Eusebius of Caesarea — Commentary on Scripture

Numbers 36:6

This is the thing which the LORD doth command concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, Let them marry to whom they think best; only to the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry.

Now, since the genealogy of Joseph is so traced, Mary also appears virtually to have been of the same tribe as he, since, according to the law of Moses, intermarriages between different tribes were not permitted. For it was commanded to join in marriage with one of the same family and of the same people, so that the inheritance of the race might not be changed from tribe to tribe.

Philippians 2:6

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

[Paul] acknowledged Christ and no other to be the Son of God. The flesh that Christ assumed was called “the form of a slave” and “son of man.” But as to that birth which, unknown to all, was from the Father and before all ages, he was Son of God.

Philippians 2:7

But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

Read the record of his compassion. It pleased him, being the Word of God, to “take the form of a slave.” So he willed to be joined to our common human condition. He took to himself the toils of the members who suffer. He made our human maladies his own. He suffered and toiled on our behalf. This is in accord with his great love of humankind.

Philippians 2:9

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

That [saving sacrifice] which no human or angelic or divine power had yet endured he accepted for the sake of our salvation. Therefore upon him alone the Father has bestowed the name that is above every name, committing to him the judgment of all.

Proverbs 8:22

The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.

The divine and perfect essence existing before things begotten, the rational and firstborn image of the unbegotten nature, the true and only-begotten Son of the God of the universe, being one with many names, and one called God by many titles, is honored in this passage under the style and name of wisdom, and we have learned to call him Word of God, light, life, truth, and, to crown all, “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Now, therefore, in the passage before us, he passes through the words of the wise Solomon, speaking of himself as the living wisdom of God and self-existent, saying, “I, wisdom, have dwelt with counsel and knowledge, and I have called upon understanding,” and that which follows. He also adds, as one who has undertaken the government and providence of the universe: “By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes become great.” Then saying that he will record the things of ages past, he goes on to say, “The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works, he established me before time was.” By which he teaches both that he himsel…

The divine and perfect essence existing before things begotten, the rational and firstborn image of the unbegotten nature, the true and only-begotten Son of the God of the universe, being one with many names, and one called God by many titles, is honored in this passage under the style and name of wisdom, and we have learned to call him Word of God, light, life, truth, and, to crown all, “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Now, therefore, in the passage before us, he passes through the words of the wise Solomon, speaking of himself as the living wisdom of God and self-existent, saying, “I, wisdom, have dwelt with counsel and knowledge, and I have called upon understanding,” and that which follows. He also adds, as one who has undertaken the government and providence of the universe: “By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes become great.” Then saying that he will record the things of ages past, he goes on to say, “The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works, he established me before time was.” By which he teaches both that he himself is begotten, and not the same as the unbegotten, one called into being before all ages, set forth as a kind of foundation for all begotten things. And it is probable that the divine apostle started from this when he said of him: “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, for all things were created in him, of things in heaven and things in earth.” For he is called “firstborn of every creature,” in accordance with the words “The Lord created me as the beginning of his road to his works.” And he would naturally be considered the image of God, as being that which was begotten of the nature of the unbegotten. And, therefore, the passage before us agrees when it says, “Before the mountains were established, and before all the hills, he begets me.”Hence we call him only-begotten Son, and the firstborn Word of God, who is the same as this wisdom.

Psalms 1:1 · 2 passages

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

Our Savior, who made many blessed, offers happiness in abundance. He is the first of them who rightly are called blessed. The first psalm, therefore, must refer to him inasmuch as he is the husband of his bride the church. Which, it seems, the Hebrew word for “man” indicates when it is written with the article added.

The first are the people who are saturated with well-known false reasoning, wicked people who grasp nothing firmly and with stability; they are swayed through their own will with no testing of their oppressive thought. The second are people who time after time fall into sin after the understanding of truth. The third group includes morally corrupt people who labor in no measure of grief, but they will thoroughly fill others with corrupt doctrine, either by their thinking, or by their behavior or by both. These are people who are grounded in evil, while the second group continues in sin and the first walks the way of error. The one who is called blessed is freed and delivered from all of these.

Psalms 2:1-2

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

The leaders of the nations throughout the whole world and the kings of the earth who have held dominion at various times have all been drawn into this impious alliance together, holding on to whatever insult or for whatever reason, or having suffered whatever offense, so that they devise treacheries, they enter into the wicked counsel against the Lord of the universe and God the King and against his anointed one.

Psalms 3:4

I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.

