Demonstration of the Gospel — Book VIII

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

praef.1| Having shown by how many prophecies it was foretold that the Word of God would come among human beings, and how the prophetic utterances among the Hebrews proclaimed from what source, and where, and in what manner he would be seen by those on earth; and that he was that very one and no other, the Son of God who subsisted before the ages, whom we learned earlier through other passages to be God and Lord and Commander-in-chief and High Priest of God and Angel of Great Counsel: let us now, in due order after what we have already gone through, bring testimony once more from the prophetic predictions themselves to the times of his appearing, beginning from this point.

praef.2| The sacred scriptures proclaim in advance that the following will be clear signs of the times of Christ's coming. Of old there were three distinguished offices of honor eminent among the Hebrews, by which the nation was held together: one royal, another prophetic, and besides these the high-priestly. The scriptures foretell that the dissolution and complete overthrow of all three together will be signs of the coming of Christ.

praef.3| They declare that further tokens of the same times will be the ending of the worship according to Moses, the desolation of Jerusalem and of the temple in it, and, beyond this, the slavery of the whole Jewish nation under its enemies and foes. And they put forward still other signs of the same times: an abundance of peace; the abolition among the nations of the age-old rule of local lords and of many rulers, nation by nation and city by city; a turning away from the polytheistic and demonic worship of idols; and the knowledge of piety toward the one God, the Maker who is over all.

praef.4| All these things, then, which did not exist of old in the times of the prophets, the divine oracles foretold would come about at the coming of Christ; and that they have reached their fulfillment in accordance with the predictions will be shown very shortly.

praef.5| As for the reasons why Christ appeared in human life not earlier, but now in the last times, after the long and great age, they have been stated already before; nevertheless they will be told now too, in brief.

praef.6| Long ago a great squalor of folly and impiety darkened the souls of human beings, and a terrible godlessness held sway over the whole life of humankind, so that they seemed in no way different from savage and untamed beasts. They knew no cities, no constitutions, no laws, nothing dignified or useful to life; they gave no thought to sciences or arts, and virtue and philosophy did not so much as enter their minds. They passed their days only in desolate places, in mountains and caves and villages, setting upon their neighbors like brigands, and getting the means of life from no other source than by overpowering those weaker than themselves.

praef.7| Nor did they know the God who is over all, or the way of true piety. Stirred by natural notions, they agreed, taught by an instruction born in themselves, that there is some divine power among the things that are, that God exists and is so named, and that the name is a saving and beneficent one; but they were no longer able to accept that one should think of him as nothing other than the one who is beyond all visible essence.

praef.8| That is why some of them "worshiped and served the creature instead of the Creator," and others "became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened," so that they "exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for a likeness in the image of corruptible man, of birds, of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things." These men, then, turned into idols the images of dead men, certain potentates or even tyrants of long ago, attached divine worship to them, and made a theology of their outrageous and licentious deeds, solemnly extolling them as the noble achievements of gods.

praef.9| How, then, could the teaching of Christ, all-wise and all-virtuous, which proclaims philosophy at its highest, suit those who were in such a state of life and wallowing in so great a depth of wickedness? That is why the divine justice that watches over all things, cutting them back like wild and most harmful undergrowth, pursued them at one time with floods, at another with conflagrations, and at another handed them over to wars against one another, to slaughters and to sieges one after another, as they were goaded into war with each other by the demons themselves, the very ones they had taken for gods, so that the human life of that time was impassable to neighbors, without intercourse and without fellowship. But a few, as might be expected in such a state of things, and few enough to be counted,

praef.10| those whom the oracles among the Hebrews record, it found dear to God; with these it conversed through oracles and more divine manifestations, welcoming these men and tending them with the introductory and life-giving laws given through Moses.

praef.11| But when, from the legislation ordained for these men and from the prophetic teachings after it, which poured out upon all people like a fragrance, the minds of the many had by then been tamed, and constitutions and legislation were being established among many nations, and the name of philosophy and virtue was proclaimed among many, as the old beastliness ceased and the wild and harsh way of life was changing toward gentleness, then at last, at the proper season, the Teacher, perfect and heavenly, of doctrines and lessons that are perfect and heavenly, the guide to the true knowledge of God, God the Word himself, appeared in the outlined time of his becoming human. He announced to all nations, Greeks and barbarians, and to the whole race of human beings the one good news of the Father's love for humanity, urging all toward one salvation in God, and procuring for all the truth itself and the light of true piety, the kingdom of heavens, and the promise of eternal life.

praef.12| Let this much be said about the times, and about the reason why the Christ of God shone out upon all human beings now and not long before. Come, let us go back and examine in detail the signs of the time of his arrival, first noting the gospel statements about his birth.

praef.13| Matthew, then, records the time of his appearing in the flesh somewhat as follows, saying: "Now after Jesus had been born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod." And after a few words he says: "But hearing that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of Herod his father."

praef.14| And Luke sets out the time of his teaching and manifestation, with these words: "In the fifteenth year of the rule of Tiberius Caesar, with Pontius Pilate governing Judea, and Herod tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas." It is well, then, to set beside these the prophecy of Jacob in Moses, which runs as follows. On the times of his appearing to human beings.

1.1| From Genesis. "And Jacob called his sons and said: Gather together, that I may tell you what will befall you at the last of the days. Assemble and hear, sons of Jacob, hear Israel your father."

1.2| Then, after this, having faulted some of his earlier sons for certain of their offenses, as having become unworthy to be chosen for the prediction to come, he prophesies the following to the fourth, as the one who had shown a life better than that of his remaining brothers: "Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hands are on the back of your enemies; the sons of your father shall bow down to you. A lion's whelp is Judah; from the shoot, my son, you went up; lying down you slept like a lion and a whelp. Who will rouse him? A ruler will not be lacking out of Judah, nor a leader out of his thighs, until what is reserved for him arrives, and he himself is the expectation of the nations."

1.3| Consider first what he says the things reserved for him are, and see whether they are not the very things that God declared in prophecy to the forefathers around Abraham concerning the calling of the nations. For it is on record that God told Abraham: "And you shall be blessed, and I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you; and all the earth's tribes will be blessed in you."

1.4| And again, concerning Abraham, he says: "He will become a great and populous nation, and in him all the earth's nations will be blessed." The oracle speaks similar words to Isaac in this manner: "And I will multiply your seed like the stars of heaven, and all the nations of the earth will find blessing in your seed." And to Jacob also such things were said: "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; do not fear." And then: "and in you all the earth's tribes will be blessed."

1.5| On another occasion God said to him: "I am your God; grow and be multiplied; nations, and gatherings of nations, shall come out of you, and kings shall come out of your loins."

1.6| Jacob, having learned beforehand so many predictions of God about the calling of the nations, and knowing beforehand that his children numbered twelve, called them all together near his death and looked about to see from which of them, in succession, the predictions of God would come to fulfillment. Then, laying reproofs for their offenses upon the first three of his sons, he goes on to teach that because of what they had dared, the accomplishments of the predictions would not be fulfilled through them.

1.7| But coming to the fourth, Judah, he prophesies that the oracle spoken to him, "kings shall come forth from his loins," will reach its end through this man's succession. For it is plain that the royal line arose from the tribe of Judah; and at the same time he sets out in what times the predictions of God and the promises to the nations will take effect, and teaches that from him will come forth the one who is to become, for each nation and each tribe of the earth, the cause of a blessing like Abraham's.

1.8| All these, then, were "the things reserved" for Judah: namely, what was prophesied long before about the nations, and "kings shall come forth from your loins." Therefore, preferred over his remaining brothers, he was thought worthy of a royal tribe more distinguished than the rest.

1.9| Indeed, in the ordering of the whole people in the time of Moses, God commands this tribe to lead the other tribes, since it is written: "And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: Let the sons of Israel encamp, each man next to his own division, by standards, by their family houses, in the Lord's presence, around the tent of the testimony; and those who encamp first on the east side are the division of the camp of the sons of Judah, with their force."

1.10| And next, in the account of the offerings for the dedication of the tent: "The Lord said to Moses: One ruler each day shall bring their gifts. And the one who brought his gift on the first day was Naasson son of Aminadab, ruler of the tribe of Judah."

1.11| And in the book of the son of Naue, when the land of promise was distributed by lot among the remaining tribes, the tribe of Judah, without a lot and first of all, receives its own portion of the land.

1.12| Moreover, "after the death of Joshua the sons of Israel questioned the Lord, saying: Who is to go up for us to the Canaanite, to lead the war against him? And the Lord said: Judah is to go up; see, I have handed the land over into his hands." By this God plainly commands the tribe of Judah to lead all Israel; hence it is written next: "And Judah went up, and the Lord [gave] the Canaanite and the Perizzite into his hand."

1.13| And again: "And the sons of Judah fought in Jerusalem, and captured it, and the sons of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanite." And once more: "And Judah went with Simeon his brother." Next: "And the Lord was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country." Following this: "And the sons of Joseph also went up, they too, to Baithel, and Judah with them."

1.14| And in the book of Judges, where different persons presided over the people at different times, even if the judges seemed to be from different tribes, still the tribe of Judah on the whole led the entire nation, and much more in the days of David and his successors, who came from the tribe of Judah and held the kingship until the captivity in Babylon; after which, when those from the captivity returned to their own land, Zorobabel, son of Salathiel, from the tribe of Judah, again became leader, he who also raised up the temple.

1.15| For this reason the writing of Paralipomena, tracing the genealogies of Israel's twelve tribes, made its beginning from that of Judah. It follows, in accord with these things, that in the later times too the same tribe is acknowledged to lead the rest, even if at times different men presided over the people, whose families we can no longer verify, since no divine book has been handed down from that time to the times of the Savior.

1.16| Yet the account compels us to say that the tribe of Judah held out only as long as the whole nation lived in freedom and self-government under its own rulers and leaders. This was theirs from the beginning, down to the times of Augustus, in which, when Jesus our Savior appeared among human beings, the whole nation was made a slave to the Romans; and in place of leaders of their own fathers' line and according to their laws, first Herod, a foreigner, became their leader, and Augustus their emperor.

1.17| So long as "a ruler from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs," had not yet failed, the times of the prophecies were recorded by listing the rulers of the nation. Thus Isaiah prophesies in the reigns of Ozias and Ioatham and Achaz and Ezekias, who reigned over Judea.

1.18| Hosea likewise. Amos prophesies in the reign of Ozias king of Judah, and in the reign of Jeroboam son of Joas, king of Israel; and Sophonias in the days of Josias son of Amos, king of Judah; and likewise Jeremiah. But when "a ruler from Judah and a leader from his thighs" had failed, and the expectation of the nations prophesied through Christ was about to shine upon life, there were no longer kings of Judah or leaders of Israel.

1.19| When these had failed, in accord with the prophecies, at the appointed times, Augustus first, and Tiberius second, were proclaimed emperors, along with the other nations, of the nation of the Jews as well, and under them the governors and tetrarchs of Judea. And so too was Herod, as I have said before, not belonging to the Jews by race, who himself received his rule over the Jews from the Romans.

1.20| With these things observed beforehand, the moment now calls us to take up the contemplation of the prophecy: "Judah, your brothers shall praise you." Of the twelve children in all that Jacob had, Judah was the fourth, as we have said before, and he himself was one chief of the tribes of the Hebrew nation.

