Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume III/Apologetic/An Answer to the Jews/Further Proofs from the Calling of the Gentiles

Chapter XII.&#8212;Further Proofs from the Calling of the Gentiles.

Look at the universal nations thenceforth emerging from the vortex of human error to the Lord God the Creator and His Christ; and if you dare to deny that this was prophesied, forthwith occurs to you the promise of the Father in the Psalms, which says, &#8220;My Son art Thou; to-day have I begotten Thee.&#160; Ask of Me, and I will give Thee Gentiles as Thine heritage, and as Thy possession the bounds of the earth.&#8221; For you will not be able to affirm that &#8220;son&#8221; to be David rather than Christ; or the &#8220;bounds of the earth&#8221; to have been promised rather to David, who reigned within the single (country of) Judea, than to Christ, who has already taken captive the whole orb with the faith of His gospel; as He says through Isaiah:&#160; &#8220;Behold, I have given Thee for a covenant of my family, for a light of Gentiles, that Thou mayst open the eyes of the blind&#8221;&#8212;of course, such as err&#8212;&#8220;to outloose from bonds the bound&#8221;&#8212;that is, to free them from sins&#8212;&#8220;and from the house of prison&#8221;&#8212;that is, of death&#8212;&#8220;such as sit in darkness&#8221; &#8212;of ignorance, to wit. And if these blessings accrue through Christ, they will not have been prophesied of another than Him through whom we consider them to have been accomplished.