Chapter XII.—Isaiah’s Prophecy of Emmanuel. Christ Entitled to that Name.

And challenge us first, as is your wont, to consider Isaiah’s description of Christ, while you contend that in no point does it suit. For, to begin with, you say that Isaiah’s Christ will have to be called Emmanuel;930    Isa. vii. 14. then, that He takes the riches of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria against the king of Assyria.931    Isa. viii. 4. Compare adv. Judæos, 9. But yet He who is come was neither born under such a name, nor ever engaged in any warlike enterprise. I must, however, remind you that you ought to look into the contexts932    Cohærentia. of the two passages. For there is immediately added the interpretation of Emmanuel, “God with us;” so that you have to consider not merely the name as it is uttered, but also its meaning. The utterance is Hebrew, Emmanuel, of the prophet’s own nation; but the meaning of the word, God with us, is by the interpretation made common property. Inquire, then, whether this name, God-with-us, which is Emmanuel, be not often used for the name of Christ,933    Agitetur in Christo. from the fact that Christ has enlightened the world. And I suppose you will not deny it, inasmuch as you do yourself admit that He is called God-with-us, that is, Emmanuel. Else if you are so foolish, that, because with you He gets the designation God-with-us, not Emmanuel, you therefore are unwilling to grant that He is come whose property it is to be called Emmanuel, as if this were not the same name as God-with-us, you will find among the Hebrew Christians, and amongst Marcionites too, that they name Him Emmanuel when they mean Him to be called God-with-us; just indeed as every nation, by whatever word they would express God-with-us, has called Him Emmanuel, completing the sound in its sense. Now since Emmanuel is God-with-us, and God-with-us is Christ, who is in us (for “as many of you as are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ”934    Gal. iii. 27.), Christ is as properly implied in the meaning of the name, which is God-with-us, as He is in the pronunciation of the name, which is Emmanuel. And thus it is evident that He is now come who was foretold as Emmanuel, because what Emmanuel signifies is come, that is to say, God-with-us.

CAPUT XII.

Provoca nunc, ut soles, ad hanc Esaiae comparationem Christi, contendens illam in nullo convenire. Primo enim, inquis, Christus Esaiae (Is. VII, 14) Emmanuel vocari habebit; dehinc virtutem sumere Damasci, et spolia Samariae adversum regem Assyriorum. Porro (Is. VIII, 4) iste qui venit, neque sub ejusmodi nomine est editus, neque ulla re bellica functus est. At ego te admonebo, uti cohaerentia quoque utriusque capituli recognoscas. Subjuncta est enim et interpretatio Emmanuelis, nobiscum Deus; uti non solum sonum nominis spectes, sed et 0337A sensum. Sonus enim hebraicus, quod est Emmanuel, suae gentis est. Sensus autem ejus, quod est Deus nobiscum, ex interpretatione communis est. Quaere ergo, an ista vox, nobiscum Deus, quod est Emmanuel, exinde quod Christus illuxit, agitetur in Christo. Et puto non negabis, utpote qui et ipse dicas, Deus-nobiscum dicitur, id est Emmanuel. Aut si tam vanus es, ut quia penes te Nobiscum-Deus dicitur, non Emmanuel; idcirco nolis venisse illum, cujus proprium sit vocari Emmanuel, quasi non hoc sit et Deus nobiscum, invenies apud Hebraeos Christianos, imo et Marcionitas, Emmanuelem nominare, cum volunt dicere, Nobiscum-Deus: sicut et omnis gens, quoquo sono dixerit, Nobiscum-Deus, Emmanuelem pronuntiabit, in sensu sonum expungens. Quod si 0337B Emmanuel Nobiscum-Deus, Deus autem nobiscum Christus est, qui etiam in nobis est: Quotquot enim in Christum tincti estis, Christum induistis; tam proprius est Christus in significatione nominis, quod est Nobiscum-Deus, quam in sono nominis, quod est Emmanuel. Atque ita constat venisse jam illum qui praedicabatur Emmanuel; quia quod significat Emmanuel venit, id est, Nobiscum-Deus.