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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXXV: De trium prophetarum uaticinio, id est Aggaei, Zachariae et Malachiae.

Restant tres minores prophetae, qui prophetauerunt in fine captiuitatis, Aggaeus, Zacharias, Malachias. quorum Aggaeus Christum et ecclesiam hac apertius breuitate prophetat: haec dicit dominus exercituum: adhuc unum modicum est, et ego commouebo caelum et terram et mare et aridam, et mouebo omnes gentes, et ueniet desideratus cunctis gentibus. haec prophetia partim conpleta iam cernitur, partim speratur in fine conplenda. mouit enim caelum angelorum et siderum testimonio, quando incarnatus est Christus; mouit terram ingenti miraculo de ipso uirginis partu; mouit mare et aridam, cum et in insulis et in orbe toto Christus adnuntiatur: ita moueri omnes gentes uidemus ad fidem. iam uero quod sequitur: et ueniet desideratus cunctis gentibus, de nouissimo eius exspectatur aduentu. ut enim esset desideratus exspectantibus, prius oportuit eum dilectum esse credentibus. Zacharias de Christo et ecclesia: exulta, inquit, ualde, filia Sion, iubila, filia Hierusalem; ecce rex tuus uenit tibi iustus et saluator; ipse pauper et adscendens super asinum et super pullum filium asinae; et potestas eius a mari usque ad mare et a fluminibus usque ad fines terrae. hoc quando factum sit, ut dominus Christus in itinere iumento huius generis uteretur, in euangelio legitur, ubi et haec prophetia commemoratur ex parte, quantum illi loco sufficere uisum est. alio loco ad ipsum Christum in spiritu prophetiae loquens de remissione peccatorum per eius sanguinem: tu quoque, inquit, in sanguine testamenti tui emisisti uinctos tuos de lacu, in quo non est aqua. quid per hunc lacum uelit intellegi, possunt diuersa sentiri etiam secundum rectam fidem. mihi tamen uidetur non eo significari melius, nisi humanae miseriae profunditatem siccam quodammodo et sterilem, ubi non sunt fluenta iustitiae, sed iniquitatis lutum. de hoc quippe etiam in psalmo dicitur: et eduxit me de lacu miseriae et de luto limi. Malachias prophetans ecclesiam, quam per Christum cernimus propagatam, Iudaeis apertissime dicit ex persona dei: non est mihi uoluntas in uobis, et munus non suscipiam de manu uestra. ab ortu enim solis usque ad occasum magnum nomen meum in gentibus, et in omni loco sacrificabitur et offeretur nomini meo oblatio munda; quia magnum nomen meum in gentibus, dicit dominus. hoc sacrificium per sacerdotium Christi secundum ordinem Melchisedech cum in omni loco a solis ortu usque ad occasum deo iam uideamus offerri, sacrificium autem Iudaeorum, quibus dictum est: non est mihi uoluntas in uobis, nec accipiam munus de manibus uestris, cessasse negare non possunt: qui adhuc exspectant alium Christum, cum hoc, quod prophetatum legunt et inpletum uident, inpleri non potuerit nisi per ipsum? dicit enim paulo post de ipso ex persona dei: testamentum meum erat cum eo uitae et pacis, et dedi ei, ut timore timeret me, et a facie nominis mei reuereretur. lex ueritatis erat in ore ipsius, in pace dirigens ambulauit me cum et multos conuertit ab iniquitate; quoniam labia sacerdotis custodient scientiam et legem inquirent ex ore eius; quoniam angelus domini omnipotentis est. nec mirandum est, quia domini omnipotentis angelus dictus est Christus Iesus. sicut enim seruus propter formam serui, in qua uenit ad homines, sic angelus propter euangelium, quod nuntiauit hominibus. nam si Graeca ista interpretemur, et euangelium bona nuntiatio est et angelus nuntius. de ipso quippe iterum dicit: ecce mittam angelum meum, et prospiciet uiam ante faciem meam; et subito ueniet in templum suum dominus: quem uos quaeritis, et angelus testamenti, quem uos uultis. ecce uenit, dicit dominus omnipotens; et quis sustinebit diem introitus eius? aut quis resistet in adspectu eius? hoc loco et primum et secundum Christi praenuntiauit aduentum; primum scilicet, de quo ait: et subito ueniet in templum suum, id est in carnem suam, de qua dixit in euangelio: soluite templum hoc, et in triduo resuscitabo illud; secundum uero, ubi ait: ecce uenit, dicit dominus omnipotens, et quis sustinebit diem introitus eius? aut quis resistet in adspectu eius? quod autem dixit: dominus, quem uos quaeritis, et angelus testamenti, quem uos uultis, significauit utique etiam Iudaeos secundum scripturas, quas legunt, Christum quaerere et uelle. sed multi eorum, quem quaesierunt et uoluerunt, uenisse non agnouerunt, excaecati in cordibus suis praecedentibus meritis suis. quod sane hic nominat testamentum, uel supra, ubi ait: testamentum meum erat cum eo, uel hic, ubi eum dixit angelum testamenti, nouum procul dubio testamentum debemus accipere, ubi sempiterna, non uetus, ubi temporalia sunt promissa; quae pro magno habentes plurimi infirmi et deo uero talium rerum mercede seruientes, quando uident eis inpios abundare, turbantur. propter quod idem propheta, ut noui testamenti aeternam beatitudinem, quae non dabitur nisi bonis, distingueret a ueteris terrena felicitate, quae plerumque datur et malis: ingrauastis, inquit, super me uerba uestra, dicit dominus, et dixistis: in quo detraximus de te? dixistis: uanus est omnis, qui seruit deo, et quid plus, quia custodiuimus obseruationes eius, et quia ambulauimus supplicantes ante faciem domini omnipotentis? et nunc nos beatificamus alienos, et reaedificantur omnes, qui faciunt iniqua; et aduersati sunt deo, et salui facti sunt. haec oblocuti sunt, qui timebant dominum, unusquisque ad proximum suum; et animaduertit dominus et audiuit; et scripsit librum memoriae in conspectu suo eis, qui timent dominum et reuerentur nomen eius. isto libro significatum est testamentum nouum. denique quod sequitur audiamus: et erunt mihi, dicit dominus omnipotens, in diem qua ego facio in adquisitionem, et eligam eos sicut eligit homo filium suum seruientem sibi; et conuertimini, et uidebitis inter iustum et iniustum, et inter seruientem deo et non seruientem. quoniam ecce dies uenit ardens sicut clibanus et concremabit eos, et erunt omnes alienigenae et omnes facientes iniquitatem stipula, et incendet illos dies, qui adueniet, dicit dominus omnipotens; et non derelinquetur eorum radix neque sarmentum. et orietur uobis timentibus nomen meum sol iustitiae, et sanitas in pinnis eius; et exibitis et exultabitis sicut uituli ex uinculis resoluti; et conculcabitis iniquos, et erunt cinis sub pedibus uestris in die, in quo ego facio, dicit dominus omnipotens. hic est qui dicitur dies iudicii; de quo suo loco, si deus uoluerit, loquemur uberius.