1.21| But that the father did not have that man himself in view in what he said to him would be clear to those who attend to the words of the divine Scripture. First, the voice of Jacob speaks to his sons: "And Jacob summoned his sons, and said: Gather together, and I will tell you what will befall you at the last of the days; assemble and hear, sons of Jacob, hear Israel your father."

1.22| For he plainly promises to prophesy to them what would befall them long afterward and, as he himself says, "at the last of the days." And in other respects, too, what was said to Judah could not reasonably be applied to that first man.

1.23| For his brothers did not praise that Judah; for what achievement of his would they have praised him for? Nor did the sons of his father bow down to him. The statement would rather have fitted had it been said to Joseph, since Judah himself is seen bowing down to him together with the remaining brothers; but that was before the words of the prophecy, and after these the history shows nothing of the kind happening, with Joseph, let alone with Judah.

1.24| And "lying down like a lion and like a whelp" would need a greater contemplation than befits Judah. But what was said after this, "A ruler shall not be lacking from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until there come the things reserved for him, and he himself is the expectation of the nations," seems to me to hint at the times of the coming of the one prophesied. For this, he says, will not be until that comes to be.

1.25| For the rulers and leaders of the nation of the Jews will not cease until the expectation of the nations has come, and the things reserved for the one prophesied. Theodotion rendered this in the same way as the Seventy; but Aquila gave it in this way: "A scepter shall not rise from Judah, and one who determines exactly from between his feet, until he comes, and to him a gathering of peoples."

1.26| Here, where it says "A ruler shall not fail from Judah," again we must hear it not of Judah, that first man himself, just as "Judah, your brothers shall praise you" and what follows did not refer to him. For over a very long time rulers and leaders of the nation of the Jews were appointed who were not from the line of that man.

1.27| For the first to lead the people was Moses himself, who came not from Judah but from Levi; then Joshua of the tribe of Ephraim; after him ruled Debbora of the tribe of Ephraim, and Barak of the tribe of Nephthalim; after them Gedeon of the tribe of Manasse; then the son of Gedeon, and after him Thola, from the same tribe; then Esebon from Bethlehem, and after him Ailon of the tribe of Zabulon; then Labdon of the tribe of Ephraim, and again Samson of the tribe of Dan; then, when anarchy came upon them, Eli the priest, who belonged to the tribe of Levi, led them.

1.28| All these were judges who judged Israel, not in the line of Judah, but from different tribes, one from here and another from there; and the one who after these first reigned over them was Saul, of the tribe of Benjamin.

1.29| How then will "A ruler shall not be lacking from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs" (as one might suppose) be referred to rulers and leaders of the tribe of Judah, when it appears that for nearly a thousand whole years from the time of Jacob's death they were brought forward not from the tribe of Judah alone but at one time from one tribe and at another from another, down to the times of David? And if after so many, David and those who reigned over the nation of the Jews in his succession were from the tribe of Judah, you must know that these did not last a whole five hundred years reigning over the entire nation, but over three tribes only, and not even all of these, during which certain others held rule over the greater part of the nation, and over all nine tribes.

1.30| For after the death of Solomon, when the whole nation was divided, the successors of David from Judah reigned in Jerusalem over three tribes, as I said, and not even whole tribes, until the captivity in Babylon.

1.31| In their time, at the city called Samaria, those who led the nine tribes were continually others, not from Judah but from other tribes, the first of whom was Jeroboam, from the tribe of Ephraim, and those in succession after him, so that not even in the intervening times, from David to the captivity in Babylon, did those of the tribe of Judah lead the whole nation.

1.32| Why need I say that after the return from Babylon they again continued for more than five hundred years, down to the birth of Christ, under an aristocratic constitution, the high priests of each time leading the nation, and none of them of the tribe of Judah? So from all this it is established that the saying "A ruler shall not be wanting from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs" does not refer to that first man Judah, nor to his successors, and the passage could stand only if we understood these things to be said of the whole tribe, according to what we set out earlier.

1.33| This tribe, at any rate, led the whole nation from the beginning, from the very times of Moses; under its dominion, as having been appointed by God to lead from the start, even now the country is called Judea after the tribe and their whole community is called Jews. So we should understand what is said as though it had said more plainly: the tribe of Judah will not cease to lead the whole nation.

1.34| Symmachus says, "The authority of Judah shall not be taken away," evidently indicating the authoritative and ruling dignity of the tribe of Judah as it afterward came to be. Of this tribe, then, he prophesies that neither the scepter, as Aquila says (and this was a symbol of royal rule), nor the authority, according to Symmachus, will be taken away until, he says, he comes for whom it is reserved, and he himself will be the expectation of the nations.

1.35| What expectation is this, if not the one promised long ago to Abraham and the forefathers after him? First, then, it is worth marveling how, though there were twelve tribes among the Hebrews, the name of the nation is still proclaimed even now from no other than Judah alone; and for no other reason than that the oracle of the prophecy attached the ruling dignity to the tribe of Judah.

1.36| Indeed their ancestral land is called Judea for the same reason. For why did their nation not take its name from the first of the twelve, I mean Reuben, though in the divine law the firstborn are honored? And why not from Levi's, since Levi surpassed Judah both in age and in the honor of the priesthood? Or why did the whole nation and country not rather come to be named from Joseph, since long ago he took up the rule not only of all Egypt but of his own people, and since those descended from him, long afterward, led for a very long time all nine tribes of the nation, for whose sake it was more likely that the whole nation and country would take the name of their forefather? And who would not agree that beyond all these they would reasonably have taken their name from Benjamin, since in his tribe's lot fell their celebrated royal capital and the most holy temple of God in it? Yet nonetheless it was not from these, nor from any other than the tribe of Judah alone, that the name of the country and of the whole nation shone forth, in accord with the prophecy.

1.37| In this way, then, "A ruler shall not fail from Judah" is referred by us to the tribe, and only so is the prediction truly rendered. From the times of Moses onward, then, there did not cease to be rulers of parts of them, who led from different tribes, as I said, but in general the tribe of Judah stood at the head of the whole nation.

1.38| You will accept what is said by way of an example. Under the Roman rule, the governors of each nation and leaders, prefects and military commanders, and the emperors highest of all, do not all come from the city of the Romans, nor from the seed of Romus and Romulus, but one from here and another from there among countless nations; yet all the emperors and the rulers and leaders after them take the Roman name, and the dominion is called that of the Romans, and the general rule of all depends on this name. In the same way we must understand the affairs of the Hebrews: the one tribe of Judah is named in general over the whole nation, while the leaders and kings of the various parts are appointed from different tribes, but are honored in general by the name of Judah. Let it be said, then, as to the whole tribe by the prophet: "Judah, your brothers shall praise you."

1.39| For he knows that it, as deemed worthy of a privilege before the remaining tribes, has been honored; and since it led in wars, and alone led the whole nation in the battle lines against the enemies, it is fitting that it is told, "your hands are on the back of your enemies." Then, for its ruling and royal dignity, it is said to be a "lion's whelp."

1.40| And the forefather, who is also a prophet, glorying in the dignity of the tribe, adds: "from the shoot, my son, you went up."

1.41| And "lying down you slept like a lion and like a lion's whelp" shows its pride and boldness together, its lack of alarm at those who come upon it from outside, and its fearlessness and contempt for its enemies. And when he is such, or rather when the tribe is such, who, he asks, will rouse it? He hints that the one who will rouse it and remove the tribe named from the throne and from the ruling dignity will be someone great and wonderful, rare and hard to behold.

1.42| Who this was he next sets before us, teaching that this is the one who is to be the expectation of the nations, who it is prophesied will not appear among human beings before the ruler and leader fail, and the tribe of Judah is removed and driven from rule.

1.43| And who was this but our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ? At his birth, in accord with the prediction set before us, the rulers and leaders appointed over their nation from among the Jews themselves failed, and the tribe of Judah, deprived together with the whole nation of the ruling and royal dignity that had been theirs from of old, from then until now is subject to the Romans who still hold power, who subdued the nation of the Jews along with the rest. From them Herod, the first to be of foreign race over their nation in particular, was declared king by Augustus and the Roman senate.

1.44| Herod, at any rate, was the son of Antipater, and Antipater was from Ascalon, from among the so-called temple slaves around the temple of Apollo; he took to wife a woman named Cyprine, of Arabian race, and by her became the father of Herod.

1.45| This man, then, the first to arise from such a race, put out of the way by killing him Hyrcanus, the last to lead in the succession of the high priests, with whom the nation's own rule of the Jews came to its end; and he himself, as I said, was the first from a foreign race to be proclaimed king of the Jews. In his time, when Jesus Christ was born, the dignity of the tribe of Judah had been taken away, and the rule and kingdom of the Jews had been taken away, and the prophecy set before us had been fulfilled, which said "A ruler shall not be wanting from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until the things reserved for him come," whom it also says will be the expectation not of the nation of the Jews but of the nations.

1.46| Since, then, there was reserved the expectation, promised long before to Abraham, of the calling of the nations, once the rulers and leaders from the nation of the Jews had failed and their rule had passed to the Romans and to Herod, who was declared to be from the nations, it is fitting that the evangelist Luke, marking the times of the failing of the Jewish rulers, records that the beginning of Christ's teaching came in the fifteenth year of the rule of Tiberius Caesar, with Pontius Pilate governing Judea; and Matthew too indicates this very thing by a hint.

1.47| Having outlined the birth of our Lord and Savior, he adds: "Now Jesus having been born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying: Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?" By these words he plainly shows both the foreigner's rule over them, and God's calling of the foreign nations of the east.

1.48| For at once foreigners ruled the Jews, and foreigners, arriving from the east, recognized and worshiped the Christ of God prophesied long before. By these things, then, the prophecy of Jacob is plainly shown to have its end, fulfilled at the last of the existence of the nation of the Jews, just as he himself prophesied to his sons, saying: "Gather together, that I may tell you what will befall you at the last of the days"; we understand the last days to be the last stage of the existence of the nation of the Jews.

1.49| What, then, was to befall them? The failing of the rule of Judah, and the overthrow of their whole nation, the ending and cessation of their leaders, and the dissolution of the royal and ruling dignity of his tribe; and the rule and kingdom of Christ, ruling not Israel but all the nations, in accord with "and he is the nations' expectation."

1.50| And who would not see these things so plainly fulfilled at the appearing of our Savior, when those who formerly, before the birth of Christ, were made splendid by their own rulers and leaders and intelligent hearers of the divine readings, by their own kings and high priests and prophets, and the royal tribe of Judah itself, which prevailed over enemies and foes and ruled and led the whole nation, and those who shone among them of old, from that time until now have been tributary to the Romans? For the Christ of God plainly appeared, and from then the so-called expectation of the nations has been proclaimed to all the nations.

1.51| Or let someone say whether it was not at the appearing of Jesus our Savior that what was revered among the Jews, their capital city together with the temple and the holy service performed in it, and along with them their own leaders and rulers, passed away, while from then on the hope and expectation of the nations throughout the inhabited world has been made manifest, when the things reserved for the Lord also came.

