[4018] Ps. xxii. 6-8.
[4019] Ps. xxii. 15.
[4020] "Poderem," "a long priestly robe reaching to the heels" (Migne's Lexicon). The Oxford translation gives the meaning "an alb," which also is given in Migne.
[4021] Cidarim, the head-dress for the Jewish high priest.
[4022] Zech. iii. 1, 3, 5.
[4023] "In nomine;" Oxford translator, "at the name," following the Eng. ver. But see the Greek, en to onomati.
[4024] Phil. ii. 6-11.
14. That He is the righteous One whom the Jews should put to death.
In the Wisdom of Solomon: "Let us lay hold of the righteous, because He is disagreeable to us, and is contrary to our works, and reproacheth us with our transgressions of the law. [4025] He professeth that He has the knowledge of God, and calls Himself the Son of God; He has become to us an exposure of our thoughts; He is grievous unto us even to look upon, because His life is unlike to others, and His ways are changed. We are esteemed by Him as frivolous, and He restraineth Himself from our ways, as if from uncleanness; and He extols the last end of the righteous, and boasts that He has God for His Father. Let us see, then, if His words are true, and let us try what will come to Him. Let us interrogate Him with reproach and torture, that we may know His reverence and prove His patience. Let us condemn Him with a most shameful death. These things they considered, and erred. For their maliciousness hath blinded them, and they knew not the sacraments of God." [4026] Also in Isaiah: "See ye how the righteous perisheth, and no man understandeth; and righteous men are taken away, and no man regardeth. For the righteous man is taken away from the face of unrighteousness, and his burial shall be in peace." [4027] Concerning this very thing it was before foretold in Exodus: "Thou shalt not slay the innocent and the righteous." [4028] Also in the Gospel: "Judas, led by penitence, said to the priests and elders, I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood." [4029]
[4025] The Oxford translation here inserts from the Apocrypha, without authority even for its text, "and objecteth to us the transgressions of the law."
[4026] Wisd. ii. 12-22.
[4027] Isa. lvii. 1, 2. [Justin, vol. i. 203.]
[4028] Ex. xxiii. 7.
[4029] Matt. xxvii. 3, 4.
15. That Christ is called a sheep and a lamb who was to be slain, and concerning the sacrament (mystery) of the passion.
In Isaiah: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before his shearer is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His judgment was taken away: who shall relate His nativity? Because His life shall be taken away from the earth. By the transgressions of my people He was led to death; and I will give the wicked for His burial, and the rich themselves for His death; because He did no wickedness, nor deceits with His mouth. Wherefore He shall gain many, and shall divide the spoils of the strong; because His soul was delivered up to death, and He was counted among transgressors. And He bare the sins of many, and was delivered for their offences." [4030] Also in Jeremiah: "Lord, give me knowledge, and I shall know it: then I saw their meditations. I was led like a lamb without malice to the slaughter; against me they devised a device, saying, Come, let us cast the tree into His bread, [4031] and let us erase His life from the earth, and His name shall no more be a remembrance." [4032] Also in Exodus God said to Moses: "Let them take to themselves each man a sheep, through the houses of the tribes, a sheep without blemish, perfect, male, of a year old it shall be to you. Ye shall take it from the lambs and from the goats, and all the congregation of the synagogue of the children of Israel shall kill it in the evening; and they shall take of its blood, and shall place it upon the two posts, [4033] and upon the threshold in the houses, in the very houses in which they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh on the same night, roasted with fire; and they shall eat unleavened bread with bitter herbs. [4034] Ye shall not eat of them raw nor dressed in water, but roasted with fire; the head with the feet and the inward parts. Ye shall leave nothing of them to the morning; and ye shall not break a bone of it. But what of it shall be left to the morning shall be burnt with fire. But thus ye shall eat it; your loins girt, and your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hands; and ye shall eat it in haste: for it is the Lord's passover." [4035] Also in the Apocalypse: "And I saw in the midst of the throne, and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth throughout all the earth. And He came and took the book from the right hand of God, who sate on the throne. And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders cast themselves before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden cups [4036] full of odours of supplications, which are the prayers of the saints; and they sang a new song, saying, Worthy art Thou, O Lord, to take the book, and to open its seals: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us with Thy blood from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation; and Thou hast made us a kingdom unto our God, and hast made us priests, and they shall reign upon the earth." [4037] Also in the Gospel: "On the next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, and behold Him that taketh away the sins of the world!" [4038]
[4030] Isa. liii. 7-9, 12.
[4031] [Tertull., iii. p. 166. Note also "the mystery of the passion."]
[4032] Jer. xi. 18, 19.
[4033] Migne's reading differs considerably from this, and is as follows: "They shall take from the lambs and the goats of its blood, and shall place it upon the two posts," etc.
