以賽亞書註釋 第 1 章 第 30/65 段

'If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not;

but if I do, even though you believe not Me, believe the works.' But if, though they had become spectators of things so marvelled at, and hearers with their own ears of His words, they remained hard and incorrigible—nay rather, even had an ungated mouth—

for they dared, in their impiety, to call Him a Samaritan, and a drunkard, and a carpenter's son, and things yet more discordant than these.

These things, therefore, the prophet, having foreknown them through the torch-light of the Spirit, makes his words to the Father and God in the heavens, and says: 'Lord, Your arm is exalted, and they knew it not.'

For by the worth of His own pre-eminence, and as in glory befitting God, He is great and exalted;

and moreover the arm of the Father is all-powerful, that is, God the Word, through whom all things came to be.

But since He was seen with flesh, they were ignorant of His glory.

'Nevertheless they shall be ashamed,' He says, if they come to learn that He is, plainly, the life-giving Word of God.

And in what manner did they learn? For they themselves killed the Author of salvation, and denied the Holy One of Israel, as the inspired Peter says.

But when Christ, having burst the bonds of death, rose again on the third day, and this too the teachers of the Jews especially came to know, then indeed, then they were put to shame; and fearing lest the mystery of the resurrection should somehow become widely known to all, they gave sufficient silver pieces to the soldiers, as it is written,

'that they should say, His disciples came by night and stole Him away.' But they shall also be ashamed in another manner.

For when they see Him coming at the consummation of the age in the glory of the Father with the angels, then they shall have shame unquenchable, being sons of the bride-chamber on account of the fathers—for theirs are the promises and the giving of the law and the covenant—yet sent into the outer darkness.

Fittingly, therefore, he names them an untaught people, and says that zeal shall seize them, and that fire shall devour the adversaries.

Being consumed, plainly, the wretched ones persist in their envy.

Something of this kind is written also in the songs concerning those of the blood of Israel: that 'They provoked Me to jealousy with what is no god;

they provoked Me to anger with their idols.'

'And I will provoke them to jealousy with what is no nation;

with a nation void of understanding I will provoke them to anger.'

'O Lord our God, give us peace, for You have rendered all things to us;

O Lord our God, take possession of us.'

'Lord, apart from You we know no other;

we name Your name.' It is the custom of the holy prophets to make their supplications on behalf of Israel, for they were lovers of God, and well crowned with the boasts of piety.

But since they had once sprung from the root of Abraham and from the blood of the holy fathers, they of necessity grieve, seeing as their kinsmen those of Israel perishing on account of their impiety toward Christ.

Therefore now also the blessed prophet Isaiah comes forward, saying:

'O Lord our God, give us peace;

for You have rendered all things to us.' For if You would grant us peace, he says, we shall be full of every good thing, and we shall have obtained the most perfect participation in the gifts that are from You.

And it is necessary to see what sort of peace they ask for.

For either they ask for Christ himself,

for he himself is our peace, according to the Scriptures, and through him we have been joined to the Father, that is, by a kinship which is manifestly spiritual.

But those who are obedient and tractable, and ready for whatever pleases him, are most dear to him and are at peace with him.

But this thing is truly God-given, and comes through the munificence from above.

Such is that which was rightly spoken through the voice of Paul:

For this reason it has been wisely added: 'Lord, take possession of us; besides you we know no other; we name your name.'

For those who are at peace with him ought to be single-minded and yoked to God alone, so that they too may know him alone, and may not even bear on their tongue the name of any other, falsely called god.

Something of this kind the law of the all-wise Moses also proclaimed to us: 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve,' and by his name.

Amen. But the dead shall not see life, nor shall physicians raise them up.

'Bring evils upon them, O Lord, bring evils upon all the glorious ones of the earth.' Those who alone know the one who by nature and truly is God, and who name his name, and reckon utterly no one alongside him, and who for this reason say, 'Lord, besides you we know no other,' necessarily join to this the saying, 'The dead shall not see life' — again, that is, apart from you.

For being Life by nature, the Creator and Lord of all gives life to all things, and in him we move and have our being.

'But neither shall physicians,' he says, 'raise them up' —

this too being followed, clearly, by the 'apart from you.'

For all things are from God for us, and he made for them medicines out of the earth, according to what is written.

As far, then, as concerns the letter, I say, and the ready and manifest sense, the rendering of the meanings would be rightly thus, and not otherwise.

But since we must proceed according to the spiritual sense of the discourse, and lay bare the aim of the prophetic exactness, we necessarily say this:

'But apart from you,' he says, 'such men would not partake of life, that is, of the life-giving grace.'

