Bible Verses and Early Church Commentary | Historical Christian Faith

[AD 339] Eusebius of Caesarea on 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.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:30

[AD 420] Jerome on Isaiah 46:1-7

(Verse 1, 3 and following) Hear me, house of Jacob, and all the rest of the house of Israel, who are carried from my womb, who are born from my womb. Even to your old age, I am the one, and even to your gray hairs, I will carry you. I have done it, and I will bear it; I will carry, and I will save. To whom have you likened me, and equalized, and compared me, and made me similar? You who pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver on the scales, hiring a goldsmith to make a god, and they fall down and worship. They carry him on their shoulders, carrying and placing him in his place, and he will stand, and he will not be moved from his place. But when they cry out to him, he will not hear: he will not save them from distress. Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of Israel who are carried from the womb, and be instructed from infancy to old age. I am, and until you grow old, I am: I will sustain you: I have made you, and I will carry you: I will support you, and I will make you safe. To whom do you liken me? See, consider those who go astray and compare gold from a bag, and silver in a scale, and hire a goldsmith. They make it into an idol, and they bow down and worship it. They lift it to their shoulders and carry it. If they place it in its rightful place, it stays and will not move. It cannot hear those who cry out to it, and it will not save them from their troubles. It is not called Jacob or Israel, as we have explained above, because it is inferior, the house of Jacob, and the remnant of Israel, due to their close relationship of flesh and blood, and they are like the waste and remnants of Israel. And it teaches that they were carried from Egypt as infants and sucklings, just as from God, as if from a mother's womb and the pregnant womb, they were carried. Not because the ineffable and incomprehensible majesty of God has a womb or a womb, feet, hands, and other members of the body; but that we may learn the affection of God through our words. Otherwise, the same is sung in the hundred and ninth psalm from the person of God. For in that place where the Seventy translated, 'From the womb before the morning star I begot you,' in the Hebrew script it has 'Merehem,' which is interpreted as 'from the womb.' But at present, not only is it written about the womb and the vulva, that is, Mebeten and Merehem but also Menni, which signifies 'from my womb' or 'from my vulva'. And the meaning is: I who have begotten you from infancy and carried you in my womb and vulva, I myself will protect you even until old age, not my own, but yours, so that divine mercy may teach them to be saved. For the Creator spares his creature, and the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep (John 10). But the hired hand, whose sheep are not his own, sees the wolf coming and flees. Therefore, because I have made and begotten children, I will bear and carry them myself. According to the Septuagint, which says: 'You who are carried from the womb, and are taught from infancy until old age,' this signifies that it is in vain for them to meditate on the law of God day and night, not having knowledge of God, but venerating the idols of humans and animals. To the extent that they require prophetic correction, by which God speaks to them: 'To whom have you made me similar and equal?' And the rest: what gold and silver they have brought, and what idols they have made by hiring a sculptor, and what works of their hands they have worshiped, which are carried on their shoulders, and which, when nailed and fixed, are unable to move, nor are they able to benefit those who worship them. We pass over the obvious things to uncover the closed mercy of Christ.

Source: Commentary on Isaiah

[AD 420] Jerome on Isaiah 46:1-2

(Chapter 46, Verses 1, 2.) Bel is broken, Nabo is crushed. Their idols have become beasts and livestock, burdening you with heavy loads until exhaustion. They have melted together and crumbled. They could not save those who carried them, and their souls will go into captivity. Seventy: Bel has fallen, Dagon is crushed. Their statues have become beasts and livestock, bound together as a burden for the laboring, the weak, and the hungry, unable to prevail together. They could not save from war. However, they themselves were led away as captives. After the calling of the Gentiles and the election of the believers from Israel, it is testified that the idols have fallen. Bel has fallen, indeed, he has fallen, or Saturn has been broken: whom the Greeks call Belus and the Latins call Saturn. So great was the reverence for him among the ancients that they not only offered him the human sacrifices of captive and lowly mortals, but also sacrificed their own children to him. But now even that idol itself, which is interpreted as prophecy and divination, signifies that it has fallen silent throughout the whole world after the truth of the Gospel. Or, according to the Septuagint, Dagon, which, however, is not found in Hebrew. And it is the idol of Ashkelon, Gaza, and the other cities of the Philistines. And from a specific case it passes to a general one: their images were made in the form of beasts and animals. Not that the images of the Gentiles were exposed as prey to beasts and animals, but that the religion of the nations is such that the images are of beasts and brute animals, which are especially consecrated to divine worship in Egypt. About which Virgil says (Aeneid VIII, 698):

All the various gods and the barking dog Anubis.

