Prophetic Extracts (chapter 3)

Prophetic Extracts

continued

Chapter 3

1 The following are contained in the third volume of the Prophetic Extracts concerning Christ. First chapter: from Proverbs. Concerning the Word of God, as concerning a Wisdom that exists as a real being, created by God before the ages, who is distinct from him and who together with him takes care of the whole universe. Concerning Christ as the king’s son, and concerning his apostles. Concerning Christ as a man, and his ascent into the heavens, and his mastery over the nations. 2 From Ecclesiastes. Concerning Christ as a poor wise man, and concerning the devil and the Antichrist. Concerning Christ as a poor wise man, and concerning the devil, and concerning the church. 3 From the Song of Songs. Concerning Christ as the bridegroom, and the church of the saints as the bride, and concerning the mysteries hidden in these passages. 4 From Job. Concerning Christ as one who walked on the sea and mastered the great sea monster. Concerning Christ’s descent into Hades. Concerning the devil’s struggle against Christ.

5 From Hosea. Concerning Christ as an all-devouring beast [πανθῆρος]. Concerning the rejection of Israel, the ending of their kingdom, and the calling of Christ out of Egypt. How God the Word, who is named God, confesses the Father as Lord. 6 From Amos. How God the Word, who is named Lord, teaches that the Father is someone other than himself. Concerning Christ’s coming to live among human beings. 7 From Obadiah. How God the Word, who is named Lord and God, acknowledges that he has heard something from the Lord. 8 From Jonah. How the story of Jonah signifies the suffering of Christ and his resurrection from the dead. 9 From Micah. Concerning Christ’s second coming, as concerning the Lord. Concerning the desolation of the former people, of Israel, and of Mount Zion, and concerning the appearing of Christ as a mountain, and the bringing in of the nations, and the new law belonging to the new covenant. Concerning Bethlehem and the birth of Christ in it, and how Christ existed before the ages.

10 From Zephaniah. Concerning the resurrection of Christ, and concerning the calling of the nations. 11 From Zechariah. That God the Word, who is called Lord Almighty, is said to have been sent by the Lord Almighty, the Father. That God the Word, called Lord, foretells that he will come to Jerusalem, and that the nations will flee to him for refuge, since he has been sent by the Lord Almighty. About Christ as Jesus the son of Josedek, and that “Man” is his name, and “Dawn” [or “East”], and about the building of the church. About Christ as a king who will come on a beast of burden and a colt, and who will destroy the cavalry and heavy infantry of the Jews that once lived in Jerusalem, and about peace for the nations. That God the Word, called Lord, speaks of the Lord, the Father. About the thirty pieces of silver for which Judas betrayed Christ to the rulers of the Jews, whom the text here calls Canaanites, and about their rejection. About the suffering of Christ, and the apostles’ stumbling over him. About the second coming of Christ.

12 From the Angel [Malachi]. About the rejection of the Jews, the abolition of their sacrifices, and the churches of Christ throughout the whole world. About the new covenant, and the law of truth of Christ, who is the angel of the Lord Almighty. About the second coming of Christ, as the angel of the covenant of God. About Christ as the sun of righteousness. 13 From Jeremiah. About the suffering of Christ, as of a lamb. About the suffering of Christ, the destruction of the Jews, and the desolation of Jerusalem. About the calling of the nations, the ungodliness of the Jews, and, by name, the traitor Judas. About Christ as a king from the seed of David, and the priestly service of the church, which is established for ever. About the new covenant, different from the old one given through Moses, and about the laws that belong to the gospel.

14 From the Lamentations. About the suffering of Christ and the calling of the nations. 15 From Baruch. About Christ as God who comes down from heaven and lives among human beings. 16 From Ezekiel. About Christ as the shepherd David who will be raised up, and about the new covenant. About Christ as the David who will be raised up as shepherd, and about the new covenant. 17 From Daniel. About Christ as a stone, and his everlasting kingdom. About Christ as Son of God. About the coming of Christ as Son of Man, and his everlasting kingdom. About the seventy weeks, and how they are completed at the time of Christ, after which the complete destruction of the Jewish people is prophesied. 18 Introduction. After the extracts from the Psalms, let us now gather those from the remaining verse books and from the prophecies that follow. This is the third book of the Prophetic Extracts about Christ, which is the eighth book of the General Elementary Introduction. First I want to point out two things. The words of the prophets cannot be shown to be true unless faith in our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ is taken together with them. And our faith in Christ cannot be made firmer by reason unless we have the proofs about him that were given by the prophets from the beginning. So one may fairly blame two groups for ending up in confusion: the Jews who have not accepted Christ, and the heretics who reject the prophecies. The first group accepts the prophecies as from God, yet proves them false and leaves them unfulfilled, because they cannot accept the outcomes of the prophecies that were fulfilled in Christ. The second group confesses Christ, yet holds a faith in him that has no foundation and no proof, because they do not make use of God’s wonderful prophets, who testified about him beforehand. As for us, we confirm the prophecies by the coming of Christ, and we confirm his coming by the prophecies. In this way we present the clear and firm truth with proofs that cannot be refuted. This much by way of introduction; let us now go on to our subject.

19a The whole book of Proverbs seems to be spoken in the person of Wisdom. At one moment she lays down a moral way of life, and at another she puts words into the mouths of others. Sometimes she sets out riddles, and sometimes she teaches about herself and instructs us about her own divine dignity. We will select the passages that teach us Wisdom is a divine living being, virtuous in her whole nature. She is the same as the one who, after the first God, is the second cause of the universe, the God Word who was with God in the beginning. She is also the providence of God, which governs and manages all things and reaches even to affairs on earth. She was created before every being and substance, as the beginning of the ways of the whole creation. The words are spoken as if by Wisdom herself, in this way: “I, Wisdom, pitched my tent with counsel and knowledge, and I called upon thought. The fear of the Lord hates evil, insolence, arrogance and the ways of the wicked. I hated the twisted ways of evil men. Counsel and security are mine. I am understanding, and strength is mine. Through me kings reign, and rulers write down righteousness. Through me great men are made great. I love those who love me, and those who seek me will find grace. Wealth and glory are mine, and the possession of many things, and righteousness. It is better to gather my fruit than gold and much precious stone, and my produce is better than choice silver. I walk in the ways of righteousness, and move about in the midst of the paths of justice, so that I may give a possession to those who love me and fill their treasuries with good things. If I proclaim to you the things that happen daily, I will remember to count the things from eternity. The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways, for his works. Before the age he founded me, in the beginning, before he made the earth, before he made the depths, before the springs of water came forth,

19b before the mountains were set firm, and before all the hills, he begets me. The Lord made the lands, even the uninhabited ones, and the highest inhabited parts of what lies under heaven. When he prepared the heaven, I was present with him, when he marked out his own throne upon the winds. When he made the clouds above strong, and set the springs of what is under heaven as secure, when he set for the sea its exact limit, and the waters will not pass beyond his word [literally ‘his mouth’], when he made the foundations of the earth strong, I was beside him, fitting things together. I was the one in whom he delighted every day, and I rejoiced in his presence at all times, when he rejoiced after completing the inhabited world, and rejoiced in the sons of men.” This is what Wisdom teaches about herself. Who she is, the holy apostle teaches when he says, “Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God,” and again, “who became wisdom for us from God.” So it is Christ who says the things quoted above. He is the Wisdom and Word of God, through whom all things came to be. For “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things came to be through him.” And, according to the apostle, “In him all things were created, those in the heavens and those on the earth, whether visible or invisible.” Under one way of thinking about him he is called Word of God, under another Life, and again Truth and true Light, and whatever else the divine Scriptures call him. In the same way he is also named Wisdom, since he is the servant of the Father for the providence and management of all things.

20 From Proverbs, part 2. “In the light of the king’s son is life, and those who are acceptable to him are like a late cloud.” Of what other king’s son is life in the light, if not the Word of God, who is the Son of God, the King of all? For he himself is the true light, which enlightens every person coming into the world. In this light is life, according to the word of the Gospel that says, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” His “acceptable ones” are, as we take it, his apostles and disciples. They became “like a late cloud” at the very end of the days, at the completion of the age. They watered the once desolate and waterless land, that is, the church of the nations, with the spiritual rain of his godly teaching. 21a From Proverbs, part 3. “This is what the man says to those who trust in God, and I cease. For I am the most foolish of all men, and the understanding of men is not in me. But God taught me wisdom, and I have known the knowledge of holy ones. Who has gone up into heaven and come down? Who has gathered the winds in his bosom? Who has wrapped up water in a garment? Who has held the ends of the earth? What is his name, or what is the name of his children?” Who else could this man be who says these things, other than our Lord who became man? He speaks either because of our follies, which he took upon himself, or because of the foolishness of the preaching, which is wiser and stronger than the wisdom of men. Here he says, “I am the most foolish of all men.” In the sixty-eighth psalm he says, “You knew my folly.” He also says, “the understanding of men is not in me,” as if boasting of a great achievement in having none of the understanding of those who have been compared to senseless animals and have become like them. Or he means those whose wisdom God made foolish, who think about nothing more than earthly things, such as belong to flesh and matter. For this reason they are attested to be “shrewd in their generation”: they seek and think only of earthly things, [from youth] and still on evil things. In the man spoken of there was no human understanding at all, but clearly there was a divine understanding, beyond the human. This is why he goes on to say, “But God taught me wisdom, and I have known the knowledge of holy ones.” Then he asks, “Who has gone up into heaven and come down?” It is as though he is stirring us to search out the one who teaches such great things about himself. The words that follow also concern him, and they need a study of their own. The divine apostle, teaching us about him, says: he who went down into the lower parts of the earth is himself also the one who went up far above the heavens.

