Letters & Polemics (CSEL) 3 part 63/87

he adds also Jeroboam king of Israel, who lived through the same days. Likewise Isaiah, son of Amos—whether of the aforesaid prophet or, as is rather reported, of another who was not a prophet, called by the same name—places at the head of his book the same four kings whom Hosea placed, in whose days he premises that he prophesied. Micah too commemorates the same times of his prophecy after the days of Uzziah. For he names the three kings who follow, whom Hosea also named, Jotham and Ahaz and Hezekiah. These are they who are found from their writings to have prophesied together at the same time. To these is joined Jonah, while the same Uzziah reigned, and Joel, when Jotham, who succeeded Uzziah, was now reigning.

But the times of these two prophets we were able to find in the chronicles, not in their own books, since they are silent about their own days. Now these days are stretched from Procas, king of the Latins, or the earlier Aventinus, up to king Romulus, now Roman, or even up to the beginnings of the reign of his successor Numa Pompilius (for Hezekiah, king of Judah, reigned up to that point); and so through those times these, as it were fountains of prophecy, burst forth together, when the Assyrian kingdom failed and the Roman began;

so that, namely, just as in the first period of the Assyrian kingdom Abraham existed, to whom most plainly were made the promises concerning the blessing of all nations in his seed, so at the beginning of the western Babylon, in whose reign Christ was to come, in whom those promises were to be fulfilled, the oracles of the prophets, not only speaking but even writing, were unsealed as a testimony of so great a future matter. For although prophets had almost never been lacking to the people of Israel from the time when kings began to be there, they were for the use of those people only, not of the nations; but when prophetic Scripture was being more manifestly established, which should at some time profit the nations, then it behooved it to begin, when this city was being established, which should rule the nations.

CHAPTER XXVIII. Concerning those things which pertain to the gospel of Christ, what Hosea and Amos prophesied. Hosea the prophet, then, the more deeply indeed he speaks, the more laboriously is he penetrated. But something thence must be taken and here too set down from our promise. «And it shall be», he says, «in the place where it was said to them: You are not my people, there they too shall be called sons of the living God.» This prophetic testimony concerning the calling of the people of the Gentiles, who formerly did not pertain to God, the apostles also understood. And because that same people of the Gentiles too is spiritually among the sons of Abraham, and through this is rightly called Israel, therefore it follows and he says:

«And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel shall be gathered together into one, and they shall set over themselves one headship and shall come up from the land.» If we should still wish to expound this, the savor of the prophetic eloquence will be blunted. Yet let that corner-stone be called to mind, and the two walls, one from the Jews, the other from the Gentiles; the one by the name of the sons of Judah, the other by the name of the sons of Israel, leaning upon that one same headship of theirs into one, and coming up, let them be acknowledged, from the land. But that those carnal Israelites, who now refuse to believe in Christ, shall afterward believe, that is, their sons (for surely these shall pass into their place by dying), the same prophet testifies, saying:

«For the sons of Israel shall sit many days without king, without prince, without sacrifice, without altar, without priesthood, without manifestations.» Who does not see that the Jews are now thus? But let us hear what he adds. «And afterward», he says, «the sons of Israel shall return and shall seek the Lord their God and David their king, and they shall be amazed at the Lord and at his good things in the last days.» Nothing is more manifest than this prophecy, when by the name of king David Christ is understood to be signified, because he was made, as the apostle says, «of the seed of David according to the flesh.» This prophet foretold also the resurrection of Christ on the third day, as it behooved it to be foretold with prophetic loftiness, where he says:

«He will heal us after two days, on the third day we shall rise again.» For according to this the apostle says to us: «If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above.» Amos too prophesies thus concerning such matters: «Prepare yourself», he says, «to call upon your God, O Israel; for behold I am he who establish the thunder and create the spirit and announce among men his Christ»; and in another place: «In that day», he says, «I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen, and I will rebuild the things that have fallen of it, and the things destroyed of it I will raise up and rebuild them as the days of the age; so that the residue of men and all the nations, among whom my name has been invoked over them, may seek me out, says the Lord who does these things.» CHAPTER XXIX.

What things were predicted by Isaiah concerning Christ and the Church. The prophet Isaiah is not among the book of the twelve prophets, who are therefore called minor, because their discourses are brief in comparison with those who are called major because they composed lengthy volumes; among whom is this Isaiah, whom I subjoin to the two aforesaid on account of the same times of prophecy. Isaiah, then, among those things in which he rebuked the unjust and enjoined just precepts and foretold evils to come upon the sinful people, prophesied also concerning Christ and the Church—that is, concerning the King and the city which he founded—far more than the rest, so that by some he was called an evangelist rather than a prophet.

