[The Third Book]

[The Third Book]

[THE THIRD BOOK]

1. The length of the books that we are composing as a commentary on the prophet Isaiah is sufficient for me. For to leave something out would result in a loss in understanding. This is why

I have recorded brief little prefaces for the individual books that indicate merely the book number and sequence. And I beg you, Eustochium, Christ's virgin, that you help me by your prayers in the exposition of the very difficult vision in which God almighty is seen in his majesty

[cf. Isa 6:1–2], and there are two seraphim standing around him and shouting, "Holy, holy, holy,

Lord Sabaoth, all the earth is full of his glory" [Isa 6:3]; and the lintel of the temple was shaken and struck [cf. Isa 6:4]; and the house of the Jews was filled with the darkness of error; and in comparison with the divine glory, the prophet says that he has unclean lips and dwells in the midst of a blaspheming people [cf. Isa 6:5], who shouted in their impious unison, "Crucify him, crucify him" [John 19:6]; and, "We have no king but Caesar" [John 19:15]. One of the seraphim, which was sent to Isaiah, took hold of a coal from the altar with tongs and purged the lips of the prophet [cf. Isa 6:6–7], and the people remained unclean. Therefore, the third book on Isaiah will have this beginning.

2. (6:1a–b) In the year that Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up.

In the heading of the first vision it was shown that Isaiah prophesied about Judah and Jerusalem under four kings, namely Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah [cf. Isa 1:1].11 So then, when Uzziah died, under whom everything was spoken that we have explained above, his son

Jotham succeeded him. He reigned for sixteen years, did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and built the upper gate of the temple [cf. 2 Kgs 15:32–35]. When he was in command, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, so that he displayed the character of one who was reigning.

3. (6:1c) And the things that were under him filled the temple, or as Theodotion and Symmachus translated it, "And the things that were under his feet filled the temple." The Septuagint translated this as, "And the house was full of his glory."

About thirty years ago while I was in Constantinople and was being educated in the study of the Holy Scriptures by the very eloquent man Gregory Nazianzus—at the time he was the bishop of that city—I know that I dictated a brief and hastily composed treatise on this vision, in order to make an experiment of my meager talent and obey my friends who commanded me. 22

1 Cf. Eus Is 40 (35, 20–7).

2 Cf. Jerome,

Ep.

18A

to Damasus, written from Constantinople in 381. This is the earliest of Jerome' expository letters in which he explains at length the vision recorded in Isa 6. For other references to Gregory Nazianzus, see Vir Ill

, 117, 120, 128; Adv. Iov

. 1.13

; Contra Ruf

1.13

And so I will send the reader to that little book and I ask that he be content with the brief exposition of that time.

Sacred history relates that Uzziah was struck with leprosy, because he laid claim to an unlawful priesthood for himself [cf. 2 Chr 26:16–21].33 When he died the Lord is seen in the temple that he had polluted. From this we observe that while a leprous king is reigning within us, we are not able to see the Lord reigning in his majesty, nor are we able to recognize the mysteries of the Holy Trinity. This is why even in Exodus, the people cried out to the Lord after Pharaoh died, who was oppressing Israel with mud, straw, and bricks [cf. Exod 1:14; 5:7]. For they were not able to cry out while he was alive [cf. Exod 2:23]. Moreover, it was after the terrible ruler Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died that Ezekiel falls on his face and cries out to the Lord with a loud voice [cf. Ezek 11:1–4, 13]. And it is nicely expressed by the Hebrew word that it was not the Lord himself who filled the temple, whose throne is heaven and whose footstool for his feet is the earth [cf. Isa 66:1]; and we read about him in another passage, "The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord, his throne is in heaven" [Ps 11:4]; but the things that were under his feet filled the temple.

Now in John the Evangelist and in the Acts of the Apostles we learn more fully who is this

Lord who is seen. John says of this, "Isaiah said this when he saw his glory and spoke about him"

[John 12:41], doubtless signifying Christ. In the Acts of the Apostles, on the other hand, in Rome

Paul speaks to the Jews, and says, The Holy Spirit spoke through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying, "Go to this people and say: You will hear with hearing and you will not understand, and seeing you will see and you will not perceive. For the heart of the people is fat and with difficulty they have heard with their ears, and they have closed their eyes, lest perhaps they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert themselves and I would heal them." [Acts 28:25–27; Isa 6:9–10]

But the Son is seen in the character of one reigning, and the Holy Spirit has spoken on account of the association of their majesty and the unity of their substance.

Someone may ask how the prophet can say now that he has seen the Lord, not the Lord without qualification, but the Lord Sabaoth [cf. Isa 6:5], as he himself testifies in what follows, although John the Evangelist has said, "No one has ever seen God" [John 1:18; 1 John 4:12], and God says to Moses, "You cannot see my face, for no man will see my face and live" [Exod 33:20].

We will respond to this that fleshly eyes are not able to see not merely the divinity of the Father, but not even that of the Son and the Holy Spirit, since the nature in the Trinity is one. But the eyes of the mind [can see him], of which the Savior himself says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" [Matt 5:8]. We read that the Lord of Abraham was seen under the figure of a man [cf. Gen 18:1–3], and a man, as it were, who was God, wrestled with Jacob. This is why the place itself was called Penuel, that is, face of God [cf. Gen 32:24–30]. He says: "For I have seen God face to face and my soul was saved" [Gen 32:30]. Ezekiel too saw the Lord in the form of a man sitting over the cherubim; from his loins and below he was like fire and the upper parts

30; Comm. in Ephes. 5.32; Epp.

50.1

; 52.8; 70.4.

3 Cf. Eus Is 41 (35, 28–8, 9); Jerome

Is Hom

1, 1

; 5, 3.

had the appearance of amber [cf. Ezek 1:26–27]. Therefore, the nature of God is not discerned, but he is seen by men as he wills.

4. (6:2–3) Seraphim were standing upon it; the one had six wings and the other had six wings; with two it covered his face, and with two it covered his feet and with two it flew. And one was crying out to the other and saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; all the earth is full of his glory." What we have translated by following the other translators and the Hebrew truth, in which is written memmaal lo, that is, επανω αυτου, which is said in Latin as upon it, the Septuagint translated, "Round about him," so that the seraphim are described as standing not upon the temple but round about the Lord. And again, where we have said that one of the seraphim covered his face and feet, by which God's are understood, in the Hebrew it is written as phanau and reglau, which can be translated both "his" and "their own." Consequently according to the ambiguity of the Hebrew language, the seraphim are said to cover both God's face and feet and their own face and feet.

In the seventy-ninth Psalm we read, "You who sit on the cherubim, shine forth!" [Ps 80:1]. In our language, cherubim is translated "multitude of knowledge." This is also why the Lord is shown to sit upon cherubim [cf. 1 Sam 4:4] in the manner of a charioteer. But I do not know that I have read of seraphim elsewhere in canonical Scripture except in this passage, which are said to stand upon the temple, or "round about the Lord."44 They are in error, therefore, who are accustomed to say in their prayers: "You who sit upon cherubim and seraphim," which Scripture has not taught. But seraphim are translated εμπρησται, which we can express as "set on fire" or "burning," in accordance with what we read elsewhere: "He who makes his angels spirits and his ministers burning fire" [Ps 104:4]. This is also what the Apostle Paul says in the Epistle to the Hebrews (which [attribution of authorship] Latin custom does not accept): "Are they not all ministering spirits sent to minister for the sake of those who will receive the inheritance of salvation?" [Heb 1:14]. Daniel too, when he had described the Lord in the character of one reigning, added, "Thousands and thousands were ministering to him and ten times a thousand times a hundred thousand were assisting him" [Dan 7:10]. The Lord is shown in the cherubim; therefore, in the seraphim, he is partially shown, partially covered.55 For they cover his face and feet, because we are not able to know both the things that have come to pass before the world, and the things that will come to be after the world; but we contemplate only the things in the middle, which were made in six days [cf. Gen 1]. It is not surprising to believe this about seraphim, since even the apostles disclose the Savior to those who believe, [but] conceal him from those who do not believe; and there was a veil in front of the ark of the covenant [cf. Exod

40:3].

They are said to have wings too on account of their speed and movement in all directions, or because they always tarry in higher places. For in what is said about the winds, "He who walks upon the wings of the winds" [Ps 104:3], it is not being genuinely attested that the winds have wings, in accordance with the fables of the poets and the license of painters; but rather it refers to swift movement in all directions. And each has six wings, because we only know about the construction of the world and of the present age.

4 Cf. Jerome

Ep.

18B,1

, 4. See appendix.

5 Cf. Jerome

Is Hom

1.2

; 4.1. See appendix.

Now in the words one cries out to the other, or, according to the Hebrew, "This one to that one," that is, one to one, they are exhorting each other to the praises of the Lord, and they say,

Holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts. Hence they show the mystery of the Trinity in one divine nature, and they bear witness that by no means is the temple of the Jews, as before, but all the earth, filled with the glory of him who deigned to assume a human body for our salvation and to descend to earth. After all, the Lord responded even to Moses, when he prayed to the Lord to spare the sinful people who had worshiped a calf, "I will forgive them. Yet I live, and my name lives, for all the earth will be filled with my glory" [Num 14:20–21]. And the seventy-first Psalm sings, "All the earth will be filled with his glory" [Ps 72:19]. For this reason also angels cry out to the shepherds, "Glory to God in the highest and peace upon earth among men of good will"

[Luke 2:14].

Therefore a certain individual impiously understands the two seraphim to be the Son and the Holy Spirit,66 since we teach according to John the Evangelist and the Apostle Paul that the Son of God was seen in the majesty of one reigning, and that the Holy Spirit spoke.

Some of the Latins77 understand the two seraphim to be the Old and New Testaments

(instrumentum), which speak only of the present age.88 Accordingly it is also said to have six wings and to cover the face and feet of God, and earnestly to provide a witness of the truth, and everything that it cries out reveals the mysteries of the Trinity. They also express wonderment to each other that the Lord Sabaoth who was in the form of God the Father accepted the form of a slave and humbled himself unto death, even death on a cross; and by no means is it only heavenly things that recognize him, as before, but also the earthly things [Phil 2:6–8, 10].

5. (6:4) And the lintels of the doors were moved by the voice of the one crying out, and the house was filled with smoke.

While the seraphim were crying out and proclaiming the mystery of the Trinity throughout the whole earth,99 when the whole earth recognized the passion of the Lord and Savior, immediately the lintel of the temple was moved, or "lifted up," and all its doors fell, when the 6 He is referring to Origen, who ascribes the interpretation to his "ebrew teacher" cf. Princ

4.3.14. See also Jerome, Hom in Is 1.2; 1.3; Ep.

61.2.1

; 84.3.4. H. de Lubac, Medieval Exegesis, trans. M. Sebanc and E. M. Macierowski, 3 vols. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998–009), 1:255, observes that Origen' interpretation did not at all have the "mpious"and "lasphemous"character that Jerome ascribes to it. The assimilation of the Word and the Spirit (Wisdom) to the cherubim and seraphim came from Judeo-Christian sources and was already found in the work of St. Irenaeus,

Dem

. Philo, De Deo 6, 9 applied the two seraphim to the creative and ruling power, respectively named God and Lord. J. Daniélou, A History of Early Christian Doctrine,

vol.

The Theology of Jewish Christianity

, trans. and ed. John A. Baker (Chicago: The Henry Regnery Company, 1964), 134–0, discusses "he Two Seraphim"and reports that before Jerome' time a rebuttal of Origen' exegesis had been written, " rebuttal all the more necessary in that Origen' exegesis was being used by the Arians and the Pneumatomachi to support the thesis that the Son and the Holy Spirit were creatures"(135).

7 Jerome himself proposes this interpretation in Ep.

18A, 6.6–.5

8 Cf. Jerome,

Ep.

84.3

9 Cf. Eus Is 41 (40, 9–0).

threatening words of the Savior were fulfilled, saying, "Your house will be left to you desolate"

[Matt 23:38]. The sequence of expressions is very beautiful here. After the earth was filled with the glory of the Lord Sabaoth, the temple of the Jews was filled with the darkness of ignorance and with mist and smoke [cf. Isa 6:3], which is harmful to the eyes [cf. Prov 10:26]. Or at least by smoke of the temple, fire is shown.110 For first the gospel of the Savior is preached in the whole world, and forty-two years after the Lord's passion, Jerusalem was captured and the temple burned. The Jews think that the temple filled with smoke signifies thymiama, that is, incense [cf.

Exod 25:6 Vulg], and by this is signified the presence of the divine majesty.

6. (6:5) And I said, "Woe is me, because I have kept silent, for I am a man of polluted lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people having polluted lips; and I have seen with my eyes the king, the Lord of hosts."

Both Abraham, after he saw the Lord and heard his voice, says that he is earth and ash [cf.

Gen 18:27],111 and Isaiah testifies according to the Septuagint translators that he is "pricked," not on account of other offenses but because he had unclean lips. A peaceful (felix) conscience that sinned only in words, not by his own vice, but by association with the people who have polluted lips, with whom he was very often compelled to speak!112 From this it is shown that it is harmful to live with sinners: "For whoever touches pitch will be defiled" [Sir 13:1].

But since we read in the Hebrew, Woe is me, because I have kept silent, the prophet mourns for himself because he was not worthy to praise the Lord Sabaoth with the seraphim, which we understand to be angelic powers. But he did not dare to praise the Lord, because he had unclean lips, and the reason he had unclean lips is because he lived with a sinful people. Or at any rate it should be understood as follows:113 Since I kept silent and did not boldly chastise the impious King Uzziah, therefore my lips are unclean and I do not dare to sing the Lord's praises with the angels, lest it be said to me, "Why do you tell of just statutes and adopt my covenant by your mouth?" [Ps 50:16]. For "praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner" [Sir 15:9]. But we say this not because we teach that Isaiah was like this, but because he himself admits in view of his humility and unclean lips only, that he is unworthy of God's praise.