For most of their towns have names derived from animals and beasts, κυνῶν from the dog, λέων from the lion, θμοῦἳς from the Egyptian verb 'to have a bad smell', λύκων from the wolf, not to mention the fearful and horrible onion smell, and the sound of their bloated bellies, which is part of the religious customs of Pelusium. These idols, he says, which cannot save those who carry them, are nothing more than burdens for the priests, weighing them down to exhaustion. And when captivity comes, as payment for the metals from which they are made, the first captive is taken, and they cannot free their own soul or those who carry them. Not that the lifeless images have a soul and some sense of pain, which are devoid of sensation; but that the soul is erroneously called soul, and the limbs of those things which are without sensation and limbs. Otherwise, it is also written in the Proverbs: In the hand of the tongue is death and life. Or it must be said that the heaviest burden among the nations was the error of idolatry, which brought down its worshippers to the ground, and could not save them, but made their souls captive to the devil and demons.

Source: Commentary on Isaiah

[AD 420] Jerome on Isaiah 46:1

These then are imitations that cannot save those who carry them and are nothing other than burdens for the priests and weigh them down to the point of exhaustion. And when captivity came, these were carried off first of all due to the value of the metals from which they were made, and they were not able to free the souls of those carrying them. For it is not as dumb imitations they had a life and any feeling of pain, but they are figuratively ascribed soul and body parts, though having no feeling and body parts.… So it could be said that this error of idolatry was the greatest burden among the nations, one that pressed its worshipers down into the ground and could not save and, in fact, made their souls captive to the devil and his demons.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 13:6

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on Isaiah 46:1

But Bel was also honored in other cities. For they say that Bel was the mythical figure Chronos among the godless Greeks, one who was reputedly cruel and bloodthirsty and loved to slaughter humans … whereas the God of the universe is not pleased with such terrible impieties and through one of the holy prophets he said to those who were accustomed to doing this, “You sacrifice humans, for you have run out of cattle.” … The expression “cast down” is apt, since the prophet here speaks of a time near to his own. For we can read in the books of the Kings that when the former people carried the divine ark to the temple of Dagon, as those worshiping the idol went in, they saw Dagon fallen down in front of the ark.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 4:3.46:1

[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Isaiah 46:1

Having discussed the Deity, displayed the believers and confounded the unbelievers, the prophetic text also predicts the destruction of the idols. Some copies carry “Dagon.” That was an idol of the Allophyles [foreigners]. As for Bel, some claim that he was Kronos. Then [Isaiah] generalizes: “Their graven images are gone to the wild beasts and the cattle.” For they did not only manufacture anthropomorphic idols but also idols resembling wild beasts and cattle. The Egyptians, in particular, worshiped representations of monkeys, of dogs, of lions, of farm animals and of crocodiles, whereas the Akaronites even had an image of a fly, and some others worshiped figures of bats. These are the practices that the beginning of the prophetic text has already denounced. He predicts the destruction of all these idols.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 14:46.1

[AD 850] Ishodad of Merv on Isaiah 46:1

“Bel” and “Nebo” are Babylonian idols. Bel is the statue that Nebuchadnezzar erected in the plain of Dura; its name derives from “Babel.” Nebo was the teacher of the school for children in Mabbugh; since he was extremely stern toward the children, one of them, in order to please him, made a statue for him, and they worshiped it and so appeased his anger; and after this generation, people were seduced by that statue, and worshiped it and called it god.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 46:1

[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Isaiah 46:2

By the same token, [Isaiah] says, as all the other burdens that are unable to walk but have to be carried, the idols, by reason of their inanimate nature, constrain their porters to toil. Their impotence is so great that they cannot even—as people do in war time—take flight.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 14:46.2