But for the sake of finishing the work, I shall set down in this place one out of many. For speaking in the person of God the Father: «Behold», he says, «my servant shall understand and shall be exalted and shall be greatly glorified. Even as many shall be amazed over you, so shall your appearance be deprived of glory by men, and your glory by men; so shall many nations marvel over him, and kings shall keep their mouth shut; for they to whom it was not announced concerning him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand. Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? We have announced before him, as an infant, as a root in a thirsting land: he has no appearance nor glory. And we saw him, and he had neither appearance nor comeliness;»

«but his appearance was without honor, failing beyond all men. A man set in affliction and knowing how to bear infirmity; for his face is turned away, he was dishonored and not esteemed great. He bears our sins and grieves for us; and we esteemed him to be in grief and in affliction and in distress. But he himself was wounded for our iniquities and was weakened for our sins. The chastisement of our peace was upon him; by his bruise we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, a man has erred from his way; and the Lord delivered him up for our sins; and he himself, because he was afflicted, opened not his mouth.»

«As a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is without voice, so he opened not his mouth. In humility his judgment was taken away. His generation who shall declare? For his life shall be taken from the earth. From the iniquities of my people he was led to death. And I will give the malicious for his burial and the rich for his death. For he did no iniquity, nor guile in his mouth; and the Lord wills to cleanse him from the stroke. If you give your soul for sin, you shall see a long-lived seed; and the Lord wills to take away his soul from grief, to show him light and to form understanding, to justify the just one who serves many well; and he himself shall bear their sins.»

«Therefore he himself shall inherit many and shall divide the spoils of the strong, because his soul was delivered up to death, and he was reckoned among the wicked, and he himself bore the sins of many, and was delivered up for their sins.» These things concerning Christ. Now indeed let us hear what follows concerning the Church. «Rejoice», he says, «O barren one, who does not bear; break forth and cry out, you who do not travail; for many are the children of the desolate one, more than of her who has a husband. Enlarge the place of your tabernacle and of your curtains; fix them, do not spare, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes, extend still to the right hand and the left part. And your seed shall inherit the nations, and you shall inhabit the desolate cities.»

'Fear not, for you have been confounded, neither be ashamed, for you have been reproached; because you shall forget the everlasting confusion and shall no more remember the reproach of your widowhood. For the Lord who made you, the Lord of Sabaoth is his name; and he who delivered you, he himself, the God of Israel, shall be called the God of the whole earth'; and so on. But let these things suffice; and among them are some that need exposition, yet I think that what is so plain is enough, things so open that even enemies are compelled, unwilling though they be, to understand. CHAPTER XXX. What Micah and Jonah and Joel prophesied in agreement with the New Testament. The prophet Micah, setting forth Christ under the figure of a certain great mountain, speaks thus:

'In the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be made manifest, prepared above the tops of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills. And the peoples shall hasten to it, and many nations shall go and shall say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will show us his way, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many peoples, and rebuke mighty nations afar off.' This same prophet, foretelling also the place in which Christ was born, says: 'And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephratah, are little among the thousands of Judah; out of you shall come forth for me one to be ruler in Israel; and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity.'

'Therefore he will give them up until the time of her that travails; she shall bring forth, and the remnant of his brethren shall be converted to the children of Israel. And he shall stand and see and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, and they shall be in the honor of the name of the Lord his God; for now shall he be magnified unto the ends of the earth.' But the prophet Jonah prophesied Christ not so much by word as by a certain suffering of his own, more plainly indeed than if he had proclaimed his death and resurrection with his voice. For why was he received into the belly of the sea-beast and restored on the third day, except to signify that Christ would return from the depth of hell on the third day? Joel compels all that he prophesies to be expounded in many words, that the things which pertain to Christ and the Church may be made clear.

Yet one thing, which the apostles also recalled when the Holy Spirit, as had been promised by Christ, came down from above upon the believers gathered together, I will not pass over. 'And it shall come to pass,' he says, 'after this, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions; and indeed upon my menservants and maidservants in those days will I pour out of my Spirit.' CHAPTER XXXI. What is found foretold in Obadiah, Nahum, and Habakkuk concerning the salvation of the world in Christ. Three of the minor prophets, Obadiah, Nahum, and Habakkuk, neither state their own times, nor is it found in the chronicles of Eusebius and Jerome when they prophesied.

