Chapter 23. The Prophets Made the Work of the Apostles Lighter.
Chapter 23
1. On this account the Lord said to the disciples: Well, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest. He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps!” I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor, others have labored and you have entered into their labor. Who then, are they who have labored and have ministered to God’s economies? It is evident that it was the Patriarchs and the Prophets, who also prefigured our faith and spread throughout the world the coming of God’s Son, who and what he would be, in order that the men who would come later and have the fear of the Lord would readily accept the coming of Christ, having been instructed by the Scriptures. This is why, when Joseph realized that Mary was pregnant and thought of dismissing her secretly, the angel said to him in a dream: Do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. He [the angel] continues by way of convincing him: Now all this took place to fulfill what the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying, Behold the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel. Thus he convinced him through the Prophet’s words and excused Mary, showing that she is the same one who was announced beforehand by Isaiah as the Virgin who would bear Emmanuel. Wherefore, when Joseph was convinced beyond doubt, he both took Mary and joyfully offered service in all the rest of the rearing of Christ: the undertaking of the journey even to Egypt, the returning from there, and the migration to Nazareth. Finally, those who were ignorant of the Scriptures, of God’s promise and of the economy of Christ, called him the father of the Child. On this account the Lord himself read the prophecies of Isaiah at Capernaum: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good tidings to the poor; he has sent me, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, and sight to the blind. He showed that he himself was announced beforehand by the Prophet Isaiah. He said, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
2. On this account, too, when Philip had found the eunuch of the Queen of the Ethiopians reading the following from Scripture: As a sheep led to slaughter or as a lamb before its shearer is dumb, so he opens not his mouth, in his humiliation justice was denied him. The Prophet reviewed for him all the rest about his passion and his coming in the flesh and how he was dishonored by unbelievers. Thus he easily persuaded him to believe in him, that he is Christ Jesus who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and suffered all that the Prophet had predicted, and that he is God’s Son who gives eternal life to men. And as soon as he had baptized him, he departed. For there was nothing wanting to him who had been catechized in advance by the Prophets. He was not ignorant of God the Father, nor of the economy of his dealing with men, but only of the coming of God’s Son. When he knew him in a brief space of time, he continued his journey joyfully, to become in Ethiopia the herald of Christ’s coming. Wherefore, Philip did not expend much effort on him, because he was prepared in the fear of God by the Prophets in advance. Moreover, on this account, the apostles, too, when gathering together the sheep of the house of Israel that had been lost, addressing them from the Scriptures, showed them that this Jesus crucified is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and they persuaded a large multitude who had the fear of God. And on one day there were baptized three and four and five thousand.