Eusebius of Caesarea — Commentary on Scripture

Isaiah 43:16

Although these things were done to the Babylonians and Chaldeans, prophetically speaking, the future things that are “not yet” shall be as if already accomplished. God has completed these by himself, comparing the present events with those that happened earlier: I showed my divinity to those in Egypt and led my people through the Red Sea. I made a way “in the mighty water” and a dry path through that same sea when I threw the chariots of Pharaoh and his forces into the sea to the bed prepared for them, sinking down to the abyss and no longer able to rise. They were like those of old who were bent like a snuffed wick in a burning flame. I worked such things among the ancients, who in turn passed on the memory of those wonders to those of old who followed. But for the present I command them no longer to be amazed at those deeds, neither those done in Babylon nor those in Egypt.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:25

Isaiah 43:22-24

For there was no mention at all of such things required from you in the laws of the new covenant that I established through my servant whom I chose. But you did not offer these things to me. If it had been necessary to say such things, you still probably would have done something contrary. “In your sins is your preference” or as the other interpreters put it, “in your sins and in your unrighteous acts you called on me.”

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:25

Isaiah 44:9-10

Isaiah sees that in the ensuing time a very great number of people will arise who all “will be ashamed” and who will cease from their continual error. They will be ashamed and hide their faces. If they persist in their error, however, they will be given over to destruction at the time of judgment. But this word is also for those of us now in the present.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:26

Isaiah 44:15

What do you think of them, and what is the nature of those who make gods from inanimate statues? For it is easy to see in the latter that they are works of artisans, prepared by axes and drills and such tools, the invention of skillful and industrious people, who through a need of food have found an instrument of leisurely falsehood. What do you think of the nature of God and about whether God needs our sacrifices and whether God is weak, as if according to Symmachus he is hungry and weak and feeble and cannot even drink water. The statement that God cannot drink water implies that he desperately needs liquid, while in fact God shares in no such thing, as though he were a dumb creature.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:26

Isaiah 45:7

“From my works they will learn; for when I needed to inflict pain on my people for their repentance and discipline, I gave them up to warfare as if handing them over to darkness and wrath on account of their wickedness.” Once they have turned and received help, [God] will deem it right to restore them, and it follows that the light of peace and of all good things will rise on them, but in my judgment also the things of wrath. So learn this lesson from me. As I am the creator of light and the leader of peace, likewise am I of dark things and those things considered painful. The evil things have been reckoned to the many whose creator inflicts evil on them. He does so whenever his righteous judgment appoints such, according to the various ways they deserve evil as judgment on their sins.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:27

Isaiah 45:13

[The Septuagint reads], “You are God, and we knew it not.” The words “we knew it not,” spoken in the person of those of old who did not know him, occur only in the Septuagint. The Hebrew is different and is rendered by Aquila, “God then is strong and hidden, God that saves Israel,” and by Theodotion, “Therefore a strong secret God preserves Israel.” It is remarkable how [Isaiah] calls Christ a hidden God and gives the reason clearly as to why he calls him God alone among the ones begotten after the First and Unbegotten, namely, the dwelling of the Father in him.…According to this, then, the true and only God must be One and alone owning the name in full right. The Second, by sharing in the being of the true God, is thought worthy to share his name, not being God in himself or existing apart from the Father, but altogether being, living and existing as God, through the presence of the Father in him. [He is] one in being with the Father, and constituted God from him and through him, holding his being as well as his divinity not from himself but from the Father.

PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 5:4

Isaiah 45:22

Or as Symmachus puts it: “Run to me and be saved, all the extremities of the earth.” You see how he proclaims the catholic gospel to all the nations.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:29

Isaiah 45:23

The coming of our Savior Jesus Christ fulfilled the goal of this prophecy, after which, in his church, all people, who have been brought together from throughout the world, have been taught to bend their knee to God in prayer.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:29

Isaiah 46:1

The prophecy has described those things concerning the conversion of the nations and those concerning the elect of the seed of the sons of Israel, and it now turns once more to address the Jews and intends the complete destruction of idolatry … (following Symmachus, “their idols have become the prey of animals,” that is, cast aside into total destitution). According to the literal sense, this has been fulfilled among us by these very deeds, while according to a spiritual understanding it concerns the heavy and burdensome and diabolic load of deceitful idolatry that used to lie on the souls of people.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:30

Isaiah 46:3

After your apostasies I will still continue to call you to repentance, since you are my creation. I created you; therefore I sustain you. I promise I will make atonement for your sins, if you change.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:31

