{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/003/0030190.htm","path":"chr/ecf/003/0030190.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030190.htm","text":"Chapter IX.\u2014Of the Prophecies of the Birth and Achievements of Christ.\nBegin we, therefore, to prove that the Birth p. 161 of Christ was announced by prophets; as Isaiah (e.g.,) foretells, \u201cHear ye, house of David; no petty contest have ye with men, since God is proposing a struggle. Therefore God Himself will give you a sign; Behold, the virgin 1250 shall conceive, and bear a son, and ye shall call his name Emmanuel\u201d 1251 (which is, interpreted, \u201cGod with us\u201d 1252 ): \u201cbutter and honey shall he eat;\u201d 1253 : \u201csince, ere the child learn to call father or mother, he shall receive the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, in opposition to the king of the Assyrians.\u201d 1254\nAccordingly the Jews say: Let us challenge that prediction of Isaiah, and let us institute a comparison whether, in the case of the Christ who is already come, there be applicable to Him, firstly, the name which Isaiah foretold, and (secondly) the signs of it 1255 which he announced of Him.\nWell, then, Isaiah foretells that it behoves Him to be called Emmanuel; and that subsequently He is to take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, in opposition to the king of the Assyrians. \u201cNow,\u201d say they, \u201cthat (Christ) of yours, who is come, neither was called by that name, nor engaged in warfare.\u201d But we, on the contrary, have thought they ought to be admonished to recall to mind the context of this passage as well. For subjoined is withal the interpretation of Emmanuel\u2014\u201cGod with us\u201d 1256 \u2014in order that you may regard not the sound only of the name, but the sense too. For the Hebrew sound, which is Emmanuel, has an interpretation, which is, God with us. Inquire, then, whether this speech, \u201cGod with us\u201d (which is Emmanuel), be commonly applied to Christ ever since Christ\u2019s light has dawned, and I think you will not deny it. For they who out of Judaism believe in Christ, ever since their believing on Him, do, whenever they shall wish to say 1257 Emmanuel, signify that God is with us: and thus it is agreed that He who was ever predicted as Emmanuel is already come, because that which Emmanuel signifies is come\u2014that is, \u201cGod with us.\u201d Equally are they led by the sound of the name when they so understand \u201cthe power of Damascus,\u201d and \u201cthe spoils of Samaria,\u201d and \u201cthe kingdom of the Assyrians,\u201d as if they portended Christ as a warrior; not observing that Scripture premises, \u201csince, ere the child learn to call father or mother, he shall receive the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, in opposition to the king of the Assyrians.\u201d For the first step is to look at the demonstration of His age, to see whether the age there indicated can possibly exhibit the Christ as already a man, not to say a general. Forsooth, by His babyish cry the infant would summon men to arms, and would give the signal of war not with clarion, but with rattle, and point out the foe, not from His charger\u2019s back or from a rampart, but from the back or neck of His suckler and nurse, and thus subdue Damascus and Samaria in place of the breast. (It is another matter if, among you, infants rush out into battle,\u2014oiled first, I suppose, to dry in the sun, and then armed with satchels and rationed on butter,\u2014who are to know how to lance sooner than how to lacerate the bosom!) 1258 Certainly, if nature nowhere allows this,\u2014(namely,) to serve as a soldier before developing into manhood, to take \u201cthe power of Damascus\u201d before knowing your father,\u2014it follows that the pronouncement is visibly figurative. \u201cBut again,\u201d say they, \u201cnature suffers not a \u2018virgin\u2019 to be a parent; and yet the prophet must be believed.\u201d And deservedly so; for he bespoke credit for a thing incredible, by saying that it was to be a sign. \u201cTherefore,\u201d he says, \u201cshall a sign be given you. Behold, a virgin shall conceive in womb, and bear a son.