1.52| And what are the things signified by "Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hands are on the back of your enemies; a lion's whelp is Judah; from the shoot, my son, you went up; lying down you slept like a lion and like a lion's whelp; who will rouse him?" For these are the things reserved for him in another sense, and let us consider them too, first observing that the divine oracles are accustomed to address Christ by different names. At one time they call him Jacob: "Jacob my servant, I will take hold of him, my chosen, my soul has received him, he will bring forth judgment to the nations," and so on.

1.53| To which is added: "until he sets judgment on the earth; and nations will hope in his name." At another time they name him Solomon and David. Solomon, as in the seventy-first psalm, which is inscribed to Solomon but plainly contains what concerns the Christ.

1.54| For "he shall hold lordship from sea as far as sea, and from the river up to the limits of the inhabited world, and all the nations will serve him," and everything else the Psalm contains after these words, would fit the Christ alone.

1.55| And in the eighty-eighth Psalm the Christ is again called David, since what is said in it would be fitting not for David but for him alone, such as: "He will call upon me: You are my father; and I [will make] him firstborn, highest among the kings of the earth. Forever I will keep my mercy for him."

1.56| And again: "His seed will remain forever, and his throne is like the sun before me, and like the moon established forever." Thus, among countless other titles of Christ by which the divine words signify him, he can likewise be called Judah through the lines before us, because he also came from the tribe of Judah.

1.57| For it is clear, as the apostle says, that our Savior and Lord sprang from the tribe of Judah. So the prophesied things were reserved for this Judah, understood in the deeper sense.

1.58| And what were they? First, to be praised by his brothers; second, to lay his hands upon his enemies' back; third, to receive homage from the sons of his father. These things found fulfillment when, for a time, as he performed the astonishing powers and the marvelous wonders, he was admired and praised and worshiped by his very own disciples and apostles, whom he did not hesitate to call brothers, saying through the psalm, "I will declare your name to my brothers, in the midst of the assembly I will sing hymns to you," and commanding Mary and the women with her to bring the good news to them as brothers: "Tell my brothers," he says, "that I am going up to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God."

1.59| So it was that his brothers at first praised him, because of the astonishing things, only as a marvelous man, supposing him, naturally enough, to be one among the prophets. But when in the meantime they saw his marvelous wonder-workings, and how he brought down the enemy and avenger, and death, the ruler of this age, together with the remaining invisible and hostile powers, then they believed him to be God and worshiped him.

1.60| And our Savior’s hands were at the backs of his enemies when he performed all his deeds, his powers and wonder-workings, for the overthrow of the demons and evil spirits. And also when he stretched out his hands on the cross, then too his hands lay on the back of his enemies, as the enemies fled and gave him their backs; and still more when, having handed over his spirit to the Father, bodiless and bare of the body he had taken up, he went down to the place of the enemies, being himself Life itself, to destroy death and the powers that rose up against him. These, it is likely, at the start supposed him to be an ordinary man like the many, and so surrounded him and rushed upon him as upon anyone at all; but when they knew that he was of a nature higher than human and more divine, they turned and gave him their backs, and he, laying his hands upon them, drove them as they fled with his godlike, sharpened darts, so that for this reason it was said, "your hands are on the back of your enemies."

1.61| And if even now countless enemies of our Savior at various times try to make war on his church, even these he turns to flight with an invisible hand and godlike power, so that it has been said of them too: "your hands are on the back of your enemies."

1.62| And when he had by then received the victory prizes over his enemies, then was fulfilled "the sons of your father shall bow down to you": that is, all the angels in heaven, the serving spirits and the divine powers, and the apostles and evangelists on earth, and after these all those from the nations who through him have claimed the one and only true Father, God, and who, having learned that Christ is God the Word, are acknowledged to worship him as God.

1.63| But since it was necessary to include in the prophecy about him the mysteries of both his birth and his death, Jacob fittingly adds after the foregoing, prophesying: "A lion's whelp is Judah; from the shoot, my son, you went up; lying down you slept like a lion and like a whelp; who will rouse him?" He names him a lion's whelp, then, because he came from a royal tribe.

1.64| He was, at any rate, from David's seed according to the flesh. "From the shoot, my son, you went up," he says, since he grew from the seed and root of Jacob, who had foretold these things: being first God the Word, and then becoming son of man through the dispensation he took on for our sake.

1.65| "Lying down you slept like a lion and like a whelp" would also indicate his death, since in the habit of Scripture, by a certain peculiar contemplation, death is called a sleep in countless other places too.

1.66| And "who will rouse him" is said in wonder about his resurrection from the dead. For the one who says "who will rouse him" plainly knows that he will be raised. But he adds in wonder, "who then will be the one to do this and raise him?" stirring us to inquire who it might be who will raise from the dead our Lord, who took death on our behalf.

1.67| And who might that be other than the God of all, and his Father, to whom alone the resurrection of our Savior is to be ascribed, according to the Scripture which declares: "whom the Father raised from the dead"? And in place of "A lion's whelp is Judah; from the shoot, my son, you went up; lying down you slept," Aquila says, most expressively: "A lion's cub, Judah; from capture, my son, you went up; having bent, you lay down."

1.68| And Symmachus says: "A lion's whelp is Judah; from the taking of prey, my son, you went up; having crouched, you were settled." By which the resurrection from the dead is plainly set forth, and our Savior's escape from Hades, as from a kind of taking of prey.

1.69| And the crouching and being settled, rather than falling, showed at once his death by the crouching, and, by the being settled, that he was not dragged down like the souls of other human beings. All these things, then, were reserved beforehand for the Christ. But so long as the nation of the Jews had not yet come to its end and stood together, their rulers and leaders, and those who searched out with understanding the divine prophecies about Christ, were distinguished among them.

1.70| But when the things reserved for Judah had come, and the one prophesied appeared on earth, having come from the seed and shoot of the one who prophesied these things, and having lain down and slept (or crouched, according to Symmachus) was settled and raised up, having laid his hands on the back of his invisible and intelligible enemies, and when his brothers and disciples, who had at first praised him and marveled at him, afterward also acknowledged him to be God and worshiped him as God, then the things reserved for him were being fulfilled, so that for this reason it was said, "until the things reserved for him come."

1.71| For from that time until now, once the things reserved for him have come to their end, the rulers and leaders of the nation of the Jews have ceased, and rulers of the nations have been set over them, while in turn the nations, having come to know the Christ of God, have claimed him as savior and expectation.

1.72| After all this it is added: "Tying his foal to the vine, and the colt of his donkey to the tendril, he will wash his robe in wine and his cloak in the grape's blood. His eyes are gladdened by wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk."

1.73| I think that through these words is hinted, in the foal, the very company of the apostles and disciples of our Savior; in the vine, to which he tied the foal, his divine and invisible power, which he himself taught when he set it forth, saying "I am the true vine, my Father is the farmer." And the tendril of the vine so described would be the teaching of the Word of God, to which he tied the colt of the donkey, the new people from the nations, who are the offspring of his apostles.

1.74| And one might say that these things also came to their end according to the letter, when, according to Matthew, the Lord told his disciples: "Go to the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me."

1.75| And it is truly possible, attending to the passage, to marvel at the prediction of the prophet, who foresaw by the divine Spirit that the one prophesied would be carried not as a glorious king among men on chariots and horses, but on a donkey and a colt, like an ordinary man of the many, and poor.

1.76| Another of the prophets also marveled at this, saying: "Rejoice greatly, daughter of Sion; behold, your king comes to you, gentle, mounted on a beast of burden and a young colt." As for "he will wash his robe with wine, and his cloak with the blood of the grape," consider yourself whether it does not hint, as in secret things, at his mystical passion, in which he washed his robe and cloak clean in a bath, by which is shown the washing away of the old filth of those who have believed in him.

1.77| For through the wine, which was a symbol of his blood, he cleanses from their former evils those who are baptized into his death and have believed in his blood, washing and wiping off their old robe and garment, so that, ransomed by the precious blood of the godlike and spiritual grape and by the wine from the vine already explained, they may strip off the old man together with his practices and clothe themselves in the new man, who is being renewed unto knowledge according to the image of the one who created him.

1.78| And "his eyes are made glad by wine" and "his teeth whiter than milk," again I think, contain in secret the mysteries of the new covenant of our Savior. The gladness from the mystical wine, which he himself handed down to his disciples, saying "Take, drink; this is my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins; do this in remembrance of me," seems to me to be signified by "his eyes are made glad by wine," and "his teeth whiter than milk" signifies the bright and pure quality of the mystical food.

1.79| For again he himself handed over to his disciples the symbols of the divine dispensation, exhorting them to make the image of his own body.

1.80| For since he no longer accepted the sacrifices by blood, nor those prescribed by Moses with the slaughter of various animals, but handed over bread to be used as the symbol of his own body, he fittingly hinted at the brightness and purity of the food, saying also "his teeth whiter than milk." Another prophet also recalled this, saying: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you prepared a body for me."

1.81| But these matters, which need further testing and a longer interpretation, one might examine at leisure; the present occasion required only this much to be said, in order to show, along with the rest, that the times of the coming of our Savior, known from above by the prophets of long ago, have been plainly handed down in the divine Scripture. From Daniel.

2.1| "And while I was still speaking and praying, and declaring my sins together with those of my people Israel, and casting down my supplication before the Lord my God concerning the holy mountain of my God, and while I was still speaking in the prayer, lo, Gabriel the man, whom I had seen in the vision at the start, flying, touched me about the hour of the evening sacrifice, and instructed me, and spoke with me, and said: Daniel, now I have come out to give you understanding.

2.2| At the beginning of your supplication a word went out, and I have come to announce to you that you are a man of desires; so consider the word, and understand in the vision that you are a man of desires.

2.3| Seventy weeks were cut short upon your people and upon the holy city, to bring sin to completion and to seal up sins and to wipe out lawlessness, and to atone for injustices and to bring in eternal righteousness, and to seal vision and prophet, and to anoint a holy of holies.

2.4| You shall recognize and comprehend: from the issuing of a word to answer and to build Jerusalem until an anointed leader, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; and it will return, and a broad street and a wall will be built, and the times will be emptied. And after the sixty-two weeks an anointing will be utterly cut off, and no judgment is in it, and he will ruin both the city and the sanctuary along with the leader who is coming; and they will be cut off in a flood, and until the end of a war cut short by devastations. And one week will strengthen a covenant for many, and in the half of the week sacrifice and libation will be taken away, and upon the temple will be the abomination of the desolations, and until the completion of the time a completion will be given upon the desolation."

2.5| When the seventy-year captivity of the nation of the Jews in Babylon was already being driven toward its end, Gabriel the archangel, who is one of the holy ministers of God, came to Daniel while he prayed and prophesied that the renewal of Jerusalem would come at once, and not after long; he limits the time after its renewal to a number of years, and foretells that after the appointed term it will be torn down again, and that, undergoing a second capture and siege, it will not again receive God's oversight but will remain desolate, with the worship according to the law of Moses brought down together with it, and another, a new covenant, brought into the life of human beings in place of that one.

2.6| And Gabriel acknowledges that he reveals these things to the prophet in a hidden way, as in oracles.

2.7| He says to him, then: "Daniel, now I have come out to give you understanding; at the beginning of your supplication a word went out, and I have come to announce to you that you are a man of desires; so consider the word, and understand in the vision." He is plainly rousing him to a deeper thought and understanding in the contemplation of what is said. He calls them a vision because they hold to a deeper meaning and need more than ordinary understanding.

