{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-7097","native_reference":{"book_number":290,"chapter_from":19,"chapter_to":19,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":19,"verse_to":19},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: The prophet Isaiah says this about Egypt: \"In that day there will be an altar of the Lord in the land of the Egyptians and an inscription to the Lord at its border. It will be a sign forever to the Lord in the land of the Egyptians, for they will cry to the Lord against their assailants, and the Lord will send them a savior who will be determined to save them. And the Lord will be known to the Egyptians, and they will fear the Lord in that day and make sacrifices to him and promise vows to him and fulfill them. And the Lord will strike the Egyptians with plagues and heal them by his mercy, and they will turn to the Lord, and he will listen to them and heal them.\" What do they [i.e., members of the Donatist sect] say to this? Why do they not share with the church what was foretold of the Egyptians? Or, if Egypt signifies the world by prophetic prefiguration, why are they not in communion with the church of the world? Consequently, they search the Scriptures and, against so many sure and clear witnesses through which the church of Christ is shown to be diffused throughout the entire world, they offer just one witness in an attempt to demonstrate that the church of Christ perished from all other peoples and remained only in Africa, as though from another beginning, not from Jerusalem but from Carthage, where they first elevated one bishop against another.<br/><i>— LETTER TO THE CATHOLICS ON THE SECT OF DONATISTS 16:41-42</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: (Verses 19-21.) In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar near its border to the Lord. And it will be for a sign and for a testimony to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. For they will cry to the Lord because of the oppressor, and He will send them a Savior and a Champion who will deliver them. And the Lord will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day. They will worship with sacrifices and offerings, and they will make vows to the Lord and fulfill them. From this place to the end of Egypt, both the Jews and we understand it as a vision or prophecy of Christ's coming; but they have different expectations for the future, while we consider it as already fulfilled. However, consider the day for the time being: although Josephus claims that these things happened during the time of Onias, who fled to Egypt and built a temple, an altar, and attempted to fulfill the prophecy of Christ in vain. But it is called one altar, just as there is one faith, one baptism, and one Church. And the title, next to its boundary, undoubtedly signifies the Gospel and the writings of the Apostles. For just as the land of Judea is understood above, according to the tropological understanding, as fearsome, or solemn, or the old Testament: so the title in the boundaries of Egypt is shown to be the history of the Gospels. Finally, it joins: And it shall be a sign and a testimony, namely of the Lord's passion. Then those who have believed, while the Egyptians are coming together against the Egyptians, and a man is fighting against his own brother, and city is fighting against city: when the time of persecution comes, they will implore the mercy of the Lord, and immediately the Savior will come, that is, Jesus, for this is what it means in our language. And the Lord will be known by the Egyptians, and they will recognize Him, whether the persecutors who have been overcome, or the believers who have been freed by His present help. And they shall worship him with sacrifices and gifts, and shall vow vows to the Lord and shall pay them. Let the Jews respond: It is prescribed by law that an altar should not be made except in the one place which the Lord God chooses, and only the sacrifices of the Levite priests should be offered. (Deut. XXVI). Behold, Isaiah clearly teaches that the Egyptians should recognize the Lord, and worship him, and offer sacrifices and gifts, and make vows and fulfill them. If the Egyptians have a priesthood, then the testimony of Paul is also fulfilled in them, which says: If the priesthood is transferred, it is necessary for there to be a transfer of the law. (Heb. VII, 12).