How the Prophets Speak

Now hear what was foretold about this — that after Christ was born he would go unnoticed by everyone else until he grew to manhood, which is exactly what happened. Here are the predictions. [a]

“A child was born to us, and a young man was given to us, and the government is on his shoulders.” This points to the power of the cross, since it was to the cross that he put his shoulders when he was crucified, as will be shown more clearly as the argument goes on. And again the same prophet Isaiah, carried along by the prophetic Spirit, said, “I stretched out my hands to a people who disobey and talk back, to people who walk in a way that is not good. Now they ask me for a judgment and dare to come near to God.”

And again, in other words, through another prophet, he says, “They dug through my feet and my hands, and they cast lots for my clothing.” Now David, the king and prophet, who said these things, suffered none of them. But Jesus Christ did stretch out his hands: he was crucified by Jews who spoke against him and denied that he was the Christ. And, as the prophet said, they jeered at him, seated him on the judgment platform, and said, “Judge us.” The words “They dug through my hands and my feet” were an account of the nails driven into his hands and feet on the cross. And after they had crucified him, the men who did it cast lots for his clothing and divided it among themselves. You can find out that these things happened from the records made under Pontius Pilate.

And it was expressly foretold that he would sit on a donkey’s colt and enter Jerusalem. We will give you the words of that prophecy from another prophet, Zephaniah. They are these:

But when you hear the prophets’ words spoken as though by a person, do not suppose they are being said by the men who were filled with the Spirit. They are said by the divine Word who moves them. Sometimes he speaks as one announcing in advance the things that are going to happen. Sometimes he speaks in the person of God, the Master of all and Father. Sometimes in the person of Christ. Sometimes in the person of peoples answering the Lord or his Father — the way you can see it done in your own writers, where one man writes the whole book but brings on the persons who do the talking. The Jews who had the books of the prophets did not understand this, and so they did not recognize Christ even when he came. They even hate us for saying that he has come, and for showing that he was crucified by them, exactly as had been announced beforehand. [h]

So that this too may be clear to you: these words were spoken in the person of the Father through Isaiah, the prophet already mentioned. [i]

And again elsewhere, when the same prophet speaks in the same way in the person of the Father: “What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Heaven is my throne, and the earth a footstool for my feet.” And again, in another place:

So now you can see what sort of things are taught through the prophets in the person of God.

And when the prophetic Spirit speaks in the person of Christ, this is how it sounds: “I stretched out my hands to a people who disobey and talk back, to people who walk in a way that is not good.” And again: [l]

And again, when he says: “They cast lots for my clothing, and they dug through my feet and my hands. And I lay down and slept, and I got up again, because the Lord took hold of me.” And again, when he says: “They spoke with their lips, they shook their heads, saying, ‘Let him rescue himself.’”

You can find out that all of this did happen to Christ at the hands of the Jews. For when he had been crucified they twisted their lips and shook their heads and said, “Let the man who raised the dead rescue himself.”

And when the prophetic Spirit speaks as prophesying the things that are going to happen, it speaks this way: [o]

And you can be persuaded that this is exactly what happened. Twelve men went out from Jerusalem into the world — ordinary men, with no skill at public speaking — and by the power of God they made it known to every race of people that they had been sent by Christ to teach everyone the word of God. And we who once used to murder one another not only do not make war on our enemies, but, so as not to lie or mislead the men who question us, we gladly die confessing Christ. For it was open to us in this very matter to act on the saying “The tongue has sworn, but the mind is unsworn.”

It would truly be a ridiculous business if the soldiers you enroll under contract hold to their oath to you ahead of their own life and parents and country and their whole household — and you can offer them nothing imperishable — while we, who are in love with imperishable life, would not endure everything to receive what we long for from the one who is able to give it.

Now hear how it was foretold about the men who proclaimed his teaching and made his appearing known. The prophet and king already mentioned spoke this way through the prophetic Spirit: [r]

Besides these, we thought it right and fitting to mention some other words prophesied through David himself. From them you can learn how the prophetic Spirit urges people to live; how he makes known the gathering formed against Christ by Herod the king of the Jews, and by the Jews themselves, and by Pilate, who was your procurator among them, along with his soldiers; that Christ would be believed in by people of every race; that God calls him his Son and has promised to put all his enemies under him; how the demons try, as far as it is in them, to escape the authority of God the Father and Master of all, and the authority of Christ himself; and how God calls everyone to repentance before the day of judgment comes. Here is what was said:

And again, in another prophecy, the prophetic Spirit made it known through David himself that Christ would reign after he had been crucified. It spoke this way: [v]

Sometimes the prophetic Spirit speaks of things that are going to happen as though they had already happened — as you can see even in the passages I have already quoted. So that this gives readers no excuse, we will make this plain too. The things he knows for certain will happen, he says beforehand as though they had already happened. Fix your mind on the words and you will see that this is how they have to be taken. [x]

David said the words quoted above 1,500 years before Christ became a man and was crucified; and no one who lived before him — and no one after him either — brought joy to the nations by being crucified. But our Jesus Christ was crucified and died and rose again, and he went up into heaven and reigned. And in the things proclaimed in his name among all nations by his apostles there is joy for those who look for the imperishable life he announced.