2.8| Therefore let us too, calling upon the one who gives understanding to human beings, and praying that the eyes of our mind be enlightened by him, take courage for the contemplation of the passages. "Seventy weeks were cut short upon your people and upon your holy city, to bring sin to completion and to seal up sins and to wipe out lawlessness, and to atone for injustices, and to bring in eternal righteousness, and to seal vision and prophet, and to anoint a holy of holies."

2.9| That the time of the seventy weeks, resolved into years, makes a total of four hundred and ninety is plain to everyone. This much time, then, was cut short upon "your people," marking the whole conclusion of the nation of the Jews.

2.10| And in this passage he no longer calls them God's people, but says to Daniel "your people." For just as when they once acted impiously and worshiped idols in the desert, God no longer called them his own people but Moses', saying "Go, go down, for your people has transgressed," in the same way here too he teaches the cause of the appointed time being cut short against them: that they were no longer deemed worthy to be called God's people.

2.11| He adds "and upon the holy city," where we again understand "your" in common, so that what is said is of this kind: "upon your people and upon your holy city," as if he said, the one held holy by you. The Hebrew, at any rate, and the other translators in agreement, include "your" as attached not only to the people but also to the city. Aquila, for instance, says "upon your people and upon a city sanctified of yours," and Symmachus "against your people and your holy city."

2.12| Hence in the accurate copies of the Seventy, too, "your" is added with the placing of an asterisk.

2.13| For since Daniel, in praying, in the words of his supplication often named the people God's people and the place of the city God's holy place, the speaker, reversing this, acknowledges that neither the city is God's holy city nor the people God's people, but "yours," he says, of you who are praying and have said such things about the people, the place, and the city. And the words of Daniel run thus: "Let your wrath be turned away, and your anger, from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain."

2.14| And: "your people has become a reproach among all who are around us." And again: "Shine your face upon your desolate sanctuary." And once more: "See the devastation of your city, upon which your name has been called," and next: "for your name has been called upon your city and upon your people."

2.15| After praying such things he adds: "And while I was still speaking and praying, lo, Gabriel, whom I had seen in my vision, flying, touched me," and said what is written. So by these words the prophet plainly named it not simply a city but God's city, and the sanctuary God's, and the people God's people, out of his disposition toward the people.

2.16| But Gabriel no longer calls what is meant in the same way as he does, but says on the contrary "upon your people, and upon your holy city," all but declaring the city and the people and the sanctuary unworthy of God's name.

2.17| So he teaches that so great a time has been appointed against the people first and then against the city, and it is shown to be so great from the renewal of Jerusalem, which took place under Darius king of the Persians, to the dominion of Augustus over the Romans and of Herod, king of the Jews, a foreigner by race, in whose time the birth of our Savior is recorded, as the discussion in its course will show.

2.18| Next he adds: "to bring sin to completion and to seal up sins and to wipe out lawlessness, and to atone for injustices, and to bring in eternal righteousness, and to seal vision and prophet, and to anoint a holy of holies." In place of "to bring sin to completion and to seal up sins," Aquila has "to finish the faithlessness and to perfect sin."

2.19| For what was said by our Savior to those of the circumcision, "fill up the measure of your fathers," is also, I think, shown by these words. For in the plot dared against him by the nation of the Jews, their sin was brought to completion, and their faithlessness toward God, as Aquila has it, reached its end.

2.20| For long before, God's forbearance had borne with them though they committed countless offenses before the coming of our Savior, as is indeed shown through the prophetic words. But just as it was said to Abraham about the foreigners who long ago dwelt in the land of promise, "for the sins of the Amorites have not yet been filled up," and since they were not yet filled up, the Amorites were not yet being driven from their paternal land, but when their sins were filled up, then they were all destroyed in the times of Joshua, the successor of Moses; so too it is to be understood of the earlier people. For so long as their sins were not being filled up, God's tolerance and forbearance bore with them, calling them at each time to repentance through the prophets; but when, according to the Savior's voice, they filled up their fathers' measure, then everything, gathered together at one time, brought about their final destruction, as our Lord himself again teaches, saying: "All the blood poured out since the world's foundation, from the blood of Abel the righteous to the blood of Zacharias, will come upon this generation."

2.21| Then, last of all, by daring to lay hands on the Son of God, they "finished the faithlessness and perfected their own sin," according to the interpretation of Aquila; but according to the Seventy, "their sin was bound and sealed."

2.22| But since he came for the rising of many in Israel as well as for their falling, as it is said of him, "behold, this one is set for the falling and rising of many in Israel," Daniel fittingly adds, after what was said, "and to wipe out sins and to atone for injustices."

2.23| For since it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to remove sins, and the entire human race needs a living and true propitiation, of which the mercy seat prepared under Moses bore the type, and this was our Savior and Lord, the Lamb of God, of whom it was said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world";

2.24| and again, "he himself is the propitiation concerning our sins, and not concerning ours only but also concerning the whole world," being himself also redemption, according to Paul, who says "who was made wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption": fittingly it teaches that his coming is at once the full measure and perfection of the sin of those who acted impiously against him, and at once the wiping out and cleansing of sins, and the propitiation of injustices, for those who have believed in him.

2.25| And Aquila, having said "to finish the faithlessness and to perfect sin," added "to atone for lawlessness," supposing him to be the propitiation for all lawlessness committed long ago in ignorance. Next after these it is said: "to bring in eternal righteousness."

2.26| Now the Word of God himself is eternal righteousness, who became for us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, according to the apostle. Yet with his coming he also procured righteousness for all human beings, showing in deeds that "God is not the God of Jews only but also of nations, since God is one, who will justify the circumcised from faith and the uncircumcised through faith."

2.27| Hence Peter, marveling at Cornelius and those with him who were deemed worthy of the Holy Spirit, says: "In truth I understand that God is not a respecter of persons, but in every nation the one who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him."

2.28| And Paul too says that the gospel concerns righteousness, in these words: "For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and to the Greek. For God's righteousness is revealed in it." And in the Psalms it is said of the Christ: "In his days righteousness will rise, and an abundance of peace."

2.29| And his work truly displayed the righteousness of God, since he deemed the whole race of human beings equally worthy of the calling from God. But the things through Moses were not of this kind; they were given to the one nation of the Jews alone, and for that reason, having appeared for a time, they have passed away. But the righteousness proclaimed through our Savior, abiding for ever, is fittingly called eternal righteousness, in accord with Gabriel's words, "and to bring in eternal righteousness."

2.30| In place of "and to seal vision and prophet," Aquila seems to me to have rendered it more properly, saying "and to finish vision and prophet." Our Savior and Lord did not come to shut up and, as it were, seal the prophetic visions; rather, the visions that were formerly obscure and sealed up, he removed the seals that, as it were, lay upon them, opened and unrolled them, handing on to his disciples the meaning of the divine writings.

2.31| Hence, "behold," it says, "the lion from the tribe of Judah has conquered, and he has opened the seals that lay on the book," according to the Revelation of John. And what seals are these but the obscurities of the prophets? Isaiah too, knowing them precisely and well, said: "And these words will be like the words of a sealed book."

2.32| The Christ of God has therefore not come to shut up vision and prophet, but rather to unfold them and bring them to light. Hence Aquila seems to me to speak more properly: "to finish vision and prophet."

2.33| This also agrees with what the Savior himself said: "I came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill." For "Christ is the end of the law," and all the prophecies about him remained unfulfilled and incomplete until he himself came and set an end upon all that had been proclaimed beforehand about him.

2.34| According to the interpretation of the Seventy, too, "to seal vision and prophet" can carry this sense: the law and the prophets lasted until John, and from then those who of old were moved by the Spirit in the nation of the Jews and proclaimed the predictions about Christ ceased, as did those who soundly oversaw the visions in the sacred writings; and since the divine grace itself was shut off and, as it were, bound with seals, they failed. Hence it happens that from then on no prophet is active among them, nor is anyone called a seer, all these having ceased from the times indicated down to us.

2.35| To these he adds: "and to anoint a holy of holies." And this too is plain from the start: until the times of our Savior, the high priests among the Hebrews were anointed as holy of holies, in the sacred service performed according to the law of Moses; from then on even these have ceased, in accord with the prophecy.

2.36| Now the utterance of Jacob to Judah indicated the failing of the leaders and rulers of the nation of the Jews, as set out above.

2.37| But since the oversight of the people had long before depended on prophets and priests, the Word, having foretold in the prophecy set before us the overthrow of the rulers and leaders of the nation of the Jews at the coming of Christ, in the prophecy at hand proclaims in the same sequence the failing of the prophets and priests who had formerly been distinguished among them, since these too would cease at the appearing of Christ; and the coming of our Savior confirmed this very thing by its results.

2.38| Since Aquila has given "to anoint a sanctified one of sanctified ones," someone may suppose that the high priest of old among the Jews is meant, since the many priests below him are called holy, while only the high priest above all is "holy of holies," since this is readily understood as true.

2.39| For until the times of our Savior, the high priests in succession from of old led the whole people as well, and continually discharged the service of God in accordance with the worship prescribed by Moses; but from the times of our Savior, first their order was thrown into confusion, and a little later it was altogether extinguished.

2.40| But I, finding nowhere in the divine Scripture the high priest of the Jews called holy of holies, think that in these words only the only-begotten Word of God himself is signified, as properly and truly worthy of this title. For it is enough for those who come from human beings, having advanced and made progress toward the attainable measure of virtue, to be called holy, by participation and sharing in him who said, "You shall be holy, for I the Lord am holy."

2.41| But who could be properly named holy of holies except the only beloved Son of the Holy One, who, as he is King of kings and Lord of lords, is likewise proclaimed Holy of holies? To him alone, at any rate, as distinct from all who ever were anointed with Moses' earthly, manufactured oil, it was said: "You loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, your God, anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions."

2.42| Anointed with this oil, he himself speaks in Isaiah in his own person: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, on account of which he anointed me." Since our Savior alone of all who ever lived is attested to have been anointed with a spiritual anointing, or rather with the anointing of divinity, he is fittingly named holy of holies, or, so to speak, high priest of high priests, and sanctified one of sanctified ones, in accord with the oracle of Gabriel.

2.43| All these things took their end as the seventy weeks came to completion, at no other time than in the times of the appearing of our Savior. Since, then, the angel mentioned above prophesied to the prophet in summary that these things would be so, he takes up again the account of the seventy weeks, teaching exactly, part by part, from where the counting of the times must begin, and what will befall in the times indicated.

2.44| He says, then: "And you shall know and comprehend: from the issuing of a word to reply and to build Jerusalem, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; and it will return, and a broad street and a wall will be built." On these words it seems to me good not to hide the contemplation of the passages by our predecessor, but to set it down also as one's own for those who will read. For the property of friends is rightly said to be common.

2.45| And since it is fitting to make use, with good will, of what others have said well, yet not to rob the fathers of their offspring nor the first who sowed of their own seeds, I shall set down his own words.

2.46| These are found in Africanus, in the fifth book of the Chronographies, and run in this manner: "The passage, then, being somewhat as it is, signifies many and astonishing things; but now I shall make the account of what is needed concerning the times and what bears on them.

