Prophetic Extracts 3.6–3.23

The whole book has as its subject a bride's love for a bridegroom: she confesses that she is wounded by love for him, and he in turn confesses that she alone, out of many, is his perfect dove, beyond those called queens, concubines, and maidens. Those of the circumcision, persuaded that this book too is one of the twenty-two inspired Scriptures believed among them, could not, I think, point to anything said in it worthy of divine inspiration, since they imagine nothing more in these passages than the obvious sense. But whoever is able to remove the veil that lies on this Scripture too, to turn to the Lord, who is the Spirit, and with unveiled face to behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord in these things also, will see in it the mysteries concerning the spiritual bride, clearly the church of Christ, and what is said about the perfect bridegroom of such a bride, and about the difference between his queens, concubines, and maidens, and all the other more secret teachings hidden in the book. These have already received the fullest clarification in the works in which the most industrious interpreter of the divine Scriptures has written his commentaries.

Job is the one who says about the Lord, among other things: “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 solid ground”; and again, “who will subdue the great sea-monster.” Since it does not belong to a lofty conception of the God of the universe to suppose that he who fills all things walks on a sea that contains his great size, it remains to understand these things of the Word, by whose power Joshua son of Nun, being his type, spoke to the sun and it stood still over Gibeon; and at the time of his passion, too, as at some divine command, the sun was darkened over all the earth. He it is who stretched out the heaven, who also walked on the sea as on solid ground, when, having become man, he performed the wonders recorded in the Gospels. If the words in these passages are to be referred wholly to the Word of God, it would follow to take not only the texts we have set out as referring to him, but everything said by Job in the passage. For he alone subdued the great sea-monster, loosing the pangs of death and bringing to nothing the truly great dragon, the devil, who of old swallowed down the souls of humans by his strength, like the sea-monster that swallowed Jonah, but who later, subdued by the one who wrestled him down, brought forth again those he had swallowed long ago, like the beast that gave Jonah back safe. In this was fulfilled the prophecy that says, “Death, being strong, swallowed them; and again God took away every tear from every face”; which we too say because of our Saviour and Lord, who subdued what is here called the great sea-monster.

The Lord, in his oracle to Job, going through the works of his providence and administration, says: “Did you take clay from the earth and mould a living being, and set it on the earth able to speak? Did you take away the light from the ungodly and break the arms of the proud? Did you come to the spring of the sea, and walk in the tracks of the deep? Do the gates of death open to you in fear, and did the gatekeepers of Hades cower when they saw you?” The Lord says these things to Job about himself, as no one else but he alone can do such great things. For who is the one who took earth and moulded a living being, but God, who took dust from the earth and moulded the human? At the same time we are taught from this that the one who moulded the human is the same who also came down to the lower parts of the earth, into what is called its heart, which I take to be named here the spring of the sea; and further, the one who walked in the tracks of the sea, to whom alone the gates of death were opened with fear, because it was not possible for him to be held by it; whom the gatekeepers of Hades also cowered at when they saw him, seeing the victory and the sting and the pangs of death destroyed through him. Perhaps it was to these gatekeepers of the gates of death mentioned here that certain divine powers said, at the time of the passion and of our Saviour's descent into Hades, “Lift up your gates, you rulers, and be lifted up, you everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall come in.” The gates are called everlasting, as I take it, because from all ages they had been opened to no one else but to him alone, who also rescued and gave life to those swallowed by death long ago. Of him it is said here, “Do the gates of death open to you in fear, and did the gatekeepers of Hades cower when they saw you?”; and in the hundred and sixth psalm, “For he broke gates of bronze,” which are, I think, no other than those of death, “and broke bars of iron,” clearly the bars of the gates mentioned. We have taken these things, then, as referring to Christ, since they fit no one else; for he it is to whom the Father has given all judgment, so that he takes away the light from the ungodly and breaks the arms of the proud. But if anyone thinks that these things are said about the God of the universe, let him consider whether it is reverent to suppose that the one who says, “Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord,” whose throne is heaven and the earth the footstool of his feet, the God who contains all things, says, or should even be thought, to have walked in the tracks of the sea. And what is wonderful, or worthy of the unbegotten nature, in saying, as if it were something great, that the gates of death were opened to him? Would it befit the God of the universe to recount about himself, as something great and marvellous, that the gatekeepers cowered when they saw him? I do (not) think these things are said about him; but they can be fitted reverently and without force to the Word of God, our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ, who became man, endured death, and rose from the dead with divine power and the authority given him by the Father.

Again the Lord, in his oracle to Job, speaking about the dragon, says, “Are you not afraid, because it has been prepared for me?” He says it of the dragon, which is no other than the devil. Consider, then, whether it is fitting to suppose that the God of the universe says this. It would fit rather our Lord and Saviour, for whom alone was prepared the devil, who was conquered by no one else and had prevailed over nearly all; him the Word of God, stronger than all, alone subdued, according to “who will subdue the great sea-monster.” Having subdued him, he bids his disciples take courage, saying, “Take courage; I have conquered the world.” These are the extracts from the books in verse after the Psalms. It remains to gather those from the prophetic Scriptures, and first those from the Twelve.

“For I am like a panther to Ephraim, and like a lion to the house of Judah.” Since in another passage of the same prophet the Lord says about himself, “And I will be like a panther,” it is necessary to see what is related about the animal. Let us set out the following from the first book of Didymus's Natural History: “The panther is an animal not only beautiful in body, starry-faced as it were, but since it is by nature sweet-breathed, it surpasses even the spices of India in fragrance. Until it is hungry it stays in its den, wishing to keep at home; but when it desires to take food, it comes out and simply walks; and the other beasts, captivated by the fragrance of its body, follow it, charmed. It looks sideways with its eyes for the beast suitable for it to take, and leaps on it and has it.” Such are the facts about the nature of the animal; how they might be transferred to the power of the divine Word and the fragrance that breathes out from it would take long to explain now. The text should be set against those of the circumcision who, by way of slander and abuse, say that our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ was born of a panther. Perhaps they received this from some tradition that signified something more mystical, but they do not grasp its meaning, because they do not attend to the wording of the prophecy before us, in which the Lord himself names himself a panther.

“And destruction shall rise up among your people, and all your walled places shall be gone; as the ruler Salaman from the house of Jeroboam in the days of war dashed the mother down upon the children, so will they do to you, house of Israel, because of your wickedness. For Israel is a child, and I loved him, and out of Egypt I called back his children. As I called them back, so they went away from my presence.” In place of “and out of Egypt I called back his children,” Aquila, following the Hebrew, rendered, “Out of Egypt I called back my son.” We have noted the text of necessity, since Matthew sets out the prophecy word for word, saying that it was very exactly fulfilled in our Saviour: Joseph, warned by an oracle, took Mary and her son, and returned from Egypt to the land of Israel. See, then, whether it is not so according to Aquila too, who says, “At dawn the king of Israel was silenced, for Israel is a child and I loved him, and from Egypt I called my son.” For this clearly shows the casting off of the kingdom of Israel, which, having stood until the appearing of our Saviour, was cast off from that point and silenced; so that for this reason it is said, “At dawn the king of Israel was silenced,” the prophecy calling “dawn” the appearing and the first rising, then, of the divine Word upon all humans. “The king of Israel was silenced” can also be foretold of Herod, as because of the deception he suffered from the magi at our Saviour's birth; and this happened because of the Father's love for his own child, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is called Israel here as in other prophecies. At the right time the Father arranged for him to depart into Egypt with Joseph and his mother, when need required that the king who plotted against him, clearly Herod, be silenced; and again, when Herod had died, he called him back, in keeping with the prophecy in hand. But if anyone refers these things to the Jewish people, saying that they are said about the people of Israel of the circumcision, let him attend to the sequence of the passage. For he says these things having first said, as to Jerusalem itself, “And destruction shall rise up among your people, and all your walled places shall be gone”; and: what this ruler suffered in the war that came upon him, in which they dashed the mother down upon the children, the like I will do to you yourselves because of your wickedness, O house of Israel; and they were indeed cast off together with their king, and have suffered all these things; “for Israel,” he says, “is a child, and I loved him, and from Egypt I called my son.” Let whoever wishes show what sequence the wording has on that view. But just as in countless other prophecies Christ is called Jacob and Israel, so too here. Since, he says, this one, having become obedient to me, took the form of a servant and became a child beloved by me, fulfilling all my counsel, for this reason I called him back, as a true and beloved son, from the spiritual Egypt into which he had come down by becoming man; but you, to whom the word is addressed, together with your kingdom, I will hand over to ruin and destruction. So much the prophecy. It is evident how, from the times of our Saviour, when Jerusalem was besieged, the kingdom of the Jews that had stood until then was destroyed and cast off altogether, so that this prophecy too, with the others, has been fulfilled.

“I will not abandon Ephraim to be wiped out; for I am God and not man, holy among you, and I will not enter into a city. I will walk after the Lord.” The same one who says, “For I am God,” adds, “I will walk after the Lord.” And who else could be God walking after the Lord but the Word of God, following the Father's will? He also teaches that because of the incarnation he should not be thought to have become a mere man, like one of the righteous and holy men of old. He says that he will not enter into a city, showing that he did not live the common, human way of life; and he teaches his disciples to do the same, saying, “Do not go away into the way of the nations, and do not enter into a city of the Samaritans.”

“I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you became like a brand plucked out of the fire; and not even so did you turn to me, says the Lord.” Here too the Lord himself says, as about another, “as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah”; and in Genesis too the divine Scripture kept the two persons, saying, “And the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord.” From these the orthodoxy of the church's faith concerning Father and Son is plain.

“Prepare to call upon your God, Israel. For behold, he who makes firm the thunder, and creates wind, and announces to humans his anointed, who makes dawn and mist, and treads on the high places of the earth: the Lord God Almighty is his name.” Through these words too the sojourn of Christ among humans is clearly prophesied; at leisure each phrase might receive a more exact clarification.

“The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord God to Idumea: I have heard a report from the Lord, and he has sent out a message to the nations.” Since here too the Lord God heard a report from the Lord, we have fittingly noted the passage.

We have not found in the book before us a particular prophecy specifically about Christ. But since, to the generation that asked the Saviour for a sign, he said that no other sign would be given to it than the sign of Jonah the prophet, adding, “For as Jonah was in the belly of the sea-monster three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights,” for this reason we have of necessity noted this Scripture too among the testimonies about Christ.

“For behold, the Lord, the Lord, comes forth from his place, and will come down and tread on the heights of the earth; and the mountains shall be shaken beneath him, and the valleys shall melt like wax before fire.” We have taken this to be said about the second coming of Christ.

“Hear now these things, you leaders of the house of Jacob and the remnant of the house of Israel, who abhor judgment and pervert all that is right, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with injustice. Her leaders judged for bribes, and her priests answered for hire, 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 shall be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be like a garden-watchman's hut, and the mountain of the house a thicket of the forest. And it shall be at the last of the days that the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, made ready on the tops of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall come to it, and many nations shall go to it and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and they will show us his way, and we will walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and he shall judge between many peoples and rebuke a strong people far away; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into sickles; and nation shall no longer lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more.” Having said that, because of the impieties of the Jewish people, Mount Zion would be ploughed as a field and Jerusalem, formerly thought the holy city, would be like a garden-watchman's hut, the word next prophesies about another mountain of the Lord, which existed at the time of the prophecy but was not manifest to ordinary people, since it would appear at the last of the days and be lifted up above the hills and the mountains. To this new mountain, the word foretells, will come no longer that Israel, but peoples and many nations, saying, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord”; and not only to the mountain of the Lord, but to the house of the God of Jacob, clearly another than the one in Jerusalem, for he had said a little before that Jerusalem, made desolate, would be like a garden-watchman's hut. In keeping with the desolation of Mount Zion and Jerusalem, and with other things appearing in their place, it is said that a law other than the one given by Moses from Mount Horeb will go forth from the new mountain, which is also called Zion by the same name as the former; and further, that the word of the Lord, with the new law, will go forth from the new Jerusalem, which he called above the house of the God of Jacob. The word, going forth to all the nations, is foretold to judge between many peoples and to rebuke a strong people, and to benefit so greatly through its own judgment and rebuke those who would be rebuked, that, changing from their former savage and warlike condition, [they would take up] the quiet and peaceful … So much the prophecy. One may consider whether … the coming of our Saviour, because of those who built … with the blood both of the prophets and of Christ himself and of his apostles, whom the people of the Jews killed in Jerusalem itself … because of those who … the rest of what is in the prophecy … Mount Zion as never at any other time … Jerusalem was besieged; after whose desolation the … and the heavenly Mount Zion of God, of which those things were a shadow and types and patterns, has been made manifest to all who have come to the … God through Christ.

“And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephrathah, are the least to be among the (thousands) of Judah; out of you shall come forth for me a leader to be (ruler) in Israel; and his goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of the ages.” … Through these words proofs are shown concerning Christ: one against the error of Marcion and the other heretics …, the other against that of Artemon and the Samosatene … and of the Ebionites, all who have supposed that he did not pre-exist the incarnation. For the prophetic word clearly refutes those who do not confess him … God, …, since his goings forth are from the beginning and from the days of the ages …; while to those led astray according to Marcion and the other heresies, who do not confess his … birth, nor that he was known by those of the Creator …, one should set out the prophesied place of his birth …, clearly confessed to this day even by the local people …, as from the tradition of the place in Bethlehem where … he was born, and as attested by the holy evangelists themselves …. And the text should be brought against the Jews …, to show who the one prophesied might be …, since on their view [the prophecy] is unfulfilled, and clearly the divine prediction is proved false. But the saving and evangelical word of Christ has been established as ruler of the spiritual Israel, properly of the one who is a Jew inwardly, and of every virtuous and discerning soul, understood as Israel ….

“Therefore wait for me, says the Lord, for the day of my resurrection, for a testimony; for my judgment is for gatherings of nations, to receive kings.” Through these words too I think the resurrection of Christ from the dead is shown, after which it is prophesied that the gatherings of the church from the nations everywhere would be formed. Perhaps also … of his second coming, and of the general … of all, the passage might be taken.

“… Almighty: After glory he has sent me to the nations that plundered you”; then a little after he adds, “(You will know) that the Lord Almighty has sent me.” The one who says … me is the Lord Almighty; likewise the one who sends, … being other than the one sent, is named Lord Almighty …. Fittingly, then, we have [noted] the text among those concerning Father and Son …, since the Word of God is also Lord Almighty …, just as he was also called God through the prophets.

“… and rejoice, daughter of Zion, for behold, I am coming, and … I will dwell in your midst, says the Lord. And many [nations] shall flee to the Lord in that day, and shall be for him a people, and shall dwell in your midst, and you shall know that … Almighty has sent me to you.” And who … is the one who says this and confesses that he has been sent by the Almighty, but the Word of God, sent by the Father for the salvation of the human race? He … the heavenly Zion, of which the mountain on earth was a pattern …, and addresses the church from the nations, … to her the calling of those to be saved through him … to be ruled by him as king in her.

“And … Jesus the great priest, standing before the face … of the Lord, and the devil was standing at his right hand to oppose him.” And a little after: “And he said to those standing before his face, saying, ‘Take the filthy garments off him’; and he said, ‘Behold, I have taken away your iniquities; and clothe … with a long robe, and put a clean turban on his head.’” And again, a little after, it is said to him: “Hear now, … great priest, you and your companions who sit before you, for they are men who are portent-watchers; for behold, I am bringing my servant the Dayspring.” And again, after other things: “And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Take the things from the captivity from the rulers.’” And a little after: “And you shall take silver and make crowns, and set them on the head of Jesus son of Josedek, the great priest, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord Almighty: Behold, a man, whose name is Dayspring; and he shall spring up from beneath him and build the house of the Lord; and he shall receive excellence, and sit, and rule on his throne; and the priest shall be at his right hand, and a counsel of peace shall be between them both.’ And the crown shall be for those who endure.” Since the wonderful apostle (named) our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, the one in the prophecy, honoured with the same name and the same dignity, might fittingly be referred to him …. The Lord showed him to the prophet … clothed in filthy …, hinting at our Saviour's descent into our captivity, in which … to proclaim release to captives; for, having taken our sins upon himself, he wore the filthy garments he had from us. These the Father bids him put off and take up the divine garments of divinity, befitting the heavenly high priesthood. Since these things, according to the history too, presumably happened in a typical way concerning the Jesus of that time, the word, starting afresh, says to the man Jesus himself and to the portent-watchers with him (by whom I think are named those counted worthy of spiritual …), “Behold, I am bringing my … Dayspring.” And having placed the crowns on the head of Jesus himself, it adds, saying: “Thus says the Lord Almighty: Behold a man, Dayspring is his name; and from beneath … he shall spring up and build the house of the Lord,” and the … these too might be referred to Christ, given their proper explanation. But also against those of the circumcision … should be set out, since they could not point to any prophet at all raised up from the … of the Persian kingdom and the times of the prophecy …, let alone John and our Lord Jesus Christ. It is time, then, for them to say who the one prophesied is. And if they say that these things refer to Jesus son of Josedek, it must be shown to them that what is said in no way fits him. For when was his name called Dayspring? And why is he deemed worthy of this title? And how will “and he shall sit and rule on his throne” fit him, and especially “and the priest shall be at his right hand”? For if he was himself the great priest, who would be at his right hand, a priest other than he? And it clearly teaches that the one called Dayspring is other than he; for to this very [Jesus] and those around him the word says, “Hear now, Jesus the great priest, you and your companions; behold, I am bringing my servant the Dayspring.” If, then, this is said to him, how could there still be room to think that “Behold a man, Dayspring is his name” is said about him? Clearly, then, two persons are shown here: one to whom the divine Spirit speaks, and another about whom it prophesies; and the latter might beyond dispute be referred to Christ, the true son of …, [Josedek, which] is interpreted “Iao's righteousness”; and this would be the Father, … who places the crowns of victory on his Christ … calls …, because of the teaching that rose upon humans …, and the first and great high priest …, his firstborn Word, being God and Lord of the …, but priest of the first and unbegotten divinity; … and it says that he is … of the human he took up, the man being called great priest because of his union with the only-begotten of God. Since the matters in the passage need much explanation, these remarks are enough for the present undertaking.