7. (6:6–7) And one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a pebble which he had carried from the altar with tongs, and he touched my mouth and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity will be taken away, and your sin will be cleansed."

One of the seraphim, which means "set on fire," flew, or, "was sent," to cleanse the unclean lips of the prophet [cf. Isa 6:5], and bake them with a "live coal," or pebble which he had carried from the altar. Now many think that there are two seraphim, since one was crying out to the other, though each one out of many could cry out to the others individually [cf. Isa 6:3], and the Septuagint version may rather signify very many, which has translated, "Seraphim were standing round about him." But if he were speaking about two, he would not have said "round about," but "on each side." And this agrees with the multitude of angels, which has been prepared for God's service [cf. Heb 1:14]. Now they are called seraphim in the plural, in the singular seraph,

110 Cf. Jerome

Ep.

18A, 9, 1

; 10, 3.

111 Cf. Bas Is 182 (428A).

112 Cf. Eus Is 41 (40, 31–4).

113 Cf. Jerome

Ep.

18A, 12, 3

just like cherubim and cherub.

But even John in the Apocalypse says that an altar may be seen in heaven, under which are the souls of the martyrs [cf. Rev 6:9]; and that pebble that the Septuagint alone translated as ανθραξ, that is "carbuncle," can signify not coal, or live coal, as the majority think, but ανθρακα, that is the carbuncle stone, which is called "fiery" on account of its resemblance to the color of a flame. From this we understand that the altar of God is filled with carbuncles, that is with fiery pebbles and live coals, which purge sins. This is why we read that it is written of God,114 "Coals have been ignited by him" [Ps 18:8], and it is said of God himself that he is a "consuming fire" [cf. Deut 4:24; Heb 12:29]. And the Savior says in the Gospel, "I have come to cast fire upon the earth" [Luke 12:49], to baptize in the Holy Spirit and fire [cf. Matt 3:11]. For "fire will test the quality of each man's work" [1 Cor 3:13], and he who is to be saved will be saved in this way, as though passing through fire [cf. 1 Cor 3:15].

And note this: that to Jeremiah, to whom it was said, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you and sanctified you in your mother's womb" [Jer 1:5], since he did not have unclean lips [cf. Isa 6:5], but had merely said, "I do not know how to speak, for I am a youth" [Jer 1:6; cf.

1:9a], the Lord himself extended his own hand. He touched his mouth and said, "Behold, I have put my words into your mouth" [Jer 1:9b]. On the other hand, to Isaiah, who had said, "I am a man with polluted lips and I live in the midst of a people who have polluted lips" [Isa 6:5], the hand of God is not extended, but a seraph is sent from God, or it flies by its own will, since it has been handed over to this task. And in its hand it holds a pebble, which it takes hold of, according to the Septuagint and Theodotion, with tongs, according to Aquila and Symmachus, who followed the Hebrew, with "tongs," that is, malcaim, in order to touch his mouth and purge his former transgressions. Now the hand is sent both from God and from the seraph115 so that the prophet, upon seeing the member of his own body, would not be terrified by external contact. Some of our own people think that the tong with which the pebble is grasped is the two Testaments, which are associated among themselves by the union of the Holy Spirit. But since the Lord is introduced as sitting [cf. Isa 6:1], and sitting in the temple, and "the house is filled with smoke" [cf. Isa 6:4], as the Jews think, with incense; consequently also "tongs" are recorded, which we read even in respect to the priestly ministry [cf. Exod 27:3].

8. (6:8) And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here I am, send me." In view of the fact that both we and all the other translators rendered, for us, which is said in Hebrew as lanu, I do not know what the Septuagint intended when it recorded, "to this people," which is completely missing from the Hebrew.116

Now when for us is said under the persona of God, it should be understood in that sense in which one reads even in Genesis, "Let us make man in our image and likeness" [Gen 1:26], so that it points to the mystery of the Trinity. For just as when we read that the Lord says in the Gospel, "I and the Father, we are one" [John 10:30], we refer the "one" to the nature, and we refer the "we are" to the different persons, so when the Lord commands, the Trinity commands.

114 Cf. Eus Is 42 (41, 4–3).

115 Cf. Jerome

Ep.

18B, 2, 6

(100, 10–3).

116 Cf. Jerome

Ep.

18B, 4, 2

Now the reason the Lord does not say whom he is instructing to go,117 but he offers the hearers a choice, is so that the will may obtain a reward. And it was not rashly and by the arrogance of his own conscience that the prophet promises that he will go, but with confidence.118 For his lips have been purged [cf. Isa 6:7], his iniquity has been removed, and his sin has been cleansed. Therefore, even Moses was responding out of humility, not contempt, to whom the Lord had said, "Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt" [Exod 3:10], and he says, "I beg you, Lord, I am not worthy"; and, "Provide another whom you may send" [Exod

4:10, 13]; or, as one reads in the Hebrew, "Send him whom you will send." For he who had been educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians [cf. Acts 7:22] had heard nothing about having his lips purged, and Isaiah offers himself for ministry not on the basis of his own merit, but by the grace of the Lord by which he was purged.

But others think that Isaiah offered himself because he thought that the things that were to be announced to the people were favorable, but because he heard, "Go, say to this people, 'You will hear with your ears and not understand, and seeing you will see and will not recognize' "

[Isa 6:9], for this reason in what follows, when the voice of the Lord says to him, "Cry out," he does not cry out immediately, but inquires, "What shall I cry out?" [Isa 40:6]. To Jeremiah also it had been said, "Take this cup and you will make all the nations to whom I will send you drink from it" [Jer 25:15]. By his willing acceptance of the cup of punishments, to give it to hostile nations to drink, vomit and fall [cf. Jer 25:16], he later heard, "Go and you will first offer

Jerusalem a drink" [Jer 25:17–18]. To this he replied, "You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived" [Jer 20:7]. This is an observation of the Hebrews. However that may be, we say that it is not a question of rashness, but of obedience to the Lord that he offered himself to be sent.

9. (6:9–10) And he said, "Go, and you shall say to this people, 'Hear with hearing, and do not understand; and see with seeing and do not recognize.' Blind the heart of this people and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest perhaps they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and be converted and healed."119

The Septuagint translated this passage the way the Evangelist Luke recorded it in the Acts of the Apostles: "And since they disagreed among themselves"—doubtless referring to the Jews— they departed, after Paul had made one statement: "The Holy Spirit has spoken well to our fathers through Isaiah the prophet, saying, 'Go to this people, and say, "You will hear with hearing and you will not understand, and seeing you will see, and you will not perceive." For this people's heart has become fat, and their ears have become heavy of hearing, and they have closed their eyes, lest perhaps they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert themselves, and I would heal them.' " [Acts 28:25–27] Now in what follows the Apostle Paul himself speaks about the time when this prophecy was fulfilled: "Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; and they will hear" [Acts 28:28]. This is also why we read in the same Acts of the 117 Cf. Eus Is 42 (41, 29–5).

118 Cf. Jerome

Is Hom

6.1

; 9; Ep.

18B, 15, 2–

). See appendices.

119 See Craig A. Evans, "Jerome' Translation of Isaiah 6:9–0,"Vigiliae Christianae 38 (1984): 202–.

Apostles that Paul and Barnabas said to the Jews who were unwilling to believe, It was necessary first to speak the word of God to you, but since you reject it and have judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold we are turning to the Gentiles; for thus did the Lord command us: "I have appointed you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be for the salvation to the ends of the earth." [Acts 13:46–47; cf. Isa 49:6]

Therefore, according to the Septuagint, the interpretation is easy: at the Lord's command Isaiah the prophet is predicting what the people will do. The difficulty is in the Hebrew version: How could God himself command the people to hear with hearing, and not understand, and to see with seeing, and not recognize? And later the prophet is introduced as speaking, and he pleads with the Lord and says: Blind the heart of this people and weigh down their ears and close their eyes, lest perhaps they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart, and be converted and healed.

The first question in particular that needs to be solved, which can be raised as an objection to us, is this: When carrying on his discussion with the Hebrews, why did the Apostle Paul not speak according to the Hebrew version, which he knew was correct, but according to the Septuagint? Ancient transmitters of ecclesiastical tradition report that Luke the Evangelist was very knowledgeable in the art of medicine and that he knew Greek literature rather than

Hebrew. This is why his language, both in the Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles, that is, in both books, is quite polished, and is redolent of secular eloquence, and he uses Greek citations rather than Hebrew.

Matthew and John, on the other hand, one of whom composed his Gospel in the Hebrew language, the other in Greek, produce citations from the Hebrew, as for example in the following passages: "Out of Egypt I have called my son" [Hos 11:1; Matt 2:15, 23],220 and: "For he will be called a Nazarene" [Matt 2:23];221 and: "Rivers of living water will flow from his belly"

[John 7:38], and: "They will look on him whom they have pierced" [Zech 12:10; John 19:37]; and other examples similar to these.222 An objection is raised against Paul's Letter to the Hebrews for this reason, that when writing to the Hebrews he uses testimonies that are not found in the Hebrew books. But if someone should say that the Hebrew books were later falsified by the Jews, let him listen to what Origen says in response to this little question in the eighth book of 220 The Septuagint of Hos 11:1 reads, "ut of Egypt have I called his children."

221 See Jerome, Commentary on Matthew 2.23, where he cites Matthew' reading as a rendering of the Hebrew of Isa 11:1.

222 In the cases of both Matthew and John, their use of the OT is complex. Both evangelists make extensive use of the LXX as well as the Hebrew. For Matthew, see R. Gundry, Matthew: A Commentary on His Literary and Theological Art (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982); and The Use of the Old Testament in St. Matthew' Gospel, NovTSup 18 (Leiden: Brill, 1967). In the latter work

(147–0), Gundry concludes that of approximately eighty formal and allusive quotations of the OT in Matthew, about thirty clearly follow the LXX reading, and most of these instances happen to be in the direct speech of Jesus and John the Baptist. For John' use of the OT, see C. K.

Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John, second edition (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1978), 27–

his Commentary on Isaiah, namely that the Lord and the apostles, who rebuke other offenses in the scribes and Pharisees, would never have been silent about this offense, which would have been the greatest one of all.223 But if on the other hand they say that after the coming of the Savior and the preaching of the apostles, the Hebrew books were falsified, I will not be able to contain my laughter, that the Savior, the evangelists and the apostles would have produced testimonies in such a way that Jews were going to falsify them later.

Concerning the present passage, however, one should say that it is in vain that we have recourse to the Septuagint translation to avoid the apparent blasphemy of the Hebrew reading:

"Hear with hearing and do not understand, and see the sight and do not recognize," since we may find testimonies like this also in the Septuagint translators.224 For example, there is the following that is spoken to Pharaoh in Exodus: "For this reason I have raised you up, to show my power in you" [Exod 9:16]. But if he himself raised him up, and hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he would not believe [cf. Exod 4:21], and [if] it is said of others, "God gave them a spirit of remorse, eyes that would not see, and ears that would not hear" [Rom 11:8], and in the Psalms,

"Let their table become a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a retribution; let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see, and their backs always bent" [Ps 69:22–23]; [then] they are not at fault who do not see, but rather he who gave them the eyes not to see.

Therefore, even apart from this testimony, which we are now attempting to explain, the same question remains in the churches, and either along with it the other testimonies will also be resolved; or with the others this one too will be a problem that defies solution.

The blessed Apostle Paul explains this passage in greater detail [in the Epistle] to the Romans, and what he has pursued in nearly that whole letter, we make superfluous if we should want to summarize it in a few words. For after many things he says, "God has enclosed all things in unbelief, that he may have mercy on all" [Rom 11:32]. And marveling at the Lord's mysteries, he added, "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and his ways beyond tracing out!" [Rom 11:33]. And again, when discussing the unbelief of the Jews, he says, "Have they sinned in such a way as to fall? By no means; but by their transgression [came] the salvation of the Gentiles, to make them jealous" [Rom 11:11].

And after a little bit, "For if their rejection [is] the reconciliation of the world, what is their reception? Is it not life from the dead?" [Rom 11:15]. And again, "For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, that you not be prudent in yourselves, for a blindness in part has taken place in Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles enters, and then all Israel may be

223 Cf. Origen, In Esaiam 8.

224 The difference in the readings is that in the Hebrew the hardening formula is given in the imperative mood, whereas in the Greek Septuagint it is given in the future indicative. B. Childs,

The Struggle to Understand Isaiah as Christian Scripture (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 94, writes, "erome' solution is of interest in that he does not offer an easy harmonization; rather, he reflects theologically on the integrity of both interpretations and points out that the New

Testament Gospels share the same tension when citing the Isaianic text. Although Jerome is often harsh in his repudiation of Jewish interpretations, he does not accept the widespread

Christian allegation that the Jews intentionally distorted the Hebrew text to deny a Christian appeal to fulfillment."

saved" [Rom 11:25–26]; and after a bit, "Indeed, according to the gospel [they are] enemies on account of you, but according to election, beloved because of the fathers; for without penitence are the gifts and calling of God. For," he says, "just as you once did not believe in God, but now you have attained mercy on account of their unbelief, so also they now have not believed in your mercy, so that even they themselves might attain mercy. For God has enclosed all things under sin, that he might have mercy on all" [Rom 11:28–32].

Therefore, it is not the severity, but the mercy of God, that one nation perishes, so that all might be saved, that a portion of the Jews do not see, so that the whole world may see. This is why even the Lord himself in the Gospel turns the mystery of the man blind from birth, who had received sight [cf. John 9:1–7], into a tropology, and says, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that those seeing might not see and those who do not see may see" [John 9:39]. And in another passage Simeon says, "Behold this one is appointed for the falling and rising of many" [Luke 2:34]. And so, while those ones do not see, we ourselves do see; when they fall, we rise again. Understanding this, the prophet says it in different words, as it were: O Lord, you command me to speak to the Jewish people, that they may hear and not understand the Savior, and see him and not recognize. If you want your command to be fulfilled and the whole world to be saved, which I too desire to happen, then you, blind the heart of this people and weigh down their ears and shut their eyes, so that they do not understand, hear, and see; for if they will have seen and been converted and understood and been healed, the whole world will not receive healing. From this we notice that, although sin is heavy, if someone is converted, he can be healed. At the same time this too should be understood, that in proportion to the extent of the crime, they have been judged unworthy even of penitence, since the Lord himself says to Jerusalem, "How often have I wanted to gather your sons as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling!" [Matt 23:37].