21b In saying “4:10” he puts “came down” first and then adds “went up”; then he says again “came down.” After the resurrection from the dead he said to Mary, “Do not touch me, for I have not yet gone up to my Father.” After this he was seen by the disciples over forty days, living with them. Evidently he had gone up to the Father, and he came down again for the sake of the plan of salvation he was carrying out. This is why it is said: “Going up on high he led captivity captive, and gave gifts among men.” And what are these gifts but the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which he brought down from heaven? That is why the text here, in Aquila’s version, reads: “Who went up into heaven and brought down?” He is also the one who has taken hold of the ends of the earth, so that his word has gone out into all the earth, and his words to the ends of the world. Whoever has been given a word of knowledge will know how to understand the rest of what is said at this place. The text urges us to ask what his name is, and what the name of his children is. To this we will respond on the basis of what we have received from the facts. His name is Jesus, which is translated “salvation of God.” His relatives according to the flesh gave him this name, following the message of Gabriel, and the angel also gave the reason for the name: “For he will save his people from their sins.” And the name of his children? He said to them, “Little children, I am with you a little while longer.” And then those after them in all the churches, his sons and grandsons and descendants: what else could their name be but the blessed name “Christian”?

22 From Ecclesiastes, 4. “A poor child who is good and wise is better than an old and foolish king, who no longer knew how to take heed. For he will come out of the house of prisoners to reign, though he was born poor even in his own kingdom. I saw all the living who walk under the sun, with the second young man who will rise up in his place. There is no end to all the people, to all who were before them; and those who come after will not rejoice in him. For this too is vanity and a striving after wind.” Christ is the wisdom of God, and for our sake, though he was rich, he became poor. So I think the words “a poor child who is good and wise is better than an old and foolish king” are said about him. The old king I take to be the devil, grown old in evil days. He is king over those who are ruled by the sin that he works in them. He is foolish, because he has been stripped of the wisdom that is virtuous and according to God. The good and wise child just mentioned came out of the house of prisoners, that is, the place around the earth, or the regions in Hades. At the resurrection from the dead he came forth, was set up as king by the Father on Zion, God’s heavenly mountain, and in that very kingdom of his he became poor. He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but humbled himself and came down from the highest glory for the sake of those who could not take in the riches of his wisdom. The “second young man” who is said to rise up in his place, I take to be the antichrist. The text says that all the living who walk under the sun were seen with him. And who could these be but all those who cherish what is called “vanity of vanities” under the sun?

23a From Ecclesiastes, chapter 5: “This too I saw, wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. There was a small city with few men in it. A great king came against it, surrounded it, and built great siege-works against it. In it he found a poor and wise man, and that man saved the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man. And I said, ‘Wisdom is better than might.’ But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.” Here too the one who wages the war is called a king, and the one who rescues the besieged city is a poor and wise man. In the preceding chapter it was said, “A poor and wise child is better than an old and foolish king.” There we took the foolish king to be the devil, and the poor and wise one to be the Word of God, who emptied himself and became poor for our sake. That is why we marked the earlier passage. We think the warring king described here is the same as the foolish king mentioned there. In the same way, the one here who saves the besieged city by his own wisdom is the poor and wise man there, whom we said is Christ. He ransomed the small city. By that I mean the region of the earth, which is very small compared with the whole universe. He also ransomed those in it, who are few compared with the whole multitude of rational beings, for all the nations are “like a drop from a bucket.” They were under siege from the kingdom of the devil. He surrounded the region of the earth and those in it on every side, and he built great siege-works against it: the rulers, the authorities, the world-rulers of this darkness, and the spiritual forces of wickedness.

23b No one but the poor and wise man alone brought this enemy down: our Savior and Lord. He emptied himself and became poor for our sake, though rich in his own mercy. Having brought the enemy down, he saved the small city by his wisdom. This city is, as is likely, the church, taken in another sense, and those in it are few, because the way that leads to life is narrow and hard, and few are those who go through it. Those who see so great a plan of salvation say, “Wisdom is better than might.” By “might” he plainly means the might of the enemies. The text also says, “No one remembered that poor man.” It was God who remembered him through the prophets and proclaimed beforehand his coming among men. But not one of those worked on by the wisdom of the rulers of this age ever remembered him, since they were not able to know the mystery hidden before the ages, the plan of the Word of God to become man. Beyond this it says, “The poor man’s wisdom is despised.” Indeed, God was pleased through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe. It also says, “his words are not heard.” For not everyone can hear the words of the Savior, but only those who have ears to hear. The gospel of Christ is veiled, though not to his disciples: it is veiled to those who are perishing.

24 Of the Song of Songs, 6. The whole book has as its subject a bride’s love for the bridegroom. She confesses that she is wounded by her love for him. He in turn confesses that she alone, out of many, is his perfect dove, set apart from those called queens, concubines and maidens. Now those of the circumcision are convinced that this writing is one of the twenty-two books they hold to be inspired by God. Yet I do not know whether they could show anything in what it says that is worthy of divine inspiration, since they imagine nothing more in these passages than the obvious reading. But the one who is able can take away the veil that lies over this writing too. He can turn to the Lord, who is the Spirit, and with unveiled face see reflected, even in these words, the glory of the Lord. Such a person will see in it the mysteries of the spiritual bride, who is clearly the church of Christ. He will see what is said about the bridegroom of this perfect bride, and about the difference between her and his queens, concubines and maidens. He will see also all the other, more hidden lessons stored up in the book. These have already received the fullest explanation in the commentaries written by that most diligent interpreter of the divine Scriptures.

25 From Job, 7. It is Job who says of the Lord, along with other things: “He who speaks to the sun, and it does not rise, and seals up the stars; who alone stretched out the heaven, and who walks on the sea as on solid ground.” And again: “He who is about to subdue the great sea monster.” Now it does not fit a lofty idea of the God of the universe to suppose that he, who fills all things, walks upon the sea as though it could contain so great a size [of his]. So what remains is to understand these words of the Word. By his power Joshua son of Nun, who was a type of him, spoke to the sun and it stood still at Gibeon. And at the time of his passion, as though at some divine command, the sun darkened the whole earth. He is also the one who stretched out the heaven, and who walked on the sea as on solid ground when, having become man, he performed his marvelous works, as the Gospels record. If the passages are to be referred wholly to the Word of God, then it follows that we should take to be about him not only the words I have set out, but everything said by Job in this section. For he alone subdued the great sea monster. He loosed the pains of death and brought to nothing the devil, the truly great dragon. In former times the devil, in his strength, swallowed up human souls, like the sea monster that swallowed Jonah. But later he was subdued by the one who wrestled him down, and he brought out again those whom he had swallowed long before, just as the beast gave Jonah back safe. In this a prophecy is fulfilled which says, “Death swallowed them up in its strength, and again God wiped away every tear from every face.” We say this because of our Savior and Lord, who subdued what is here called the great sea monster.

26a From the Psalms and Job, section 8. In his words to Job, the Lord goes through the works of his own providence and plan, and says: “Did you take clay from the earth and form a living creature, and give it speech on the earth? Did you take the light from the ungodly, and break the arms of the proud? Did you go to the source of the sea, and walk in the tracks of the abyss? Are the gates of death opened to you in fear, and did the gatekeepers of Hades crouch down when they saw you?” The Lord says these things to Job about himself, as though no one but he alone could do such great works. For who is it that took earth and formed a living creature, if not God, who took dust from the ground and formed man? At the same time we learn from this that the one who formed man is also the one who went down to the lower parts of the earth, to what is called its heart, which I take to be what is here named “the source of the sea.” He is also the one who walked in the tracks of the sea. To him alone the gates of death were opened in fear, because it was not possible for death to hold him. Even the gatekeepers of Hades crouched down when they saw him, for they saw the victory and the sting, and the pangs of death being destroyed through him. Perhaps it was to these gatekeepers of the “gates of death” mentioned here that certain divine powers said, at the time of the passion and our Savior’s descent into Hades: “Lift up your gates, you rulers, and be lifted up, you eternal gates, and the king of glory will come in.” The gates are called “eternal,” I suppose, because from all ages they had been opened to no one else but him alone, who rescued and gave life to those who long before had been swallowed up by death.

26b Of him it is said here, “The gates of death are opened to you in fear, and the gatekeepers of Hades crouched down when they saw you.” And in Psalm 106 it says, “For he broke the bronze gates.” These were no other gates, I think, than the gates of death. “And he broke the iron bars” – clearly the bars of those same gates. So we have taken these words as applying to Christ and to no one else. For he is the one to whom the Father has given all judgment, so that he takes the light away from the ungodly and breaks the arms of the proud. But if someone thinks these things are said about the God of the universe, let him consider whether it is godly to say this of the God who contains all things. For he says, “Do I not fill heaven and earth, says the Lord,” the God whose throne is heaven and whose footstool is the earth. Is it godly even to imagine that this God walked in the tracks of the sea? And what is so wonderful, or so worthy of the uncreated nature, in boasting as if it were something great that the gates of death were opened to him? Would it suit the God of the universe to describe as something great and amazing about himself that the gatekeepers of the people crouched down when they saw him? I do not think these things are said about him. They can, however, be applied in a godly way and without strain to the Word of God, our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, who became man and endured death, and rose from the dead with divine power and the authority given to him by the Father.

27 From Job, section 9. Again, in his words to Job, the Lord speaks about the dragon and says, “Are you not afraid, since it has been prepared for me?” He says this of the dragon, who is none other than the devil. Consider, then, whether it is fitting to suppose that the God of the universe says this. It suits our Lord and Savior better, for it is for him alone that the devil has been prepared: the devil who was conquered by no one else and had prevailed over nearly everyone. The Word of God alone, stronger than all, subdued him, as in the words, “the one who is about to subdue the great sea monster.” And having subdued him, he urges his disciples to take courage, saying, “Take courage, I have conquered the world.” So much for these passages, and for those from the poetic books after the Psalms. What remains is to gather the passages from the prophetic writings, beginning with those from the Twelve.

