Prophetic Extracts 4.27–4.33

“And the Lord will reveal his holy arm before all the nations, and all the nations, the ends of the earth, shall see the salvation that is from God. Depart, depart, go out from there, and touch nothing unclean; go out from the midst of her and be separated, you who carry the vessels of the Lord; for you shall not go out with confusion, nor go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel who gathers you. Behold, my servant shall understand, and shall be exalted and lifted up greatly. As many will be astonished at you, so shall your appearance be without glory from men, and your glory from men; so shall many nations marvel at him, and kings shall shut their mouths; for those to whom it was not announced about him shall see, and those who have not heard shall understand. Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? We announced as a child before him, as a root in thirsty ground; he has no form nor glory; and we saw him, and he had no form nor beauty; but his form was without honour, failing beyond the sons of men; a man in affliction, and knowing how to bear sickness; for his face is turned away; he was dishonoured and not esteemed. He bears our sins and suffers pain for us; and we reckoned him to be in toil and in affliction and in calamity. But he was wounded because of our sins, and made sick because of our lawless deeds; the discipline of our peace was upon him; by his bruise we were healed. All we like sheep went astray; man went astray in his way; and the Lord gave him up for our sins. And he, because he was afflicted, does not open his mouth; like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is dumb, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away; who will declare his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth; because of the lawless deeds of my people he was led to death. And I will give the wicked in return for his burial and the rich in return for his death; for he committed no lawlessness, nor was deceit found in his mouth. And the Lord wills to cleanse him from his affliction; if you give an offering for sin, your soul shall see a long-lived offspring; and the Lord wills by his hand to take away from the toil of his soul, to show him light, and to form him with understanding, to justify a righteous one who serves many well; and he himself will bear their sins. Therefore he will inherit many, and he will divide the spoils of the strong; because his soul was handed over to death, and he was reckoned among the lawless; and he bore the sins of many, and because of their lawless deeds he was handed over. Rejoice, barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry out and delight, you who are not in labour; for many are the children of the desolate one, more than of her who has a husband.”

And when else, as at the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ, did the Father and God of the universe reveal before the nations his great arm, which is none other than his Word? Seeing the salvation granted them by God, the nations are commanded to depart from their former error and no longer to touch the unclean things in which they formerly wallowed, entangled in shameful and defiled practices. And since it is no small thing to separate oneself from the former way of life handed down from the fathers and from the common converse of humans, for this reason the Lord himself promises to go with and gather those who carry his vessels, clearly the sacred doctrines and the divine words. Again, besides this, as in the prophecies above Christ was named in various ways the servant of God, so too here; and he is prophesied to understand and be exalted and greatly glorified, his human nature being understood as that about which these things are said. Truly many were astonished and at a loss over him, supposing him a man like themselves; and they were astonished to see him clothed in no worldly pre-eminence or glory, when, having put aside the form of God, emptied himself, and taken the form of a servant, he performed marvels worthy of inquiry and amazement, so that those who saw them were amazed and said, “Is not this the son of Joseph? Are not his mother and his brothers with us?” And until now very many are astonished and at a loss over him, seeing his teaching having run, and still running, over the whole inhabited world, and observing the unwavering and unchangeable disposition of those who have believed in him. Marvelling at these things, they do not understand the divine power by which he has worked, and is still now able to work, such great things. Kings truly shut and closed their mouths at him: whether those who gathered at his passion (about whom it was said, “The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers gathered together”), or the rulers of the nations from time to time; and they shut their mouths because, although they often tried to hinder his word and teaching, he nonetheless prevailed and shone forth, glorified and raised on high, so as to make himself manifest not only to those who had received the prophecies about him from their fathers, but, most marvellous of all, to those to whom nothing had ever been announced about him, that is, to us the nations; who, having heard nothing at all from our forefathers nor learned beforehand about his coming, understood him when he came and accepted the prophecies about him. Foreseeing this in the Spirit, the prophet cries out in wonder, saying, “Lord, who has believed our report?” This is not the same as “No one has believed our report”; for clearly great multitudes of those from the nations, and some even of those from the