Prophetic Extracts

Contents

Reading pages: 1.1–1.6 · 1.7–1.10 · 1.11–1.14 · 1.15–2.1 · 2.2–2.12 · 2.13–3.5 · 3.6–3.23 · 3.24–3.38 · 3.39–3.45 · 3.46–4.0 · 4.1–4.7 · 4.8–4.21 · 4.22–4.26 · 4.27–4.33 · 4.34–4.35

1. 1.1Eusebius 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.
2. 1.2On the tower of Babel, Eusebius argues that the Lord who “came down” was neither an angel nor the Father but the divine Word.
3. 1.3Eusebius lists God's appearances to Abraham and argues that the Lord who appeared at Mamre was neither an angel nor the unseen Father but the Word of God, against those who separate the God of the Old Testament from the Father of Christ.
4. 1.4Eusebius argues that the Lord who spoke to Hagar through an angel was the Word, who appeared in person to the patriarchs but through angels to lesser persons.
5. 1.5From “the Lord rained from the Lord” on Sodom, Eusebius argues that Scripture names two Lords, the Father and his Word.
6. 1.6Eusebius suggests that Isaac's blessing of Jacob, which does not fit Jacob himself, may refer to Christ.
7. 1.7Eusebius traces the stages by which God appeared to Jacob and argues that the one who wrestled with him and named him Israel was the Word of God.
8. 1.8Eusebius 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.
9. 1.9Eusebius argues that at the burning bush and at Sinai the Lord, the Word, spoke to Moses through an angel and angels, whereas he had appeared in person to the patriarchs.
10. 1.10Eusebius distinguishes the angel from the pillar of cloud, through which the Word himself spoke to Israel, and argues that the Lord of the Decalogue speaks of the Father as another Lord.
11. 1.11Eusebius applies “my angel… my name is upon him” to Joshua, whom Moses renamed Jesus, and argues that Moses first gave the names Jesus and Christ, to Joshua and Aaron, as types of the Saviour.
12. 1.12On Moses' request to see God's glory, Eusebius argues that the Lord who spoke to Moses through the cloud was the Word, who in proclaiming “the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and merciful” called upon his own Father as the only true God.
13. 1.13Eusebius 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.”
14. 1.14Eusebius 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.
15. 1.15Eusebius 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.
16. 1.16Eusebius reads the Song of Moses' call for the angels to worship and the nations to rejoice as fulfilled in Christ and the Gentile church.
17. 1.17Eusebius identifies the commander of the Lord's army who met Joshua as Christ, the one who spoke to Moses at the bush, also called Angel of Great Counsel and Angel of the covenant.
18. 1.18Eusebius reads Hannah's song as foretelling the ascension of the Word, the Gospel's spread, the judgment, and the exaltation of his anointed.
19. 1.19Eusebius applies the oracle to Eli about a faithful priest to Christ the high priest, his house the church, and the humble who come to him.
20. 1.20Eusebius 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.
21. 1.21Eusebius briefly reads David's song as foretelling Christ's descent, the unbelief of the circumcision, the Gentile church, and the heresies.
22. 1.22Eusebius takes Solomon's prayer that God would truly dwell with humans on earth as fulfilled in the incarnation.
23. 1.23Eusebius notes that the Chronicles version of Nathan's oracle matches the one in 2 Samuel already discussed.
24. 1.24Eusebius notes that Solomon's prayer in Chronicles repeats the passage from 1 Kings already discussed.
25. 1.25Eusebius quotes the praise of truth from 1 Esdras, applying it to the Word who is the truth, and closes the extracts from the historical books.
26. 2.0Eusebius opens the second book of the Extracts, on prophecies from the poetic books, beginning with the Psalms.
27. 2.1Eusebius argues that the blessed man of Psalm 1, wholly untouched by sin, can be only Christ.
28. 2.2Eusebius 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.
29. 2.3Eusebius reads Psalm 3 as foretelling Christ's resurrection, completing a sequence with Psalms 1 and 2.
30. 2.4Eusebius reads Psalm 8 as foretelling the churches of the nations and, with Hebrews, the Son made a little lower than the angels and then crowned with glory.
31. 2.5Eusebius reads the ninth psalm, with its title about the death of the son, as foretelling Christ's passion and resurrection and his appointment as lawgiver of the nations.
