CHAPTER 19
Ch. 19, 20.
CHRIST TO VISIT EGYPT
CHAPTER
From Baruch.
// is prophesied that the God of the Prophets, having laid down the Complete Way of Knowledge by the Mosaic La7o to the Jdvs, will some Day afterwards be seen on Earth, and mingle among Men.
[Passage quoted, Baruch iii. 29-37.] I NEED add nothing to these inspired words, which so (295) clearly support my argument.
(c) CHAPTER
From Isaiah.
It is prophesied that the Christ will come into Egypt, and What Things will come to pass at His Coming.
(d) [Passage quoted, Isa. xix. 1-4 and the context.] Here the prophecy before us states that the Second after (296) the God and Lord of the Universe, I mean the Word of God, will come into Egypt, and will come not imperceptibly nor invisibly, nor without any bodily vesture, but riding on a light cloud, or better "on light thickness"
: for such is said to be the meaning of the Hebrew word.
Let the sons of the Hebrews tell us, then, on what occasion after Isaiah's time the Lord visited Egypt, and what Lord he was.
For the Supreme God is one : let them say how He is said to ride on ^ "light thickness," and to alight locally on any part of the earth.
And let them interpret "light thickness," and CO explain why the Lord is said not to visit Egypt without it.
And also when the words of the prophecy are recorded to have been fulfilled, the shaking of the idols of Egypt made by hand, I mean, and the warring of Egyptians with Egyptians through the Coming of the Lord.
And their gods, that is to say the da:;mons, that were so mighty of old, when did they have power no more, and re''rain from answering their (c)
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. VI. inquirers through fear of the Lord ?
And into the hands of what cruel lord, let them say, and of what kings was Egypt delivered after the coming of the Lord that was foretold, and why when the Lord came they were delivered to evil rulers?
And let him, who likes, interpret the rest of the prophecy in the same way.
But I contend that it can only be understood consistently, of the appearing of our Saviour
Jesus Christ to men.
For He, being Word of God and (d) Power of God, fulfilled the aforesaid prediction both literally and metaphorically, visiting the land of the Egyptians on a light cloud.
The name, "light cloud,'' is allegorically given to the visitation He made by means of the Body, which He took of the Virgin and the Holy Spirit, as the Hebreworiginal and Aquila clearly suggests, when he says, " Behold the Lord rides on light thickness, and conies to Egypt," naming the body that came from the Holy Spirit, ' light thickness."
And surely this part of the prophecy was literally fulfilled, when the Angel of the Lord ap])eared in a dream to Joseph and said :
" Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and stay there (297) until I tell thee."
For then, the Lord God the Word, uniting with the child's growth, and present in the Flesh that had been furnished Him of the Holy Virgin, visited the land of the Egyptians.
(His flesh was "'thick" as representing bodily substance, "light" again through its being better than ours, and it is called "a light cloud " because it was not formed of the sensuous passions of corruption, but of the Holy Spirit.) But the cause of His journey thither is as follows.
When it is remembered that the first origin of idolatrous error was in Egypt, and the Egyptians seemed to (b) be the most superstitious of men, and bitter enemies of the people of Godj and as far removed from the prophets as possible, we can sec why the Power of God came to them first of all.
And therefore the word of Gospel teaching has waxed stronger among the Egyptians than among anv other nun.^ Hence this prophecy foretells that the Lord will * There is an interesting; p.nssage in Chrj's., Horn, in Matt. ti/V. on the preeminent place of E;4ypl in the Church.
It is probably truer of his day than of that of Eusebius.
"The vast increase of information alx)ut the condition of Et;ypt under the Empire wliich the last fifty years has witnessed, has served only to confirm the familiar words of Gibbon," writes Y, C.
Burkitt, quoting the passage, l)cginning,
Ch. 20.
DAEMONS OF EGYPT
sojourn among them.
But it does not say that the Egyptians will come to the land of the Jews, nor worship him at Jerusalem, nor become Jewish proselytes there according to the enactments of Moses, nor sacrifice at the altar in Jerusalem.
It says naught of this, but that the Lord will (c) Himself visit the Egyptians, and will think these men worthy of His Presence, and will be the occasion of great blessings to them.
For His sojourn would accomplish those very things, which we see to have been actually fulfilled after the appearance of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Let us see what these were.
The evil and noxious daemons who infested Egypt before, inhabiting images ^ for long ages, and enslaving
(d) the souls of the Egyptians with all manner of deceitful superstition, when they became aware of a strange divine power sojourning among them, were all at once disturbed and tossed to and fro, and their heart and power of thought was minished within them, yielding to and conquered by the invisible power that drave on them and consumed them with its sacred word as with fire.
