Although this very great person is not the one who was in the mind of those hearing the prophecy the first time, he is not here called Jacob or Israel or the seed of Abraham, so clearly the Christ of God is meant here, just as the Evangelist paid witness: I have set my Spirit on him, and he will execute judgment on the nations.^[1] And after many things have taken place in the nations, which were not made fit to be counted in the apostolic chorus, the nations will hope in him. But in Isaiah’s prophecy the names of Jacob and Israel are missing. Who else could this be, the one called servant of God and his chosen one? Therefore it continues, My soul delights in him. For only he is the chosen one of God, and the so-called soul of God was delighting in him. In a manner similar to referring to the feet, hands, fingers and eyes of God, Scriptures make use of the term soul in relation to God. . . . He is chosen, not in the same way as the apostles, since it is to him alone that it is said, whom my soul esteems, but also the Spirit of God was dwelling in him alone.^[2] For in him the fullness of the deity dwelled bodily.^[3] For the Spirit is given to the one coming forth from the root of Jesse,^[4] the unique Word of God, whom the apostle revealed saying, The Lord is the Spirit.^[5] For he alone, pouring out the Spirit of inheritance, worked all things outwardly concerning the worldwide judgment on the nations, so that all would be prepared for the coming of God’s verdict.

Next is the fact of his being called Servant^[1] and serving many well, and that it is a great thing for him to be called the Child of God. For in truth he was in servitude to flesh and to birth and to the conditions of our life with a view to our liberation, and to that of all those whom he has saved, who were in bondage under sin. What greater destiny can befall humanity’s humble state than that it should be intermingled with God and by this intermingling should be deified, and that we should be so visited by the Dayspring from on high,^[2] that even that holy thing that should be born should be called the Son of the Highest, and that there should be bestowed on him a name that is above every name?^[3] And what else can this be than God?—and that every knee should bow to him that was made of no reputation for us, and that mingled the form of God with the form of a servant, and that all the house of Israel should know that God has made him both Lord and Christ?^[4] For all this was done by the action of the Begotten and by the good pleasure of him that begat him.

The goodness of the Deity has endless love for humanity and never ceased from benignly pouring out on us its providential gifts.^[1] . . . It made it possible for us to escape from the domain of the rebellious, and it did this not through overwhelming force, but, as Scripture mysteriously tells us, by an act of judgment accomplished in all righteousness. Beneficently God’s goodness wrought a complete change in our nature. It filled our shadowed and unshaped minds with a kindly, divine light and adorned them with loveliness suitable to their divinized state. It saved our nature from almost complete wreckage and delivered the dwelling place of our soul from the most accursed passion and from destructive defilement. Finally, it showed us a supramundane uplifting and an inspired way of life in shaping ourselves to it as fully as lay in our power.

It is possible, with the help of God, easily to distinguish the presence of the good and the bad; a vision of the holy ones is not agitated. He shall not protest and cry out; none will hear his voice.^[1] It occurs so quietly and gently that joy and gladness and confidence are at once born in the soul. . . . The soul’s thoughts remain untroubled and calm, so that, enlightened of itself, it contemplates those who appear. LIFE OF ST.

As the Word shows his compassion and his denial of all preferential treatment among all the saints, he enlightens them and adapts them to that which is advantageous for them. He is like a skillful physician, understanding the weakness of each one. The ignorant he loves to teach. The erring he turns again to his own true way. By those who live by faith he is easily found. To those of pure eye and holy heart, who desire to knock at the door, he opens immediately. For he casts away none of his servants as unworthy of the divine mysteries. He does not esteem the rich person more highly than the poor, nor does he despise the poor person for his poverty. He does not disdain the barbarian, nor does he set the eunuch aside as no man. He does not hate the female on account of the woman’s act of disobedience in the beginning, nor does he reject the male on account of the man’s transgression. But he seeks all and desires to save all, wishing to make all the children of God and calling all the saints to one perfect human person. For there is one Son (or Servant) of God, by whom we too, receiving the regeneration through the Holy Spirit, desiring to come all into one perfect and heavenly human person.^[1]

The passage reads, Jacob, my son, I will uphold him; Israel, my elect, my soul has assumed him. . . . It is true, indeed, that the Vulgate text has my servant in place of Jacob and Israel, but the Septuagint translators preferred to make the meaning more explicit, namely, that the prophecy concerns the Highest insofar as he became the lowliest, in the form of a servant. Hence they placed the name of that man from whose stock the form of a servant was assumed. It was to him that the Holy Spirit was given.

