Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary

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Isaiah 45

1The LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held to subdue nations before him and strip kings of their armor, to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut:

2“I will go before you and make the rough places smooth. I will break the doors of bronze in pieces and cut apart the bars of iron.

3I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, who calls you by your name, even the God of Israel.

4For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel my chosen, I have called you by your name. I have given you a title, though you have not known me.

5I am the LORD, and there is no one else. Besides me, there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not known me,

6that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is no one besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no one else.

7I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create calamity. I am the LORD, who does all these things.

8Rain, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, that it may produce salvation, and let it cause righteousness to spring up with it. I, the LORD, have created it.

9Woe to him who strives with his Maker— a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands’?

10Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What have you become the father of?’ or to a mother, ‘What have you given birth to?’”

11The LORD, the Holy One of Israel and his Maker says: “You ask me about the things that are to come, concerning my sons, and you command me concerning the work of my hands!

12I have made the earth, and created man on it. I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens. I have commanded all their army.

13I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways straight. He shall build my city, and he shall let my exiles go free, not for price nor reward,” says the LORD of Armies.

14The LORD says: “The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you, and they will be yours. They will go after you. They shall come over in chains. They will bow down to you. They will make supplication to you: ‘Surely God is in you; and there is no one else. There is no other god.

15Most certainly you are a God who has hidden yourself, God of Israel, the Savior.’”

16They will be disappointed, yes, confounded, all of them. Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together.

17Israel will be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation. You will not be disappointed nor confounded to ages everlasting.

18For the LORD who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn’t create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited says: “I am the LORD. There is no other.

19I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness. I didn’t say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the LORD, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right.

20“Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a god that can’t save.

21Declare and present it. Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old? Haven’t I, the LORD? There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior. There is no one besides me.

22“Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.

23I have sworn by myself. The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and will not be revoked, that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath.

24They will say of me, ‘There is righteousness and strength only in the LORD.’” Even to him will men come. All those who raged against him will be disappointed.

25All the offspring of Israel will be justified in the LORD, and will rejoice!

Early Christian commentary

c. 153–157 AD (date debated) | Justin Martyr

Since, then, we prove that all things which have already happened had been predicted by the prophets before they came to pass, we must necessarily believe also that those things which are in like manner predicted, but are yet to come to pass, shall certainly happen. For as the things which have already taken place came to pass when foretold, and even though unknown, so shall the things that remain, even though they be unknown and disbelieved, yet come to pass. For the prophets have proclaimed two advents of His: the one, that which is already past, when He came as a dishonoured and suffering man; but the second, when, according to prophecy, He shall come from heaven with glory, accompanied by His angelic host, when also He shall raise the bodies of all men who have lived, and shall clothe those of the worthy with immortality, and shall send those of the wicked, endued with eternal sensibility, into everlasting fire with the wicked devils. And that these things also have been foretold as yet to be, we will prove. By Ezekiel the prophet it was said: "Joint shall be joined to joint, and bone to bone, and flesh shall grow again; and every knee shall bow to the Lord, and every tongue shall confess Him." And in what kind of sensation and punishment the wicked are to be, hear from what was said in like manner with reference to this; it is as follows: "Their worm shall not rest, and their fire shall not be quenched;" and then shall they repent, when it profits them not. And what the people of the Jews shall say and do, when they see Him coming in glory, has been thus predicted by Zechariah the prophet: "I will command the four winds to gather the scattered children; I will command the north wind to bring them, and the south wind, that it keep not back. And then in Jerusalem there shall be great lamentation, not the lamentation of mouths or of lips, but the lamentation of the heart; and they shall rend not their garments, but their hearts. Tribe by tribe they shall mourn, and then they shall look on Him whom they have pierced; and they shall say, Why, O Lord, hast Thou made us to err from Thy way? The glory which our fathers blessed, has for us been turned into shame."

Commentary · The First Apology, Chapter 52 · Original source · Justin Martyr; translated by Marcus Dods; T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1870. Historical transcription supplied by Wikisource contributors. · Licence · Source revision · Whitespace normalized; source pagination and footnote reference markers removed. English wording unchanged.