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| Chapter LIII
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Chapter
LIII.
And if we should ask for a second prophecy, which
may appear to us to have a clear reference to Jesus, we would quote
that which was written by Moses very many years before the advent of
Christ, when he makes Jacob, on his departure from this life, to have
uttered predictions regarding each of his sons, and to have said of
Judah along with the others: “The ruler will not fail from
Judah, and the governor from his loins, until that which is reserved
for him come.”3168
| 3168 Cf. Gen. xlix. 10, ἕως
ἂν ἔλθῃ τὰ
ἀποκείμενα
αὐτῷ. This is one of the passages of
the Septuagint which Justin Martyr charges the Jews with corrupting;
the true reading, according to him, being ἕως
ἂν ἔλθῃ ᾧ
ἀπόκειται.
Cf. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, vol. i. p.
259. | Now, any one
meeting with this prophecy, which is in reality much older than Moses,
so that one who was not a believer might suspect that it was not
written by him, would be surprised that Moses should be able to predict
that the princes of the Jews, seeing there are among them twelve
tribes, should be born of the tribe of Judah, and should be the rulers
of the people; for which reason also the whole nation are called Jews,
deriving their name from the ruling tribe. And, in the second
place, one who candidly considers the prophecy, would be surprised how,
after declaring that the rulers and governors of the people were to
proceed from the tribe of Judah, he should determine also the limit of
their rule, saying that “the ruler should not fail from Judah,
nor the governor from his loins, until there should come that which was
reserved for him, and that He is the expectation of the
Gentiles.”3169
For He came
for whom these things were reserved, viz., the Christ of God, the ruler
of the promises of God. And manifestly He is the only one among
those who preceded, and, I might make bold to say, among those also who
followed Him, who was the expectation of the Gentiles; for converts
from among all the Gentile nations have believed on God through Him,
and that in conformity with the prediction of Isaiah, that in His name
the Gentiles had hoped: “In Thy name shall the Gentiles
hope.”3170
And this man
said also to those who are in prison, as every man is a captive to the
chains of his sins, “Come forth;” and to the ignorant,
“Come into the light:” these things also having been
thus foretold: “I have given Thee for a covenant of the
people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritage;
saying to the prisoners, Go forth; and to them that are in darkness,
Show yourselves.”3171
And we may
see at the appearing of this man, by means of those who everywhere
throughout the world have reposed a simple faith in Him, the fulfilment
of this prediction: “They shall feed in the ways, and their
pastures shall be in all the beaten tracks.”3172
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