Translator's Acknowledgmens
T r a n s l a t o r ' s A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s As with so many academic projects, this translation had a far longer history than I imagined it would when I first began. One morning, while walking from one campus building to another at Fordham University in New York City, my PhD adviser, Joseph T. Lienhard, S.J., mentioned to me that Eusebius of Caesarea's Commentary on Isaiah had not yet been translated into any modern language, although it represented the earliest Christian commentary on Isaiah to have survived antiquity and one of Eusebius's major exegetical works. As I remember that lovely spring morning now, I suspect that Father Lienhard was purposefully selling me on the project—especially as he frequently used to say that every young patristic scholar owes at least one new translation to the discipline. I had written my doctoral dissertation on Eusebius of Caesarea's role in the formation of the New Testament canon, and I was therefore intrigued that such a valuable ancient text from such a major church father had not yet appeared in translation.
During my first postdoctoral position at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in 2006–2007—a position for which I received a generous grant from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst—I researched under Professor Hanns
Christof Brennecke as he and his team produced critical editions of the Greek texts of Athanasius. This was my first introduction to text-critical work, and the experience gave me the necessary courage to attempt a translation of Eusebius's commentary. Nevertheless, I knew that I would find the translation project extraordinarily challenging. Father
Lienhard and Professor Brennecke had independently warned me about the impenetrability of Eusebius's Greek idiom. And then, there was the ominous rumor that not many years prior a French scholar had died trying to translate Eusebius's commentary for the Sources Chrétiennes series. It was in 2007–2008, during my second postdoctoral position at Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford, that I began translating the commentary in earnest under the mentorship of the Rev. Dr. Peter W. L. Walker. Soon after arriving at Oxford, however, I was presented with the opportunity to lecture in New Testament and tutor in ancient Christian studies, an opportunity which I eagerly accepted as a brilliant step forward for my teaching career but which also significantly slowed progress on the translation. When I returned to the United States in 2009, now newly married and seeking employment amid the shattered economic conditions following the financial crisis, I felt I had no choice but to abandon the project. Had it not been for the persistent encour-
Commentary on Isaiah agement of my parents, Alan and Kathryn Armstrong, and my parents-in-law, Christoph and Sarah Jäschke, I would never have resumed translation.
After I joined the theological faculty of Moody Bible Institute – Spokane in 2010, the project took on new life. My deepest thanks go to Ms. Wendy Liddell and Dr. Jack Lewis, who have done so much as academic administrators to make MBI a remarkably welcoming scholarly community. Without their vision and support, the project would no doubt yet be years from completion. Dr. John McMath, my colleague at MBI and a formidable Isaiah scholar in his own right, spurred me on with his passionate interest and insightful queries.
My thanks also go to my indefatigable research assistant, Collin Duff, and my gracious editor, Joel Elowsky, whose expertise improved the translation on innumerable points. I am indebted more than I can say or know to my wife, Gerlinde Armstrong, who has been a constant source of strength and confidence as I have pursued this project to completion.
Shortly after his conversion, Augustine wrote to Ambrose, the famous bishop of Milan, and asked him to recommend books that he should read in preparation for ordained ministry. Ambrose wrote back and advised Augustine to read Isaiah, citing as his reason the prophet's clear presentation of the gospel and call of the Gentiles. Augustine tells his reader in Confessions 9.5 that, although he endeavored to follow Ambrose's reading plan, he managed to work through only the first part of the prophecy before moving on to more perspicacious reading, never again to return to the study of Isaiah. "Fools rush in where angels and great saints fear to tread," I thought to myself many times as I struggled to untangle Eusebius's perverse grammar and strained to distill the intended meaning of his neologisms. I am acutely aware that future research will reveal many shortcomings in my translation. However, my hope is that this translation will contribute to our understanding of the early Christian interpretation of Isaiah, our understanding of the universality of God's call of salvation and ultimately our understanding of the gospel. xx