28 From Hosea. “Because I am like a panther to Ephraim, and like a lion to the house of Judah.” In another place the Lord says of himself through the same prophet, “And I will be like a panther.” So we must look at what is recorded about this animal, and the following should be set out from the first book of Didymus’s Physica. The panther is not only beautiful in body, spotted like stars, but its breath is naturally sweet, so that it surpasses even the spices of India in fragrance. Until it is hungry it stays in its den, content to be a kind of homebody. When it wants to take food, it comes out and walks alone. The other beasts are captured by the fragrance about its body and follow it, charmed. But the panther, with a sidelong glance, looks around for the beast that suits it, leaps on it and holds it fast. That is what is said about the nature of the animal. How these things might be applied to the power of the divine Word, and to the fragrance that breathes out from it, would take too long to explain now. This passage should be set before those of the circumcision who, with a kind of slander and abuse, say that our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ was born of a Panther. Perhaps they received this by some tradition that points to something more mystical, yet they do not grasp its meaning, because they do not pay attention to the prophecy’s present wording, in which the Lord himself names himself a panther.

29a From the same. “And destruction will rise up among your people, and all the fortified walls of your temple will be gone. As the ruler Salamon [did] from the house of Jeroboam, in the days of war they dashed a mother to the ground along with her children. So the house of Israel will do to you, because of your evils.” And: “Because Israel is a child, and I loved him, and out of Egypt I called back his children. As I called them back, so they went away from my face.” Instead of “and out of Egypt I called back his children,” Aquila, following the Hebrew, gave “Out of Egypt I called back my son.” I noted the wording because it was necessary: Matthew sets out the prophecy word for word, saying that it was fulfilled very exactly in our Savior: “Joseph, having been warned, took Mary and her son; and he returned from Egypt into the land of Israel.” Now consider whether this also fits Aquila’s rendering, which says: “At dawn the king of Israel was silenced, because Israel is a child and I loved him; and from Egypt I called my son.” For this clearly shows the rejection of the kingdom of Israel. That kingdom stood until our Savior’s appearing, and then it was cast out and silenced. This is why it says, “At dawn the king of Israel was silenced,” the prophecy calling “dawn” the appearing, the first rising of the divine Word on all people at that time. “The king of Israel was silenced” can also be a prophecy about Herod. He was silenced because of the trick the magi played on him at the birth of our Savior. This happened because of the Father’s love for his own child, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is called Israel here, as he is in other prophecies. At the proper time God arranged for him to go away to Egypt with Joseph and his mother, when need called for the king who was plotting against him, clearly Herod, to be silenced.

29b Then, after Herod’s death, the Father calls him back again, in keeping with the prophecy before us. Someone might apply these words to the Jewish people and say they were spoken about the circumcised people of Israel. Let him pay attention to the flow of the passage. The prophet has said beforehand, as if to Jerusalem herself, “And destruction will rise up among your people, and all your walled places will be gone.” The Lord adds that this prince suffered what he did in the war that came upon him, a war in which they dashed a mother to the ground with her children. He says: I will do very much the same to you yourselves because of your wickedness, O house of Israel. You were cast away together with your king, and you have suffered all these things. Why? “Because Israel is a child, and I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” Let anyone who wishes show what sequence of thought the passage has on that reading. But just as in countless other prophecies Christ is called Jacob and Israel, so he is here. The Father says, in effect: since this one became obedient to me, took the form of a servant, and became a child beloved by me, having carried out all my purpose, therefore I called him back, as my true and beloved son, from the spiritual Egypt into which he went down when he became man. But you, to whom this word is addressed, I will hand over, together with your kingdom, to ruin and destruction. That is what the prophecy says. It is plain how, from the time of our Savior, when Jerusalem was besieged, the kingdom of the Jews that had stood until then was torn down and utterly cast away. So this prophecy too, along with the others, has been fulfilled.

30 From the same Hosea, 12. “I will not leave Ephraim to be wiped out, for I am God and not man, holy in your midst, and I will not enter into a city. I will go after the Lord.” The same speaker who said, “For I am God,” goes on to say, “I will go after the Lord.” Who else could be God and yet go after the Lord, if not the Word of God, following the will of the Father? He also teaches us not to suppose that, because he became man, he was a mere man like one of the righteous and holy men of old. He says he will not enter into a city, showing that he did not live an ordinary, merely human civic life. He trains his disciples to do the same when he says, “Do not go off on the road of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans.”

31 From Joel, nothing clear. From Amos, 13. “I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you became like a brand snatched out of the fire, and even so you did not turn back to me, says the Lord.” Here too the Lord himself speaks as though of another: “as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.” In Genesis, too, the divine Scripture keeps the two persons distinct when it says, “And the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord.” From these words the right belief of the church about the Father and the Son is made plain. 32 From the same, 14. “Get ready to call on your God, Israel. For behold, he who makes the thunder firm, and creates the wind, and announces his christ to men, who makes the dawn and the mist, and treads on the high places of the earth: the Lord God Almighty is his name.” Through these words, too, the coming of Christ among men is clearly prophesied. With leisure, each phrase could be explained more precisely.

33 From Obadiah, 15. “The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord God to Edom: I have heard a report from the Lord, and he has sent out a message of encirclement to the nations.” Since here again the Lord God has heard a report from the Lord, we have reasonably marked this passage. 34 From Jonah, 16. We have found no prophecy in this book that is specifically about Christ in particular. But when the generation asked the Savior for a sign, he said that no other sign would be given to it than the sign of Jonah the prophet. He added: “For just as Jonah was in the belly of the sea monster three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.” For this reason we have had to mark this writing too among the testimonies about Christ.

35 Because, look, the Lord, the Lord, is coming out from his place. He will come down and tread on the heights of the earth. The mountains will be shaken beneath him, and the valleys will melt like wax before the face of fire. We understand these words to refer to the second coming of Christ. 36a From the same prophet. “Hear this, you leaders of the house of Jacob, and you who are left of the house of Israel, you who loathe justice and twist everything that is straight, you who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrongdoing. Her leaders judged for gifts, her priests gave rulings for pay, and her prophets prophesied for silver. Yet they leaned on the Lord and said, ‘Is the Lord not among us? No evil will come upon us.’ Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become like a fruit-watcher’s hut, and the mountain of the house will become a thicket of woodland. But in the last of the days the mountain of the Lord will be plainly seen, established on the tops of the mountains, and it will be lifted high above the hills. Peoples will come to it, and many nations will travel to it and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. They will show us his way, and we will walk in his paths.’ For from Zion a law will go out, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples and will rebuke a strong people far away. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer lift sword against nation, and they will no longer learn to make war.” The passage first says that, because of the ungodliness of the Jewish people, Mount Zion will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem, once thought of as the holy city, will become like a fruit-watcher’s hut. It then goes on to prophesy about another mountain of the Lord. This mountain already existed at the time of the prophecy, but it was not plain to ordinary people. It would appear only in the last of the days and be lifted high above the hills and mountains. The passage foretells that peoples and many nations will come to this new mountain, no longer that old Israel, and will say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.”

36b They will go up not only to the mountain of the Lord but also to the house of the God of Jacob. This house is clearly different from the one in Jerusalem, since he had said a little earlier that Jerusalem would be made desolate and become like a fruit-watcher’s hut. In keeping with this, Mount Zion and Jerusalem are to be laid waste, and other things are to appear in their place. So it is said that another law, different from the one Moses gave from Mount Horeb, will go out from the new mountain, which is also called Zion, with the same name as the former one. Moreover, a word of the Lord is said to go forth along with the new law from the new Jerusalem, which he earlier called the house of the God of Jacob. This word, going out to all the nations, is foretold to judge between many peoples and to rebuke a strong people. It is also foretold that it will so benefit those it rebukes, by its judgment and rebuke, that they will turn from their former holy but warlike condition to the calm and peaceful [manner of life . . .]. [The text is damaged here.] This is what the prophecy says. But one may consider whether [. . .] the coming of our Savior, because of those who built [. . .] with the blood of the prophets, and of Christ himself, and of his [apostles]. These were killed in Jerusalem itself by the [people] of the Jews [. . .] because of those who [. . .] the rest, all that [was said] in the prophecy [. . .] Mount Zion as never at any other time [. . .] Jerusalem was besieged. After their desolation [. . .] and the heavenly Mount Zion of God. Of these the [earthly ones] were a shadow, types and patterns, and this has been made plain to all who have come [. . .] to God through Christ.

37 19. “And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephrathah, you are too small to be [among the thousands] of Judah. From you shall come out for me a leader, to be a ruler in Israel. And his goings out are from the beginning, from the days of eternity.” (Mic. 5:2) [...] Through these words, proofs about Christ are set out. One is against the error of Marcion and the other heretics [...]. The other is against Artemon and the Samosatene [...], and against as many of the Ebionites as have supposed that he did not exist before the incarnation [...]. Those who do not confess him [to be] God are plainly refuted by the prophetic word, [which says] that his goings out are from the beginning and from days of [eternity] [...]. But to those who follow Marcion and the other [heresies], who are in error and do not confess [...] his birth, nor that he was known by the [servants] of the Creator, one must set beside [their error] the place of birth that was prophesied [...] light to this day, even from the natives of the place [...]. It is as if by tradition, the place in Bethlehem where [...] he was born. [It is] also [attested] by the holy evangelists themselves [...]. The saying must also be put to the Jews [...], to show whoever he might be [...] the one prophesied as incomplete [...] according to them. And it is clear that the divine [...] prediction is also shown to be false [on their view]. But the saving gospel word of Christ was set up as ruler of the Israel of the mind, properly of the Jew who is one in secret, and of every virtuous and perceptive soul, [understood] as Israel [...].