32. 2.6Eusebius reads “Now I will arise, says the Lord” in the eleventh psalm as Christ speaking of his resurrection for the sake of the nations.
33. 2.7Eusebius cites Peter's Pentecost sermon to show that Psalm 16's “you will not abandon my soul to Hades” speaks of Christ's resurrection.
34. 2.8Eusebius takes “no injustice was found in me” in the sixteenth psalm as words that only Christ could say.
35. 2.9Eusebius 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.
36. 2.10Eusebius applies “their sound has gone out into all the earth” to the apostles' preaching and the sun, bridegroom, and giant of the psalm to Christ.
37. 2.11Eusebius reads “the Lord has saved his anointed” in the nineteenth psalm as Christ's deliverance from death.
38. 2.12Eusebius argues that the king granted “length of days for ever” in the psalm is Christ, who asked life for those who believe in him.
39. 2.13Eusebius 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.”
40. 2.14Eusebius takes God's oath to set David's offspring on his throne as a promise about Christ, distinguishing literal, spiritual, and second-coming fulfilments.
41. 2.15Eusebius notes that “his word will run swiftly” shows the Word as a distinct subsisting reality and foretells the rapid spread of the Gospel.
42. 2.16Eusebius reads “he commanded, and they were created” in Psalm 148 as the Father commanding and the Word carrying out creation, and closes the extracts from the Psalms.
43. 2.17Eusebius reads the psalm's prayer from prison and “the righteous will wait for me” as Christ's passion and resurrection, awaited by the righteous of old.
44. 2.18Eusebius reads “bow the heavens and come down” as the Word's self-emptying descent in the incarnation so that he might be known by humans.
45. 3.0Opening 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.
46. 3.1Eusebius quotes Wisdom's speech in Proverbs 8 and identifies Wisdom with Christ, the Word through whom all things were made.
47. 3.2Eusebius reads Proverbs' “in the light of a king's son is life” as Christ, the true light, and the “late cloud” as the apostles watering the Gentile church.
48. 3.3Eusebius reads Agur's words in Proverbs, “who has gone up into heaven and come down… what is his name and the name of his children?”, as Christ, whose name is Jesus and whose children are called Christians.
49. 3.4Eusebius interprets Ecclesiastes' poor and wise youth as Christ, the old and foolish king as the devil, and the second youth as the Antichrist.
50. 3.5Eusebius reads Ecclesiastes' poor wise man who saved the besieged small city as Christ rescuing the world, or the church, from the devil's siege.
51. 3.6Eusebius explains that the Song of Songs, read beyond its literal sense, speaks of Christ and his bride the church, and refers to the commentaries of the most industrious interpreter of Scripture.
52. 3.7Eusebius reads Job's description of the one who walks on the sea and subdues the great sea-monster as the Word, who walked on the water and conquered death and the devil.
53. 3.8Eusebius applies God's questions to Job about walking the deep and the gates of death to Christ's descent into Hades and resurrection, arguing they cannot fit the Father.
54. 3.9Eusebius reads God's words to Job about the dragon prepared for him as Christ's victory over the devil and closes the extracts from the poetic books.
55. 3.10On Hosea's “I am like a panther,” Eusebius quotes Didymus on the panther's fragrance and turns the text against the Jewish slander that Jesus was born of “a panther.”
56. 3.11Eusebius 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.
57. 3.12Eusebius reads Hosea's “I am God… I will walk after the Lord” as the Word, who is God, following the Father.
58. 3.13Eusebius notes that in Amos the Lord speaks of God as another, like “the Lord rained from the Lord” in Genesis, showing Father and Son.
59. 3.14Eusebius notes that Amos's “announcing to humans his anointed” foretells Christ's coming.
60. 3.15Eusebius notes Obadiah's “the Lord God… heard a report from the Lord” as another text showing two Lords.
61. 3.16Eusebius includes the book of Jonah because Jesus called Jonah's three days in the sea-monster a sign of his own burial.
62. 3.17Eusebius takes Micah's vision of the Lord coming down on the heights of the earth as Christ's second coming.
63. 3.18Eusebius 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.
64. 3.19Eusebius uses Micah's prophecy of Bethlehem against those who deny Christ's pre-existence (Artemon, Paul of Samosata, the Ebionites) and those who deny his real birth (Marcion); the section is badly damaged.
