以賽亞書註釋 第 1 章 第 56/65 段

'Verily I say unto you,' He says, 'that he who believeth hath eternal life.' And one might heap up very many other sayings possessing equal force, if one chose to speak at length.

'Therefore I called, and there was none that hearkened,' He says.

But perhaps those who through such long-standing folly have taken offence, having a hard and unbreakable mind, will say this: that My hand could not have availed to deliver them unto heaven.

But in this too they have understood nothing of the truth.

For He was, as I said, in a form like ours, although being God, the Word.

And He became man, submitting to birth according to the flesh from a woman.

Now the unbelieving and ignorant approached Him as a common man, so that they even leapt upon Him and said:

'For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.' It would befit such men both to suppose and to say that His hand could not avail to succour those upon the earth, nor to deliver those who were held captive by the devil and by sin.

'But when ye reason thus,' He says, 'consider besides something of the better things:'

'for I am not simply a man like you, but rather God who has come to be in a form like yours by dispensation, that I might rescue you both from death and from sin.'

'For I Myself who speak am present, I who of old wrought wonders through Moses, and by unspeakable power divided the sea'—clearly, the Red Sea.

For the waters were set fast as a wall, and those who had been redeemed passed over, having stripped off the yoke of servitude in Egypt.

The words 'I will make the sea a desert' He here uses in the sense of 'I made it dry.'

'And I will make the rivers a wilderness.'

And again the phrase 'I will make' is to be understood in the sense of 'I have made.'

For He stayed the Jordan and made it void of waters, when Joshua led Israel across and brought them into the land of promise.

'What ailed thee, O sea, that thou fleddest? and thou, Jordan, that thou wast turned back?' And at another time again:

'The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee, and were afraid.'

'The depths were troubled, a multitude of the sound of waters.' And concerning the Jordan again He says here:

'Thou didst dry up the rivers of Etham'—that is, those in the south.

And the phrase 'I will clothe' is likewise to be understood in the sense of 'I clothed.'

For they had both day and light.

And this too is marvellous and beyond all speech:

'He hath added to me an ear to hear, and the instruction of the Lord openeth mine ears.' It would not be improbable—rather, not unfitting to the words of orthodoxy—to apply the foregoing sayings to the choir of the holy apostles, or indeed to all who have believed in our Lord Jesus Christ, and have been made wise through the Spirit, and have received abundantly into mind and understanding the illumination that comes from Him; who also have come to partake of divine graces, and with pure eyes of the understanding have been able to behold the depth of the God-inspired Scripture, and have entered into the good life of the evangelical excellence and of an understanding befitting the saints.

These men, then, lifting up songs of thanksgiving, say that there has been given within them a tongue of instruction—that is, the ability to speak in a well-instructed manner, and blamelessly to make clear the divine mysteries, and to know when and how it is fitting to make use of the words of exhortation.

This indeed is also what the divinely-inspired disciples did, having laid up in mind and heart the sound and blameless knowledge of the faith in Christ, while to each of those who came to the divine proclamations they held forth the word that was fitting and suitable to him.

For to those who are still infants they bring, as it were by way of milk, the word of simple catechism most excellently; but to those who have attained unto a perfect man, and have arrived at the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, the solid and most nourishing word.

This, then, is a tongue of instruction, and the gift of knowing when one ought to speak a word.

And they say that there has been set within them, even in the morning—that is, into mind and heart—the dawning of day, an illumination of the divine and intelligible light, the rising of the morning star.

And this too we shall learn, since the blessed Paul has written thus:

'Giving thanks unto the God and Father, who delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in the light.' For the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the illumination of the Gospel of Christ should not shine forth in them.

But for us the Sun of righteousness hath risen, flashing round about the mind with the divine light, so that we both are, and are named, sons of light and of the day.

Then He says: 'He hath added to me an ear to hear, and the instruction of the Lord openeth mine ears.'

For having received the faith in Christ, and having grown rich in the illumination that comes from Him, we have obtained the addition of an ear—that is, a power of hearing unaccustomed, or greater than of old.

For the Jews, in reading the Law, do not run beyond the shadow, but sit fast upon the mere and bare types.

For the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, as it is written.

But we, believing the Law to be a schoolmaster, whenever we receive into our ear the things given through Moses, understand them with other hearings, transferring the types into truth, and making the shadow an occasion for spiritual contemplation.

