CHAPTER 3
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. VII.
" The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Juda," and that which follows.
And the apostle agrees with this, when he says :
" Separated to the gospel of God, which he had before promised by his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh."
These words would agree with the corresponding predictions.
CHAPTER
(d) From the Second Book of Chronicles.
From what Race and from what Hebrew Tribe it was foretold that the Christ should come.
(351) [Passages quoted, i Chron. xvii. 11-13; Ps. Ixxxviii. 26; verses 4, 35, 29; and cxxxi.
11.] There is no doubt that Solomon was the son of David fc) and his successor in the kingdom.
And he first built the Temple of God at Jerusalem, and perhaps the Jews understand him to be the subject of the prophecy.
But we may fairly ask them whether the oracle applies to Solomon, which says, " And I will set up his throne for ever," and also where God sware with the affirmation of an oath by his holy one, "The throne of him that is foretold, shall be as the sun, and the days of heaven."
For if the years of the (tl) reign of Solomon are reckoned, they will be found to be forty and no more.
Even if the reigns of all his successors be added up, they do not altogether come to
years.
And even if we suppose that their line continued down to the final attack on the Jewish nation by the Romans, how can they fulfil a prophecy which says, " Thy throne shall lions of the Apologists.
In the first place, they seek to shew that all things prophesied of the Messiah were fuHilled in Jesus of Naz.irclh ; and secondly, that everything which befell Jesus was prophesied of the Messiah."
Luke xxiv. 27 is the root of the apologetic system, which Lactantius (circa 300) practically attributes in its completeness to our Lortl (de iiiort. pcrsec.
2).
Ch. 2.
NOT SOLOMON
remain for ever, and be as the sun and the days of heaven " ?
And the words, " I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son," how can they referto Solomon, for his history tells us much about him that is foreign and opposed to the adoption of God?
Nay, hear the indictment against him :
" And Solomon loved women, ^ and took many strange i Kings wives, even the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabites, Am- ^'"
^' monites, and Iduma:ans, Syrians and Chatteans, and *-'^"'
Amorites, from the nations of whom the Lord said to the children of Israel, that they should not go in to them."
And in addition to this :
" /Vnd his heart was not right with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father ; and Solomon went after Astarte, the abomination of the Sidonians, and after their. king, the idol of the sons of Ammon.
'.'"^'"Ss And Solomon did evil before the Lord."
And again further on he adds :
" And the 'Lord raised Satan ^ against Solomon, Ader ^ ' the Iduma^an."
Now who would venture to call God his father, who lay under such grievous charges, and to call himself the firstborn son of the God of the Universe?
Or how could these sayings apply first to David, and then to his seed ?
But they do not even apply to David, if you reflect.
Therefore we require some one else, here revealed, to arise from the seed of David.
But there was no other born ^'^' of him, as is recorded, save only our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Christ of God, Who alone of the kings of David's line is called through the whole world the Son of David according to His earthly birth, and Whose Kingdom continues and will continue, lasting for endless time.
It is attacked by many, but always by its divine superhuman power proves itself inspired and invincible as the prophecy foretold.
^'^^ And if you hear God swear by His holy one, hear Him swear as Father by the Word of God, existing before all ages. His Holy and Only-begotten Son, of Whose divinity the passages I have fiuoted have sj)okcn in many ways, by Whom His God and Father swears as by His dearly beloved, that He would glorify Him that was of the seed of David hr ever.
S. adds "And lie had 700 queens and 300 concubines."
^ ffarav : A.V. " An .idversary."
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
B k. VII And this came to pass when the Word became flesh, and took and made divine Him that was of David's seed.
Wherefore he calls him Son, saying, "1 will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son."
And again, " And I will make him my firstborn."
From this it is then clearly (353) explained that the firstborn Son of God will be of the seed of David, so that the Son of David is one and the same as the Son of God, and the Son of God one and the same as the Son of David.
And thus it was prophesied that the Firstborn of the whole creation, Himself the Son of God, was to become Son of man.
The Scripture of the Gospel sets its seal on this oracle, where it says that the Angel Gabriel, standing by the holy
Virgin, spake thus concerning our Saviour:
" He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give to him the throne of his father David, and he shall rule over the house Luke i. 32. of Jacob for ever ; and of his kingdom there shall be no end."
(I)) And after a little, Zacharias the father of John, prophesies thus concerning Christ in the same gospel
" Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and wrought redemption for his people, and hath raised a horn of salvation for us in the house of David Luke i. 6S. his son, as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets from ages past."
Tl:e fact that our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Christ of God, (c) and none other, h^s received the throne promised for ever to David, has then been adecjuately proved by the prophecies quoted, and by the words of Gabriel and Zachariah, in which He is regarded as of the seed of David according to the flesh.
But tlic reason why the holy evangelists give the genealogy of Joseph, although our Saviour was not His son, but the son of the Holy Ghost and the holy ^'irgin, and how the mother of our Lord herself is proved to be of the race and (<1) seed of David, I have treated fully in the First liook of my
Questions and Answers concerning^ ihe gcncology of our Saviour,^ and must refer those interested to tliat book, as the present subject is now dccujiying me.
* 4t> Tw Trpwrcf! rail' eij tV •yfvtaXo'yiav rov 2a'T^^oi i}fxaiv J,'»jT7;/uc(Ta-r KoX XxKTfwv.
The work On the DisoefKXiuics of the Go^f'tl consistcil
Ch.
CHRIST'S ETERNAL KINGDOM
l->om Psalm Ixxii.
Of Solomon and of His Seed thai is to come.
[Passages (juoted, Ps.
Ixxii., i, 5-8, i6b.] As this Psalm is addressed to Solomon, the first verse of (354) the Psalm must be referred to him, and all the rest to the son of Solomon, not Rehoboam, who was king of Israel after him, but Him that was of his seed according to the flesh, the Christ of God : for all who are acquainted with the Holy Scriptures will agree that it is impossible to connect (c) what is said in this Psalm with him or his successors, because of what they reveal about him.
Nay, how is it jiossible to apply to Solomon, or his son Rehoboam, the l)urden ^ of the whole Psalm ?—for instance, " He shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth."'
And "He shall remain as long as the sun, and before the moon for ever," and other similar statements.
Vet the words at the beginning of the Psalm are at once seen to apply to Solomon, which say, " O God, thou wilt give judgment to the king."
.And the addition, "And thy justice to the king's son," to the Son of Solomon, not his(il) firstborn who succeeded him in the kingdom (for he only ruled the Jewish nation seventeen years, being a wicked king), nor any of the successors of Rehoboam, but only to one of the seed of David, who could thus be called the son both of David and Solomon.
And this is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
For His Kingdom and its throne will stand as long as the sun.
And He alone of men, as the Word of God, existed before the moon and the creation of (355) the workl, and He alone came down like dew from heaven on all the earth : and it was said in our quotation a little above, that He had risen on all men and that His justice would remain even until the consummation of life, which is called the removal of the moon.
And our Saviour's power is supreme from the eastern sea to the west, beginning its of two parts, addressed to Stephanus and Marinus respectively.
Mai published an epitome and also unjihridged portions from X'atican MS.
The first portion was in two books [Op. iv. Sjg st/., 953 st/.].