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The City of God

Chapter 35.--Of the Prophecy of the Three Prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

There remain three minor prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, who prophesied at the close of the captivity. Of these Haggai more openly prophesies of Christ and the Church thus briefly: "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Yet one little while, and I will shake the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will move all nations, and the desired of all nations shall come." ¹ The fulfillment of this prophecy is in part already seen, and in part hoped for in the end. For He moved the heaven by the testimony of the angels and the stars, when Christ became incarnate. He moved the earth by the great miracle of His birth of the virgin. He moved the sea and the dry land, when Christ was proclaimed both in the isles and in the whole world. So we see all nations moved to the faith; and the fulfillment of what follows, "And the desired of all nations shall come," is looked for at His last coming. For ere men can desire and and wait for Him, they must believe and love Him.

Zechariah says of Christ and the Church, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion; shout joyfully, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King shall come unto thee, just and the Saviour; Himself poor, and mounting an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass: and His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth." ² How this was done, when the Lord Christ on His journey used a beast of burden of this kind, we read in the Gospel, where, also, as much of this prophecy is quoted as appears sufficient for the context. In another place, speaking in the Spirit of prophecy to Christ Himself of the remission of sins through His blood, he says, "Thou also, by the blood of Thy testament, hast sent forth Thy prisoners from the lake wherein is no water." ³ Different opinions may be held, consistently with right belief, as to what he meant by this lake. Yet it seems to me that no meaning suits better than that of the depth of human misery, which is, as it were, dry and barren, where there are no streams of righteousness, but only the mire of iniquity. For it is said of it in the Psalms, "And He led me forth out of the lake of misery, and from the miry clay." ⁴