65. 3.20Eusebius reads Zephaniah's “wait for me for the day of my resurrection” as Christ's resurrection and the gathering of the Gentile churches.
66. 3.21Eusebius notes that in Zechariah the Lord Almighty is sent by the Lord Almighty, showing that the Word too is called Lord Almighty.
67. 3.22Eusebius reads “I am coming and will dwell in your midst… the Almighty has sent me” as the Word sent by the Father to the heavenly Zion and the church of the nations.
68. 3.23Eusebius 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.
69. 3.24Eusebius 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.
70. 3.25Eusebius notes Zechariah's “I will strengthen them in the Lord their God” as the Word speaking of the Father.
71. 3.26Eusebius applies Zechariah's thirty pieces of silver to Judas's betrayal and reads the broken staff as the end of the old covenant and its worship.
72. 3.27Eusebius notes Zechariah's “strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered,” which the Gospel applies to the disciples' flight at the passion.
73. 3.28Eusebius takes Zechariah's coming of the Lord with all his holy ones as Christ's second coming.
74. 3.29Eusebius reads Malachi's pure sacrifice offered among the nations as the Christian worship of prayer, offered through Christ, replacing the sacrifices of the former people.
75. 3.30Eusebius applies Malachi's ideal priest, with the law of truth in his mouth and called the Lord's angel, to Christ the high priest and Angel of Great Counsel.
76. 3.31Eusebius reads Malachi's sudden coming of the Lord and the angel of the covenant, like a refiner's fire, as Christ's second coming in judgment.
77. 3.32Eusebius identifies Malachi's sun of righteousness with Christ, the true light, and closes the extracts from the Twelve, reserving Isaiah for a separate book.
78. 3.33Eusebius reads Jeremiah's “innocent lamb led to slaughter” and “let us put wood into his bread” as Christ's crucifixion, his body being the bread.
79. 3.34Eusebius reads Jeremiah's “I have forsaken my house… I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies” as Christ speaking of the temple, his passion, and the later desolation of Jerusalem.
80. 3.35Eusebius reads Jeremiah's nations abandoning idols as the Gentile conversion and the indelible “sin of Judah” as the Jewish people's sin against Christ, or Judas's.
81. 3.36Eusebius 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.
82. 3.37Eusebius applies Jeremiah's new covenant written on hearts to the Gospel, which makes the old covenant obsolete and forms a virtuous life even in the unlettered.
83. 3.38Eusebius reads Lamentations' “the Lord's anointed was taken in their corruptions” as the plot against Christ and his shadow as the shelter of the nations.
84. 3.39Eusebius applies Baruch's “who has gone up into heaven… this is our God… after this he was seen on earth” to the Word who descended, ascended, and lived among humans.
85. 3.40Eusebius applies Ezekiel's promise of “my servant David” as shepherd and a covenant of peace to Christ the good shepherd, ruling after the judgment when death is destroyed.
86. 3.41Eusebius 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.
87. 3.42Eusebius reads Daniel's stone cut without hands, which crushes the kingdoms, as the Word and his everlasting kingdom at the end of the ages.
88. 3.43Eusebius notes that the fourth figure in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace is called “the likeness of a son of God,” another testimony to the title Son of God.
89. 3.44Eusebius identifies Daniel's son of man coming on the clouds to the Ancient of Days with Christ, his ascension in a cloud, and his second coming.
90. 3.45Eusebius quotes Gabriel's prophecy of the seventy weeks and introduces Julius Africanus's explanation of it from his Chronographies.
91. 3.46Eusebius 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.
92. 4.0Introducing 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.
93. 4.1Eusebius 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.
94. 4.2Eusebius applies Isaiah's “let us bind the righteous one,” paralleled in Wisdom 2:12, to the plot against Christ and sees its punishment in the loss of prophets and rulers among the Jews.
95. 4.3Eusebius reads Isaiah's “the Lord will come into judgment with the elders of the people” as Christ, the Word, judging those who led the people astray against him.
96. 4.4Eusebius 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.
97. 4.5Eusebius interprets Isaiah's son “Plunder swiftly, spoil quickly,” born of the prophetess, not literally but as a further prophecy of the virgin birth by the Holy Spirit and of Christ's spoiling of the hostile powers.
98. 4.6Eusebius, following Hebrews, reads “I and the children God has given me” as Christ speaking of his disciples, with the signs and wonders of his ministry.
99. 4.7Eusebius 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.
100. 4.8Eusebius 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.
101. 4.9Eusebius reads the throne set right with mercy in the tent of David as Christ's judgment at his second coming in the church of the firstborn.
102. 4.10Eusebius reads the Lord coming to Egypt on a light cloud as the Word incarnate, who came into this life and into Egypt as a child, shaking the demons in the idols.
103. 4.11Eusebius reads the altar to the Lord in Egypt and the man sent to save the Egyptians as Christ and the worship and martyrs of the Gentile churches, including in Egypt itself.
104. 4.12Eusebius notes Isaiah's “we have become to your beloved” because Scripture's “beloved” is Christ, as the heavenly voice declared.
105. 4.13Eusebius reads Isaiah's precious cornerstone laid in Zion, against the rulers' covenant with death, as Christ, the foundation of the church of the nations.
106. 4.14Eusebius reads “the name of the Lord comes from afar with burning wrath” as the Word's second coming.
107. 4.15Eusebius reads Isaiah's righteous king and his rulers as Christ, his apostles and church leaders or angels, reigning over the heavenly Zion.
108. 4.16Eusebius reads Isaiah's blossoming wilderness and the healings at God's coming as Christ's miracles and the living water of his words given to the church of the nations.
109. 4.17Eusebius notes Isaiah's voice in the wilderness, which John the Baptist applied to himself, as a symbol also of the apostolic preaching to the nations.
110. 4.18Eusebius reads “Behold your God… his reward is with him” as the coming of the Word, especially his second coming as judge.
111. 4.19Eusebius reads Isaiah's “righteousness raised up from the east” as Christ, whose coming disarmed the hostile powers and led the nations to renounce their man-made idols.
112. 4.20Eusebius 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.
113. 4.21Eusebius identifies the chosen servant who bears witness with God in Isaiah 43:10 as Christ.
114. 4.22Eusebius applies Isaiah's “God is in you, and there is no God besides you” to Christ, raised as king, against Jews and those who hold him a mere man (the Ebionites, Artemon, Paul of Samosata).
115. 4.23Eusebius argues that the speaker of Isaiah 48, Creator of heaven and earth yet sent by the Lord with his Spirit, is the Word of God, distinct from the Father who sends him.
116. 4.24Eusebius applies the second Servant Song, “You are my servant, Israel… a light of nations,” to Christ, who sees God (Israel) and overcame the powers (Jacob), freeing the bound and becoming the light of the Gentiles.
117. 4.25Eusebius applies the third Servant Song (Isa 50) to the Word, divine before the incarnation, who as man gave his back to scourges and his face to spitting, and reads the opening “bill of divorce” as God's rejection of the synagogue.
118. 4.26Eusebius applies “I who speak am present… the feet of one who brings good news” to Christ's coming in person, after speaking through angels and prophets.
119. 4.27Eusebius 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.
120. 4.28Eusebius 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.
121. 4.29Eusebius reads Isaiah's righteous one taken away, whose burial is in peace, as Christ's death and burial, with the righteous men as his apostles and martyrs.
122. 4.30Eusebius applies Isaiah's deliverer from Zion and the unfailing words in the mouth of his offspring to Christ, the nations' conversion, and the enduring Gospel of the church.
123. 4.31Eusebius applies “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me,” which Jesus read in Nazareth, point by point to Christ's ministry of good news, healing, release, and comfort for those who mourn for the heavenly Zion.
124. 4.32Eusebius reads Isaiah's rejoicing soul clothed with salvation as Christ's human soul, rejoicing in the Father, bridegroom of the church and bride of the divinity.
125. 4.33Eusebius applies Isaiah's signal for the nations to the apostles' preaching and the one coming from Edom in red garments to Christ, who bore our sins and alone trampled the hostile powers.
126. 4.34Eusebius reads “he who brought up from the earth the great shepherd of the sheep” as the Father raising and exalting Christ, the good shepherd.
127. 4.35Eusebius reads Isaiah's “I was found by those who did not seek me… I stretched out my hands to a disobedient people” as the calling of the nations, the rejection of Israel, and a figure of the cross, and closes the work.