[AD 528] Procopius of Gaza on Isaiah 46:2

Here [Isaiah] argues that the idols are weak since they will be carried into slavery as the cargo of elephants and even the burden of mules. And the people who carry them will bow low to put them on their shoulders. How can someone bearing God be weak like that? But these burdens are not God. Otherwise how could they be carried off as slaves of war? How would the ones carrying such things worship them? Others say that this burden is like the solemn procession of the demons that priests carry out when they bear statues on their shoulders and process through the streets bearing their burdens.These words also remind Israel of their enemies who led them off: just as their enemies fell down and worshiped these idols who spoke in riddles contrary to reason, so also the demons were a heavy and oppressive burden to the souls [of Israel] whenever these demons enslaved them in ungodliness as they took them prisoner and bound them with the ropes of their [own] sins.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 46:1.5

[AD 339] Eusebius of Caesarea on 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.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:31

[AD 500] Aponius on Isaiah 46:3

We hear the voice of the Holy Spirit with wonder when it tells us in many passages of Scripture that the Word of God, in an ineffable motion of love, has given human nature the names of “sister,” “daughter,” “bride.” For example, the words in Isaiah, “Listen to me, Israel my people, the race of Abraham my friend, you whom I carry in my womb.” … Our mind is set aflame with desire to obtain the love that burns between the Word of God and the soul, so that it can know the measure of love and give love to God in return.

Source: EXPOSITION OF SONG OF SONGS 1:1

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Isaiah 46:4

O Lord our God, under the shadow of your wings let us hope; defend us and support us. You will bear us up when we are little, and even down to our gray hairs you will carry us. For our stability, when it is in you, is stability indeed; but when it is in ourselves, then it is all unstable. Our good lives forever with you, and when we turn from you with aversion, we fall into our own perversion. Let us now, O Lord, return that we be not overturned, because with you our good lives without blemish—for our good is you yourself.

Source: Confessions 4.15.31

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Isaiah 46:4

Woe to the audacious soul that hoped that by forsaking you it would find some better thing! It tossed and turned, on back and side and belly, but the bed is hard, and you alone give rest. Yet you are near. You deliver us from our wretched wanderings and establish us in your way. You comfort us and say, “Run, I will carry you. I will lead you home, and I will set you free.”

Source: Confessions 6.16.26

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on Isaiah 46:4

But since their heart was not responsive to his promptings, he predicted the evils to come so that they would be gradually troubled by these terrors and would cease their irregular and foul way of life.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 4:3.46:8-11

[AD 339] Eusebius of Caesarea on 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.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:31

[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Isaiah 46:6

[Isaiah] has clearly mocked the impotence of the idols. And since he had made mention of their creation from a piece of wood in a preceding passage, but gold and silver are more precious material than wood, and many people on account of the material treated the gods of gold and of silver with the greater regard, he considers it necessary to give this instruction concerning them: people collect gold and silver. They hire a goldsmith, weigh the statue he has fashioned and treat it as a god. Yet it moves with the feet of others, but if they are lacking, it stands still. Moreover, it brings no help to its worshipers. After this refutation, [Isaiah] introduces an exhortation.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 14:46.7

