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Christianity was oppressed and shone forth; and by these I mean, not the men but those who held the same dominion. But these things have been spoken of more completely in the commentaries on Isaiah the prophet. 2.286 The word, providing faith to expect the things that seemed hopeless, said that the Lord almighty promised to do them. 2.287Zach. VIII, 7-8: Thus says the Lord almighty: Behold, I will save my people from the land of the east and from the land of the west, and I will bring them in and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and they will be to me a people, and I will be to them a God, in truth and in righteousness. 2.288 Just as the one who worships and serves him is called a man of God, so his people is called that which is made up of each of the godly. His people happens to be the one which he saves from the whole inhabited world and its ends; he promises, saying: “Behold, I will save my people from the land of the east and from the land of the west, says the Lord almighty.” This is not only the one of the circumcision, but is of all the nations who believe in the Savior according to the gospel. 2.289 For of old only one nation, that of the Hebrews, the people of the one who created all things, was a portion and an inheritance, according to the testimony of the hierophant, who says: “When the most high divided the nations, as he scattered the sons of Adam according to the number of the angels of God, Jacob became the Lord’s portion, Israel the measure of his inheritance,” on account of the beauty of character and life, according to the testimony brought forth by the saints in the forty-sixth Psalm, as follows: “He chose for us his inheritance, the beauty of Jacob which he loved.” 2.290 And that which is declared demonstratively in the Mosaic teaching is similar: “Behold, a wise and understanding people, this great nation,” godly and abstaining from sins, according to that said in the all-virtuous Wisdom of Solomon: “Because he who has not a malicious soul, nor a body indebted to sin” receives the wisdom of God and the sacred knowledge corresponding to it. In harmony with this thought is that which was said by a godly man concerning God, speaking to the true man: “Behold, godliness is wisdom, and to abstain from evil is understanding.” 2.291 With this wise and understanding nation, which is “a royal priesthood, a people for his own possession,” all the nations rejoice, since the Savior became for them a good expectation, according to the blessing of the Savior who arose from Judah, with which also agrees that in Isaiah, which is as follows: “There shall be the root of Jesse, and he who rises to rule the nations; in him the nations will hope.” 2.292 Concerning the simultaneous delight and gladness of all men it is written: “Rejoice, O nations, with his people,” no longer of one nation only, the Hebrew, but of all who at the same time worship and serve God according to what is proclaimed in the Psalms, where it says: “All the nations will serve him”; and where it says: “All the nations you have made shall come, and shall worship before you, and shall glorify your name,” O Lord. And again: “The ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and the families of the nations will worship before him, for the kingdom is the Lord’s, and he rules over the nations.” 2.293 Concerning the calling of all men, both Jews and Greeks, as concerning one people, the aforesaid saying of the prophet is proclaimed, with the master of all saying: “Behold, I will save my people from the land of the east and from the land of the west, says the Lord almighty.” Concerning the company gathered from all the regions of the inhabited world, the Gospel also signifies, saying that the Savior said: “Many will come from the rising and setting of the sun, and will recline in the kingdom of heaven with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.” In harmony with the calling from everywhere also in the forty-ninth Psalm, the

