Demonstration of the Gospel — Book IX

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

praef.1| What, then, remains after this but to go through, as we promised, what was brought about in the incarnation of the Word of God himself? We have gone through the groundwork concerning him in the eight books before this one, at one time investigating the theology that concerns him, at another examining his descent to us from heaven, and with it the manner, the name, and the time of his coming. Since these have been demonstrated, it is now time to survey the events of his appearing, and to show how each of these too had been proclaimed beforehand among the Hebrews.

praef.2| The fulfillment of the predictions will be sealed by the testimony of the holy evangelists and by the outcome of events recorded through them. First of all, then, since what concerns his birth, his race, tribe, and seed has been demonstrated, come, let us look at the new star, strange beside the familiar ones, that appeared at his birth; for this too was proclaimed long before, from times far back, by Moses, and it is recorded in this way:

1.1| From Numbers. Moses, in the book of Numbers, speaks of the star that showed itself at the birth of our Savior: "Balaam son of Beor says, the man who truly sees says, who hears the oracles of God, who knows knowledge from the Most High, and has seen a vision of God, his eyes uncovered in sleep: I will show him, but not now; I call him blessed, but he does not draw near. A star shall arise from Jacob, and a man shall stand up out of Israel, and he shall shatter the chiefs of Moab and plunder all the sons of Seth. And Edom shall become an inheritance, and Esau his enemy shall also be an inheritance, and Israel has done mightily. And one shall be roused out of Jacob, and shall destroy him who escapes from the city."

1.2| It is said that the successors of Balaam, stirred by this prophecy (for it had been preserved among them, as was to be expected), when they saw in the sky a star strange beside the familiar ones, fixed at the zenith, as one might say, directly above Judea, made haste to come to the land of the Palestinians, to inquire about the king signified by the star that had appeared.

1.3| The evangelist Matthew bears witness to this, saying: "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east, and have come to worship him. Then, when they had been sent on to Bethlehem, they set out, and behold, the very star they had seen in the east led them on, until it came and halted above the place where the child was. On seeing the star they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy; and entering the house they beheld the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him."

1.4| So much the holy Gospel. But as for the word of the prophecy, it is worth considering what it says will come about at the rising of the star and at the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ: the shattering of the chiefs of Moab, the plundering of the sons of Seth, and the inheritance of the remaining enemies of the Jewish nation. These were Edom and Esau.

1.5| What did it hint at by these, if not, by the chiefs of Moab, the overthrow of the invisible rulers, the very demons once worshiped as gods among the Moabites? It mentioned no others because of the idolatry of Israel in the desert, when the people underwent initiation to Baal-peor (this was a demon, honored as god by Balak, who was king of Moab).

1.6| Since, then, Israel had at that time been defeated by the invisible rulers of Moab, I mean the gods held to be such among the Moabites (at any rate they fell into idolatry and worshiped the carved images, as Scripture says, "and they were initiated into Baal-peor"; this was a demon of the Moabites; it was then too that they went whoring after the Moabite women), Balaam fittingly foretells what was one day to come, the reversal of affairs to the opposite in due time, saying: "A star shall dawn from Jacob, and a man shall arise out of Israel, and shall shatter the rulers of Moab."

1.7| It is as if he were saying more plainly that the demons of the Moabites, who had boasted against Israel, would at the birth of the one prophesied suffer a crushing and a fall, and that when they were crushed, the sons of Seth and Esau and the remaining nations, which I take to be signified through these, long enslaved to demonic error, would change from their superstition and become the property of the one foretold. "For Edom shall be an inheritance," he says, "and an inheritance shall be Esau, his enemy."

1.8| For those who were of old enemies of God and of Israel, he says, will become an inheritance of the one prophesied. For he was the one to whom it was said by God, his Father: "Request it from me, and I will give you nations as your inheritance." When these have passed into the lot of the saints, he prophesies that the reverse will befall Israel.

1.9| He says, at any rate: "And Israel did mightily." But what he did mightily was the greatest impiety of all; therefore one will be raised up from among them and will rise.

1.10| Who is this but the prophesied Word of God, who also "destroyed the one who is saved out of the city"? I think he hints at Jerusalem, out of which everyone who was saved was destroyed, or else the whole commonwealth of their nation. What end these things met with, together with the shining forth of our Savior among men, when the formerly idolatrous nations passed into their lot, while the Jewish nation and their mother city suffered as never before, I think needs no long argument.

1.11| But let this suffice for the agreement of the prophetic prediction and the gospel conclusion; what was the cause of the shining of the star that appeared is worth considering. Moses says that God placed all the stars in the firmament to serve as signs and as seasons. But this one was strange and unusual, not one of the many familiar ones, but a new and fresh star appearing in the world, a sign of a strange luminary that shone upon the whole world, who was the Christ of God, a great and new star, whose image the star that then appeared to the magi bore symbolically.

1.12| For since throughout the whole of sacred and divinely inspired Scripture the leading aim of the meaning wishes to teach things more mystical and divine, while the obvious sense is also preserved in part by the things done historically, it is reasonable that the prediction in hand was fulfilled to the letter in the prophecy of the star foretold at the birth of our Savior.

1.13| Now there are also, in the case of other famous and conspicuous men, appearances of strange stars, such as those called by some comets, or beams, or bearded stars, or certain others like these, which customarily appear on the occasion of great events.

1.14| But what could ever be better or greater for the whole world than the intellectual light that came to all men through the saving appearing, bringing to rational souls the grasp of true piety and knowledge of God? It was for this that the star which appeared beforehand signified the great sign, hinting to all that the Christ of God was a great and new luminary shining upon the whole world.

1.15| In the same way the prophecy foretells a man and a star together, in the words: "A man out of Jacob, and a man shall rise up out of Israel," saying that the heavenly luminary is God the Word, and naming the same one a man. In other places he calls him in different ways both Rising and Sun of righteousness, as we showed in the first books.

1.16| Then what was to come into the world he proclaimed by the name of rising, saying: "A star shall rise out of Jacob." The man, because of the suffering that befell him, he foretells as one who, though fallen, shall rise again, just as Isaiah speaks about him: "And the root of Jesse shall be there, even he who rises to rule the nations; in him shall nations hope." And it is clear how the light of our Savior, rising out of Jacob, that is, from the people of the circumcision, shone forth upon all the nations, but not on Jacob, from whom it came.

1.17| One may gather this also from very many other prophecies, as when they say to the Christ himself: "See, I have appointed you as a covenant for the race, as a light for the nations." Not only so, but also from those of the race, "for a light of the nations," in which he says: "Out of his seed shall come a man, and he shall rule many nations."

1.18| And from whose seed, if not that of Israel, as the context has shown? And indeed, having become lord of the nations, the Word of our Savior, in accord with the prophecy, brought down the invisible and wicked powers that of old ruled over them, "the spiritual forces of wickedness" and the demonic horde, called in the passage at hand, more figuratively, leaders of Moab and Seth and Edom and Esau.

1.19| The phrase that stands obscurely in the Seventy, "I will show him, and not now; I call him blessed, and he is not near," Aquila has rendered more plainly: "I shall see him, and not now; I look upon him, but not near"; and Symmachus more clearly, saying: "I see him, but not near."

1.20| These words might be spoken by Balaam as of things to be accomplished long ages after him; at any rate, after the two-thousandth year from the prediction these things were fulfilled in the sojourn of our Savior among men. From Isaiah.

2.1| "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." The reason why the coming of the Lord into Egypt is foretold seems to me to be this. It is said that the Egyptians were the first of all to begin the polytheistic and demonic error, and to have become the cause of superstition for all other men, and also, more than all, to have busied themselves with demonic operations and curious arts.

2.2| These were also, from of old and from the beginning, attested by the inspired Scripture as enemies of the people of God, and their ancient king is recorded as admitting that he had no knowledge of the Lord, when he declared: "I do not know the Lord, and Israel I will not let go." Wishing, then, to set forth the great wonder of the divine power of Christ, the Word foretells the coming of the Lord into Egypt, upon which he prophesies a change of the Egyptians that is no ordinary one, saying next: "And the Egyptians shall come to know the Lord, though before they did not know him, and they shall vow vows to the Lord," and things similar to these.

2.3| Earlier, then, in the preceding section, Edom and Esau were spoken of as the inheritance of the one foretold, the strangers to Israel being signified in this way; but here Egypt and the people of Egypt are foretold as belonging no longer to the idols but to the Lord himself, who is proclaimed as God among the Jews.

