Chap. XLVI.—It is Proved from the Prophets that the Passion and Death of Christ Had Been Foretold.

And the prophets had predicted that all these things would thus come to pass. Isaiah thus speaks:1514    Isa. l. 5.   “I am not rebellious, nor do I oppose: I gave my back to the scourge, and my cheeks to the hand: I turned not away my face from the foulness of spitting.” The same prophet says respecting His silence:1515    Isa. liii. 7.   “I was brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.” David also, in the xxxivth Psalm:1516    Ps. xxxv. 15, 16. See Instit., iv. 18.   “The abjects were gathered together against me, and they knew me not: they were scattered, yet felt no remorse: they tempted me, and gnashed upon me with their teeth.” The same also says respecting food and drink in the lxviiith Psalm:1517    Ps. lxix. 21.   “They gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” Also respecting the cross of Christ:1518    Ps. xxii. 16–18.   “And they pierced my hands and my feet, they numbered all my bones: they themselves have looked and stared upon me; they parted my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” Moses also says in Deuteronomy:1519    Deut. xxviii. 66.   “ And thy life shall hang in doubt before thine eyes, and thou shall fear day and night, and shall have none assurance of thy life.” Also in Numbers:1520    Num. xxiii. 19.   “God is not in doubt as a man, nor does He suffer threats as the son of man.” Also Zechariah says:1521    Zech. xii. 10.   “And they shall look on me whom they pierced.” Amos1522    Amos viii. 9, 10.   thus speaks of the obscuring of the sun: “In that day, saith the Lord, the sun shall go down at noon, and the clear day shall be dark; and I will turn your feasts into mourning, and your songs into lamentation.” Jeremiah1523    Jer. xv. 9.   also speaks of the city of Jerusalem, in which He suffered: “Her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she hath been confounded and reviled, and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword.” Nor were these things spoken in vain. For after a short time the Emperor Vespasian subdued the Jews, and laid waste their lands with the sword and fire, besieged and reduced them by famine, overthrew Jerusalem, led the captives in triumph, and prohibited the others who were left from ever returning to their native land. And these things were done by God on account of that crucifixion of Christ, as He before declared this to Solomon in their Scriptures, saying,1524    1 Kings ix. 7–9.   “And Israel shall be for perdition and a reproach1525    See Instit., iv. 18, p. 121, supra.   to the people, and this house shall be desolate; and every one that shall pass by shall be astonished, and shall say, Why hath God done these evils to this land, and to this house? And they shall say, Because they forsook the Lord their God, and persecuted their King, who was dearly beloved by God, and crucified Him with great degradation, therefore hath God brought upon them these evils.” For what would they not deserve who put to death their Lord, who had come for their salvation?  

CAPUT XLVI. (Div. Inst. lib. IV, c. 18.) Probatur ex prophetis passionem ac mortem Christi praenuntiatam fuisse.

Quae omnia prophetae sic futura esse praedixerant. Esaias ita dicit: Non sum contumax, neque contradico: dorsum meum posui ad flagella, et maxillas meas ad palmas; faciem autem meam non averti a foeditate sputorum. 1053C Idem de silentio: Sicut ovis ad immolandum adductus sum, et sicut agnus coram tondentibus sine voce, sic non aperuit os suum. Item David in Psalmo XXXIV: Congregata sunt in me flagella, et ignoraverunt: dissoluti sunt, nec compuncti sunt; tentaverunt me, et 1054A striderunt super me dentibus suis. Idem de cibo et potu, Psalmo LXVIII: Et dederunt in escam meam fel, et in siti mea potum mihi dederunt acetum. Item de cruce Christi: Et foderunt manus meas et pedes meos. dinumeraverunt omnia ossa mea: ipsi autem contemplati sunt, et viderunt me; diviserunt vestimenta mea sibi, et super vestem meam sortem miserunt. Moyses in Deuteronomio:: Et erit pendens vita tua ante oculos tuos, et timebis die et nocte, et non credes vitae tuae. Item in Numeris: Non quasi homo Dominus suspenditur, neque quasi filius hominis minas patitur. Item Zacharias: Et intuebuntur in me, quem transfixerunt.

De solis obscuratione Amos ita dicit: In illo die, dicit Dominus, occidet sol meridie, et obtenebrabitur dies lucis; et convertam dies festos vestros in luctum, 1054B et cantica vestra in lamentationem. Item Jeremias de civitate Hierosolyma in qua passus est: Et subivit sol ei, cum adhuc dies medius esset, confusa est et maledicta, reliquos eorum in gladium dabo. Nec frustra haec dicta sunt. Siquidem post breve tempus imperator Vespasianus Judaeos debellavit, et terras eorum ferro ignique depopulatus est, obsessos fame subegit, Hierosolymam evertit, captivos triumphavit, caeteris, qui reliqui fuerunt, terris suis interdixit, nequando iis ad solum patrium reverti liceret. Quae a Deo propter illam Christi crucem facta sunt, ut hoc in Scripturis eorum Salomon ante testatus sit dicens: Et erit Israel in perditionem, et in improperium populo, et domus haec erit deserta, et omnis qui transiet per illam, admirabitur et dicet: Propter quam rem Deus fecit terrae huic et huic domui haec mala? et dicent, quia dereliquerunt 1054C Dominum Deum suum, et persecuti sunt Regem suum dilectissimum Deo, et cruciaverunt illum in humilitate magna: pro hoc importavit illis Deus mala haec. Quid enim non mererentur, qui Dominum, qui ad salutem ipsorum venerat, peremerunt.