He does not say, Jacob my son and Israel my beloved, but simply Behold my son and my beloved. Hence, the names of Jacob and Israel are marked with an obelisk in the Septuagint, as if the prophecy were not in the Hebrew. And it is silently omitted by the other translators, as it is not found in the Hebrew. . . . Therefore, the prophecy does not apply either actually or figuratively to the Jews but only to the Christ of God, to whom clear evidence and the results bear witness. For Christ alone prophesied the future judgment to the Gentiles, quietly sojourning in human life and setting judgment on the earth. And not only did he not break the bruised reed, but so to say he bound it up, setting up and strengthening the weak and the bruised in heart. And just as Christ did not neglect the sick and the corrupt, who needed his medicine, or bruise the repentant with harsh judgment, so he did not quench those who continued in evil and were smoking under the fire of passion by preventing their following their own choice; nor did he punish any of them before the time, reserving the time of their due chastisement for the general judgment.

By such means was the prophet—very indignant, because of the transgression of the people and the slaughter of the prophets—both taught to act in a more gentle manner, and the Lord’s advent was pointed out, that it should be subsequent to that law that was given by Moses, mild and tranquil, in which he would neither break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax. The mild and peaceful repose of his kingdom was indicated likewise. For after the wind that rends the mountains, and after the earthquake and after the fire come the tranquil and peaceful times of his kingdom, in which the Spirit of God does, in the most gentle manner, vivify and increase humankind.^[1]

[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.^[1] 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?^[2] 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.

It appears that Matthew the Evangelist did not by preferring the authority of the old interpretation ignore the truth of the Hebrew text. Rather, as a Hebrew among Hebrews and deeply taught in the law of the Lord, Matthew distributed his Hebrew learning to the nations. For if the Septuagint translators are accepted when they write, Jacob my son, I will lift him up; Israel my chosen, my soul has lifted him up, then how can we understand the text fulfilled in Jesus, since it was obviously written about Jacob and Israel? We read that the blessed Matthew, not only in this verse but in another, has done this: Out of Egypt I have called my son,^[1] while the Septuagint translated, Out of Egypt he has called his sons.^[2]

For after the coming of the Lord and Savior, who gave the spirit of the gospel interpretation, [Christ] rested in the death of the Jewish letter, with which all works are bruised. Christ did not snuff out the smoking wick, reducing it to ashes. Instead, he ignited a great flame from this little spark, a spark that had almost gone out. The result is that the whole earth was ablaze with the fire of the Lord and Savior.

[The abbot] must be aware of his own frailty and remember that it is forbidden to break the already bruised reed. We do not mean that he should countenance the growth of vice but that he use discretion and tenderness as he sees it expedient for the different characters of his brothers. He is to endeavor much more to be loved than to be feared. RULE OF ST. ^[1] A PROPHECY OF LIBERATION IN CHRIST. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench, that is, [Christ] will not be hard or angered with those who have a feeble spirit. He will not render powerless that strength that is left to them, but he will lead them back to virtue with kindness. [Isaiah] calls a dimly burning wick the one whose oil is finished and where there is no greasy matter left. This means, when the people are about to be extinguished because of the affliction of captivity, he will make them shine against their hope. This is clearly said with regard to Zerubbabel but is evidently accomplished by our Lord, the Savior. ^[1]

With truth and boldness to all, he proclaims the judgment of God, which has not ceased to operate. Rather, God’s judgment is like light shining through the resurrection of the dead, which the prophetic word announced, saying, He will give light and not be crushed. For those who planned Christ’s death tried to crush him and extinguish him. For it is the nature of all mortal species to be crushed by death. But it did not crush him. Christ was the only person of all time who was shown to be stronger than death.