2.4| If these things are not seen with the eyes to be accomplished, one cannot say that the foretold coming of the Lord to Egypt has happened; but if the truth bears witness to the facts beyond all argument, and shows plainly even to the most obtuse that the Egyptians themselves have withdrawn from the superstition handed down from their fathers since ages past, have become attached to the God of the prophets who proclaimed these things beforehand, worship him alone, and welcome any death for their piety toward him, it is time to agree that these things have happened in no other way than by the Lord having come into Egypt, in accord with the prediction before us.

2.5| It is possible, however, to take the saying otherwise, as figuratively hinting at the earthly world, into which the Word prophesies that the Lord will come upon a light cloud, thus hinting at the man taken by him from the virgin and the Holy Spirit; and also that the handmade things of Egypt will be shaken, meaning the wooden images of the nations and the demons in them, and that the Egyptians will in turn be overcome, meaning all who of old were agitated about idolatry,

2.6| yet also bodily, when our Savior was brought to the land of the Egyptians, when, according to the oracle, Joseph rose, took Mary and the child, and went into Egypt, it is likely that by a hidden power and working the wicked powers that formerly dwelt there were not slightly shaken, and above all when through his later teaching countless multitudes of the inhabitants of Egypt, having escaped the error of demons, even now confess that they know the God of the universe alone. What is added in what follows, being riddling and needing more treatment, we will interpret at our own leisure. From Numbers.

3.1| "Balaam the son of Beor says, the man who truly sees says, who hears the oracles of the Mighty One, saw a vision of God in sleep, his eyes uncovered: How fair are your houses, Jacob, your tents, Israel, like shady glens, and like a garden by rivers, and like tents which the Lord pitched, like cedars beside waters. A man will emerge from his seed, and he will be lord of many nations, and the kingdom of Gog shall be exalted, and his kingdom shall be increased. God led him out of Egypt; his glory is like that of a unicorn. He shall eat up the nations of his enemies, and shall grind down their fatness, and with his arrows shall shoot the enemy through. He lay down and rested like a lion and like a lion's whelp; who will rouse him? Those who bless you are blessed, and those who curse you are cursed."

3.2| Above, through the prophecy set before this, the oracle, saying that the Lord would come into Egypt, indicated the carrying of our Savior Jesus Christ together with his parents into Egypt; in these words it next and consequently foretells the return from Egypt, which he made together with his parents to the land of Israel, saying: "God led him out of Egypt."

3.3| And only our Savior and Lord Jesus, the Christ of God, and no other, came from the seed of Israel and the Jewish nation and ruled over many nations, with the result that it is agreed without dispute that the present prediction, which plainly proclaims that out of the Jewish nation a man shall come and rule over many nations, finds its end in him.

3.4| Or let anyone who wishes say whether he can present another of the many famous men ever among the Hebrews who ruled many nations; but no one could say so, because there has never been one. In the case of our Savior, even if we do not say it, the truth itself will cry out and shout aloud, openly showing how his divine power, through the man according to the flesh from the seed of Israel who was taken up by him, ruled and even now rules many nations.

3.5| This very one, then, was that one and no other, whom the prophecy announced beforehand, and in his time the kingdom of Gog was exalted, the power of Christ growing with it. They say that here, according to the Hebrews, the kingdom of the Romans is hinted at in this way, with which the teaching of Christ flourished together.

3.6| The prophet Ezekiel too mentions Gog, naming "the ruler of Rhos and Thobel": by Rhos, as it seems, hinting at the city of the Romans, since in the Hebrew tongue "rhos" signifies rule and head; by Mosoch, Mysia and the nations around it, all that now belong to the Romans; and by Thobel, Josephus shows Iberia, saying that the Iberians are Thobelites, from Thobel. Of all these he says Gog will be exalted as ruler at the coming of the prophesied Christ, whom God led out of Egypt when, according to Matthew, Herod was plotting against him as a child, and Joseph, being warned by an oracle, took the child and his mother and returned to the land of Israel. The glory of a unicorn was present to Christ himself, because it pleased the whole fullness of the Godhead to dwell in him, according to the holy apostle.

3.7| For this reason, as one who styles the God of the universe, who is also his Father, as his horn, he was called "unicorn" in other Scriptures too. The same Word of God, with his intelligible and rational arrows, drove out the enemy and adversary, the devil, and all the invisible and wicked powers around him, by a better and unconquerable power, and even now rules many nations, grinding down their fatness and the mind of the flesh, and fitting them for the narrow way of eternal life.

3.8| But also this very man, who came from Israel and lorded it over many nations, lay down and rested, he says, like a lion, thus showing the dispensation he accepted, in which he rested like some royal and courageous beast, no one being able to remove his rule and kingdom. And all who bless the Christ, honoring by word and life the virtue of the teacher, have received a share of the blessing from God, growing and multiplying day by day, according to the saying, "Increase and multiply and fill the earth," the divine voice being fulfilled more truly and more worthily of God in them; whereas, on the contrary, those who from the first plot against him and even now curse him in their assemblies have drawn down upon themselves, from then until now, the curse from God.

3.9| For this reason they do not cease to see before their eyes the final desolation and ruin not only of their kingdom but also of their once most revered sanctuary. It is worth setting beside the passages at hand the prophecy of Jacob to Judah, which we have already shown applies most clearly to our Savior, and considering the agreement between the two.

3.10| For as it is said here, "A man shall come out of his seed" (clearly of Jacob), so there too Jacob himself said to the one prophesied: "From a shoot, my son, you have gone up."

3.11| And as in the present passage it says "and he shall rule over many nations," so likewise in the other: "and he himself shall be the expectation of nations." And again, here he says: "He shall eat up the nations of his enemies, and with his arrows shall shoot the enemy through," and in the same way in that passage it was said: "Your hands shall be on the back of your enemies."

3.12| And the "lion's whelp, Judah," and "you lay down and slept like a lion and like a whelp; who will rouse him?" said in that passage, seem to me to differ in nothing from the wording at hand, which says "He lay down and rested like a lion and like a whelp; who will raise him up?" We have reasonably brought these together into one, so that, as at the mouth of two witnesses, the demonstration concerning our Savior may receive a firmer confirmation from the agreement in the prophecies.

3.13| All that has been observed in the prediction of Jacob would fit also that of Balaam, on account of the likeness of what is said. If, then, those words have been established by abundant proof as fulfilled in our Savior, it follows that we should acknowledge the present ones also. From Hosea.

4.1| "And destruction shall arise among your people, and all your fortified places shall be gone, as the ruler Shalman out of the house of Jeroboam; in war they dashed mother upon children. So shall I do to you, house of Israel, because of your injustices. At dawn the king of Israel was cast away, for Israel is an infant, and I loved him, and I called his children back out of Egypt."

4.2| Following the Hebrew, Aquila has given: "Out of Egypt I called my son." I have noted the wording out of necessity, since Matthew too has set down the prophecy, when he showed that Jesus was carried to Egypt and from there returned to the land of Israel. If anyone should find fault with our Savior's withdrawal into Egypt, let him know that it happened for good reason.

4.3| For it was not fitting to hold Herod back from his self-chosen wickedness, nor yet for the Savior, while still an infant, to begin his wonders and show his divine power before the time, which would have happened if he had punished Herod when he plotted against him in some marvelous way, instead of enduring the withdrawal into Egypt with his parents.

4.4| But it belonged to the better dispensation to begin the wonders of the Godhead at the proper time, for he whose gentleness and patience under wrong are attested throughout his whole life was ready for kindnesses and common benefactions, and took vengeance on none of those who would not listen, not even when "he was led as to slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is dumb."

4.5| How, then, was it likely that such a one would not, as a child, give way before the wickedness of Herod, when even as a man he is attested to have withdrawn and turned aside from the wicked, and to have hidden himself and avoided the praise that comes from marvelous deeds? At any rate he urged those healed by him to tell no one.

4.6| But if anyone should refer the prophecy to the people, saying it was spoken of the people from the seed of Israel, let him attend to the sequence of the passage, which says that these things will happen after it has said, as if to Jerusalem itself: "And destruction shall arise among your people, and all your fortified places shall be gone."

4.7| And what, he says, such a ruler suffered in the war that came upon him, in which they dashed mother upon children, the like I will do to you yourselves because of your wickedness. And who are "you" but those called Israelites, who were cast away together with your king, hinting at Herod?

4.8| And you have suffered all these things "because Israel is a child," he says, "and I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt." For how could he at the same time blame the same people and again praise the same people? But the true sense held this view: in other prophecies too the Christ is called Israel, as indeed in the present one.

4.9| Since, then, he says, this one, having become obedient to me, took a servant's form and became a child beloved by me, having fulfilled all my counsel, for this reason I called him back from Egypt, into which he went down when he became man, the earthly place being thus indicated, or else from the very literal Egypt, as a true and beloved son; but you, to whom the word is addressed, together with your kingdom, destruction and ruin will seize.

