For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government will be upon his shoulder
and his name shall be called
"Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
For the early church fathers the prophecy of Isaiah was not a compendium of Jewish history or theology but an announcement of the coming Messiah fulfilled in the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. As such, the prophet's words were a rich source of theological reflection concerning their Lord and a vital aid in their defense against the objections of the Jews that Jesus was the promised Messiah. The interpretation of Jesus' ministry in light of Isaiah's prophecy was not a theological innovation on their part butrather a following of the path blazed by the New Testament writers and Jesus himself.
Among passage-by-passage commentaries cited here are those by Eusebius of Caesarea, Jerome, Cyril of Alexandria, and Theodoret of Cyr, as well as one attributed to Basil of Caesarea. John Chrysostom preached a series of homilies on Isaiah of which most of those extant concern the first eight chapters, though Chrysostom frequently cites Isaiah in numerous homilies on other books. Augustine of Hippo, Gregory the Great, and Bede the Venerable frequently cite passages from Isaiah 1–39, as did many other fathers in defending the Christian faith from Jewish critics.
In this Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture volume, readers will find materials ranging from East to West and from the first through the eighth centuries, some appearing here in English translation for the first time. Within this treasure house are riches to illumine the mind and fire the heart.
Steven A. McKinion is associate professor of historical theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. He is also the author of Life and Practice in the Early Church: A Documentary Reader and Words,Imagery and the Mystery of Christ: A Reconstruction of Cyril of Alexandria's Christology.
Thomas C. Oden (1931–2016), was the general editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture and the Ancient Christian Doctrine series as well as the author of Classic Christianity, a revision of his three-volume systematic theology. His books also include The African Memory of Mark, Early Libyan Christianity, and How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind. He was the director of the Center for Early African Christianity at Eastern University in Pennsylvania and he also served as the Henry Anson Buttz Professor of Theology at the Graduate School and The Theological School of Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.
