CHAPTER 18 

From Psalm cxvii.

Of the Cry, Hosanna to the Son of David.

[Passage quoted, Ps. cxvii. 22-27.]

WHEN our Saviour Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem, riding on an ass according to the previous prophecy, He fulfilled the prediction of Zechariah, for as the Holy Evangelist tells us, the crowds that went before and followed Him cried, saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest." (c) And when He entered Jerusalem, "All the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitudes said, This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee." As, therefore, Hosanna is said in the Psalm we are considering, which is translated "Save us now," and the Hebrew has "Lord, save - 189 - us," and the words, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord," are taken from the same Psalm, and these words can only refer to the Christ of God, we naturally apply the rest of the prediction to Him. For He is blessed, (d) Who is named by another prophet, "He that cometh," in the passage, "Yet a little while, and he that cometh will come, and will not tarry," Who also came in the Name of the Lord God His Father. And He is the Lord God that appeared for us. For He insists that He has come in the Name of His Father when He says to the Jews, "I have come in my Father's Name, and ye receive me not. If another come in his own name, him ye will receive." He, then, that appeared for us, the Lord God, the Blessed, He that cometh in the Name of the Lord, was also the stone, (460) which they who of old built up the people on the foundation of the Mosaic teaching, set at naught, and which, set at naught by them, is become the head of the corner of the Church of the Gentiles, which the oracle says is wonderful, not to all that look on it, but only to the eyes of prophets, when it says, "And it is wonderful in our eyes."

And it calls His Epiphany also "the day which the Lord hath made," for He was the true Light, and the Sun of Righteousness, and the Day of God, in which we may also (b) say, "This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it."

Now that this part is thus concluded, I will proceed to consider the prophecies concerning the Passion.

[A few of the footnotes have been renumbered and placed here]