Commentaria in Isaiam
Argument
First, who was Isaias? I answer: he was the son of Amos, as is plain from chapter 1, verse 4. He was not the son of Amos the minor prophet, as St. Epiphanius in the Life of Amos, Clement of Alexandria, book 1 of the Stromata, and Cedrenus in his Compendium of History supposed; for that Amos is written with an ain at the beginning and a samech at the end, and was a herdsman and countryman, a gatherer of sycamore fruit; but Isaias’s father was another Amos, written with an aleph at the beginning and a sade at the end, which in Hebrew signifies firmament, strength, fortitude; for the root amats means to make firm, to strengthen.
Moreover this Amos, the father of Isaias, was of royal blood; whence there is in the style of Isaias such urbanity, brilliance, grace and charm that from this alone one may gather that he was brought up at court in royal manners. The Hebrews believe that this Amos was the brother of Amasias, king of Juda, who was the father of Azarias or Ozias the king, under whom Isaias began to prophesy. Nor are there wanting those who add that Isaias was also father-in-law (that is, the grandfather of the wife; for Isaias was then 196 years old, as I shall show presently) of Manasses, as St. Jerome testifies, book 2 of his Commentary on Isaias, chapter 20; which Isidore also holds, in his book On the Life and Death of the Saints, chapter 28. Indeed St. Jerome, in his Questions on 2 Paralipomenon, chapter 33, reports that the Hebrews say that Manasses was the son of Isaias’s daughter; therefore that Isaias was the grandfather of Manasses. Hence it is plain that Isaias began to prophesy at about the same time as Osee and Joel, in the seventeenth year of Ozias, says Eusebius. Ozias began to reign in the year of the world 3137, which was 80 years before the beginning of the Olympiads; for these began to be counted about the fortieth year of Ozias, and so before the founding of Rome; for according to the chronology which I have prefixed to Genesis, Rome was founded about the eleventh year of Joatham. The Olympiads preceded Rome by 23 years. Hence Romulus was a young man when Isaias was growing old, and Rome was founded about the 76th year of Isaias’s life. Clement of Alexandria favors this, book 1 of the Stromata, saying: “Isaias is seen still to have been prophesying in the two hundredth year from the reign of Solomon, in whose time it was shown that Menelaus came to Phoenicia.” For the two hundredth year from the death and reign of Solomon falls in the 34th year of Ozias or Azarias, in which Isaias was still prophesying; because he had of course begun many years before, namely in the 17th year, and thereafter. Isaias therefore began to prophesy almost 800 years before Christ. For from the 17th year of the reign of Ozias to Christ there passed 813 years. Moreover Isaias was married, and had a wife and a son named Jasub, as is plain from chapter 7, verse 3.
Second, how great is the dignity, excellence and obscurity of the prophet Isaias above the other prophets? I answer: St. Jerome describes them beautifully here, and they are plain from many things. First, because as St. Paul was caught up into the third heaven, and was made a teacher and Apostle sent to the Gentiles everywhere, so Isaias saw God, and by him was made a prophet, as will be said in chapter 6; whence in Ecclesiasticus 48, verse 25, Isaias is called “the great prophet, and faithful in the sight of God”; for what God had revealed to him he announced cheerfully, freely, constantly and faithfully; a proof of his cheerfulness is chapter 6, verse 8, where, when God was as it were hesitating whom to send to the hard-hearted Jews, he offers himself confidently and joyfully. Second, because he was consecrated a prophet by a seraph with a burning coal, and was made as it were a Seraphic man of the Seraphic order, chapter 6, verse 6. For he was destined by God to inflame with the knowledge and love of God, by his burning preaching, his life and his charity, the cold and frozen hearts of men. Third, because in Hebrew he is most eloquent, as St. Jerome testifies. Whence also St. Thomas (or whoever is the author) in his Prologue to Isaias says: Isaias excels the other prophets in three ways, namely in beautiful comparisons, in force of expression, and in grace of words; for he was noble and eloquent. For the Holy Spirit is accustomed to adapt Himself to His instruments, so as to appear urbane among the urbane, rustic among the rustic, eloquent among the eloquent; just as a flute-player plays delicately on delicate pipes, and more coarsely on coarser ones, says our Antonius Fernandius in his Prologue to the Visions of Isaias.
Fourth, because he had a most ample, sublime and brilliant prophetic light. For there is almost nothing pertaining to the state of the Hebrews and of the other nations, and foretold by the other prophets, which you will not find in Isaias much more luminously and weightily. “Isaias,” says Nazianzen, Oration 3, near the beginning, “surpassing all the prophets in the sublimity of his voice”; whence elsewhere he calls him the Grandiloquent. Fifth, because he prophesies of Christ and the Christians in such a way that he seems not to foretell things to come but to write a history of things past, says St. Jerome, so that whoever has read Isaias may think himself to be present in the Gospel. Hence in the Gospels and throughout the New Testament Isaias alone is cited and heard more often than all the other prophets together. For the Gospel is so studded and lit with the testimonies of Isaias as with stars, that whoever wishes to expound the Gospel must at the same time expound Isaias, and whoever the latter, the Gospel.
For here we read of the Virgin bringing forth, of Christ conceived, born, sought and adored by the Magi, fleeing into Egypt, teaching, preaching, working miracles, suffering, dying, rising again, coming to judgment, judging and triumphing, not so much described in writing as seen set forth in a living image; so that this prophecy is deservedly called and entitled before the rest a Vision. Certainly Isaias depicts the little child Emmanuel born to us, and his sorrows, torments and sufferings, so vividly and so movingly that the Passion of Jesus Christ may be read and pointed out according to Isaias as well as according to Matthew or Mark.
Therefore Isaias is full of the spirit, not only prophetic, but also Christian and Apostolic, and his prophecy is not only prophecy, but also Gospel. Sixth, because he not only foresaw and foretold the things that were last, namely the last things of Christ, but also those that will come to pass in the last ages and at the end of the world, in the time of Antichrist; for this is what Ecclesiasticus 48, 27, says:
“With a great spirit he saw the things to come, and comforted the mourners in Sion for ever.”
Seventh, because he was a worker of wonders, and confirmed his oracles by miracles; for by his prayers he called down an angel, who slew in the army of Sennacherib in one night 185 thousand of the Assyrians.