以賽亞書註釋 第 1 章 第 31/65 段

'The generation that is coming shall be declared to the Lord.' He transfers the word to the holy apostles themselves. Because they are to win for God the world beneath heaven, having understood, or rather having learned through the Holy Spirit, the prophet leaps for joy in a certain manner, and says out of very great gladness:

'the world shall be filled with his fruit.'

For the inspired disciples were born of the blood of Jacob, who was also renamed Israel.

But since their sound went out from the dawn to the evening, and into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world, the multitude has been called to the knowledge of the nations, and, as the word of the prophecy says, the world has been filled with his fruit.

And of whom, pray? Clearly of Israel, that is, of those from the blood of Israel.

For those who have believed are the fruits of apostolic labours;

and the inspired Paul named them a joy and a crown;

for truly a boast and a glory of the holy initiators into the mysteries are those saved through them.

'Shall he be smitten even as he himself smote, and shall he be slain even as he himself slew? Contending and reproaching He will send them away.' The meaning of what is set forth follows very closely upon what has been said;

and in what manner we shall say as best we can.

For we said that the children of Jacob shall bud and blossom, and the world shall be filled with his fruit.

But as though someone were rising up in objection and saying:

'And yet Israel has acted impiously in no moderate degree;'

'for he has become hard and ungovernable, and has killed the saints, and has assailed every righteous man and prophet, and has his hand full of blood;'

'how then shall he blossom again, and how, as though none of these outrageous things had happened, shall the world be filled with his fruit?' To such objections the prophet says:

'Shall he be smitten even as he himself smote? Or shall he be slain even as he himself slew?' For he treated the saints, he says, with unmingled fury, and with unbridled impulses slew them, as one knowing in no way how to show mercy.

Will then the fountain of gentleness treat them with equally weighted wrath and evenly balanced justice, and thus slay them, even as they too slew the saints? Or will He rather conquer as God, and not utterly cut off the one who was beloved and once became elect for the fathers' sake? Such is that which was spoken from God through one of the holy prophets:

'What shall I do unto thee, Ephraim? What shall I do unto thee, Judah? I will make thee as Adama and as Zeboim; my heart is turned within me over this.'

'My repentance is stirred up together.'

'I will not execute according to the anger of my wrath.'

'I will not forsake Ephraim so as to blot him out, because I am God, and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee.' For it was fitting, indeed it was fitting, for Him who is God and not man like us, both to excel in gentleness, and, just as by nature He is beyond every created thing, so also to be set above and to surpass the one on earth, and that too, I mean, in loving-kindness.

Therefore Israel shall indeed blossom, and the world shall be filled with his fruit, according to the account already rendered above.

'For he shall not be slain,' he says, 'even as he himself slew, nor indeed shall he be smitten in an equal manner, even if he himself smote the saints, being whetted with savage fury.'

What then, pray, is the measure of His dealing with them? 'Contending and reproaching, He will send them away';

understanding the word 'He will send away' to mean 'He will dismiss them from intimacy with Himself.'

For He made Israel one to be sent away.

'Contending and reproaching'; and we would take 'contending' to stand for 'rebuking.'

For rebuking the Jews, and indeed also reproaching them, the Saviour said:

'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,'

'how often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left to you desolate.' For this was nothing other than His declaring with insistence that their departure from them would come to pass before long.

And when this had come to pass, Israel perished, even though the remnant was saved, as Isaiah himself also says.

using freedom of speech, and convicting Israel because it had made war upon the saints;

'and he made it his study'—that is, employing as it were a harsh and savage spirit to destroy them, and setting an untamed disposition upon them.

'If therefore I should say,' He says, 'that He Himself destroyed and smote'—whence would the matter be a false tale? Rather, what has been said will be shown to be true.

For were you not Israel, the one who was studious—that is, accustomed, as I said, to be called by a harsh spirit, and to fall beast-like upon those sent from God? 'And even if you deny it,' He says, 'I will bring forward as witness against you the Judge of all.'

For Christ somewhere said to them:

Of what sort? Since He will not be destroyed in the way that he destroyed, nor smitten in the way that he smote—for the calmness that dwells in God ever overcomes human meanness of spirit, and He does not in every way and altogether bring penalties equal to the transgressions committed on earth, but rather tempers His wrath with gentleness.

'The iniquity of Jacob shall be taken away'—that is, he shall obtain lovingkindness, and in due season He will relax his charges against him, and free him even of accusations;

and this is his blessing.