[AD 420] Jerome on Isaiah 46:8-11

(Verse 8 onwards) Remember this, and be established, and return, you transgressors, to the heart. Recall the former age, for I am God, and there is no other God, nor is there anyone like me. I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago the things that have not yet been done, saying: My purpose will stand, and I will accomplish all my desire. I call a bird of prey from the east, and from a far country a man of my counsel; I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have planned it, and I will do it. LXX: Remember these things, and groan: repent, you who go astray. Return with your heart, and remember the former things from of old: for I am God, and there is no other besides me. I announce the first things before they come to pass, and I tell you, my will shall stand, and all that I have planned, I will accomplish. I call forth a bird from the East, and from the distant land, what I have planned: I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have created and I will do it. Because I myself begot you, I myself carried you, and from infancy to old age, not by your merit, but by my mercy, you are saved: abandon the idols you have made, and return to the worship of the one God. Repent, groan for the error that has held you; rather, establish yourselves, lest a sudden whirlwind of idolatry overthrow you again: and return to your heart, that is, to your mind, which, worshipping images as if insane, you were striking against wood and stones. From the beginning, consider that there is no god apart from me, and no one else can know the future except me, who through the prophets announce what I am going to do. So when I fulfill what was predicted, I will prove my divinity through divination. For I declare that I will establish the mystery that was previously unknown to all generations and reveal my plan. And when you see it come to pass, you will know that there is no god except the one who knew and commanded these future events. I am the one who calls the bird from the East, as the Hebrews believe, the king Cyrus of the Persians, or the prince Darius of the Medes; and from a distant land, a man of my will, who fulfills all my will against Babylon and the Chaldeans. Or as we are convinced to be true, the Lord Savior, about whom even Balaam prophesies: A star shall come out of Jacob, and a man shall rise out of Israel (Numbers 24:17), whose name is the East (Zechariah 6), whom the Magi from the East worshipped. For he speaks here in the Psalms: 'God, I desired to do your will' (Psalm 39:9), about whom the Father spoke and confirmed his promise by his works. In the Septuagint, since we translated from the Hebrew, they have put 'a man of my will' instead, which I have considered. Therefore, according to them, the birds called from the East, we can understand the ministries of the angels, which run throughout the world in obedience to the Lord's command. They are the ministering spirits who are sent for the salvation of the believers. Of whom it is also sung in the Psalms: 'You make your angels spirits, and your ministers a burning fire' (Psalm 103:4).

Source: Commentary on Isaiah

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Isaiah 46:8

Behold, there he is, wherever truth is known. He is within the inmost heart, yet the heart has wandered from him. Return to your heart, O you sinners, and hold fast to him who made you. Stand with him, and you shall stand firmly. Rest in him, and you shall be at rest.

Source: Confessions 4.12.18

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Isaiah 46:8

“Go back, therefore, to the heart,” and if you are believers, you will find Christ there. He himself is speaking to you there. Yes, here am I, shouting my head off—but he, in silence, is doing more teaching. I am speaking by the sound of these words; he is speaking inwardly by the awe you feel in your thoughts.

Source: SERMON 102:2

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Isaiah 46:8

“Return, you transgressors, to the heart.” Return to the heart! Why do you go away from yourselves and perish from yourselves?… You go astray by wandering about. Return. Where? To the Lord. It is quickly done! First, return to your heart. You are wandering away. You are an exile from yourself. You do not know yourself. You ask by whom you were made!… Just return to your heart! See there what perhaps you perceive about God, because the image of God is there. In the inner person Christ dwells. In the inner person you are renewed according to the image of God.

Source: TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 18:10.1-2

[AD 542] Caesarius of Arles on Isaiah 46:8

“Return, you transgressors, to the heart.” As I have already said, what the Lord repeatedly asks of us is not found in distant lands. He sends us within, into our own hearts. For he has placed within us that which he wants, in which consists the perfection of charity in the will and goodness of the soul.

Source: SERMON 37:1

[AD 435] John Cassian on Isaiah 46:10

“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” There cannot be a greater prayer than to desire that earthly things should deserve to equal heavenly ones. For what does it mean to say “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” if not that human beings should be like angels and that, just as God’s will is fulfilled by them in heaven, so also all those who are on earth should do not their own but his will? No one will really be able to say this but one who believes that God regulates all things that are seen, whether fortunate or unfortunate, for the sake of our well-being, and that he is more provident and careful with regard to the salvation and interests of those who are his own than we are for ourselves. And of course it is to be understood in this way—namely, that the will of God is the salvation of all, according to the text of blessed Paul: “Who desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth.” Of this will the prophet Isaiah, speaking in the person of God the Father, also says, “All my will shall be done.”

