Demonstration of the Gospel — Book II

Eusebius of Caesarea · a new plain-English translation from the Greek

praef.1| In the preceding book I went through the way of true piety set before all people by the gospel teaching, and the life lived in Christ, and I showed, and I think persuaded, that it was not possible for all the nations to live by the ordinances of the Jews, even had they wished to. Now I resume the argument from the beginning once more and return to the testimonies of the prophetic voices, to give a fuller answer to our accusers from the circumcision. For they have said that we have no share at all in the promises recorded among them: the prophets were theirs; to them was proclaimed the Christ, whom they like to call savior and redeemer; for themselves they expect the recorded promises to be fulfilled; while we have no part in these things, being of foreign race, people for whom all the prophecies foretell the very worst.

praef.2| To these claims, then, come, let us make our reply to them from their own prophetic books. That the Christ of God was promised among them, and that his arrival is proclaimed as redemption for Israel, we would not deny either, since this is admittedly set out plainly through the whole of their Scripture. But when they shut the nations out from the good things expected in the Christ, as though these were promised to Israel alone and not to the nations as well, it is no longer right to grant them this, since they say it against the testimony of the divine Scriptures.

1.1| First, then, since they are in the habit of collecting the more favorable utterances about themselves and reciting them from memory, let us set against them the proofs about the nations drawn from the same prophecies, showing that countless predictions foretold good and saving things for all the nations, and that they said that what was promised to the nations would be accomplished in no other way than through the coming of Christ alone.

1.2| If we stopped the argument there, we would have shown that the expectation of the Christ of God cannot be said to belong to them any more than to us. But once the hope of the promised things has been shown to be equally balanced between Jews and Greeks, so that in this respect those from the nations who are to be saved through Christ fall short in nothing of those from the circumcision, we shall go further and prove next that the divine oracles foretold, at the coming of Christ and at the calling of the nations, a complete falling away and casting off of the whole Jewish nation; that they foretell better things only for a few of them, so few they can be counted; and that they show that their city will be taken together with the temple itself and that all their holy things will be torn down, all of which has been seen fulfilled in fact.

1.3| How the sacred words foretell, at one and the same time, at the coming of Christ, both a redemption of Israel from evils and an enjoyment of good things, and on the other hand a loss of good things and a falling away from the worship of God, we shall determine at the proper time. For now let us take up the first point, gathering a few passages out of countless prophecies to prove what has been said.

1.4| Since, then, they are in the habit of putting forward to us the more favorable prophecies about themselves, as though the promises made beforehand had been made to them alone, it is time for us in turn to bring forward and set against them the promises about the nations, which are found in their own prophets in some such form as this. 1. From Genesis. That the nations of the earth shall receive blessing, in the same manner as the title given to Abraham.

1.5| "And the Lord said: I will not hide from Abraham my servant what I am doing. Abraham will become a great and populous nation, and in him all the nations on earth will be blessed." The oracle says that he will not hide a secret mystery, one concealed from the many, but will reveal it to the God-beloved man. This was the mystery of the blessing of all the nations. Long ago it was hidden, because in Abraham's times all the nations were in the grip of an unspeakable error of superstition; but now it has come to light in our time, when through the gospel teaching of our Savior whoever worships God in the same way as Abraham shares in a blessing equal to his.

1.6| That it was not possible for all the nations to live under the legislation of Moses I have set out most fully in the preceding book, so that no one should suppose that the oracle was spoken about the proselytes among the Jews.

1.7| Having established in the same book that the blessing pronounced to Abraham concerning all the nations would apply only to those from all the nations who come through Christ, we shall now refer lovers of learning back to those earlier remarks. 2. From the same book: That every nation on earth will receive blessing in connection with the seed destined to come forth by succession from Isaac.

1.8| The Lord, speaking to Isaac, says among other things this: "And I will establish my oath to Abraham your father, and I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven; and I will give to your seed all this land, and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall receive blessing."

1.9| Our Savior and Lord Jesus, the Christ of God, came according to the flesh from the seed of Isaac, and it is in him that all the nations of the earth receive blessing, having learned through him the God of the universe, and having been taught through him in turn to bless the God-beloved men. For this reason they are blessed in return, enjoying the same blessing as those who bless them, in accordance with the word of God to Abraham: "Those who bless you are blessed." 3. From the same book: On the many nations and assemblies of nations that were to be formed from Jacob, even though only the nation of the Jews came forth from him.

1.10| And God said to him, clearly to Jacob: "I am the Lord God; increase and multiply into nations, and assemblies of nations shall come from you."

1.11| To all appearance only one nation, that of the Jews, was formed from Jacob. How then could the oracle speak truly in using the plural? But since the Christ of God, born of the seed of Jacob, gathered many assemblies of nations by his gospel teaching, the end of the prophecy was reasonably attained in him and through him already earlier, and will be attained still more fully hereafter. 4. From Deuteronomy: A declaration of the nations' rejoicing in God.

1.12| "Rejoice, you heavens, together with him, and let all the sons of God worship him. Rejoice, you nations, with his people, and let all the angels of God strengthen them." In place of "Rejoice, you nations, with his people," Aquila says, "Shout for joy, you nations, his people," and Theodotion, "Exult, you nations, his people." 5. From the psalm: That there will be a turning of the ends of the earth and of all the nations toward God, and that the generation to come and the people to be born will receive his righteousness.

1.13| "All the ends of the earth will be mindful and be turned to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him; for the Lord's is the kingdom, and he is master of the nations."

1.14| And next he adds: "A generation to come shall be proclaimed to the Lord, and they shall proclaim his righteousness to a people yet to be born, whom the Lord has made." These words are clear and need no interpretation. 6. From the psalm: A proclamation to the nations of piety together with temperance, and God's kingdom over the nations.

1.15| "Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with a voice of rejoicing. For the Lord is most high, awesome, a great king over all the earth."

1.16| And next he adds: "For God is king of all the earth; sing praises with understanding. God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne. The rulers of the peoples were assembled with the God of Abraham." These words too are clear and need no interpretation. 7. From Psalm 85: A declaration of the piety of the nations.

1.17| "There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, and none like your works. All the nations that you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name; for you are great and do wonders; you alone are God." These words likewise are clear. 8. From Psalm [….]: A declaration of the piety of all the nations, of the new song, of God's kingdom, and of the setting right of the inhabited world.

1.18| "Sing a new song to the Lord; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name; proclaim his salvation from day to day; declare his glory among the nations, his wonders among all the peoples. For the Lord is great and highly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods."

1.19| And he adds: "Offer to the Lord, you families of the nations; offer to the Lord glory for his name." And next: "Say among the nations, The Lord reigns; for he has set the inhabited world right." 9. From [….]: The recognition, by all the nations, and by the Egyptians, the most superstitious of all, of the one true God and of spiritual worship and festival in accordance with the divine law.

1.20| "And it shall be that all who are left of all the nations that came up against Jerusalem shall go up year by year to prostrate themselves before the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be that whoever of all the tribes of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem in order to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they too will be added to those.

1.21| But if the tribe of Egypt does not go up or come, upon them too shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the sin of Egypt, and the sin of all the nations that do not go up to keep the feast of tabernacles."

1.22| These words too plainly contain a calling of all the nations, the statements about Jerusalem and the feast of tabernacles being understood only in their inner sense, which will receive its proper interpretation at the fitting time. 10. From [….]: An exposition of the selection of the apostles and of the calling of the nations.

1.23| "Drink this first; do it quickly. Country of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, and the rest who are beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations, the people sitting in darkness, behold a great light; for those dwelling in the country and shadow of death, a light will shine upon you." 11. From [….]: A declaration of the calling of the nations.

1.24| "Listen to me, you islands, and pay attention, you nations. After a long time it will stand firm, says the Lord." After this he adds, speaking at once of the nations and of the Christ: "Behold, I have given you as a covenant of a race, as a light of the nations, that you may be for salvation to the end of the earth."

1.25| You could find countless such promises to the nations scattered by yourself through all the prophets, but this is not the time to collect them or interpret them; the passages set out are enough to establish the point before us.

1.26| This was needed against those of the circumcision who boast greatly of themselves and make much of the notion that God honored them alone above the other nations and deemed them alone worthy of the divine promises: to show that nothing better has been promised to them in particular, above all the rest, in the divine promises. Now that the nations have been shown to be counted worthy of the divine promises, let us look next at the one through whom the nations are said to obtain God's calling and the divine promises; for it is well also to see the cause that is said to procure these good things for the nations.

1.27| And what could this be but the coming of the Christ, by whom even those of the circumcision confess that their own redemption will come? We must therefore show that the expectation of the calling of the nations was nothing other than the Christ of God himself, who was to appear as savior not of the Jews alone but of all the nations. For the present I shall use the bare testimonies of the prophets without any interpretation, intending to interpret each at length at leisure, when, with God's help, I shall have gathered all the predictions concerning the nations together and come to interpret them.