And apart from you again are those able to deliver from the sicknesses of the soul such as have fallen into them — those who might reasonably be understood as spiritual physicians —

would not raise up any of those who have been sick.

And we say that the spiritual physicians are the holy prophets, apostles, and evangelists;

who, being enriched through the grace from above and the supply that is in the Spirit with the word that is able to heal, tend those who have been wounded by sin and by the malice of the devil.

But it is likely that the prophetic word hints at something else for us as well.

For our Lord Jesus Christ, showing himself equal in power and equal in glory to the One who begot him, both raised the dead from their tombs and healed those who were in the last stages of disease.

But although he became the accomplisher of such marvelous things, he was not honored by those who had beheld them;

and even so the leaders and teachers of the Jews above all persecuted him.

Since, therefore, he says, 'apart from you the dead would not see life' — for you alone are the one able to give life — 'nor would a physician raise from the tombs' those whom you yourself raised;

and even after this they disbelieved, and raged uncontrollably — those very ones who by all likelihood ought, before all others, to have become believers;

for this reason 'you brought it upon them, and you destroyed, and you took away every male of them.'

For you brought the wrath upon them, which necessarily shore them away — not utterly all Israel;

for the remnant has been saved;

but 'every male of them,' that is, the leading rank.

For the male is most fit to rule as compared with the female.

And perhaps he calls 'males' those who were, as it were, the more vigorous of the Jews — not according to bodily strength, but rather according to their knowledge of the legal precepts. Such is that which was said by God to one of the prophets:

'I will go to the mighty ones, and I will speak to them. And behold, with one accord they broke the yoke, they burst the bonds.' And that what is preeminent and more sacred among the Jews is with good reason pronounced wretched, but drew down upon itself a more violent wrath, Christ himself will make clear, saying:

'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you traverse sea and dry land to make one proselyte;

and when he becomes one, you make him twofold more a son of Gehenna than yourselves.' And again:

'And woe to you also, lawyers! for you took away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.' Therefore the male, that is, that which is in preeminence and held in honor, is with good reason punished.

And as in spiritual manhood they then attained to knowledge according to the law — those to whom he wishes evils also to be added.

For not only did they fall away from kinship with God by drunkenly insulting Christ, but indeed they were also consumed by famine, and fell into the calamities that ensued therefrom, when their land was ravaged and utterly overturned.

And those whom he called 'males,' these he also calls 'glorious,' as being manifestly distinguished and set above the others, on account of their being crowned with the boasts of the priesthood.

The 'every male of them' is God-given and an ally, but by 'evils' he means the things that afflict, that is, the God-sent wraths, famines, plagues, wars, and things like these.

And by 'glorious' he means those who are conspicuous in evils and renowned in acts of power.

'Lord, in affliction we remembered you; in slight affliction was your chastening to us.'

'And as a woman in labor draws near to giving birth, and cried out in her travail, so did we become to your beloved.' Moved out of exceeding great love of God, the blessed prophet, having spoken against the Jewish audacities and having said, 'Add evils to all the glorious ones of the earth' — lest anyone suppose him to be harsh and unfeeling, not rather calling for pity upon the sinners but that they should come into affliction and evils — necessarily added that which naturally befalls all men; I mean, the fact that in affliction and distress they love to be mindful of the God who is mighty over all things.

sometimes it lets loose toward contempt, and, so to speak, they do not perceive their transgressions at all, having slid down to this state of mind out of exceedingly great heedlessness.

But affliction, as it were, drives men toward God, and brings them back to the recognition of their failings.

Therefore for this cause, he says, I said, 'Add evils to the glorious ones of the earth,' since it is common to all men then most of all to hold you in remembrance, and to consider and be minded of your things, whenever they share in calamities.

For in slight affliction we are chastened, God not bringing the punishment unmixed nor utterly harsh, but rather tempering his wrath with gentleness.

Therefore it belonged not to one hating the sinners to call for affliction to be brought upon them, but rather to one loving them and calling for them to be chastened;

so that, since of their own free choice they did not have piety as fruit, they might at least, as if of necessity, be turned toward it, being summoned by the divine wrath into perception.

'With bit and bridle you would constrain the jaws of those who do not draw near to you.' But those men, having transgressed in unbearable ways and having drunkenly insulted Christ, shall fall into affliction.

But we who are yours, and who think and speak your things, were disposed not otherwise toward your beloved — that is, toward the Son;

just as, indeed, a woman in labor, all but crying out against those who dishonor them, and being greatly pained on this account, and casting down very many indeed of those who disobey him.