38 Nothing clear from Nahum. And from Habakkuk [nothing is given]. From Zephaniah: 20. “Therefore wait for me, says the Lord, for the day of my rising up as a witness. For my judgment is for gatherings of nations, so as to receive kings.” (Zeph. 3:8) I think these words also point to the resurrection of Christ from the dead. It is prophesied that when it had happened, gatherings of the church from the nations would be set up everywhere. Perhaps [...] also [refers to] his second coming and the universal [...] of all [...]; [the matters of the passage may be so understood]. 39 Nothing clear from Haggai. From Zechariah: 21. [...] Almighty: “After glory he has sent me to the [nations that plundered] you.” (Zech. 2:8) Then, a little later, he adds: “You will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me.” The one who says [...] me is the Lord Almighty. In the same way the one who [sends], [...] being [...] of the one who is sent, is named Lord Almighty. So it is reasonable for us, in the matters concerning the Father and the Son, [to take] the saying [to mean] that the Lord Almighty is also [the Son] of God, just as he was also called God through the prophets.

40 From the same. 22. “[Rejoice] and be glad, daughter of Zion, for look, I am coming, and [I will] dwell in your midst, says the Lord. And [many nations] will flee for refuge to the Lord in that day, and they will be [his] people, and they will make their dwelling in your midst, and you will know that [the Lord] Almighty has sent me to you.” (Zech. 2:10) And who is this who says these things and confesses that he has been sent by the Almighty, if not the Word of God, sent by the Father for the salvation of the human race? He [...] the things set before us [...] the heavenly Zion, of which the mountain on earth was an example [...]. And it is also directed to the church from the nations, [announcing] to her the calling of those who will be saved through him [...], who will be ruled as kings by him in her.

41a From the same book. 23. And [...] Jesus the great priest, standing before the face of the Lord, and the devil was standing at his right hand to oppose him. And a little later: And he spoke to those standing before [...] of him, saying, “Take the filthy garments off him.” And he said, “See, I have taken away your lawless deeds. Clothe [him in a robe reaching to the feet], and put a clean turban on his head.” Again, a little later, it is said to him: “Listen now, Jesus the great priest, you and your neighbors who sit before you, for they are men who watch for portents. For see, I am bringing my servant, the Rising.” And again, after other things: And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Take what comes from the captivity, from the rulers.” And a little after: “You shall take silver and make crowns, and put them on the head of Jesus son of Josedek, the great priest. And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord Almighty: See, a man whose name is Rising. From beneath him he will rise up, and he will build the house of the Lord. He himself will receive excellence, and will sit and rule on his throne. The priest will be at his right hand, and a counsel of peace will be between them both.’ And the crown will be for those who endure.” The wonderful apostle called our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. So the man in the prophecy, honored with the same title and the same dignity, may reasonably be referred to him. [...] So the Lord showed this man to the prophet [...] clothed in filthy garments. By this he hints at the coming down of our Savior into the captivity we were in. In that coming [...] to proclaim release to the captives. For he took our sins upon himself, and so he wore the filthy clothing that came from us.

41b The Father commands him to take these off and to put on the divine garments, worthy of the heavenly high priesthood. These things probably happened in the history, in a typical way, to the Jesus of that time. But the word then makes a fresh beginning, addressed to the man Jesus himself and to those with him, the “portent-watchers.” I think those who were counted worthy of the spiritual [...] are called by this name. He says, “See, I am bringing the [...] Rising.” Then he comes down to the placing of the crowns on the head of Jesus himself, and adds: “Thus says the Lord Almighty: See, a man whose name is Rising. From beneath him [he will] rise up, and he will build the house of the Lord, and [...].” These things too are to be referred to Christ, [...] receiving the account that fits them. [...] Even for those of the circumcision [...] to set beside it. For they could not show any prophet at all raised up from [the time of the] Persian kingdom, or in the times of the prophecy [...], let alone John and our Lord Jesus Christ. Who then is the one prophesied? It is time to say [...]. But if they say that these words refer to Jesus the son of Josedek, we must show them that what is said does not fit him at all. For when was his name called Rising? Why is he thought worthy of that title? How will “he will sit and rule on his throne” fit him? Above all, how will “the priest will be at his right hand” fit him? For if he himself was the great priest, who would the one at his right hand be, being another priest besides him?

41c But he clearly teaches that the one called Branch (“Rising”) is someone other than that man. The word speaks to the same [Lord] and to those around him: “Hear now, Jesus the great priest, you and those near you: behold, I am bringing my servant, Branch.” If this was said to him, how can anyone still suppose that the words “behold, a man, Branch is his name” are said about him? These words plainly present two persons. One is the person to whom God speaks. The other is the person about whom he prophesies. That other person can without dispute be referred to Christ, who is truly the Son of the [...] [...], which is interpreted “Iao, righteousness.” This would be the Father [...], placing the crowns of victory on Christ [...] calls [him so], because of the teaching that has risen on human beings [...]. He is also the first and great high priest [...], his firstborn Word, who is God and Lord of the [...], and priest of the first and unbegotten Godhead. [...] He says that he is [...] of the man whom he took up, who is called a great priest [...] because of his union with the only-begotten of God. The passage needs much more explanation, but this is enough for the present purpose.

42a “Rejoice greatly, [...] daughter of Zion; proclaim, daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, the [king] comes to you, righteous and saving, himself meek and [riding] on [...] a beast of burden and a young colt. And he will destroy chariots from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of war will be destroyed, and multitude and peace from the nations, and he will rule from sea and from rivers through the outlets of the earth.” The daughter of Zion, whom the word commands to rejoice, is every soul that attains to the spiritual and heavenly Zion. Or she is the church on earth, gathered from the nations through Christ. In the same way the daughter of Jerusalem is the one who bears kinship to the heavenly Jerusalem. Such was the one Paul spoke of when he said, “But the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother.” So the word announces beforehand to such souls that the Christ of God will visit them, riding on a beast of burden and a young colt. This is how the human nature is to be understood, which he took up when he came to visit us. With that nature he destroyed every warlike power from every soul that belongs to the church and is able to bear holy fruit. “Ephraim” is taken to mean fruitfulness, and “Jerusalem,” in the Greek tongue, means vision of peace. He also destroyed the evil demons who had earlier held sway over humanity. From all the nations that were once subject to them he brought countless numbers under the godly yoke of his teaching. That is the meaning in the spirit. But the Christ also became man and fulfilled the prophecies about him in the body, and in the literal sense he put the finishing touch on this one too. According to the evangelist, he said to his disciples, “Go into the village opposite, and you will find a donkey and a colt, tied up. Untie it and bring it. And if anyone says anything to you, say, ‘The Lord has need of [them].’”

42b “And they went and did just as he had commanded them.” (Matt. 21:2) This being so, we must set these words beside the view of those who imagine, in a purely bodily and Jewish way, that what is set before us would come to pass at Christ’s coming. And we must show how, at the coming of our Savior, even in a bodily sense, the prophecy that says, “and he will destroy the chariots from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem,” was fulfilled along with the others. The divine and heavenly power of Christ, by an inexpressible working, after [the Jews’] plot against him, destroyed Jerusalem itself together with [the surrounding places], in which the warlike force was found. [The text is broken here.] Then the people in it, often named Ephraim, [text lost] the commandment, multiplying horses in Jerusalem and chariots [text lost], for the battle lines in wars [text lost], the horses that had come to be, likened to senseless beasts [text lost]. The coming of our Savior plainly destroyed all these. [Text lost] after those had been destroyed, through the saving coming, perhaps a multitude out of all the nations received what is in souls [text lost]. God began to rule and to hold sway [text lost] of the angelic word, over the whole inhabited world, according to the prophecy of the divine word.

43 From the same Zechariah. 25. “And I will strengthen them in the Lord their God, and in his name they will boast, says the Lord.” (Zech. 10:12) Again the Lord, the Word of God, promises to strengthen those who are worthy “in the Lord their God,” meaning his own God and Father. So let this saying also be marked among the passages about the Father and the Son. 44a From the same. 26. “And the Canaanites will know the sheep that are kept for me, because it is the word of the Lord. And I will say to them, ‘If it is good in your sight, give me my wages, or refuse them.’ And they set my wages at thirty pieces of silver. And they threw them into the house of the Lord, into the smelting furnace. And I threw away the second staff [text lost] to break up the covenant between Judah and between Israel.” (Zech. 11:11) Indeed, what was there among the events concerning our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that was not foreknown and foretold by God’s holy prophets? [Text lost] For his birth from a virgin, and the manner of his birth [text lost] and the root from which he was born according to the flesh. And the marvels [that happened] when he came, [text lost] through the prophets from of old, [text lost] were counted worthy of record by the divine Spirit. Above all, they also made known beforehand his death and its manner. They did not leave out [text lost] the scourgings he endured, the spitting, the blows and the insults. They also revealed the one of his disciples who would betray him to those plotting against him.

44b So the divine Spirit pilloried him by name through Jeremiah, saying: “The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, with a diamond point.” You can find these words in the Hebrew itself and in the other translators, as distinct from the Septuagint interpreters. In various Psalms, too, you can learn what is made known about him. Even now, in the passage before us, the divine Scripture declares plainly beforehand the number of the silver pieces which Judas took when he betrayed the Teacher to those plotting against him. The passage could be spoken in the person of Christ. The word of prophecy elsewhere calls those who plotted against him “rulers of Sodom” and “people of Gomorrah.” Here it names them Canaanites, because they were like the Canaanites. When the prophecy says, “And the Canaanites will know,” it goes on to teach us whom it means, and says: “the sheep that are kept for me.” Who were these sheep, kept for the Lord earlier, if not the people of the circumcision? The word now calls them Canaanites, and goes on as though in the person of Christ, saying what is written: “And I will say to them...” He would say this to those who plotted against him, as though asking from them the wages for the good he had done them. That is, he asks for faith in him and a life that fits that faith. This is how I understand “Give me my wages.” But they, in keeping with what he says of them elsewhere: “Instead of loving me, they accused me, but I kept praying;

44c and they repaid me evil for good, and hatred for my love” — they weighed out thirty pieces of silver and gave them to the betrayer, as though in their own utterly godless judgment that was his worth. But since fire will test what sort of work each person’s work is, the Lord commands that they be thrown into the furnace, that is, into the fire of judgment and punishment. And who are they, if not those who plotted against him? “And see,” he says, “whether it is approved.” He plainly means what was done to him by them. He says they will be tested in the fire, just as the Lord himself was tested for their sake through his coming in the flesh and his suffering. For he became man first of all for this, and he suffered for the salvation of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Next, the word points to their rejection after the suffering of our Saviour, and says: “And I cast away the second staff.” To teach us what this is, it adds the “measuring line,” of which it has been said, “the measuring line of his inheritance, Israel.” It makes this clearer by adding “to break the first covenant of God, between Judah and between Israel.” It is clearly shown that from the time of our Saviour they were stripped of their place, and that all the worship according to the law was abolished from then until now.