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κατεπονήθη ὁ χριστιανισμὸς καὶ ἀνέλαμψεν· δι' αὐτῶν δὲ λέγω, οὐ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀλλὰ τῶν τὴν αὐτὴν περιεπόντων ἡγεμονίαν. Εἴρηται δὲ ἐντελέστερον περὶ τούτων ἐν τοῖς ὑπομνήμασιν Ἠσαΐου τοῦ προφήτου. 2.286 Πίστιν παρέχων ὁ λόγος τοῦ προσδοκῆσαι τὰ δοκοῦντα ἀπελπίσθαι, Κύριον τὸν παντοκράτορα ἐπηγγέλθαι αὐτὰ ποιῆσαι εἶπεν. 2.287Zach. VIII, 7-8: Τάδε λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ· Ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἀνασῴζω τὸν λαόν μου ἀπὸ γῆς ἀνατολῶν καὶ ἀπὸ γῆς δυσμῶν, καὶ εἰσάξω αὐτοὺς καὶ κατασκηνώσω ἐν μέσῳ Ἰερουσαλήμ, καὶ ἔσονταί μοι εἰς λαὸν καὶ ἐγὼ ἔσομαι αὐτοῖς εἰς Θεὸν ἐν ἀληθείᾳ καὶ ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ. 2.288 Ὥσπερ Θεοῦ ἄνθρωπος προσαγορεύεται ὁ λατρεύων καὶ δουλεύων αὐτῷ, οὕτω λαὸς αὐτοῦ χρηματίζει ὁ ἐκ τῶν καθ' ἕκαστα θεοσεβῶν συμπληρούμενος. Λαὸς αὐτοῦ τυγχάνει ὅνπερ ἀνασῴζει ἐκ πάσης τῆς οἰκουμένης καὶ τῶν περάτων αὐτῆς· ὑπισχνεῖται φάσκων· «Ἰδοὺ ἀνασῴζω τὸν λαόν μου ἀπὸ γῆς ἀνατολῶν καὶ ἀπὸ γῆς δυσμῶν, λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ.» Οὐχ ὁ ἐκ περιτομῆς δὲ μόνος οὗτος, ἀλλ' ὁ πάντων τῶν πιστευόντων τῷ Σωτῆρι ἐθνῶν κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον ὑπάρχει. 2.289 Πάλαι μὲν γὰρ ἓν μόνον ἔθνος τὸ τῶν Ἑβραίων, λαὸς τοῦ τὰ πάντα δημιουργήσαντος, μερὶς καὶ κλῆρος ἦν, κατὰ τὴν τοῦ ἱεροφάντου μαρτυρίαν λέγοντος· «Ὅτε διεμέριζεν ὁ ὕψιστος ἔθνη, ὡς διέσπειρεν υἱοὺς Ἀδὰμ κατὰ ἀριθμὸν ἀγγέλων Θεοῦ, ἐγενήθη μερὶς Κυρίου Ἰακώβ, σχοίνισμα κληρονομίας αὐτοῦ Ἰσραήλ», διὰ καλλονὴν ἤθους καὶ βίου, κατὰ τὴν μαρτυρίαν τὴν ἐν τεσσερακοστῷ καὶ ἕκτῳ Ψαλμῷ προφερομένην ὑπὸ τῶν ἁγίων οὕτως· «Ἐξελέξατο ἡμῖν τὴν κληρονομίαν ἑαυτοῦ, τὴν καλλονὴν Ἰακὼβ ἠγάπησεν.» 2.290 Παραπλησίως ἔχει καὶ τὸ ἐν μωσαϊκῇ διδασκαλίᾳ δεικτικῶς ἀπαγγελλόμενον· «Ἰδοὺ λαὸς σοφὸς καὶ ἐπιστήμων, τὸ ἔθνος τὸ μέγα τοῦτο», θεοσεβῶν καὶ ἀπεχόμενος ἁμαρτιῶν, κατὰ τὸ λεχθὲν ἐν παναρέτῳ Σαλωμῶνος Σοφίᾳ· «Ὅτι ὁ μὴ ἔχων κακότεχνον ψυχήν, μηδὲ σῶμα κατάχρεω ἁμαρτίας» δέχεται τὴν Θεοῦ σοφίαν καὶ τὴν κατάλληλον αὐτῇ ἱερὰν ἐπιστήμην. Συνᾴδει τῇ νοήσει ταύτῃ τὸ λεχθὲν ὑπὸ θεοσεβοῦς ἀνδρὸς περὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ φάσκοντος τῷ ἀληθινῷ ἀνθρώπῳ· «Ἰδοὺ ἡ θεοσέβειά ἐστιν σοφία, τὸ δὲ ἀπέχεσθαι ἀπὸ κακῶν ἐστιν ἐπιστήμη.» 2.291 Σὺν τούτῳ τῷ σοφῷ καὶ ἐπιστήμονι ἔθνει, ὑπάρχοντι «βασιλείῳ ἱερατεύματι, λαῷ εἰς περιποίησιν» ὄντι, εὐφραίνεται τὰ ἔθνη πάντα, γεναμένου τοῦ Σωτῆρος αὐτοῖς ἀγαθῆς προσδοκίας, κατὰ τὴν εὐλογίαν τοῦ ἐκ τοῦ Ἰούδα ἀνατείλαντος Σωτῆρος, ᾗ συνᾴδει καὶ τὸ ἐν Ἠσαΐᾳ οὕτως ἔχον· «Ἔσταιἡ ῥίζα τοῦ Ἰεσσαί, καὶ ὁ ἀνιστάμενος ἄρχειν ἐθνῶν· ἐπ' αὐτῷ ἔθνη ἐλπιοῦσιν.» 2.292 Περὶ τῆς ἅμα πάντων ἀνθρώπων τερπωλῆς καὶ θυμηδίας γέγραπται· «Εὐφράνθητε, ἔθνη, μετὰ τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ», οὐκέτι ἑνὸς μόνου ἔθνους τοῦ ἑβραϊκοῦ, ἀλλὰ πάντων ἅμα προσκυνούντων καὶ λα̣τρευόντων Θεῷ κατὰ τὰ ἐν Ψαλμοῖς ἀπαγγελλόμενα, ὅπου μέν· «Πάντα τὰ ἔθνη δουλεύσουσιν αὐτῷ»· ὅπου δέ· «Πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ὅσα ἐποίησας ἥξουσιν, καὶ προσκυνήσουσιν ἐνώπιόν σου, καὶ δοξάσουσιν τὸ ὄνομά σου», Κύριε. Καὶ πάλιν· «Μνησθήσονται καὶ ἐπιστραφήσονται πρὸς Κύριον τὰ πέρατα τῆς γῆς, καὶ προσκυνήσουσιν ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ αἱ πατριαὶ τῶν ἐθνῶν, ὅτι τοῦ Κυρίου ἡ βασιλεία, καὶ αὐτὸς δεσπόζει τῶν ἐθνῶν.» 2.293 Περὶ τῆς πάντων ἀνθρώπων Ἰουδαίων τε καὶ Ἑλλήνων κλήσεως ὡς περὶ ἑνὸς λαοῦ τὸ προκείμενον τοῦ προφήτου ῥητὸν ἀπαγγέλλεται, τοῦ δεσπότου τῶν ἁπάντων λέγοντος· «Ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἀνασῴζω τὸν λαόν μου ἀπὸ γῆς ἀνατολῶν καὶ ἀπὸ γῆς δυσμῶν, λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ.» Περὶ τοῦ ε᾿̣κ πάντων τῶν κλιμάτων τῆς οἰκουμένης συναγομένου χοροῦ καὶ τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον σημαίνει φάσκον τὸν Σωτῆρα εἰρηκέναι· «Πολλοὶ ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν καὶ δυσμῶν ἡλίου ἥξουσιν, καὶ ἀνακλιθήσονται ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανῶν μετὰ Ἀβραὰμ καὶ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ Ἰακώβ.» Συνῳδὰτῇ πανταχόθεν κλήσει καὶ ἐν τεσσερακοστῷ καὶ ἐνάτῳ Ψαλμῷ ὁ