DEMONSTRATION OF THE APOSTOLIC PREACHING of St Irenaus Section 66-67. So then, that the Son of God should be born, and in what manner born, and where He was to be born, and that Christ is the one eternal King the prophets thus declared. And again they told beforehand concerning Him how, sprung from mankind, He should heal those whom He healed, and raise the dead whom He raised, and be hated and despised and undergo sufferings and be put to death and crucified, even as He was hated and despised and put to death. At this point let us speak of His healings. Isaiah says thus: “He took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses”: (Isa. liii. 4) that is to say, He shall take, and shall bear. For there are passages in which the Spirit of God through the prophets recounts things that are to be as having taken place. For that which with God is essayed and conceived of as determined to take place, is reckoned as having already taken place: and the Spirit, regarding and seeing the time in which the issues of the prophecy are fulfilled, utters the words (accordingly). And concerning the kind of healing, thus will He make mention, saying: “In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and in darkness and in me the eyes of the blind shall see. And the same says again: Be strong, ye weak hands and feeble and trembling knees: be comforted, ye that are of a fearful mind. Be strong, fear not. Behold, our God will recompense judgment: He will come and save us. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear: then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be plain”. And concerning the dead, that they shall be raised, he says thus: “The dead shall be raised, and they that are in the tombs shall be raised”. And in bringing these things to pass He shall be believed to be the Son of God.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 11:19:57 +0000