45 From the same Zechariah. 27. “Sword, awake against my shepherd, and against the man who is his fellow citizen, says the Lord Almighty. Strike the shepherd, and let the sheep be scattered; and I will turn my hand against the shepherds.” The evangelist took the words “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered” from here, and taught that they were fulfilled at the time of the Saviour’s suffering, when the disciples left him and were scattered. For this reason we too have marked this saying. It needs much examination, and we will leave it for a suitable time. 46 From the same. 28. “And the Lord will go out and draw up battle against those nations, as on a day of war; and the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.” We have marked these words because we suppose they are spoken of the second coming of Christ.

47 From the Psalms [the prophet], of the same one, the Angel (Malachi). 29. “I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will not accept a sacrifice from your hands. For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name has been glorified among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice. For my name is great among the nations, says the Lord Almighty; but you profane it.” In the divine Scriptures the Word of the God of the universe is called his hand, his right hand, his arm and his power; in the same way the same Word is also given the title “name” of God. Now this divine name has been glorified among the nations from the rising of the sun to its setting, as is plain to everyone from those who everywhere bear the title of Christ. In every place these people offer to God spiritual incense, and the pure, bloodless and rational sacrifice made through prayers, through the true High Priest. Since they worship in this way, God says that he will turn away from the bodily sacrifices of the former people. So it is clear that after the coming of Christ the prophecy has been fulfilled in both respects: in the rejection of the former people, when sacrifice and drink offering were taken away from them, as Daniel says, and in the turning of the nations to the God of the universe.

48 Of the same. 30. “The covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave him fear, that he should fear me, and that he should be sent out from the face of my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and no injustice was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace, setting things straight, and he turned many back from injustice. For the lips of a priest will guard knowledge, and they will seek the law from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty.” We have set these words out because we take them to fit the testimonies about Christ. For the covenant of life and peace was with him. The spirit of fear, together with the others, rested upon him, according to the word spoken in Isaiah: “and the spirit of the fear of God will fill him.” The law of truth, not the law of types, was in his mouth, and no injustice was found on his lips. For according to Isaiah, “he committed no sin, nor was deceit found on his lips.” Since he was always with the Father’s power, he walked with him in peace, setting things straight, and leading to repentance many who had long not known God. From him, as High Priest who guards the knowledge of all things, people have sought the divine law, and will go on seeking it, those for whom knowledge of him is destined. For he himself is the messenger of the great counsel, serving and announcing to every created being the will of the Father.

49a Of the same. 31. “Behold, I am sending out my messenger, and he will look over the way before my face. And suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to his own temple, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord Almighty. And who will endure the day of his entrance? Or who will stand at his appearing? For he is coming in like the fire of a smelter’s furnace and like the soap of launderers. And he will sit refining and purifying, like silver and gold.” The matters concerning the second coming of Christ are also prophesied through these words, when [the text is damaged here] the Christ of God, sent out by the God and Father of the universe, who is now called the messenger of the covenant, will look over the way before the face of the Father. That is, he will prepare in advance the souls of people for the Father’s kingdom. When he has built up the spiritual temple, that is the church, out of rational and living stones, the Lord and God the Word himself will come, together with the messenger of the covenant, into the temple just described. Then, announcing in advance his second coming, the Word says, as if to sinners, “Behold, the Lord Almighty is coming.”

49b “And who will endure the day of his entrance? Or who will stand at his appearing?” and what follows. We must pay careful attention to these words, because the Lord Almighty himself speaks them as about another. And those of the circumcision must be silenced, if they have anyone else to name as the Lord who is meant here, and the angel of the covenant with him, about whom the Lord Almighty says, “Behold, he is coming,” and the rest. In these words, as we understand them, the second coming of Christ is announced. He is the Word of God, and when he arrives he will enter into each person’s soul. He will judge each one for what he has done in his life. Like gold, he will purge it and refine it in fire, and cleanse the ruling faculty of every person. The Father has given all judgment to the Son, according to the saying in the Psalms: “O God, give your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the king’s son, to judge your people in righteousness and your poor in judgment.” Here the Godhead, God the Word himself, is proclaimed as king, and the man whom he took up is the king’s son.

50 From the same angel (Malachi), 32. “And for you who fear my name the sun of righteousness will rise, and healing will be in its wings.” The sun of righteousness is the true light that enlightens every person coming into the world. It is said to rise only for those who fear the name of his Father. For those who are not like this he threatens to set, as it is said in one of the prophets: “And the sun will set upon the prophets who lead my people astray.” So much for the passages from the Twelve Prophets. But the passages from Isaiah are so many that we intend to treat them in a separate work. So let us move on and look at the passages from the other major prophets. 51 From Jeremiah, 33. “Lord, make it known to me, and I will know it; then I saw their practices. But I did not know that I was like a harmless lamb led away to be sacrificed. They plotted against me, saying, ‘Come, let us put wood into his bread, and let us wipe him out from the land of the living, so that his name will no longer be remembered.’” Our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, according to the prophecy in Isaiah, “was led like a sheep to slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer.” In the passage before us it is, “like a harmless lamb led away to be sacrificed, I did not know.” His suffering on the cross can also be shown by the words, “Come, let us put wood into his bread and wipe him out from the land of the living, and his name will no longer be remembered.” These words are spoken in the person of those who plotted against him. His body was bread, as he himself teaches the disciples when he says, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And that body was the very thing displayed on the wood at the cross. So it is fitting to say of it, “Come, let us put wood into his bread.” If the passage also has a deeper meaning, what has been said here does no harm to that.

52 Psalm-like extract, from the same prophet, 34. “I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my inheritance, I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies. My inheritance has become to me like a lion in a thicket; she has raised her voice against me, and so I have hated her. Is my inheritance to me a hyena’s den, or a den all around her? Go, gather all the wild beasts of the field, and let them come to devour her. Many shepherds have ruined my vineyard, they have defiled my portion; they have turned my desirable portion into a trackless wilderness. It has become a desolation of destruction. Because of me the whole land has been utterly laid waste, because there is no man who takes it to heart.” This also seems to be the voice of our Lord and Savior. The words “I have forsaken my house” refer to the temple in Jerusalem. The words “I have left my inheritance” refer to the former assembly of Israel, which was once his portion and the measured lot of his inheritance. This fits what he said: “How often I wanted to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate.” He is also the one who said, “No one takes my soul from me; I have authority to lay it down.” So he says, “I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies.” For him the former inheritance became like a lion in a thicket. It raised its voice against him when they handed him over to Pilate and stood accusing him, all but shouting, “Take him away, take him away, crucify him!” He says, “I hated her” because of her deeds, which deserved hatred, and because she showed him nothing worthy of love. What follows, and especially the words “Because of me the whole land has been utterly laid waste,” seems to point to the complete capture and captivity of the former people that came after the Savior’s passion because of him, and to the final desolation of Jerusalem.

53 Psalm-like extract, from the same prophet, 35. “Lord, my strength, my help, and my refuge in the day of evils, to you nations will come from the end of the earth, and they will say, ‘How false were the idols our fathers possessed, and there is no benefit in them! Will a man make gods for himself? Yet they are not gods.’ Therefore, see, at this time I will show them my hand, and I will make my power known to them, and they will know that I am the Lord. ※ The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, engraved with a diamond point on the breast of their heart.” After the word has prophesied about those who through Christ have come to know the God of all, it goes on to speak of the sin of the Jewish people against the Savior. It indicates that this sin will never be blotted out, in the words set down with asterisks. Someone could also apply these words to the traitor Judas, as though the Holy Spirit had known him beforehand and named him in advance.

54a From the Psalms, by the same author. 36. “Look, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch. A king will reign, and he will act with understanding, and he will execute justice and righteousness on the earth. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell in safety, trusting. And this is the name by which the Lord will call them: Iosedek, among the prophets. In that day, said the Lord, I will break the yoke from their neck and burst their bonds. They will no longer work for strangers. They will work for the Lord their God, and I will raise up David their king for them.” Something very similar is said in another place of the same prophet, in these words: “Look, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for you my good word, which I spoke over the house of Jerusalem and over the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David.” Right after this he adds: “Thus says the Lord: A man will not be cut off from David to sit on the throne of the house of Israel. And for the priests, the Levites: a man will not be cut off from before my face to offer burnt offerings, to sacrifice, and to make an offering all the days.” And again: “Thus says the Lord: If you can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night, so that day and night do not come at their proper time, then my covenant with David my servant can also be broken, so that he has no son reigning on his throne, and no Levites, the priests who serve me.