10. (6:11–13) And I said, "How long, O Lord?" And he said, "Until the cities are left desolate without inhabitant and the houses are without men, and the land is left deserted." And the Lord will make men far away, and that will be multiplied which had been abandoned in the midst of the land. And there will be still a tenth in it, and again it will be for plundering, just like a turpentine tree, and as an oak that has flung away its fruits, there will be a holy seed which will stand in it.

Since the Lord says, Go and tell this people what they should hear and not hear, see and not see [cf. Isa 6:9]—but the reason they neither hear nor see is because they will neither understand the Lord's words nor recognize his works, and because they have been made fat [cf.

Isa 6:10; Deut 32:15] and enlarged and have forgotten their Creator—the prophet responded and anxiously asks about his own people,225 How long, O Lord, will this sentence remain [cf. Isa

6:9], that hearing they do not hear, and seeing they do not see? The Lord answered him, For as long as they will not hear and not see and will have a blinded heart [cf. Isa 6:9–10], until the cities of Judea are completely demolished, during the war with Vespasian and Titus, to such an extent that not even the original name [of the land] remains, and the houses, if any will have remained, would be without inhabitant, and the land is reduced to a desert, and either by flight or captivity the Jewish people are dispersed into the whole world; and by no means are the 225 Cf. Eus Is 42 (42, 30–3, 19).

Jewish people multiplied in Judea, as previously, but among all nations. Now when I say that they will be multiplied, the misfortune of the remaining people will be so great that in comparison with the former multitude, scarcely a tenth part will remain. At that time the desert will be both in the land itself—for that location226 can be understood in two ways, that a tenth part would hardly remain even in the whole world, and in Judea itself scarcely a tiny portion of the people will be preserved—again the very remnant will be for plundering, when nearly fifty years later Hadrian will have come and will have completely plundered the land of Judea, to such an extent that it will be compared to the turpentine tree and the oak, which has lost its

"acorns" [cf. Isa 6:13]. After all, after the final devastation, even public laws have decreed that the Jews are prohibited from entering the land from which they had been cast out.227 Now if someone believes in Christ, that is fulfilled that we read above: "Unless the Lord Sabaoth had left us seed, we would have become like Sodom and we would have been likened to Gomorrah"

[Isa 1:9], when according to the apostle the remnant will be saved [cf. Rom 9:27; 11:5], there will be a holy seed, and from the bud of the apostles all the churches will sprout.

What we have said as, There will be a holy seed, which will stand in it, or according to Aquila, "The holy seed will be his sprout," is not contained in the Septuagint translators, but was added by Origen from the Hebrew and Theodotion's edition. Thus it is witnessed in the church's copies, that after the fullness of the Gentiles has entered, at that time all Israel is saved [cf. Rom

11:25–26]; and even in this the Lord's words are fulfilled that say, "I will kill and I will make alive, and I will strike and I will heal" [Deut 32:39].228

11. (7:1–2) And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to fight against it, and they could not prevail over it. (2) And they declared to the house of David, saying, "Syria has allied with Ephraim, and his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the woods are moved by the face of the wind."

Uzziah, who is also Azariah [cf. 2 Chr 26:1], reigned in Jerusalem as king of Judah for fiftytwo years [cf. 2 Kgs 15:1–2]. Already at the end of his time period, Isaiah saw the things that his previous words discussed. At his death, and while his son Jotham, a very just king [cf. 2 Kgs

15:34], was reigning in his place, immediately the prophet saw the Lord and Savior [cf. Isa 6:1] reigning in his majesty and declaring the blindness of the Jewish people and the overthrow of Jerusalem and of the other cities [cf. Isa 6:9–11] under Vespasian and Hadrian, and how in the apostles a remnant is to be saved [cf. Isa 6:13]. A third king, the most impious Ahaz, a son of Jotham, succeeded. He shut the gates of the temple, and in the valley of Gehenna he worshiped the Baals and dedicated his own son to the idols [cf. 2 Kgs 16:1–4; 2 Chr 28:1–4], removing the bronze altar that Solomon had made [cf. 2 Kgs 16:10–14]. Moreover, he placed an altar of idols in the temple of God, the model for which he had received from Damascus [cf. 2 Kgs 16:14–16].

Therefore the Lord's help abandoned him justly, and Rezin, king of Syria, that is, Aram, rose up against him, and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel in Samaria, and they came to Jerusalem in order to attack it.

226 I believe he means terra, which means both land and earth.

227 Cf. Justin,

1 Apol

; Eusebius,

HE 4.6.3

228 Cf. Bas Is 190 (445A).

We read in the Book of Chronicles [Paralipomenon] that Rezin the king of Damascus conquered Ahaz and transferred many from Judea to Damascus [cf. 2 Chr 25:5–8], and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of the ten tribes that were called Israel and were reigning in Samaria, slew on one day 120,000 soldiers from Judah and led captive to Samaria 200,000 women, boys and girls, together with infinite plunder [cf. 2 Chr 28:5–8]. The prophet was silent about this battle at present, but he reports the second battle, when having an experiment of his fortitude and victory, and having been enticed by the extent of the booty, they again come to Judea and desire to attack Jerusalem, and they were not able because the Lord helped it. Consequently, on the occasion of mercy, whereby he was delivering a besieged people, he declares that his Son would be born of a virgin [cf. Isa 7:14].

When the house of David, that is, the royal house, heard this, namely that Syria and Ephraim, Rezin and Pekah were coming, joined by their armies, it was terrified and thoroughly frightened, and both the king and the people trembled all over, so that you would have thought that the leaves of the trees were being blown by the breezes of the winds.

The anagogical229 interpretation is easy: when the impious King Ahaz was reigning, the king of Aram [comes], whose name means high and lofty, indicating the arrogance of secular wisdom. Moreover, Pekah the son of Remaliah [comes], who even himself, according to Hosea the prophet, severs from the house of David both the tribe of Ephraim [cf. Hos 5:3],330 from which Jeroboam the son of Nebat had set up golden calves in Bethel and Dan [cf. 1 Kgs 11:26;

12:28–29], and the people of God [1 Kgs 12:20]. This refers to the heretics who agree with one another to attack the church. When the house of David heard this, David must be raised up. He is the good shepherd of whom we read in Ezekiel [cf. Ezek 34:23], and his people are in great fear by simply believing in the Lord. And the reason they are in great fear is because they are compared not to fruit-bearing trees but to an unfruitful forest. Now no one doubts that heretics and pagans fight against the house of David with these same swords of dialectical art and arguments. Consequently those who dissent among themselves consent in their attack on the church. It is in accordance with this that Herod and Pilate, while having a disagreement between themselves, are leagued together in friendship by the passion of the Lord [cf. Luke 23:12].

12. (7:3–9) And the Lord said to Isaiah, "Go forth to meet Ahaz, you and Jashub your son who has been abandoned, at the end of the aqueduct of the upper pool, in the way of the fuller's field. (4) And you will say to him, 'See that you are quiet, do not fear, and let not your heart be afraid of the two tails of these smoking firebrands, with the wrath of Rezin's fury, and of Syria and of the son of Remaliah. (5) Because very evil Syria has taken counsel against you,

Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, saying, (6) "Let us go up to Judah, and rouse it, and let us draw it away to us, and make the son of Tabeel king in the midst of it." (7) Thus says the Lord

God, "It will not stand, and this will not be, (8) but the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin, and still sixty-five years and Ephraim will cease to be a people. (9) And the head of Ephraim [is] Samaria and the head of Samaria the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you will not continue.' "

Isaiah's son Jashub, whose name means "remnant" and "converting," as a type of the 229 Cf. ibid., 191 (445D–48B).

330 Cf. Jerome, Os 1 (49, 435–55).

people of Judah, who were to be liberated from the hands of the two kings, is commanded to go forth with his father and to meet Ahaz, king of Judah in the location of the aqueduct of the upper pool in the way of the fuller's field. We will later read that at the time of Hezekiah king of Judah, Rabshakeh stood on this location and blasphemed the people of God by the command of Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians [cf. Isa 36:2–3; 2 Kgs 18:17–18]. The rulers of the city went forth to that place, having been sent by Hezekiah, rulers whom we read about in the Book of Kings. And Ahaz, though he was an impious king, is instructed for the sake of God's mercy to be silent and not to let his heart be terrified and frightened, thinking that he would suffer things similar to what he had previously endured.

But he calls Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Samaria, two tails of firebrands, that is, of smoking firebrands, because in them has come to an end the kingdom of Syria, that is, of Damascus, and the kingdom of Samaria, that is, of the ten tribes, which were called by another name, Ephraim. For it is written that Tiglath-Pileser, the king of the Assyrians, went up to Damascus when Ahaz was king and devastated it and transferred its inhabitants to Cyrene,331 and he killed Rezin [cf. 2 Kgs 16:9]; and that Hoshea son of Elah formed a conspiracy against Pekah, son of Remaliah, and struck him down and killed him and reigned in his place in Israel for nine years [cf. 2 Kgs 15:30]. [It is also written] that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came and for three years besieged Samaria, which is now called Sebaste.332 And in the ninth year of Hoshea's reign, he captured it and threw Hoshea into prison in chains and transferred Israel to the Assyrians and put them in the cities of Halah and Habor, near the river Gozan, or, as the Septuagint translated it, "in the mountains of the Medes" [cf. 2 Kgs 17:3–6].

For although two very wicked kings took counsel to go up to Judah, whose region is situated in the mountains, and to rouse it while it was resting and asleep, as it were, and to subjugate it by their power; and they placed over it a king, the son of Tabeel, who is interpreted "good God," so as to show either a man by this name, or an idol; nevertheless, Thus says the Lord God: This policy will not stand, but meanwhile in a moment the head of the cities of Syria will be

Damascus, and in the very metropolis of Damascus, Rezin will be in charge. Further, in Ephraim on account of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who first reigned from Ephraim, Samaria will be the head, that is the royal house will be in the city of Samaria, and the head of Samaria will be the son of Remaliah, that is Pekah. But after sixty-five years the kingdom of the ten tribes will cease to exist, that is, the people of Ephraim. Unless we pay very careful attention to this, it cannot stand.

For in the fourteenth year of Ahaz son of Jotham in the tribe of Judah, Hoshea reigned over Samaria, and in the ninth year of his command, he was captured [cf. 2 Kgs 17:2–6]. But Ahaz reigned over Judah for sixteen years [2 Kgs 16:2]. After his death, Hoshea was captured in the seventh year of his command, and Samaria was destroyed, and all the people were transferred to the Medes [cf. 2 Kgs 17:6]. Thus, if we want to reckon sixteen years of Ahaz and seven of Hoshea, it would become twenty-three years, or as many as twenty-four. Where then will the sixty-five years be within which the kingdom of Israel is said to have to come to an end?

331 RSV: Kir.

332 Cf. Eus Is 43 (45, 30).

Therefore, the Hebrews have explained this passage as follows.333 Amos, who began to prophesy under Uzziah, when Isaiah too made a beginning of his prophecy, first prophesied against Israel, saying, "But Israel will be led captive from their land" [cf. Amos 7:11, 17]. The heading of his prophecy is also against Samaria, and he began to prophesy in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, two years before the earthquake [cf. Amos 1:1]. They think that this means that it happened at the time when Uzziah entered the temple of God and laid claim to the priesthood for himself, and the earth was struck, and the ashes of the altar were poured out, and the king himself was struck with leprosy [cf. 2 Kgs 15:4–5; 2 Chr 26:16–20].334 They think that the year when these things happened was Uzziah's twenty-fifth, his remaining years totaling twenty-seven; for he reigned all fifty-two years [cf. 2 Kgs 15:2]. After him, Jotham his son reigned for sixteen years [cf.

2 Kgs 15:32–33; 2 Chr 27:1], and his son Ahaz for another sixteen years [cf. 2 Kgs 16:1–2; 2 Chr

28:1]. After him Hezekiah reigned, in the sixth year of whose command Samaria was captured

[cf. 2 Kgs 18:10]. Thus altogether the years add up to sixty-five.

Though the Lord predicted these things through the prophet, both Ahaz and the people did not believe in what was coming. This is why it is added, If you will not believe, you will not continue, as Symmachus translated it, that is, you too will not continue in your kingdom, but you will be led into captivity, enduring the punishments of those whose infidelity you have emulated; or at least in accordance with the Septuagint, "You will not understand," and the meaning is that because you do not believe the things that the Lord says are coming, you do not have understanding. We have said these things according to history.

However that may be, one should consider according to the tropology that we have commenced, that Isaiah is being commanded to meet the impious king, going out from his place, not at the beginning of the aqueduct but in the extreme limits of the upper pool, which was in the fuller's field, where filth and defilements were purged. For although Ahaz reigned over Judah, nevertheless since he was impious, he lingered in the extreme limits of the upper pool. Therefore God has mercy not so much on the king, whom he reckoned unworthy of salvation, as on his people. Now, as we said above, he is calling secular wisdom and the words of the heretics, whose end is conflagration, the two tails of smoking firebrands. They took counsel in vain to go up against Judah and capture it, while it was off guard and asleep, as it were, and to join it to their own errors, and make the son of Tabeel, that is, the "good God," king over it. For every adversary thinks that the truth is with him; he thinks that the teaching among themselves is best. After all, the heretic Marcion thinks that Christ is the son of the "good God," that is, of another [god], not of the just One, to whom the prophets belong, whom he calls a bloodthirsty, cruel judge.335 When they say these things, the Lord threatens that their

333 Cf. ibid. (46, 15–2); Hollerich, Eusebius of Caesarea'

Commentary on Isaiah:

Christian

Exegesis in the Age of Constantine (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), 149–0, conjectures that the original Jewish source is Seder Olam.