4.10| So the prophecy says. It is plain how, from the times of our Savior, when Jerusalem was besieged, the self-rule and government of the Jewish nation, which had stood until then, was taken down and cast away entirely.

4.11| But this is already the third time that the matters concerning Egypt and his coming there have been prophesied. If anyone should say that they do not apply at all to our Savior, but that Matthew's citation took them from the testimony in Moses, which we have just gone through in explaining "God out of Egypt," since the evangelist himself did not say that he took the saying from the prophecy of Hosea, so that those who search can also find where it lies, from which it is likely the evangelist made his citation. From Isaiah.

5.1| "A voice of one calling in the wilderness: Make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places smooth ways. And the glory of the Lord shall be seen, and all flesh shall see God's salvation, for the Lord has spoken."

5.2| This prediction too had to come to its end in the times of our Savior. Therefore, in the account of Luke the evangelist: "In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar's reign, Pontius Pilate being procurator of Judea, and those counted with him, the word of God came upon John, son of Zechariah, in the wilderness; and he came into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." The evangelist bears witness to these things, saying: "As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: A voice of one calling in the wilderness, Make ready the way of the Lord," and the rest.

5.3| What, then, did the voice through John cry, proclaiming in the wilderness, but to the crowds coming forth to be baptized by him, as to the reptiles of a wilderness, in keeping with "Offspring of vipers, who showed you to flee from the coming wrath?" And again, remolding the crooked souls into straight ones and the rough into smooth ways, he said to the same people: "Bear fruits, then, worthy of repentance."

5.4| And these things were being accomplished as John prepared those who were to see the Lord's glory, and what is called the salvation of God, who was none other than the Christ, as he testified, saying: "I baptize you with water, but one stronger than I is coming after me, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."

5.5| When he saw Jesus coming, he cried out: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the world's sin. This is he about whom I said, After me comes a man who was before me." That the salvation of God is the same one Simeon also bore witness, who, taking Jesus in his arms as an infant, said: "Now you let your servant depart, Master, according to your word, in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light for the revelation of the nations."

5.6| With these the prophet agrees: "and all flesh will see the salvation of the [….]"; for "all flesh" is said in place of all the nations.

5.7| How these things reached their end and the nations came to know the Christ of God needs no long argument. And the texts cited were fulfilled in this way. What, then, was the reason why John came forward to preach not in cities, nor in Jerusalem itself, but in the wilderness? One might say that he did this to fulfill the prophecy.

5.8| But the careful inquirer will ask at once what this prophecy meant to signify when it spoke about the wilderness and the things around it; to him we shall say that this too was a sign of the overthrow of Jerusalem and of its altar, and of the service according to the law of Moses, when the forgiveness of sins was no longer provided for them through the sacrifices according to the law, but was handed over through the purification of the washing in what had long been a thirsty wilderness, I mean the church of the nations, in which also the prophetic voice, sounding forth, commands that the way of the Lord be prepared: that the souls lying low in a depth of wickedness, as in a ravine, be lifted up, and that the heights of old, of Jerusalem and of its rulers and kings, called mountains and hills, be brought low, as it prophesies.

5.9| When these were accomplished, he says, "all flesh will see the salvation of God"; clearly meaning every soul living in flesh on the earth, of Greeks and barbarians together, and of all the nations without exception, which are shown to have come to this end in accord with the prediction.

5.10| Asking myself what it was that struck the many with amazement in John, so that they marveled at him and believed him as he proclaimed a baptism of repentance, and all, leaving their own homes from every side, streamed together to the wilderness, especially since the accounts record no deed of his (for he is not recorded to have raised the dead or to have worked other wonders), what was it that amazed them all? Perhaps his strange life, different from that of the many? For he came forth from the wilderness dressed in a strange garment, avoiding all the common ways of men's living; he went neither into a village nor a city nor any common gathering of men, and did not share in common food;

5.11| for it is written that from the time of his boyhood "he was in the wildernesses until the day of his showing to Israel"; and his clothing was of camel's hair, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

5.12| When people saw a man, a Nazirite of God in his hair, with a countenance suited to God, wearing a strange form of dress, appearing suddenly from somewhere out of the unseen wilderness, and after the proclamation withdrawing again into the wilderness and out of sight, drinking nothing, eating nothing, having no fellowship with the many, were they not reasonably amazed, and did they not suspect that he was not even a man? How could they not, of one who seemed to have no need of food? For this reason they supposed him to be an angel, that very one indicated by the prophet, who says: "Behold, I send my angel before your face, who will prepare your way before you." Mark the evangelist, at any rate, has used the citation of this Scripture too.

5.13| And the Savior bears witness, saying: "John came to you not eating and not drinking, and you say, He has a demon."

5.14| For those who disbelieved, and were hard and unyielding toward the truth, would likely, because of the life of John described, slander him in this way, just as, on the contrary, those who perceived his virtue supposed him to be an angel. These things, I think, produced wonder about him in those who saw John; therefore they ran together from every side to the cleansing of the soul that he proclaimed.

5.15| Josephus mentions the story of him in the eighteenth book of the Jewish Antiquities, writing in this way: "Some of the Jews supposed that the army of the Jews had been destroyed by God, who was very justly punishing them in vengeance for John, called the Baptist. For Herod killed him, a good man, who urged the Jews, practicing virtue and observing justice toward one another and piety toward God, to come together for baptism. For thus indeed baptism would appear acceptable to him." From the same.

6.1| "Rejoice, thirsty wilderness; let the wilderness exult, and bloom like the lily, and it shall blossom, and the wastes of the Jordan shall exult, and the glory of Lebanon was given to it, and the honor of Carmel, and my people shall behold the glory of the Lord."

6.2| To this he adds: "Be strong, slackened hands and paralyzed knees; take comfort, you faint of mind; be strong, do not fear. Behold, our God repays judgment and will repay. He himself will come and save us. At that time the eyes of blind men shall be opened and the ears of deaf men shall hear; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be clear; for water has burst forth in the wilderness, and a ravine in a thirsty land."

6.3| These things too were fulfilled through the manifestly marvelous works of our Savior after the proclamation of John. Observe, then, how he announces good news to the wilderness, not simply, nor any chance wilderness, but that one specifically and alone beside the river Jordan.

6.4| For John stayed beside it and baptized, as the Scripture testifies, saying: "John was in the wilderness baptizing, and all the country of Judea went out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan."

6.5| I think, then, that the wilderness holds a symbol of the one long desolate of all good things according to God, I mean the church of the nations, and that the river in the wilderness, cleansing all who wash in it, is the image of some purification seen by the mind, about which the Scriptures speak, saying: "The river's rushings make glad the city of the [….]."

6.6| This signifies the ever-flowing stream of the divine Spirit, welling up from on high and watering the city of God, the commonwealth according to God being so called. This river of God, then, has come down even to the wilderness, that is, the church of the nations, and furnishes it even now with its life-giving waters. Besides this, the prophecy says that to the wilderness indicated will be given the glory of Lebanon and the honor of Carmel.

6.7| What is Lebanon's glory but the service performed through sacrifices according to the law of Moses? God, having rejected it through the prophecy that says, "Why do you bring me frankincense from Sheba?" and "What does the multitude of your sacrifices matter to me?", has transferred to the wilderness of the Jordan the glory of Jerusalem, the conduct of life according to piety beginning to be accomplished not at Jerusalem but in the wilderness, from the times of John.

6.8| In the same way the honor of the law, and of the things legislated according to it in a more bodily manner, has been given to the wilderness of the Jordan for the reason given, that those who needed the healing of the soul no longer took refuge in Jerusalem but in the so-called wilderness, for the sake of the forgiveness of sins proclaimed in it.

6.9| I think that the coming of our Savior to the baptism is also indicated by "and my people shall behold the glory of the Lord and the height of God." For then the glory of our Savior was seen, "when, having been baptized, he came up out of the water, and the heavens were opened for him, and he saw God's Spirit coming down like a dove and remaining on him, when also a voice from the heavens was heard saying, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." But also everyone who genuinely approaches the mystery of the washing, having received the theology concerning the Christ, will behold his glory, saying like Paul: "Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer." From Psalm [….].

7.1| “He who dwells in the help of the Most High will lodge in the shelter of the God of heaven. He will say to the Lord, You are my helper and my refuge; my God is my helper, and I will hope in him, for he himself will deliver me from the snare of the hunters and from a troubling word. With his shoulders he will overshadow you, and under his wings you will hope.