circumcision, have believed the report about Christ. “And the arm of the Lord,” it says, that is, the pre-existent Word of God, “to whom has it been revealed?” The word itself teaches at the beginning of the prophecy, saying, “And the Lord will reveal his holy arm before all the nations.” Next to these it is said, “We announced before him as a child, as a root in thirsty ground; he has no form nor glory; and we saw him, and he had no form nor beauty,” and what follows. These too were fulfilled when, having emptied himself of the form of God, he did not choose a form handsome and comely among humans, nor did he pass through human life with glory among humans or the garb of any worldly pre-eminence; but taking the form of a slave and servant he humbled himself and became truly man, “a man in affliction and knowing how to bear sickness”; and the glorious and divine face of his divinity was turned away and hidden. For this reason he was also dishonoured among those who perceived only his human nature, among whom he was esteemed not only not as Son of God, but not even as an ordinary righteous man. Those who perceived these things by the Spirit say, as if relating and teaching the reason for such a dispensation, “He bears our sins and suffers pain for us”; for as prophets they saw in what way he would become the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. To this is added, “And we reckoned him to be in toil and in calamity and in affliction; but he was wounded because of our lawless deeds.” For he was wounded in power when they took up stones to throw at him; and he was made sick, it says, because of our sins; for more than Paul, Christ, being weak with the weak, would have said, “Who is weak, and I am not weak?” The prophet confesses that the one of whom the word speaks will suffer all these things because of himself and the whole people; “for he was wounded,” he says, “because of our lawless deeds, and made sick because of our sins”; and counting himself in, he adds, “By his bruise we were healed.” And seeing clearly the error that would arise concerning him in the whole people of the circumcision, and that there is no human who will not sin, even if he seems the most righteous of all, he adds, “All we like sheep went astray; man went astray in his way; and the Lord gave him up for our sins,” and what follows; which are shown beyond dispute to have reached their fulfilment in our Saviour Jesus alone.

Hence one may marvel at the hardening of those of the former people who do not accept him on the pretext of what they did against him, at which they are accustomed to mock and ridicule, as though he suffered things unworthy of God's care for him; when, besides what has been said, the prophet cries out clearly about him that he was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer was dumb, so he does not open his mouth; and that his life is taken away from the earth. Who would not marvel at what is added to all that was listed before, hearing the prophet say, “Because of the lawless deeds of my people he was led to death”? Or what quibble could they find against this, who truly heard the voice of Christ with hearing and did not understand, and looked on his coming with their very eyes and did not see? For what other of the righteous could they show led to death because of their sins? Or who has become such as to bear the sins of the whole people and of the prophets themselves, and suffer pain for them, so that all of them confess they are healed by his bruise, saying, “He bears our sins and suffers pain for us, and by his bruise we were healed”? Who, having a human nature, could become such that nothing was sinned by him in word or deed, so that the divine Scripture speaks truly about him that he committed no lawlessness, nor was deceit in his mouth? For what reason does the word foretell that one so attested would be led like a sheep to the slaughter and be condemned to death because of the lawless deeds of the people? Let them say, too, whether the Christ they expect to come will by all means suffer these things which the prophecies declare about him, or whether nothing of the kind will happen to him. But if they stumble at faith in our Saviour because of what happened to him, they would not (say) such things about the one they expect. It is time, then, on their view, to declare the divine words unfulfilled and clearly false; but not on ours, to whom nothing about him was announced by our fathers nor handed down, yet who saw him and received him, according to what is said elsewhere: “A people whom I did not know served me; at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me.” Throughout the whole prophecy the things concerning him are set out more broadly and more brightly; and the ruin that overtook those who plotted against him is shown through “And I will give the wicked in return for his burial and the rich in return for his death; for he committed no lawlessness, nor was deceit in his mouth”; for, it says, they killed him though he was such, and for this reason they will suffer such things. After this the church from the nations is again given good news, compared with and preferred to the former people, through “Rejoice, barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry out, you who are not in labour; for many are the children of the desolate one, more than of her who has a husband.” Since the matters in the passage need much search and examination, whoever cares for the Saviour's command that says, “Search the Scriptures, in which you think you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,” will learn what is in them by searching more carefully.