\u201d But a sign from God, unless it had consisted in some portentous novelty, would not have appeared a sign. In a word, if, when you are anxious to cast any down from (a belief in) this divine prediction, or to convert whoever are simple, you have the audacity to lie, as if the Scripture contained (the announcement), that not \u201ca virgin,\u201d but \u201ca young female,\u201d was to conceive and bring forth; you are refuted even by this fact, that a daily occurrence\u2014the pregnancy and parturition of a young female, namely\u2014cannot possibly seem anything of a sign. And the setting before us, then, of a virgin-mother is deservedly believed to be a sign; but not equally so a warrior-infant. For there would not in this case again be involved the question of a sign; but, the sign of a novel birth having been awarded, the next step after the sign is, that there is enunciated a different ensuing ordering 1259 of the infant, who is to eat \u201choney and butter.\u201d Nor is this, of course, for a sign. It is natural to infancy. But that he p. 162 is to receive 1260 \u201cthe power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria in opposition to the king of the Assyrians,\u201d this is a wondrous sign. Keep to the limit of (the infant\u2019s) age, and inquire into the sense of the prediction; nay, rather, repay to truth what you are unwilling to credit her with, and the prophecy becomes intelligible by the relation of its fulfilment. Let those Eastern magi be believed, dowering with gold and incense the infancy of Christ as a king; 1261 and the infant has received \u201cthe power of Damascus\u201d without battle and arms. For, besides the fact that it is known to all that the \u201cpower\u201d\u2014for that is the \u201cstrength\u201d\u2014of the East is wont to abound in gold and odours, certain it is that the divine Scriptures regard \u201cgold\u201d as constituting the \u201cpower\u201d also of all other nations; as it says 1262 through Zechariah: \u201cAnd Judah keepeth guard at Jerusalem, and shall amass all the vigour of the surrounding peoples, gold and silver.\u201d 1263 For of this gift of \u201cgold\u201d David likewise says, \u201cAnd to Him shall be given of the gold of Arabia;\u201d 1264 and again, \u201cThe kings of the Arabs and Saba shall bring Him gifts.\u201d 1265 For the East, on the one hand, generally held the magi (to be) kings; and Damascus, on the other hand, used formerly to be reckoned to Arabia before it was transferred into Syroph\u0153nicia on the division of the Syrias: the \u201cpower\u201d whereof Christ then \u201creceived\u201d in receiving its ensigns,\u2014gold, to wit, and odours. \u201cThe spoils,\u201d moreover, \u201cof Samaria\u201d (He received in receiving) the magi themselves, who, on recognising Him, and honouring Him with gifts, and adoring Him on bended knee as Lord and King, on the evidence of the guiding and indicating star, became \u201cthe spoils of Samaria,\u201d that is, of idolatry\u2014by believing, namely, on Christ. For (Scripture) denoted idolatry by the name of \u201cSamaria,\u201d Samaria being ignominious on the score of idolatry; for she had at that time revolted from God under King Jeroboam. For this, again, is no novelty to the Divine Scriptures, figuratively to use a transference of name grounded on parallelism of crimes. For it 1266 calls your rulers \u201crulers of Sodom,\u201d and your people the \u201cpeople of Gomorrha,\u201d 1267 when those cities had already long been extinct. 1268 And elsewhere it says, through a prophet, to the people of Israel, \u201cThy father (was) an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite;\u201d 1269 of whose race they were not begotten, but (were called their sons) by reason of their consimilarity in impiety, whom of old (God) had called His own sons through Isaiah the prophet: \u201cI have generated and exalted sons.\u201d 1270 So, too, Egypt is sometimes understood to mean the whole world 1271 in that prophet, on the count of superstition and malediction. 1272 So, again, Babylon, in our own John, is a figure of the city Rome, as being equally great and proud of her sway, and triumphant over the saints. 1273 On this wise, accordingly, (Scripture) 1274 entitled the magi also with the appellation of \u201cSamaritans,\u201d\u2014\u201cdespoiled\u201d (of that) which they had had in common with the Samaritans, as we have said\u2014idolatry in opposition to the Lord. (It 1275 adds), \u201cin opposition,\u201d moreover, \u201cto the king of the Assyrians,\u201d\u2014in opposition to the devil, who to this hour thinks himself to be reigning, if he detrudes the saints from the religion of God.\nMoreover, this our interpretation will be supported while (we find that) elsewhere as well the Scriptures designate Christ a warrior, as we gather from the names of certain weapons, and words of that kind. But by a comparison of the remaining senses the Jews shall be convicted. \u201cGird thee,\u201d says David, \u201cthe sword upon the thigh.