Apologeticae sive Theologiae Fundamentalis, Tomus I: Demonstratio Christiana

Many clearly defined circumstances of the life, passion, and glorification of the coming Messiah were foretold. All of them, moreover, have been so evidently fulfilled in Jesus Christ of Nazareth that it is at once apparent that they were spoken of Him. For this reason we cite only the prophetic texts, indicating the comparable or related Gospel passages merely in the notes.

1. Prophecies of the prophets concerning the life of Christ.

He will have a forerunner: "Behold, I send my angel, and he shall prepare the way before my face. And presently the Lord, whom you seek, and the Angel of the testament, whom you desire, shall come to his temple."¹

He will be born in Bethlehem: "And you, Bethlehem Ephrata,² are a little one among the thousands [chiliarchies] of Judah;³ out of you shall he come forth to me who is to be the ruler in Israel, and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity."⁴

He will be born of a virgin mother: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel."⁵

He will be exceedingly meek and merciful: "He shall not cry, nor have respect to person, neither shall his voice be heard abroad. The bruised reed he shall not break, and the smoking flax he shall not quench: he shall bring forth judgment in truth. He shall not be sad nor troublesome."⁶

He will be a prophet and teacher: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from your nation and from your brethren, like me [Moses]; you shall hear him."⁷ "Behold, I have given him as a witness to the peoples, a leader and a commander to the nations."⁸

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to preach to the meek, to heal the contrite of heart, and to proclaim release to the captives."⁹

He will work miracles: "God himself will come and will save you. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a stag, and the tongue of the mute shall be loosed."¹⁰

He will illumine Galilee above all: "At the first time the land of Zabulon and the land of Nephthali was lightly touched [despised], and at the last the way of the sea beyond the Jordan of the Galilee of the Gentiles was heavily laden [honored];¹¹ the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; to those dwelling in the region of the shadow of death, light has risen."¹²

Humble, he will enter Jerusalem riding upon the foal of an ass: "Daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your king will come to you, the just one and the savior: he is poor and riding upon an ass and upon a colt, the foal of an ass."¹³

2. Prophecies of the prophets concerning the passion of Christ.

He will be valued at thirty pieces of silver: "And they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me: cast it to the statuary, the handsome price that I was priced at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and I cast them into the house of the Lord, to the statuary."¹⁴

He will be scourged and spit upon: "I have given my body to the strikers and my cheeks to those who plucked them; I have not turned away my face from those who rebuked me and spit upon me."¹⁵

He will be led to death with the wicked: "Like a sheep he shall be led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before his shearer he shall be mute. He delivered his soul to death, and he was counted with the wicked."¹⁶

His hands and feet will be pierced: "They have dug my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones."¹⁷

Thirsting, he will be given vinegar to drink: "My tongue has cleaved to my jaws."¹⁸ "And they gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."¹⁹

He will be mocked by the spectators: "I am a worm and no man; the reproach of men and the outcast of the people. All who see me have derided me, they have spoken with the lips and wagged the head: He hoped in the Lord, let him deliver him, let him save him, since he delights in him."²⁰

They will divide his cloak, and cast lots for his inner tunic: "They have divided my garments among themselves, and over my vesture [namely, the inner tunic] they have cast lots."²¹

He will be pierced: "They shall look upon me, whom they have pierced."²²

3. Prophecies of the prophets concerning the glorification of Christ.

Destined for the sepulchre of the wicked, he will in truth be buried gloriously: "They gave his sepulchre with the wicked, and [but] with the rich he was in his death."²³

He will not see corruption, but will rise again victorious from the dead: "My flesh shall rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in hell, nor will you let your holy one see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life, you will fill me with joy with your countenance: delights at your right hand even to the end."²⁴

All these prophecies — genealogical, chronological, biographical — joined and linked together into one, present an image of the Messiah described with marvelous accuracy several centuries before the archetype, Jesus, appeared.

From the beginning the figure of the future Savior appears more obscure and, as it were, sketched in its first outlines.

Then, as time advances, by the hand of the individual prophets the form and life of the Messiah are more and more brought to light, until he draws all eyes to himself and inflames all hearts with longing for him: "Drop down dew, you heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down the just one; let the earth be opened and bud forth a Savior!"²⁵ "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!"²⁶ At length Jesus Christ, awaited by all the prophets, appears and gives life to the picture painted through the ages, taking in all the prophecies and uniting them in his one person, illumining all and fulfilling them from the greatest to the least. Jesus Christ is the beginning, the center, the complement of the prophecies of the Old Testament, the end and the term of all the prophets, who prophesied before him and concerning him.²⁷

A thing truly stupendous and nowhere else heard of in the history of the human race; indeed, a fact that so indubitably savors of a preternatural character that it absolutely admits of no natural explanation.

But come, attempt the natural explanation. Perhaps you will object that not all the circumstances foretold refer to the person of the Messiah. But that they are all messianic, i. e. that they hold good of the one person of the Messiah, we infer chiefly from this, that all of them together fit perfectly upon one and the same person, Jesus Christ.

Let the objection pass. Suppose, I say, that by fair means or foul you erase now this line and now that of the messianic image. But if you retain only those lines which admit of no sense other than the messianic, the image itself is not in the least changed.

In reality, the genealogical prophecies, by which through the centuries an eternal king is promised ever more clearly, a king to whom all nations will be subject and through whom they will be saved; the chronological prophecies, by which the precise time of the coming and of the dying of the Savior is indicated; the biographical prophecies, by which the series of the deeds of his life, passion, and glory is set forth — these have either no sense at all or a messianic sense.

Press on: perhaps several of these things could have been foreseen and conjectured by natural sagacity. But is it likely — indeed, is it even possible — that so many prophets could have hit by conjecture, rightly and truly and without any error, upon so many diverse circumstances, which depended partly on the will of God and partly on the free will of men? Such a marvelous conjecture would surely be the greatest of all prophecies and would require knowledge properly divine.

Deny outright, saying that this or that circumstance was perhaps rashly foretold and fulfilled by chance. But what would these be among so many? For since it is dangerous to attribute the fulfillment of one or another circumstance to blind chance, it would be of stupid boldness to attribute several, and of shameful folly to ascribe to blind chance all the circumstances foretold and fulfilled in Jesus.²⁸

Hence, with the natural explanation of the messianic prophecies having been attempted in vain, it is necessary to return to the one and only possible explanation, the supernatural one, namely: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets"²⁹ depicted the personal circumstances by which we might recognize the messianic-divine envoy; but those circumstances fit the person of Jesus Christ of Nazareth fully; therefore Jesus Christ rightly and deservedly appeals to the prophecies of the Old Testament in order to prove the truth of the testimony which he himself bears to his messiahship and to his divinity.