It is also mentioned by Niceplionis Callislus.
(See D.C.B. ii. 338.) ' TO fn(pfp6fieva.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. VII (1)) activity at the river, wliicli is either the Sacrament of Baptism, or from Jordan, where He first appeared to benefit mankind.
Yea, from that time His kingdom has spread and extended through the whole world.
And Jerusalem being meant by Libanus, as is made clear by many prophecies, because of its ancient altar and temple, and the offerings thereon to the honour of God like Libanus, the Church of the Gentiles the fruit of Christ is said to be (c) about to be exalted above Libanus.
And if the studious consider this Psalm in its literal sense at leisure, they will find that its contents only apply to our Lord, and not to Solomon of old, or any of his successors on the throne -of Judrea, who reigned but a few years, and only over the Jewish land.
('!) From Isaiah.
Of Jesse, and the Seed to be hern of Him.
[Passage (juoted, Isa. xi. i-io.l (356) This Jesse was David's father.
As, then, in the preceding prophecies it was foretold that one should come forth of the fruit and seed of David, and also of the seed of vSolomon, in the same way here it is prophesied that one will come forth of the seed of Jesse, that is to say of David, many years after the death of both 1 )avid and Solomon.
And this (h) passage decides the quibble ^ of the Jews already noticed with regard to Solomon.
For Isaiah writes this prophecy about some one other than him many years after the death of Solomon, who should arise from the stem of Jesse, and the seed of David.
And I do not think it can be doubted that the words ap[)ly only to our Saviour, the Christ of God, considering the promise in the prediction, which says, " .\nd
(c) there shall be a root of Jesse, and he that riseth to rule the nations, in him shall the nations trust,"' and the way in which our vSaviour fulfils them. i'"or He alone, after His Resurrection from the dead, intended here I think by the word " Arise," ruled not only the Jews but all nations, so that the prophecy does not lack fullilnient, as it is (]uile clear that the words, "In Him ' a/jLipifio\iai>, cf.
I'. E. 34
<I.
13.1 i-
Ch.
THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
shall the Gentiles trust," are fulfilled in Him, as well as the other prophecies.
And the references to the animals and wild beasts becoming tame and laying aside their fierce and untameable nature through His sojourn here will be allegorically, understood of men's rough and wild ways and fierce characters being changed by Christ's teaching from irrational savagery.
They must certa'nly be allegorically understood, especially (<1) if one understands the root of Jesse mentioned by the prophet, and the r()d, figuratively, and expounds in an intelligible way, "Justice shall be the girdle of his loins, and truth the girdle of his reins."
For if one can only interpret this allegorically it follows that one must treat the passages that refer to the animals necessarily in a figurative way as well.
From Jeremiah.
(357) A Righteous Rising from the Seed of David upspriiiging, and the same a King of Men. and a Xao Name to he given to those ruled by Him, and the Forgiveness of their Former Sins.
[Passages quoted, Jer. xxiii. 6-8, xxx.
8, 9.
) ^ Jeremiah prophesies thus long after the death of David and even the time of Solomon concerning a king who is to arise from the seed of David, whom he first calls "the rising," not simply but with the adjective "just," as though he were to shine forth from the sun of righteousness, of whom I treated in my evidences about the Second Cause, where I shewed that the pre-existent ^^'ord of God besides (tl) many other names was called Sun of Righteousness, quoting the prophecy which said, " To them that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise."
Therefore the prophecy in the present passage is that Ciod will raise up "a righteous rising " to David, in the sen.se of a sun of righteousness.
And he calls the same Being an understanding king, and one who does judgment and justice on the earth.
He gives him too the .same name as David, who died very long before.
For you must note carefully how at the beginning ^ Verses 7 and 8 are mi.ssing in lAX.
They occur in the liehrew Jer. xxx.
8.vy.
; eV to7s irpo<pi\Tais\% tlie heading of the following section not connected with 'lai^eSfV.
THE TROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. VII. he says, " And I will raise up to David a righteous rising,"
(35S) and adds at the end, " And I will raise up David to be his king."
Whose, but David's?— for it was to him that he said He would raise up a righteous rising.
And Zechariah prophesying of the same Being likewise .ec .
VI. f.^i\^ Him "arising," saying, "Behold I will raise up my Zech. iii. servant, the rising," and also, " Behold a man whose name
S. is ' The Rising,' and beneath him springs righteousness."
But no one, it is certain, arose after the time of Jeremiah among the Jews who could be called " a righteous rising " and " an understanding king doing judgment and righteousness on the earth."
For if it be suggested that Jesus son ofjosedec is meant, it must be answered that the CO proj)hecy is inapplicable to him.
For he was neither of David's seed nor did he reign as king.
How could this apply to him, " And I will raise up David to be his king,"' when he was of the tribe of Levi, and of high-priestly rank, and of another tribe than David, and is never recorded to have been king ?
We conclude that, as no other can be discovered, we must agree that the subject of this prophecy
(c) can only be our Lord and Saviour, called in other places "the light of the world,'' and "the light of the nations."'
He therefore must be the subject of this prophecy, and the prediction is absolutely true.
For He alone of David's seed and figuratively named after his ancestor, for David means " strong-handed," preached judgment and justice by His teaching to all men on earth, and alone of all that ever lived is king not of one land only, but of the whole world, and alone has caused righteousness to arise over all the world, according to what is said of Him in the Psalm :
" Righteousness shall arise in his days, and abundance of peace."
And Jiidah and Israel were to be saved in His days, that (c])isto say all the Jews who through Him reacheil holiness, His apostles, disciples and evangelists, or perhaps all who represent the Jew mystically understood antl tlutrue Israel wiiich sees (lod spiritually.
" For he is not a Jew," the apostle says, " that is one outwardly, nc^r circumcision the outward circumcision in the (lesh, but he is a Jew which is one in secret, and |.,„„ jj_ circumcision is of the heart in the spirit not the lelli r, 2S. whose praise is not of men, but of (lOtl."
Ch. 3.
JOSEDEKEIM
It is these, then, the secret Jew and the true Israel, that he says are tlirough Christ's calHng to be named by a new name, neither Jew nor Israel, but one quite different from these.
For He says that the Lord will call them by the (359) name of Josedekeim, which means, " The Lord's just ones."
And I ask you to consider whether this name Josedekeim, by which the disciples of Jesus are called by God, be not formed from Joshua ; they would thus be named by men from the name of Christ which is Greek (/. e. Christians), and by the prophets, from Jesus, in the Hebrew tongue, because they are saved by Him, Josedekeim.
So it is said, " And this is the name by which the Lord shall call them, (h) Josedekeim among the prophets."
So, then, we see that the people that are to become through the subject of the prophecy the spiritual Jews and the true Israel, will be called Josedekeim from Joshua, and they will be called by this name, he says, not by men, but by God, and by His prophets.
For you must note carefully the passage that says, " And this is the name which the Lord shall call them,
Josedekeim by his prophets."
And its translation in (ireek is, as I said, " (iod's just ones."
And God promises that (c) He will break from those who are thus to be saved the old heavy yoke of bitter dajmons. and shatter the bonds of the sins by which they were heUl of old, so that they will no more .serve strange gods, but bear fruit and please Him only.
