Read City of God (Penguin Classics) Online
Authors: Saint Augustine
29.
Isaiah’s prophecies about Christ and his Church
The prophet Isaiah is not in the book of the Twelve Prophets. These twelve are called ‘minor’ prophets because their discourses are brief in comparison with those called ‘major’ by reason of the lengthy volumes they composed. Among these latter is Isaiah, whom I connect with the two discussed above because they were contemporaries in prophecy. Now Isaiah in the course of his arraignment of wrong and his teaching of righteousness, among his predictions of the disasters that were to come upon the sinful people, also made many more prophecies than the others about Christ and the Church, that is, about the king and the City which he founded, so much so that by some commentators Isaiah was called an evangelist rather than a prophet.
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But because I am determined to keep my book within bounds I shall quote here only one of many passages. Speaking, it is to be understood, in the character of God the Father, he says,
See, my servant will understand; he will be exalted and glorified exceedingly. As many will be appalled at you, so will your appearance be deprived of glory from men and your glory be dishonoured by men. So will many nations wonder at him; and kings will keep their mouths shut: for those
who were told nothing of him will see, and those who had not heard will understand. Lord, who has believed what we have heard, and to whom has the strong arm of the Lord been revealed? We announced him in his presence as an infant, like a root in the thirsty ground. He has neither beauty nor glory. And we saw him, and he had neither looks nor grace; his appearance was without honour and inferior to that of all men. He was a man suffering punishment, one who knew how to bear infirmity. Because his face was turned away from us, he was dishonoured and not highly esteemed. He bears our sins and suffers for our sake; and we thought of him as someone in pain and punishment and affliction. But he was wounded for our wickedness and was weakened on account of our sins. The discipline which brings us peace fell on him, and by his bruises we have been healed. We have all strayed like sheep; man has strayed from his true way: and the Lord has handed him over for our sins; and he, for all his afflictions, did not open his mouth. As a sheep is led to slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is dumb, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was denied justice. Who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth. Because of the iniquities of my people he was led to death. And I shall give him the wicked for his burial and the rich for his death; because he practised no iniquity and there was no deceit in his mouth. And the Lord chooses to cleanse him from suffering. If you give your life for sin, you will see a long-lived posterity; and the Lord chooses to rescue his soul from pain, to show him light and to form his understanding, to justify the righteous one who serves many well; and he himself will bear their sins. Therefore he will inherit many and divide the spoils of the mighty ones, because his soul was surrendered to death, and he was reckoned among the wicked and bore the sins of many, and was handed over for their sins.
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So much was said about Christ. And now let us listen to what follows, which concerns the Church: ‘Rejoice’, he says,
you barren woman, you who bear no children; break out into shouts, you who do not give birth. For children of the deserted woman are many, more than those of her who has a husband. Widen the space of your tent and of your hangings; fix your pegs, do not hang back; lengthen your ropes and strengthen your tent-pole, extend still to the right and the left. For your descendants will take possession of the nations, and you will people the deserted cities. Do not be afraid because you are made ashamed; do not be dismayed because you have been reproached; for you will forget your endless shame, and you will not remember the reproach of your widowhood. Because it is the Lord who made you; his name is the Lord of Hosts: and he who rescues you, the God of Israel, will be called the God of the whole earth.
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This must suffice. There are a number of points in it that demand
explanation; but there are, in my judgement, enough points in the passage so plain that even our opponents are forced to recognize their meaning, though much against their will.
30.
The prophecies of Micah, Jonah and Joel connected with the new covenant
The prophet Micah gives a picture of Christ in the image of a great mountain, when he says,
In the last days the mountain of the Lord will be revealed, set on top of the mountains, and will be lifted up above the hills. And peoples will hasten to it, and many nations will go to it, saying, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will show us his way and we shall walk in his paths; because the Law will go out from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.’ And he will judge between many peoples, and rebuke powerful nations even far off.