2.47| That these things are said about the coming of Christ, who was to appear after seventy weeks, is clear. For at the Savior, or from him, transgressions grow old and sins are brought to completion; through the forgiveness, lawlessness is wiped out by propitiation, along with injustices, and eternal righteousness is proclaimed, beyond that from the law; visions and prophecies continue until John, and a holy of holies is anointed. For before the coming of our Savior these things did not exist, but were only expected.

2.48| The angel sets the beginning of the numbers, that is, of the seventy weeks, which are four hundred and ninety years, from the going out of a word to answer and to build Jerusalem. This happened in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, reigning over the Persians. For Nehemiah, his cupbearer, having petitioned, obtained an answer that Jerusalem should be built, and a word went out commanding this. For up to that time the city had lain desolate.

2.49| For when Cyrus, after the seventy years of the captivity, sent down each of those who were willing, of their own accord, those who came down with Jesus the great priest and Zorobabel, and those with them along with Esdras, were at first hindered from building the temple, and from putting a wall around the city, since this had not been commanded.

2.50| It remained so, then, until Nehemiah and Artaxerxes' reign, and the hundred and fifteenth year of the Persian rule; and from the capture of Jerusalem it is a hundred and eighty-five years. And then king Artaxerxes ordered the city to be built. Nehemiah, sent down, took charge of the work, and it was built, broad street and surrounding wall, as was prophesied. And counting from there, the seventy weeks come to completion at the Christ.

2.51| For if we begin to count from somewhere else and not from here, neither will the time run together, and very many absurdities will result. For if we make the beginning of the counting of the weeks from Cyrus and the first sending down, there is an excess of a hundred years and more; and a greater time if from the day on which the angel prophesied to Daniel; and much greater if from the beginning of the captivity.

2.52| For we find that the kingdom of the Persians is bounded by two hundred and thirty years, and that of the Macedonians extends to three hundred and seventy, and from there to the sixteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, sixty years.

2.53| From Artaxerxes the seventy weeks come to completion at the time of Christ, according to the Jewish reckonings. For counting from Nehemiah, who had been sent by Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem, this being the hundred and fifteenth year of the Persian kingdom, and the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes himself, and the eighty-third Olympiad's fourth year, down to this time, which was the two hundred and second Olympiad's second year, the sixteenth year of the rule of Tiberius Caesar, the years add up to four hundred and seventy, which become four hundred and ninety Hebrew years, when those years are counted by the course of the moon, as it is easy to say, of three hundred and fifty-four days, the solar cycle being three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter days; for the twelve-month year by the moon falls short by eleven days and a quarter.

2.54| For this reason Greeks and Jews insert three intercalary months in eight years. For eight times eleven and a quarter makes three months. So the four hundred and seventy-five years become fifty-nine eight-year cycles and three months. And as a three-month intercalation occurs in each eight-year cycle, they come to fifteen years less a few days. These added to the four hundred and seventy-five years complete the seventy weeks."

2.55| So much for Africanus. But if we too must bring forward an account of our own on these passages, I say that the account of the seventy weeks made its division not idly nor by chance. For dividing them into the first seven, then another sixty-two, and after the very many things said in between putting the one week on top, it thus marked off the number of the seventy weeks.

2.56| It says, then: "And you will know and comprehend: from the issuing of a word to answer and to build Jerusalem until a leader, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks." Then, after bringing in certain other things between, it adds the last, saying: "and one week will strengthen a covenant for many."

2.57| That these things were not written idly or without divine inspiration, I think everyone who attends to them as God's words will agree.

2.58| This, then, we thought good to note first, and to leave to readers the exact solution of what was sought. But if we too must not conceal what occurs to us, I say that, on another understanding or reading, the anointed leader meant in the Scripture before us, according to the words "from the going out of a word to answer and to build Jerusalem until an anointed leader," is no other than the line of the high priests who led the people after the prophecy and after the return from Babylon, whom it is the custom of Scripture to call anointed ones.

2.59| For we have received that these alone presided over the nation, beginning with Jesus the son of Josedek, the great priest, following the return out of Babylon, down to the times of the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.

2.60| I think, then, that the intervening time of their presidency, during which they led, is indicated by "from the going out of a word to answer and to build Jerusalem until an anointed leader, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks"; and of the years [….] the weeks, gathered into four hundred and eighty-three years, extend from the reign of Cyrus to the Roman rule, under which Pompey, the Roman general, came upon Jerusalem, took the city by siege, and made the whole nation slaves to the Romans, so that from then on they paid tribute and obeyed the orders of the Romans.

2.61| To this time, then, the number of four hundred and eighty-three years is limited, at which also ended those who, according to the law of Moses, took over in succession from their fathers the presidency of the nation and the priesthood; I take the divine Scripture here to be naming these men the anointed leader.

2.62| And if the list of the high priests who succeeded one another in the time indicated must also be set out, there is no grudge in doing this too for the demonstration of the truth of what has been said. The first, then, after the prophecy of Daniel, under Cyrus king of the Persians, after the return from Babylon, was Jesus the son of Josedek, who was styled the great priest; he came up from the captivity with Zorobabel and laid the temple's foundations. But since the work was held up by the neighbors, the first seven weeks of years indicated through the prophet are completed, during which the work of building the temple remained unfinished.

2.63| For this reason the divine word separates the first seven weeks from the connection with the rest, saying "seven weeks," and then next, with a distinction, adding "and sixty-two weeks." Seven weeks of years, at any rate, are found from Cyrus until the temple's building was completed.

2.64| Starting from there the Jews said to our Savior: "This temple was built in forty-six years, and will you raise it in three days?" These men said it took forty-six years to build the temple. For that many years are counted from the first year of Cyrus, who first released those of the Jews who were willing to go back from Babylon to their native land, up to the sixth year of the reign of Darius, in which the whole work of the building reached its end.

2.65| Josephus the Hebrew, however, said that another three years were spent on completing the outer structures around the temple, so that for this reason the first seven weeks are reasonably marked off as extending to forty-nine years, according to the account of the prophecy; and the remaining sixty-two are counted from the reign of Darius, in which Jesus the son of Josedek and Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, both prolonging their lives to that point, again presided over the renewal of the temple, Zacharias also prophesying; and after them Esdras and Nehemiah, likewise going up from Babylon, built the wall for the city, Joakim being in charge of the high priesthood, who was a son of Jesus the son of Josedek; after him Eliasoubos succeeds to the high priesthood, then Iodae, after whom Ionathes, after whom Iaddous.

2.66| The book of Ezra also mentions these men, saying: "And Jesus begot Joiakim, and Joiakim begot Eliashib, and Eliashib begot Joiada, and Joiada begot Jonathan, and Jonathan begot Jaddua."

2.67| In the days of this Jaddua, Alexander of Macedon founded Alexandria, as Josephus relates, and having come to Jerusalem he did homage to God.

2.68| Alexander ended his life at the beginning of the one hundred and fourteenth Olympiad, two hundred and thirty-six years after Cyrus, who became king of the Persians in the fifty-fifth Olympiad's first year.

2.69| After the death of Alexander the Macedonian, and after the high priest just mentioned, Onias took the leadership of the nation, himself also holding the honor of the high priests. In his time Seleucus took possession of Babylon and put on the diadem of Asia, in the twelfth year after Alexander's death, so that the whole time from Cyrus is counted up to two hundred and forty-eight years.

2.70| From this point the book of the Maccabees begins to count the kingdom of the Greeks. After Onias the high priest of the Jews was Eleazar, in whose time the seventy who translated the divine Scriptures deposited them in the libraries at Alexandria.

2.71| After him came another Onias, whom Simon succeeded; in his time Jesus the son of Sirach was well known, who composed the book called the All-Virtuous Wisdom. After him another Onias, bearing the same name as those before, took the leadership, during whose leadership Antiochus besieged the Jews and forced them to live as Greeks.

2.72| After him Judas, called Maccabeus, took charge of affairs and purged the country of the impious; his brother Jonathan succeeded him. And again Simon, at whose death the first book of the Maccabees, as it is called, counts the one hundred and seventy-seventh year of the rule in Syria, bringing its history to an end at that point of time,

2.73| so that from Cyrus's first year and the kingdom of the Persians to the end of the Maccabees' writing and the death of Simon the high priest there are gathered four hundred and twenty-five years. After these, as Josephus says, Jonathan succeeded to the high priesthood for twenty-nine years. After him Aristobulus led the nation for a year, and he was the first after the return from Babylon to put on the royal diadem in addition to the high priesthood.

2.74| Alexander succeeded him, king and high priest at once, and himself presided over affairs for twenty-seven years. Up to him the whole count from the first year of Cyrus's reign and the Jewish nation's return from Babylon comes to four hundred and eighty-two years, during which high priests presided, whom I take to be those the prophecy calls an anointed leader.

2.75| After these, when the last of their high priests, Alexander, had died, the Jewish nation was left without a ruler and without a leader, so that their kingdom passed into the hands of a woman. When the two sons, Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, fell into faction against one another, Pompey, a general of the Romans, came against Jerusalem, took the city by siege, and defiled the holy things, advancing as far as the innermost sanctuaries of the temple.

2.76| These things happened in the first year of the one hundred and seventy-ninth Olympiad, four hundred and ninety-five years after the reign of Cyrus, which began in the fifty-fifth Olympiad.

2.77| Then, when Pompey had taken Jerusalem by storm, he sent the aforesaid Aristobulus in chains to Rome, handed the high priesthood to his brother Hyrcanus, and from that time made the whole nation tributary to the Romans.

2.78| After him Herod, the son of Antipater, killed Hyrcanus and received the kingdom of the Jews from the Roman senate. He was the first of foreign stock to reign over the nation, and he corrupted the order of the high priests under the law of Moses.

2.79| For the divine law commands that the highest high priest serve God as priest for life; but Herod gave the office not to those of the lineage, nor to those to whom it belonged, but to certain men estranged from and foreign to the succession of the high priests, and not even to these for any length of time, but for a brief and limited term, bestowing the honor now on one, now on another, so that the first seven weeks are bounded from Cyrus to Darius, and the other sixty-two, from Darius to Pompey, the general of the Romans.

2.80| And by a third way of viewing it you might find the times of the sixty-two and seven weeks reckoned otherwise, extending to four hundred and eighty-three years, up to Augustus himself and Herod, the first of foreign stock to reign, in whose time the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ is recorded as marking the limit, if you begin with Darius and the completion of the temple and calculate the number stated.

2.81| For the prophet Zechariah shows that the seventy-year period of Jerusalem's desolation was completed in the second year of Darius, saying: "In the second year of Darius, on the twenty-fourth of the eleventh month, which is Shebat, a word from the Lord came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah."

2.82| Then he adds next: "And the Lord's angel answered and said, O Lord Almighty, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, which you have overlooked? This is the seventieth year." Daniel, having contemplated this same period by the divine Spirit, marks the time, saying: "I, Daniel, perceived in the books the count of the years concerning which the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the fulfillment of Jerusalem's desolation, seventy years; and I turned my face toward the Lord my God, to seek prayer and supplication."