Compare with this the oracle in the Second I'salm concerning the Coming of Christ and the calling of the Gentiles, which says : " Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast off their yoke from us."
To which, I think, this we are considering is akin when it says :
" In that day, saith the Lord, I will break the yoke from off their necks, and shatter their bonds, and they (J) shall not serve other gods, but shall serve the Lord their
God."
But in proof that it was predicted that the Christ of God should be born of the fruit of David's body, and of the seed of Solomon, as actually was the case, since the Holy Scriptures call Him David as well as by many other names,
I have given sufficient confirmation.
And it should raise no question, that He is said to come from the tribe of Judah, for that was the tribe to which David belonged.
VOL.
II, G
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. VII.
But I will give the oracle of Moses that states this, though it is already proved sufficiently.
It runs thus :
(360) I'>om Genesis.
Hoia from the Tribe of Judali shall be born the Christ of God, and shall be established as the Expectation of Nations.
[Passage quoted, Gen. xlix. 8-10.] The whole Hebrew race consisted of twelve tribes, one of which had Judah for its ancestor and head, to whom the above words were addressed, telling him that the Christ should spring from him.
And if you compare with this (c) prophecy the other prophecies I have (juotcd, you will find all through them that the same Being is proclaimed by a sign common to all.
For one said of Him that springs from the root of Jesse, "And there shall be one arising to rule the nations, on him shall the nations trust."
Another said of the son of Solomon, " He shall rule from sea to .sea, and from the river to the ends of the world, and in him all Isa. xi.
10. nations shall be blessed."
And the one before us similarly says, " Until he come for whom it is laid up, and he shall Ps. Ixxii.S. be the expectation of nations."
(d) If, then, the predictions about the nations are in accord, and the previous ones have been proved to refer to our Saviour, nothing prevents us referring this one to Him as well, if these prophecies are agreed to be in harmony, especially with regard lo the fact that the kings and rulers of the Jewish nation continued in the same line of succession until the period of Christ's appearing, but failed directly He appeared, and by the prediction of Jacob the expectation of the nations demanded a satisfiiction.
Christ therefore is foretold here also, as destined to come from the tribe of Judah, and since He has been shewn to (361) have been born of David, Solomcm, and the root of Jesse, it is evident He came from the same tribe as they.
For David was son of Jesse, and Solomon of I ^avid, both of the tribe of Judah.
Our Loril and Saviour must therelorc .spring from it, as the wonderful ivangclist Matthew states '
S. ri'.lils ra aTroK(l,u(ya avrtp lor f airi'tKttrai.
Ch.
CHRIST FROM JUDAH
in his geneaology, "The Book of the generation of Jesus Christ, son of I)avid, son of Abraham.
Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat Judah."
And now that I have adequately proved these points, it is time to consider the period of the fulfilment of the jirophecies.
(362) BOOK VIII
INTRODUCTION
I HAVE proved by how many prophecies the coming of the Word of God to men was foretold, and that it was announced by the Hebrew prophets whence He should (b) come, and where and how He should be seen by men on earth, and that He was actually the Person, the eternal pre-existent Son of God, Whom we have learned to recognize by the other names of God and Lord and Chief
Captain, and Angel of Great Counsel and High Priest.
And I begin at this point, in continuance of the preceding proof, to gi\ e the .evidence with reference to the period of His Appearing drawn again from prophetic predictions.
(363) The Holy Scriptures foretell that there will be unmistakable signs of the Coming of Christ.
Now there were among the Hebrews three outstanding offices of dignity,^ which made the nation famous, firstly the kingship, secondly that of prophet, and lastly the high priesthood.
The prophecies said that the abolition and complete destruction of all these three together would be the sign of the (b) presence of the Christ.
And that the proofs that the times had come, would lie in the ceasing of the Mosaic worship, the desolation of Jerusalem and its 'I'emple, and the subjection of the whole Jewish race to its enemies.
They suggest other signs of the same times as well, an abundance of peace, the overturning in nation and city of immemorial local and national forms of government,the ' initpaviav a^tw^axdiv.
* Toirapx^os Kai TroAi/apx'"^ '• f'^r ifoKvapxia, ci.
P. E. lOa.d, I/Sli; also ToTra^.xJjs.
//'/'''. lob, Ooil, 170a.
For the argument cf.
Melito's Apolof^y (H.E.
IV.
26.
7), ami lis. quotation from Ranke's Hiilory of the Popa:, i.
: "The earth was smlilenly left void of independent nations."
PRIMITIVE MEN
conquest of polytheistic and demonic idolatry, the knowledge of the religion of God the one Supreme Creator.
The holy oracles foretold that all these changes, which had (c) not been made in the days of the prophets of old, would take place at the coming of the Christ, which I will presently shew to have been fulfilled as never before in accordance with the predictions.
I have already, you will remember, accounted for the Christ coming in these last times and not long ago, but I will here shortly repeat myself.
In the old days the souls of men were tyrannized over by squalid folly and sin, and a strange godlessness ruled (d) over all human life, so that men were like wild and untamed beasts.
They knew nothing of cities, or constitutions, or laws, nor anything honourable or progressive
; they set no store on arts and sciences, they had no conception of virtue and philosophy, they lived in lonely deserts, in mountains, caves, and villages ; they preyed on their neighbours like robbers, and gained their livelihood mostly by tyrannizing over those weaker than themselves.
But tliough they did not know the Supreme God, nor the path of true religion, yet inspired by conceptions of natural religion they agreed in self-taught principles about the (364) existence of a divine i)ower, regarded it as and called it God, and considered the name one of salvation and beneficence, but they were not yet able to realize anything beyond a Being transcending the world of visible nature. Wherefore some of them 25.
"worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator; 21. and they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened ; 23. and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to birds Rom.i. and four-footed beasts and creeping things.'"
^ 23, 25.
And so they made images of their kings and tyrants long dead, and paid them divine honours, and by imputing divinity to them sanctified their wicked and lustful deeds as works of the gods.^ ' W.H.: Ver. 22
: ^diXKovTfs e'lvai crocpoi dfiaipdvdriffai', ical fjWa^ay.
: it ivaWd^at.
- (T.
Atlienaijoras, c. xxviii.
The theory first advanced by Euemerus (316 B.C.), which E. examines, Piaep. Ev. ii. 55.
"In a kind of philosophical romance Euemerus declared tiiat he had sailed
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. VHI.
How could the wise and good word of Christ, instilling the (c) quintessence of wisdom, be in harmony with men in that condition, and involved in such depths of evil?
So that holy and all-seeing Justice, pruning them like a wild and dangerous wood, now afflicted them by floods, now by fire,^ now delivered them to wars, butchery and sieges at one another's hands, urged on as they were to war against (fl) each other by those very daemons whom they regarded as their gods, with the result that human life in those days admitted no neighbourly intercourse, mutual association or union.
Those were few, as might be expected in such days, and easily numbered, who, as the Hebrew oracles tell us, were found to be godly ; with such, Justice met by the use of oracles and theophanies, she took them by the hand and cared for them with the elementary but helpful Mosaic legislation.