2.1| 12. From Psalm 2: A declaration of the plot against the Christ, and of his being proclaimed Son of God and receiving the nations from the Father as his inheritance. "For what reason did the nations rage, and the peoples devise empty things? The kings of the earth stood by, and the rulers assembled together against the Lord and his Christ," and what follows. After which he adds: "The Lord told me, You are my Son; today I have begotten you.

2.2| Request from me, and I will give you nations as your inheritance, and the farthest bounds of the earth as your holding." 13. From Psalm [….]: A declaration of the kingdom of Christ and the calling of the nations, and the blessing of all earth's tribes.

2.3| "O God, give your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the king's son, to judge your people." And what follows, after which he adds: "And he shall hold dominion from sea as far as sea, and from the rivers as far as the ends of the inhabited world." And again: "All the nations shall serve him."

2.4| And again: "In him will all the tribes of the earth receive blessing; all the nations shall call him blessed." And at the end of the psalm: "And all the earth shall be filled with his glory; so be it, so be it." 14. From Psalm [….]: A declaration of the new song, of the arm of God, and of the manifestation of his salvation to all the nations; and the name of the Son, "salvation," is made plain in the Hebrew tongue.

2.5| "Sing a new song to the Lord, for the Lord has worked wonders. His right hand has saved him, and his holy arm. The Lord has made his salvation known; in the sight of the nations he has uncovered his righteousness. He has remembered his mercy toward Jacob and his truth toward the house of Israel; all the far reaches of the earth have seen our God's salvation. Shout aloud to the Lord, all the earth."

2.6| And he adds: "Let the sea be shaken, and its fullness, the inhabited world and all who dwell in it. Rivers shall clap their hands together, the mountains shall rejoice before the face of the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth; he will judge the inhabited world in righteousness, and the peoples with uprightness." 15. From [….]: That after the failing of the kingdom of the Jews, the Christ himself will appear, and he will himself be the expectation of the nations.

2.7| "A ruler shall not be lacking from Judah, nor a leader from out of his loins, until he comes for whom it is reserved; and he himself is the expectation of the nations." 15. From [….]: A declaration of the appearing of Christ, of the destruction of idolatry, and of the nations' turning to piety toward God.

2.8| "The Lord will appear against them, and will destroy utterly all the gods of the nations, and each shall worship him from his own place, all the islands of the nations." 17. From [….]: A declaration of the day of Christ's resurrection, of the gathering of the nations, of all people's knowledge of God, of the one way of piety, and of how the Ethiopians will bring him sacrifices.

2.9| "Therefore wait for me, says the Lord, for the day of my rising up as a witness. For my judgment is for gatherings of nations, to take in kings, to pour out upon them my anger, all the anger of my wrath. For in the fire of my jealousy all the earth will be consumed; for then I will change the tongue of the peoples to its generation, so that all may invoke the Lord's name and serve him under one yoke. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia they will bring me sacrifices." 18. From [….]: A declaration of the coming of Christ, of the refuge of many nations in him, and how peoples will be formed for the Lord from the nations.

2.10| "Be glad and rejoice, daughter of Zion, for behold, I come, and I will dwell in your midst, says the Lord. And many nations shall take refuge in the Lord on that day, and they shall be a people to him. And they shall dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord Almighty sent me to you." 19. From Isaiah: A declaration of the birth of Christ, who would spring from the root of Jesse, and of the calling of all the nations through him.

2.11| "A [shoot] shall come forth out of Jesse's root, and a flower shall rise from that root, and upon him shall rest the Spirit of God," and so on; after which he adds: "And in that day there shall be the root of Jesse, even he who rises to rule the nations; in him the nations shall hope." 20. From the same: A declaration about the coming of Christ and the benefaction that came through him to all the nations.

2.12| "Behold my servant, I will uphold him; my chosen one, my soul has accepted him. I have put my Spirit upon him, and he will bring forth judgment to the nations. He will not cry out, nor relent, nor will his voice be heard outside. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoking flax he will not quench, but he will bring forth judgment to truth; he will blaze up, and will not be broken, until he establishes judgment on the earth; and nations will hope in his name."

2.13| And next he adds: "I the Lord God have called you in righteousness, and I will hold your hand and strengthen you; and I have given you as a covenant of a race, as a light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind and to bring out of bonds those who are bound, and from the prison house those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord God; this is my name; my glory I will give to no other, nor my excellences to graven images. The things from the beginning, behold, they have come, and new things I now declare, and before they were declared they were made known to you." 21. From [….]: A declaration of the Christ, and of the birth and calling of the nations.

2.14| "Listen to me, you islands, and pay attention, you nations. After a long time it will stand firm, says the Lord. From my mother's womb he called my name, and made my mouth like a sharp sword, and under the shelter of his hand he hid me; he made me a chosen arrow, and in his quiver he sheltered me."

2.15| And he adds: "Behold, I have given you as a covenant of a race, as a light of the nations, that you may be for salvation to the end of the earth." 22. From [….]: A declaration of the coming of the Christ and of the calling of the nations.

2.16| "Thus says the Lord who rescued you, Israel: Sanctify him who despises his own soul, who is abhorred by the nations, the servants of rulers; kings shall see him, and rulers shall rise up, and they shall worship him," and what follows.

2.17| After which he adds: "In an acceptable time I listened to you, and on a day of salvation I helped you, and I have given you as a covenant of nations, to establish the earth and to inherit desolate inheritances, saying to those in bonds, Come out, and to those in darkness, Be uncovered; and they shall be fed in all the ways, and in all the paths shall be their pasture; they shall not hunger or thirst, neither shall scorching heat or sun strike them; but he who has mercy on them will comfort them, and lead them by springs of water, and I will make every mountain a road and every path a pasture for them.

2.18| Behold, these shall come from afar, these from the north and from the sea, and others from the land of the Persians. Rejoice, you heavens, and let the earth exult; let the mountains break forth in gladness, for the Lord has had mercy on his people and comforted the lowly of his people." 23. From the same: A declaration of the Christ and the calling of the nations.

2.19| "Incline your ears and follow my ways; listen to me, and your soul shall live in good things, and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, the faithful holy things of David. Behold, I have given him as a witness to the nations, a ruler and commander of nations. Nations that do not know you shall call upon you, and peoples that do not understand you shall take refuge in you, for the sake of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, because he has glorified you."

2.20| Having learned from these passages too that the coming of the Christ was being prepared as saving not only for the Jews but for all the nations, let us now demonstrate the third point: how, in the times of his appearing, not only were kinder things prophesied for the nations, but the opposite for those of the circumcision.

2.21| Their own oracles at any rate foretell expressly the falling away and rejection of the Jewish nation on account of their unbelief in Christ, so that we no longer appear equal to them but rather, beyond measure, better than they. Here too I shall use bare quotations of the prophets without any contemplation of them, both because of their clarity and because I intend to make a full examination of them at leisure. 24. From Jeremiah: A declaration of the rejection of the Jewish nation and of the adoption of the nations in their place.

3.1| "Thus says the Lord: Stand in the ways, and see, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord, and see which is the good way, and walk in it, and you will find purification for your souls. And they said, We will not walk. I set watchmen over you: listen to the sound of the trumpet. And they said, We will not listen. Therefore the nations have heard, and the shepherds of the flocks among them." 25. From the same: A declaration of the piety of the nations and an accusation of the impiety of the Jewish nation, and a prediction of the evils that overtook them after the coming of Christ.

3.2| "O Lord, my strength and my help and my [refuge] in the day of evils. To you nations shall come from the end of the earth, and they will say, Falsely did our fathers acquire idols, and there is no benefit in them. Will a man make gods for himself? Yet these are no gods.

3.3| Therefore behold, I will show them at this time; I will make known to them my hand and my power, and they shall know that my name is Lord. The sin of Judah is written down in writing with a diamond point, engraved upon the breast of their heart, whenever they remember their groves upon the leafy tree and upon the high hills and mountains in the field. Your strength and your treasures I will give as plunder, and your high places, because of your sins in all your borders. And you shall be left alone, and brought low from your inheritance which I gave you.

3.4| And I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you did not know; for a fire has been kindled in my anger, and it shall burn forever." 26. From Amos: On the dispersion of the Jewish nation among all the nations, and on the renewal of the coming and kingdom of Christ, and the calling of all the nations that followed it.

3.5| "Behold, I command, and I will sift the house of Israel among the nations, as one sifts with a sieve, and not a fragment shall fall to the earth. By the sword shall all the sinners of my people die, who say, Evils shall not draw near, nor come upon us. In that day I will raise up the tent of David that has fallen, and rebuild what has fallen of it,

3.6| and raise up what has been torn down, and rebuild it as in the days of old, so that the rest of humanity may seek me, and all the nations upon whom my name has been called, says the Lord who does all these things." 27. From Micah: An accusation of the rulers of the Jewish nation and of their mother city, and a declaration of Christ's appearing and of the house of God, which is his church, of the going forth of word and law, and of all the nations. 7. "Hear this, you leaders of the house of Jacob, and you remnant of the house of Israel, who abhor judgment and pervert all that is straight, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with [iniquity]. Her leaders judged for gifts, and her priests answered for pay, and her prophets divined for money, and they leaned upon the Lord, saying, Is not the Lord among us? No evils shall come upon us.