2.83| Then after the prayer the angel appeared to him and prophesied the things concerning the seventy weeks, and indicated the time from which the count must begin, saying: "And you shall know and comprehend from the going out of the word to answer and to build Jerusalem until an anointed leader." Now the first answer, that of Cyrus, was that Jerusalem should be built, but it did not come to action, since the neighbors prevented it.

2.84| But when Darius afterward gave the order and the building of the temple was completed in his time, Daniel's prophecy from then on received the beginning of its outcome, both the part that says "from the going out of the word to answer and to build Jerusalem," and the part in which it is said, "I, Daniel, discerned in the books the count of the years, of which the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the fulfillment of the desolation of Jerusalem, seventy years."

2.85| At any rate, in the second year of Darius the fulfillment of the seventy years is shown to have been completed, so that we must in every case begin to count the seventy weeks with the sixty-sixth Olympiad, and with the second year of Darius, the year in which the building is finished.

2.86| From this point, then, if you count the following times, you would find that up to Herod himself, and Augustus, sole ruler of the Romans, in whose time the birth of our Savior shone upon human life, the four hundred and eighty-three years, namely the seven and sixty-two weeks, are bounded according to the prophecy of Daniel.

2.87| For from the sixty-sixth Olympiad to the one hundred and eighty-sixth there come to be, in between, one hundred and twenty-one Olympiads, four hundred and eighty-four years, since each Olympiad spans four years. At that time Augustus, emperor of the Romans, in the fifteenth year of his reign, held Egypt and the rest of the inhabited world; under him Herod, the first foreigner, was entrusted with the kingdom of the Jews; and our Savior and Lord Jesus, the Christ of God, was born, the times of his birth coinciding with the fulfillment of Daniel's seven and sixty-two weeks. After these weeks, the one remaining week being divided off and set far apart after very many things prophesied in between, all the remaining things stated in the middle of the oracle's prediction are fulfilled, and these run as follows: "After the weeks, seven and sixty-two, an anointing shall be wholly destroyed, and judgment is not in it. And he will ruin the city and the holy place along with the leader who is coming, and they shall be cut off by a deluge, and until the end of a war that has been cut short, by desolations."

2.88| These things too received a clear outcome in the time of Augustus and Herod himself, in whose times we say the aforesaid seven weeks are summed up. At any rate, the anointing of the high priesthood continued in due course and order down to the times of Herod and Augustus, and the succession of the high priests of old was cut off with Alexander, the father of Hyrcanus; Herod, after killing Hyrcanus, is said no longer to have entrusted the service to successors from the fathers, but to certain obscure and unknown men.

2.89| This too the oracle foretold in advance, saying: "And once the weeks, seven and sixty-two, have passed, an anointing shall be utterly destroyed, and there is no judgment in it."

2.90| The other translators too have set this down clearly: Aquila states: "And after the seven weeks and sixty-two an anointed one shall be utterly destroyed, and there is not for him"; and Symmachus: "And following the seven and sixty-two weeks an anointed one shall be cut off, and there shall not be for him." For this reason it seems to me especially that the anointed leader is the one indicated in our explanation.

2.91| After the completion of the weeks mentioned, then, he says "an anointed one shall be utterly destroyed." Who is this but the leader, the one who presided over the nation by succession from the priestly stock? He remained, then, so long as the weeks were not yet fulfilled; but when they reached their end, in accordance with the prophecy the one who presided over the nation by succession of lineage was cut off. This was Hyrcanus, whom Herod himself killed, snatching the kingdom over the nation, to which he had no claim whatever, and he was the first foreigner to lead it.

2.92| It was not only Hyrcanus, then, who was cut off, an anointed one and the last of the high priests of old, but also the succession descending from the ancestors, from the high priests of long ago, and the lawful anointing itself, which no longer took place by judgment, but disorderly and confusedly, not according to what was legislated by Moses; and all things coincided together in accord with the prophecy that says: "the anointing shall be utterly destroyed, and there is no judgment in it."

2.93| A trustworthy witness to these things is Josephus, himself one of the Hebrews, who relates the events of those times somewhat as follows in the eighteenth book of the Jewish Antiquities: "Herod, when he had been entrusted with the kingdom by the Romans, no longer appointed high priests from the house of the Asamonaeus, who were those called Maccabees, but certain obscure persons who were only of Hebrew descent, except for one, Aristobulus, a son of Hyrcanus, whom he appointed high priest; for he had married his sister Mariamme, and he was courting the goodwill of the multitude toward himself because of the memory of Hyrcanus.

2.94| Then, fearing that all would incline toward Aristobulus, he killed him at Jericho, contriving to have him drowned as he swam, as we have already shown. After him he no longer entrusted the high priesthood to those descended from the sons of Asamonaeus. And Archelaus his son, and after him the Romans, who took over the kingdom of the Jews, did the same as Herod in appointing the high priests."

2.95| Again, in other passages he says this about them: "Herod, when he became king, built this fortress, situated in a suitable place, at great expense, and called it Antonia, and took the high priestly robe, and kept it where it lay, trusting that the people would attempt no revolt because of it. His successor as king, Archelaus, who was his son, did the same as Herod; and from him the Romans, taking over the rule, kept the high priest's robe, laid up under seal in a house built of stone."

2.96| Through these passages I think the fulfillment of the oracle that says "and following the seven and sixty-two weeks the anointing shall be utterly destroyed, and there is no judgment in it" has become evident to everyone.

2.97| You will see even more clearly how it is said "there is no judgment in it," when you observe the lack of judgment in the appointment of the high priests who came after Herod and in the times of our Savior.

2.98| For though the high priest according to the divine law was commanded to discharge his service all the time of his life, with a legitimate son as successor, in the times under examination, after the anointing had been utterly destroyed in agreement with the prophecy, first Herod, and after him the Romans too, appointed as high priests without judgment and contrary to the law whomever they pleased, granting the honor to common and obscure men, and they sold and peddled the title, giving the dignity first to one man, then to another, for a year at a time.

2.99| For this reason it seems to me that the holy evangelist Luke, in outlining the time of our Savior's proclamation, marks it by these words: "In the fifteenth year of the rule of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was governing Judea, and Herod and Philip and Lysanias were tetrarchs, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas."

2.100| For how could there have been two high priests at the same time unless the legislation concerning the high priests had been abolished? Josephus too bears witness to these things, writing: "Valerius Gratus, the Roman governor, having stopped Ananus from serving as high priest, appoints Ishmael, the son of Phebas, high priest; and not long after, removing him, he appoints Eleazar, son of Ananus the high priest, as high priest. When a year had passed he removed him too and handed the high priesthood over to Simon, son of Camithus. And he too had held the office no longer than a year, when Joseph, who is also Caiaphas, succeeded him.

2.101| I have set these down out of necessity, because of the words "the anointing shall be utterly destroyed, and judgment is not in it," and I think they contain an indisputable proof. Next after these the prophecy says: "And it shall destroy the city and the holy place together with the leader who is coming." Here again I take it that Herod himself, and those after him who ruled from foreign stock, are indicated.

2.102| For as he named the high priests above anointed leaders, saying "until an anointed leader," in the same way after them and after their cessation the leader who is coming is none other than the one shown, of foreign stock, and all the rest who in succession after them led the nation; together with them and with their help, using them as fellow workers, the hater of good and corrupter of good things is said to destroy both the city and the holy place.

2.103| And indeed he truly corrupted the whole nation, at one time leading the order of the priesthood into lawlessness, at another turning the whole people aside, and calling out the city (the citizens being so named by metaphor) to impiety. Aquila too agrees with our explanation, interpreting it in this way: "And the people of a leader who is coming shall destroy the city and the holy place."

2.104| For not only the leader who is coming, the one indicated according to the explanations we have given, destroyed the city and the holy place, but also his people. One might say, not beside the point, that the Roman commander is also signified by the passage before us, and his people, by whom I take the legions of the Roman rulers to be meant, who from that time held mastery over the nation, and who destroyed the city Jerusalem itself and the temple in it, once august and holy.

2.105| By these, at any rate, they were cut off as in a flood, and reached "until the end of the war, which has been cut short, by desolations," so that, according to the prophecy, they endured complete desolation after their plot against our Savior, after which they also endured the final siege. You have these things exactly in the histories written by Josephus himself.

2.106| Next, following these prophecies about what happened to the Jewish nation in the interval of the seven and sixty-two weeks, the announcement of the new covenant proclaimed by our Savior is foretold.

2.107| After so many things said in the middle, between the seven and sixty-two weeks, he adds: "And one week shall strengthen a covenant with many, and in the middle of the week sacrifice and libation shall be taken away, and upon the temple shall be the abomination of the desolations, and until the completion of the time a completion shall be given to the desolation."

2.108| Let us consider how these things too were fulfilled. The whole time of our Savior's teaching and wonder-working together is recorded as having been three and a half years, that is, half a week. John the evangelist will in some way make this plain to those who attend closely to his gospel. The whole time of his companionship with his apostles, both before the passion and after his resurrection from the dead, would then be one week of years.

2.109| For before the passion it is recorded that for three and a half years he presented himself to all, to disciples and to those who were not such, during which, by teachings and wonderful healings, he offered the powers of his divinity simply to all, Greeks and Jews alike.

2.110| After the resurrection from the dead he was with his disciples and apostles, as is likely, for an equal span of years, appearing to them over forty days, eating with them and speaking about the kingdom of God, just as the Acts of the Apostles at any rate records. So this is the week of years the prophecy points to, in which he strengthened a covenant with many, establishing, that is, the new covenant of the gospel proclamation.

2.111| With which many did he strengthen it, if not clearly with his own disciples and apostles and all those of the Hebrews who believed in him? But in the middle of this one week, in which he strengthened the covenant mentioned with the many, "sacrifice and libation were removed, and the abomination of the desolation" began,

2.112| since at the midpoint of this week, once three and a half years of his teaching had passed, when he suffered, the temple's veil was torn from top to bottom; so that from then, in effect, the libation and the sacrifice were taken away from them, and the abomination of the desolation was set upon the temple, the power that had from of old overseen and watched over that place until that time having left them desolate.

2.113| It is fitting, then, to hold that until the saving passion there was some power of God watching over the temple and governing the Holy of Holies. For otherwise he himself would not have gathered together with the multitude in the temple, keeping the feasts according to the laws, had he not known that the place was still standing and worthy of God.

2.114| There were also in the temple, up to that time, some who prophesied, such as Anna the prophetess, Phanuel's daughter, and Simeon, who took him in his arms while still an infant, and who prophesy the things that are recorded.

2.115| Nor would our Lord himself have said to the leper, "Go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the sacrifice that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them," unless he thought that the things according to the laws were still to be performed there, as in a place holy and worthy of God; nor, when driving out those who bought and sold, would he have said, "It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers," and again here, "Do not make my Father's house a house of merchandise," unless he clearly thought that the place was still to be regarded as honorable.

2.116| But as their final impiety drew near, after all these things he declared, saying, "Behold, your house is left to you desolate." This too was fulfilled when, at his passion, the whole veil of the temple was torn clean through, down the middle, and from then, in effect, the sacrifice and libation acceptable to God in keeping with the ordinance of the law had been taken down; and when it was taken away, the abomination of the desolation, according to the prophecy in hand, followed upon the place.

2.117| Even if the service in the place seemed to continue for some time, these things were no longer pleasing to God, being performed without judgment and not according to law.