Yea, the demons suffered thus invisibly when our Saviour Jesus Christ sojourned in Egypt in flesh and blood ; and, again, when afterwards His "The progress of Christianity was for a long time confined within the limits of a single city, which was itself a foreign colony," and ending, "As scon, indeed, as Christianity ascended the throne
. tlie cities of Egypt were tilled with bishops, and the deserts of Thebais swarmed with hermits."
(Early Chrisltanily, p. lo, and Bury's Gibbon, ii. 6o.
Yet the position of Alexandria and the prestige of its School must have made Egyptian Christianity count for much in the world of culture.
Eor the special cult of daemons in Egypt cf. Origen. c.
Cels. viii. 58
" Let any one inquire of the Egyptians, and he will find that everything, even to the most insignificant, is committed to the caie of a certain doemon," note their guardianship over the thirty-si.\ parts of the body, and their names, Chnoumen, Chnachoumen, Cnat, etc.
In the Gospel of Psctido-Matthew, which uses early sources, the 355 Egyptian idols bow down and break when Mary and Jesus enter the Egyptian Temple.
These are, of course, the habitations of d.vmons (c. xxii., xxiii. ) There were probably other legends about da-mons connected with the Flight into Egypt.
Cf. the extract from the London magical papyrus, No. 46, 145 ff., written in the fourth century, A.D. quoted bv A. Deissmann, Lightfront the Ancient East, p.
: "I am the headless d.i.-mon, having eyes in my feet, the stront; one., the deathless fire .
"' and the The Lausiac History of Falladins, W.
Clarke, esjiecially, " Macarius of Alexandria," pp. 7S-80.
^ loorou:
Cf. P.E. 12 a.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. VI.
(298) Gospel was preached openly to the Egyptians as well as to the other nations, for His unseen power was with His Apostles imperceptibly working with them, co-operating, announcing by their tongues His holy teaching, exhorting men to worship only the one and true God, and rescuing the victims from the daemons that of old had been deceived by them.
Hence, soon among the Egyptians as among (Ij) other nations, revolution and civil war arose, between those who gave up polytheistic error and turned to the Word of Christ, and those who warred with them, urged on by their own daemons, so that brothers were parted one from the other, and the dearest fought together because of the Gospel of Christ, for the oracle ?ays, " And Egyptians shall rise against Egyptians, and a man shall fight with his brother, and a (c) man with his neighbour."
And our Saviour Himself confirms the prophet's prediction, saying in the Gospels "Brother shall deliver brother to death, and father ^[.^^f ^ child, and children shall rise up against theT parents 21. and slay them."
And again :
"Think not that I came to give peace on earth.
I say not so unto you, but division.
For there shall be from this time five in one house divided, three against two and two against three : For the father shall be divided from his son, and the son from his father, the , . mother against her daughter, and the daughter against J /j jMatt.
'^6'' niother, the mother-in-law against the bride, and the X.
34. bride against her mother-in-law."
(d) How do those words differ from the prophet's cry concerning the coming of the Lord to Egypt :
" Egyptians shall rise against Egyptians, and man shall war against his brother" :^
And the law of the new Covenant of Christ was raised against the law of polytheistic superstition, when the law of idolatrous nations warred against the teaching of Christ, and tlie city and polity of the Church of Christ took the ' The impression conveyed is that there liail been religious wars in Egypt between Christian and non-Christian, apart altogether from Imperial ])crsecuti()n.
Kgypl wns certainly in an unsettloil state dining the third cenluiy.
The dcslriictiun of the Temple of Jahveh at I'-lephantine at tlie instigation of tiie priests of Chnut, seven hundred years before (S.
Driver, Si/nce/i/i lectures, p.
30), no doubt shews the spirit in whicli the ciiangelcss Egyptian religion met the advance of all foreign faiths.
Ch. 20.
PROPHECY FULFILLED IN EGYPT
place of the polities of the heathen nations.
And this explains "city against city, and law against law."
It is the fact also that all the Egyptian idolaters, and the spirit of idolatry working in them, are even now conscious of their confusion, and though they make many plans against the teaching of Christ, to quench it, and abolish it from among (299) men, yet they are ever scattered by God, as it is said in the pro|ihecy, "And the spirit of the Egyptians shall be disturbed within them, and I will scatter their counsel."
And they who make many inquiries and ask endless questions against us of the oracles and diviners of their gods, and of the daemons that haunt the idols, and the familiar spirits who were of old so powerful among them, get no more profit of them.