“Hear me, and you shall eat good things, and your soul shall delight in good things. Give heed with your ears, and follow my ways; listen to me, and your soul shall live in good things; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, the sure holy things of David. Behold, I have given him as a testimony among nations, a ruler and commander among nations. Behold, nations that do not know you shall call upon you, and peoples who do not understand you shall flee to you for refuge, for the sake of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.” The word that receives what is said here understands spiritual foods and a divine and heavenly delight, and further, not the indifferent life of the flesh but the eternal life of the soul. It also promises to make with them an everlasting covenant, which it says will contain the sure holy things of David. What, then, would this be, prophesied to be given to those to whom the word is addressed, a new and everlasting covenant after the temporary one through Moses? The new Scripture of the sacred Gospels, containing the holy things of David because of Jesus, the Christ of God, born of his offspring. Him, God says, he has given as a testimony, not to Israel, but to the nations, to rule them and command them, and not the former people of the circumcision. These nations, formerly not knowing him at all, when they came to know that he is the Son of God, called upon him as Saviour and God; and we too, who had never known him, fled to him for refuge, escaping from our former error and from slavery under the opposing powers. These things, says the prophecy, will happen for the sake of the Lord his God, because he glorified him; and it is clear how the Father glorified him, according to the voice brought to him from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” See whether the words here, “Nations that do not know you shall call upon you, and peoples who did not know you shall flee to you,” are not akin to those in the chapter before this, where it was said, “For those to whom it was not announced about him shall see, and those who have not heard shall understand.” Like these are the words in the seventeenth psalm in the person of Christ: “A people whom I did not know served me; at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me.” We, then, believing the prophecies to be true, are persuaded that they were fulfilled at the coming of our Saviour, perceiving how we ourselves, being nations long astray, driven by harsh demons into every idolatry, neither knowing the only true God nor heeding the prophetic voice, have come through the teaching of our Saviour Jesus to the knowledge of the God of the universe; we have believed the inspired Scriptures and have received the prophesied Word of God, though we did not know him at all before. Having received so many benefits through the teaching of our Saviour, how should we not rightly receive him and honour him as divine, since he is the Son of God and our own Saviour?

“See how the righteous one is taken away, and no one takes it to heart; and righteous men are taken away, and no one considers it; for the righteous one has been taken away from the face of injustice; his burial shall be in peace; he has been taken from the midst. But you, draw near here, lawless sons, offspring of adulterers and of a harlot. In whom have you delighted? And against whom have you opened your mouth? And against whom have you let loose your tongue? Are you not children of destruction, a lawless offspring?” The Christ of God alone has truly been shown to be such, beyond all who have ever been called righteous; so he alone would properly be called the righteous one, so that the prophecy says about him, “See how the righteous one is taken away.” From what he is taken away it adds in “for the righteous one has been taken away from the face of injustice.” And who it is who takes him away we may hear from him when he says, “No one takes my life from me; I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again.” Then it says, “His burial shall be in peace.” Here it should be noted that the prophetic Scripture signifies not only his death but also his burial; which is why the holy apostle too, writing to the Corinthians, says, “For I delivered to you first of all what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried.” What Scriptures, but those that say, “Because of the lawless deeds of my people he was led to death,” and “His burial shall be in peace”? Not only the righteous one mentioned has been taken from the midst of injustice, but also righteous men, it says, are taken away; these would be the holy apostles of Christ and his wonderful martyrs, who are themselves called righteous by sharing in his righteousness. While these things were being accomplished, it says, no one saw and no one considered: clearly those whose heart had grown fat and who had shut their eyes so as not to see; to whom the rest of the prophecy is spoken, from “But you, draw near here, lawless sons, offspring of adulterers and of a harlot.”