334 Cf. Josephus,

Ant

9.10.4.222–7

335 Marcion of Sinope in Pontus was reputedly the son of the bishop of Sinope, who came to Rome and founded a heretical sect in the 140s. Scandalized by the problem of evil and other philosophical issues, he responded by rejecting his prior faith and forming a doctrinal system based on the irreconcilability of justice and grace, law and gospel, Judaism and Christianity, the

counsel does not stand, but in the meantime they have dominion in their own borders and in their cities, now, while this world stands and those things that are of the world. But when the time of consummation comes, that is sixty-five years, and both the things of the world, which were made in six days, and everything that pertains to the five senses, will have come to an end, then the universe must be dissolved [cf. 2 Pet 3:10]. Pagans and heretics do not believe that this will happen, and on account of unbelief they do not understand what is being said.

13. (7:10–11) And the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, "Seek a sign for yourself from the Lord your God in the depth of the underworld or in the height above."

He had previously spoken to Ahaz through the prophet, "See that you are silent, do not be afraid," [Isa 7:4], and so on. When that man does not believe and therefore does not understand [cf. Isa 7:9], he himself speaks to Ahaz, so that at least when he has been terrified by the Lord's authority, he might receive what is being said. For to you, he says, it seems to be difficult that very powerful kingdoms are to come to an end in a brief moment, and you with your people will be delivered from great danger. Seek for yourself a sign, not from the idols in whose error you are held fast, but from the Lord your God who promises to help you. Now it is a matter of your choice from where you should ask for the very sign, whether from the depth or from the height. Since only the Septuagint said the latter, the others translated it more meaningfully according to the Hebrew, from the depth of the underworld.

Therefore just as depth signifies underworld, so we ought to understand height above as the heavens. Thus when you receive the sign from the world below or from the height, you may believe that what I have said is coming to pass. Do you want the earth to be torn apart, he says, and the lower world to lie wide open with a huge chasm, which is said to be in the heart of the earth [cf. Matt 12:40], or the heavens to be opened [cf. Matt 3:16; Ezek 1:1]?336 Both of these apply as types of the death and ascension of the Lord: "For he who descended is the same who also ascended" [Eph 4:10]. And we read in the Apostle, "Do not say in your heart, who ascends into heaven? That is, to bring Christ down. Or: who descends into the abyss? That is, to bring

Christ back from the dead" [Rom 10:6–7]. And in another passage where he discusses Christ, he says, "What is the breadth and length and height and depth of the surpassing knowledge and love of Christ" [Eph 3:18–19]. This pertains largely to mystical understandings.

However that may be, even Moses received signs from the earth337 concerning which we read in the Psalms, "He sent signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt" [Ps 135:9], frogs,

God of the Old Testament and the Father of Jesus. He posited two deities: a good nonjudgmental God (the Father of Jesus), who is not to be feared, and a just but inferior god

(the Creator of the world, who is the God of the Old Testament and of the Jews), in whom resides the grounds of fear, anger, severity, judgment, vengeance, and condemnation. He repudiated the Old Testament in its entirety, denying that it predicted the coming of Jesus or spoke about the good Father proclaimed by Jesus. He taught his followers that the received form of the New Testament had been corrupted by Judaizing Christians, whom he identifies as the Catholics of his day. His own sect made use of an "dited"collection of Paul' letters and Luke'

Gospel, altered and changed by Marcion.

336 Cf. Jerome

Is Hom

2, 1

(248, 24–49, 16); Bas Is 198 (460D–61A).

337 Cf. Eus Is 44 (47, 6–5).

locusts, stinging insects and the fly; but from heaven [he sent] hail and fire and a three-day darkness [cf. Exod 8–10]. Moreover, I think that Hezekiah received a sign from heaven when the sun went backward by ten lines [cf. 2 Kgs 20:9–11]. So did Jesus son of Nun, when the sun and moon were standing still over Gibeon and Aijalon [cf. Josh 10:12–13]. Most think that Saul received a sign from the earth and from the depth of the underworld when he appeared to have raised Samuel by means of the incantations and magic arts [cf. 1 Sam 28:8–20; Sir 46:20].

Moreover, Jonah the prophet both gave and received a sign of the underworld, when he was liberated from the abyss and from the depth and from the jaws of death [cf. Jonah 2:1–10].

In someone's commentary338 I have read this passage expanded upon allegorically, so that he understood depth and height as αισθητα and νοητα, which we can call sensible and intelligible things, one of which refers to the senses, the other to the mind and reason. The virgin, too, he interprets of the soul, which has been defiled by no awareness of sin, and is capable of producing the word Emmanuel from itself, "God with us," that is, the presence of God. But we do not consume flesh of the lamb boiled but roasted [cf. Exod 12:8–9] and things that can dry up all the juices of the pleasures in us, lest we should neglect the mystery of our faith, while we are more wise than is fitting to be [cf. Rom 12:3].

14. (7:12) And Ahaz said, "I will not ask and I will not tempt the Lord."

It is not from humility but from pride that he does not wish to ask for a sign from the Lord.

For although it is written in Deuteronomy, "You shall not tempt the Lord your God" [Deut

6:16],339 and the Savior used this testimony against the devil [Matt 4:7], nevertheless, when

Ahaz was commanded to ask, he should have obediently fulfilled the command, especially since both Gideon and Manoah sought and received a sign [Judg 6:36–40; 13:8–11]—although according to the ambiguity of the Hebrew expression, in which it is written, ulo enasse adonai, it could be read as "I will not exalt the Lord," everyone translated this in the same way, I will not tempt the Lord. For the impious king knew that if he had asked for a sign, he would have received one, and the Lord would have been glorified. Like a worshiper of idols, therefore, the one who had set up altars on all the street corners and on mountains and in wooded groves [cf.

2 Kgs 16:4; 2 Chr 28:4, 24–25; Ezek 6:13], and who instead of the Levites employed fanatics, does not want to ask for the sign that was commanded.

15. (7:13) And he said, "Listen, therefore, O house of David. Is it a small thing for you to be distressing to men, that you are distressing to my God also?"

Who is the speaker of the words, Listen, therefore, O house of David? Hardly God who had said above to Ahaz, "Ask for a sign for yourself from the Lord your God" [Isa 7:11]. On the contrary it is the prophet, as is proven from what follows: That you are distressing to my God also. And the meaning is that not only do you persecute the prophets and despise their words, but you go against the judgment of God who is present and giving commands. Thus do you

"labor" him, who in another passage says, "I have patiently labored" [Isa 1:14]. On that account the Lord will do what follows. In place of "labor" and "distress," which Aquila and Symmachus translated, the Septuagint and Theodotion have interpreted it "struggle," that is, fight and combat, since they contentiously refuse to submit their neck to the Lord's service, but though

338 Probably Origen' or other Alexandrians'

339 Cf. Bas Is 199 (161A).

he is willing to cure their wounds, they reject his healing. And this should be noted, that while the very impious king Ahaz is unwilling to ask for a sign, the prophetic discourse turns to the house of David, that is, to the royal tribe, of which we have read above, "And they declared these things to the house of David, saying, 'Syria and Ephraim have come to an agreement' "

[Isa 7:2].440

16. (7:14) Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin will conceive and give birth, and you shall call his name Emmanuel.

God will not speak "in many and various ways," according to the Apostle Paul [cf. Heb 1:1]; nor according to another prophet will he be "represented by the hands of the prophets" [cf. Hos

12:10]; but he who previously spoke through others will himself say, "I am here" [Isa 58:9]. The bride in the Song of Songs also asked of him, "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth"

[Song 1:1]. For "the Lord of powers is himself the king of glory" [Ps 24:10]. He himself will descend into a virginal womb and will enter and exit through the eastern gate that is always closed [Ezek 44:1–2].441 Gabriel speaks to the virgin about him, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the holy thing that will be born in you will be called the Son of God" [Luke 1:35]. And in Proverbs it says, "Wisdom will build a house for itself" [Prov 9:1].

Now when it is said, The Lord himself shall give you a sign, this must be something new and amazing. But if, as the Jews think, a young woman or a girl gives birth, and not a virgin, what kind of sign would it be, since this is a term of age, not of integrity? 442 And indeed, let us fight toe to toe with the Jews, and in our tug-of-war let us offer them no occasion for laughter at our ignorance.443 In Hebrew, a virgin is called bethula.444 This word is not used in the present

440 Cf. Eus Is 44 (47, 25–9).

441 This passage in Ezekiel was first applied to the doctrine of Virginitas in Partu of the Virgin

Mary (the preservation of Mary' virginity during the birth of Jesus) by St. Ambrose, De institutione virginum. See Luigi Gambero, SM, Mary and the Fathers of the Church: The Blessed

Virgin Mary in Patristic Thought, trans. Thomas Buffer (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1999).

442 This same argument is used by Justin,

Dial

84.1–

; Irenaeus,

Haer

3.21.6

; Tertullian,

Marc

3.13.5; Jud

9.8

; Origen,

Cels

1.35

443 Cf. Bas Is 201 (464A–); Jerome,

Jov

1, 32

; q (29, 1–0, 4); Hebrew Questions on Genesis (24.43).

444 For a discussion of Jerome' exegesis of this passage, see C. Rico, La Mère de l'nfant-Roi.'lmah et parthenos dans l'nivers de la Bible: un point de vue linguistique (Paris: Editions du Cerf,

2013). Rico contends that Jerome' understanding of the linguistic meaning of almah is basically correct, even if the arguments he produces are to be reset within the framework of his time and could not be held today in the same way from a linguistic point of view. A. Kamesar, "The Virgin

Birth of Isaiah 7:14: The Philological Argument from the Second to the Fifth Century,"JTS 41, no.

1 (1990): 51–5 (62–5), commends the "onsiderable philological acumen"employed by Jerome in this section. Likewise, C. T. R. Hayward, Saint Jerome' Hebrew Questions on Genesis (Oxford:

Clarendon, 1995), 186, summarizes Jerome' discussion of the meaning of alma as follows: "n all this, his arguments are philological, and are based on the Hebrew text of Scripture: Jerome does not resort to what was perhaps the most famous Christian defense for understanding 'oung

passage, but instead alma is recorded, which everyone except the Septuagint translated as "young girl." Moreover, among them alma is an ambiguous word, for it is used both of "young girl" and of one who is "hidden," that is αποκρυφος.445 This is why even in the heading of the ninth Psalm, where in Hebrew almanoth is recorded, the other translators rendered it, "for the youth," which the Septuagint translated, "for the hidden things" [cf. Ps 9:1]. And we read in Genesis, where Rebecca is called alma [cf. Gen 24:16, 43], that Aquila translated it neither as "young girl" nor "girl," but "hidden." The Shunammite woman too who had lost her son, when she prostrated herself at Elisha's feet and Gehazi thrust her away, heard from the prophet,

"Dismiss her, for she is in grief, and the Lord has hidden from me" [2 Kgs 4:27]. What is said in Latin as, "has hidden from me," is written in Hebrew as, eelim memmenni. Therefore alma is said not only of a "girl" or a "virgin," but has an extension (cum επιτασει) of a "hidden" and "secret" virgin, who has never been exposed to the sight of men, but who has been guarded by her parents with great diligence.446 In the Punic language too, which is derived from Hebrew sources, alma is said of a virgin proper.447 And that we might offer an occasion for laughter to the Jews, in our speech too alma means "holy."448 The Hebrews use words from nearly all languages; for example, there is that word in the Song of Songs [cf. Song 3:9] from Greek, φοριον, that is, the "litter Solomon made for himself," which we read thus also in the woman'in Isa 7:14 as 'irgin,'the claim of Fathers like Irenaeus (Adv. Haer

. 3.21.15

.) that the Jews had falsified the text."

445 Kamesar, "he Virgin of Isaiah 7:14,"63n41 writes, "hen Jerome says in Comm. in Is. that almah is 'mbiguum' he does not mean that it means adolescentula [young girl] only or abscondita [hidden] only. He means rather that it involves the concepts inherent in both words, and can be translated by either word."

446 Kamesar, ibid., 63–5, comments, "he presbyter [Jerome] skillfully refutes the objection according to which almah does not mean virgin by claiming that it entails 'ore than virginity.' "Kamesar thinks that Jerome' original contribution was inspired by both rabbinic technique and Christian exegetical tradition. Jerome' methods of reasoning are typical in rabbinic biblical interpretation. Kamesar further observes that this type of exposition was particularly suited to the Hebrew language, since in Hebrew only consonants are represented in written form and many different words may be derived from a common three-consonant root.

"herefore, connections between different words having the same or a similar consonantal root offer themselves in abundance."Kamesar concludes that Jerome' interpretation "s no more fanciful than similar interpretations offered by rabbinic exegetes, and will have constituted a legitimate argument in the contemporary Christian-Jewish debate concerning Isa. 7:14."

447 Ibid., 69, says that there is not sufficient information to verify (or dismiss) Jerome' claim here. Jerome also employs Punic to shed light on Hebrew in Hebrew Questions on Genesis

36:24.

448 Jerome is considering the possibility that the Hebrew almah is a loanword from the Latin adjective almus-a-um, which can connote "oly."Kamesar, ibid., 71, summarizes the reasoning to which Jerome seems to be alluding here: "f almah = alma, then almah implies virginity, since alma = sancta, and sancta implies virginity."

Hebrew.449 In the same manner and with the same meanings, the Hebrews also use the words nonsense550 and measure.551 And the more I struggle to remember, the more I think that I have never read alma used in reference to a married woman, but in reference to one who is a virgin.

Consequently, she is not only a virgin, but a virgin of younger age and in the years of her youth.