3.8| Therefore, on your account, Zion will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will be like a fruit-watcher's hut, and the mountain of the house like a wooded grove. And in the last of the days the mountain of the Lord will be made manifest, established upon the summits of the mountains; and it will be raised high above the hills, and peoples will hasten to it, and many nations will journey, saying, Come, let us ascend to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob's God; they will show us his way, and we shall walk in his paths. For from Zion a law will issue, and the Lord's word from Jerusalem." 28. From Zechariah: A declaration concerning the coming of Christ, and the destruction of the Jews' warlike preparation, and peace for the nations, and the Lord's kingdom to the ends of the inhabited world.

3.9| "Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion; proclaim, daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your king comes to you, righteous and saving, himself meek and mounted on a beast of burden and a young colt; and he will destroy the chariots from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of war; and there shall be abundance of peace from the nations, and he shall rule from sea unto sea, and from the rivers out to the limits of the earth."

3.10| 29. From Malachi: The rejection of the Jewish nation, and the repudiation of their bodily worship according to the law of Moses, in favor of the spiritual worship handed down through Christ to all the nations. "I find no delight in you, says the Almighty, and from your hands I will accept no sacrifice. For from the rising of the sun to its setting, among the nations my name has been glorified; in every place incense is brought to my name, and a pure sacrifice. For my name is great among the nations, says the Lord Almighty, but you profane it." 30. From Isaiah: The falling away of the Jewish nation, and the manifestation of the Word of God, the new law, and his house, and a declaration of the piety of all the nations.

3.11| "The daughter of Zion shall be left like a booth in a vineyard, and like a hut in a cucumber field, like a city under siege." And next he adds: "How has the faithful city Zion become a harlot, she in whom righteousness lodged, but now murderers!"

3.12| And after this: "For they shall be like a terebinth, its leaves, and like a garden that has no water. Their strength shall be like a thread of tow, and their works like sparks of fire, and the lawless shall be burned up, and the sinners together, and there shall be no one to quench it."

3.13| To all this he adds: "And in the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, with the house of God on the summits of the mountains. It shall be raised high above the hills, and all the nations shall come to it; and many nations shall travel and say, Come, let us ascend to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob's God, and he will announce his way to us, and we will walk in it. For from Zion a law shall go out, and the Lord's word from Jerusalem, and he shall judge between the nations." 31. From the same: The overthrow of the glory of the Jewish people, and the conversion of the nations, from idolatry toward the God of the universe; the desolation of the Jewish cities, and their unbelief in God.

3.14| "Thus says the Lord Sabaoth: It shall be just as when someone gathers an ear of grain in a rugged valley, and straw is left in it, or as two or three olives on the top of the high branches, or four or five are left on their boughs.

3.15| Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: On that day a man will have trust in the one who made him, and his eyes will gaze at Israel's Holy One; and they shall no longer put trust in altars, nor in the works of their hands, which their fingers made; and they shall not look to the trees, nor to their abominations, in that day. Your cities shall be forsaken, as the Amorites and the Hivites forsook them before the sons of Israel.

3.16| And they shall be desolate, because you forsook God your Savior, and did not remember the Lord your God. Therefore you will plant an unfaithful plant; and in the day that you plant it, you will go astray." 32. From the same: A declaration of the Jewish cities' destruction and of the nations' rejoicing in God.

3.17| "O Lord my God, I will glorify you, I will sing the praise of your name, for you have done wonderful things, an ancient counsel, a true one. So be it, Lord, for you have turned cities into a mound, fortified cities, so that their foundations fall. The city of the impious shall never be rebuilt. Therefore the poor people will bless you, and the cities of wronged men will bless you. For you have been a helper to every humbled city, and a shelter to the faint-hearted in want.

3.18| And the Lord Sabaoth will make for all the nations on this mountain; they shall drink gladness; wine they shall drink; they shall be anointed with ointment on this mountain. Hand all this over to the nations, for this counsel is upon all the nations. Death, having prevailed, has swallowed them up, and again God has wiped away every tear from every face; God has taken away the reproach of the people from all the earth. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things." 33. From the same: Promises of good things to the church from the nations, once a desert, and the despair of the Jewish nation, the exposure of their sins, and the calling of all the nations.

3.19| "Do not remember the former things, and do not consider the things of old; for behold, I make new things which will now spring forth, and you will know them; and I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the waterless land. And the beasts of the field will bless me, sirens and daughters of ostriches, because I have given water in the wilderness to give drink to my chosen race, my people whom I acquired for myself; declare my excellences.

3.20| I did not call you now, Jacob, nor did I make you toil, Israel. You did not bring me sheep for your whole burnt offering, nor did you glorify me with your sacrifices; you did not serve me with gifts, nor did I weary you with frankincense, nor did you buy me incense with silver, nor did I desire the fat of your sacrifices; but in your sins and in your iniquities I stood before you."

3.21| And in what follows he says: "Turn to me, and you shall be saved, you from the end of the earth. I am, and there is no other. By myself I swear, righteousness shall surely go forth from my mouth; my words shall not turn back, for to me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear by the true God, saying, Righteousness and glory shall come to him, and all who separate themselves from the Lord shall be ashamed." 34. From the same: A declaration of the coming of Christ among human beings, a rebuke of the Jewish nation, and a promise of good things to all the nations.

3.22| "Thus says the Lord: What is this bill of divorce of your mother, with which I sent her away? Or to which creditor have I sold you? Behold, it was for your sins that you were sold, and your mother I sent away on account of your iniquities. For I came, and no man was there; I called, and there was no one to answer," and what follows.

3.23| To which he adds: "You who walk in darkness, and have no light, trust in the name of the Lord and lean upon your God. Behold, all of you kindle a fire and strengthen a flame. Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled. This has come to you through me; you shall lie down in sorrow." And what follows.

3.24| After which he adds: "Listen to me, listen to me, my people, and you kings, give ear to me; for a law shall go forth from me, and my judgment for a light of the nations. My righteousness draws near quickly, and my salvation shall go forth like light, and in my arm nations shall hope." 35. From the same: A rebuke of the impieties of the Jewish nation and their falling away from piety, and a declaration of the calling of all the nations.

3.25| "Is the hand of the Lord not strong enough to save, or has his ear grown heavy that he cannot hear? But your sins separate between you and God, and because of your sins he has turned his face from you so as not to have mercy. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with sins,

3.26| and your lips have spoken lawlessness, and your tongue practices injustice. No one speaks justly, nor is judgment true; they trust in vain things and speak empty words, for they conceive trouble and give birth to lawlessness;

3.27| they have broken the eggs of asps and weave a spider's web, and he who wants to eat of their eggs, crushing one, finds it addled, and in it a basilisk. Their web will not become a garment, nor shall they clothe themselves with their works; for their works are works of lawlessness, and their feet run to wickedness; swift to shed blood, and their reasonings are the reasonings of fools; destruction and misery are in their ways, their paths are crooked, which they travel, and they do not know peace.

3.28| Therefore judgment has departed from them, and righteousness will not overtake them. While they waited for light, darkness came upon them; waiting for dawn, they walked in the dead of night. They will grope like blind men along a wall, and as though they had no eyes they will grope; they will fall at midday as in the middle of the night; they will groan like the dying; like a bear and a dove they will go about together." And what follows.

3.29| After which he adds: "And those from the west shall fear the name of the Lord, and those from the rising of the sun his glorious name." But although there are very many prophecies on the same subject, we shall be content with the testimonies set out, and at the proper time we shall take them up again and work them out in full; for the present we judge that, having used these abundant words and the testimonies drawn from them, we have sufficiently shown that the Jews have no advantage over the remaining nations.

3.30| For if they say that they alone share in the blessing of the God-beloved Abraham because they trace their descent from him, he has promised that the nations too will be given a share in an equal blessing, not only with Abraham but also with Isaac and Jacob, foretelling expressly that all the nations will be blessed likewise, and calling the remaining nations back to one and the same gladness with the blessed and God-beloved, as in "Rejoice, you nations, with his people,"

3.31| and "The rulers of the peoples assembled along with the God of Abraham." And if they boast in the kingdom of God, as having become his lot, God is also foretold to reign over all the remaining nations: "Say among the nations," he says, "The Lord reigns."

3.32| And again: "God reigns over all the nations." And if they claim to have been chosen to offer sacrifice and to serve God, we must show that the word has promised the nations too an equal share in this service, saying: "Offer to the Lord, you [families] of the nations; offer to the Lord glory and honor. Take up sacrifices, and enter into his courts."

3.33| To these you may join the saying in Isaiah: "An altar to the Lord shall be in Egypt's land, . . . and the Egyptians shall know the Lord. And they shall make sacrifices, and vow vows to the Lord, and shall fulfill them." Here you will observe that it is prophesied that an altar to the Lord will be established outside Jerusalem, and that the Egyptians will sacrifice there, and vow vows, and fulfill them to the Lord.