For Obadiah is indeed placed by them along with Micah, but not in that passage where the times are marked, when it is established from his writings that Micah prophesied; which I suppose happened through the error of those who carelessly copied the labors of others. As for the other two mentioned, we could not find them in the copies of the chronicles which we had. Yet because they are contained in the canon, neither ought they to be passed over by us. Obadiah, as far as concerns his scripture, is the briefest of all the prophets; he speaks against Idumaea, that is, the nation of Esau, one of the twin sons of Isaac, grandsons of Abraham, the elder being that one who was rejected. Now if we take Idumaea to be put for the nations by that mode of speech whereby the whole is understood from a part:

we can recognize concerning Christ what he says among other things: 'But on Mount Zion there shall be salvation, and it shall be holy'; and a little after, at the end of that same prophecy, he says: 'And those who have been saved shall go up out of Mount Zion to defend the mountain of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's.' It is evident indeed that this was fulfilled when those saved out of Mount Zion—that is, those of Judaea believing in Christ, who are especially recognized as the apostles—went up to defend the mountain of Esau. And how did they defend it, except by the preaching of the gospel, making safe those who believed, that they might be rescued from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God? Which he consequently expressed by adding: 'And the kingdom shall be the Lord's.'

For Mount Zion signifies Judaea, where salvation and that which is holy—namely Christ Jesus—was foretold to come. But Mount Esau is Idumaea, by which is signified the Church of the Gentiles, which those saved out of Mount Zion defended, as I have explained, that the kingdom might be the Lord's. This was obscure before it came to pass; but who that is faithful would not recognize it now that it has been done? But the prophet Nahum—nay rather, God through him—says: 'I will destroy the graven and the molten images, I will make your grave; for behold, swift upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings and announces peace. Keep your feasts, O Judah, pay your vows; for they shall no more go on to pass into oldness. It is finished, it is consumed, it is taken away.'

'He has come up who breathes into your face, delivering you from tribulation.' Whoever has risen from the dead and breathed the Holy Spirit into the face of Judah—that is, of the Jewish disciples—let him who remembers the gospel recall it. For these things pertain to the New Testament, whose feast-days are thus spiritually renewed that they cannot pass into oldness. Moreover, through the gospel the graven and molten images—that is, the idols of false gods—have been destroyed and handed over to oblivion as to burial, as we already see, and we recognize that in this matter too the prophecy has been fulfilled. Of whom other than of the coming of Christ, which was to be, is Habakkuk understood to speak: 'And the Lord answered me and said:'

Write the vision plainly on a tablet, that he who reads it may run; for the vision is yet for a time, and it shall arise at the end and not in vain; if it tarry, wait for it, for it surely comes and will not delay.' CHAPTER XXXII. Concerning the prophecy contained in the prayer and song of Habakkuk. But in his prayer with a song, to whom but to the Lord Christ does he say: 'O Lord, I have heard your report, and I was afraid; O Lord, I have considered your works, and I trembled'? For what is this but the ineffable wonder at the foreknown new and sudden salvation of men? 'In the midst of two living creatures you shall be known'—what is this but either in the midst of the two Testaments, or in the midst of the two thieves, or in the midst of Moses and Elijah conversing with him on the mountain?

'When the years draw near, you shall be known; at the coming of the time you shall be shown'—this needs no exposition. 'In this, when my soul shall be troubled, in wrath you will remember mercy'—what is this but that he transformed into himself the Jews, of whose nation he was, who, troubled with great wrath, crucified Christ, while he, mindful of mercy, said: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do'? 'God will come from Teman, and the Holy One from a shadowy and dense mountain.' What is here said, 'He will come from Teman,' others have interpreted 'from the south' or 'from Africa'; by which is signified the noonday, that is, the fervor of charity and the splendor of truth.

But as for the shadowy and dense mountain, although it can be understood in many ways, I would more gladly take it as the height of the divine Scriptures, in which Christ was prophesied. For there are many things there that are shadowy and dense, which exercise the mind of the seeker. And from there he comes, when he is found there by him who understands. 'His power covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise'—what is this but what is also said in the psalm: 'Be exalted above the heavens, O God, and your glory above all the earth'? 'His brightness shall be as the light'—what is this but 'his fame shall enlighten believers'? 'Horns are in his hands'—what is this but the trophy of the cross? 'And he set the firm love of his strength'—this needs no exposition.

