Aponius

In his own words on Isaiah

• Isaiah 9:14-15

  He who may have been at the head of the flock of Christ is now made the tail of another flock, as God declared through Isaiah: "The prophet who teaches lies is the tail." Everyone among the people who is of right faith, even though he may hold a lower position or office, is beyond doubt at the head of the people by virtue of his right faith. But if he were to depart from the head, great though he may seem among the heretics, he becomes the tail by teaching lies. No longer a lamb who hears the voice of the Lord, he is now made like a wandering goat by following in the footsteps of the evil flock.

  EXPOSITION OF SONG OF SONGS 2:23

• Isaiah 19:18

  Like one body has five senses and five movements by which all of its works are performed, so also are five different personas typified in this Canticle, each through the image of a spouse, not counting the "sixty queens" and "eighty concubines" and "adolescents without number," or "daughters," and "the only child of her mother," who calls herself a "wall," and she who "has no breasts."These five personas, I believe, denote five languages. Hebrew, the first of all languages, was the language of those from among whom the church was first assembled at the coming of Christ and to whom the first Gospel was addressed in Hebrew through the apostle Matthew. Greek is the language of those collaborators of the apostles, the Evangelists Mark and Luke, who are shown to be the first after the Hebrews to have gone on their missions. Egyptian, with which Mark the disciple of the apostles was not unfamiliar, is the tongue of those to whom he was sent as a teacher; the example he left them flowers still today with holy piety. Latin, which the ancients called Auxonian after King Auxonius, is the language of the one who has Peter, prince of the apostles, as its teacher and patron; decorated with the jewels of his doctrine, it is united by participation in Christ. It is to it, we believe, that it was said, "How beautiful are your feet in sandals, daughter of the prince!" Fifthly, Assyrian, also called Syriac, is the tongue of the country to which the nation of ten tribes, the kingdom of Ephraim, was led away captive. By proclaiming the merit of its religion through this tongue, the people were made one body. Assyrian, then, represents the nation which was led by the Word of God "out of the wilderness" where Christ was not honored and out of the thorny conduct of humanity, to be settled in the delightful garden of sanctity. After or apart from these languages, all the others under heaven, once converted to Christ, will be grafted into them like a limb onto a body. For everyone who believes in one omnipotent God and confesses one Redeemer, Christ, the Son of God, and receives the one Holy Spirit who proceeds from both, together constitutes the one body of the church, which is unified, as we have said, as though by the five senses. And it was prophesied quite clearly in mystery through the prophet Isaiah, I believe, that these five languages would become one language rejoicing in the praises of its one Creator by holding firm to the one faith. The coming of such a time was predicted when he said, "There will be in that day," the day when the Lord will break the chains of his people, "five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Canaan, one of which will be called the city of the sun." We know that "Egypt" means "obscurity" or "darkness," which characterized the entire world before the incarnation of Christ, as blessed John the Evangelist taught when he said, "The light shone in the darkness, and the darkness has not overtaken it." Zechariah also taught that Christ came "to illuminate those who were sitting in darkness and the shadow of death." And the Savior himself declared, "I am the light of the world." "Canaan," on the other hand, means "glowing chalice." Who else are we able to understand as a glowing chalice except the Holy Spirit, who, after the ascension of the Lord, was first sent by the Father and the Son to the apostles while their faith was still cold? Of him it is said in the Acts of the Apostles that "he rested upon each one like a flame." He filled those who spoke the one praise of the one God in the tongue of every nation, such that they appeared intoxicated to the unaware. Having received from this chalice, the five prophesied cities now speak the marvels of the omnipotent God with one mouth or one tongue, "that our Lord Jesus Christ," as Paul, teacher of the Gentiles, shows, "is to the glory of God the Father," and that "no one can say that Jesus Christ is Lord except in the Holy Spirit." The name "city of the sun" designates the one Hebrew language itself, whose kingdom is seated in Jerusalem. There is the throne, there is the temple, the holy place of worship, and there is the kingdom of Judah, whence came Christ, the Sun of Justice. It is from Jerusalem, which was previously called Heliopolis, meaning "city of the sun," that light is shed throughout the entire, darkened body of the world. From it, a healing balm is applied to every member of the church. And it was of this sun that the prophet predicted, "For you who fear the Lord, the sun of justice will rise, and healing is in its rays; and you will leap like young bulls in the middle of the herd, and you will trample your enemies until they become like the dust under your feet."