3.34| Not in Egypt only, but in the true Jerusalem itself, whatever that may be understood to be, all the nations, and even the Egyptians, the most superstitious of all, are called by the prophecy to keep the feast of tabernacles that is to be understood in its inner sense.

3.35| And if long ago "the portion of the Lord became his people Jacob, the measured line of the inheritance Israel," yet at a later time it is said that all the nations too will be given to the Lord as his lot, the Father saying to him: "Ask of me, and I shall give you the nations as your inheritance." For it is prophesied that he will have dominion not over Judea, but from sea to sea and as far as the ends of the inhabited world: "All the nations shall serve him, and in him all the tribes of the earth will be blessed."

3.36| The reason for this was that the God of the universe was making his salvation known before all the nations. We have already noted that the name Jesus, when translated from the Hebrew language, is interpreted "salvation," so that God's salvation is nothing other than the name of our Savior Jesus Christ.

3.37| Simeon too bears witness to this in the Gospel, who, taking the child, Jesus himself, in his hands, prayed: "Now you let your servant depart, Master, according to your word, in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light for revelation to the nations." The psalmist, too, pointed to this very salvation when he said: "The Lord has made his salvation known; in the sight of the nations he has revealed his righteousness."

3.38| And according to Isaiah, all human beings, having seen this very salvation, are said to worship the God of the universe, who freely grants his salvation to all; and they will worship him not at the lower Jerusalem in Palestine, but every man from his own place, and all those in the islands of the nations. Then the saying will also be fulfilled which says that all people will no longer call upon their ancestral gods, nor on idols and demons, but upon the name of the Lord, and serve him under one yoke; and from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia they will bring him the rational and bloodless sacrifices through the new covenant of Christ, sacrifices that will be offered not in the lower Jerusalem, nor at the altar beside it, but in the ends of Ethiopia mentioned.

3.39| And if it is a great thing to be and to be called God's people, and this is among the greatest of the divine promises, that he says of those worthy of him, "I will be God to them, and they shall be my people" (and Israel formerly boasted reasonably that it alone was the people of God), yet the Lord promises that when he visits the nations he will bestow this good thing on them too, saying: "Behold, I come, and I will dwell in your midst, and many nations shall take refuge in the Lord, and they shall be a people to him."

3.40| Of these it will be fitting to say: "And I will say to him who was not my people, You are my people; and he will say, You are the Lord my God." And if it is he, and no other, the Christ who was prophesied to spring from the root of Jesse (and this is agreed even by the Hebrews themselves, so that no one at all disputes it), see how he too is proclaimed as rising up to rule not Israel but the nations, and it is said that the nations will hope in him, but not Israel, since he himself was the expectation of the nations.

3.41| Hence it is said that he will bring forth judgment to the nations and become a light of the nations; and again, in his name nations will hope, and he will be given for salvation not to the Jews only but to all people to the end of the earth.

3.42| Hence the Father who sent him also said to him: "I have given you as a covenant of a race, as a light of the nations, to establish the earth and to inherit desolate inheritances." He speaks of a witness to the nations, so that all the nations that had never learned anything about Christ would come to know the dispensation concerning him and what power was in him, and call upon him, and the peoples that did not know him before would take refuge in him.

3.43| And why need I prolong the argument, when anyone who likes to collect the prophetic utterances, both those I have set out and those I shall mention at leisure from the divine Scriptures, can silence on the spot those of the circumcision who say that God's promises were granted to them alone, and that we from the nations are superfluous and strangers to the divine promises? For it has been shown on the contrary that it was foretold that all the nations would enjoy the coming of Christ, whereas the multitudes of the Jews would fall away from the promise made to their forefathers because of their unbelief in Christ, only a few of them having believed in our Savior and Lord, and on that account obtaining through him the spiritual redemption promised.

3.44| Of these the wonderful apostle teaches somewhere, saying: "Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, Though the [number] of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved; for the Lord will complete and cut short the word in righteousness, because the Lord will make a shortened word upon the earth. And as Isaiah said beforehand, Unless the Lord Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah."

3.45| After other things he goes on to say: "Has God cast off his people? For I too am an Israelite, from the seed of Abraham, belonging to the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast off his people whom he foreknew.

3.46| Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God concerning Israel, saying: Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have torn down your altars, and I alone remain, and they are seeking my life, to take it? But what does the divine answer say? I have left for myself seven thousand men who have never bent the knee to Baal. So too at the present time a remnant has come to be, chosen by grace."

3.47| By these words the apostle makes plain that, in view of the falling away of the whole Jewish nation, he himself and the apostles like him and evangelists of our Savior, and all who even now from among the Jews have believed in Christ, are the seed of which the prophet spoke in the words "Unless the Lord Sabaoth had left us a seed." And this, he says, is also the remnant of the whole, indicated in the other prophecies, which has been preserved according to the election of grace.

3.48| Concerning this remnant let us again lay out the passages from the prophets, to show at greater length that God did not promise indiscriminately to the whole Jewish nation that the coming of the Christ would be saving, but to a few, to quite rare individuals, who have believed in our Savior and Lord, just as the event followed, in accordance with the predictions. 36. From Isaiah: That the promises of God extend not to the whole Jewish nation but to a few of them.

3.49| "Your land is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; your country, in your presence, strangers devour it, and it is desolate, overthrown by foreign peoples. The daughter of Zion will be left like a booth in a vineyard and like a hut in a cucumber field, like a city under siege. And unless the Lord Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah."

3.50| At the beginning of his book the great and wonderful prophet teaches that the whole subject of the prophecy contains a vision and sight against Judea and against Jerusalem; then he rebukes the whole Jewish nation, first saying: "The ox knows its owner and the donkey the manger of its lord; but Israel has not known me, and the people have not understood me."

3.51| Then, bewailing the whole nation, he adds: "Woe, sinful nation, a people full of sins, an evil seed, lawless sons."

3.52| Having used these rebukes against them at the beginning of the book, and having first taught the causes of the prediction that was to be brought against them, he begins next by saying "Your land is desolate", although in the times when he prophesied it was not desolate; "Your [cities] are burned with fire," though this had not yet happened, and strangers were not then devouring their country; and nevertheless he says, "Your country, in your presence, strangers devour it," and what follows.

3.53| If, then, you pass to the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ and to the times from then until now, you will find everything that was said fulfilled. For the daughter of Zion (that is, the worship carried on on the mountain called Zion) has been left, since the coming of Jesus our Savior, like a booth in a vineyard and like a hut in a cucumber field, or something still more desolate; and strangers devour their country in their presence, at one time exacting tribute and taxes from them, at another making the ancient land of the Jews their own possession; moreover the temple, the adornment of their mother city, lies in ruins, overthrown by foreign peoples, their cities have been burned with fire, and Jerusalem has truly become a city under siege.

3.54| But since, with these things befalling them, the company of the apostles, together with those Hebrews who had believed in Christ, were kept safe out of their number like fertile seed, and went out over the whole inhabited world and into every race of human beings, and with their own Israelite sowing filled every city, place and country, so that from them there sprang up as an ear of grain the churches founded in the name of our Savior, the divine prophet reasonably adds to the threats he had pronounced against them: "Unless the Lord Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.

3.55| The sacred apostle gathers this together and interprets it plainly in the Epistle to the Romans: "Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, If the number of the sons of Israel is like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his word, completing and cutting short, upon the earth. And as Isaiah foretold, Unless the Lord Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.

3.56| To which he adds again: "Has God cast off his people? May it not be. For I also am an Israelite, from the seed of Abraham, out of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast off his people whom he foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel: Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have torn down your altars, and I alone have been left, and they are seeking my life, to take it? But what does the divine answer say to him? I have left for myself seven thousand men, who did not bow the knee to Baal. So too at the present time a remnant has come into being according to a choice of grace."

3.57| That the prophecy points to no other time than the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ is shown by what follows: after saying "Unless the Lord Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah," and naming the whole people of the Jews the people of Gomorrah and their leaders the rulers of Sodom, he brings in the rejection of the worship according to Moses and the manner of the covenant proclaimed to all human beings through our Savior, I mean the washing of rebirth, and in the prediction about these matters a plainly new word and law are introduced.

3.58| For he says: "Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; attend to the law of God, you people of Gomorrah. What is your multitude of sacrifices to me?" and what follows, in which he abolishes what belonged to the legislation of Moses and brings in another manner of forgiveness of sins, the one through the saving washing and the life proclaimed with it, saying: "Wash yourselves, become clean, take away the wickedness from your souls," and what follows.

3.59| As for the reason he named them chiefs of Sodom and a people of Gomorrah, the same prophet makes it plain at once by saying: "For your hands are full of blood."

3.60| And further on he says again: "They declared and displayed their lawlessness like that of Sodom. Woe to their soul, for they have devised an evil plan against themselves, saying, Let us bind the righteous man, because he is troublesome to us.