Isaiah 46:6

And despite my exhortation you delayed in expelling such blasphemy and ungodliness, daring to compare me with those who lack being and in no way have my divinity. You esteemed me as equal to soulless wood that you shaped. You added gold and silver from contributions and made a statue from human hands, and you were not ashamed to worship it. These idols were not able to walk, let alone move, but they needed to be carried on your shoulders or dragged around by others. They are unable to hear prayers or to save.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:31

Isaiah 46:11

Who other can this be than his Christ, who, it says, has been called from a distant land, that is, from the innermost part of Hades? All the things I have announced before him, I will bring into action through him.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:31

Isaiah 47:5

These words are spoken by the Lord, our redeemer and the one who has freed us from a life of hard labor.… Or as Symmachus puts it, “You will no longer be called queenly. For I was angry with my people and harmed my inheritance.” And I, for reasons of the right discipline, handed my people into your hands, as part of my taming them, but you showed fellow sufferers no kindness by treating them excessively harshly.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:32

Isaiah 47:9

And what follows describes very clearly the arrogance of the kingdom of the Chaldeans and the foolishness of their royal people, in such a way that they ascribed to themselves immortal power and an indestructible rule. However, suddenly you will experience a loss of men and the destruction of your children—that is, men to rule among you, and children meaning those to be ruled. These things will come at once upon you and reveal you abandoned and childless. This will affect you not only through these things proclaimed but also through the extent of sorceries and incantations.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:32

Isaiah 47:10

And since Isaiah could not find one man to address, he spoke to the daughter of the Chaldeans, promising these things especially: The astrologers of heaven maintained and supported you, announcing to you what was coming to you from heaven. For in this way we are taught that what the Lord wishes to give to each nation cannot be known by the lovers of learning.… But to us each word is gathered into two principal ones, first to the human customs of every city and to their good “daimons,” and second to oppose any sorcerers and deceivers and cheats, destroying and turning from the truth into the deceitfulness of human beings.

PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL 6:11

Isaiah 47:15

It is known from the writing of Daniel in what manner certain wizards and diviners and potion makers were eminent among those Chaldeans living in Babylon. And they were highly regarded by the king since the kingdom was ordered by them. They did not only dabble with potions and incantations, but through the knowledge of mathematical theorems they thought to understand the heavens, predicting the movement of the stars, their effects on human destiny and their power on the present according to the season, so as to learn to distinguish the things to come. But no mighty person is able to know the future from pondering on these things. Rather, the reward of fire will be received by those who pay too much attention to them.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:32

Isaiah 48:1

He calls them the house of Jacob as not being worthy of the name of their forefather. Rather, “those called by the name Israel” are not really Israel, and those bearing that name are not called such here. And he adds, “and coming forth from the water of Judah.” For they had nothing of the worthiness of the patriarchal soul, although they were descended from his fluid and bodily seed. For they were children only in the physical and carnal sense and not true children of the soul. But “Judah through the water” means the “kingly race” from David’s line that in the days of the prophets remained in Jerusalem. They were those who, being not truly worthy of these names, used “Jacob” and “Israel” and “Judah” falsely; for they were those who praised the name of the Lord and made mention of the God of Israel with only their lips and mouth.… For they did “not” take their oaths “in truth” if they were [at the same time] consulting oracles. But they even thought they were being loyal to the city which was dedicated to God when, in fact, they were resisting God and performing this hypocrisy.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:33

Isaiah 48:3

It is not in human nature to know things that are to come. I am the God who foretells them even now and who did so throughout former times. In addition, the predictions that previously came through the mouths of my other prophets as declarative of many things to come were reported by and complied with by those prophesying, to whom the events seemed to fit the words of the other prophets.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:33

Isaiah 48:4-8

These words would not be of any help to you if you had not been already warned. Nevertheless, dwelling in my loving-kindness, I still bear witness and distinguish you from those assembled in Babylon and the Chaldeans about to attack you. Open your eyes! As you see the foretold destruction taking hold when the warriors come from Babylon, you will know with understanding that God has told you these things would happen and you can call on his help when the predicted end strikes. These things are available to you from my words.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:33

Isaiah 48:5-8

In Symmachus’s translation: “And you, though faithless to the covenant, were called from the womb,” so that not through you but through my merciful love I foretold and showed to you the things that would come to destroy your enemies, hurrying to save you in every engagement with them.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:33