2.118| For just as of old, when the anointing had been utterly destroyed and the lawful high priests in succession had ceased from the death of Hyrcanus, those who came after, disorderly and lawless, seemed indeed to be doing something, but did not act according to the fitting ordinances (and for this reason the prophecy said, "the anointing shall be utterly destroyed, and there is no judgment in it," denouncing their lack of judgment and lawlessness), so you will say it happened also with the sacrifice and the libation: they were performed rightly and according to law before the passion of the Savior, because the power overseeing the holy places was still present then, but were taken away immediately after his perfect sacrifice, worthy of God, which he offered, himself for our sins, being himself the Lamb of God, who removes the world's sin; and once this sacrifice had been handed down to all people according to the new mysteries of the new covenant, those of the old were removed.

2.119| For together with the fulfillment of the saying that says "And one week shall strengthen a covenant with many," the things of the old covenant were taken away. And when were the things of the new covenant strengthened, if not when our Savior and Lord, about to accomplish the great mystery of his passage to death, handed over to his disciples, on the night he was betrayed, the symbols of the new covenant's unspeakable words concerning himself? For these things were accomplished at the same time, and the old covenant according to Moses was taken away, as the veil of the temple showed, being torn at the same time.

2.120| Since, then, sacrifice and libation were removed from that time in effect and in truth, the sacrifices that were afterward supposed to be performed there were performed without libation and unhallowed, in a profane place and by profane and unhallowed men.

2.121| Accept also the testimonies of Josephus on these matters: "On the day of Pentecost, at night, the priests, who had gone into the temple for the services, as they customarily did, said that they first perceived a movement and a noise, and after that a voice as of a multitude saying, 'Let us depart from here.'" He records that this happened after the passion of our Savior.

2.122| And again the same writer says: "Pilate the governor (that very man of our Savior's time) carried the images of Caesar into the temple at night, which was not lawful, and the greatest disturbance of tumult and sedition was thrown upon the Jews."

2.123| Philo bears witness to these same things, saying that Pilate set up the royal standards in the temple by night, and that from that time the beginning of seditions and successive calamities fell upon the Jews.

2.124| From then on, therefore, risings of every kind of evil did not cease against the whole nation and their mother city, down to the final war waged against them and the last siege, during which, with every kind of destruction, of famine and plague and sword, the ruin against them poured together like a flood, and all who had banded together against our Savior were cut off to a man; at which time also the abomination of the desolation stood upon the temple, and it has remained to this day, driving, as is likely, day by day toward a worse desolation.

2.125| It is likely also that it will intensify until the end of life, according to the limit declared by the prophecy, which says: "and until the completion of the time a completion shall be given to the desolation."

2.126| This is the saying he recalled when he said: "When you see the abomination of the desolation, that was spoken of through the prophet Daniel, standing in a holy place, then know that its desolation has drawn near."

2.127| But if those of the circumcision should be unbelieving toward these things, they must be convicted not only of shamelessly standing against what is true and plain, but also, so far as it rests with them, of slandering the predictions as false, if indeed these confine the whole time to seventy weeks of years, prophesying what is to happen in between, while they, though a thousandth year is by now almost running down from the prophecy to us, can show nothing of what was written as having happened; and yet their anointing was utterly destroyed according to the divine prediction, and their sanctuary and its former inhabitants were corrupted and cut off in the flood of a war cut short, by desolations; and, most astonishing of all, what is still to be seen there now, I mean the abomination of the desolation, stands to this day in the formerly holy place, concerning which our Savior and Lord uttered the words set out above.

2.128| While these things are clearly seen before our eyes even now, one may marvel at those of the circumcision, who dare not so much to face the plain facts as to be blind to them, their minds darkened, so as not to see the results of the divine Scriptures, so clear and plain.

2.129| This too they have suffered, according to the word of Isaiah fulfilled upon them even in this, in which he prophesied to them, saying: "You shall hear with the hearing and shall not understand, and seeing you shall see and shall not perceive. For this people's heart has grown thick, and they have heard heavily with their ears, and they have shut their eyes, lest with their eyes they see, and with their ears hear, and with the heart understand, and turn, and I should heal them."

2.130| But since it was also said long before concerning the nations that have believed in the Christ of God, "Those to whom nothing was told about him shall see, and those who have not heard shall understand," through his grace and the grace of the Father who sent him, we have spoken as far as we could on the passages that came to light, and we have set beside them what Africanus before us judiciously concluded, which also holds to accuracy, so that we may use them also as being well founded. From Micah.

3.1| "Hear, all you peoples, and let the earth give heed, and all who are in it; and the Lord shall be among you for a witness, the Lord from his holy house. For behold, the Lord, the Lord, comes out from his place, and will come down, and and will tread upon the heights of the earth. And the mountains will be shaken beneath him, and the valleys shall melt like wax before the fire, and like water running down a slope. All this is for the impiety of Jacob and for the sin of the house of Israel."

3.2| Then after very many other things in between he adds: "Hear this, you leaders of the house of Jacob and remnant of the house of Israel, who abhor judgment and pervert all that is straight, who build Zion in blood and Jerusalem in injustice.

3.3| Her leaders judged with gifts, and her priests answered for pay, and her prophets divined for silver, and they leaned upon the Lord, saying, 'Is not the Lord among us? No evil shall come upon us.' Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will be like a hut in an orchard, and the mountain of the house like a grove in a forest.

3.4| And in the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, made ready on the summits of the mountains, and shall be raised on high above the hills; peoples shall hasten to it, and many nations shall travel there and say, 'Come, let us ascend to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob's God; and they will show us the way, and we shall walk in his paths.' For from Zion a law shall go out, and the Lord's word from Jerusalem; and he shall judge between many nations and reprove mighty nations as far as a distant land.

3.5| And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into sickles; no nation shall take up a sword against nation, and they shall no longer learn to make war; each shall rest beneath his vine and beneath his fig tree, and there shall be no one to frighten them, for the mouth of the Lord Almighty has spoken these things."

3.6| We have already examined these passages earlier in the proper places. It has been shown how at no other time than from the times of the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ among men were the formerly august things of the Jews, the mountains called Zion and Jerusalem, and the buildings upon them, the temple that is, and the Holy of Holies, and the altar, and all else that was set up there for the honor of God, taken away and shaken, in accord with the word that says: "Behold, the Lord, the Lord, goes forth out of his place, and will come down upon the high places of the earth, and beneath him the mountains shall be shaken."

3.7| When these were shaken, the souls of those of the circumcision, named valleys because of their lowliness in comparison with the old high places, bewailing the destruction mentioned, shall melt like wax before the fire, and like water running down a slope, because of the multitude of those in them who day by day fall from the better to the worse.

3.8| He says that all these things will come about on account of the impiety of Jacob's house and the sin of Israel's house. What the impiety and the sin were he adds as he goes on: "who abhor judgment and pervert all that is straight, who build Zion in blood and Jerusalem in injustice"; and among those bloods was that one too which became for them the cause of the last evils, for which they drew upon themselves the impious cry, saying: "His blood be upon us and upon our children."

3.9| For this very reason, he says, "Zion shall be plowed over as a field, and Jerusalem shall be like a hut in an orchard," which at no other time than after the deeds dared against our Savior has found a true fulfillment.

3.10| For from then until now, the utmost desolation having overtaken these places, their once celebrated Mount Zion, instead of the study and practice, once pursued there, of the prophetic and divine words, which the children of the Hebrews of old, and God-loving prophets, priests, and teachers of the whole nation took up there with zeal, is cultivated by Roman men no differently from the rest of the country, so that we ourselves have seen with our own eyes the place being plowed by oxen and sown; and Jerusalem itself has become like a hut in an orchard, its old fruit having perished, or rather, according to the Hebrew reading, a place picked over for stones.

3.11| Aquila, at any rate, says: "Therefore, for your sake, the country of Zion shall be plowed, and Jerusalem shall be picked over for stones." For, settled by men of foreign race, it is picked over for stones even today, all of those who dwell in the city in our time gathering the stones from its fall for their private, common, and public buildings.

3.12| And it is possible to take in with the eyes a grievous sight: stones from the temple itself and from the once inner and holy places taken away for the precincts of idols and for the structures of public spectacles. As these things are so plainly seen by all, the new law and the word of the new covenant of our Savior Jesus Christ, which came forth from that very place, would be evident.

3.13| On account of this countless multitudes of peoples, and nations of every kind, having abandoned their ancestral gods and the old superstitious error, call upon the God over all.

3.14| For this reason too it has been counted worthy of the deepest peace, so that there are no longer multiple rulers or kings in different places, "nor does nation lift sword against nation," nor, as before, do they busy themselves with wars against one another, but each of the farmers rests beneath his vine and beneath his fig tree, with no one frightening them, according to the prophecy.

3.15| Since these things have never at any time from of old been accomplished in this way, except under the dominion of the Romans, from the times of the appearing of our Savior until now, I consider that the time of the foretold coming of the Lord to men has received an indisputable proof. From Zechariah.

4.1| "Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Zion, for behold, I am coming, and I will dwell in your midst, says the Lord, and in that day many nations shall flee for refuge to the Lord, and they shall be [….] and you shall know that it is the Lord Almighty who has sent me to you."

4.2| And after very many other things in between he adds: "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 out of Ephraim and the horse out of Jerusalem, and the bow of war shall be utterly destroyed, and there shall be an abundance of peace from the nations. And from sea to sea he shall rule, and from rivers to the ends of the earth."

4.3| Having prophesied these things about the coming of our Savior, the Word now, after other matters, concerning the final desolation of Jerusalem, proclaims aloud, at one time in a hidden way and in riddles, at another openly. In riddles, in the words where he says: "Open your doors, Lebanon, and let fire devour your cedars. Wail, pine tree, for the cedar has fallen, for the great men have been greatly afflicted. Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been torn down. There is a voice of shepherds lamenting, for their greatness has been afflicted; a voice of lions roaring, for the pride of the Jordan has been afflicted."

4.4| These were in riddles. The same prophet openly brings the interpretation of them, saying: "Behold, I make Jerusalem like shaken doorways for all the peoples round about and in Judea, and against Jerusalem there shall be a siege, and on that day I shall set Jerusalem as a stone trampled by all the nations. Everyone who tramples on her shall be utterly mocked, and all the nations on earth shall be assembled against her."

4.5| And after a few words he adds: "And they shall look to me, on him whom they pierced, because they danced in triumph, and they shall mourn over him with a mourning as for a beloved, and with pain as for a firstborn. In that day the mourning in Jerusalem shall be great, like the mourning of Rhoon in the plain, when he was cut down; and the land shall mourn by tribes, the tribe of the house of David apart, and their women apart; the tribe of the house of Nathan apart, and their women apart; the tribe of the house of Levi apart, and their women apart; the tribe of Simeon by itself, and their women by themselves; all the tribes that are left, tribe by tribe, and their women by themselves."

4.6| And again after other matters he proclaims the final siege of Jerusalem more plainly, saying: "Behold, days are coming of the Lord, and your spoils shall be divided in your midst, and I will gather all the nations to war against Jerusalem, and the city shall be taken, and the houses plundered, and the women defiled, and one half of the city shall go out in captivity, but the rest of my people shall not be destroyed from the city. And the Lord shall go out and array himself against those nations, as on the day of his array on the day of battle, and his feet will stand on that day upon the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem."

4.7| Then after other things in between he says: "And the Lord shall be one, and his name one, encircling all the land and the desert."

4.8| And again after other things, closing the book of the prophecy, he foretells the calling of the nations through these words: "And it shall be that all who are left from all the nations that marched against Jerusalem shall go up year by year to bow down before the King, the Lord Almighty, and to observe the festival of tabernacles. And it will be that those of all the tribes of the earth who do not go up to Jerusalem to bow down to the King, the Lord Almighty, these also shall be added to those. And if the tribe of Egypt does not go up or come there, upon these too shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the nations of the earth 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 celebrate the feast of tabernacles."

4.9| Zechariah prophesies these things after the return from Babylon, when Darius was king of the Persians, Jerusalem having only just then been raised up from the former desolation which she suffered at the hands of the Babylonians. The whole time from the reign of Darius the Persian, in which Zechariah prophesies, to Augustus, emperor of the Romans, amounts to the weeks of years given in Daniel, seven plus sixty-two, which makes four hundred and eighty-three years, as we showed in the discussions a little earlier.

4.10| And neither in the kingdom of the Macedonians, extended from Alexander to Augustus, does anything of what is set down in the prophet's words stand as fulfilled.

4.11| For when, in those times, did the Lord, spoken of as God in the prophets, appear among men, and many nations, recognizing him and confessing him alone as God, flee to him for refuge and become a people for him? Or when, in the times of the Persians or the Macedonians, did the prophesied king come, mounted on a beast of burden and a young colt; and having come, destroy the royal array belonging to the Jewish nation, of Ephraim and of Jerusalem itself, which is called chariot and horse, and bring down the armed force of the Jewish nation? For this is what the saying meant: "Behold, your king comes to you, righteous and saving, himself meek and mounted on a beast of burden and a young colt, and the bow of war shall be utterly destroyed."

4.12| For these things were prophesied about the taking down of the royal dignity of the Jewish nation, upon which again the peace of the nations is added, in agreement with what has been shown before, through the words "and an abundance of peace from the nations."

4.13| In place of this Aquila and the other translators have given: "And he shall speak peace to the nations," which holds true above all from the reign of Augustus and is fulfilled to the letter, all multiple rule having been abolished from that time, and the nations of the inhabited world, most of them, sharing in peace.

4.14| And who of the Jewish kings before the Roman times, in the Persian or Macedonian period, was ever such as to rule from sea as far as sea and from rivers up to the ends of the inhabited world? The other translators have made this plain. Aquila, for instance, says as follows: "And he shall speak peace to the nations, and his authority shall be from sea as far as sea, and from the river up to the ends of the inhabited world."

4.15| In agreement with this is what is said in the seventy-first Psalm about the Christ who was to come from the seed of Solomon, in some such way as this: "In his days righteousness shall rise, and an abundance of peace, until the moon is taken away; and he shall hold lordship from one sea to another, and from the river as far as the ends of the inhabited world." For these things were said about the son of Solomon, falling short in nothing of what is said in the prophet.

4.16| When, then, and how, or in what times, this came about, let anyone who wishes explain; or when else, after the siege under the Babylonians, Jerusalem endured a second burning, and the temple in it was thrown down.

4.17| This itself holds a great wonder, as the prophet hinted when he said: "Open your doors, Lebanon, and let fire devour your cedars." For in these words he customarily calls the temple itself Lebanon, since it has been shown through other prophecies too that the temple itself is called Lebanon.

4.18| This the very children of the Jews confess even now, since Isaiah too, prophesying things like those of the prophet at hand, said: "Behold, the Lord of Hosts confounds the glorious ones with might, and the lofty shall be broken in their pride. And Lebanon shall fall with the lofty ones, and a rod shall come forth out of the root of Jesse, and a blossom shall go up from the root, and upon him shall rest the Spirit of God." To this he adds: "And there shall be the root of Jesse, and the one to rule the nations; upon him shall nations come."

4.19| For here too the downfall of Lebanon and the calling of the nations are joined together with the birth of the Christ from the seed of Jesse and David. That Lebanon means Jerusalem Ezekiel makes explicit, saying: "The great eagle, with great wings, which had the purpose to enter into Lebanon, and he cropped the tender shoots of the cedar."

4.20| Making this clear, he adds next: "When Nebuchadnezzar comes against Jerusalem, he shall take her rulers," and the rest. But Ezekiel was pointing in this to the first siege, after which Zechariah prophesies about the second. When, then, after the times of Zechariah, under the kingdom of the Macedonians, did the temple endure a burning? But it is not possible to say.

4.21| For after the burning by the Babylonians it never endured a second destruction by fire except under Titus and Vespasian, emperors of the Romans; and for this again the Word, through a riddle, calls the former rulers of the nation to lamentations and wailing, saying: "Wail, pine tree, for the cedar has fallen, for the great men have been greatly afflicted. Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been torn down; there is a voice of shepherds lamenting, for their greatness has been afflicted."

4.22| Then, in fact, Jerusalem became like shaken doorways for all the peoples round about, and a siege came upon Judea, and the place they held to be holy and sacred is still today a stone trampled by all the nations, and everyone who tramples on it is utterly mocked, in accordance with the prophecy.

4.23| But also, in return for their having danced in triumph over the Lord who foretold these things, mourning and wailing and lamentation have not left them. At no other time, at any rate, than after the coming of our Savior and down to our own time have all the tribes of the Jewish nation suffered things worthy of laments and mourning, because of the blow that came upon them from God, by which their mother city was given over to foreign nations and the temple was razed, and they themselves were driven from their own country, serving enemies in a hostile land. For these reasons their whole house and every soul of theirs is subject to lamentations even today.

4.24| Hence the prophecy says: "And the tribe shall mourn tribe by tribe, the tribe of David's house by itself, and their women by themselves," and what follows. What days have there been after the times of Zechariah in which the spoils of Jerusalem were shared out, and all the nations were gathered against her to war, and the city was taken and the houses plundered, and the women defiled and carried off into captivity, and at the same time the Lord, as an ally of the nations that were making war on Jerusalem, arrayed himself among them? Or when did his feet stand on the Mount of Olives? Or when did the Lord become king over all the earth, one Lord himself over all people, and his name one, encircling all the land and the desert? For no one could show these things carried to completion at any earlier time than the Roman times, when their temple endured a second burning after the one by the Babylonians, and the city from then until now is shown to be settled by foreign nations.

4.25| At that time also our Lord Jesus, the Christ of God, spent his days on the Mount of Olives opposite Jerusalem, the saying being fulfilled that says: "And his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives opposite Jerusalem"; and when the God-fearing commonwealth had been built up throughout the whole inhabited world of men, all the nations, according to the prophecy, celebrate the feast of tabernacles to the God of the prophets in every place, and the Egyptians, having from then on come to know the God of the universe, have pitched their tents in each city and country; and these would be the churches of Christ in each place.

4.26| For the power of our Savior Jesus Christ has pitched these tents, far better than the tents of Moses, throughout the whole inhabited world of men, so that the whole race of men and all the nations may celebrate a feast of tabernacles to the God over all.

4.27| Since, then, we see these things, proclaimed to the nations long ago, receiving their outcome in our own time, and the things of lamentation and mourning proclaimed for the tribes of the Jewish nation, and those of the burning of the temple and their final desolation, are likewise seen even today with our eyes in accord with the predictions, what remains in addition to these but to confess that the prophesied king, the Christ of God, has come, given that the signs of his coming, in each of the things stated, have been shown to have received a clear outcome? From Isaiah.

5.1| "Behold, the Lord sits on a light cloud, and will come to Egypt, and the handmade things of Egypt shall be shaken at his presence, and their heart shall be overcome within them; and Egyptians shall be stirred up against Egyptians, and a man shall fight against his brother, and a man against his neighbor. City shall be stirred up against city, and law against law, and the Egyptians’ spirit shall be troubled within them; their counsel I will scatter, and they shall inquire of their gods and their images and the ventriloquists and those who speak from the earth."

5.2| And next, after very many things said in riddles, he adds: "On that day there shall be an altar for the Lord in Egypt’s land, and a pillar to the Lord at its border, and it shall be a perpetual sign for the Lord in the land of Egypt; for they shall cry to the Lord because of those who afflict them, and the Lord will send them a man who will save them; he will save them by judging, and the Lord shall make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord God in that day, and they shall make sacrifices, and vow vows to the Lord, and shall fulfill them."

5.3| These things, too, we have in part explained beforehand. If, then, the Egyptians are not observed in our own day to have abandoned their ancestral gods and to be calling on the God of the prophets; if in all of Egypt, in every place and city and country, an altar has not been raised to the God who is proclaimed as God among the Hebrews alone; if the handmade things of Egypt have not been shaken, the demonic power about them having failed and the old superstition having been taken from the Egyptians' souls; and if, further, in every city and in every house a civil war is not set up among the Egyptians, some having accepted the Lord and the reverence of the God of the prophets and turned away from the polytheistic error of ages, others, through still clinging to their ancestral evils, fighting those who have received the Lord; if, even to this day, those who try to inquire of their own gods and images and those who speak from the earth and the ventriloquists do not make their recourse to these futile and fruitless, because the demons can no longer work as before; if all this is not shown to have been brought to completion in actual deeds, let it not yet be thought by me that the prophetic saying has been fulfilled, nor that the Lord who was foretold has come to live among men.

5.4| But if, in deeds themselves, far plainer than words, the inhabitants of Egypt are still to be seen today, some having come to know the God of the prophets and having abandoned their ancestral gods for his sake, others standing in faction against them; and if the one group even now still call upon their own gods and images and those who speak from the earth, who are able to do nothing at all, while the other has founded, for the Lord of the prophets, an altar in each church throughout the whole land of the Egyptians, and in their afflictions and in the persecutions raised against them calls no longer on brute creatures, nor on the creeping things of the earth, as gods, nor on wild beasts and irrational animals as their fathers did, but on the God over all, having taken hold in their minds of him alone and of the fear of him, vowing their vows to him and no longer to the demons, and paying the promises that befit God; how does it not follow that we must also agree that what comes before these outcomes has already come to pass in deed? And that was the coming of the Lord into Egypt, which was to take place not without a body but by means of a light cloud, or rather by means of a light thickness; for so the Hebrew reads, hinting at his coming in the flesh.

5.5| This is the very one, then, whom the Word, going on next, called a man, a savior, saying: "And the Lord will send them a man who will save them." Here again, at any rate, the Hebrew has: "And the Lord will send them a savior who will save them." Since these things furnish so plain a proof, I think that the times in which the Lord's coming to men was foretold have also been made clear.

5.6| So much, then, gathered in brief, on the times of the Lord's appearing to men. One with leisure could find more by going through the rest of the Scriptures as well; but we, content with what has been said, will now pass on to the remaining prophecies. Accordingly, we shall gather from the divine predictions the things that, following upon it, were brought about among men.

Cite a passage by its number: every paragraph here has its own anchor (for example https://openscriptorium.com/read/eusebius/097-demonstration-of-the-gospel-book-viii#p1), and the bracketed reference numbers link the same way.

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