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| Of the Prophecies of the Birth and Achievements of Christ.
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Chapter IX.—Of the
Prophecies of the Birth and Achievements of Christ.
Begin we, therefore, to prove that the
Birth of Christ was announced by prophets; as
Isaiah (e.g.,) foretells, “Hear 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 virgin1250
| 1250 “A
virgin,” Eng. ver.; ἡ παρθένος,
LXX.; “the virgin,” Lowth. | shall conceive, and bear a son, and ye shall
call his name Emmanuel”1251
(which is,
interpreted, “God with us”1252
):
“butter and honey shall he eat;”1253
:
“since, 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.”1254
| 1254 See Isa. viii. 4. (All these passages should be read in
the LXX.) |
Accordingly 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
it1255
| 1255 i.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.] | which he announced of Him.
Well, 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. “Now,” say they, “that (Christ) of yours,
who is come, neither was called by that name, nor engaged in
warfare.” 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—“God with us”1256
| 1256 In Isa. viii. 8; 10, compared with vii. 14 in the Eng. ver.
and the LXX., and also Lowth, introductory remarks on ch. viii. | —in 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, “God with us” (which is
Emmanuel), be commonly applied to Christ ever since Christ’s
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 say1257
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—that is, “God with us.”
Equally are they led by the sound of the name when they so understand
“the power of Damascus,” and “the spoils of
Samaria,” and “the kingdom of the Assyrians,” as if
they portended Christ as a warrior; not observing that Scripture
premises, “since, 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.” 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’s 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,—oiled first, I suppose, to dry in the sun, and then armed
with satchels and rationed on butter,—who are to know how to
lance sooner than how to lacerate the bosom!)1258
| 1258 See adv. Marc.
l. iii. c. xiii., which, with the preceding chapter, should be compared
throughout with the chapter before us. |
Certainly, if nature nowhere allows this,—(namely,) to serve as a
soldier before developing into manhood, to take “the power of
Damascus” before knowing your father,—it follows that the
pronouncement is visibly figurative. “But again,” say
they, “nature suffers not a ‘virgin’ to be a parent;
and yet the prophet must be believed.” And deservedly so;
for he bespoke credit for a thing incredible, by saying that it was to
be a sign. “Therefore,” he says, “shall
a sign be given you. Behold, a virgin shall
conceive in womb, and bear a son.” 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 “a virgin,” but “a young
female,” was to conceive and bring forth; you are refuted even by
this fact, that a daily occurrence—the pregnancy and parturition
of a young female, namely—cannot 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 ordering1259
of the infant, who is to eat “honey
and butter.” Nor is this, of course, for a sign. It
is natural to infancy. But that he is to receive1260
“the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria in opposition to
the king of the Assyrians,” this is a wondrous sign. Keep
to the limit of (the infant’s) 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 “the power
of Damascus” without battle and arms. For, besides the fact that
it is known to all that the “power”—for that is the
“strength”—of the East is wont to abound in gold and
odours, certain it is that the divine Scriptures regard
“gold” as constituting the “power” also of all
other nations; as it says1262
| 1262 Of course he
ought to have said, “they say.” | through Zechariah:
“And Judah keepeth guard at Jerusalem, and shall amass all the
vigour of the surrounding peoples, gold and silver.”1263
For of this gift of “gold” David
likewise says, “And to Him shall be given of the gold of
Arabia;”1264
and again,
“The kings of the Arabs and Saba shall bring Him
gifts.”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 Syrophœnicia on the division of the Syrias: the
“power” whereof Christ then “received” in
receiving its ensigns,—gold, to wit, and odours. “The
spoils,” moreover, “of Samaria” (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 “the spoils
of Samaria,” that is, of idolatry—by believing, namely, on
Christ. For (Scripture) denoted idolatry by the name of
“Samaria,” 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 it1266
| 1266 Strictly, Tertullian
ought to have said “they call,” having above said
“Divine scriptures;” as above on the preceding page. | calls your
rulers “rulers of Sodom,” and your people the “people
of Gomorrha,”1267
when those cities
had already long been extinct.1268
And elsewhere it
says, through a prophet, to the people of Israel, “Thy father
(was) an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite;”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: “I have generated and exalted sons.”1270
So, too, Egypt is sometimes understood to
mean the whole world1271
in that prophet, on
the count of superstition and malediction.1272
| 1272 Oehler refers to
Isa. xix. 1. See, too, Isa. xxx. and
xxxi. |
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
| 1274 Or we may supply here
[“Isaiah”]. | entitled the magi
also with the appellation of
“Samaritans,”—“despoiled” (of that) which
they had had in common with the Samaritans, as we have
said—idolatry in opposition to the Lord. (It1275
adds), “in opposition,”
moreover, “to the king of the Assyrians,”—in
opposition to the devil, who to this hour thinks himself to be
reigning, if he detrudes the saints from the religion of
God.