[4034] Erasmus reads for "picridibus," "lactucis agrestibus," wild lettuces.
[4035] Ex. xii. 3-12.
[4036] "Pateras."
[4037] Rev. v. 6-10.
[4038] John i. 29.
16. That Christ also is called a Stone.
In Isaiah: "Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I place on the foundations of Sion a precious stone, elect, chief, a corner stone, honourable; and he who trusteth in Him shall not be confounded." [4039] Also in the cxviith Psalm: "The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner. This is done by the Lord, and it is wonderful in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. O Lord, save therefore, O Lord, direct therefore. Blessed is He who cometh in the name of the Lord." [4040] Also in Zechariah: "Behold, I bring forth my servant. The Orient is his name, because the stone which I have placed before the face of Jesus; upon that one stone are seven eyes." [4041] Also in Deuteronomy: "And thou shalt write upon the stone all this law, very plainly." [4042] Also in Jesus the son of Nave: "And he took a great stone, and placed it there before the Lord; and Jesus said unto the people, Behold, this stone shall be to you for a testimony, because it hath heard all the things which were spoken by the Lord, which He hath spoken to you to-day; and it shall be for a testimony to you in the last of the days, when ye shall have departed from your God." [4043] Also in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter: "Ye princes of the people, and elders of Israel, hearken: Behold, we are this day interrogated by you about the good deed done to the impotent man, by means of which he is made whole. Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye have crucified, whom God hath raised up from the dead, by Him he stands whole in your presence, but by none other. This is the stone which was despised by you builders, which has become the head of the corner. For there is no other name given to men under heaven in which we must be saved." [4044] This is the stone in Genesis, which Jacob places at his head, because the head of the man is Christ; and as he slept he saw a ladder reaching to heaven, on which the Lord was placed, and angels were ascending and descending. [4045] And this stone he designating Christ consecrated and anointed with the sacrament of unction. This is the stone in Exodus upon which Moses sate on the top of a hill when Jesus the son of Nave fought against Amalek; and by the sacrament of the stone, and the stedfastness of his sitting, Amalek was overcome by Jesus, that is, the devil was overcome by Christ. This is the great stone in the first book of Kings, upon which was placed the ark of the covenant when the oxen brought it back in the cart, sent back and returned by the strangers. Also, this is the stone in the first book of Kings, with which David smote the forehead of Goliath and slew him; signifying that the devil and his servants are thereby thrown down--that part of the head, namely, being conquered [4046] which they have not had sealed. And by this seal we also are always safe and live. This is the stone which, when Israel had conquered the aliens, Samuel set up and called its name Ebenezer; that is, the stone that helpeth.
[4039] Isa. xxviii. 16. [See Tertull., "stumbling-stone," vol. iii. p. 165.]
[4040] Ps. cxviii. 21-26.
[4041] Zech. iii. 8, 9.
[4042] Deut. xxvii. 8.
[4043] Josh. xxiv. 26, 27.
[4044] Acts iv. 8-12.
[4045] [The anointing of this stone gave it the name of Messiah in our author's account; and this interpretation gives great dignity to Jacob's dying reference to Him, Gen. xlix. 24.] The Oxford edition omits "and descending."
[4046] The Oxford edition reads, "conquered, that is, in that part of the head."
17. That afterwards this Stone should become a mountain, and should fill the whole earth.
In Daniel: "And behold a very great image; and the aspect of this image was fearful, and it stood erect before thee; whose head was of fine gold, its breast and arms were silver, its belly and thighs were of brass, and its feet were partly indeed of iron, and partly of clay, until that a stone was cut [4047] out of the mountain, without the hands of those that should cut it, and struck the image upon the feet of iron and clay, and brake them into small fragments. And the iron, and the clay, and the brass, and the silver, and the gold, was made altogether; and they became small as chaff, or dust in the threshing-floor in summer; and the wind blew them away, so that nothing remained of them. And the stone which struck the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." [4048]
[4047] [Hippolytus, p. 209, supra.]
[4048] Dan. ii. 31-35.
18. That in the last times the same mountain should be manifested, and upon it the Gentiles should come, and on it all the righteous should go up.
In Isaiah: "In the last times the mountain of the Lord shall be revealed, and the house of God upon the tops of the mountains; and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall come upon it, and many shall walk and say, Come, and let us go up into the mountain of the Lord, and into the house of the God of Jacob; and He will tell us His way, and we will walk in it. For from Sion shall proceed the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke much people; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks, and they shall no more learn to fight." [4049] Also in the twenty-third Psalm: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place? He that is innocent in his hands, and of a clean heart; who hath not received his life in vanity, and hath not sworn craftily to his neighbour. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and mercy [4050] from the God that saveth him. This is the generation of those who seek Him, that seek the face of the God of Jacob." [4051]