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of the people through the, Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who has a husband. But since the things concerning this passage require much research and examination, 224 he who cares for the Savior's command which says, 'Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,' will know what is in them by researching more diligently. Ps. 28. Hear me, and you will eat good things, and your soul will delight in good things. Incline your ears, and follow my ways; hear me, and your soul will live in good things, and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, the holy things of David that are faithful. Behold, I have given him as a testimony among the nations, a ruler and commander among the nations; behold, nations that do not know you will call upon you, and peoples who do not understand you will flee to you for refuge, for the sake of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, because he has glorified you. By these words, the discourse understands spiritual food, both divine and heavenly delight, and furthermore life not of the indifferent flesh, but the eternal life of the soul. He further promises to make an eternal covenant with them, which he says will contain the holy and faithful things of David. What then would this be, after the temporary covenant through Moses, but some new and eternal covenant prophesied to be given to those to whom the word is addressed? The new scripture of the holy gospels, containing the holy things of David through Jesus the Christ of God, who was born of his seed; and God says he has given him as a testimony not to Israel, but to the nations, to rule them and to command them, and not to the former 225 people of the circumcision. And these nations, who previously did not know him at all, when they recognized that he was the Son of God, called upon him as Savior and God; but we also, who had never known him, have fled to him for refuge, having escaped from our former error, and from servitude under opposing powers. And these things, says the prophecy, will happen for the sake of the Lord his God, because he has glorified him. And it is clear how the Father glorified him according to the voice that came to him from heaven, 'I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.' But see if the things in the preceding chapter, where it was said, 'Those to whom it was not announced concerning him shall see, and those who have not heard shall understand,' are not related to the words here that say, 'Nations that do not know you will call upon you; and peoples who did not know you will flee to you for refuge.' Similar to these are also the things in the seventeenth Psalm from the person of Christ, according to the verse, 'A people whom I did not know served me; as soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me.' We, therefore, believing the prophecies to be true, are persuaded that they have been fulfilled at the coming of our Savior, perceiving how we ourselves, who were formerly wandering nations, driven by cruel demons in all manner of idolatry, and neither knowing the only true God, nor heeding the prophetic voice, have come to the knowledge of the God of all through the teaching of our Savior Jesus, and we have believed in the divinely-inspired scriptures, and have received the prophesied 226 Word of God, though we did not know him at all before. Having been benefited by so many things through the teaching of our Savior, how could we not rightly accept and extol him, since he is the Son of God and our own Savior? Ps. 29. See how the righteous one is taken away, and no one takes it to heart, and righteous men are taken away, and no one understands; for the righteous one has been taken away from the face of injustice, his burial will be in peace, he has been taken away from the midst. But you, draw near here, you lawless sons, seed of adulterers and a prostitute. In what did you delight? And against whom did you open your mouth? And against whom did you let loose your tongue? Are you not children of destruction, a lawless seed? The Christ of God alone in truth from