For it can happen that a virgin is old. But this virgin was in the years of her girlhood, or at least a virgin, not a girl, and she was one who was not able to know a man yet, but was already marriageable. Finally, even in Deuteronomy a virgin is understood by the term girl and young girl. It says, If a man finds in the field a girl that is betrothed, and overcoming her by force he sleeps with her, you will kill only the man who lay with her, and you will do nothing to the girl; in the young girl there is no sin [worthy] of death. For just as if someone rises up against his neighbor and takes his life, so does this business come to pass. He found her in the field; the betrothed girl cried out, and no one was found to help her. [Deut 22:25–27]

And we read in the Book of Kings that they sought a virgin girl by the name of Abishag and brought her in to the king, who slept and kept him warm; and the girl was exceedingly beautiful and was serving him, and the king did not know her [cf. 1 Kgs 1:1–4].

And what follows, And you552 shall call his name Emmanuel, both the Septuagint and the three others have translated similarly. In Matthew this is written as, "They shall call" [cf. Matt

1:23], which is not found in the Hebrew. Therefore let that child who will be born of a virgin, O house of David, now be called by you Emmanuel, that is, God with us, since by these facts you will prove that you have God present, having been delivered from the two hostile kings [cf. Isa

7:1]. And let him who will later be called Jesus, that is, Savior, in view of the fact that the whole human race will be saved, now be called by you by the designation Emmanuel. The verb carathi, which all have translated "you553 will call," can be understood as "she will call," namely because the virgin herself, who will conceive and give birth, will designate Christ by this name. One should pay very careful attention to the fact that in many testimonies that the evangelists or apostles have adopted from the old books, they did not follow the order of the words but the meaning. This is why even in the present passage, in place of, she will conceive in the womb,

449 The majority of modern commentators concur with Jerome' claim that the Greek φορεῖον underlies the Hebrew אפריון in Song 3:9. Cf. Kamesar, ibid., 70.

550 Jerome is attempting to explain the Hebrew word נוגי of Zeph 3:18 via the Latin nugae

(nonsense) by simply transliterating the word into Latin. Cf. Jerome, Comm in Soph 3:14–8.

Kamesar, ibid., 69, claims that Hebrew text in Zeph 3:18 is corrupt.

551 Here Jerome is associating the rare Hebrew word משורה with mensura (measure) by means of transliteration and a slightly different orthography (messura). Kamesar, ibid., 70, writes, "hese interpretations based on Latin usage are quite fanciful, but it is a credit to Jerome' philological erudition that he was aware of such rare Hebrew words and that he attempted to come to terms with them through appeal to the concept of loan-words."

552 Singular.

553 Singular.

Matthew recorded, "She will have in the womb" [Matt 1:23]; and in place of, you will call, "they will call."

The Hebrews think this is prophesied about Hezekiah son of Ahaz, because Samaria was captured when he was ruling. This cannot be completely proven, if indeed Ahaz son of Jotham reigned over Judah and Jerusalem for sixteen years [cf. 2 Kgs 16:1–2]. His son Hezekiah succeeded him in the kingdom at the age of twenty-five years and reigned over Judah and Jerusalem for twenty-nine [cf. 2 Kgs 18:1–2]. How then, granting that this prophecy was made to Ahaz in his first year, is there talk of the conception and birth of Hezekiah, when at that time when Ahaz began to reign, Hezekiah was already nine years old, unless perchance they say that the sixth year of Hezekiah's rule [cf. 2 Kgs 18:10] when Samaria was captured was called his infancy not in terms of his age but of his rule? It is plain even to fools that this is a forced and violent interpretation.

Some of our own contend that Isaiah the prophet had two sons, Jashub and Emmanuel; and Emmanuel was born from his wife, a prophetess [cf. Isa 8:3], as a type of the Lord and Savior, so that the first son Jashub [cf. Isa 7:3], which means "abandoned" or "turning," signifies the Jewish people, who were abandoned, and afterward will return; but the second, that is

Emmanuel and God with us, [signifies] the calling of the Gentiles, after "the Word became flesh and dwelled among us" [John 1:14].

17. (7:15) He will eat butter and honey that he may know to reject evil and to choose the good. The Septuagint translated this as, "before he knows"; and what follows, "to adopt evil," is not found in the Hebrew.

And the meaning is, O house of David, you whom the word of God commands to call, that is, invoke the name of Emmanuel [cf. Isa 7:14], that is, God with us; when you find yourself in danger, you should not marvel at the novelty of the thing, if a virgin gives birth to God, who has such great authority that when he will be born after a very long time, he will deliver you now when he is invoked; for it is he who was seen by Abraham [cf. John 8:56] and who spoke with Moses [cf. John 5:46]. Let me say something else even more wonderful, lest you think that he will be born as a phantasm.554 He will make use of an infant's food: he will eat butter and milk.

And although the evangelist testifies about him after many ages, "But the boy grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men" [Luke 2:52], and let this be said to prove the truth of his human body; nevertheless, while still wrapped in swaddling clothes and fed with butter and honey, he will have the judgment of good and evil, so that by rejecting evil he might choose the good. It is not that he will do either of these, reject or choose, but that he will know to reject and to choose. Consequently, we recognize through these words that the infancy of his human body was not prejudicial to his divine wisdom.555 After all, the angels announce to the shepherds the one lying in a manger [cf. Luke 2:7, 12]; the magi who come from the East worship [cf. Matt 2:1–12]. Assuredly one must believe that they were also chosen. And on the other hand, Herod, the scribes and the Pharisees are rejected, who slaughtered many

554 Cf. Eus Is 44 (50, 5–5).

555 I believe that Jerome' defense of Christ' omniscience is directed against Eunomius and the Arian interpretation. See my introduction to Jerome' Commentary on Matthew, FOTC 117

(Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2008).

thousands of children for the sake of one infant [Matt 2:16].

18. (7:16) For before the child knows to reject evil and to choose the good, the land which you detest will be forsaken from the face of her two kings.

In the sixth year of the reign of Hezekiah, Samaria was captured by the Assyrians [cf. 2 Kgs

18:2, 10], that is, in the thirty-first year of his life. And so, if that one who is to be born, either from a virgin, as we propose, or from a young girl, as the Jews think, will eat butter and honey

[cf. Isa 7:15] and will be so small that he is not capable of discerning evil from good, and before that one departs from the time of his infancy, the land of Syria and Samaria has to be devastated by the Assyrians, let the Hebrews answer how Hezekiah is proclaimed to be a tiny infant at thirty-one years of age, and of such a raw age that while eating honey and butter, he knows neither his left nor right hand, after the manner of the children of Nineveh [cf. Jonah

4:11], that is, neither evil nor good. But when the passage is applied to Emmanuel, which means

"God with us," the understanding of this will be easy, that for the mystery and invocation of his name, the land of Syria and Samaria will be devastated, while Assyria has the upper hand; and the house of David will be delivered from the two kings whom it feared, namely Rezin and Pekah.

19. (7:17) The Lord will bring upon you, and upon your people, and upon the house of your father days that have not come since the days of the separation of Ephraim from Judah with the king of the Assyrians.

This passage ought to be read as a hyperbaton.556 After all, even we who have followed the Hebrew truth have translated it thus [cf. Isa 7:13, 16]: O house of David, heed what I say! In order that the land of Syria and Samaria be forsaken from before the two kings whom you dread very greatly, the Lord will bring days upon you and upon the house of your father David, which you have never had since the time when the ten tribes were separated from the two tribes and began to have a kingdom in Samaria; but he will bring those days, that is, times, with the king of the Assyrians, so that when they have been overcome and destroyed, you will be delivered by the presence of Emmanuel.

The Septuagint translated this passage as follows: "The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon the house of your father days that have not yet come from the day on which Ephraim took away from Judah the king of the Assyrians." We cannot comprehend what meaning this has, unless perchance one should say this, that by the magnitude of their sins,

Ephraim, that is, Samaria caused the first attack of the Assyrians to be deflected to itself. Here is another interpretation: Now for the time being, two kings Rezin and Pekah who are besieging you and hastening to destroy you; in a short time they will be destroyed. But that time of your devastation will come, when the Assyrian will have come, that which you had never expected, or rather, had never feared. Through this he is showing the house of David that it is not Syria and Samaria but the Assyrians who are the ones to be feared. Thus he frees [them] from the present fear and threatens them concerning a future time.

20. (7:18–19) And it will be in that day, that the Lord will whistle for the fly which is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee which is in the land of Assyria. (19) And they will come, and will all rest in the torrents of the valleys and in the holes of the rocks and in 556 Confusion or transposition in the order of the words.

all the bushes and in all hollow places.

When the land of the two kings is deserted, Damascus and Samaria, a land that you now detest and fear [cf. Isa 7:16–17], then, O house of Judah, the Lord will bring upon you and your people days that you never saw before, and the king of the Assyrians [cf. Isa 7:4]. In vain therefore do you fear the present things, the half-burned firebrands and those who do not have fire completely; for you ought to know that the Lord by his whistle will summon the "flies" of Egypt and its rivers, doubtless signifying the seven διωρυγας557 of the Nile; and [he will summon] the bee which is in the land of Assyria. Now he calls the Egyptians "flies" on account of the filth of their idolatry and their being a people unfit for war. 558 He calls the Assyrians a bee since at that time its kingdom was extremely powerful and most ready for war, or on account of the fact that practically the entire region of the Assyrians and of Persia makes use of arrows.

Therefore they will all come and occupy your land in the torrents of the valleys and the openings of the rocks and in all the bushes, hollow places and woody groves. But these things are said metaphorically, in order that, since he had once named "flies" and bees, he could preserve the comparison in respect to the rest. Let us read the books of Kings and Chronicles 559 and we will discover that the holy King Josiah was killed by the Egyptians and the people of Israel were subjugated to Egyptian authority, so that it set up a king over them [cf. 2 Kgs 23:29,

34; 2 Chr 35:20–24; 36:4.].660 And after not much time Nebuchadnezzar came with a countless multitude of warriors, and when he captured Jerusalem and destroyed the other cities of Judea, he set fire to the temple and appointed Assyrian inhabitants in Judea [cf. 2 Kgs 24:11–16].

21. (7:20) In that day the Lord will shave with a hired razor the head and the hairs of the feet, and the whole beard, by those who are beyond the river, by the king of the Assyrians.

Some661 think that these things are prophesied about the Assyrians who possessed the kingdoms of Asia, Egypt, and Libya thirteen hundred years before they destroyed Jerusalem, that they would be conquered by the Medes and Persians, and that their empire would be destroyed. But others think that the Egyptians were to be cut down on the other side of the Euphrates river. But we think that the razor hired for a wage is the Assyrian himself, whom he even calls his own dove in Jeremiah on account of the vengeance of the sinful people [cf. Jer

25:38; 50:16]. After all, even in the vision of Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar had labored very much at destroying fortifications and piling up ramps, and while they were fleeing with their fleet, he had been a private citizen for a wage. For this reason Egypt was given to him as the wage for his labor [cf. Ezek 28:1–19; 29:18–20]. Therefore, by this extremely sharp razor and by those who dwell on the other side of the Euphrates river, namely, by the Assyrian king, the Lord will shave from Judea all the hairs and strands of the entire body, from the head to the feet, and the charming beard, which is a sign of virility. Consequently nothing strong, nothing beautiful remains in it, but they will be likened to effeminate men, or rather to ignominious women.

22. (7:21–25) And it will be on that day a man will raise a young cow and two sheep. (22)

557 Trenches, canals.

558 Cf. Eus Is 45 (50, 31–2, 2).

559 Paralipomenon.

660 Cf. Eus Is 45 (51, 13–0).

661 Cf. ibid. (51, 32–2, 25).

And because of the abundance of milk he will eat butter; for butter and honey will every one eat who will be left in the midst of the land. (23) And it will be on that day that every place where there were a thousand vines for a thousand pieces of silver will become both thorns and briers. (24) With bow and arrows they will go in there; for briers and thorns will be in all the land. (25) And all the mountains that will be raked with a rake, the fear of thorns and briers will not come there, and it will be for the ox to feed on, and the livestock to tread upon.

After the overthrow of Jerusalem and the captivity of the people and the burning of the temple, Nebuzaradan captain of the army, whom the Septuagint calls αρχιμαγειρον [chief cook], left a few poor people in the land, who were to cultivate vineyards and fields [cf. 2 Kgs

25:8, 11–12].662 Finally Gedaliah, who had been appointed as a survivor from the royal family, exhorts them and says, "Do not be afraid of the Chaldeans; dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon and it will be well with you" [2 Kgs 25:24]. On that day, therefore, that is at that time when all the wealth of the Jews will have been transferred to Chaldea, there will be such a great desolation of the land of Judea and a devastation so unbelievable that they have no herds of oxen or flocks of sheep, as they were accustomed to have previously; but scarcely a rare inhabitant would be able to raise a cow and two sheep, not for plowing, but for food and clothing, for milk and wool. For on account of the lack of grain and of everything that the earth produces for consumption, they will feed on milk, butter, and wild honey. And what he says,

And because of the abundance of milk he will eat butter, this signifies that the land would be more fertile for the lack of cultivators and more suitable for grazing. At that time, owing to the scarcity of men, there will be such great lack of wine from the deserted vineyards that will not be pruned out of fear of the enemy, that individual vines are hardly purchased for single shekels of silver. For the entire land will be reduced to briers and thorns, and the sense of dread of savage swords everywhere will be so great that no one dares to inspect his own field without his bow and arrows, and with the flatlands abandoned they flee to the mountains and there, protected by the difficulty of the place, they scarcely dig the harsh mountains by hand because the oxen will not have plows and plowshares. If, therefore, a rare cultivator will be found on the mountains anywhere, they will endure a wretched life there. Grazing animals are exposed to other things, however, and without anyone to guard them from the wild beasts they will be trampled. Would that we did not know that these things customarily happen after a captivity!