For Scripture says :
" And they will inquire of their gods, and their idols, (b) and the familiar spirits.'"
But when they flee, it says, to them that falsely apijcar to be gods, they will receive no help, for then will God chiefly deliver them to cruel kings and rulers, when under the influence of their daemons, and in their power, they arouse persecutions against the Churches of Christ.
And, please, notice the fact, that until the appearance of our Saviour Jesus Christ all Egypt had its own kings, as a separate (c) and responsible state, and the Egyptians were autonomous and free, and their dynasty was great and famous through long ages, and it was after that date, when Augustus, in whose time our Lord was born, being the first Roman to subjugate Egypt, captured Cleopatra the last of the Ptolemies, that they came under the Roman power, laws, and enactments, losing their former autonomy and freedom.
So that here also the prophecy is true, regarding first the governors (d) and rulers sent out to those places, and the other officials in their several positions, saying, "And I will deliver Egypt into the hand of cruel rulers," and also in what follows regarding the general conduct of the government.
Instead of which Aquila says, " And a mighty king shall reign over them."
And Symmachus, "And a strong king shall reign over them."
Thus the kingdom of Rome seems to be meant, which has bound with bridle and bond not only the Egyptians, the most superstitious of men, but all other men as well, so that they dare no longer to blaspheme against the Church of our Saviuur Jesus Christ.
And after (300)
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. VP this the prophecy proceeds to darker and disguised sayings, which require longer and more profound allegorical interpretation, which in the proper place shall receive their proper exposition at leisure when with God's help I treat of the promises.
CHAPTER
From the same.
A Promise of Good Things to the Church of the Gentiles, that before was deserted, and to Sick Souls the Manifest (c) Presence of God, and Marvellous Saving Acts.
[Passage quoted, Isa. xxxv.
1-7.] Here also the Coming of God for salvation, bringing many blessings, is precisely foretold.
The prophet says that therewill be a cure for the deaf, sight for the blind, yea, even healing for the lame and tongue-tied, and this was only fulfilled at the Coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ, by Whom the eyes of the blind were opened, and the deaf regained their hearing ; why need I say, how many palsied and deaf and lame also received physical cure by the hands of His
(301) disciples?
And how many others, afflicted with various diseases and maladies, received of Him healing and salvation, according to the inspired prediction of prophecy, and according to the unimpeachable testimony of the Holy Gospels?
And the prophecy here disguises under the name of " desert " the Church of the Gentiles, which for long years deserted of God is being evangelized by those of whom we are speaking,^ and it says that besides other blessings the glory of Lilianus will be given to the desert.
Now it is customary to call (li) Jerusalem Lebanon allcgorically, as I will show, when I have time, by proofs from Holy Scripture.
This pn^phecy before us, therefore, teaches that by God's presence with men the glory of Libanus will be given to that which is called "desert," that is to say, the Church of the Gentiles.
And for, "And the honour of Carmel,'' Aquila says, "the
Ch. 22.
HEALING BY THE WORD
beauty of Carmel, and of Sharon, they shall see the glory of (c) the Lord."
Symmachus, "The grace of Carmel and of the plain, those shall see the glory of the Lord."
And Iheodotion, "The beauty of Carmel and of Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord."
In which I think the prophet means, figuratively, not that Jerusalem, nor Judii^a, but the land of the Gentiles will be counted worthy of divine knowledge.
For Carmel, and that which is called Sharon were places that belonged to foreign races.
That would be the literal meaning : but figuratively, even to-day, they that were before so blinded in soul, as to bow down to wood and stone and other lifeless substances, earth-bound daemons/ ('0 and evil spirits instead of the God of the Universe, and they that were deaf in the ears of their mind, and lame, and palsied in all their life, are even now being released from all these and many other sufferings and weaknesses by the teaching of our Saviour Jesus Christ, receiving far better healing and benefit than that of the body, and shewing forth clearly the divine and superhuman power of the presence of the Word of God anions;; men.
CHAPTER
From the same.
How the First and Everlasting Word of God, the Creator of (302) the Universe, confesses that He is even now sent by the (^) Lord His Father.
[Passage quoted, Isa. xlviii.
12 and 16.] Vou have here the Lord sent and the Lord sending, that is to say the Father and God of the Universe, entitled Lord twice as was usual.
^ Saifiovds re irepiyflovs.
C(. P.E. l8l a : oi 5f irtpiyewtTivfs orrey «tot uarax^ovtot, etc.