Theodoret of Cyrus — Commentary on Scripture

Isaiah 41:13

When we hear the prophet say, “You, Israel, my child, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, whom I have loved,” we do not think, do we, that the Jews are only flesh and not complete human beings composed of bodies and rational souls?… And [don’t we think] that the seed of Abraham is not without a soul and not without a mind but that it possesses everything that belongs to Abraham’s nature?… We confess one Son, who, according to the divine apostle, took hold of the seed of Abraham and brought about the salvation of human beings.

DIALOGUE 1

Isaiah 41:14

This shows clearly that the prophetic text applies to those who have believed in the Lord. It is a small part of Israel that believed, while the major part refused to. That is why Paul said that even at the present time there remains a remnant according to God’s gracious election.… As for the name “worm,” it fits very well. In the first place, this remnants’ appearance was contemptible. In fact, this is what the divine apostle meant when he said, “God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise.” But Isaiah calls them worms for another reason. The worm that lodges in wood of poor quality will in a short time wear it down. Similarly, those who are athletes of the truth will, while hidden and imperceptible, destroy the error of the idols.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 12:41.14

Isaiah 41:18

He refers in this way to those who have been entrusted with the grace of instruction. For he has said in the holy Gospels: “He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” “I will make the desert pools of water and a parched land springs.” He gives the name “desert” to the Gentiles; this promise had been made to them similarly in the preceding passages.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 12:41.18

Isaiah 41:21

To the expression “your judgment draws near,” Symmachus has given the following interpretation: “Present your case, the Lord has said; bring up your solid supports, the king of Jacob has said.” Become judges, he says, between myself and the idols; produce your solid props or, according to Theodotion, “your firm supports,” that is to say, the idols. Let them reveal the future; let them inform us of [the things] that have happened from the beginning. I, for my part, have not ceased to do the one and the other. Through my servant Moses, I have even taught what took place before the creation of humanity. As for the future, I have revealed it through [Moses] and through the other prophets.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 12:41.23

Isaiah 41:22

If you do not want to demonstrate your personal strength from your knowledge or prescience, then do so through a demonstration of your power. Demonstrate your power, whether it be kind or punishing. “It is I who will put to death and I who will bring to life, I who will strike down and I who will heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hands.” But because you are lacking in knowledge and in power, I will now expose your emptiness. “They have dug you from the ground as an abomination.” For whether they are wooden or from gold, silver or bronze, they all have their origin from the earth.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 12:41.24

Isaiah 41:25

He threatens the idols with destruction. He calls “the one who comes from the east” the righteousness that has awakened, concerning which he had earlier said, “Who has roused righteousness from the east?” And he calls the one from the north the church drawn from the nations, toward which came the one from Theman or from the “rainy country,” according to the other translators. For God came from Theman, that is, from the south. It is to this church that the Master Christ has revealed himself, finding it scattered by the deceit of the idols. He warmed [the church] with the southern rays and led it to life. Its leaders, priests and teachers have trampled the idols under their feet.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 12:41.25

Isaiah 41:26

And what has been accomplished confirms the text: the oracles spread through all parts of the earth and of the sea have ceased to speak, and those who used to attend to them openmouthed have now turned away from them to learn the truth.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 12:41.26

Isaiah 41:27-29

It is in a perfectly appropriate way that he both shows the stupid nature of the idols and accuses of impiety those who have fashioned them. For if the idols are inanimate, their makers are full of stupidity and impiety.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 12:41.29

Isaiah 42:3

[Isaiah] calls him “servant” or “slave,” according to the other interpreters, in connection with his humanity. It is in relation to this that he has [also] given him the name of Jacob and Israel, seeing that it is from Jacob, who is also Israel, that [Christ] descended according to the flesh. In the same way he also receives the most Holy Spirit, not insofar as [he is] God—for he lacks nothing—but as man for the purpose of becoming the model for those who have believed in him. Of this gentleness both his words and his deeds give witness: “Learn from me,” [Christ] says, “for I am gentle and lowly of heart.” Even when he received a blow to the face, he said to the one who struck him, “Friend, if I have spoken evil, bear witness to the evil; but if well, why do you strike me?” Although he could destroy those who unleashed rage against him by having lightning strike them immediately, he breaks them like a bruised reed and snuffs them like smoldering flax; he has borne their folly. For [Christ] was aware of the outcome of these events, and he knew that the truth would be manifested throug…

[Isaiah] calls him “servant” or “slave,” according to the other interpreters, in connection with his humanity. It is in relation to this that he has [also] given him the name of Jacob and Israel, seeing that it is from Jacob, who is also Israel, that [Christ] descended according to the flesh. In the same way he also receives the most Holy Spirit, not insofar as [he is] God—for he lacks nothing—but as man for the purpose of becoming the model for those who have believed in him. Of this gentleness both his words and his deeds give witness: “Learn from me,” [Christ] says, “for I am gentle and lowly of heart.” Even when he received a blow to the face, he said to the one who struck him, “Friend, if I have spoken evil, bear witness to the evil; but if well, why do you strike me?” Although he could destroy those who unleashed rage against him by having lightning strike them immediately, he breaks them like a bruised reed and snuffs them like smoldering flax; he has borne their folly. For [Christ] was aware of the outcome of these events, and he knew that the truth would be manifested through them. It was likewise even after he had been delivered over to death; he shone forth anew, filled the earth with truth and had invited the Gentiles to put their hope in him. It is this that the prophetic text has said: “In his name the nations put their trust.”