Source: CONFERENCE 9:20

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on Isaiah 46:10

For he says “I am the one possessing knowledge of all, and whatever happens, I give notice of it beforehand.” That which is announced, I execute … for what the holy God wills, who will thwart it? And who will avert his hand when it is raised?… We take the bird that is called from the east and from a far land to be the Babylonian, who scorched all the territory of the Jews, took Jerusalem and ruined the temple. They removed both ordinary flock and the leading birds among them and forced them into the region of the Persians. They also subjected them to a yoke of harsh imprisonment.…This work was done not by Israel’s own hand, as if God would need a helper. For “it is I alone who save,” guard and lead him on the right road, so that those who have made little progress in godliness will help the righteous ones and the humble. By these means, glory and honor are finally given to me alone, even from among wood and stones.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 4:3.46:8-13

[AD 339] Eusebius of Caesarea on 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.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:31

[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on Isaiah 46:11

“I call a bird of prey from the east.” [Isaiah] either calls the Medes a “bird,” who will destroy the Babylonians, or the Israelites, who, in the course of their return, destroyed the Arameans, the Greeks and the house of Gog.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 46:11

[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Isaiah 46:11

All is easy for the God of the universe. Not only the beings endowed with reason but even those devoid of it submit to divine authority. In addition, by the term “bird” he has clearly shown the speed of Israel’s return from exile.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 14:46.11

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Isaiah 46:12

The inner person has a heart. “Hear me, you who have lost heart.” They possessed a physical heart, that organ of the body. It was not that heart which they lost. But when a person neglects to cultivate his intellectual life, and in consequence of much idleness his thinking capacity has atrophied, he has lost his heart, and it is to such a person that the words are added, “Here me, you who have lost your heart.”

Source: DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES

[AD 420] Jerome on Isaiah 46:12-13

(Verses 12, 13.) Hear me, you with hard hearts, who are far from justice. I have brought forth my justice: it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not delay. I will give salvation in Zion and my glory in Israel. LXX: Hear me, you who have lost heart, who are far from justice. I have brought forth my justice, and the salvation that is from me, I will not delay. I have given salvation in Zion and glory in Israel. To those whom He had spoken before: Hear me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel. And again: Return, O transgressors, to the heart, even now He calls them by the Hebrew term for unbelief, hardhearted, and according to the Septuagint, those who have lost heart and mind. This was followed by the most learned man and worthy of his name, Stephen the martyr, in his speech to the Jews: With stiff neck and uncircumcised hearts and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did (Acts 7:51). So, they are far from the justice of God because they did not believe in it, which God, in his mercy, made to be near and to come to the lands, not wanting to delay or be far away. For he gave his salvation to Zion and his glory to Israel. Let this be said about the prophecy of the future, and the coming of the Lord and Savior. Moreover, according to history, salvation is given to Zion and glory to Israel; because God has made his justice near, to call from the East a bird and from a far land a man of his will, who would avenge the injustices of Israel and the destroyed Jerusalem, and would destroy the Medes and Persians, and the Babylonians and the Chaldeans, as the following words of the Prophet testify.

Source: Commentary on Isaiah

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on Isaiah 46:12

Again we perceive the depth of God’s loving kindness, in that God mixes with the evils also the wonders, so that they are not wiped out. For he has saved them from the hand of their enemies. When Israel fell into the marsh of judgment, God dragged them out.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 4:3.48:5-11

[AD 444] Cyril of Alexandria on Isaiah 46:12

See how he once again announces salvation to them and does not allow them to despair, lest they be overwhelmed by unrestrained sorrow and be moved too far away from the hope that they will be saved, if only they stop running. For having strayed, they were disconsolate. This described their situation accurately. For what else would they feel, they who worshiped the things they themselves had made, setting up trees and stones for worship and seeking salvation from them?

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 4:3.46:12-13

[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Isaiah 46:12

For though you are unworthy of salvation, since you have distanced yourself from righteousness because of your iniquity, I will procure salvation [for you] and will inflict just chastisement on the Babylonians. “I have given salvation in Zion to Israel for my glory.” For thanks to the salvation of Israel, all will learn of my power and acknowledge that I am truly God.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 14:46.13

[AD 528] Procopius of Gaza on Isaiah 46:13

For God did not hate those whom he took out of Israel but intended salvation for them, just like the cutting and draining done by doctors. For all punishment was carried out for their advantage. He adds to the underlying form of the particular its significance for the human race. For the salvation through Cyrus is particular. That through Christ is universal. “I will not delay” is similar to “a little time it will come and will not delay.” “Zion” we take to be the church, in which we receive his salvation in glory, thus being complete in the spiritual Israel; that is, we gain a mind that, seeing God, fulfills us as children according to the promises of Abraham.

Source: COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 47:1-15