Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/521

 VIRGIN

4G4C

VIRGIN

the upper pool from which the city received the greater part of its water supply. Hence the Lord says to Isaias: "Go forth to meet Arhaz ... at the end of the conduit of the upper pool". The prophet's commission is of an extremely consoling nature: "See thou be quiet ; fear not, and let not thy heart be afraid of the two tails of these firebrands". The scheme of the enemies shall not succeed: "it shall not stand, and this shall not be." What is to be the particular fate of the enemies? a. Syria will gain nothing, it will remain as it has been in the past: "the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rasin". h. Ephraim too will remain in the immediate future as it has been hitherto: "the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria the son of Romelia"; but after sixty-five years it will be destroyed, "within threescore and five yeara Ephraim shall cease to be a people".

Achaz had abandoned the Lord for Moloch, and put his trust in an alliance with Assyria; hence the conditional prophecy concerning Juda, "if you will not belie\'e, you shall not continue". The test of belief follows immediately: "ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, either unto the depth of hell or unto the height above". Achaz hypocritically answers: "I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord", thus refusing to express his belief in God, and preferring his AssjTian policy. The king prefers Assyria to God, and Assyria will come: "The Lord shall bring upon thee and upon thy people, and upon the house of thy father, days that have not come since the time of the separation of Ephraim from Juda with the king of the Assyrians." The house of David has been grievous not merely to men, but to God also by its unbehef; hence it "shall not continue", and, by an irony of Divine punishment, it will be destroyed by th(5se very men whom it preferred to God.

Still, tlie general Messianic promises made to the house of David cannot be frustrated: "The Lord Himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel. He shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the evil and to choose the good. For before the child know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good, the land which thou abhorrest .shall be for.saken of the face of her two kings." Without answering a number of questions connected with the explanation of this prophecy, we must confine our- selves here to the bare proof that the virgin mentioned by the prophet is Mary the Mother of Christ. The argument is based on the premises that the prophet's virgin is the mother of Emmanuel, and that Emman- uel is Clirist. The relation of the virgin to Emmanuel is clearly expressed in the inspired words; the same indicate also the identity of Emmanuel with the Christ.

The connection of Emmanuel with the extraordinary Divine sign which was to be given to Achaz predi.s- poses one to see in the child more than a common boy. In viii, 8, the prophet ascribes to him the ownership of the land of Juda: "the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Emman- uel". In ix, 6, the government of the house of David is said to be upon his shoulders, and he is described as being endowed with more than human qualities: "a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonrlerful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the WorldtoCome, and the Prince of Peace". Fmally, the prophet calls Em- manuel "a rod out of the root of Jesse" endowed with "the spirit of the Lord . . . the spirit of wisdom and of underst.anding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and of godliness"; his advent shall be followed by the general signs of the Mes.sianic era, and the remn.ant of the chosen people shall be again the people of God (xi, 1-16).

Whatever obscurity or ambiguity there may be in the prophetic text itself is removed by St. Matthew (i, 18-25). After narrating the doubt of St. Joseph and the angel's assurance, "that whic'h is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost", the EvangcUst pro- ceeds: "now all this was done that it might be ful- filleil which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel." We need not repeat the exposition of the passage given by Catholic commentators who answer the exceptions raised against the obvious meaning of the Evangelist. We may infer from all this that Mary is mentioned in the prophecy of I'saias as mother of Jesus Clirist; in the hght of St. Matthew's reference

Detail, the Virgin and Child Francia, Borghese Galler>-, Rome

to the prophecy, we may add that the prophet pre- dicted also Mary's virginity untarnished by the con- ception of the Emmanuel (cf. Knabenbauer, Com- ment, in Isaiam, Paris, 1887; Schegg, Der Prophet Isaias, Miinchen, 1850; Kohling, Der Prophet Isaia, Miinster, 1872; Neteler, Das Buch Isaias, Miinster, 1876; Condamin, Le livre d'Isaie, Paris, 1905; Maas, Christ in Type and Prophecy, New York, 1893, I, 33.3 sqq.; Lagrange, La Vierge et Emmanuel, in Revue biblique, Paris, 1892, pp. 481-497; L(^mann, La Vierge et I'Emmanuel, Paris, 1904; St. Ignat., ad Eph., cc. 7, 18, 19; St. Justin, Dial., P. G., VI, 144, 195; St.Iren., adv. hser., IV, xxxiii, 11).

A third prophecy referring to Our Blessed Lady is contained in Micheas, V, 2-3: "And thou, Bethlehem, Ephrata, art a little one among the thousands of Juda: out of thee shall he come forth imlo me that is to be the ruler in Israel, and his going forth is from the beginning, from tliedaysof (tcrnity. Therefore will he give them u|) (ill the time whcreinshe that (ravail- eth shall bring forth, and (he remnant of his brethren shall be converted to the children of I.srael." Though the prophet (about 7.5-0 B. c.) was a contemporary of Isaias, his prophetic activity beg.an a Uttle later and ended a little enrlier than that of Isaias. There can be no doubt that the Jews regarded the foregoing prediction as referring to the Messias. According to