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 12:42.4

Isaiah 42:7

He calls “blind” here those who are impaired in their intellectual vision; he calls the same people imprisoned by the bonds of sin and held by the darkness of error. After having delivered them from the murk of ignorance and having broken the bonds of sin, he has led them to the light of truth.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 12:42.7

Isaiah 42:8

It is the Son who possesses the glory of the Father, and it is in the glory of the Father that he will manifest himself, for the divinity of the Son and of the Father is one. Thus, if God says that he will not give his glory to another and if the Son manifestly possesses the glory of the Father, it is evident that he is not another according to the essence but that [the Son] has the same nature as the Father.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 12:42.8-9

Isaiah 42:13

It is [Christ] who has destroyed the power of death; it is he who has crushed the way of sin; it is he who has made the tyranny of the devil to cease; it is he who has put an end to the error of idols.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 12:42.13

Isaiah 42:16

Again, God calls the people who suffer from unbelief and who are devoid of intellectual acuteness “the blind.” He promises to guide their steps on the way they do not know, for they failed to recognize the path of the truth but followed on the paths of error. “I will turn darkness into light for them.” After freeing them from their previous ignorance, I will deem them worthy of the knowledge of God, for ignorance is like darkness, whereas knowledge is analogous to the light. “And crooked things into straight.” For the difficult course of wisdom, of the governing of oneself and of justice, he has made an easy course, since he has attached the hope of future benefits to the efforts to claim virtue. “These are the words that I will fulfill for them; and I will not forsake them.” I will not cease to judge them worthy of these benefits, and I will lavish all kinds of care, even to the future.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 12:42.16

Isaiah 42:18

Who is as blind as the one who has moved away? Symmachus translates, “Who is as blind as the perfect and as blind as the servant of the Lord?” He says that although the nations are just as much in error, they do not deserve the same accusation. For they did not have the prophets guiding them toward the truth and were not deemed worthy of such attention. “The one who is far off” has the same meaning; he who has been called by God has left the service of God, preferring the worship of idols.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 13:42.19

Isaiah 42:22

He has taught us both the divine object and the free will of the human creature. Although he desires, he says, that you be justified by choosing godliness, you have, on the contrary, taken the opposite way and reaped death. “For there is a snare in the secret chambers everywhere, and in the houses also, where they have hidden them.”

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 13:42.22

Isaiah 43:2

Even when the compassionate God disciplines, he does not abandon mercy.… For, he says, “judge, consider, take heart.” Now God strengthens those who were reduced to slavery in Babylon. And since they bore the title “the people of God,” it was appropriate that God addressed the people in this way: “I have called you by your name. You are mine.” He says, “You possess the name by which I have called you.”

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 13:43.1

Isaiah 43:4

God renders the summary of benefits in which they take pleasure. It is because I love you, he says, and because I have chosen you that you have become respected and glorious. “And I will give men for you, and princes for your life.” He means to speak of the Babylonians, whom he has delivered over to Cyrus.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 13:43.4

Isaiah 43:5

These predictions received their fulfillment after the defeat of the Babylonians, for Cyrus commanded [the Jews] to return to Judea. At the time the latter made [their] return from the east, those who had taken flight during the war and reached the west then [also] returned to the land, probably because they recognized the peace that had come on Judea. In any case, it is with truth and precision that the text clearly indicates the people that the holy apostles have called from the entire world and who have obtained salvation. For in every city the Jews were the first to whom the apostles offered the divine teachings.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 13:43.5

Isaiah 43:11

If you want to have me as a witness to your verdict, then be the first to render witness to my truth. In this case, I will not be alone in bearing witness, but there is also my chosen servant. Now it is neither Moses nor another of the prophets who is referred to here, but Christ our Master. And he calls him a [servant], not as God but as a human being; for it is as a human being that he has named him “chosen.” … We likewise find in the holy Gospels this number of two witnesses. In the course of a conversation with the Jews our Master Christ in effect declared, “It is written in your law that the testimony of two persons is true. I bear witness concerning myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness.” … “I am, I am your God, and there is no other savior besides me.” Again these words proclaim the one divinity. For our Master Christ is called “savior” throughout the holy Scriptures, as I think even the followers of Arius and Eunomius would concede. Now if apart from God there is no savior and if Christ is called “Savior,” it is clear that he participates in the [divine] nature. If…

If you want to have me as a witness to your verdict, then be the first to render witness to my truth. In this case, I will not be alone in bearing witness, but there is also my chosen servant. Now it is neither Moses nor another of the prophets who is referred to here, but Christ our Master. And he calls him a [servant], not as God but as a human being; for it is as a human being that he has named him “chosen.” … We likewise find in the holy Gospels this number of two witnesses. In the course of a conversation with the Jews our Master Christ in effect declared, “It is written in your law that the testimony of two persons is true. I bear witness concerning myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness.” … “I am, I am your God, and there is no other savior besides me.” Again these words proclaim the one divinity. For our Master Christ is called “savior” throughout the holy Scriptures, as I think even the followers of Arius and Eunomius would concede. Now if apart from God there is no savior and if Christ is called “Savior,” it is clear that he participates in the [divine] nature. If Christ does not, as the blasphemers allege, then he is not Savior.… But if he is Savior, then he shares the same essence to which alone belongs the faculty of saving.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 13:43.10-11

Isaiah 43:12

I not only made the predictions; I have also brought them to their conclusion. “I reproached, and then there was no strange god among you.” The three interpreters have rendered the word “I have reproached” by the verb “I have made to understand,” which comes back to saying, I have born witness. The verb “I have made reproaches” also has the same sense: it is because they do not cease to sin that they suffer reproaches. Moreover, he then makes the following declaration: At the time when I gave the law, no strange god was present: “You are my witnesses, and I am the Lord God.” Know clearly, he is saying, that no one else is concerned for you, but that you alone have benefited by my providence.

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 13:43.12