\u201d 1276 But what do you read above concerning the Christ? \u201cBlooming in beauty above the sons of men; grace is outpoured in thy lips.\u201d 1277 But very absurd it is if he was complimenting on the bloom of his beauty and the grace of his lips, one whom he was girding for war with a sword; of whom he proceeds subjunctively to say, \u201cOutstretch and prosper, advance and reign!\u201d And he has added, \u201cbecause of thy lenity and justice.\u201d 1278 Who will ply the sword without practising the contraries to lenity and justice; that is, guile, and asperity, and injustice, proper (of course) to the business of battles? See we, then, whether that which has another action be not another sword,\u2014that is, the Divine word of God, doubly sharpened 1279 with the two Testaments of the ancient law and the new law; sharpened by the equity of its own wisdom; rendering to each one according to his own action. 1280 Lawp. 163 ful , then, it was for the Christ of God to be precinct, in the Psalms, without warlike achievements, with the figurative sword of the word of God; to which sword is congruous the predicated \u201cbloom,\u201d together with the \u201cgrace of the lips;\u201d with which sword He was then \u201cgirt upon the thigh,\u201d in the eye of David, when He was announced as about to come to earth in obedience to God the Father\u2019s decree. \u201cThe greatness of thy right hand,\u201d he says, \u201cshall conduct thee\u201d 1281 \u2014the virtue to wit, of the spiritual grace from which the recognition of Christ is deduced. \u201cThine arrows,\u201d he says, \u201care sharp,\u201d 1282 \u2014God\u2019s everywhere-flying precepts (arrows) threatening the exposure 1283 of every heart, and carrying compunction and transfixion to each conscience: \u201cpeoples shall fall beneath thee,\u201d 1284 \u2014of course, in adoration. Thus mighty in war and weapon-bearing is Christ; thus will He \u201creceive the spoils,\u201d not of \u201cSamaria\u201d alone, but of all nations as well. Acknowledge that His \u201cspoils\u201d are figurative whose weapons you have learnt to be allegorical. And thus, so far, the Christ who is come was not a warrior, because He was not predicted as such by Isaiah.\n\u201cBut if the Christ,\u201d say they, \u201cwho is believed to be coming is not called Jesus, why is he who is come called Jesus Christ?\u201d Well, each name will meet in the Christ of God, in whom is found likewise the appellation 1285 Jesus. Learn the habitual character of your error. In the course of the appointing of a successor to Moses, Oshea 1286 the son of Nun 1287 is certainly transferred from his pristine name, and begins to be called Jesus. 1288 Certainly, you say. This we first assert to have been a figure of the future. For, because Jesus Christ was to introduce the second people (which is composed of us nations, lingering deserted in the world 1289 aforetime) into the land of promise, \u201cflowing with milk and honey\u201d 1290 (that is, into the possession of eternal life, than which nought is sweeter); and this had to come about, not through Moses (that is, not through the Law\u2019s discipline), but through Joshua (that is, through the new law\u2019s grace), after our circumcision with \u201ca knife of rock\u201d 1291 (that is, with Christ\u2019s precepts, for Christ is in many ways and figures predicted as a rock 1292 ); therefore the man who was being prepared to act as images of this sacrament was inaugurated under the figure of the Lord\u2019s name, even so as to be named Jesus. 1293 For He who ever spake to Moses was the Son of God Himself; who, too, was always seen. 1294 For God the Father none ever saw, and lived. 1295 And accordingly it is agreed that the Son of God Himself spake to Moses, and said to the people, \u201cBehold, I send mine angel before thy\u201d\u2014that is, the people\u2019s\u2014\u201cface, to guard thee on the march, and to introduce thee into the land which I have prepared thee: attend to him, and be not disobedient to him; for he hath not escaped 1296 thy notice, since my name is upon him.\u201d 1297 For Joshua was to introduce the people into the land of promise, not Moses. Now He called him an \u201cangel,\u201d on account of the magnitude of the mighty deeds which he was to achieve (which mighty deeds Joshua the son of Nun did, and you yourselves read), and on account of his office of prophet announcing (to wit) the divine will; just as withal the Spirit, speaking in the person of the Father, calls the forerunner of Christ, John, a future \u201cangel,\u201d through the prophet: \u201cBehold, I send mine angel before Thy\u201d\u2014that is, Christ\u2019s\u2014\u201cface, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee.\u201d 1298 Nor is it a novel practice to the Holy Spirit to call those \u201cangels\u201d whom God has appointed as ministers of His power. For the same John is called not merely an \u201cangel\u201d of Christ, but withal a \u201clamp\u201d shining before Christ: for David predicts, \u201cI have prepared the lamp for my Christ;\u201d 1299 and him Christ Himself, coming \u201cto fulfil the prophets,\u201d 1300 called so to the Jews. \u201cHe was,\u201d He says, \u201cthe burning and shining lamp;\u201d 1301 as being he who not merely \u201cprepared His ways in the desert,\u201d 1302 but withal, by pointing out \u201cthe Lamb of God,\u201d 1303 illumined the minds of men by his heralding, so that they understood Him p. 164 to be that Lamb whom Moses was wont to announce as destined to suffer. Thus, too, (was the son of Nun called) Joshua, on account of the future mystery 1304 of his name: for that name (He who spake with Moses) confirmed as His own which Himself had conferred on him, because He had bidden him thenceforth be called, not \u201cangel\u201d nor \u201cOshea,\u201d but \u201cJoshua.\u201d Thus, therefore, each name is appropriate to the Christ of God\u2014that He should be called Jesus as well (as Christ).\nAnd that the virgin of whom it behoved Christ to be born (as we have above mentioned) must derive her lineage of the seed of David, the prophet in subsequent passages evidently asserts. \u201cAnd there shall be born,\u201d he says, \u201ca rod from the root of Jesse\u201d\u2014which rod is Mary\u2014\u201cand a flower shall ascend from his root: and there shall rest upon him the Spirit of God, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of discernment and piety, the spirit of counsel and truth; the spirit of God\u2019s fear shall fill Him.\u201d 1305 For to none of men was the universal aggregation of spiritual credentials appropriate, except to Christ; paralleled as He is to a \u201cflower\u201d by reason of glory, by reason of grace; but accounted \u201cof the root of Jesse,\u201d whence His origin is to be deduced,\u2014to wit, through Mary. 1306 For He was from the native soil of Bethlehem, and from the house of David; as, among the Romans, Mary is described in the census, of whom is born Christ. 1307\nI demand, again\u2014granting that He who was ever predicted by prophets as destined to come out of Jesse\u2019s race, was withal to exhibit all humility, patience, and tranquillity\u2014whether He be come? Equally so (in this case as in the former), the man who is shown to bear that character will be the very Christ who is come. For of Him the prophet says, \u201cA man set in a plague, and knowing how to bear infirmity;\u201d who \u201cwas led as a sheep for a victim; and, as a lamb before him who sheareth him, opened not His mouth.\u201d 1308 If He \u201cneither did contend nor shout, nor was His voice heard abroad,\u201d who \u201ccrushed not the bruised reed\u201d\u2014Israel\u2019s faith, who \u201cquenched not the burning flax\u201d 1309 \u2014that is, the momentary glow of the Gentiles\u2014but made it shine more by the rising of His own light,\u2014He can be none other than He who was predicted. The action, therefore, of the Christ who is come must be examined by being placed side by side with the rule of the Scriptures. For, if I mistake not, we find Him distinguished by a twofold operation,\u2014that of preaching and that of power. Now, let each count be disposed of summarily. Accordingly, let us work out the order we have set down, teaching that Christ was announced as a preacher; as, through Isaiah: \u201cCry out,\u201d he says, \u201cin vigour, and spare not; lift up, as with a trumpet, thy voice, and announce to my commonalty their crimes, and to the house of Jacob their sins. Me from day to day they seek, and to learn my ways they covet, as a people which hath done righteousness, and hath not forsaken the judgment of God,\u201d and so forth: 1310 that, moreover, He was to do acts of power from the Father: \u201cBehold, our God will deal retributive judgment; Himself will come and save us: then shall the infirm be healed, and the eyes of the blind shall see, and the ears of the deaf shall hear, and the mutes\u2019 tongues shall be loosed, and the lame shall leap as an hart,\u201d 1311 and so on; which works not even you deny that Christ did, inasmuch as you were wont to say that, \u201con account of the works ye stoned Him not, but because He did them on the Sabbaths.