But when at last by the legislation laid down for them, and by the later teaching of the prophets poured out like a sweet smell upon all men, the character of the people became civilized, and constitutions and legal systems were (365) established among most nations, and the name of virtue and philosophy became pcri:)ularly honoured, as if their old savagery had ceased and their wild and cruel life were transferred to something gentler : then at length, at the fitting time, the perfect and heavenly teacher of perfect and heavenly thoughts and teaching, the leader to the (l>) true knowledge of God, God the \Vord, revealed Himself, at the time announced for His Incarnation, preaching the Gospel of the Fatlier's love, the same for all nations, whether Greeks or Barbarians, to every race of men, moving all to a common salvation in (iod, promising the truth and light of true religion, the kingdom of Heaven, and eternal life to all.
Such, then, is my account of the reasons why the Christ (c) of God shone forth on all men now and not long ago.
{o sDme No-man's land, ramlia'.i, where he founil the verity al)out mythical times ent:ravcd on pillars of bronze.
This truth he published in the Sacra Ilistoria, where he r.itionalized the fables, averring; that the i^oils had been men. ami tliat the mylhs were exagijer.xted and ilistovtcd rcciirds of facts.
There was an element of truth in his romantic hypothesis."— .\.
I.ansj.
.l/rM, Ritual ami Religion, i.
15.
* irvpiroK'f}(rffft.
Cf. the \cib irvpiroAtw, 1'. E. 368a.
Ch.
JACOB'S WORDS
We will now, retracing our steps, examine in detail the signs portending His Coming, first noting what is said in the Gospels about the date of His Birth.
Matthew then records the date of His appearance in the flesh, thus: "When Jesus was born in Bethleliem of Jud;v;a, in the days of Herod the king"'; and a little later, he says:
"Hearing Matt. ii. i that Arciielaus reigned over Juchua, instead of Herod his father."
And Luke shewed the date of His teaching and (tl) manifestation, saying :
"In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cscsar, I-ukciii. i.
Pontius Pilate being governor ^ of Judaea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother, Philip, tetrarch of Iturnea and the land of Trachonitis ; and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being High Priests."
^Vilh these we shall do well to compare the prophecy of Jacob given by Moses to this effect.
CHAPTER
(366) Of the Time uj Ills A/^pearance among Men.
Ilow at the l^imc ivhcn the Hebreivs jail of their Kingdom, the Expectation of the Gentiles shall approach, which also came to pass at Our Saviour s Appearing.
From (Jenesis.
"Jacob called his sons and said. Come together (b) and hear what shall befall you at the end of the days.
Come together and hear, ye sons of Jacob, Gen. xlix. hear your father." iThen, after rebuking his elder sons, one for one thing, one for another, as being unworthy because of their sins (c) of the prophecy about to be given, he prophesies thus to his fourth son, as having shewn himself a better man than hi.s brothers 8.
" Judah, thy brethren shall praise the, | thy hands shall be on the back of thy enemies, | the sons of thy father shall bow down to thee.
| 9. Judah is a lion's '
\V. II.
: r,yefjiovivoP70s.
1'2.
: iirirpoTrevovTos.
loo
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. VIII.
I Thou hast sprung up, my son, from a slip. whelp, | L\ing down thou didst sleep as a lion and a whelp, (tl) Who shall arouse thee?
| lo. A ruler shall not fail from Judah, | nor a governor from his loins, | until the things laid up for him come, j | and he is the expectation of the nations."
First, consider what is meant by " the things laid up for him,'' and see if they be not the prophecies about the calling of the Gentiles, that God gave to those with Abraham.
For it is written, that God said to Abraham :
"And thou shalt be blessed, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee : and xii.2. ill thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed."
And again "Abraham," he says, "shall become a great and xviii. mighty nation, and in him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."
Similar oracles were spoken to Isaac in this wise :
(367) " And I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven,^ xxvi. a"d in thy seed shall all nations of the world be blessed."
And also to Jacob this is said :
" I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and i.
13the God of Isaac, fear not."
And then :
" And in thee shall all the families of the earth be XXXV. blessed."
And at another time God said to him :
" I am thy God, increase and multiply : nations and assemblies of nations shall come out of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins."
Jacob, who knew the predictions of God concerning the calling of the nations, having twelve sons,called them (1)) all together to his deathbed, to discover in the line of which son God's predictions would be fulfilled.
Anil, then, having laid rebukes on the three first for their wrongdoings, he tells them also that the fulfilment of the pro])hecies will not come about through them because of their wicked deeds, liut coming to the fourth, who was ^ S. aiUls: "And I will give lo thy secil all this land."
* SfxaSvo.
Ch.
PRIMACY OF JUDAI]
loi Judali, he at oiicc prophesies to him that the oracle, which says, "kings shall come from thy loins," will be fulfilled in his descendants.
For it was plain that the kingly family was established in the tribe of Judah : and (c) he shows at the same time at what period the prophecies of God and the promises to the Oentiles will fall due, and he teaches that one will come forth from him who will cause all nations and tribes to be admitted to the blessings' of Abraham.
All these things, then, were "the things laid up for him," that is to say, the ancient prophecies concerning the nations, and the words, " kings shall come (>') out of thee," whereby his tribe has precedence of those of his brethren, as royal and pre-eminent. l)ircctly the whole nation was organized in the time of jSIoses God gave his tribe the chief rank among the tribes.
For it is written :
"And the Lord spake to JNIoses and .Aaron, saying. Numb Let the children of Lsrael encamp fronting one another, ii. i. every man keeping his own rank, according to their standards, according to the houses of their families before the Lord, around the tabernacle of witness and they that encamp first towards the east, shall be the order of the camp of Judah with their host."^
And later in the part that refers to the renewing of the sanctuary " The Lord said to Moses, One prince each day shall offer their gifts.
And he that offered the first day Numb. was Naason, son of Aminadab, prince of the tribe of ^'i'- "• Judah."
And in the Book of Joshua, son of Nave, when the land (368) of promise was divided by lot among the other tribes, the Josh. xv. tribe of Judah took its own portion of the land without casting lots,^ and first of all.
And, moreover, "After the Judg- '• ideath of Joshua the children of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying. Who shall go up for us against the Canaanite, leading our fighting against him ?
And the Lord said, Judah shall go up.
Behold, I have given the land into his hands."
These word.s, then, make it clear that God (b) * S. reads :
Trape^0a\fTii)aav 01 viol 'lffpari\ • ivavrioi KVK\<f rris <rKT}vris :
"Let ihe children of Israel encamp: lei ihem face each other around the tent."
" Gr.
: aKKripairi.
I02
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. VIII. ordained the tribe of Judah to be the head of all Israel, and the account goes on: ",\nd Judah went up, and the Lord delivered the Canaanite and Perizzite into his hand."
And also :
" And the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem and took it, and the sons of Judah came down from fighting against the Canaanite."
.\nd again :
" And Judah went up with Symeon, his brother."
And then:
•"And the Lord was with Judah, and gave him the Mount as his portion."
And after this: "And the sons of Joseph went up, they also who were in Bethel, and Judah with (c) them."