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This prophet also foretold the place of Christ’s birth. ‘And you, Bethlehem’, he says,
the house of Ephrata, are very small to be among the clans of Judah; yet out of you shall come forth for me one who is to be a leader over Israel. His origins are from the beginning and from the days of eternity. Therefore he will give them over, until the time when the woman in labour bears her child, and the remnant of his brothers will turn back to the sons of Israel. He will stand and look and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, and they will be in the honour of the name of his God; for now he will be magnified even to the end of the world.
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The prophet Jonah, for his part, prophesied of Christ not so much by his verbal message as by some of his experiences; in fact, he prophesied more plainly in this way than if he had proclaimed Christ’s death and resurrection in words. For why was he taken into the belly of the monster, and given back on the third day, except to signify that Christ would come back from the depths of hell on the third day?
All the prophecies of Joel demand much explanatory comment to throw light on the points which are connected with Christ and his Church. However, there is one passage which I shall not pass over. It is the text quoted also by the apostles, when, in fulfilment of Christ’s promise, the Holy Spirit came down from above upon the assembled believers. ‘It will happen’, says Joel, ‘after this, that I shall pour out my spirit over all mortals: and your sons and daughters will prophesy;
your old men will dream dreams and your young men will see visions. Indeed, at that time I shall pour out my spirit on my servants and my maidservants.’
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31.
The predictions about the salvation of the world in Christ found in Obadiah, Nahum, and Habbakuk
Three of the minor prophets, Obadiah, Nahum and Habbakuk, do not tell us their dates; nor is the time of their prophecies to be found in the
Chronicle
of Eusebius and Jerome. Obadiah, it is true, is placed by them with Micah, but not in the passage where a note is given of the date when Micah is known from his own writings to have prophesied. This, I suppose, is due to the error of scribes inattentively copying the works of others. But I have not been able to find a mention of the other two in the copies of
Chronicle
in my possession. Nevertheless, since they are included in the canon, it is not right for me to pass them over.
Obadiah is the shortest of all the prophets in respect of his writings. He holds forth against Edom, that is the race of Esau, the elder of the twin sons of Isaac, grandsons of Abraham, the one who was rejected. Now if we take Edom as standing for the Gentiles, by the ‘part for whole’ figure of speech, we can recognize a prophecy of Christ where Obadiah says, among other things, ‘Now on Mount Sion there will be salvation and there will be a holy place.’ And a little later, at the end of this prophecy, ‘And those who have been saved will go up from Mount Sion, to defend Mount Esau; and the kingdom will be the Lord’s.
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It is quite obvious that this was fulfilled when those saved from Mount Sion – that is, those from Judaea who believed in Christ, and in particular those recognized as apostles – went up to defend Mount Esau. How were they to defend it, except by bringing salvation, through the preaching of the gospel, to those who became believers, so that they should be rescued from the power of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of God? This is expressed by the addition of the next words: ‘And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.’ For Mount Sion signifies Judaea, where it was predicted that there would be salvation and a holy place, which is Christ Jesus. Whereas Mount Esau is Edom, by which is signified the Church of the Gentiles; and, as I have explained, the saved from Mount Sion defended it, so that it should be a kingdom for the lord. This was obscure before the event: but what believer could fail to recognize the event?
Now the prophet Nahum says – or rather God speaks through him, saying,
I shall abolish the carved and the moulded images, and I shall make your tomb. For look, the feet of the bringer of good news, the herald of peace, come swiftly over the mountains. Judah, celebrate your feast-days, fulfil your vows; for from now on they will not go on further, to pass into old age. It is finished, it is consumed, it is removed. He comes up who breathes in your face, snatching you away from tribulation.
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Who is it who will come up from the underworld and will breathe the Holy Spirit on the face of Judah, that is on the Jewish disciples? Anyone who remembers the Gospel can recall.
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For those whose feast-days are made new, in a spiritual sense, so that they cannot pass into old age, belong to the new covenant. Moreover, it is by the gospel that the carved and the moulded images, that is, the idols of false gods, have been abolished; and we already see them consigned to oblivion, as if to the tomb. And in this once again we recognize the fulfilment of a prophecy.