But now a great part of the formerly Roman world is like Judea, which we think happened apart from the wrath of God, who avenges his own contempt not through the Assyrians and Chaldeans, but through fierce nations and those formerly unknown to us. Their visage and speech are frightful, their females display engraved faces, and they stab the fleeing backs of men and of very old men.663

I know that I have read a very extensive and complex tropology on these passages,664 which claims that everything that we have explained according to history happened to the Jews

662 Cf. ibid., 47 (53, 6–2).

663 Presumably Jerome is referring to the devastation of regions of the Roman Empire by barbarian hordes that occurred within his own lifetime, culminating in the invasion of Italy by the Goths under Alaric in 410–11.

664 Cf. Eus Is 47 (53, 19–4, 14).

spiritually, to those who hardly have one cow and two sheep, that is to say, clean animals, so that they do not feed on solid food but on the milk of infancy [cf. Heb 5:12–13]. Moreover they eat the honey of words that drip from the lips of a loose woman [cf. Prov 5:3], and they do not have the wine that gives joy to the heart of man [cf. Ps 104:15]. Instead, all their works are reduced to thorns, so that they are wounded by their adversaries, who shoot in the dark at the upright in heart [cf. Ps 11:2]. But if at some time they want to think something more lofty [cf.

Rom 11:20] and by the effort of extreme labor over the Holy Scriptures to discover something mystical, nevertheless they do not bear fruit, but they are filled with briers and thorns that rise in the hands of the drunkard [cf. Prov 26:9]; and their land and teaching [are] not from human beings, the rational animal, but from oxen, for whom God does not care [cf. 1 Cor 9:9], and it is trampled by wild animals.

23. (8:1–4) And the Lord said to me, "Take to yourself a large book and write in it with a man's pen: 'Take away the spoils with speed, plunder quickly.' " (2) And I provided myself with faithful witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, (3) and I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said to me, "Call his name, 'Be swift to take away the spoils, hasten to plunder,' (4) for before the child knows how to call his own father and mother, the strength of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of the Assyrians." The Septuagint translated large book as "great new book," and in place of what the Hebrew has, I provided myself with faithful witnesses, it said, "For it is near at hand, and make me faithful witnesses"; and in place of Uriah the priest, it has only "Uriah."

The rest is similar.

First the prophet was sent to Ahaz to foretell to him what the Scripture records [cf. Isa 7:3–

9]. When he refuses to listen, the Lord himself speaks to Ahaz and commands him to ask for a sign for himself in the depth or on high [cf. Isa 7:10–11]. When he responds, "I will not seek and tempt the Lord" [Isa 7:12], the impious king is dismissed and God's words are turned to the house of David, and a virgin is promised to it who will give birth to a son whose name would be

Emmanuel, that is, God with us [cf. Isa 7:13–14]. If he will be frequently called upon, Samaria and Syria would be overthrown, but it is overthrown by the king of the Assyrians who would later take captive even Judah itself, so that the whole land of Judea is turned into a desolation

[cf. Isa 7:16–25]. Therefore, once again, under a different figure, the virgin birth is being described.665 And the Lord told the prophet not to publish among the people the secret of the new birth, but to write it in this large book that we are now reading and, what is more remarkable, to summarize God's mysteries with human words and with a pen with which men have been accustomed to write. Now what is it that is written with a human pen? That the child born takes away the spoils with speed and plunders quickly, that is, so that the devil may not be allowed to rule any longer. And he does not send angels and prophets, but he himself comes down to save his own creatures. The prophet therefore does what has been ordered and provides himself with two faithful witnesses, Uriah the priest, who is a teacher of the law, as Malachi says, "The lips of the priest guard knowledge, and they will seek the law from his mouth, because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts" [Mal 2:7]; and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah, who doubtless was a prophet. We read that while Ahaz was ruling, Uriah was the 665 Cf. ibid., 48 (54, 28–5, 3).

priest of the Lord's temple whom Ahaz commanded to make an altar similar to the altar of Damascus [cf. 2 Kgs 16:10–16].666 And the Book of Days reports that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz sought the Lord in the days of Zechariah, who was brought up in the fear of God [cf. 2 Chr

26:5].667 Now Isaiah has shown himself to be worthy of the prophetic spirit and he has yielded to the prophetess, that is to the Holy Spirit, who in the Hebrew language is spoken of in the feminine gender, Ruha, according to what is written, "Draw near to the Lord and be enlightened" [Ps 34:5].668 And so the Lord was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and although human speech is not capable of unfolding the mysteries of his birth, nevertheless Gabriel says to the very virgin who conceived, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the holy thing that will be born from you will be called the son of God" [Luke 1:35]. Some interpret Mary as the holy prophetess, and doubtless she was a prophetess, for she herself says in the Gospel, "For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed, since he who is mighty has done great things for me" [Luke 1:48–49], and so on.

And Isaiah is now ordered to name the very child who was first called Emmanuel: Be swift to take away the spoils, hasten to plunder; for "ascending on high he led captivity captive, he received gifts among men" [cf. Ps 68:18; Eph 4:8]. And before he assumed a human body and in accordance with his infancy called God father and Mary mother, the strength of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be removed by the king of the Assyrians. Thus the one not yet born saved his own people, the house of David, solely by being called upon.669 Uriah means "light of the Lord," Zechariah "memory of the Lord," Jeberechiah "blessing of the Lord." Through these witnesses the birth of Christ is verified. For in the Gospel, when the two were going to Emmaus, he himself, beginning with Moses and the prophets, explained everything that they had predicted about him [cf. Luke 24:13, 27].

According to tropology this takes place in a virginal soul and one stained by no defilement.

The word of God concerning the Holy Spirit, when conceived with speed, takes away the spoils from the hostile powers, and it makes everything serve himself. And when it now "sees in part" and "prophesies in part," before it can be "perfect" [cf. 1 Cor 13:9, 10] and deservedly calls God father and the heavenly Jerusalem its mother [cf. Gal 4:26; Heb 12:22], still placed in infancy and in a state of progress, it will conquer the strength of Damascus, namely the teaching of secular wisdom, and it will remove the spoils of Samaria, by which heretics have despoiled the church, saying, "We have no part with David nor an inheritance with the son of Jesse" [2 Sam

20:1]. Meanwhile the very king of the Assyrians, the devil, is present, who will not be able to help them. Now not only does Mary, a perpetual virgin, generate such sons for the prophets, but so do the holy women for the patriarchs, Sarah, which is interpreted αρχουσα, that is,

"ruler," and Rebekah, which in our language expresses "patience."

24. (8:5–8) And the Lord spoke to me again, saying, (6) Because this people has cast away the waters of Shiloah, that go with silence, and has rather adopted Rezin and the son of Remaliah, (7) therefore behold, the Lord will bring upon them the strong and abundant waters

666 Cf. ibid., 48 (55.10–4).

667 The passage concerns King Uzziah. Jerome' error proceeds from Eusebius.

668 Cf. Bas Is 208 (477B).

669 Cf. ibid., 207 (476CD)

of the river, the king of the Assyrians, and all his glory, and he will come up over all his channels, and will overflow all his banks, (8) and he will pass through Judah, overflowing and going over; he will reach even to the neck, and there will be a stretching out of his wings, filling the breadth of your land, O Emmanuel.

He had said above that the strength of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria are to be removed in the presence of the king of the Assyrians [cf. Isa 8:4], and two kings are to be captured in the war with Assyria. Now God speaks to the prophet with the accustomed manner of the Scriptures, by means of a comparison to Shiloah, the spring of Jerusalem, and to Assyria's most powerful river, which floods the whole land of Israel with its waters and comes out of the banks of its riverbed, and is borne along with such great force that after it has occupied the land of the ten tribes, it reaches Judah and passes through and reaches even up to the neck. By this means he indicates the approaching captivity, for Judah was not captive at that time, but Jerusalem remained alone, with all the cities of the two tribes having been subjugated. She was delivered by the incredible mercy of God. Therefore, through another comparison he now shows the power of Assyria and of its innumerable army, which [power] he had described as the flooding of a river. He says that with its wings, that is, leaders, and with its infinite multitude, it has covered the land of Emmanuel, that is [the land] of the God who defends it, but nevertheless it has not taken possession, although in the following section, the Septuagint adapts Emmanuel not to a proper name, as it is called among the Hebrews, but to its translated meaning, that is, "God with us." Now we especially who live in this region cannot doubt that Shiloah is a spring at the foot of Mount Zion. It bubbles up not with perennial waters, but at certain hours and days, and with a great roar it passes through the deep places of the lands and the caves of very hard rock. But this is the meaning: because the people of the ten tribes preferred to be subject to Rezin and to the son of Remaliah, that is, to the kings of Damascus and Samaria, than to the offspring of David, which began to rule by my decision, I will make that people serve not those kings whom they have adopted, but the Assyrian king, whose power is compared to the flooding of a river that occupies the land of Samaria. And he makes an apostrophe770 to Emmanuel, that is, to God who is present, that the Assyrian has roused himself to such an extent that he tried to take possession even of that one's land of Judah.

Anagogically, every heretic who by his own assistance has linked secular wisdom and Jerusalem, that is, the church, wants to attack. He abandons the waters of the spring of Shiloah, which means "sent" [cf. John 9:7], and which springs up to eternal life [cf. John 4:14]. He will be handed over to the ruler of the Assyrians, which we will read about later on as "great meaning"

[Isa 10:12].771 Handed over to his power, he will come to the depth of sins. For he possesses such great pride that he dared to show the Savior all the kingdoms of the earth and to say, "All these have been handed over to me" [cf. Luke 4:5–6]. He will also try to enter Judah, that is, the "house of confession," and repeatedly, through those who are negligent in the church, will come up to the neck, desiring to drown those who believe in Christ. He stretches forth his wings, filling the whole region of Emmanuel, but he will not be able to take possession of it, because

Judah has the presence of God.

770 See bk. 1, n. 50.

771 Cf. Bas Is 209 (481A).

We read in the Gospel according to John that the man blind from birth, whose sight the Lord had restored with mud made from his own saliva, was sent to the waters of Shiloah. When the blind man had washed off the mud in them, his blindness was wiped away and he received the clear light of the eyes [cf. John 9:1, 6, 7]. In addition to the greatness of the sign, this indicates that the blindness of the Jews and of every unbeliever is able to be healed in no other way except by means of the doctrine of the waters of Christ. They flow gently without the rattle and roar of words, and they put to flight the darkness of previous errors.

What is read in the Septuagint, "And he will walk over every wall of yours, and he will take away from Judea the man who will perhaps be able to lift up his head or be able to do anything," is not found in the Hebrew, and in the Greek manuscripts has been marked by an obelus.772

25. (8:9–10) Gather yourselves together, O ye people, and be overcome, and give ear, all you lands afar off, and strengthen yourselves, and be overcome, gird yourselves, and be overcome;

(10) take counsel, and it will be dissipated, speak a word, and it will not be done, because God is with us. In place of gather yourselves together, or "be weakened" and "be shattered," as the others have translated, the Septuagint recorded, "Know." For they understood the Hebrew word rohu as dou, on account of the similarity of the letter res and daleth.

Therefore, O you people of Samaria and Syria, know that you are infirm and weak and are capable of nothing against Jerusalem, the city of God, while Emmanuel is present; and not only you who are near should know this, but let all the land far off know it. For although you should gather an army and gird yourselves for battle, and though there may be a greater number of besiegers than besieged, nevertheless not once but again I will say be overcome, and whatever counsel you will take against Jerusalem, it will be dissipated; and although you said above: "Let us go up to Judah and rouse it while it rests, and let us appoint a king over it, the son of Tabeel"

[Isa 7:6], you speak the word, to be sure, but it will not be done, because God is with us, that is,

Emmanuel.

We can use this testimony also against the nations in times of persecution, that although they appear to be strong and to overcome us in those who have lapsed, nevertheless they will be overcome in those who have poured out their blood on Christ's behalf, and because after the wars peace is restored to the churches and all their counsels against Emmanuel are dissipated, because God is with us. Those who speak against the truth will also beneficially give ear, so that they may at least be overcome by reason and will not want to overcome be means of lying, since whatever they will have said, perversity will never be able to overcome what is right.

26. (8:11–15) For thus says the Lord to me, as he has taught me, with a strong hand, that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, (12) do not say, "a conspiracy"—for all that this people speaks is a conspiracy—neither fear their fear, nor be afraid. (13) Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. (14) And he will be for sanctification to you, but for a stone of offense, and for a rock of stumbling to the two houses of Israel, for a snare and a ruin to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, (15) and very many of them will stumble and fall and will be broken in pieces and will be ensnared and captured.

772 Lit., "tabbed with a slaying dart."The obelus was a critical sign on the margin in Origen'

Hexapla used to mark passages of doubtful authenticity. Cf. Jerome,

Ep.

106.7

The Septuagint translated this passage as follows:

Thus says the Lord, With a strong hand they have withdrawn from the course of the way of this people, saying, (12) Lest perhaps they should say, "It is hard"; for everything that this people says is hard. But do not fear their fear, neither be disturbed; (13) sanctify the Lord of powers himself, and he will be your fear, (14) and if you will trust in him, he will be for sanctification to you; and you will not come against [him] as against a stone of offense, neither as against the falling of a rock. But the house of Jacob will be in a snare and in a pit for the dwellers in Jerusalem; (15) therefore very many among them will be weak in themselves and will fall and be crushed; and they will draw near and be captured.

But what follows, "men in security," should be marked with an obelus. Since there are significant differences between the Hebrew and the common (vulgata) edition, we have recorded both.

And one should first conduct a discussion of the Hebrew. The Lord spoke these things to me, who because of good works and the grace that I have attained through good works, either taught me with his own strong hand and instructed that I should not walk in the way of this people and be held fast in the same error, or at least caused me to withdraw from the evil way of this people and said to me, Do not fear the conspiracy of the two kings, but consider this instead, that everything that this people says against me is a conspiracy, and, according to Symmachus, who translated as ανταρσιν, "a treasonous enemy (perduellis) has risen up against me." But you, prophet, and those who are with you, do not fear the treachery of the people, but fear the Lord, and let him be your fear. For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom [cf. Ps 111:10; Prov 1:7];773 he will be for sanctification for believers, but for unbelievers, namely for the two houses of Judah and Israel, he will be a "stone of offense" and a rock of stumbling—but especially for a snare and a source of ruin for those who live in Jerusalem, in which very many will dash and fall and be crushed, and having been ensnared in the chains of their own sins, they will be led into captivity.