'Before his face the word shall go, and shall go forth into the field after his feet'—what is this but that both before he came hither he was foretold, and after he returned hence he was announced? 'He stood, and the earth was moved'—what is this but 'he stood to bring help, and the earth was moved to believe'? 'He looked, and the nations melted away'—that is, 'he had mercy and made the peoples repent.' 'The mountains were crushed by violence'—that is, 'by miracles doing violence, the pride of the haughty was crushed.' 'The everlasting hills flowed down'—that is, 'they were humbled for a time, that they might be raised up for eternity.' 'I saw his everlasting goings in return for labors'—that is, 'not without the reward of eternity did I behold the labor of charity.'

'The tents of the Ethiopians shall be afraid, and the tents of the land of Midian'—that is, 'the nations suddenly terrified by the report of your wonders, even those that are not under Roman law, shall be among the Christian people.' 'Were you angry against the rivers, O Lord, or was your fury against the rivers, or your onset against the sea?'—this was said because he came now not to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

'For you will ascend upon your horses, and your horsemanship is salvation'—that is, 'your evangelists, who are ruled by you, shall carry you, and your gospel shall be salvation to those who believe in you.' 'Bending you shall bend your bow against the scepters, says the Lord'—that is, 'you shall threaten your judgment even against the kings of the earth.' 'The earth shall be cleft with rivers'—that is, 'by the flowing words of those who preach you, the hearts of men shall be opened to confession,' to whom it was said: 'Rend your hearts and not your garments.' What is: 'The peoples shall see you and shall grieve,' but that by mourning they may be blessed? What is: 'Scattering the waters as you go,' but 'walking in those who announce you everywhere, you scatter the streams of doctrine this way and that'? What is:

'The deep gave its voice'—is it not 'the depth of the human heart expressed what seemed to it'? 'The height of his imagination' is, as it were, an exposition of the foregoing verse; for the height is the deep. But as to what he says, 'of his imagination,' we must supply 'gave a voice'—that is, what we said, 'it expressed what seemed to it.' For an imagination is a vision, which it did not hold back nor cover, but, confessing, poured forth. 'The sun was raised up, and the moon stood in its order'—that is, 'Christ ascended into heaven, and the Church was set in order under her king.'

'Your darts shall go forth into the light'—that is, 'your words shall be sent not into secret but into the open.' 'Into the splendor of the flashing of your weapons'—we must supply 'your darts shall go.' For he had said to his own: 'What I tell you in darkness, speak in the light.' 'In threatening you shall diminish the earth'—that is, 'by threatening you shall humble men.' 'And in fury you shall cast down the nations'—because by vindication you shall crush those who exalt themselves. 'You have gone forth for the salvation of your people, to save your anointed ones; you have sent death upon the heads of the wicked'—none of this needs exposition. 'You have stirred up the bonds even to the neck'—and here the bonds of wisdom can be understood in a good sense, that 'his feet may be put into his fetters and his neck into his collar.'

'You have cut off in amazement of mind'—we supply 'the bonds'; for he stirred up the good bonds and cut off the evil, concerning which it is said to him: 'You have broken my bonds,' and this 'in amazement of mind,' that is, marvelously. 'The heads of the mighty shall be moved in it'—namely in that admiration. 'They shall open their mouths, like a poor man eating in secret.' For certain mighty ones of the Jews came to the Lord, marveling at his deeds and words, and, hungering, ate the bread of doctrine in secret for fear of the Jews, as the gospel disclosed concerning them. 'And you sent your horses into the sea, troubling many waters,' which are nothing else than many peoples; for some would not be converted by fear and others persecute in fury, unless all were troubled.

'I watched, and my belly trembled at the voice of the prayer of my lips; and trembling entered into my bones, and beneath me my condition was troubled.' He gave heed to the things he was saying, and he was terrified by his own prayer, which he prophetically poured forth and in which he discerned things to come; for with many peoples troubled, he saw the tribulations threatening the Church; and forthwith he recognized himself as a member of her and said: 'I shall rest in the day of tribulation,' as one pertaining to those who are rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation. 'That I may ascend,' he says, 'to the people of my pilgrimage,' withdrawing surely from the malignant people of his own carnal kindred, which does not sojourn as a pilgrim in this earth nor seek the heavenly fatherland.