“And those from the west shall fear the name of the Lord, and those from the risings of the sun the glorious name; for wrath shall come from the Lord like a violent river; it shall come with fury. And the deliverer shall come for the sake of Zion, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob, said the Lord. And this is my covenant with them: my Spirit, which is upon you, and the words that I have put in your mouth shall not fail from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, said the Lord, from now and for ever.” Again, through these words too, the word prophesies the calling of the church formed from the nations through our Saviour. For who else would those from the west be, or through whom did the nations of every kind fear the name of the Lord, but those who through the teaching of Jesus left their former error of the darkness of ignorance and took refuge with the God of the universe? And who is the one prophesied to come from Zion, to deliver and turn Jacob away from his former ungodliness, but the one who came to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel, who were in ungodliness? To them, it says, the Spirit of God that is in Christ will give as a covenant the words of eternal life, which the Father has put in the Son's mouth; and these, it says, shall not fail either from him or from the mouth of his offspring, from now and for all time. These would be the words of the Gospel of the new covenant, which, though so many have plotted against them of old and still now plot against them, have not failed, nor will they fail, from the mouth of the church formed from the rational and spiritual offspring of Christ; for the Lord said and declared that he will not blot them out from now and for ever. Hence, according to John, the Gospel of Christ is seen to be an eternal gospel.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; ※ the Lord has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to call the acceptable year of the Lord and a day of recompense ※ for our God; to comfort all who mourn, that to those who mourn for Zion may be given glory instead of ashes, the oil of gladness to those who mourn, a garment of glory instead of a spirit of weariness; and they shall be called generations of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for glory.” Jesus, the Christ of God, who came forth from the root of Jesse, on whom the seven spirits of God rested, having loved righteousness and hated lawlessness, was anointed by God his Father with what is called the spiritual oil of gladness. He once took Isaiah in his hands, at the time when he had become man, read the passage set out, closed the book, and said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled”; for he was truly the one sent by the Father to bring the good news of the kingdom of heaven to the poor in spirit, to whom he said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”; and to heal the broken-hearted, of whom it is said, “A broken and humbled heart God will not despise.” Besides this, he came to proclaim release of sins to those who had long ago become captives of the spiritual Nebuchadnezzar; which is why he said with confidence to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” He also came to give recovery of sight to those injured in the eyes of the understanding and blinded by the spiritual foreigners and Babylonians, like Samson and Zedekiah; among those healed by him in part were also the bodily blind, whom he made to see when they believed in him and cried out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” He is the one who called the acceptable year of the Lord, which he proclaimed after John was shut up in prison, and who taught about the kingdom of God and about our judgment, in which to each will be rendered the just recompense for what he has done. Besides this, he came to comfort those who mourn the praiseworthy mourning that is according to God, to whom he also promised blessedness, saying, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” And he came, besides this, so that to those who mourn for Zion glory might be given. Who would they be but those who seek their own homeland and continually rekindle the memory of the heavenly city? Such was he who, knowing himself to be a sojourner and stranger on the earth, lamented, “Woe is me, for my sojourning has been prolonged”; and further those who wept by the rivers of Babylon when they remembered Zion. For to these the Christ of God, fulfilling the comfort he promised to those who mourn, will give glory when they are freed from mourning; and instead of the ashes with which they were covered while mourning in this life, he will give the oil of gladness, anointing them too with the oil of rejoicing, that they may become sharers in his anointing and kingdom, so that they too may say, “For we have become sharers of the Christ.” Further, Christ is prophesied to give to those who mourn for Zion # a garment of glory instead of the spirit of weariness, # (if) they have grown weary of the affairs of life, as if displeased with the deeds of humans, and mourning especially in this way: not only because they see God's promises from afar, but also because, out of compassion and love for humankind, they suffer with and share the pain of their weak members, all but crying out with the apostle's disposition, “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?”