And in the Book of Judges, when different men at different times were at the head of the people, though individually the Judges were of different tribes, yet speaking generally the tribe of Judah was head of the whole people, and much more so in the times of David and his successors, who belonged to the tribe of Judah, and continued to rule until the Babylonian Captivity, after which the leader of those who returned from Babylon to their own land was Zerubbabel, the son of Salalhiel, of the tribe of Judah, who also built the Temple.
Hence, too, the Book of Chronicles, when giving the genealogies of the twelve tribes of Israel, (tl) begins with Judah.
And you will see it follows from this that, in the days that succeeded, the same tribe had the headship, although different individuals had temporary leadership, whose tribes it is impossible to decide with accuracy, because there is no sacred book handed down to give the history of the period from then to the time of our Saviour.
But it is true to say that the tribe of Judah continued so long as the free and autonomous constitution of the whole nation lasted under its own leaders and kings.
And this was the case from the beginning until the time of Augustus, (369) when, after our Saviour's appearance among men, the whole nation became subject to Rome.
And then instead of their ancestral and constitutional rulers they were ruletl first by Herod, a foreigner, and next by the Emperor Augustus.
.\nd so long as there had not yet failed a prince from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, the dates of the prophecies are given from the reigns of the kings.
Thus Isaiah prophesies in the reigns of Uz/.iah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
As did Hosea.
Amos, in the days of U/ziah, king of Judah, and in the days of (1)) Jeroboam, sun of Joash, king of Israel; and Zephaniah
Ch.
NOT TIIK MAN JUDAH
in tlie days of Josiah, son of Amos, king of Judah.
And Jeremiah too.
But when a prince failed from Judah. and a governor from his loins, when the expectation of the (ientiles foretold in Christ was just about to shine on human life, there were no longer any rulers styled kings in Judah or governors in Israel.
And since they had failed at the appointed time in accordance with prophecy, Augustus first, and then Tiberius, was called king of the Jewish nation, in common with the other nations, and under (c) them were procurators and tetrarchs of Judcea, and Herod of course, who, as I have already said, was not a Jew by birth, and received his authority over the Jews from Rome.
After these observations, we will now attempt a consideration of the prophecy :
" Judah, thy brethren shall praise thee."
Jacob had twelve sons, the fourth being Judah, who as I have said already, was the one and only head of the Hebrew tribes.
But it will be evident, that(d) the words addressed to him by his father did not refer to him as an individual man, if we consider the words of Holy Scripture, and especially the speech of Jacob to his sons "And Jacob called his sons to him, Come together and I will tell you what shall come to pass in the last days.
Gather together and hear, ye sons of Jacob, hear Israel your father."
For he clearly promises here to predict what will happen to them a long time afterwards, or, in his own words, in the last days.
And for other reasons what Jacob said could not apply to the first individual who bore the name of Judah.
His brethren did not praise him : for what great deed of his coulJ they have done so?
It would have been more applicable, if it had been addressed to Joseph, for (370) we know that Judah himself with his other brethren bowed down to him, e.xcept of course that this happened before the prophecy ; but afterwards there is no record of anything of the kind connected with Joseph, or Judah.
And the words, "Thou didst fall and sleep as a lion and a lion's whelp,"' seem to call for a wider interpretation than one concerning Judah.
The words that follow, too:
"There shall not fail a prince from Judah, nor a governor from his loins, until that come which is laid up for him, and he is
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. VIII.
(1)) the expectation of nations,"' seem to me to give in a disguised form the time of the coming of the subject of the prophecy.
For the one event, he says, will not take place, until the other does.
The kings and rulers of the Jewish nation, that is, will not cease before the expectation of the nations shall come, and that which is laid up for the subject of the prophecy.
Theodotion agrees with this rendering of the Septuagint, but Aquila thus translates
" The sceptre shall not be removed from Judah, and he who knoweth exactly from between his feet, until also there come to him a congregation of people."
(c) And this saying, " There shall not fail a prince from Judah," cannot be referred to Judah as an individual man any more than, "Judah, thy brethren shall praise thee."
For there were rulers and governors of the Jewish nation at many times who w^re not descended from him.
Moses, for instance, its first ruler, was not of the tribe of Judah but of Levi.
Joshua was of the tribe of Fphraim ; after whom their ruler was Deborah, of tlie tribe of Ephraim, and Barak
(d) of the tribe of Xaphthali, then Gedeon of Manasseh, then Gedeon's son, and after him Thola of the same tribe, then
Esebon of Bethlehem, and then Ailon of Zabulon, Labdon of Ephraim, and Samson of Dan ; then there being no regular ruler, Eli the priest, of the tribe of Levi, was their leader.
All these Judges judged Israel, not in the line of succession from Judah, but one from one tribe and one from another.
And they were followed by the first king, Saul, of the tribe of Benjamin.
How, then, can the words, " there shall not fail a prince from Judah, nor a governor (371) from his loins," be referred, as one would suppose they should be, to rulers and governors of the tribe of Judah, when from the time of Jacob's death, for nearly a thousand years, they do not appear to have been drawn from the tribe of Judah only, but some from one tribe, some from another, up to the time of David?
And if it be true that David and his successors sprung from the tribe of Judah ruled the Jewish nation, after so many others, yet we must remember that they did not continue to rule the (li) whole peojile for the whole of those five hundred years, but only three tribes, and not the whole of them, for during their reigns other kings goxerned the larger part of the nation— that is to say, the whole of the other nine tribes. l'"or after
Ch.
OF TITE TRIBE AS A WHOLE
the death of Solomon, since the whole nation was divided from Judah, the successors of David, as I said, did not rule the whole Jewish nation up to the time of the Bahylonian Captivity.
And in their times the heads of Samaria, which was the name of the State held by the nine tribes, were not drawn from Judah, but now from one tribe, now from (c) another, the. first being Jeroboam, of the tribe of Ephraim, and those immediately after him, so that in the period between David and the Babylonian Captivity, kings of the line of Judah never ruled the whole nation.
There is no need to add that after the return from Babylon for more than five hundred years again until the birth of Christ the Jewish constitution was aristocratic,^ the high priests, for the time being, acting as heads of the State, none of whom came from the tribe of Judah.
So from all these reasons it is proved that there is no reference here to Judah the original individual, to his descendants, nor in the oracle that said: "A prince shall not fail from Judah, (d) nor a governor from his loins," but that the only consistent interpretation of the passage is the one I have already given, that we must understand it of the tribe as a whole.
The tribe most certainly was leader of the whole nation from the very beginning, from Moses' own time.
And in accordance with such headship, as being designed by (Jod from the outset, the country is even now called juda;a after the tribe, and the whole race are known as Jews.
We must, therefore, understand it to mean what would be expressed more clearly, if it were said that the tribe of Judah would never lose its headship of the whole nation.
So Symmachus says:
"The power shall not be taken away (372) from Judah," shewing of course the authority and the royal position i>[ what was afterwards to be the tribe of Judah.
From it neither "the sceptre," as Aquila says, this being the symbol of royal rule, nor " the power,"' according to Symmachus, shall be taken away, the prophecy affirms, "until he come," it says, " for whom it is laid up, and he shall be the expectation of the nations."
What exjoectation was this, but that of which .Abraham and those after him had received the prophecies?