And indeed the blessed Isaiah himself, rebuking the loose-mouthed railings of the Jews which they had made against Christ, says:

'But you, draw near hither, you lawless sons.'

'Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow down their back continually.' And very many are the words that have been spoken to this effect by the holy prophets against the synagogue of the Jews, on account of their impiety toward Christ.

And such a saying would befit, as I said, prophets and holy apostles and evangelists, who, being enriched with the supply of the mystagogy from above and receiving, as it were, certain spiritual seed-bearing powers, brought forth for those upon the earth a spirit of salvation, that is, the teaching that is in the Spirit, which is also the procurer of the life that endures unto the ages.

For it is the custom of the divine Scripture very often to name certain men's writings 'spirit.'

And indeed 'test the spirits,' it says, 'whether they are from God.' For always the saving proclamation is spoken in the Holy Spirit, whereas whatever things fight against the truth are spoken in a worldly spirit.

At any rate the inspired Paul writes concerning himself and the other saints:

'But we received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God.' Therefore they call the evangelical proclamation a 'spirit of salvation.'

For it carries us off into unending life and into a long-lasting existence.

'We shall not fall, but those who dwell upon the earth shall fall.'

'The dead shall rise, and those in the tombs shall be raised, and those in the earth shall rejoice.'

'For the dew that comes from you is healing to them.'

'But the land of the impious shall fall.' Truly admirable is the sober vigilance of the saints.

For they always in some way consider what seems to be set in opposition to whatever arguments they might make to us.

And even after this they see death still prevailing over those upon the earth, as if someone were saying:

'What is the profit to us of the divine proclamations? And where is the spirit of salvation? For those upon the earth do fall.'

They necessarily bring forward their defense in reply, and indeed they say: 'The dead shall rise' — by the grace of God, as the blessed Paul declares;

Our Lord Jesus Christ tasted death on behalf of all, yet He came back to life on the third day and became the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, and the root of those who through Him are transformed unto life, and as it were the beginning of human nature stripping off corruption;

and we have been enriched with unshaken hopes of life everlasting.

It is settled that in every way and altogether the dead shall come back to life, and the dominion of death shall be utterly abolished;

yet the time at which the resurrection occurs is not yet present;

human nature meanwhile lies subject to the necessity of dying.

And the one who for the present has grown weak in Christ, and who among us ourselves shall also at times be weak, endures death.

Will then this, he says, be set in opposition to our words — that is, to our saving proclamations — the fact that those on earth still fall? And what is this? Absolutely nothing.

For the dead shall come back to life, and the bodies in the earth and in the tombs shall run back to life.

And what again would be the manner of this? 'The dew that comes from You is healing to them.'

For somewhere he sings unto God, and says:

'When You turn away Your face, they shall be troubled, and they shall return to their dust.'

But those who have fallen in the earth shall come back to life, whereas the land of the impious shall fall — and this is what befell the country of the Jews;

for they behaved outrageously against Christ and against the holy initiators into the mysteries, even though these had brought forth the spirit of salvation for those on earth.

'Go, my people, enter into your chambers, shut your door, hide yourself for a very little while, until the wrath of the Lord has passed by.'

'For behold, the Lord from His holy place brings wrath upon those who dwell on the earth.'

'And the earth shall uncover her blood, and shall no longer cover over those who have been slain.' In these words the face of God is brought before us, as He anoints the mind of the saints for the endurance of affliction.

For since they were about — both to those of the blood of Israel and to those throughout all the world under heaven — to work the spirit of salvation, that is, to minister the evangelical proclamation, and were destined to fall into terrible and unbearable trials, and even to endure the very peril of soul and blood;

for this very reason, and quite fittingly, He persuades them to be inclined to make light of such things, saying:

'Go, my people, enter into your chambers.'

Most aptly and with great propriety He calls 'chambers' perhaps the graves in the earth;

and indeed, as with those who are truly hidden away, He shuts the doors, and He conceals them so that they may endure for a little while, until the wrath of the Lord has passed by.

For it was said to the origin of the race, that is, to Adam:

'You are earth, and to earth you shall return'; and human nature was accursed on account of the transgression;

and for this reason it was subjected to corruption.

But the things brought upon us from the divine wrath shall be loosed.

And this completely, at the time of the consummation, when death is abolished, and the tyranny of the devil is destroyed, and sin is cast into the pit.