Malachi, foretelling the Church which we now behold propagated through Christ, says most openly to the Jews, in the person of God, "I have no pleasure in you, and I will not accept a gift at your hand. For from the rising even to the going down of the sun, my name is great among the nations; and in every place sacrifice shall be made, and a pure oblation shall be offered unto my name: for my name shall be great among the nations, saith the Lord." ⁵ Since we can already see this sacrifice offered to God in every place, from the rising of the sun to his going down, through Christ's priesthood after the order of Melchisedec, while the Jews, to whom it was said, "I have no pleasure in you, neither will I accept a gift at your hand," cannot deny that their sacrifice has ceased, why do they still look for another Christ, when they read this in the prophecy, and see it fulfilled, which could not be fulfilled except through Him? And a little after he says of Him, in the person of God, "My covenant was with Him of life and peace: and I gave to Him that He might fear me with fear, and be afraid before my name. The law of truth was in His mouth: directing in peace He hath walked with me, and hath turned many away from iniquity. For the Priest's lips shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at His mouth: for He is the Angel of the Lord Almighty." ⁶ Nor is it to be wondered at that Christ Jesus is called the Angel of the Almighty God. For just as He is called a servant on account of the form of a servant in which He came to men, so He is called an angel on account of the evangel which He proclaimed to men. For if we interpret these Greek words, evangel is "good news," and angel is "messenger." Again he says of Him, "Behold I will send mine angel, and He will look out the way before my face: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come into His temple, even the Angel of the testament, whom ye desire. Behold, He cometh, saith the Lord Almighty, and who shall abide the day of His entry, or who shall stand at His appearing?" ⁷ In this place he has foretold both the first and second advent of Christ: the first, to wit, of which he says, "And He shall come suddenly into His temple;" that is, into His flesh, of which He said in the Gospel, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again." ⁸ And of the second advent he says, "Behold, He cometh, saith the Lord Almighty, and who shall abide the day of His entry, or who shall stand at His appearing?" But what he says, "The Lord whom ye seek, and the Angel of the testament whom ye desire," just means that even the Jews, according to the Scriptures which they read, shall seek and desire Christ. But many of them did not acknowledge that He whom they sought and desired had come, being blinded in their hearts, which were preoccupied with their own merits. Now what he here calls the testament, either above, where he says, "My testament had been with Him," or here, where he has called Him the Angel of the testament, we ought, beyond a doubt, to take to be the new testament, in which the things promised are eternal, and not the old, in which they are only temporal. Yet many who are weak are troubled when they see the wicked abound in such temporal things, because they value them greatly, and serve the true God to be rewarded with them. On this account, to distinguish the eternal blessedness of the new testament, which shall be given only to the good, from the earthly felicity of the old, which for the most part is given to the bad as well, the same prophet says, "Ye have made your words burdensome to me: yet ye have said, In what have we spoken ill of Thee? Ye have said, Foolish is every one who serves God; and what profit is it that we have kept His observances, and that we have walked as suppliants before the face of the Lord Almighty? And now we call the aliens blessed; yea, all that do wicked things are built up again; yea, they are opposed to God and are saved. They that feared the Lord uttered these reproaches every one to his neighbor: and the Lord hearkened and heard; and He wrote a book of remembrance before Him, for them that fear the Lord and that revere His name." ⁹ By that book is meant the New Testament. Finally, let us hear what follows: "And they shall be an acquisition for me, saith the Lord Almighty, in the day which I make; and I will choose them as a man chooseth his son that serveth him. And ye shall return, and shall discern between the just and the unjust, and between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not. For, behold, the day cometh burning as an oven, and it shall burn them up; and all the aliens and all that do wickedly shall be stubble: and the day that shall come will set them on fire, saith the Lord Almighty, and shall leave neither root nor branch. And unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise, and health shall be in His wings; and ye shall go forth, and exult as calves let loose from bonds. And ye shall tread down the wicked, and they shall be ashes under your feet, in the day in which I shall do [this], saith the Lord Almighty." ¹⁰ This day is the day of judgment, of which, if God will, we shall speak more fully in its own place.