'For the fig tree,' he says, 'shall not bear fruit, and there shall be no produce in the vines; the work of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no food. The sheep have failed from food, and there are no oxen in the stalls.' He saw that the nation which was to slay Christ would lose the abundance of spiritual riches, which he figured by earthly fruitfulness in the prophetic manner. And because that nation suffered such wrath of God for this reason, that being ignorant of God's righteousness it wished to establish its own, he forthwith says: 'But I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in God my Savior. The Lord my God is my strength, he has set my feet for completion;'

he will set me upon the high places, that I may conquer in his song'—that song, namely, concerning which similar things are said in the psalm: 'He set my feet upon a rock and directed my steps, and put into my mouth a new song, a hymn to our God.' He therefore conquers in the song of the Lord who delights in his praise, not his own, that 'he who glories may glory in the Lord.' But it seems to me that certain copies have it better: 'I will rejoice in God my Jesus,' than those which, wishing to put this in Latin, did not set down the very name which is dearer and sweeter for us to name. CHAPTER XXXIII. Concerning Christ and the calling of the Gentiles which Jeremiah and Zephaniah foretold by the prophetic spirit.

The prophet Jeremiah is one of the major prophets, like Isaiah, not of the minor ones, like the rest, of whose writings I have already set down some things. He prophesied when Josiah reigned in Jerusalem and Ancus Marcius among the Romans, the captivity of the Jews now drawing near. But he extended his prophecy even to the fifth month of the captivity, as we find in his writings. Zephaniah, however, one of the minor prophets, is joined to him. For he too says that he prophesied in the days of Josiah; but how long, he does not say. Jeremiah therefore prophesied not only in the times of Ancus Marcius, but also of Tarquinius Priscus, whom the Romans had as their fifth king. For he had already begun to reign when that captivity took place. Prophesying therefore of Christ, Jeremiah says:

'The Spirit of our mouth, the Lord Christ, was taken in our sins,' thus briefly showing both that he is our Lord Christ and that he suffered for us. Likewise in another place he says: 'This is my God, and no other shall be esteemed beside him; who found out all the way of prudence and gave it to Jacob his servant and to Israel his beloved; after this he was seen upon earth and conversed with men.' This testimony some attribute not to Jeremiah but to his scribe, who was called Baruch; but it is more commonly held to be Jeremiah's. Again the same prophet says concerning him: 'Behold, the days come, says the Lord, and I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, and a king shall reign and shall be wise and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.'

'In those days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently; and this is the name by which they shall call him: The Lord our Righteous One.' Concerning the calling of the Gentiles also, which was to be and which we now perceive fulfilled, he spoke thus: 'O Lord my God and my refuge in the day of evils, to you the nations shall come from the ends of the earth and shall say: Truly our fathers worshiped lies, idols, and there is no profit in them.' But because the Jews were not going to recognize him—they by whom it was fitting that he should be slain—the same prophet signifies thus: 'The heart is heavy in all things, and he is man, and who recognizes him?' His also is that which I set down in the seventeenth book concerning the New Testament, of which Christ is the mediator. For Jeremiah himself says:

'Behold, the days come, says the Lord, and I will complete over the house of Jacob a new testament,' and the rest that is read there. But of the prophet Zephaniah, who prophesied with Jeremiah, I will for the present set down these things foretold concerning Christ: 'Wait for me, says the Lord, in the day of my resurrection, in the time to come; for my judgment is to gather the nations and to assemble the kingdoms.' And again: 'The Lord shall be terrible over them, and he shall exterminate all the gods of the earth, and every man shall worship him from his own place, all the islands of the nations.' And a little after: 'Then,' he says, 'I will turn the language unto the peoples, and his generation, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord and serve him under one yoke; from the borders of the rivers of Ethiopia they shall bring sacrifices to me.'

'In that day you shall not be confounded for all your devices by which you acted impiously against me; for then I will take away from you the depravities of your injury; and you shall no more go on to magnify yourself upon my holy mountain, and I will leave behind in you a meek and humble people; and they who shall be the remnant of Israel shall fear the name of the Lord.' These are the remnant of which it is prophesied elsewhere, which the apostle also recalls: 'Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.' For these remnant of that nation believed in Christ. CHAPTER XXXIV. Concerning the prophecy of Daniel and Ezekiel, which accords with Christ and the Church.