As for Habbakuk, we can scarcely understand him to be speaking of anything else but the coming of Christ, who was destined to appear, when he says,
Then the Lord answered me, saying: ‘Write the vision plainly on a tablet so that he who reads these things may follow; for the vision is still awaiting its time, and it will come to reality in the end, and it will not be to no purpose. If it is slow in coming, wait for it, because it will surely come and will not be delayed.’
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32.
The prophecy in Habbakuk’s prayer and song; an exposition
Again, in his prayer, combined with a song,
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to whom but the lord Christ is Habbakuk speaking when he says, ‘Lord, I heard your discourse, and I was afraid: Lord, I considered your works, and I was filled with dread’? For can this represent anything but the indescribable amazement aroused by the foreknowledge of a new and sudden salvation for mankind? ‘Between the two living creatures you will be recognized’ can surely only mean between the two covenants, or between the two thieves, or between Moses and Elijah conversing with him on the mountain. ‘When the years approach you will be known, when the time has come you will be shown’ needs no explanation.
‘When my soul is disturbed in wrath you will remember mercy’ can only mean that the speaker assumes the role of the Jews, to whose nation he belonged; for when they were ‘disturbed in great wrath’ and were crucifying Christ, he ‘remembered mercy’ and said, ‘Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.’
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‘God will come from Teman, and the Holy One from the darkly shaded, thickly covered mountain.’ The words, ‘he will come from Teman’, are taken by some translators as meaning ‘from the south’ or ‘from the south-east’, signifying midday, that is, the warmth of affection and the brightness of truth. The shaded, thickly covered mountain is indeed susceptible of a variety of interpretations; but I should be inclined to take it as standing for the profundity of the inspired Scriptures in which Christ is prophesied. There are, to be sure, many ‘shaded and thickly covered’ passages there, to exercise the mind of the inquirer. But Christ ‘comes from’ there, when he is found there by the reader who understands the meaning. ‘His glory has covered the heavens, and the earth is filled with his praise’ must mean the same as what is said in the psalm: ‘Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and your glory over all the earth.’
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‘His brightness will be like the light.’ Can this mean anything except that his fame will enlighten those who believe in him? ‘Horns are in his hands’ can only refer to the trophy of the cross. ‘And he has established a steadfast love for his strength’ demands no explanation.
‘His word will go before his face, and it will go out on to the plain after his feet.’ This can only mean that even before he came here he was fore-announced, and after he had departed hence he was proclaimed. ‘He stood still, and the earth was moved’ must surely mean that he stood still to help us, and the world was moved to believe. ‘He looked and the nations wasted away’; that is, he had mercy, and brought the people to repentance. ‘The mountains were ground down by violence’; that is, the arrogance of the proud was ground down by the might displayed in his miracles. ‘The eternal hills melted away’; that is, they were brought low for a time, so that they might be raised up for eternity. ‘I saw his eternal entrances in return for his labours’; that is, I observed that his labour of love was not without eternal reward. ‘The tents of the Ethiopians will cower in fear, also the pavilions of the land of Midian’; that is, the nations, suddenly terrified at the news of your wonderful deeds, will form part of the Christian people, even those nations who are not under Roman rule.
‘Can it be that you are angry with the rivers, Lord, or that your fury is against the rivers, and your attack against the sea?’ The meaning of this is that he does not now come to judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him.
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‘Because you will mount your horses, and your riding will be salvation’; that is, your evangelists will convey you, and they will be guided by you, and your Gospel will be salvation for those who believe in you. ‘You will surely bend your bow against sceptres, says the Lord’; that is, you will threaten even the kings of the earth with your judgement. ‘The earth will be cleft by rivers’; that is, by the flowing in of the discourses of the preachers the hearts of men will be opened to acknowledge you, the men to whom it was said, ‘Rend your hearts, not your clothes.’
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What is meant by ‘the peoples will see you and will grieve’ except that they will be blessed by their lamentation?
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What is meant by ‘scattering the waters as you go’? Surely that as you walk, in the persons of those who bring news of you in every place, you spread the streams of doctrine on this side and that.