The preceding psalm calls to mind this mountain when it says, “I have installed my king on mount Zion, my holy mountain.” Christ was the one he was speaking of, and now David bears witness that he must be heard plainly by Christ from his holy mountain. Further, he says who is going to hear him except the Lord who has been installed as king upon Zion his holy mountain? Through this statement he [David], now alone, believed that he would be forgiven, that his glory would return and that his head would be lifted up.

Psalms 3:5

I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me.

As in the previous psalm so here the future is prophesied.… “I lie down, and I sleep” is spoken prophetically, namely, I will lie down, I will sleep, I will rise up, because you, Oh Lord, are my sustainer, my glory and the lifter of my head.… For “sleep” indicates death, concerning which the future is prophesied for us. It refers to the time of the life of the Savior, which when it was finished, prophecy came to an end; when, namely, the Son of man Christ descended even to hell and the Savior was clearly shown to the captives who were awaiting destruction; so as in the time of his resurrection from death many bodies of the saints who had been sleeping will live again with him, in whom was the likeness of the spirit of David.

Psalms 3:6

I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about.

He predicts that there are going to be many thousands of adversaries who will wish to hinder the resurrection of the saints because they are jealous of their salvation: which ones I will regard as nothing, he said. I have trusted my defender, the victor over death, who, after the bronze gates were torn down and the iron bolts thoroughly broken, opened the gates of death that had been closed for ages, and with those people known to him, from which number was David, he prepared for the resurrection life.

Psalms 3:7

Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.

When he foresees his deliverance after death, he has faith that he has been saved by grace and that kindness has been granted. He is certain that this faith of some in the resurrection of the Savior is able to come to him, and consequently he prays that the resurrection of the Lord be hastened so that through it he himself will experience salvation.… Now, he says, you have broken the teeth of sinners; that is, their conversations and blasphemous words hurled against me you have stripped away.

Psalms 4:2

O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah.

David seems to be speaking here of those who, when being tested and put through various trials, would rather do anything than find refuge in God. Why is it necessary, he asks, to be disturbed and upset at the conditions of the times? What makes you hand yourselves over to vanity, you heavy-hearted people? Why do you seek lies and leave the truth behind? Rather than being informed by these things, know that the Lord God is the one who watches and controls everything, the one who never ever deserts his own righteous ones but always does miraculous things for them. You yourselves, as the upright, know that the Lord is going to be near to you and me whenever you will call out to him.

Psalms 4:8

I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.

Even if grief, calamities, temptations, disasters are not lacking to me in this present life, nevertheless there is a future time for me in which I will depart from the body and sleep in peace.

Psalms 5:3

My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

The person “who inherits” (as in the title of the psalm) is consecrated by prayers and by service to God as the first fruits of his daily deeds. Moreover, it is a token of his innocence to go forth from his chamber cleansed by his pure prayers and to be able to say to God, “Early in the morning I will wait on you, and I will look up.”

Psalms 5:9

For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.

Vain is the heart of the philosophers of alien ideas, about whom it is said, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain”; from their throats they spew out death-bearing dogmas as they teach the Word of God is not alive, and they bring forth lies and words of death.

Psalms 5:11

But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.

It is the goal of good people to receive the inheritance promised to them, to follow the Lord, to have him living within as a companion, in accordance with those things that were promised, saying, “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Psalms 6:2

Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed.

Every fault arises from weakness because the spirit is always inclined to a wicked disposition, on account of which it flees to the Savior and Healer, namely, the Son of God. For when one comes to the word and reason of God, he gives up his unreasonable actions; as wisdom frees the spirit from foolishness, justice from injustice, truth from lying.

Psalms 7:7

So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about: for their sakes therefore return thou on high.

“A great crowd of people will surround you” when you [Lord Jesus] root out your enemies, when the lie of the demons is destroyed, when the assembly of the elect is established and when it becomes the one who calls the nations. Then you, placed in the midst of it as if in a chorus, will bring a hymn to that church worthy of your Father, and so by you, O Lord, it is spoken: “I will tell your name to my brothers; I will praise you in the midst of the church.” David prophesies all these things through the Holy Spirit, indicating a theophany of the Savior, things that are not to be passed over as for himself alone but for every race of humankind.

Psalms 7:11

God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.

God alone is the just Judge, he alone is the one who sees hearts. He gives to each one according to his works. Truly, “man looks at the outward appearance,” but the Lord is a judge of thoughts and the feelings of the spirit. There is no judgment hidden from him.