  EXPOSITION OF SONG OF SONGS, EPILOGUE 89-93

• Isaiah 26:1

  Hence, if they find anyone outside, they beat, wound and rob him by not believing in the true flesh of Christ that was nailed to the cross, from whom true blood flowed when pierced by a lance, and by not believing in the true God who bore a true soul and laid it down freely and raised it up freely. Isaiah prophesied about this city and, indeed, demonstrated with his finger, when he said, "Behold, our Savior is a strong city, fortified with walls and bulwarks."

  EXPOSITION OF SONG OF SONGS 8:24-25

• Isaiah 26:1

  For this reason, it seems to me that the wall represents the people who are acquainted with the one omnipotent God, having been brought near to the Word of the Father, about whom Isaiah prophesied, saying, "The Savior is our strong city. A wall and a bulwark is established in him." This indicates that Christ was shown to be equipped with a true soul and true flesh for the redemption of the world. But those who have already attained greater perfection, who are prepared to have their blood shed for the sake of his name, who by their own example offer unbelievers access to salvation, are compared with gates. For although the Word of God clothed himself with the nature of every human person for the liberation of the human race, it is nevertheless true that anyone becomes the wall or the gate of the prophesied city, that is of Christ, who, bearing God's image and holding fast to the true faith, merits with his holy works to contain the Word himself, as he promised through the prophet: "I will dwell within them, and I will be their God."

  EXPOSITION OF SONG OF SONGS 12:32

• Isaiah 26:19

  About this dew the prophet Isaiah proclaimed: "Your dew is their salvation," or, according to the Hebrew text, "For your dew is the dew of light." Here is clearly taught that the dew of which he speaks is the light of wisdom and the healing of souls, which is the doctrine of wisdom and truth, without which the soul is sickly and blind.

  EXPOSITION OF SONG OF SONGS 8:7

• Isaiah 40:11

  I say that these [lambs] are the souls of those who are truly made heavenly philosophers, rejecting the world with its delights and false show and who prefer to dwell in the desert rather than in royal palaces.

  EXPOSITION OF SONG OF SONGS 2:3

• Isaiah 46:3

  We hear the voice of the Holy Spirit with wonder when it tells us in many passages of Scripture that the Word of God, in an ineffable motion of love, has given human nature the names of "sister," "daughter," "bride." For example, the words in Isaiah, "Listen to me, Israel my people, the race of Abraham my friend, you whom I carry in my womb." … Our mind is set aflame with desire to obtain the love that burns between the Word of God and the soul, so that it can know the measure of love and give love to God in return.

  EXPOSITION OF SONG OF SONGS 1:1

• Isaiah 49:18

  Spiritual preparation produces faith in the one Lord, and this faith is the opportunity for salvation, through which there is a coming to the knowledge of God through baptism and the doing of various noble works for the hope of eternal life. Their souls are compared with various choice gems, and the church is shown to be fashioned with a crown.

  EXPOSITION OF SONG OF SONGS 7:13

• Isaiah 59:2

  Rising again with the same flesh as that with which he was buried, [Christ] stands behind the wall of our unbelief, the wall that as we sinned we built with our muddy, dirty works. About these works God spoke through the prophet Isaiah, "But your sins have made a wall between you and God." Behind the wall stands Christ the Lord, and he waits to be called on by the ungodly, and he summons the sinful soul to penitence. Behind the wall where [Christ] stands, he waits for the unbelieving to believe in him until such time as they reach baptism or penitence.

  EXPOSITION OF SONG OF SONGS 4:16