Commentaria in Isaiam
Again he brought back the sun, and its shadow on the dial of Achaz, and by this sign restored health to King Ezechias, and added fifteen years to his life, Isaias 37 and following. Eighth, because he prophesied for very many years, namely under Ozias, who reigned 52 years; under Joatham, who reigned 16; under Achaz, who reigned 16; under Ezechias, who reigned 29; and he lived on into the reign of Manasses the son of Ezechias. Now suppose that he began to prophesy in the 17th year of Ozias, as Eusebius relates in the Chronicle; there will remain of the reign of Ozias 36 years. Add to these 16 of Joatham, 16 of Achaz, and 29 of Ezechias, and you will have 96 years in which Isaias prophesied. Hence, if we say that he, like Christ and John the Baptist, according to the custom of the Hebrews did not begin to prophesy before the thirtieth year of his age, it will follow that he lived to a decrepit age, to the 126th year of his age, and beyond; for he was put to death by Manasses, and not immediately at the beginning of his reign (for he himself began to reign as a boy in his 12th year), but when he had become older and more wicked. Ninth, because Isaias was not only a prophet and Evangelist, but an Apostle, say Cyril and Chrysostom, in the homily On St. John the Baptist, tome 3; for asking to be sent, he was sent by God to the Jews, chapter 6, verse 8. Rightly therefore was Isaias always held the greatest of the prophets in the Synagogue of the Jews. Tenth, because he was remarkable for holiness of life and contempt of self; for he, a most noble man, of very great fame and authority, walked entirely naked in full daylight in his own country and in the capital of Juda, namely Jerusalem, for three days at God’s command, as will appear in chapter 20. Again his piety and mercy were conspicuous; for he laboured greatly in consoling the people and the Church: “For he comforted the mourners in Sion,” says Ecclesiasticus, so that he breathed every consolation, because he was touched to the inmost feeling and shared the affliction of his people, chapter 21, verse 4. Finally there shone forth in Isaias fortitude, constancy and freedom in speaking and in censuring the vices of kings and princes, and in threatening them and foretelling the punishments to be inflicted by God, as is plain from chapter 1, 10, and chapter 39, 3, and elsewhere. This freedom was the more illustrious in Isaias because he had a wife and family and a son, all of whom he fearlessly exposed to the hatred of kings and princes for God and the truth. And for this reason Isaias deserved to be crowned with martyrdom. Whence St. Paul, Romans 10, 20, says: “But Isaias is bold, and saith”; on which Origen: “He is bold, he says, and preaches freely, though he knew that death threatened him for it.”
Third, whether Isaias was a martyr. I answer that he was; for it is the common tradition of the Hebrews and the Fathers, such as Origen here, homily 4, Dorotheus, Isidore, Epiphanius on Isaias, Chrysostom, in his letter to Cyriacus, Justin against Trypho, Augustine, City of God, book 18, chapter 24, and others, that Isaias was sawn asunder with a saw under King Manasses. This tradition St. Jerome, book 15 on Isaias, at the end, calls most certain, where also he understands the words of Hebrews 11, “they were cut asunder,” or as he himself reads, “they were sawn,” of Isaias.
Hear Tertullian in Scorpiace, chapter 8: “David,” he says, “is harassed, Elias is put to flight, Jeremias is stoned, Isaias is sawn, Zacharias is slain between the temple and the altar, leaving to the paving-stones the lasting stains of his blood.”
Whence the Roman Martyrology on 6 July says of Isaias: “In Judea, the holy prophet Isaias, who under King Manasses was cut in two parts and so died.” And the Alexandrian Chronicle, or Sicilian Fasti, says: “Isaias the prophet, sawn asunder by Manasses, died; he prophesied for ninety years; he was buried beneath the oak Rogel.” And St. Ambrose on chapter 10 of Luke: “Who is he,” he says, “wounded in the head? Surely Isaias, whose bodily frame the saw divided more easily than it bent his faith, wore down his constancy or cut away the vigor of his mind.” Hear also St. Zeno, Bishop of Verona and martyr, in his sermon On the Martyrdom of Isaias, speaking wonderfully but obscurely: “Isaias,” he says, “when he foretold Christ, or when he announced to the people of Israel the declaration of the future dominion, the barbarity of the blasphemers, stirred up by cruel rage, cut him through the head and split him with a slow torment like morsels, and ordered the neck to be cut from the head through the ears down to the shoulders.”
