whose passion in Psalm 22 is followed by the nations' remembering and turning to the Lord.
Sermon 17.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ, silent when he came to be judged, will come manifestly to judge and not keep silent; even now he speaks through Scripture, readers, preachers and singers, but must be heard with the ears of the heart.
Sermon 22.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · "Let sinners perish like smoke and wax" frightens every conscience; but the Psalms often foretell the future in the form of a wish or of a past event, as with Christ's passion and Judas.
Sermon 22.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Since everything foretold about the Church has come true, its worldwide spread, heresies, persecution, the martyrs' harvest, the fall of the idols, the foretold judgment will certainly come too.
Sermon 38.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · We are troubled because faith, like Christ in the boat, is asleep; God has already fulfilled so much of what he promised and foretold that we should believe the rest will come.
Sermon 43.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Peter calls the prophetic word “more certain” than the voice at the Transfiguration, not because it is truer, but because prophecies made before Christ’s birth refute those who call him a magician.
Sermon 45.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Daniel’s stone cut from a mountain without hands, which grew into a mountain filling the earth, is Christ, born of the Jews and of a virgin, and the Church spread through the world.
Sermon 47.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The “one shepherd, my servant David” is Christ, born of David’s line: one with the Father in the form of God, raised up as servant in the form of a servant, so that both “I will feed” and “He will feed” are true.
Sermon 77.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ reached the Gentiles through his disciples, especially Paul; the healing of the woman with a flow of blood on the way to Jairus’s daughter figures this, since Christ’s deeds are visible words.
Sermon 101.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Samaritan woman’s expectation of the Messiah shows that the patriarchs and prophets had sown, so that the apostles reaped a ripe harvest among the Jews.
Sermon 110.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The judgment will surely come, since God has already fulfilled so many prophecies, of Christ, the church, the fall of idols, and even heretics; God is our debtor only by his promises.
Sermon 130.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ is one person in two substances, God and man; since God has already fulfilled his promise to Abraham by blessing all nations in Christ, we must believe he will give his eternal promises.
Sermon 199.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Magi believed and sought Christ; the Jewish leaders pointed the way to Bethlehem from Scripture but, like milestones, did not go themselves.
Sermon 200.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Jewish leaders named Bethlehem from Scripture without seeking Christ; their Scriptures now serve as independent witness to the pagans that the prophecies were not invented by Christians.
Sermon 201.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine explains the survival of the dispersed Jews, like the mark of Cain, as God's way of preserving the Scriptures as witness to Christ for the Gentiles.
Sermon 242.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The apostles saw the risen head and believed in the Church to come; we see the Church spread through the world and should believe about the head.
Sermon 279.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Jacob’s blessing, “Benjamin is a ravening wolf, in the morning seizing, in the evening dividing food,” was fulfilled in Paul of Benjamin, persecutor at Stephen’s stoning and then, struck down and blinded on the road, a preacher who saw only Jesus.
Sermon 288.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · John, so great he could have been taken for Christ, humbly bore witness as the bridegroom’s friend; foretold by Isaiah, he called himself the voice, while Christ is the Word.
Sermon 288.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The word precedes the voice in the speaker but follows it in the hearer; so Christ the Word is before John with God and after him with us, and John sums up all the voices, prophets and preachers, sent before the Word.
Sermon 289.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · John, so great he was taken for the Christ, called himself the voice crying in the wilderness of Isaiah 40; Augustine distinguishes voice from word and applies the leveling of mountains and valleys to the humbling of the proud and lifting of the humble.
Sermon 293.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · John stands at the boundary of the two Testaments: born of the old, a prophet in the womb; Zechariah’s silence is hidden prophecy, opened when the voice is born, as the veil was torn at the cross.
