Chapter XIII.—Isaiah’s Prophecies Considered. The Virginity of Christ’s Mother a Sign. Other Prophecies Also Signs. Metaphorical Sense of Proper Names in Sundry Passages of the Prophets.

You are equally led away by the sound of names,935    Compare with this chapter, T.’s adv. Judæos, 9. when you so understand the riches of Damascus, and the spoils of Samaria, and the king of Assyria, as if they portended that the Creator’s Christ was a warrior, not attending to the promise contained in the passage, “For before the Child shall have knowledge to cry, My father and My mother, He shall take away the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria before the king of Assyria.”936    Isa. viii. 4. You should first examine the point of age, whether it can be taken to represent Christ as even yet a man,937    Jam hominem, jam virum in Adv. Judæos, “at man’s estate.” much less a warrior. Although, to be sure, He might be about to call to arms by His cry as an infant; might be about to sound the alarm of war not with a trumpet, but with a little rattle; might be about to seek His foe, not on horseback, or in chariot, or from parapet, but from nurse’s neck or nursemaid’s back, and so be destined to subjugate Damascus and Samaria from His mother’s breasts!  It is a different matter, of course, when the babes of your barbarian Pontus spring forth to the fight. They are, I ween, taught to lance before they lacerate;938    Lanceare ante quam lancinare. This play on words points to the very early training of the barbarian boys to war. Lancinare perhaps means, “to nibble the nipple with the gum.” swathed at first in sunshine and ointment,939    He alludes to the suppling of their young joints with oil, and then drying them in the sun. afterwards armed with the satchel,940    Pannis. and rationed on bread and butter!941    Butyro. Now, since nature, certainly, nowhere grants to man to learn warfare before life, to pillage the wealth of a Damascus before he knows his father and mother’s name, it follows that the passage in question must be deemed to be a figurative one. Well, but nature, says he, does not permit “a virgin to conceive,” and still the prophet is believed. And indeed very properly; for he has paved the way for the incredible thing being believed, by giving a reason for its occurrence, in that it was to be for a sign. “Therefore,” says he, “the Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son.”942    Isa. vii. 14. Now a sign from God would not have been a sign,943    The tam dignum of this place is “jam signum” in adv. Judæos. unless it had been some novel and prodigious thing. Then, again, Jewish cavillers, in order to disconcert us, boldly pretend that Scripture does not hold944    Contineat. that a virgin, but only a young woman,945    This opinion of Jews and Judaizing heretics is mentioned by Irenæus, Adv. Hæret. iii. 21 (Stieren’s ed. i. 532); Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. v. 8; Jerome, Adv. Helvid. (ed. Benedict), p. 132. Nor has the cavil ceased to be held, as is well known, to the present day. The הָעַלְֹמָה of Isa. vii. 4 is supposed by the Jewish Fuerst to be Isaiah’s wife, and he quotes Kimchi’s authority; while the neologian Gesenius interprets the word, a bride, and rejects the Catholic notion of an unspotted virgin. To make way, however, for their view, both Fuerst and Gesenius have to reject the LXX. rendering, παρθένος. is to conceive and bring forth.  They are, however, refuted by this consideration, that nothing of the nature of a sign can possibly come out of what is a daily occurrence, the pregnancy and child-bearing of a young woman. A virgin mother is justly deemed to be proposed946    Disposita. by God as a sign, but a warlike infant has no like claim to the distinction; for even in such a case947    Et hic. there does not occur the character of a sign.  But after the sign of the strange and novel birth has been asserted, there is immediately afterwards declared as a sign the subsequent course of the Infant,948    Alius ordo jam infantis. who was to eat butter and honey. Not that this indeed is of the nature of a sign, nor is His “refusing the evil;” for this, too, is only a characteristic of infancy.949    Infantia est. Better in adv. Judæos, “est infantiæ.” But His destined capture of the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria before the king of Assyria is no doubt a wonderful sign.950    The italicised words we have added from adv. Judæos, “hoc est mirabile signum.” Keep to the measure of His age, and seek the purport of the prophecy, and give back also to the truth of the gospel what you have taken away from it in the lateness of your heresy,951    Posterior. Posteritas is an attribute of heresy in T.’s view. and the prophecy at once becomes intelligible and declares its own accomplishment. Let those eastern magi wait on the new-born Christ, presenting to Him, (although) in His infancy, their gifts of gold and frankincense; and surely an Infant will have received the riches of Damascus without a battle, and unarmed.