The name by which he will be praised as the Lord and God of all, [Isaiah] says, I will give to no other but to you alone, whom I shall grant to be light to the nations. Hence, in the promise the Christ of God is called Lord and God by all the nations, the Father having granted him alone that glory. Next comes nor will I give my powers to the carved images, or, according to Aquila, my worship to carved images, or, with Symmachus, my praise to carved images. . . . According to this, Christ alone is called God since to him alone and to no other has God, who is above all things, given his glory and power.

And again, who gave breath to the people on the earth and spirit to those walking on it. For at first the soul, that is, breath, was given to the people who go around on the earth, that is, to those acting in flesh in a fleshly manner; then later the Spirit was given to those who walk on the earth, that is, those who subdue the works of the flesh, as the apostle affirms, Not that which is spiritual first, but that which is animal and then that which is spiritual.^[1] For although Adam from the beginning prophesied that great mystery in Christ and the church, this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, on which account a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they two will become one flesh,^[2] he was subject to a falling of the spirit.

The breath of life, which also rendered man [a person] an animated being, is one thing, and the vivifying Spirit another, which also caused him to become spiritual. And for this reason Isaiah said, Thus says the Lord, who made heaven and established it, who founded the earth and the things therein, and gave breath to the people on it and the Spirit to those walking on it; thus telling us that breath is indeed given in common to all people on earth but that the Spirit is theirs alone who tread down earthly desires.

It says, He who gives spirit to the people who are on the earth, and spirit to them who walk on it. For undoubtedly every one who walks on the earth, that is, every earthly and corporeal being, is a partaker of the Holy Spirit that he receives from God.^[1]

The Son is both sent and given, and the Spirit also is both sent and given; they have assuredly a oneness of Godhead who have a oneness of action.

Moses received it, but they were not worthy. But how did we receive it? Learn! Moses received it as a servant, but the Lord himself gave it to us, that we might become the people of inheritance, by suffering for us. And he was made manifest in order that they might fill out the measure of their sins and we might receive the covenant through the Lord Jesus who inherited it, who was prepared for this purpose, in order that by appearing in person and redeeming from the darkness our hearts, which had already been paid over to death and given over to the lawlessness of error, he might establish a covenant in us by his word. For it is written how the Father commands him to redeem us from darkness and to prepare a holy people for himself. Therefore the prophet says, I, the Lord your God, have called you in righteousness, and I will grasp your hand and strengthen you; and I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes of the blind and to release from their shackles those who are bound and from the prisonhouse those who sit in darkness. We understand, therefore, from what we have been redeemed.

Since, therefore, we were as though blind before, and when we sat as though enclosed by the prison house of foolishness in the darkness, not knowing God and his truth, we were enlightened by him who adopted us by his gracious treatment (his will in our favor). And when he had freed us as from evils and bonds and brought us into the light of wisdom, he recognized us as the heirs of his heavenly kingdom.

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.

The opened eyes of the blind means [Christ] provided clear knowledge of the Father through the Son.

The same thing applies to the word Lord, which is also used as a name of God. I am the Lord your God, he says. This is my name, and The Lord is his name.^[1] But we are making deeper enquiries into a nature that has absolute existence, independent of anything else. The actual, personal being of God in its fullness is neither limited nor cut short by any prior or any subsequent reality—so it was, and so it will be.

[Eunomius says,] Receiving glory from the Father, not sharing glory with the Father, for the glory of the Almighty is incommunicable, as [the Lord] has said, I will not give my glory to another. Who is that other to whom God has said that he will not give his glory? The prophet is speaking of the adversary of God, yet Eunomius refers the prophecy to the only-begotten God himself! For when the prophet, speaking in the person of God, had said, I will not give my glory to another, he added, neither my praise to graven images.

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.

Since he is the only God, in a proper and true sense, he is the Creator of all, and so he is confessed to be by us; as the most wise Paul says: Even though there may be many so-called gods and lords in heaven or on earth, yet for us there is one God and Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we exist.^[1] And since he presented himself to us as the author of great and marvelous things, he says that his glory, which is the virtues proper to God, is not to be given to lifeless idols or to any other created thing, but to be retained for himself alone. It follows, therefore, that the glory of the divinity cannot be attributed to any of the beings that differ from him in essence, but only to the ineffable and transcendent nature itself. Even though he says that his own glory is to be given to no one, he gave it to the Son who, of course, has been glorified in the same way as the Father who is worshiped in heaven and on earth. How, then, did [God] give [his glory] to someone who is not different from him, at least on the basis of consubstantiality, even though each is distinguished into his own hypostasis? For there is a single nature of the divinity on high in three distinct hypostases, and it is so understood and worshiped by right-minded people.