But some may suppose, from what we have said, that we are claiming that whatever happens happens by the necessity of fate, because it was foretold as known in advance. We will clear this up as well. We have learned from the prophets, and we declare it to be true, that punishments and corrections and good rewards are handed out according to the worth of each person’s actions. If that is not so — if everything happens by fate — then nothing at all is up to us. For if it is fated that this man is good and that one is worthless, then the first deserves no approval and the second no blame. [y]

And again, if the human race does not have the power to run from what is shameful and to choose what is good by free choice, then people are not answerable for anything they do, whatever it may be. Here is how we show that it is by free choice that a man both goes straight and stumbles. We see the same man moving across to the opposite of what he was. If it had been fated that he would be either worthless or good, he could never have been open to both opposites, and he would not have changed so many times. Nor, on that view, would some men be good and others worthless — for we would then be declaring that fate is the cause of both good and bad and that it works against itself. Or else that other conclusion already mentioned would seem to be true: that virtue and vice are nothing at all, and that things are only reckoned good or bad by opinion — which, as true reasoning shows, is the greatest impiety and injustice.

What we do say is that this is the fate no one gets around: that those who choose what is good receive the rewards they deserve, and those who choose the opposite receive what they have coming. God did not make man the way he made the other things — trees and four-footed animals, which can do nothing by choice. A man would not deserve reward or praise if he had not chosen the good himself but had simply been made that way; and he would not justly be punished if he were bad, since he would not be bad of himself, but would be unable to be anything other than what he was made.

The holy prophetic Spirit taught us this. It said through Moses that God spoke this way to the first man he formed: “Look, good and evil are in front of you. Choose the good.” And again, through Isaiah, the other prophet, it said that these words were spoken about this same thing, as from the person of the Father of all and Master, God: [aa]

Now that phrase, “a sword will devour you,” does not mean that those who disobey will be killed with swords. God’s sword is fire, and the people who choose to do worthless things become its food. That is why he says, “A sword will devour you, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” If he had been speaking about a sword that cuts and finishes a man off at once, he would not have said “devour.”

So too Plato, when he said, “The blame belongs to the one who chooses; God is blameless,” took that from Moses the prophet and then said it himself. For Moses is older than all the writers among the Greeks. And everything that philosophers and poets have said about the soul’s immortality, or punishments after death, or the contemplation of heavenly things, or teachings of that kind, they were able to understand and set out because they took their starting points from the prophets. That is why there seem to be seeds of truth among everyone — but they stand convicted of not having understood accurately, whenever they contradict themselves.

So when we say that the things to come have been foretold, we do not say it as though they are brought about by the necessity of fate. God knows in advance everything that all people are going to do, and it is his decree that each person will be repaid according to the worth of his actions. Through the prophetic Spirit he says in advance what will come to each from him according to what has been done, always bringing the human race to attention and to remembrance, and showing that he cares about them and looks after them.

By the working of the worthless demons, death has been decreed against anyone who reads the books of Hystaspes, or of the Sibyl, or of the prophets — so that by fear they may turn people away from taking hold of the knowledge of what is good, and may keep them enslaved to themselves. They have not managed to do it in the end. Not only do we read those books without fear; we bring them to you for inspection, as you see, knowing that what is in them will be found pleasing by everyone. And if we persuade even a few, we will have gained the greatest things; for like good farmers we will receive our reward from the Master.

God, the Father of all, was going to bring Christ up to heaven after raising him from the dead, and to keep him there until he strikes down the demons who are hostile to him, and until the number is complete of those he has known in advance as becoming good and virtuous — the people for whose sake he has not yet brought on the burning of the world. Listen to what was said about this through David the prophet. These are his words: [ae]

So the words “He will send out to you a rod of power from Jerusalem” announce beforehand the strong word that his apostles went out from Jerusalem and preached everywhere. And although death has been decreed against those who teach the name of Christ, or so much as confess it, we hold to it and teach it everywhere. And if you too read these words as enemies, you can do no more, as I said before, than kill us — which does us no harm at all, but for you, and for everyone who hates us unjustly and does not change, it brings about eternal punishment by fire.