“Let my soul rejoice in the Lord; for he has clothed me with a garment of salvation and a tunic of gladness; he has put a turban on me as on a bridegroom, and adorned me with ornaments as a bride. And as the earth makes its flower grow, and as a garden makes its seeds spring up, so shall the Lord, the Lord, make righteousness and rejoicing spring up before all the nations.” The soul of our Lord Jesus Christ, of which he said, “My soul is very sorrowful,” and “Now my soul is troubled,” rejoices and is glad in none of the things that have come into being, but in the Father and Lord alone. For he clothed him with the garment of divinity and the tunic of true and perfect gladness. And (he) was the bridegroom of the bride, the church, which has no spot or wrinkle, so he put a turban on (him) as on a bridegroom; and [the soul] was the bride of the divinity that is above all reproach, which adorned it as a bride with the adornment befitting the Spirit (of the) Lord. And he cultivated it as a fruitful and good land, and further as a garden growing and flourishing with the shoots in it, with which the great paradise of God is said to have been planted. These things will happen, it says, since the Lord, being righteous, and being God not only of the Jews but also of the nations, has made his own righteousness, that is, his Christ, spring up before all the nations who believe through him.

“Raise a signal for the nations. For behold, the Lord has made it heard to the end of the earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your saviour has come to you, having his reward with him and his work before his face; and he shall call it a holy people, redeemed by the Lord; and you shall be called a city sought after, and not forsaken.’ Who is this who comes from Edom, with the redness of his garments from Bosor, so beautiful in his robe, with might and strength? ‘I speak righteousness and the judgment of salvation.’ Why are your garments red, and your clothes as from a trodden winepress? ‘Full of trodden grapes; and of the nations there is no man with me; and I trampled them in my wrath.’” Again here the prophecy bids raise a signal concerning the church from the nations, promising that the Lord will make something heard to the end of the earth; which reached its fulfilment at the coming of our Saviour Jesus, when the sound of his apostles went out into all the earth and their sayings to the ends of the inhabited world. Next it is said, “Say to the daughters of Zion” (clearly the churches from the nations; for these would be daughters of the heavenly Zion, which is our mother, according to the apostle), “Behold, your saviour comes, having his reward,” and what follows; through which the second coming of Christ is shown, when he will come as judge, to render to each the rewards for his labours in the present and the recompense for whatever evil each has done now. Next, as if asking, the word says, “Who is this who comes from Edom” (which is interpreted “earthy”), “with the redness of his garments from Bosor, so beautiful in his robe?” It seems to say this in wonder that, even after the incarnation, the self-emptying, and the sojourn on earth, and after the passion and the descent among the dead, the beauty of the Saviour remained lovely and bright, confused in nothing, having received no filth, stain, or blemish from the material and bodily condition of earthly and human affairs; and further in amazement at his strength, since he fought down the whole army of the devil. It adds, “so beautiful in his robe, with might and strength?” To this question the Saviour answers, teaching who he is, and says, “I speak righteousness and the judgment of salvation.” Again the word says to him, as about the passion, “Why are your garments red,” and what follows. For as the Lamb of God, having taken upon himself the sins of the world, he put on garments red from our sins; so that for this reason it is said in the prophet Zechariah too, “And Jesus was clothed in filthy garments.” These were the clothes from our sins; on account of which it was said a little before, “He bears our sins and suffers pain for us”; for he himself committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. Again the Saviour, answering the question, teaches from where his garments became red, saying, “from the nations”: these nations he alone subjected, with no human working with him, having trampled the whole opposing power of the evil spirits who were his enemies.