We have therefore obtained the addition of ears.

For the instruction that is through Christ—that is, the evangelical proclamation, and the initiation into the mysteries through Him—persuades us to understand the Law spiritually.

It widens, as it were, the ears of those who have believed in Him, though those of Israel do not have this.

Accordingly our Lord Jesus Christ said to them:

'Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me, and ye will not come to Me that ye might have life.' And the all-wise and divinely-inspired Paul writes concerning them, that 'When Moses is read, a veil lieth upon their heart, unremoved, because in Christ Jesus our Lord and Redeemer it is abolished.' {DISCOURSE V.} 'But I am not disobedient, neither do I gainsay.'

'I gave My back to scourgings, and My cheeks to blows, and My face I turned not away from the shame of spittings; and the Lord became My helper.'

For He had said: 'I came, and there was no man; I called, and there was none that hearkened.' But there having been introduced in between the person of those who had received the faith, saying:

'The Lord giveth Me a tongue of instruction, to know when I ought to speak a word'—and the things which follow upon these, and (the person) of those who lift up songs of thanksgiving.

Again the person of Christ Himself runs in, eager to set His own obedience over against the follies of the Jews, that He might altogether convict them of being haters of God, lifting up a proud and harsh neck against Him who called them to salvation.

'For I indeed have called,' He says, 'and there was none that hearkened.'

...(that they were able) to escape, and that very easily, both the tyranny of sin and the plots of the diabolical wickedness.

'But they indeed were disobedient; whereas I am not disobedient.'

For since it was the will of God the Father to sum up all things in Me, both the things in heaven and the things upon the earth, I stooped down unto self-emptying, and journeyed into the measures of human poverty, appearing as man, that I might become obedient, even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.

'And My face I turned not away from the shame of spittings.'

For these things it befell Him to suffer, when the boorishness of the Jews raged drunkenly against Him, and Pilate lacerated Him with scourges, and one of the unholy servants insulted and struck Him, and others spat upon Him.

But there was one aim to Him who suffered: to carry out to the end the good will of the Father.

And indeed Christ said somewhere, that 'I have come down from heaven, not that I may do My own will, but the will of the Father who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.' Therefore, for the sake of accomplishing life for those who believe in Him, He did not reject the experience of insults, of scourges, of spittings, although being God by nature and true Lord.

Then He says, as man: 'And the Lord became My helper; therefore I was not put to shame, but I set My face as a solid rock, and knew that I should not be ashamed, because He that justifieth Me draweth near.'

But it seems that through these words He hints at the punishment which fell upon them for their words, on account of their impiety against Him.

'For the Lord,' He says, 'became My helper.'

For He gave aid, and did not suffer His own Son to be utterly put to shame, nor indeed to be disgraced.

For they who dared to war against God have been punished, and have paid the penalties for their transgressions against Me.

And by adding 'He that justifieth Me draweth near,' He again elegantly indicated that the matters of justice would not run out to a long delay, nor to postponement, against those who had reviled Him, but would advance, as it were, near at hand and hard upon the heels of their doings.

For since they dared to slay Him who was righteous, and in no way liable to faults as being guilty, they were punished, as I said; and the chastisement of those who suffered bore full witness to the guiltlessness of Him who was so impiously outraged by them.

God the Father said something of this kind: 'And I will give the wicked in place of His burial, and the rich in place of His death.' And by 'rich' and 'wicked' He names the teachers of the Jews.

For, being sick with the utmost love of money, they were dragged down by it into the wickedness against Him.

For although they had recognized Him, they said:

'This is the heir.'

'Who is he that contendeth with Me? Let him draw near to Me.' That He was righteous and utterly innocent:

'For He did no sin.'

He endured the drunken outrages inflicted by the Jews; and the inspired prophet himself confirms this, speaking concerning him:

'Behold how the righteous one has perished, and no one takes it to heart.' And again, as though from the person of the Jews concerning him:

Therefore, since he declares that, being himself innocent and righteous, he endured the plots of the Jewish Synagogue, he necessarily addresses himself to these men — who were altogether ignorant of his perfect purity, or who perhaps supposed that some improper thing had been done by him and that he suffered the things upon the cross even justly — and he says:

'Who is he that contends with me? Let him stand up against me together.'

Resembling this is what was plainly said by Christ himself to the Scribes and Pharisees:

'Which of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?' For although the Only-begotten Word of God became as we are, and took on likeness to us in every respect whatsoever, in this one thing alone he is believed to have come to be beyond our nature.

For whereas every man is subject to faults and offences, and no one at all has kept his life wholly blameless in every respect —

he alone, even when he became man, preserved for himself the dignity befitting God.

For the nature of God would rightly be conceived as being beyond transgression.

Therefore he also said: 'The ruler of this world is coming, and in me he will find nothing.' For he who became as we are, in order to deliver us from the snares of sin — how could he himself have been caught along with us, or how could he who frees from blame and indictment all who have believed in him have come under blame and indictment? 'For it is God who justifies; who is he that condemns? Behold, the Lord helps me.'

First, that in every way and altogether the scheme against him and the murderous undertaking would come to nothing;

and then, that bitter and unbearable penalties would be exacted from those who had offended against him.

For they supposed that they were able to surround with death the Lord, who is the Author of life.

But as the Psalmist says: 'They took counsel together in a purpose which they shall never be able to establish.' For it was impossible that he who is Life should be held fast by death.

He was raised, then, by the power of God the Father, as it is written; not that he himself, considered as Word and God, was too weak — I mean, with respect to being able to drive away the corruption from his own flesh — but because he became man, and appears to receive this also from the Father.

For all things are God-given to man.

For that God the Father, through him, abolished the might of death by his resurrection from the dead, would become evident from what he says to the throngs of the Jews:

'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' But since it was customary for him to ascribe rather to the person of the Father the things above human hand and nature, on this account here too he speaks in human fashion:

'Behold, the Lord helps me; who shall harm me?' For, he says, since God the Father defends me, and does away with all your insolence, and establishes my glory, who among you will be so great as to set himself against the invincible counsel, and be able to harm the one who is helped by him? Therefore, if the Scribes and Pharisees had been men of any understanding, they would have refrained from their schemes and undertakings against him, having foreknown through the holy prophets that they could never prevail to wrong Christ, who is God and Lord and true Son of the Father;

rather, they draw down upon their very selves a dreadful and most cutting penalty.

And this he teaches, adding:

'Behold, all of you shall grow old like a garment, and like a moth shall it devour you' — that is, you shall pass away into aging and rotting and utter destruction, being melted down amid many and inescapable evils, and, as if by a moth, consumed by an incurable calamity.

This again the prophet Isaiah says somewhere else:

'Why should you be stricken any more, adding to your sins? Every head is in pain, and every heart in grief;

there is neither salve to apply, nor oil, nor bandages.'

'Your land is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; your country strangers devour it in your presence, and it is made desolate, overthrown by foreign peoples.' Such an utterance, and one concerning things so much to be abhorred, is quite sufficient to persuade the Jews to keep still and in no way to choose to give offence to God, if indeed, as I said, their plot was to come to nothing, while for their futile undertakings they themselves were to pay the penalty, and to fall into utter ruin and destruction.

'Who among you fears the Lord? Let him hearken to the voice of his Servant.' Having said that those who might choose to labour to no purpose, and to revel in their outrages against him, would grow old like a garment (for he said, 'Behold, all of you shall grow old like a garment, and like a moth shall it devour you'), he next holds out his loving-kindness to the reasonable, and points out to them the path of salvation.

For very many of those of Israel believed, as is also clearly declared in the Acts of the Apostles.

For the remnant has been saved, of which the divinely-inspired disciples became, as it were, a firstfruits and a first offering.

Therefore to those more ready for faith he holds out the things that come from gentleness, saying:

'Who among you fears the Lord? Let him hearken to the voice of his Servant.'

And by calling himself the Servant of God, he gives us to understand that even though he became man, he is the true Son of God the Father.

And to hearken to his voice was not a transgression of the Law, but a confirmation of the Law, which through type and shadow prefigured the truth, which is Christ and his oracles.

For this reason also the all-wise Paul writes, and says:

'Do we then abolish the Law through faith? God forbid; rather, we establish the Law.'

'For it is written, The just shall live by my faith.' And the mystery of Christ was the goal of both the Law and the prophets, justifying by faith the ungodly, and freeing from accusations those who had been held fast in their own transgressions.

Therefore to hearken to his voice — that is, of Christ — this is to receive the evangelical and saving proclamation; it was a confirmation of the Law.

And that it is the will of God the Father that those on earth should be guided by the voices of the Son, the power of the evangelical Writings would make plain to the more understanding.

For Christ was transfigured on the mountain, and his face shone as the sun, and his garments became white as the light;

and there appeared Moses and Elijah, talking together with one another;

then came the voice of God the Father, charging and saying to the holy apostles:

'This is my beloved Son; hear him.' If, then, there is anyone, he says, who holds the fear of God in his mind, and has hidden it within himself as a kind of treasure, let him hearken to the voice of his Servant.

And it is, as I said, the evangelical and inspired proclamation, calling us to the redemption that is through faith in Christ, and to a holy manner of life, and one far more excellent than that under the Law.

For the one was, as I said, in shadows, but the other has the truth bright and manifest.

'Those who walk in darkness, and have no light — trust in the name of the Lord, and lean upon the Lord.' The most skilful of physicians sometimes combine with the biting drugs the reliefs that come from soothing ones, all but charming away the harsh and more savage pain.

Something of this sort we find our Lord Jesus Christ to have done even now.

For he reproves them as walking in darkness, and as though held fast by a mist, and utterly deprived of light — clearly, of the divine and spiritual light — and making their paths toward nothing of the things that lead to salvation, that is, to their benefit, but rather toward those things which would easily thrust them down into the pit of destruction.

For it is not possible — it is not possible — for those once in darkness to be able to walk uprightly.

'To you, therefore,' he says, 'I hold out admonitions — to you who walk in darkness, and who senselessly do not receive the light that comes from me. Trust in the name of the Lord, and lean upon God.'

For since, out of very great folly, the multitudes of the Jews, seeing the Only-begotten Word of God in a form like ours — that is, having become man — did not understand the mystery concerning him, but in their want of understanding often grieved him with blasphemous voices, at one time naming him a Samaritan and a drunkard, at another being goaded by a misguided zeal to fits of rage (for they said:

'It is not for a good work that we stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God') — necessarily, as I said, having just now become man, he sets before them, as evident, his surpassing and most God-befitting glory and power, and takes away the wish of any to think meanly of him, saying:

'Trust in the name of the Lord, and lean upon God;'

most clearly, then, he declares himself to be Lord and God, taking away, as I said, the wish of any to think and speak certain grovelling and abject things concerning him.

And it is a boast to those who have received the faith, to have put their trust in him, and to make him their staff and support.

For he upholds all things toward being well.

And this, I think, the inspired Melodist teaches, saying to the Father and God of all:

'Your rod and your staff, they have comforted me.' For the human mind is prone to slip toward the affairs of this present world, and has swerved much toward strange pleasures and love of the flesh;

and it ever needs the one who saves and extends a saving hand, so that those who have come to share in the succour even say:

'He set my feet upon a rock, and directed my steps.' And that the mind of the Jews had been cast into darkness and mist, it is possible to see from the sacred Writings.

For the all-wise Paul says: 'The god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ should not dawn upon them.' And the inspired prophet Isaiah says thus concerning those of the blood of Israel:

'While they waited for light, it became darkness to them; and while they abode in brightness,

they walked in gloom.' But Christ himself called them to the light, saying:

'I am the light of the world;

he who follows me shall never walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.' It is settled, then, and it is true, that those who have not chosen to follow him will in every way and altogether come to walk as in night and darkness.

'Behold, all of you kindle a fire, and feed a flame.

Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled.'

For indeed the remembrances of punishments render even the disobedient and hardened mind, by profitable fears, as it were pliable and easily led.

He says, therefore, that those who feed a flame kindle a fire against themselves.

For by giving offence through their long disobedience, and by wishing to have a heart thus unwilling to be admonished, they rouse up against themselves the unquenchable flame — that, clearly, of punishment.

The same meaning as the foregoing is held also by that which was plainly said by Christ himself, the Saviour of us all:

He who believes in the Son is not judged.

But he who does not believe is judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the Son of God. For what else is it to be judged, save that it is to fall into the flame, and into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels? And by further adding the words, 'You prevail over the flame,' He allows us to grasp something both piercing and true.

For those who lay upon a fire materials capable of being kindled thereby, make it prevail all the more.