7.2| His truth will surround you with a shield; you will not be afraid of the terror by night, of the arrow that flies by day, of the thing that moves about in darkness, of mishap and the noonday demon. A thousand will fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. Only with your eyes will you look, and you will see the repayment of sinners. For you, Lord, are my hope; you have made the Most High your refuge. Evils will not come near you, and no scourge will draw near your dwelling.

7.3| For he will give his angels orders concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you will trample the lion and the serpent.”

7.4| Our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ of God, so far as he is conceived as having become man, is described as the one who dwells in the help of the Most High and lodges in the shelter of God and Father. Having the Father alone, and no other, as his refuge at the time of the temptation by the devil, he was delivered once from the snares of the opposing powers, here called hunters, when, like any ordinary man, “he was led up into the desert to be tempted by the devil, and was in the desert forty days and forty nights, tempted by Satan, and was, as the evangelist testifies, with the wild beasts.”

7.5| Which of these, if not the ones the present Psalm mentions, when it says to the one who dwells in the help of the Most High, “You will walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you will trample the lion and the serpent”? And it says that he will be delivered not only from these but also from a troubling word.

7.6| And who would this be, if not the very one whom the tempter put to him according to the holy Gospel?

7.7| The reason why so great a Savior of ours was tempted is worth considering. He was about to drive out of human beings every disease and every infirmity, the spirits that harass them and the unclean demons which, through the superstition of many gods, had held sway over all on earth for a long age. He did not come to the aforesaid task as if hidden out of sight; rather, he first made war, by means of the man he had taken up, on the invisible rulers who had been harassing us. He went into the midst of the devil himself and the whole demonic throng, stepped on the asp and the basilisk and trampled the lion and the serpent, and long before that brought down thousands and tens of thousands of the ruling enemies, some fighting from the right and some from the left, principalities and authorities, and indeed “the so-called world-rulers of this darkness, and the spiritual hosts of wickedness.” When he had proved all these to be powerless, and finally had driven the devil himself, the chief of evils, far away by the word of his mouth, and had passed through and walked about in the midst of the entire opposing power, offering himself to those who wished to approach and tempt him while no one was able to stand against him, only then did he proceed to the salvation of human beings. This is why the demons, seeing him, recognized him from the stay in the desert described above, and said to him, “What is there between us and you, Jesus, Son of God?”

7.8| So much, then, on these points. The words that follow in the Psalm are addressed to Christ himself, beginning with “With his shoulders he will overshadow you,” the Most High, evidently, being the one who does so, “and under his wings you will hope; his truth will surround you with a shield.” And since he was tempted for forty days and as many nights, what concerns the attacks that came upon him by night is said in the words “You will not be afraid of the terror of those who make war,” and what concerns those who fought him by day in the words “of the arrow that flies by day.”

7.9| And again, concerning those by night: “of the thing that moves about in darkness”; and concerning those by day: “of mishap and the noonday demon.”

7.10| Then, since during the temptation wicked powers surrounded him, some holding his right side and far more of them than on the left, the right being the stronger part, it is fitting that it is added to him: “A thousand will fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.” Here “side” is put in place of the left, and the name “left” is fittingly passed over in silence, because nothing awkward or left-handed was found in him. Furthermore, since a whole ten thousand, and a thousand together with it, are said to fall from his side and from his right, it is fittingly said next after these words: “Only with your eyes will you look, and you will see the repayment of sinners.”

7.11| And these things, it says, will happen around you, the Christ of God, “since you yourself, O Lord, who happen to be my hope, have made the Most High your refuge.”

7.12| Here you will also notice how the prophet says to the Lord himself, “For you, Lord, are my hope; you have made the Most High your refuge,” carefully distinguishing the one as Lord in his own right and the Most High God as this one's Father.

7.13| Therefore, since Christ has made him, as Father and Most High God, his own refuge, it is said to him: “Evils will not come near you, and no scourge will draw near your dwelling, for he will give his angels orders concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”

7.14| And observe carefully how, in the words “For you, Lord, are my hope; you have made the Most High your refuge,” the word “Lord” is represented in the Hebrew by the four-letter name, which the children of the Hebrews say is unspeakable and are accustomed to take as applying to God alone. We, however, have shown above that it is found in very many Scriptures also for the divinity of the Word, as in the present Psalm, which is addressed to the Lord's own person: “For you, Lord, are my hope; you have made the Most High your refuge.” It is as good as saying: You yourself, O Lord, who are the hope of me who prophesy these things, knowing that God the Most High is greater than yourself, have made him your refuge.

7.15| This is why at the beginning of the Psalm it was said of the same person: “He who dwells in the help of the Most High will lodge in the shelter of the God of heaven. He will say to the Lord, You are my helper and my refuge; my God is my helper, and I will hope in him.”

7.16| Since, then, you, Lord, have made the Most High your refuge, for this reason, it says, “he, the Most High, will deliver you from the snare of the hunters and from a troubling word, and with his shoulders he will overshadow you.” Therefore, having such fatherly help from the Most High, you will not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of any of the things listed before, nor of what is brought on in what follows.

7.17| “For since you, Lord, have made the Most High your refuge, for this reason evils will not come near you, and no scourge will draw near your dwelling.” You would find that the workings of demons are also called scourges in the Gospels, and it says that these cannot even dare to approach the dwelling of Christ, that is, his body.

7.18| For how could they, when by a word alone he drove them out of human beings? Concerning this dwelling David once swore to the Lord and made a vow to the God of Jacob, saying: “If I shall go up onto the bed of my couch, if I shall give sleep to my eyes and slumber to my eyelids and rest to my temples, until I discover a place for the Lord, a dwelling for the God of Jacob.”

7.19| And it was for the sake of this dwelling that it was said, “You will not be afraid of the terror by night,” and “He himself will deliver you from the snare of the hunters and from a troubling word,” and “Evils will not come near you, and no scourge will draw near your dwelling,” and all that is said about him in more human terms, such as “He will give his angels orders concerning you, to guard you,” and “On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”

7.20| For these words would not be fitting to say to God; they fit his dwelling, which he assumed on our behalf, when the Word “became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” And it seems to me good, for exact confirmation of what has been said, to set beside it the renderings of the remaining translators. Of these Aquila spoke thus: “For you, Lord, are my hope; you have made the Most High your dwelling-place.

7.21| Evils will not be shifted onto you, and no touch will come near in your shelter; for he will give his angels orders to guard you in all your ways.” And Symmachus: “For you, Lord, are my fearlessness; you have set your abode most high.

7.22| Evil will not prevail over you, nor will any touch come near your tent. For he will give his angels orders concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.” Through these very words, then, it is said to the Lord, as about another who is greater: “He will give his angels orders concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up” (that is, you, the Lord), “lest you, the Lord, strike your foot against a stone.”

7.23| The devil too used these words in the temptation of our Savior, when “he took him along into the holy city, stood him on the pinnacle of the temple, and spoke to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written, He will give his angels orders concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. Our Lord answered him and said, It is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”

7.24| Then, since during the temptation he stayed with the wild beasts, as the evangelist says, though it is not recorded which ones, the prophecy of the Psalm says this very thing more clearly, hinting at the kinds of beasts: “You will walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you will trample the lion and the serpent.”

7.25| He himself, then, is attested as being about to trample the chief of the beasts of the mind, the lion and the serpent, the asp and the basilisk, that is, the devil himself and the ruling, wicked powers that follow him. But to his disciples and apostles, who possess a like virtue with him, he himself gives the authority to tread upon snakes and scorpions, not permitting them to be tried beyond their power; for it belonged to him alone to bring down, by his divine power, the powers worse in wickedness and the one who is ruler of all and tyrant of this age. From Isaiah.

8.1| “Drink this first, do it quickly, land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, and you others who inhabit the seacoast and beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations, you people who walk in darkness, see a great light, and for you who dwell in the region and shadow of death, light will shine upon you. The greater part of the people whom you brought down in your gladness, and they will rejoice before you as those who rejoice at harvest, and as those who divide spoils; for the yoke lying upon them will be removed, and the rod on their neck. For the Lord has scattered the rod of those who exact tribute, as on the day of Midian; for they will pay back every garment gathered by deceit, and every cloak with reparation, and they will wish that they had been burnt with fire. For a child has been born to us, a son also has been given to us, whose rule came to be upon his shoulder; and his name is called Angel of Great Counsel, Ruler of Peace, Authority, Mighty God, Father of the Age to Come.”

8.2| Besides all the rest, these things were also fulfilled in our Savior and Lord Jesus, the Christ of God, at the time when, according to the admirable evangelist, “hearing that John had been delivered up, he withdrew into Galilee, and leaving Nazareth he went and settled in Capernaum by the sea, in Zebulun and Naphtali, that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, who said: Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations, the people who sat in darkness saw a great light, and for those who dwell in the region and shadow of death, light has risen upon them. From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.

8.3| And as he was walking along the Sea of Galilee he saw brothers, Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And he says to them, Come after me, and I will turn you into fishers of men.

8.4| And they immediately left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James, Zebedee's son, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. And they immediately left the boat and their father and followed him.

8.5| And Jesus went about the whole of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people. And word of him went out into the whole of Syria, and they brought to him all who were ill, afflicted with various diseases and torments, the demon-possessed, the epileptics, and the paralytics, and he healed them; and many crowds followed him from Galilee.”

8.6| I have set out all this for the sake of the prophecy, which promises that there will be a great light for Galilee, and for the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, which is none other than Galilee of the nations. And why did he spend most of his time in Galilee of the nations? Because he was laying the foundations of the calling of all the nations; at any rate, the disciples he called to himself were men who came from there.

8.7| This is why, a little further on in the Gospel, you will find Matthew called from Galilee, and in another place Levi. And Philip, in John's account, came from Bethsaida, from the city of Andrew and Peter; and this too was in Galilee. Moreover, in the same evangelist a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee, where the Lord marvelously changed the water into wine and “made there the beginning of his signs, and manifested his glory, and the disciples believed.”

8.8| Consider whether the present discourse does not set forth precisely this, the first wonder of our Savior, done at Cana of Galilee in the change of the wine, as already foretold at the start of the prophecy, when it says: “Drink this first, do it quickly, land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, Galilee of the nations.”

8.9| If the marvel was a symbol of a more mystical mixture, the true mixture of the new covenant being changed from the more bodily gladness to a gladness of mind and spirit, see whether this too was not being hinted in keeping with what is declared about Galilee: that it foretells that, at the coming of Christ, those who dwell in Zebulun and Naphtali would be the very first of all to partake of the drink of the gospel proclamation, and not those who dwell in Judea and Jerusalem.

8.10| And the reason for their gladness, it says, is the shining of the great light: those who before his coming had sat in darkness, in the region and shadow of death, had the saving light rise upon them, and will rejoice in this way, like those who rejoice at harvest and as those who divide spoils.

8.11| And these things were fulfilled in deed, when our Savior and Lord summoned the apostles from Galilee and showed them the wonders of his works and his teaching.

8.12| The prophecy foretells that they will rejoice before him in the manner of those who rejoice at harvest. And what harvest is this, if not the one about which he himself said as he taught, “Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest”? By these words he indicated the gathering of the nations. And of the same persons it is said that “they will rejoice as those who divide spoils.”

8.13| For when the disciples and evangelists of our Savior divided among themselves the lands of the nations and the whole world under the sun, they despoiled countless rulers of this age, who had formerly held sway over the nations. But it also gives another reason for their rejoicing: that the bodily yoke of the Law, which lay upon them of old, which neither they nor their fathers had the strength to bear, was lifted from them.

8.14| Not only was the yoke taken from them, but also the rod of those who exact tribute, which formerly lay on their neck. He shows who the exactors are in another place, saying: “My people, your tax-collectors glean you, and those who exact tribute lord it over you.”

8.15| But while these people of Zebulun and Naphtali, who have beheld the great light, will rejoice for the reasons given, those who of old exacted tribute from them will be called to account down to the last farthing, and, having paid back every garment and every cloak, will be burnt with fire at the time of the exacting.

8.16| And all this, it says, will come about because “a child has been born to us, a son also has been given us,” the Angel of Great Counsel. And who are the “us” but those who have believed in him, and evidently all Galilee of the nations, upon whom the great light has risen? And what was this but the child who was born and the Son given by God, named Angel of Great Counsel, and Ruler of Peace, and Authority, and Mighty God, and Father of the Age to Come? These names we have already shown, at the proper time, to be applied to our Savior and Lord alone. From Psalm 67.

9.1| “Your goings have been seen, O God, the goings of my God, my King, who is in the sanctuary; the rulers went before, next to the singers, in the midst of young women beating tambourines. In the assemblies bless God the Lord, you who are from the fountains of Israel. There is Benjamin the younger in ecstasy, the rulers of Judah, their leaders, the rulers of Zebulun, the rulers of Naphtali.”

9.2| Here too I think the rulers of Naphtali who are mentioned are none other than the apostles; for it was from there that our Savior and Lord called them, according to Matthew's account. And the Scripture, foretelling the going of God the Word among human beings and his coming in the flesh, says, “Your goings have been seen, O God,” and the rest.

9.3| The God-loved prophets of old, having become as it were forerunners of this appearing, proclaimed and hymned it with harp and dances and all kinds of spiritual instruments, and “went before in the midst of young women beating tambourines.”

9.4| For surely the divine prophets, coming forward into the midst of the synagogues of the circumcision, announced beforehand the arrival of Christ, and the same prophets, by the divine Spirit, addressed the apostles of our Savior, saying, “In the assemblies bless God the Lord, you who are from the fountains of Israel.” The fountains of Israel would be the words handed down to Israel. For they were the first to be entrusted with the oracles of God, and so we, drawing from them, must also water the churches of Christ.

9.5| By “young women” and “tambourine-players” he hinted at the souls that of old lived in a more bodily way under the law of Moses: “young women” because of the youthfulness and immaturity of their thinking, and “tambourine-players” because they were occupied with bodily worship. From Isaiah.

10.1| “Upon me is the Spirit of the Lord, on account of which he anointed me; he has sent me forth to bring good news to the poor, to cure the broken-hearted, to proclaim release to captives and restoration of sight to the blind, to call a year acceptable to the Lord and a day of recompense.”

10.2| And our Lord himself acknowledges that this prediction was fulfilled in himself, on the occasion when he came to Nazareth, the place where he had been brought up, and entered the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom; and when he stood up, the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, and he unrolled the book and read what was written: “Upon me is the Spirit of the Lord, for which he anointed me; he has sent me forth to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to captives and restoration of sight to the blind, to send out the oppressed in release, to call a year acceptable to the Lord.

10.3| And rolling up the book and giving it back to the attendant, he sat down; and the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

10.4| Our Savior and Lord, then, is plainly shown by this Scripture to differ from, and to surpass, the priests of old who were anointed in a more bodily way: he was anointed not with prepared oil, nor by men, as the others were, but with the divine Spirit of God, his own Father, from whom, having shared in the unbegotten divinity, he is proclaimed God and Lord by the sacred Scriptures.

10.5| In keeping with the present prophecy he is brought on the scene in Matthew as one bringing good news to the poor, when “seeing the crowds he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him, and opening his mouth he instructed them, saying: Blessed are those poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

10.6| And he is recorded as giving sight to the blind to no small number; for he gave the power of seeing not only to those whose bodily eyes were destroyed, but he also became, for those who were previously blind in soul, the cause of the contemplation of the mind and of the knowledge of the universe's God.

10.7| And in another way too, to those who were bound and led away as captives by the invisible, demonic power, fettered with the chains of evils, he proclaimed freedom and release from what held them, if only they themselves, believing the proclamation, would run to him as redeemer and savior and obey his commands. The rest of the oracle will be examined in due time in the discussion of the promises. From Deuteronomy.

11.1| “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers, like me; to him you shall listen, in accordance with all that you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying: We shall not go on to hear the voice of the Lord our God, and we shall not see this great fire any more, lest we die. And the Lord said to me, They have spoken rightly all that they said. I will raise up for them a prophet from among their brothers, like you, and I will place my word in his mouth, and he will speak to them according to all that I command him; and the man who does not listen to all that the prophet speaks in my name, I will exact vengeance from him.”

11.2| Observe that among the Hebrews no prophet like Moses has been raised up, that is, a lawgiver and a guide of human beings to piety, except our Savior alone, the Christ of God. Toward the end of Deuteronomy, at any rate, it is said, “There has not arisen again a prophet in Israel like Moses”; and indeed countless prophets have come after him, but not like him.

11.3| The whole of God's promise is that he will raise up someone, not many, and one like him. It shows him to be a lawgiver and a teacher of piety to human beings, such as our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ alone has been shown to be, and no other, having become at once lawgiver and prophet of the universe's God, his Father.

11.4| But Moses led one nation, and was shown to legislate suitably for it alone, not for other nations as well; whereas the Christ of God, who received from the Father the promise, “Ask me, and I will give the nations to you as your inheritance,” so that he might be established by the Father as a new lawgiver of piety not only for Jews but for the whole race of human beings, put forward a legislation that is powerful and suited to the calling of all the nations.

11.5| With a power more divine than Moses' he ordained his sacred laws for the whole world through his evangelists, legislating with an authority greater than a man's, when he said, “You have heard that it was said to the ancients, You shall not murder; but I say to you, do not even be angry without cause,” and all that follows in these, as much as is contained in his recorded teachings; on account of which the evangelist bears witness, saying that all were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not like their scribes.

11.6| Having gone through the manner of our Savior's teaching and legislation at the beginning of the present subject, when we brought to light what Christianity actually is, we shall now refer readers to that passage. But the reason for which the Lord promises to raise up a prophet for them is worth attention in the discussion.

11.7| For when he had commanded Moses to purify all the people for three days, so that they might be both spectators and hearers of the divine appearing, they were too weak for the grace of God; so, having come to the beginning of the vision, they begged off, saying to Moses, “You speak to us, and let God not speak to us, lest we die.” For this reason, naturally, the Lord approves their reverence and says, “All that they spoke—I will raise up for them a prophet from the midst of their brothers, like you.

11.8| So he also taught the cause for which he would make his appearance among human beings in the manner of a prophet; and this was weakness and the refusal of the higher vision.

11.9| You have, then, the reason for the human coming of the prophet foretold. Naturally, therefore, those of the circumcision, who were expecting him, questioned John the Baptist and said, “Are you the prophet?” And he said, “No.” John, confessing the truth, did not deny being a prophet, for he was one, but denied being himself the prophet indicated by Moses; and he taught that he had been sent before that prophet.

11.10| And since the oracle foretold that the prophet would arise for these very people of the circumcision, it is fitting that our Savior and Lord, being himself the one proclaimed beforehand, says, “I came only to those sheep of the house of Israel who are lost.” And he instructed his apostles, saying, “Do not go on the road of the nations, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans, but go rather to the sheep of the house of Israel that are lost.”

11.11| He taught plainly that he had been sent to them first, in accordance with the prophecy. And since they did not receive the grace, he convicts them in other passages, saying, “Because I came, yet there was no man; I called, and no one was there to obey.” To them he says, “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that produces its fruits.”

11.12| And to his own disciples, after those people had refused, he gives the charge: “Go and make disciples among all the nations, in my name.” So we, from among the nations, have come to know and have accepted, through the saving, evangelical teaching, the prophet who was announced beforehand and sent by the Father, who has become for all human beings a lawgiver of reverence for the God of the universe; and in the same way another prediction is fulfilled, in which it is said, “Set a lawgiver over them, Lord, that the nations may know that they are men.”

11.13| But the nation of the Jews, which did not receive the prophet foretold, paid the fitting penalty according to the divine prediction that said, “And the man who does not listen to all that the prophet speaks in my name, from him I will exact vengeance.”

11.14| At any rate, all the blood shed upon the earth has been avenged on that people, from Abel's blood down to the blood of Zechariah, and above all the blood of Christ, which they invoked upon themselves and upon their own children; and even now they undergo the punishment for the impiety they dared. From Job.

12.1| “He who speaks to the sun, and it does not rise, and seals up the stars; who alone stretched out the heaven, and walks on the sea as on a floor.”

12.2| These words, too, would fit only our Savior and Lord, as being the Word of God, the Maker of the universe; for he alone, of all who ever lived, in the times of his becoming man, having taken a human body and form, is said to have walked on the sea, when “he made his disciples get into a boat and go ahead of him to the other side, until he should dismiss the crowds. And having dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came he was there alone; but the boat was already in the middle of the sea. And seeing him on the sea they were troubled, saying that it was a ghost, and they cried out for fear.” Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”

12.3| Otherwise, the saying could not be thought to contain a theology worthy of its subject, if anyone were to take it as spoken of the supreme God and Father of the universe.

12.4| For what is solemn and noteworthy in saying that the God of the universe walks on the sea? And how could walking on the sea be conceived of him who contains all things, who fills heaven and earth and who all but says, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth the footstool of my feet,” and “I fill heaven and earth, says the Lord”? But our Savior and Lord, who emptied himself, taking a servant's form, and was found in shape as a man, giving his disciples a glimpse of his divine power, hidden from the many, is recorded as stepping on the waves of the sea, and rebuking the squall and the winds, at which those who saw were astonished and said, “What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?” This too was the symbol of something greater, another sea being understood, in which, it is said, a dragon was made as a plaything for the angels of God to mock; our Savior and Lord, having walked on this sea too, is said to have crushed there the head of the dragon, and those of the other dragons beneath it, according to the words, “You crushed the heads of the dragons on the water, and you crushed the heads of the dragon,” another sea plainly being understood, about which he again says in a Psalm, “I came into the depths of the sea.”

12.5| And in going through the matters concerning himself to Job: “Have you come to the source of the sea, and have you walked in the tracks of the abyss? Do the gates of death open to you in fear, and did the gatekeepers of Hades cower when they saw you?” Naturally, then, in our life too, by stepping on the sea and rebuking the winds and the squall, he performs the symbols of things more hidden. From Isaiah.

13.1| “Be strong, you slack hands and paralyzed knees; take courage, you faint-hearted in mind; be strong, do not be afraid. Behold, our God gives judgment in return and will give it in return; he himself will come and save us. At that time the blind will have their eyes opened and the deaf will hear; then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the stammering will be clear.”

13.2| And of these things you have in the Gospels the fulfilments: on the one hand when they brought to our Savior and Lord a paralytic laid upon a couch, whom he restored to health with a word; and on the other when countless blind and demon-possessed people, and others worn down with various diseases and infirmities, were freed from their sufferings by his saving power;

13.3| and not only so, but even now, throughout the whole world, countless multitudes bound by manifold kinds of wickedness and with souls filled with ignorance of the God over all are healed and treated, marvelously and beyond all telling, by the remedies of his teaching. That he is also proclaimed God in these matters, at the proper time, as one who works such things, has already been shown by us earlier in the testimonies about his divinity.

13.4| And it was fitting now, if ever, that he be acknowledged God, when he was displaying works of a divine and truly inspired power. For it belongs to God alone, and to no other, to strengthen the enfeebled, to give life to the dead, to bring salvation to the ailing, to open the eyes of the blind and likewise to heal the hearing of the deaf, to set the lame upright, and to restore speech to those whose tongue was bound; all of which was done by our Savior Jesus Christ as by God, and is attested by many throughout the whole world who proclaimed him.

13.5| The unfeigned truth of their testimony is guaranteed by the trial of tortures and the resistance unto death which they showed before kings, rulers, governors and whole nations, bearing witness to the truth of what they proclaimed.

13.6| To these same evangelists and apostles of his, I think, the prophetic Spirit speaks the words beginning “Be strong, you slack hands and paralyzed knees.” For since these men had let their hands, that is, their powers of action, and their steps and their journey, slacken through the long course of worship under the law of Moses, he rouses them to the way of life of the Gospel: “Be strong,” he says, “you slack hands and paralyzed knees,” evidently to prepare for the running of the Gospel course.

13.7| And be strong also to encourage others and urge them to hold fast to the salvation of the Gospel, you who were formerly faint-hearted; and let no fear seize you of those outside who oppose the gospel proclamation, but be strong against these too, and do not be afraid.

13.8| For he was God and the Word of God, not someone like Moses, nor someone like the prophets, not only the doer of marvelous wonders but also the cause of strength in you yourselves.

13.9| The clearest proof of the divine power of our Savior who was foretold would be this: that the power by which he truly healed at one time the lame, the blind, lepers, and the enfeebled with a word, as the writings about him say, is still at work even now throughout the whole inhabited world of men by his divinity. By it, in the very deeds, it is shown to those able to see what sort of person he was then, when even after so many years since, the word proclaimed by him is shown to be enduring and unconquerable and truly the word of God, overcoming all who from the beginning until now have been prepared to make war on his teaching; it draws to itself countless multitudes from the entire world, delivering those who come to it from every sin and from the passions and diseases of the soul, and calls every race of Greeks and barbarians to his pious teaching, bringing countless numbers to knowledge of the only true God and to a sound and temperate life, which would also be fitting for the profession of worship of the God over all.

13.10| And this very God of ours, being the Word of God, “gives judgment in return,” it says, “and will give it in return; he himself will come and save us.” For in keeping with the Psalm which says, “O God, give your judgment to the king,” and with the teaching of the Gospel, in which it is said, “The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,” having received from the Father the authority to judge, and judging with righteousness, he has paid to the people of the circumcision the fitting penalty for what they dared against him and his prophets, and has saved all human beings without exception who come to him, equally and in justice; the ears and eyes of whose mind he opened.

13.11| This is why the divine Word names the season of his coming a time of recompense, saying elsewhere, “to call a year acceptable to the Lord and a day of recompense.”

13.12| This was the time of recompense in which all the blood that had been shed, from Abel's blood down to the blood of Zechariah, and the precious blood of Jesus himself, was avenged on the generation of those who had wronged him, so that from then on they endured utter destruction and a final siege.

13.13| And the judgment on those people brought such a recompense upon them; this is why the prophecy says, “Behold, behold, our God gives judgment in return and will give it in return.” The judgment concerning those who would be saved through him is shown next by the words “He himself will arrive and save us. At that time eyes of blind people will be opened, and ears of the deaf will hear,” and so on.

13.14| Another prophecy too promises that Christ will bring forth this saving judgment, saying: “Behold my servant, I will uphold him; my chosen one, my soul has accepted him; he will bring forth judgment to the nations.”

13.15| For this reason concerning the word of the new covenant it has also been said: “For from Zion a law will go out, and the Lord's word from Jerusalem, and he will judge between the nations.” For it is likely that he works by divine judgment and by words ineffable to us also the matters of the calling of those who turn to him. Moreover, teaching us the divine judgment and training us to do everything with discernment, he is said to bring forth judgment to the nations. From the same.

14.1| “Then those who are sealing the law, so that they may not learn, will be made manifest. And he will say, I will wait for God, who has averted his face from the house of Jacob; in him I will put my trust. Behold, I and the children whom God has given me. And from the Lord Sabaoth, who dwells on Mount Zion, there will be signs and wonders in Israel. And if they say to you, Seek out the ventriloquists, and those who speak from the earth, who babble, who speak from the belly: should not a nation turn to its God? Why do they seek the dead concerning the living? For he gave a law for help.”

14.2| In the Letter to the Hebrews the apostle sets down the saying “Behold, I and the children whom God has given me,” and elaborates on it with reference to Christ, saying: “Since, then, the children share in blood and flesh, he too likewise partook of the same things, so that by death he might destroy the one who has the power of death.”

14.3| In these words he calls the apostles his children, and teaches that among them the Lord Sabaoth, who dwells on Mount Zion, will work signs and wonders in the house of Israel; and that these same people will be made manifest, with their faces sealed, as is usual among us, with the seal of Christ, and instructed no longer to learn Moses' law, since it no longer stands, and since the one called Jacob has been abandoned by God.

14.4| What is said obscurely among the Seventy, “Then those who seal up the law in order not to learn will be made manifest, and he will say, I will wait for God, who has turned away his face from Jacob's house, and in him I will put my trust,” Symmachus has rendered more clearly, saying: “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my commandments. And I will look for the Lord who hides his face from Jacob's house, and for him I will wait.”

14.5| And Aquila too has rendered it in this way: “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And I will look for God who hides his face from Jacob's house, and for him I will wait.” These, then, are what the apostles of our Savior are taught to do. To them he adds next: “Behold, I and the children whom God has given me. From the Lord Sabaoth, who dwells on Mount Zion, they will be signs and wonders in Israel.”

14.6| And the Lord Sabaoth, the Word of God, having dwelt in the man he had taken up, and having spent his time on Mount Zion and done signs and wonders, commands his disciples together with all who have believed in him from among all the former idolaters to fear no longer in any way the superstitious error; but if the idolaters from the nations should unsettle them or even compel them to seek out the ventriloquists and the oracles of demons, as though wonderful and in no way lacking compared with the prophetic way of life of divine and God-loved men, he teaches that they must answer and say: “Why do they seek out the dead about the living? For it is a law that he has given as a help,” and what follows. For it is superfluous for those who have once received a law and saving commandments, for the help and care of their own life, to busy themselves with oracles worked by demonic deceit. From the same.

15.1| “Jacob is my servant, I will uphold him; Israel is my chosen one, my soul has accepted him. He will bring forth judgment to the nations; he will not cry out, nor let up, nor will his voice be heard outside. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoking flax he will not quench, but he will bring forth judgment to truth. He will shine out and will not be broken, until he sets judgment on the earth, and nations will hope in his name. Thus says the Lord God, who made the heaven and fixed it firm, who made the earth firm and what is in it, and gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it: I, the Lord your God, have called you in righteousness, and I will hold your hand and strengthen you, and I have given you as a covenant of a race, a light of nations, to open the eyes of those who are blind, to bring out of bonds those who are bound, and from the prison-house those who sit in darkness.”

15.2| The evangelist also mentions this passage, at the point where the Pharisees, going out, took counsel against our Savior, to destroy him, because he was healing the sick on the sabbaths. For at that time, he says, “Jesus, knowing of the plot against him, withdrew from there, and many crowds followed him, and he cured them all, and warned them not to make him known.”

15.3| He adds to this, saying, “And all this happened,” that is, his withdrawing, his avoiding those who plotted against him, his taking care to remain unnoticed in the marvels he did, and his charging those he healed not to make him known, “that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled, who said: Behold my servant, in whom I have taken pleasure, my beloved, whom my soul has chosen. I will set my Spirit upon him, and he will announce judgment to the nations. He will not quarrel or cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering flax he will not quench, until he brings judgment to victory, and in his name nations will hope.”

15.4| Observe carefully how Matthew, saying “Behold my servant, whom I chose, my beloved, in whom my soul took pleasure,” mentions neither Jacob nor Israel. For he did not say “Jacob is my servant, Israel is my chosen one,” but put it without specification, saying “Behold my servant and my beloved.”

15.5| Hence, since the names do not stand in the Hebrew text of the prophecy, among the Seventy the name of Jacob and the name of Israel are marked with obeli, and by the other translators they are passed over in silence, since they are not found in the Hebrew.

15.6| Therefore, naturally, they are not given by the evangelist either, who was a Hebrew and set out the prophecy in keeping with the Hebrew Scripture. Accordingly, what is foretold does not fit the people of the circumcision even in sense, but is attested only of the Christ of God, by the clear evidence of the course of events. For he alone proclaimed beforehand the coming judgment to the nations, having come quietly to live among human beings and having set judgment on the earth; and he not only did not break the bruised reed but, if one may say so, bound it up, setting upright and making strong the weak and the broken-hearted.

15.7| And just as he did not overlook the weak and unsound who needed his care, nor crush the repentant by condemning them, so he did not quench those who persisted in evils and smoldered with passions by preventing them from acting according to their own choice; neither did he punish any of them at the wrong time, but postponed the punishment they deserved until the time of the general judgment.

15.8| This is why it is said, “and a smoldering flax he will not quench.” And the final clause, “and in his name nations will hope,” has plainly come to its end: in the name alone of our Savior Jesus Christ the nations of the Christians have hoped, inscribing themselves with his name as the name of the father of the piety they have received.

15.9| For it was foretold that he was given for a light to none other than the nations, and, in keeping with the prediction, through him the eyes of the blind, those of old whose mind was disabled, and not only of these but also of those whose very bodies were deprived of sight, and those who were bound with fetters and chains of sins and had formerly wallowed in darkness and ignorance of true piety, being freed from their sins through him, have been counted worthy of knowledge's light and of freedom with God.

15.10| And you also, at your leisure, testing the text in line with what has been set out, would find that each of the things it indicates has been fulfilled in our Lord and Savior alone. From the same.

16.1| “the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne, and Seraphim standing around him.” Then further on it says: “And I heard the Lord's voice saying, Whom shall I send, and who is to go to this people? Then I said, Behold, here I am; send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people, You will hear with hearing and not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive. This people's heart has grown thick, and they have heard heavily with their ears, and they have shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and with their ears hear, and understand in their heart, and turn, and I heal them.”

16.2| You have the fulfilment of these words too in our Savior, according to John, who says: “Although he had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which [….]: Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the Lord's arm been revealed? For this reason they could not believe; for again Isaiah said, He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and turn, and I heal them.”

16.3| Isaiah said these things when he saw his glory, and spoke about him. And according to Matthew: “When his disciples came and said to him, Why do you speak to them in parables? he answered and said, To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to those it has not been given. For this reason I speak to them in parables, that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not hear, lest they turn and I heal them.

16.4| Then the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled in them, which says: Go, and say to this people, You will hear with hearing and not understand,” and what follows. Notice how John adds, “Isaiah said these things when he saw his glory, and spoke about him,” as if the prophet had seen Christ and Christ's glory in the vision where he said, “I saw the Lord Sabaoth sitting on a high and lofty throne,” and so on.

16.5| Who would not be amazed at the prediction, seeing even now so plainly the unbelief of the people of the circumcision toward Christ? For in the old days, though they saw him living as a man among them and working wonders, they did not behold him with the soul's eyes or the mind's sight, nor was there in them any vision of intelligent reflection to understand who the power was that worked such great and mighty marvels among them.

16.6| Though they were counted worthy to receive with their very ears the words of eternal life, and gave ear to the voice of divine wisdom, they did not hear with the ears of the mind, so that they brought the prophecy to a plain fulfilment.

16.7| And down to this day, seeing so plainly manifest the divine power of Christ, by which he drew away every race of human beings from their ancestral superstition and brought them under the worship of God in him, they in no way fix their mind on it or consider how what was achieved neither by Moses nor by the prophets after Moses even among themselves alone, namely not worshiping idols nor attending to the error of many gods, this the divine power of our Savior has established among all the nations.

16.8| And then, meeting the prophetic testimonies about him, they hear with hearing but do not understand, the present prophecy being fulfilled against them still, in deed, even now. From Zechariah.

17.1| “Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion; proclaim, daughter of Jerusalem: Behold, your king comes to you, righteous and saving, himself gentle, and mounted on a beast of burden and a young colt. And he will destroy the chariots from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of war will be destroyed, and the multitude of peace from the nations, and he will rule from sea as far as sea, and from the rivers right out to the limits of the earth.”

17.2| Zechariah prophesied these things after the return from Babylon, among the last of the prophets, and after the times of prophecy no king is recorded as having arisen among the Jews such as the prophecy represents, except our Savior and Lord Jesus, the Christ of God alone, in whom this prediction too reached its end, when he said to his disciples, in these very words: “Go into the village opposite, and you will find a donkey and a colt tied; untie it and bring it.

17.3| And if anyone says to you, What are you doing? say to him, Their Lord has need of it. And they went and did as he had commanded them.” Such, then, are the prediction and the conclusion.

17.4| And what did his riding on a donkey mean to signify, if not his lowly and inglorious coming, in which he made his first arrival? For there is also a second, glorious one, about which Daniel too, uncovering the vision more plainly, said: “I watched until thrones were set, and the Ancient of Days sat. A thousand thousands ministered to him, and a myriad myriads stood before him. And behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a son of man was coming.”

17.5| And he reached the Ancient of Days, and to him was given the rule and the honor and the kingdom, and every people, tribe and tongue serves him. His authority is an everlasting authority, which will not pass away, and his kingdom will not be destroyed.”

17.6| Of the first coming, the more human and lowly one, this too is, among other things, a great proof and sign: that he is called gentle and quiet, and that it is prophesied that he will come riding on a beast of burden. For this would be a mark of common, human life. The most brilliant features of the second, divine coming are shown by the carrying on the clouds of heaven and the everlasting kingdom over all the nations.

17.7| It would have been good to set both before those of the circumcision and to demand of them an account of how they could save the prophecies while expecting a single coming of Christ. For since they themselves admit that Christ is the subject of each of the prophecies set beside each other, it is time to say, and to answer when we ask, how it is possible that at one and the same time, and in one coming, the same person be carried on the clouds of heaven and ride on a beast of burden and a young colt. For these are very far apart from each other.

17.8| If, then, you gather countless other prophecies of this kind about Christ, set them side by side and make the differing indications collide, you will grasp most clearly that some contain signs of his first coming, and were fulfilled at his first appearing, while others refer to his second, glorious arrival.

17.9| For the divine power of our Savior, at his first coming, destroyed unnoticed the chariots and the horse and every bow of war from the more bodily Jerusalem and from the people called Ephraim; which is why from then until now their kingdom has not stood, nor has the preparation and force of arms that once prevailed in wars.

17.10| And well in these passages did he call the whole people of the Jews Ephraim, and not Israel or Judah, in order not to slander the more venerable titles.

17.11| You would find also in the other prophecies that the whole nation is called Ephraim with much reproach and accusation, as it is now. Indeed, after the return from Babylon, when the people were no longer divided as before, who could be indicated by Ephraim but the very people who inhabited Jerusalem? Their warlike and armed strength, which lasted until Roman times, the coming of our Savior brought down by a divine and secret power, just as the prophecy said.

17.12| The word announces this good news to the church from the nations, urging her not merely to rejoice but to rejoice greatly, on account of the Word of God’s coming to her; and it calls her daughter of the heavenly Zion, or of the former synagogue, because all of us who have believed in the Christ of God from among the nations are offspring and children alike, both of Christ and of his apostles, who came forth as from a mother, the synagogue of the Jews.

17.13| And what follows was fulfilled at the coming of our Savior.

17.14| For there has been peace from the nations since the time of his arrival such as never before; no longer do cities make war on cities, as before, nor do nations clash with nations, nor is human life in disorder as in ancient times, nor do Athenians march against Lacedaemonians, Syrians against Phoenicians, Arabs against Palestinians, and Egyptians against their neighbors.

17.15| Everything has been united since then, with God, and a multitude of peace from the nations has truly existed from then until now, in keeping with the prophecy. But Jesus alone, and the word of the gospel teaching proclaimed through him, has ruled from the eastern sea to the sea that lies toward the setting sun, and from the rivers as far as the limits of the earth, in keeping with what the prophet foretold.

17.16| Aquila also rendered this somewhat as follows, saying: “And he will speak peace among the nations, and his authority reaches from sea as far as sea, and from the rivers to the limits of the earth.” Compare these words with those said in the Psalm entitled “For Solomon,” about the king's son, that is, the one who was to come from the seed of Solomon, about whom the Psalm says: “And he will have dominion from sea as far as sea, and from the rivers to the limits of the inhabited world.”

17.17| The same Psalm also indicates the peace that is shown here, when it says, “In his days righteousness will rise, and a multitude of peace.” And Isaiah agrees with these words where he says, “And they will beat their swords into ploughs and their spears into sickles, and nation will no longer take up sword against nation, and they will no longer learn to make war.”

17.18| You would find Micah too in harmony with these, and several more of the prophets besides. And if, as I said, you attend to the dates, you will be able to see that from the times of Augustus, and of the appearing of our Savior that shone forth in his reign, when the monarchy of the Romans had prevailed, the old divisions and the many separate governments of the nations were dissolved; and from then on, in this way, what concerned the foretold peace began to reach its fulfilment.

17.19| But for now it has only begun; there will be a time when the prophecy is brought to its fullest conclusion, when the fullness of the nations comes in, as the holy apostle declared. From Psalm 117.

18.1| “The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the head of the corner; this came from the Lord, and in our eyes it is wonderful. This is the day which the Lord has made; let us exult and be glad in it. O Lord, save now; O Lord, prosper now. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; God the Lord, and he has appeared to us.”

18.2| When our Savior Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem, at the time when, riding on a donkey in accordance with the prophecy before this one, he was fulfilling the prediction in Zechariah, the crowds, according to the divine evangelist, going before him and following him, acclaimed him, saying, “Hosanna to David's Son! Blessed is he who comes in the Lord's name! Hosanna in the highest places!

18.3| And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken, and they said, Who is this? And the crowds said, This is the prophet Jesus, the one from Nazareth in Galilee.”

18.4| Since, then, the “Hosanna” is taken from the present Psalm, and translated it means “save now,” while the Hebrew has “anna Adonai hosanna”; and since “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” has likewise been drawn from that Psalm, and these words have plainly been applied to the Christ of God, it is reasonable that we have taken the rest of the prediction as referring to him too.

18.5| For he is the blessed one, who is also named “he who comes” by another prophet, the one who said, “Yet a little while, and he who comes will come and will not delay”; and he has come in the name of the Lord, his God and Father. He himself would also be God the Lord who appeared to us. At any rate, he confesses that he came in the name of his Father, telling the Jews, “In my Father's name I have come, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.”

18.6| This very one, then, who appeared to us, God the Lord, the blessed one, who came in the name of the Lord, was himself also the stone which was rejected by those who long ago built up the people of the circumcision through the teaching of Moses; and, rejected by them, he was set as head of another corner, the church from the nations. This corner, since it is not seen by all but only by prophetic eyes, the word declares to be marvellous, saying, “and it is marvellous in our eyes.”

18.7| And again it names his appearing a day “which the Lord has made,” since he himself was also the true light, the sun of righteousness, and also the day of God; on which may it be granted to us too to say, “This is the day that the Lord made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” And now that these matters have been set out in brief in this way, it is time to pass on to the prophecies about his passion.

Cite a passage by its number: every paragraph here has its own anchor (for example https://openscriptorium.com/read/eusebius/098-demonstration-of-the-gospel-book-ix#p1), and the bracketed reference numbers link the same way.

← All of Eusebius of Caesarea: The Works of Eusebius of Caesarea