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| Other clear prophecies of the coming of God in the flesh. Christ's miracles unprecedented.
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§38. Other clear prophecies of
the coming of God in the flesh. Christ’s miracles
unprecedented.
For if they do not think these proofs sufficient,
let them be persuaded at any rate by other reasons, drawn from the
oracles they themselves possess. For of whom do the prophets say:
“I was300
| 300 Isa. lxv. 1, 2; cf. Rom. x. 20,
sq. | made manifest to them that sought me
not, I was found of them that asked not for me: I said Behold, here am
I, to the nation that had not called upon my name; I stretched out my
hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people.” 2. Who, then, one
might say to the Jews, is he that was made manifest? For if it is the
prophet, let them say when he was hid, afterward to appear again. And
what manner of prophet is this, that was not only made manifest from
obscurity, but also stretched out his hands on the Cross? None surely
of the righteous, save the Word of God only, Who, incorporeal by
nature, appeared for our sakes in the body and suffered for all. 3. Or
if not even this is sufficient for them, let them at least be silenced
by another proof, seeing how clear its demonstrative force is. For the
Scripture says: “Be strong301
ye hands that
hang down, and feeble knees; comfort ye, ye of faint mind; be strong,
fear not. Behold, our God recompenseth judgment; He shall come and save
us. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the
deaf shall hear; then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the
tongue of the stammerers shall be plain.” 4. Now what can they
say to this, or how can they dare to face this at all? For the prophecy
not only indicates that God is to sojourn here, but it announces the
signs and the time of His coming. For they connect the blind recovering
their sight, and the lame walking, and the deaf hearing, and the tongue
of the stammerers being made plain, with the Divine Coming which is to
take place. Let them say, then, when such signs have come to pass in
Israel, or where in Jewry anything
of the sort has occurred. 5. Naaman, a leper, was cleansed, but no deaf
man heard nor lame walked. Elias raised a dead man; so did Eliseus; but
none blind from birth regained his sight. For in good truth, to raise a
dead man is a great thing, but it is not like the wonder wrought by the
Saviour. Only, if Scripture has not passed over the case of the leper,
and of the dead son of the widow, certainly, had it come to pass that a
lame man also had walked and a blind man recovered his sight, the
narrative would not have omitted to mention this also. Since then
nothing is said in the Scriptures, it is evident that these things had
never taken place before. 6. When, then, have they taken place, save
when the Word of God Himself came in the body? Or when did He come, if
not when lame men walked, and stammerers were made to speak plain, and
deaf men heard, and men blind from birth regained their sight? For this
was the very thing the Jews said who then witnessed it, because they
had not heard of these things having taken place at any other time:
“Since302
the world began it was never heard that
any one opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from
God, He could do nothing.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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