120

a shepherd, the one who laid down his life for the sheep, whom the Father, having brought up from the earth, highly exalted, graciously giving him the name that is above every name. Ps. 35. Your holy city has become a desert, Zion has become as a desert, Jerusalem a curse; our holy house, and the glory, which our fathers blessed, has become burnt with fire, and all our glorious things have fallen; and 235 at all these things you have held back, O Lord, and kept silent; and you have humbled us very much. I became manifest to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me; I said, "Behold, I am," to a nation that had not called upon my name; but to you I stretched out my hands all the day to a disobedient and contradicting people, who did not walk in a true way, but after their own sins. And here, the rejection of Israel having been prophesied before, next is signified the election of the Gentiles which came to be through Christ; for after the prophet offered up a prayer in the person of the people, the word answers, refuting the hardness and disobedience of the former people, and demonstrating his own love for mankind; for how, he says, do you say these things as if I were reluctant to save you? and yet indeed to those who did not ask me, nor seek me, I openly presented myself. And so it is very clear how the Word of God, formerly unknown to the Gentiles, at the consummation of the ages, by the goodness and love for mankind of the Father and God of all, became manifest to them—who had never asked him concerning the things they needed on account of the error they held concerning idols—and he was found by us who had not sought him, but also having become man he answered those who had not called on his name, all but shouting, "Behold, I am here." These things therefore the word clearly prophesies concerning the calling of the Gentiles; and next again he adds most reproachfully to the argument against the Jews, saying, but to you I stretched out my hands, to a disobedient and 236 contradicting people. And indeed through these things the form of his passion on the cross can also be signified. So much for the things from Isaiah; but since in four we have also outlined the hypothesis of the Eclogues in this ninth book of the General Elementary Introduction, in the tenth we will try to provide another suitable approach for those whose reason has been damaged by the godless heresies.

120

ποιμὴν, ὁ θεὶς τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ὑπὲρ τῶν προβάτων, ὃν ὁ Πατὴρ ἀναβιβάσας ἐκ τῆς γῆς ὑπερύψωσεν, χαρισάμενος αὐτῷ τὸ ὄνομα τὸ ὑπὲρ πᾶν ὄνομα. Ψ. ΛΕʹ. Πόλις τοῦ ἁγίου σου ἐγενήθη ἔρημος, Σιὼν ὡς ἔρημος ἐγενήθη, Ἱερουσαλὴμ εἰς κατάραν· ὁ οἶκος τὸ ἅγιον ἡμῶν, καὶ ἡ δόξα, ἣν ηὐλόγησαν οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν, ἐγενήθη πυρίκαυστος, καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐπίδοξα ἡμῶν συνέπεσαν· καὶ 235 ἐπὶ πᾶσι τούτοις ἀνέσχου, Κύριε, καὶ ἐσιώπησας· καὶ ἐταπείνωσας ἡμᾶς ἕως σφόδρα. Ἐμφανὴς ἐγενήθην τοῖς ἐμὲ μὴ ἐπερωτῶσιν· εὑρέθην τοῖς ἐμὲ μὴ ζητοῦσιν· εἶπα, Ἰδού εἰμι ἔθνει οἳ οὐκ ἐπεκαλέσαντό μου τὸ ὄνομα· ἐπὶ δὲ σὲ ἐξεπέτασα τὰς χεῖράς μου ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν πρὸς λαὸν ἀπειθοῦντα καὶ ἀντιλέγοντα, οἳ οὐκ ἐπορεύθησαν ὁδῷ ἀληθινῇ, ἀλλ' ὀπίσω τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν αὐτῶν. Καὶ ἐνταῦθα προφητευθείσης πρότερον τῆς τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ ἀποβολῆς, ἑξῆς σημαίνεται ἡ τῶν ἐθνῶν ἐκλογὴ διὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ γενομένη· ἐκ προσώπου γάρ τοι τοῦ λαοῦ εὐχὴν ἀναπέμψαντος τοῦ προφήτου, ὁ λόγος ἀποκρίνεται τὴν σκληρίαν καὶ τὸ ἀπειθὲς τοῦ προτέρου λαοῦ διελέγχων, καὶ τὸ φιλάνθρωπον τὸ ἑαυτοῦ παριστάς· πῶς γὰρ, φησὶ, ταῦτα φατὲ ὡς ἐμοῦ πρὸς τὸ σώζειν ὑμᾶς ὀκνοῦντος; καὶ μὴν καὶ τοῖς μὴ ἐπερωτήσασί με, μὴ δὲ ζητήσασιν ἐμφανῶς ἐμαυτὸν παρέστησα. Καὶ δὴ πρόδηλον ὅπως ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος τὸ πρότερον ἀγνοούμενος τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, ἐπὶ συντελείᾳ τῶν αἰώνων, ἀγαθότητι καὶ φιλανθρωπείᾳ τοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ Θεοῦ τῶν ὅλων, ἐμφανὴς αὐτοῖς ἐγενήθη, μηδεπώποτε αὐτὸν δι' ἣν εἶχον περὶ τὰ εἴδωλα πλάνην περὶ ὧν ἐδέοντο ἐρωτήσασι, εὑρέθη τε ἡμῖν τοῖς μὴ ζητήσασιν αὐτὸν, ἀλλὰ καὶ μὴ ἐπικαλεσαμένοις αὐτοῦ τὸ ὄνομα ἐνανθρωπήσας ἀπεκρίνατο, μονονουχὶ βοῶν τὸ, ἰδοὺ πάρειμι. Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν περὶ τῆς τῶν ἐθνῶν κλήσεως σαφῶς ὁ λόγος προφητεύει· ἑξῆς δὲ αὖθις δυσωπητικώτατα πρὸς τὸν τῶν Ἰουδαίων λόγον ἐπιφέρει λέγων, ἐπὶ δὲ σὲ ἐξεπέτασα τὰς χεῖράς μου, πρὸς λαὸν ἀπειθοῦντα καὶ 236 ἀντιλέγοντα. ∆ύναταί γε μὴν διὰ τούτων καὶ τὸ σχῆμα τοῦ κατὰ τὸν σταυρὸν πάθους αὐτοῦ σημαίνεσθαι. Τοσαῦτα καὶ τὰ ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἡσαίου· ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἐν τέτταρσι καὶ τὴν τῶν Ἐκλογῶν ὑπόθεσιν ἐν τῷ τῆς Καθόλου Στοιχειώδους Εἰσαγωγῆς ἐνάτῳ τούτῳ συγγράμματι περιγράψαντες, ἐν τῷ δεκάτῳ τοῖς ἀπὸ τῶν ἀθέων αἱρέσεων τὸν λογισμὸν καταβεβλαμμένοις ἑτέραν ἁρμόττουσαν ἔφοδον παρασχεῖν πειρασόμεθα.