'Therefore hide yourself,' He says, 'O my people, and bear up for a little and just a very short while, until the death that comes from the wrath of the Lord passes by, and until the time of the resurrection of all is revealed.'

'For the Lord brings wrath from His holy place upon those who dwell on the earth.'

This is like that saying:

'And the Lord rained from the Lord upon Sodom fire and brimstone.' Therefore the Son, from the holy

Spirit of the Father, shall bring wrath upon those who dwell on the earth.

'The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father.' And when the time has come at which the wrath shall be brought upon those who have committed unholy offenses against the sanctified, the earth shall uncover her blood, and shall not conceal those who have been slain — that is, every drop of blood that has fallen to the earth shall become manifest; no one shall be hidden, or in truth shall any of those who have been wronged pass away into oblivion.

'In that day God shall bring the holy and great and mighty sword upon the dragon, the fleeing serpent, upon the dragon, the crooked serpent, and shall destroy the dragon.' Having very clearly declared that the wrath shall be brought upon those who acted impiously and who have slain them, He said that Satan himself shall be destroyed together with his own children;

for those who set themselves against the proclamations of the saints, yielding to his stratagems, waged war against the holy ones.

For at that time, he says, at which the earth shall uncover her blood, the Father shall bring the holy and keenest and great sword — the all-strong and unconquerable one, that is, the only-begotten Word — upon the dragon, the fleeing serpent;

upon the dragon, the crooked serpent, and shall destroy the dragon.

For it is bitter and venomous, and moreover cowardly at this.

For it is ever its habit to flee.

For it runs crookedly like the wild beast, yet it shall be destroyed;

for henceforth it shall be rendered powerless, or rather it shall pay the penalty for its deeds of unholiness, undergoing the uttermost punishment, and having become a captive at the gates of Hades, a prey of the everlasting flame, enduring a long and unending torment.

'In that day there is a goodly vineyard, a desire to begin a song over it.'

'I am a strong city, a besieged city;'

and we say that the mountain is the Church;

and having added that there shall also be vindication for those who were slain for the sake of piety, and indeed that by the holy and great sword the apostate dragon shall in every way and altogether perish, he brings the discourse back to what had befallen, through ignorance, those of the blood of Israel.

For at that time, he says, at which they shall make their faith in Christ unacceptable;

'I am the goodly vineyard, of which one might say that to begin over it is a desire;'

for the discourse is composed as if spoken from Jerusalem:

'I shall be a besieged city.'

Then the prophet brings before us the face of God, saying, 'In vain shall I water her.'

'For even though Israel became a vine with good branches,' he says, according to the voice of Jeremiah, 'yet it produced thorns, and made the exhortation given through the Law of no profit to itself.'

In vain, therefore, has He watered her through the Law of old; and even if He should still water her through the evangelical proclamation, she will thus remain unprofitable.

What then, in consequence, befell her to suffer? 'She shall be taken by night, and by day her wall shall fall.'

For since He named her a strong city, and indeed a besieged one, in accordance with the sequence of the thoughts He says that she shall be taken, and moreover He affirmed that her wall too shall fall.

But her being taken by night and her wall falling in the day seems to hint at something of this sort.

As though she had come to be in mist and darkness because she did not endure Christ when He said, 'While you have the light, walk in the light, that darkness may not overtake you.' But since they continued to give little heed to His words, the wretched ones were overtaken as in darkness.

For sin took hold over them.

And this then was what was spoken to them by the voice of Christ:

'Verily I say to you, unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins.' They were therefore taken, and have remained in their sins;

and her wall has fallen as in the day, that is, clearly and manifestly; she has been stripped of the protection that comes from God.

Something of this kind the blessed prophet Isaiah also says at the beginning:

'For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the man of Judah, a beloved young plant.'

'I waited for it to produce a grape cluster, but it produced thorns.' Then He adds:

'Now I shall declare to you what I will do to my vineyard;'

'I shall remove its hedge, and it shall be for plundering;'

'and I shall break down its wall, and it shall be for trampling, and I shall abandon my vineyard, and it shall not be pruned nor dug, and thorns shall come up upon it as upon fallow ground, and I shall command the clouds not to rain rain upon it.' You see how true is what I said, that is, the saying, 'In vain shall I water her.'

For He no longer gave the spiritual rain to those of Israel;

and He broke down its hedge, and in addition to this, its wall.

And by 'hedge' He perhaps means the succors that come from the angels;

and by 'wall' the impregnable and firmly-fixed enclosure of His own power.

For 'mountains,' he says, 'are round about it, and the Lord is round about His people.'