For Isaias looks wholly to this one thing, to announce by words or express by his conduct Jesus Christ our Redeemer and teacher. Rightly therefore does St. Jerome say here: “Ignorance of the Scriptures (especially of Isaias) is ignorance of Christ.”
Moreover there was a twofold cause of the death and martyrdom of Isaias. The first, indeed, was that he had rebuked King Manasses, the princes and the people so freely, as I have said, and especially that in chapter 1, verse 10, he had called them Therefore Abulensis, on 4 Kings 21, Question 17, rashly denies this tradition. The argument of Abulensis is this: Isaias in the Prologue did not name Manasses, but only Ozias, Joatham, Achaz and Ezechias; therefore he did not prophesy under Manasses, therefore he did not suffer under him. But this argument is weak; for either consequence can be denied; for there could be various reasons why he did not name Manasses, as that Manasses was then still a boy, and that he did not prophesy long under him, or perhaps did not prophesy at all, but only wished to teach and reprove him, and was therefore killed by him; for the Fathers commonly affirm that he was killed by him. Hear also the author of the Unfinished Work on Matthew, homily 46, on the words, “Jerusalem, that killest the prophets, and stonest them,” says: “I sent Isaias to thee, and thou didst saw him asunder; I sent Jeremias, and thou didst stone him; I sent Ezechiel, and thou didst dash out his brains, dragged over the stones.” See here what is the reward of prophets, teachers and preachers, namely persecution, suffering and martyrdom. This crown the prophets, Christ, all the Apostles, St. John the Baptist, St. Stephen, St. Chrysostom and others sought and obtained. Let good pastors and preachers expect the same today, and let them think this the exceedingly great reward of their freedom, constancy and labours. Indeed Justin above, and Tertullian, book 3 of his poem Against Marcion, teach that this saw was of wood; for Tertullian, speaking of Isaias, thus sings: Whom the people, sawn asunder with a wooden saw, found without blame, the senseless people put to death, undeserving, by a cruel death.
That was indeed a cruel torment, especially for a man of 126 years. Whence it is plain that Isaias by his death by wood prefigured the death of Christ on the wood of the cross, just as by his life he prefigured the life of Christ, and indeed by his name prefigured the name of Jesus. For Isaias in Hebrew is the same as salvation, or Savior of the Lord, or Jesus God, as Leo Castrius holds. For what we call Isaias the Hebrews call Jesaias, which may be explained Iescua Ia, that is, Jesus. He called them princes of Sodom and the people of Gomorrha. Again, he had said that God would blind and reject the Jews, and in their place call the Gentiles; for this Paul hints, Romans 10, 20: “But Isaias is bold, and saith: I was found by them that sought me not: I appeared openly to them that asked not after me”; for this pierced the hearts of the Jews to the quick. For a like reason St. Stephen courted martyrdom, saying to the Jews: “You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost”; and St. Paul, Acts 22, 21, saying: “And he (the Lord) said to me: Go, for unto the Gentiles afar off will I send thee. And they heard him (the Jews) until this word, and then lifted up their voice, saying: Away with such an one from the earth; for it is not fit that he should live.” In like manner Joas, rebuked by Zacharias the son of Joiada, had him killed in the temple, 2 Paralipomenon 24, 22; and King Amasias threatened death to another prophet who rebuked him, in the same book, chapter 25, verse 16; and King Asa cast the prophet Hanani, by whom he was charged with folly, into the stocks, that is, into a hard prison, in the same book, chapter 16, verse 10. The second cause was a colored and as it were pretended one, namely that, since the Lord had said to Moses, Exodus 33, 20: “Thou canst not see my face; for man shall not see me and live,” Isaias said and wrote the contrary, chapter 6, verse 1, namely that he saw God sitting upon a high throne; and so they charged Isaias with blasphemy, and for it condemned him to death. So St. Jerome, Basil, Haymo and others, and also the Hebrews in Galatinus, book 4, chapter 13, who however, after their manner, mix in fables about a cedar which opened and received Isaias as he fled from Manasses, in which and with which he was cut asunder by Manasses.