Sermon 293.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God prepared John as a lamp for Christ, the day, to confound his enemies: when the Jewish leaders challenged Christ’s authority, his question about John’s baptism exposed their unwillingness to believe.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains love of enemies as the summit of mercy, treats “hate your enemy” as an allowance for the weak, and argues that the imprecations of the prophets, of Christ, and of Paul are predictions, not wishes.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 4.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers that the Old Testament’s temporal promises were figures of the New, that the patriarchs and prophets looked to the New Testament, and that the Manichaeans deny the bodily resurrection and imagine a land of light of their own.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 12.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus argues that Christ needs no prophetic testimony, since the Father and his works testify to him, and that the Hebrew prophets lived unworthy lives.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 12.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine sets out to show that the prophets foretold Christ, that their testimony helps faith, and that they lived worthily, beginning with Paul’s words in Rom 1:1–3.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 12.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues from Paul that the law and the Israelite prophets bear witness to Christ, in whom all God’s promises are fulfilled.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 12.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine points to the promise that all nations would be blessed in Abraham’s seed, which Paul applies to Christ and which is now visibly fulfilled.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 12.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine says that all the prophetic books speak of Christ, much of it in figures, and that the figures taken together testify plainly to him.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 12.41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine cites the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that all nations would be blessed in their seed as a plain prophecy now visibly fulfilled in Christ.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 12.42Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine reads Jacob’s blessing of Judah (Gen 49:8–12) clause by clause as a prophecy of Christ: his birth, passion, resurrection, the coming of Herod, the calling of the nations, and the church washed in his blood.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 12.43Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine lists plain prophecies of Christ needing no interpreter: Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, Psalm 57, Psalm 2, and Baruch 3.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 12.44Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine cites Daniel’s Son of Man and seventy weeks, the cessation of the temple sacrifice and anointing, and the Jewish expectation of the Messiah as proof that Christ was prophesied.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 12.45Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers that faith in Christ always comes through human witnesses, and that prophecy protected the apostles’ preaching from being dismissed as magic.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 13.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus argues that the Hebrew prophets are of no use to Gentile converts, who come to Christ through his own fame, not through Jewish testimony.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 13.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine shows from Isaiah and Psalm 110, as used by Jesus, that Hebrew prophecy foretold Christ as God and not only as man.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 13.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers Faustus's imagined Gentile: the persecutions, the conversion of kings and the fall of idols, all foretold in the psalms and Jeremiah, make the prophets credible.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 13.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that the Jews, scattered everywhere and carrying the prophetic books, prove that the prophecies were not forged by Christians after the event.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 13.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine says the Jews' rejection of the gospel was itself foretold, and that their blindness is a just punishment for hidden sins.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 13.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine concludes that fulfilled prophecy makes the prophets the most credible witnesses to Christ's divinity.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 13.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine allows that pagan seers' sayings about God may refute paganism, but says they carry no authority compared with the Hebrew prophets, whose whole kingdom was a prophecy of Christ.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 15.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine replies that Paul himself joins the gospel to the prophets, that the new and old wine signify two hopes, not two testaments, and that the Old Testament rightly understood prophesies the New.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 15.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine asks what promises the Manichaeans have seen fulfilled, and says that they were foretold by Paul's prophecy of those who forbid marriage and abstain from foods.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 15.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine says the church trusts God's final promise of eternal praise because his earlier promises, such as the blessing of all nations and Psalm 45's bride, are fulfilled, and calls the Manichaeans to return.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus says he would gladly accept any prophecy of Christ in Moses or elsewhere, as one takes fish from the sea, without accepting Moses' law.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus says he found no prophecy of Christ in Moses, and so judges the saying “Moses wrote about me” to be a scribe's forgery rather than call Jesus a liar.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus asks to be shown what Moses wrote about Christ, since appeal to Christ's word would not convince a Jew or Gentile.