First, is it not very striking that(l)) though there were twelve Hebrew tribes, the race even now
io6
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. VIII. has its name from none but Judah ?
It can only be explained by the prophetic oracle, which attached the royal position to the tribe of Judah.
And it is for this same reason that their fatherland is called Judaea.
For why was not the nation called after the eldest of the twelve, I mean (c) Reuben, according to the divine law of primogeniture?
Why not from Levi, who was greater than Judah in order of birth, and also in receiving the priesthood ?
Why not, even more, was the race and the country not called after Joseph, from his acquiring rule not only over the whole of Egypt, but over his own relations, and because his descendants, long years after, were to rule as many as nine tribes of the nation, on whose account it was far more probable that the whole race and the country would have been named after their ancestor?
And who would not agree (d) that they might reasonably have been called from Benjamin, since their famous mother-city and the all-holy Temple of of Ciod was in the portion of his tribe ? ^ But yet, in spite of all, the name of the Lord and of the whole nation was' drawn from none of them but Judah, as the prophecy foretold.
I have, therefore, referred the words, " A prince shall not fail from Judah," to the tribe, and only in that sense is the prediction true.
For from the time of Moses there has not failed a continued line of rulers of part of the nation,- drawn as I said from different tribes, but the tribe of Judah has all along stood forth as the head of the whole
(373) nation.
An illustration will make what I have said clear.
Just as the procurators and governors appointed in the Roman Empire over nations, their priefects and military ciiiefs,^ and their highest kings, are not all drawn from '
Cf. A.
S. Peake :
H.aslings's Z>.A'. ii.
793, art. "Judah":
" <lne of David's greatest and most far-sighted acts was the .^election of Jerusalem, as his capital and the liome of the Ark.
Jerusalem liid not actually lie in Judah, except possibly t(^ a small extent, but it was on the border ; and tlie possessiim of it. with the ark and temple, guaranteed the survival of the .Southern Kingdom, after the loss ol the Norlhern tribe-."
* HfpiKo] nfv aifTwv &pxoi'Tfs .
. i:ad6\ov Se.
n'fv kot' fOvos d-HtrpoTToi T* Ka\ iiyovfitvoi, firap\oi re Ka'i ffrpaToircSdpxof eVfTpoiroj— governor or viceroy Hleroil.
27, 5.
30). fti :
Kaitrupo'., Phil.
813iiycvfxfyoi—generally for chicis, Soph.
/'/it'/.
386. twapxos translates the Roman "praelectus '
(Polyb.
11.
27.
2; i'lut.
O//10.
3), fnapxoi Tf;s avAf;s : - juaefectus praetorio (I'lul.
(/a//>, 2., of.
13)ffTpaTowfSdpxv^ is "a military com-
Ch.
AS A LION'S WHELP
Rome nor from the seed of Remus and Romulus, hut from many different races, and yet all their kings and the rulers and governors below them are all called Romans, and their power is named Roman, and the rule of them all generally has this ajipellation, in the same way we (h) should think of the Hebrew state, where you have the name of the tribe of Judah applied generally to the whole nation, though there be kings and governors of divisions from different tribes, but all honoured with the name of Judah.
We understand then that the prophet's words " Judah, thy brethren shall praise thee," were to be applied to the whole tribe.
For he knew that being marked out for precedence it would be honoured more than the other tribes, and since it wns best in warfare, and the sole leader of the whole nation in operations against the enemy, he rightly continues : "Thy hands shall be on the back of thy (c) enemies."
Then for its ruling and royal jwsition he calls it, "a lion's" whelp."
And as ancestor and prophet, glorying in the reputation of the tribe, he adds :
" From a seed, my son, thou hast ascended"; while the words:
"Falling down thou hast slept as a lion, and as a lion's whelp," shew its character of terror and bravery, its utter fearlessness of external attack, and contempt of its foes.
He being such, (d) or rather, his tribe being such, who, he says, shall arouse it?
He suggests that the Person who is to remove the tribe in question from its throne, and move it from its royal position, w ill be some one great, wonderful, unusual, and hard to imagine.
Then he tells us who it is to be, telling us that it is He Who is the Expectation of nations, of Whom it is i)redicted that He will only appear among men, when the ruler fails, and the governor is changed, and the tribe of Judah is removed from its position of power.
Who is this, but our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ?—at Whose birth, as the prophecy before us pre (374) dieted, the rulers and governors set over their nation from the Jews themselves would fail, the tribe of Judah lose the dominant and royal position that it had held over the nation for so long, and be subject to the Romans, their rulers from • that day to this, who overcame the Jewish (h) mander " — Lat. " Irihunus legionis,"
Dion.
II. lo.
36:
Luc, Hiil.
Coitscr.
22.
io8
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. VIII. nation together with the rest of the world, and under whom Herod, a man of aUen birth apart from their race, was appointed king by Augustus and the Roman Senate.^ For Herod was son of Antipater, and Antipater belonged to Ascalon, and was son of some - temple-server at the Temple of Apollo, who married a woman named
Kuprine, of Arab race, and begat Herod.
He, you will remember, being sprung from this family, got rid of and slew Hyrcanus, the last of the line of ruling high-priests, with (c) whom the government of the Jews by native rulers came to an end, Herod being, as I say, the first foreigner to be called the King of the Jews.
In his time Jesus Christ was born, and at one and the same time the position of the tribe of Judah was taken away, the authority of the kingdom of the Jews destroyed, and the prophecy preceding this fulfilled: "There shall not fail a prince from Judah, nor a governor from his loins, until there come the things laid up for him," who, he says, will not only be the expectation of the Jews, but of the Gentiles.
As, therefore, the expectation of the call of the Gentiles, prophesied long (f^) before to Abraham, was "laid up," until the rulers and governors of the Jewish race should have ceased, and their independent government should have been changed to submission to Rome, and to the Gentile Herod, the Evangelist Luke, noting the date of the cessation of Jewish rulers, tells us that the teaching of Christ began in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cresar, when Pontius
Pilate was governor of Jud;t!a; and Matthew says the same ^ rrjs 'Pu/xaicvv av/KKrirov $ov\iis.
That is, the Senate.
Cf.
I'olyl). 20.
12.
3, etc.
- ^K Twv UpoSov\aiv : cf. H.E.
I. vii.
II, where Eusebius quotes the story of Julius Africanus, lliat Idum;v;ans carried away fiom Ashkelon Antipatcr's father, who was the son of a temple-server, and thus Antipater was brought up in Idumiea ; Nicolaus of Damascus (Jos. Aiit. xiv.
I, 3), said he was of the Jewish stock that came Ijack from Babylon.
Justin (Dial. c. 52) makes him a Pliilistine.
His son Antipater married a Nabat;van .\ial>, named Cypros, and attachcil liimseif to the party of I lyrcanus as atjainst his brother Aristobulus.
< )n llic takint; of Jerusalem by I'ompcy (63 H.c), Ilvrcanus was mad-; hii;h priest, and Herod .Antipater was made t^overnorof ( lalilee (47)
; ami after tiie attempt of Anligonus in whicli Hyrcanus was nmtilated (4o\ Herod was given the title of king by Antony and Octavius.
.\fter the battle of Aclium (31), he joined the jiarly of Augustus and was confined l<i his kingdom.