What is expressed by ‘the abyss uttered its voice’ except that the depth of the human heart has declared its decision? ‘The depth of its imagination’ is a kind of explanation of the previous verse, for ‘depth’ is the same as ‘abyss.’ And with ‘its imagination’ the words ‘uttered its voice’ must be supplied, meaning, as I said, ‘declared its decision.’ For ‘imagination’ is, without doubt, a vision which the heart did not keep to itself, and did not hide; it burst out with it in acknowledgement. ‘The sun was raised on high, the moon halted in her course’; that is, Christ ascended to heaven, and the Church took her appointed place beneath her king. ‘Your javelins will go out into the light’; that is, your words will not be issued into obscurity but into the open. ‘Into the brightness of the glittering of your arms’; here we must supply ‘your javelins will go.’ For he had said to his friends, ‘What I am telling you in the darkness, speak out in the light.’
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‘By your threatening you will diminish the earth’; that is, you will humble men by your threats. ‘And in fury you will cast down nations’, because by your vengeance you will crush those who exalt themselves. ‘You have gone out for the salvation of your people, so that you may save your anointed ones; you have sent death on the heads of the wicked’; there is nothing here needing explanation.
‘You have raised up bonds as far as the neck’; those bonds can be taken as meaning the good bonds of wisdom so that our feet are put
into its fetters, and our neck into its collar. ‘You have cut through, to the amazement of his mind’; we supply ‘bonds’, for he has raised up the good bonds, while cutting through the evil (which are referred to when he is told, ‘You have broken my bonds’
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), and this ‘to the amazement of his mind’; that is, in miraculous fashion. ‘The heads of the mighty will be moved in that’; ‘in that
amazement’
, to be sure. ‘They will open wide their mouths to bite, like a poor man eating in secret.’ For there were certain members of the Jewish ruling class who came to the Lord, in admiration of his deeds and words, and in hunger for the bread of doctrine; but they ate it in secret for fear of the Jews. They are revealed as doing this in the Gospel story.
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‘Then you drove your horses into the sea, stirring up many waters’, which simply means ‘many people’; for it would not have happened that some were converted through fear, while others persecuted in fury, if they had not all been stirred up. ‘I watched, and my heart was appalled at the sound of the speech of my lips; and trembling entered my bones, and all my body was troubled beneath me.’ He gave his attention to what he was saying, and he was terrified at his own speech, which he was pouring out in prophetic manner, and in which he discovered things that were to be. For in the disturbance of many peoples he saw the tribulations impending for the Church. Immediately he recognized himself as a member of that Church, and said, ‘I shall rest in the day of tribulation’, as belonging to the company of those who are ‘joyful because hopeful, steadfast under tribulation’,
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‘so that I may go up to join the people of my pilgrimage’, leaving, we may be sure, the wicked people, his own kin by blood, who were not on pilgrimage on this earth and were not looking for a heavenly country. ‘Because the fig tree’, he says, ‘will not yield fruit, and there will be no produce on the vines; the labour of the olive will disappoint, and the fields afford no food. The sheep have disappeared from the pasture, and no cattle survive at the mangers.’ He saw that the nation which was destined to kill Christ would lose its rich store of spiritual supplies, which he pictured allegorically, in prophetic fashion, in terms of the fertility of the land.
Now the reason why that nation suffered such an outburst of God’s anger was that in their ignorance of God’s way of righteousness they chose to set up their own.
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Hence he continues, ‘But
I
shall exult in the Lord; I shall rejoice in God my saviour. The Lord God is my strength; he will establish my feet to the end; he will set me on the
heights, so that I may triumph with his song.’ The reference is obviously to the song about which something similar is said in one of the psalms, ‘He has set my feet on a rock and guided my steps; and he has put into my mouth a new song, a hymn to our God.’
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Thus the man who triumphs with the Lord’s song is one who pleases God by praising him instead of praising himself, so that ‘he who is proud is proud of the Lord.’
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Some texts, by the way, have the reading, ‘I shall rejoice in God my Jesus’;
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this, in my view, is preferable to the version given by those who, in attempting to put the original phrase into Latin, have not used the actual name which for us is more welcome and more delightful to utter.