54b As the host of heaven cannot be counted, nor the sand of the sea measured, so I will multiply the seed of David my servant and the Levites who serve me.” And a little later it says again: “Thus says the Lord: If I have not [established] my covenant of day and night, if I have not set in order the fixed laws of heaven and earth, then I will also reject the seed of Jacob and of David my servant, so as not to take a ruler from his seed.” Who, then, could the Branch be that the Lord will raise up for David? It is the divine Word, of whom it is said elsewhere, “Look, a man whose name is Branch.” He is prophesied as one who will reign, act with understanding, and execute justice and righteousness on the earth. He will also cause light to rise for souls sitting in darkness, by his heavenly kingdom. And when, as the apostle says, the fullness of the nations comes in, then all the true Israel, together with the spiritual Judah, will be saved. The Lord will call them by name, and will judge them worthy in “Iosedek,” which is translated “the righteous ones of God.” And in that day, after God has freed those just mentioned from their captivity under the devil, so that they no longer serve him but serve only the Lord their God, God promises to raise up David as king for them. This is none other than our Savior, who came from the seed of David, and whom the Scriptures call by this name in various places. So the “David” in the prophecy, understood as referring to our Savior, is spoken of as a man.

54c The “rising” that is righteous is the divinity at work in him. In other places it is called the “sun of righteousness.” For the true light that enlightens every man coming into the world is none other than he. So the prophet says that God will never destroy the man who leads and presides over his church, which is the spiritual house of Israel. The word also prophesies that God’s priests, in the spiritual sense, will never fail. They offer spiritual incense, and the sweet-smelling, bloodless, pure sacrifice of good works and good words. If we do not take these words in this way, it is time to convict the prophecies of being false. For neither the throne of David in a bodily sense nor the priestly service of the types still stands today. The kings from David’s seed ceased from the very time of Jeremiah. The Levitical and priestly service ceased not long after the coming of our Savior, and from then until now they are not even permitted to set foot in Jerusalem. Suppose those of the circumcision say that the seed of David has not failed, because of the man they call their patriarch. Then they must be refuted, since they cannot show him sitting on David’s throne, reigning on his throne and ruling Israel. For the prophecy says that these things will never fail. Yet it is plainly shown that they have failed since the time of the captivity, and from then on not one king of Israel from the seed of David can be shown. And what could they say about the priesthood, which has so plainly been abolished at the present time, though the prophecy declares that it will never be destroyed?

55a Of the same. 37. “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will make with the house of Israel and the house of Judah a new covenant. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not remain in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their mind, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. They will not teach, each his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know me, from their least to their greatest, says the Lord. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” Plainly the Lord foretells that in days to come he will make a new covenant. It is new because it has nothing in common with the old one, which we learned earlier was given through Moses in the wilderness. What could those of the circumcision say to this? They try to look at the prophecies with open eyes, yet they would rather show them to be incomplete than yield to the truth by accepting the new covenant of our Savior’s gospels. When that covenant came, the first grew old. It began to come to an end from the time Christ came and fulfilled the law and the prophecies about himself.

55b So the Lord says that days will come in which he will make the new covenant. That is, the covenant written in the gospel books. Next the same Lord adds that after those days he will write his own laws in the very minds of those who receive the new covenant. So they will be a people for God, and he will be God for them. They will come to know the Lord by no human teaching. They will be self-taught, as it were, or rather taught by God. One can see this being fulfilled even now. One can see how the new covenant and the Lord’s laws have been written on the minds and hearts of those who have believed in God through Christ. Consider the multitude of completely ordinary men among us, who show a way of life so virtuous and wise that it is not quickly found among those who have practiced literary learning and think highly of themselves for their study of the Scriptures.

56 From the Lamentations. 38. “The breath of our face, the Lord’s anointed [Christ], was caught in their corruptions, he of whom we said, ‘In his shadow we shall live among the nations.’” Here too the divine Spirit names Christ outright, and foretold the plot of the Jews against him with the words “was caught in their corruptions.” The prophets foresaw that they themselves would live in the Spirit under his shelter and shadow. They saw too that they would live among the nations, who were going to believe in Christ and through him accept the writings of the prophets. 57a From Baruch. 39. “Who went up into heaven, and took her, and brought her down from the clouds? Who crossed over the sea, and found her, and will bring her in exchange for choice gold? There is no one who knows her way, nor anyone who thinks about her path. But the one who knows all things knows her; he found her by his own understanding. He is the one who established the earth for all time and filled it with four-footed animals. He sends out the light, and it goes; he called it, and it obeyed him with trembling. The stars shone in their watches and were glad; he called them, and they said, ‘Here we are’; they shone with gladness for the one who made them. This is our God; no other will be reckoned alongside him. He found out every way of knowledge and gave it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel, whom he loved. After this he appeared on the earth and lived among human beings.” “Who went up into heaven,” it says, “and took her, and brought her down,” and so on. We are taught by the holy apostle that Jesus Christ, who came down, is himself also the one who went up above all the heavens.

57b He also received the gift of the Holy Spirit, brought it down, and poured it out on the souls of those who received it. This is why it is also said in the Psalms, “Going up on high you led captivity captive; you received gifts among men.” Next, in the passage before us, the Word says, “This is our God; no other will be reckoned alongside him.” Who is this but the one who went up into heaven and came down? For the question “Who went up into heaven?” is answered by “This is our God; no other will be reckoned alongside him.” The words that follow make this clearer: “After this he appeared on the earth and lived among human beings.” So it is plain that no other, among those who have only an acquired title of “god,” will be reckoned alongside this Word of God. It says “after this he appeared on the earth,” plainly meaning after he had given, through the law and the prophets, the whole way of the promise. For it says, “He found out every way of knowledge and gave it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel, whom he loved.” Then after this he appeared on the earth and lived among human beings.

58 From Ezekiel. 40. “Therefore the Lord says this: Look, I am going to judge between the strong sheep and the weak sheep. You shoved with side and shoulder, and butted with your horns; you crushed everything that was failing. And I will save my sheep, and they will no longer be plunder, and I will judge between ram and ram. And I will raise up another shepherd over them, and he will shepherd them, my servant David. He will be their shepherd, and I will be their God, and David will be a ruler in their midst. I the Lord have spoken. And I will make with David a new covenant, a covenant of peace.” Elsewhere too we take the David of the prophecy to be no one other than our Saviour, born of David’s seed. For this reason we have marked this passage here as well. Who else could it be who is going to shepherd the Lord’s sheep, after they have been judged by him, but the one who alone is the good shepherd? He did not look past the rational sheep of his own flock when they were being shoved aside and destroyed by the opposing powers. He laid down his own life for their salvation. God, his Father, promises to set him as ruler over them after the time of judgment, and to make with him a covenant of peace. That is when his enemies will have been put under him, and the last of all, death itself, which now stands against the Word, the wisdom and the life, will be destroyed.

59a From the same prophet, Ezekiel. Chapter 41. “This is what the Lord says: See, I am taking the whole house of Israel from among the nations where they went, and I will gather them into the land of Israel. I will make them one nation in my land, on the mountains of Israel. One ruler will be over them all. They will no longer be two nations, and they will never again be divided into two kingdoms, so that they may no longer be defiled by their idols. I will rescue them from all their lawless deeds in which they sinned, and I will cleanse them from all their sins in which they sinned. I will cleanse them, and they will be my people, and I, the Lord, will be their God. My servant David will be ruler among them, one shepherd for them all. For they will walk in my commands, and keep my judgments and do them. They will live on the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where their fathers lived. They themselves will live on it, and David my servant will be their ruler forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it will be an everlasting covenant with them. I will set my holy things in the midst of them forever. My dwelling place will be among them, and they will be my people, and I will be their God.”

59b “And the nations will know that I am the Lord who makes them holy, when my holy things are in the midst of them forever.” After the gathering of the scattered spiritual and true Israel, and after the lost sheep of the house of Israel have been found, once the full number of the nations has first come in, then the Lord promises that he himself will be God to his people who are to be. He promises to set his servant David as ruler among them, to shepherd them and rule over them, not for a short and brief time but forever. Let those of the circumcision suppose that the word promises them that man, the son of Jesse. Let them picture his kingdom once more as bodily, and wait for God’s promises in things that perish, that are earthly and unworthy of a divine promise. But as for us, we are persuaded that these things do not fit divine promises, and are not to be referred to David himself at all. What is said as if about him we take to mean the one born of his seed according to the flesh, our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. We think the prophecies fit him better than that David. This is also true of the passages in the holy Scriptures that are spoken as if in David’s person. For example: “The Lord said to me, You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” And: “You will set me as head of the nations,” which is said in the seventeenth psalm.

59c There it is again said as if from his person: “A people whom I did not know served me; at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me.” Of whom else is it fitting to suppose that God says, “He will call on me, You are my Father,” and, “I will make him my firstborn,” than of our Savior, his only-begotten Son? For what great distinction was achieved by David, above the other prophets and righteous men, that these things should be said of him alone, and that it should be prophesied that he would rise again as king and shepherd of God’s sheep? We take all this together, and we also give attention to the prophecy of Isaiah. It was given after David’s death, and among other things about Christ it proclaims: “A rod will come out of the root of Jesse, and a flower will rise from the root, and the Spirit of God will rest on him.” And what follows this. So we are reasonably persuaded that the passages here, spoken as though about David, are about the same person. For only the Christ of God, who is also called David by a transfer of the name, has been shown to be the good shepherd. He has become the leader and savior of God’s flock and church. It is prophesied that the Father will set him as king over all the spiritual Israel after the Lord turns back the captivity of his people.

60 From Daniel. 42. It is Daniel who says: “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will raise up another kingdom, which will last for ages and will not be destroyed. This kingdom will not leave room for any other nation; it will strike and wipe out the kingdoms, and it will stand forever, just as you saw a stone cut from a mountain without hands, and it ground to pieces the clay, the iron, the bronze, the silver and the gold.” This is made known about the kingdom of Christ, which will come at the end of the ages. The stone cut from the mountain without hands would be a symbol of the Word of God, who is also called a stone in other prophecies, as in: “Behold, I lay in Zion a chosen, precious cornerstone,” and: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.” So this passage says that he will pull down and crush the kingdoms of the world, and the rulers, authorities and world-powers, and will hold the kingdom of the saints forever.