Ch.
FULFILLED IN CHRIST
in a disguised form.
For having described the birth of our Lord and Saviour, he adds :
" And when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea, in the days of Herod the king, behold wise men came from the ICast to Jerusalem, saying, Where is that which is born king of the Jews?'' wherein he shews clearly enough both that they were under (373) foreign rule, and also the calling of the foreign nations from the East by God.
For foreigners ruled over the Jews, and foreigners coming from the East recognized and worshipped the Christ of God, ^^'ho had been prophesied of old.
The prophecy of Jacob is thus seen clearly to have been fulfilled, being brought to pass at the end of the national existence of the Jews, even as he predicted to his sons, saying :
" Come together, that I may announce to you, what shall happen to you at the end of the days."(b) For we must understand by the end of the days the end of the national existence of the Jews.
What, then, did he say they must look for?
The cessation of the rule of Judah, the destruction of their whole race, the failing and ceasing of their governors, and the abolition of the dominant kingly position of the tribe of Judah, and the rule and kingdom of Christ, not over Israel but over all nations, according to the words, "This is the expectation of the nations."
And who would not agree that all this has been definitely (c) fulfilled in the coming of our Saviour, when they who of old before Christ's birth, with their native rulers and governors and wise hearers of the holy oracles, prided themselves in their own kings, high priests and prophets, and when the tribe of Judah, being the royal tribe, the conqueror of their enemies, the leader and ruler of the whole nation, with its men of old renown has from that day to this lain under the heel of Rome ?
For the Christ of God was definitely manifested, and from that day the said expectation of the Gentiles is preached to all nations, (d) Or who can deny, that concurrently with the appearance of our Saviour Jesus the solemnities of the Jews, their city with its Temple and the worship performed therein, have come to an end, together with their native rulers and governors, and that from that time the hope and expectation of the nations through all the world has been made known, since the things laid up in the Lord VOL. n.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. VIII. have come. What are these things, but those set forth by Judah?— " Thy brethren shall praise thee, thy hands shall be on the back of thine enemies, lion of the tribe of Judah.
O my son, thou hast ascended from a seed, falling thou hast slept as a lion and as a lion's whelp : who shall awake thee ? "
(376) But the words, " The things laid up for him," have another sense ; let us now consider them, only premising that the Holy Scriptures are accustomed to give the Christ different names.
Sometimes they call Him Jacob :
"Jacob, my son, I will help thee; Israel, my chosen, my soul hath received him, he shall bring judgment Isa. xlii.
I. unto the nations," and that which follows.
To which is added, " Till he place judgment on the earth, and in his name shall the Gentiles (1.) hope."
Sometimes they name Him Solomon or David:
Solomon as in the 71st Psalm, inscribed to Solomon, whose contents evidently refer to Christ.
For the words, '' He Ps. Ixxi. 8. shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the world's end, and all the nations shall serve him,"' and the contents of the Psalm that follow, can only apply to the Christ.
Christ, again, is called David in the 88th Psalm, for expressions therein are only applicable to Him, and not to David, for instance :
Ps.
"He shall call me, Thou art my father, and I will Ixxxviii. make him my firstborn, high above the kings of the ^^earth.
I will keep my mercy for him for ever."
(c) And again :
"His seed shall remain for ever, and his throne is as the sun before me, and as the moon fixed in the heaven."
So, then, besides the many other names given to Ciirist by the Holy Scriptures, it is possible that He may be called Judah also in the passage before us, especially as He sprang from the tribe of Judah.
For the apostle certifies the fact (<1) that our Lord and Saviour sprang from the tribe of Judah.
For Him, then, were "the things laid up for Judah"' figuratively intended in the prophecy.
And what were they?
First, the praise of His brethren: second, to lay his hands on the back of His enemies ; third, to be worshipped by the sons of His Father. And they came to pass,
Ch.
CHRIST IN HADES lit fur His performance of miracles and wondrous prodigies aroused wonder, and He was praised and worshipped by His own disciples and apostles, whom He shrank not from calling brethren, saying by the Psalm, "I will declare thy name to my brethren, in the midst of the Church I will ps, xxi. 22. praise thee," and also when He bids the women with Mary announce the news to them as His brethren, for He says, " Make known to my brethren that I ascend to my Father, (377) and your Father, and to my God, and your God." ^ Thus Matt. then, His brethren at first praised Him only as a remarkable xxviii.
10, man because of His miracles, believing Him most likely to and Jolm be one of the prophets ; but when meanwhile they saw His ^^"
^^' wonderful miracles, and how He destroyed the enemy and the avenger, and death the prince of this world, together with the other unseen hostile powers, thenceforth they (li) believed Him to be God and worshipped Him.
And the hands of our Saviour were upon the back of His enemies, when He directed all His deeds and powers and miracles to the destruction of the daemons and evil spirits.
Yea, when too He spread out His hands on the Cross, even then His hands were on the back of His enemies, since they fled and turned their backs on Him, and even more, when yielding up His spirit to the Father, disembodied and (c) stripped of that flesh,- which He had assumed, He went to the place of His enemies, having life in Himself, to loose death, and the powers arrayed against Him, which perhaps at first conceived that He was an ordinary man and like all men, and so encircled Him and attacked Him as they would any one else, but when they knew that He was superhuman and divine, they turned their backs and fled from Him, so that He laid His hands on them, and drave them on with His divine and shar[)cned arrows, as is here said, "Thy hands shall be on the backs of thy enemies." ^ ^ W.H.:
Matl. xxviii.
10, 07ra776iAaT6 rois a8e\(pois fi.ov 'iva oire\Oicffiu.
John XX 17, iropfvnu S'e npus Toiis aSeK^ovs /iov Koi eiVt auToZj.
'AvaBaivw irphs rbv irarfpa fjiov.
'ATrayy(i\are tois alfAcpois /xov on avfpxofiai itphs rhv irarfpa fJiOV.
* yvfivhs ob avuKiipfi awfiuTos.
//f weut to the place of His enemies, Cf. the longer passage, 501 b— 503 <i, expounding Ps. xxi. 19-21, with references to Is.i. xiv. 9 ami Job.
The incidents and scenery are plainly the iradiiional ones of
TliE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. VIII.
And if to-day many enemies of our Saviour attempt from (<l)time to time to war aij;ainst His Church, these too He routs with invisible hand antl divine power/ even as it is said of them, " His hands shall be on the back of his enemies."
And since also He has received the trophies of victory over His enemies, the words, " The sons of thy father shall worship thee," are also fulfilled : that is to say, all the angels of heaven, and the ministering spirits, and the divine powers, and on earth the apostles and evangelists, and after them those of all nations who through Him are enrolled under the one and only true God and Father, have learned that Christ is God the Word, and have consented to worship
(378) Him as God.
But as it was necessary for the mysteries of both His Birth and Death to be included in the prophecy concerning
Him, Jacob rightly proceeds to add to what has gone before :
" Judah is a lion's whelp.
From a seed, my son, thou hast ascended, falling down thou hast slept as a lion and a lion's whelp : who shall arouse thee? "
He calls Him then a lion's whelp because of His being born of the royal tribe.
For He was of the seed of (!') David according to the flesh.