For He made promise to Abraham, saying:

'Surely I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your seed.' But the divinely inspired Abraham would not truly have been blessed, nor would his seed have been multiplied, had penalties proportionate to their sins been exacted from those of his blood.

But since, though they had done nothing of good things, but rather had sunk down into the utmost impiety, they too were made rich in forgiveness, the ground of the blessing has been kept and has passed over to them.

'When therefore I take away,' He says, 'his sin, this shall be for him the manner of the blessing.'

And He makes plain the time at which he too shall be free of his transgressions.

'For when,' He says, 'those called through faith to the knowledge of the God who truly is shall wage war against the ancient error; when altars and shrines and the swarm of idols shall be removed from their midst; when they shall consume with fire the temples laboriously built for lifeless idols;'

'when they shall cut down their trees, and along with these the works of men's hands, as though some thicket';

then, even then, God will relax also for those of Israel their stumblings.

And this, I think, is what the divinely inspired Paul declared plainly:

'When the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel shall be saved.' For the utter burning of the temples, and the shearing away of the groves planted beside them, and adding besides the overthrow of the very images—this would signify nothing else at all than surely that very thing: that there shall be a transferral of those who of old went astray and worshipped the works of their own hands, unto the knowledge of the truth, so that they come to such a love of God that they lay hands even upon what they of old worshipped, and shear away the gods of wood as though some thicket.

to have dwelling with them those who know how to direct unto everything whatsoever that is praiseworthy.

Therefore it abounded in good shepherds; but it shall be, He says, forsaken;

and what 'forsaken' means, He Himself straightway made clear, saying:

'As a flock left behind'—that is, bereft of every overseer and guardian.

And when this has come to pass, it shall be set forth for long ages as pasturage.

For spiritual and most mighty beasts shall feed upon them—that is, Satan and the wicked powers with him and under him.

For, with none to drive away from man's heart the assaults of the wicked demons, he shall be easily taken captive, and shall lapse without resistance into whatever those beings please.

But if one must say something in keeping also with what happened historically, they became pasturage after the cross of the Saviour and the campaign of the Romans.

For He lodged and rested among them like some sturdy calf;

'but when a little time has passed,' He says, 'there shall not be in it anything green, because of its being dried up'—that is, they shall feed upon the land to such a degree that it is rendered dry and no longer has pasturage.

And this is a plain proof that those who ravage the land will not depart from it beforehand, unless they have made their own inheritance of everything whatsoever useful among them, down to the very meanest things, having all but even devoured it.

And the same account might hold, even if one should choose to say that the unclean demons fed upon the hearts of the Jews as upon calves;

for they devoured them to such a degree that perhaps they were even now at a loss for pasture, because nothing further of good things was preserved in them which was of a nature to be consumed by them.

'Women coming from a spectacle, come here.'

'For it is not a people that has understanding.'

'Now late on the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to look at the tomb.'

'And behold, there was a great earthquake.'

And when they were greatly afraid, the blessed angel said to them:

'For I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified;'

'he is not here, for he is risen, as he said.'

And after the words of the angel, behold, Jesus met them, saying:

'And they came and took hold of his feet and worshipped him.'

Then Jesus says to them:

'Do not be afraid; go, announce to my brethren, that they may depart into Galilee, and there they shall see me.' Therefore, while Israel is being sent away, you, He says, the wise women, come, and most eagerly bringing the good news of the resurrection of Him who slew death and destroyed corruption, who justifies by faith those who have sinned, and delivers from defilements those who had fallen into them, who refashions unto newness of life those who come to Him, who revealed the new life to those on earth—that is, the evangelical life—and abolished the feebleness of the worship under the Law, but made resplendent the truth, and set forth plainly the way of worship in spirit and in truth for those who reverence Him.

For Israel has fallen away from hope.

For it is not a people that has understanding.

For it has been hardened in heart, and has remained in darkness, and is held fast by the gloom of sin.

'While you have the light, walk in the light, lest darkness overtake you.' And I say that one must marvel at the dispensation of the Saviour also in the case of these most wise women.

It was fitting, then, it was fitting to grant to women the privilege of being the first to bring the good news of the resurrection.

For necessarily the word 'Rejoice' was spoken to them by Him who in the beginning had imposed the curse:

'In sorrows you shall bear children.' Therefore by the latter things the former have been loosed, and what was diseased has been healed.

To them, then, He enjoins the duty of bringing the good news, since Christ had departed from His love toward the Jews.

'For since they have remained most senseless and unlearned,' He says, 'He who made them would not pity them, nor would they be worthy of being shown compassion.'

'And it shall be in that day, the Lord shall shut off from the channel of the river as far as Rhinocorura.'

'But you, gather the sons of Israel one by one.' Christ having been raised, and having enjoined the holy apostles:

'Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit'; and indeed, when He had ascended into the very heavens, the things of wrath—plainly from on high—were brought upon those who had impiously reviled Him unto Himself.

The land of the Jews, then, is bounded by the streams of the Euphrates toward the east and the south, and by what is called Rhinocorura.

And this is a city marking off both the land of the Egyptians and indeed that of the Palestinians.

Therefore, having named for us the boundaries of Judaea, He affirms that the Lord will shut off all that is contained within—that is, the whole of Judaea.

And He has put 'He will shut off' for 'He will besiege, and afflict, and bring down into the utmost distress.'

For the shutting off, or the enclosing, would hint at the inescapable affliction or calamity.

And in another way too you will understand 'He will shut off.'

For the mind of the Jews has been as it were shut up, so that in no way can it receive the light of the true vision of God, nor understand the mystery of Christ, as the blessed Paul writes:

'Blindness in part has come upon Israel, and until this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies upon their heart.' And this, I think, is the shutting off.

But that this did not befall the whole earth under heaven, that is, all the nations, but only Judea and those within it, he plainly demonstrated;

for he does not simply say that the blockade came to pass, but that it extended from the canal of the river as far as Rhinocorura.

And these things, he says, shall befall the peoples of the Jews, who slew the prophets and stoned those sent from God, and who furthermore added to their crimes the very Son himself.

The words are set forth in the person of Christ himself, the Saviour of us all, as he converses with and speaks to the holy apostles, that is, to all who in their season minister his Gospel and are wont to initiate men into its mysteries.

But you, gather together the sons of Israel one by one.

That is: let there be no vain concern to those entrusted with teaching, even if Israel be not seen streaming in by the multitude;

but if there be any among them who is understanding, let him be called through faith; let him come even one by one, and as it were chosen out.

For the remnant of Israel has been saved.

And indeed the divinely inspired disciples very often addressed them, just as, without doubt, did the inspired Peter also;

'And now, brethren,' he says, 'I know that you did it in ignorance, just as your rulers also did.'

'Repent therefore, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'

'For to you belong the promises, and to your children.' And no small multitude was gathered in the net;

yet in relation to the whole nation of the Jews they were altogether very few, and as it were one by one were the saved received, that is, through faith which is in Christ.

'And it shall come to pass in that day that they shall sound with the great trumpet, and they that were lost in the land of the Assyrians shall come, and they that were lost in Egypt, and they shall worship the Lord upon the holy mountain in Jerusalem.' It is the custom of the holy prophets to conceal their meaning under a certain obscurity, and since those of Israel had become unbridled toward wrath, to take a certain middle path of thought, so that what is signified is very often unclear.

He says that at that time it is others who shall sound—not others, as I again suppose, but rather the holy initiators of mysteries—and that they shall sound not simply, but with the great trumpet, that is, employing the evangelical proclamations, all but catechizing and crying out something great and extraordinary to those upon the earth.

For indeed in truth 'their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.' For the great Moses also employed a trumpet at times, yet not the great one;

for he was weak of voice and slow of tongue, and the power of the legal proclamations was confined to the land of the Jews alone.

But the divine and saving proclamation goes through every city and country, and as it were thundered over the whole world under heaven.

And something of this sort is written also in the books of Moses;

for the God of all descended in the form of fire upon Mount Sinai. And there were smoke and hail, and with a thick darkness the ethereal body was blackened;

'but the voice also,' it says, 'of the trumpet sounded loudly.'

Then to these things it adds, saying:

'And the voices of the trumpet became exceedingly, exceedingly stronger as they went forth.'

For in the beginning the weak-voiced law was proclaimed, but as time advanced, the voices of the trumpet became exceedingly, exceedingly strong.

At that time, therefore, he says, they shall sound aloud the evangelical proclamation with the great trumpet, that is, gathering together those who have wandered astray and those who have been reduced to the rank of captives, and drawing out those ensnared in idolatry from the nets of the ancient deception.

'For they shall come,' he says, 'they that were lost in the land of the Assyrians, and they that were lost in Egypt, and they shall worship the Lord upon the holy mountain in Jerusalem.'

But those who were lost in those lands, he says, shall come, being called through faith to the knowledge of him who is truly Lord and God, and shall worship him—no longer in the defiled sanctuaries, but upon the holy mountain, that is, the Church, which he also names Jerusalem;

a mountain, because nothing at all in the Churches is low or grovelling on the ground, but they are distinguished by lofty and exalted doctrines;

and Jerusalem, because it is truly a vision of peace.

'...of glory upon the summit of the fat mountain, they that are drunken without wine.' Having previously declared that they shall be called through faith to the knowledge of the truth, and that all who have perished, being entangled in the nets of idolatry, shall worship the Lord, he transfers the discourse to the teachers of the Jews, who became the beginning and pretext of the impiety against Christ to the peoples under their hand.

For they did not lead them back to the knowledge of the things long since foretold both through the law and through the prophets, but rather, casting them into the pits of destruction, they cast out of the synagogue those who confessed that he is the Christ.

For so somewhere says the inspired John.

And shaking off, as it were, faith in him, and turning the mind of the common people away from the straight path, they called Jesus a Samaritan and a drunkard and one born of fornication.

And what is yet more impious than these things:

they brought him before Pilate, and indeed they clamoured for him to be crucified, and they slew the Author of life—so far as lay in their power; yet he came back to life, having trodden death underfoot;

for he was life by nature as God, even though he was in the flesh.

'Woe therefore,' he says, 'to the crown of insolence.'

For they themselves were, as it were, the crown and glory of all Israel, distinguished by the honours of the priesthood, and having obtained the dignity of leadership.

But they did not remain in the renown and pre-eminence apportioned to them, but rather fell away, having become a crown of insolence.

For they were clothed with dishonour and blemish, having become guilty of charges of impiety, and like a flower they withered away.

For they themselves became also hirelings of Ephraim.

And by Ephraim he means Judah, on account of his being of the tribe of Ephraim.

'Woe therefore to the crown of insolence,' he says, that is, to the rulers, who also hired Ephraim, that is, him of the tribe of Ephraim.

And for this cause they became like a flower fallen from glory.

For just as it is glory to flowers to be seen outside of withering, and in the beauty of their own nature, in the same manner, I think, might it be understood also concerning ourselves.

For so long as we are in that state in which it befits us to be, we keep the beauty of our own soul entirely undamaged;

but when the mind within us is turned aside to things which are not fitting, we shall be a flower fallen from the glory that befits it.

Which indeed the Scribes and Pharisees also suffered, whetting their judgement, their words, their undertakings, and everything whatsoever that was monstrous, against Christ.

But where was the flower that had fallen from glory, and in what manner did it obtain its lot? 'Upon the summit of the fat mountain.'

And by the fat mountain he names Israel;

fat, because it was fattened with good cheer;

and a mountain, on account of its being set on high by God, in respect of glory, I mean.

For he himself somewhere says concerning those of Israel:

'A son have I begotten and exalted.' And it is the custom of divine Scripture sometimes to liken the mother of the Jews—I mean Jerusalem—to a mountain.

They lay, therefore, as a flower upon the summit of the mountain, that is, above all, and over all as rulers, having obtained by the votes of the law the office of ruling over the others.

But these were they that were drunken without wine.

For their vine was of the vine of Sodom, and their branch of Gomorrah; their grape was a grape of gall, a cluster of bitterness to them, and the wrath of dragons incurable.

For they became drunken, not by drinking this perceptible wine, but by that intoxication which comes from unmixed wrath and madness, and by settling into their minds the darkening of the devilish perversity.

'Ephraim...' In what manner the terrible things shall befall them, and that they shall pay the penalty for their impiety against Christ, having fallen upon the hard and untamed wrath of him who judges righteously—these things the prophetic word intimates to us through what follows.

'For it shall come, it shall come,' he says, 'hard and hard to withstand against you, the wrath of the Lord'; and it shall come thus, as though even hail were being brought down upon certain men who have no shelter, and being brought down with violence, that is, unbearably, but rather with force, and all but as of someone hurling with a sling, and savagely bringing it upon certain men.

'It shall come therefore as hail,' he says, 'or even as a great multitude of water sweeping away a land.'

For of a river, so to speak, or rather a winter torrent rushing down most violently, what shall there be to stand against it and able to resist, and not to give way to the rush of the waters? It shall come therefore as water flooding over the whole land—clearly the land of the Jews.

And so relentless shall be the downpour that it shall even bring rest to the earth.

But what kind of rest, and what sort? 'To the hands and to the feet.'

And the meaning of what has been said shall be of this sort.

For those who have practised swimming, if the state of the waters happens to be calm and, as it were, gently yielding, by drawing in and stretching out their feet and hands, and labouring in due measure, escape the danger of being choked;

but when the onrush of the waters has an assault altogether irresistible, he who has plunged in ceases from swimming utterly and altogether, and seems indeed to be freed from toil, but is thereafter choked, having become, as of necessity and force, wholly and altogether submerged.

The word therefore, in a manner, mocks and speaks ironically, when it says that the water shall bring rest to the earth—rest to the hands and to the feet.

For it is like as if it were perchance to say: Let no one toil in vain in resistance to the calamity that is about to come upon all.

For it shall come so violently that the matter shall be altogether unassailable and wholly unavailing to those who wish to labour against it.

Then, indeed then, shall it be trampled down — that is, laid beneath the feet of those who spoke it — the crown of arrogance, the hirelings of Ephraim.

And who these are, we have already come to know through what was said before.

'And the fading flower of the hope of glory shall be upon the top of the high mountain, like a forerunner of the fig; whoever sees it, before he takes it into his hand, will desire to swallow it down.' What is the fading flower of the hope of glory, and what, moreover, might one signify by this — that it lies and is seen upon the top of the high mountain — has become plain through the things just now said.

For by the flower — that which is conspicuous as upon a mountain — you will very rightly understand either Israel, or those who were allotted to be leaders.

'But it shall be,' he says, 'like a forerunner of the fig.'

For when the fruits on the fig tree are about to ripen, if perchance one of them runs ahead of the others and so becomes edible, he who has spied it leaps upon it eagerly, and longs to swallow it down; and perhaps, in his burning impulses toward this, he even blames whatever tends toward the appetite. Stretching out his hand as it is about to reach, and opening wide his mouth, he springs upon the branches.

'So shall Israel be,' he says, 'to those who snatch him away.'

For he has been swallowed up, as I said, by the Romans, and has become sweet nourishment to those who seized him.

'In that day the Lord of Hosts shall be the crown of hope, woven of glory, for the remnant of my people that is left.'

'They shall be left in a spirit of judgment for judgment, and as strength restraining from destroying.' Whom, and how, it should befall the slayers of the Lord, the word has made clear to us in these things;

and it then further adds the exposition concerning those who have believed;

for Israel has not perished utterly.

But the remnant has been saved, according to the voice of the prophet.

For no small multitude has believed in Christ, of whom the choir of the holy apostles became, as it were, a beginning and firstfruits.

For the Lord of Hosts himself will crown those who have believed with hope and with glory: with hope, namely of the good things to come; and with glory, because they shall reign together with him, and, having entered within the highest honors, they shall be objects of emulation and of admiration.

For what shall be equal, in the reckoning of glory, to those who hope to receive the crown of the kingdom in Christ? Concerning these the prophet Isaiah himself says elsewhere:

'And you shall be a crown of beauty, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.'

'And it shall be in the participation of such things,' he says, 'the remnant of my people that is left' — that is, the remnant from among the Jews;

the other people being received together with them as well — that is, the nations, who also, thinking great things in Christ, pray and cry out to the Father and God in the heavens:

'O Lord, you have crowned us as with a shield of good pleasure.'

For when God the Father was well pleased, Christ was shown and became to us an unbreakable shield, exposing himself in our stead to the darts of the evil one, and he has kept his own people unwounded and unconquered by that one's wickedness.

Something of this kind, as I think, he signifies when he speaks concerning the people that is left — that is, those justified by faith:

'They shall be left in a spirit of judgment for judgment, and as strength restraining from destroying.'

For of old, once for all, so to speak, Satan destroyed the race upon the earth, casting it into the pits of sin.

For there was none that did good, there was not so much as one, but all together went astray, they became worthless, according to the voice of the Psalmist.

But when the Only-begotten Word of God became man, he judged our judgment, giving verdict, as it were, both for us and against the usurping Satan; and he condemned that one to destruction, but removed him from those upon the earth as a destroyer and a murderer, and thus saved those who had perished — that is, us.

Teaching this, he says, 'Now is the judgment of this world;

now shall the ruler of this world be cast out.'

'And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.'