There was no other way to honor the slave [i.e., humanity] except by making the characteristics of the slave his very own so that they could be illumined from his own glory. What is preeminent will always conquer, and the shame of the slavery is thus borne away from us. He who was above us became as we are. He who is naturally free took on the limitations of our life. This was why honors passed even to us, for we too are called the children of God, and we regard his own true Father as our Father also. All that is human has become his own. And so, to say that he assumed the form of a slave expresses the whole mystery of the economy in the flesh. So, if [my opponents] confess one Lord and Son, the Word of God the Father, but say that a simple man of the line of David was conjoined as a companion of his sonship and his glory, then it is time for you to speak to people who choose to think like this. . . . It seems that they argue as though there are two sons unequal in nature and that a slave is crowned with the glory that is proper to God, that some bastard son is decked out with the selfsame dignities as the one who is really God’s natural Son, even though God says quite clearly, I will not give my glory to another. How can someone who has only been honored with a mere conjunction fail to be other to the true and natural Son when he has just been assumed for the office of servant, given the honor of sonship, just like us, and sharing in another’s glory that he attains by grace and favor?

So the Emmanuel must not be separated out into a man, considered as distinct from God the Word? On no account. I say that we must call him God made man, and that both the one and the other are this same reality, for he did not cease to be God when he became man, nor did he regard the economy as unacceptable by disdaining the limitations involved in the self-emptying.

Behold, the first things, he says, came to pass. But I proclaim new things, and before they arise, I will cause these things to be heard by you.^[1] Just as he says the first things would be fulfilled through my works, as I promised Abraham concerning his seed, so indeed I acted. I fulfilled also those things foretold by Moses and the rest of the prophets; now I promise to everyone what was proclaimed before and to make them come to light through the prophecies, for I caused these things to be heard by you.

When the prophet says, See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them, he does not allow for us to disbelieve the word of the Savior in any respect. In fact, he is saying that, just as what was said from the beginning about his coming has been fulfilled, so also what he calls the new things will be shown to be true and will be revealed before they are made manifest. And what are these things? Our Lord Jesus Christ promised life in the age to come, namely, the life of incorruption, and holiness, and righteousness, the kingdom of heaven, the glorious participation in the spiritual goods, the fruits of gentleness, the reward of piety, the crown of love for him. May it be that we, too, attain this through his grace and loving-kindness.

You descend into the water and come out unimpaired, the filth of sins having been washed away. You ascend a new person^[1] prepared to sing a new song.

Here [Isaiah] speaks again about the Gentiles and invites them to sing a new song to the Lord. Indeed, if the Jews, redeemed from captivity after seventy years, had to sing a new hymn to the Lord, their liberator, why should not the Gentiles do the same? And should they not burst out into a new song with much more good reason, since they have been delivered from a bondage of many centuries?

His praise from the end of the earth, that is, it happens in a wonderful way that the salvation given by Christ to humankind is celebrated by the remotest nations with hymns and songs.

The coastland and their inhabitants: those nations who submit to the waves of the sea with their ships will praise the Lord. Those who have considered the sea as a divinity and sacrifice to it will recognize, after being enlightened by faith, their true God, and they will consider and preach him as the Lord of the sea.

Inasmuch as the Word was from the first, he was and is the divine source of things. But inasmuch as he has now assumed the name Christ, consecrated of old and worthy of power, he has now been called the New Song. This Word, the Christ, the cause of both our being at first (for he was in God) and of our well-being, this very Word has now appeared as man. He alone is both God and man. He is the Author of all blessings to us. By him, we, being taught to live well, are sent on our way to life eternal. . . . This is the New Song, the manifestation of the Word that was in the beginning and before the beginning. The Savior, who has existed before, has in recent days appeared.

Even as islands have been set in the midst of the sea, churches have been established in the midst of this world, and they are beaten and buffeted by different waves of persecution. Truly these islands are lashed by waves every day, but they are not submerged. They are in the midst of the sea, to be sure, but they have Christ as their foundation, Christ who cannot be moved.