But when he says 'it is fallen,' he does not by any means indicate that it has also been utterly carried off, but rather that it has been taken away.

For Israel has remained without succour, and wholly bereft of the compassion and love from on high.

'There is none that hath not laid hold of her.'

And those gathered together out of every nation, that is, the all-powerful army of the Romans, rose up manfully against the nation of the Jews.

But it has been ravaged in yet another way also, that is, spiritually and in a hidden manner.

For it has been given over to be trampled underfoot by the unclean spirits.

'Wherefore hast Thou broken down her hedge, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood hath laid her waste.'

'and the wild ass hath devoured her.'

For indeed by these things he signifies the manifold passions by which the mind of the Jews has been mastered;

the ass signifying the utmost irrationality;

That she has therefore become an easy prey to everyone wishing to lay her waste, this he teaches, saying:

'There is none that hath not laid hold of her,' for there is no hand, that is, no power, whether of men or of evil spirits, which has not laid hold of her.

'For Thou didst not save her as being Thine own people, Thou didst not guard her, nor wast Thou the all-strong wall.'

'Yea,' He says, 'I did both guard her and encompass her with grace and might from Myself;'

'but it was necessary that she should then be guarded while she yet had the fruit that comes from the law.'

'But since henceforth she has been brought down to such a state of wretchedness and of spiritual sloth, that she has no fruit at all from virtue;'

'and she resembles bare and fruitless stubble;'

'who will appoint me to guard her? For what is the profit from security, if she has become bereft of good fruits? Who then will persuade me?' For this is what 'He shall appoint to guard stubble in a field' signifies.

But how then she has come to such misery he explains, saying:

In these words he all but points out Jerusalem with the finger.

'and with very good reason have I rejected her.'

He shows, therefore, that it is not that some other enemy has arisen within Him, and that He has rejected yet another; but rather Jerusalem herself He shows to be an enemy, and He says that she has been rejected, having plainly been cast out from her spiritual intimacy with Him.

'How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!'

'Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.' Therefore for this cause the Lord God did all things whatsoever He had ordained.

'I am burned up,' shall cry all they that dwell in her. For since she became an enemy, he says, and resisted Him who saves, and warred as against a foe against Him who calls to life, for this cause all things whatsoever He had ordained, that is, whatever He determined and purposed to come to pass, He brought to fulfilment.

And what are these things? To have been utterly rejected, no longer to have the spiritual rain.

To endure the siege, to come into want of the good favour and protection from on high.

For she has been set on fire and brought down to utter uselessness.

'And I am burned up,' shall cry, he says, all they that dwell in her.

And if anyone should wish to approach what is set forth in a more historical manner, he will find Jerusalem burned down.

But if indeed also in another manner, the burning in these words signifies the total uselessness.

And the destruction cast wholesale upon the Jews, the divine wrath all but consuming them with fire, and rendering them as it were dust and ashes.

Something of this kind the inspired prophet Jeremiah also says concerning Jerusalem:

'A fair olive tree, well-shaded in form, the Lord called thy name; at the sound of her circumcision

a fire was kindled upon her, great is the affliction upon her. Her branches are become useless.'

For it renders wholly useless the soul of man, to depart from God, and to be utterly deprived of the grace and succour from Him.

For it is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God, and, as Moses says, 'Our God is a consuming fire.' 'Let us make peace with Him, let us make peace, we that come, children of Jacob.'

'Israel shall bud and blossom, and the world shall be filled with his fruit.' Since the Jews had renounced love and faith towards Christ the Saviour of all, and since the beloved one had kicked back, but Christ had transferred the calling to the nations and was gathering as in a net those from the ends of the earth beneath heaven through the holy apostles, the blessed prophet appears beforehand as a wise counsellor to the peoples from every quarter, and says to them:

'Israel has indeed departed, the firstborn has kicked back, he denies the faith, he has acted impiously towards the Redeemer;'

'but we who come,' that is, we who are about to come in due seasons;

and to come indeed altogether as from darkness into light, from Greek ignorance into the knowledge of Him who is God in truth, from sins into justification;

'let us make peace with Him,' that is, having dissolved the ancient enmity, let us be at peace with God.

For since sin has been taken away and Satan has been brought to nought, and there is no longer anything hindering, nothing that stands between and separates us from Christ, let us consent to His oracles;

let us follow whatever He may wish and say, let us bow our neck to the evangelical proclamations;

for thus shall we make peace with Him.

Something of this kind the all-wise Paul also says to those called from among the nations: