What, then, remains after this, but to go through, in accordance with our promises, the things dispensed at the incarnation of the very Word of God himself? Concerning whom we have gone through, in the eight books composed before this one, our previous labours -- at one time investigating the theology concerning him, at another examining the descent from heaven to us, together with both the manner and the appellation and the time of his coming. These things having now been demonstrated, it is time to consider together the events of his manifestation, and to set forth how each of these too had been proclaimed beforehand among the Hebrews.
The fulfillment of the predictions, moreover, will be confirmed by the testimony of the holy evangelists and by the outcome of the events narrated through them. First of all, then, since what concerns his birth -- his race, tribe, and seed -- has already been demonstrated, let us now examine what concerns the new and unaccustomed star that appeared at his birth, since this too was proclaimed long before, from far-off ages past, in Moses, and is recorded in the following manner:
Moses, in Numbers, concerning the star that appeared at the birth of our Savior, says: ‘Balaam son of Beor says, the man who truly sees says, hearing the oracles of God, knowing the knowledge of the Most High, and having seen a vision of God, his eyes being uncovered in sleep. I will show him, but not now; I bless him, but he is not near. A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a man shall arise out of Israel, and shall crush the princes of Moab, and shall despoil all the sons of Seth. And Edom shall be a possession, and Esau his enemy shall be a possession, and Israel wrought with might, and one shall be roused up out of Jacob, and shall destroy him that is preserved out of a city.’
It is said that, moved by this prophecy, the successors of Balaam (for the prophecy had been preserved among them, as was natural, when they observed in heaven a star strange beyond the usual, fixed -- one might say -- directly overhead and vertically above Judea) made haste to come to the land of the Palestinians, for the purpose of inquiring after the king signified by the star that had appeared.
The evangelist Matthew bears witness to these things, saying: ‘Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east, and have come to worship him. And when they had been sent on to Bethlehem, they went their way; and behold, the same star which they had seen in the east went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy; and going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and falling down they worshiped him.’
This, then, is what the holy Gospel says. But it is worth considering what the word of the prophecy says will come to pass at the rising of the star and the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ: the crushing of the princes of Moab, and the despoiling of the sons of Seth, and, further, the possession of the remaining enemies of the Jewish nation. These were Edom and Esau.
What, then, did he hint at by these things, except that by ‘the princes of Moab’ he meant the overthrow of the invisible rulers -- those demons of old who were accounted gods among the Moabites? And he made mention of no others, on account of the idolatry of Israel that took place in the wilderness, when the people were initiated to Beelphegor (this being a demon honored as a god by Balak, king of Moab).
Since, then, Israel had at that time been overcome by the invisible rulers of Moab -- I mean by those reckoned gods among the Moabites -- for they indeed practiced idolatry and worshiped the graven images, as Scripture says, and were initiated to Beelphegor, this being a demon of the Moabites, at the time when they also committed fornication with the women of Moab -- Balaam fittingly foretells that there would one day come, in due season, a change to the contrary of these things, saying: ‘A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a man shall arise out of Israel, and shall crush the rulers of Moab.’
As if to say more plainly, that the demons of the Moabites, who had greatly boasted against Israel, would at the birth of him who was prophesied one day suffer a crushing and a fall; and that when these had been crushed, the sons of Seth and Esau and the remaining nations -- which I take to be signified by these names -- who had of old been enslaved to demonic error, would, having turned away from superstition, become the property of him who was prophesied. For, he says, ‘Edom shall be a possession, and Esau his enemy shall be a possession.’
For those who were of old enemies of God and of Israel will, he says, become the inheritance of him who is prophesied. For he it was to whom it had been said by God his Father: ‘Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance.’ And when these have passed over into the lot of the saints, he foretells that the contrary of what befell Israel shall come to pass.
Accordingly he says also, ‘And Israel wrought with might.’ Now what it ‘wrought with might’ was the greatest impiety of all; wherefore he shall be roused up from among them, and shall rise up.
Who is this but the prophesied Word of God, who also destroyed him that was preserved out of a city? I think he hints at Jerusalem, out of which every survivor perished, or at the whole commonwealth of their nation. What end these things met, together with the shining forth of our Savior upon mankind -- while the nations, once idolaters, passed over into their inheritance, and the Jewish nation and their mother-city suffered what they had never suffered before -- I do not think requires lengthy discourse.
But let the discussion of the concord between the prophetic prediction and the conclusion given in the Gospel come to an end at this point. It is worth considering, however, what the cause was of the shining forth of the star that appeared. Moses says that all the stars were set in the firmament by God for signs and for seasons; but this star was strange and unaccustomed, not one of the many familiar ones, but a certain new and strange star that appeared to the world and indicated the sign of a strange luminary that had shone upon the whole world -- which was the Christ of God, a great and new star, whose image the star that then appeared to the magi symbolically bore.
For since throughout the whole of the holy and inspired Scripture the leading purpose of its meaning intends to teach more mystical and divine things, while also preserving, in part, the plain sense concerning the things done in history, it was fitting that the prophecy now before us should also be fulfilled to the letter, in the prophecy concerning the star that had earlier been announced beforehand at the birth of our Savior.
Now there occur, in connection with other men of glory and distinction also, appearances of strange stars -- such as those called by some ‘comets,’ or ‘beams,’ or ‘bearded stars,’ or certain others similar to these, which customarily appear in connection with great events.
But what could ever be better or greater for the whole world than the intellectual light of piety that came to exist for all men through the saving manifestation, bringing to rational souls the apprehension of true knowledge of God? For the sake of this, the star that appeared beforehand indicated the great sign, signifying to all a great and new luminary that had shone forth upon the whole world -- the Christ of God.
In the same way the prophecy foretells both man and star together, in the words ‘a star shall rise out of Jacob, and a man shall arise out of Israel’ -- calling the heavenly luminary the divine Word, yet naming the same one also ‘man.’ And in various other places she calls him also, differently, both ‘dayspring’ and ‘sun of righteousness,’ as we demonstrated in the earlier books.
Then, he applied the appellation ‘dayspring’ to him who comes into the world, saying, ‘A star shall rise out of Jacob.’ But ‘man,’ on account of the suffering that would befall him, he foretells as being raised up, as one who had fallen -- in the same way that Isaiah also says of him, ‘And there shall be the root of Jesse, and he who rises up to rule the nations; on him shall the nations hope.’ And it is clear in what manner the light of our Savior, having risen out of Jacob -- that is, from the people of the circumcision -- shone forth to all the nations, but not to Jacob, from whom it had proceeded.
This it is also possible to gather from very many other prophecies, which speak to him, addressing the Christ: ‘Behold, I have appointed thee for a covenant of the race, for a light of the nations.’ And not only so, but also from the prophecies concerning the race -- ‘for a light of the nations’ -- in which it says: ‘There shall come forth from his seed a man, and he shall rule over many nations.’
Whose seed, but that of Israel, as the context shows? And indeed, the Word of our Savior, ruling over the nations in accordance with the prophecy, overthrew the invisible and wicked powers that had of old ruled over them, and the spiritual hosts of wickedness, the demonic host -- named more figuratively in the passage before us as the princes of Moab and Seth and Edom and Esau.
The obscurely worded phrase in the Seventy, ‘I will show him, but not now; I bless him, but he is not near,’ Aquila rendered more clearly: ‘I shall see him, but not now; I regard him, but not near.’ Symmachus, still more plainly, said: ‘I see him, but he is not near.’
These things would be spoken by Balaam as of matters to be fulfilled in times long after him; and indeed, about two thousand years after the prediction, they were fulfilled at the coming of our Savior among men. From Isaiah:
‘Behold, the Lord sits upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt, and the things made by hand of Egypt shall be shaken at his presence, and their heart shall be overcome within them.’ Now the reason why it is foretold that the Lord will come into Egypt seems to me to be this: the Egyptians are said to have been the very first of all to originate the error of polytheism and demon-worship, and to have become the cause of superstition for all the rest of mankind, and moreover to have been more occupied than any others with demonic operations and vain practices.
These are also testified by the inspired Scripture to have been, from of old and from the beginning, enemies of the people of God; and their ancient king is recorded as confessing that he did not know the Lord, when he said, ‘I know not the Lord, and I will not send Israel away.’ Wishing therefore to set forth the great wonder of the divine power of Christ, the Word foretells the Lord's coming into Egypt, upon which he prophesies that no ordinary change will come upon the Egyptians, saying next: ‘And the Egyptians shall know the Lord, they who before knew him not, and shall vow vows to the Lord’ -- and things similar to these.
Above, then, in the chapter before this, Edom and Esau were said to be the inheritance of him who was prophesied, these being the names by which those who were foreign to Israel were signified. But here Egypt and the people of Egypt are foretold as belonging no longer to idols, but to him who is proclaimed as Lord and God among the Jews.
If, then, these things are not seen to be fulfilled to the eye, one cannot say that the foretold coming of the Lord into Egypt has taken place; but if the truth bears witness to the facts beyond all telling, and shows plainly, even to the most unreasonable, that the Egyptians themselves have withdrawn from the age-old, ancestral superstition, and have become akin to the God of the prophets who beforehand proclaimed these things, worshipping him alone, and embracing every kind of death for the sake of piety towards him, it is time to acknowledge that these things could not have come to pass otherwise than by the Lord's having come into Egypt in accordance with the prediction now before us.
It is also possible to understand the passage otherwise, as hinting figuratively at the earthly world, into which the Word prophesies that the Lord will come ‘upon a swift cloud’ -- thus hinting at the man taken to himself from a virgin and the Holy Spirit; and that ‘the things made by hand of Egypt’ that shall be shaken are the carved images of the nations and the demons dwelling within them, while ‘the Egyptians’ being overcome are, in turn, all those who had of old been fluttered about idolatry.
Nevertheless, our Savior was also bodily brought into the land of Egypt, when Joseph, having risen up in accordance with the oracle, took Mary and the child and went into Egypt; and it is likely that the wicked powers formerly dwelling there were considerably disturbed by an ineffable power and energy -- and especially since, through his subsequent teaching, countless multitudes of those who inhabit Egypt, having fled from the deception of the demons, even now confess that they know the God of the universe alone. The things said next, being enigmatic and requiring a more extended treatment, we shall explain at their proper place. From Numbers:
‘Balaam son of Beor says, the man who truly sees says, he says, hearing the oracles of the Mighty One, he saw a vision of God in sleep, his eyes being uncovered: How goodly are thy dwellings, O Jacob, thy tents, O Israel! Like shady groves, and like a garden by rivers, and like tents which the Lord has pitched, like cedars beside the waters. There shall come forth a man from his seed, and he shall rule over many nations; and the kingdom of Gog shall be exalted, and his kingdom shall be increased. God led him out of Egypt; his glory is like that of a unicorn. He shall devour the nations of his enemies, and shall grind their fat, and shall shoot down the enemy with his arrows. He couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a lion's whelp; who shall rouse him up? Blessed are they that bless thee, and cursed are they that curse thee.’
Above, in the preceding prophecy, the oracle, by saying that the Lord would come into Egypt, was signifying the conveyance of our Savior Jesus Christ into Egypt together with his parents that was to take place. In this passage, following in due order and sequence, it foretells his return from Egypt, which he made together with his parents into the land of Israel, saying: ‘God led him out of Egypt.’
But our Savior and Lord Jesus, the Christ of God, alone, and no other, proceeded from the seed of Israel and the Jewish nation, and gained dominion over many nations, so that it must be confessed without dispute that in him the present prediction also finds its fulfillment -- the prediction which plainly declares that there should come forth from the Jewish nation a certain man, and that he should rule over many nations.
Or let whoever wishes say, if he can name any other among the glorious men of the Hebrews who ever ruled over many nations; but no one could say so, since it never occurred. But in the case of our Savior -- even if we should say nothing -- the truth itself will cry out and shout aloud, showing directly how his divine power, through the man according to the flesh taken to himself from the seed of Israel, gained dominion, and even now still rules over many nations.
He, then, was that very one and no other, whom the prophecy foretold, in whose time also ‘the kingdom of Gog was exalted,’ while the power of Christ increased along with it. This, they say, according to the Hebrews, hints in this passage at the kingdom of the Romans, alongside which the teaching of Christ also flourished.
The prophet Ezekiel also makes mention of Gog, naming him prince of Rhos and Thobel; by ‘Rhos’ he hints, it seems, at the city of the Romans, since ‘beginning’ and ‘head’ are signified by ‘Rhos’ in the Hebrew tongue; by ‘Mosoch’ he signifies Mysia and the nations round about it, which are now subject to the Romans; and by ‘Thobel,’ Josephus shows, he signifies Iberia, saying that the Iberians came to be called Thobelites from Thobel. Of all these he says that Gog, their ruler, would be exalted at the coming of the prophesied Christ, whom God led out of Egypt -- when, according to Matthew, at the time Herod was plotting against him while he was still a child, Joseph, having been warned by an oracle, took the child and his mother and returned to the land of Israel. And ‘the glory of a unicorn’ belonged to Christ himself, because it was the Father's good pleasure that in him should dwell all the fullness of the Godhead, according to the holy apostle.
For this reason, as one who ascribes to himself, as a horn, the God of the universe and his own Father, he has also in other Scriptures been named ‘unicorn.’ And this same Word of God, with his intelligible and rational arrows, drove away the enemy and adversary set against him, the devil, and all the invisible and wicked powers about him, by a superior and unconquerable power; and even now he still rules over many nations.
Moreover, this same man who came forth from Israel, having gained dominion over many nations, having couched, ‘rested,’ it says, ‘as a lion’ -- thereby indicating the dispensation which he had undertaken, in accordance with which, like some kingly and bold beast, he rested, none being able to remove his rule and kingdom. And all who bless Christ, honoring by word and by life the virtue of their Teacher, have received a share of the blessing from God, increasing and multiplying day by day, in accordance with ‘increase and multiply, and fill the earth’ -- that divine utterance being fulfilled among them more truly and more in a manner befitting God. Whereas, on the contrary, those who from the very first plot against him, still even now cursing him in their own assemblies, have drawn upon themselves, from that time until this present, the curse from God.
Wherefore they do not cease to see before their eyes the utter desolation and destruction, not only of their kingdom, but also of their once most revered sanctuary. It is worthwhile to set beside the passage now before us the prophecy of Jacob concerning Judah, which we have earlier shown to apply most clearly to our Savior, and to observe the concord between the two.
For just as it is said here, ‘There shall come forth a man from his seed’ (his seed, that is, plainly, of Jacob), so also there it was said, ‘From a shoot, my son, thou didst go up’ -- spoken by Jacob himself to him who was prophesied.
And just as in the present passage it is said, ‘and he shall rule over many nations,’ so likewise in those other prophecies it is said, ‘and he himself shall be the expectation of the nations.’ And again, here it says, ‘he shall devour the nations of his enemies, and shall shoot down the enemy with his arrows,’ while likewise in those other prophecies it was said, ‘thy hands shall be upon the back of thine enemies.’
And ‘a lion's whelp is Judah,’ and ‘having lain down, thou didst sleep as a lion, and as a lion's whelp; who shall rouse him up?’ spoken in those other prophecies, seems to me to differ in no way from the phrase now before us, which says, ‘having couched, he rested, as a lion, and as a lion's whelp; who shall raise him up?’ We have fittingly brought these together, so that, as it were by the mouth of two witnesses, the demonstration concerning our Savior might receive a more firm confirmation from the concord found in the prophecies.
All, then, that has been observed concerning the prediction of Jacob would also fit the prediction of Balaam, on account of the similarity of what is said. If, then, those former prophecies have been established through much demonstration as fulfilled in our Savior, it would follow that these present ones also must be acknowledged as fulfilled in him. From Hosea:
‘And destruction shall arise in your people, and all your walled cities shall be undone, as the ruler Shalman was undone, from the house of Jeroboam, in war they dashed the mother upon the children. So will I do to you, O house of Israel, because of your unrighteousness. At dawn the king of Israel was cast off; for Israel was an infant, and I loved him, and out of Egypt I called back his children.’
Aquila, keeping close to the Hebrew, rendered it: ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’ I have found it necessary to note this reading, since Matthew also cited this prophecy, when he indicated that Jesus was carried into Egypt and from there returned to the land of Israel. But if anyone should find fault with our Savior's withdrawal into Egypt, let him know that it took place with good reason.
For it was not fitting either to check Herod's self-chosen wickedness, nor, on the other hand, for the Savior, while still an infant, to begin his miracles and display his divine power before the due time -- which is what would have happened, had he confronted Herod, who was plotting against him beyond all expectation, without in any way submitting to withdraw into Egypt together with his parents.
But rather it belonged to the better dispensation to begin his divine wonders at the fitting time -- a wonder for whom throughout his whole life gentleness and long-suffering are attested, one ready for good deeds and common benefactions, yet who took vengeance on none of those who would not hear him, not even when he was led as to slaughter, and, like a lamb, was silent before its shearer.
How then was it fitting that such a one, while yet a child, should not withdraw from the wickedness of Herod, seeing that even as a grown man he is attested to have withdrawn and avoided the wicked, and to have hidden and shunned the praise attaching to his wondrous deeds? For he used to charge those whom he healed to tell no one.
But if anyone should refer this prophecy to the people, asserting that it was spoken concerning the people from the seed of Israel, let him pay attention to the sequence of the text, which says that these things would come to pass after it had said, as though addressing Jerusalem herself, ‘And destruction shall arise in your people, and all your walled cities shall be undone.’
‘And what,’ he says, ‘such a ruler suffered in the war that came upon him, in which they dashed the mother upon the children, the like will I also do to you yourselves, because of your wickedness.’ And to you -- to whom, but to those called Israelites, who were also cast off together with your king -- hinting at Herod.
‘And all this you have suffered because,’ he says, ‘Israel was a child, and I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.’ For how could it be that the same persons should at the same time be blamed and yet also again be praised? But the true meaning contained this understanding: Christ has been proclaimed ‘Israel’ also in other prophecies, just as, indeed, in the present one.
‘Since, then,’ he says, ‘this one, having become obedient to me, has taken the form of a slave, and has become a child beloved of me, having accomplished my whole will, for this reason I have called him back from Egypt -- that is, from the world into which, having become man, he had descended, the earthly realm being thus signified -- or, indeed, from Egypt itself, taken in its plain sense -- as a genuine and beloved son. But you, to whom this word is addressed, together with your kingdom, ruin and destruction shall overtake.’
This, then, is what the prophecy says. It is plain how, from the times of our Savior onward, Jerusalem was besieged and cast down, and the autonomy and rule of the Jewish nation, which had until then subsisted, was utterly cast off.
Nevertheless, this is now the third time that the matters concerning Egypt and his arrival there have been prophesied. But if anyone should say that these do not at all apply to our Savior, still there remains the citation in Matthew, taken from the testimony in Moses, which we have just now discussed while relating ‘God led him out of Egypt’ -- since the evangelist himself did not say that he had taken his saying from the prophecy of Hosea, so that we might be able to inquire and find where it is set down, whence it is likely that the evangelist made his citation from it. From Isaiah:
‘A voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked places shall become straight, and the rough places smooth ways. And the glory of the Lord shall be seen, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God, for the Lord has spoken.’
It was necessary that this prophecy too should come to fulfillment in the times of our Savior. Wherefore, according to the evangelist Luke, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and those reckoned along with him in office, the word of God came upon John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness; who, coming into all the region round about the Jordan, preached a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. To these things, then, the evangelist bears witness, saying: ‘As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, A voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord’ -- and so on.
What, then, was that voice crying through John in the wilderness proclaiming, but that it summoned the multitudes going out to be baptized by him -- since they were, as it were, creeping things of the wilderness, fittingly addressed as ‘offspring of vipers’ -- to flee from the wrath to come; and again, transforming crooked souls into straight ones, and rough ones into smooth paths, it said to these same people, ‘Bring forth, therefore, fruits worthy of repentance’?
And these things were indeed accomplished as John prepared beforehand those who were to behold the glory of the Lord and that which is called the salvation of God -- which was none other than the Christ -- as he himself testified, saying: ‘I indeed baptize you with water, but there comes after me one mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he himself shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.’
He it was who, seeing Jesus coming, cried out, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me comes a man who has come to be before me.’ And that this same one was ‘the salvation of God,’ Simeon also bore witness -- he who, taking the infant Jesus into his arms, said: ‘Now, Master, you release your servant, according to your word, in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light for the revelation of the nations.’
As for how these things came to pass, and how the nations came to know the Christ of God, there is no need for lengthy discourse. And these words, then, were fulfilled in this manner. But what was the reason that John came forward to preach not in the cities, nor even in Jerusalem itself, but in the wilderness? One person might say that he did this for the fulfillment of the prophecy.
But one who examines the matter more carefully will straightway ask what this prophecy could mean by signifying the wilderness and the things pertaining to it. To such a one we shall answer that this too was a sign of the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the altar within it, and of the worship according to the law of Moses -- since no longer through the sacrifices prescribed by the law was the remission of sins procured for them, but through the cleansing of a bath, this being handed over upon the ancient thirsty and desert place -- I mean, the church of the nations -- in which also the prophetic voice, coming to pass, exhorts men to prepare the way of the Lord, foretelling that the souls lying below, as it were, in the depth of wickedness, as in a valley, would be lifted up, while the ancient heights of Jerusalem and of the rulers and kings over her, called mountains and hills, would be brought low.
When these things had been accomplished, it says, ‘all flesh shall see the salvation of God’ -- that is, plainly, every soul living in the flesh upon earth, both of Greeks and barbarians, and, in short, of all the nations, which are shown to have come to fulfillment in accordance with the prediction.