The Nazarenes,774 who receive Christ in such a way that they do not set aside the observation of the old law, interpret the two houses as the two families of Shimmei and Hillel. 775

773 Cf. Eus Is 51 (58, 13).

774 The Nazarenes were a second-century sect first mentioned by Epiphanius, Pan 29, who distinguishes Jewish and Christian branches. Cf. Jerome,

Vir Ill

3 . In an important and relevant article, A. F. J. Klijn, "Jerome' Quotations from a Nazorean Interpretation of Isaiah,"Recherches de Science Religieuse 60 (1972): 241–5, concludes that the text used by the Nazorean interpretation presupposes knowledge of Hebrew, and shows agreement with the Targum and Symmachus, which points to acquaintance with Jewish exegetical traditions.

775 Hillel the Elder (ca. 60 BC–D 20) was one of the greatest Jewish teachers of the time, a contemporary of Herod and Jesus. In rabbinic tradition, he is compared with Moses and Ezra.

Gamaliel I, teacher of St. Paul, was his grandson, and his pupil Yohanan ben Zakkai (Johannan son of Zaccheus) is credited with preserving Judaism after the destruction of AD 70. Cf. Jerome,

Ep.

121.10

From these families the scribes and Pharisees arose. Akiba776 took over their school, whom they assert was the teacher of Aquila the proselyte. After him came Machir, whom Johannan son of Zaccheus succeeded;777 and after him came Eliezer, and in order Thelphon, Joseph the Galilean, and Joshua up to the captivity of Jerusalem. Shimmei and Hillel therefore arose in Judea not long before the Lord was born. The former name means "destroyer," the latter "profane," because he destroyed and defiled the precepts of the law by his own traditions [cf. Matt 15:3], and δευτερωσεις;778 and these are the two houses that did not receive the Savior, who was made a ruin and a stumbling block to them.

According to the Septuagint, the Lord's people resist his will "with a strong hand" and say that everything that the Lord commands is "hard," in accordance with what we read in the Gospel: "These words are hard, who can listen to them?" [John 6:61].779 This is why they are commanded to "heed the Lord" and "fear him" alone; for if they "will have placed their trust in him," they will have him as "sanctification" and they will not dash as against a "stone of stumbling" and as against a "rock of ruin." And from this passage also the apostle derives the testimony that Christ became a stumbling block to the Jews, but folly to the Gentiles [cf. 1 Cor

1:23];880 and again: "Israel, by pursuing a law of justice has not attained to the law of justice.

Why? Because not from faith but as if from works of the law they stumbled against the stone of offense and the rock of stumbling; all who will have believed in him will not be disappointed"

[Rom 9:31–33]. Therefore, because they did not receive Emmanuel, but he was made to them into a stone of offense and a rock of scandal, they will be crushed and led away as captives. And what he says, "But the house of Jacob [will be] in a snare and in a pit for the dwellers in Jerusalem," this means that they do not live on the mountains or linger in the high places of the Scriptures, but always understand low things, joining sins to sins, and they are locked up in the "snares" of transgressions.

27. (8:16–17) Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples, (17) and I will wait for the Lord, who has hid his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.

The voice of God is speaking to the prophet: because, he says, the Lord has been made into a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling for the two houses of Israel [cf. Isa 8:14], and because they refused to receive Emmanuel when he was sent to them, bind up the testimonies of the Old Testament (instrumenti) and hand them over to my disciples who have received the gospel, namely to the apostles or to apostolic men; or at least, among them the law and prophecy is bound until John [cf. Matt 11:13] and closed and "sealed," so that they do not understand what they read; for because of the ambiguity of the Hebrew language, we can also translate disciples

776 Akiba (ca. 50–35AD) was a Jewish teacher, extremely poor in youth, who became one of the greatest teachers in Israel. He attributed value to every detail of Scripture, even particular spellings. He died a martyr for continuing to teach the Torah despite Roman prohibitions. See L.

Finkelstein, Akiva, Scholar, Saint and Martyr (New York: 1936).

777 Johanan, pupil of Hillel, is credited with preserving Judaism after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

778 See n. above at 2.17.

779 Cf. Bas Is 213 (485D).

880 Cf. Eus Is 51 (59, 7–); cf. Bas Is 214 (489C).

as "doctrines." This is why the prophet responded: because the law was closed and sealed among the Jews when the gospel succeeded it, and you are commanding it to be unsealed not for the Jews but for the Gentiles, therefore I will wait for Emmanuel whom you promise will come. You spoke of him above, that he himself ought to be our fear and dread and for sanctification for us [cf. Isa 8:13–14]. And I will look for the Lord who has hidden his face from the house of Jacob, that is, from the Jews, since they refused to receive him.

The Septuagint translated this passage as follows: "Then shall those who are sealed be made manifest so that they do not learn the law," which has this meaning: when very many will have fallen and been crushed and dashed against the stone of offense and the rock of stumbling

[cf. Isa 8:15], then those who will be sealed among the people will be made manifest, so that they do not learn the law of Moses, but obey the precepts of the Gospels.

28. (8:18) Behold I and the children whom the Lord has given to me as Israel's signs and wonders from the Lord of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion.

The Lord has instructed me, he says, to bind up the testimony [cf. Isa 8:17] among the Jews and hand over and seal the law to his disciples, who had hidden their face from the house of Jacob; therefore I will look for him and wait for my Lord [cf. Isa 8:17], and not only I, but also the children whom the Lord has given to me, namely other prophets and sons of the prophets who have been born not from the will of flesh and blood, but from God [cf. John 1:13].881 The Apostle also spoke of them: "My little children for whom I am again in birth pains until Christ is formed in you" [Gal 4:19]. Now these children, that is, the prophets, were given as signs and wonders to Israel, according to what we read in Ezekiel: "And Ezekiel will be a sign to you" [Ezek 24:24]. In Zechariah too, the holy men and the disciples of the prophets are called τερατοσκοποι men

[Zech 3:8 (9)], that is, doers of wonders and signs, because prophets always precede as a sign of things to come. This has been said for the time being in accordance with the letter.

On the other hand, granting that Latin usage does not receive it among the canonical

Scriptures, the Apostle, in the epistle that is written to the Hebrews, shows that this testimony needs to be understood as spoken by the persona of the Lord and Savior:

Therefore he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, "I will announce your name to my brothers; in the midst of the church I will praise you"; and again: "I will trust in him"; and again: "Behold, I and my children whom God has given me"; for therefore the children have shared in blood and flesh, and he himself likewise has become the sharer of the same sufferings. [Heb 2:11–14]882

Now the same apostle shows how these children will have become a sign and wonder of the wisdom of the age and of the arrogance of the Jews. He says that the Lord and Savior chose the foolish and weak things of the world to confound the wise and the strong [cf. 1 Cor 1:27]. This is also why the Savior said to the apostles, "Unless you are converted as one of the children, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven" [Matt 18:3]. Now a preacher of the new gospel becomes a child who lays aside the old man, who is being corrupted by seductive desires, and puts on the new, who is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the creator [cf.

881 Cf. ibid., 52 (59, 36–7).

882 Cf. Bas Is 216 (494A).

Col 3:9–10].883 Likewise the Apostle writes that the Lord of hosts dwells on Mount Zion: "You have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" [Heb 12:22].884

This is why I am amazed that one of our own understands these children as Isaiah's two sons, whom he fathered from the conception of his prophetess wife, namely Jashub and Emmanuel [cf. Isa 8:3]. He says that the former of them anticipates the rejection of the first people, the latter, the reception of the Gentiles. The one who accepts this will affirm consequently that Hosea the prophet also truly had a wife who was a whore [cf. Hos 1:2].

29. (8:19–22) And when they shall say to you, "Seek from the pythons and from the diviners, who shriek in their incantations, should not the people seek from their God, for the living from the dead?" (20) To the law rather, and to the testimony. But if they speak not according to this word, they will not have the morning light, (21) and they will pass by it. They will fall and be hungry, and when they will be hungry, they will be angry and curse their king and their God, and look upward. (22) And they will look to the earth, and behold trouble and darkness, weakness, distress, and a mist following, and they cannot fly away from their distress.

If the voice is that of Isaiah the prophet, as the Jews think, "Behold I and the children whom the Lord has given me as Israel's sign and wonder" [Isa 8:18], the same person should also be believed to be saying to his disciples the things that follow. He says, Although the nations and peoples will speak to you, concerning whom it was read above, "Be weak, O peoples, and be overcome" [Isa 8:9], why do you want to hear the prophets, why are you taken in by Isaiah's words and think that what he knows is going to happen? Seek rather from the pythons and from the diviners, who shriek in their incantations. The Septuagint translated this as, "Who speak out of the earth, who shout out of their belly." For everyone who is of the earth speaks

"from the earth" [cf. John 3:31]. Moreover, those "whose god is their belly and whose glory is in their shame" [Phil 3:19],885 must be believed to cry out "from the belly." You must answer them and say, Should not the people seek from their God, for the living from the dead? If you, he says, on behalf of the variety of your idols—for you have not one but several gods—consult those whom you think are gods and enquire about the living from the dead, or from images of dead men, how much more ought we to listen to our God through the prophets? Therefore he is teaching his disciples and introducing them instead to the law and to the testimony. If you have doubts about someone, he says, know what is written: "The nations whom the Lord your

God will scatter from your presence listen to dreams and diviners; but the Lord your God has not passed this down to you. The Lord your God will raise up a prophet for you from your brothers; you will listen to him as to me" [Deut 18:14–15]. Therefore if you want to know what is uncertain, hand yourselves over instead to the law and the testimonies of the Scriptures. But if your congregation is unwilling to seek the word of the Lord, it will not have the light of truth, but will linger in the darkness of error. This light will pass through it, that is, through your congregation or land, and you will fall and be hungry, and when you are hungry, you will become angry in accordance with what is written: "And when they do not get their fill, they will murmur" [Ps 59:15], and you will curse God your king. And in your need you will look upward

883 Cf. ibid. (492D), 217 (496A).

884 Cf. Eus Is 52 (60, 15–6).

885 Cf. Bas Is 219 (498C).

into heaven and into the earth beneath, and behold trouble and darkness, weakness of knees, distress of mind, and a mist over the eyes, and you will not be able to be rescued from the distress. This [explanation] corresponds to the Hebrew.

On the other hand, as we have said above, if it is the persona of Christ speaking, "Behold I and the children whom God has given me" [Isa 8:18; cf. Heb 2:11–14], he likewise says this to the apostles and to believers from the nations, who have received his gospel. He says, If your fathers whom you have forsaken will say, seek "ventriloquists," whom we understand as pythons—like the maidservant we read about also in the Acts of the Apostles, who was a source of profit for her masters [cf. Acts 16:16]—and those who "speak from the earth," which the magicians promise that they do by the summoning up of souls, and other kinds of evil arts, you ought to know this, that each nation consults its own gods and questions the "dead" concerning the welfare of the "living"; but to you God "gave the law as a help," so that you can say, from the pagans, who often deceive their worshipers, there is no such divination like ours, which proceeds from the "law" without any "gift." This is why the Septuagint translated, "Not like this word for which there are no gifts to give"; for, he says, "freely you have received, freely give"

[Matt 10:8].886 But a very severe "famine will come upon" unbelievers, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but a famine for hearing the word of God [cf. Amos 8:11],887 and "when you will grow hungry, you will be grieved and will curse your ruler and the traditions of your fathers," that is the devil and ancient errors. But he says this to those who will have endured a "famine" for truth, and they will "look up" to heaven above and "to the earth below," and they will be "in trouble, in darkness and in distress," so that they do not "see" for a time [cf. Acts

13:11], until even they themselves are converted to the Lord. These passages require an extensive explanation, but we are economizing the length of the books, so as to remove the tedium of the reading. We have touched upon these things in part according to the Septuagint translation, which in very many respects does not harmonize with the Hebrew.

On the other hand, the Nazarenes have explained this passage as follows. Although the scribes and Pharisees tell you to listen to those who do everything for the sake of their "belly," and who shriek in their incantations in the manner of magicians, so as to deceive you, you should answer them this way: It is not surprising that you follow your traditions, when each nation consults its own idols; therefore we too should not consult from you dead ones concerning the living. Instead God gave us a law and the testimonies of the Scriptures, which if you will refuse to follow, you will not have light, but mist will ever oppress you, which will pass through your land and teaching. Consequently, when those who have been deceived by you have perceived themselves to be in error and to be enduring a famine for the truth, then they will be "grieved" or angry and curse you. They were thinking of you as their gods and kings, and in vain do they look back to heaven and earth. For they are always in darkness and cannot fly away from your treachery.

30. (9:1–2) At the first time the land of Zabulon, and the land of Naphtali was lightened, and at the last the way of the sea beyond the Jordan of the Galilee of the Gentiles was heavily loaded. (2) The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; to those who dwelt in 886 Cf. ibid., 220 (501A).

887 Cf. Eus Is 53 (61, 17–8).

the region of the shadow of death, light has risen.

Septuagint: "Drink this first, act quickly, O region of Zabulon, land of Naphtali, and the rest of you who are near the sea beyond Jordan of the Galilee of the Gentiles. (2) The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; you who dwell in the region of the shadow of death, a light will shine upon you."