\u201d 1312\n\u201cA virgin,\u201d Eng. ver.; \u1f21 \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b8\u03ad\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2, LXX.; \u201cthe virgin,\u201d Lowth.\n161:1251 161:1252\nSee Matt. i. 23.\n161:1253\nSee Isa vii. 15.\n161:1254\nSee Isa. viii. 4. (All these passages should be read in the LXX.)\n161:1255\ni.e., of the predicted name. [Here compare Against Marcion, Book III. (vol. vii. Edin. series) Cap. xii. p. 142. See my note (1) on Chapter First; and also Kaye, p. xix.]\n161:1256\nIn Isa. 8:8, 10, compared with vii. 14 in the Eng. ver. and the LXX., and also Lowth, introductory remarks on ch. viii.\n161:1257 161:1258\nSee adv. Marc. l. iii. c. xiii., which, with the preceding chapter, should be compared throughout with the chapter before us.\n161:1259\nComp. Judg. xiii. 12; Eng. ver. \u201cHow shall we order the child?\u201d\n162:1260 162:1261\nSee Matt. ii. 1-12.\n162:1262\nOf course he ought to have said, \u201cthey say.\u201d\n162:1263\nZech. xiv. 14, omitting the last clause.\n162:1264\nPs. lxxii. 15 (lxxi. 15 in LXX.): \u201cSheba\u201d in Eng. ver.; \u201cArabia\u201d in the \u201cGreat Bible\u201d of 1539; and so the LXX.\n162:1265\nPs. lxxii. 10, in LXX, and \u201cGreat Bible;\u201d \u201cSheba and Seba,\u201d Eng. ver.\n162:1266\nStrictly, Tertullian ought to have said \u201cthey call,\u201d having above said \u201cDivine scriptures;\u201d as above on the preceding page.\n162:1267 162:1268\nSee Gen. xix. 23-29.\n162:1269\nEzek. 16:3, 45.\n162:1270\nIsa. i. 2, as before.\n162:1271 162:1272\nOehler refers to Isa. xix. 1. See, too, Isa. 30:0, Isa. 31:0.\n162:1273\nSee Rev. xvii., etc.\n162:1274\nOr we may supply here [\u201cIsaiah\u201d].\n162:1275 162:1276\nPs. xlv. 3, clause 1 (in LXX. Ps. xliv. 4).\n162:1277\nSee Ps. xlv. 2 (xliv. 3 in LXX.).\n162:1278\nPs. xlv. 4 (xliv. 5 in LXX.).\n162:1279\nComp. Heb. 4:12, Rev. 1:16, Rev. 2:12, Rev. 19:15, 21; also Eph. vi. 17.\n162:1280\nComp. Ps. lxii. 12 (lxi. 13 in LXX.); Rom. ii. 6.\n163:1281\nSee Ps. xlv. 5 (xliv. in LXX.).\n163:1282\nPs. xlv. 5 (xliv. 6 in LXX.).\n163:1283\nTraductionem (comp. Heb. iv. 13).\n163:1284 163:1285\nI can find no authority for \u201cappellatus\u201d as a substantive, but such forms are familiar with Tertullian. Or perhaps we may render: \u201cin that He is found to have been likewise called Jesus.\u201d\n163:1286 163:1287 163:1288\nJehoshua, Joshua, Jeshua, Jesus, are all forms of the same name. But the change from Oshea or Hoshea to Jehoshua appears to have been made when he was sent to spy the land. See Num. xiii. 16 (17 in LXX., who call it a surnaming).\n163:1289\nIf Oehler\u2019s \u201cin s\u00e6culo desert\u00e6\u201d is to be retained, this appears to be the construction. But this passage, like others above noted, is but a reproduction of parts of the third book in answer to Marcion; and there the reading is \u201cin s\u00e6culi desertis\u201d=\"in the desert places of the world,\u201d or \u201cof heathendom.\u201d\n163:1290\nSee Ex. iii. 8, and the references there.\n163:1291\nSee Josh. v. 2-9, especially in LXX. Comp. the margin in the Eng. ver. in ver. 2, \u201cflint knives,\u201d and Wordsworth in loc., who refers to Ex. iv. 25, for which see ch. iii. above.\n163:1292\nSee especially 1 Cor. x. 4.\n163:1293 163:1294\nComp. Num. xii. 5-8.\n163:1295\nComp. Exod. 33:20, John 1:18, John 14:9, Col. 1:15, Heb. 1:3.\n163:1296\nOehler and others read \u201ccelavit\u201d; but the correction of Fr. Junius and Rig., \u201ccelabit,\u201d is certainly more agreeable to the LXX. and the Eng. ver.\n163:1297 163:1298\nMal. iii. 1: comp. Matt. 11:10, Mark 1:2, Luke 7:27.\n163:1299\nSee Ps. cxxxii. 17 (cxxi. 17 in LXX.).\n163:1300\nMatt. v. 17, briefly; a very favourite reference with Tertullian.\n163:1301\nJohn v. 35, \u1f41 \u03bb\u03cd\u03c7\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f41 \u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03cc\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c6\u03b1\u03af\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd.\n163:1302\nComp. reference 8, p. 232; and Isa. 40:3, John 1:23.\n163:1303 164:1304 164:1305\nSee Isa. 11:1, 2, especially in LXX.\n164:1306\nSee Luke i. 27.\n164:1307\nSee Luke ii. 1-7.\n164:1308\nSee Isa. 53:3, 7, in LXX.; and comp. Ps. xxxviii. 17 (xxxvii. 18 in LXX.) in the \u201cGreat Bible\u201d of 1539.\n164:1309\nSee Isa. 42:2, 3, and Matt. 12:19, 20.\n164:1310\nSee Isa. 58:1, 2, especially in LXX.\n164:1311 164:1312\nSee John 5:17, 18, John 10:31.","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III: Tertullian: Part I: Of the ...","type":"page"}