3.61| Here he plainly recalls the blood and the plot against one righteous man, and against whom was it, if not our Savior Jesus Christ, because of whom and after whom all the predicted things came upon them? 37. From the same Isaiah.

3.62| "And in that day God will shine forth in counsel with glory upon the earth, to exalt and glorify what is left of Israel; and what is left of Israel shall be in Zion, and what is left in Jerusalem; holy shall be called all those inscribed for life in Jerusalem."

3.63| And what the remnant of Israel is, the prophet himself made clear by saying "all who are written in Jerusalem" and "who are called holy." What day this is, then, on which God is said to glorify the remnant of Israel and raise it high, together with those who will be called holy and written for life, will be plain to you if you run back over the whole account of the passage.

3.64| At the beginning of the whole book, then, the prophet, having seen the vision against Judea and against Jerusalem, and having enumerated at great length the impieties of the whole Jewish nation, and having threatened and spoken of their overthrow and the complete desolation of Jerusalem, brings the vision against them to its end by saying: "For they shall be like a terebinth that has cast its leaves, and like a garden that has no water. And their might shall be like a strand of tow, and their works like sparks of fire, and the lawless and the sinners shall be burned up together, and there shall be no one to quench it."

3.65| Having concluded here the prediction against them, he makes a pause; and from another beginning he takes up a second subject, and the word that came to Isaiah, Amos's son, the prophet, concerning Judea and concerning Jerusalem (or, as Symmachus translated, on behalf of Judea and on behalf of Jerusalem) uses such an introduction as this. Perhaps someone will suppose that, having first said the gloomy things about these, he now turns and says the kinder things about the same.

3.66| But the sequence of what follows would not allow this to be said, for it contains nothing at all kind on behalf of the Jewish nation or of the so-called Israel, nor on behalf of Judea or Jerusalem, but on the contrary countless reproaches and charges against Israel, and grim threats against Jerusalem, and it foretells the calling and knowledge of the God over all, saving for all, and furthermore the appearing of a new mountain and the setting up of a second house of God, distinct from the one in Jerusalem.

3.67| For after saying "concerning Judea and concerning Jerusalem," he says: "In the last days the mountain of the Lord will be manifest, and the house of God upon the summits of the mountains; it shall be lifted up high above the hills, and all the nations shall come to it, and many nations shall journey and say, Come, let us climb the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob's God."

3.68| Such is his prophecy concerning all the nations; then hear what he adds concerning the Jews: "For he has let go of his people, the house of Jacob's God, because their land was filled, as from the beginning, with divinations like that of the foreigners, and many foreign children were born to them.

3.69| For their land was full of silver and gold, and their treasures had no number," and more that follows these words, after which he adds: "And they worshiped the works which their fingers made, and man was bowed down and humbled, and I will not release them. And now enter into the rocks and hide in the earth, away from the fear of the Lord and from his glorious presence, when he rises up to shatter the earth.

3.70| By these words he plainly teaches that there will be a rising up of the Lord in which the whole land of the Jewish nation will be shattered.

3.71| For the whole account was about them, as also in what follows, where he says: "For the day of the Lord Sabaoth is against every insolent and proud man, and against everyone lofty and high," and what follows these words. In this day, therefore, the day of the resurrection of the Lord, having declared beforehand what will befall those who exalt themselves against the knowledge of God, he says in this very day: "The Lord will be exalted in that day, and they shall hide all the things made by hands, bringing them into the caves."

3.72| Almost declaring outright the turning away from idols, which both the Jews themselves and all the rest of mankind turned away from after the appearing of our Savior, spitting upon every kind of superstition. "On that day, then," he says, "a man shall throw away his abominations of gold, and the silver ones which they made, to worship vain things."

3.73| He utters this, as is natural, of mankind in general and of every man, because of the calling of the nations that was to come.

3.74| But then he goes on, in one connected thought, to speak particularly of the nation of the Jews: "Behold, the Master, the Lord Sabaoth, will take away from Judea and from Jerusalem the strong man and the strong woman, the strength of bread, the strength of water, the giant, the mighty man, the man of war, the judge, the prophet, the diviner, the elder, the captain of fifty, the wonderful counselor, the wise master-builder and the understanding hearer," and what follows these words.

3.75| Here, pausing, set beside it the opening words of the prophecy, in which it is said: "The word that came to Isaiah son of Amos from the Lord, for Judea and for Jerusalem," seeing that what is subjoined turns out to be against them rather than for them, unless some hidden meaning is perhaps contained in these words.

3.76| For how, when he is about to take away from Judea and from Jerusalem the strong man and the strong woman, the strength of bread and of water, and everything that had long been conspicuous among them, could the things prophesied be for Judea and for Jerusalem? And how is what is said next in turn also for them: "Jerusalem is abandoned, and Judea, and their tongues are with lawlessness, disobedient in what concerns the Lord"?

3.77| But in such a season, when the mountain of the Lord must be proclaimed to all the nations, and the house of God upon the mountain, to which all the nations, they say, come together, saying, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house that belongs to Jacob's God," the Word, having made such accusations against the nation of the Jews and threatened them with the utmost penalties, attaches to all this the words we set out earlier. He teaches that although the whole nation of the Jews is going to fall away from piety toward God, some will be left among them who did not share with the rest in their evils; rather, as men preserved out of the wicked and lawless, who have shown the proof and the purity of piety, they will be counted worthy of being written down before God and be named holy servants of God.

3.78| Through these words he makes clear our Savior's apostles and disciples and evangelists, and all the rest of those of the circumcision who believed in him when their whole nation fell away.

3.79| The Word hints at these things when he says: "On that day," that is, when all that has been foretold concerning the calling of the nations and the falling away of the Jews shall come to pass, "God will shine forth in counsel with glory upon the earth, to exalt and glorify what is left of Israel; and it shall be that what is left behind in Zion and what is left in Jerusalem, all who are written down for life in Jerusalem, shall be called." It was for the sake of these, who came forth from Jerusalem and from Judea, that the prelude reasonably says the prophecy is for Judea and for Jerusalem, or else on account of the true Jerusalem, and the Judea contemplated in a corresponding way in the mind; about which we shall learn in due season.

3.80| And who, observing the inspired power of our Savior's apostles and evangelists, by which "their sound went forth over all the earth, and their sayings to the limits of the inhabited world," and how all the churches of Christ from that time down to the present hold their words on their lips as their lessons, and the ordinances of Christ's legislation of the new covenant proclaimed through them, would not attest the truth of the prophecy, which says plainly that "in counsel and with glory" God will exalt over all the earth, and glorify, what is left of Israel, and that what is left in Zion and what is left in Jerusalem, those written down for life, will be called holy? And where the Seventy have "in counsel with glory," Aquila and Theodotion render it in agreement "with power and glory," representing the power given by God to the apostles and the glory with God that goes with it, according to the saying, "The Lord shall give a word to those who bring good news, with great power."

3.81| And this very thing that has come to pass: "You shall hear with the ear and shall not understand, and seeing you shall see and shall not perceive. For this people's heart has grown thick, and their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes [….], lest at any time they see with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and turn back, and I heal them. Then I said, How long, Lord? And he said, Until cities are laid waste for lack of inhabitants, and houses for lack of men, and the land is left desolate. And after this God will remove the men far away, and those left upon the earth will be multiplied."

3.82| Observe here too how those who were left upon the earth again, when all the rest is to be desolate, are said to be the only ones who will be multiplied. These could be our Savior's disciples from among the Hebrews, who went forth to all mankind, and who, left like seed, bore a many-fold fruit: the churches of the nations throughout the whole world. And see how, in the same passage, he says that these alone, left over from the falling away of the Jews, will be multiplied, while those others will be altogether desolate.

3.83| "Their land," he says, "shall be left desolate." The same prophet also said this to them earlier: "Your land is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; strangers devour your country in your presence."

3.84| When were these things fulfilled, if not from the time of our Savior? For as long as they had not yet dared their impieties against him, their land was not desolate, nor their cities set on fire, nor did strangers consume their country. But from that divine utterance in which our Savior and Lord himself foretold what would happen to them, saying, "Your house is left desolate," from that time, and, not long afterward, being besieged by the Romans, they were reduced to desolation.

3.85| And the prophetic Word exposes the cause of their desolation, explaining it almost in plain terms and setting out the reason for their falling away. For when our Savior was teaching among them, they heard with the ears of the body but did not hear with the ears of the mind, and did not understand who he was; and having seen him with the eyes of the flesh, they did not behold him with those of the soul. They thickened their own heart, and almost shut the eyes of their understanding and made heavy their ears, as the prophecy says. For this reason, it says, their cities will be laid waste for lack of inhabitants and the land will become desolate, though a few of them will be left, preserved like fertile and living seed, who, going forth to all mankind, are said to be multiplied upon the earth.

3.86| Yet even after the going forth of these same men, that is, of our Savior's apostles, he says that a tenth part would still remain in the land of Judea itself, and that afterward they would again be given over to plunder like a terebinth, and like an acorn when it falls from its husk. By these words, I think, the Word shows that, following the first siege, which they are on record as having suffered in the time of the apostles under the Roman emperor Vespasian, they were besieged a second time under Hadrian and were shut out entirely from the place, so that they were not allowed even to set foot on the soil of Jerusalem. It is this that he hints at when he says: "And again it shall be for plunder, like a terebinth, and like an acorn when it falls from its husk."

3.87| "And it shall be on that day that a man will rear a heifer of the herd and two sheep; and because of the abundance of milk he will eat butter, and everyone left upon the earth will eat honey."

3.88| If you look here for the day that is meant, you will find that it is the very time of our Savior's appearing. For after the prophet says, "Behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb and bear a son," he prophesies in between many things concerning what was to happen on that same day, that is, about the time of our Savior's appearing.

3.89| For he says that invisible powers, certain enemies and adversaries, named flies and bees according to the laws of allegory, will come upon the Jews' land, and that the Lord will shave, with the razor of their enemies, as of a great body, the head of the nation of the Jews, and the hair of the feet, and the beard, and in a word the whole adornment of them.

3.90| When these things come to pass on the day prophesied for him who was to be born of the virgin, the man left over from the destruction of the whole nation, that is, everyone of them who has believed in the Christ of God, will rear a heifer of the herd and two sheep, the prophet says, and because of the abundance of milk will eat butter and honey. You will understand these things too, by mystical contemplation, as fulfilled in our Savior's apostles.

3.91| Each of them, in the churches he established by the power of Christ, nurtured two sheep, that is, two orders gathering like sheep into Christ's flock, one still being taught the first elements, the other already enlightened through the washing; and besides these, he reared one heifer, the church's body of presiding officers, on divine and rational food, and from them he bore away as fruit of the nourishment he had labored over the fertile milk and honey.

3.92| There is no need to say how the divine Word is accustomed to liken the multitudes of the less perfect to sheep, since all Scripture teaches this; but how it compares the leader of the church, who tills the many, to the ox that works the land, the holy apostle establishes when he says:

3.93| "Does God care for oxen, or does he say it altogether for our sake? Because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of having a share."

3.94| But if anyone takes offense at such figurative readings, it is time for him not to understand the flies or bees by way of the meaning either, nor the razor, nor the beard, nor the hair of the feet, but to fall into absurd and incoherent tales. And if these things must be received in no other way than by contemplation alone, it is clear that the sequel must be taken likewise.

3.95| "On that day the mountains will be put out, and the hills, and the forests, and it will consume from soul to flesh; and the one who flees will be like one fleeing from a burning flame, and those left of them will be a number, and a little child will write them down. And it shall be on that day that what is left of Israel will no longer be added to, and those of Jacob who have been saved will no longer trust in those who wronged them, but will trust in truth in God, the Holy One of Israel; and what is left of Israel will turn back to the mighty God.

3.96| And if the number of the sons of Israel should be like the sand of the sea, a remnant of them will be saved. For he is bringing a word to completion and cutting it short in righteousness, because God will make a curtailed word in all the inhabited world."

3.97| Here too take note that in the threat of grim things he says, "the one who flees will be like one fleeing from a burning flame; and those left of them will be a number, and a little child will write them down." By these words he shows how few were to escape the destruction of the people of the circumcision and the burning of Jerusalem. These who are left, he says, "shall be a number";

3.98| that is, they will be capable of being counted, being so few and easy to number. So few, then, in comparison with the whole multitude of the nation of the Jews, are those who have come to believe in our Savior and Lord, who were also counted worthy of being written down by him, as the Word shows when it says, "and a little child will write them down"; having taught beforehand who the little child was, in the words, "Behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb and bear a son; and before the child knows how to call father or mother."

3.99| And since here it says that a little child will write them down, it was reasonably said earlier, "And what is left in Zion and what remains in Jerusalem, all who are written down for life shall be called holy." Just as there what was left was named, and the same persons were written down for life, so here too those who are left of them will be a number and a little child will write them down.

3.100| And this remnant of Israel, and those of Jacob who have been saved, will no longer, he says, rely on those who wronged them, but will trust in God, the Holy One of Israel.

3.101| And see whether it was not in this confidence that those who came forth from the nation of the Jews, those disciples and apostles of our Savior who were left over from the falling away of Israel, taking no account of the rulers of this age or of those who ruled the people of the circumcision and had long wronged them, went out to all the nations proclaiming the word of Christ, and in their confidence toward God

3.102| (since, as the prophecy has it, they had trusted in God, the Holy One of Israel, truly; for not deceitfully or with hypocrisy, but in truth, they gave their whole selves over to hope) not only went forth from their own country but accomplished what they had set before them.

3.103| And this remnant itself became, as it were, the seed of Jacob's falling away, trusting in the mighty God; and this very remnant, when their whole nation had become like the sand of the sea and not like the stars of heaven, was counted worthy of salvation with God, just as the apostle testified when he said: "Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, Though the number of Israel's sons be like the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved."

3.104| For two promises were given to Abraham by the oracle concerning those who would come from him: that they would be like the stars of heaven and like the sand of the sea. Those dear to God shine like the lights of heaven, like those of old, the prophets and our Savior's apostles, of whom he testified when he said, "You are the light of the world"; while the earthborn and ground-grubbing are compared to the sand of the earth.

3.105| Reasonably, then, when the whole multitude of the sons of Israel, fallen from its dignity and from the greatness of virtue, has become altogether ground-grubbing and is likened to the sand of the sea, the prophetic Word says that then only the remnant of them will be saved; about which remnant we have set out a great deal.

3.106| He says that this will happen when the Lord himself, cutting short and completing a word, makes it over the whole inhabited world, plainly presenting the gospel proclamation, in which the whole cycle of Moses, bound up with customs and symbols and bodily forms of worship, is taken away, and the concise word of the Gospel, delivered to all mankind, has confirmed the truth of the prophecy.

3.107| "And it shall be on that day that the root of Jesse, even he who rises to rule the nations, on him shall nations hope, and his rest shall be honor. And it shall be on that day that the Lord will again show his hand, to be zealous for and to seek out the remnant that is left of his people, which shall be left from the Assyrians, and from Egypt, and from Babylonia, and from Ethiopia and the Elamites, and from where the sun rises, and from the islands of the sea. He will raise a sign for the nations, and will gather Judah's dispersed from the four corners of the earth."

3.108| Often, when certain things are said to happen on a notable day, that is, at a conspicuous season of time, we have shown by reasoning that the sequence of what is described refers to the coming of God, at which, when the whole nation of the Jews falls away, the divine words make clear that a rare few of them, those who are left, will be saved.

3.109| The passage now in hand, moreover, shows most plainly both the day and the time signified by it and what befell then. For in prophesying the birth of the Christ from the seed of David, it foretells together with it the falling away of the Jews. It speaks thus:

3.110| "Behold, the Master, the Lord Sabaoth, will throw into confusion the glorious with strength, and the lofty will be humbled, and the lofty will fall by the sword, and Lebanon will fall with the lofty." By Lebanon he hints here at Jerusalem, as we showed elsewhere, which the Word threatens will fall with all that is majestic and glorious in it. And having first held out these threats, he adds next: "And a rod shall spring out of the root of Jesse, and from the root a flower shall rise," and what follows.

3.111| Most plainly he sets out the birth of the Christ from the root of Jesse, David's father; and at this birth he first proclaims the calling of the nations, in the prophetic manner, through a riddle. For the words "the wolf shall graze beside the lamb, and the leopard shall rest beside the kid," and the like, signified nothing other than the change of nations that were wild and cruel in character and in no way different from beasts, into a pious, gentle and sociable way of life.

3.112| This same thing he teaches later more openly, saying: "The whole earth was filled with knowledge of the Lord, like abundant water covering the seas."

3.113| And again the prophetic Word, interpreting itself, adds: "And it shall be on that day that the root of Jesse, even he who rises to rule the nations, on him shall nations hope, and his rest shall be honor."

3.114| Since, then, he had earlier indicated the falling away of the nation of the Jews in a veiled manner, and after this the calling of the nations, now veiled and now bare, he reasonably takes up the discourse again and mentions those of the circumcision who believe in Christ, so as not to shut out entirely their hope in Christ. "For there shall be," he says, "one who rises to rule the nations."

3.115| And who was the one who rises, if not the root of Jesse, of whom he says plainly that he will rule nations, and not Israel? Since, then, he had taught in various ways the turning of the nations to him who sprang and blossomed from the root of Jesse, but had as yet said nothing good about those of the circumcision, he reasonably supplies what the prediction lacked, saying: "And it shall be on that day," that is, in the time of the appearing of him who sprang from the root of Jesse, "the Lord will again show his hand, to seek out and be zealous for the remnant left behind from the people, which shall be left from this enemy and that." For this Aquila has: "And it shall be on that day that the Lord will a second time put forth his hand to acquire the remnant of his people that shall be left from the Assyrians," and so on.

3.116| You will understand these things too by considering that the enemies of God's people are certain intelligible and spiritual ones, either wicked demons or powers opposed to the Word, who, having long ago presided invisibly over the nations named, besieged the souls of Israel, throwing about them various passions, dragging them off and taking them captive into a life like that of the foreigners' way of living.

3.117| Now when almost this whole people had been taken captive in soul by those just described, those who were kept and left unwounded and unplundered will, according to the prophecy, obtain the promise indicated, seeing the Lord's hand and becoming his possession, according to the saying: "The Lord will again show his hand, to be zealous for the remnant left behind from the people."

3.118| What will the Lord add? Why, to what he once showed long before, when the hand of the Lord came to be upon them through the prophets, he will add for these also, as men saved from the fall of the whole people, what the earlier ones lacked. And these were the mysteries of the new covenant, shown through the hand of the Lord to the part left from the people. "But also," he says, "to be zealous for the remnant left of the people."

3.119| In place of this Aquila and Theodotion agree in saying "to acquire the remnant of his people, which he shall leave from the Assyrians and from the other enemy nations." And this part left over from the people, he says, "will raise a sign for the nations,"

3.120| the Lord plainly displaying through them his own sign among all the nations, and gathering through them the lost of Israel and the dispersed of Judah from the four quarters of the earth, who have fled to the Christ of God by the proclamation of his apostles; for he means that those gathered were among the ones long ago removed and cut off from the Israel and Judah of the mind.

3.121| The way of such souls shows who the true Israel of God is, just as, conversely, a base and wicked disposition makes the Israel according to the flesh be styled rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah.

3.122| The remnant, then, according to the election of grace, which the prophecy calls the part of the people that is left, proclaimed the Lord's sign to all the nations; and drawing such souls of the nations from destruction to the knowledge of the Lord, it gathered one people to God, a people that is even now being assembled from the four corners of the earth by the power of Christ.

3.123| And these very men, the disciples and apostles of our Savior saved from those of the Jewish nation who perished, though they came from different tribes, were counted worthy of one calling, one grace and one Holy Spirit, and will cast away all the jealousy that the tribes of the Hebrew nation once felt toward one another, as the prophecy says.

3.124| Equipped, then, with the same mind and the same purpose, they passed through not only the mainland but also the islands of the nations, plundering the souls of men everywhere and taking them captive into subjection to Christ, in accordance with the oracle that says: "And they shall fly upon the ships of the foreigners, plundering together the sea and those from the rising of the sun."

3.125| The rest of the prophecy you will examine in the same manner, testing each word for yourself, setting aside everything in it that is incoherent or lowly, and grasping the thought of the Spirit as the Spirit of God itself prompts you to see it. For the occasion does not allow us to linger longer over these passages, since we are pressed to carry through the subject before us.

3.126| "And I will command evils upon the whole world, and upon the impious their sins; and I will destroy the insolence of the lawless, and will humble the insolence of the proud; and those who have been left behind will be more precious than unrefined gold, and a man will be more precious than the stone from Sophir."

3.127| And next he adds: "And those who are left behind will be fleeing, and like a wandering sheep."

3.128| Through these words too the Word shows most clearly how few will be saved in the time of the destruction of the impious, so that there is no room to suppose that, without distinction, absolutely all of the circumcision and the whole nation of the Jews will obtain the promises of God.

3.129| "And it shall be on that day that the glory of Jacob will fail, and the fat of his glory will be shaken. And it will be just as when someone gathers standing grain and reaps the seed of the ears of corn; and as when someone gathers ears of corn in a hard valley and stubble is left in it; or as two or three olive berries on the top of a high branch, or four or five are left on its boughs. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: On that day a man will trust in him who made him, and his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel, and they will not put trust in the altars, or in the works of their hands, which their fingers made."

3.130| Through these words too it is plainly foretold that the glory of Israel and all their fatness will be brought down, but that a few, again, who can be counted, will be left, like little olive berries on the tree; and these would be the ones among them who have believed in our Lord. And in sequence, after what is said about them, it is prophesied of the whole race of mankind that it will turn away from the error of idols and will come to know the God of Israel.

3.131| "Hear, you islands, you who are left behind and in pain; hear what I have heard from the Lord Sabaoth; the God of Israel has announced it to us."

3.132| See how here too he does not call all the circumcision to hear the unspeakable things, but only those whom he names the left behind and the pained, such as were, according to the apostle, those who groan and weep over the wickedness of the life of men.

3.133| "The lofty ones of the earth mourned, and the earth acted lawlessly because of those who dwell in it. Therefore those who inhabit the earth shall be poor, and few men will be left." In these words, having convicted of transgressing the law and God's covenant those of the circumcision people who did so, and having threatened them with what is written, he prophesies that few of those men will be left. These would be what the apostle calls the remnant according to a choice of grace.

3.134| "Cities will be left desolate, and the houses that have been abandoned will perish. All this will happen in the land in the midst of the nations: as when someone gleans an olive tree, so will they glean them; and when the vintage has ceased, these will cry out, but those left upon the earth will rejoice together with the glory of the Lord." Here too only those who are left are said to rejoice, while all the rest will be handed over to what is foretold.

3.135| "The crown of insolence will be trampled, the hirelings of Ephraim. And the fallen flower of the hope of glory on the top of the high mountain will be like an early fig: whoever sees it will, before taking it in his hand, wish to swallow it. On that day the Lord will be the crown of hope, the woven crown of glory, for the remnant of his people; for they will be left in a spirit of judgment."

3.136| Here too he prophesies that the Lord will become a crown of hope and of glory for the remnant of the people, and not for their whole nation, but only for those signified by the remnant, while he calls the others, besides the remnant of the people, a crown of insolence and hirelings of Ephraim.

3.137| "And those who have been left behind in Judea will put down a root below and make seed above; for from Jerusalem will come those who are left behind and those who are saved from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord Sabaoth will do this."

3.138| He prophesies that those left from the Jewish nation according to the election of grace will put down a root below and make seed above, most plainly setting forth the election of our Savior's apostles and disciples. For these, left from the circumcision, cast the roots of their teaching down into the earth, so that their doctrine was planted and took root throughout the whole inhabited world, while they urged that the seed and the fruit be carried upward to the heavenly promises.

3.139| These same men, left from the nation of the Jews while the rest perish, are said to be the only ones saved. And all this the zeal of the Lord did: for in order to provoke the impious among the circumcision to jealousy, the zeal of the Lord chose these and made those jealous, according to what is said in Moses: "They provoked me to jealousy with what is no god, and I in turn will provoke them to jealousy with what is no nation; with a senseless nation I will anger them."

3.140| "Thus says the Lord: As a grape is found in the cluster, and they will say, Do not spoil it, for a blessing of the Lord is in it, so I will do for the sake of him who serves me. For this reason I will not destroy them all, but will bring out the seed from Jacob and from Judah, and it will inherit my holy mountain.

3.141| And my chosen ones and my servants will inherit it, and will dwell there. And in the forest there will be a fold for flocks, and the valley of Achor a resting place for herds, for my people who sought me. But you who forsake me and forget my holy mountain, and make ready a table for Fortune, and fill up a mixing bowl for the demon, I will give you over to the sword.

3.142| You will all fall in slaughter, because I called you and you did not obey, and you did evil before me, and chose what I did not want."

3.143| Distinguishing in these words too, the Word says that only a small seed from Jacob will obtain what was promised, and that those who dwell in the forest are the chosen, so naming the calling of the nations, in which are the Lord's chosen and the seed of Jacob, who may be the apostles and the disciples of our Savior; while all the rest besides these are subjected to the threats described. The Word almost declares in the barest terms that God's promises do not come to the whole nation of the Jews indiscriminately, but only to the seed named and to those called God's chosen, since many are called but few are chosen.

3.144| The Word next prophesies that a new name will also now be put upon these, saying to the impious: "For your name will be left as a satiety for my chosen, but the Lord will destroy you; and for those who serve me a new name will be called." And what would this new name be, which was not known among the ancients, if not the name of Christians, blessed throughout the whole inhabited world, from the title of our Savior Jesus Christ? 50. From Micah.

3.145| "And from the drop of this people there shall be a gathering: Jacob will be gathered together with all. Receiving, I will receive the remnant of Israel; I will set their return together in one place."

3.146| In agreement with the passages from Isaiah set out above, Micah too names as those whom God will receive not simply all, but only the remnant. And just as in Isaiah the remnant from among them was called seed, so now he names as a drop those of them who are to be saved.

3.147| By these words too the company of the apostles is shown, as having become a kind of drop and seed of the Jewish nation, from which drop all those throughout the whole inhabited world who have recognized the Christ of God and received his teaching have been counted worthy of the gathering that is foretold, having found deliverance from their enemies.

3.148| "And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephrathah, are few in number among the thousands of Judah. From you shall come forth for me a ruler, to be ruler over Israel, and his outgoings are from the beginning, even from the days of eternity. Therefore he will give them up until the time when she who is in labor gives birth, and the rest of their brothers will return."

3.149| And after a few words he continues: "And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the nations, in the midst of numerous peoples, like dew falling from the Lord, and like lambs upon the grass, so that no one may be gathered together, nor stand firm among the children of men. And the remainder of Jacob shall be in the nations, in the midst of numerous peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, and like a lion's cub among flocks of sheep; as when he passes through and tears apart and seizes, and there is no one to rescue. Your hand shall be lifted up against those who afflict you, and all your enemies shall be utterly destroyed."

3.150| Nothing could be plainer than these words, which proclaim in the same breath the Savior's birth in Bethlehem, his existence before the ages, the virgin's childbirth, the calling of his apostles and disciples, and the proclamation about Christ announced through them throughout the whole inhabited world.

3.151| For it says that when the ruler described, whose goings forth the Word makes clear are from the days of eternity, comes forth from Bethlehem, and the holy virgin who bears him gives birth, not all of the circumcision but only the rest will be saved, who are also to become a remnant of Jacob and, like dew, to be given over all the nations. "For the remnant of Jacob," it says, "shall be among the nations, like dew falling from the Lord, and like lambs upon the grass."

3.152| In place of this Aquila has "and like showers upon the herb," and Theodotion has given "and like snow upon the grass." And again, in place of "so that no one may be gathered together nor stand firm among the sons of men, nor may a son of man stumble," Theodotion says "who will not wait for a man, and will not hope in a son of man," and Aquila, "who will not endure a man, and not concerning sons of men."

3.153| By these words the whole hope of our Savior's apostles is set not on a man but on their Savior and Lord, and he was the [….] of God

3.154| To this he adds next: "And the remnant of Jacob shall be found among the nations, amid many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest and like a lion's cub among flocks of sheep; as when he passes through and tears apart and seizes, and there is no one to rescue." By this I think is shown the boldness and fearlessness of the apostolic proclamation.

3.155| Like a lion and its cub, then, they burst into the forest of the nations and into the herds of human sheep, and separating the worthy from the unworthy they brought them under the Word of Christ; and to him is next addressed the saying: "Your hand shall be lifted up against those who afflict you, and all your enemies shall be utterly destroyed." This too is before our eyes to grasp. For though countless men have afflicted the Word of Christ and even now make war on it, it has been lifted up and has become stronger than them all.

3.156| Indeed the hand of Christ was lifted up against all who afflicted him, and all his enemies who rose up at various times against his church are reported to be utterly destroyed. 52. From Zephaniah.

3.157| "For then I will change peoples to the name of the Lord, to serve him under one yoke. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia I will receive those who supplicate me. The sons of the dispersed will bring me sacrifices. On that day you will not be put to shame by any of your practices, in which you acted impiously against me; for then I will take away from you the vile things of your insolence, and you will no more go on to boast on my holy mountain; and I will leave in you a meek and humble people.

3.158| And the remnant of Israel will fear in the name of the Lord, and they will not do injustice, nor speak vanities. And a deceitful tongue shall not be found in their mouth, for they will pasture and lie down, and there will be none to frighten them."

3.159| In these words too the Lord promises to leave for himself a meek and humble people, indicating none other than the one of the circumcision that has believed in his Christ; and again that only the remnant of Israel will be saved, together with the calling of the other nations, which he signified in the opening of the prophecy. 53. From Zechariah.

3.160| "Behold, a day comes upon you, and your spoils are in you. And I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem for war, and the city shall be captured, and the houses plundered, and the women polluted, and half of the city shall depart into captivity, but the rest of my people shall not be wholly destroyed from the city."

3.161| This too agrees with what has been set out, being fulfilled upon the destruction that overtook the whole nation of the Jews after the coming of Christ. After the return from Babylon, then, Zechariah prophesies these things, foretelling the last siege of the people, which would be by the Romans; and at this siege, when the whole nation of the Jews will come into the hands of the enemy, he says that the remnant of the people alone will be saved, openly pointing to our Savior's apostles themselves. 54. From Jeremiah.

3.162| "Return, apostate sons, says the Lord, for I will be your master, and I will take you, one out of a city and two out of a family. And I will bring you into Zion, and I will give you shepherds after my own heart, and they will shepherd you, shepherding with knowledge. And it shall be, if you multiply and increase, says the Lord, in those days they will no more say, The ark of the covenant of Israel's Lord; it will not come up into the heart, nor be named, and it will be made no more."

3.163| Likewise in these words he prophesies the return of Israel that was to take place at the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ, in which he chooses one out of a city and two out of a family, a very few, small in number, as shepherds of the nations that believe in him and increase upon the earth through the calling of the nations that was to be accomplished by them.

3.164| They will no more say, he says, "The ark of the Lord's covenant." Indeed they will no longer run back to the more bodily forms of worship of Moses, since a new covenant will be delivered to them. 55. From the same.

3.165| "They multiplied their impieties, they grew strong in their apostasies. For which of these shall I be merciful to you? Your sons have forsaken me, and swore by those who are no gods; and I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and lodged in the houses of prostitutes. They became horses; each neighed after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit for these things? says the Lord; or shall my soul not take vengeance on such a nation? Go up upon her battlements and cut down, but do not make an end; leave her supports, for they are the Lord's."

3.166| Here the charge against their whole nation and the siege that overtook them are made clear together, and again the remnant, which he calls her support, as belonging to the Lord. This was the part strengthened and made firm through faith in the Christ of God, so as not to endure the like of what their whole nation suffered. 56. From Ezekiel.

3.167| "And the wounded shall fall in the midst of you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, when some of you are saved from the sword among the nations, and in your being scattered through the lands; and those of you who are saved will remember me among the nations where they were taken captive."

3.168| Here too, it seems to me, the passage agrees with what comes from the other prophecies. For whom would you say "those who are saved" are, if not what other passages name the remnant, and the dew and the drop of that people? By these the company of our Savior's apostles was signified. These, at any rate, were saved out of the [….] of their whole nation, and in their dispersion they remembered God, so that what is written is admitted to have been said about them. 57. From the same.

3.169| "Thus says Adonai the Lord: [….] them among the nations, and I will scatter them into all the nations, and I will scatter them over all the earth, and I will be to them a little sanctuary in the lands into which they go."

3.170| Here too he has called the same people by another name, calling those of them who were to be saved and left behind a little sanctuary. 58. From the same.

3.171| "And all who help them I will scatter to every wind, and I will pour out a sword after them; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I scatter among the nations; and I will disperse them in the lands. And I will leave of them men who can be counted, from the sword, and from famine, and from death, so that they may recount all their lawless deeds among the nations into which they go; and they shall know that I am the Lord."

3.172| Here too, when the whole people is dispersed, he says that he will leave for himself a few in number, meaning no others than those spoken of before. 59. From the same. "Thus says Adonai the Lord: Even if I send out upon Jerusalem my four evil judgments, sword and famine and evil beasts and death, to destroy from it man and beast, behold, those who have been saved are left in it."

3.173| This too would differ in no way from what was said before. 60. From the same.

3.174| "So will I judge you, says the Lord: I will make you pass under my rod, and I will bring you in by the number of my covenant, and I will pick out from among you the rebels and the impious; for I will bring them out of the land of their sojourning, but into the land of Israel they shall not enter."

3.175| Plainly in these words too he testifies that a few in number will come under the rod of God, while the rest of Israel will fall away from the promises. But since I have now demonstrated that the divine oracles did not foretell the promises of good things at random and without distinction, simply to all from the Jewish nation, the base and impious along with those who were not such, but to the rare few of them who could be counted, whether those of them who have believed in our Savior and Lord, or those who were justified before his coming, I think I have made it sufficiently plain that what the divine promises held was not fulfilled indiscriminately for all Jews, and that the prophets' oracles fit them no more than they fit those from the nations who have received the Christ of God. What the meaning of the divine promises was, I shall set out at the proper time.

3.176| I have gathered these passages as necessary, to refute those of the circumcision who in their senseless boasting arrogantly insist that Christ would come to dwell among them alone and not among all men as well, and to show that our own devotion to their oracles is well grounded.

3.177| In the book before this one I also established the reason why we do not Judaize, even though we delight in their prophetic writings. In it I also went through, to the extent possible, what sort of life it is that has been proclaimed through Christ to all the nations, and the antiquity of the manner of the gospel way of life.

3.178| With this accomplished, it is now at last time to take up more secret matters: those concerning the mystical dispensation that relates to our Savior and Lord Jesus, the Christ of God, so as to learn why he made his appearing to all mankind now and not before this; what the reason was that he began the calling of the nations not in the distant past but only recently, after the long age; and whatever else belongs to the secret theology concerning him; and further, the matters concerning his becoming man. Come, then, calling upon the Word of God himself as our helper for the present, let us examine these, beginning first from a fresh start of the argument, as against unbelievers.

Cite a passage by its number: every paragraph here has its own anchor (for example https://openscriptorium.com/read/eusebius/091-demonstration-of-the-gospel-book-ii#p1), and the bracketed reference numbers link the same way.

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