Moreover, 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. “Gird thee,” says
David, “the sword upon the thigh.”1276
But what do you read above concerning the Christ? “Blooming in
beauty above the sons of men; grace is outpoured in thy
lips.”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, “Outstretch and prosper, advance
and reign!” And he has added, “because of thy lenity and
justice.”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,—that is, the Divine word of God, doubly
sharpened1279
| 1279 Comp. Bible:Rev.19.21">Heb. iv. 12; Rev. i. 16; ii. 12; xix. 15,
21; also Eph. vi. 17. | 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
Lawful , 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 “bloom,” together with
the “grace of the lips;” with which sword He was then
“girt upon the thigh,” in the eye of David, when He was
announced as about to come to earth in obedience to God the
Father’s decree. “The greatness of thy right hand,”
he says, “shall conduct thee”1281
—the virtue to wit, of the spiritual
grace from which the recognition of Christ is deduced. “Thine
arrows,” he says, “are sharp,”1282
—God’s everywhere-flying precepts
(arrows) threatening the exposure1283
of every
heart, and carrying compunction and transfixion to each conscience:
“peoples shall fall beneath thee,”1284
—of course, in adoration. Thus mighty
in war and weapon-bearing is Christ; thus will He “receive the
spoils,” not of “Samaria” alone, but of all nations
as well. Acknowledge that His “spoils” 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.
“But if the Christ,” say they,
“who is believed to be coming is not called Jesus, why is he who
is come called Jesus Christ?” Well, each name will meet in the
Christ of God, in whom is found likewise the appellation1285
| 1285 I can find no
authority for “appellatus” as a substantive, but such forms
are familiar with Tertullian. Or perhaps we may render: “in that
He is found to have been likewise called Jesus.” | Jesus. Learn the habitual character of your
error. In the course of the appointing of a successor to Moses,
Oshea1286
the son of Nun1287
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 world1289
| 1289 If Oehler’s
“in sæculo desertæ” 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 “in sæculi
desertis”="in the desert places of the world,” or “of
heathendom.” |
aforetime) into the land of promise, “flowing with milk and
honey”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’s
discipline), but through Joshua (that is, through the new law’s
grace), after our circumcision with “a knife of
rock”1291
| 1291 See Josh. v. 2–9, especially in LXX. Comp. the
margin in the Eng. ver. in ver. 2, “flint knives,” and
Wordsworth in loc., who refers to Ex. iv. 25, for which see ch. iii. above. | (that is, with
Christ’s precepts, for Christ is in many ways and figures
predicted as a rock1292
); therefore the man
who was being prepared to act as images of this sacrament was
inaugurated under the figure of the Lord’s 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
| 1295 Comp. Bible:Heb.1.3">Ex. xxxiii. 20; John i. 18; xiv. 9; Col.
i. 15; Heb. i. 3. | And accordingly it
is agreed that the Son of God Himself spake to Moses, and said to the
people, “Behold, I send mine angel before thy”—that
is, the people’s—“face, 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 escaped1296
| 1296 Oehler and others read
“celavit”; but the correction of Fr.
Junius and Rig., “celabit,” is
certainly more agreeable to the LXX. and the Eng. ver. | thy notice, since my name is upon
him.”1297
For Joshua was to
introduce the people into the land of promise, not Moses. Now He called
him an “angel,” 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 “angel,” through the prophet: “Behold,
I send mine angel before Thy”—that is,
Christ’s—“face, who shall prepare Thy way before
Thee.”1298
| 1298 Mal. iii. 1: comp. Matt. xi. 10; Mark i. 2; Luke vii.
27. | Nor is it a novel
practice to the Holy Spirit to call those “angels” whom God
has appointed as ministers of His power. For the same John is called
not merely an “angel” of Christ, but withal a
“lamp” shining before Christ: for David predicts, “I
have prepared the lamp for my Christ;”1299
and him Christ Himself, coming “to fulfil the
prophets,”1300
| 1300 Matt. v. 17, briefly; a very favourite reference
with Tertullian. | called so to the
Jews. “He was,” He says, “the burning and shining
lamp;”1301
as being he who not
merely “prepared His ways in the desert,”1302
but withal, by pointing out “the Lamb
of God,”1303
illumined the minds
of men by his heralding, so that they understood Him
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 mystery1304
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 “angel” nor “Oshea,” but
“Joshua.” Thus, therefore, each name is appropriate to the
Christ of God—that He should be called Jesus as well (as
Christ).
And 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.
“And there shall be born,” he says, “a rod from the
root of Jesse”—which rod is Mary—“and 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’s
fear shall fill Him.”1305
For to none of men
was the universal aggregation of spiritual credentials appropriate,
except to Christ; paralleled as He is to a “flower” by
reason of glory, by reason of grace; but accounted “of the root
of Jesse,” whence His origin is to be deduced,—to 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
I demand, again—granting that He who was
ever predicted by prophets as destined to come out of Jesse’s
race, was withal to exhibit all humility, patience, and
tranquillity—whether 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, “A man set
in a plague, and knowing how to bear infirmity;” who “was
led as a sheep for a victim; and, as a lamb before him who sheareth
him, opened not His mouth.”1308
If He
“neither did contend nor shout, nor was His voice heard
abroad,” who “crushed not the bruised
reed”—Israel’s faith, who “quenched not the
burning flax”1309
—that is, the
momentary glow of the Gentiles—but made it shine more by the
rising of His own light,—He 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,—that 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: “Cry out,” he says,
“in 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,” and so forth:1310
that, moreover, He was to do acts of
power from the Father: “Behold, 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’ tongues shall be loosed,
and the lame shall leap as an hart,”1311
and so on; which works not even you deny that Christ did, inasmuch as
you were wont to say that, “on account of the works ye stoned Him
not, but because He did them on the Sabbaths.”1312
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