For the flame rages amid abundant fuel, but somehow grows faint when it lacks a plentiful supply.

the prophets, and stoning those who were sent, they made their own flame prevail, adding to their former offences their outrages against Christ.

For they set the Son among their servants, and, as far as lay in their power, they slew the Author of life, even though He rose again, being God and life.

And since they would not receive the instruction that comes through Christ, but remained in the shadows of the Law—

for this reason, and quite fittingly, since they supposed themselves to possess the light that comes from the Law, yet did not truly possess it, He dismisses them from intimacy with Himself, saying:

Walk by the light of your fire, and by the flame which you have kindled.

For it was not light to them, but the seeming to know the Law—while yet no longer wishing to receive the things that come through Christ—became to them the occasion of fire and flame.

For that they have paid the penalty for their outrage against Christ, together with dying entangled in their sins, He makes plain by further adding:

What are these things? For their land has been laid waste, the wicked have perished miserably, the holy city has been captured and has fallen beneath the hands of enemies, the very temple has been burned down, and they have fallen asleep in sorrow.

For those who die uncleansed, and are not accounted worthy to obtain the redemption that comes through Christ, shall fall asleep not in the hope of rewards and spiritual gladness, but in the fear of punishments and in sorrow because of them.

Hear me, you who pursue righteousness and seek the Lord.

Look to the solid rock which you have hewn, and to the pit of the cistern which you have dug.

Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you in travail; for he was but one, and I called him, and blessed him, and loved him, and multiplied him. Having sufficiently reproached those who had grown hardened against the truth, and having set clearly before them the punishment that would befall them if they would not choose to follow the evangelical decrees, but persisted, stretching out the proud and stubborn neck of their own understanding, He turns for the moment the words of exhortation toward those of the blood of Israel who had believed.

For the nation of the Jews has not utterly perished, but a remnant has been saved, according to the word of the prophet.

And indeed, as is written in the Acts of the holy Apostles, very many received the word concerning Christ, and recognized the manifestation of His glory.

It is to these, then, that He addresses His discourse, and says:

Hear me, you who pursue what is righteous and seek the Lord.

By 'the righteous' He means righteousness—clearly the righteousness that comes through Christ, that is, I say, through faith in Him, which justifies the ungodly, sets free from all defilement those who were polluted, sanctifies in the Spirit, and secures the splendid boast of adoption as sons.

Seek peace, and pursue it. Or rather, you will understand it also according to that which one of the holy prophets brought forth, saying:

These would be those who also seek the Lord Himself, that is, Christ.

For they find Him through faith, since God and the Father calls them to this.

And indeed Christ once said to the multitudes of the Jews:

Do not murmur among yourselves.

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Yet consider this:

God addresses His discourse not to all indiscriminately, but rather to those who would be pursuing what is righteous and seeking Him as well, according to the ways we have just now described.

Therefore all who are called through faith in Christ to the knowledge of the truth are taught of God.

But what the force of the thoughts may intend to signify, we shall state as best we can.

For very great indeed was the multitude of the Jews, yet those among them who believed were altogether few.

As, in the course of time, those who believed grew into a multitude beyond number, once those of the circumcision and of what is called the uncircumcision—that is, the Gentiles—had been added, God gathering them together, He seeks to give full assurance; and, as an example of the matter, or rather for the confirmation of hope toward this end, He takes the blessed Abraham, and Sarah with him.

For they became the root of the whole nation, even though they were of aged and advanced years, and no longer in any hope of being able to bear a child.

For he was a hundred years old, and she was barren and childless.

But since nothing is difficult to accomplish for God, and all things are smooth and easily traversed for Him, they became the beginning and root of a multitude of men rivalling the stars.

For it was said somewhere to the blessed Abraham that he should look up to the stars, and believe that his seed would be equal in number to those he beheld.

But that Sarah did not bear according to the law of human nature, and that the blessed Abraham became the father of a child when he was already extremely old and past his prime, He receives two illustrations:

a solid rock being hewn, and a deep cistern being dug.

For just as it is among the most exceedingly difficult of tasks to be able to quarry stone from a solid and unyielding rock, and to dig a deep well;

in the same way, I think, it would be no easy matter—rather even impossible—for a child to spring forth from an aged man and a barren woman.

Yet it was accomplished, marvellously, this too, with God assenting.