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus rejects Deuteronomy 18:15 as a prophecy of Christ, since Christ is God and holy while Moses was a man and a sinner.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus argues that Deuteronomy 28:66 refers to Israel's captivity, and that the curses and death penalty of the law cannot be about Christ without making Moses an enemy of Christ.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine undertakes to show that the very passages Faustus attacks foretell Christ, and argues that if the gospel is called falsified, nothing can be known of Christ at all.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers that Christ's appeal to the law's two witnesses itself points to Moses' prophecy of the Father and the Son, and that the Jews' silence proves nothing.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine says Faustus misses everything in Moses because he reads with hostility, and that by his own admission a professed Christian is bound by the gospel to believe Moses wrote of Christ.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine defends Deuteronomy 18:15 as a prophecy of Christ, showing that likeness need not be in every respect and that Christ is both unlike and like Moses in different ways.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that Moses' successor Joshua, whose name Moses changed to “Jesus” and of whom God said “my name is in him,” was a figure of Christ, the prophet foretold by Moses.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine invites the Jew to see in Joshua a figure of the living Jesus, and argues that a Gentile too would be moved by Hebrew books that named Jesus so long before.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that the Jews, who keep the prophetic books while rejecting Christ, are unwilling witnesses that the prophecies were not forged by Christians, and that their unbelief was itself foretold.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine defends Deuteronomy 28:66 as a prophecy of Christ, the life of men hung before unbelieving Jews, noting that prophetic curses are foreknowledge, not ill wishes.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that even Caiaphas prophesied Christ unknowingly through the priestly anointing, so Moses, who founded that anointing, certainly prophesied Christ knowingly.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine exposes the gap in Faustus's argument: he never showed that no other passages of Moses concern Christ, and many have been given, so the Gospel saying stands.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 18.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine repeats that the rites of the law were figures to be removed when their realities came, and that their removal, foretold by the prophets, is itself a fulfilment of the law.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that the prophecies were fulfilled in Christ, so the figurative rites that foretold him are rightly no longer performed.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine compares sacraments to visible words: as verbs change tense when what was future has happened, so the sacraments changed when what they promised was fulfilled in Christ.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine states that the lives as well as the words of the prophets, and the whole Hebrew kingdom, were a prophecy of Christ and the church.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.69Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine praises Moses as God's faithful servant, minister of the holy law and prophet of Christ, to be judged by God's testimony, not Faustus's slander.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.83Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine prefaces his reading of Judah and Tamar by arguing that evil deeds narrated in prophetic Scripture can signify good things, as Caiaphas unknowingly prophesied Christ's death.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.85Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine interprets Judah's going to shear his sheep at Timnah with Hirah the Adullamite as Christ coming to the lost sheep of Israel when Judah's kingship had failed, with John the Baptist's testimony in water.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.89Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine shows from Hosea's own prophecy and from Paul and Peter that Hosea's marriage to a harlot signified God's calling of the Gentiles, “not my people,” to be his people.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 32.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine explains that the Old Testament itself foretold a new covenant, and that its rites, as shadows of things to come, are fulfilled rather than condemned.
Tractates 3Gaudentius of Brescia · ca. 397-410 · On Easter Sunday Gaudentius reads the renewal of heaven and earth in the newly baptized and expounds the Passover lamb: taken on the tenth day and killed on the fourteenth, foretold but not caused by God's foreknowledge, perfect, male, and a year old as Christ was.
On Catechizing the Uninstructed 3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–405 · A full narration runs from creation to the present Church, selecting the striking points and relating everything to love, since all Scripture before Christ foretold him and his body the Church, as Jacob's hand preceded his head at birth.
On Catechizing the Uninstructed 24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–405 · The narration continues with the spread of the Church through the blood of martyrs, the conversion of the persecuting empire, the pruning of heresies and schisms, the fulfilment of prophecy as ground for faith, and the coming judgment.
On Catechizing the Uninstructed 27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–405 · The short model address recounts the fulfilment of prophecy from the flood and Abraham to Christ, the Church, its persecutions and heresies, then the coming judgment and resurrection, and urges the candidate to love God freely, join the good, bear with the bad, and hope in God alone.
On the Trinity 4.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine distinguishes kinds of foreknowledge: conjecture from experience, demons' perception of what is already on its way, revelation through angels, and direct prophetic vision by the Holy Spirit; the philosophers, though they knew something of God, were not given knowledge of the ages and the resurrection, which was revealed to the prophets.
The Harmony of the Gospels 1.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Christ could not have used magic to inspire the prophets who foretold him before his birth, or to make a whole nation prophesy him.