" From a shoot thou hast grown, my son," he says, because He was born of the seed and root of Jacob who foretold it, being primarily God the Word, and becoming secondarily the Son of man, through the dispensation He undertook for us.
And the words, " i'alling down thou didst sleep as a lion and a whelp," are significant of His Death, because Scripture is accustomed, " Tlie Harrowing of llcll " acccp'.ed at the time :
^;'". the sli.ittcring of the gates and release of the prisoners, the fear of the janitors, the luinihle prayer of Hades, the beasts of Tartarus, Christ's driving of the I'lince of tliis world and the evil powers before Iliin.
Tliese belong to tlie cycle of, even if they are not directly deiived from, the source of the Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodiiiius (allied with I'ilate literature of fourth or fifth century, going back "possibly to the second century."
Mofl'att, D.A.C., i. 504) ; and from tliat of Hartholomew, the fragments f)f wliich perhaps come from an original written " vers le IV'"'' siecle.
Wilmarl and Tisserant, quoted D..-I.C., i. 504.
If these passages shew the influence of the Apocryphal Gospels, the reverse is the case \viti> regard lo the miracles of the Infancy, the accounts of wliicli are implicitly cou'lemned, p. 426 d.
ICvidenlly written after the cessation of the persecution.
Ch.
THE THINGS LAID UP
as is shewn in many other places, from the conviction of tlieir kinship to call death a sleep.
And " Who shall awake him ? " is a wonderful reference to His Resurrection from the dead.
For he who said, " Who will awake him ?
"' (c) knew quite well that He would be awaked.
And it is remarkable that he should add, " Who then shall do this and raise him up ? " so as to impel us to ask who it was that raised up our Lord Who died on our behalf.
For Who else was it, but the God of the Universe, His Father, to Whom the Saviour's Resurrection is solely to be attributed, according to the Scripture which says, "^Vhom the Father raised i Thess. from the dead "' ?
'• loInstead of, " Judah is a lion's whelp, from a shoot, my (d) son, thou hast ascended, falling down thou hast slept,"
Aquila says more plainly, " Judah is a lion's cub, from destruction, my son, hast thou ascended, bending thou hast laid down."
And Symmachus says, "Judah is a lion's whelj), from capture, my son, hast thou ascended, having knelt thou hast been established."
By which the Resurrection of the dead is clearly meant, and the escape of our Saviour from Hades, as from a trap for wild beasts.
The kneeling and the being established instead of falling, signify death hy the kneeling, and not being dragged away like the souls of other men by •' being established."
All this then was laid up before for Christ.
But while this remained unfulfilled, the Jewish nation lasted, and their rulers and governors and they who were wise interpreters of the sacred oracles about the ("hrist stood out among them
; but when (379) that which had been laid up for Judah had come, and He appeared on earth of \\"hom it was foretold that He should spring from the seed and shoot of the prophet himself, after falling down and sleeping, or " kneeling," according to Symmachus, He was established and raised up, laying His hands on the back of His unseen spiritual enemies ; and His brothers and disciples first praising Him and wondering, afterwards were convinced that He was God, and worshipped Him as God ; then were fulfilled the things laid up for Him, for because of this the answer was '' Until there come the things laid up for him."
For (b) from that day to this, the things laid up for Him being come, the rulers and governors of the Jewish nation have ceased, the rulers of the Gentiles have been placed at their given,
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. VIII. head, and the nations on the other'hand knowing the Christ of (jod have made Him their Saviour and Hope.
After all this there follows :
" Binding his foal to the vine, and the foal ' of the ass ,^^ to the branch, he shall wash his robe in wine, and his Gen. xlix. garment in the blood of the grape.
His eyes shall be II. cheering from wine,- and his teeth white as milk."
Here I should understand by the foal, the choir of apostles and disciples of our Saviour, and by the vine to which the foal is bound, His divine and invisible power, as He Himself taught when He said, " I am the true vine, and my Father John XV.
I. is the husbandman."
And the branch of the said vine is the teaching of the Word of Ciod, by which He bound the foal of the ass—that is to say, the new people of the Gentile.%
(<1) the offspring of His Apostles.
And you may say that this was literally fulfilled, when, according to Matthew, the Lord said to His disciples :
"Go into the village over against you, and straightway Matt. xxi. ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her ; loose 2them and bring them to me."
And there is real food for wonder if one studies the account in the prediction of the prophet, that he should have foreseen by the Holy Spirit, that the subject of his j)r()phecy would not come riding on chariots and horses like some distinguished man, but on an ass and a foal, like a poor common man of the people. And this raised another prophet's wonder, who said :
(3S0) " Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion, behold thy King Cometh unto thee meek, sitting upon an ass, and a colt Zcch. Lx. 9. the foal of an ass." ^ And the words, " He will wash his garments in wuic, and in the blood of the grape his girdle," will shew you surely how as in a secret way He suggests His mystic Passion, in which He washed His garment and vesture with the washing wherewith He is revealed to wash away the old stains of them that believe in Him.
For with the wine which was indeed the symbol of His blood, He cleanses them that are baptized into His death, and believe on His '
S. h.is inro^vytov for ttu'Kov.
^ S. h.is viTfp oivov for anh otvou.
K. omits after Siwc, Kr\pv<T(rf OvyaTi^p 'Upov<Ta\y]f^, ami after ?fi;^*Tai (rot, SiKaios Kol aw^wv, avrhs.
, .
Ch.
THE HOLY MYSTERIES
blood, of their old sins, washing them away and purifying (b) their old garments and vesture, so that they, ransomed by the precious blood of the divine spiritual grapes, and with the wine from this vine, " put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man which is renewed into knowCol. iii.9, ledge in the image of Him that created him."
JoThe words, "His eyes are cheerful from wine, and his teeth white as milk," again I think secretly reveal the (c) mysteries of the new Covenant of our Saviour.
"His eyes are cheerful from wine," seems to me to shew the gladness of the mystic wine which He gave to His disciples, when He said, "Take, drink; this is my blood that is shed for you for the remission of sins : this do in remembrance of mc."
And, "His teeth are white as milk," shew the brightness ^ and purity of the sacramental food.
For again. He gave Himself (*^) the .symbols of His divine dispensation to His disciples, when He bade them make the likeness ^ of His own
Body.
For since He no more was to take pleasure in bloody sacrifices, or those ordained by Moses in the slaughter of animals of various kinds, and was to give them bread to use as ^ the symbol of His Body, He taught the purity and brightness of such food by saying, "And his teeth are white as milk."
This also another prophet has recorded, where fs. xl. 6 he says, "Sacrifice and offering hast thou not required, but a body hast thou prepared for me."
But these matters should be examined at leisure, for they require deeper criticism and longer interpretation.
For the present I must refuse to enter on that great task, in order that I may incorporate in this work the evidence that the time of the Saviour's Coming from above was known to the (381) ancient prophet.s, and clearly handed down in writing.
' rh Kafiirphv Koi Kadaphv rrfs fivffrripiuiSovs Tpo(prjs.
t))I' fiK6t>a rov iSiov (TwfjiaTos.
Scc Introduction, p. xxxii.
' ffvfi06\if> ToD i5i'ou adifj-cTos.