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λαοῦ διὰ τοῦ, εὐφράνθητι στεῖρα ἡ οὐ τίκτουσα, ῥῆξον καὶ βόησον ἡ οὐκ ὠδίνουσα, ὅτι πολλὰ τὰ τέκνα τῆς ἐρήμου μᾶλλον ἢ τῆς ἐχούσης τὸν ἄνδρα. Πολλῆς δὲ δεομένων ἐρευνήσεως καὶ ἐξετάσεως τῶν 224 κατὰ τὸν τόπον, ᾧ μέλει τῆς τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἐντολῆς λεγούσης, ἐρευνᾶτε τὰς γραφὰς, ἐν αἷς δοκεῖτε ζωὴν αἰώνιον ἔχειν, καὶ αὗταί εἰσιν αἱ μαρτυροῦσαι περὶ ἐμοῦ, ἐπιμελέστερον οὗτος ἐρευνήσας τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς εἴσεται. Ψ. ΚΗʹ. Ἀκούσατέ μου, καὶ φάγεσθε ἀγαθὰ, καὶ ἐντρυφήσει ἐν ἀγαθοῖς ἡ ψυχὴ ὑμῶν. Προσέχετε τοῖς ὠσὶν ὑμῶν, καὶ ἐπακολουθήσατε ταῖς ὁδοῖς μου· εἰσακούσατέ μου, καὶ ζήσεται ἐν ἀγαθοῖς ἡ ψυχὴ ὑμῶν, καὶ διαθήσομαι ὑμῖν διαθήκην αἰώνιον, τὰ ὅσια ∆αυὶδ τὰ πιστά. Ἰδοὺ, μαρτύριον ἐν ἔθνεσιν ἔδωκα αὐτὸν, ἄρχοντα καὶ προστάσσοντα ἐν ἔθνεσιν· ἰδοὺ ἔθνη ἃ οὐκ οἴδασίν σε ἐπικαλέσονταί σε, καὶ λαοὶ, οἳ οὐκ ἐπίστανταί σε, ἐπὶ σὲ καταφεύξονται, ἕνεκεν Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ σου τοῦ ἁγίου Ἰσραὴλ, ὅτι ἐδόξασέν σε. Τούτοις τὰ λεγόμενα συνίησιν ὑποδεχόμενος ὁ λόγος πνευματικὰς τροφὰς, θείαν τε καὶ οὐράνιον τρυφὴν, ἔτι τε ζωὴν οὐ τὴν σαρκὸς ἀδιάφορον, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἀΐδιον τῆς ψυχῆς. Προσυπισχνεῖται τοῖς αὐτοῖς διαθήκην αἰώνιον διαθήσεσθαι, ἥν τινα φησὶ τὰ ὅσια ∆αυὶδ τὰ πιστὰ περιέξειν. Τίς ἂν οὖν εἴη καὶ αὕτη μετὰ τὴν πρὸς καιρὸν τὴν διὰ Μωσέως καινή τις καὶ αἰώνιος διαθήκη δοθήσεσθαι τούτοις, πρὸς οὓς ὁ λόγος, προφητευομένη; Ἡ καινὴ τῶν ἱερῶν εὐαγγελίων γραφὴ, τὰ ὅσια ∆αυὶδ περιέχουσα διὰ τὸν ἐκ σπέρματος αὐτοῦ γενόμενον Ἰησοῦν τὸν Χριστὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ· τοῦτον δὲ καὶ μαρτύριον δεδωκέναι φησὶν ὁ Θεὸς οὐχὶ τῷ Ἰσραὴλ, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, ἄρξοντα τούτων καὶ τούτοις προστάξοντα, οὐχὶ δὲ τῷ προ 225 τέρῳ τῷ ἐκ περιτομῆς λαῷ. Ταῦτα δὲ τὰ ἔθνη πρότερον οὐδαμῶς αὐτὸν ἐπιστάμενα, ὅτε ἔγνω αὐτὸν υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ τυγχάνοντα, Σωτῆρα καὶ Θεὸν ἐπεκαλέσατο αὐτόν· ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ μηδεπώποτε αὐτὸν ἐπεγνωκότες ἡμεῖς κατεφύγομεν ἐπ' αὐτὸν, τῆς προτέρας ἀποφυγόντες πλάνης, καὶ ὑπὸ τὰς ἀντικειμένας ἐνεργείας δουλείας. Ταῦτα δὲ, φησὶν ἡ προφητεία, γενήσεσθε ἕνεκεν Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ αὐτοῦ, ὅτι ἐδόξασεν αὐτόν· σαφὲς δ' ὅπως ἐδόξασεν αὐτὸν ὁ Πατὴρ κατὰ τὴν ἐνεχθεῖσαν πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ φωνὴν, τὴν καὶ ἐδόξασα καὶ πάλιν δοξάσω. Ὅρα δ' εἰ μὴ συγγενῆ τυγχάνει τοῖς ἐνθάδε ῥητοῖς φάσκουσι τὸ, ἔθνη ἃ οὐκ οἴδασίν σε ἐπικαλέσονταί σε· καὶ λαοὶ οἳ οὐκ ἔγνωσάν σε ἐπὶ σὲ καταφεύξονται, τὰ ἐν τῷ πρὸ τούτου κεφαλαίῳ, ἔνθα ἐλέγετο, ὅτι οἷς οὐκ ἀνηγγέλη περὶ αὐτοῦ ὄψονται, καὶ οἳ οὐκ ἀκηκόασιν συνήσουσιν. Τούτοις ὅμοια τυγχάνει καὶ τὰ ἐν ἑπτὰ καὶ δεκάτῳ Ψαλμῷ ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ Χριστοῦ κατὰ τὸ, λαὸς ὃν οὐκ ἔγνων ἐδούλευσέν μοι, εἰς ἀκοὴν ὠτίου ὑπήκουσέ μοι. Ἡμεῖς μὲν οὖν ἀληθεῖς πιστεύοντες τὰς προφητείας πεπληρῶσθαι αὐτὰς ἐπὶ τῇ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν παρουσίᾳ πεπείσμεθα, συναισθόμενοι ὅπως ἡμεῖς αὐτοὶ πλανώμενα ἔθνη τὸ πάλαι τυγχάνοντες, ἐλαυνόμενοί τε ὑπὸ χαλεπῶν δαιμόνων κατὰ πᾶσαν εἰδωλολατρείαν, καὶ μήτε τὸν μόνον ἀληθῆ Θεὸν ἐπιστάμενοι, μήτε προφητικῆς ἐπαΐοντες φωνῆς, διὰ τῆς τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ διδασκαλίας ἐπὶ τὴν γνῶσιν τοῦ Θεοῦ τῶν ὅλων παρεληλύθαμεν, πεπιστεύκαμέν τε ταῖς θεοπνεύστοις γραφαῖς, καὶ τὸν προφητευ 226 θέντα τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγον παραδεδέγμεθα, μὴ δ' ὅλως αὐτὸν τὸ πρὶν ἐπιστάμενοι. Τοσαῦτα δὴ διὰ τῆς τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν εὐεργετηθέντες διδασκαλίας, πῶς οὐκ ἂν δικαίως παραδεχοίμεθά τε καὶ ἐκθειάζοιμεν αὐτὸν, ἅτε υἱὸν Θεοῦ ἡμῶν τε αὐτῶν τυγχάνοντα Σωτῆρα; Ψ. ΚΘʹ. Ἴδετε ὡς ὁ δίκαιος αἴρεται, καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐκδέχεται τῇ καρδίᾳ, καὶ ἄνδρες δίκαιοι αἴρονται, καὶ οὐδεὶς κατανοεῖ· ἀπὸ γὰρ προσώπου ἀδικίας ᾖρται ὁ δίκαιος, ἔσται ἐν εἰρήνῃ ἡ ταφὴ αὐτοῦ, ᾖρται ἐκ μέσου· ὑμεῖς δὲ προσαγάγετε ὧδε υἱοὶ ἄνομοι, σπέρμα μοιχῶν καὶ πόρνης· ἐν τίνι ἐνετρυφήσατε; καὶ ἐπὶ τίνα ἠνοίξατε τὸ στόμα ὑμῶν; καὶ ἐπὶ τίνα ἐχαλάσατε τὴν γλῶσσαν ὑμῶν; οὐχ ὑμεῖς ἐστὲ τέκνα ἀπωλείας, σπέρμα ἄνομον; Ὁ Χριστὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ μόνος κατ' ἀλήθειαν παρὰ