61 From the same. 43. King Nebuchadnezzar threw Ananias and his companions into the furnace of fire. When he saw that the fire had done them no harm, he became an eyewitness of the marvel, and it is recorded that he said to his friends: “Did we not throw three men into the middle of the fire?” When they agreed, he said: “Look, I see four men, loosed and walking about in the fire, and there is no harm in them, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of God.” The Hebrew likewise reads “like a son of God,” and the other translators have rendered it the same way. For this reason we have marked this passage, because here too the title “Son of God” is indicated. 62 From the same. 44. In his visions Daniel says: “I was watching in a vision of the night, and behold, one like a son of man was coming on the clouds of heaven. He came as far as the Ancient of Days and was brought before him. Authority, honor and kingship were given to him, and all peoples, tribes and languages will serve him. His authority is an eternal authority which will not pass away, and his kingdom will not be destroyed.” This agrees with Daniel’s own prophecy, which foretold the kingdom of Christ through the stone cut from the mountain without hands. For who else could the one coming on the clouds like a son of man and reaching the Ancient of Days be, but our Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sake took the form of a servant and became a son of man? He said, “I came out from the Father, and I am going to God.” While his disciples were present and watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him up. As they were gazing into heaven, two men appeared in shining clothes and taught them about his second coming, telling them in advance that he would come again in a cloud. So to Christ alone was authority, honor and kingship given by the Father, so that all nations would worship him, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

63a From the same. 45. Daniel had prayed about the captivity of the whole people in Babylon and the desolation of Jerusalem. The archangel Gabriel appeared to him and at the same time told him the end of the seventy years of captivity and the renewal of Jerusalem. He told him the time from the renewal to the coming of Christ, then the second capture of the city that would follow, and finally the complete enslavement of the whole nation, which was carried out after the coming of Christ. His words run like this: “Daniel, I have now come out to give you understanding. At the beginning of your supplication a word went out, and I have come to tell you, because you are a man of desires. So consider the word and understand the vision. Seventy weeks have been cut short for your people and for the holy city, to bring sin to completion, to seal up sins, to blot out lawless deeds, to make atonement for injustices, to bring in eternal righteousness, to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint a holy of holies.”

63b “And you will know and understand: from the going out of the word [or: words] to give an answer and to build Jerusalem, until an anointed one, a leader, there are seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. And it will return, and a broad street will be built, and a wall, and the times will be emptied out. And after the sixty-two weeks an anointing will be destroyed, and there is no judgment in it. He will ruin the city and the holy place, together with the leader who is coming. They will be cut down in a flood, and until the end of the war, which is cut short, there will be desolations. And one week will strengthen a covenant for many. In the middle of the week sacrifice and drink offering will be taken away. On the temple will be the abomination of desolations, and until the completion of the time, an end will be given to the desolation.” Of those who have applied themselves to these weeks, we know only Africanus to have studied them most accurately, and with more success than the rest. It seems to me necessary first to set out his account of these passages, and then to consider whether we ourselves can add anything to the discussion. In the fifth book of his Chronographies he writes, word for word, as follows:

64a The passage, then, as it stands, signifies many surprising things. For now we shall confine our discussion to what is needed concerning the times and what bears on them. It is clear that these things are said about the coming of Christ, who was to appear after seventy weeks. For at the time of the Savior, or from him onward, the transgressions grow old, and sins are brought to completion through forgiveness. Lawless acts are wiped away, together with injustices, by atonement. An eternal righteousness, beyond that which comes from the law, is proclaimed. Visions and prophecies last until John, and the holy of holies is anointed. For before the Savior’s coming these things did not exist, but were only expected. The angel sets the beginning of the count, that is, of the seventy weeks, which are 406 [probably 490] years, at the going out of the word to give an answer and to build Jerusalem. This happened in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, king of the Persians. For Nehemiah, his cupbearer, made a request and obtained an answer that Jerusalem should be built, and a word went out commanding it. Until that time the city had been desolate. For after the seventy years of captivity, Cyrus sent back each one who was willing. Those who went down with Jesus the great priest and Zerubbabel, and those who followed them with Ezra, were at first prevented from building the temple and from putting a wall around the city, since this had not been ordered. So it stayed that way until Nehemiah and the twentieth year of Artaxerxes’ reign. That was the 115th year of Persian rule, and 185 years from the capture of Jerusalem. Then King Artaxerxes ordered the city to be built, and Nehemiah was sent down and took charge of the work. The building was of a broad street and a wall around it, as had been prophesied. Counting from that point, the seventy weeks are completed at Christ. For if we begin the count from anywhere else and not from here, the time will not fit, and very many absurdities will meet us. If we make the starting point of the seventy weeks the time of Cyrus and the first sending back, there are a hundred years and more left over. There is still more time if we count from the day on which the angel prophesied to Daniel, and much more if we count from the beginning of the captivity.

64b For we find that the Persian kingdom is bounded by 230 years, that the Macedonian kingdom stretched on for 300 years, and that from there to the sixteenth year of Tiberius Caesar is 60 years. From Artaxerxes, seventy weeks are completed down to the time of Christ, by the Jewish reckoning. Nehemiah was sent by Artaxerxes to resettle Jerusalem in the 115th year of the Persian kingdom. That was the twentieth year of Artaxerxes himself, and the fourth year of the 83rd Olympiad. From then to the time in question is 475 years. That time was the second year of the 202nd Olympiad and the sixteenth year of the rule of Tiberius Caesar. These 475 years become 490 Hebrew years when their years are counted by the lunar month. That month is, to put it simply, 29½ days. The solar cycle is 365¼ days, so the twelve-month lunar year falls short of it by 11¼ days. This is why both Greeks and Jews insert three intercalary months in every eight years, for eight times 11¼ makes three months. So the 475 years make 59 eight-year cycles and 3 months. Since three intercalary months belong to each eight-year cycle, this comes to fifteen years, lacking a few days. Added to the 475 years, these complete the seventy weeks. That is how the man mentioned above has applied the passages. Now let us, after the interpretation just given, see whether the passages can also be applied in another way. Then we will not seem to be making a rather forced account by quietly dropping the times from Cyrus to Artaxerxes. Nor will we seem to leave unexplained the reason for the division into seven weeks and sixty-two. The divine word has surely made this division with some reasonable thought and very deep understanding, saying: “And you shall know and understand, from the going out of a word to answer and to build Jerusalem until an anointed leader, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. And it will return, and street and wall will be built.” See, then, whether our account would not be free of strain if we count the times from Cyrus himself, in whose time Daniel prophesies.

64c For this Cyrus was the first to issue the answer about raising up Jerusalem, according to the writing in Ezra, which goes like this: “And in the first year of Cyrus king of the Persians, to fulfil the word of the Lord from the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of the Persians. He sent out a proclamation in all his kingdom, and in writing as well, saying: ‘Thus says Cyrus king of the Persians: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he himself has appointed me to build him a house in Jerusalem in Judea. Who among you is of all his people? His God will be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem’,” and so on. After this it continues: “And King Cyrus brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar took from Jerusalem and put in the house of his god. Cyrus king of the Persians brought them out by the hand of Mithridates, and counted them out to Samanassar, the ruler of Judah.” After this, Scripture records that the first returners laid the foundations of the temple, and that in the time between they were hindered in their zeal, up to the seventh week of years. For forty-six years are marked off from Cyrus to the sixth year of Darius, in which the building of the temple came to its end. So it is reasonable that the word set apart the first seven weeks from the rest, wanting to show the time between the first laying of the temple’s foundations and its completion at the top. Cyrus reigned thirty-one years and handed the rule over to his son Cambyses. After Cambyses had reigned nine years, Darius took the kingdom, and after Cyrus he again ordered by edict that Jerusalem be built. In the sixth year of his rule, which was the forty-sixth from Cyrus, the building was completed. This is the point from which the Jews started when they said to our Savior, “This temple was built in forty-six years,”

64d “…and will you raise it up in three days?” According to Josephus, the years from Cyrus to the ninth year of Darius add up to exactly [forty-nine]. In that year, he says, the building of the temple was finished. In the eleventh book of the Antiquities he states in so many words that the temple was completed in the [seventh] month of the ninth year of Darius’s reign. He then adds: “They settled in Jerusalem, living under an aristocratic government combined with an oligarchy. For the priests were in charge of affairs until the descendants of Asamonaios came to reign.” So the seven weeks in the prophecy are limited to that year of Darius, and it is clear why they were set apart from the rest. Now let us see what time limits the remaining sixty-two weeks. The ninth year of Darius falls in the sixty-seventh Olympiad, according to the history of the Greek chronographers. From that point to the one hundred and sixteenth Olympiad is 200 years. In that Olympiad Seleucus, after the death of Alexander, took control of all Syria and Babylonia. From there to the death of Simon, the high priest of the Jews, the first book of the so-called Maccabees indicates that 177 years of rule in Syria passed. That book ends its history at this point. From here on, Josephus marks the succession of the priests very exactly. He says that after Simon, whom I mentioned above, John, also called Hyrcanus, led the people for twenty-nine years. Aristobulus succeeded him and reigned one year. After him came Alexander, for twenty-seven years, and after him his wife Alexandra. Up to her, the total from the ninth year of Darius comes to 434 years. That total fits the sixty-two weeks, in which there were anointed leaders. These would be the high priests, who from Cyrus onward presided over the nation’s affairs. It is plain from sacred Scripture, and also from the words of Josephus quoted above, that after the return from Babylon, starting with Jesus the great priest himself, they had leaders and rulers in succession. This continued down to those whom Josephus calls the sons of Asamonaios, whom the Scripture named Maccabees. The first of them to serve as high priest was Judas, called Maccabeus, who also led the people after he routed the generals of Antiochus.