<br/><i>— Commentary on Isaiah</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: (Verse 19-21) On that day there will be an altar of the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar near its boundary to the Lord. And it will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. For they will cry to the Lord because of the oppressor, and he will send them a Savior and a defender to deliver them, and the Lord will be known by Egypt. Accordingly, to what he said above: On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Canaan and swearing by the Lord of hosts, now it is introduced: There will be an altar of the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, which Onias, according to Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, Book 13, Chapter 6), mistakenly tried to fulfill. And the title of the Lord containing the passion, in which it is written in Hebrew letters, Greek, and Latin: Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews (John 19), as a sign of the Cross, and as a testimony to all nations, which are now called Egypt. And when the persecution of those who trouble the name of Christians grows, then they will cry out in their hearts: Abba Father (Romans 8). And the Lord of hosts will send the Savior, that is, Jesus, and the Judge, or defender who will deliver them, so that they may know the Lord, and they themselves may be known by the Lord; and where sin abounded, grace may superabound (Romans 5). But the one altar of Egypt, that is, of this world, as we know, all altars that are raised against the Church altar are not of the Lord. Until the end of the vision of Egypt, in the book of Historical Explanation, because it was a clear prophecy, we said that all things are referred to Christ.<br/><i>— Commentary on Isaiah</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: [Daniel 11:13-14] \"And the king of the North shall return and shall prepare a much greater multitude than before, and in the end of times and years he shall come in haste with a large army and great resources. And in those times many shall rise up against the king of the South.\" This indicates that Antiochus the Great, who despised the worthlessness of Ptolemy Philopator (for he had fallen desperately in love with a lute-player named Agathoclea and also her brother, retaining Agatho-cles himself as his concubine and afterwards appointing him as general of Egypt), assembled a huge army from the upper regions of Babylon. And since Ptolemy Philopator was now dead, Antiochus broke his treaty and set his army in motion against Philopator's four-year-old son, who was called Epiphanes. For so great was the dissoluteness and arrogancy of Agathoclea, that those provinces which had previously been subjected to Egypt rose up in rebellion, and even Egypt itself was troubled with seditions. Moreover Philip, King of Macedon, and Antiochus the Great made peace with each other and engaged in a common struggle against Agathocles and Ptolemy Eprphanes, on the understanding that each of them should annex to his own dominion those cities of Ptolemy which lay nearest to them. And so this is what is referred to in this passage, which says that many shall rise up against the king of the South, that is, Ptolemy Epiphanes, who was then a mere child.</p><p>\"Moreover the children of the transgressors of thy people shall lift themselves up, that they may fulfil the vision, and then fall to ruin (Vulgate: and they shall fall to ruin).\" During the conflict between Antiochus the Great and the generals of Ptolemy, Judaea, which lay between them, was rent into contrary factions, the one group favoring Antiochus, and the other favoring Ptolemy. Finally the high priest, Onias, fled to Egypt, taking a large number of Jews along with him, and was given by Ptolemy an honorable reception. He then received the region known as Heliopolis, and by a grant of the king, he erected a temple in Egypt like the temple of the Jews, and it remained standing up until the reign of Vespasian, over a period of two hundred and fifty years. But then the city itself, which was known as the City of Onias, was destroyed to the very ground because of the war which the Jews had subsequently waged against the Romans. There is consequently no trace of either city or temple now remaining. But as we were saying, countless multitudes of Jews fled to Egypt on the occasion of Onias's pontificate, and the land was filled with a large number from Cyrene as well. For Onias affirmed that he was fulfilling the prophecy written by Isaiah: \"There shall be an altar of the Lord in Egypt, and the name of the Lord shall be found in their territories\" (Isaiah 19:19). And so this is the matter referred to in this passage: \"The sons of the transgressors of thy people,\" who forsook the law of the Lord and wished to offer blood-sacrifices to God in another place than what He had commanded. They would be lifted up in pride and would boast that they were fulfilling the vision, that is, the thing which the Lord had enjoined. But they shall fall to ruin, for both temple and city shall be afterwards destroyed. And while Antiochus held Judaea, a leader of the Ptolemaic party called Scopas Aetholus was sent against Antiochus, and after a bold campaign he took Judaea and took the aristocrats of Ptolemy's party back to Egypt with him on his return.<br/><i>— St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER ELEVEN</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"a306b6f171aa1dd626720d00ca2fce8417e28a5ec8d3d144c798c6072ef7a3b8","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":7097,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"f9070efec6f56ac6400e78fb9c4107ee5de60781a581524eb36b14f08569a5fb","translator":null,"work":null}