again, specifying the place of His advent, he says: "The Lord hath spoken from Zion, and He has uttered His voice from Jerusalem."[1] And that it is from that region which is towards the south of the inheritance of Judah that the Son of God shall come, who is God, and who was from Bethlehem, where the Lord was born, [and] will send out His praise through all the earth, thus[2] says the prophet Habakkuk: "God shall come from the south, and the Holy One from Mount Effrem. His powder covered the heavens over, and the earth is full of His praise. Before His face shall go forth the Word, and His feet shall advance in the plains."[3] Thus he indicates in clear terms that He is God, and that His advent was [to take place] in Bethlehem, and from Mount Effrem, which is towards the south of the inheritance, and that [He is] man. For he says, "His feet shall advance in the plains:" and this is an indication proper to man.[4]
Chap. xxi.—A vindication of the prophecy in Isaiah (vii. 14) against the misinterpretations of Theodotion, Aquila, the Ebionites, and the Jews. Authority of the Septuagint version. Arguments in proof that Christ was born of a virgin.
1. God, then, was made man, and the Lord did Himself save us, giving us the token of the Virgin. But not as some allege, among those now presuming to expound the Scripture, [thus:] "Behold, a young woman shall conceive, and bring forth a son,"[5] as Theodotion the Ephesian has interpreted, and Aquila of Pontus,[6] both Jewish proselytes. The
- ↑ Joel iii. 16; Amos i. 2.
- ↑ As Massuet observes, we must either expunge "sicut" altogether, or read "sic" as above.
- ↑ Hab. iii. 3, 5.
- ↑ This quotation from Habakkuk, here commented on by Irenæus, differs both from the Hebrew and the LXX., and comes nearest to the old Italic version of the passage.
- ↑ Isa. vii. 14.
- ↑ Epiphanius, in his De Mensuris, gives an account of these two men. The former published his version of the Old Testament in the year 181. The latter put forth his translation half a century earlier, about 129 a.d