For besides the generally known fact, that the riches of the East, that is to say, its strength and resources, usually consist of gold and spices, it is certainly true of the Creator, that He makes gold the riches of the other952    Ceterarum, other than the Jews, i.e., Gentiles. nations also. Thus He says by Zechariah: “And Judah shall also fight at Jerusalem and shall gather together all the wealth of the nations round about, gold and silver.”953    Zech. xiv. 14. Moreover, respecting that gift of gold, David also says: “And there shall be given to Him of the gold of Arabia;”954    Ps. lxxii. 15. and again: “The kings of Arabia and Saba shall offer to Him gifts.”955    Ps. lxxii. 10. For the East generally regarded the magi as kings; and Damascus was anciently deemed to belong to Arabia, before it was transferred to Syrophœnicia on the division of the Syrias (by Rome).956    See Otto’s Justin Martyr, ii. 273, n. 23. [See Vol. I. p. 238, supra.] Its riches Christ then received, when He received the tokens thereof in the gold and spices; while the spoils of Samaria were the magi themselves. These having discovered Him and honoured Him with their gifts, and on bended knee adored Him as their God and King, through the witness of the star which led their way and guided them, became the spoils of Samaria, that is to say, of idolatry, because, as it is easy enough to see,957    Videlicet. they believed in Christ. He designated idolatry under the name of Samaria, as that city was shameful for its idolatry, through which it had then revolted from God from the days of king Jeroboam. Nor is this an unusual manner for the Creator, (in His Scriptures958    The Creatori here answers to the Scripturis divinis of the parallel passage in adv. Judæos. Of course there is a special force in this use of the Creator’s name here against Marcion.) figuratively to employ names of places as a metaphor derived from the analogy of their sins. Thus He calls the chief men of the Jews “rulers of Sodom,” and the nation itself “people of Gomorrah.”959    Isa. i. 10. And in another passage He also says: “Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite,”960    Ezek. xvi. 3. by reason of their kindred iniquity;961    To the sins of these nations. although He had actually called them His sons:  “I have nourished and brought up children.”962    Isa. i. 2. So likewise by Egypt is sometimes understood, in His sense,963    Apud illum, i.e., Creatorem. the whole world as being marked out by superstition and a curse.964    Maledictionis. By a similar usage Babylon also in our (St.) John is a figure of the city of Rome, as being like (Babylon) great and proud in royal power, and warring down the saints of God. Now it was in accordance with this style that He called the magi by the name of Samaritans, because (as we have said) they had practised idolatry as did the Samaritans.  Moreover, by the phrase “before or against the king of Assyria,” understand “against Herod;” against whom the magi then opposed themselves, when they refrained from carrying him back word concerning Christ, whom he was seeking to destroy.

CAPUT XIII.