We have recorded both versions because the testimony is common and was employed by the Evangelist Matthew, in order that the translational differences and similarities may be recognized. And first it must be noted that the Evangelist Matthew has recorded this testimony in accordance with the Hebrew, not the Septuagint. For the words of the Gospel say,

But Jesus, hearing that John had been handed over, withdrew to Galilee, and leaving

Nazareth, he came and dwelled in Capernaum, which is near the sea at the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali, in order to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah, saying, "Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way of the sea across the Jordan of Galilee of the Gentiles: the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who sat in the region of the shadow of death a light has dawned." From that time,

Jesus began to preach and to say, "The kingdom of heaven has drawn near." [Matt 4:12–

17]888 Moreover, the Evangelist John reports that Jesus performed his first sign, by changing water into wine, when he was invited with his disciples to a wedding in Cana of Galilee [cf. John 2:1–10]:

"Jesus performed the beginning of his signs in Cana of Galilee and revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him" [John 2:11].

This explains why it is said in the Septuagint, "Drink this first, act quickly," because the land of Zabulon and the land of Naphtali [were] the first to see the miracles of Christ, so that by means of the first faith it drank the "drink" that it had seen the Lord performing as the first of the signs. Now according to the Hebrew, it is said that at the first time the burden of sins was lightened, because the Savior first preached the gospel in the region of these two tribes. This is also why in the sixty-seventh Psalm it is said, "Bless the Lord from the fountains of Israel, there

Benjamin is younger" [Ps 68:26–27], namely, the Apostle Paul [cf. Phil 3:5] who—in a departure of mind—even elsewhere said, "Whether we depart from our mind for God" [2 Cor 5:13].

"Princes of Zabulon, princes of Naphtali, their leaders." This is said because in these tribes were the hamlets from which our leaders the apostles believed, and according to Symmachus they believed "quickly." Thus it was that upon hearing, "Come and I will make you fishers of men"

[Matt 4:19], at once they left both father and boat [cf. Matt 4:20]. But in the very last time their faith was heavily loaded when very many of the Jews were continuing in error.

But he calls the Lake of Gennesaret the sea here [cf. Luke 5:1], which is formed from the flow of the Jordan. On its shore are situated Capernaum, Tiberias, Bethsaida, and Chorazin, in which region the Lord spent a great deal of time, so that the people who either sat or walked in darkness saw the light—not a little light, as is that of the other prophets, but a "great light," as from him who says in the Gospel, "I am the light of the world" [John 8:12]. And upon those who lived in the region of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. I think that the difference

888 Cf. ibid., 54 (62, 6–3, 4).

between death and the shadow of death is that death pertains to those who have reached the underworld with their works of death—for "the soul that sins will itself die" [Ezek 18:4, 20]— but the shadow of death pertains to those who have not yet departed from life when they sin— for they are able to do penance if they wish.889 For Galilee of the Gentiles, Aquila translated θινας of the Gentiles, Symmachus "boundaries." Now we understand θινας as heaps of sand, which are either on shorelines or banks.

Hebrews who believe in Christ have explained this passage as follows. In the first time, these two tribes Zabulon and Naphtali were captured by the Assyrians and led into a hostile land [cf. 2

Kgs 15:29], and Galilee was abandoned, which now the prophet says has been lightened, because it endured the people's sins. But afterward not only the two tribes but also the rest, which dwelled across the Jordan and in Samaria, were led into captivity [cf. 2 Kgs 17:6; 18:11].

And this, they say, the Scripture now says, that the very region whose people was first led into captivity and began to serve the Babylonians, and which formerly was living in the darkness of error, will have first seen the light of Christ preaching, and from that light the gospel has been sown among all the Gentiles.

The Nazarenes, whose opinion I have recorded above, try to explain this passage as follows.

When Christ arrives and his preaching flashes forth, the first land Zabulon and the land of Naphtali was delivered from the errors of the scribes and Pharisees, and it shook off from its neck the extremely heavy yoke of the Jewish traditions. But afterward it was weighed down through the gospel of the Apostle Paul, who was the latest of all the apostles; that is, the preaching was multiplied and the gospel of Christ became resplendent unto the limits of the Gentiles and the way of the entire sea. Finally the whole world, which previously walked or sat in darkness and was being held fast by the chains of idolatry and death, saw the bright light of the gospel.

31. (9:3–5) You have multiplied the nation, you have not increased the joy; they will rejoice before you just as they rejoice in the harvest, just as they exult when they divide up the spoils.

(4) For the yoke of his burden, and the rod of his shoulder, and the scepter of his oppressor you have overcome, as in the day of Midian, (5) for every violent taking of spoils, with tumult, and garment mingled with blood, will be burnt, and be fuel for the fire.

Septuagint: "You have brought down the greatest part of the people in your joy, and they will rejoice in your sight as they are accustomed to rejoice in the harvest, and as those who divide up the spoils, (4) because the yoke that was laid upon them has been taken away, and the rod from their neck. For the rod of the oppressors will be broken, as in the day of Midian, (5) because they will restore every gown that has been acquired by deceit, and every garment of exchange; and they will desire to be burnt with fire." In obscure passages we record both

889 For Jerome death is the end of the Christian contest. J. P. O'onnell, The Eschatology of St.

Jerome, Dissertationes ad Lauream 16, Pontificia Facultas Theologica Seminarii Sanctae Mariae ad Lacum (Mundelein, IL, 1948), 12, comments on this passage, "hat opportunity enjoyed by those still living differentiates them from those already dead. Although Jerome does not himself draw out the implications of the fact just mentioned, it is obvious that death is decisive for sinners, since they cannot do penance thereafter."

versions so that the diligent reader may recognize the extent to which the common translation990 differs from the other versions and from the Hebrew truth.

An apostrophe991 is made to the very light that appeared to the people established in darkness [cf. Isa 9:2], that is, to the Lord and Savior, and it is said to him, You have multiplied the nation, that is, you have filled all nations with the knowledge of yourself [cf. Isa 11:9], but you have not increased joy. This agrees with what the Apostle says, that his grief is continual for his brothers, who are the Israelites [cf. Rom 9:2–4]. Moreover, Jonah is grieved because the Ninevites were saved in such a way that a gourd or σισειον withered [cf. Jonah

4:1–11

], and the Lord himself says in the Gospel, "I have come only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel"

[Matt 15:24]; and in the passion, he says, "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me"

[Matt 26:39]. This passage means the following: if it can possibly happen that the multitude of nations may believe apart from the destruction of the Jews, I refuse the passion; but if they must be blinded so that all nations may see [cf. Rom 11:7], Father, "let your will be done" [Matt

26:42].992 Therefore, when Christ will have arrived and the Christian nation will have been gathered from all nations, then the apostles will rejoice, as harvesters rejoice in the harvest, of whom the Lord said, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few" [Matt 9:37],993 and as victors exult who divide up the captured booty. For when the strong man was captured and bound, his whole house is plundered and the spoils are divided [cf. Matt 12:29]. For you, O Lord and Savior, have stripped from their shoulders the yoke of his burden, that is the devil's, who was formerly exulting in the world, who was in command of all nations, who was oppressing the necks of everyone with the extremely heavy yoke of his slavery, and you have pulled away the rod from their shoulders, with which he was striking everyone and was compelling the payment of sins, as if it were a kind of tax owed to himself; and without any army you have caused those who have been set free to serve yourself, without bloodshed, by your hidden hand, just as formerly you provided the people of Israel with victory over the Midianites under Gideon [cf.

Judg 7:15, 22].994 For just as clothing that has been stained by human blood cannot be washed clean, but when dyed with blood it is burned in fire, so that the spots may perish with the 990 This is Jerome' term for the Old Latin translation of the LXX.

991 See n. at 1.50.

992 Especially in his Commentary on Matthew, Jerome plays down the apparent meaning of Matt 26:37–2, namely, that Christ in his human nature truly feared his imminent suffering and experienced grave and personal emotional distress on the eve of his passion. Jesus'agony seems clearly manifested when he prays, "ather, let this cup pass from me"(Matt 26:39). Jerome, following certain predecessors, emphatically argues that Jesus was sorrowful and distressed not for himself, but out of his mercy and on account of the fate that would befall Judas, the apostles, the Jewish people, and pitiful Jerusalem as a result of his suffering and death. He was saddened for the same reason that Jonah was grieved at the withering of the gourd, that is, not for his own sake but because he could foresee the grim fate of others. See my brief discussion in Jerome, Commentary on Matthew, trans. Thomas P. Scheck, FOTC 117 (Washington, DC:

Catholic University of America Press, 2008), 43–5.

993 Cf. Eus Is 54 (63, 33–4, 5).

994 Cf. ibid. (65, 1–).

garment of foul gore, so the devil's violent plundering and tumults and disturbances by which he had subjected the human race to himself have been destined for the fires of Gehenna.

The Septuagint indicates that not all, but a certain part of the people believed, although in place of what they said, "You have brought down in joy," others have translated, "You have increased." And though it preserves the same meaning in the remaining things, the Septuagint adds that he, that is, the devil, will give back a "gown acquired by deceit" and a "garment that was exchanged," that is to say, he will pay back all the souls that he had stripped by the help of God with their original adornments, not only he himself but also his satellite demons. If a choice were granted to them, they would choose rather to perish in flames than to lose the booty.

32. (9:6–7) For a child has been born to us, a son has been given to us, and the government has come upon his shoulder, and his name will be called wonderful, counselor, God, the mighty, the Father of the age to come, the prince of peace. (7) His empire will be multiplied, and there will be no end of peace upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to establish it and strengthen it with judgment and with justice from henceforth and forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Septuagint: "For a child has been born to us, a son has been given to us, whose government has come upon his shoulder, and his name is called the messenger of great counsel. For I will bring peace upon the princes and his health; his government [will be] great and of his peace there is no end upon the throne of David and his kingdom, to chastise it and to support it with judgment and justice, from henceforth and unto the age. The zeal of the Lord Sabaoth will perform this."

The reason the devil will be "burned" and all his "violent plundering" [cf. Isa 9:5] by which he had oppressed the human race and had "mixed blood with blood," and he will become "fuel for the" eternal "fire" [cf. Isa 9:5], is because a child from a virgin has been born to us. Above it was said of him, "Before the child knows how to reject evil and choose the good" [Isa 7:16], and afterward, at the birth of the prophetess, "Before the child knows how to call his own father and mother" [Isa 8:4]. Therefore, that child, who is called Emmanuel, that is, God with us, was born from a virgin. He was generated from the "prophetess," that is, from the Holy Spirit, and has been named, "Be swift to take away the spoils, hasten to plunder" [Isa 8:3]. He is now being called by many names. And although he showed that he was God from the fact that he had said

"Emmanuel" above [cf. Isa 7:14; 8:8], that is, God with us, nevertheless now he says that his government has come upon his shoulder. This means either that he himself carried his own cross [cf. John 19:17], or, he is showing by shoulder the strength of his arm. For the same Isaiah says, "The Lord God has revealed his holy arm to all nations" [Isa 52:10], and again, "Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" [Isa 53:1].

Therefore, after the two names, he will be called by another six names: wonderful, counselor,

God, mighty, father of the age to come, prince of peace; for it is not as the majority think, that the names should be joined into couplets, so that we read: "wonderful counselor," and again

"mighty God." Instead wonderful, which is phele in Hebrew, should be read separately, and counselor should be read by itself, which in their language is called ioes, and God should be read separately, which is said in Hebrew as Hel. After all, in what follows, where we read, "For you are God and we did not know" [Isa 45:15], and again, "I am God and there is no other

besides me" [Isa 45:22], and many things similar to these, the Hebrew uses Hel where the Latin uses deus.995 And what follows, mighty is expressed as gibbor in Hebrew; this is also why in that passage where the same prophet relates, "They will trust in the Holy God of Israel in truth, and what is a remnant of Jacob to the mighty God" [Isa 10:20–21], for "mighty God" the Hebrew has written, Hel gibbor. But anyone who reads that the Savior is "our peace," according to the Apostle Paul [cf. Eph 2:14], will have no doubt that the father of the age to come and of the resurrection, an age that is fulfilled in our calling, is also the prince of peace. He said to the apostles, "My peace I give to you, my peace I leave you" [John 14:27]. I imagine that the Septuagint was terrified by the majesty of these names. They did not dare to say openly of a child that he should be called God, and the other things; but in place of these six names, it recorded what is not found in the Hebrew: "messenger996 of great counsel" and "I will bring peace upon the princes and his health." To me this seems to have the following meaning: the "messenger of great counsel" is the one who announced to us that Israel must be set aside for a time and the Gentiles are to be saved, and who gave peace to their princes, to the apostles and apostolic men, and left behind the health of their doctrines to those who believe.

Now as for what follows, His empire will be multiplied and there will be no end of peace, for which the Septuagint translated "his great government," we ought to know that the Septuagint translated the Hebrew word mesra, both here and above, as αρχην, that is, "beginning." We translated this above as government, here as empire. Now Aquila was deceived by the ambiguity of the word and translated it μετρον, that is, "measure," which both Hebrew and Latin identify by the same term.997 Nor can there be any doubt about the Savior's multiplied empire and his peace that has no end to anyone who reads in the Psalms, "Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession" [Ps

2:8]; and again, "And the multitude of peace, until the moon is taken away" [Ps 72:7], that is, until the consummation of the age [cf. Matt 28:20]. Now his government and empire will be upon the throne and kingdom of David, which was destroyed after the Babylonian captivity, so that it strengthens and confirms it, and shows that it is perpetual, lest the promise of God should be judged to be empty from the time of the incarnation until eternity. Now the reason the zeal, that is, the jealousy of the Lord of hosts, did this, was because they themselves provoked him to jealousy by those things that were not gods [cf. Deut 32:21], and he provoked them to jealousy by a nation that was not a nation [cf. Rom 10:19].

The prophecy of Emmanuel and of the child born of the virgin, which began at the passage where it is said to Ahaz, "Seek a sign for yourself from the Lord your God" [Isa 7:11], has come to an end with that little verse where it is added, The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Now let us move on to the things that remain.

995 Cf. ibid. (66, 17–7, 14).

996 Or "ngel."

997 See n. 51 at 3.16.

↑ Back to top