{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/102/1020511.htm","path":"chr/ecf/102/1020511.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/102/1020511.htm","text":"Chapter 18.\u2014Of the 3d, 41st, 15th, and 68th Psalms, in Which the Death and Resurrection of the Lord are Prophesied.\nAbout His resurrection also the oracles of the Psalms are by no means silent. For what else is it that is sung in His person in the 3d Psalm, \u201cI laid me down and took a sleep, [and] I awaked, for the Lord shall sustain me?\u201d 1097 Is there perchance any one so stupid as to believe that the prophet chose to point it out to us as something great that He had slept and risen up, unless that sleep had been death, and that awaking the resurrection, which behoved to be thus prophesied concerning Christ? For in the 41st Psalm also it is shown much more clearly, where in the person of the Mediator, in the usual way, things are narrated as if past which were prophesied as yet to come, since these things which were yet to come were in the predestination and foreknowledge of God as if they were done, because they were certain. He says, \u201cMine enemies speak evil of me; When shall he die, and his name perish? And if he came in to see me, his heart spake vain things: he gathered iniquity to himself. He went out of doors, and uttered it all at once. Against me all mine enemies whisper together: against me do they devise evil. They have planned an unjust thing against me. Shall not he that sleeps also rise again?\u201d 1098 These words are certainly so set down here that he may be understood to say nothing else than if he said, Shall not He that died recover life again? The previous words clearly show that His enemies have mediated and planned His death, and that this was executed by him who came p. 356 in to see, and went out to betray. But to whom does not Judas here occur, who, from being His disciple, became His betrayer? Therefore because they were about to do what they had plotted,\u2014that is, were about to kill Him,\u2014he, to show them that with useless malice they were about to kill Him who should rise again, so adds this verse, as if he said, What vain thing are you doing? What will be your crime will be my sleep. \u201cShall not He that sleeps also rise again?\u201d And yet he indicates in the following verses that they should not commit so great an impiety with impunity, saying, \u201cYea, the man of my peace in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, hath enlarged the heel over me;\u201d 1099 that is, hath trampled me under foot. \u201cBut Thou,\u201d he saith, \u201cO Lord, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them.\u201d 1100 Who can now deny this who sees the Jews, after the passion and resurrection of Christ, utterly rooted up from their abodes by warlike slaughter and destruction? For, being slain by them, He has risen again, and has requited them meanwhile by temporary discipline, save that for those who are not corrected He keeps it in store for the time when He shall judge the quick and the dead. 1101 For the Lord Jesus Himself, in pointing out that very man to the apostles as His betrayer, quoted this very verse of this psalm, and said it was fulfilled in Himself: \u201cHe that ate my bread enlarged the heel over me.\u201d But what he says, \u201cIn whom I trusted,\u201d does not suit the head but the body. For the Saviour Himself was not ignorant of him concerning whom He had already said before, \u201cOne of you is a devil.\u201d 1102 But He is wont to assume the person of His members, and to ascribe to Himself what should be said of them, because the head and the body is one Christ; 1103 whence that saying in the Gospel, \u201cI was an hungered, and ye gave me to eat.\u201d 1104 Expounding which, He says, \u201cSince ye did it to one of the least of mine, ye did it to me.\u201d 1105 Therefore He said that He had trusted, because his disciples then had trusted concerning Judas; for he was numbered with the apostles. 1106\nBut the Jews do not expect that the Christ whom they expect will die; therefore they do not think ours to be Him whom the law and the prophets announced, but feign to themselves I know not whom of their own, exempt from the suffering of death. Therefore, with wonderful emptiness and blindness, they contend that the words we have set down signify, not death and resurrection, but sleep and awaking again. But the 16th Psalm also cries to them, \u201cTherefore my heart is jocund, and my tongue hath exulted; moreover, my flesh also shall rest in hope: for Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou give Thine Holy One to see corruption.\u201d 1107 Who but He that rose again the third day could say his flesh had rested in this hope; that His soul, not being left in hell, but speedily returning to it, should revive it, that it should not be corrupted as corpses are wont to be, which they can in no wise say of David the prophet and king? The 68th Psalm also cries out, \u201cOur God is the God of Salvation: even of the Lord the exit was by death.\u201d 1108 What could be more openly said? For the God of salvation is the Lord Jesus, which is interpreted Saviour, or Healing One. For this reason this name was given, when it was said before He was born of the virgin: \u201cThou shall bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins.\u201d 1109 Because His blood was shed for the remission of their sins, it behoved Him to have no other exit from this life than death. Therefore, when it had been said, \u201cOur God is the God of salvation,\u201d immediately it was added, \u201cEven of the Lord the exit was by death,\u201d in order to show that we were to be saved by His dying. But that saying is marvellous, \u201cEven of the Lord,\u201d as if it was said, Such is that life of mortals, that not even the Lord Himself could go out of it otherwise save through death.\n2 Tim. 4:1, 2 Pet. 4:5.\n356:1102 356:1103 356:1104 356:1105 356:1106 356:1107 356:1108 356:1109","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. II: City of God: Cha...","type":"page"}