The word of the holy apostles and Evangelists about the Savior made visible the message of the glory of the Savior. At that time they wrote words concerning his ineffable divinity, and they hymned his transcendent virtue, not placing him among the things that are born but above those things that have been called into being and in such a nature he was placed beside God the Father. At that time their words set forth the divine signs that are beyond wonder and its explanation.

Also in Isaiah it says, the Lord of powers will come out and wage war, and will rouse his zeal and will shout in triumph over his foes with strength. For God will come out from his place, once he is compelled to break his peace and gentleness and kindness for the sake of putting sins right, who, although by his nature is sweet, has been made bitter by our flaw, not in himself but in those suffering, to whom the torments are bitter. It is he who elsewhere spoke by the prophet, I am God, and I do not change.^[1]

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.

Still, the saying of Isaiah has come to my mind: I have kept silence; I shall not always keep silence and endure, shall I? I have been as patient as a woman in labor. May it be that we both receive the reward for our silence and acquire some power for refuting, so that, when we have given our proofs, we may dry up this bitter torrent of falsehood poured out against us. May we say, Our souls have passed through a torrent,^[1] and, If it has not been that the Lord was with us, when people rose up against us, perhaps they had swallowed us up alive, perhaps the waters had swallowed us up.^[2]

The one who speaks is now keeping quiet. He speaks in commandments; he keeps quiet in judgment. . . . How has he kept quiet, seeing that he spoke to say this very thing? He says, I have kept quiet, and yet he does not keep quiet, because just by saying I have kept quiet, God has not kept quiet. So then, Lord, I hear you speaking in so many commandments, as many sacred signs, so many pages, so many books. And then I hear you saying this, I have kept quiet, will I keep quiet always? So how have you kept quiet? Because I am not yet saying, Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom. And I am not yet saying to the others, Go into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels.^[1] And while I am not yet saying these things, I am already warning you that I am going to say them.

I spoke as if giving birth. For as we already have said, giving birth with pain expels that which was developing deep within for a long time. The one who was always silent speaks out now like one giving birth, for the coming judge withheld revenge from being inflicted on humans for a long time; for he shows the extent to which he kept contained within the pressure of endurance, like a headache. So no one, when God hides this light, should despise him or criticize him when God flashes down from heaven to burn up those who have contempt for him. For the one who does not long for pardon then without a doubt he will burn as punishment. So we accept the time of calling through heavenly grace, while indulgence still prevails, and may we flee the wrath that is all around, making an improvement in our lifestyle.

Sweet and righteous is the Lord.^[1] You love [him] because he is sweet. You fear [him] because he is righteous. In a gentle voice, he said, I have kept silence. But as a just person, shall I always be silent? A Lord compassionate and merciful.^[2] Yes, indeed. Yet add, patient; yet add, and very compassionate.

Christ suffered shame for humanity’s sake in order to set people free from death. This he exclaimed, as in the words of the prophet, I have endured as a woman in childbirth. In very deed Christ endured for our sakes sorrow, ignominy, torment, even death itself, and burial. For thus he says himself by the prophet, I went down into the deep.^[1] Who made him thus to go down? The ungodly. . . . They suspended him on the tree—the One who stretches out the earth. They transfixed him with nails who laid firm the foundation of the world. They circumscribed him who circumscribed the heavens. They bound him who frees sinners. They gave him vinegar to drink who has enabled them to drink of righteousness. They fed him with gall who has offered to them the bread of life. They caused corruption to come on his hands and feet who healed their hands and feet. They violently closed his eyes who restored sight to them. They gave him over to the tomb who raised their dead to life both in the time before his passion and also while he was hanging on the tree.

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.^[1]

GOD IS THE SOURCE OF LIGHT AND LOVE. LEO THE GREAT: The apostle John teaches how this is fulfilled: We know that the Son of God came and gave understanding to us, that we might know the truth and be in his true Son.^[2] And again, Let us love, therefore, since God first loved us.^[3] By loving us, God restores us to be his image, so that he might find the form of his own goodness in us. He grants that we ourselves might work what he works, indeed setting light to our minds and causing us to burn with the fire of his love, in order that we love not only him but also the things that he loves.