Aeque et sono nominum duceris, cum virtutem Damasci, et spolia Samariae, et regem Assyriorum, sic accipis, quasi bellatorem portendant Christum Creatoris, non animadvertens quid Scriptura praemittat (Is. VII, 4) : Quoniam priusquam cognoscat vocare patrem et matrem , accipiet virtutem 0337C Damasci, et spolia Samariae, adversus regem Assyriorum. Ante est enim inspicias aetatis demonstrationem, an hominem jam Christum exhibere possit, nedum imperatorem. Scilicet vagitu ad arma esset convocaturus infans; et signa belli, non tuba, sed crepitacillo daturus: nec ex equo, vel de curru, vel de muro; sed de nutricis aut gerulae suae collo sive 0338A dorso hostem destinaturus, atque ita Damascum et Samariam pro mamillis subacturus. Aliud etsi penes Ponticos, barbaricae gentis infantes in praelium erumpunt, credo ad solem uncti prius , dehinc pannis armati, et butyro stipendiati, qui ante norint lanceare, quam lancinare . Enimvero, si nusquam hoc natura concedit , ante militare quam vivere; ante virtutem Damasci sumere, quam patris et matris vocabulum nosse; sequitur ut figurata pronuntiatio videatur. Sed et virginem, inquit, parere natura non patitur, et tamen creditur prophetae . Et merito. Praestruxit enim fidem incredibili rei, rationem edendo, quod in signo esset futura. Propterea, inquit (Is. VII, 14), dabit vobis Dominus signum: Ecce virgo concipiet in 0338B utero, et pariet filium. Signum autem a Deo , nisi novitas aliqua monstruosa, tam dignum non fuisset. Denique et Judaei, si quando ad nos dejiciendos mentiri audent, quasi non virginem, sed juvenculam concepturam et parituram Scriptura contineat, hinc revincuntur, quod nihil signi videri possit res quotidiana, juvenculae scilicet praegnatus et partus. In signum ergo disposita virgo et mater merito creditur ; infans vero bellator non aeque. Non enim et hic signi ratio versatur. Sed signo nativitatis novae adscripto, exinde post signum, alius ordo jam infantis edicitur, mel et butyrum manducaturi. Nec hoc utique in signum est malitiae non assentaturi; et hoc enim infantia est; sed accepturi virtutem Damasci, et spolia Samariae, adversus 0338C regem Assyriorum. Serva modum aetatis, et quaere sensum praedicationis: imo, redde Evangelio veritatis, quae posterior detraxisti, et tam intelligitur prophetia, quam renuntiatur expuncta. Maneant enim orientales illi magi, in infantia Christum recentem auro et thure munerantes, et acceperit infans virtutem Damasci sine praelio et armis. Nam 0339A praeter quod omnibus notum est, Orientis virtutem, id est vim et vires, auro et odoribus pollere solitam; certe est Creatori virtutem caeterarum quoque gentium aurum constituere; sicut per Zachariam (Zach. XIV, 14): Et Judas pertendet apud Hierusalem, et congregabit omnem valentiam populorum per circuitum, aurum et argentum. De illo autem tunc auri munere etiam David: Et dabitur illi ex auro Arabiae; et rursus: Reges Arabum et Saba munera afferent illi . Nam et magos reges habuit fere Oriens , et Damascus Arabiae retro deputabatur, antequam transcripta esset in Syrophoenicen, ex distinctione Syriarum; cujus tunc virtutem Christus accepit, accipiendo insignia ejus, aurum scilicet et odores; spolia autem Samariae, 0339B ipsos magos: qui cum illum cognovissent, et muneribus honorassent, et genu posito adorassent, quasi Deum et regem, sub testimonio indicis et ducis stellae, spolia sunt facti Samariae, id est idololatriae, credentes videlicet in Christum. Idololatriam enim Samariae nomine notavit, ut ignominiosae ob idololatriam, qua desciverat tunc a Deo, sub rege Hieroboam. Nec hoc enim novum est Creatori figurate uti translatione nominum, ex comparatione criminum. Nam et archontas Sodomorum, appellat archontas Judaeorum; et populum ipsum, populum Gomorrhae vocat, et idem alibi: Pater, inquit (Ezech. XVI, 3), tuus Amorrhaeus, et mater tua Gethea, ob consimilem impietatem, quos aliquando etiam suos filios dixerat: Filios generavi, et exaltavi. Sic et 0339C Aegyptus, nonnunquam totus orbis intelligitur apud illum, superstitionis et maledictionis elogio. Sic et Babylon etiam, apud Joannem nostrum, romanae Urbis figura est ; proinde magnae, et regno superbae, et sanctorum Dei debellatricis. Hoc itaque usu, magos quoque Samaritarum appellatione titulavit despoliatos, quod habuerant cum Samaritis, ut diximus, idololatriam. Adversus regem autem Assyriorum, adversus Herodem intellige; cui utique adversati sunt 0340A magi tunc, non renuntiando de Christo, quem intercipere quaerebat.