64e After him his brother Jonathan took over both the high priesthood and the leadership of the people. Then his brother Simon became high priest. After Simon came Hyrcanus, and after Hyrcanus came Judas, who was also called Aristobulus. He was the first to put a crown on himself, in addition to the high priesthood and the kingship. After him Alexander took both the high priesthood and the kingship, and he died leaving his wife as successor. With him ended the rulers from the priestly line who are called “anointed ones” (christs), the rulers belonging to the weeks counted up in Daniel. So the saying that declares “until an anointed leader” there will be so many weeks means this. It is as if it had said more plainly that sixty-nine weeks of years would pass, that is, a period of 483 years. In that time an anointed one, a high priest, would stand at the head of the people’s affairs in unbroken succession. From what we have set out it is clear to everyone that this number of years runs from Cyrus to the death of Alexander, the last of those high priests to rule. After him a woman took the kingdom of the nation, the only woman ever to do so at that time. Through her both the Jewish rulership and the high priesthood, which had come down steadily from their ancestors, were thrown into confusion. Having taken power, she gave the high priesthood to her son Hyrcanus, held the kingdom herself for nine years, and died. After her came Aristobulus, another of the same name, who stirred up constant rebellion against his brother. He took the high priesthood away from Hyrcanus, but after the third year he himself lost the kingship as well. For the Roman general Pompey soon arrived and besieged Jerusalem with great force. He defiled the holy things, going as far as the innermost shrines of the temple, and sent Aristobulus to Rome in chains together with his children. After this, when Hyrcanus was also carried off captive by the Parthians, Herod was the first foreigner to be entrusted by the Roman senate with the kingship over the Jews. According to Josephus, he was an Idumean by his father and an Arab by his mother. But according to Africanus, whom we mentioned a little earlier, those who know his history accurately say that Antipater, who was Herod’s father, was born to a certain Herod of Ascalon, one of the temple slaves at the temple of Apollo.

64f When the rule of the Jews had come to this state, the prediction of Jacob recorded in Moses was fulfilled, along with those of the other prophets. It says: “A ruler will not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until he comes for whom it is reserved; and he is the expectation of the nations.” It is clear both from the histories and from what we have set out that the rule over the whole nation did not cease until Herod, in whose time Christ was born. Until then it passed in succession among the Hebrews themselves. But when Herod became the first king over them who was of foreign descent, the coming of Christ was fulfilled at once. The foretold expectation of the nations also began to be accomplished in fact, as the teaching of our Savior spread through every nation. Then too the prediction in Daniel, which follows the weeks we have discussed, was sealed. It says: “And after the sixty-two weeks an anointing will be destroyed, and there is no judgment in him; and he will destroy the city and the holy place, together with the leader who is coming; and they will be cut off in a flood, and until the end of the war, which is cut short, by desolations.” So we have shown, as well as we are able, how the prophecy of the weeks foretold, the earlier [fifty-seven] and the sixty-two that follow them, reached its end in the times of Herod. During those weeks it was fitting [that the office pass] according to the succession of the family. The history down to Herod’s time shows that in every period some anointed one, a high priest, led the people. This is why the oracle said, “until an anointed leader.” Next is the question of how, after the completion of the stated time of the weeks, an anointing was destroyed because there was no judgment in it. The oracle shows this, indicating that the anointing belonging to the high priesthood would be carried out with reasonable judgment up to the time named. This will be clear to those who pay attention to two things. The first is the ordinance of the law, in which it is commanded that the high priesthood be held for life, until death itself, by those to whom it belongs by succession of the family. The second is the history down to Herod’s times. It shows that the high priests in succession were counted worthy of the honor through their whole lives, in keeping with the law about them. But under Herod himself, not only was this arrangement concerning the high priests thrown into confusion and ruined, but so was the holy robe. Only the high priest was permitted to have it, and no one but he alone was permitted to serve in it. Herod took this authority from them and put it under his own control, and this though he was a foreigner.

64g If more proof of this is needed, hear the words of a witness: Josephus, himself a Hebrew, who was counted worthy of the priestly office and came from the most distinguished family among them. He set these words down in the twentieth book of his Antiquities. About the corruption of the high priesthood he writes, word for word, something like this: “When Herod was entrusted with the kingdom by the Romans, he no longer appointed high priests from the family of the Asamonaeus. He gave the honor to obscure men who were not even of priestly descent, except for one, Aristobulus. Aristobulus was the son of Hyrcanus, who had been taken captive by the Parthians. Herod made him high priest and married his sister Mariamme, since he was hunting for the goodwill of the people toward himself because of the memory of Hyrcanus. Then he grew afraid that everyone would turn to Aristobulus, and he killed him at Jericho, by arranging for him to be drowned while swimming, as we have already shown. After him Herod no longer entrusted the high priesthood to the descendants of the sons of Asamonaeus. His son Archelaus did the same as Herod in appointing high priests, and so did the Romans after him, when they took over the rule of the Jews.” That is what Josephus says on this subject. About the high priest’s robe he gives this account in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities: “When Herod became king, he built this fortress, which stood in a convenient position, at great expense, and called it Antonia. He kept the high priest’s robe, just as he had received it, stored there, trusting that the people would start no rebellion over it. Archelaus, the king who was set up after him, who was his son, did the same as Herod. From him the Romans took over the rule and kept control of the high priest’s robe, which was stored in a stone building under seal.” From these things we have indisputable proof that the prophecy was fulfilled at the times described. If those of the circumcision do not agree, they should be asked for some other account of the Scripture in place of ours. They must show how, on their view, the predictions of so great a Gabriel are not proved false, if nothing of what was announced beforehand has come to pass from that time until now, when a thousand years are already drawing near.

64h For us, however, the word is plainly shown to be true by the accounts we have set out without any forcing. Following them, it is easy to explain how the one last week, which comes after all the others, “strengthened a covenant for many.” This is the new covenant of the message of salvation, which has spread over the whole inhabited world. It is no longer proclaimed to one nation alone, the Jewish nation, but to many. For this reason it was said, “One week will strengthen a covenant for many.” It is reasonable to observe that this last single week, which the word says will strengthen the covenant for the many, is not joined directly to the remaining weeks. The text has not treated the one week as it did the seven and the sixty-two weeks. In their case it divided the whole number of years into the seven weeks and then the sixty-two weeks, making the division continuous. It attached the sixty-two to the seven and left no time or event between them. Nothing is mentioned that would be an interval of time cutting apart and separating the continuous history of those weeks. But in the case of the single week that follows, there is a long and clearly marked separation. For after the sixty-two weeks, it says first, “an anointing will be destroyed, and there is no judgment in it.” It is already clear how this came to its end in the times of Herod. Then it says, “and he will destroy the city and the holy place, together with the leader who is coming.” Who is the destroyer, if not the devil, the destroyer of souls? And who is the leader who comes? He is Herod, the first of them from the Gentiles to rule, and those after him who have held authority over the Jews until now. Just as the prophecy spoke in riddles of their earlier rulers, the high priests, as “an anointed leader,” in the same way it called those who ruled over them from the Gentiles after those priests had ceased “a leader who comes.” It says, “and he will destroy the city and the holy place together with the leader who is coming.” Aquila made this clearer in his version, rendering it: “and the people of a leader who is coming will destroy the city and the holy place.”

64i It is also clear how the people and the army of the foreign rulers did this. These rulers took over the government of the Jews after the anointed leaders, and they used the laws of the nations. They destroyed the city and the holy place. The destroyer of souls, who leads their minds, came together with the ruler who came according to the prophecy. He worked every kind of destruction, first on the people themselves and the citizens living in the city, and then on the temple and the worship once carried out in it. A divine saying points somewhere to this as the reason for Christ’s coming at that very time. It says, “The Lord looked down from heaven on the sons of men, to see if there is anyone who understands, or who seeks God. All turned aside, together they became useless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Then, since those just described had been ruined, the word teaches in advance what would overtake them. It says, “and they will be cut down in the flood,” and they will be cut down to such an extent “until the end of a war cut short by devastations.” While these things were being completed and carried out, “one week will strengthen a covenant for many.” This would be the week of the saving proclamation. Through it our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ strengthened the handing on of the new covenant among the many who were made his disciples. At one time, before the passion, he was with them and lived among them. At another time, after the ascension, he appeared to them over forty days and shared meals with them, speaking about the kingdom of God. For this reason he also commanded them not to leave Jerusalem. In the middle of this week, the plot by the Jews, on account of which he suffered, and the things that followed in the divine prediction were fulfilled. He had preached for about three and a half years, and this is established from the writing of the Gospels. This is why it says, “and in the middle of the week sacrifice and libation will be taken away.” It is clear how, at the passion, sacrifice and libation were in effect taken away from them.

64j At that time, according to the writing of the Gospels, the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom. According to the history of Josephus: “At Pentecost itself, at night, the priests went into the temple, as was their custom, for the services. They said that first they sensed a movement and a noise, and after that a voice as of a crowd, ‘We are leaving this place.’” Josephus gives these words and other similar things in his histories. They would help us as proof that the bodily worship of the people was in effect dissolved and abolished after the saving passion. I also know another interpretation given for the week that strengthened a covenant for many. The word takes this as a week counted in tens, and shows that the whole time of the apostles stretches to seventy years. In that time the proclamation of the new covenant was preached no longer to one nation but to many, and it was strengthened throughout the whole world. Indeed, the histories show that John, the Lord’s disciple, lived on seventy years after the Lord’s ascension, for the account says he remained until the reign of Trajan. On this account too, it is clear how, in the middle of this week of tens, sacrifice and libation were taken away, and the so-called abomination of desolation stood in a holy place. The time from the resurrection of our Savior to the final siege under Vespasian extends to thirty-five years. That would be half of the week as explained. At that time the old temple and holy sanctuary suffered complete destruction by fire and was razed to the ground, and it received its seal. This fulfills the words, “sacrifice and libation will be taken away, and on the temple an abomination of desolations.” The saying shows that this abomination of desolation remains until the end of life, since it says, “and until the completion of the time, completion will be given to the desolation.” But we have set these things out in a shortened account. It is now time to move on to Isaiah,

64k who alone is left to us from the whole of the old Scripture.