The Harmony of the Gospels 1.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · God let the Jews be subjugated for their sins, and the end of their kingdom, temple, priesthood, and anointing showed that these existed to foretell Christ.
The Harmony of the Gospels 1.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Those who blame the disciples rather than Christ for the overthrow of idols should read the prophets, who both commanded and foretold it.
The Harmony of the Gospels 1.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · If the pagans call gods those whose seers gave petty answers, the God whose prophets foretold the conversion of all nations is surely God.
The Harmony of the Gospels 1.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · No pagan seer foretold the triumph of the God of Israel or warned against obeying him, while the prophets foretold the fall of the idols.
The Harmony of the Gospels 1.39Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · The pagans cannot deny the God of Israel, whose promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that all nations would be blessed in their seed is now being fulfilled in Christ.
The Harmony of the Gospels 1.40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · The prophets, whose books the Jews themselves carry everywhere, foretold that the nations would abandon their idols, so the disciples did not invent this teaching.
The Harmony of the Gospels 1.43Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Augustine introduces Isaiah's prophecy that the Lord alone would be exalted and idols cast away in fear.
The Harmony of the Gospels 1.46Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Lucan called the Jews' God 'uncertain,' but Psalm 19 now shows him certain, as the apostles' preaching has gone out to all the earth.
The Harmony of the Gospels 1.47Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Isaiah 52:13–54:5, quoted in full, foretells Christ's humility and passion and the church from all nations, whose God is called God of the whole earth.
The Harmony of the Gospels 1.48Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Even pagans who accept Christ's passion must see that Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering servant is now fulfilled in his exaltation among the nations.
The Harmony of the Gospels 1.49Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Neither magic nor the disciples' invention can explain the prophecies of the church's worldwide spread, which are now fulfilled.
The Harmony of the Gospels 3.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · The name Jeremiah also points the reader to Jeremiah's purchase of a field, to be read with Zechariah's thirty pieces of silver as a figure of Christ's price and the burial of pilgrims in baptism.
Commentary on Daniel 9, scholion 2Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Daniel prayed because the seventy years were nearly complete and the people did not seek their return.
Commentary on Daniel 9, scholion 29Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Polychronius works out the seven and sixty-two weeks: 49 years from Darius the Mede to the completion of the temple, and 434 years from Artaxerxes's thirty-second year to Christ's birth in Herod's thirty-second year, following Josephus and Eusebius's Chronicle.
Commentary on Daniel 9, scholion 38Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · The 'flood' is the complete destruction of Jerusalem, as Christ foretold.
Commentary on Daniel 12, scholion 21Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · The godly will believe from the signs and fulfilled prophecy.
Verses to the Grace of the Lord 1–30Pomponius · 5th century(?) · In a Christian cento made of Virgil's lines, Meliboeus greets the shepherd Tityrus, who begins to sing of the one almighty God who fills and rules all things.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 1–3Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Three questions: why the orthodox are few if God abolished the old worship (the answer cites the few chosen and the narrow way); how prophets differ from pagan oracles (God foretold through both, but only the prophets' words about the true God came true); and what advantage the baptized Christian has if those who know God's will are punished more.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 43–45Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Three questions: the animals entered the ark in pairs and sevens of each sex; Isaiah's vision shows Christ and the cleansing power of his flesh in the Eucharist, while Ezekiel's living creatures foretold Nebuchadnezzar's fate and the end of Israel's captivity; and Ezekiel is called “son of man” because his vision of dry bones prefigures the resurrection by the Son of man.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 12.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Prophecy belongs chiefly to the mind that understands; Joseph was more a prophet than Pharaoh who saw the dream, and Daniel, who both saw and understood, most of all.
Apology against Rufinus 2.25Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome quotes his preface to Genesis, which defends translating from the Hebrew because the apostles quote Hebrew passages missing in the Septuagint, and rejects the legend of the seventy cells.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 20Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · The prophets foretold Judas's betrayal with a kiss, the thirty pieces of silver, and Christ's being bound.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 21Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · The prophets foretold that the Lord would be judged, scourged, spat upon, and sent bound as a 'gift' between Pilate and Herod.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 22Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · The prophets foretold the crowd's cry, Christ's silence, the crown of thorns which undid the curse on the ground, and his hanging on the wood.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 24Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · The darkness at the crucifixion was foretold by Amos and Zechariah, whose 'cold' even matches Peter warming himself at the fire.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 25Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · The dividing of Christ's garments and the scarlet robe of mockery were foretold in Ps 22 and Isa 63.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 26Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · The gall and vinegar given to Christ were foretold in the Psalms, by Moses, and in the Song of Songs.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 27Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · Christ's death and burial behind a great stone were foretold in the Psalms, Lamentations, Isaiah and Genesis.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 30Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · Testimonies to the resurrection from the Psalms, Hosea's 'third day', Isaiah, and the Song of Songs on the women who sought him.
On the Divination of Demons 10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–411 · Demons repeat true prophecy only when they overhear it; otherwise they are often wrong, because God's angels change what they foresaw, and they also lie deliberately.
On the Divination of Demons 11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–411 · The demon of Serapis foretold the Serapeum's fall only when it was already imminent, after long silence about what the prophets had foretold centuries before.
On the Divination of Demons 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–411 · Pagan claims of earlier predictions are probably invented after the event, and no pagan god ever dared to speak against the God of Israel, who foretold and brought about their overthrow.
On the Divination of Demons 13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–411 · Zephaniah and the Psalms foretold that through Christ all nations would turn from their gods to the God of Israel, after first opposing the church.
On the Divination of Demons 14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–411 · The dwindling pagans who mock Christian foolishness are fulfilling Scripture, which also strengthens believers against their scorn.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 9.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The water at Cana signifies Old Testament prophecy read without Christ, insipid as water; when Christ is understood in it, the veil is removed and it becomes intoxicating wine.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 9.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Prophecy about Christ has run through all ages but was hidden like water, as the risen Christ showed when he opened the Scriptures to the disciples on the road to Emmaus and in Jerusalem.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 9.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · In another interpretation, the prophecy signified by the jars, though given through Israel, concerns the salvation of all nations, as promised to Abraham; Augustine will go through the ages as six jars.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 15.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The prophets and patriarchs sowed, and the apostles reaped the ripe harvest in Judea; from it the whole world was sown for a harvest that angels will reap at the end, and sowers and reapers will rejoice together.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 23.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's works, the Father, John the lamp, and the Scriptures all bear witness to him; the Jews who trusted the Scriptures were directed by them to Christ.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 24.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The crowd called Christ a prophet; he is the prophet foretold to Moses, yet Lord of the prophets, and “Angel of great counsel” as Lord of the angels.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 31.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Jews' saying that no one knows where the Christ is from reflects Scripture's twofold witness: his human origin was foretold, but his divine generation none can declare.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 35.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ sent prophetic lamps before him, among them John the Baptist, whose witness he used to confound those who questioned his authority.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 35.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ is fit to witness to himself, but because he came humbly to our weakness and we are still in the world's night, the lamps of prophecy are needed too.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 35.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christians answer pagans from the prophets, using the Jews' own books, which foretold the passion and the pure sacrifice offered among the nations.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 35.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Even Christians' day is night compared with the light to come, so we need the sure word of prophecy, which also refutes those who call Christ a magician.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 37.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's hour was not fated but chosen: he waited until all the prophecies were fulfilled and then gave up his spirit by his own power.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 43.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Abraham saw Christ's day with the eyes of the heart and rejoiced; his oath by the God of heaven with a hand under his thigh foretold that God would come in the flesh from his lineage.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 49.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Caiaphas prophesied by virtue of his office; the evangelist extends his words to God’s scattered children, who are his sheep by predestination.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 50.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Jewish Passover was a shadow of Christ the true Lamb, whose sign protects only those whose hearts receive him.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 117.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Pilate refuses to change the title, and Augustine explains that Christ is king of the true Jews, the children of the promise, Gentiles included.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 119.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ arranges even his sufferings, saying 'I thirst' to fulfil Scripture; the vinegar, sponge, and hyssop are given figurative meanings.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 2.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · The risen Christ strengthened his disciples' faith from the Scriptures, which all speak of him and are our sure defence against heretics, since we cannot touch him as they did.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.54Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Old Testament witnesses (Psalm 16, Psalm 119, Isaiah 53 and 61) show that all have gone astray and are healed only by Christ, who bore the sins of many.
City of God 7.32Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine explains that the mystery of redemption in Christ was always proclaimed by signs, and that the whole worship of Israel foretold what is fulfilled in Christ.
City of God 8.23Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine quotes Hermes Trismegistus on men 'making gods' by joining spirits to statues and on the coming end of Egyptian religion, and contrasts his lament with the joy of the prophets who foretold the fall of idols.
City of God 10.32Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine answers Porphyry's search for a universal way of liberating the soul by presenting the Christian religion, promised to Abraham and foretold by the prophets, as that way, and closes the first ten books.
City of God 17.1Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Book 17 covers the age of the prophets from Samuel to the return from exile, whose writings foretell Christ and the city of God more than they record history.
City of God 17.3Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Prophecies refer to the earthly Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem, or both; Augustine rejects both purely literal and wholly allegorical reading.
City of God 17.8Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · God's promise to David of an eternal house and kingdom for his son (2 Sam 7) was not fulfilled in Solomon, who fell into idolatry, but in Christ, who builds God's house of people.
City of God 17.15Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine declines to list all the psalms' prophecies of Christ, since each should be read in its whole context, and refers readers to fuller expositions of the psalms.
City of God 17.19Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Psalm 69's prophecy of gall and vinegar and of darkened eyes explains why many Jews did not accept the fulfilled prophecies.
City of God 18.23Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine gives a Latin version of the Erythraean Sibyl's acrostic poem on the judgment, whose Greek initials spell “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour” and form the word ichthys (“fish”), and gathers the Sibylline prophecies of Christ's passion quoted by Lactantius.
City of God 18.27Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine dates Hosea, Amos, Isaiah, Micah, Jonah, and Joel to the time when the Assyrian empire ended and Rome began, so that written prophecy for the nations arose with the city that would rule them.
City of God 18.30Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reads Micah's mountain of the Lord and Bethlehem prophecy, the sign of Jonah, and Joel's promise of the Spirit as prophecies fulfilled in Christ and the church.
City of God 18.31Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine interprets Obadiah's saved ones going up from Zion, Nahum's messenger of peace and the one who breathes into Judah's face, and Habakkuk's vision as prophecies of Christ and the gospel.
City of God 18.32Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine interprets Habakkuk's prayer, verse by verse, as a prophecy of Christ's coming, passion, preaching, ascension, and the church's tribulations, ending with “I will rejoice in God my Jesus.”
City of God 18.33Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine dates Jeremiah and Zephaniah and quotes their prophecies of Christ's passion, incarnation, righteous reign, rejection by the Jews, and the calling of the nations.
City of God 18.34Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine cites Daniel's vision of the Son of Man and Ezekiel's prophecy of one shepherd, “my servant David,” as prophecies of Christ and his kingdom.
City of God 18.35Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reads Haggai's shaking of the nations, Zechariah's humble king and the blood of the covenant, and Malachi's pure offering among the nations, the angel of the covenant, and the day of judgment as prophecies of Christ and the church.
City of God 18.45Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine traces the afflictions of the Jews from the rebuilding of the temple to Herod, arguing that the greater glory promised by Haggai belongs to the church, and that Jacob's prophecy was fulfilled when a foreign king ruled at Christ's birth.
City of God 18.46Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine dates Christ's birth to the reign of Herod and Augustus and argues that the Jews, dispersed among the nations with their Scriptures, bear unwilling witness that the prophecies of Christ were not invented by Christians.
City of God 18.47Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine allows that people outside Israel, like Job, belonged to the heavenly city through faith in the one Mediator, but holds that prophecies preserved by the Jews are the strongest evidence for Christ.
City of God 18.48Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine argues that Haggai's promised greater glory belongs to the church built of living stones, which will appear fully when only the chosen remain.
City of God 20.30Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Old Testament passages where the Lord God speaks as judge are shown, from Isaiah and Zechariah, to refer to Christ; Augustine lists the events of the end: Elijah, the Jews' faith, Antichrist, Christ's judgment, resurrection, separation, and the world's burning and renewal.
Commentary on Jeremiah 1.1Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jerome sets Jeremiah's ministry in its historical frame, from the thirteenth year of Josiah to the fall of Jerusalem, and notes the Septuagint's differences.
Commentary on Jeremiah 1.58Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The promise of a remnant brought to Zion, with new shepherds and no more need of the ark, is fulfilled in Christ's coming and the apostles, or at the end in Israel's salvation.
Commentary on Jeremiah 1.95Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Israel's leaders broke God's yoke, so the lion, wolf and leopard, that is Babylon, Persia and Alexander, will devour them; so too faithless leaders in the church are handed over to their passions.
Commentary on Jeremiah 5.54Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The priests and people must not believe prophets promising the quick return of the temple vessels; rather the remaining vessels too will go to Babylon until God restores them. A true prophet would intercede, as Moses and Samuel did (Jer 27:16–22).
Commentary on Jeremiah 5.59Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jeremiah, without insulting Hananiah, appeals to the test of fulfillment: a prophet of peace is proved true only when his word comes to pass (Jer 28:7–9).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.6Jerome · ca. 414-419 · God promises to save Jacob and Israel while chastising them, which shows that no one is sinless in this life, against the Pelagians; Jerusalem's incurable wound comes from God the physician, who will heal her, rebuild the city and temple, and raise a prince from among them, fulfilled in Christ and the church (Jer 30:10–22).
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 6.20.6Orosius · ca. 417–418 · The spring of oil foretold the Anointed One.
Tome to the Armenians 25Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 435-437 · The prophets foretold a virgin bearing Emmanuel, 'God with us'.
Chapter 11Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · The preacher summons witnesses from the Jews’ own Law and prophets to Christ, beginning with Isaiah’s virgin and the passage he attributes to Jeremiah on God seen on earth.
Chapter 12Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · Daniel testifies that anointing would cease when the Holy of holies came, and that the stone cut without hands would become a mountain, the Christ whom Peter confessed.
Chapter 13Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · Moses, David, and Habakkuk are called as witnesses: the prophet like Moses, the Lord at God’s right hand, and Christ known “in the midst of two living creatures” at the manger, on the cross, and at the Transfiguration.
Part 2, chapter 35Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Daniel’s ninth to twelfth visions (the lions’ den, the seventy weeks, the end time, Bel and the Dragon) figure Christ delivered from his enemies, mark the time of his coming against the Jews, and show the overthrow of idols.
Part 2, chapter 40Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Maccabean martyr mother and her seven sons, and Judas’s offering for the dead, figure the Church’s martyrs and hope of resurrection; the end of Judah’s rulers under Herod fulfils Jacob’s prophecy of the coming of Christ, born in the census under Augustus; the second part of the book ends.
Part 3, chapter 1Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Isaiah’s voice in the wilderness is fulfilled in John the Baptist, as John the evangelist and Acts attest, with lines of the Sibyl added.
Part 3, chapter 2Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The prophecies of Christ as king from heaven in the Psalms and Isaiah are fulfilled in the Magi’s question and attested by Paul and the Sibyl.
Part 3, chapter 3Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The prophecies of the Word sent to heal, seen on earth, and going out into the fields are fulfilled in the Word made flesh, as John, Paul, and the Sibyl attest.
Part 3, chapter 4Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Isaiah’s prophecy of the virgin is fulfilled in the annunciation to Mary, as Paul attests; the Sibyl and Virgil’s fourth Eclogue are added as witnesses.
Part 3, chapter 5Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The ox and ass of Isaiah and Habakkuk’s two living creatures are fulfilled in Christ laid in the manger, as Luke and Paul attest, with a line of the Sibyl.
Part 3, chapter 6Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Balaam’s star, the light of the nations, and the gifts of kings in the Psalms and Isaiah are fulfilled in the star of the Magi and their gifts, with Paul, the Sibyl, and Virgil as further witnesses.
Part 3, chapter 7Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Isaiah’s promise of the son whose peace has no end is fulfilled in the angels’ song at Christ’s birth and his gift of peace, with Paul and Virgil’s fourth Eclogue as witnesses.
