Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary
Isaiah 46 · World English Bible
1Bel bows down. Nebo stoops. Their idols are carried by animals, and on the livestock. The things that you carried around are heavy loads, a burden for the weary.
2They stoop and they bow down together. They could not deliver the burden, but they have gone into captivity.
3“Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been carried from their birth, that have been carried from the womb.
4Even to old age I am he, and even to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear. Yes, I will carry, and will deliver.
5“To whom will you compare me, and consider my equal, and compare me, as if we were the same?
6Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down— yes, they worship.
7They bear it on their shoulder. They carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands there. It cannot move from its place. Yes, one may cry to it, yet it can not answer. It cannot save him out of his trouble.
8“Remember this, and show yourselves men. Bring it to mind again, you transgressors.
9Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me.
10I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done. I say: My counsel will stand, and I will do all that I please.
11I call a ravenous bird from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. Yes, I have spoken. I will also bring it to pass. I have planned. I will also do it.
12Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness!
13I bring my righteousness near. It is not far off, and my salvation will not wait. I will grant salvation to Zion, my glory to Israel.
World English Bible · World English Bible; source eBible.org.
Notes on Isaiah 46
1868 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. xlvi. 2.
Editorial footnote · Against Heresies, Book 4 / Chap. xvii. — Proof that God did not appoint the Levitical dispensation for His own sake, or as requiring such service; for He does, in fact, need nothing from men., editorial note cite_note-213 · Original source
1868 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. xlvi. 9.
Editorial footnote · Against Heresies, Book 2 / Chap. ix. — There is but one Creator of the world, God the Father: this the constant belief of the church., editorial note cite_note-44 · Original source
1872 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
See Isa. xlvi. 8.
Editorial footnote · Answer to the Letters of Petilianus, WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY. / BOOK SECOND., editorial note Footnote_814_814 · Original source
1885 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. xlv. 5, 6, Isa. xlvi. 9.
Editorial footnote · Against Heresies: Book I, Chapter uncertain (transcription heading: Chapter V), editorial note cite_note-78 · Original source
1885 (historical English edition; physical printing year uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Pamelius regards this as a quotation from Isa. xlvi. 12, 13, only put narratively, in order to indicate briefly its realization.
Editorial footnote · The Five Books Against Marcion, Book 3, Chapter 22, editorial note cite_note-3 · Original source
1885 (historical English edition; physical printing year uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
This is rather an allusion to, than a quotation of, Isa. xlvi. 12, 13.
Editorial footnote · The Five Books Against Marcion, Book 5, Chapter 17, editorial note cite_note-41 · Original source
1886 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. xlvi. 6, 7.
Editorial footnote · The Treatises of Cyprian, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Part 59, editorial note cite_note-10 · Original source
1886 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. xlvi. 1, 2, 5.
Editorial footnote · The Treatises of Cyprian, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Part 59, editorial note cite_note-8 · Original source
1888 (historical English edition; physical printing year uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Isa. xlvi. 8.
Editorial footnote · Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 18, editorial note cite_note-4 · Original source
Date uncertain | Irenaeus of Lyons (historical collection attribution)
4. As, then, they represent all material substance to be formed from three passions, viz., fear, grief, and perplexity, the account they give is as follows: Animal substances originated from fear and from conversion; the Demiurge they also describe as owing his origin to conversion; but the existence of all the other animal substances they ascribe to fear, such as the souls of irrational animals, and of wild beasts, and men. And on this account, he (the Demiurge), being incapable of recognising any spiritual essences, imagined himself to be God alone, and declared through the prophets, “I am God, and besides me there is none else.” They further teach that the spirits of wickedness derived their origin from grief. Hence the devil, whom they also call Cosmocrator (the ruler of the world), and the demons, and the angels, and every wicked spiritual being that exists, found the source of their existence. They represent the Demiurge as being the son of that mother of theirs (Achamoth), and Cosmocrator as the creature of the Demiurge. Cosmocrator has knowledge of what is above himself, because he is a spirit of wickedness; but the Demiurge is ignorant of such things, inasmuch as he is merely animal. Their mother dwells in that place which is above the heavens, that is, in the intermediate abode; the Demiurge in the heavenly place, that is, in the hebdomad; but the Cosmocrator in this our world. The corporeal elements of the world, again, sprang, as we before remarked, from bewilderment and perplexity, as from a more ignoble source. Thus the earth arose from her state of stupor; water from the agitation caused by her fear; air from the consolidation of her grief; while fire, producing death and corruption, was inherent in all these elements, even as they teach that ignorance also lay concealed in these three passions.
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Against Heresies: Book I, Chapter uncertain (transcription heading: Chapter V), source paragraph 33 · Original source