Part 3, chapter 8Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Hosea’s “Out of Egypt I called my Son” is fulfilled in the flight into Egypt, where Christ brought grace to a land of sin.
Part 3, chapter 9Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Jeremiah’s Rachel weeping and the Psalms’ innocents are fulfilled in Herod’s slaughter of the infants, numbered with the sealed of the Apocalypse, with lines of Virgil added.
Part 3, chapter 10Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Isaiah’s “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” is fulfilled when Jesus reads it and declares it fulfilled, to the amazement of his hearers.
Part 3, chapter 12Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Jeremiah’s fishers and hunters are fulfilled in Christ’s call of Peter and Andrew to be fishers of men, with Psalms on the beasts and fish of their catch.
Part 3, chapter 13Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Isaiah’s prophecy of the blind seeing and the lame leaping is fulfilled in Christ’s answer to John’s disciples, attested by Peter, with a line of Virgil.
Part 3, chapter 14Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Psalm’s way in the sea and Wisdom’s path among the waves are fulfilled in Christ walking on the water, his rescue of Peter, and Paul’s safety in shipwreck.
Part 3, chapter 16Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Zechariah’s king riding on a donkey is fulfilled in Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, which also figures the Gentile Cornelius brought to faith.
Part 3, chapter 17Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Psalms’ zeal for God’s house are fulfilled in Christ’s cleansing of the temple, which condemns lovers of money and betrayers, with a line of Virgil on the age of greed.
Part 3, chapter 18Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Psalms on the friend who ate Christ’s bread and lifted his heel, and Zechariah’s thirty pieces of silver, are fulfilled in Judas’ betrayal at the Last Supper.
Part 3, chapter 19Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Isaiah’s servant giving his back to scourges and Lamentations on offering the cheek are fulfilled in the scourging and mocking of Jesus, attested by Peter and the Sibyl.
Part 3, chapter 20Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Psalm’s thorn fixed in the sufferer and the ram caught in the thicket are fulfilled in Christ’s crown of thorns, with the Sibyl as witness.
Part 3, chapter 21Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Isaiah’s lamb led to slaughter, the Psalm’s pierced hands and feet, and Jeremiah’s anointed one taken are fulfilled in the crucifixion at Golgotha.
Part 3, chapter 22Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Isaiah’s “counted among the wicked” is fulfilled in Christ crucified between two robbers.
Part 3, chapter 24Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Psalm’s gall and vinegar are fulfilled in the drink given to Christ on the cross, with the hyssop of Ps 51, the Sibyl, and Virgil as witnesses.
Part 3, chapter 25Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Zechariah’s “they will look on him whom they pierced” and the law that no bone of the lamb be broken are fulfilled in the piercing of Christ’s side, from which blood and water flowed.
Part 3, chapter 26Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Joel’s darkened sun and moon are fulfilled in the darkness at the crucifixion and the tearing of the temple veil.
Part 3, chapter 27Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Psalms on the one free among the dead whose holy one will not see corruption are fulfilled in Christ’s burial by Joseph of Arimathea.
Part 3, chapter 28Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Isaiah’s prophecy that the dead will rise is fulfilled in the saints who rose from their tombs at Christ’s death, with Paul, Peter, and the Sibyl as witnesses.
Part 3, chapter 30Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Hosea’s roaring lion and Jacob’s sleeping lion are fulfilled in the risen Christ rebuking the disciples’ unbelief and showing Thomas his wounds, attested by John and Paul, with Virgil as witness.
Part 3, chapter 35Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The prophecies of the nations called from east to west, from afar and from Persia, are fulfilled in the Gentile Church, as Christ, Peter, Paul, and the Apocalypse attest.
Part 3, chapter 36Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Psalm and Isaiah’s prophecies of kings serving God’s people are fulfilled as kings come to Christ’s Church, greater than Solomon, to whom all kingdoms come.
Part 4, chapter 12Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Antichrist will be known not to be Christ because he will come in pride and will not fulfil the prophecies of humility, passion, death, resurrection, ascension, and the gift of the Spirit that Christ fulfilled; his end is the lake of fire.